“That’s impossible. We’re in a blind spot on the surveillance.”
“I don’t know. Maybe I’m just imagining things.” Eris chambered a round in the shotgun hidden beneath her baggy researcher’s uniform. “Lan Bo isn’t here anyway. Am I afraid of him? I’m going up there to fight him.”
“Be reasonable. Find a way to leave. We’ve already recorded the footage we need. As long as we spread the footage captured by your eyeball, the IOA will sanction him to quell public fear, or Bai Chunian will voluntarily leave the IOA to avoid punishment. Either outcome works in our favor.”
“Hmph.” Eris holstered her gun. “Fine. Charging out now would be too obvious. Even if he didn’t see me coming, he’ll see me then.”
“Wait until his punishment is imposed on F Experimental Zone,” the Puppet Master said. “Then slip out amidst the chaos. Move a little closer to the crowd—don’t leave the surveillance blind spot.”
The control room was now filled with the stench of blood, gunpowder, and sweat—a pungent mixture that created a nauseating odor. Yet Bai Chunian, still immaculately clean, stood with his hands in his pockets, pacing among the remaining eight surviving researchers.
On the surveillance screens, each supervisor could see the situation in their assigned area. By now, all researchers in Experiment Zone A had perished in the toxic mist emitted by the centipede test subject, while those in Experiment Zone C had all fallen to the double blades of the mantis test subject, “Jack the Ripper.”
Bai Chunian also watched the situation unfold on the screen as researchers in each experimental zone sparked another wave of chaos, scrambling to grab relief supplies from their respective zones.
Zone D, which frequently comes into contact with out-of-control test subjects, is stocked with a variety of lethal weapons, including IN infection suppressors, IN infection syringes, SH shielding agents, and three liquid nitrogen net compression grenades.
However, these supplies were limited, enough for only half the people. Initially, they distributed these survival supplies in an orderly manner, but when a few people at the back of the line disrupted the order and began leading the scramble for supplies, a massive riot erupted throughout Experimental Zone D. Some people used the needles of the IN infection serum to forcefully stab those around them.
The number of survivors in the experimental zone dwindled. Bai Chunian leaned over the surveillance screen, twirling a revolver between his fingers, taking pleasure in watching the people on the footage slaughter one another. The bulletproof glass doors of the experimental zone were gradually becoming splattered with blood.
“Hmm, the intermission is over. Has everyone regained their composure?” Bai Chunian finally stood up, reloaded the revolver with three bullets, placed the gun back on the table, then shuffled the deck and pushed the cards toward the fifth person, Manager Murakami.
“Mr. Murakami,” Bai Chunian leaned in close to him. “Come on. Don’t be nervous.”
Murakami Akiyuki lowered his head and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. With his chubby hands restrained by handcuffs, he had little room to move—unlike the others, who could reach out to draw a card—and could only struggle to extend his fingertips to touch it.
The cards lay just five or six centimeters away from him. Bai Chunian watched him patiently. “What’s the matter? Can’t you reach it? “Let me help you.”
However, instead of pushing the deck closer, he grabbed Murakami’s plump hand and yanked it forcefully toward the cards.
The sharp handcuffs tore a ring of flesh from his wrist, and he screamed in agony as he pulled out a Five of Clubs.
“You’re welcome. After all, you’ve helped me this way before.” ” Bai Chunian flipped over a 10 of Spades and gently placed it on the table: “You have two choices as well.”
Bai Chunian raised a finger toward a tightly closed door in the room: “One, walk through that door, stay inside for one minute, then come out. If you’re lucky, freedom awaits beyond the door… if not, who knows.”
“Two, choose to flip the switch for Experiment Zone D.”
Manager Murakami stared at the seemingly ordinary door, behind which lay unknown terrors. By now, he was on the verge of a mental breakdown and didn’t dare to try it.
Manager Murakami hesitated, then chose to flip the switch for Experiment Zone D.
Bai Chunian announced the result to everyone over the loudspeaker as usual.
By this time, the carnage in Experiment Zone D had ended. The survivors, clutching weapons they’d wrestled from their comrades, watched the two dangerous test subjects just a door away with a mix of tension and confidence. They possessed plenty of weapons capable of subduing the test subjects, and if they were facing only two test subjects in the cultivation phase, their chances of victory were quite high.
But after the switch was pressed, the bulletproof glass door of their D Experiment Zone did not open.
Everyone was puzzled and began trying to force the glass door open.
Gradually, the room’s temperature began to rise, and people detected a smell of burning.
A researcher near the diffuser suddenly shouted, “The air ducts are pumping hot air into the room!”
Instantly, all the air ducts in the experimental zone began pumping scorching, almost flammable air into the enclosed space. Accompanied by thick, acrid smoke, the temperature inside the sealed experimental zone rose rapidly, quickly exceeding the alarm’s threshold. Yet the fire suppression system did not activate; instead, it had completely failed.
People felt an increasingly intense, searing pain in their airways. They were like glass hit by liquid nitrogen jets; all three liquid nitrogen jets exploded against the glass, releasing a blast of cold air. However, the temperature in the room dropped only briefly before beginning to rise rapidly again.
Finally, everyone in Test Area D collapsed, and the glass finally shattered due to the sudden cooling from the liquid nitrogen and the sudden heating of the air. A cloud of thick smoke and the acrid stench of burnt flesh poured out.
Bai Chunian patted Manager Murakami on the head and laughed regretfully, “You killed them.”
The game continued. The sixth participant, Manager Zhu Hongfeng, chose to walk toward that door. Bai Chunian opened it for him. Inside, it was pitch black. After Manager Zhu stepped inside, the door locked automatically.
Everyone watched the door nervously. Suddenly, Supervisor Zhu began pounding on it frantically from inside, but Bai Chunian nonchalantly checked his watch. One minute had passed, and there was no sound coming from within.
“All right.” Bai Chunian walked over to the door, pulled back the covered nameplate, which read “Crematorium,” and took a pair of chopsticks from his pocket. “So, does anyone want a hot dog fresh off the grill?”
The few remaining managers closed their eyes in agony.
One round of the game had ended. Of the ten managers, only six remained alive, and the surveillance feed showed that only three researchers in the experimental zones were still alive.
“Congratulations to everyone for passing the first round. You’re all familiar with the rules for the second round.” Bai Chunian slowly loaded the revolver with bullets, then took a dagger from the drawer and placed both in the center of the table.
“Whoever survives will be free. Just like the test subjects fighting for a spot to leave the ecosystem chamber.” Bai Chunian deliberately glanced at Supervisors Miao Taiyan and Ailer, who were a gay couple.
“There’s only one spot.” Bai Chunian removed the chip attached to the control panel, wrapped a cloth around the doorknob to open the door, and turned back to say, “Good luck. I’ll come check on you later.”
Bai Chunian closed the door, and the moment it locked, the handcuffs on all six supervisors snapped open simultaneously.
The group exchanged glances for a few seconds, then suddenly lunged toward the gun and dagger on the table. Whether Bai Chunian had intended it or not, the two weapons were positioned closest to the couple, and they were the first to grab them.
While the deadly game raged on inside the control room, Eris had already taken advantage of the chaos in the F experimental zone to escape.
He suspended his body with cursed golden threads and fled through the hole he had punched in the observation platform’s glass upon his arrival. Outside, everything was as calm as ever; no one could have imagined the horrors unfolding inside.
“Emperor Crocodile is already waiting for you in the helicopter.” The Puppet Master guided Eris along the prearranged evacuation route. “You chipped a piece of glass when you climbed out of the observation deck just now.”
Eris swung past obstacles using her cursed golden threads as a rope atop the towering skyscrapers and snorted, “So what!”
“Bai Chunian’s innate abilities are Silent Cat Stride and Multi-Frequency Hearing. Don’t let him catch you.”
Eris leaped from the roof of one skyscraper, wrapping the cursed golden thread around the lightning rod at the top of the building to propel herself to the pinnacle of the next tower.
It was already three in the morning. The towering skyscrapers of Red Fox City were still ablaze with flickering lights. Traffic on the streets was sparse, and the neon hues bathed every building in a dazzling glow.
The moment her feet touched the ground, Eris spotted a shadow crouching on the railing of the rooftop terrace across the way.
The figure stood up, balancing steadily on the narrow railing like a cat.
Suddenly, the figure moved, leaping forward without the aid of any ropes. It lightly stepped on a window sill, propelling itself another ten meters upward, occasionally using both hands and feet to leap between the skyscrapers.
Eris’s gaze could no longer keep up with the swift shadow; he only felt a cold wind sweep past his back, and his innate combat instincts caused him to dodge in the opposite direction.
When he steadied himself and looked back, he saw the dark figure on the ground slowly rise to its feet, tucking away a snow-white tail that it had been using to maintain balance.
Bai Chunian stood in the wind, no more than ten meters away from him.
“Since you’re already here, why not stick around for a bit?” Bai Chunian asked.
“Ah, sure, sure,” Eris said.
The Puppet Master called out to him, “Don’t get involved with him.”
“Oh.” Eris had no choice but to change his tune. “No, no, I don’t have time today.”
Bai Chunian furrowed his brow slightly and took a step toward Eris. “Why?”
Eris caught sight of the black crystal collar around Bai Chunian’s neck and immediately stepped back the instant Bai Chunian’s fingertips nearly touched him.
But even without actual contact, a scent carrying Bai Lian’s pheromones assaulted his arm, and a glass-like layer rapidly swept over and engulfed Eris’s arm and ribs.
“Is this… Obliteration?” Eris wasn’t sure, but Bai Chunian’s current state clearly showed he was bloodthirsty—one more death wouldn’t make a difference to him.
The Puppet Master said, “I put the Sacred Spring in your shirt pocket. Get out of here as fast as you can.”
Sure enough, Eris fished a silver square-headed key from his pocket, inserted it into the back of his neck, and twisted it rapidly several times.
At the same moment, Bai Chunian’s fist—enhanced by skeletal hardening—slammed into Eris’s lower abdomen. Fortunately, the spring had been inserted in time; Eris’s entire body was reinforced by the driven object, allowing him to forcefully nullify the blow, and the two were separated by the mutual impact.
“Without Lan Bo’s control, Bai Chunian wouldn’t dare to unleash his abilities fully. Don’t worry—he won’t dare to remove the collar,” the Puppet Master calmly directed. “This is too strange. His M2 ability suppression should only take effect upon contact, yet this suppression seems far more powerful than anything he’s demonstrated before.”
After a few brief exchanges, Bai Chunian suddenly fixed his gaze on Eris’s eyes.
The innate ability of his feline glands allowed him to hear noises in higher or lower frequency ranges. In the split second they brushed past each other, Bai Chunian keenly picked up a faint trace of electronic static.
And this faint electronic static seemed to originate from Eris’s right eyeball.
Bai Chunian stared into Eris’s eyes and suddenly laughed: “What? Are you a paparazzo? So you were hiding here all along.”
He opened his left hand. The collar around his neck melted under his control; he separated a small section and forged it into a crystal dagger in the palm of his hand, while the collar around his neck merely narrowed slightly.
“What did you record? I’ve never killed a single person with my own hands. They died at the hands of their own kind—and the technology they took such pride in.” ” Bai Chunian lunged forward suddenly, grappling with Eris and pinning him down. Gripping the dagger with both hands, he stabbed toward the socket of Eris’s right eye.
Eris caught his hands, struggling desperately to hold him off. The blade slipped from his grasp, piercing Eris’s ear instead, instantly severing the connection with the Puppet Master.
Bai Chunian shifted his position and lunged once more toward Eris’s eye. Just as the dagger was about to sink into the eye socket—and even pierce through Eris’s skull—Bai Chunian’s movement suddenly froze. His hands felt as if shackled; he could not force the blade forward even an inch.
His body felt as if it were being controlled; his hands clasped together involuntarily in a prayer-like gesture, and a force flung him off Eris, causing him to fall to his knees on the ground.
“Die,” Eris said, seizing the opportunity to immediately activate his A3 ability, “As If on the Brink of a Deep Abyss.”
The shadows of the night surrounding Bai Chunian were encircled, and the ground was swallowed inch by inch; in a moment, Bai Chunian would plunge into a bottomless abyss.
At the same time, the abyss stopped sinking. Eris looked at her hands in confusion; her ability seemed to have stalled, and she could not unleash it no matter what.
In the darkness ahead, a pair of golden eyes slowly opened, their pupils narrowing into slits.
The Black Panther stepped forward, separating Bai Chunian and Eris, yet it did not cease its J1 ability, “Fallen Conversion,” nor its A3 ability, “Whisper of the Demon.”
One of these abilities disabled physical movement, while the other disabled magical abilities; the Demon Summoner’s primary ability was Silence.
Bai Chunian was forced to clasp his hands together, unable to move, and could only look up from the shallow pit he’d sunk into: “Hey, whose side are you on, anyway?”
Eris tried several times but could no longer use “As If on the Brink of a Precipice.” He shot a defiant glance at Black Panther, tilting his chin slightly. “Mind your own business.”
Black Panther remained silent.
“Eris took a sneaky photo of me with his right eye,” Bai Chunian complained, looking up. “I’ll leave as soon as he hands over his eyeball.”
Black Panther looked coldly at Eris: “Give it to him.”
Eris covered his eye: “Why should I? Nyx gave it to me. I’m not giving it up.”
Black Panther turned back to Bai Chunian: “Negotiations have broken down. Let’s try a different condition.”
“Neutrality is tantamount to treason. Back off.” A flash of blue light flickered in Bai Chunian’s eyes as the collar around his neck melted once more, forging itself into a beast’s muzzle capable of containing the overflow of his powers, locking down the sharp fangs protruding from his mouth.
A mere J1-level ability couldn’t hold Bai Chunian back for long. A surge of potent pheromones, accompanied by surging power, violently broke through the Black Panther’s restraints. Bai Chunian leaped out of the deep pit, and his crystal dagger sliced through the air with a flash of blue light before the Black Panther. The Black Panther dodged to the side, Bai Chunian immediately spun around and swept his leg at Eris, who was still bound.
Eris’s steel-hardened leg was violently swept aside, and his back slammed hard against the rooftop railing. When he looked up again, Bai Chunian was charging toward him, dagger in hand. Eris rolled to dodge, but Bai Chunian had anticipated his trajectory and, with a backhand strike, thrust the dagger toward Eris’s windpipe.
What was meant to be a sure kill was once again blocked by Black Panther, so Bai Chunian slashed at him as well.
Black Panther’s blocking arm was stabbed; since the dagger was made of Dead Sea Heartstone—a material that drives its bearer to death—the wound would take a long time to heal. Eris seized the opportunity to wind the sacred spring at the back of his neck several times, then pulled it out. The silver spring reshaped itself in his hand into a pair of silver scissors, and he hurled the sharp blades at Bai Chunian. Fully aware of the lethal power of weapons forged from the Summoner’s Stone, Bai Chunian immediately dodged.
Mid-flight, the silver scissors were snagged by a cursed golden thread, yanked back into Eris’s hand, and spun on his fingertip. “Hmph, what are you running from?”
The three of them moved apart.
A flash of white light suddenly appeared before their eyes. The sky abruptly brightened, then plunged into pitch darkness, followed by a thunderclap that shook the very earth. Dark clouds swiftly engulfed the sky, and heavy raindrops began to fall without warning.
Bai Chunian looked toward the source of the dark clouds. Six suns appeared and disappeared above the cultivation base, causing the sky to alternate between darkness and blinding brightness.
In an instant, a blue bolt of lightning shot down from the clouds, bypassing the lightning protection system and striking the dome of the cultivation base directly. The entire facility instantly transformed into a fiery blue ball burning amidst the downpour.
The intense heat of the lightning was unimaginable; even the breeding facility’s reinforced walls melted and burned in the relentless storm, eventually reduced to ashes.
The Black Panther was the first to recognize it: this was the A3 ability “Illusory Sunlight Path” that the mermaid had once displayed—a powerful ability capable of controlling extreme weather at will.
Bai Chunian stood with his hands hanging at his sides. His hair was plastered against his cheeks by the rain, and his lion ears were soaked as well; tufts of white fur clumped together, making him look disheveled and bedraggled.
Amid the torrential downpour, a mermaid shimmering with blue light scaled the building.
“Uh.” Bai Chunian tucked the dagger forged from Dead Sea Heartstone behind his back to hide it.
Lan Bo climbed up beside Bai Chunian, straightened his body, and wrapped his arms around the boy’s neck. “Child, stories are written by survivors. I’ll make sure this turns out to be an accident.” He lifted his eyelids slightly, casting a disdainful glance at Eris and the Black Panther from a spot where Bai Chunian couldn’t see.
Eris froze for a moment: “……”
Black Panther silently took a step back.
Bai Chunian kept his hands hanging down, letting himself be held, and obediently twitched his ears: “Yeah, it’s an accident. Everyone will believe it.”
At that moment, on the coast of Aphid City, the Joy of Fishing Festival was scheduled to take place at midnight on June 24th every year. However, this time, due to marine pollution, the festival was much smaller in scale.
Bai Chunian, volunteering at the festival, was being interviewed by reporters amid the music and drumbeats. He was dressed in festive Hawaiian-style shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, with a flower lei draped around his neck.
“Yes, the leak at the submarine laboratory of Institute 109 was severe. Fortunately, the IOA took prompt action. Everyone can rest assured that we at the IOA will handle this incident properly to prevent any future problems.”
TV stations were broadcasting the Joy of Fish Festival live, so even those who couldn’t make it to the venue were watching from home. After finishing the interview, Bai Chunian started playing with the children at the festival, leading them in games and forming cat ears with his hands: “What is the most beautiful creature in the world?”
The children shouted in unison: “Mermaids!”
Bai Chunian asked again, “Which mermaid is the prettiest?”
The children laughed, “Lan Bo!”
Bai Chunian remained in the frame throughout the various program recordings of the Joy of Fishing Festival. By around 3 a.m., he quietly slipped away from the crowd and turned expressionlessly into a dark alley.
A chameleon’s tail slipped out from the leg of his floral shorts.