Chapter 142 - 134: Four-Dimensional Particle, Burning the Ship

Chapter 142: Chapter 134: Four-Dimensional Particle, Burning the Ship

When Zhou’s cargo truck arrived at Port A, the first thing he did was unload barrels of chemicals into a special warehouse.

"Easy now, don’t shake them... Handle with care."

Zhou directed the workers, terrified they might damage something. These things... they were all dangerous chemicals unavailable on the open market. Only a large-scale lab like his was authorized to procure them.

Strong acids, oxidizing agents, aluminum powder... all extremely dangerous materials.

After Yu Dong and the others finished helping unload all the barrels of chemicals, he hurriedly asked:

"Zhou, do you know there’s something wrong with Mei? She had someone tailing us... In both timelines, it was her. The police have already arrested the guy. He’s a professional, armed, and most likely a spy!"

"What??? Mei... Impossible! Mei is my doctoral student. All she does is run experiments and practice yoga. She’s a very simple person! How could it be her? Are you sure you haven’t got the wrong person?"

"It can only be her, Zhou... Besides her, no one else has the means. Think about it. What are you involved in that’s worth someone investigating and tailing you?"

"Me... My experiment. Our group took on a classified national project: ’Research on Anomalous Particles in the Atmosphere.’"

Suddenly, Zhou Jian Country remembered... Not long after he and his team accepted this assignment, Mei applied to be his doctoral student. She looked a lot like his first love, and her personality was similar, too. And then... they fell head over heels in love.

Everything... it was all too perfect, too fast.

He had never noticed it before, but now that Yu Dong had brought it up, he realized something was wrong.

Seeing the look on Zhou’s face change, Yu Dong knew he had already figured something out.

"So, Zhou, your secret project... what the hell is it actually studying? You barely mentioned it to me in the last timeline. And why did you say your future self sent a message to your present self?"

Zhou Jian Country slowly processed this and turned to look at Yu Dong.

"This is... a national secret. I can’t tell you the specific details. What I can tell you is... we may have inadvertently observed a four-dimensional particle in the atmosphere. My Experiment Nine was one of the observation vectors. I found traces proving the particle had indeed appeared. Our team wanted to try and track it, but we ran out of time. We did too few experiments and tests..."

"A four-dimensional particle? Is it related to the zombie virus? Did it cause it?"

"No. The two aren’t the same thing. That’s like asking me if you can use pork to make aircraft wings... One is biology, the other is chemistry."

"But isn’t observing particles a physicist’s job?"

"Our team has several top-tier physicists... I’m just one of the participants. My task... forget it. This is all classified. You wouldn’t understand even if I told you."

"It’s the end of the world, and you’re still worried about it being classified?"

"Science doesn’t stop for the apocalypse. We made a little progress this time. Maybe the country will continue this project once it gets back on its feet... To be honest, if you hadn’t specifically brought back that information and made me re-examine the data from Experiment Nine, I’d pretty much given up hope. Once the project finally failed, I was going to resign and marry Mei..."

Yu Dong recalled that in the last two timelines, Zhou had indeed rarely spoken about his experiment. He had probably lost hope, which was why he had the leisure to take Mei on vacation to Yanhai City.

There was just one thing Yu Dong couldn’t figure out.

’How did the Zhou from the last timeline know that the key information was in Experiment Nine, and then use me to pass it on to his self from a week before the apocalypse?’

Yu Dong couldn’t make sense of it. The Zhou from the last timeline had been surviving the apocalypse with them the whole time. Besides making things like detonators and fuel, he had never conducted any experiments.

’How did he do it?’

But the last timeline was over. Yu Dong felt he might never know the answer...

’What’s done is done. No point in overthinking it. Since it has nothing to do with the zombie virus, I should just focus on what needs to be done. No matter how awesome future science is, we have to deal with these damn zombies first.’

"Zhou, tonight, we need you to start a fire for us."

"You can count on me."

Tomorrow was the apocalypse. Yu Dong and his group had to take this cruise ship. But before that, there was one more extremely important matter.

Tomorrow afternoon, the cruise ship would open its gangway, and a new batch of tourists would begin to board.

If they waited for all 5,000-plus tourists to get on board... the ship would become an incredibly dangerous place. Clearing zombies in the narrow and complex cabins would be much more difficult than clearing them in a residential complex.

Therefore, Yu Dong had no intention of letting any tourists board his cruise ship.

By Saturday afternoon, everyone had finished their preparations, just waiting for the apocalypse to arrive tomorrow.

"Things are pretty much settled. Tonight... I won’t be with you guys. I have to take care of some personal business. I’ll be at the lab tomorrow morning," Xufeng said to the others.

Huang Zhiqiang replied, "Got it. Anything could happen tomorrow... so you’re going back to say goodbye to your family in person tonight, right?"

"Uh, actually, my date with that foreign girl is here... I won’t be back tonight, bros. You guys carry on."

The others: "???"

Yu Dong: "Oh, nice. Flying them in from overseas, are we?"

"Heh heh~ A man can’t walk so far that he forgets why he set out in the first place, right?"

Xufeng laughed, got into a car, and left. If death was unavoidable tomorrow... he was going to fulfill his wish.

’No time to explain! Tonight’s a high-roller game!’

"Uh... Xia Yao is still waiting for me at the hotel. I’m going to have dinner with her. I’ll be back when it’s time for the operation..."

After Zhao Youcai left, Huang Zhiqiang grabbed Yu Dong’s arm.

"Dongzi, now we’re the only two Chunan left in the whole dorm. When it comes down to it, your old partner is still the most reliable, huh?"

Just then, a stylishly dressed, long-legged girl with bright eyes and pearly teeth walked toward the port.

Shen Xinyi gave Yu Dong a little wave, a charming smile on her face.

"Hey~ Yu Dong."

"Yeah, let’s go. Um... Huang, you’ll have to grab a bite on your own tonight."

After chatting on WeChat for five days, Yu Dong had taken the initiative to ask Shen Xinyi to dinner tonight, completing his mission to recall the last core teammate.

Huang Zhiqiang: "???"

Watching Yu Dong and Shen Xinyi get into a taxi, Huang couldn’t help but run after it, shouting at the window:

"Dongzi! You’re coming back tonight, right, Dongzi?!"

"You have to come back, Dongzi!"

"I can’t live without you, Dongzi! Dongzi!!!"

The taxi drove away. Huang Zhiqiang stopped, and a sea breeze blew past... so cold.

...

「Sunday, 1:00 AM. Only 18 hours remained until the S-Virus outbreak.」

Huangyang Port, bustling all day, had finally hit the pause button, entering its rare period of rest.

Outside the port, only Popeye’s Bar was still rocking. The crew members of the cruise ships would board again tomorrow to set off on another voyage.

Just then... two drones rose into the night sky, flying toward the top of the cruise ship.

Then, the claws beneath the drones opened.

Four large Molotov cocktails were dropped.

BOOM!!!

Flames engulfed the top deck of the Royal Caribbean International Cruise ship!