New Species

"Ah!" The Tyrannosaurus Rex lunged out; it was already impossible for the Brontosaurus to escape.

A single bite ended the Brontosaurus's life. It was truly the King of Dinosaurs; after casually taking a few bites of the Brontosaurus, the Tyrannosaurus Rex noticed the three people standing together. It shook its massive head, let out a wild roar, and charged.

"It's coming. As long as you don't get bitten, you won't be one-shot. Keep an eye on its tail attacks, too. Just adapt to the situation, and we can stop once it's incapacitated." Zeng spoke first, then charged forward.

Heming and Deng were also ready. There were no tricks to use against a Tyrannosaurus Rex; its weakness was the abdomen between its hind legs, where the skin was thinner and vulnerable to powerful strikes.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex had a poor habit of biting: it liked to swing its head from the right, which gave it high accuracy but also left it with many openings. If Zeng could drive his spear directly into the beast's mouth, it would undoubtedly deal massive damage.

Zeng faced the Tyrannosaurus Rex head-on, aiming to drive his spear into its maw. Heming took the right flank, intending to attack from beneath the beast, while Deng found a tall tree to use as cover. While his pistol dealt the least damage, his marksmanship as a sharpshooter allowed him to land many bullets directly into the Tyrannosaurus Rex's mouth.

The action began. The Tyrannosaurus Rex attacked in its preferred manner, swinging its head from the right to bite. Unfortunately, Zeng had already seen through its movements. The moment the beast swung its head, he leaped, landing right on top of it. He had no time to waste; with a decisive strike, he drove his spear into the Tyrannosaurus Rex's left eye, though he was violently knocked away by the beast's head in the process.

The damage was unavoidable. Zeng collapsed to the ground, barely able to rise. Meanwhile, the Tyrannosaurus Rex thrashed its head in agony, trying to shake out the spear embedded in its eye, but it had no time for anything else. Heming had already snuck between its legs; one full-force strike here would surely bring the beast down.

Using the distance between the Tyrannosaurus Rex's feet, Heming leaped back and forth until he reached a position to strike its abdomen. He poured every ounce of his strength into a single punch...

It was a heavy blow. The Tyrannosaurus Rex collapsed to the ground in pain, and Heming was blown back by the resulting air pressure. Deng continued to fire. The Tyrannosaurus Rex could no longer stand; between the severe abdominal pain and the injury to its eye, it could only writhe violently on the ground.

Zeng walked over slowly and threw a capture net. Game over.

Shock... the entire audience was speechless... they had actually managed to capture the Tyrannosaurus Rex with all three members surviving... cheers and applause drowned out the game's audio.

Heming and the others walked out through the back door and got into their car.

Deng was ecstatic, as his Jurassic Park now had one more high-level dinosaur: a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Zeng, however, was complaining about how much it hurt when the Tyrannosaurus Rex had knocked him, while Deng hadn't received a scratch, and Heming had only suffered minor injuries.

The three of them were now preparing to head to the famous man-made lake, Stargazing Lake.

In the car, Heming asked Deng, "How did your work end up on the same mission as mine?"

Deng smiled and told Heming, "Oh, Kuo Ming found us both and asked us to check out that lake. Later, he said we might as well find you and go together. We were free anyway, so we agreed. Before you arrived, I dug up some information. Apparently, an alien transport vehicle once landed there, though that was a long time ago. I don't think that monster was intentionally left behind by aliens, but rather appeared under special circumstances. Either way, five people are already dead. If we don't go there, more will die. Fortunately, that thing only moves at night. The man-made lake mostly hosts tourists during the day; while there are people who swim at night, it's at least safer than the day."

Heming shook his head and said, "Maybe it's a mutated creature? How should we start our operation once we arrive?"

Deng pointed at Zeng, who was driving. Zeng said, "Once we arrive, we'll split up. I'll go to the lakeside patrol to ask about the situation, Deng will go to the management office, and Heming, you go explore the water. After all, we have to hold our breath when diving."

Heming nodded slightly.

It was Tuesday at Stargazing Lake, but there were still a great many tourists. The three of them got out of the car and went their separate ways.

Heming found a secluded spot and dove in. The man-made lake contained some special fish stocked by humans; these fish shared a common trait: they weren't afraid of people. This included the Freshwater Dolphins, which had been researched a year prior.

The lake wasn't deep. Heming reached the bottom without much effort, estimating the depth to be about ten meters. The water was relatively clear; anyone caught littering here faced a 10,000-yuan fine and a three-month ban from the lake.

There were no giant fish, no Water Centipedes. Heming swam around as if exploring an underwater world.

The Freshwater Dolphins were undoubtedly the highlight. Heming found them in the center of the lake; their meter-long bodies were pure white. Seeing Heming, they swam over quickly, almost as if they wanted to play with him.

Heming eventually bid the dolphins farewell and continued his search. In a patch of sand, an orange leather shoe caught his attention. He swam over quickly; the shoe was upside down, with the other side buried in the ground.

He suspected it was a victim's corpse. Heming quickly dug away the sand to reveal a woman; she was bloated, still wearing her clothes.

Heming wanted to bring the body to the surface, but fearing it would cause a panic, he used Necromancy to turn the corpse into a skeleton. Clearly, the skeleton couldn't function here and immediately fell apart.

The corpse was gone, but a strange object appeared before Heming's eyes—transparent, like an egg. He wasn't sure what was inside, but he knew that bringing it back would surely be helpful.

As he surfaced, the sunlight hit the egg, and before Heming could react, it melted...

What was this? Even Heming couldn't understand. The egg had clearly melted because of the sunlight, but why hadn't it melted when the sun hit it while it was underwater?

With his questions unanswered, Heming was the first to arrive at the meeting spot: the Lake Lobster Restaurant. He ordered a few things and began to lose himself in thought, but he wasn't left to ponder for long before a foreign woman interrupted his train of thought.

"Sir, could you help me apply some sunscreen?" The foreign woman gave off a pleasant vibe; while not stunningly beautiful, she was quite striking compared to the average person.

"Oh, no problem." Heming had received such requests many times back in Japan, and he was already quite skilled at applying sunscreen for others.

The sensation of touching her skin was excellent. Unlike the soft skin of the Japanese girls he had known, this foreign woman's skin had a texture that was very pleasing to the touch.

After Heming used his hands to unhook the woman's bra strap, he began applying the sunscreen, starting slowly from her shoulders...

Two minutes later, Heming finished his work, and the foreign woman was clearly very satisfied.

She invited Heming to dinner afterward, but seeing Zeng and Deng walking over, Heming had to decline. Fortunately, he left his phone number with her...

The three of them found a private booth and sat down.

Deng spoke first: "The management office's records show that three tourists went to the center of the lake three days ago, but only their rented boat returned. They left in the evening, and the boat was found in the morning. The other two people went missing by the lakeshore. It's confirmed that these incidents all happened at night. This news hasn't leaked yet. Oh, right, they also discovered that one of the Freshwater Dolphins is missing."

Zeng continued, "The lakeside patrol has been patrolling all night, every night, but unfortunately, they've never seen anything strange. However, they did provide a lead: on the night of the incident, someone saw a strange thing surrounding a human and swimming toward the center of the lake. Because it was night, the witness couldn't describe the creatures accurately, but they said the monster had many tentacles and was deep blue. The human was trapped inside its body. That's all."

Heming thought for a moment, integrated what he knew with what Zeng and Deng had revealed, and said, "I found a corpse, likely one of the five missing people. After I disposed of the body, I found an egg. It was transparent, with a strange little creature inside—round, about five centimeters or so. I didn't see any tentacles, but perhaps it wasn't fully developed. I intended to bring it to the shore, but it melted the moment I brought it out of the water. I think it was the sunlight, though I can't say for sure. It melted completely, leaving nothing behind. I found the body buried in the sand at the bottom of the lake."

After hearing Heming's explanation, Deng said gloomily, "Alien life. Only alien life would evolve incompletely. I think that thing must use prey to incubate its eggs, which explains why it comes out at night—it's afraid of sunlight. This kind of creature is the most troublesome. First, we have to figure out its habits, then find a way to wipe it out in one go. The most disgusting part is that these alien creatures usually have some perverted abilities—invisibility, shapeshifting, parasitism, you name it..." Deng wanted to continue, but Zeng interrupted him.

"At least there's one good thing: we're the first to discover it, so we get to name it. But first, we have to find it and take a picture. Once we have the photo, we can wipe it out completely. Let's go rest for a while. We'll dive into the water tonight and wait. Its offspring was destroyed, so it will definitely take action tonight."

Zeng stood up and walked out first, followed by Deng. Just as Heming was about to go for a walk on the beach, his phone rang.

"Hello, is this Heming? It's Ming Ying!"

"Ah, it's me. What's the matter?" Heming was surprised; why would Ming Ying be calling him?

"It's like this: a girl came to the company today asking for your whereabouts, and I happened to run into her. Seeing how she was crying, I brought her to my office. She told me that the two girls you saved last time were murdered, and someone was targeting her. She managed to escape to me, but her family has already been killed. Although I sent Ming Yin over, they were already dead by the time he arrived. It's certain that an ability user did it, though likely not a high-level one. Anyway, you continue with your mission. I'll take care of this girl for you. Come back when you've finished the task. I've arranged for her to stay at the company with me, so don't worry."

"Right, okay. I will finish the mission as soon as possible and hurry back. I'll leave her in your care for now." Heming began to regret why he had rushed over to the United States so soon...

"Mm, don't you worry. I'll help you look into this matter first. I'm hanging up now; I'll contact you if anything comes up. Bye."

"Bye." Heming's mind was in complete turmoil, and he had no idea what he should do. He stood up and walked out of the private room.

Heming stared blankly at the lakeside, not even sure what he was thinking about. He gazed at the water, reflecting on everything that had happened over the past few days. Perhaps this was what they called life. Now that he possessed these abilities, he should do things worthy of them. First, he had to complete the mission here, then return to Japan. That's right—a debt of blood must be paid in blood...

Having thought it through, Heming's mood seemed to lift significantly. He no longer stared blankly at the lake, but instead watched a few girls playing volleyball not far away. How nice, bouncing up and down...