Good Seedling

"The meat grinder has started. The iron hooks hanging from the ceiling will gradually send the white pigs hanging from them into the grinder to be pulverized. Can we find a way to get the hook on the ceiling to catch the Butcher? Jiang Tian can make it happen. From the ventilation shaft above, she can lower the hook beside her, while I lure the Butcher over and get him to run into it."

"But..."

Whenever Yu Jing thought of the Butcher's earlier pursuit and the cold sensation of death when the thrown cleaver struck his back and sank into his flesh, his whole body trembled uncontrollably. He could not help reaching back to touch the spot that still ached faintly.

"This is our only chance to survive! If we don't fight for it, we'll die for sure."

Yu Jing left himself no way out and immediately pressed the switch with his finger.

"Rumble!"

The large meat grinder roared to life. At the same time, the white pig suspended from the ceiling by an iron hook slowly began moving along the conveyor belt, entering the grinder and turning into scraps of flesh and bone.

Because of the tremendous noise, the Butcher stopped paying attention to Jiang Tian above and ran toward the meat grinder to investigate. Taking advantage of this, Yu Jing came beneath the ventilation shaft and explained the final plan to Jiang Tian.

"Jiang Tian! Lower the hook beside you a little. I'll find a way to lure the Butcher over. Then we'll figure out how to hook it into his body. The meat grinder is our only chance to kill this thing."

Yu Jing stood on the other side of the room and called up to Jiang Tian, keeping his voice at a suitable volume. Yet the Butcher still noticed him. At this point, there was no need to hide anymore. Yu Jing had already prepared himself to face death head-on.

"Come on!"

But when Yu Jing faced the Butcher directly this time, he noticed something different from when they had encountered each other in the passageway.

The Butcher held the cleaver from before in his right hand. In his left, which had previously held nothing, he carried the special item Yu Jing had chosen upon entering this place—the Bloodstained Hand Axe.

The Butcher seemed much more violent overall, and his aura was even more dangerous than before.

"Could it be the item's enhancement? Jiang Tian's Blood Crystal Ring lets the 'Dangerous Object' locate her, while my hand axe, now held by the Butcher, has caused it to undergo a fundamental change?"

Yu Jing's prophetic words were immediately proven right. The Butcher tore open his leather apron, revealing an especially conspicuous seam running straight down from his neck.

The thick threads used to stitch it together snapped one by one, and the opening in the Butcher's abdomen spread completely apart. Countless human hands reached out from inside, far beyond the limits of ordinary understanding.

"What kind of monster is this?"

Yu Jing forcibly suppressed his fear as he prepared to face death, waiting until the Butcher began walking toward him.

"Jiang Tian, drop the hook!"

When the Butcher was almost in front of him, Yu Jing suddenly leaped backward. As expected, the Butcher accelerated when he saw his prey flee, and the hook from above dropped at precisely the right moment.

The Butcher's sudden charge made the iron hook pierce in beneath his jaw and hook into his entire brain. The result was even better than expected; against an ordinary human, this strike would have been unquestionably fatal.

"The hook pierced straight through his brain. Is he dead?"

After stopping for only a second, the Butcher swung his cleaver and cut the hook apart. With his other hand, he forcibly pulled the hook free, then continued lunging at Yu Jing.

Desperation!

The scene shifted to the institute's monitoring room.

As Yu Jing had guessed, the Testing Areas of the seven test subjects were dozens of kilometers away from the institute.

After the seven people ate dinner at the institute and fell into a deep sleep, they were immediately transported by truck to a secret underground testing base in the suburbs, where they underwent a completely covert test.

In addition, the Seven-Person Test had a hidden rule: only those who scored above ninety points could survive.

Even if everyone passed the test and eliminated the 'Dangerous Object,' their final results would still be determined according to their order of completion and their overall performance. Anyone whose total score failed to reach ninety would be eliminated.

The situation here was just as Yu Jing had considered. The institute had the authority to directly retrieve all the test subjects' files from the B- and C-grade counties and could freely fabricate causes of death, then have the government provide consolation payments to the families of the deceased to settle the matter.

After the fat man died at the beginning, only six research teams remained, monitoring and evaluating the test subjects in different areas. Their psychological states, methods of handling situations, and ways of confronting the 'Dangerous Objects' were all recorded and graded out of one hundred.

At that moment, one research team's screen showed—

The middle-aged woman who had chosen the "Shattered Mirror" was in a gloomy villa, standing before a mirror with a full-length portrait on it. Holding a fruit knife, she forcibly cut all the skin from her body and pieced it together on the mirror to form her own appearance. She soon died from excessive blood loss.

"Test Subject Pro-034 has died. Observation terminated. Data cleared."

On another research team's screen was the white-collar man who had coveted the item Yu Xiaoxiao had chosen earlier, but had been stopped by Yu Jing. The special item he had selected was a "glass container filled with eyeballs."

In the scene, the man had been placed in a small, sealed room. A so-called Dangerous Object—a creature covered entirely in eyes—was wandering around inside. However, the man seemed unable to see the strange creature with his naked eyes, and the Dangerous Object did not launch any physical attacks.

Whether because of mental pressure or some hidden temptation, the white-collar man repeatedly stuffed the eyeballs from the "glass container filled with eyeballs" into his own eye sockets throughout the test.

The third monitoring screen showed the righteous migrant worker who had chosen "a Clump of Black Hair" and been transferred to a gloomy wooden house.

The uncle's originally sturdy body was covered in bloody cuts from fine threads. Holding a samurai sword whose origin was unknown, he controlled his breathing and slowly approached a room on the second floor of the villa.

In the dim light, a woman in a white kimono sat upright before a mirror in the corner of the room. Black hair completely covered her face in the reflection.

The black-haired woman was carefully combing her hair. Upon closer inspection, a small section was missing from the top of her head. The special item in the migrant worker's hand, "a Clump of Black Hair," seemed to correspond precisely to it. The entire scene was unbelievably eerie, sending chills through anyone's heart.

In the remaining two monitoring screens, Yu Jing and Jiang Tian were cooperating, their images overlapping. Yu Jing's score was somewhat higher than those of the previous three people. His calm analysis, determination in pulling the hook from his body, and courage in facing death directly all earned him extra points.

But if Yu Jing failed to survive, everything would ultimately be reset to zero.

The most astonishing scene was on the monitoring screen observed by the final research team.

The subject under observation was the taciturn Yu Xiaoxiao. Her chosen special item was a "purple fleshy plant." Among all the scores recorded by the researchers, only "problem analysis" had received sixty points; every other category had received a perfect one hundred.

Yu Xiaoxiao was in a vast greenhouse garden. At the top of an enormous purple plant in the center of the garden, the petals had blossomed around a bewitching woman whose lower body was fused with the plant. She was controlling every plant in the garden to attack Yu Xiaoxiao.

The girl, who looked rather delicate, displayed a nonhuman side during the test.

Any plant that came within two meters of Yu Xiaoxiao's body would instantly be sliced into thin strips. By then, Yu Xiaoxiao had already used her agile movements to bypass layer after layer of plant defenses and was nearly at the center.

The killing intent released from Yu Xiaoxiao's eyes was so intense that even the 'Dangerous Object' above felt a chill.

That was the overall state of the test. However, this test had encountered the effects of a major incident occurring in the desert.

The impact that had occurred against the wall surrounding the Testing Area earlier startled everyone in the monitoring and dispatch room. The impact had taken place outside the area where Yu Jing and Jiang Tian were being tested, and the pressure it caused was extraordinarily clear.

"Supervisor, Testing Area Six has detected obvious external pressure. A single impact has caused more than thirty percent damage. We've detected a plant attempting to invade the Testing Area. Its basic instinct is to absorb the organisms inside and replenish its energy. We recommend temporarily terminating the test and cooperating with the government to eliminate the escaped plant life."

Before the institute's supervisor, a staff member in charge of security reported the situation.

The supervisor had been optimistic about Yu Jing from the beginning, and Yu Jing's current report was also quite impressive. The institute had spent more than a billion on establishing this test. How could they give up so easily?

"There's no need to make things so complicated. I'll erase the small portion that broke away and escaped. Continue the test."

The supervisor rose from his seat and looked toward the monitoring screen showing Yu Jing. He was quite satisfied with the way the two had cooperated to injure the Butcher's head. If the Butcher had not obtained the special item 'Bloodstained Hand Axe,' he might have died from the severe wound. But the rampaging, mutated Butcher was no longer limited by the restrictions of an ordinary living creature.

"If he can survive, he'll definitely be a good seedling."