"...been asleep for a week."

"That's odd for a newly infected zombie."

"Does that change anything?"

"That's what I'd like to find out, start preparations for the experiment."

He Yuan slowly blinked his eyes open. "Hiss!" A bright light was hung over his head, burning his eyes as he tried to keep them open.

He tried to raise his hand to rub his burning eyes but it didn't move. His head was muddled so it took a while for him to realize that he was in chains, strapped to the bed he appeared to by laying on.

After a quick look around, he realized he was in an all white, sterile room with a glass demarcation. He couldn't see through the glass so he assumed it was a oneway glass.

There was only one time he'd been in a room like this before and that was when his parents knocked him out and tried to give his heart to their first child. This was a lab. He Yuan's heart stopped beating for a second, fear permeating his bones.

"GRR!... ARGH!" He Yuan didn't even think of why he could only release growling sounds, he was too agitated.

"Wait, I think its awake."

"Dr. Wu, the zombie is awake."

The door clicked open and a man in a white lab coat slowly walked into the sterile room. He Yuan turned his attention to the man, baring his fangs at him as he struggled against the chains holding him down.

"Check its vitals," Dr. wu calmly said to no one but after a short while, another man in a lab coat walked in.

"The toxin has spread through all parts of its body via its bloodstream. The various organs are functioning just like every other zombie but..."

Dr. Wu quirked a brow. "Go on."

"There's unusual activity in its brain. The brains of other zombies do not show signs of complex thought processes but this one.."

Dr. Wu smiled. "What you're trying to say is that there's a possibility that this zombie still has its human consciousness intact?" The other guy nodded. "Interesting."

He Yuan kept applying force on the chains as he growled at the men. His head was still very muddled but he somehow knew he needed to get out of this place.

"Commence the first ph-"

SNAP!

One of the chains broke loose and the eyes of both men widened. He Yuan didn't care, instead he used the broken chain to wipe at the scientists.

BANG!

Dr. Wu flew across the room and smashed into the white wall, forming a few cracks.

"GIVE IT THE SHOT!" The other scientist yelled as he rushed over to help Dr. Wu up and scramble out of the room.

SNAP!

The other chain broke loose and He Yuan tore off the ones binding his legs before storming over to the door.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He Yuan kept smashing his fists against the door. His black claws left a few scratches on the metal but the door remained unmoved so he walked over to the glass demarcation instead.

BANG!

Before he could get another hit, He Yuan felt a stinging pain in his neck and he dropped to the ground, losing consciousness.

The hole that had opened up in the wall closed over the injection gun and everywhere became quiet once more.

The next time He Yuan woke up, the room was dark and he was strapped with an even bigger amount of chains. Maybe because he couldn't see his surroundings, he felt much calmer than he was the first time he regained consciousness.

His fuzzy memories became a bit clearer and then he froze. He was supposed to have a system, 88... His eyes widened. "888?" It was silent in his head. Unusually silent.

"888?" He called out again but there was no reply. More memories filtered into his head about 888 trying to extract Du Ling's soul thread and He Yuan knew something was off.

Even if 888 rarely spoke, He Yuan would always feel the system's presence in his mind space but now. It felt empty. He used his soul energy to search for Du Ling's soul thread and realized the soul thread was also gone. What was happening?

He Yuan tugged on the chains in mild panic. 888 was gone and so was Du Ling's soul thread. 888 had told him he would link the soul thread to himself and then remain in his mind space so what was this situation?

He Yuan's eyes widened. Linking the soul thread could not have possibly harmed 888... Right? If not, where was the system? "888?" He called out again but there was no response. He tried all methods he could think of but was still unable to feel 888.

He was still trying to feel out his system when the overhead light suddenly lit up and he groaned. The sound of footsteps came right after and the scientist he had smashed into the wall earlier came into view. He Yuan's groan morphed into a predatory growl.

"You seem self aware." Dr. Wu started with a look of crazed wonder in his eyes. "A perfect specimen. I can only imagine the closed doors of knowledge that would be open once the experiment begins. I had thought a merge between a human and zombie was practically impossible as the toxin energy always wiped out the human conscious but with you, things would change."

"GRRR! ACK!" He Yuan directed at the man. He tried to speak but his fangs were in the way and his tongue was shaped weirdly so he couldn't form any words.

historical

He wasn't even in the mood to form any words. He was very angry. His system had gone AWOL with the leaser's soul thread, he was whisked away to an experiment lab while unconscious and a random psycho just uttered words that insinuated that he'd been using human beings as lab rats.

"Begin!" Dr. Wu called out and three men in lab coats walked into the room pushing a trolley filled with sharp objects and weird gadgets.

"GRRR!" He Yuan snapped at the men as they fitted his head with a gear and inserted multiple needles into his gray skin.

He tugged on the chains for as the men connected him to the machines all around and flipped a switch.

Pain.

So much pain.

It felt like they were drilling a hole through his head and electrocuting him at the same time.

He Yuan passed out.

The next time He Yuan woke up, the place was dark again and he was still hooked to some machines. His memories were fully clear now and he remembered he had awakened a psychic ability.

He Yuan could not sit up so he tried his best to relax and see if he could absorb qi. A rush of energy trickled into him and he moaned in satisfaction as the qi eased some of the ache in his body.

He Yuan was quite surprised. Even if he could absorb qi when Du Ling's body was still human, it wasn't this much. It only made him a bit better than other humans. Who knew that the zombies were more suited for cultivation?

He ran the qi throughout his body and realized that his once white core was now a reddish brown colour, just like mud.

Rather than drowning in worry over his system's whereabouts, he decided to put all his focus into absorbing qi. It didn't do much to distract his thoughts completely from 888 but it helped make him calm.

For the next weeks, He Yuan settled into a rhythm of enduring torturous experiments by day and cultivating by night. The scientists had begun serving him raw meat -no doubt from butchered humans- on the third week after he regained consciousness.

As he rejected it every time, He Yuan realized that the urge to eat the human meat did not come from craving it but due to extreme hunger. It made him wonder if it was the same for other zombies. Zombies could go for at least three months without food, so he was good for now.

The scientists were intrigued whenever he refused to eat the mutilated body parts they offered. It solidified their claims that he still had his human consciousness.

The offer of food soon turned from trying to keep him alive to an experiment to see if eating the human body parts could somehow trigger his human consciousness, sending him into the abyss and turning him to a normal zombie.

Whenever they tried to force feed him, He Yuan kept him mouth shut and bared his fangs. The scientists wouldn't dare go further because they didn't want to be cut by his fangs and become infected.

They soon stopped the food experiment when they discovered a strange fact after one month of He Yuan's capture.

He did not enter the rotting stage.

Three weeks after an infection, the zombies usually began a rotting phase, where their bodies began to rot due to an accumulation of dead cells and split flesh exposed to the atmosphere..

Although He Yuan was confined in the lab, that usually did not stop the rotting phase in other zombies so what was different for him?

The scientists went into a frenzy as they resumed the torturous experiments on He Yuan with even more vigor.

He Yuan endured the experiment for the next month but he knew he wouldn't last much longer. The hunger was maddening and the confinement was driving him crazy.

His core had gone from the muddy colour to a light brown colour and his psychic ability was beginning to get stronger once more. He had no idea that it was harder for zombies to strengthen their abilities.

Two months of observation had also made him discover some facts about the facility through the words the scientists spoke. First off, the psychos performed experiments on both zombies and humans. Second, he'd come in contact with about ten off them, Dr. Wu being their leader and he had an air based ability.

The others had, metal, gold, water, lightening and fire. As for the remaining four, he had no idea. They were private with their abilities -that is if they had any.

He continued diligently cultivating and whitewashing his core as he waited patiently for an opportunity to escape.

On the third month of He Yuan's arrival at the facility, an opportunity finally presented itself.