Designation-682

Tsk, something really was off...

In truth, Zhou Ze had been scared out of his mind during his frantic run earlier.

But after these few moments, he gradually began to figure things out.

The enormous beast before him gave him a strangely contradictory feeling.

The impact this thing made on his sight, smell, and hearing was genuinely overwhelming, enough to plunge anyone facing it into instinctive terror.

Yet as they stood facing each other, Zhou Ze kept feeling that something was missing.

Zhou Ze studied the monster carefully again.

Thick scales covered its enormous body, though some patches were unnaturally putrid. Sharp bone spurs studded its hideous head, with several pairs of glowing eyes scattered irregularly across it.

Hmm... very scary...

Nothing seemed wrong with that...

Right...

Pressure...

That overwhelming pressure!

This hideous beast did not seem to exude the oppressive presence its appearance warranted.

If he had to describe it, the intimidation Zhou Ze felt from this behemoth was actually about the same as the threat posed by those three half-cats earlier.

A terrifying monster that looked capable of trampling the entire Site was roughly equivalent to three half-cats?!

For a moment, Zhou Ze could not help doubting his own utterly absurd assessment.

Unsure of himself, Zhou Ze naturally did not dare make any rash moves, while the beast seemed to have become a lifelike statue. Apart from the corrosive slime constantly dripping from its rotting body and hissing against the floor, it remained eerily motionless.

Zhou Ze stood there until his feet began to go numb, replaying the entire incident in his mind.

Of course, it had all started when the bearded guard released Dr. Dai Yong'an from the containment chamber...

"Fuck! I remember!"

Zhou Ze blurted it out without warning, startling the hideous beast into a full-body shudder.

Its massive body lurched, sending nearby rubble and metal wreckage clattering down. Several bizarre pupils spun rapidly like out-of-control tops before locking onto the tiny human before it again.

Zhou Ze gave an awkward laugh, only relaxing a little when the monster made no further moves.

He had simply realized that the voice of Dr. Dai Yong'an, who had been locked in that containment chamber, was identical to the voice that had directed him through the loudspeaker and headphones during the previous two experiments.

Logically speaking, he had only just left Alice's containment chamber. Surely Dai Yong'an could not have been issuing orders to him from inside a cage all along?

"Zhou Ze... aren't you being a little neurotic?"

A somewhat exasperated sigh sounded beside Zhou Ze.

Old Yang, who had appeared at some point without him noticing, leaned against the wall with a hand to his forehead, an expression of utter dismay on his haggard face.

"Why are you thinking about these irrelevant details at a life-or-death moment like this? Where's your fear? Where's your pounding heart and that surge of adrenaline you're supposed to have?!"

Heh... so you knew this was life or death too... where the hell were you earlier?

Zhou Ze glanced at Old Yang, pressed his lips together, and mimicked the bearded guard's tone as he murmured, "How... how did it end up here?"

At that, Old Yang's expression instantly turned rather strange. His eyes flickered as he asked uncertainly, "You know what it is?"

"No, but I guessed you might." Zhou Ze looked perfectly candid.

In fact, he had long since noticed that Old Yang possessed some degree of mind-reading ability, though it was limited to relatively superficial thoughts.

Otherwise, why bother speaking at all? They could just communicate telepathically.

Old Yang was momentarily speechless. Only after a long pause did he stare at Zhou Ze with his bloodshot eyes and give him a thumbs-up.

"So what exactly is this monster?" Zhou Ze asked in a barely audible voice, trying to avoid provoking a stress response from it.

"If you mean the one you're seeing..." Old Yang paused. "I do know."

Old Yang was clearly implying something, but Zhou Ze did not interrupt. He raised his eyebrows, motioning for him to continue.

"Designation-682, the Immortal Lizard... it possesses almost inconceivable powers of adaptation and evolution, allowing it to survive in the harshest, most extreme environments. This thing loathes all forms of life and has breached containment multiple times, with catastrophic consequences. The containment facility has attempted to execute it countless times, but every attempt ended in failure.

"In short, it's an extremely dangerous anomalous entity that's almost impossible to destroy completely. Its very existence is a threat to human civilization... but you weren't planning to figure out how to kill it anyway, were you?"

"..."

When Zhou Ze remained silent, Old Yang asked again, "Aren't you scared?"

That was just how Old Yang was. Zhou Ze always felt that the bastard was doing everything he could to stir up his negative emotions.

He really wanted to retort that he simply wasn't scared, but this was clearly no time for a comedy routine.

"So what should I do now?"

"Run, obviously." Old Yang acted as though it went without saying.

"Run? Where?"

Old Yang gestured behind him with his chin.

Zhou Ze turned his head slightly. Only after confirming that the hideous beast before him had not reacted did he cautiously glance behind him from the corner of his eye.

The wall that had previously appeared out of thin air to block his escape route was now gone.

"Honestly... I'm starving. I'll go find something to fill my stomach. Have fun on your own..."

Have fun, my fucking ass!

Zhou Ze glared at the spot where Old Yang had vanished, wishing he could spit in his face.

He fixed his eyes on the behemoth again and cautiously took half a step back.

Good... no reaction this time...

Zhou Ze took a deep breath, his muscles instantly tightening like a fully drawn bow.

The next second, he spun around, kicked hard against the floor, and shot away like an arrow released from its string.

At almost the exact instant he turned, the hideous beast behind him moved too.

But it did not pursue Zhou Ze. Instead, it moved backward!

Its body was too enormous to turn around in the narrow corridor, leaving the behemoth no choice but to back away clumsily.

Its movements triggered a chain reaction. The already shattered corridor collapsed completely under the violent shaking. Metal ceiling panels clattered down, and pipes along the walls burst, spraying clouds of steam. Rubble and metal wreckage on the floor shook violently, as though a small earthquake had struck.

Naturally, Zhou Ze noticed the commotion behind him as he sprinted. Hearing the sounds gradually recede, he silently breathed a sigh of relief.

But immediately afterward, a strange, dense chorus of sounds erupted behind him, filling the air. It sounded like countless wings beating at once, yet also like the whispers of some unknown creature, sending chills down his spine.

Zhou Ze hurriedly looked back, but the corridor behind him was plainly empty. Only shadows writhed eerily along the walls.

His scalp prickled. He gritted his teeth again and quickened his pace.

The habit of memorizing routes that he had developed over the years finally came in handy.

Relying on the route he remembered through this maze-like containment area, he finally rushed into the elevator without stopping.

Only as he watched the elevator doors slowly close did his taut nerves finally find a moment of relief.

Zhou Ze leaned against the cold elevator wall, gasping for breath, his heart still pounding violently in his chest.

But then another thought surfaced in his mind, like a bucket of ice water dumped over his head.

Taking an elevator in a horror movie was practically asking for trouble...