Something seemed a little off

"What the fuck is that thing!" The monster's hideous appearance made Zhou Ze's scalp prickle, and he couldn't help crying out as he sprinted.

The bearded guard beside him clearly knew what this enormous mutant lizard-like monster was.

His face was ashen, his eyes wide, and his steps unsteady as he kept muttering, "How can it be here... it can't be here..."

A piercing alarm suddenly blared throughout the containment area. Red warning lights flashed wildly, turning the corridor into a blood-red hell.

The two ran for their lives through the eerie light and shadows, with the hideous monster close behind. Walls collapsed and ceilings shattered wherever it went, leaving devastation in its wake.

Although the lizard monster was so enormous it nearly filled the entire corridor, it was astonishingly fast. Despite running as hard as they could, they could still feel the distance between them and the monster shrinking.

Soon, Zhou Ze and the bearded guard could clearly smell the stench pouring from the monster's nostrils and its enormous, festering mouth.

It smelled like rotten meat, acidic chemicals, and some indescribable evil mixed together. The stench seemed almost tangible as it assaulted their senses, making them dizzy and nauseated.

Worse still, although they had fled blindly in their panic, they had instinctively followed the main corridor they had come down.

But their escape route was blocked by a wall that had appeared out of nowhere up ahead.

"Fuck..."

Both men, gasping for breath as they ran, blurted out the same choice curse.

It went without saying what would happen if that monster cornered them in a dead end.

No...

I've got to think of something. At this rate, we're dead...

Zhou Ze's mind raced, his gaze sweeping over the closed containment chamber doors on either side of the corridor.

Hide in a containment chamber?

He rejected the idea as soon as it occurred to him.

That doesn't seem very reliable...

Never mind whether I can get the doors open. Who knows if there's another monster locked inside...

Besides, judging by the way things are going, even those sturdy-looking doors probably won't stop that thing...

Right! Old Yang...

Think of something, Old Yang! Quick!

Where the fuck did you go at a time like this...

Zhou Ze shouted inwardly, but received no response.

The seconds ticked by, and the shadow of death drew ever closer.

As the wall blocking the corridor loomed closer, the two had no choice but to stop and whirl around to face the approaching, hideous beast.

With their backs to the wall that had appeared out of nowhere, they slowly backed up in despair.

Unexpectedly, the hideous beast slowed almost at the same time they did. Its enormous body stirred up a cloud of dust as it stopped. Rubble and metal fragments were crushed beneath its sharp claws with a teeth-grating scrape.

A foul, bloody stench washed over them. The savage eyes on its head stared fixedly at the two men, and its enormous, festering mouth opened slightly, as though it were savoring its prey's terror before death.

Zhou Ze could clearly see the rows of sharp teeth inside the monster's mouth. Thick, yellowish-brown saliva, along with acidic liquid dripping from the rotting flesh of its face, hissed against the floor and sent up wisps of white smoke.

By now, the bearded guard had completely lost his usual composure. His face alternated rapidly between red and white, veins bulged like earthworms at his temples, and cold sweat soaked his hair and beard. He looked utterly wretched.

His expression twisted as he raised his rifle with trembling hands and aimed at the beast before him.

His eyes were filled with fear and despair. His voice was hoarse and shaking, edged with something close to madness. "I finally managed to get out of that hellhole... why am I still seeing you, you son-of-a-bitch monster!"

His voice rose into a hysterical roar. "Why won't you leave me alone!"

"Why!"

That last cry was almost forced out from the depths of his throat, filled with despair and rage. Yet his trembling index finger still wouldn't pull the trigger, as though restrained by some invisible force.

Clearly, his overwhelming fear had pushed him to the brink of a mental breakdown, and his reason was slipping away little by little.

Just then, the terrifying beast nearby stretched its mouth open, its dripping saliva almost forming sticky strands.

It seemed to be smiling.

Zhou Ze had never imagined that one day he would see such a bizarre, almost human expression on the face of a creature like this.

The hideous monster's cavernous maw opened and closed, and halting, thick, muddy words emerged from its ruined throat, as grating as stones being crushed in a mill:

"Human, you... disgust me..."

This monster could actually speak!

The beast's words were like a sharp blade, instantly tearing through the last barrier of the bearded guard's mental defenses and dredging up terrifying memories he never wanted to revisit.

Clatter...

His entire body shook violently, as though struck by an invisible current. The rifle fell from his hands, its impact echoing hollowly against the metal floor.

"Ha! Dead!" Snot and tears poured down his face almost simultaneously. "They're all dead!"

The bearded guard's eyes lost focus, his expression dazed and the corners of his mouth twitching involuntarily. Hysterical laughter welled up from deep in his throat, mingled with anguished sobs.

He began babbling, his voice sometimes shrill and piercing, sometimes low and hoarse:

"They're here! They're here again! Blood! There's blood everywhere! Why won't you leave me alone? Why? Hahaha... they all deserve to die! They all deserve to die!"

Shouting and bawling, with tears and snot streaming down his face, he ran straight toward the beast with a miserable laugh.

The bearded guard's tall figure looked utterly insignificant before that enormous creature.

He slipped nimbly past the monster's side, darting like a frightened mouse into the gaps in its hideous body. His figure flickered between thick scales and chunks of rotten flesh before finally disappearing into the shadows behind the beast.

Throughout all of this, the monster completely ignored the guard. The strange, asymmetrical eyes on its lizard-like head remained fixed on Zhou Ze without blinking.

It... it just let him go?

Zhou Ze was nearly dumbstruck.

You're fucking singling me out, aren't you?

The bearded guard's crazed laughter gradually receded, finally disappearing at the end of the corridor.

For a moment, the wrecked corridor fell silent. Only the occasional crackle of sparks from broken wires and the faint echoes of the distant alarm system remained.

The man and the monster faced each other in that eerie silence, as though time had frozen.

After a long while, Zhou Ze cautiously tried moving his right leg, hoping to test the enormous creature's reaction.

But the instant his toes left the floor, the monster suddenly blasted a sour, foul-smelling breath from its nostrils, like a silent warning.

Zhou Ze hurriedly pulled his foot back.

As he retreated, the beast settled down again. Only its strange eyes remained fixed on him, never letting down their guard.

Zhou Ze's expression turned a little odd.

Something seemed a little... off?