With that, he hung up with a snap.
Zhou Jiao shrugged and tossed the tablet into the toilet.
There’s a saying—a bad attitude helps improve efficiency.
Here, “bad attitude” referred not only to shouting but also to crying and making a scene. The key was to exploit the other party’s aversion to trouble. As long as they weren’t a robot, they would inevitably skip unnecessary steps just to quickly resolve the issue.
—For example, verifying her name and employee ID.
—Or checking the surveillance footage.
Zhou Jiao stood behind the restroom door, her eyes calm and sharp, quietly waiting for the arrival of security personnel.
—
At the same moment, Araki Isao received news of Zhou Jiao’s escape.
He instinctively looked down on insignificant people like Zhou Jiao and didn’t even bother checking the surveillance footage. Besides, under the influence of Jiang Lian’s magnetic field, all the surveillance recordings had become eerily distorted—just looking at them for a couple of seconds was enough to induce nausea.
Only those freaks in the laboratory would go through the footage frame by frame for analysis.
Araki Isao pressed his fingers firmly against his brow.
He knew that Zhou Jiao’s only goal had always been to escape from Jiang Lian, so making a run for it at this moment was entirely within expectations.
It was just too soon. The company hadn’t had enough time to produce a more potent scent agent.
However… the current one should be enough.
Araki Isao opened his communicator and gave orders to the security personnel stationed on each floor: “Initiate Level One Alarm. Everyone, put on biochemical filtration masks and prepare for combat!”
He paused for a few seconds, as if making up his mind, then said decisively:
“In one minute, activate the fire suppression sprinklers.”
“Repeating once more—everyone, put on biochemical filtration masks. This is a Level One command. It must be executed.”
Outside the ward, the sound of hurried footsteps approached rapidly. Then, with a loud bang, the door was kicked open, and security personnel entered.
Zhou Jiao listened carefully. Two people had arrived—they were probably here to reconstruct the scene of the incident.
—She guessed correctly.
Two security officers, wearing protective goggles and filtration masks, entered the room, followed by a drone programmed to analyze the traces of the struggle and track movement patterns.
They turned off the ward’s overhead lights, and immediately, the drone emitted a faint blue light, illuminating the footprints imprinted on the floor.
From start to finish, there were only two sets of footprints—one belonging to the doctor, the other to Zhou Jiao. There was no third set.
The two security officers exchanged glances.
Where was that “sniveling, wailing female doctor” that had caused such a fuss among management?
Then, looking again at Zhou Jiao’s footprints—after leaving the bedside, they led straight to…
The restroom?
The pupils of both security officers constricted.
—The target hadn’t left!
She was still in the ward!
They had all been fooled by her!
That sniveling, wailing female doctor was her!
Before they could warn the others, a sudden gust of wind cut across the room—
Under the drone’s eerie blue light, the restroom door had somehow swung open. Zhou Jiao appeared like a specter, striking without hesitation—she spun, launching a powerful kick directly at their legs!
One officer barely dodged in time, but the other, unwilling to believe that Zhou Jiao could knock him off balance, stubbornly stood his ground—only to be swept off his feet and sent crashing to the floor.
Zhou Jiao lunged forward without pause. One hand clamped around his throat, while the other slid downward in a swift motion, reaching for his waist and unfastening the electromagnetic pistol strapped there.
This type of electromagnetic firearm was outrageously expensive and exclusively sold to company employees. But its firepower was also absurd—when equipped with custom tungsten-core bullets, it could even pierce through armored vehicles.
How should she put it?
She really had to thank her time working at the company.
Everything felt just like home.
“……”
The security officer stared at her in horror as she clicked the chamber into place, attached the silencer with lightning speed, and coldly, efficiently ended his companion’s life.
The entire process looked even more practiced than his own.
—Wait, what??? Wasn’t the intel report saying she was just some ordinary woman with nothing special about her???
At that moment, Zhou Jiao lowered her head, using the barrel of the gun to lightly tap his cheek, and asked in a soft voice:
“Two choices—either I send you on your way, or you take me out of here.”
“…I—I, I…” The security officer stammered, his voice trembling. “I can’t take you out… Boss will kill me.”
“You’re overthinking it,” Zhou Jiao said coolly. “They only have one target—Jiang Lian. Besides, if you don’t take me out—”
She slowly curved her lips into a sweet smile. “I’ll kill you too, you know?”
For a woman with naturally striking and coldly elegant features, forcing a flirtatious and cutesy smile had an incredibly stunning effect.
In any other situation, his heart might have pounded like a deer caught in headlights—but right now, all he felt was an icy chill racing up his spine.
…She meant it.
If he refused, she would pull the trigger without hesitation and leave without a second thought.
Just then, a commotion erupted outside the ward’s floor-to-ceiling window.
The entire building was circular in shape. From the edge of any floor’s windows, one could see the scenes unfolding on the floors below.
Dozens of drones flew past, casting eerie blue scanning lights downward. At the same time, a dense mist inexplicably spread across every level, engulfing the entire building like a creeping shadow of thick smog.
Zhou Jiao suddenly felt dampness on her face. Looking up, she saw the sprinkler system above her had also activated, releasing a fine mist into the air.
What was this?
A fire?
Her gaze dropped, landing on the biochemical filtration masks worn by the two security officers. Instantly, she guessed that this mist was some kind of biochemical weapon.
Without a second thought, she ripped the mask off the corpse and put it on herself, continuing to process the situation at lightning speed.
What kind of biochemical weapon could be used against Jiang Lian?
—Her scent agent.
A faint flicker crossed Zhou Jiao’s brow.
She had thought the company would manufacture a bionic clone to negotiate with Jiang Lian and replace her presence. She never expected them to weaponize her scent to attack Jiang Lian instead.
Would this work?
It didn’t matter. This was the perfect opportunity to escape.
She had initially been worried about evading Jiang Lian’s sense of smell, uncertain if the company could restrain him. But now?
With this stunt the company pulled, even if Jiang Lian had eight hundred olfactory receptors, he wouldn’t be able to track her scent.
They had unknowingly done her a massive favor.
“Apologies, I don’t need you anymore.”
Zhou Jiao smiled faintly.
In the instant the security officer’s expression twisted in shock, there was a single bang—
She executed him.
She swiftly donned his helmet, goggles, and uniform, tucked the electromagnetic gun into her waist, and blended in with the other security personnel, running toward the flashing red emergency exit.
These security personnel were a terrifying presence in the eyes of ordinary people.
They were ruthless, highly trained, enhanced with expertly formulated stimulants, and equipped with chips and weapons that were half a century ahead of the average person.
While ordinary people were still manually aiming their handguns from the 2020s, these security officers’ cybernetic eyes had already activated their targeting systems—AI automatically calculated bullet trajectories, ensuring that every shot was precise, every bullet hitting its mark.
And yet now, each and every one of them wore an expression of sheer horror.
Tentacles.
Tentacles everywhere.
From all directions, the sound of dripping mucus filled the air.
The metallic ceiling panels had been corroded, and the corridors and emergency passages were plunged into darkness. The entire building had transformed into a bottomless nest, with the only visible light coming from the bioluminescence emitted by the writhing tentacles.
It was like a surging tide covered in luminescent plankton, beautiful yet perilous, eerie yet spine-chilling.
Darkness and the unknown fed the worst horrors of the imagination—layer upon layer of cold sweat seeped down every person’s back.
Worst of all, even though they were fully armed, their bodies covered head to toe except for their exposed nose bridges and lower jaws, they still felt the temperature plummet, an unbearable chill creeping up from the soles of their feet.
…What the hell was this thing?
Was this really a creature humanity could fight against?
What kind of horrifying mission had those at the top sent them on?!
Someone finally cracked under the crushing, oppressive fear.
He raised his electromagnetic submachine gun and opened fire on the mass of purple-black tentacles ahead!
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
—Electromagnetic guns utilized railgun technology to launch bullets at near-light speed. Their power was immense, their penetration force unrivaled. A submachine gun, with its rapid-fire capability, could shred an armored vehicle into scrap metal within a minute.
But it couldn’t pierce through the tentacles.
Their high-tech weaponry was utterly ineffective against these things.
Despair settled over the group like an inescapable abyss.
A suffocating silence fell.
No one noticed a figure silently retreating into the shadows.
Zhou Jiao was slowly backing away.
She had already begun to predict some of Jiang Lian’s behaviors.
If she wasn’t mistaken, Jiang Lian was about to go berserk.
She had to escape. Now.
And sure enough—
In the very next moment, a cold, violent, and terrifying low-frequency soundwave surged through the entire building like a tsunami.
It was a frequency beyond human perception—only she could hear what he was saying.
The others could only feel an overwhelming nausea and vertigo.
“Zhou Jiao.”
He was calling her.
“Zhou Jiao.”
He was looking for her.
“Zhou Jiao.”
He commanded her to return.
As the oscillation frequency of the sound waves grew increasingly bizarre, many people’s internal organs suddenly twisted in agony—some even coughed up streaks of fresh blood and fragments of viscera.
“Zhou Jiao.”
“Zhou Jiao.”
“Zhou Jiao.”
Unknowingly, the expressions of all the security personnel had turned rigid and numb. Under the influence of this eerie frequency, some kind of abnormal mutation had seemingly taken place within them—temporarily making them his subordinates.
One by one, they removed their filtration masks in perfect unison, desperately sucking in the scent molecules lingering in the air.
The artificially synthesized scent was so crude, so cheap, not even a fraction of her true scent—but still, it was so fragrant, so fragrant, so fragrant, so fragrant.
Their faces flushed deep red as they inhaled, their chests visibly caving inward.
Amid the high concentration of artificially manufactured pheromones, there remained a faint, elusive trace of natural intoxication.
Her scent.
Where was she?
Where was she?!
Where was she?!!
Return to him.
Return to him.
Return to him.
You cannot escape.
“Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao…”
This time, it was human voices.
Zhou Jiao turned her head—
Her scalp tingled, her blood froze, every single hair on her body stood on end.
Everyone was calling for her.
Everyone was searching for her.
Everyone was trying to distinguish her unique scent from the pheromone-laced mist pouring from the sprinklers.
It was like a terrifying game of hide and seek.
Everyone else was a ghost.
She alone was human.