Bai Chunian leaned against the incinerator, removing the micro-comm from his ear to tap it, then reinserted it. It had been on the whole time, but there had been no response.
The incinerator rustled.
Bai Chunian stepped back, raising his gun toward the drawer. He had checked earlier—empty.
Suddenly, the drawer handle twitched. The box door slowly opened, as if manipulated by an invisible hand.
Two bottles of mineral water appeared on the floor in front of him.
While Bai Chunian hesitated, uncertain if they were poisoned or trapped, Lan Bo had already swallowed one whole, unscathed.
Bai Chunian picked up the other, unscrewed it, and poured some over Lan Bo’s upper-body bandages to cool him, leaving a small sip for himself to moisten his throat.
“What is this… a stage reward?”
Perhaps it was the No-Form Stalker’s way of confirming Bai Chunian’s deductions. Scanning the room, he considered that 324 might be hiding nearby, observing them—or even standing right in front of them, locked in a mutual gaze without their awareness.
The comm crackled at last, faintly transmitting alpha-heavy breathing.
“We’re under attack…” Captain He’s voice was weak. “I’m shot. Bleeding’s mostly stopped, but we’re trapped under debris. My arm is impaled by rebar—I can’t move.”
“Wow… you’re still alive, that’s good.” Bai Chunian’s focus was mostly on the diagrams left by the author, though he spared a bit to ask, “Did you make it out of the room? Don’t do that—I don’t want to see you end up a pancake; it would make your face look huge.”
“We entered an even stranger room after that bizarre taxi room,” He Suowei struggled to explain. “It looked like an unfinished residential building—bare structural pillars and cement floors—but the walls were covered in bright red wallpaper. Our watches showed 5:00 p.m.”
“The moment we stepped in, bullets started flying at us from all directions. I used my J1 ability, Lunar Eclipse, to block some of them. The bullets had no discernible source—they just appeared out of thin air… and the ones that hit me were engraved with the PBBW logo.”
“You used your J1 ability?” Bai Chunian raised an eyebrow. “Perfect, our already difficult situation just got worse.”
He Suowei roared, “If I hadn’t, we’d all be dead in that room, idiot!”
“Right.” Bai Chunian asked again, “Are you still in the room that fired bullets?”
“We hit a room by accident… can’t remember which door we went through in the chaos. The room we’re in now seems to be the second floor of that unfinished red-walled building.” He Suowei was breathing heavily, clearly injured, though as a soldier he avoided complaining.
“I checked the watch—6:00 p.m. The walls were still red like the floor below, the cement rough, the support beams falling apart. It’s basically a shoddy, halted construction… When we passed under a beam, it collapsed, crushing us. Rebar broke and pierced my left arm… ugh…”
Bai Chunian listened carefully, mentally noting: “17:00, red room, first floor, bullets scattering. 18:00, red room, second floor, support beam collapse.”
“Don’t worry,” Bai Chunian said sympathetically. “Once we get out, we’ll tell our brothers outside to rescue you. I expect the triangular cabin is already surrounded by PBB and alliance forces—inside and out.”
He Suowei gritted his teeth. “Hurry, don’t dawdle.”
“I just counted,” Bai Chunian held up a slip of paper with the 3D layout of the rooms. “The cubes labeled ‘blue’ are eleven in total. Our incinerator room shows 11 a.m., so I’ve numbered it 11. I reasonably deduce all the blue rooms replicate scenes from Research Institute 109, with timestamps preceding eleven.”
“What are you talking about?” He Suowei was puzzled.
Bai Chunian briefly explained. He Suowei paused, then dug out a slip of paper: “I also found something… in the taxi room… a wedding invitation.”
Bai Chunian’s eyes lit up. “What does it say?”
He Suowei, speaking through pain, read haltingly. Bai Chunian caught the key words:
Immersed in our sweet happiness, we cordially invite you to our wedding ceremony on June 20, K030 (Gregorian calendar), at 12:18 p.m., held at Zhengyuan Restaurant. We respectfully request your presence.
It was now K033. The invitation was three years old, accidentally left in the taxi by a passenger heading to Zhengyuan Restaurant. The taxi’s interior, along with the entire scene, had been replicated.
Bai Chunian noticed a detail. “Three years ago, when did the Storm Force Major lead troops to capture the No-Form Stalker?”
He Suowei thought for a moment, answering in surprise, “Records show June 20—the same day as this wedding—324 was dispatched for elimination.”
“The location?”
He Suowei’s eyes widened. “An abandoned building near Liren Square, Tongkou City.”
“That matches perfectly. Let me reconstruct this,” Bai Chunian said, consulting the diagrams. “After discovering 324 had escaped the incinerator, the institute requested PBB assistance for capture—standard procedure. Then Major Cougar led the Storm Force to surround 324. Forced to flee from the restaurant, 324 ran through the city, and at 5:00 p.m., troops cornered him on the first floor of the abandoned building, opening fire.”
“That explains the bullet-scattering in the room you entered. 324 can perfectly replicate scenes, including flying bullets. The PBBW markings confirm it.”
“324 couldn’t resist, fled upstairs, and used mimicry to learn Major Cougar’s J1 ability, gravity manipulation, causing the building to collapse. Your arm injuries were from the rebar piercing you.”
Bai Chunian glanced at the incinerator, staring into empty air. “No rewards this time? Forget mineral water—bring me a Coke.”
No response. The incinerator drawer slowly closed.
“Based on our timeline, the last room we’ll pass through is a bedroom. The time there is 8:00 p.m., sequence number 20. I deduce the exit is in that final room. You all should self-rescue and find the exit. Lan Bo and I will start checking the missing hostages from Room 1.”
Once all hostages are rescued, the PBB forces outside can demolish the deadly house, sealing exits and obliterating 324 along with his little ‘house.’
According to the author’s 3D map, all blue rooms are on the west side. Bai Chunian numbered them from 1 to 11, top to bottom.
“First, find all blue rooms. Push each room leftward, enter each one, check the numbers on the watch to confirm sequence, then arrange them in order—understood?”
Lan Bo nodded.
Bai Chunian strapped a watch to Lan Bo’s wrist. “Split up and move fast. Judging by abdominal gunshot and arm impalement severity, you should manage three to five more hours.”
Lan Bo nodded, releasing electromagnetic force to latch onto the incinerator above, ramming it heavily into the south wall.
The room began sliding toward the impact. As the west wall door emerged, Lan Bo grabbed the frame with both hands, swinging nimbly into the next room. Electric sparks lit up the space.
Bai Chunian once again stomped heavily on the floor, sinking the room down into the next connected chamber.
The walls were blue, and his watch read 1:00 a.m., indicating that this was the first scene the No-Form Stalker had passed through.
Half the room was occupied by a massive glass vessel, its exterior lined with dozens of multicolored tubes, filled with a pale green liquid.
A touchscreen control panel was attached to the apparatus, its display lit up with data:
- Special Operations Weapon No. 324: No-Form Stalker
- Nutrient solution concentration: normal
- Experimental embryo growth: accelerated
- Cultivation purpose: reduce low-quality population, relieve Earth’s burden
It was an experimental embryo cultivation chamber. Bai Chunian stared at the enormous vessel, feeling an odd sense of familiarity—some lives were born trapped, with a single lifelong wish to escape.
He tried operating the control panel, but it required a researcher’s fingerprint, so he set it aside and went to examine the nearby data rack.
The shelves were stuffed with files. Bai Chunian marveled at 324’s terrifying replication ability—he could even reproduce the documents stored in the room.
Flipping through the top folder, he read:
Observation Log of Experimental Subject 324:
- Compared to other experimental infants, 324 is extremely introverted. Today I took him to the testing room for a checkup; results indicate 324 has autism.
- I bought blocks to play with him. He was very interested and spoke his first words to me since I met him. I should record them as a memento. His voice was gentle: “I want a toy house.”
- He has finally reached the cultivation phase. Today we part ways; he will undergo many cruel trainings. He carefully gave me a dandelion he had planted on the balcony, but the window was open, and the wind blew it away.
“Nothing useful here… any practical info?” Bai Chunian muttered, rifling through the shelves.
Finally, he found a folder in the corner that looked promising. Sitting on the floor, his expression gradually turned serious as he read:
Experimental Subject No. 324 – No-Form Stalker – Detailed Abilities:
- When using the J1 ability “Mirror Man,” the No-Form Stalker can replicate differentiation abilities previously displayed before him, but at half power.
- The M2 differentiation ability, “Mirror Domain Amplification,” can boost the copied ability by 200%, lasting as long as glandular energy allows; when it expires, invisibility is lost.