Laboratory Maelstrom

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

Fletcher's fingers trembled over the keyboard, his wrinkled eyes locked on the line of red-highlighted text in the system log. Lin Xiao's breathing quickened inside his gas mask—someone was trying to remotely seize control of the system. 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 intervention meant an unknown variable, but right now, that variable might be their only chance at survival. He looked at the console screen, where the countdown ticked mercilessly: 00:32, 00:31.

Through the fog, Blood Axe's footsteps drew closer. Each heavy footfall struck like a war drum, making the ground tremble faintly. Lin Xiao could hear ragged breathing, along with the scrape of metal—the sound of weapons striking the pipe-lined walls.

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

Lin Xiao did not answer. His gaze swept across the laboratory. The frigid white mist still churned, visibility reduced to less than three meters. Cracks webbed across the cultivation tank, and pale green liquid seeped from the fissures, dripping onto the floor with a hissing corrosive sound. The translucent "hand" remained pressed against the inner surface of the glass, its fingertips becoming clearer and clearer, as if it could break through at any moment.

Countdown: 00:30, 00:29.

"Backup power connected successfully," Fletcher suddenly said, a trace of hope in his voice. "The external command is overriding the self-destruct program... progress... fifteen percent."

Too slow.

Lin Xiao calculated the timing. The override 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, spraying sparks. Lin Xiao and Fletcher ducked at the same time. Lin Xiao fired back over his shoulder, his pistol flashing through 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, but he paid it no mind. He held a modified assault rifle, its muzzle still smoking. Four armed subordinates emerged close behind him.

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

"You're insane!" Fletcher shouted, fury and fear 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 cackled as he pulled the trigger.

Bullets poured down like rain.

Lin Xiao dragged Fletcher behind the console. Bullets slammed into the metal surface with ear-splitting impacts. A monitor shattered, spraying glass shards everywhere. Lin Xiao felt his cheek split open, warm blood running down his skin.

Countdown: 00:27, 00:26.

"Override progress: forty percent," Fletcher said between gasps, his fingers still pounding the keyboard. "Hurry... faster..."

Lin Xiao peered around the edge of cover and fired two quick shots. One of Blood Axe's men went down, but the other three immediately returned fire. Bullets tore through the laboratory, smashing more instruments and equipment. Somewhere, electrical 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, crack.

Lin Xiao turned to look. Through the rolling white mist, he saw the cracks spreading across the cultivation tank's glass at a visible rate. The translucent "hand" had pressed all five fingers against the glass, its fingertips indenting slightly—not from outside, but from within.

It was pushing.

It was trying to get out.

"It's awake..." Fletcher murmured. There was no fear left in his voice, only a reverence that was almost religious. "It really woke up..."

Countdown: 00:25, 00:24.

"Override progress: sixty percent!" Fletcher shouted.

Blood Axe had clearly noticed the abnormality in the cultivation tank as well. He stopped firing and turned toward it. Through the fog, pale green liquid leaked from the cracks and dripped onto the ground, eating small, smoking pits into the floor. The outline of that "hand" grew ever clearer: slender fingers, distinct joints, translucent skin—if it could be called skin—through which faint bone structures and flowing liquid could be seen.

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

"Shut up!" Blood Axe roared, though his own voice trembled. "It's ours! 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 bullets struck the glass of the cultivation tank. The chamber, already covered in cracks, completely collapsed under that blow.

Boom—

It was not an explosion, but something stranger. Like an enormous bubble bursting, or the sigh of a deep-sea leviathan. Glass shards scattered like rain, and pale green liquid burst forth like a breached dam, instantly flooding the ground within three meters. The instant it touched the floor, it hissed violently, white smoke rising and merging with the frigid mist.

That "hand" reached out.

Then came an arm, a shoulder, a torso.

A complete humanoid rose from the shattered cultivation tank.

Lin Xiao held his breath.

The creature stood around one meter eighty tall, with a slender body and a completely translucent form. Faint skeletal structures could be seen beneath its "skin," along with some kind of pale green fluid flowing through vessels—if those were vessels. It had no facial features—only a smooth translucent surface where its face should have been, with two shallow depressions where eye sockets might be. It stood there as liquid dripped from its body, every 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 took a step back, his rifle trembling in his hands.

"F-Fire!" he roared.

His men opened fire.

Bullets struck the creature with dull thudding sounds. They did not penetrate—they lodged in its translucent "skin," as though they had been fired into some viscous gel. The creature lowered its head to look at the bullet holes in its chest, then raised its "hand" and lightly touched one of them with a finger.

The "skin" around the wound began to writhe.

Like living things, the translucent tissues wrapped around the bullets, consuming and digesting them. Seconds later, the holes vanished, its skin restored as if nothing had happened, without leaving even the slightest trace.

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

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

Then it moved.

Its movements were unbelievably fast. One second it was five meters away; the next, it stood in front of Blood Axe. It did not run. It was more like gliding, moving with the fluidity of liquid. It stretched out its "hand," fingers spread, 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."

Not from heat, but corrosion. The metal blackened, softened, and dissolved as if soaked in concentrated acid. Blood Axe released it in terror. The rifle fell to the floor, already transformed into a puddle of smoking metallic sludge.

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

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

Hiss—

The sound of flesh corroding.

Blood Axe's screams rang through the entire laboratory. He frantically struck at the hand, but the moment his palms touched its translucent skin, they too began to corrode. He staggered backward, a palm-sized corrosive wound opening in his chest, deep enough to reveal bone.

"Captain!" His men rushed forward.

The creature turned.

Its "hand" swept out.

It did not touch anyone, but the pale green liquid hanging in the air was carried along with the motion, forming an arc of fluid. The liquid splashed onto three soldiers.

Screams rose one after another.

The instant the liquid touched their skin, it corroded like concentrated sulfuric acid. One soldier was splashed in the face, and half his face melted away within seconds, exposing a stark white skull. He collapsed to the ground, convulsing, his cries no longer human.

The other two soldiers fared no better. One had an arm corroded down to exposed bone; the other had his chest splashed, his body armor and flesh melting together.

The laboratory had become hell.

Countdown: 00:20, 00:19.

"Override progress: 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 "observing" 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 corrosive footprints across the floor.

"D-Don't... don't come closer..." Fletcher trembled as he raised his pistol.

Lin Xiao rushed out.

He slammed into Fletcher from the side, and both men rolled behind the other side of the console. The creature's hand swept through the spot where they had just stood and struck a corner of the console. The metal surface melted like butter, exposing circuit boards as electrical sparks crackled.

Countdown: 00:18, 00:17.

"Override progress: ninety-two percent!" Fletcher said, gasping. "Almost there!"

The creature turned toward them. It seemed to have taken 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 frigid white mist still churned, 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. Somewhere nearby, a shattered chemical reagent rack lay overturned, liquids of various colors mixed together and gave off a pungent smell.

Countdown: 00:16, 00:15.

The creature was only three meters from Lin Xiao.

It reached out its hand.

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

Just then—

"Override 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 overridden.

But the crisis was not over.

The creature's hand had already reached in front of Lin Xiao. He could smell it—not decay, but a pungent 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 upward, fingers slightly spread, almost 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. Not sight, not touch, but something more primitive, more fundamental.

What was it reading?

Body temperature? Heartbeat? Bioelectricity? Or something deeper?

Time seemed to freeze.

Only the 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 men 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 to reverse: 00:25, 00:26, 00:27...

The creature slowly lowered its hand.

It did not attack.

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

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

This time, what Lin Xiao felt was no longer menace, but... curiosity?

The creature stood and walked toward the depths of 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, only then realizing that his entire body was drenched in cold sweat. 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, then vanished completely, replaced by the system's normal standby interface. The self-destruct program had been successfully overridden.

But who had overridden it?

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

Fletcher checked the system log, his face turning grave. "The source... is encrypted. Multiple hops, then it disappears into the public network. But the initial access point... was the base's internal network."

"Inside the base?" Lin Xiao frowned. "Besides us, who else could have done this?"

Fletcher shook his head. "I don't know. In theory, no more than five people have that authority—I do, Blood Axe does, and three senior researchers. But they're all..."

He looked at the corpses and wounded scattered across the floor.

Blood Axe was unconscious—or dead—and his men were either dead or injured. But where were the three senior researchers? Lin Xiao recalled the fight just now—he did not remember seeing anyone in lab coats.

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

"There should have been four people 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 mist was dissipating rapidly, and the full scale of the laboratory gradually came into view. It was larger than he had imagined, roughly the size of two basketball courts. Besides the central console and cultivation tank area, there were rows of worktables, equipment racks, and refrigerated cabinets around the perimeter. In the distance stood several tightly shut doors, likely leading to changing rooms, storage rooms, or offices.

Bodies and wounded people covered the floor. Members of the Conservative Faction and the Radical Faction lay mixed together, blood mingling with pale green liquid to form bizarre patterns across the ground. The air reeked of blood, chemicals, and the harsh white smoke produced by corrosion.

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

Lin Xiao walked over to 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 blackened, but fortunately—or unfortunately—he was still alive. His breathing was faint, but it was there.

Lin Xiao crouched beside him and examined his injuries.

"He won't live much longer." 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 corroded away halfway, revealing the rugged face beneath. It was filled with pain now. Even unconscious, his brow remained tightly furrowed.

"Why was he so obsessed with the sample?" 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, extreme corrosiveness, immunity to attacks... If it could be controlled, if it could be replicated..." Fletcher's voice carried a feverish excitement, but it quickly faded. "But now, it seems we were wrong. It cannot be controlled. It... it is some kind of higher existence."

Lin Xiao recalled the creature's gaze as it had left—if it could even be called a gaze. It had not been the gaze of a beast, nor that of a machine. It had been the gaze 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 excavated from deep beneath the Antarctic ice sheet, where it had been sealed in ice for at least a hundred thousand years. We thought it was some ancient organism, or an extraterrestrial life-form... but now, it seemed it might be neither."

"Then what is it?"

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

Lin Xiao stood up. He looked toward the depths of the laboratory, in the direction where the creature had vanished. The fog had mostly dispersed, and in the distance, he could see a half-open door leading into a dark passageway.

Where had it gone?

What would it do?

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

Lin Xiao's encrypted communicator suddenly vibrated.

He took 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 reply arrived:

[Ally. Your clearance in the base has been temporarily raised to Level Three. Now report the situation.]

Level-Three clearance? That was a level reserved for senior researchers and field commanders. Lin Xiao's public identity was merely that of an outer-ring undercover agent; 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 now?"

"Theoretically... I should," Fletcher said. "After the self-destruct program was overridden, system control should have automatically reverted 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 his communicator. Was the person calling themselves an "ally" the Watcher?

He replied again:

[Sample has awakened and broken free of control. Heavy casualties in the laboratory. Blood Axe is severely injured. The self-destruct program has been 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—the 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 told 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 it," Lin Xiao said, his voice terrifyingly calm.

He looked at the people still alive in the laboratory. Three soldiers from the Conservative Faction remained, all wounded. Of the Radical Faction members, aside from Blood Axe, two were still groaning, but their injuries were so severe they would not 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 on the ground. Deal with meant kill. Hydra would not leave behind survivors who might leak secrets, especially someone like Blood Axe, who knew far 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 ground, barely alive 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 the tremendous crash of shattering glass suddenly erupted from deep within the laboratory!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sounds came from deeper inside, seemingly from the storage rooms or the sample vaults. Immediately afterward, a piercing alarm rang throughout the underground complex. Red warning lights flashed wildly 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 breached]

[Warning: Incubation chamber array ruptured]

[Warning: Abnormal biological activity detected in gas dispersion]

A terrified voice came through the internal loudspeakers, broken by coughing and ragged breaths. "The incubation chambers have ruptured! Samples are leaking! Gas dispersal! I repeat, samples are leaking!! All personnel... evacuate immediately... cough cough..."

It was some trapped technician.

Lin Xiao and Fletcher exchanged a look.

That creature... had not left.

It was destroying the other incubation chambers.

It was releasing more "samples."