In the previous scene, that subtle, persistent heartache resurfaced.
Where is Levy now?
If he also entered this scenario, he would likely be on a junk planet. The environment on a junk planet shouldn't pose a challenge for Levi, which made Qin Chu feel a slight sense of relief.
Given his poor physical condition and the lack of understanding of the laboratory staff's activity patterns, Qin Chu refrained from making any rash moves. Instead, he lay in bed waiting for his body to recover while observing the environment.
This laboratory may not be large, but its facilities are quite advanced.
Every morning, three researchers would come in and inject him with three different drugs. In the evening, they would draw his blood and spinal cord for testing.
Two of these three medications had very strong side effects. Even with Qin Chu's willpower, he could still feel the excruciating pain, as if his body was being torn apart, for two hours after each injection.
In addition, the recorder outside the room should be on duty 24 hours a day, with two people working in shifts.
Qin Chu could feel that his body had a strong ability to recover, and after two days, the feeling of weakness had gradually disappeared.
This powerful recovery ability was reflected in the data detected by the instruments, and Qin Chu could even hear the fearful whispers of the recorder on the other side of the wall.
Finally, on the third day, Qin Chu seized the opportunity during the handover between the two recorders and escaped from the small room.
Unfortunately, just as he stepped out of the room, he saw the recorder named Dodd and the experimenter who had injected him with the drug walking towards him.
If it were Levy, what would he do?
Kill them?
Won't.
Almost without hesitation, Qin Chu denied his own idea.
He knocked the two unconscious when they weren't paying attention.
After thinking for a moment, Qin Chu picked up the recorder and placed him on a chair to the side. He then carried the lab technician in the white coat directly into the room, put him on the bed, tied him up, and connected him to various instruments.
Levy would not choose to vent his anger by killing; he preferred an eye for an eye.
Leave the room quickly.
The routes in this experimental base were very complicated. Qin Chu couldn't find the exit, so he found a secluded place to hide just before dawn.
When it was time for the usual injection, the people inside the base finally realized something was wrong, and panic instantly broke out among the personnel outside.
This chaotic period was exactly what Qin Chu had been hoping for. He was about to leave his hiding place when he sensed something was wrong.
A sensation like insects gnawing inside his body grew, the pain gradually intensifying until even his consciousness began to blur.
Qin Chu was very familiar with this feeling.
Due to the severity of his injuries, the military doctor administered a new type of drug to him. This drug was highly addictive, and once used, there was almost no possibility of withdrawal.
Qin Chu chose to forcibly stop taking the medication and endured the withdrawal period.
The feeling now is even stronger than it was back then.
Qin Chu used the medicine to treat the injury, but why did the laboratory give Levi the medicine?
The intention is self-evident: to control Levi by using the addictive nature of the drug.
His gaze turned cold uncontrollably as Qin Chu gritted his teeth and endured the waves of pain surging through his body.
Before he could get over the withdrawal symptoms, he quickly and keenly heard footsteps approaching him.
Qin Chu disregarded everything else and hurriedly moved the body out through the nearby pipe.
Escaping from a confined environment might not be difficult for Qin Chu. He had experienced it many times, both during the initial simulation training and in later missions.
However, escaping from the laboratory this time seems to have become extremely difficult.
One reason is the withdrawal symptoms that occur at regular intervals every day, and the other is that, for some unknown reason, the laboratory staff can always pinpoint his location precisely.
Midway through, Qin Chu checked all his belongings but found nothing that could be used for tracking.
But no matter where he hid, he would always hear footsteps approaching his hiding place within an hour at the latest.
Hiding in the shadows, he bent down and checked his belongings again.
A light blue hospital gown, the pockets were empty, and the buttons had been opened and checked; there were no problems.
The half-bread was stolen by Qin Chu when he sneaked into the cafeteria; he needed to conserve his energy.
Apart from that, there were no other external objects.
Qin Chu's gaze shifted to the reflective wall beside him, his eyes fixed on his own reflection.
Then he began to examine his own body.
The wound left by the previous tube insertion has healed. There are no foreign objects when pressing on the skin and muscles, and there are no abnormal sensations in the vital organs and internal organs when moving.
After checking everything, Qin Chu pondered for a while longer.
He recalled the unusual dizziness he felt when he first entered this scene.
At first, he thought it might be due to the medication, but now he realizes he was oversimplifying things.
Qin Chu pressed his fingertips against his skull, examining the area near his spine at the occipital bone.
During intimate moments, he liked to stroke Levi's hair, and once he noticed a scar on the back of Levi's head.
This was very unusual for Levy.
Because of Levi's strong regenerative ability, his wounds heal very quickly and leave almost no scars.
At that time, Qin Chu asked curiously, but Levi, who was half asleep, just leaned against his neck and said he didn't remember.
Qin Chu withdrew his finger, his already heavy heartache and anger fermenting wildly, pressing heavily in his chest, making it hard to breathe.
He bent down, picked up his clothes, put them on, and left the hiding place.
This time, Qin Chu found an even more secluded place. In addition to being secluded, he also set up simple obstacles and traps on several roads leading to this location.
There were no doctors, no professional surgical equipment, and no crisis prevention measures.
There wasn't even an operating table.
Qin Chu, cramped in this narrow compartment that prevented him from fully stretching out, pulled out the positioning chip embedded in his skull with his bare hands.
The sound of fingernails scraping against the skull is extremely unpleasant.
The chip was embedded very deep. As Qin Chu endured the pain and pulled the chip out, he couldn't help but wonder if Levi was in as much danger as he was now back then.
How old was he at that time?
Fifteen or sixteen?
While others were sneaking out of school to play video games or arguing with their parents and slamming doors in anger, Levy hid in such a cramped space and, in pursuit of freedom, cut open his skull.
...
Qin Chu placed the chip, covered in blood and brain matter, into the robot vacuum cleaner that was prepared next to him, and then switched the machine to stealth mode with one hand.
Then he collapsed to the ground, watching the robot vacuum cleaner escape with the chip.
Retrieving the chip in this way still caused some harm to Qin Chu.
Some of the neurons in Qin Chu's brain were damaged, leaving half of his body completely immobile.
Fortunately, it's likely that these researchers didn't expect someone to have a chip removed from their brain in such a rudimentary and dangerous environment.
So they continued to follow the robot vacuum cleaner around aimlessly, which actually bought Qin Chu a lot of time to recover.
During the period when his body was unable to move, Qin Chu experienced several more withdrawal symptoms.
The anastomosis of neurons was very slow, and Qin Chu lay in place for four whole days before he finally escaped from the laboratory.
The moment Qin Chu escaped from this experimental base, it felt as if he was breathing for the first time.
Before him stretched a wide suburban road, towering, lush coniferous forests that, even frost-covered, remained upright and vibrant. Behind him lay a cold and cruel illegal laboratory, its walls impenetrable, where experimental subjects lived without dignity.
No one could have imagined that these two scenarios exist in the same world, separated only by a wall.
After arriving in this world, in a setting exactly like reality, she and Levi switch identities.
Qin Chu was initially very unaccustomed to it.
Because everything seemed to directly and cruelly demonstrate the differences between him and Levi, the impact of these differences was so strong that Qin Chu even doubted for a moment whether he and Levi were really suitable for each other.
Different identities lead to different choices. Qin Chu thought he would feel uncomfortable about what Levi had done, and even turn that discomfort into his impression of Levi.
But strangely, he didn't.
Even when he bombed the cabinet, he never felt any aversion towards Levy.
Qin Chu had pondered this question.
He thought that this relationship had changed his way of judging things, and he even began to doubt whether the military regulations were correct, and that his perception had indeed been interfered with by his emotions.
Until now, until I've experienced everything in the laboratory.
Qin Chu suddenly understood where his tolerance towards Levi came from.
Every citizen of the Empire is protected by the Empire from birth. They are all beneficiaries of the Empire's various rules, so they will make contributions and sacrifices when it comes to the interests of the entire Empire.
Keller did not.
His birth was a product of suffering created by the Imperial Cabinet. Throughout his long life, the Empire subjected him to endless pursuit, imprisonment, and harm.
No one has the right to condemn Levy, and no one can forgive him on his behalf.
Standing outside the experimental base, Qin Chu did not leave immediately.
He saw the dry powder preparations stored in the adjacent storage room.
Instead of passively waiting for a choice in this scenario, Qin Chu didn't even have to think much before knowing what to do.
He poured all the dry powder preparations he had piled up into the windows on the outer perimeter of the base, and while the powder was floating around, he set it on fire.
Qin Chu walked through the towering coniferous forest, frost and snow falling softly on his shoulders, gradually melting and wetting his blood-stained blue and white hospital gown.
A series of loud explosions came from behind, startling a flock of grey starlings that were perched in the woods.
On another nearby small planet, several teenagers disembarked from a shabby, rudimentary spacecraft, looking at the furnishings in front of them with surprise.
"Holy crap, this thing really exists? I thought the videos were all fake."
"I've seen this before!"
The group of people, looking like country bumpkins, circled around for a moment before finally turning to the person charging the power source next to the aircraft: "Weren't we supposed to be hauling cargo? It seems we've gone too far. Is this alright?"