After resting briefly to recover his strength, Dr. Jiang immediately plunged back into his research. He explained to the others that all future experiments would be conducted on himself and introduced Lingsha.
"With her here," he said, "even if an experiment fails, she can revive me. I won't die."
The five people in the laboratory reacted differently to Dr. Jiang's statement. Some were astonished by his decision, others worried about his safety, and still others were amazed by Lingsha's "medical skills." But all their reactions coalesced into a single question: "Doctor, are you sure you want to do this?"
Dr. Jiang calmly replied, "Enough with these pointless questions. Let's continue!"
Of course, "continue" didn't mean injecting himself with another vial of the same experimental compound. Instead, it meant resuming his research and developing new formulations. His near-death experience had proven invaluable, and Dr. Jiang felt success was now within reach.
Even so, this wasn't something that could be accomplished quickly. Dr. Jiang had a room prepared for Lingsha, and she settled in temporarily.
After all, she couldn't possibly commute daily between Longcheng and Fancheng—that would be far too troublesome.
After that, Lingsha's life settled into a peaceful routine. She spent her days reading in her room, petting Xiao Bai, and occasionally treating Dr. Jiang.
Yes, only occasionally. Dr. Jiang needed two or three days to develop a new experimental formula before conducting another injection trial. Lingsha's role was simply to observe the trial and pull Dr. Jiang back from the brink of death when he neared it.
In essence, Lingsha felt that her life here was no different from her life at home.
However, although Dr. Jiang's experiments weren't frequent, each near-death experience and subsequent treatment by Lingsha visibly advanced her 'Physician' mission progress in the System.
Each treatment had roughly a one percent success rate. Factoring out the treatments Lingsha had already performed on Ikezawa, Dr. Jiang would only need to conduct seventy to eighty more experiments to complete her task.
As time passed, Lingsha gradually grew familiar with the other members of the laboratory. To her surprise, all five of Dr. Jiang's assistants had been rescued by him.
After the Fancheng Virus outbreak, Dr. Jiang had saved one person from the rubble of a collapsed building, two from a zombie horde, and two more from a riotous survivor camp.
Some assistants fully embraced Dr. Jiang's ideology and were staunch members of the Hawkish Faction, while others cared little for the pacifist-hawkish debate, staying by his side solely to repay their life debt.
One such assistant was Cheng Xiangwei, the only woman among the five. Wearing glasses and constantly looking down, she spoke in a soft, almost meek voice, projecting an image of extreme vulnerability and making her seem like an easy target for bullying.
Cheng Xiangwei was the woman rescued from the ruins. As Dr. Jiang's assistant, she must have been involved in the human experiments. Lingsha had once asked her if she felt any remorse for the innocent people she had harmed.
The girl lowered her head and explained that she had only been responsible for peripheral tasks, rarely witnessing the experiments firsthand. Even so, she occasionally had nightmares where unfamiliar corpses stared relentlessly at her.
Cheng Xiangwei had lost all her family in the disaster. If not for Dr. Jiang, she wouldn't have survived.
Or perhaps, even having survived, she had lost all purpose in life, adrift without direction until Dr. Jiang said, "Then help me fulfill my dream."
And so she followed him.
It's worth noting that Cheng Xiangwei was, of course, an Evolver, and her Ability was the versatile Psychokinesis.
In contrast to this gentle-natured girl, the two individuals rescued from the zombie horde harbored a fierce desire for vengeance against society.
Like a classic scene from a zombie movie, these two had originally been part of a small survivor settlement, sticking together for safety. But during a supply run, disaster struck, and they were abandoned as bait.
They fled desperately until exhaustion set in, rescued by Dr. Jiang just as the zombie horde closed in.
Some who are saved strive to help others in turn, but these two were consumed by bitterness, convinced they had been betrayed. Having suffered betrayal themselves, they craved revenge, wanting to inflict the same despair and pain on others.
It's safe to say that if Dr. Jiang, their powerful benefactor, hadn't kept them in check, these two would have already gone on a rampage through the streets, only to be neutralized by the Bureau of Anomalous Investigations shortly after.
As for the final pair, they had also been part of a survivor camp. A dispute between the two leaders escalated into open conflict, and the ensuing firefight attracted a massive zombie horde. By the time Dr. Jiang passed through, only two survivors remained.
It's worth mentioning that Lin Ning, who had previously struck up a conversation with Lingsha, was one of those two men.
These five assistants were essentially a microcosm of the Third Research Institute. After some digging, Lingsha learned that many of the institute's members had been rescued by Dr. Jiang. Everyone there seemed united, resolutely helping him achieve his "dream."
Lingsha wasn't sure how to evaluate Dr. Jiang. Was he a good person? Or a bad one?
Perhaps this was simply normal. Did pure good or evil truly exist in the world? Was there anyone born who had never done a single good deed or a single bad one?
Lingsha's life at the institute remained uneventful, with little to report. About a month later, Robin, the idol who had been touring and performing concerts for the Longcheng Bureau of Anomalous Investigations, finally returned.
As expected, Ikezawa, like a shark sensing blood, had been lying in wait outside the Bureau of Anomalous Investigations since early that morning.