Inside the secret laboratory, everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.
Several researchers escorted an experimental subject to the door of a chamber.
The mass of constantly writhing matter was lifted by an invisible force, slowly floating into the interior of the chamber.
Inside the chamber, a massive white light orb remained suspended in silence, bound tightly by countless chains.
The experimental subject drifted to the surface of the orb and pressed against it, instantly merging into the light and vanishing.
The chamber door slowly slid shut.
Outside, a researcher looked down and pressed several keys on the console, his eyes fixed on the data jumping across the screen.
A mechanical voice echoed through the laboratory.
“Program initiating.”
“Countdown: 3, 2, 1!”
Hum.
A tremor radiated from the interior of the chamber.
Locke looked toward the cylindrical chamber. He didn't know what was happening inside, but the tense atmosphere among the researchers gave him an inexplicable sense of pressure.
After a moment, the mechanical voice spoke again: “Trojan program initiated. Implanting...”
Locke was confused.
A Trojan program?
Implanting what?
Before he could think further, a sudden change occurred.
Patterns abruptly appeared on the surface of the cylindrical chamber in the center of the lab.
Circles, triangles, squares—various large geometric shapes appeared as if someone were drawing on it.
Locke was even more bewildered. What was going on now?
The appearance of those geometric patterns came without warning, silently surfacing on the exterior of the chamber.
The researchers on-site noticed it as well.
The first to discover it was the young man standing at the console. He happened to glance at the chamber and immediately froze in place.
“What is that?!”
The others turned their heads one by one.
Then, everyone was struck with shock.
“What’s happening?”
“Where did these patterns come from?”
“They weren't there just a second ago...”
The laboratory supervisor hurried to the front of the chamber. He looked at the geometric patterns and reached out to touch them, only to pull his hand back just before his fingertips made contact.
A young researcher asked in a panic, “Should we abort the experiment?”
“We can't. If we stop now, all the effort we put into cultivating this subject will be wasted,” the supervisor said through gritted teeth.
He turned and immediately began barking orders.
“Sound the highest-level alarm.”
“All personnel, enter combat readiness!”
“Security personnel, assemble in the laboratory immediately.”
“Notify the upper levels of an unknown intrusion.”
The alarm siren instantly wailed throughout the laboratory.
Red warning lights began to flash, casting a flickering glow over everyone's faces.
Everyone stared intently at the geometric shapes on the chamber's surface, not daring to breathe.
No one dared to interfere; after all, aside from the patterns, nothing more serious had happened yet.
They were afraid that a reckless touch might trigger even worse consequences.
If it could stay like this—just strange geometric shapes without any other disasters—they could endure it until the experiment was finished.
Time slipped away second by second.
One minute passed.
Two minutes passed.
Nothing happened.
The patterns seemed to be just ordinary geometric shapes, devoid of any special effects.
One researcher let out a soft sigh of relief. Perhaps it was just some harmless anomaly?
Or maybe it was a display error caused by a machine malfunction?
He indulged in self-deception, thinking of various possibilities to avoid considering the worst-case scenario.
A moment later, three minutes after the geometric shapes first appeared.
Boom!
An explosion rang out.
The first circular pattern detonated. The shockwave expanded outward, making the entire laboratory tremble.
A researcher was thrown by the blast, slamming into the wall and spitting out a mouthful of blood, his fate unknown.
Before the others could react...
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
More explosions followed in rapid succession as the geometric patterns on the chamber's surface detonated one after another!
The laboratory was instantly transformed into a sea of fire.
A cacophony of chaotic sounds blended together.
Locke's consciousness nearly shattered. He desperately stabilized himself, staring at the scene before him with a blank mind.
What was happening?
Those patterns... they could explode?
He had no time to think, for more explosions were still occurring.
The precision instruments in the lab were destroyed, and the silver-white walls were scorched black.
Researchers were blasted into bloody messes. Those who died instantly were the lucky ones; those left half-dead were truly suffering.
Locke gritted his teeth and turned to flee.
He couldn't stay here any longer.
His digitized consciousness relied on electronic devices to exist and transfer.
If the entire laboratory was reduced to ruins and all electronic equipment was destroyed, his consciousness would have no way back.
In the final moment before leaving, he glanced back.
Through the thick smoke, he caught a glimpse of a figure.
Long-haired, holding a paintbrush, the figure stood in the center of the explosions with a relaxed posture, as if admiring fireworks.
Locke blinked, then hesitated no longer. His consciousness retreated rapidly, fleeing frantically along the path he had come.
The explosions in the laboratory continued.
Yue Shi stood amidst the wreckage, holding the Bomb Paintbrush with a slight smile on his lips.
The geometric shapes drawn by the Bomb Paintbrush would automatically explode after three minutes, and the power of the blast was quite impressive.
The paintbrush spun once around his fingertips before he tucked it away.
Thick smoke billowed around him, and a pungent odor filled every corner.
The laboratory was large, but it was still a confined space.
After such a massive explosion in a confined space, most people had been killed instantly.
However, a few had not died in the blast and were even still capable of movement.
They were several security personnel who were clearly not ordinary humans.
The moment the explosion occurred, they had used various means to withstand the shockwave and survive.
They were likely all transcendents.
Yue Shi's eyes narrowed into a smile.
Interesting.
He shifted his gaze toward a nearby security guard who was still alive.
The man had just crawled out from behind a toppled instrument, his face covered in blood. Before he could even stand steady, he felt a chilling dread strike his soul.
“Agh!” He let out a scream as his body was twisted into a spiral, dying instantly.
Yue Shi looked toward the other survivors.
A second scream rang out.
Then a third, and a fourth.
No one could survive for even a second under his gaze.
Soon, only one living human remained in the laboratory.
It was the security captain.
He was stronger than the others. He had tanked the explosion with his physical body and had luckily dodged Yue Shi's first spatial distortion.
He ran desperately, lunging toward the laboratory exit.
That was his hope for survival.
The distance grew shorter and shorter until his hand finally touched the edge of the door.
Then, he suddenly slammed to a halt.
It wasn't because he wanted to stop.
It was because his body had been ensnared by something.
He looked down to see tentacles.
Wet tentacles had reached out from behind him, wrapping around his waist.
He turned his head in terror.
Behind him stood a monster.
Bloated and greyish-white, it looked like a mass of writhing rotten meat. Countless tentacles extended from its body, and one of them was actually holding a folding fan.
The folding fan was exquisite, with a white surface embroidered with red peonies.
The security captain's pupils constricted violently.
The monster lowered its head, aiming its bloated face at him. It opened its mouth wide and bit down directly on his head.
There was a legendary dish called live monkey brains; the security captain was currently experiencing something very similar.
He was already paralyzed with fear, allowing his skull to be bitten open and his brains to be sucked out by the monster. Only when his brain was completely hollowed out did a single tear slide from the corner of his eye as he died with his eyes wide open.
After satisfying its appetite, the monster raised the tentacle holding the folding fan and slowly covered its face.
In the next instant, the terrifying monster transformed into a glamorous young woman standing before the security captain.
The small folding fan concealed half of the girl's face, revealing only a pair of seductive eyes.
She tilted her head slightly, looking at the brainless corpse in front of her. She let out a light laugh and tossed the body to the ground.
“What are you doing here too?” Yue Shi asked the girl with interest.
The girl blinked. “How could I miss out on such a lively disaster?”
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