The demonic giant hound

The corridor was silent. Only the alarm lights kept flashing, their scarlet glow bathing the walls in an ominous hue.

Longsword in hand, Zhou Ze cautiously advanced toward containment sector β at a measured pace, with Kane the golden retriever beside him.

Along the way, his attention was not entirely focused on watching for monsters that might appear at any moment. Countless thoughts churned through his mind.

One thing was certain: Old Yang had told the truth about having fed on some of his cognition and negative emotions.

Even now, Zhou Ze was amazed that he had managed to endure such an oppressive environment all this time and still found it in himself to amuse himself.

This incident involving Alice might also be an opportunity for him.

No matter what, Zhou Ze could not let go of the idea of escaping the Containment Facility.

Although he had made no preparations in advance, opportunities like this probably would not come often.

The best outcome would be to rescue Alice and leave this prison together with her.

But how could he get the Containment Facility to give up pursuing them?

For the moment, Zhou Ze had no idea.

The golden retriever beside him seemed accustomed to incidents like this. He showed no worry or tension, and his mouth had not stopped moving the entire way.

"...You know, this deserted corridor and those flashing alarm lights really do look pretty creepy."

Kane shook out his golden fur.

"During previous incidents, I either stayed in the lab or had already left with everyone else."

Zhou Ze kept his attention on the corners along both sides of the corridor as he asked distractedly, "Do incidents happen here often?"

"Not that often, really, but they do seem to have been happening a bit too frequently lately..."

Zhou Ze paused at that, then gave an awkward laugh and clumsily changed the subject. "It really is pretty creepy. Even I'm getting a little scared..."

The bad news was that the Containment Facility had already discovered his anomalous ability.

The good news was that they had only discovered half of it...

A lucky charm and a jinx would receive vastly different treatment, no matter where they were.

"You get scared?!" The golden retriever rolled his eyes. "I've read your experiment logs. You might have forgotten them yourself, but you were so composed and calm during those experiments that it was practically like you were playing house."

"That isn't funny, Doctor."

"Sorry...but I'm telling the truth." Kane glanced up at Zhou Ze. "Your reflexes and combat awareness are on par with Level 1 security personnel. What exactly did you do for a living before?"

Heh. I'd love to know what I did for a living, too...

But Zhou Ze was certainly not going to give himself away over a question like that.

He countered, "Haven't you read my file?"

"No. I never concern myself with that sort of thing."

"More importantly...Dr. Kane, are you a talking dog, or a human who turned into a dog?"

"A human!"

The golden retriever's voice suddenly rose, only to sink again moments later.

"But there's not much difference anymore...I should have died in an accident many years ago, but I survived by sheer luck-in the body of a golden retriever...or perhaps a dog acquired my memories as a human."

He paused, then said, "You know, the flesh isn't a vessel for the soul. Thought is merely the product of interactions between neurotransmitters and hormones...

"In the beginning, it was nothing short of a nightmare...

"I couldn't stop myself from marking my territory everywhere, and I became inexplicably fascinated by rolling, ball-shaped objects. To keep anything worse from happening, I had myself neutered..."

Holy shit...

Noticing Zhou Ze's shocked gaze, the golden retriever instead grew more matter-of-fact.

"Things improved, but that was all. Your body will always tell you what it really needs, what sorts of things will bring it pleasure..."

Old Yang said something similar, too...

But does Old Yang really have a body...?

"I'm sorry..." Zhou Ze said sincerely.

The golden retriever flashed a brilliant smile. "It's nothing. You're Class-D Personnel, and I'm a dog. We both have bright futures ahead of us."

"Thanks for the pep talk...but please spare me the next one."

As they talked, the man and dog had reached the end of the corridor.

Staff passage A connected to the office and dormitory areas, but the containment sector was still quite a distance away.

Zhou Ze suddenly stopped.

He could faintly hear heavy footsteps coming from around the corner, accompanied by labored breathing.

Zhou Ze frowned and lowered his voice. "Do you hear something?"

Kane also listened for a moment before replying quietly, "Sounds like something's there...It sounds like..."

Just then, an enormous, ferocious canine head emerged from around the corner. Its head had the sharply defined contours of a wolf's, but it was far larger than that of any known canine.

As it advanced, its entire body soon came into Zhou Ze's view.

It was a giant canine nearly a meter and a half tall and over two meters long. A pair of fleshy wings, each about half a meter long, grew from its broad shoulder blades. The wing membranes were covered in black fur, and their structure closely resembled a bat's wings.

"...Like a dog." Kane swallowed and slowly backed away. "I've always thought there was more than one dog here that needed neutering, but clearly nobody took me seriously..."

Almost simultaneously, Zhou Ze lowered his center of gravity, gripped his longsword, and slowly retreated in a defensive stance.

The sheer visual impact of the winged giant hound before them was enough to make anyone instinctively abandon the idea of fighting back.

Not everyone was some athletic prodigy who could disembowel a tiger with a single sliding tackle.

Naturally, Zhou Ze's scalp prickled, too.

The demonic giant hound showed no reaction when it saw Zhou Ze, but the moment it noticed the golden retriever behind him, it opened its enormous maw full of fangs. Murky saliva dripped from the corners of its mouth, and a low, terrifying growl rumbled deep in its throat.

It turned its vicious gaze on Zhou Ze, its muscles taut and trembling as its forepaws repeatedly scraped the floor.

"Zhou Ze...if you don't want to rescue Alice alone, you'd better help me kill it..."

Then you can just go die...

Zhou Ze really wanted to say that.

But the giant hound had clearly already deemed them intruders. Naked hostility radiated from its body, and its blood-red eyes were filled with bestial fury.

Zhou Ze narrowed his eyes and watched every movement of the giant hound as it slowly approached. The tip of his sword trembled slightly as he continued backing away.

"Does this thing have any weaknesses?"

Honestly, he thought a monster like this ought to be dealt with using a gun, not the medieval longsword in his hand that looked like an antique.

"No...but it can't fly. As you can see, it's just a somewhat larger dog with wings..."

Before he could finish, the giant hound kicked off the floor, launching its massive body at Zhou Ze like a cannonball.

Zhou Ze dodged sideways almost on instinct, sweeping his longsword across as he moved. Metal collided with claws in a piercing screech.