Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess-Chapter 19: The end of everything(3)

The lab remained deathly silent as the implications settled over them.

Qingran's fingers hovered over the console, her pulse steady despite the storm raging inside her. Whatever they were dealing with—whatever had just vanished from that containment unit—was beyond anything they had accounted for.

It wasn't just a virus anymore.

It was something new.

A mutation? No. Even the most advanced biological agent couldn't simply disappear without a trace.

This was something else.

The system's recent notifications echoed in her mind. Direct engagement with the anomaly has triggered memory reconstruction.

It had to be connected. It was connected. But how?

A soft chime from the console broke the silence.

"Dr. Gu." The technician's voice was tight. "We have the energy analysis results."

Qingran turned to the screen, eyes narrowing as a series of data points scrolled across the display.

No bioelectric signatures. No chemical traces of a physical breach.

But there was an anomaly.

A spike in electromagnetic activity at the exact moment the virus vanished.

A pulse.

Qingran's breath hitched.

She knew this pattern.

She had seen it before.

It was buried deep in her fragmented memories, but it was there—the same energy fluctuation, the same signature. It wasn't just an accident.

It was a reaction.

To what?

Or to whom?

A chill settled in her bones.

"Cross-reference this pattern with all known anomalies in the facility," she ordered.

The technician hesitated. "That could take—"

"Do it."

He swallowed and nodded, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

Qingran turned back to the officials, her expression unreadable. "You need to put the facility on lockdown."

Director Li frowned. "Dr. Gu, that's a drastic measure. There's no evidence—"

"There's enough evidence," she cut in. "That virus didn't just disappear. Something—someone—took it, or it left on its own. Either way, we have an unknown variable inside this facility." She leveled him with a cold stare. "If we don't contain it now, we may never be able to."

A tense silence followed.

Then, Director Li exhaled sharply. "Seal the building. No one enters or leaves until we figure out what's happening."

The order was given. Security personnel moved swiftly, locking down every entrance, every corridor.

Qingran turned back to the footage, eyes dark.

Whatever had happened here...

She was running out of time to figure it out.

And she had the sinking feeling that this was only the beginning.

Qingran's mind raced as she stared at the screen. The virus was still in Lab 37, contained, untouched. That meant the thing they had seen—the shadow that flickered and vanished—was something else entirely.

Something they couldn't see.

Her fingers tapped against the console as she took a deep breath. The apocalypse wasn't a question of if—it was a certainty. She had 23 days left, but her instincts screamed that the timeline was collapsing faster than expected.

It didn't matter why. What mattered was that she used every second wisely.

She straightened, forcing her focus back to the screen. "Run another scan. Full-spectrum analysis. I want to know if this thing left any trace—thermal, electromagnetic, radiation, anything."

The technician hesitated before nodding, fingers flying over the keyboard.

Dr. Zhao wiped a hand over his face, his voice strained. "Dr. Gu, if the virus is still here... then what the hell was that thing?"

No one had an answer.

Qingran didn't respond immediately. Her mind was already moving ahead—sorting possibilities, ruling out the impossible. If the virus hadn't escaped, if it hadn't broken containment, then that left only one terrifying possibility.

It had evolved.

Not just biologically. Not just in a way she could measure with a microscope.

It had adapted.

She inhaled slowly, keeping her expression cold and unreadable. "For now, we assume the anomaly is connected to the virus. If it's not an escape, then it's a shift in state. Something we don't have the technology to properly observe."

Dr. Han paled. "You're saying it mutated into something invisible?"

"Or something that exists beyond what we can currently detect," she corrected. "Something new."

The weight of her words settled over the lab like a suffocating fog.

The apocalypse had always been inevitable. She'd known that from the moment she woke up in this second life. But she had time—or at least, she thought she did.

Now, she wasn't so sure.

Something had changed.

And she had the sinking feeling that she wasn't the only one who had come back with memories of the past.

Her fingers curled against the edge of the console. If the virus was accelerating, if it was shifting in a way that didn't match the previous timeline—then her plan had to change too.

No more waiting. No more careful calculations.

It was time to move.

She turned to the researchers, her voice sharp. "Double the security around Lab 37. No one enters without my authorization. Not even government officials."

One of the officers bristled. "Dr. Gu, this is a national—"

She cut him off with a look. "Do you want to be responsible for the end of humanity?"

The room fell into silence.

"Then do as I say."

Qingran didn't waste another second.

She called out to the system in her mind.

"Lingquan, report. What was that thing? Why did the virus shift? Do you have any idea? Give me anything—data, theories, even a damn guess."

Silence.

The system, which had always been coldly efficient, always ready to bombard her with notifications, was utterly still.

Qingran's fingers tightened. "Lingquan, respond!."

Still nothing.

Her pulse quickened, an uneasy feeling creeping up her spine.

The system was never silent. Even when it didn't give her direct answers, it would at least acknowledge her queries.

This time, there was nothing.

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Like it was hesitating.

Like it was afraid.

A rare chill settled in her gut.

Seconds stretched to minutes.

Then—

A chime.

[Ding! System Task Issued.]

Her breath hitched.

[New Task: Locate the past archive of Lab 37.]

[Time Limit: 72 Hours]

[Failure Consequence: System Support Termination]

Qingran's blood ran cold.

"What the hell do you mean by system support termination?!"she demanded.