187: woman

The massive doors slid open silently to both sides, revealing a space of startling vastness behind them.

This place didn't look like a laboratory; it was more like a futuristic Body Integration of a Command Center and a private research facility.

The curved walls were embedded with multiple massive display screens, all of which were pitch black at the moment. The air was thick with the scent of Advanced cleaning agents and a faint, lingering cold fragrance.

In the center of the room, with her back to the entrance, a tall figure stood looking up at those black screens. She wore well-tailored, dark casual clothes, her long hair tied up simply. Hearing the sound of the door opening, she slowly turned around.

She was a woman who looked to be in her thirties. Her features were beautiful but possessed a cold sharpness, and her gaze was as precise and devoid of warmth as a scalpel.

She watched Shen Mingyuan as he stepped inside—his matte black armor looked exceptionally out of place and menacing under the dim indoor lighting—yet there wasn't much panic on her face. Instead, her lips curled into a playful, inquisitive arc.

“Oh my...” she spoke, her voice steady, even carrying a hint of admiration. “You certainly arrived quickly. At least seventeen minutes faster than anticipated.”

Her gaze swept over Shen Mingyuan before glancing toward the wall of black surveillance screens nearby.

“I must say, it's impressive. To Breakthrough from the outer ring to this point, dealing with all the conventional guards and experimental subjects I set up... your efficiency is startling.”

Her tone shifted, the inquisitiveness in her eyes deepening. “However, I am quite curious—how did you do it?”

She raised a hand and pointed toward the black screens. “My eyes, and every door in this building... they were supposed to block you, or at least tell me your exact position at every step.”

“But three minutes after you entered the main building, they all ‘fell asleep.’ It wasn't sabotage; it was more like... they were gently coaxed to sleep by a higher authority, without even having time to yawn out an alarm.”

She tilted her head slightly, studying Shen Mingyuan as if evaluating an interesting weapon. “I tried every backdoor command, physical reboots, even emergency backup lines... all were ineffective.”

“It's like there's an invisible membrane that ‘erased’ them from my control System, so clean it’s frightening. Can you tell me? Is this your ability, or... do you have some ‘friend’ behind you that I didn't anticipate?”

Shen Mingyuan remained silent, completely ignoring her questions. He simply walked forward with steady, measured steps, the rhythmic clack of his armored boots against the polished floor echoing through the empty room.

The woman waited for a few seconds, and when she received no response, the playfulness on her face was gradually replaced by a touch of coldness.

“Don't want to talk? Very well.” She shrugged, appearing unsurprised. “Academic discussion time is over.”

Her finger fell seemingly at random onto a prominent red button on the console behind her, pressing it lightly.

“Chi—Ka!”

Deep within the room, a hidden door that had been integrated into the wall suddenly slid open. Behind the door was not a corridor, but a space resembling a concentrated breeding area.

In the next moment, a scalp-numbing wave of scratching, low growls, and chaotic running sounds surged out like a tide!

Dense swarms of Sentry Dogs rushed into the Command Center from behind the door like a bursting black flood! Their numbers far exceeded any previous encounter; at a rough glance, there were at least twenty or thirty of them, nearly filling the back half of the room.

A thoroughly provoked murderous light flickered in their eyes as saliva dripped from their bared muzzles. They scratched the floor restlessly, waiting only for a command to tear the intruder before them to pieces.

The woman took two steps back with composed ease, placing herself behind the protection of the Sentry Dogs flood, a cold smile of absolute control reappearing on her face.

“Then, let it end here,” she pronounced softly. “Taste the final result of the ‘Livestock’ production line—the power of the swarm.”

Facing the tide of twisted creatures surging toward him, Shen Mingyuan's pace did not falter.

He didn't even look at the snarling Sentry Dogs. The light from his red eyepieces pierced through the chaotic pack, remaining firmly locked onto the figure of the woman at the back.

He simply continued to walk forward in silence, while slowly raising the twin stars in both hands.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

The muzzles of the twin stars continuously spat out black-red beams of light, each shot accompanied by a rhythm of precise, cold semi-automatic fire. The heads of the first few Sentry Dogs that pounced exploded with scorched holes, their lunging bodies collapsing limply under the force of their own momentum.

Shen Mingyuan's movements were fluid. He stepped aside to dodge a claw attacking from the flank, his left-hand muzzle rising in tandem to pull the trigger almost against the creature's lower jaw.

Simultaneously, his right leg swept out like a steel whip, kicking another leaping Sentry Dog mid-air and sending it tumbling backward. The right-hand twin stars followed up with two shots the moment it lost balance, the black-red beams piercing through its chest, abdomen, and head.

He was like a god of death dancing in a storm. His footsteps shifted rapidly, weaving through the gaps of the twisted creatures' lunges. Every pause was punctuated by a gunshot and a falling body.

A Sentry Dog leaped from behind, attempting to climb onto his back. Without looking back, Shen Mingyuan snapped his arm back at an unnatural angle, the muzzle flash erupting from under his armpit to accurately strike it down.

Facing attacks lunging from three directions at once, he suddenly bent his knees and then leaped upward with full force! The powerful thrust provided by the armor sent him soaring instantly, not only avoiding the snapping jaws below but also gaining a momentary bird's-eye view.

While in mid-air, he extended both arms, and the twin stars' muzzles poured down a brief but dense rain of bullets—Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!—five Sentry Dogs huddled together went limp amidst exploding energy sparks.

Landing, rolling, rising, and firing. The movements were seamless, without a single wasted motion. The black-red trajectories wove a web of death within the dim Command Center, and Shen Mingyuan was the center of that web.

He Advanced silently, every step landing between fallen, twisted corpses. The sound of gunfire became the only dominant theme in this space—efficiently, coldly, and continuously thinning the numbers of the Sentry Dogs.

While Shen Mingyuan was fully focused on clearing the swarming Sentry Dogs, deep in the room, the woman who had retreated behind the flood of Sentry Dogs had quietly sat back down in the central master control chair.

She didn't seem to care much about the one-sided slaughter before her, her fingers quickly operating a hidden panel on the armrest.

Immediately after, from behind the chair, a mechanical arm connected to hoses and a fluid storage device extended silently. The woman tilted her head slightly, revealing the back of her neck—where she wore a black metallic-textured collar that fit snugly against her skin, with a standard injection port in the center.

The needle at the tip of the mechanical arm aimed precisely at the port and slowly pierced inside.

“Chi...”

Amidst a faint hydraulic sound, a thick liquid somewhere between dark red and amber began to be steadily injected into the woman's body through the needle and hose.

Her body tensed imperceptibly for a moment, her eyelids drooping slightly before opening again, a cold glint seemingly flickering deep within her eyes.