Jiang Lian was the most powerful and terrifying creature she had ever encountered. The oppression it exuded over humans could almost be described as “vast and endless.” But even Jiang Lian didn’t know that Xie Yueze had come last night to steal company secrets.
Of course, it was highly possible that Jiang Lian simply didn’t care.
Because it was too powerful, its strength as vast as celestial bodies, it had absolutely no interest in Xie Yueze’s intentions.
But the thing outside the door… how did it know?
And why was it using this reason to make her open the door?
There was only one possibility: Everything it said was true.
It really had been sent by Biotech.
There had long been rumors circulating online that Biotech was conducting inhumane human experiments, attempting to create a symbiotic relationship between mutants and humans, transforming them into supercombat machines under the company’s control—preparing to win any future corporate wars.
Zhou Jiao’s thoughts raced like lightning. It was now clear—the rumors were true.
Biotech had most likely already found a way to make humans and mutant species coexist.
But they didn’t know about Jiang Lian’s existence.
They also didn’t know that her body had been transformed by Jiang Lian.
That was why they had exposed themselves here.
Realizing this, Zhou Jiao quickly sat up from the bed. Ignoring the twisting pain in her stomach, she threw on her clothes in a few swift movements, then pulled back the wall tapestry, revealing a hidden safe. She took out a miniature handgun and efficiently loaded it.
This gun had been modified. Though it still couldn’t kill a mutant species, its power was strong enough to buy her time to escape.
At that same moment, the knocking outside became even more urgent—as dense as a torrential downpour.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
“Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock!”
The thing’s voice grew even more hysterical, carrying a chilling greed and madness:
“Zhou Jiao, are you there? Are you there? Are you there? I know you’re there… What are you eating? It smells so good, so good, so good, so good, so good… Please, open the door, let me smell it… I won’t take it from you… Just let me smell it… So good, so good, so good, so good…”
By the end, it could only repeat one thing over and over:
“Are you there, are you there, are you there… Open the door, open the door, open the door… So good, so good, so good, so good…”
There was no way Zhou Jiao would open the door.
This apartment had been assigned to her by the Special Bureau—the 46th floor, a one-bedroom unit, with no kitchen.
Zhou Jiao remembered that the bathroom window was adjacent to the rooftop. She only needed to step onto the windowsill, reach up to grip the rooftop’s edge, and use the momentum to leap up—allowing her to escape like a cicada shedding its shell.
However, the moment she pushed open the window, she witnessed a scene she would never forget for the rest of her life—
Below, illuminated as bright as daylight by vehicle headlights, stood hundreds of Biotech security personnel. They were lined up in perfect unison, standing utterly motionless, all staring straight at her.
Because of their eerily uniform posture, some security personnel had their heads and necks tilted at such unnatural angles that they formed grotesque arcs.
…What the fuck.
She lived on the 46th floor. It was impossible for these people to “see” her.
Even if they were wearing specially designed protective goggles, there was no way they could detect her movements instantaneously.
There was only one explanation: Like Jiang Lian before, they had “smelled” her presence through some kind of scent marker.
“…Shit.” Zhou Jiao slammed the window shut and couldn’t help but curse.
That tentacle from Jiang Lian—had it turned her into an invincible monster, or was she just an irresistible delicacy that could be sniffed out wherever she went?
Escape was impossible.
She had no choice but to comply with Biotech’s investigation.
—
At midnight, a damp drizzle began to fall from the sky. The fine rain descended like fungal threads, draping the entire city in a cold, slick mist.
Jiang Lian, dressed in a grayish-white coat, walked through the light fog, his hands casually tucked into his pockets.
As he passed by a closed-down optical store, he paused for a moment, staring at a pair of gold-rimmed glasses displayed in the shop window.
After a brief silence, he slowly extended a hand—passing it straight through the glass—and took the glasses.
—The instant his fingers touched the glass, the molecules composing his flesh and blood instantly deconstructed into quantum particles, carrying a massive amount of energy as they slipped through the microscopic tunnels between the glass molecules.
Since the entire process occurred within a fraction of a millisecond, to the naked eye, it simply looked as if he had reached through the glass and taken the glasses directly.
Jiang Lian lowered his head, examined the gold-rimmed glasses, and placed them on the bridge of his nose.
The lenses immediately fogged up with a few streaks of rain mist, casting a pale shadow over his gaze.
However, the mist didn’t bring him the slightest sense of impurity—on the contrary, it made him look even more cold, clean, and pristine.
Suddenly, he rubbed his thumb across his lips, his brow furrowing slightly.
“…What is this?”
While strolling through the streets, he had casually released a few of his tentacles to forage freely—with the exception of humans and human food.
Yet, one of his tentacles disobeyed his command and brought back a pile of human food:
Braised beef rice.
Tomato and egg rice.
Braised pork rice.
And—
A 600ML carbonated drink, loaded with sugar, preservatives, artificial flavors, and coloring.
It was garbage.
And it had brought back a lot of it.
Jiang Lian’s brows knitted together. His thumb and index finger rubbed against each other repeatedly, itching to crush that tentacle’s consciousness from afar.
After a brief moment of contemplation, however, he relaxed his fingers.
Because—
The food that tentacle had retrieved carried a familiar scent.
A sweetness reminiscent of ripe fruit.
It smelled very similar to Zhou Jiao.
But it was also different—this scent was even sweeter and more cloying.
Like an overripe fruit on the verge of rotting, its skin no longer concealed unripe, firm flesh but was instead filled with fresh juice, ready to spill out at any moment.
It was even more intoxicating than Zhou Jiao’s scent.
Unfortunately, he already knew—human saliva was an unclean substance.
Even the most passionately devoted human lovers were not obsessed with each other’s saliva.
Zhou Jiao’s scent was gone.
Starting today, he would never again develop any lowly interest in human saliva.
Thinking this, he nonetheless followed the scent that resembled Zhou Jiao’s and walked toward it.
The closer he got, the more severe the rupturing sensation within him became. Behind his cold and pristine human form, a massive, terrifying, abyss-dark, and viscous shadow faintly emerged—
Like an unimaginable eldritch being, slowly unfurling its celestial-scale wings.
As he approached the source of the scent, the immense oppressive aura radiating from his body triggered an inexplicable fear in all living things nearby.
For a brief moment, pedestrians and vehicles on the street felt a strange resistance, as if invisible seawater had swept through, coldly lapping at their ankles or wheels.
Jiang Lian stood at the base of an apartment building, his gaze devoid of emotion as he looked up at the top floor.
That scent… it was coming from the 46th floor.
…No. The 40th floor.
The owner of the scent was coming down.
Jiang Lian noticed a large number of “people” standing around.
They were all staring intently at the apartment’s exit, waiting for the scent’s owner to emerge—so they could pounce like starved wild dogs, sniffing and biting at her.
Jiang Lian watched this scene unfold.
Behind the misted-over lenses, his gaze remained utterly indifferent.
Only his thumb brushed lightly against his lips once more.
He had no intention of competing with this pack of low-grade mutants for the scent—
Yes, the crowd consisted entirely of low-grade mutants.
Based on Jiang Lian’s inherited memories, these creatures were even lower than humans.
Fighting over a human’s scent with a species inferior to humans…
It was even more ridiculous and laughable than being obsessed with human saliva.
With this thought, Jiang Lian was about to leave—
When his gaze unexpectedly locked onto Zhou Jiao’s face.
—She was the owner of the scent.
She was being escorted out of the apartment by a “man.”
The “man” wore a black visor, exposing only his nose bridge and lower jaw.
His entire body was wrapped in Biotech’s security uniform.
Despite his disguise, his inhuman nature was impossible to hide—
His nose was twitching violently, spasming in an almost convulsive frenzy as he greedily and deliriously inhaled her scent.
And she—
She offered no resistance.
So obedient, so submissive—
Completely different from how she had been in his presence.
As if—
Anyone but him could breathe in her scent.
Including those low-grade mutants that were just about to pounce on her.
Jiang Lian’s expression instantly became terrifying.
In an instant, the surrounding temperature plummeted—
The puddles on the ground instantly froze over.
Before the “man” and the low-grade mutants could even process the thought of running,
They were crushed into pulp by an unfathomably immense and violent force.