"Huh? Boss, you're back..."
Seeing a familiar figure hurry past outside, a group of researchers in white lab coats opened their doors and poked their heads out, their eyes going straight to Bo Yi's hands.
"Mm." Bo Yi nodded to them, then continued without stopping toward his own laboratory at the end of the corridor.
Behind him, the researchers, still craning their necks, sighed:
"Ah, looks like the boss came back empty-handed again tonight..."
"Speaking of which, how much research material does the institute have left?"
"Not much. Not even enough for a week's research... Why else do you think the boss went out in the middle of the night?"
"It's all the higher-ups' fault-mmph!"
The red-eyed doll was listening avidly from the pocket when a colleague clapped a hand over the mouth of the researcher just as he reached the important part. "Do you have a death wish, talking about that?"
"Mmph!" The researcher yanked his colleague's hand away, wiped his mouth, and snapped, "I'm not wrong!"
"If the higher-ups weren't deliberately targeting us-not approving our research funding is bad enough, but they even come up with every excuse imaginable to keep us from getting the anomalies other patrol teams capture-why would the boss have to go himself-"
"All right, all right!" His colleague covered his mouth again, though this time for an entirely different reason. "We know you feel bad for the boss, but keep that to yourself! Whatever you do, don't bring it up in front of him!" As he spoke, he pushed the man back into the laboratory. "Come on, get back to your experiments..."
With a click, the laboratory door closed again, and silence returned to the corridor.
With no more entertainment to watch, the doll slid back down into the pocket and sat cross-legged, propping his chin on one hand in a pose of serene contemplation. But he had barely held the pose for a few seconds before a hand scooped him out of the pocket. The sudden brightness made him squint.
Once his eyes adjusted, he looked around-he seemed to be inside a private laboratory. All manner of bizarre limb specimens hung on the silver, high-tech walls; experimental instruments lay haphazardly across rows of workbenches; and brown blood of unknown origin stained both the benches and the scattered equipment. If not for the bright lighting and high-tech decor, he would have thought he was still in the workshop at the Doll Castle.
What drew the doll's attention most was an enormous silver apparatus in the corner of the laboratory. Before he could make sense of it, however, he found himself drawing closer and closer to it.
The next second, his world flipped over.
With a snap, a thin safety belt tightened around his waist. Then came four crisp clicks from his limbs as the locks engaged.
The red-eyed doll, immobilized in the blink of an eye: "?"
Bo Yi, who had done all this without so much as a change in expression, looked down at the red-eyed doll secured to the apparatus and asked coldly, "What exactly are you?"
The doll stayed motionless with his head tilted, earnestly pretending to be nothing more than an uncomprehending doll. But the beauty looking down at him clearly had no appreciation for his charms. With a beep, he activated the apparatus without another word.
A line of red light swept across the doll. In the blink of an eye, he fell apart, his arms, head, torso... scattered across the surface.
A soft chuckle suddenly sounded in the air. "So fierce..."
Thick black mist slowly seeped from the doll's broken sections, gradually gathering into a human shape in the laboratory. A moment later, a man stepped out of the dense black mist-
He was exceedingly handsome, his features as perfect as a sculpture. A hint of careless amusement lingered in his dark red eyes, while his slightly upturned lips held the faintest trace of a frivolous smile.
He was tall, with a lean, straight figure and broad shoulders. His clothes, however... Whether deliberately or not, his outfit seemed to be an exact replica of Bo Yi's lab coat, except that its color had been changed to a deep black, with elaborate dark red, rune-like patterns added to the hem, cuffs, collar, and elsewhere in a decidedly showy touch. As he walked, the fabric offered fleeting glimpses of his beautifully defined muscles.
Though they wore clothes of the same design, one resembled the radiant moon, the other an endless abyss.
The handsome man walked up to Bo Yi. "And yet..." Bending slightly at the waist, he slowly brought his face closer to Bo Yi's, his voice cloying. "You have such a pretty face..."
Bo Yi gave him an indifferent glance. "Who are you?" Even with the man's face only a hand's breadth from his own, his expression did not change in the slightest.
The man clicked his tongue softly. "So cold..." He straightened, pulled over a nearby chair as naturally as if he were in his own home, and sat down. Leaning back against the workbench behind him with complete ease, he idly tapped his knee with his slender fingers. "I have many names."
"But the title you humans use most often-"
His lips slowly curved upward as he enunciated each word. "Is 'the Evil God'..."
"But for a beauty like you..." He propped up his chin and tilted his head slightly. "You can call me-"
"Mitian."
Yet the beauty granted this "privilege" merely lifted his eyelids, utterly unmoved by his charms, and said mercilessly, "That isn't what I asked."
The Evil God was not at all angry at the mild rebuff. Instead, he lowered his head and laughed. "Looks like I really did choose the right person..."
Feeling the gaze suddenly stab toward him, Mitian smiled even more happily. But just before the man opposite him completely ran out of patience, he put away his smile, sat upright, and said seriously, "I'm here to propose a partnership."
"A partnership?" Bo Yi raised an eyebrow slightly.
Mitian nodded with a smile. "I heard everything your researchers said just now..."
"You study ghosts and monsters here-or, as you call them, 'anomalies,' correct?"
Bo Yi neither nodded nor shook his head. He simply watched him expressionlessly.
Mitian was entirely unaffected by his cold manner. "You need anomalies as research material. But rather than waiting for the Mist game to assign you an instance with who knows what in it, I can take you straight into an instance containing the 'material' you want."
"Well..." He spread his hands toward Bo Yi, the fabric pulling taut and outlining his finely sculpted chest even more clearly. His words seemed to carry a double meaning. "Are you satisfied with what I'm offering?"
"Then what do you need me to do?"
"You don't need to do anything..." Mitian gazed at him affectionately. "You only need to clear the instances in your own way, just as you did before..."
"After all, I'm only responsible for taking you into the instances you want to visit. You'll still have to collect your own 'experimental material.'"
"Although you humans call me 'the Evil God,' I'm actually a good Evil God who doesn't like taking advantage of people~"
Bo Yi inwardly rolled his eyes. Still, he was quite interested in Mitian's proposed partnership. "Any kind of instance?"
"Yes."
A slight smile curved Mitian's lips, an inscrutable gleam shining in his dark red eyes.
"Take your pick."
Before you continue