Mutation

Kree...!

A piercing cry suddenly rang out in the sky!

Qin Yiguan followed the sound with his gaze.

A crow in the distant sky was undergoing a bizarre transformation!

Its red eye suddenly swelled like an inflating balloon, instantly reaching five meters in diameter!

It was as though a blood moon had appeared out of thin air!

The crow's body looked like a bird carcass stuck to that blood moon, grotesquely out of proportion.

The corner of Qin Yiguan's eye twitched.

Bang!

An enormous claw suddenly appeared in the sky, as if it had exploded out of thin air!

Bang!

Behind the claw, two black wings burst into existence, a full twenty meters long, each feather like black metal!

Then an enormous bird's head appeared!

Its once yolk-yellow beak instantly grew more than ten meters long and turned into an alloy. Red paint coated its surface, but much of it was chipped and peeling, lending its decrepit appearance a sinister horror!

Kree...!

The rest of its organs finished swelling, and the entire crow transformed from an ordinary bird into a fifty-meter monster!

It was as though it had struggled free of hell and entered reality!

The giant bird's other eye suddenly closed, then opened again. Its eyeball had become mechanical, but it was broken, exposing the glass eye and bare wiring inside.

Its beak opened, revealing not a gullet deep in its throat, but layer upon layer of shredders!

The roar of machinery mingled with a terrifying animal shriek, seemingly capable of piercing eardrums from a hundred meters away!

At that moment.

The boy's pupils contracted, but he couldn't stop staring into the distant sky.

Countless terrifying demons born of darkness circled in his mind, seemingly snarling and screaming. Those visions had once left the young Qin Yiguan trembling through countless nights.

Now those demonic visions were overlapping with the crow-or perhaps the crow was becoming one of them!

"What is that?!"

Everyone in the building saw the monstrous bird appear out of thin air and cried out in alarm.

In Meng Jihe's eyes, countless geometric figures appeared in the distant sky. Shapes overlapped endlessly, then shattered with a thunderous crash, revealing the enormous half-mechanical crow!

Meng Jihe's eyes flew wide. "That's impossible!"

Rumble!

The floor trembled and the building tilted, seemingly unable to bear the strain as it came under attack from both sides!

Qin Yiguan stared at the monstrous bird in the distance, veins bulging on his forehead. "Get away!"

The boy's furious shout reached it.

The half-mechanical bird suddenly stiffened. As though it had gone mad and lost control, it lashed its sharp metal talons at the Iron Curtain beside it!

A grating screech rang out, like sheet metal being torn apart.

The half-mechanical bird ripped a hole in the Iron Curtain, then beat its metal wings and rammed into it.

The entire Iron Curtain, stretching for dozens of kilometers, buckled and curled!

Like a terrifying demon god, the mechanical crow charged wildly, even lifting the entire Iron Curtain as it shrieked and flew into the distance!

Rumble!

Creak!

The Iron Curtain inside the geometric building was pulled out as well. Half the building shuddered repeatedly, connected only by the floor, and that half tilted again.

Fortunately, the building ultimately held firm instead of plummeting from ten thousand meters up.

Everyone was still shaken.

They stared into the distant sky where the half-mechanical crow had disappeared.

That...

What on earth was that thing?!

How had it appeared out of nowhere?!

At that moment, Qin Yiguan stiffened and narrowed his eyes at the other side of the building.

Against the dark backdrop, another crow's eye glowed a dim red, casting a hazy blur.

Sweat seeped from the boy's forehead as his gaze merely swept past it.

A sudden mutation erupted!

Countless wisps of black mist poured from the little crow's body. It then expanded explosively into a terrifying, gigantic half-mechanical bird and rushed toward them!

Bang!

Glass shattered, sending shards flying.

The building's entire glass curtain wall broke apart.

Another pair of enormous mechanical talons smashed through the huge panes and reached inside!

"How is there another one?!"

Glass flew everywhere, plunging the scene into chaos!

Then a woman's startled cry rang out!

The mechanical talons seized the secretary, Rong Qian. With a beat of its enormous metal wings, the half-mechanical crow carried her away through the sky!

"Rong Qian!"

Meng Jihe roared, but he could do nothing as the monster flew away.

Then he reacted, grabbing Qin Yiguan and pulling him back from the edge. "Kid, be careful!"

"I'm... fine."

The string of sudden incidents left Qin Yiguan dazed and pale.

With the glass curtain wall shattered, gusts of wind howled through.

But they couldn't blow away the fear in the boy's heart.

Beep, beep, beep!

Beep, beep, beep!

An abrupt sound entered the boy's world, seeming to echo in every corner of it.

"5:30 a.m."

"Today is Wednesday."

"Schedule: follow-up appointment at Dr. House's psychotherapy clinic."

Beep, beep, beep!

Beep, beep, beep!

The sound grew louder and louder, grating on his nerves.

Utterly bewildered, the boy looked around the sky.

My alarm...

Whew!

I almost forgot. All this horror was just a dream.

Time to wake up.

The next instant, the world before the boy's eyes shattered.

The Metaverse, the Experimental Zone.

Eight hundred kilometers away.

Inside a pitch-black warehouse.

Ke Qiming, the boss of Mingtu, was a fat, middle-aged man with patchy baldness.

He tilted his head slightly, listening to the rumbling outside.

Tss...

That wasn't right.

Why was the Iron Curtain making so much noise?

Could it be... Meng Jihe's building had crashed?

Ha ha.

Boom!

The entire warehouse suddenly shook as though struck by an earthquake.

Boom!

The warehouse's metal roof suddenly caved inward!

Creeeak!

A sharp metal talon tore through the warehouse ceiling!

Ke Qiming lost his footing and fell onto his backside, his face filled with terror. "What is that?!"

Rumble!

The warehouse ceiling was smashed apart completely!

A half-mechanical giant bird, a full fifty meters tall, landed with a thunderous crash!

Its iron wings whipped up a tremendous gale, sending the balding fat man tumbling several times!

"What is that?!"

"Fuck!"

Sprawled on the floor, Ke Qiming rubbed his eyes. The instant he got a clear look at the monster before him, he wet himself!

A monstrous bird!

A mechanical bird straight out of a dark apocalypse!

But then something unexpected happened.

After entering the warehouse, the rampaging giant crow simply stood still and made no further move.

Ke Qiming suddenly spotted the nameplate around the giant bird's ankle. It too had grown dozens of times larger, and etched upon it were several savage characters resembling claw marks-Ke 02.

The balding fat man's eyes widened.

"My number 02 crow?!"

"Have you mutated?!"

"Living creatures can mutate in the Metaverse too?!"

"And..."

Ke Qiming saw the unconscious beauty in a short skirt clutched in its metal talons. "You even captured Meng Jihe's secretary?!"

"What the fuck is going on?!"