The Fallen Merman

In the collapsed room, the smell of blood permeated the air. He Suowei’s left arm was firmly nailed to the ground by the broken steel bar. His back withstood the pressure of the broken beam, giving his two teammates underneath him just enough space to slightly move their hands and feet.

The He brothers released soothing pheromones together to stop the bleeding and alleviate the captain’s pain. He Wenxiao took the lead in climbing out of the rubble and forcefully moved the stone pressing on He Suowei’s body. He Wenyi revealed his jagged, sharp teeth to chew on the steel bar nailed to the ground. The North American gray wolf’s biting strength was also inherited and strengthened in the gland gene. The steel bar severely corroded on the surface was bitten until it deformed and eventually broke. 

However, He Suowei’s arm was still pierced on top of it, so the two didn’t dare act rashly. Under the current circumstances, without anesthetics or professional tools, no one dared to take the captain’s arm off of the steel bar.

“I’ll do it myself, move.” He Suowei’s complexion was already ashen. The loss of blood and the pain made his body rigid and sluggish. He took out a cigar with difficulty, lit it, and held it in his mouth. He closed his eyes and gathered some strength. Gritting his teeth, he slowly pulled up his arm in the direction of the broken steel bar.

The dirty blood and rotten flesh hung on the steel bar. He Suowei let out a low roar, and with great effort, he pulled out his hand from the steel bar. The cold sweat on his forehead dripped down his cheek, and his body was soaked from the torn bulletproof vest’s entrapment.

The two people who were watching on the side hurriedly threw themselves beside He Suowei, frantically releasing soothing pheromones from both sides. Although the soothing strength from alphas to alphas was less effective, it was still better than nothing.

He Wenxiao lowered his head and licked the bleeding wound on He Suowei’s arm, while He Wenyi lied on the ground and licked clean the side of He Suowei’s abdomen where he had been shot. If these two little wolves had tails, they would definitely be caught and shaking between their legs right now.

Wolves are a race with extreme class division, and the instinctive gene to revere the leader was passed down into the North American gray wolf glands. Their actions weren’t to disinfect nor stop the pain, rather, it was because they didn’t protect their leader that they were afraid. They were desperately showing their obedience and guilt towards their leader to not be kicked out.

“Okay, that’s enough.” He Suowei grabbed He Wenyi’s hair and pulled it back, ordering him to lift his head. “It’s neither of your faults. Get up and find the exit.”

He Wenyi was forced to lift his head. The corner of his mouth was scratched by the top of the broken steel bar, and he casually used the tip of his tongue to lick the blood that was dripping out. Luckily the blood didn’t seep out anymore after being licked. 

“Remember to get a tetanus shot when we get back.” He Suowei pressed the bulletproof vest with his right hand so his wound wouldn’t rupture and bleed out. He got up with difficulty, “Let’s go. According to the white lion, if we find the 28th room, then that should be the exit.”

“I’ll go by myself.” He Wenxiao stood up, “Wenyi will stay and protect the captain. I’ll bring the PBB unit inside.”

He Suowei shook his head, “It’s too dangerous for you guys to be separated. I can still walk,  you guys keep up.

“Got it.” 

Bai Chunian stayed in the first room, the “Cultivation Cabin,” for a while because the file cabinet contained a lot of secret documents pertaining to the 109 Research Institute. Although the portion of the information that 324 copied wasn’t much, he could still get something useful with meticulous filtering.

He was able to find a copy of “Special Operations Weapon: Coding Rules for Special Operations Weapons.”

The file recorded the method of numbering the experimental subjects. Each experimental subject’s number consisted of three sets of numbers—the first set represented their gland type, the second set represented the degree of mimicry, and the third set represented their base ability.

Take Experimental Subject No. 1513 Medusa’s Eyes for example: 1 represented the snake-type gland. 5 represented 50%, or half mimesis because his lower body was a snake tail. 13 represents his base ability’s target state transformation, which included petrification. 

Then according to known experimental subjects’ speculation, Rimbaud’s Special Operations Weapon number was 857; 8 represented the sea fish-type gland, 5 indicated half mimesis because his lower body was a fishtail, and the 7 might represent a kind of electrical discharge ability.

Invisible Stalker’s Special Operations Weapon number was 324. The 3 possibly represented the lizard-type gland. 2 denotes 20%, or one-fifth mimesis since Invisible Stalker had a tail. The 4 represents a stealth-type ability.

This was a very important piece of information. In the process of capturing unknown experimental subjects, relying on the number to guess the experimental subject’s appearance and base ability can play a vital role.

Bai Chunian committed these numbering rules to memory, rummaged through the file cabinet, and quickly skimmed through the majority of the valuable information before leaving. 

After searching around, he finally found the room with the time 02:00—109 Research Institute’s operation transformation room. The layout was similar to an ordinary hospital’s operating room, but with some iron chains, iron cages about half of a human’s height, as well as handcuffs and collars.

Bai Chunian picked up a bloodied electronic collar from the floor and pressed the button, opening the collar. When he closed it, a red light flashed, and the collar couldn’t be opened again.

He touched his neck. There was a faint trace of a ring around his skin that was a little darker than the rest.

Two hours later, Bai Chunian found the 03:00 room, the “Experimental Subject’s Training Room.” It was a transparent eco-box, and a large splash of blood was splattered on the reinforced glass wall inside. A blood-stained handprint marked the corner of the glass. The handprint was really small, like that of a child trying to escape by desperately banging the glass. 

This was nothing. An experimental subject’s self-healing ability was amazing. When two experimental subjects were put in an eco-box, killing each other was the most basic method of training. This was a required course that experimental subjects take every day. The loser would be injected with a higher concentration of catalytic agent when they go back.

Bai Chunian was indifferent.

The 04:00 room, “Ward”, contained white hospital beds and bed sheets. Outside the window was a projection of birds and a forest. A child’s drawing was placed on the windowsill with the word “Playhouse” written crookedly on top with a crayon.

There were several blocks on the drawing, stacked to form the same pattern on the blueprints left by the writer: 11 blue blocks, 11 red, and 6 yellow. 

The 05:00 room, “Testing Room”: The only thing on the table was a notice with a simple description at the bottom, “No. 324 has failed to reach the expected training goal and will be destroyed.”  On top of the words was an eye-catching red stamp with the word, “Unqualified.” The handwriting of the signatory’s column was illegible and the name “Aileen” was barely discernible.

06:00 Research Institute Lounge Room.

07:00 Research Institute Bathroom.

08:00 Research Institute Audio-Visual Room. 

09:00 Researcher Office.

10:00 Injection Room: A ketamine anesthetic was placed on a sterile tray.

While passing by each room, Bai Chunian’s complexion became a bit stiff and pale. When he met up with Rimbaud and returned to the cremation incinerator room, all eleven blue rooms were pushed together and arranged in the order shown on the blueprint. Right now, the doors to the rooms were all linked together so they could walk around at will. Moreover, these blue rooms that were arranged in order seemed to be fixed in place; there were no further changes in their positioning.

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“Unwell?” Rimbaud asked.

“No.” Bai Chunian leaned his head against the incinerator, “I just feel a bit nauseous when I remember the things from when we were little.”

“You stayed at 109 Research Institute for three years, how do you feel?”

Rimbaud faintly recalled, “Very full from eating, the food was very fresh.” 

Bai Chunian closed his eyes and smiled, “And I was even worried about you for a bit.”

Soon, Bai Chunian felt something strange beside him. He lazily opened his eyes. Beside his hand was a fresh apple that had been bitten into.

“Another stage reward.” Bai Chunian picked up the apple and spoke towards the space beside him, “Give me another one. It’s hard to divide it between the two of us.”

Soon, another bitten apple appeared beside Bai Chunian’s hand out of thin air. Rimbaud bit and swallowed it, leaving half a core and a pool of saliva in Bai Chunian’s hand. 

Bai Chunian turned his head and asked the air, “…Is there any more?”

A third bitten apple fell into Bai Chunian’s hand.

The color, size, and shape of the three apples were all identical. Even the place where it was bitten and the teeth marks were exactly the same. It seemed like the result of duplicating from the same apple as the template.

Bai Chunian leisurely gnawed on the apple and snapped his finger at the space in front of him. “Let’s talk it over. You let the hostage go and I’ll get the troops and police officers outside to withdraw. Then, I’ll lend you a bit of money. Go out and buy a factory so you can make illegal figurine models and whatnot. You can get a lot out of this little money. Let’s not make things difficult for each other. I don’t want to play this pushing boxes game anymore. I’m tired and want to go home to watch TV.” 

The room was as quiet as before. 324 didn’t reply.

Bai Chunian could only stand up and guess what time it was and searched for the order of the rooms according to the red cubes marked on the drawing.

According to the blueprints left by the writer, there were also 11 red rooms altogether—

12:00 Interior of a Volkswagen Santana taxi. 

13:00 The back kitchen of Zhengyuan Restaurant.

14:00 Zhengyuan Restaurant Long Table Wedding Banquet Dining Hall.

15:00 Liren Plaza.

16:00 Construction Site. 

17:00 The first floor of an unfinished building.

18:00 The second floor of an unfinished building.

19:00 Xinyuan Community.

20:00 A bedroom in the residential building of Xinyuan Community. 

21:00 The wardrobe in the bedroom.

22:00 A dark, empty room with almost no light at all.

After all 11 rooms were pushed together in sequence, the rails of the room were bolted in place and automatically jammed; they could no longer be moved.

Bai Chunian and Rimbaud attentively examined the interior and exterior of every room. They found a total of three corpses squashed by the moving rooms. 

In the process of pushing each room and arranging them in order, Bai Chunian discovered that these 11 red rooms’ method of arrangement was a bit different from the other 11 blue rooms. However, because Bai Chunian couldn’t see directly how these rooms were laid out, he couldn’t figure out the specifics.

Bai Chunian accidentally found the third note in the 22:00 room left by the writer. The paper was the same as the previous two papers, with the words “Third page” written in the upper right corner.

The owner of the note had written: “I’ve already understood the secret of this cabin. The owner of the cabin is extremely arrogant. He seems to be protesting against someone, or perhaps he’s looking for someone. However, he doesn’t have a name, only a number code. I guess the one he’s looking for knows his number code. We’re currently trapped in this playroom with no way out at the moment.”

The handwriting up to here was still normal; however, the following words were extremely illegible: “Mercenaries, kidnapped, have guns, 7 people.” 

When the writer mentioned mercenaries out of nowhere, Bai Chunian first thought of En Ke and the others.

However, Rimbaud said, “When we arrived. Heard. There are two teams.”

Initially, Rimbaud encountered the group of mercenaries outside the cabin. The mercenary leader Black Scorpion Alpha was contacting their employer at the time. During the conversation, it was mentioned that two teams had entered the cabin. In other words, except for the team led by En Ke, there was another team in here that was now taking hostages, and their location was unknown.

Bai Chunian choked, “Why didn’t you say so earlier?” 

Rimbaud rubbed his nails in boredom. “Didn’t think it was important.”

Bai Chunian patiently crouched down in front of Rimbaud, “You must tell me immediately when you hear any information from now on.” In a team, when a member hides known information, it could cause the whole team to be wiped out. Rimbaud hadn’t participated in teamwork before, so it was normal that he was ignorant about the common knowledge of a team. However, Bai Chunian’s tactical arrangement often detailed every team member’s every move. His mistakes were at the expense of his team members.

Rimbaud frowned, but seeing that the alpha’s attitude was very serious, he nodded. He patted Bai Chunian’s head with his tail, “Don’t be angry.”

Bai Chunian instantly calmed down, squatted on the ground, and helplessly smiled, exposing half his canine tooth. 

After leaving the red rooms’ area, they entered the yellow rooms’ area on the far right. According to the drawing, there were a total of 6 yellow rooms and the sequence numbers were from 23:00 to 28. He didn’t know what the concept of time was for Invisible Stalker. In theory, a normal day only had 24 hours.

When passing through the connecting doors and entering the room with the sequence number 23:00, the entire environment’s atmosphere was different.

The wallpaper was a bright yellow, the ceiling was adorned with soft starlights, and a long wool carpet was laid on the floor. There were even pink bunnies and teddy bears placed in the corners of the room. Placed on the coffee table in the middle of the room were the toy building blocks already finished being built. The color, amount, and the way it was set up was the same as what the writer had described.

Bai Chunian hit the wall hard and the room was pushed to the first position in the yellow area. 

Soon after, the two people entered the next room; however, they ran into a situation that had never happened before—the 24:00 room was almost the same as the last room. The only difference was the minuscule details. The lighting of the room wasn’t emitted from the star lights, but rather, from two of the walls. Furthermore, the ceiling seemed to be made out of planks.

He turned on the communicator to contact He Suowei, “Captain He, are you still alive?”

After a few seconds, He Suowei replied, “Say two more words and I’ll really be a goner.”

Bai Chunian: “Get out yet?” 

He Suowei: “Still haven’t, but our equipment can now receive signals. I’ve contacted the ground troops just now. The Storm Forces have installed enough explosives outside, ready to blow up the cabin and execute 324 on the spot after rescuing the hostages.”

“Don’t blow it up.” Bai Chunian stared at the wood-grained ceiling, lost in thought. He thoughtfully said, “Send a team to Xinyuan Community in Tongkou City.”

He Suowei: “Your reason?”

Bai Chunian: “Just in case. Hurry.” 

Suddenly, a muffled gunshot came from next door.

Bai Chunian put his ear against the wall to listen. The wall’s soundproofing was very strong. Besides the gunshot sound, he could barely hear any voices. He couldn’t rashly bang the room since he might alert the mercenaries and threaten the safety of the hostages.

Just as Bai Chunian was at a loss of what to do, the sound of a wall being hit came from the adjacent room, and the two rooms became misaligned. The doors weren’t completely connected, but there was a small gap.

With this small gap, the voices in the adjacent room could be heard more clearly. 

A mercenary’s coarse voice shouted in warning, “Which one of you who’s courting death, hitting the wall!”

A youthful voice replied with a cheeky laugh, “Sorry sorry, I tripped…”

“You fucking omega dare stir trouble?! Behave!”

It sounded like the mercenary kicked that omega very hard, knocking him to the floor and bumping into a place very close to Bai Chunian, and he couldn’t get up after a long time. 

To Bai Chunian’s surprise, a note suddenly flew through the gap of the door. Scribbled on it was: “They installed bombs on the walls.”

Both the paper and the handwriting were the same as the note left behind by the writer.

“Rimbaud, be prepared for a surprise attack. Don’t let them blow up the cabin, or else it’ll go overboard. Don’t use your differentiation ability unless you have to.”

Rimbaud crawled and stuck to the wall. His sharp claws dug small holes in the wall of the room and his fishtail swayed to maintain balance. His blue slit eyes became fierce lines and he stared at the gap in the doorway. 

Bai Chunian took two steps back, then slammed his shoulder against the wall, and the door gap became big. Rimbaud held onto the door frame, transformed into a ray of blue lightning, and went into the adjacent room.

Seventeen hostages were all crouching in a row against the wall with their hands behind their heads. Three mercenaries were holding mini submachine guns and watching over the hostages. A human-shaped creature whose whole body was engulfed in blue lightning suddenly appeared at the doorway and went in along the wall. The mercenary closest to the door didn’t have time to react—claws flashed by and the mercenary’s entire spine got cut off. He was killed on the spot.

The remaining two mercenaries immediately released oppressing pheromones with vigilance. However, Rimbaud wasn’t affected in the least by their low-level oppression. Before they could activate their J1 ability, Rimbaud used his claws to slit the two people’s throats.

The bright and warm yellow wallpapers were splashed with blood. Bai Chunian entered the room and first looked at the furnishing in the room; it was exactly the same as the previous room. Then, he lifted each hostages’ head to verify the identity and the number of people. 

Bai Chunian lifted the face of the last hostage, it was an omega with very upturned eyes. He was wearing a hat that pressed down on his disheveled half-length black hair. He was beaten up by the mercenary, so the corner of his mouth had a bruise. He squinted his eyes and smiled at Bai Chunian, “Looks like these officers aren’t all idiots. There are still two that have a brain.”

“Rimbaud, go stop the bomb.” After Bai Chunian finished explaining to Rimbaud, he threw down the writer and patted the dirt on his hands. “So you’re that writer ah. Not bad, luckily there was one hostage in this group with a brain, so the casualties weren’t that severe. Or else my Rimbaud would get his salary deducted.”

Before Bai Chunian’s briefing, Rimbaud had already sent strong electric currents to the surrounding rooms to short-circuit the bomb detonators, but they were too late. The bomb in the farthest room couldn’t be stopped in time—the second before the electric current reached the bomb, the bomb exploded.

A loud sound caused everything to shake. 

“Tsk.” Bai Chunian rubbed his fingertips. “These bunch of morons.”

The entire building of secret rooms was underground. According to the blueprints, these 28 cube rooms weren’t closely arranged, but were left with many gaps of unknown significance.

The power of the explosion shouldn’t be underestimated. Even if only one room blew up, the vibration it created was enough to collapse and seal off all the gaps in the entire underground building.

Before the base completely caved in, Bai Chunian slammed open the door and rushed the hostages out. “Hurry and leave. You money-grubbing, spirited youngsters looking for excitement, you guys almost lost your lives. Let’s see if you guys dare to play again. Get out.” 

The writer mysteriously came over, still wanting to say something to Bai Chunian. As soon as he said “9”, he was kicked out by an impatient Bai Chunian and hurriedly followed after the hostages that were escaping in a swarm.

Rimbaud accompanied the hostages and killed the four mercenaries who had installed the bombs one by one. He discovered that they blew up a safe with a silver suitcase inside. Rimbaud didn’t think much of it, picked up the suitcase, and turned back to find Bai Chunian.

He Suowei led the PBB Storm Forces to meet them at the exit. After the hostages rushed out in a swarm, the entire exit completely collapsed.

The exit was built in the subway tunnel of Red Maple Mountain. The staff were crowded together. When the exit collapsed, the subway was urgently called to a stop. The clueless passengers poured out of the car in large numbers; the scene was extremely chaotic. 

When the hostages rushed out of the exit, at the same time, an innumerable amount of 100 yuan bills gushed out. The pink bills filled the sky like a rainstorm. The 10 million award promised by Invisible Stalker was fulfilled. The passengers and passersby watching with excitement looted, while the police officers and army hurriedly maintained order.

The military doctor and nurse urgently helped He Suowei onto the stretcher to wrap his wound. Unexpectedly, He Suowei yelled at the rest of the team members, “Wenxiao and Wenyi still haven’t come out yet! Don’t blow it up yet! Save them first!”

The exit had been blocked and the triangular pyramid cabin shook and collapsed due to the shock of the explosion. The escape room became a closed-off place.

The inside of the escape room was still crumbling. Bai Chunian could barely stand still by holding on to the wall. Rimbaud was able to squeeze back through the crack of the crushed and deformed door, carrying the silver suitcase in his hands. 

“Why did you come back?” Bai Chunian had intended to let Rimbaud leave first.

Rimbaud handed the suitcase over to Bai Chunian. “Blown open, taken, inside safe. Mercenaries. Wanted this.”

Bai Chunian sat down and cautiously examined the suitcase. The suitcase was locked and had a scanner installed on the front.

Invisible Stalker had said that in the rules, the first player to escape through the exit would obtain a 10 million yuan reward. Moreover, if the player escapes within 24 hours, they would receive a gift. 

“I already lost count of how long we’ve been here. The endless staircase at the beginning wasn’t a prank but was to confuse our concept of time.” When he encountered the International Prison officers, he imitated Sea Spider’s ability. The Penrose stairs is a geometric paradox. It’s actually a staircase that only exists in two-dimensional and multidimensional worlds. We live in a three-dimensional world and Sea Spider’s ability just happened to be a dimensionality reduction.”

Rimbaud didn’t care much, placing his hand on the scanner.

The scanner displayed: Congratulations, you've found the exit in 12 hours 35 minutes and 7 seconds. Please accept my sincerity.

The suitcase automatically opened. Inside were two groves: one held a green syringe gun, while the other was empty. 

A label was adhered to the green syringe: “Horizontal Development.”

A note was also left in the suitcase, which read: “After injecting the HD agent, an associated ability related to one’s own glands will be randomly generated.”

Bai Chunian unconsciously knit his brows. He closed and locked the suitcase, lifting it to take with him.

As he moved his feet, he suddenly felt someone grabbing at his own clothes. 

“Rimbaud, stop it.” Bai Chunian’s attention was all on the suitcase. He spoke as he raised his head, and found that Rimbaud was walking in front of him.

Bai Chunian realized something. He turned around and pointy long spikes were already thrust in front of him.

This was En Ke’s J1 ability, Vibration Piercing. Invisible Stalker was in this room right now.

Bai Chunian reflexively activated his J1 ability, Bone Armour. His J1 ability could boost the division of numerous gland cells, making the hardness of the bones stronger than metals and alloys. It was more than enough to withstand the piercing ability of a woodpecker. 

When he raised his left arm to block in front of him, the pointy long spikes easily pierced through his arm as if slicing flesh. The tip pierced deeply into his shoulder, spurting blood.

“Fuck… Hiss…” Bai Chunian retreated five to six steps back, his back harshly knocking against the wall. Blood soaked through his black vest, smearing the yellow wallpaper with blotches of blood.

Rimbaud immediately stepped back and countless sharp spikes flew like falling rain. Rimbaud hastily dodged and was blocked by dense spikes forming a cage five meters away from Bai Chunian. He arched his dorsal fin, all his fish scales turning an angry blood-red, and roared at Invisible Stalker to show dominance.

These weren’t the normal pointy spikes En Ke used that Invisible Stalker was imitating, but using Bai Chunian’s Bone Armour ability, the strength of which was increased to 200% with the use of the M2 ability, “Mirror Domain Enhancement”. Even Bai Chunian wouldn’t be able to guard against an attack doubled in strength. 

A melancholy and ethereal voice sounded out from somewhere in the room and asked them, “Why’d you destroy my playhouse?”

“Fuck you, it isn’t me that destroyed it. I’m not capable of doing anything yet I’m the first one to be blamed.” Bai Chunian impatiently took out the spikes, letting the blood flow out. But soon, the bleeding stopped by itself, and the muscle began to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye. In less than a minute, the two bloody holes penetrating his arm healed to how it was before, only leaving behind a layer of dried-up blood on his cold, pale skin.

Invisible Stalker was still repeating the same question. The electric current on the ceiling accumulated and a bolt of high-voltage lightning with twice the energy slashed through the air. It was like a thunderstorm was occurring inside the room. Countless bolts of lightning burned the floor without warning until it blackened. Rimbaud moved through the gaps in the lightning, straining to dodge.

An experimental subject in the cultivation stage had little chance to win against an experimental subject in the maturity stage. Furthermore, Bai Chunian didn’t allow Rimbaud to use his higher differentiation ability. 

Another bolt of lightning struck and Rimbaud was forced out of the room. He fell on the floor and harshly slammed into the wall, curling up into a fishball and rolling away.

Bai Chunian knit his brow, “324, no traces will be left behind when I kill you. Think carefully.”

The thunderstorm in the middle of the room suddenly stopped. Invisible Stalker could sense the strong oppressive power, so he stopped for the time being.

At the same time, a strange oppressive pheromone spread from another corner of the room. 

Bai Chunian restrained his breathing and curiously looked over. He unexpectedly saw the pair of minions surnamed He that was previously following behind He Suowei coming in.

Two North American gray wolf alphas were releasing oppressing pheromones at the same time, yet the air was filled with only one.

“Oh, twin glands.” Bai Chunian lifted his brow in surprise.

Twin glands were classified as a type of abnormal glands. Very few twins share the same gland during pregnancy, each inheriting half. When the two people separate, their glands become useless. However, when they’re at a certain distance from each other while activating their J1 ability simultaneously, their J1 ability could compete with a normal person’s M2 ability. 

He Wenyi was leaning on He Wenxiao’s shoulders, licking the blood on the corner of his own mouth. Both their eyes were full of crimson, the crimson covering up their pupils.

North American Gray Wolf twin glands, synthesized into Garm gland—J1 ability, “Fire in the Pit”.