Unexpected Gains

Dense clusters of green light points, resembling fireflies, did not appear beautiful in this place; instead, they were exceptionally eerie. Luo Xia magnified his view through his Tactical Goggles, and realized these were no fireflies, but rather giant mutated rats.

These rats were about the size of house cats, and instead of fur, they were covered in scales, as if they had swapped their skin for that of a lizard.

Without needing anyone to explain, Luo Xia could tell these things were related to that lizard monster, perhaps even sharing a bloodline.

The intelligence of these mutated rats did not seem very high; upon seeing Luo Xia, they squeaked and lunged at him.

Their speed was not slow—or rather, it was extremely fast—leaping across distances of several meters and jumping higher than Luo Xia's chest.

Logically, Luo Xia only possessed the physical fitness of an ordinary person; even with various black-tech equipment, he should not have been able to handle these mutated rats pouncing from all directions simultaneously.

But in reality, Luo Xia taught these mutated rats a lesson, showing them that quantity does not always equal quality.

Just as the first mutated rat leaped, Luo Xia's Tactical Goggles and Sensor Glove simultaneously bloomed with a brilliant azure light, appearing exceptionally dazzling in the dark sewer.

The next moment, the hands Luo Xia used to grip his Pulse Pistol began to vibrate violently.

The pulse energy, which should have formed a single line, was whipped into a wall of bullet-barrage amidst this intense shaking.

Then, the first seven mutated rats to pounce were blasted backward with pinpoint precision by this wall of energy.

But Luo Xia's hands did not stop; instead, they shook up and down like ripples, resulting in the pulse energy carving a twisted line of covering fire across the ground, turning the mutated rats charging from the floor into piles of flesh and blood.

Clearly, the first wave of mutated rats had been blasted into fragments. In just two seconds, the vibration frequency of Luo Xia's hands exceeded 10 Hertz, meaning his hands had swung left, right, up, or down more than ten times in a single second.

This was not a movement a human could perform, nor was it Luo Xia temporarily breaking his limits.

Just after seeing these mutated rats, he had activated the auxiliary function of his Tactical Goggles and Sensor Glove—Target Lock.

Luo Xia's physical reflexes were not fast enough to hit so many mutated rats at once, but his eyes could capture all of them within his field of vision.

The rest was left to the Tactical Goggles and the Sensor Glove.

The Tactical Goggles could instantly calculate the speed, distance, kinetic energy, and trajectory of the pouncing rats, then mark their paths through computation.

The Sensor Glove would then automatically adjust the magnetic field, calibrate the aiming of the pistol, and pull the trigger on its own. Since the Pulse Pistol had extremely low recoil and the pulse energy was almost unaffected by gravity, the trajectory was perfectly straight.

Therefore, almost every shot hit its target with precision, and they were struck in rapid succession.

No sharpshooter in the world could hit a dozen high-speed moving targets with such precision in two seconds, but Luo Xia had easily accomplished this miracle relying on three pieces of equipment created by the AllSpark.

Throughout the entire process, all Luo Xia had to do was not blink for two seconds and spend a mere two points of AllSpark energy.

Even Hawkeye from S.H.I.E.L.D. could not achieve this level of performance with a bow and arrow.

The muzzle continued to fire, killing all the remaining mutated rats; the entire process took no more than ten seconds, and all thirty-two mutated rats were wiped out without exception.

"Hmm, it seems I'm about the same as a super-powered individual now," Luo Xia remarked.

Upon closer inspection, Luo Xia discovered that these mutated rats had remarkably strong self-healing abilities; several that had been blasted in two were still not dead, struggling to reconnect their bodies.

Luo Xia stepped on one of these severed mutated rats, crushing it into a pulp, which finally terminated the monster's regenerative ability.

"Such strong regenerative ability..." Luo Xia muttered to himself.

However, Luo Xia did not dwell on it; he walked through the blood-soaked mess and reached the end of the tunnel.

It was a dead end, but the terminus was not some filthy place, nor was it a pathetic, squalid nest; rather, it was a fairly advanced laboratory.

The three-hundred-square-meter space seemed to have undergone complex renovations, featuring computers decades more advanced than the old machine Skye used—and there was more than one—with various reagents Luo Xia couldn't identify neatly stored in a refrigerator, and even a sterile laboratory.

At this moment, a tall, thin man with one arm missing and wearing a tattered lab coat lay on the floor of the lab. In his remaining hand, he still clutched a syringe filled with green liquid.

It appeared this person was the giant lizard from earlier; he had used some kind of reagent to turn himself into a monster, and now that the effect had worn off, he had returned to his original state.

"Wow, this place must have cost a fortune," Luo Xia said, sighing as he walked into the lab and took the reagent from the man's hand.

Regardless of what it was, Luo Xia adhered to the principle of safety first.

Checking the man's pulse, he seemed to have only fainted, so Luo Xia pulled a few wires and bound him tightly.

"Violet, copy all the data and see what this monster is all about," Luo Xia ordered.

Violet transformed from her watch form into a robot, her fingers piercing the interface of the computer host. A massive stream of data and numerous cell images began to appear on all the monitors.

After a few minutes, Violet retracted her fingers and said to Luo Xia, "Commander, the data has been fully downloaded. It appears to be an experiment extracting biological self-healing genes; there is some professional data I cannot interpret. But judging by the experimental results, it seems to produce severe side effects. People who use this reagent will..."

As Violet was speaking, a voice from the side interrupted, "Will turn into a monster."

Luo Xia turned his head and found that the man he had tied up had woken up.

"Oh, you're awake. Can you tell us what's going on with this lab? Dr. Connors, or would you prefer I call you Godzilla?" Luo Xia looked at the data on the monitor and learned the man's name.

"That was just an accident," Dr. Connors explained.

"But it doesn't look like you intend to end this accident," Luo Xia said, pointing to the green reagents filling the refrigerator.

Luo Xia stared at Dr. Connors' face, which still retained a hint of green, feeling that the harvest from this sewer trip was far more than just retrieving the Energy Activation Device.

"Who exactly are you?" Dr. Connors asked, staring at the robot-formed Violet.