The Pale Forest

In many people's eyes, biotech companies are generally equated with bio-monsters, muscular superheroes, and mutated species.

To put it more vividly, aliens, zombies, lickers, and Predators are products of biotechnology companies.

As for the image of the company's employees, they are gloomy researchers in white coats.

However, at the Venus Life Safety Group, it is not like that at all. Every employee in the group is a handsome man or a beautiful woman, with no signs of modification, naturally unpolluted.

As for its products, they are closely related to beauty, health, and longevity. It has long monopolized the global cosmetics and health product markets, and the company's mission is to pursue the ultimate safety of life.

At this moment, inside the mechanical mainframe, every handsome man and beautiful woman was in working mode. The men were full of vigor and their eyes were like stars, while the women had sexy figures and exuded a strong sense of intelligence and competence. They were definitely not just pretty faces.

In a huge monitoring room, five people were either sitting or standing. In front of them was a huge holographic screen, on which were the senior engineer and the mainframe computer.

The senior engineer gently wielded the monomolecular filaments, his killing movements resembling a dance. The corpses of the radioactive beasts piled up like mountains around him, including many B-level leaders, and even a few whose bodies were half-radiated. The corpses alone exuded a terrifying pressure.

Grade A!

"It seems that our Mr. G is indeed much stronger than we imagined. As expected of the ancestor of hunters, even three A-level radioactive beasts could not stop him."

A man with a middle-part hairstyle and delicate, fair features, resembling a prince in an oil painting, was named Cain Venus, the newest head of the Venus family and also the highest-ranking executive sent to this corporate war.

"Since our opponents are so strong, we must go all out from the very beginning."

Another blonde, busty beauty spoke, glancing at Cain with a look of infatuation in her eyes.

"Hylena, stop being so horny, just hurry up and put it in!"

Another androgynous female executive, wearing headphones and sporting a colorful mohawk, slapped the other woman across the face and threw a data cable at her.

"You're hurting me, Judy."

"You're lucky I didn't kill you! Hurry up and connect me to the brain-computer interface!"

The female executive named Judy said impatiently, then lowered her head and plugged her data cable into the back of her head.

The other two executives did the same.

Hairoina's eyes flashed, and she said seductively to Cain, "Young Master Cain, I'm going to become one with you again."

"That would be my honor," Cain Venus said with a charming smile, also connecting to the brain-computer interface.

Then, the five data tubes were visibly coated with a flesh-colored layer, and at the same time, sucking sounds rang out.

It doesn't look like five data pipes, but rather five esophagus.

As a result, the clarity of the holographic screen increased, making it seem as if the two engineers were right in front of them.

When the holographic screen turned off, the five people in the chairs had vanished, leaving only five suits of different sizes on the chairs.

This once symbolized their existence.

"Boss, is your strength really that exaggerated?" The 'Main Brain' sent a series of awe-inspiring emojis. "Even the legendary God of War of the Mother City is no more than this."

Before him lay a massive corpse, cut in half. Even in half, it still exuded an aura of inviolability. The cut surface was covered with flesh and blood that resembled crystals, with blood and magma flowing around it.

A-grade radiation beast, Crimson Demon, a monster resembling a volcano. The aftershocks of the battle alone set several surrounding forests ablaze with raging flames, billowing smoke and flames shooting straight into the sky.

A moment later, a house-sized beast head crashed down, raising a cloud of dust. When the dust settled, it revealed a huge head resembling a lion, with countless invisible threads inserted into it.

Single-molecule wires have strong resistance to high temperatures and corrosion, but their weakness is that they cannot withstand energy attacks.

Coincidentally, the blood of this "Crimson Demon" was highly concentrated radiation. As its blood flowed out, the singlet lines emitted blue smoke and then broke one by one.

The senior engineer descended from the sky, and the broken metal wire twisted back into a silver-white arm. Then, within a few breaths, skin covered the surface of the arm again.

Shape memory metal durability -50%

Now only 450% remains.

Similarly, the senior engineer glanced at the metal panel and saw that four of the empty squares on the talent 'New Gene Biotic Grid' had lit up.

New Gene Biotype (Profession Exclusive): As a rare Beast Machine Modifier, you can absorb and store the innate power of other carbon-based species. If necessary, you can temporarily gain their power (maximum: 5) by awakening their genes.

Upon hearing the praise from the mainframe, the senior engineer countered with a question:

"Your old comrade-in-arms, Shan Shen, is a martial god. Don't you know his skill level?"

"Single God is the God of War?" The mainframe was startled. "That guy who can't utter a sound for ages?"

"A God of War is a God of War; there's no faking it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have become the vessel for the Gear Machine. What a pity—"

The senior engineer shook his head. It was a pity that this guy must have some inner demons. Otherwise, given his peak level, the senior engineer would have had to enter Orochi mode to suppress him.

Even after asking around, he still didn't fully understand why the other party would give up being a perfectly good mechanical warrior and go to someone else's house to become a henchman.

"However, four Class A radiation beasts should be the limit for this area. Even if Venus Life Safety is very capable, he probably won't be able to summon them in a short time."

A-level radiation beasts are not as common as cabbages; they can't be summoned at will. Even if the other party has some special technology, it would probably take a lot of effort just to suppress the bestial nature within an A-level beast.

The senior engineer went around to the back of the "lion's head" and, sure enough, there was a bloodstain nearly two meters long on the back of the other person's head.

"Moreover, if I were the other side, I would never resort to piecemeal tactics and instead have four A-rank beasts simultaneously launch a beast tide to attack me from four directions."

"But the other party didn't do that. Doesn't this indirectly show that controlling a radioactive beast with a brain-computer interface is much more difficult than controlling a human? After all, a radioactive beast is still a wild animal, just a higher-level one."

The place where the senior engineer is now is called the "Pale Forest". Further ahead is the City of the Dead. The plants here are all abnormally white and emit a low-level special radiation field, which can effectively block odors.

"Did these deformed trees prevent the spread of the virus?"

Once here, the senior engineer will have to find the factors that interfere with the spread of the "biochemical brain-computer interface virus" on his own.

Soon, the engineer captured a local wild animal, whose name he did not know, but whose skin was still sickly white.

The senior engineer had an idea. He extracted its genes and placed them into the "new gene biogrid".

"Let's go, let's take a look around the neighborhood and see if there are any human settlements."

The "mainframe" did not answer; its face screen transformed into a camera, capturing everything around it.

With their superhuman senses, the two quickly found a settlement that resembled human activity, complete with dilapidated tents and pots and pans, but no human presence was found.

The second stronghold was the same, except that it had some rough processing tools, such as sharpeners, hammers, and anvils.

At the third stronghold, the engineer even found some unused bullets.

"The most important rule for a field outpost is that you must never abandon your weapons, no matter what."

The senior engineer fiddled with a handful of gleaming yellow bullets, talking to himself.

"So, what exactly caused them to abandon even their weapons and ammunition?"

"Could it be related to brain-computer interfaces?"

"It's unlikely," the senior engineer shook his head and said, "This situation, where everything is there but there's no one, does resemble what you described."

"The dead... there really are dead!?"

The senior engineer nodded silently and plopped down on a worn-out cot.

"Keep an eye on things for me, I'm going to go online first."

While the "Electronic Brain Project" involves opening up people's brains everywhere, it's not without its benefits. With "brain infrastructure" all over the world, the internet speed is incredibly fast.

Using the internet, the senior engineer connected to one of Dugo Technologies's most secure bases, only to be enveloped by another massive data stream, rendering him immobile.

"Alright, stop playing around, little sister. I need to talk to you," the senior engineer said helplessly.