CH 16

The cry was choked in his throat.

He glimpsed at the shadow left by the mountain, and the spreading tentacles were winding like a river. The river flowed slowly in his direction, all the way to his feet and climbed up along his trouser legs.

Countless distributary streams gently covered him, and the flexible and strong stream of water slowly pressed into his body, leaving purple traces.

“… no,” the middle-aged man whispered as he sweated, “no -“

He struggled desperately to avoid these tentacles, “No…”

He vaguely felt that those eyes seemed to be looking at his white coat.

“I’m not!”

The man suddenly realized something and reached out to take the coat off. Maybe it was because of fear. He was trembling all over as he struggled fiercely, “I’m not one of those researchers! I –“

The sequins eyes flashed and immediately flashed their snow-white tusks at him.

He was suddenly covered with the shadow of the mountain.

The middle-aged man didn’t come back.

There were also some compressed biscuits and drinking water in the dormitory for the players. Kou Dong opened a bag and was preparing to eat when he heard someone knocking at the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me,” the person at the door replied, “Song Hong.”

Kou Dong opened the door. Sure enough, he saw Song Hong standing outside the door, but his expression was a little grim. The remaining players also gathered in the corridor, staring and whispering about something.

“What’s the matter?” Kou Dong asked.

Song Hong shook his head and said simply, “He hasn’t come back.”

There were only seven of them around, which could be seen at a glance. Kou Dong frowned, “Did you go upstairs?”

“Yes,” Song Hong took something out of his pocket and whispered, “we found this.”

It was an iron tooth, strung on a chain. Kou Dong had seen this too. It was on the middle-aged man.

“Where did you find it?”

“The lab.”

Kou Dong was stunned. “Did he go back?”

“Yes,” Song Hong said, “and the NPC just now… is also gone.”

The situation was more frightening than death. If they died, at least it was a definite ending. If they saw their bodies, they would know what happened; But they disappeared without a trace, leaving the chain.

The more unknown, the more frightening it was. The players’ expressions weren’t very good, they acted like they had seen a great enemy.

“I just checked,” Song Hong said. “The food in the room can only last us for seven days at most. – this is the only place we can stay.”

He took out a piece of paper from his pocket. A map of the Institute was drawn on it. There was only one front door. Now there was a heavy copper lock hanging on the door. There was no way to escape.

Kou Dong frowned and murmured, “This is hard.”

The disappearance of the middle-aged man meant that something was moving freely in the Institute.

If they couldn’t get out, there was a possibility they would disappear one by one.

Song Hong nodded, “Yes – who knows who will be next?”

Kou Dong thought for a moment, then sighed and answered sincerely, “I’ll do it.”

After all, those monsters liked him.

Song Hong was stunned: “…?”

He didn’t understand. How could anyone go look for trouble voluntarily?

Kou Dong smiled sadly in his heart, these people didn’t understand the meaning of full favorability at all.

Since he came out of the first copy, he had seen how much these NPCs loved him, which was completely loyal to the role setting.

——What happened when a monster loved someone?

But other players obviously didn’t think so. Some of them were timid. They even sobbed, vaguely saying “they wouldn’t gamble anymore” and howling that they would cut off their hands. Kou Dong didn’t understand them. But Song Hong seemed used to it. He patted him on the shoulder impatiently and whispered a few words to him.

Everyone’s mood gradually stabilized, but there were still tears in some people’s eyes.

After this wave, it was almost dark. The lights of the Institute weren’t all turned on, and most of the places were shrouded in darkness. The lamps were snow-white and piercing, with a cold tone.

“We still need to rest first,” Song Hong said to several players. “We’d better not come out at night – no one knows what will happen when we can’t see well.”

That was right. The players nodded and went back to lock their doors.

Kou Dong also returned to the dormitory, but he didn’t plan to stay. When he turned over the biscuits, he found a flashlight under the biscuit bag, but the power was limited.

When the flashlight was turned on, the illumination range wasn’t large, but it was a hazy light that was fairly clear.

It was just enough for Kou Dong. If it was too bright, he was afraid it would disturb something and cause trouble instead.

Holding a flashlight, he touched the access control card in his pocket and quietly opened the door of the dormitory after confirming it was there.

The game system was a little impressed, [Player doesn’t seem afraid.]

On such a night, Kou Dong was the only one who went out.

“Nonsense,” Kou Dong retorted. “I’m scared to death, okay?”

System: [Why did the player choose to go out by himself?]

He didn’t have a choice.

“I expect them to be gentle with me for the sake of such a high degree of favor.” Kou Dong replied.

System: […]

Kou Dong sighed from his heart.

“What else can I do?” He said desperately, “It’s better for me to find it than for it to come to me…”

This wasn’t his narcissism, it was mainly because the NPCs’ love was too crazy.

System: […]

In the dead of night, only the dial of the flashlight flickered with dots of light.

Kou Dong took the access card in his hand, but didn’t try to open the laboratory door. Instead, he turned to the gate to check the situation. As Song Hong said, there was a big copper lock hanging there, which tightly separated the restless monster and all the players.

The game system had gotten better this time and didn’t say a word. Sure enough, Kou Dong took out a thin iron wire from nowhere and looked like he was going to pry the lock off and run again.

Unfortunately, this time he wasn’t as lucky as the last time. The wire stayed in the lock cylinder for a long time and had no effect. Kou Dong tried again and again, and finally had to give up. “I got a better idea.”

System: […]

Nonsense, he obviously couldn’t open it.

Without a shortcut, Kou Dong had to stop and turn slowly upstairs.

The light column from the flashlight shook slightly. In order to avoid getting startled, he tried to focus the light on the ground. A small spot was shining brightly. With this weak light, the young man searched from laboratory to laboratory.

Almost everything in the Petri dish was sleeping. 

Most of the time, Kou Dong only see a dark shadow – occasionally, among these shadows, eyes looked at him, with snake-like vertical pupils. They stared quietly at the young man passing by, and clearly saw the white coat he was wearing, but there was no other reaction.

They stared at the man and slowly turned their heads as he walked, pressing their faces closer to the glass.

When the human youth was searching for things, he turned his back to them. The white coat tightly wrapped around him, he had goosebumps, several small hairs stood straight on the back of his neck.

“Let me see…”

Kou Dong turned something and shook it in his hand before he realized that it was a manual like a note. He held a flashlight in one hand, shining a light on it, and the other hand slowly turned a page.

“On May 14, we found it in the deep sea near the bermuda triangle.

It is 2.3 meters long and has the strength of about 15 adults. We used the weapons and submarines on board and took three months to finally bring it ashore.

Soon, we found that it has extraordinary mental control. We believe that if we can study and explore this ability, it will bring great convenience to the country and society

This will be the most amazing discovery in human history and the gift of the creator to mankind. “]

“On May 26, it became him.”

“On June 31, we found that he could talk directly with any creature in the institute through brain invasion. In order to prevent unrest and improve his risk level, we named him experimental body S.

In order to prevent possible dangerous accidents, the Institute is equipped with destruction procedures. Once a dangerous experimental body is found to escape from the Petri dish, the Institute will automatically start the program to  self destroy in order to avoid the escape of experimental body S. “

Kou Dong frowned slightly as he realized that there was something wrong with the self destruction program. Now, some monsters had eaten players and an NPC openly, but the so-called destruction program hadn’t started.

As for why it wasn’t enabled, the reason was probably also this S.

Kou Dong turned back and confirmed that there was no other useful information, so he put the book back.

The test object in the Petri dish made a slight sound, and the sign on the top was marked D-06. 

This also confirmed Kou Dong’s conjecture to a certain extent. This letter was related to the risk level of the experimental body. The more advanced the experimental body was, the higher the authorization level of the access card was required.

How many doors could the card in his hand help him open?

Kou Dong walked forward. He didn’t know how many he had seen. Fortunately, they were very quiet and nothing attacked.

This reassured the youth. He went up step by step and finally opened the door on the top floor with this access card.

There was only one laboratory on this floor.

The feeling in this room was extremely different – the ceiling was far away from the floor than the ordinary labs, which seemed empty. He could hear his own breathing in the room.

Then came the moisture.

There was a thin layer of water on the floor, which made it look very greasy. The soles of his shoes even slipped when walking on it. One of the largest Petri dishes that Kou Dong had ever seen stood in the room, soaked in light blue liquid and squeezed into white foam.

Such a height was enough to remind Kou Dong of the sentence written in the book just now.

2.3m.

He took a gentle breath and spoke, “Experimental body S?”

With his words, the water in the Petri dish swayed, and something swam slowly in it, with its streamlined tail swinging.

In the water, a pair of scarlet eyes stared at him as if amused.

Closer.

The look seemed to say to him.

Closer

Kou Dong’s feet didn’t listen to him and stumbled forward. It was his reason wrestling with his body. Finally, his body gained the upper hand. He stuck his face on the glass.

At the other end of the transparent glass, the experimental body from the deep sea also approached him lightly. It got close. Kou Dong gradually saw something, floating in the water.

Like thick seaweed.

It wasn’t until the seaweed came closer that Kou Dong realized that they were more like human hair than seaweed. They rolled around, and a vigorous and powerful figure belonging to the physique of adult man stood in between——

That was a mermaid.

Experimental subject S brought his face close, and his pale face was suffused with a strange smile. Kou Dong even saw the joy in this smile. His fingers were long and thin, with sharp fingernails that were abnormally blue and purple.

He stuck his face to the glass and made a strange move, poking out the tip of his tongue against the cold glass surface.

Kou Dong didn’t understand it, but a moment later, the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

The monster was kissing him through this layer of glass.