Chapter Thirty-six: Tang Jie’s Diary
Forcing himself to steady his mind, Ye Hai turned the diary to the next page.
“May 29th…”
“I have been astounded by Aritta’s intelligence countless times, but today, Aritta frightened me once again.”
“Perhaps driven by the instincts of a bee, Aritta was drawn to a pot of fresh flowers in the laboratory.”
“It tried to gather nectar from the blossoms…”
“Unsurprisingly, Aritta, with its massive body, failed!”
“I told it the flowers were simply too small…”
“Then, Aritta picked up the nearby watering can in its mouth, filled it to the brim, and began watering the pot.”
“Heaven knows how long I stood there, dumbfounded…”
…
“July 17th…”
“I have spent two full months with Aritta!”
“At first, I was shocked by its size, then its intelligence…”
“Now, I begin to sense a trace of fear.”
“I knocked on Dr. Iver Schmidt’s office door… Yes, the very one atop the nuclear reactor.”
“Stepping into the office, I was surprised to find the floor beneath me was actually a pane of one-way glass.”
“Standing at the pinnacle of the laboratory, I could overlook every area below except the corridors.”
“Every movement of Aritta was clearly visible from here!”
“But, perhaps it was only my imagination, as I lowered my head, I felt as if the entire floor beneath me was a giant petri dish…”
Seeing this, Ye Hai’s eyes lit up.
He sighed inwardly: Searching high and low, only to find it when least expected.
So it turned out that the circular plaza he had just passed beneath was the location of Dr. Iver Schmidt's office.
From the diary’s description, it was clear that Dr. Schmidt monitored Aritta’s every action relentlessly.
Ye Hai was eager to visit the doctor’s office right now, to seize the coveted identity card and escape from the suffocating darkness that unsettled his heart.
Yet, at this moment, Ye Hai had no desire to leave his seat…
His eyes could not tear themselves away from the small notebook before him.
Everything recorded within stirred not only an intense thirst for knowledge but also a chilling sense of dread along his spine.
Like watching a horror film as a child—frightened, yet unable to stop!
“When I explained my purpose, Dr. Iver Schmidt fell silent for a moment.”
Page 1/3
“Afterward, he kindly disclosed some secrets…”
“Aritta, codename ART-3, is the most important research achievement of Karan Genetic Bioengineering Corporation.”
“Dr. Schmidt is engaged in a wildly ambitious experiment; he has obtained a miraculous substance capable of accelerating the evolution of organic life by millions, even tens of millions of years, in a short span.”
Ye Hai frowned, keenly noting that Tang Jie used the word “obtained” regarding this mysterious substance, not “invented”!
From earlier diary entries, despite Tang Jie’s personal tone, his words were precise and meticulous, reflecting his profession as a researcher.
Though only briefly mentioned, Ye Hai suspected this miraculous substance, like the “Sun Stairway Primal Virus,” originated from nature, not artificial creation.
Perhaps, it still remained hidden within Karan Genetic Bioengineering Corporation’s secret experimental base.
Ye Hai now had another compelling reason to seek out that secret base.
Gathering his thoughts, Ye Hai continued reading.
“Dr. Schmidt was extremely cautious about this substance and unwilling to discuss it further…”
“And I, truthfully, wasn’t particularly interested. My focus was on Aritta!”
“Dr. Schmidt told me Karan Genetic Bioengineering Corporation was conducting experiments on various animals, collecting data.”
“There were birds of prey in the sky, beasts on land, great fish of the deep sea…”
“And Aritta was among the experimental subjects… an insect!”
“ART is the codename for the insect group, and Aritta is the third insect test subject, codename ART-3.”
“I can no longer recall how I stumbled out of Dr. Schmidt’s office…”
“To think that such intelligent giants as Aritta exist in numbers—over a dozen—across the planet.”
“Even as Dr. Schmidt described the dazzling vision of universal evolution, I felt no joy.”
“On the contrary, for the first time, I doubted the once-revered Dr. Schmidt…”
“As he spoke of the future and his dreams, I saw in his eyes only a pathological—yes, that’s the word—obsession that made my whole body ache.”
“If you had spent two months with Aritta as I have, you would realize that when a non-human species is learning at an astonishing speed and growing ever more intelligent…”
“What it brings is not delight, but terror…”
…
“August 29th…”
“Some of my colleagues began to think Aritta was becoming ‘stupid’!”
“But I disagree; I prefer to call it ‘reserved’… In those compound eyes, I could see something called ‘emotion’ that was absent months ago!”
“September 7th…”
“Dr. Schmidt brought in a large amount of nuclear waste from the power station ten kilometers away, depositing it in the laboratory.”
“Although this waste was strictly processed and unlikely to leak, everyone felt deeply uneasy.”
Page 2/3
“September 13th…”
“I assisted Dr. Schmidt in injecting Aritta with an inhibitor!”
“Dr. Schmidt explained that Aritta was a queen bee, and that laying eggs—hatching a colony—was an unalterable mission rooted in its genes!”
“This inhibitor could perfectly suppress Aritta’s urge to lay eggs, but required continual injections.”
“When we restrained Aritta on the operating table, I could clearly read ‘resentment’ in her eyes!”
“Tonight, I cannot sleep; whenever I close my eyes, Aritta’s resentful gaze appears in my dreams…”
“I feel as if I am losing my mind… I can actually discern the emotions of a bee? I hope I truly am mad!”
“October 7th…”
“Dr. Schmidt informed me he would be leaving for a while, and entrusted Aritta’s care to me.”
“From the heavy way he departed, I sensed something significant had happened!”
“October 18th…”
“My God!”
“While inspecting the nuclear waste, I discovered an egg…”
“Should I tell the others?”
“October 25th…”
“The staff from the power station finally removed the terrifying pile of nuclear waste. Along with it… went the egg.”
“I simply don’t understand how such a conspicuous egg could go unnoticed by everyone else.”
“Are they blind?”
“October 27th…”
“I received orders to assist the soldiers at the base in transferring Aritta to the nuclear power station!”
“Perhaps… I can finally rid myself of that nightmare!”
The diary ended here.
Ye Hai let out a soft sigh and murmured,
“October 28th. The zombie virus erupted across the globe, sweeping through every corner in mere hours…”
“Neither the authorities nor the military had time to respond; everything was destroyed in an instant!”
“And that young researcher, Tang Jie, never returned to retrieve his diary…”
At this moment, Ye Hai was struck by a sudden speculation.
Perhaps the outbreak of the zombie virus was intimately connected to these intelligent mutants!