Chapter 86: The Catalyst

The night was so dark you couldn't see your own hand in front of your face.

Under that pitch-black sky, a tiny canyon in the mountains was lit up with a few scattered lights. Outside the canyon, a car zoomed down the highway, and in no time, it was at the canyon's entrance.

Huge floodlights lit up the car, and a bunch of machine guns at the checkpoint pointed right at it. Soon enough, a dozen soldiers rushed out. After checking the IDs of the folks inside, they signaled to open the heavy alloy gate.

Inside the canyon, everything looked pretty normal. There were some fancy plants and a few buildings here and there. It felt more like a swanky resort than a military zone. The car headed straight to one of the round buildings, and three people hopped out, ignoring the guards and rushing inside.

After going through a bunch of doors, they reached the center of the building. Following another round of checks, they stepped onto a circular elevator. A glass cage popped up from the floor, enclosing them, and started descending fast.

After about a minute, the elevator stopped. Once the glass cage lifted, the three stepped out. They were greeted by an old doctor with white hair and a beard, Rocco Hightower, along with a few middle-aged military officers.

"Mr. Thibodeaux, the experiment's ready."

Rocco looked super excited, his face all flushed.

General Dino Thibodeaux, one of the three who had come in, was a guy in his forties with sharp eyes. He glanced at Rocco and said, "Mr. Hightower, got any breakthroughs?" His face was like a block of ice, and his tone was flat, but Rocco could sense a bit of annoyance since it was already 3 AM.

Rocco didn't care about Dino's annoyance and nodded eagerly, saying, "Mr. Thibodeaux, I've been working on zombie crystal energy for three years since we got the lab back. I'm grateful for the chance you've given me, and your support hasn't gone to waste. A few days ago, I found a way to release and use the crystal energy."

Dino felt a stir inside but kept his face blank, saying flatly, "Show me the experiment."

Despite the apocalyptic chaos outside, the underground lab's equipment was in good shape, with only a few damaged areas already fixed. Inside the lab, it felt like stepping into a post-apocalyptic world, with all the high-tech gear. Originally a secret government lab, Dino had reclaimed it and turned it into his top-secret research facility, with Rocco running the show.

A group of seven or eight people took another elevator down 150 feet to the experimental area, where hundreds of researchers were hustling. They were all survivors Dino had gathered, and it was no small feat to get so many researchers together.

The researchers didn't stop their work just because Dino was there; they were all busy.

Rocco led Dino to the research table, carefully taking out a small, syringe-like device and handing it to Dino, explaining, "Mr. Thibodeaux, this is the energy activator I've developed. It's got three main parts: the crystal containment chamber, the activator, and the injector."

Dino finally cracked a smile, holding the fist-sized activator and muttering, "Good, good."

Rocco, feeling a bit smug, said, "We used to focus on using the energy for power generation. It worked, but it wasn't great. Then, inspired by the special sensor Catalyst, we switched gears to see if we could use this energy on the human body. Turns out, this energy can cause a temporary mutation in our DNA. But for the longest time, we couldn't figure out how to release it."

Before, extracting crystal energy was a pain. It took hours to get a single white crystal, and the efficiency was terrible.

"Also inspired by Catalyst, their voices have this weird frequency that makes the energy in the crystals go nuts, releasing it and messing with DNA. We don't know why this frequency works, but we copied Catalyst's voice and put it on the activator's chip. When you turn it on, the activator resonates with the crystal in the chamber, releases the energy, and injects it into the human body, causing DNA mutation."

Dino asked, "Will the sound from the activator also set off zombie crystals?"

Rocco grinned confidently, "We thought of that. Our activator is designed to keep the sound locked inside. The sound it makes is super faint, only audible within seven or eight feet, and it won't trigger zombie crystals."

"What about the data? What happens when the DNA mutates?"

From Dino's point of view, this was the big question. Things weren't looking great. Even though he had a big force, every time they tried to reclaim military zones for their gear, those damn special infected and military zombies messed it up. Their presence made anyone think twice before going after military equipment.

Military zombies were a nightmare. They were soldiers infected by the extraterrestrial virus, and their strong bodies and unyielding will made them mutate even more. Unlike other special infected, they didn't need a lot of external factors. The mutation rate for military zombies was crazy high, like a few percent. Just imagine, out of ten thousand soldiers, there could be hundreds of military zombies—scary stuff!

Dino knew how terrifying military zombies were. They'd use all sorts of military weapons to attack any enemies, based on their pre-infection roles. The only good thing was that they usually stayed at their posts; otherwise, humanity would have been wiped out long ago.

Rocco couldn't give a straight answer and said, "The activator is brand new, and we've only done a few experiments. The data isn't great. We can only guess that the results will vary based on the crystal's grade, affecting how much the DNA gets stimulated."

Dino knew that getting this far was already a win, so he didn't blame Rocco. Instead, he walked over to the big glass experimental chamber and said, "Mr. Hightower, let's get this show on the road. Show us what happens after DNA mutation."

PS：Due to the author's circumstances, this book will now be updated weekly. Thank you for your support.