Landing

The viscous liquid sprayed across the cabin door and splattered everywhere. Wherever it landed, white smoke hissed up, filling the air with an unbearable stench.

Some unlucky passengers got splashed on their skin. Their flesh immediately turned black, smoked, and cracked, as if it had been scorched by raging flames. They cried out in agony, but even dousing the burns with mineral water did nothing.

After the door was hit by the spray, countless white bubbles immediately formed on its metal surface, and a foul odor filled the air. The Mutant charged forward and swung another punch. The door caved in further, and the deepest part of the dent even split open, exposing the components hidden inside.

In no time, even the sturdy cabin door had failed to withstand the relentless pounding. A fist-sized hole was smashed through it, large enough to see into the cockpit. The Bearded Captain seemed to have lost his nerve. He shouted hoarsely at the ground control tower while making the plane perform one difficult maneuver after another, doing everything he could to stop the Mutant from keeping its balance.

But by then, the Mutant had also spotted Fang Linyan through the hole. Its eyes burned with hatred as it fixed its gaze on him. Then, as if its intelligence had suddenly increased, it began grabbing onto anything nearby that could help it brace itself, slowly edging toward the cabin door.

At that moment, the Bearded Captain cried out urgently:

"We're here! We're here! The airport's just ahead!"

As he spoke, the plane began a diving glide to slow down and prepare for landing.

But the Mutant seized the rare moment of stability before landing and suddenly surged forward, slamming into the battered cabin door. The door groaned painfully. The Mutant's right arm was even scraped raw, a large patch of flesh torn away to expose the bone beneath.

It ignored the injury and kept ramming the door with its mangled right arm. Sharp components inside the door pierced its muscles and even drove into its bones, but the door was also beginning to buckle violently. It looked as though it was about to be forced open.

Fang Linyan stepped forward, already gripping the Voodoo Doll. A Blood Spider sprang nimbly out and pounced on the Mutant. The monster let out a terrible scream, fell to its knees, and clutched its head, howling in agony.

Amid the chaos, the Bearded Captain glanced back. His heart finally eased, and he gripped the controls before diving toward the runway. After a series of violent jolts, the plane landed safely. A long plume of white smoke billowed from the tires on the landing gear as it finally returned to Boston Airport.

As soon as the plane came to a slow stop, multiple police cars had already surrounded it. A large number of heavily armed SWAT officers were there too. Why was the response so intense?

Because twenty minutes earlier, a hijacked plane had carried out a suicide attack, crashing into the Pentagon.

Then, ten minutes ago, news had arrived that another hijacked airliner had gone berserk and slammed into a world-famous skyscraper. The entire country was in an uproar, and the damage was staggering.

So, barring any surprises, this returning plane should also have been hijacked and used in a terrorist attack. But something highly bizarre had happened on board, and the plane had returned almost completely intact. By now, the eyes of all America—and even the entire world—were fixed on it.

Once the plane had landed and come to a stop, all its exits were quickly opened. The passengers poured out like dumplings from a pot, frantically jumping down. The airport had naturally prepared for this and began calming and screening them one by one.

At that moment, cold sweat broke out across Fang Linyan's back. The Blood Spider's cooldown hadn't ended, but the Mutant had already begun recovering and was savagely attacking the barely holding cabin door. It could break through at any moment.

Fortunately, the pilot didn't know that Fang Linyan was the Mutant's target. He opened the nearby door as quickly as he could, then, without waiting for a ladder, gritted his teeth and jumped down. Despite crashing to the ground with a series of pained cries, he endured the pain, scrambled to his feet, and ran for his life.

Fang Linyan naturally followed close behind and jumped down too. He stumbled on landing, then staggered away at a run. Barely two or three seconds after he hit the ground, the Test Subject charged out in savage pursuit.

Someone was already ordering Fang Linyan to raise his hands, put them behind his head, and lie face down on the ground. He raised his hands and shouted that he wasn't a terrorist and was harmless, and that the guy behind him was the real threat, all while continuing to run for his life.

After seeing the Test Subject's savage, blood-soaked appearance, the other cops and SWAT officers grew more alert. They raised their guns, aimed at it, and shouted for it to stop. The Test Subject ignored them, instead launching itself at a cop standing in its path.

At that point, the Test Subject appeared to be covered in injuries from breaking through the cabin door, seemingly gravely wounded. In reality, the Gerard Parasite inside it had gained a firmer hold over its host body, making it considerably stronger.

It bent its legs sharply. The muscle fibers in its thighs even tore from the force of its movement. Then its whole body shot forward like a giant frog, moving at astonishing speed. The cop it had targeted seemed not to have even registered what was happening before he was sent flying in less than a second.

That wasn't all. While still in the air, the Test Subject smashed an elbow into the cop's head. Blood immediately spurted from the man's mouth and nose, and his skull caved in by at least ten centimeters. His skull had likely shattered into fragments and mixed with his brain. He died convulsing without making a sound.

The Mutant sank its teeth into the corpse's throat and greedily sucked at it, sweeping its surroundings with blood-red eyes, both vicious and venomous. Seeing this, the well-trained cops and special forces officers around it felt a chill run through them. They knew the creature before them could no longer be described as human. At the captain's order, they opened fire without hesitation.

Gunfire erupted at once, crackling like beans frying in a pan!

Seeing this, Fang Linyan finally let out a long breath. The Mutant was powerful, but it wasn't so monstrous that it could withstand a dozen semiautomatic rifles firing continuously. The stopping power of 7.62-millimeter steel-core bullets was in no way comparable to that of ordinary pistol rounds.