Lin Xiao stared at the fresh scrape marks on the ventilation duct opening. The metal surface reflected a cold gleam beneath the laboratory lights. Hansen and Miller had already risen to their feet and begun checking their gear, preparing to withdraw. The purification system's suction roared continuously beside them. The air in the laboratory was gradually clearing, yet that cloying, rotten stench still lingered faintly.
Lin Xiao's fingers unconsciously rubbed the hilt of his dagger as the mysterious figure's movements replayed in his mind again and again—skilled, precise, utterly without hesitation, as though the transfer amid the chaos had been planned long in advance.
He turned to Hansen and Miller. "We should get out. Fletcher is waiting."
But as he stepped toward the laboratory entrance, his gaze swept over the duct opening once more. The container was no longer there. It was moving through the ventilation system's dark passages, its destination unknown and its purpose unclear.
And Lin Xiao knew that some things, once released, could never be taken back.
The three retraced their route, passing through the laboratory's now-clearing spaces. The purification system was still operating at full power, its thunderous suction echoing through the empty hall like the breathing of some colossal beast. The mist had mostly dispersed, but blue liquid continued to flow across the floor, corroding the metal plating with faint hissing sounds.
Hansen walked on Lin Xiao's left, moisture clinging to his gas mask lenses. "Captain, those creatures... did they really leave?"
"They left," Lin Xiao answered shortly, his eyes scanning the depths of the laboratory. The door to the emergency exit passage stood half-open, with nothing but darkness beyond it. The sample creatures had indeed all withdrawn, following that translucent creature into the unknown depths of the base.
Miller walked to the right, his gun still aimed ahead, though his movements had visibly relaxed. "I've never seen anything like that... They looked intelligent."
"They have some kind of behavioral pattern," Lin Xiao said. "But now isn't the time to discuss it."
They passed the last shattered cultivation chamber base. Lin Xiao noticed that the half-melted tissue remnants inside were slowly contracting, as if they had lost their vitality. Blue fluid seeped from the remains and dripped onto the floor, but its corrosive rate had clearly slowed.
The purification system was working.
The concentration of chemicals in the air was dropping, though that nauseating sweetness still stubbornly clung to the depths of their nostrils.
The blast door at the laboratory entrance came into view. It stood half-open, emergency lights casting white light in from outside. Lin Xiao could hear voices, footsteps, and the clatter of metal beyond it—Fletcher's people were bringing the situation under control.
He stopped and looked back at the laboratory one last time.
This ruin had once been one of Hydra's most secret biological research facilities. Now, it had become a display of death and horror. Fragments of cultivation chambers littered the floor like the bones of some giant organism. The walls were covered in corrosion marks, and in some places, the metal panels had become paper-thin, ready to rupture at any moment. Blue liquid wound across the floor in streams before flowing toward the drains, but the drainage system was clearly overloaded, and the fluid had pooled into shallow puddles at the entrances.
Hansen and Miller stopped as well, following Lin Xiao's gaze.
"This place is finished," Hansen said in a low voice. "All the samples are destroyed, and the equipment too..."
"Not necessarily," Lin Xiao interrupted. "Some things may have been moved in advance."
He thought of that container.
The metal case the mysterious figure had shoved into the ventilation duct.
What had been inside? Unleaked core samples? Experimental data? Or something even more dangerous?
"Captain?" Miller asked uncertainly.
Lin Xiao shook his head. "Nothing. Let's go."
He took the lead toward the blast door, crossed the threshold, and returned from the laboratory's bizarre world to a relatively normal human space.
The scene outside was more chaotic than Lin Xiao had expected, but also more orderly.
The white emergency lights brightly illuminated the corridor, though they cast long shadows across the walls. More than twenty soldiers were stationed along both sides of the hall, weapons in hand as they kept watch in every direction. Several bodies lay on the ground—all members of Blood Axe's Radical Faction, their bodies bearing obvious gunshot wounds and corrosion marks.
The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, blood, and harsh disinfectant.
Fletcher stood beside a control console in the middle of the corridor, issuing orders to an officer. His protective suit was covered in grime, and the sleeve on his left arm had been torn open, revealing a bandaged wound beneath. But when he saw Lin Xiao and the other two emerge from the laboratory, the tension on his face visibly eased.
"Lin!" Fletcher strode over and patted Lin Xiao on the shoulder through their protective suits. "You're all right. Thank God."
His palm landed against the protective suit with a dull thump. Lin Xiao could feel the urgency and relief behind the force of it.
"The leak is under control." Lin Xiao removed his gas mask and took a deep breath of the corridor's relatively clean air. It was still mixed with all kinds of odors, but at least it no longer carried that cloying, rotten stench. "The purification system has been activated, and the gas concentration in the laboratory is dropping. But all the sample creatures withdrew through the emergency exit passage."
Fletcher frowned. "Withdrew? Where did they go?"
"Don't know," Lin Xiao said. "The passage leads deeper into the base. It could lead to other research areas, or abandoned mine shafts. We need to send people after them."
"I'll arrange it." Fletcher nodded, then looked at Hansen and Miller. "What about you two? Any injuries?"
Hansen removed his mask as well, his face drenched in sweat. "I'm fine, Captain. Just... a little scared."
Miller said nothing, only shook his head. But Lin Xiao noticed that his hands were trembling slightly—the aftereffects of being so close to those horrifying creatures.
"Go get checked at the medical station," Fletcher told them. "Then get some rest. You did well."
Hansen and Miller exchanged a glance, saluted Fletcher, then turned and left. Their footsteps echoed down the corridor, gradually fading away.
Only then did Fletcher turn to Lin Xiao and lower his voice. "What exactly happened in the laboratory? After communications went down, all I could hear were alarms and gunfire."
Lin Xiao briefly described what had happened: finding the control panel, activating the purification system, confronting the sample creatures, and finally the translucent creature's actions. He deliberately omitted the mysterious figure—this was not the time.
"That creature... it helped you activate the purification system on its own?" Fletcher asked in disbelief.
"It was more like it wanted to activate the system for itself," Lin Xiao corrected. "It seemed to know those gases threatened it, or threatened something it was guarding."
"Something it was guarding?" Fletcher repeated, his eyes sharpening.
Lin Xiao did not explain and instead changed the subject. "Where's Blood Axe?"
Fletcher's expression turned cold. "Detained over there."
He pointed toward a temporary holding area at the end of the corridor. Four armed soldiers stood guard. Three people sat on the ground in the center, their hands bound behind their backs. One of them was broad and muscular, and even sitting down, he stood a head taller than the others—Blood Axe.
But Blood Axe no longer had any of his previous arrogance.
His protective suit had been stripped off, revealing the combat uniform beneath. From his left shoulder down to his chest, a large patch of skin had turned an eerie blue-black, as though severely burned. Yet there were no blisters on the surface. Instead, it was covered in fine cracks. Deep within those cracks, blue fluorescence seemed to flow.
The corrosion had already penetrated his body.
Blood Axe hung his head, breathing heavily and painfully. Every breath came with a wet rattling sound from his chest. His two close associates were in somewhat better condition, but their faces were deathly pale and their eyes unfocused.
"He won't last long," Fletcher said coldly. "The corrosion has reached his internal organs. The medical officer says he has a few hours at most."
Lin Xiao stepped closer.
Blood Axe seemed to sense him approaching and slowly raised his head. Pain and fury twisted together on his rough face, but deep in his eyes, Lin Xiao saw a trace of... fear?
"You..." Blood Axe opened his mouth, his voice as rough as sandpaper. "What did you do...?"
"I did what you should have done," Lin Xiao said calmly. "Contained the leak. Saved the base."
"Saved it?" Blood Axe suddenly laughed, blood foam in his laughter. "You think... you think this is over? Those things... they're only the beginning..."
His voice grew weaker and weaker, finally turning into a violent coughing fit. Blue liquid seeped from the corner of his mouth and dripped onto the floor, corroding tiny pits into the metal.
Lin Xiao crouched down until they were eye level. "What is only the beginning?"
Blood Axe stared at him with unfocused eyes, but an eerie smile tugged at his lips. "You'll... find out... soon enough..."
Then he closed his eyes and said nothing more.
Lin Xiao stood and looked at Fletcher. "He's still useful. Before he dies, we need to get more information out of him."
"I'll bring in an interrogator," Fletcher said. "But right now, we have something more urgent."
He pointed toward the laboratory. "Are you certain the leak is completely contained? No other hidden dangers?"
Lin Xiao's heart stirred.
The opportunity had come.
"I need to inspect it again," he said. "The main leak valve has been closed, but some secondary pipes may still be seeping. If gas starts accumulating again after the purification system stops..."
"Go," Fletcher said with a nod. "But be careful. Take two men."
"I can handle it alone," Lin Xiao said. "Too many people would only get in the way. I'll be back soon."
Fletcher hesitated, but after seeing the resolve in Lin Xiao's eyes, he finally agreed. "Ten minutes. If you're not out in ten minutes, I'm taking men in."
"Understood."
Lin Xiao put his gas mask back on and turned toward the laboratory.
The blast door shut behind him, cutting off the corridor's commotion.
Inside the laboratory, the purification system's suction continued, though it was no longer as deafening as before. The air had cleared, and visibility was fully restored. The lights illuminated every corner of the ruins, making those bizarre details even clearer.
Lin Xiao did not inspect the leak valves.
He headed straight for the equipment storage room, toward the ventilation duct opening.
His footsteps echoed through the empty hall. The blue liquid still covered the floor, but it was flowing much more slowly now. In some places, it had begun to solidify into a pale-blue translucent film. Lin Xiao carefully avoided those areas and stepped around the wreckage of shattered cultivation chambers.
The storage room door stood half-open.
Lin Xiao pushed it open and entered.
The room was not large, around twenty square meters. It should have been used to store spare parts and tools. But now, most of the shelves had collapsed, and tools were scattered everywhere. The air smelled of metal and engine oil, mixed with that stubborn sweet stench.
The ventilation duct opening was on the wall at the very back of the room, roughly two meters above the floor.
Lin Xiao walked beneath it and looked up.
The metal grille over the duct had been removed and tossed into the corner. The inside of the duct was pitch-black, about forty centimeters in diameter—large enough for a thin person to crawl through, or for a suitcase-sized container to be shoved inside.
He reached up and touched the edge of the duct.
The metal was cold, but there were obvious scrape marks along the edges—fresh scratches where the metal had been rubbed bright, exposing the silver-white layer beneath. The scratches ran from the outside inward, showing that something had been forcibly shoved inside.
Lin Xiao carefully examined the details of the marks.
They were fresh, with no dust in them. The scraping force had been uneven, deep in some spots and shallow in others, as if the container had caught several times due to the angle before being forced in.
He crouched down and inspected the floor.
The storage room floor was covered in non-slip steel plating, coated with a thin layer of dust. Directly beneath the duct, Lin Xiao saw a set of faint footprints.
He turned on his tactical flashlight, setting it to low brightness, and examined them closely.
The footprints were shallow, but their outlines were visible—standard-issue military boot treads, medium size, around a size 42. They led toward the duct, then turned and left. The departing footprints were deeper than the incoming ones, suggesting the person had been carrying something heavy when leaving.
Lin Xiao followed the direction of the prints with his eyes.
They extended to the storage room door, then vanished in the corridor—the floor outside was covered in liquid and debris, destroying any trace.
He stood and looked at the duct opening again.
The ventilation system was the base's arteries, connecting every major area: the laboratory, living quarters, command center, and even exterior exits. Once the container had been shoved inside, airflow could carry it anywhere. But since that person had chosen to act at this particular moment, they must have planned the route and pickup point in advance.
Lin Xiao closed his eyes and recalled the base's structural map.
The main ventilation duct ran from the laboratory section northward, passing three junctions: one led to the living quarters, one to the second underground level's research facilities, and another...
To the exterior exhaust outlet.
But the exterior outlet had protective mesh and surveillance. If the container had gone out that way, it would definitely have been noticed.
That made it more likely that the container had been intercepted at one of the junctions. That person, or an accomplice, had been waiting at some node in the ventilation system, ready to remove it the moment it arrived.
Lin Xiao opened his eyes.
He needed to find that node.
But first, he needed to know exactly what had been inside the container.
He scanned the storage room for more clues. The collapsed shelves and scattered tools looked like chaos caused by the sample creatures' intrusion. But Lin Xiao noticed that the placement of some tools was subtly unusual.
A pair of hydraulic shears lay in the corner, their blades stained with blue liquid—nothing strange about that. They might have been used to cut through corroded pipes.
But beside them sat a portable spectrometer, its surface perfectly clean and free of any stains.
That was not normal.
In that kind of chaos, every tool should have been affected. Unless... someone had deliberately placed it there, or had just used it.
Lin Xiao walked over and picked up the spectrometer.
It was still warm.
He pressed the power button. The screen lit up, displaying the record of its last use: thirty-two minutes ago.
Exactly when the laboratory leak had been at its worst and everyone had been occupied with the crisis.
Lin Xiao pulled up the analysis record.
The final entry read: Unknown organic compound sample. Spectral match: 87%. Significant differences from the main culture fluid composition. Recommended designation: "Prototype-Alpha."
Prototype-Alpha.
Lin Xiao's fingers tightened.
This was not one of the samples that had leaked out. This was something more primitive, more central.
The container that person had taken contained a Prototype Sample.
He turned off the instrument and returned it to its place.
Then he went to the storage room entrance and gave the ventilation duct opening one last look. From somewhere deep in the darkness, he could faintly hear the howl of airflow, like a whisper.
The container was gone.
Carrying Hydra's most dangerous biological weapon prototype, it had vanished into the base's vascular system.
Lin Xiao turned and left the storage room.
By the time he returned to the corridor, exactly nine minutes had passed.
Fletcher was still beside the control console, listening to an officer's report. When he saw Lin Xiao emerge, he ended the conversation and walked over. "How was it?"
"There were minor leaks in the secondary pipes, but I temporarily sealed them with sealant," Lin Xiao said. "The purification system can run for another half hour. After that, the gas concentration should drop to a safe level."
Fletcher let out a breath of relief. "Good. The medical team is ready. Once the air quality reaches the standard, they'll go in to clear the scene."
"Clear it?" Lin Xiao asked. "The remains of those sample creatures..."
"Destroy them all." Fletcher's tone was absolute. "Use the high-temperature incinerator. Leave no trace behind."
It was the right decision. Those things were too dangerous. They could not leave behind a single cell that might revive.
But Lin Xiao thought of the container.
The Prototype Sample that had already been taken away.
"Fletcher," he said calmly. "When the laboratory leak occurred, besides us and Blood Axe's people, who else was nearby?"
Fletcher paused. "What do you mean?"
"I was just thinking that the leak happened suddenly, but someone might have taken advantage of the chaos to do something else," Lin Xiao said. "For example... steal some uncontaminated core samples."
Fletcher's eyes sharpened. "Did you see something?"
"No." Lin Xiao shook his head. "But while I was checking, I found some equipment arranged strangely. Like someone used it in a hurry, then put it back where it was."
He chose to reveal part of the truth while concealing the most crucial part—this was not the time. He needed to investigate it himself first.
Fletcher was silent for several seconds before saying, "I'll have someone check all entry and exit records. But Lin, stabilizing the base is the priority now. Blood Axe's Radical Faction has been suppressed, but there are still remnants. The neutral faction is watching. We need to establish control as quickly as possible."
"I understand," Lin Xiao said.
"You did well." Fletcher patted him on the shoulder, gentler this time. "Go get some rest. Tomorrow... we'll have a lot to deal with."
Lin Xiao nodded and turned away.
But he did not return to the dormitory.
He headed for the base's surveillance center.
The surveillance center was on the second floor of the command building, a room filled with screens. Normally, four operators should have been on duty there, but now there were only two—the others had been reassigned to deal with the laboratory crisis.
When Lin Xiao pushed open the door, the two operators were staring at their screens, their faces exhausted.
"Captain Lin." One of them recognized him and stood up. "What do you need?"
"I want to review the surveillance footage for the laboratory area," Lin Xiao said. "Starting from half an hour before the leak occurred."
The operator hesitated. "This... requires Captain Fletcher's authorization."
"The laboratory leak is still under investigation, and I need to confirm some details." Lin Xiao's voice was calm but left no room for argument. "Captain Fletcher authorized me to handle all follow-up matters. If you need confirmation, you can contact him now, but I'll tell him you delayed the investigation."
The duty officer's expression shifted. At last, he sat back down and began operating the console. "All right. I'll pull it up now."
The screen lit up and split into sixteen smaller windows, displaying real-time surveillance footage from every angle of the laboratory. But Lin Xiao noticed that three of the feeds were black—those cameras had been destroyed, possibly by the sample organism, or possibly by someone else.
"Play it back," Lin Xiao said.
The footage began rewinding.
It returned to thirty-five minutes before the leak.
Everything in the laboratory had been normal. Researchers bustled around the workbenches, while the samples floated quietly in blue liquid inside their incubation chambers. Then the leak occurred—a chamber suddenly ruptured, liquid spraying everywhere as the researchers fled in panic.
The footage fast-forwarded.
Lin Xiao saw himself, Hansen, and Miller enter the laboratory. He saw them confront the sample organism. He saw the purification system activate.
Everything was as expected.
Until—
"Stop," Lin Xiao said.
The footage froze at eighteen minutes after the leak.
In the corridor surveillance feed outside the equipment storage room, a blurry figure flashed past. The person wore an advanced protective suit, different from the standard-issue model used at the base—lighter and more form-fitting. He carried a metal container roughly the size of a suitcase.
The figure paused outside the storage room for three seconds, then pushed the door open and entered.
Forty-two seconds later, he emerged empty-handed and quickly left the camera's range.
The entire process took less than a minute.
"Can you make out his face?" Lin Xiao asked.
The duty officer enlarged the image, but the visor of the protective suit reflected the light. All they could see was a vague outline. About 1.75 meters tall, lean-built, and quick-moving.
"Track his route," Lin Xiao said.
The duty officer switched feeds and pulled up recordings from other cameras.
But something strange happened.
After leaving the storage room, the man entered a surveillance blind spot in the corridor. Then... he vanished.
None of the subsequent cameras captured him.
It was as though he had never existed.
"That's impossible," the duty officer muttered. "There are only two exits from that corridor, and both are monitored..."
"Unless he knew the location of every camera and knew how to avoid them," Lin Xiao said.
He recalled the independent subnet they had discovered earlier—the hidden network monitoring the base's surveillance system.
This person had definitely used that network. He had planned his route in advance and avoided every active surveillance point.
"Captain Lin, this..." The duty officer's voice trembled slightly. "Who is this person? How did he get in?"
Lin Xiao did not answer.
He stared at the frozen image, at that blurry figure.
A mysterious person.
A third-party force.
They had been monitoring the base all along, waiting for an opportunity. The laboratory leak had not been an accident—at least, not entirely. They might have triggered it, or perhaps they had foreseen it and used the chaos to carry out their plan.
But what was their goal?
Had they taken the Prototype Sample for research? Or for some other purpose?
Lin Xiao remembered Blood Axe's final words.
"You think this is over? Those things... they're only the beginning..."
The beginning of what?
A greater crisis? Or another conspiracy?
Lin Xiao shut off the surveillance feed and turned to leave the monitoring center.
In the corridor, the white emergency lights were still bright, yet the shadows seemed deeper. The sharp smell of disinfectant hung in the air, but it could not conceal that faint, sweet fragrance—it had seeped into every corner of the base like some ominous warning.
Lin Xiao headed toward his temporary quarters.
His steps were steady, but his thoughts churned wildly.
The container was gone.
The mysterious person had vanished.
The Prototype Sample's whereabouts were unknown.
And inside the base, there were still Blood Axe's remaining followers, neutral factions watching from the sidelines, and a possibly lurking third-party force.
The purification was complete.
But the doubts had only just begun.
Before you continue