20demayo Chapter 6 Discovery
Chapter 6 Discovery
"There's been a discovery ahead." Ah Qi's cold voice came from behind her. She returned to the group, holding half a broken ceramic shard in her hand, with dried, dark red writing on it. "It seems to be a fragment of an experimental log. The writing is blurry; only the words 'Sample 7,' 'Neural Access,' and 'Subject Collapse' are legible."
Ivan, having completed his initial sampling, leaned over to take the porcelain shard, his eyes gleaming behind his glasses: "The biological tissue test results are in! The internal organs of these zombies and lickers have been almost entirely replaced by a net-like, hyphae-like structure, with a tiny, pulsating dark green tumor at its core. The energy response is the same as the 'contamination' we encountered before, but much more concentrated! This should be the primary symbiotic form of the 'Seed of Corruption'!"
Secret Eyes silently walked to the wall, extended his bone-white staff, and gently touched a distorted symbol painted with dark red pigment. The symbol bore a resemblance to the one on the badge in Cheng Song's possession. Secret Eyes' black robe seemed to tremble slightly, and the black crystal at the tip of his staff flashed rapidly.
"This symbol... embodies intense pain and resentment, and also some kind of... twisted sacrificial meaning," Mi Tong said hoarsely, retracting his staff.
The anvil's expression was grave: "It seems the 'experiment' being conducted here is more systematic and more sinister than we imagined. Continue forward, and remain vigilant."
The team regrouped and, led by Ah Qi, carefully bypassed the battlefield, heading deeper into the passage. The environment gradually became more "orderly," with broken reinforced glass observation windows, overturned metal instrument cabinets, and workbenches littered with papers appearing on both sides of the passage. This place seemed to have once been a relatively well-equipped laboratory area, but now only the mess left by violent destruction remained.
The sweet, pungent smell of decay in the air seemed to have faded somewhat, but a mixed odor of stale blood and chemical reagents had emerged.
"This way." Ah Qi pointed to a half-open metal door with the words "Control Room" printed on it. There were huge impact dents on the door, but the structure was basically intact.
Iron Anvil signaled the team to stop, then, shield in hand, slowly pushed open the door. Inside was a larger space, equally chaotic, but in the center was a relatively intact control panel, with several screens flickering with faint static.
"Evan, check the console and try to recover the data. Secret Eye, scan the entire room. Seven, Cleaner, on alert, search for useful information," Anvil quickly ordered.
Ivan immediately rushed to the control panel, his hands moving in blurs as he manipulated the various buttons and interfaces, muttering to himself, "There's still some backup power... The system has mandatory log protection... Let me see..."
Secret Eyes raised his staff, his eerie green gaze and black crystal slowly sweeping across every corner of the room.
Ah Qi stood guard by the door, his eyes sharp. Cheng Song, along with Tiezhen, carefully examined the documents and data boards scattered on the floor.
"Found it! There's an encrypted log, it'll take a while to crack it... Got it!" Ivan suddenly exclaimed excitedly. The largest screen in the center of the console flickered a few times, the static disappeared, revealing lines of clear, yet frantic text:
Project: "Key to Evolution"
Ultimate goal: To break free from the shackles imposed on life forms by the spiritual realm, achieve autonomous and directional evolution of life forms, and transcend the limits of the player.
Theoretical basis: Using the "blood and bones of a loving father" as an evolutionary catalyst and carrier, the genetic sequences and soul traits of highly adaptable and high-potential materials are forcibly fused to guide them to transform into a more "perfect" and "powerful" form.
Current achievements:
Phase 1 Symbiote (Corrupted Zombie/Licker): Successfully cultivated, highly stable but with low controllability, serving as a basic combat unit and a source of contamination spread.
Phase II test subjects (retaining some intelligence): Fusion failure rate 99.7%. All test subjects suffered irreversible genetic collapse, soul tearing, or complete madness. A few survivors exhibited unstable special abilities, but their lifespans were extremely short.
Bottleneck analysis: The existing "materials" are not well-matched with the "father's bloodline"; the purity of the "bloodline" is insufficient and there are too many impurities, which triggers a severe rejection reaction.
Future directions:
1. Obtain higher purity "Source Blood" (requires venturing deep into the "Father's" slumber or finding rare mutated individuals).
2. Seek out a special "mother" that has a high affinity with "blood and bone" in nature. Note: Lord "Harvester" has high hopes for this direction and has requested that the search and testing efforts be intensified.
The room was deathly silent, with only the low rumble of the machines.
"The 'material' they're looking for is...?" Ah Qi's voice was chilling. Cheng Song's facial muscles tensed, expressionless, but his heart skipped a beat. A special "mother" with a natural high affinity for "blood and bone"—how similar this description was to the state of the Blacklight virus within him! Were these "harvesters" and organizations looking for someone like him?
"Look at this!" Ivan pulled up another tattered surveillance video. The image was shaky and filled with static, but one could vaguely see a figure in straitjackets struggling desperately, strapped to a metal bed. Another figure, wearing a white lab coat and a bizarrely shaped bird-like gas mask, held a syringe and injected a green-glowing liquid into the figure's neck vein. The following footage showed violent shaking, piercing screams, shattering straitjackets, and swollen, twisted flesh... Finally, the screen was filled with splattered blood and rapidly magnifying, indescribable shadows of limbs, before fading into darkness.
"They're using players... to conduct live experiments." The anvil's voice was as heavy as if it were weighing down with lead. He gripped the handle of the battering ram tightly, his knuckles turning white.
Secret Eye's staff trembled slightly, and his breathing seemed to quicken for a moment beneath his black robe.
Just then—
"Beep—! Beep—! Beep—!"
A piercing, high-pitched alarm suddenly blared throughout the room without warning! At the same time, the dark red emergency light on the ceiling abruptly turned into a rapidly flashing scarlet glow and spun wildly!
"What's going on?!" Iron Anvil asked sternly.
"The log reading triggered some kind of hidden alarm protocol! Damn it, there's a self-destruct or defense mechanism!" Evan frantically pounded on the console, trying to shut down the alarm, but lines of red error codes popped up on the screen.
Almost at the same time the alarm sounded, the heavy, sealed alloy door on the other side of the room, which led to the deeper parts, creaked with a teeth-grinding sound! The sturdy metal door began to twist and deform inward around its center, as if it were being squeezed from the inside by an invisible, incredibly powerful hand, and spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the concrete walls around the door frame.
At the same time, the ventilation duct grilles overhead burst open. Countless fist-sized, dark green "corrosive cysts" covered in spikes and dripping with viscous fluid rained down, hitting the ground, the equipment, and them. The cysts exploded upon contact with the ground, splashing out large puddles of highly corrosive acid, causing hissing white smoke to rise from the ground and filling the air with a pungent odor.
"Watch out for the spore cysts!" Ah Qi shouted, her figure flashing like lightning as she instantly appeared beside Mi Tong and Ivan. She struck out with both palms in quick succession, the wind from her palms surging, sending several spore cysts flying through the air and exploding on the distant wall.
The anvil raised its massive shield to protect its head, roaring, "Move closer to me! Watch out for the acid underfoot!"
With a swift swing of the Secret Eye Staff, a thin, constantly fluctuating shadow shield enveloped himself and the nearby Ivan, barely managing to withstand the splashing acid. However, the shield's light flickered erratically, clearly indicating that it was struggling to hold on.
Cheng Song was on high alert the instant the alarm sounded. He nimbly dodged several falling cysts, his eyes fixed on the twisting and warping sealed door. Stimulated by the alarm, the cystic acid, and the increasingly clear, malicious pressure emanating from behind the door, the virus within his body began to surge uncontrollably! A sensation a mixture of extreme danger and… an intense hunger assaulted his reason. What was behind the door was very “nutritious”!
"Hiss—!" A chilling, dense crawling sound came from all directions. Deep inside the damaged ventilation duct, it seemed that countless things were rapidly approaching.
"Bang!!" The twisted, sealed door finally succumbed to the pressure, and with a loud metallic tearing sound, a huge gap was ripped open! Thick, dark green mist, almost like a living thing, carrying a sweet, pungent, and putrid stench ten times stronger than that in the passage, surged out from behind the door like a tidal wave!
The fog instantly filled most of the room, and visibility dropped sharply. In this suffocating green fog, a heavy, rustling sound, a mixture of metallic friction, swirling slime, and heavy footsteps, could be heard clearly, growing ever closer.
Suddenly, the green mist churned violently, and several tall, deformed black figures exuding a violent aura burst out from the gap!
They largely retained their humanoid form, but their bodies had nearly doubled in size, their muscles bulging exaggeratedly, covered in a thick, dark green, carapace-like layer of keratin, from which oozes mucus. Some had arms mutated into enormous bone blades or hammerheads, while others had barbed tentacles extending from their backs, constantly waving. They wore tattered hospital gowns or fragments of straitjackets, and where their eyes should have been, only two points of burning, eerie green light remained. Elite mutants! There were five of them!
At the same time, more and denser corrosive spores fell from the ceiling, almost forming a rain of acid!
The team was instantly in dire straits! Ahead lay five elite mutants, clearly several times stronger than the walkers; a deadly rain of spores hung overhead; acid spread beneath their feet; and a green mist enveloped them, obscuring their vision and senses!
"Form a circular formation! Back to the control panel!" Anvil roared, slamming his giant shield heavily into the ground in an attempt to build a defensive line. However, five elite mutants pounced from different directions, instantly increasing the pressure on him! A mutant with a blade-like arm slashed hard against the shield, exploding with blinding sparks. Anvil grunted and was actually forced back half a step by the impact!
Ah Qi's figure blurred into afterimages as she proactively faced the two mutants attacking from the flanks. Her palm strikes and kicks landed on the mutants' thick keratinous layers, producing dull thuds, yet she couldn't inflict serious damage as easily as she had with the zombies before! The mutants' strength and defense far exceeded her expectations!
Mitong struggled to maintain the Shadow Shield to resist the cystic acid, while simultaneously chanting rapidly, attempting to unleash a wide-range curse to weaken the enemy. However, the green mist seemed to have a certain interference effect on the spell, causing the spell's light to flicker erratically.
Evan huddled in the corner of the control panel, frantically mixing potions and throwing bottles of various colors at the approaching spores and mist. Explosions and strange smells continued, but the effects were very limited.
A mutant with several tentacles growing from its back bypassed the anvil's frontal defense, its tentacles lashing out like whips at the incantating Secret Eye! The Secret Eye's shield flickered violently, on the verge of shattering!
At this critical moment—
Cheng Song moved.
Amidst the chaos of swirling green mist and obstructed vision, and stimulated by the virus within his body roaring madly in response to the high-quality prey and deadly threat, his hidden strength was finally forced to the forefront.
In order to save Mi Tong, who might be killed instantly, and to alleviate the terrifying pressure that Tie Anvil and Ah Qi were facing head-on, he could no longer completely hide.
His figure blurred for a moment in the acid rain, then his speed surged! He was much faster than when he dealt with the Lickers! Almost at the instant the tentacles were about to shatter the Secret Eye's shield, he appeared like a ghost in front of the Secret Eye, his dagger whistling as it drew a perfect arc!
"Sizzle—!"
Several tough tentacles snapped off instantly, spraying out blackish-green slime! The mutated tentacle let out a painful roar, and the remaining tentacles thrashed wildly.
Cheng Song struck successfully and didn't stop. He pushed off with his foot, dodging the bone hammer thrown by another mutant. He slid to its side like a fish and stabbed his dagger like a venomous snake into the gap behind its knee joint—where the stratum corneum is thinner.
"Thud!" The dagger pierced through, and the mutant staggered.
However, this sudden burst of power and the terrifyingly precise attack on the weakness were still captured by some people in the green mist.
In the brief moment between defeating a mutant in front of him, Ah Qi's cold gaze, sharp as lightning, instantly locked onto Cheng Song's exceptionally fast figure and his precise, fatal strike, causing his brows to furrow almost imperceptibly.
As the shield crisis dissipated, Secret Eyes' eerie green eyes pierced through the green mist, fixing firmly on Cheng Song's back. From beneath the black robe, a very soft, inquisitive inhale seemed to come.
Just then, behind the torn-open sealed door, the surging, thick green mist suddenly parted to both sides.
A heavy, thumping sound, like the heartbeat of a giant beast, came overpowering all the noise of the battle.
A larger, more distorted shadow slowly emerged from the depths of the green mist.
At the same time, a voice, neither male nor female, carrying an eerie metallic echo and countless overlapping hoarse sounds, resonated coldly deep within everyone's minds:
"Welcome... to my nursery..."
"Fresh...fertilizer..."
The voice paused, and it seemed as if countless eyes opened simultaneously within the green mist, their ghastly green gazes instantly traversing space and focusing intently on Cheng Song.
"...And...you..."
"This little guy carries... that familiar and longed-for... a 'fatherly' aura..."