63: Chapter 63 Annihilation

Chen Feng shifted into a more comfortable position, his body sinking into the back of the chair.

On the screen, four dark silhouettes had already arrived at the entrance to the third underground level.

"They're here," he said softly, as if welcoming long-awaited guests.

He did not touch the control terminal, simply watching quietly.

The third underground level, the corridor leading to the server room.

The moment Nathan and his three team members stepped into this area, they felt a bone-chilling cold.

It wasn't because of the low temperature, but a warning from some biological instinct. The air here was almost entirely overwhelmed by a rich, bloody, sweet stench, masking the smell of disinfectant.

"Check the environment," Nathan ordered in the lowest volume possible.

Pulse raised a small detector and scanned the area, shaking his head: "No active electronic signals, no infrared triggers."

Pincer checked the material of the walls on both sides of the corridor, tapping them with his knuckles: "Solid concrete, embedded with steel plates."

Nathan nodded, waved a tactical signal, and they continued forward.

They had walked less than twenty meters when a dull metallic clang sounded behind them.

"Clang—!"

The sound wasn't loud, but in the deathly silent underground space, it was exceptionally jarring.

The four of them turned sharply to see the fire door they had just entered automatically close, not even a sliver of light leaking through the gap.

Nathan's heart sank abruptly.

"Pulse, open the door."

Pulse immediately stepped forward and attached a decoder to the access control panel, but only a line of red text popped up on the screen: [Physically locked, authorization revoked].

"Boss, it's a mechanical lock, locked from the outside. We've been trapped."

A trap.

Everyone's hearts chilled: it was a trap.

Before Nathan could issue new orders, a sharp, screeching sound, like metal scraping against concrete, suddenly came from the ventilation duct above their heads.

"Above us!" He roared, aiming his gun upward.

Before the words had even left his mouth, two dark silhouettes lunged out from the ventilation ducts on the left and right, as fast as cannonballs!

They were definitely not human!

Their bodies were covered in dark red muscle tissue without any skin; their brains and eyeballs were completely exposed, their skulls deformed and elongated, and their mouths stretched to their ears, revealing dense, sharp teeth. Most terrifying were their sickle-like claws and a scorpion-like tongue that constantly whipped through the air!

"Open fire!"

Two tongues of fire instantly tore through the dim corridor.

One of the monsters was shredded by the dense hail of bullets while still in mid-air, falling to the ground with a scream, twitching twice before going still.

But the other one was even faster; it kicked off the wall, twisted its body at an impossible angle to dodge most of the bullets, and pounced on the third team member, Pincer, on the far right of the formation!

Pincer reacted extremely quickly, turning sideways to block with his rifle.

"Snap!"

The alloy rifle body was sliced by the sickle-like claw, leaving a deep gouge cut straight into it! The immense impact sent Pincer crashing against the wall, a sharp pain shooting through his right arm as his rifle flew out of his hand.

The monster, having succeeded in its first strike, shot out its long tongue like lightning, aiming straight for his throat!

"Die!"

The fourth team member kicked Pincer away, simultaneously pressing his short assault rifle against the monster's jaw and pulling the trigger.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The point-blank burst of fire blew the monster's head to pieces, splattering the fourth team member with foul-smelling brains and blood.

From start to finish, the battle lasted no more than five seconds.

"Pincer, status?" Nathan immediately checked on his teammate.

"Damn it... right arm dislocated, maybe fractured." Pincer gritted his teeth, drawing his pistol with his left hand, cold sweat covering his forehead.

Pulse's situation was worse; in order to dodge the attack, he had slammed his head against the wall, and his quad-tube night vision goggles were completely destroyed.

Nathan's expression was grim to the extreme.

In a single exchange, their combat effectiveness had been cut nearly in half. One could only use his left hand for the pistol, and the other had limited vision in the dark.

What the hell kind of place is this?

"General Stone's intelligence didn't mention monsters like this here!" Pulse couldn't help but curse.

"Shut up." Nathan's voice was as cold as ice. "The General only said the target had biological weapons; he didn't say how many types."

He knew in his heart that this was just an appetizer. The real main course was still to come.

Just then, a heavy heartbeat, like a war drum, sounded abruptly.

"Thump... thump... thump..."

The sound didn't come from any one direction, but from all around, through the floor and the walls, vibrating directly against their eardrums and internal organs.

The ground began to tremble slightly.

Nathan immediately raised his gun, switching the head-up display in his right eye to thermal imaging mode.

In his field of view, deep within the massive, originally pitch-black alloy workshop at the end of the corridor, a huge humanoid heat source signal was slowly lighting up.

No, not lighting up.

It was walking out.

The height of that heat source signal exceeded two and a half meters, its silhouette too massive to be human. What made Nathan's scalp tingle even more was its heat reading—far exceeding normal human body temperature, almost reaching a boiling point.

"What is that..." Pulse took off his broken night vision goggles, squinting into the darkness.

A colossal monstrosity walked out of the shadows, step by step.

Its muscles were knotted all over its body, like moving chunks of rock; its skin was a sickly grayish-white, covered in gruesome surgical stitches. Most horrifying was its face: it had no lips, its teeth were completely exposed, and in its pair of dark red eyes, there was no human emotion—only pure, cold killing intent.

It walked barefoot, and with every step, it left a shallow footprint on the hard epoxy floor.

B-02.

The codename from the intelligence file flashed through Nathan's mind instantly.

This was their core target.

"Target acquired! Prepare to engage!" Nathan's voice was somewhat hoarse from extreme tension.

"Open fire! Free fire!"

The three functional assault rifles and one pistol spewed tongues of fire simultaneously, countless rifle bullets and pistol rounds forming a web of death, covering the monster known as the "Tyrant."

However, the scene that followed completely shattered the perception of this group of top-tier special forces soldiers.

The bullets hit the Tyrant, but it was like throwing mud into the sea. They did indeed bore into its muscles, bringing out sprays of dark red blood, but those gruesome wounds were actually squirming and healing at a speed visible to the naked eye right before their eyes!

The Tyrant didn't even pause for a second, ignoring the hail of bullets that would have riddled a rhinoceros with holes, and took a step forward amidst the rain of gunfire.

The ground shook violently!

Its speed was completely inconsistent with its massive size; in just a momentary blur, it rushed in front of the team!

Seeing the monster pounce before him, the fourth team member's pupils constricted, and he instinctively raised his gun to block.

The Tyrant's response was simple and direct.

A punch.

"Boom—!"

A loud bang.

The fourth team member and the half-meter-thick concrete load-bearing pillar behind him, which he was using as cover, were punched through together.

The Tyrant's massive fist emerged from the other side of the pillar, with shattered organs and rebar hanging from it. The fourth team member's body, like a punctured water bag, was embedded softly into the hole in the pillar, dead on the spot.

"No—!"

Pulse's eyes were wide with rage. He dropped his rifle, pulled out a high-explosive flashbang from his waist, pulled the pin, and threw it.

"Sizzle!"

A strong light instantly erupted, enough to blind anyone completely for a short time.

But the Tyrant only tilted its head slightly, seemingly a bit uncomfortable, its dark red eyes not blinking even once. Its visual system was simply not of human construction!

Its massive palm shot out like lightning, grabbing Pulse by the ankle.

Pulse didn't even have time to let out a scream before he was swung around like a human whip, smashing hard against the alloy wall to the side!

"Bang!"

The dull thud of the impact was accompanied by the crisp sound of a breaking spine.

Pulse's body slid down from the wall like a pile of mush, and there was no more movement.

Only Nathan and Pincer, who had an injured right arm, remained.

"Run!" Nathan roared the last word at Pincer, simultaneously pulling a custom titanium alloy dagger from his tactical vest, advancing instead of retreating, and charging at the Tyrant.

He knew they couldn't escape. The only chance of survival was a desperate fight to the death!

He used all his strength to stab the dagger fiercely toward the Tyrant's eyes.

The Tyrant's reaction was as fast as a ghost; it only tilted its body slightly, and the dagger grazed past its cheek, leaving a shallow white mark on its grayish-white skin.

It didn't even break the skin.

Nathan's heart turned cold, leaving only despair.

The next second, a hand like an iron Pincer gripped his throat, lifting him into mid-air.

A sensation of suffocation washed over him, and Nathan's limbs struggled weakly.

He saw the Tyrant's pair of dark red eyes, close at hand. In them, his own twisted and desperate face was reflected.

...

Central Control Room.

Chen Feng watched the battle on the screen, which was being completely crushed, picked up his coffee, and took another sip.

"One minute and two seconds." He glanced at the timer, his tone as flat as if he were commenting on a football match.

"Still not fast enough."

He picked up the control terminal and pressed the "Stop" button.

On the screen, the Tyrant, who was just about to crush Nathan's throat, suddenly paused.

It let go, allowing Nathan to fall limply to the ground. Then, it dragged the other three bodies on the ground, some dead or unconscious, and piled the four people together like it was throwing out trash.

Having done all this, it turned around and, with heavy steps, slowly walked back into the depths of the dark workshop.

The entire third underground level returned to a deathly silence once more.

The four top-tier special forces soldiers lay on the cold ground just like that, in a sorry state.