Rampage

Yang Ming was pondering how to refuse this reward.

In the projection screen, a few faint red laser beams flashed. The Valkyrie lying on the floor now had thumb-sized bloody holes in both her hands and feet.

Compared to the wound locations Yang Ming had suggested, there were two extra injuries at her shoulder joints.

The Captain, who was in the fire control cabin below, asked over the radio: "Do we need to inflict more injuries, Professor?"

"That's enough," Gigrov said immediately. "It's already enough. Don't hurt her anymore. Send in the assault team and put all the modified humans into deep hibernation. They are our precious results."

"Alright, Professor," the Captain's voice carried a hint of reluctance.

In the projection screen, two rows of Imperial Soldiers carrying laser guns and wearing protective suits rushed into the lower cabin, quickly pressing their knees against the necks of the modified humans one by one.

The Valkyrie suddenly opened her eyes, and red ripples burst forth again.

But the soldiers' helmets displayed a light blue protective film, shielding their fragile brains and sensitive brainwaves.

Just as Yang Ming had said earlier, when the Valkyrie's body suffered multiple penetrating wounds, she lost her ability to move.

Several syringes tried to pierce the Valkyrie's fair and smooth skin. Her limbs trembled continuously, but she couldn't move.

The built-in speakers of the main console transmitted the chaotic voices of the assault team members:

"My god! Captain, look, the Valkyrie's wounds are healing. The burn marks are already gone."

"Unlimited cell proliferation? Did she fuse with Zerg genes?"

"What kind of monster is this! Even though she looks pretty! Damn it, bring the thickest needle over. My needle can't pierce through!"

"Inject the hibernation serum through her wounds. Her skin has extremely high toughness... This really is a monster."

Gigrov said coldly: "Captain, tell your men to shut up!"

"Alright, Professor."

The Captain cut off the voice sync of the action team. The main console fell silent again, leaving only Gigrov's rapid, heavy breathing.

Yang Ming, standing behind him, hesitated as if wanting to speak.

Gigrov's breathing gradually steadied. He slowly turned around, his mechanical prosthetic eye flickering with dark red spots.

"Let's go, Hanton," Gigrov said, pulling himself together. "I'll personally perform the modification surgery on you."

Yang Ming quickly said: "Professor, I think... at a time like this, I need to go maintain the ship's equipment. After all, such a big commotion just happened."

"Hasn't this always been your wish?"

Gigrov stared at Yang Ming: "Why can't I see any happiness on your face, Hanton?"

"Professor," Yang Ming forced an ugly smile, "I just injured my head. I'm still feeling dizzy. I'm worried this might affect the success rate of the modification."

"This won't have any effect at all," Gigrov seemed to be searching for something on Yang Ming's face. "This is the reward you deserve, Hanton. Why do you feel to me like you've suddenly become a different person?"

Damn, am I about to be exposed?

Yang Ming was shocked by Gigrov's insight, and his mind raced to assess the current situation.

Don't be fooled by Brother Ji's relatively pleasant demeanor now—the guy was a twisted killer at his core, viewing life as cheaper than weeds.

If Brother Ji grew suspicious of him, his situation would become extremely dangerous.

But that 35% mortality rate...

"Professor, why don't we wait until this matter is over? I still have a lot of work to handle."

"I don't easily make promises to others, Lieutenant Hanton. And when I make a promise, I don't change my mind."

"But Professor!"

Yang Ming took half a step forward. Suddenly, heavy footsteps sounded from the side. Four guard soldiers appeared on either side, the red aiming dots of their laser guns landing on Yang Ming's forehead.

"No need to be nervous, Hanton. I understand you."

Gigrov leaned on his cane and walked toward the stairs, no longer looking at Yang Ming, but turning his head to say:

"Captain, personally escort Third Mate Hanton to the Backup Lab. Encourage this young man a little. Have my assistants prepare him, if they're still able to move."

The Captain, who had just left the console, looked at Yang Ming with a complicated gaze and made a "please" gesture to him.

"Thank you, Professor."

Yang Ming forced a smile and walked toward the Captain without looking back.

In the projection screen, the Valkyrie was carried by the soldiers to an experimental table nearby, quickly tied up like a zongzi, and more hibernation serum began to be injected.

The Captain was a meticulous soldier, completely loyal to the Empire and Professor Gigrov.

On the way to the Backup Lab under "escort," Yang Ming kept looking for a breakthrough—the moment they left the bridge, the moment they entered the elevator, the moment the elevator switched to a microgravity environment...

Every possible opportunity for resistance was sealed off by the experienced Captain.

From Hanton's memories, Yang Ming knew that when this situation occurred—when the soldiers on this ship unlocked the safeties on their laser guns and aimed at the experimental subject's head—it meant they were prepared to fire at any moment.

There had been incidents before where experimental subjects had their brains directly shot through.

The current situation was: being modified still offered a chance to survive, directly clashing with them offered slim odds of survival, and the modification itself still had some room for buffer.

'After all, there's still a 65% survival rate...'

Yang Ming thought to himself, finding bitter comfort.

The Backup Lab was on the floor just above the cargo hold; the now-functioning elevator brought them directly to the lab entrance.

The silver-gray alloy doors slid open left and right, and several lab personnel, having received orders in advance, stared nervously at the doorway, their faces still etched with lingering fear.

"Hanton," the Captain patted Yang Ming on the shoulder, "thank you. You might have just saved us from a disaster."

Yang Ming clenched his fist slightly.

If the real Hanton had been given such an opportunity, he would naturally have been overjoyed; his own current worry and resistance had already aroused Professor Gigrov's suspicion.

What's more, Yang Ming faintly sensed that Gigrov was observing him right now.

Soldiers stood nearby, cradling laser guns, their fingers near the triggers, and the biological safeties on the weapons were already disengaged.

That meant the soldiers had already received orders to kill Hanton at any moment, and the only one who could have issued such an order was Gigrov.

"Captain."

Yang Ming said in a low voice, "If possible, please suggest to the Professor that he use some more mature techniques on me. Only by staying alive can I serve the Empire."

Before the Captain could respond, the usually unremarkable Third Mate lowered his head, walked into the chamber, and calmly lay down on the experimental table. Without waiting for the soldiers to step forward and 'assist,' he placed his hands and feet in the designated positions, where restraints sprang up from below to bind them tightly.

'Perhaps the Professor has made an unwise decision.'

The Captain inexplicably had that thought.

Motioning for the soldiers to remain in the lab, the Captain turned and hurried toward the cargo hold, mentally rehearsing words that might plead for Third Mate Hanton without angering Professor Gigrov.

The wait on the experimental table felt excruciatingly long.

Yang Ming's mood shifted from the earlier anger and agitation to a gradual calm, a growing restraint.

This life was already a stroke of luck; now he just needed to find a way to survive.

Drip, drip, drip.

The sound of some instrument, whose source he couldn't identify, pulsed in perfect rhythm with his heartbeat.

Needles pricked the backs of his hands and feet; a cool liquid invaded his veins. Yang Ming felt his mind grow hazy and soon slipped into unconsciousness.

Drip, drip.

Yang Ming groggily opened his eyes and saw Gigrov, wearing a surgical cap and mask, focused intently on an instrument panel nearby.

"Professor, the Gene Stabilizer has extremely low rejection rates. It's an excellent subject."

"Should we try the Type-2 Gene Fluid, Professor? Or stick with the most conservative Type-1? After all, this is a loyal Imperial Soldier."

Gigrov said, "Go fetch Gene Fluid No. 6. This time, it might work."

"No. 6? Professor, that's the genome extracted from the Valkyrie... it only exists in theory..."

"Several of his key values are very close to Posa's back then," Gigrov's voice carried a hint of impatience. "If it weren't for the fact that the Ancient God's cellular tissue is now just a lump, I would have modified Hanton the same way I modified Posa! Move quickly—don't miss the window!"

"Yes, Professor."

Posa?

That's the Valkyrie's name? Quite a mouthful.

Yang Ming wanted to flip Gigrov the bird, but he was already under anesthesia, and his train of thought soon derailed.

He drifted in and out of unconsciousness for an unknown time—maybe moments, maybe hours.

Intense pain shattered the blank dream woven by the anesthetic.

The agony of being scorched by earthfire returned, as if he had been anesthetized and thrown into an incinerator, but this flame erupted from beneath his own skin outward.

"Pin him down with the mechanical arms!"

"Two doses of Gene Stabilizer! Inject them densely!"

"Bleed him! Arterial bleed, then infuse maintenance agents!"

These bastards!

Yang Ming roared from his mouth, roaring like a wild beast.

Vwoom—

A sound like ten thousand bees vibrating their wings at high speed suddenly exploded in his head.

Amid the pain, Yang Ming saw several rapidly flashing images.

[A Dark Cloud drifts in the silent starry sky, far from any stars, without a destination. It is matter belonging to this universe, a gift from the cosmos to possibility. It can think, it can feel existence. It is a lifeform.]

An Ancient God Lifeform?

In the throes of agony, Yang Ming forced himself to keep thinking.

Ancient God—a cosmic creature from The Abyss—refers to a special lifeform capable of surviving in near-vacuum environments without any external aid.

In the game, they usually existed as world bosses for legions, possessing terrifying destructive power, often with traits like Mental Control, Devouring, and Infinite Proliferation. Every appearance brought massive catastrophe.

If it could be said that the Ancient God Lifeform represented the ultimate path of individual lifeform evolution, then the classic antagonist of the Abyss, the Second Calamity Swarm, represented the ultimate evolution of the collective lifeform.

'Research on the Ancient God Lifeform is our shortcut to immortality.'

This was a line from a certain scene in Abyss.

Yang Ming suddenly understood.

The Valkyrie was the product of the Sherman Empire's research on the Ancient God Lifeform—a monster created by combining Ancient God cellular tissue with a human. That Ancient God had already revived inside the Valkyrie's body!

Other images surged forth continuously, but they were fragmented, incomplete, interwoven with the experiences of two lifeforms.

[The besieged 'Dark Cloud,' the Ancient God Lifeform gradually dissolving under the bombardment of the Star Destroyer, met its end.

A cute little girl with a ponytail held her father's big hand, playing in the glass-colored waves, her small feet kicking at the water.

'Posa.'

Her father's big hand gently stroked the girl's head.

'You will become the perfect lifeform.'

'Daddy, what is perfection?']

What?!

Yang Ming stared at the memory fragments, the pain and torment in his body fading slightly. He slowly looked up along with the little girl, and what came into view was Geglov's face, not yet fitted with his prosthetic eye.

Brother Ji and the Valkyrie were father and daughter!

That sly old fox had modified his own daughter!

The fragmented images faded like sparks, and Yang Ming's pain rapidly subsided, leaving only a sore, swollen sensation throughout his body.

Had he made it through?

Just then, Yang Ming heard Geglov's laughter: "Very good. Hanton's modification was quite successful. The gene stabilization coefficient is 0.92—that's an excellent value. Prepare a sufficient supply of Gene Stabilizing Potion and Nutrient Fluid for him..."

Geglov spoke on and on, with a tone of pride and satisfaction.

But Yang Ming had no mood to keep listening.

In a daze, he felt as if he were floating in a starry sky, with brilliant nebulae above and below.

He stood face to face with a floating girl ahead.

The girl was the Valkyrie. She was wrapped in a sacred, pure white light. Though she wore not a single thread, there was no lust or obscenity.

Goo goo woo—

A deep-sea whale song echoed through the starry sky.

Words surfaced in Yang Ming's heart, as if the Valkyrie were confiding, summoning.

How to interpret the information the Valkyrie was transmitting at this moment?

It was both vast and simple—a direct communication beyond language, at a higher level. If it had to be described in words humans could understand, it would probably be...

Combine? Devour? Return? Merge into one?

No, none of these were accurate.

The most precise translation should be:

'I want to eat you.'

Yang Ming trembled unconsciously.

The girl had directly revealed her desire for him!

In the Lower Deck Lab and the Backup Lab, on two similar experimental tables, a man and a woman, both bound, opened their eyes almost simultaneously.

Dense compound eyes appeared in the Valkyrie's pupils. In an instant, these compound eyes arranged themselves into a compact crystalline structure.

She opened her mouth and let out a silent shriek. A red energy wave radiated from her forehead, sweeping through the entire cabin in an instant.

The soldiers wearing anti-neural interference helmets clutched their heads and screamed. Over a dozen figures without sufficient protective gear slowly collapsed to the ground, their eyeballs bloodshot, blood streaming from their nostrils.

Explosions rang out from various instruments.

The high-energy ray emitters that had been continuously locking onto the Valkyrie lost contact with the bridge!

At the same time.

In the Backup Lab.

Yang Ming shook his head violently, the red light in his eyes fading instantly.

Without time to think, he shouted at the panicked staff nearby:

"Hurry up and untie me! The Valkyrie was hiding her strength before, waiting to hit you all with a big one! She wants to devour me now!"

The few experimenters left here looked utterly bewildered.

Geglov was not in the Lower Deck Lab at the moment.

"Trust me!"

Yang Ming faced the experimenters with a sincere expression: "Only I can stop the Valkyrie. This is a secret mission the professor gave me! For the glory of the Empire! The Imperial Star shines upon you and me!"

A flicker of hesitation appeared in the eyes of these experimenters.