332: nest

The Half-Infected Subject was clearly extremely familiar with this area; even in his semi-mutated state, his escape route was purposeful.

He scrambled deep into the construction site, suddenly wrenching open a heavy sewer manhole cover and roaring as he hurled it at Lin Xun, who was chasing closest behind!

Lin Xun reacted lightning-fast, easily dodging the flying cover with a lateral slide. But in that brief delay, the Half-Infected Subject had already leaped into the pitch-black opening below.

"After him!" Shen Mingyuan arrived, not hesitating for a second.

Lin Xun jumped in first, with Shen Mingyuan following close behind.

Below was one of the main arteries of the city's complex underground drainage System. The space was wider than expected, but it was thick with a nauseating, putrid stench, with only a few scattered safety lights providing dim illumination.

Upon landing, the Half-Infected Subject immediately ducked into a side pipe, relying on his familiarity with the terrain. The sound of his footsteps echoed through the confined space before quickly growing faint.

Lin Xun scanned his surroundings quickly after landing. Pipes crisscrossed everywhere with numerous forks, making it nearly impossible to distinguish directions in the dark, let alone track specific footsteps. "We lost him!" he whispered, his tone laced with frustration.

"Follow me!" Shen Mingyuan's voice came through his armor, steady and reassuring. He activated the shadow armor's hyper-sense mode once more, his visor flickering with a faint light.

Ultrasound waves spread through the surrounding pipes like invisible tentacles, mapping out the three-dimensional structure, while thermal imaging clearly captured a life signal deep within a fork ahead. It was moving fast and emitting abnormally high heat—the Half-Infected Subject's metabolism was clearly in a state of extreme hyper-activity due to the mutation.

"Second pipe on the left, about 1.2 meters in diameter. He's accelerating!" Shen Mingyuan quickly pointed the way.

"Understood!" Lin Xun didn't hesitate, his body turning into a black-and-white blur as he charged into the pipe Shen Mingyuan indicated. Shen Mingyuan followed closely, maintaining his sensory lock while continuously calling out course corrections:

"Right turn in twenty meters... watch the slope, it's heading down... there's a fork on the left, but he took the wider one on the right..."

The two moved rapidly through the labyrinthine sewers. Lin Xun used his speed to lead the way, while Shen Mingyuan acted as a precise living radar for navigation.

After several minutes of chasing, more and more unnatural claw marks and slimy secretions began to appear on the pipe walls. The putrid stench in the air was gradually mixing with a more pungent, musky odor reminiscent of a reptile's nest.

Finally, faint light and louder rustling and growling sounds came from ahead. Shen Mingyuan whispered, "Slow down. The target has stopped. There are many life signatures ahead... more than one."

The two crept silently to the end of the pipe. It connected to a crude nest fashioned out of a large, abandoned underground cistern. A few emergency lights, hooked up from somewhere unknown, provided dim lighting.

They saw the Half-Infected Subject slumped in the center of The Nest, panting heavily, his face a mix of pain and the slight relief of returning 'home.' Surrounding him were seven or eight figures!

Two or three of them were Dinosaur Persons of various forms who had already completed their transformation.

But even more shocking were the others—they clearly hadn't been transformed from humans! A rat-like creature, bloated to the size of a cat or dog with a pointed snout and long tail, covered in grayish-black scales, was squeaking uneasily;

Several bats with thick, stiff wing membranes and abnormally sharp claws hung upside down from pipes in the corner, their eyes glowing red in the dark; there was even a bird that had lost most of its feathers, its neck elongated and its beak sharpened, pacing unsteadily.

They all bore Dinosaur Person traits to varying degrees: keratinous scales, mutated limbs, and crimson eyes. Clearly, this terrifying infection was not limited to humans!

The place the Half-Infected Subject had fled to was not just a hiding spot, but a fledgling nest... a mixture of different sources of infection!

Shen Mingyuan and Lin Xun exchanged a look from the shadows of the pipe entrance, both seeing the gravity in each other's eyes. The situation was even more troublesome and dangerous than they had anticipated.

In the shadows of the pipe, Shen Mingyuan whispered to Lin Xun, "See that Half-Infected Subject? Prioritize controlling him. The others around him, whether transformed from humans or animals, are aggressive and pose an infection risk. Don't hold back, but try to keep them alive for research if possible. Ready?"

Lin Xun nodded without a word. He raised his right arm and pressed his palm against the suppressor ring on his left arm, slightly adjusting a parameter.

Immediately, dozens of metallic-looking spikes of varying lengths, their edges shimmering with a cold light, suddenly 'grew' from the surface of his black-and-white armor!

These spikes weren't arranged randomly; they formed deadly serrated blade-rows along the outside of his forearms and the knuckles of his hands. They could be used for vicious hacking and piercing, or to cause horrific tearing injuries by pulling after cutting into an enemy's body.

"I'm ready," Lin Xun's voice came through his faceplate, carrying a sharp focus.

"Go!"

Shen Mingyuan struck first! He lunged from cover like a pouncing leopard, his twin pistols spitting tongues of fire while he was still in mid-air! "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" The continuous gunfire thundered in the confined space. His objective was clear—not to kill in one hit, but to suppress and disrupt! The bullets accurately struck the non-lethal but mobility-impairing parts of every moving target in The Nest: leg joints, supporting arms, the base of wings, and the ground in front of their paths! In an instant, scales shattered and sparks flew as roars and cries of pain filled the air. The enemy formation in The Nest was thrown into chaos, with most falling into brief confusion or having their movements hindered by the sudden attack and injuries.

Almost as the shots rang out, Lin Xun moved too! He became a black-and-white gale, plunging straight into the enemy group! Two Dinosaur Persons with faster reactions roared and turned to pounce on Shen Mingyuan, only to be intercepted by Lin Xun, who struck from the side!

"Slash—!"

Lin Xun's arm swept past, his sharp spikes carving a deep gash into a Dinosaur Person's side, sending a spray of blood and scale fragments flying. Before the creature could finish its cry of pain, he twisted his wrist in an eerie motion, hooking the spikes into the wound. Using the enemy's forward momentum and his own powerful waist strength, he wrenched backward violently!

"Squelch!" A large chunk of scaly flesh was torn away! The Dinosaur Person let out a shrill scream, its movements completely collapsing. Lin Xun didn't stop, using the momentum for a swift spin to dodge another dinosaur's claw strike. His spike-covered arm whipped like an iron flail against the side of the opponent's neck, the spikes sinking deep and tearing away more flesh. Then, utilizing the centrifugal force of his spin, he delivered a vicious, full-body flying kick, sending the neck-injured Dinosaur Person flying back into a pile of junk.

The gunfire subsided slightly as Shen Mingyuan landed steadily. He pointed his twin pistols at the center of The Nest, his gaze locked on the Half-Infected Subject who was cowering in terror.

Looking at the wrecked nest and his fallen companions, the Half-Infected Subject's face, covered in bloodshot veins and partial scales, contorted with pain and rage. He shrieked in a raspy, distorted voice:

"Why... why do you keep hunting me so relentlessly?! What did I do?! I just want to live!!"

While shifting positions to maintain suppressive fire and driving back several infected animals trying to pounce, Shen Mingyuan responded coldly, his voice carrying clearly through his armor:

"Then I have to ask you—why? Why did you go and infect other people, and other animals? Just because you want to live, you have to turn more innocent beings into things like you, even making them lose themselves and become monsters?"