Laboratory Maelstrom

The countdown pulsed scarlet across the screen: 00:34, 00:33.

Fletcher's fingers trembled over the keyboard, his wrinkled eyes fixed on the red-marked line in the system log. Lin Xiao's breathing quickened behind his gas mask—someone was trying to take control of the system remotely. Nightingale? Or someone else?

"Can you trace the source?" Lin Xiao asked, his voice muffled through the mask.

"I need time... at least thirty seconds." Despair seeped into Fletcher's voice. "But we only have thirty-three."

Thirty-three seconds.

Lin Xiao's mind raced. A third party meant an unknown variable, but right now, that variable might be their only chance at survival. He looked at the console screen as the countdown ticked on mercilessly: 00:32, 00:31.

Blood Axe's footsteps drew closer through the fog. Each heavy step struck the ground like a war drum, making the floor tremble faintly. Lin Xiao could hear harsh breathing and metal scraping against pipes—the sound of weapons brushing the walls.

"He brought at least five men," Fletcher said quietly, raising his pistol. "Judging from the footsteps."

Lin Xiao did not answer. His gaze swept over the laboratory. Chilled white mist still rolled through the room, limiting visibility to less than three meters. Cracks webbed across the cultivation tank, and pale green liquid seeped through them, dripping onto the floor with sizzling corrosive sounds. The translucent "hand" remained pressed against the inner surface of the glass, its fingertips growing clearer and clearer, as if it could break through at any moment.

Countdown: 00:30, 00:29.

"The backup power is online." Fletcher suddenly spoke, hope flickering in his voice. "The external command is overwriting the self-destruct program... progress... fifteen percent."

Too slow.

Lin Xiao calculated the time. The overwrite would take at least twenty seconds, while the self-destruct countdown had only twenty-nine seconds left. Even if it succeeded, they would have only nine seconds of breathing room. What could they do in nine seconds?

Not enough to escape the blast radius.

Not enough to stop Blood Axe.

Not even enough to see what that creature really was.

Blood Axe's roar came from the mist. "Found you, you bastards!"

Gunfire erupted.

Bullets struck the edge of the console, showering sparks. Lin Xiao and Fletcher ducked at the same time. Lin Xiao fired back over his shoulder, his pistol flashing in the fog. He heard a muffled groan—he had hit someone.

But Blood Axe's footsteps did not stop.

The giant of a man charged out of the white mist, frost coating the lenses of his gas mask, yet he paid it no mind. He carried a modified assault rifle, smoke still curling from its muzzle. Four fully armed subordinates followed close behind him.

"Fletcher!" Blood Axe's voice came through the mask like a beast's growl. "Hand over the specimen!"

"You're insane!" Fletcher roared, fear and fury in his voice. "The cultivation tank is about to rupture! The self-destruct has only twenty-eight seconds left! We'll all die here!"

"Then we die together!" Blood Axe laughed wildly and pulled the trigger.

Bullets poured down like rain.

Lin Xiao dragged Fletcher down and rolled behind the console. Bullets hammered the metal surface with shrill impacts. One monitor shattered, sending glass fragments flying. Lin Xiao felt his cheek split open, warm blood running down his skin.

Countdown: 00:27, 00:26.

"Overwrite progress at forty percent," Fletcher panted, his fingers still hammering the keyboard. "Come on... faster..."

Lin Xiao peeked around the edge of the cover and fired two quick shots. One of Blood Axe's men went down, but the other three immediately returned fire. Bullets crisscrossed the laboratory, smashing more instruments and equipment. Somewhere, electric sparks crackled, followed by the dull boom of a short-circuit explosion.

A sharper cracking sound came from the direction of the cultivation tank.

Crack.

Crack, crack.

Lin Xiao turned his head. Through the rolling white mist, he saw the cracks racing across the glass surface of the cultivation tank, spreading at a visible speed. The translucent "hand" had pressed all five fingers against the glass, the fingertips sinking slightly into it—not from outside, but from within.

It was pushing.

It was trying to get out.

"It's awake..." Fletcher murmured. All fear had drained from his voice, leaving only a reverence that was almost religious. "It's really awake..."

Countdown: 00:25, 00:24.

"Overwrite progress at sixty percent!" Fletcher shouted.

Blood Axe had clearly noticed the abnormality in the cultivation tank as well. He stopped firing and turned toward it. Pale green liquid seeped from the cracks through the mist, dripping onto the floor and corroding small smoking pits into it. The outline of the "hand" became clearer and clearer. Its fingers were slender, its joints distinct, and its skin—if it could be called skin—was translucent enough to reveal a faint skeletal structure and liquid flowing within.

"What is that..." one of Blood Axe's men whispered, fear shaking his voice.

"Shut up!" Blood Axe roared, though his own voice trembled. "That belongs to us! It's our asset!"

He raised his rifle and aimed at the cultivation tank.

"No!" Fletcher screamed and rushed out.

Too late.

Blood Axe pulled the trigger.

The bullet struck the glass of the cultivation tank. The vessel, already covered in cracks, completely collapsed under that blow.

Boom—

It was not an explosion, but something stranger. Like a massive bubble bursting, or the sigh of a deep-sea leviathan. Glass shards sprayed outward like rain, and pale green liquid surged out like floodwater from a burst dam, instantly drowning the ground within three meters. The moment the liquid touched the floor, it hissed violently, white smoke rising and blending into the cold mist.

The "hand" reached out.

Then came an arm, a shoulder, a torso.

A complete humanoid form rose from the shattered cultivation tank.

Lin Xiao held his breath.

The creature stood around one meter eighty tall, with a slender frame and a completely translucent body. Beneath its "skin," a faint skeletal structure could be seen, along with pale green liquid flowing through veins—if those were veins. It had no facial features. Its face was a smooth, translucent surface with only two shallow depressions where eye sockets should have been. It stood there as liquid dripped from its body, each drop corroding a small pit into the floor.

It "looked" at Blood Axe.

Though it had no eyes, Lin Xiao could feel it—it was looking.

Blood Axe stepped back, the muzzle of his rifle trembling.

"F-Fire!" he shouted.

His men opened fire.

Bullets struck the creature's body with dull thuds. They did not penetrate—it embedded them in that translucent "skin," as if they had been fired into thick gelatin. The creature lowered its head to look at the bullet holes in its chest, then raised a "hand" and gently touched one of them with a finger.

The "skin" around the hole began to writhe.

Like a living thing, the translucent tissue wrapped around the bullets, swallowed them, and digested them. Seconds later, the holes vanished. Its skin returned to normal without leaving even the faintest mark.

"This... this is impossible..." a soldier muttered.

The creature raised its head and "looked" at Blood Axe again.

Then it moved.

It moved impossibly fast. One second it was five meters away; the next, it stood directly before Blood Axe. It did not run. It seemed to glide, moving like liquid. It stretched out its "hand," fingers splayed, and pressed it toward Blood Axe's chest.

Blood Axe instinctively raised his rifle to block.

The metal body of the rifle began to melt the instant it touched that "hand."

It was not melting from heat, but corrosion. The metal blackened, softened, and dissolved as if submerged in powerful acid. Blood Axe released it in terror. The rifle fell to the floor, already reduced to a puddle of smoking metallic sludge.

The creature's hand continued forward and pressed against Blood Axe's body armor.

The Kevlar fibers broke down at a visible rate. Blood Axe screamed and staggered backward, but the hand had already pierced his armor and pressed against his chest.

Hiss—

The sound of flesh corroding.

Blood Axe's scream filled the laboratory. He frantically struck at the hand, but the moment his palms touched that translucent skin, they too began to corrode. He stumbled back, a palm-sized corrosive wound already appearing on his chest, deep enough to expose bone.

"Captain!" his men rushed forward.

The creature turned.

Its "hand" swept outward.

It did not touch anyone, but the pale green liquid hanging in the air was swept along with the motion, forming a curved spray. The liquid splashed onto three soldiers.

Screams rose one after another.

The instant the liquid touched their skin, it began corroding them like concentrated sulfuric acid. One soldier was splashed in the face, and half his face melted away in seconds, exposing his stark white skull. He collapsed to the floor, twitching, his cries no longer human.

The other two fared no better. One had his arm corroded until bone showed through; the other was splashed across the chest, his body armor and flesh melting together.

The laboratory had become hell.

Countdown: 00:20, 00:19.

"Overwrite progress at eighty-five percent!" Fletcher shouted, wild joy in his voice. "We have a chance!"

Lin Xiao had no time to celebrate. He looked at the creature—it was "examining" its own hand, as if testing its newly acquired body. Then it turned toward Fletcher.

Fletcher froze.

The creature walked toward him. One step, then two. Liquid dripped from its body, leaving a trail of corroded footprints across the floor.

"D-Don't come closer..." Fletcher raised his pistol with trembling hands.

Lin Xiao rushed forward.

He slammed into Fletcher from the side, and the two rolled behind the other side of the console. The creature's hand swept through the spot where they had been standing, striking one corner of the console. The metal surface melted like butter, exposing circuit boards as electric sparks crackled.

Countdown: 00:18, 00:17.

"Overwrite progress at ninety-two percent!" Fletcher panted. "Almost there!"

The creature turned toward them. It seemed to have developed an interest in Lin Xiao—perhaps because he had saved Fletcher, or perhaps for some other reason. It walked toward Lin Xiao, its steps slow and unhurried.

Lin Xiao raised his pistol but did not fire. Blood Axe's men had already proven that bullets were useless against this creature. He needed another way.

He looked around the laboratory. The cold white fog still rolled about, but it had begun to thin. The leak from the gas storage tanks was slowing. Pale green liquid spread across the floor, corroding everything it touched. Nearby, a shattered rack of chemical reagents lay overturned, its liquids of many colors mixing together and releasing a pungent odor.

Countdown: 00:16, 00:15.

The creature was only three meters from Lin Xiao.

It extended its hand.

Lin Xiao backed away, but the console was behind him. There was nowhere left to retreat.

Then—

"Overwrite complete!" Fletcher screamed.

On the console screen, the countdown suddenly stopped.

00:14.

Then the numbers began to reverse.

00:15, 00:16, 00:17...

The self-destruct program had been overwritten.

But the crisis was not over.

The creature's hand had already reached in front of Lin Xiao. He could smell it—not rot, but a sharp chemical odor mixed with rust and ozone. That translucent hand was only ten centimeters from his face.

What should he do?

Shoot? Useless.

Run? Too late.

Wait to die?

No.

Lin Xiao made a decision.

He lowered his gun.

Then he raised his hand. He did not attack. Instead, he made a gesture—palm facing upward, fingers slightly open, almost as if extending an invitation.

The creature stopped.

It "looked" at Lin Xiao's hand, then "looked" at Lin Xiao's face, though it had no eyes. Lin Xiao could feel some kind of perception scanning him. It was not sight, not touch, but something more primal, more fundamental.

What was it reading?

His body temperature? His heartbeat? Bioelectricity? Or something deeper?

Time seemed to freeze.

Only the steady drip of liquid remained in the laboratory, along with the faint groans of the wounded in the distance. Blood Axe lay on the ground, white smoke still rising from his chest, but he was no longer screaming—he had either passed out or died. His surviving subordinates writhed on the floor, their corroded wounds leaving them in agony beyond endurance.

Fletcher hid behind the console, not daring to move.

The countdown continued reversing: 00:25, 00:26, 00:27...

The creature slowly lowered its hand.

It did not attack.

It turned and walked toward the ruins of the cultivation tank. Crouching down, it gently touched the shattered glass fragments with its translucent hands. The movement was strangely tender, as if it were caressing something precious.

Then it raised its head and "looked" at Lin Xiao again.

This time, Lin Xiao sensed no threat, only... curiosity?

The creature stood and walked deeper into the laboratory. Its figure gradually vanished into the lingering mist, leaving behind only a trail of corrosive footprints.

Lin Xiao let out a long breath and realized only then that cold sweat had soaked his entire body. He slid down against the console and sat on the floor, breathing heavily.

"It... it left?" Fletcher cautiously poked his head out from behind cover.

"For now," Lin Xiao said hoarsely.

He looked at the console screen. The countdown had returned to 01:00 before disappearing completely, replaced by the system's normal standby display. The self-destruct program had been successfully overwritten.

But who had done it?

Lin Xiao looked at Fletcher. "Did you trace the source?"

Fletcher checked the system logs, his expression turning grim. "The source... was encrypted. Multiple relays, and it finally vanished into the public network. But the initial access point... was inside the base network."

"Inside the base?" Lin Xiao frowned. "Other than us, who else has the ability to do that?"

Fletcher shook his head. "I don't know. In theory, no more than five people have that level of access—me, Blood Axe, and three senior researchers. But they all..."

He looked at the corpses and wounded on the floor.

Blood Axe was unconscious—or dead—and his men were dead or wounded. What about those three senior researchers? Lin Xiao recalled the battle just now. He did not remember seeing anyone in white lab coats.

"How many people were originally in the laboratory?" Lin Xiao asked.

"There should have been four on duty: two researchers and two technicians," Fletcher said. "But after the fighting started... I don't know where they went."

Lin Xiao stood and surveyed the area. The fog was dissipating quickly, and the full scope of the laboratory gradually became clear. It was larger than he had imagined, roughly the size of two basketball courts. Aside from the central console and cultivation tank area, rows of lab benches, equipment racks, and refrigerated cabinets lined the surroundings. Several tightly closed doors stood in the distance, likely leading to changing rooms, storage rooms, or offices.

Bodies and wounded people covered the floor. Conservatives and radicals lay mixed together, blood blending with pale green liquid to form grotesque patterns across the ground. The air reeked of blood, chemicals, and the acrid white smoke produced by corrosion.

Fewer than ten people were still alive, and most of them were badly injured.

Lin Xiao walked toward Blood Axe. The giant lay on the floor with a palm-sized corrosive wound in his chest, deep enough to reveal his ribs. The flesh around the wound had already turned black, but fortunately—or unfortunately—he was still alive. His breathing was weak, but it remained.

Lin Xiao crouched down and examined his injuries.

"He won't last long." Fletcher walked over, his voice cold. "That kind of corrosion... will continue. Even if we get him medical help now, he can't be saved."

Lin Xiao did not argue. He looked at Blood Axe's face—his gas mask had been half-corroded away, revealing the rugged face beneath. It was twisted in pain now. Even unconscious, his brow remained tightly furrowed.

"Why was he so obsessed with the specimen?" Lin Xiao asked.

Fletcher fell silent for a few seconds, then said, "Because he believed it was the key to power."

"Power?"

"Asset K... no, that creature. The abilities it displayed—rapid regeneration, powerful corrosiveness, immunity to attacks... If it could be controlled, if it could be replicated..." Fletcher's voice carried a feverish excitement, but it quickly dimmed. "But now it seems we were wrong. It can't be controlled. It... it's some kind of higher existence."

Lin Xiao recalled the look in the creature's eyes when it left—if those could even be called eyes. They were neither the eyes of a beast nor those of a machine. They were the eyes of intelligence.

"What is it?" Lin Xiao asked.

"I don't know," Fletcher said honestly. "When this project began, I was only a mid-level researcher. All I knew was that the sample had been dug out from deep beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, sealed in ice for at least a hundred thousand years. We thought it was some kind of ancient organism, or alien life-form... but now, it seemed it might be neither."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't know," Fletcher repeated, fear coloring his voice this time. "I only know that we opened a box we never should have opened."

Lin Xiao rose to his feet. He looked toward the depths of the laboratory, in the direction the creature had vanished. Most of the mist had dispersed, revealing a half-open door in the distance. Beyond it lay a dark passageway.

Where had it gone?

What would it do?

More importantly—who had remotely overridden the self-destruct protocol? What was their purpose? Had they saved them, or was it for something else?

Lin Xiao's encrypted communicator suddenly vibrated.

He pulled it out and saw an encrypted message from an unknown source on the screen:

[Laboratory status? Sample status? Report immediately.]

It was not Nightingale's coding style.

Lin Xiao frowned and replied:

[Who are you?]

A few seconds later, a response arrived:

[Friendly forces. Your clearance in the base has been temporarily raised to Level Three. Report the situation now.]

Level Three clearance? That was a level reserved for senior researchers and field commanders. Lin Xiao's public identity was only that of a peripheral undercover operative; in theory, he only had Level One clearance.

Who was this person? How had they done it?

Lin Xiao looked at Fletcher. "Who controls the base network right now?"

"In theory... it should be me," Fletcher said. "After the self-destruct program was overridden, system control should have automatically returned to the person with the highest clearance. And I'm the researcher with the highest clearance here."

"Check."

Fletcher returned to the console and entered a command. A few seconds later, his expression changed. "My clearance... has been downgraded. I only have Level Two now. Level Three clearance is held by an account codenamed 'Watcher.'"

"Watcher?" Lin Xiao frowned. "Is there someone with that codename in the base?"

"No." Fletcher shook his head. "At least not within the scope of my clearance."

Lin Xiao looked at the communicator. Was the person claiming to be "friendly forces" this "Watcher"?

He replied again:

[Sample has awakened and escaped control. Heavy laboratory casualties. Blood Axe is severely wounded. The self-destruct program was overridden. Who are you? What is your purpose?]

This time, the reply came quickly:

[Received. Execute cleanup protocol: First, ensure the sample does not leave the base perimeter; second, collect all experimental data; third, deal with the wounded, including Blood Axe. You have four hours. In four hours, the base will initiate the final purification protocol.]

The final purification protocol.

Lin Xiao knew what that was—it was Hydra's standard procedure in extreme circumstances: use high explosives to completely destroy the entire facility and erase all traces.

"They're going to blow this place up," Lin Xiao said to Fletcher.

Fletcher's face went deathly pale. "When?"

"Four hours from now."

"Then we..."

"Either we leave before then, or we get blown to pieces with this place," Lin Xiao said, his voice terrifyingly calm.

He looked at the people still alive in the laboratory. Three conservative faction soldiers remained, all wounded. Of the radical faction, aside from Blood Axe, two others were still groaning, but their injuries were too severe for them to survive another hour.

And there was that creature—it was still roaming the base.

Four hours.

They had to find it, or at least confirm that it had not left the base.

They had to collect the experimental data—data that might reveal its true nature.

They had to deal with the wounded... including Blood Axe.

Lin Xiao looked at the giant lying on the ground. Deal with meant kill. Hydra would not leave behind living witnesses who might leak its secrets, especially someone like Blood Axe, who knew too much.

But could he really do it?

Blood Axe was an enemy, someone who had nearly killed him. But now, the giant lay on the floor, barely clinging to life and utterly unable to resist. Killing him would be no different from an execution.

Lin Xiao tightened his grip on his gun.

Just then, a series of muffled explosions and deafening crashes of shattering glass erupted from deep within the laboratory!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sounds came from a deeper section, in the direction of the storage rooms or sample vaults. Then piercing alarms rang throughout the underground complex. Red warning lights flashed madly across the laboratory ceiling, staining everything blood-red.

A string of warnings appeared on the console screen:

[Warning: Level Two sample storage area has been damaged]

[Warning: incubation chamber array ruptured]

[Warning: abnormal biological activity detected in gas dispersion]

A terrified voice came through the internal speakers, broken by coughing and ragged breaths. "Incubation chambers ruptured! Samples leaked! Gas dispersion! I repeat, samples have leaked!! All personnel... immediately... cough cough... evacuate..."

It was some trapped technician.

Lin Xiao and Fletcher exchanged a glance.

That creature... had not left.

It was destroying the other incubation chambers.

It was releasing more "samples."