Snake Meat

Although he was curious, Hong Mo did not immediately open the two small boxes. Who knew what was inside? Luo Meiyue's strange state just now had left him deeply uneasy.

He should check the elevator shaft entrance first. It would be dangerous if the enemy got close without them noticing.

For some reason, Hong Mo now deeply disliked being near Luo Meiyue. Perhaps that single glance earlier had shaken him too badly.

The elevator shaft entrance had been covered by numerous heavy objects. From the looks of it, the other side would not be coming down anytime soon. Hong Mo peered upward through a gap. The silent, dark, bottomless elevator shaft was as terrifying as the gaping maw of a monster.

Of course, there was more than one elevator. The elevators in this research institute consisted of six elevator shafts arranged in a circle. However, Hong Mo found no sign of anyone descending through the other elevators.

Who exactly was the enemy? Hong Mo stared silently at the elevator entrance. Before long, those people above would probably come down to confirm whether he and Luo Meiyue were dead.

Hong Mo clenched his fists, only to discover that his body felt weak. Perhaps Luo Meiyue had been right—his body had been overdrawn. This was not good. If he faced the enemy without even basic strength... He should ask Luo Meiyue. Right now, she was the only person who might be able to help him.

By the time Hong Mo returned to the Sixth Sub-Nest, Luo Meiyue had already awakened. Her vertical, icy pupils stared at Hong Mo without the slightest emotion. A chill ran through him. His right hand curled slightly as the little remaining electricity in his body slowly gathered.

However, after glancing at Hong Mo, Luo Meiyue suddenly clutched her head and shook it repeatedly, looking somewhat pained. It took a long while before she calmed down, but this woman's condition had truly unsettled Hong Mo. Not fear exactly, but unease toward the unknown.

"I'm fine now." As though she had guessed what Hong Mo was worried about, Luo Meiyue smiled at him. An unnatural flush appeared on her pale face.

"Hmph." Hong Mo snorted. He did not care whether this woman was all right or not, but he did need her right now.

"Are your injuries healed?"

"I'm not sure. I haven't checked, but I feel very good now. Really good. I've more or less experienced what it feels like to be an esper now." Luo Meiyue stuck out her tongue and licked her lips.

Seeing that motion, Hong Mo felt an inexplicable wave of disgust. If Luo Meiyue had done that before, it would have looked alluring. Now, it only looked revolting. She looked just like a snake.

"Since there's nothing wrong with your body, let's discuss how to get out of here." Hong Mo cut her off.

"Get out of here? I'm afraid it won't be that easy. There's more than one elevator, but we can't guarantee that if we use another one, they won't pull the same trick again. I have no interest in experiencing that heart-racing feeling a second time." Luo Meiyue spread her hands.

As if he needed her to tell him that. Hong Mo was not an idiot. How could he have missed such an obvious point?

"So our best option is to stay put and wait for them to come down on their own." Luo Meiyue wagged a slender, pale finger.

Hong Mo closed his eyes and carefully weighed the pros and cons.

On the surface, lying in wait did seem like a good plan. But in reality? To the enemy, it might just be like catching turtles in a jar. Passively waiting was absolutely not an option. That would only lead them into a dead end.

"No." Hong Mo shook his head in refusal.

Luo Meiyue looked somewhat taken aback at his rejection. "You have another idea? Don't tell me you want to charge out on your own?"

"Yes, I'm leaving. If we stay here, there's only one road ahead—death. Forget everything else. Do we even have enough supplies here?" As he said this, Hong Mo realized that he had not eaten anything since waking up. After the fierce battle and the strain on his body, he was hollow with hunger.

"Is there anything to eat?" Hong Mo suddenly asked. Luo Meiyue also felt hunger rise from her stomach, only then realizing that lunchtime had long passed.

"No. The cafeteria is upstairs."

Hong Mo closed his eyes. After a while, he suddenly opened them. "Perhaps you misunderstood me. The food I mean isn't the food you normally eat. Anything edible will do. For example, meat."

"Meat?"

"Yeah." As Hong Mo answered, he thought of the experimental specimens in the cultivation tanks of the Eighth Sub-Nest. Those disgusting, twisted corpses of various creatures and humans—if there really was no food, would he have to eat... them?

The moment that thought surfaced, even Hong Mo himself felt a chill rise from deep within. He shook his head and forced the thought aside, but his heart remained unsettled. He could not guarantee that he would not truly do it in the end.

"If it's meat, there is some. Come with me." Only after Hong Mo's reminder did Luo Meiyue remember.

"A few days ago, a mutated giant python suddenly emerged from the sewers in the city center. After it was killed, part of it was brought here as research material. If you just want meat, I suppose this counts. But mutated creature meat doesn't taste good. Ordinary people have a very high chance of dying if they eat it." As she walked, Luo Meiyue explained it to Hong Mo.

"Dying?"

"Yeah. The flesh of mutated creatures has definitely undergone mutation, and those mutations differ according to the individual. So even if one mutated creature's flesh is edible, that doesn't mean another's will be. Do you still want to eat it?" The moment Hong Mo mentioned meat, Luo Meiyue knew that hunger had made him desperate.

Hong Mo took a deep breath. "I'll eat it. I will never sit here and wait to die."

After entering the Fourth Sub-Nest, Hong Mo finally saw the mutated giant python Luo Meiyue had mentioned, though it was only a corpse. In a refrigerated warehouse, an enormous mountain of flesh was piled at the center. Only after approaching did Hong Mo realize that the python was a full meter thick, while its length was impossible to determine.

Hong Mo sucked in a cold breath. He had originally thought that a mutated giant python would be no larger than the Amazon pythons he had seen online before. Who would have thought it would be this huge? Even a dead giant python exerted immense pressure.

"It's that big?"

"Big? Well, I suppose so. Among ordinary mutated snakes, it counts as a relatively large one. But the largest currently known is a type of sea python, over two meters in diameter and around two hundred meters long. Of course, many Chinese people call that kind of creature a flood dragon."

From this small glimpse, Hong Mo finally understood what sort of changes had occurred in the world during the time he had been asleep—changes vast enough to transform the world.

"There, that's the snake meat I mentioned. Didn't you say you wanted to eat it?" Luo Meiyue wore an expression as if watching a show.

"You're not seriously going to make me eat it like this, are you?" Hong Mo shot the woman a glance.

"What else do you want?"

"Where's the fire? At the very least, it needs to be cooked." Hong Mo looked at Luo Meiyue speechlessly.

"This is a research institute, not a kitchen. You want to find fire here? Are you kidding?" Luo Meiyue gave Hong Mo a disdainful look, as though asking whether he was an idiot.

Hong Mo looked coldly at the woman, wanting to know if she was deliberately trying to make a fool of him. He stared for a full minute, until even Luo Meiyue began to feel uncomfortable under his gaze, before finally looking away.

Taking a breath, Hong Mo picked up a scalpel from nearby. It had been left there by the institute staff who had dissected and studied the giant python.

He drove the scalpel deep into the python's body. It felt like cutting stone, and Hong Mo slowly carved off a chunk of snake meat. The dark red flesh gave off a rank, fishy stench even from a distance.

Without hesitation, Hong Mo took a savage bite and carefully chewed it in his mouth.

An extremely strange flavor spread through his mouth, and Hong Mo nearly vomited. This truly was not food that a normal person could endure. If possible, Hong Mo never wanted to take a second bite.