The shout was blocked in his throat.
He glimpsed the shadows left by the mountain peak, the spreading tentacles seemed as endless as a river. The river flowed slowly in his direction, trickling all the way down to his feet and climbing wetly upward along his pant legs.
Numerous tentacles gently covered him, the soft and strong tentacles pressed into his muscles, leaving patches of purple and red.
“…… No,” the middle-aged man whispered, sweat seeping from his forehead, “no–”
He struggled desperately outward, trying hard to avoid the tentacles, “No ……”
He was vaguely aware that all those eyes looked like they were looking at the white coat on him.
“I’m not!”
The man suddenly realized something, he reached out to take the coat off his body, perhaps because of fear, his body was trembling as he used his whole strength, “I am not one of those researchers! I–”
The sequins flickered and whirled and flashed their snow-white fangs at him.
He was suddenly covered by the shadow of the mountain peak.
The middle-aged man didn’t come back.
There were still some compressed biscuits and drinking water in the dormitory for the players to eat. Kou Dong unwrapped a bag and was about to eat it when he heard a knock on the door.
“Who is it?”
“Me,” the person at the door answered, “Song Hong.”
Kou Dong pulled the door open and saw Song Hong standing outside the door, he looked a bit grim. The remaining few players were also gathered in the corridor, he wondered what they were looking at and whispering about.
“What’s wrong?” Kou Dong asked.
Song Hong shook his head and said succinctly, “He never came back.”
There were only seven of them, and it was obvious who was missing at a glance. Kou Dong frowned, “Did he go upstairs?”
“No,” Song Hong pulled something out of his pocket and whispered, “We found this.”
It was an iron tooth, strung on a string of chains. Kou Dong had seen this too, right in the middle-aged man’s hand.
“Where was it found?”
“The lab we went to.”
Kou Dong froze, “He went back?”
“Yes,” Song Hong said, “and the NPC that was just there,…… is gone.”
The word ‘gone’ was more alarming than dead. Dead, at least there was still an exact ending, seeing his dead body would show what happened; but he disappeared without a trace, leaving his chain.
The more unknown it was, the more terrifying it felt. The expressions of the players weren’t very good, each looked as if they were in danger.
“I just looked,” Song Hong said, “the food in the room is only enough to last us seven days at most. –This could be a survival condition.”
He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, which was a simply drawn map of this institute, with only one main door, on which a large heavy brass lock now hung, there was no other way to escape.
Kou Dong’s brow knitted up as well, muttering, “This is not good.”
The disappearance of the middle-aged man meant that there was something moving freely in this institute.
If they couldn’t get out, the disappearances would happen to them one after another.
Song Hong said, “Right – who knows who will be next?”
Kou Dong thought for a moment, then sighed and answered sincerely, “Me.”
After all, he understood this group of monsters.
Song Hong was stunned: “……?”
He was a little confused, how could someone curse himself like that?
Kou Dong smiled sadly in his heart, these people didn’t understand the meaning of the full favorability points.
Since he came out of the first copy, after remembering their interactions — this group of NPCs loved him in their own way, they were completely loyal to the character setting.
— When a monster loved a person, what would happen?
They would definitely want to eat them.
Kou Dong felt calm and accepted what was going on.
But the other players apparently didn’t feel that way, there were timid ones in the middle, and they whimpered and cried, their voices vaguely saying something like “never gamble again”, and howling to chop off their hands. Kou Dong didn’t understand, but Song Hong looked like he was used to seeing such scenes, he impatiently patted a man’s shoulder and whispered to him.
The man’s mood slowly stabilized, but his eyes still contained tears.
After this wave, the sky was almost dark. The lights in the institute weren’t all on, and most of them were shrouded in darkness. The few that were open were also snow-white and blinding, with an icy hue.
“We need to rest first,” Song Hong said to the players, “it is best not to come out at night – who knows what will happen.”
That made sense, so the players all nodded, each going back to lock their doors.
Kou Dong also went back into the dormitory, but he didn’t intend to sit all night. He had just gone through the bag and found a flashlight under the bag of biscuits, but it had limited power.
When the fashlight was on, the range wasn’t much, but it was enough to see clearly.
If it was too bright, he was afraid it would alarm something and cause trouble.
He took the flashlight and touched the access card in his pocket to make sure it was there and then quietly opened the door to the dormitory.
The game system was somewhat impressed, [Player doesn’t seem afraid.]
On a night like this, Kou Dong was the only one who went out.
“Nonsense,” Kou Dong retorted, “I’m scared to death, okay.”
System: [But player chose to go out?]
It didn’t force him out.
Kou Dong: “Yes, with such a high degree of goodwill, I’m expecting them to be gentle with me.”
System: [……]
Kou Dong sighed from the bottom of his heart.
“What else can we do?” He said desperately, “It’s better for me to go to it than for them all to come to me…..”
It was really not that he was narcissistic, it was mostly that the NPCs’ love was so demented.
System: [……]
Kou Dong had the access card in his hand, but instead of trying to open the lab door, he first turned around and went to the main entrance to check the situation. As Song Hong said, there was a big brass lock hanging there, the restless monsters and all the players were tightly shut inside.
After spending time with him, the game system had learned to stay quiet, not surprisingly, Kou Dong pulled out a thin wire from nowhere, it seemed like he wanted to pick the lock and run away.
Unfortunately, this time it didn’t work, the wire in the lock core turned half a day to no avail. Kou Dong tried again and again, finally he had to give up, he regretfully said: “You’ve gotten smarter.”
System: [……]
Nonsense, could it still let him pry it open a second time?
Wouldn’t that be humiliating?
Without a shortcut, Kou Dong had to give up, he slowly turned around and walked upstairs.
The flashlight emitted a slightly wavering column of light, to avoid alarm, he tried to point the light to the ground. A small patch of light glowed, with this faint bright light, the youth searched one laboratory after another.
Almost everything in the petri dishes was asleep. Most of the time, Kou Dong could only see a dark shadow – occasionally among these shadows there were ginger or bright green eyes looking at him, with the vertical pupils of a snake. They quietly stared at the human youth walking in front of them, they clearly saw the white coat he was wearing, but there was no reaction.
They stared at the man, turning their heads slowly in the direction he was walking, urgently pressing their faces tighter against the glass.
The human youth was searching for something and would turn his back to them. The fabric under the white coat was wrapped tightly around his legs, the back of his head was shaggy, with a few tiny strands of hair curled up and nestled on the back of his neck.
“Let me see ……”
Kou Dong flipped something, holding it in his hand and shaking it before realizing it was a notebook-like handbook. He held a flashlight in one hand, and slowly turned a page with the other.
“On May 14, we found it in the deep sea near the Bermuda Triangle.
It was 2.3 meters long and had the strength of about fifteen adults. We used the weapons on board and the submarine, and spent three months to finally bring it ashore.
We soon discovered that it possessed extraordinary mind control abilities. We believe that if we can research and discover this ability, it will be of great benefit to the country and society ……
It would be the most amazing discovery in human history, a gift from the Creator for mankind.”
“On May 26, it became Him.”
“On June 31, we discovered that he was able to speak directly with any kind of creature in the Institute by means of intracerebral invasion. To prevent unrest, his danger level was raised and we named him Experiment S.
To prevent possible dangerous accidents, the Institute is equipped with a destruction program. Once a dangerous experimental body is found to have escaped from the petri dish, the Institute will automatically activate the program and self destruct to avoid the escape of Experimental Body S.”
Kou Dong frowned slightly, realizing that the fact that the self-destruction program didn’t work meant something had gone wrong. Nowadays, there were already monsters eating players and NPCs openly and honestly, but the so-called destruction program didn’t start.
As for why it wasn’t activated, the reason was probably Experiment S.
Kou Dong flipped the page backwards to make sure there was no more useful information, and put the book back in its place.
The experiment in the petri dish made a slight sound, and the plate on the top was marked D-06. This also confirmed Kou Dong’s suspicion to some extent that the letter was related to the danger level of the experiment, and the more advanced the experiment, the higher the authorization level of the access card required.
Then this card in his hand, in the end, how many doors could it help him open?
Kou Dong proceeded to walk upwards. He didn’t know exactly how many he had seen, but the good thing was that they were all quiet and no one attacked.
This put the youth’s mind at ease a bit, and he went up step by step, eventually using this access card to open the door on the topmost floor.
There was only one lab on this floor.
The first feeling when stepping in was the height – the ceiling was farther from the floor than usual, and it seemed empty. When Kou Dong coughed gently, he could hear the echo of his voice in this room.
The next thing that he noticed was the humidity.
The floor was stained with a thin layer of water droplets, which seemed slippery, and the soles of his shoes were even a little slippery when he walked on it. One of the largest petri dishes Kou Dong had ever seen stood in the room, it was filled with light blue liquid, and white foam lingered on top.
Such a height was enough to remind Kou Dong of the words written in the book.
2.3 meters.
He took a soft breath, “Experimental body S?”
With this sentence of his, waves of water swayed up in the petri dish, and something was swimming slowly in it, its streamlined tail fluttered.
In that water, a pair of scarlet eyes stared intently at him, as if smiling.
Come closer.
The gaze seemed to be speaking to him.
Closer ……
Kou Dong’s feet didn’t obey him and stumbled forward a few steps. It was his sanity wrestling with his body, and eventually his body prevailed, and he helplessly watched as he pressed his face up against the glass with a creepy anticipation of clinging to it.
At the other end of the clear glass, the experiment also approached him lightly. They were close, Kou Dong gradually saw something floating in the water.
Like dense seaweed.
When the seaweed came into view, Kou Dong realized that instead of saying that those were like seaweed, they were more like human hair. They were long and curly, belonging to the body of an adult male –
It was a merman.
Experiment S brought his face closer, and his pale face was flushed with an odd smile, Kou Dong could even sense his delight. His fingers were long and slender, his nails sharp and permeated with an abnormal bruising.
His face pressed against the glass, he made a strange gesture and pressed his tongue against the cold glass surface.
Kou Dong didn’t understand, but a moment later, he felt extremely cold.
This monster, was kissing him through the layer of glass ……