Is This Thing Really Transformed from a Human?

Raccoon City Police Department, underground facility.

Thud, thud, thud.

The suffocating footsteps of the Tyrant above them finally gradually faded away.

Following the secret passage, the group stumbled into an underground boiler room filled with steam and rusted pipes. The temperature was high, and the air reeked of rust and blood.

"Whew... that hat-wearing monster didn't chase us down." Wang Dong collapsed onto the floor, gasping heavily. "That scared me to death... I didn't even dare look back."

Huo Yuhao was examining Dai Huabin's injuries.

"The wound is infected. We need to find antiviral spray or green herbs." Huo Yuhao frowned. "Even if this is a game, if you turn into a zombie, you'll really die."

Dai Huabin's face was ashen as he gritted his teeth in silence. The pride of being the White Tiger Duke's son had been utterly smashed by the Tyrant's punch.

"There's a way ahead." Bei Bei pointed at the iron-barred passage before them. "We should reach the parking garage if we go through here."

The group got to their feet and cautiously entered the narrow rectangular platform.

Just then.

Clang! The metal grating overhead was suddenly ripped apart by brute force.

"G... G..." Amid pained, twisted groans, a man in a tattered white lab coat with disheveled hair fell from above.

He gripped a thick steel pipe, but the most eye-catching thing about him was his right arm.

That arm had completely mutated, swollen thicker than a thigh, its muscle fibers writhing wildly. A huge bloodshot eyeball had even grown from his shoulder.

[Boss Battle Triggered: G-Birkin (First Form)]

"This is... Dr. William?" Huo Yuhao, who had seen the opening cutscene, narrowed his eyes. "Watch out! He's no longer human!"

"I'll kill you... G is mine..." G1 William let out a roar and wildly swung the two-meter-long steel pipe with no technique whatsoever.

Whoosh! The pipe cut through the air and smashed straight toward Xu Sanshi, who was closest.

"Mother of—!" Xu Sanshi had no shield, but his instinct to flee was still intact. He dove into a roll and dodged, while the pipe smashed a crater into the spot where he had been standing, sending sparks flying.

"Open fire!!" Bei Bei roared.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Everyone fired their pistols in unison.

The bullets struck G1 William's body as though they had hit rubber, splashing only tiny flecks of blood. He seemed unable to feel pain and kept swinging the steel pipe madly.

"It's useless! This monster's hide is too thick!" Wang Dong cried urgently.

"Shoot the eye!" Huo Yuhao shouted amid the chaos. His Spirit Eyes were fixed firmly on the massive right shoulder. "That giant eyeball is its weak point!!"

"Leave it to me!" Bei Bei took a deep breath and forced himself to aim through his shaking vision.

Bang! One shot hit the huge eye on its shoulder.

"Ao—!!" G1 William let out a shrill scream. His movements instantly froze as he clutched his shoulder and howled in agony.

"It worked! It's staggered!"

"Focus fire! Hurry, focus fire!"

At that moment, the Shrek Seven Monsters' teamwork finally came into play.

"Xu Sanshi! Go lure it away! Don't let it get close to us!" Bei Bei commanded.

"Why is it always me?!" Xu Sanshi complained, but his body was honest. Holding a small knife, he rushed to the other side and shouted, "Hey! Big-Eye Monster! Look over here! Your Grandpa Xu is right here!"

G1 William was indeed enraged. Dragging the steel pipe, it charged toward Xu Sanshi.

"Now! Hit it from behind!" Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong seized the chance to circle to the side and unleash a barrage on the exposed eyeball.

Splat! The eye was blasted apart again, spraying yellow fluid everywhere.

For the Shrek Seven Monsters, this battle was an exceptionally difficult turn-based game.

Lure—dodge—shoot the eye—stagger—attack.

If even one step went wrong, a single graze from that steel pipe meant severe injury.

"Ammo! Watch your ammo!" Huo Yuhao kept reminding them. Their ammunition was limited, and every shot had to count.

Finally, during G1 William's last frenzied swing, Huo Yuhao seized the opportunity and accurately threw his last remaining grenade at the monster's feet.

Boom!!!

The blast wave knocked G1 William to the ground. Its mutated right arm was blown into a bloody mess, and it staggered back to the edge of the railing.

"G... Help..." It let out an unwilling wail, lost its balance, and toppled over the railing into the abyss.

"Whew... whew... whew..."

The battle ended, leaving only the group's ragged breathing on the narrow platform.

Xu Sanshi slumped onto the ground. In that battle, he had run at least eight hundred meters, practically running circles around a pillar.

"Is it dead? Is that monster dead?"

"It should be... dead for now." Huo Yuhao picked up a shell casing from the ground, his expression complicated. "That monster... was it really transformed from a human? Just a virus could turn humans into beasts that knew nothing but killing..."

Such mutations brought about by technology were simply too shocking for people from the Douluo Continent.

Compared to the natural power of soul beasts, these artificially created twisted monsters made them feel even more instinctive discomfort and fear.

"Don't dwell on it." Bei Bei helped Dai Huabin to his feet and looked at the ladder that had opened ahead. "Boss Lu said this was only the first stage. There's... a much longer road ahead."

"Let's go. To the parking garage. Hopefully... there'll be a car there to get us out of this hellhole."

What they did not know was that what awaited them was not a vehicle, but the filthiest, most disgusting, and most mentally taxing place in all of Raccoon City—the sewers.

Underground sewer area.

"Bleurgh..."

The moment they pushed open the heavy waterproof iron door, an overpowering stench wafted out—a mixture of rotting garbage, excrement, chemical waste, and corpses.

"I can't take it... I'm going to throw up..." Wang Dong's face turned deathly pale. He clamped his hands over his nose and mouth as tears were smoked from his eyes.

As the polished young master of the Clear Sky Sect, he normally spent ages dusting off even a speck of dirt from his clothes. Being made to enter an environment like this was worse than killing him.

"Endure it." Huo Yuhao walked at the front with a flashlight in hand. Though his voice remained calm, his brows were tightly furrowed. "This is the only path to the laboratory. If you want to live, you have to get through it."

Before them lay a broad channel of thick, dark brown liquid.

All kinds of unidentifiable things floated on the surface: garbage bags, broken planks, even bloated rat corpses.

"We... have to go in?" Xiao Xiao stared at the waist-deep sewage, her voice trembling. "Could there be those things in there?"

"There's no other way." Bei Bei sighed and jumped in first. The sewage splashed up, and that wet, slick, sticky sensation began creeping up his pant legs.

"It's fine, just a little dirty. Come down quickly. Don't fall behind!"

The others could only grit their teeth and jump in one by one. When it was Wang Dong's turn, he stood at the bank hesitating for a full minute before Dai Huabin kicked him in, getting revenge for being mocked earlier.

"Aahhh! Dai Huabin, I'm going to kill you!!" Wang Dong screamed in the sewage, feeling utterly filthy and unclean.

Gurgle... gurgle...

The previously still surface of the sewage suddenly bubbled violently, and a chilling low growl came from beneath the murky water.

"There's something in the water!" Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes immediately sounded the alarm. "Spread out! Get onto the high platforms by the bank!"

But it was already too late!

A massive, bloated creature that looked like a lump of rotten flesh slowly rose from the sewage.

It had no head—or rather, its head had completely degenerated into the swollen mass of tumors. Its body resembled a giant meatball, its surface covered with a black keratin layer and constantly writhing white parasites.

At what resembled its shoulder grew a huge, clouded eyeball, while at the center of its body was a gaping opening that constantly dripped yellow-green slime... an anus? Or perhaps a mouth?

"What the hell is that thing?!" Xu Sanshi was right beside the monster, staring at that heap of writhing rotten flesh from up close. "It's ten thousand times more disgusting than that Tyrant!!"

"Roar..." G Adult Form let out a gurgling sound. Its huge eyeball locked onto Xu Sanshi, then it suddenly lunged at him.

"Don't let it get close! Shoot the eye!" Huo Yuhao raised his gun and fired.

Bang! Bang! The bullets struck G Adult Form's thick fat layer and bounced straight off, without even splashing blood.

"This thing's hide is too thick! And it keeps moving, so we can't hit the eye on its shoulder at all!"

G Adult Form's attacks were bizarre and revolting. It did not use claws. Instead, it dove underwater and churned up a massive wave.

The next second, it suddenly burst up from beneath Xu Sanshi's feet!

"Wahhh!!" Xu Sanshi only had time to let out a strange cry before G Adult Form's giant mutated arm grabbed him and pinned him hard against that heap of rotten flesh.

Then the most despairing scene occurred.

G Adult Form did not bite him. The enormous slime-dripping mouth on its belly suddenly opened and aimed directly at Xu Sanshi's face.

"Bleurgh—!!!"

A stream of yellow-green vomit reeking of sour rot shot directly into Xu Sanshi's face like a high-pressure water cannon!

And it was not only liquid. Several red, maggot-like larvae were in that vomit, burrowing inward through Xu Sanshi's neck and ears!

"Aahhhhh!!!!" Xu Sanshi let out a heart-rending scream.

Not from pain, but from sheer, overwhelming disgust and terror.

"Help! Get it off me! Get it off me!! It got into my mouth! Bleurgh! Cough, cough, cough!"

"Sanshi!!" Bei Bei's eyes reddened. Throwing caution to the wind, he rushed forward and viciously smashed his gunstock into G Adult Form's eye.

Bang!

The heavy blow staggered G Adult Form. It released its grip, and Xu Sanshi fell into the water like a limp heap of mud, desperately washing his face with sewage while dry-heaving.

"Forget it! Run!!" Huo Yuhao threw a Flash Pod.

Bzzzt—! The intense light temporarily blinded the monster.

Dragging the mentally broken Xu Sanshi along, the group scrambled and crawled toward the treatment room deep within the sewers.

Inside the safe room.

"Whew... whew..." Xu Sanshi curled up in a corner, trembling all over.

His body was covered in that yellow-green slime, and he gave off a suffocatingly sour stench.

"I'm done playing... I'm done..." Xu Sanshi looked as if he was about to cry, his eyes vacant. "It's too disgusting... really too disgusting... I feel like those worms are still crawling around in my stomach..."

Wang Dong stood a full five meters away from him, covering his nose, looking disgusted yet faintly sympathetic.

"Senior Brother Sanshi... this..." Wang Dong wanted to comfort him, but the moment he thought of that scene, his stomach churned.

Huo Yuhao walked over and handed Xu Sanshi a blue herb he had just picked up.

"Eat it." Huo Yuhao's voice brooked no argument. "It's an antidote. Those larvae were poisonous. If you don't eat it, you'll keep losing health until you die."

"Eat it raw?" Xu Sanshi stared at the handful of weed-like grass in his hand.

"What else? Want me to stir-fry it for you?" Huo Yuhao said coldly. "You should be grateful there's anything to eat here."

Xu Sanshi closed his eyes and, with tears in them, stuffed the bitter herb into his mouth and swallowed it without even chewing.

"Listen." Huo Yuhao stood and swept his gaze across the battered group.

"That last stage didn't test marksmanship or courage. It tested endurance!"

Huo Yuhao pointed at the filthy sewer outside. "In extreme survival conditions, dignity, cleanliness, appearances... they're all burdens."

"If you refuse to enter the water because it's dirty, or refuse to get close because it's disgusting... then you're walking straight into death."

He turned to Wang Dong, his tone stern. "Wang Dong, you hesitated in the water just now. If that had been a poisonous swamp in reality, if enemies had been chasing us from behind, that one second of hesitation would have killed the entire team."

Wang Dong lowered his head, his face flushing bright red. He wanted to argue but could not say anything, because Huo Yuhao was right. If Dai Huabin had not kicked him, he might really have been too afraid to jump.

"Treat this place as training in hell." Huo Yuhao took a deep breath and wiped the grime from his face. "As long as you can survive, even rolling around in a cesspit is worth it."

The real world, second floor of the internet café.

Xuan Lao watched the screen. This time, he was not eating a chicken leg. Looking at Xu Sanshi's miserable state, he could not help baring his teeth. "This game... is far too brutal."

"I've seen plenty of disgusting evil soul masters in my life, but compared to this G Adult Form, those evil soul masters look downright pleasant."

Di Tian, on the other hand, was watching with great interest.

"Humans are so fussy." Di Tian commented. "In the swamp regions of the Star Dou Great Forest, rotting environments like that are everywhere. If you want to become a top predator, you can't have any physical squeamishness."

"Still..." Di Tian glanced at Huo Yuhao. "That kid's adaptability is truly impressive! In that situation just now, he was the only one who didn't show even the slightest look of disgust. All he thought about was using a Flash Pod to get them out of trouble."

"That absolute rationality... even without his power, he is still a terrifying opponent."