303: Blood and flesh

"It's right here." Shen Mingyuan stood up, pointing at the repair marks. "There's definitely something underneath. But I can't find a visible switch or pull ring... Logically, there should be a mechanism that opens from the inside."

He crouched down, carefully feeling along the fine crevices with his gauntlet, trying to find a point of leverage or a hidden latch.

Lu Jianchuan walked over, took a look, and said bluntly, "Don't bother looking. A secret door in a place like this is likely locked from the inside or only opens one way. Ready? I'm going to 'open the door' now."

Shen Mingyuan understood and immediately stepped back a few paces to make room. At the same time, the light from his red eyepiece intensified slightly as he entered a state of combat alert. "It's all yours."

Lu Jianchuan said no more. He took half a step back, pulling his right fist—encased in silver-white armor—slightly back. A faint flow of energy seemed to flash through the biological structures on his arm. In the next instant, he twisted his waist and threw his shoulder forward, his fist slamming into the repaired base of the wall like a cannonball!

"Boom—!"

A dull thud, far louder than when they had broken through the partition wall earlier, exploded in the narrow sewer space, sending gravel and concrete fragments flying. The weak point of the repair couldn't withstand this charged strike at all. A large hole, big enough for a person to bend over and enter, was instantly blasted open amidst clouds of dust.

Almost at the same moment the wall broke, a sharp, rapid 'buzzing' alarm immediately rang out from deep within the hole, with red lights flickering intermittently at the end of the passage.

Lu Jianchuan shook the debris off his hand and looked through the hole at the flickering red lights and the faint sound of footsteps. His tone carried a hint of 'just as I thought' helplessness. "Tsk, fine. A cliché underground lab plus a standard alarm package. Looks like we won't be able to sneak in quietly."

Shen Mingyuan had already moved to the side of the hole and taken a quick peek inside. His Sonar instantly mapped out the general structure of the passage ahead and several moving humanoid silhouettes. "Then let's change the plan and 'visit' our way in. Classic procedure: I'll handle the precise 'greetings,' and you make sure they 'listen well.'" His voice came through the armor, carrying the coldness of tactical execution.

Lu Jianchuan cracked his neck with a soft click and was the first to bend down and crawl through the hole. "Fine, then you'd better keep up. Don't let any 'assassins' reach the backline. I'll tank, you deal damage. Let's make this quick."

"Don't worry, my 'roll call' efficiency has always been high," Shen Mingyuan replied, following him into the hole.

Upon breaking into the interior of the lab, the expected swarm of guards did not appear. The piercing alarm echoed in the empty space, sounding somewhat lonely. The scale of this lab was smaller than expected, and the layout seemed... rather crude. The walls were rough concrete, and the lighting consisted of simple, cold-white LED tubes. Some Experimental Tables and equipment even looked like second-hand patchwork, vastly different from the high-tech feel of Prometheus they had encountered before. Everywhere, there was an air of "budget constraints" or "resources being highly concentrated on a single project."

Even more eerie was the almost complete lack of research or armed personnel in sight. The entire area was abnormally quiet, with only the alarm wailing in vain.

However, this "emptiness" was soon replaced by another kind of presence. Shen Mingyuan's keen perception caught the anomalies in the surrounding environment—in the gaps between some Experimental Tables, at the edges of ventilation ducts, and even in the fine cracks of the concrete walls, dark red fleshy tissues that seemed alive could be seen slowly writhing and taking root. On the surface of some fleshy lumps, turbid, lidless eyes were embedded, turning mechanically to stare fixedly at the two as they moved.

"Tsk." Shen Mingyuan felt a wave of physiological disgust. He unhesitatingly raised his right arm, and the muzzle of his twin stars pistol flashed.

"Bang!"

A bullet accurately hit the nearest eyeball embedded in a tumor, blowing it into a mass of slurry. The fleshy tissue then twitched violently and withered.

"This looks truly disgusting," Shen Mingyuan said, holstering his gun.

"They're definitely not researching anything good." Lu Jianchuan looked around, his voice under the armor filled with caution. "Be careful. In an environment like this..."

Before he could finish, a heavy metal isolation door ahead slid open with a bang, and a blast of hot, fishy-smelling air surged out. Accompanied by a non-human roar suppressed with pain, a massive Dinosaur Person with bulging muscles and a body covered in rough keratin and scattered bone plates smashed through the doorframe and charged out! Its eyes were blood-red, its target clear: it lunged straight at Lu Jianchuan, who was standing slightly ahead, opening its massive, tooth-filled maw to bite!

Lu Jianchuan reacted extremely quickly. Dodging to the side, his hands shot out, firmly gripping the edges of the Dinosaur Person's upper and lower jaws at the critical moment. His immense strength caused the ground beneath his feet to sink slightly. The Dinosaur Person thrashed its head wildly, spraying foul-smelling saliva.

"Quiet... down!" Lu Jianchuan growled. Using the strength from his waist and hips, he leveraged the Dinosaur Person's forward momentum and spun suddenly. With a standard over-the-shoulder throw, he slammed the massive creature hard onto the ground!

"Boom!" The ground shook violently.

Before the Dinosaur Person could struggle to its feet, silver-white electricity flashed across Lu Jianchuan's hands as he pressed them against its head!

"Crackle—!"

High-voltage bio-electricity surged in instantly. The Dinosaur Person's entire body convulsed violently, and its roars stopped abruptly, turning into pained hisses.

Almost at the same time Lu Jianchuan pinned his opponent, Shen Mingyuan had already moved to the optimal shooting angle. Holding both guns level, the muzzles erupted in short, precise flashes of fire.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The bullets were like they had eyes, accurately boring into the Dinosaur Person's neck, joints, and other relatively vulnerable areas exposed by its twitching, completely ending its life. The massive body convulsed a few more times before falling still.

"...I thought we'd have to go a few rounds at least," Shen Mingyuan said, holstering his guns and watching the quickly concluded battle. "It's a bit... weaker than expected? Or rather, it's more like a beast driven by instinct, lacking combat skills and coordination."

"Don't relax!" Lu Jianchuan barked, his gaze fixed deep behind the open door.

Heavy footsteps sounded one after another. In the darkness, several more Dinosaur Person silhouettes of varying heights, all emitting a ferocious aura, emerged and approached them with low growls.

"Looks like the 'reception' isn't over yet." Shen Mingyuan quickly swapped magazines, his tone returning to calm. "I'll clear the path. You focus on covering and interrupting so we don't get surrounded. Let's fight our way in and see what 'key project' they've spent all their 'funding' on!"

"Let's go!" Lu Jianchuan said succinctly, charging toward the first Dinosaur Person. His silver-white armor traced a sharp trajectory under the cold lights.

The two didn't linger, meeting the surging enemies and forcing their way deeper into the lab.

After forcing their way through and defeating several waves of Dinosaur Person guards who attacked purely on instinct and lacked tactical coordination, Shen Mingyuan and Lu Jianchuan finally reached the deepest part of the lab.

Passing through the final doorway, the scene before them was entirely different from the crude but still lab-like area outside. It looked like an unfinished cave, or perhaps one that had been deliberately returned to a 'primitive' state. The walls and support structures were no longer concrete but roughly excavated rock. The ground was uneven, and the cold white lighting had become sparse and dim here, casting patches of shadow.

However, what truly caused physiological discomfort was the "life" filling this cavernous space—or rather, the "things" attempting to become life.

As far as the eye could see, in the hollows of the rock walls, in shallow pits specially dug into the ground, and even from the cracks in the rough rock, translucent, pulsating "Flesh eggs" bulged out. These Flesh eggs varied in size, their surfaces covered in knotted blood vessels, with indescribable shadows curled up inside.

From time to time, a flesh egg would writhe violently and then burst with a 'pop,' releasing thick tissue fluid. From within, a 'thing' composed of pure flesh and blood, or even with stark white bones exposed, would slide out. They had no fixed form; some looked like multi-legged worms, while others were just pulsating lumps of meat with randomly distributed, aimlessly turning eyes or several opening and closing mouths with jagged teeth.

These newly born, Malformed fleshy things fell onto the cold, rough ground. Some twitched a few times and then stopped moving, quickly losing vitality and becoming part of the larger mass of waste. The few that could still move completely ignored Shen Mingyuan and Lu Jianchuan close by. Driven only by some incomprehensible instinct, they moved silently and persistently toward a direction deeper in the cave by writhing, crawling, or even rolling. A dark red glow faintly emanated from there, accompanied by a low, rhythmic 'thump... thump...' sound, like the beating of a giant heart.

There was no intent to attack, no fear response—only a pure, chilling instinct to "go there." The air was thick with the heavy scent of blood, the sweet-sickly smell of tissue fluid, and an indescribable aura of despair as life was forced into existence and culled in its most primitive and brutal state.

Shen Mingyuan's brow furrowed tightly under his faceplate. Even through the filtration System, this scene caused him intense discomfort. His muzzle was lowered, but he didn't relax his guard. His red eyepiece scanned the stumbling lumps of flesh, eventually locking onto the direction of the red light deep within where they were all heading.

"These things... are simply a desecration of the word 'life.'"

Lu Jianchuan's voice carried suppressed anger as he looked around the cave, which resembled a low-quality flesh factory. "They poured all their limited resources into this... assembly-line production of deformities? What exactly is the goal?"