Cold. Sticky.
That was Jiang Nuan's first sensation as consciousness returned to her body.
She felt like a specimen suspended in formaldehyde—her limbs wrapped in a translucent, gelatinous substance, completely immobilized.
Her body was being drawn upward at a slow, steady pace by an invisible force.
She forced her eyes open.
Deep within her pupils, a flash of dazzling silver light streaked by like a meteor, vanishing in an instant.
Her vision focused.
Above her, there was only a gaping, pitch-black rift—formless, as if space itself had been torn open like a mouth.
She was floating midair.
Several translucent tendrils coiled around her limbs and waist, pulling her slowly toward the black fissure above.
She was close now.
She was being fed into that maw.
Her heart sank.
Shen Wu had used his telekinetic force to slam her consciousness back into this body—on the verge of being digested.
Because the monster was wounded. It had decided to skip mentally assimilating her and risk swallowing her whole.
She was going to be eaten.
The realization turned her blood to ice.
"BOOM—!"
A deafening explosion erupted directly beneath Jiang Nuan.
A blast-proof metal door, ten centimeters thick, was obliterated by a terrifying external force.
Shards of metal flew like a storm of hail, slamming into the walls and gouging deep craters.
Through the thick dust, a tall, lean figure strode in.
Lu Shiyan.
His combat suit was now caked with dust and dark crimson bloodstains.
His left hand hung low, blood dripping from the fingertips of his black tactical gloves.
In his eyes—usually the embodiment of absolute rationality—something was burning with dangerous intensity.
He looked up, his gaze cutting through the dust, and found Jiang Nuan in midair.
The moment he saw her predicament, the pressure around Lu Shiyan plummeted to freezing point.
"Gravity, tenfold."
His hoarse voice carried no inflection, but was laced with the brutality of total annihilation.
"BUZZZZ—"
The entire space groaned under the crushing weight.
The translucent tendrils wrapped around Jiang Nuan snapped taut under the gravitational pull.
But the monster didn't let go.
It sensed the lethal threat. The rift above her surged open, desperate to swallow her whole before being crushed.
"BANG!"
A dull gunshot rang out from behind Lu Shiyan.
Ye Que knelt on one knee, steadying a large-caliber sniper rifle.
The bullet tore through the air, striking the thickest tendril coiled around Jiang Nuan's waist.
The armor-piercing round detonated inside the tendril, severing it cleanly.
Deprived of support, Jiang Nuan plunged straight down toward the ground.
"HISS—!"
A piercing shriek erupted from the rift above.
The monster, robbed of its prey at the last moment, flew into a rage.
Dozens of ink-black shadows spewed from the fissure, morphing into razor-sharp spikes that shot toward Jiang Nuan faster than she fell.
Wind howled past Jiang Nuan's ears.
She looked up, staring at the black spikes closing in.
She didn't want to die.
Not here.
She closed her eyes, then snapped them open.
Deep in her mind, the tranquil stream she had just calmed erupted into a towering wave.
Her psychic energy surged from her consciousness down through her body, rushing into her hands.
She spread her arms wide, facing the descending spikes.
Fight to the death!
"Jiang Nuan!" Lu Shiyan's eyes widened in horror as he watched the spikes about to pierce her.
The next second.
A blinding silver light burst from Jiang Nuan's palms.
Like a miniature cold moon rising in the dim room.
No deafening explosion. No gruesome carnage.
Only absolute silence.
The moment the silver light touched the black spikes, those shadows—capable of piercing armored vehicle chassis—melted like snow under a blazing sun.
Dissolved.
Vaporized.
Leaving not even a trace of ash.
The silver light followed the trajectory of the spikes, surging upstream like a relentless parasite, instantly spreading into the black rift in the ceiling.
"HISS!!"
A despairing wail echoed in everyone's minds.
A psychic scream.
Then the rift in the ceiling violently contracted and twisted. The silver light detonated inside the fissure.
That abyssal maw, along with the twisted shadows around it, disintegrated completely under the silver radiance, dissolving into faint golden flecks that scattered into the air.
"Clink."
A thumb-sized, dark golden crystal fell from the air, striking the cracked floor with a clear sound.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
The silver light faded. The power within Jiang Nuan was utterly drained. Her vision went black, and her body hurtled toward the hard ground, completely out of control.
But the expected pain never came.
A faint ripple of spatial distortion passed. Lu Shiyan appeared beneath her.
He reached out and caught her falling body, pulling her into his arms.
The impact pushed him down slightly, but his feet remained planted, unmoving.
One hand clamped her head to his chest, the other locked around her waist. He pressed her entire body against his own, his grip so tight it felt like he might crush her.
Rough. Nothing like his usual composure.
"Captain..." Jiang Nuan whispered, her voice barely audible.
Lu Shiyan said nothing.
She hurt where he held her, her body pressed flat against his chest.
She could feel it clearly—his heart slamming wildly, chaotically against his ribs, and against her body.
His hot breath spilled onto her neck, trembling with barely contained panic.
The fingers locked around her skull pressed so hard she thought they might crack it.
It was as if he was using this brutal embrace to confirm she was still alive.
"I found you."
His voice, impossibly low and hoarse, sounded right against her ear. Every word was ground out between clenched teeth.
Jiang Nuan's heart quivered involuntarily.
She instinctively tried to pull away, but the moment she moved, a violent migraine crashed down on her like a tsunami.
"Mmh..." She groaned in pain, going limp in his arms.
Lu Shiyan's arms tightened a fraction more.
Hurried footsteps sounded from the doorway. Qi Sui and Jiang Ce rushed in.
Jiang Ce was carrying an unconscious Shen Wu, his face smeared with blood, in his arms. In his other hand, he held a heavily corroded heavy tower shield. Qi Sui supported a pale Qinian, while they themselves were no better off—their scythe still dripping with blood.
Lu Shiyan's gaze swept over his badly wounded teammates, then landed back on Jiang Nuan in his arms.
As if finally reclaiming a shred of his reason, he loosened his hold and passed her to Qi Sui, who stepped forward.
Qi Sui helped Jiang Nuan sit down, their palm glowing with soft green light. Warm healing energy seeped into her temples, finally easing the crushing headache.
Lu Shiyan stepped back half a pace, his attention falling on the dark golden crystal on the floor.
Ye Que had already walked over, bending to pick it up between two fingers. Expressionlessly, they wiped the dust off its surface against their combat suit.
The crystal's patterns were now visible.
“Captain.” Ye Que raised the crystal, a flicker of something unusual in his eyes. “There’s writing.”
Lu Shiyan looked over.
At the very core of the crystal, there was a line of tiny black numbers, engraved using a special technique.
【Exp-004】
Dead silence fell over the rest room.
Jiang Nuan leaned against the wall behind her, forcing herself to endure the headache that had only slightly eased. Her gaze also landed on that string of numbers.
Exp.
Experiment.
A specimen.
An SS-rank forbidden-zone monster, one that could disguise its own level, knew when to cut its losses and run, with intelligence nearly on par with a human.
And it was nothing but an experiment.
Its number was 004.
Jiang Nuan’s blood ran cold once more.
004…
Then what about 001, 002, and 003?
Or… more?
