The researcher had no idea how Mo Bai had managed to pin him against the wall while sitting in a wheelchair. He forced himself to stand straighter, trying to appear more imposing, and said in a low voice, "Don't even think about twisting the truth. Even if I'm trapped in this instance, and my strength has been suppressed to Beginner-9, I'm still a high-level player. I have far more methods and experience than you do. There's no way I'd take orders from a newbie player like you."

"So you're trapped in this instance," Mo Bai said, raising her eyebrows slightly.

Researcher: "......"

Damn it! He'd been tricked into revealing information!

Seeing the contempt in the researcher's eyes completely vanish, Mo Bai decided to quit while she was ahead. She maneuvered her wheelchair back a few steps, her demeanor shifting back to calm and gentle. In a soft voice, she said, "It hasn't been easy for you either."

The researcher's face filled with wariness. "What are you trying to do now?"

He no longer dared to underestimate this girl.

Mo Bai replied gently, "Everyone wants to clear this instance. Why should we be hostile to each other? We're all players. Wouldn't it be better if we exchanged information and cooperated properly?"

The researcher patted his clothes and became arrogant again. "And what exactly can you help me with? You're just a—"

Mo Bai's expression hardened as she stared directly at him.

Remembering how Mo Bai's overwhelming presence had just suppressed him, the researcher immediately dropped his arrogance and asked flatly, "Then what benefits can you offer? Do you know more about this dungeon than I do? Besides, you idiots were all injected with the instance's drug. Anyone who's been injected can't escape. In the second batch of investigators, I was the only one who wasn't injected, and I'm the only one still normal. The rest are either dead or insane."

"Then do you know what happened after the second batch of investigators died?" Mo Bai asked.

"Weren't they just thrown out of the base?" the researcher replied.

Mo Bai chuckled inwardly. She'd finally found something she could use to restrain him.

The information the researcher possessed far exceeded what she knew, but he was unwilling to cooperate honestly. Mo Bai's only option was to first suppress his arrogance and force him to communicate with her on equal footing.

But even that wasn't enough. She needed something the researcher wanted in order to extract information from him.

Equal communication was just the foundation. Mutual value was the true basis of cooperation.

Mo Bai said, "The system gave the third batch of investigators a serum that can suppress the drug. It was created after researching the corpses of the second batch of investigators."

"There's a serum?!" The researcher became visibly excited. He stepped forward. "Where is it? No wonder you dared to inject the drug! There's actually a way to alleviate it."

Mo Bai retreated, maintaining a safe distance from the researcher, and countered, "You weren't injected with the drug, so why are you so concerned about the serum?"

"I don't need it for myself, but—" The researcher stopped mid-sentence and looked at Mo Bai warily. "Are you trying to trick me into talking again? Hand over the serum first, then I'll tell you."

Mo Bai said, "Can you stop being so childish? Acting on impulse is what kids do. Do you really want to compete over pride when it's a matter of life and death? I can tell you this: every player only has one dose of serum, and the system placed it somewhere that can be injected into the body at any time. For us players who've been injected with the drug, the serum is absolutely critical. No one will give it to you, except me. But for something that can save a life, I need to know exactly what it's used for before I can decide whether to hand it over."

Mo Bai wasn't showing weakness. She knew that only by being honest about the serum's importance would the researcher understand that, without providing truly valuable information, no one would give him something like this.

The researcher pondered for a moment and said, "You're right. It's a lifeline that no one would give away. But why are you willing to give the serum to me?"

Mo Bai replied, "I have a blessing card that can eliminate all negative effects. It's also A-rank, so I don't need to use the serum. Now do you understand? You can't just find any random player and boss them around. Only I can help you."

Step by step, Mo Bai pressed her advantage, finally forcing the researcher to abandon all his arrogance.

The researcher let out a long sigh and sat down in a chair. "Fine. I'm willing to cooperate with you."

Mo Bai's overwhelming presence, combined with the fact that she possessed two A-rank cards, finally made the researcher lower his guard and acknowledge her strength.

"Let's start with what an Ultra-Star rank instance is," Mo Bai said as she poured a cup of water from the indoor dispenser and handed it to the researcher.

The researcher said, "You know that instances are divided into C-rank, B-rank, A-rank, and S-rank, right?"

"Of course," Mo Bai nodded.

The researcher explained, "These four ranks are instances that the system's rules can control. B-rank corresponds to beginner players, A-rank to intermediate players, and S-rank to advanced players. You should be able to see in the system interface that each instance has stars representing its difficulty. C-rank has two stars, and so on, with S-rank having five stars, which is the highest difficulty rating given by the system."

"So an Ultra-Star instance surpasses S-rank and goes beyond the system's evaluation range?" Mo Bai asked.

"Exactly. Let me put it this way: S-rank is the system's upper limit, not the instance's upper limit. Ultra-Star instances have no upper limit on difficulty," the researcher said.

Mo Bai asked, "How does an Ultra-Star instance come into being?"

The researcher replied, "You're smart. You should've realized long ago that the monsters in instances have intelligence, and they don't like being restricted by rules. They try all kinds of ways to break through those restrictions, and once one of them finds a way to escape, the instance can upgrade."

"Is that toxin the method this instance used to upgrade?" Mo Bai asked.

The researcher shook his head. "The toxin is the result of the upgrade."

Mo Bai understood what he meant. "You're saying that through continuous research, Biological Research Institute No. 7 broke through the rule restrictions and developed something that produced an active toxin?"

"You can call that thing an Ultra-Star monster," the researcher said.

Mo Bai asked, half guessing and half joking, "That toxin, the drug inside our bodies, wouldn't happen to be an extract from the Ultra-Star monster, would it?"

"It is." The researcher looked at Mo Bai with sympathy. "Your batch with seven players has been injected with the genes of an Ultra-Star monster. Based on my current investigation, it's a strengthening toxin that can infinitely enhance the 'activity' of various things. It makes everything it touches possess the property of being 'alive,' including every single cell in your body."

"I previously encountered something called the Manipulation Thread that could turn corpses into moving puppets and grant the ability to remotely control objects. The system said those threads were products of Research Institute No. 7," Mo Bai said.

"I've seen the research records on Manipulation Thread," the researcher replied. "They're products of the institute coating silk threads with extract from the Ultra-Star monster. The threads gained living properties and would try to burrow into living organisms, controlling their every movement. However, once their urge to control was satisfied, they would settle down and become a C-rank item. The institute felt these items had little research value, so they sold them off in exchange for research funds and materials."

"Sold to the Smiling Circus?" Mo Bai asked.

"The institute has no records of the buyers. They only know that in exchange, they obtained some genes from nightmare-type monsters, which were then injected into the Ultra-Star monster," the researcher said.

Mo Bai asked again, "What about the Mutants and the Phantom Butterflies?"

"You know that the Phantom Butterflies were created by the institute?" the researcher asked.

"I've dealt with them before," Mo Bai said. "And I know that Phantom Butterflies are connected to the Mutants ."

The researcher explained, "The Mutants are products of the institute's experiments. Initially, humans couldn't withstand the power of the extract. Most of the first batch of test subjects died after using it, because the Ultra-Star monster hadn't truly been born yet. It was still in its growth phase, adjusting its genes as it grew.

What the institute mainly did was inject its extract into all kinds of living and non-living things, collect the cells of organisms that absorbed the extract, and feed that information back into the Ultra-Star monster.

So neither the institute nor the Ultra-Star monster wanted the test subjects to die quickly. After the institute injected the cells of deceased test subjects into the monster, the extract it produced afterward no longer caused death.

In the next batch of subjects injected with the extract, aside from a small number of physically weak individuals who died, the rest all became Mutants. Depending on each person's constitution, their evolutionary paths differed."

Mo Bai recalled how, after tumor patients died, a mechanical arm would cut away a piece of the tumor. Similarly, once test subjects adapted to the drug, a tube of blood would be drawn from them.

"My blood was also fed to the Ultra-Star monster," Mo Bai said.

The researcher nodded. "Yes, it obtained your genetic information too. But that was only the first phase. There are still the second and third phases.

"The first phase is strengthening. The second phase is mutation.

After the Mutants appeared, the original defense systems couldn't contain them, and many Mutants escaped. The institute fell into chaos for a while.

After readjusting the research plan, the institute successfully obtained a batch of controllable mutants and injected them with the second-phase drug. After several more subject deaths, the Ultra-Star monster evolved again, causing the mutants who endured the second phase to undergo further mutation. All kinds of monsters with extraordinary abilities appeared, and the Phantom Butterflies were among them.

These monsters with supernatural abilities escaped the institute in various ways and entered different instances, drawing the attention of Neverland. Through these monsters, we discovered that an Ultra-Star instance was being born.

The system also discovered the existence of the institute and sent players, but the outcome was even worse.

Before this, no one could survive the third phase of research, since the institute could only obtain second-phase evolutionary genes. But players could survive it.

The first two batches of players were injected with all three phases of the drug and completely transformed into incomprehensible existences. Those players were directly fed to the Ultra-Star monster.

After obtaining player genes, the Ultra-Star monster gained domain abilities.

You might not know this, but this instance was originally an A-rank instance. The first batch of players who entered were all intermediate-level players.

The Ultra-Star monster used its domain ability to downgrade the A-rank instance into a B-rank instance, suppressing players' abilities to the beginner level in order to restrict and limit the power of intruders.

I was also forced to use items to disguise myself as a beginner player. My strength was suppressed to the extreme, and I couldn't inflict any damage on the Ultra-Star monster.

To be honest, I don't really understand why the system is still sending players in. Beginner players coming here are basically being sent to their deaths, and they'll only provide more genetic information to the Ultra-Star monster, helping it to evolve further. I really have no idea what the system is thinking."

"I know," Mo Bai said, subconsciously touching her left cheek.

"And what exactly do you know? You've only been here half a day, so how could you possibly know more intel than I do?" the researcher said.

Mo Bai said, "Actually, the system already has a way to destroy this instance, and it has already begun taking action."

"If it were really taking action, it should have sent in more high-level players. Right now, there are only a bunch of beginner players, and the highest-rank cards they have are only A-rank. How are we supposed to fight this battle?" the researcher said dejectedly.

"It's easy," Mo Bai answered with an expression devoid of any emotion. "As long as we survive through the three phases of experiments and are forced to use the serum when our bodies start mutating, that's enough. Once that happens, the institute will feed us to the Ultra-Star monster. The serum can suppress the toxin, which means it can destroy the cellular activity of the Ultra-Star monster. When the monster devours us, it's essentially consuming the serum that inhibits its own growth and evolution."

Researcher: "......"

Mo Bai added, "As for the dosage, it'll probably require at least five people's worth."

So the survival rate of this instance was below 30%. At most, only two people could survive.

Whichever two people ended up at the back of the line would have a chance to live.

The system had really calculated this perfectly.