31: inhumane

After a national expletive, there was another loud 'bang' as the door slammed shut.

Sniffing the faint musty smell wafting from inside the room, Yang Dian, who had closed the door, turned to look at Lin Mo, who was also frowning behind him.

"Captain, did you see it?"

Lin Mo nodded, his tone still a bit stifled:

"I saw it."

He rubbed his head, also not in good spirits:

"Wenya and Wenqian really weren't wrong."

"Such a big Cockroach."

As he spoke, he asked with some curiosity:

"Why did you suddenly close the door?"

"Even I didn't feel any threat from that Cockroach. It shouldn't be difficult for you to deal with it, right?"

Yang Dian pinched his nose, trying to drive the musty smell out of his mind:

"It's not about whether I can beat it or not; it's that the Cockroach looks too bizarre."

"Plus, that musty smell on it is simply mental pollution!"

"If I look at it a few more times, I'm afraid I'll throw up."

Lin Mo glanced at the door several times.

"I feel that way too."

"Especially when I saw the patterns on the Cockroach's chest carapace, the urge to vomit became even stronger."

Yang Dian mused:

"So, after that Cockroach mutated, besides growing larger, it also gained the ability to interfere with mental states or affect human hormones?"

After thinking for a moment, Yang Dian still reached into his pocket and took out the remaining high-voltage electric net capture ball.

"How about I just throw the ball later?"

Lin Mo reached out and stopped him:

"Forget it, let's wait for Professor Shen to come."

"Although that Cockroach looks bizarre, its strength is not comparable to that of the secondary Mutated Infected Body."

"I'm afraid the high-voltage electric net will electrocute it instantly."

Yang Dian rubbed his brow in distress, and after putting the capture ball back in his pocket, he walked towards the anti-theft door again.

"We can't wait until Professor Shen and his team arrive to act."

"If we catch the Mutated Cockroach before they arrive, then this Cockroach will be considered caught by our Seventh Squad."

"If we act after they arrive, then we'll only get credit for 'discovering an abnormal creature'."

As his words fell, just as Yang Dian placed his hand on the key, preparing to open the door again, a sound of quick footsteps came from downstairs.

He stopped and turned around.

Yang Dian didn't have to wait long before Shi Sheng, somewhat out of breath, crossed the stair landing and came to Yang Dian's side:

"Wait... wait... wait for me."

"Oh my..."

"My Dian Zi, why didn't you call me when there was work?"

Looking at Shi Sheng, who was frantically gasping for breath with one arm around his shoulder, Yang Dian helplessly spread his hands:

"Brother Shi, you were on duty in Changle District, too far from us, so I didn't think of calling you over."

"But you came at just the right time."

"The thing inside is a bit difficult for me to handle. Since you're here, I'll leave it to you."

"Finally, can you please not call me Dian Zi?"

"Even if you want to give me a nickname, give me a nicer one..."

Shi Sheng exhaled.

Catching his breath, he chuckled:

"This nickname is good."

"How much more intimate is it to call you Dian Zi?"

"Others ask me to give them nicknames, and I'm too lazy to."

As he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves again:

"Tell me, what kind of guy needs my Brother Shi to step in? I'll give it three solid punches."

Yang Dian turned around without a word and opened the door.

Before the musty smell from the Mutated Cockroach could spread, he jumped behind Shi Sheng again:

"Look!"

"It!"

"Oh my! What a monster!" Shi Sheng shrieked, fumbling to pull out his Ice Hand Cannon:

"You're not being fair!"

Amidst his complaints, Shi Sheng suppressed his nausea and fired two 'bang bang' shots at the Mutated Cockroach.

Icy blue powder erupted from the muzzle, instantly covering the Mutated Cockroach.

As layers of dark blue frost coated its carapace, the frequency of the Mutated Cockroach's antennae twitching immediately began to decrease.

In a short while, it turned into a block of ice, frozen in place.

It was strange indeed.

As the Mutated Cockroach was frozen, the musty smell disappeared, and the stomach acid that had risen to Yang Dian's throat also receded back into his stomach.

Even with his eyes fixed on the bizarre patterns on the Mutated Cockroach's chest carapace, the urge to vomit did not reappear.

'So, to induce vomiting, patterns alone aren't enough; that foul smell must also be present?'

Just as Yang Dian began to ponder, Shi Sheng, who had already reached the Mutated Cockroach, shrieked again:

"Holy crap, why does this thing look like a Cockroach? And so big? Are they really going to make my kids ride Cockroaches to school in the future?"

"Holy crap, how can there be such a big Cockroach!"

"Get away, don't fly towards my face!"

"Damn it, so disgusting!"

Looking in the direction of the sound, sure enough, Cockroaches about two fingers in size suddenly darted out from the corner of the room, turning into streaks of afterimages, buzzing around Shi Sheng non-stop!

Seeing the large Cockroaches with twitching antennae landing on Shi Sheng's hair and back, Yang Dian shivered involuntarily.

"A bit scary!"

"Good thing Brother Shi, you came, otherwise I'd be surrounded by Cockroaches right now!"

Shi Sheng, hearing Yang Dian's mumbling, was about to go crazy:

"Are you still making sarcastic remarks over there?"

"Come and save me quickly!"

He raised his hand to swat at a Cockroach that had landed on his face and was about to burrow into his nose.

Seeing the Cockroach clinging to the corner of Shi Sheng's mouth, preparing to burrow into his nose, Yang Dian got even more goosebumps:

"Brother Shi, hold your hand!"

"These Cockroaches are the offspring of the Mutated Cockroach; they might have inherited the Mutated Cockroach's mutation abilities. Try not to kill them if you can."

Shi Sheng was shaking like a sieve:

"It's easy for you to say!"

"You come in then!"

Despite his curses, at Yang Dian's reminder, he changed his swat to a grab, seizing the Cockroach from the corner of his mouth and throwing it far away.

Seeing Shi Sheng in the room showing signs of going crazy, Yang Dian looked left and right, and his eyes lit up when he saw some old gloves and a snakeskin bag nearby.

"Brother Shi, don't panic, I'm coming."

He put on the gloves and tightened the snakeskin bag.

Yang Dian took two steps forward to the doorway.

Yes, he didn't enter the door.

He was genuinely afraid of Cockroaches landing on his head.

"Brother Shi, I'm here, don't panic!"

While speaking, Yang Dian's hands didn't stop moving.

Whenever a Cockroach flew past him, his gloved right hand would turn into an afterimage, grabbing the Cockroach and then tossing it into the snakeskin bag.

One... two... three... After a while, when he had caught 72 Cockroaches in the snakeskin bag, and there were no more Cockroaches flying around in the room, Yang Dian tiptoed carefully into the room.

He casually picked off a Cockroach clinging to Shi Sheng's back.

After throwing it into the snakeskin bag, Yang Dian cautiously looked at Shi Sheng again:

"Brother Shi, are you alright?"

Shi Sheng, looking somewhat resigned to life, raised his hand to his nose and sniffed, then began to gag:

"Ugh~"

"So smelly!"

"I'm unclean now!"

"I knew I shouldn't have come!"

"Ugh~"

"I want to die..."

"Captain, I need a break! I need a shower!"

"You treat me to a scrub at Water Cube..."

Seeing Shi Sheng start to act frivolous again after only a few words, Lin Mo, who had been full of concern, silently withdrew the worried expression from his face:

"If he can still joke around, then he's fine."

"Xiao Yang, let's first search the room to see if there are any other Mutated Cockroach larvae."

"Oh, and also look for Wenya and Wenqian's Changmao Sanhua."

"With such a big commotion and no sign of it, it might have been eaten by the Mutated Cockroach."

...