Chapter 26 : Luck Can’t Change Fate, and Pay-to-Win Can’t Save the Unworthy!

Gripping the Licker’s head in his hand, Li Yiming was drenched in its warm blood.

To his surprise, a trace of joy emerged in his heart.

This joy, born from the act of killing, sent a chill down Li Yiming’s spine the moment it appeared.

He was actually beginning to enjoy the process of killing.

How strange…

Li Yiming reached out and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

“Phew, good thing I made it in time.”

Behind him, Christine, standing just inside the doorway, wiped the cold sweat from her brow.

The icy blast on the Licker’s neck just now—that was her handiwork!

If Christine hadn’t frozen the Licker’s neck in time, Li Yiming might not have been able to rip its head off so easily.

Before they could celebrate their success…

From the lower floors came the sound of another Licker climbing up!

In the blink of an eye, a Licker had already reached the third floor!

When Li Yiming saw the first Licker climb up, his expression instantly turned cold.

This one was the alpha—the same Licker that had once impaled him through the gut!

Now visibly more muscular, it let out a low growl as Li Yiming gave a cold smile.

“That was fast.”

“But unfortunately… still too late.”

Li Yiming calmly walked into the lab and pressed the door control button.

As the heavy door slowly began to shut, the alpha Licker panicked.

“ROAR!!”

It let out a furious, vengeful howl and charged toward Li Yiming!

Clearly, it hadn’t forgotten the pain of having its skull crushed by him.

The Licker moved fast—blazingly fast—but not fast enough to beat the closing door.

Just before the door sealed shut, Li Yiming raised both middle fingers at the charging beast.

Taunted by the gesture, the enraged Licker slammed into the now-closed door.

A barrage of furious pounding soon echoed through the hallway!

The Licker was clearly driven mad, clawing furiously at the lab door.

Listening to the relentless banging outside, Li Yiming patted the lab door with his hand, testing its material.

“Just checking—this door really won’t break under Licker attacks, right?”

“There are four of them out there. What if quantity becomes quality and they break through?”

At his question, Christine rolled her eyes.

“Don’t underestimate Umbrella Corporation’s tech!”

“This door was designed specifically to withstand bioweapon attacks.”

“Whatever you’re worried about, trust me—our engineers already thought of it.”

Hearing her firm reassurance, Li Yiming finally let go of his last trace of worry.

If Christine weren’t a woman, he might’ve done a victory dance right in front of the helpless Lickers outside!

But for the sake of maintaining his image, Li Yiming suppressed that urge.

Calmly, he followed Christine into the elevator and handed her the suitcase.

Then, he turned his attention to the Licker head he was carrying.

With a squeeze, he crushed the head, then began to dig through the remains with his hands.

After a few moments of rummaging, he felt something hard.

“No way… did I get a drop?”

Li Yiming’s calm expression changed instantly.

He quickly pulled out the hard object he had touched—

It was a crystal core the size of a pigeon egg!

Even covered in blood, its faint blue glow was unmistakable.

Li Yiming immediately tossed aside the Licker head and wiped the blood off the core, inspecting it carefully.

Once cleaned, the core glowed even brighter.

Under the elevator’s lighting, it shimmered beautifully.

It was an ice-elemental crystal core!

Feeling the cold energy radiating from it, Li Yiming couldn’t help but click his tongue in amazement.

“This is…?”

Christine, noticing his unusual behavior, looked over in curiosity.

Seeing her expression, Li Yiming knew—

This crystal core… had clearly touched on a gap in her knowledge.

“Wow, that’s rare. There’s actually something you don’t know?”

Li Yiming said with a teasing smile.

Hearing that, Christine’s expression instantly soured.

“What do you mean I don’t know? My professor specializes in this field!”

Christine snapped back, clearly annoyed and embarrassed.

Her unusually flustered reaction made Li Yiming secretly chuckle to himself.

The two of them entered the lab.

Taking this opportunity, Li Yiming began explaining the function and significance of crystal cores.

Once he finished, he held out the ice-elemental core to Christine.

“Here, this one’s ice-element. Matches your ability. Consider it payment for helping me make the potion.”

But to Li Yiming’s surprise, Christine returned the zombie crystal core to him.

“You think everyone’s as crazy as you?”

“I know what you’re saying—but even my professor hasn’t completed clinical trials yet.”

“If it hasn’t gone through proper scientific testing, I’m not using it.”

Christine replied with a face full of disdain as she pushed the core back into his hand.

Li Yiming was left speechless, shocked as he stared at the rejected zombie crystal.

Good grief… this thing, once its function is widely discovered mid-story…

It could trade for a whole truckload of supplies at a shelter!

And this woman just turns her nose up at it?!

The corner of his mouth twitched as he sighed silently.

Still, he couldn’t really blame Christine.

After all, she was a researcher—someone who relied on experiments and data.

It was natural for her to be skeptical of anything without empirical proof.

But Li Yiming couldn’t exactly tell her, “I know because I’m a transmigrator.”

So he just let out a sigh and tucked the crystal back into his pocket.

The truth was, as someone without an ice-type ability, the core wouldn’t benefit him much anyway.

Rather than absorbing it now, it was better to hold on to it for later.

On the other side, Christine removed her outer lab coat.

Without the white coat covering her, her curvaceous figure was fully outlined by her fitted blouse.

The graceful curves instantly caught Li Yiming’s attention.

“Could you look away, please?”

“I’m changing into my protective gear,” Christine said, a bit annoyed at his gaze.

“Oh—sorry, sorry!”

Li Yiming quickly turned around and politely exited the room, sitting back down on the hospital bed.

Just as he relaxed and leaned back to rest…

A drop of dark red blood slowly dripped from the air vent above.

Plop.

A blotch of dark stain appeared on the lab’s pristine white floor.