The Ghost-Search Squad was trapped inside the B1 elevator. No matter how He Suowei cursed, he could only watch helplessly as the floor numbers climbed higher and higher until they finally stopped at the sixteenth floor.
He Wenxiao, strapped to his back, had gone even more rigid. His health bar continued to drop. Cracks spread across his skin. He clamped a hand over his mouth, but pained groans still slipped out.
The communicator connected again. He Suowei heard Bai Chunian say, “Leave your injured teammate in the elevator. You and that still-living husky take the corridor to Building C, then go down to the fourteenth floor and unlock the safe.”
“I won’t abandon my teammate.”
Bai Chunian scoffed. “Oh my god, this is just an exam, okay? Don’t get so immersed. If you die, you’re just eliminated.”
He Suowei hesitated, then raised his handgun and pressed it against He Wenxiao’s forehead.
“You’re thinking of shooting him? Better not.” Bai Chunian seemed to anticipate his thoughts and laughed lightly. “Let him scream. It’s protecting you. Even in real combat, your teammate would be willing to make that sacrifice.”
Hearing the flippant alpha voice through the communicator, He Wenxiao weakly nodded to his captain. He crawled into the corner of the elevator on his own, gasping, urging them to hurry and leave.
After a moment of silence, He Suowei activated his J1 differentiation ability, “Total Lunar Eclipse,” leaving the floating moon disc that could absorb damage beside He Wenxiao. Then he took the last remaining teammate and left the elevator.
Listening to his teammate’s heart-wrenching screams of pain fading behind him as he walked away, abandoning him, was almost unbearable for He Suowei.
“Just who are you?” He Suowei pressed the communicator at his ear, fatigue seeping into his voice as he questioned Bai Chunian. “You’re not a soldier. We never abandon our comrades.”
“I’m unemployed.” Bai Chunian laughed softly. “I’m not as noble as you are, soldier boy.”
The two members of the Ghost-Search Squad finally reached the fourteenth floor of Building C. Before entering the lobby, Bai Chunian lowered his voice in the communicator.
“You still have the high-lumen flashlight, right? Turn it on and place it as far from the safe as possible. Then cover your eyes and walk over to enter the code.”
“Our documents state that the Snake Woman’s two eyeballs can act independently. As long as you make eye contact with one, you’ll be petrified. At the same time, a neurotoxin will be injected, and the pain will make you scream loudly,” Bai Chunian said. “We can now confirm that one eyeball is near you, and the other is near where Du Mo died on the tenth floor of Building C. Honestly, you’re relatively safe.”
“Press the C1 elevator button on your left and set it to the fourteenth floor.”
He Suowei said, “Pressed.”
“The elevator on our right came up. It’s stopped here.”
“Press the open-door button. If anything goes wrong, get into the C2 elevator and close the door.”
He Suowei took a deep breath and shut his eyes. Relying on his sharp hearing and memory, he felt his way to the safe and, with extreme caution, entered the letters one by one.
Faintly, he could still hear He Wenxiao’s agonized screams from Building B. His throat tightened despite himself. He asked through the communicator, “You holding up?”
A long time passed before He Wenxiao turned on his microphone. He could no longer form complete sentences. His voice was hoarse and trembling. Through the communicator, He Suowei heard violent scratching sounds—clang, clang—something was viciously destroying the Total Lunar Eclipse he had left behind in the elevator to protect him.
A strange, piercing shriek stabbed into the microphone, followed by the unmistakable sound of chewing and the wet crack of flesh tearing.
The kill announcement came immediately after:
“Test Subject 1513 has eliminated [Ghost-Search Squad] He Wenxiao.”
Sweat from He Suowei’s fingertips slicked the keypad, making it slippery. He listened to his own chaotic heartbeat as he painstakingly pressed each letter and number.
Bai Chunian cut off the connection to He Wenxiao’s side and said evenly, “As bait, he did well. I believe the one drawn away by his screams to hunt was the Snake Woman’s main body. I already had Lu Yan close the elevator doors. The Snake Woman is trapped inside the B1 elevator now. As long as you don’t make eye contact with those two eyeballs, you’re safe.”
He Suowei lit a cigarette and held it between his lips, silently continuing to enter the password.
Beside him, the husky alpha’s voice trembled. “Damn, bro, that thing just brushed past my face.”
Bai Chunian cut in, “You’ve still got a flashlight, don’t you? Turn it on and move farther from your captain.”
Shielding his eyes, the husky lifted the high-lumen flashlight and hopped away. The floating snake eye followed the erratically moving beam of light. As the flashlight waved around longer and longer, the husky alpha seemed to find it amusing. When the eyeball curiously flew closer, he smacked it away with the flashlight, sending it flying two meters. It bounced off the wall and ricocheted around, apparently not very threatening.
So the two eyes’ only method of attack was making eye contact.
At last, luck favored the Ghost-Search Squad. Six green lights lit up on the safe’s lock, and the door popped open automatically. Inside lay a stack of documents. The cover read: “File D.”
“Got it. Let’s go.” He Suowei tucked the file away and hurried out of the lobby with his head lowered and eyes closed. When he realized his teammate had not followed, he lowered his voice and called, “Gu Wulu, what are you doing?”
The husky, eyes closed as well, scratched his head. “Playing ping-pong. This eyeball is really bouncy.”
“Get over here.” He Suowei grabbed the husky and ran, diving into the C2 elevator and shutting the door. Only after confirming the floating eyeball had not followed them inside did they dare open their eyes.
Bai Chunian urged, “What does the file say?”
“The cover says: File D: Detailed Ability Description of Test Subject 1513, Snake Woman.”
“1. When Snake Woman activates J1 ability ‘Temporary Retained Eye,’ the two floating eyeballs can leave the main body to search for targets. When both eyes leave the main body, the body relies on the floating eyes to transmit vision, losing its own sight and retaining only hearing.”
“2. Any target that makes eye contact with a floating eye will experience limb petrification thirty seconds later. The length of eye contact determines the speed of death.”
“3. Snake Woman’s movement speed increases with the amount of food consumed.”
“4. The main body’s attack method: using its clawed hands and the sharp scales in its palms to pierce an enemy’s skin. The wounds are small but cause heavy bleeding.”
“5. Upon reaching maturity, Snake Woman will awaken two symbiotic abilities. Symbiotic Ability One: Serpent Transformation. The eyes of all corpses petrified and killed by the floating eyes will become new floating eyes, and their fields of vision will be shared with Snake Woman.
Symbiotic Ability Two: Rattle Tail. The tip of the snake tail evolves into a rattlesnake’s rattle, producing sound and randomly forcing one target to resonate with it, compelling the target to scream so Snake Woman can hunt by sound.”
“6. Weakness: the heart.”
“Wow, that’s pretty strong,” Bai Chunian remarked. “Your second mission was to open the safe and review File D, right? That’s complete. Three stars secured. Your first-place position is stable.”
He Suowei said dejectedly, “Can we withdraw from the research institute now and just wait for the exam to end at nine? Let the other teams deal with this monster. I don’t want to fight anymore.”
“But I really want to see what this monster looks like,” Bai Chunian replied. “You came all this way—are you going to back out at the last minute? That’s not how you soldier boys are, right? Don’t worry. I’ll guarantee your team stays in first. Just do as I say.”
“Let’s regroup first,” He Suowei said, taking a deep breath to steady himself. “Are you still in the tenth-floor lobby of Building A? We’ll come meet you.”
“No need. Don’t come.”
Bai Chunian rested his chin on his hand and looked at the computer monitor in front of him. The second chip had finished reading. A new Excel file had appeared on the desktop, titled “Real-Time Monitoring Data of All Test Subjects in This Building.”
He opened it. Inside was a three-page worksheet. The first tab was labeled: Test Subject 1513 — Snake Woman.
Growth Stage: Incubation Phase
Original Biological Form: Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
Food Intake: 59% (continuously increasing)
Destruction Pattern: Single-target precision output
Aggression Intent: Strong
There were more than twenty lines of status parameters like these, their complex values shifting in real time.
Bai Chunian clicked open the second worksheet.
The tab read: Test Subject 857 — Electric Phantom.
Growth Stage: Incubation Phase
Original Biological Form: Devil ray
Food Intake: 91%
Destruction Pattern: Large-scale bombardment
Aggression Intent: None
There was a third worksheet in the file. Bai Chunian did not open it. He simply right-clicked and deleted the last page.
Lan Bo watched his every move, the corners of his lips lifting faintly. “So… this is something… that cannot be spoken of?”
“Not exactly.” Bai Chunian yawned lazily and glanced at the time in the lower-right corner of the screen. “It’s six in the morning. Three hours until the exam ends. I’m getting impatient. How’s your injury?”
Lan Bo lowered his eyes to his lower body and answered calmly, “I can… endure it.”
As if covering up some emotion, Bai Chunian coughed twice, stood up, and braced his hands on the desk, leaning slightly closer to Lan Bo, who was sitting on top of it. “I’ll speed things up. Once this is over, I’ll take you to the hospital to get disinfected. As for the rest… you’re on your own.”
Lan Bo looked away awkwardly.
At that moment, a squad climbed up from the stairwell on the ninth floor of Building B. Holding assault rifles, they rushed across the corridor toward the two of them—likely after the same computer task.
Lan Bo remained seated on the desk. His bandaged right hand lifted the SA80 rifle lying horizontally at the edge of the table. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he fired four controlled bursts toward the corridor entrance.
[Just Shooting Around] Lan Bo eliminated [bug] Aiwen
[Just Shooting Around] Lan Bo eliminated [bug] Juran
[Just Shooting Around] Lan Bo eliminated [bug] Shizou
[Just Shooting Around] Lan Bo eliminated [bug] Naika
[bug] Team Eliminated.
“I want… to see… the Snake Woman,” Lan Bo said softly, lowering his head to change magazines.
“Alright.” Bai Chunian settled back into the computer chair, reclining into the soft backrest. “Let’s clear out a wave first.”
“Lu Yan, press the A1 elevator to the fifth floor.”
“Received.” Though he had no idea why these strange commands were being issued, after the past two days Lu Yan had grown completely accustomed to following Bai Chunian’s instructions.
After A1 was pressed, the B1 elevator—where the Snake Woman was imprisoned—began descending, stopping at the fifth floor of Building B.
Before dying, Du Mo had scanned the personnel distribution in Building B for Bai Chunian. One squad had been hiding on the fifth floor, clearly intending to wait until others fought it out and then ambush the last remaining team.
Resting his chin in his palm, Bai Chunian tapped the communicator. “Open the door. Big Brother’s about to start clearing people.”
Soon, the kill feed was flooded by Test Subject 1513.