Bai Chunian’s finger pressed onto the fingerprint scanner. The lock immediately flashed a red alarm light. At the same time, a sharp pain shot through the back of his neck as he clearly felt the suppressor needle inject a dose of medication into his gland.
A surge of pain, along with rapidly darkening veins, rushed toward his heart. Bai Chunian cried out in pain and tightly grabbed the lock to barely keep himself standing.
“Randi!” Lan Bo widened his eyes and grabbed Bai Chunian’s hand, but the purification ability of the merfolk could not be transferred through touch. He could only watch helplessly as Bai Chunian’s face turned visibly pale and weak.
The self-destruct-triggered suppressor that injected medication had already lost its restraining function and detached from the back of Bai Chunian’s neck. Bai Chunian clenched Lan Bo’s hand, then formed a fist with his left hand and smashed hard against the door.
With the suppressor disabled, his evolved abilities were no longer restricted. His J1 ability—bone steelization—activated, hardening the bones in his left hand and arm like paper being torn apart, ripping the door open. He dragged Lan Bo through the restaurant back into the dormitory.
From Satan’s perspective, the enclosed space of activation was the restaurant. When the restaurant and dormitory became connected due to the destroyed door, the “enclosed space” was considered broken, causing the ability to fail.
Thus, he could only let Bai Chunian and the others escape while slowly following behind.
The effects of the In infection agent had already begun manifesting in Bai Chunian’s body. His steps staggered, dark shadows overlapped in his vision, and his body grew heavier by the second, nearly unable to hold on.
Lan Bo supported his shoulders to keep him upright and said in a low, irritated voice, “I’ll tear this place apart to get you out.”
Bai Chunian’s limbs had already turned pale bluish-white. He tightly held Lan Bo’s hand.
“This is inside a submarine… The drug storage exploded, the entire sea area is finished. Hydrocyanic acid is nothing—what’s terrifying is the blue virus. Look at me now. Everything around this submarine won’t last more than a few minutes.”
“Will you die?” Lan Bo still did not have a clear understanding of death. When they previously talked about lifespan, he had only just begun to consider the concept of life and its length.
“I’ll try… to stay with you a few more years. Teach you more culture, so when you lead your clan to the surface someday, you don’t act like a foolish livestream tour group.”
“……”
“Look at that researcher. He’s not here… He died in the medical room…” Bai Chunian almost collapsed at the door, gripping the handle tightly. “He tried to escape us. Why didn’t he stop in the dormitory, or the gym, but died in the medical room? He went to get something… to save himself…”
“Sorry… only one of us can survive. Of course I choose myself…” Bai Chunian pulled out a transparent injection syringe he had taken from the medical room’s test rack. With trembling hands, he tore open the packaging with his teeth, bit off the needle cap, and forcefully injected it into his own arm, pushing the liquid inside his body.
“Ugh…” The injection drained Bai Chunian’s last bit of strength. With Lan Bo’s suppressor restored and removed again, Lan Bo bit onto Bai Chunian’s collar, used his tail to interact with the fingerprint lock and directly overload it to destruction, then smashed through the door and dragged Bai Chunian toward another room.
Bai Chunian felt much better. The bluish pallor of his face gradually returned to color.
“1, 2, 3, 4…” he murmured softly. “There’s a two-second delay in Satan’s ability between binding you with the suppressor and burning you with lava. After that, he chose to trigger my suppressor by making me input the wrong password. After I interrupted him, he used his ability again to make me scan the wrong fingerprint. There was a fifteen-second gap between those two actions.”
“It seems two seconds isn’t enough for his ability to fully recover. The second activation only allowed lava to appear on your forearm instead of your entire body. That means he needs at least fifteen seconds to use his full power again. In between, he can only exert partial strength.”
“Even so… he’s too strong. This doesn’t feel like an M2-level evolution ability. It feels like A3—at least A3 level.”
“I understand now,” Bai Chunian frowned deeply. “He can simulate future outcomes and manifest them. In a sealed space, without interference, his future evolution reaches A3 level. Right now, he’s borrowing that future strength.”
If the opponent truly possessed A3-level strength, then inside a confined submarine environment, Satan had the overwhelming advantage. They would gain nothing from this situation.
“Right… you said you heard a gunshot before?” Bai Chunian asked.
“Yeah.”
“Where did you hear it?”
“The restaurant. The sound was very faint, like it came from far away.”
“I heard it in the gym,” Bai Chunian said. “It didn’t feel close, but it wasn’t exactly far either. Now that the detox injection has taken effect, I can finally walk on my own. Since we’re inside a submarine, these rooms can’t be arranged in a circle—they must be in a linear sequence. Come on, follow me. We’ll split up later.”
When they reached the medical room, the researcher was indeed dead in front of the medicine cabinet. One hand was still resting on the edge of the shelf, the test tube rack had been knocked over, and it looked like he had died in despair after seeing his last hope vanish.
Lan Bo was about to destroy the next door, but Bai Chunian stopped him. He hoisted the corpse onto his back and used the researcher’s right thumb to press the fingerprint scanner, opening the door without damage.
“You go in. I’ll stay out here.” Bai Chunian pushed Lan Bo into the bathroom and, just before closing the door, held his hand up to Lan Bo’s lips and smiled. “Kiss me.”
Lan Bo’s sharp claws gripped the doorframe. Frowning, he said coldly, “What is this, a farewell to the dead? If you don’t want to go on living, just say it directly.”
Bai Chunian drooped his face. “I’m just borrowing some good luck… If the two of us still can’t beat him, that would be really embarrassing.”
The door slowly closed and locked.
When Satan finally strolled into the medical room, he only saw the corpse lying on the ground. He turned his head slightly; the fake flowers on the plant rack trembled faintly.
Satan walked expressionlessly toward the plant rack. As expected, a hand protruded from beneath it.
But upon closer inspection, the hand was stiff and covered in red blotches—it looked like a corpse’s hand.
By the time Satan realized something was wrong, it was already too late.
Bai Chunian, disguised in the researcher’s uniform, suddenly sprang up from the ground and threw himself onto Satan. His arms locked tightly around Satan from behind, and he activated his companion ability—Pain Deception.
Pain Deception could simulate the pain the user had previously experienced and impose it onto a target. The pain Bai Chunian was simulating was exactly the agony of In infection agent entering the body.
In that instant, Satan truly believed he had been infected. His entire body stiffened.
Heat radiated through the fabric, transferring from Bai Chunian’s body onto him.
“So you really are an omega. Your waist is so thin.” Bai Chunian sneered, shoving a shard of glass stained with infection agent toward Satan’s lower back.
Satan had already realized he had been tricked. He twisted away from the sharp edge and raised his hand. The golden pocket watch hanging from his finger ticked back one step.
At that exact moment, Bai Chunian grabbed his hand. The two of them together held onto the shard of glass coated in infection agent.
Satan’s expression turned ferocious. He glared at Bai Chunian’s smiling fangs, wanting nothing more than to tear him apart alive.
His ability could affect any target within a sealed space—but when two people were in direct contact, they would be counted as a single target, meaning they would both be forced to relive the reconstructed past.
“How did you know?” Satan asked.
“Bandage.” Bai Chunian pulled out the bandage. “I cut it into pieces and used them as notes for Lan Bo. But when you made me repeat the action of incorrectly scanning the fingerprint lock, this thing was also rewound with me. I figured that anything I physically touched might be pulled back into the reversal of time with me.”
The medical room door chimed softly. Lan Bo pushed it open and entered. Since he had not been inside the sealed space earlier, Satan’s ability had not affected him.
Satan suddenly grabbed Bai Chunian’s hand. Both of them still held onto the shard of glass stained with infection agent.
Satan looked coldly at Lan Bo. “Come any closer, and we all die together.” He glanced at Bai Chunian. “You only have one antidote, right? Still daring to gamble with me?”
Bai Chunian said, “What did I ever do to you…”
Lan Bo stood there, quietly watching them, his gaze shifting as he searched for an opening.
Bai Chunian, adaptable as ever, tried to reason with him again. “We were captured too. We’re in the same situation as you. Honestly, we should be on the same side and get out of here first.”
“The one who should survive is me. Why should I be destroyed?” Satan asked softly. “I was the one who won at the breeding facility. Why was the black panther given the title of Demon Envoy, while I was marked for destruction? I endured so long, survived until maturity—why is this the outcome?”
“Man, everyone’s fully simulated. How are you supposed to beat that?”
“Fully simulated? Don’t play dumb.” Satan’s emotions surged violently. “Whoever wins gets the mimic drug injection. Don’t tell me you don’t know that, Messenger?”
Now Bai Chunian was genuinely confused. “…What? I’ve never received that kind of drug. Aren’t envoy-type experimental subjects naturally occurring with a probability of three in one hundred thousand? Aren’t Demon Envoys and Curse Envoys naturally formed? Otherwise, where would the data come from?”
“Idiotic.” Satan pulled out a coin from his cloak and sneered. “A fifty percent chance of landing tails, right?”
He flicked the coin into the air. It landed in his palm—heads.
A second time—still heads.
He flipped it four times in total. Only once did it land on tails.
“Do you understand now?” Satan’s gloomy eyes curved with self-mockery. “If you don’t test something enough times, probability is just probability.”
“Enough. There’s no point arguing anymore.” Satan released Bai Chunian and stepped back. His hand slowly moved toward the back of his neck.
Bai Chunian slapped the plant rack. “He’s trying to remove the suppressor!”
Lan Bo shot forward like lightning, coiling around Satan. With a sharp motion, he dislocated Satan’s right shoulder. His claws tore a massive wound across Satan’s chest, drawing blood into his palm, which condensed into a blood-red hydro-steel pistol. Without hesitation, he fired a shot straight into Satan’s head.
Satan was blown through the skull. His eyes widened in shock as he stared at Lan Bo, then collapsed to the ground. He did not move again. Blood seeped from beneath his black cloak, staining the floor red.
Lan Bo fired several more shots at the corpse in cold silence until the pistol ran out of bullets. He casually tossed it aside and walked over to check Bai Chunian’s condition.
Bai Chunian clutched the suppressor that had been reattached to his nape and muttered to himself, “My gland’s going to be ruined by him… it hurts like hell. Let’s go, we need to move.”
He pulled Lan Bo up and headed for the door. As they passed Satan’s body, Bai Chunian glanced back without meaning to.
The blood beneath the corpse was slowly shrinking.
It looked as if the blood was flowing back into the body.
“Go!” Bai Chunian immediately sensed something was wrong. He yanked open the already shorted-out door and dragged Lan Bo inside, slamming it shut behind them.
During the fight with Lan Bo, Satan had already torn off the suppressor on his nape. Once it was removed, he could once again use his evolved ability—restoring his body to a prior, uninjured, toxin-free state.
Bai Chunian sealed the door and leaned against it, catching his breath. “I think what he said was mostly true. I’ve fought Demon Envoys before—Satan really isn’t weaker than them. The observation chambers used for experimental combat are all sealed environments, and back then the Demon Envoy was probably still only at M2 level. In a sealed space, the Black Panther wouldn’t have been able to beat him.”
Lan Bo didn’t care much. “You can do it. I know that. Why didn’t you finish him?”
“I still had something I wanted to ask him.” Bai Chunian lifted his chin slightly, pointing toward another bathroom door. “While he hasn’t fully recovered yet, the room probably won’t cycle again.”
Lan Bo shorted the fingerprint lock with electricity and led Bai Chunian out together.
A stream of water was already seeping beneath their feet.
This was the cold storage area—the floor was leaking.
Lan Bo knelt down and sniffed the water. “It’s seawater. Mixed with a lot of infection agent.”
“That shouldn’t be happening.” Bai Chunian had already guessed that the gunshot they heard earlier was likely Xiao Xun’s tracking bullet. But a single sniper shot shouldn’t be enough to penetrate a submarine’s reinforced structure—the vessel must have already been compromised long ago.
“If it really was Xiao Xun who fired that shot, he’s probably already infected,” Bai Chunian frowned. “Han-ge’s side… I don’t know if they’ve developed an antidote yet.”
Lan Bo raised an eyebrow. “He’d risk his life to save us?”
“…I don’t know. Maybe he has a reason.”
“I can feel it. Satan is right behind that door.” Lan Bo pointed his tail toward the closed bathroom door. “He doesn’t dare come out. This area is flooding, which means it’s no longer a sealed space—he’ll be killed instantly if he uses his ability. All the other doors were destroyed on the way here, only the two bathroom doors are intact. He’s trapped inside.”
Bai Chunian brushed dust off his shoulder. “Overall strength-wise, I’d still bet on the Black Panther. Let’s find the leak point and send a signal first. We’ll regroup with the task force.”
——
Above the sea, a helicopter hovered in place. The special operations commander, Cang Xiao’er, was still monitoring the signal on his screen.
A faint presence brushed against his senses.
Bian Lansheng, who had just returned to the aircraft to continue the mission, leaned out of the cabin and scanned the foggy sea below.
“Senior Cang… you feel that too?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah. An A3-level alpha is approaching,” Cang Xiao’er said.
“How strong?”
“A3.” His expression turned serious. He placed the laptop on Bian Lansheng’s lap. “You watch it. I’m going down. Xiao Bai and the others have been trapped too long—we don’t know what’s happening inside. They might not be able to handle an A3 opponent anymore.”
He put on his communication device and jumped straight out of the helicopter without any diving gear.
The moment his body touched the sea surface, a circular void opened beneath him.
Unlike Lu Yan’s rabbit burrow, this was a tunnel.
His squirrel-based A3 ability—“Cavity Corrosion”—allowed him to form passageways through non-living matter, including nuclear energy, radiation, energy waves, water, and even magma.
Cang Xiao’er slid down the tunnel.
“Senior, be careful. Don’t enter the submarine. The toxin leak level is unknown,” Bian Lansheng warned through the comms.
“I know.”
The deeper he went, the darker the ocean became. He nearly lost direction inside the tunnel. Then, faintly ahead, he spotted a dim light and cautiously approached.
As he drew closer, a dark shape seemed to brush past him—like a large fish—but in the pitch-black water, it was impossible to see clearly.
Meanwhile, Bai Chunian and Lan Bo had moved from the cold storage into the engine room, then descended through a damaged section at the bottom of the submarine. They found a warped seam that was continuously leaking seawater into the hull.
Lan Bo shoved his hands into the gap and tore it open. With his strength, bending heavy steel was nothing unusual. Under deep-sea pressure, a violent surge of water flooded in, and a dark figure rolled inside with it.
Bai Chunian wiped water off his face. “Lan Bo, close it. Close it first. We can’t do this—it’ll blast the freezer apart. We still need to leave through the main hatch.”
“Stop giving useless orders.” Lan Bo welded the gap shut again.
The black shape that had been swept in by the current slowly sat up. One knee raised, an arm resting on it. A vivid blue sapphire ring glinted on his finger. His hair clung to his coffee-colored skin as he opened his eyes, golden pupils locking onto them.
Bai Chunian brushed wet hair back and met his gaze.
“Oh? Black Panther. I thought it was one of my coworkers. What kind of water washed you here?”