No one knew how much time had passed.
Li Yiming slowly opened his eyes and let out a deep breath.
The zombie crystal core in his hand had completely disappeared.
“Damn…”
He stood up briskly, clenching his fists in surprise.
Right now, he felt an indescribable sense of comfort throughout his entire body.
Before, Li Yiming’s heart had always felt a faint, oppressive pain.
But now, after absorbing the crystal core…
That feeling—as if someone were clutching his heart—had completely vanished!
Li Yiming moved his stiff body a bit, then threw a few punches into the air!
Boom!
Boom!
His fists tore through the air, creating sharp, piercing whooshes!
This power…
It would be a waste not to use it to beat something up!
Li Yiming stared at his fists in amazement.
A surge of uncontrollable excitement welled up in his chest.
Even without supernatural powers, he was fully confident he could go toe-to-toe with a Licker now!
He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.
5:23 PM.
There were still seven minutes until the scheduled time.
At this moment, Li Yiming no longer felt any nervousness.
He used the spare time to do some warm-up exercises.
Far from being afraid of the Licker now…
Li Yiming was actually eager for a real fight—to test out his new strength!
Just as he was stretching his legs…
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
Almost instinctively, Li Yiming spun around and launched a high kick behind him!
“Wahhh!!”
Christine screamed when she saw Li Yiming’s high kick suddenly coming straight for her head.
Caught off guard, she could only throw her hands up in a panic to protect herself.
Fortunately, Li Yiming managed to stop his leg just inches away from her face.
Seeing how terrified Christine was, like her soul had nearly left her body, Li Yiming quickly retracted his leg, pressed his hands together, and apologized sincerely:
“Sorry—I didn’t even realize I was reacting…”
But despite his apology, Christine was still shaken from the scare.
“Are you trying to kill me?!”
“I worked overtime to make your wristband, and this is how you repay me? Attempted murder?!”
Christine looked utterly wronged.
While Li Yiming had been meditating and focusing, she had been hard at work.
She’d spent all that time in the lab scavenging parts to make the wristband.
And the moment she brought it out—she was nearly sent to the afterlife by his flying kick.
Frustrated and teary-eyed, Christine threw the wristband in her hand at him.
“If you hadn’t taken off your high heels, I wouldn’t have mistaken your footsteps for someone else sneaking in.”
Li Yiming was speechless as the wristband hit him.
Honestly, it wasn’t really his fault.
With his enhanced senses from the T-virus…
His body had reacted on its own, before his brain even processed it.
“I had to change into cleanroom shoes to enter the sterile lab area, alright?!”
After a while, Christine finally calmed down a bit.
“Instead of making excuses, hurry up and test out the detection wristband I made.”
Urged by Christine, Li Yiming put on the device, which looked like a digital wristwatch.
The moment he strapped it on, the screen lit up, displaying his current body temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and respiration rate.
“This… this is just a regular fitness watch, isn’t it?”
Li Yiming frowned at the data, clearly unimpressed.
“Don’t insult my work with your shallow understanding!”
Christine huffed and gave him a little whack on the head.
“Press the button on the left side.”
Li Yiming followed her instructions and pressed the button.
“Oh, and then… OW!!”
Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist where the watch was strapped.
At the same time, the data on the LCD screen changed to a new interface.
“Vital signs: Stable. Estimated survival time… 26 hours?”
Li Yiming frowned as he read the numbers displayed on the watch.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I absorbed a low-tier zombie crystal core and only gained one more day to live?!”
He said in disbelief.
Christine scoffed dismissively.
“Don’t underestimate the T-virus.”
“This device analyzes your blood in real-time.”
“Even though it’s limited in size, the margin of error is within one hour.”
Listening to Christine’s explanation, Li Yiming gasped.
He hadn’t expected the T-virus to be so toxic!
Even after absorbing a low-level zombie crystal core, it had only extended his life by a single day!
“Damn… Looks like I seriously need to find a way to suppress the T-virus’s activity.”
Li Yiming muttered, clearly troubled.
Otherwise, he would be under constant pressure to find more crystal cores—way too soon and too often.
And this was still just the early stage of the apocalypse.
Aside from Umbrella Corporation’s bio-weapons, most zombies didn’t even reliably drop crystal cores!
What if he got unlucky and kept killing powerful zombies with no drops?
Wouldn’t that just mean he’d die himself?
Not to mention… there was still that unknown force trying to erase him to restore the original plotline.
The more he thought about it, the more frustrated Li Yiming became.
At this moment, the minute hand on the wall clock slowly ticked to 5:29.
Less than one minute left before 5:30.
Li Yiming cleared his mind of distractions and looked toward Christine, who was still sulking.
“It’s almost time.”
Li Yiming reminded her.
“If you’re ready, then come with me.”
Christine rolled her eyes at him, then walked ahead without checking whether he was following.
Guided by Christine, Li Yiming made his way through the massive laboratory, turning left and right until they finally arrived at an elevator.
It turned out—they weren’t on the third floor after all.
Li Yiming let out a sigh of awe, marveling at the Umbrella Corporation’s deep pockets.
They actually managed to hide a lab this secret inside Sacred Heart Hospital!
Christine used her employee ID to activate the elevator.
The two of them took the elevator back up to the third floor.
Behind the large doors in front of them was the Internal Medicine Department on the third floor.
And waiting for them just beyond the doors…
Was the Licker assigned to keep watch!
Standing near the door, Li Yiming turned back and looked at Christine, who had regained her usual cold expression.
“Remember what I told you?”
Li Yiming asked casually.
“Relax. I won’t mess things up.”
Christine let out a deep sigh, then slowly raised her hand as a pale blue energy—ice-type powers—began to gather in her palm!
“Good!”
Li Yiming exhaled sharply, then reached forward and slammed down the door handle!