The Interstellar Queen of Scavengers

Chapter 1459: Chapter 1459: Underground Laboratory

After crawling in, they walked through a winding path, even passing through several doors, and then the scene suddenly opened up before their eyes.

Ji You and Chu Jiaojiao frowned instantly.

Here, the traces of the laboratory could be clearly seen, but all the experimental equipment had been destroyed beyond recognition, and some had been moved out completely.

Moreover, from the traces, it appeared very recent, guessing that the person who destroyed it had just left not long ago.

Chu Jiaojiao slapped her forehead and said, ”No wonder I thought those doors opened so easily, turns out they were all unlocked beforehand.”

Ji You asked, ”Who do you think destroyed this place?”

Chu Jiaojiao said, ”Is it the person who released this batch of black bears?”

This underground hidden laboratory, they speculated, had been here for at least over 10 years, as to what the laboratory was for, since all the materials and equipment were destroyed, it was temporarily untraceable.

”Whether the black bears were released from the lab is still uncertain, we need to find evidence to confirm.” Ji You squinted her eyes, vigilantly staring at the lab.

Chu Jiaojiao said, ”I’ll look around.”

Saying this, she reached out to grab a piece of debris from the ground.

Seeing this, Ji You immediately stopped her and said, ”Stop.”

Chu Jiaojiao turned her head: ”???.”

Ji You sternly said, ”Be careful with protection, don’t directly handle anything here.”

Chu Jiaojiao realized.

After speaking, Ji You said no more. She wore a mask and gloves, completely isolating herself from the surroundings, then walked around carefully, thoroughly searching, and finally found a bear hair on a piece of glass shard. Ji You carefully collected it, deciding to take it for a genetic sequence comparison with the black bears on the surface.

After searching around, they still found nothing.

This vast laboratory had been cleanly destroyed.

Thinking for a bit, Ji You said, ”Let’s head out first.”

Chu Jiaojiao: ”Okay.”

Then, the two of them walked out of the underground lab, the journey was so smooth it felt unsettling, as if something wasn’t quite right.

In less than 30 minutes, the two were out. On the spaceship, through the monitor, seeing Ji You and Chu Jiaojiao, Yue Qiyuan’s voice was evidently more at ease: ”Shall I pick you up now?”

Ji You said, ”Yue Qiyuan, I remember your second interest is biological research, right? Could you compare this bear hair with the group on the surface now?”

Yue Qiyuan, hearing this, became slightly tense and asked, ”Why?”

”Sure.” Ji You thought about it and then added, ”An underground secret laboratory was found inside, conservatively estimated to be at least over 10 years old, but we don’t know what it specifically researched, we only found a strand of hair after searching.”

Yue Qiyuan said, ”Send it over to me.”

”Okay.” Ji You nodded.

After a thorough disinfection, Ji You and Chu Jiaojiao boarded the spaceship but didn’t head directly to the cockpit. Instead, they stayed in an isolation cabin for ten minutes, confirming everything was fine before stepping out.

Yue Qiyuan had already completed the hair comparison and said, ”This hair is confirmed to be from a black bear, the same genetic sequence as the batch we encountered on the surface.”

Ji You furrowed her brow.

Yue Qiguang directly cursed, ”So it was someone who deliberately released the black bears! Who the hell could it be, are they living too long or something?”

Ji You recounted the details encountered in the lab to everyone, and there was a silence, then Sheng Qingyan suddenly said, ”So the one thing we can be certain of now is—someone is conducting illegal Star Beast research secretly.”

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this.

In fact, humans have been ravaged by Star Beasts for so long; research on them has never stopped. But due to their strong reproduction ability, they simply couldn’t be exterminated. You might annihilate one star system with a military force, just about to tackle another, and soon enough, they revive again.

Moreover, the Star Beasts possess incredibly strong combat capabilities and occupy more territories. Humans only have eight star systems, confined to these eight systems, while the Star Beasts spread across this entire universe, they appear everywhere humans have traversed.

It seems as though they were the original inhabitants of this universe.

However, in existing human history, there are no records nor sufficient evidence to prove that Star Beasts are indigenous to the universe.

...

The upper echelons of humanity have tried various ways to solve the Star Beast scourge, but no effective method has been found. Some high-level figures understand that to solve the Star Beast problem, finding their origin is necessary. However—

The data is too scarce, impossible to trace.

Thus, the idea of dissecting and researching the Star Beasts themselves was proposed by some high-level personnel.

Therefore, legal Star Beast research laboratories are authorized. Even up till now, many official Star Beast research institutions exist in various countries and regions.

But!

The laboratory underground on garbage planet #381 was clearly illegal.

Chu Jiaojiao said, ”After we went in, everything inside was destroyed, obviously not long ago, we can’t find anything, don’t know who, don’t know who’s behind it...”

Yue Qiyuan, Yue Qiguang, and Sheng Qingyan all heard this and fell into thought.

After a while, everyone still had no clue.

Ji You squinted and said, ”If we can’t figure it out, we might as well stop thinking about it. Once we get back, we can ask Principal Hong and Dr. Luo directly.”

In the next second, Ji You said, ”Everyone, return to base.”

The spaceship’s speed was turned to maximum by Ji You, and about 30 minutes later, it stopped around the abandoned docking port. This place had already been cleared into a clean, spacious, and safe area by Shen Changqing and his team, following the spaceship’s return and immediate maintenance was conducted by them.

Afterward, the rescued Liu Ming and others were placed by Dr. Luo for further treatment.

Then.

Ji You found Principal Hong. Principal Hong was sitting on a stone, sipping from a bottle, alongside Uncle Liang and the others, leisurely enjoying their drink.

Seeing his relaxed posture made Ji You deeply doubt whether their group had really been forced into the garbage planet due to a crisis, or had come to the garbage planet for a vacation.

Upon seeing Ji You, Principal Hong immediately teased, ”Oh, the big captain is back, eh?”

Ji You maintained a straight face and said, ”Reporting to the Principal, there is an important matter to report.”

Principal Hong said, ”Speak.”

Ji You glanced at Uncle Liang and the others, who sensed that it might not be appropriate to stay, so they tactfully left.

Principal Hong squinted at Ji You and said, ”Go ahead.”

Ji You stared at Principal Hong’s not-so-likeable face and asked, ”Principal, may I ask why you arranged for Dr. Luo to destroy the entire underground lab, you wouldn’t happen to be the mastermind behind it all, would you?”

Originally relaxed and confident thinking Ji You wouldn’t ask any major issues, Principal Hong almost threw the bottle at her face upon hearing her words, ”What nonsense are you spouting!”