259: This dog food is a bit hard to chew.

Chapter 259: This Dog Food is a Bit Gritty. The fog grew even thicker.

It didn't seem like natural weather; instead, it felt as if someone had pried open the manhole covers of the entire city. Steam, smelling of rancid grease and rust, crawled up from his pant legs.

Chen Mo did not walk fast.

With every step he took, the standing water beneath his feet let out a soft "sizzle," and a small puff of white smoke rose up.

That was the sound of the rubber soles melting from high heat.

"Forty-five degrees."

Ruan Qiushui floated above his head, shaking a thermometer she had snatched from the roadside. "Your current body temperature could boil an egg. Two more degrees, and your brains will turn into bean curd."

"Shut up."

Chen Mo pulled open his collar.

The skin below his collarbone showed a translucent red, and the blood vessels beneath looked like they were crawling with glowing red nematodes, throbbing violently.

Those were the signs of the Nuclear Battery overloading inside the Biological Pump.

He was very hungry.

That sense of hunger didn't just come from his stomach; it felt more like every single cell was roaring with its mouth wide open, wanting to devour something, whether it be flesh or energy.

"Something's wrong up ahead."

Ruan Qiushui suddenly threw away the thermometer, her figure shooting upward like a white ghost kite hanging from a lamppost.

Her pupils contracted to the size of pinpricks as she stared intently into the depths of the thick fog ahead.

"There are heartbeats."

"Many of them."

"They sound... messy, as if several hearts have been stuffed into a single chest cavity."

Chen Mo stopped.

He heard it too.

The sound was very low, like an old set of bellows being pulled.

Hoo—haa—

Accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of sharp claws scraping against the asphalt road.

And it wasn't coming from just one direction.

The alley to the left, the abandoned shops to the right, and even from beneath the manhole covers behind him.

An encirclement.

"It seems Director Wang is being very hospitable."

With a flick of his wrist, the butterfly knife Chen Mo had swiped from Green Hair spun through his fingers, its blade snapping out with a cold, sharp glint.

"Afraid I'd be lonely on the road, he specially sent an honor guard."

Before his voice had even faded.

Swoosh!

A dark shadow tore through the thick fog on the left, lunging straight for Chen Mo's face with a foul-smelling wind.

It was too fast.

That was not an explosive speed a human could ever achieve.

Chen Mo didn't dodge.

His current body was in an overloaded state, and his neural reflexes were burned to an exceptionally sensitive degree by the high temperature. Everything around him seemed to be moving in slow motion in his eyes.

The moment the dark shadow was about to touch the tip of his nose.

He raised his hand.

It wasn't a block, but an attack.

The butterfly knife carved a bizarre arc through the air, precisely slicing into the shadow's "throat."

Squelch!

No blood sprayed out.

Only a black, viscous liquid that looked like pitch splashed out.

"Awooo—!!"

The thing let out a non-human scream and slammed heavily into the ground, rolling twice.

By the dim yellow light of the streetlamp, Chen Mo finally saw clearly what this thing was.

It was a "dog."

Or rather, a person crawling on the ground like a dog.

Its limbs had been forcibly broken by some external force and reassembled in reverse, tipped with sharp alloy claws.

Its spine bulged high, piercing through the skin like a row of bony barbs.

The most disgusting part was the face.

The lower jaw had been completely removed and replaced with a stainless steel bear trap, which still had unknown shreds of meat hanging from it.

But on that distorted face, those eyes belonging to a human were still preserved.

Cloudy and bloodshot, yet they held a familiar sense of terror.

Chen Mo's gaze shifted downward.

A few tattered scraps of cloth hung from the monster's body.

Dark blue.

There was even half a worn-out reflective strip remaining on them.

That was a police uniform.

Chen Mo's pupils shrank abruptly.

His gaze fixed on the monster's left chest.

There was a semi-melted metal badge there, crudely riveted into the flesh.

Number: 092... the digits following were covered by bloodstains.

"09251."

Chen Mo spat out the string of numbers, his voice as cold as ice. "West City Branch Narcotics Squad, Liu Wei."

He remembered this number.

Three years ago, Liu Wei had disappeared during an undercover operation. The file stated he "died in the line of duty, no remains found."

So this was what "no remains found" meant.

Hearing that name, a flicker of intense struggle suddenly flashed through the cloudy eyes of the monster on the ground.

It stopped roaring and instead let out a whimpering sound like crying, its body trembling violently as it tried to shrink back.

But in the depths of its brain, some kind of mandatory command seemed to have been implanted.

The next second.

Its gaze became rabid once more, the bear trap in its mouth clacking. Its hind leg muscles tensed, preparing for a second pounce.

"Wang Daoming..."

Chen Mo's knuckles turned white as he gripped the knife, his fingernails sinking deep into his palms.

That old beast.

Not only did he use living people as experimental materials, but he also transformed these police officers, who had once sworn to protect the city, into nothing but man-eating beasts.

"Don't daze off!"

Ruan Qiushui's scream came from overhead. "Behind you!"

A foul wind rushed at his back.

Three dark shadows lunged out of the fog simultaneously, sealing off all of Chen Mo's retreats.

They were three monsters wearing similarly tattered police uniforms.

They didn't need coordination, because the killing instinct etched into their bones was more efficient than any tactic.

"Get lost!"

Chen Mo turned around, raising his left arm to tank a blow.

Rip!

Sharp claws tore through his soaked jacket, leaving three deep, bone-exposing bloody gashes on his forearm.

But the monster that had launched the sneak attack didn't gain any advantage.

The instant its claws made contact with Chen Mo's skin.

Sizzle—!

A burst of high-temperature steam erupted.

The monster's claws were like they had been pressed onto a red-hot iron plate; black smoke rose instantly, and the flesh was scorched and rotten.

"Aow!"

It screamed and tried to retreat, but Chen Mo had already seized its throat.

"Since you're already dead."

Chen Mo looked into those eyes that once belonged to a human. There was no pity in his gaze, only a resolute sense of release. "Then die completely."

"Rest in peace, brother."

Snap.

The neck bone shattered.

Chen Mo casually tossed the corpse aside, knocking down another monster that was pouncing toward him.

But this was only the beginning.

Countless pairs of red eyes lit up in the surrounding fog.

A dozen? Twenty?

These "missing" police officers had all become Wang Daoming's hounds, waiting for him on this road to hell.

"Chen Mo, there are quite a lot of them."

Ruan Qiushui floated down, hovering behind him. "How about I help you eat a few? Although the taste is a bit poor—basically swill-tier."

"No need."

Chen Mo wiped the rainwater and black blood from his face.

The red light on his chest grew brighter and brighter, even illuminating the fog within a one-meter radius through his clothes.

His body temperature was still rising.

Forty-eight degrees.

A normal person would have gone into shock long ago, but he felt that power surging within his body as if it were about to explode.

"Just as well."

Chen Mo grinned, revealing a bone-white smile. "I was just wondering where to vent all this heat."

He let go.

The butterfly knife fell to the ground with a crisp clang.

Facing this pack of bloodthirsty monsters, he didn't need a knife.

He himself was an overloaded weapon.

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