55: Out-of-control alarms and the seeds of rampage.

"Bang——!!!"

A dull yet incredibly piercing loud noise, like a thunderclap on flat ground, suddenly exploded in the near-absolute silence of the seventh underground level of the "Zhu Long" base!

The laboratory's heavy airtight door, made of high-strength composite armor material and theoretically capable of withstanding close-range small-scale explosions and high-speed impacts, was violently torn from its hinges and knocked open by an extremely precise and violent force from the outside!

The heavy door panel, as if struck by a giant battering ram, slammed hard against the specially designed energy-absorbing buffer wall inside, emitting a teeth-grinding groan of twisting metal as the entire door frame vibrated violently!

The door lock area was not simply mechanically destroyed but instantly melted by some kind of high-energy directional energy cutter; the fracture displayed a vitrified texture from high-temperature plasma burning, with ominous dark red afterglow still flickering on the edges, emitting a pungent, burnt smell of vaporized metal mixed with ozone.

Almost at the same instant, the shrill, ear-piercing highest-level security alarm, capable of penetrating any soundproofing material, rang through the entire underground space like the wail of a dying beast!

In the corridor and inside the laboratory, all embedded emergency lighting systems instantly extinguished, replaced by frantically rotating red warning lights that stained everything in the color of blood, flickering violently and creating a terrifying atmosphere as if the apocalypse had arrived!

Xiao Zhang took the lead, like a long-dormant cheetah, his figure moving so fast it almost left afterimages, as he was the first to break through the pervasive smoke and the twisted door frame!

Following closely behind him was a full team of six members of the "Fortress" emergency response squad, all covered in matte black heavy tactical protective gear, wearing fully enclosed integrated tactical helmets, and holding strangely shaped compact energy weapons!

On their tactical visors, red, highest-priority alert information and real-time biometric data streams directly issued by the base central ai were refreshing at an astonishing speed; the tactical flashlights on all their muzzles lit up simultaneously, their cold beams cutting through the chaotic light and shadows inside the laboratory like scalpels, immediately locking onto all potential threat vectors!

They had broken in with the fastest possible response time after receiving an emergency order directly bypassed by the base central ai system regarding extreme abnormalities in Excellence's private laboratory!

The alert content was shocking: the target (Excellence) had an abnormal spike in bio-electrical signal intensity exceeding the safety threshold by 500%, neural activity patterns showed signs of extreme chaos and collapse, accompanied by an out-of-control increase in ultra-high-intensity unknown energy readings, and minor disturbances in local physical constants within the laboratory... It was comprehensively judged to be a dual crisis of the highest-level neural collapse and potential energy runaway!

However, when this well-trained elite squad, which had handled all kinds of extreme situations, actually rushed into the laboratory, the unimaginable, nightmarish scene before them still made everyone's pupils contract instantly, and a chill shot straight from their spines to their scalps!

The interior of the laboratory seemed to have just been thoroughly baptized by an invisible storm originating from a higher dimension!

The once orderly workstations were scattered and overturned; expensive precision instruments had been torn from their positions by an invisible force and strewn across the floor, and some delicate sensors and optical components had even exploded, emitting wisps of blue smoke and tiny electric sparks.

The air was thick with a pungent, nauseating mixed odor—the smell of scorched circuits from overload, the sweet, fishy scent of leaking special coolant, and a kind of... strange ozone smell with a sharp metallic sensation, as if produced after space itself had been torn, bringing waves of cold, stinging pain when inhaled into the lungs.

And at the center of this storm, Excellence was curled up on the cold, reflective alloy floor in the middle of the laboratory, his body twitching violently and unnaturally as if electrocuted, every muscle tensed to the limit, presenting a posture of extreme painful opisthotonos.

His ten fingers were clawing at his scalp like eagle talons, his nails having already broken the skin and left several bleeding scratch marks, yet he seemed completely unaware.

His eyes were wide open, his eyeballs covered in frantic bloodshot veins, but his pupils were completely dilated, having lost all focus; what was reflected within them was no longer the scene of the real world, but a kind of... extreme light of madness and despair, as if witnessing the ultimate terror and logical collapse of the universe!

From deep within his throat came a hair-raising screech, one that no human could possibly emit, mixed with extreme painful whimpers, unintelligible broken syllables, and eerie electronic noise interference!

Even more terrifying was that on the surface of his exposed skin, especially in the vascular areas of his neck and arms, unstable, ghostly blue light resembling the patterns of an overloaded circuit board flashed from time to time, as if some extremely terrifying energy was running wild inside his body, trying to break out!

"Excellence!" Xiao Zhang's face instantly turned as pale as paper; without any hesitation, he lunged forward, attempting to use professional restraint techniques to control his violently struggling body and prevent him from further self-harm.

But the moment his fingers touched Excellence's cold, sweaty, yet terrifyingly powerful arm, he felt an extremely intense electrostatic pulse, carrying malicious information interference mixed with a kind of mental impact, suddenly surge along the point of contact!

Xiao Zhang's entire arm instantly went numb with sharp pain, the skin under his tactical glove feeling as if it were being pierced by countless tiny needles, and the communication channel inside his helmet even burst with a shrill, unintelligible shriek of noise!

"Captain! His vital signs are completely out of control!" A team member holding a high-precision life detector said, his voice distorted by shock and fear; on the instrument screen, the curves representing Excellence's heart rate, blood pressure, and neural potential were no longer waveforms, but had turned into a chaotic, red alert cloud that tore across the screen, "Heart rate over 220! Blood pressure has soared to a dangerous limit! Brainwave activity intensity... My God... this reading... it's off the charts! It completely exceeds any known human physiological limit record! This is impossible! His brain... is burning!"

"The energy field readings are extremely chaotic! The source cannot be locked! It's not an electromagnetic pulse, not thermal radiation... it's more like a... a direct manifestation of high-dimensional information pollution, forcibly interfering with his biofield and nervous system!" Another team member said, looking at the eerie readings on the energy detector that were jumping wildly and did not conform to any known energy spectrum, his voice trembling with disbelief.

"Implement forced sedation immediately! Maximum allowable dosage! Fast! Injectable nerve blocker plus strong sedative mixture! Aim for the large blood vessels in the neck!" Xiao Zhang, suppressing the numbness in his arm and the horror in his heart, made a decisive decision and roared hoarsely to the medic behind him over the communicator.

The scene before him had already exceeded the scope of any conventional accident or illness; Excellence's state was more like he was being attacked, eroded, or even... "possessed" by something extremely terrifying, invisible, and perhaps even carrying some kind of "consciousness"!

A medic immediately stepped forward, swiftly taking out a special pressurized injection gun filled with high-concentration sedative and potent nerve conduction blocker from his multifunctional tactical medical kit; the cold needle glinted under the blood-red warning lights, and he was about to inject precisely into the carotid sinus area of Excellence's violently trembling neck—this was the fastest way to force a person out of control into a dormant state!

However, at the very last moment, just as the cold needle tip was about to touch his skin—

"Roar——!!!"

Excellence, who had been curled up and seemingly trapped in extreme pain, suddenly raised his head!

His movements were stiff and rapid, as if a marionette had been jerked violently!

A roar, completely unlike anything human, mixed with ice-cold computing power, violent desire for destruction, and endless hunger, exploded from deep within his throat, making the air in the entire laboratory hum!

His eyes—those eyes that were once full of curiosity, focus, and even a hint of shyness—had now completely transformed into two inhuman, glowing orbs, flickering with a torrent of frenzied data and as deep blue as an abyss!

There was no emotion in them, only absolute coldness and calculations that consumed everything!

He swung his hand abruptly. The movement seemed casual, yet it carried a terrifying power that defied the laws of physics and distorted space!

An invisible shockwave, containing terrifying kinetic energy and information disturbance, erupted spherically from his body as the center, bursting outwards in all directions!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Xiao Zhang and the medic, who bore the brunt of the impact, were hit head-on as if by an invisible heavy hammer at extremely high speed!

The two didn't even have time to assume any defensive stance; their entire bodies flew backward completely out of control, slamming heavily against the reinforced wall in the distance like broken sacks!

The heavy tactical protective suits they wore emitted a teeth-grinding, overwhelmed groan of twisting metal, and the built-in buffer gel layers instantly overloaded!

Xiao Zhang's tactical visor instantly filled with cracks and went completely black. A sweetness rose in his throat, and a mouthful of blood sprayed directly onto the inner wall of his helmet!

The other few team members who were attempting to surround him were also knocked over by this sudden, completely incomprehensible shockwave. Their formation collapsed instantly, and someone knocked over an instrument rack, triggering a series of crashing sounds!

"Fire! Non-lethal mode! Electric pulse at maximum power! Suppressive fire! Suppress him! Hurry!"

Xiao Zhang coughed up blood, struggling to prop up half his body from the ground. Through his cracked helmet visor, he hissed orders into the communicator, his voice trembling violently from internal injuries and shock!

The team members who could still move endured their dizziness and pain, quickly finding cover. They raised the advanced energy weapons in their hands, the muzzles gathering a chilling, deep blue light, and fired high-voltage electric pulses capable of instantly causing a large beast's muscles to spasm and lose all ability to move!

The dense blue electric light shot toward Excellence like a violent storm!

However, the scene that followed made everyone's heart sink to freezing point!

Those electric pulses, sufficient to paralyze an armored vehicle, upon contacting the layer of faintly visible, invisible force field that suddenly appeared around Excellence's body—slightly distorting light and space—were like raindrops hitting a deep pool. They merely stirred up weak, ripple-like interference waves before being silently absorbed, neutralized, and dissipated!

A portion of the energy even seemed to be twisted and converted by that force field, instead making the deep blue, circuit-like imprint on Excellence's body become even more intense and unstable!

"Report! Energy attacks ineffective! Repeat! Energy attacks completely absorbed and neutralized by an unknown force field! Unable to achieve effective suppression!"

"Physical suppression! Deploy restraint straps! Magnetic locks! Control him at all costs!" Xiao Zhang roared, his eyes bloodshot.

He had already realized that conventional methods might have completely failed!

Several of the strongest team members immediately rushed out from behind cover, like hounds pouncing on a tiger, attempting to use specialized alloy restraint straps with strong magnetic adsorption functions and high-voltage electric locks to forcibly control Excellence through pure physical strength.

But at this moment, Excellence's strength, speed, and reflexes had completely exceeded the scope of humanity!

His movements were as fast as a ghost; sometimes he precisely predicted and parried all grappling attempts like the coldest computer, and other times he tore wantonly with brute force like a completely crazed beast!

Restraint straps made of high-strength composite materials were easily torn apart by him with a snapping sound, and the specialized alloy handcuffs on his wrists were stretched until they creaked, twisting and deforming!

One team member attempted a rear chokehold, only to be easily knocked away by a backhanded elbow, slamming into a distant control console and bursting into a shower of sparks!

The laboratory was instantly plunged into an even more frenzied chaos! Expensive instruments were smashed and overturned during the intense struggle, with glass and metal shards flying everywhere!

The sharp, piercing alarm, the roars of the team members, the humming of overloaded energy weapons, the dull thuds of bodies hitting hard objects, and Excellence's inhuman, emotionless roars intertwined to create a scene that was crazy, terrifying, and like hell itself!

The blood-red lights flashed wildly, illuminating everything like a bloody slaughterhouse!

"The seed is completely out of control! Repeat! The seed is completely out of control! Threat level raised to maximum! He is immune to all non-lethal methods! Requesting authorization! Requesting authorization to use... lethal force!"

Looking at the scene before him that completely exceeded understanding and was rapidly heading toward the worst-case scenario, one team member made the request he least wanted to make to his superiors, his voice filled with despair and fear.

Xiao Zhang's face was as pale as paper. Leaning against the cold wall, he watched Excellence—who was wreaking havoc in the laboratory, moving so fast he left afterimages, and appearing to have transformed into a humanoid natural disaster—his heart filled with shock, a sense of powerlessness, and a great sense of absurdity.

What on earth was this?! The 'national treasure' that Director Wang protected at all costs, the hope of the base's future, how could he suddenly turn into this... this monster?!

This had completely exceeded his range of cognition and ability to handle!

He had to stop him! Otherwise, not only would Excellence himself completely collapse and be destroyed, but the entire seventh-floor laboratory, and even the deeper structures of the base, could face unpredictable, catastrophic consequences!

Just as his eyes twitched, his teeth were almost crushed, and he was about to roar that most cruel order into the communicator—the mutation occurred again!

The two terrifying forces inside Excellence, crazily fighting and vying for control, seemed to have finally reached a critical point due to the continuous and intense external stimulation, or perhaps because of some internal, deeper reason...

He suddenly stiffened in place, all movement stopping instantly, as if he were a statue that had suddenly had a pause button pressed on it.

Then, he raised his head, his neck stretched to an angle that was nearly breaking, and let out a long howl that was even more shrill, even longer, as if it pierced through time and space, containing endless pain, anger, and a trace of... strange relief!

Immediately after, a torrent of energy and information, indescribable in words, mixed with ice-cold, piercing alien data streams and the warm, tragic glory of protection—chaotic to the extreme—burst forth from within him!

The light instantly illuminated the entire chaotic laboratory, its intensity even temporarily overpowering the wildly flashing blood-red alarm lights, staining everything with a surreal, near-disintegrating color, and then...

Like the collapse following a supernova explosion, the light suddenly extinguished! It vanished without a trace!

The frenzied data stream light in Excellence's eyes instantly dissipated, and his pupils returned to their original state, but they lost all luster, becoming empty and void of anything.

His body went limp, all strength seemingly drained away in an instant, and he fell forward stiffly, slamming face-down heavily onto the cold, broken floor with a dull thud, completely losing consciousness and remaining motionless.

In the laboratory, in an instant, it fell into a kind of extreme, starkly contrasting dead silence.

All that remained was a scene of wreckage as if it had been bombed, the blood-red alarm lights still flashing and rotating wildly, the alarm sound that was still piercing but seemed to have lost its target, the lingering smell of burning and ozone, and... all the shaken, injured, and heavily panting team members, their faces filled with shock, fear, lingering dread, and huge questions.

Xiao Zhang clutched his painful chest, struggled to crawl over, and with trembling fingers, cautiously reached toward the artery on the side of Excellence's neck.

A weak, slow, but definitely existing pulse came through his fingertips.

He was still alive.

Xiao Zhang slumped to the ground, leaning against the cold wall. He looked at Excellence before him—unconscious, face as pale as paper, as if just dragged back from the edge of hell, covered in tiny wounds and bloodstains—and then looked at the completely ruined laboratory, which looked like it had undergone a miniature war.

A huge, cold chill, enough to freeze the soul, instantly swept through his entire body, making him unable to help but shiver.

Something big had happened.

A monumental matter.