The computer in the lobby issued another electronic warning:
Experiment Subject 857 has successfully been injected with Aelerant hallucinogen.
Experiment Subject 857 accelerating growth…
Five seconds until incubation phase ends.
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One—
Experiment Subject 857, Electric Phantom—mature phase awakened. High alert! High alert!
The snake’s hearing was sharp. It immediately abandoned the distraction team that had drawn its attention and spun around in fury.
The snake-woman’s gland differentiation level had already reached M2. Each time a gland advanced one level, it would randomly acquire a differentiation ability matching its biological traits. The higher the level, the stronger the ability obtained.
The scent of berry pheromones in the air intensified. The snake-woman teetered on the brink of frenzy, recalling two Floating Eyes back into its sockets. It tore away the medical gauze covering its eyes. Golden-lined snake pupils glinted dark and vicious as it gathered all its strength into its gland and, regardless of the consequences, unleashed its M2 differentiation ability—“Swamp.”
In an instant, the solid floor melted into mud. Everyone standing upon it felt their feet sink uncontrollably into the swamp-like ground.
Everything that could be grabbed or climbed turned into sludge. People could only watch helplessly as they sank into the liquefied ground, and they were sinking even faster than they would in a real swamp. Once their mouths and noses dipped below the surface, suffocation was certain. At that moment, no one had the spare capacity to think about the second monster that had appeared.
Even the steel framework supporting the building softened. The rebar that had impaled Bai Chunian’s chest dissolved into muddy slurry and flowed away. Losing his support, he fell from the suspended tenth-floor platform, striking the surging seawater below and sending up only a small splash.
Without hesitation, Lan Bo leapt into the sea after him.
Lu Yan repeatedly used Rabbit’s Burrow to shuttle between floors, but it was useless. The Snake-Woman’s M2 ability covered an enormous range. Every floor had turned into a swamp of mud sealed with a thin crust. The entire B Building was in a state of dissolution.
The snake glanced down at the roaring back sea and curled its lips in contempt. It would deal with these nearby nuisances first.
With a light flick of its tail tip, the dark-brown serpent tail revealed a segment of golden hollow scales at the end. The scales rattled with a dry rustle. Lifting its chin slightly, the snake fixed its gaze on Lu Yan, who was struggling between floors.
The Snake-Woman’s companion ability—“Rattletail”—could randomly force a target into resonance with it.
Lu Yan’s body went rigid at once. Inside his head, a screeching noise like fingernails scraping a chalkboard was amplified countless times. In an instant, every nerve from his brain to his limbs went numb. The brief numbness was followed by agony like shrapnel detonating inside his body.
The omega’s small frame dropped to the ground. Lu Yan curled into himself, clamping a hand over his mouth to keep from crying out, as the liquefied surface slowly swallowed him.
Just before the mud sealed over his mouth and nose, just before he suffocated, his body suddenly felt light—as if something beneath him were lifting him upward. He forced his eyes open to a slit and saw several black vines crossing beneath him, woven into a net that held him afloat.
By the time he managed to open his eyes fully, the entire ten-story building had been pierced through and overgrown with densely interlaced black vines, like an airtight birdcage.
The tips of the vines coiled around Bi Lanxing’s waist, hoisting him high into the air, then sending him diving down like a zip line. Gripping an Uzi in both hands, Bi Lanxing fired from above, shooting the Snake-Woman’s left eye.
With the Uzi’s extreme rate of fire and powerful close-range capability, combined with Bi Lanxing’s aerial descent, the Snake-Woman was caught off guard. One eye was blown out. Clutching the bleeding socket in pain, it staggered back, and the swampification of the entire building ceased at once.
The Arrow Poison Tree gland’s M2 differentiation ability—“Heavenly Thorns and Earthly Brambles”—was an instant-cast ability combining offense and defense, rapidly spawning toxic vines within a confined space and driving them densely through the entire area.
The Husky alpha struggled to dig his feet free from the ground and whistled up at He Suowei. “Bro, did you see that little poison weed? He actually hit M2 differentiation. So badass, not even hiding it. No wonder they are called Just Messing Around—this whole squad is stacked with big shots.”
He Suowei motioned for him to keep quiet.
Hiding in a corner to watch the spectacle, the Bellbird and the Foam Cicada omega exchanged a strange look, muttered something under their breath, and shrank back into the ruins.
The woven vines formed a cradle, carrying Lu Yan’s curled body back to Bi Lanxing. Ignoring the hushed discussions around him, Bi Lanxing reached out and gently stroked Lu Yan’s trembling little rabbit ears, silently releasing soothing pheromones.
“So young, and already second-stage differentiated… Can you even walk out alive?” The snake braced itself against the ground, slowly recovering. Floating Eyes guarded it, preventing anyone from approaching. The shattered eye socket regenerated. The snake plucked a Floating Eye from the air and pressed it into the restored socket, where it began to rotate flawlessly.
Several Floating Eyes, under the snake’s control, flew into the water to search for the vanished mermaid and Bai Chunian.
When Bai Chunian hit the sea, the briny cold water surged over his head and rushed into his nose, stinging so sharply he could barely open his eyes. Suddenly, he felt something smooth, soft, and cold brush against his body.
He forced his eyes open.
Before him, clusters of small jellyfish glowing with blue light surrounded him, drifting and swaying in the azure current. The smallest were only the size of a fingernail, like obedient little mushrooms, nestling dependently into the loose curve of his palm.
Following the direction from which the glowing jellyfish had come, he saw a golden-haired merman swimming toward him, dragging behind a fish tail streaked with blue lightning. Each time the tip of the tail swept through the seawater, strings of bubbles of varying sizes appeared, instantly transforming into living blue jellyfish that drifted away with the current.
Bai Chunian was so stunned by the sight that he forgot to struggle for survival. Then he felt a pair of cold human arms wrap around him from behind, carrying him swiftly upward. The pressure on his body gradually lessened. The moment his head broke through the surface, he gulped down air again.
Lan Bo pushed him onto a reef while keeping half his own body submerged. His upper body, wrapped in bandages, was clad in a black bulletproof team uniform. The sharp, graceful lines of his arms were largely exposed, leather ammunition straps crossing over his shoulders and drawing tight at his narrow waist.
For a moment, Bai Chunian even forgot to cough. His gaze lingered on the smooth, taut lower abdomen revealed above the waterline, pale skin stretched over explosive muscle that rose and fell with his breathing in a dangerously alluring rhythm.
Lan Bo braced his hands against the reef, lifting half his body from the water. His lips hovered near Bai Chunian’s face, brushing faintly against the corner of his eye in a near-kiss before he leaned close to his ear and whispered, “I hope this state can last a little longer.”
Bai Chunian had never heard Lan Bo speak such clear human language. The crisp, cool timbre of his voice murmuring so close to his ear carried an unintentional sensual undertone that was impossible to resist.
“I have always wanted to tell you—I have lived for a very long time. Back then, in my eyes, you were just a little white kitten who still needed milk and to be held and comforted. But I could not find a shared word in our languages to express ‘age.’”
“You do not know why the snake appeared here, do you? That morning, you went out to train. That night, they carried you back with a broken forearm and ribs. One hand had been crushed. Your gland was injured too… The researcher, full of guilt, told me they were so eager for you to challenge something powerful that they recklessly locked you and the snake into the same terrarium. The snake likes to torment its prey. I knew that.
“…That night you were in terrible pain. You kept groaning. When I touched your face, you were still trembling in your dreams.”
“So I killed him. I left only his intact brain.” The researchers regretfully preserved the brain and copied its neural data, selling it to the 109 Research Institute to recover their financial losses. There, the snake’s consciousness would endlessly experience the sensation of being tortured to death by various experimental subjects.
“That is what I wanted him to endure.”
Bai Chunian stood frozen on the reef. Lan Bo’s voice was so clear that he could not immediately reconcile it with the fish he thought he knew.
Those sapphire-blue eyes were too clear, too beautiful. His lips were pink like jelly. With golden hair and cold, pale skin, he looked more like a delicate little angel. From the very beginning, Bai Chunian had assumed he was a young hatchling, perhaps only recently out of his shell. During the days they were together—aside from that single frenzy when he had forced him—Bai Chunian had treated him like a baby. Even when the researchers brought milk in every night, he would feed the little fish curled under the blanket first.
While they were speaking, a Floating Eye slipped between them, seizing the gap to aim its pupil at Bai Chunian. Before it could activate, however, a long-finned, slender hand seized it in midair and crushed it mercilessly into a smear of blood.
Lan Bo rinsed his hand in the seawater, his fine brows knitting slightly. “As disgusting as ever. He still thinks he is alive.”
The Snake-Woman had already located them and was gliding down along the exterior of the building. But Lan Bo gave it no time to gather strength to activate its ability. He plunged deep into the water, transforming into a streak of blue lightning that tore through the sea. Suddenly he burst from the surface, rising seven or eight meters into the air. Within his translucent tail, blue veins swelled and ruptured, arcs of electricity writhing along its length.
Seawater gathered in his hands. The formless liquid instantly condensed into a substance of incomparable hardness, forming two translucent Browning Auto-5 shotguns. The merman’s gaze was cold. He fired both weapons in succession. The transparent blasts struck the Snake-Woman’s upper left chest and lower serpent tail at the same time. Both hearts were shattered simultaneously. Countless razor-sharp droplets blasted through its body midair, riddling it like a sieve.
The Devil Ray gland’s companion ability—“Hydrated Steel”: forcibly compressing water molecules into a dense atomic arrangement similar to weapon-grade steel, achieving repeated phase transitions between austenite and martensite, known as Hydrated Steel. All weapons held are formed from Hydrated Steel.
The sky fell silent. At last, the electronic announcement sounded:
[Just Messing Around] Lan Bo has eliminated Experiment Subject 1513.
The examination has ended. All candidates remain in place for five minutes while data is compiled and teammates are revived.
The transparent weapons in Lan Bo’s hands melted back into water after their brief burst of power and fell into the sea. He himself lost support and dropped from seven or eight meters above the surface.
Bai Chunian dove into the water, swimming forward with all his strength. At the instant the merman struck the sea, he surged up and caught him in his arms, sparing him the full impact of the fall. Together, they sank into the deep.
The sea swallowed them both. Bai Chunian held Lan Bo tightly and kissed the corner of his lips, kissing his omega.
Lan Bo responded, the tip of his tail coiling around him. He lifted a hand to straighten Bai Chunian’s face, forcing him to meet his eyes, one brow raised.
“Why have you been losing your temper with me these past days? Are you holding a grudge? I exhausted my pheromones to raise you to maturity. I went to great lengths to get you out of that prison. Have you been nursing resentment against me all these years?”
“You have grown quickly. You are gifted, your level is high enough. No one can bully you anymore… So is that your reason to turn around and humiliate me? To resent me?”
“Fine. Keep resenting me, then. Unless you plan never to sleep with me again in this lifetime.”
“I am returning this shot to you. You should understand—this is how your attitude hurts me.”
Lan Bo raised his right hand. Water spiraled in his palm, condensing into a translucent Hydrated Steel Desert Eagle. Without hesitation, he pressed it to Bai Chunian’s chest and pulled the trigger.
The alpha’s back burst in the water, a fan-shaped cloud of blood blooming behind him. The health bar across his chest emptied once more. But the examination had already ended. No elimination announcement followed.
Bai Chunian’s eyes curved in a faint smile. Slowly, through the drifting blood, he lifted his hand and touched Lan Bo’s face.
Lan Bo gathered Bai Chunian’s body into his arms and swam toward the surface. Blue-glowing jellyfish flickered around them, and sharks drawn by the scent of blood trailed behind.