Lan Bo and Bai Chunian looked at each other silently. Lan Bo quickly snatched the Pro-Union factor, raised his hand and stabbed toward Bai Chunian’s neck. Bai Chunian grabbed his wrist and blocked it.
“Be good, take the shot.” Lan Bo gritted his teeth slightly, forcefully pressing the needle toward the back of his neck. Bai Chunian’s weakness after the dissociation agent had not yet passed, and he was pressed until his arms felt weak.
“Wife, don’t get excited, put it down first.”
After a brief stalemate, Lan Bo relaxed. He lowered his hand holding the Pro-Union factor, sat down gloomily, his forehead hair covering his eyes, his voice trembling: “Don’t wait anymore…”
Bai Chunian took the Pro-Union factor injection gun from his hand, held it in front of him and examined it: “Right now, outside of the research institute headquarters, there is only this one dose of Pro-Union factor left. If I use it, the Immortal Undead won’t have it anymore. If he loses control, and necromantic summoning entities spread across the world, how many casualties would that cause?”
This matter was obviously also within Han Xingqian’s considerations. He supported his chin and roughly calculated: “If the necromantic summoning entities appear region by region, there is still room for recovery. But if they erupt simultaneously worldwide in a short time, then it would be very difficult to control. Since the President is willing to give this Pro-Union factor to you, it means he is going to personally take action to pursue the Immortal Undead.”
Bai Chunian pursed his lips and thought for a moment, then asked again: “Does this one vial have to be fully injected to be effective?”
“According to the Pro-Union factor data obtained by the Puppet Master, each milliliter of the drug can maintain ten more days. This vial is three milliliters in total, so it can maintain the rational state of an experimental body in the deterioration phase for a total of thirty days.”
“Brother Han, draw out one milliliter for me.” Bai Chunian placed the injection gun in front of Han Xingqian. “The remaining drug, take it back to the Medical Association. Half of it will be used for sample replication, and the other half stored. If the undead go out of control, this one-third of Pro-Union factor can serve as emergency relief, giving us ten more days.”
“Ten days is very hard for the Medical Association to successfully replicate this kind of drug.” Han Xingqian frowned. “Besides, only ten days—after those ten days, what are you planning to do?”
“If within ten days, the President brings back the search documents for dismantling the research institute, the secret agents will help me obtain the Pro-Union factor.”
“The international conference has been postponed indefinitely. Within ten days… it’s hard to say.”
“Then within these ten days, I will infiltrate the research institute headquarters and take the Pro-Union factor out.” Bai Chunian sat cross-legged on the carpet, idly drawing circles on it with his fingertips.
Han Xingqian stared blankly at him. The once sincere and lively boy had become a frail, pale figure. Yet holding the life-saving medicine in his hands, what he thought about was still leaving a portion for the alliance’s emergency use.
For a moment, he recalled the early days when Bai Chunian was brought back to IOA. Covered in wounds and too weak to stand, he still forced a strained smile, trying his best to appear harmless to everyone. Experimental subject number 9100, the full-mimicry experimental body “Divine Envoy”—no doctor or nurse dared be alone with him. Han Xingqian was the same, always cautious, using the Unicorn detection ability on him every day, worried he might harbor malicious intent and suddenly attack.
Yet there was none. Every time he used the companion ability “Holy Beast Roaming” to read Bai Chunian’s thoughts, it was always so clear that it made one feel ashamed.
“Infiltrating the research institute headquarters is an action that, although tacitly approved by the group leader, will not receive written authorization from the special agent division. That means no support and no equipment. I need to prepare first, so leave me a few more injections of dissociation agent. The Pro-Union factor is too little—I’ll use it sparingly.”
Lan Bo also said nothing further.
The bedroom fell into silence. Only Bai Chunian still seemed in a decent mood, sitting on the ground and lifting the hem of his shirt to change into a clean one. Since there were no outsiders present, he did not consciously control his mimicry, and his feet turned into white fluffy lion paws, pink paw pads swaying left and right.
Suddenly, Han Xingqian grabbed Bai Chunian’s collar, pulling him unguarded in front of himself. With the horn on his forehead, he lightly touched Bai Chunian’s forehead, and in that instant read his completely unguarded inner thoughts.
In his heart there was a trembling voice, saying: “I don’t want to die.”
——
It had already been a day and a night since the first wave of necromantic summoning entities appeared in the Laurentian Mountains of Canada.
The White Snow Castle was still being defended as solid as an iron fortress. No enemy could break through the defensive line and enter the castle to disturb the Doll Maker in the workshop.
The workshop had been locked from the inside. During this day and night, apart from the occasional faint sounds of grinding and cutting, it had remained extremely quiet.
Only a desk lamp on the workbench illuminated the room. The surrounding light was dim. On the bed lay a doll body, its limbs and torso all made of porcelain, constructed in the form of an alpha—tall and slender, with white skin. The ball joints at its fingers and toes were small and flexible, but this porcelain doll had no head on its neck.
The Doll Maker sat at the edge of the workbench wearing a leather apron, one leg crossed, holding the porcelain head in his lap. The table was filled with painting tools.
The porcelain head had not yet been finely carved, but the Doll Maker’s craftsmanship was exquisite. Even the roughly sculpted facial features were already distinct and handsome. The painting work was already complete. The Doll Maker used a fine brush dipped in red ink to carefully draw a horizontal line across the face from left to right, crossing the bridge of the nose. Then he switched brushes, dipped in black ink, and drew a vertical line intersecting the red one, forming a cross. Finally, he sprayed a layer of transparent matte varnish over the entire face.
The Doll Maker took out a pair of light green glass eyeballs he had made himself from a drawer and installed them into the empty eye sockets. After that, he took out a bundle of silver hair strands sealed in a zip bag and implanted them strand by strand into the top of the head.
Everything was now complete. The Doll Maker placed the head onto the body on the bed and tested it—turning, lowering, and raising it.
He had already lost count of how many nights he had gone without sleep. His eyes were covered in bloodshot veins, stubble had grown on his chin, and his entire person looked far more haggard. He slowly removed his half-finger gloves and used his hands, covered in small wounds and cracks, to help Eros’s body sit up.
The porcelain doll had no life, and naturally no ability to support itself. It could only lean in a twisted posture against the Doll Maker’s body, its chin resting on his shoulder.
The Doll Maker took out the sacred winding key from his pocket and inserted it into the keyhole at the back of Eros’s neck, slowly rotating it half a turn at a time.
At first, the rotation of the winding key was somewhat stuck due to being brand new and unused. Later it became smoother. The Doll Maker turned the sacred winding key three full turns, then activated his A3 ability, “God’s Hand.” The scent of tequila information flowed out from his gland and spread in all directions, entering Eros’s body.
Behind Eros’s pure white porcelain body, a red spider emblem emerged beneath the skin at the lower back. This step was very much like stamping a brand logo onto a newly manufactured doll.
In the dim workshop, the desk lamp flickered once. The doll leaning against the Doll Maker’s shoulder slowly and stiffly raised its head inch by inch. Its light green eyes suddenly gained life, rolling slightly within their sockets, blinking once. The corners of its long, crimson lips curled upward.
A voice finally appeared in the room.
“You said you liked a violent world, that way life would be replaced quickly. I have always been following your order, Nyx. Why do you seem unhappy?”
Eros’s voice was as always—part youthful brightness, part stray-dog gloom.
The Doll Maker carefully sanded the ball joint at Eros’s waist with sandpaper, speaking calmly: “That is based on the condition that both of us are immortal, Eros. The essence of humanity is double standards.”
“Alright.” Eros happily moved his still slightly stiff joints, flexing his fingers a few times, then placed a hand on his own left chest.
“What did you put inside my chest?” Eros closed his eyes and felt his left chest. “There is something in here. It feels like it was taken out of boiling water—hot and heavy.”
“How is it?” the Doll Maker asked.
Eros did not understand, but because this mechanical core came from Nyx’s hands, he felt it was an honor. He drew a cross over his chest and promised: “I will treasure it for life.”
Eros’s hand quietly moved to the Doll Maker’s back, sliding down his spine to his waist. Before he could be reprimanded, he quickly took a chip from the pocket of his apron.
It was a battle chip that had fallen from Athena’s Shield, the same version Eros had used before, compatible with experimental subject number 6.
“Wait, I haven’t decided yet.” The Doll Maker froze and reached out to stop him. Eros already possessed a heart closer to that of a human. It should have been paired with a more rational system, but such rationality came at the cost of reduced combat ability, making the decision difficult.
However, several consecutive days of all-night work had slowed the Doll Maker’s movements. His hand missed. Eros was faster—he placed the battle chip into his mouth and swallowed it, where it automatically adhered and reconnected, linking with the heart.
The battle chip, a special combat device developed by the research institute, could grant experimental subjects understanding of weapon structure, combat knowledge, battle instincts, and a tendency toward slaughter.
As the chip locked into place, a sound of gears rotating and meshing echoed within Eros’s body. Golden reading programs rolled across his eyes.
Then he sensed the danger gathering and approaching outside the White Snow Castle, and he stood up from the bed, looking out the window.
The Doll Maker quietly observed this artwork entirely created by his own hands—every tendon and strand of muscle in those long legs could stretch and shift with movement. The body, hastily sculpted without precise measurement, instead appeared vividly agile. Most importantly, it possessed a heart core modeled in the same proportions as a human’s. No one could ever replicate such a mechanical core again.
This was the doll he had completed in the shortest time. Although it had not yet been finely refined, even in its rough form, it was already clear that this would be a creation he could never surpass in his lifetime.
Like all artists, he began to worry without reason whether his work could survive the passage of a hundred years. As a full-mimicry type nine-level mature experimental subject, if Eros were allowed to grow in a wild, uncontrolled way, entering an inevitable deterioration phase would be unavoidable.
He needed Pro-Union factor.
The Doll Maker thought this way. Even though Eros showed no signs of deterioration, a neurotic panic still rose within him.
Eros casually split open his narrow lips into a smile: “If there are things you forbid me from doing, you can give me verbal commands, Nyx.”
The Doll Maker placed the sacred winding key into Eros’s palm and instructed in a calm voice: “This time, only kill necromantic summoning entities. Do not harm any other living beings.”
Outside White Snow Castle, waves of necromantic summoning entities were killed one after another, but every few hours they would return again, because the Laurentian Mountains were also one of the locations where the breeding base systematically destroyed experimental subjects.
Qi Shenggu sat on top of the castle wall covered in white snow, her legs hanging off the outer edge, high heels dangling from her toes as she idly swung them. She blew lightly on the overheated barrel of the gun in her hand.
She led many experimental subjects and doll puppets in resisting the necromantic summoning entities outside the wall, but when she glanced back at the ammunition crates, the remaining magazines were already few. After repelling this wave, no one knew how many more would come next.
“One day has passed.” Qi Shenggu raised a peacock feather fan to shield the snow falling into her hair and looked down at the dragonfly beneath her feet. “Has Nyx died?”
“He won’t die. Just hold on a little longer…” The dragonfly, exhausted, held her gun up with both hands while flying weakly in the air. One of her transparent wings had broken, leaving only half. Her body’s accumulated injuries were no longer healing.
Qi Shenggu sneered at her frail state.
A faint sound suddenly came from the ground. Qi Shenggu opened her eyes alertly. On the distant horizon covered in endless white snow, another mass of gray-white experimental subjects emerged.
“Again. It never ends. Just how many of these things did the research institute even discard?” Qi Shenggu irritably raised her rifle, only to realize the compatible magazines had already been exhausted.
The dragonfly collapsed on the high wall, too exhausted to keep flying. Her wings trembled weakly, blood still dripping from her fingers. Looking down at the base of the castle, she saw layers upon layers of shattered doll remains piled up, gradually being buried by snow.
Most of the residents here were not good at fighting. Their levels were not high either. After a day and night of continuous resistance, they were already completely exhausted.
Wangliang jumped down from above, landing beside Qi Shenggu with a sandglass in his arms. His gland was also overdrawn, and even his hands were trembling slightly.
“Useless,” Qi Shenggu swept her gaze over them in disdain. She threw away her empty rifle and drew a pistol from beneath the hem of her dark green qipao.
Just as they struggled to stand again and prepare for battle, a frantic, piercing laugh echoed from the top of the castle.
Everyone instinctively turned toward the sound. The arched window at the very top center of the castle was pushed open, and Eros leapt out like a cuckoo bird from a clock, wearing a Baroque-style ornate dress stripped from a life-sized doll. He drew an arc through the air and landed heavily in the snow outside the castle wall.
Snow burst outward from the impact, scattering into the air. Eros slowly rose from among the broken porcelain and wooden limbs of countless dolls. He reached back and grasped the sacred winding key-formed half-human-height silver scissors. The blades were tangled with strands of cursed golden threads. His crimson lips curled upward into a split grin.
“I’m Eris~”