32: Chaotic Staircase

The piercing alarm blared like an invisible whip, lashing at the nerves of everyone in the Shelter. Red lights flickered wildly in the corridor, illuminating faces contorted with terror, making them appear and disappear like a changing tableau of hell.

Outside, footsteps, shouts, the clanging of weapons, and the sound of something heavy being dragged merged into a cacophony; order collapsed in an instant, leaving only the primal instinct for survival driving the crowd.

Chen Wei, terrified, huddled behind the door, her body trembling slightly, her face as pale as paper. She looked helplessly at Lin Mo, the man to whom she had just tried to reveal the Shelter's dark secrets; he was now her only reliance.

"Stay here, and lock the door," Lin Mo repeated, his voice not loud, but carrying a strange, undeniable calm. This calm was like a piece of ice dropped into boiling water, slightly suppressing Chen Wei's panic.

Without the slightest hesitation, he walked to the door and listened to the chaos outside. In his Sea of Consciousness, the World Editor was operating with unprecedented efficiency. Aided by the subtle resonance with the seed of source blood and the editor's own ability to analyze energy and structure, a blurry and constantly correcting structural map of the Shelter was being drawn in his mind.

It wasn't a complete Blueprint, but more like a "perception map" based on energy flow and stress structures. He could "see" the main passages, areas dense with energy pipelines (such as maintenance stations), and several nodes with unusually robust structures and obscure energy reactions—these were likely the locations of key facilities, including the entrance to the underground laboratory he was targeting.

At the same time, the editor was also capturing energy fluctuations coming from the outskirts of the Shelter. There were quite a few invading Corruptors, their energy reactions chaotic and violent, mixed with several particularly strong signals, clearly from more powerful mutated individuals. They seemed to be strongly attracted by something, relentlessly assaulting the Shelter's defenses. Was it the contaminated energy fluctuations emitted by the seed of source blood? Or the large amount of life aura gathered by the Shelter itself?

"editor, mark the optimal path to the node with the densest energy reaction leading to the underground laboratory, avoiding major crowds and known guard points," Lin Mo calmly instructed in his mind.

The jade slip shimmered with a faint light, and on the perception map in his mind, a winding route, mostly located in secondary passages and maintenance conduits, was highlighted. Simultaneously, several key nodes along the path were marked in red, indicating potential structural obstacles or energy interference.

The risk was high. This path was by no means easy, and it was under circumstances where alarms were sounding and systems might be partially locked down. But this was also the best time; everyone's attention was drawn to the external invasion, and internal surveillance and guards were bound to have loopholes.

He took a deep breath, mobilizing the faint but noticeably grown wisp of energy within him. This energy came as a gift from the seed of source blood; although insufficient for large-scale reality editing, it was enough to perform some auxiliary minor tricks.

He gently pushed open the door, and the chaotic din from the corridor instantly surged in. He ignored the fleeing crowds in the distance and the guards desperately trying to maintain order, his body pressing against one wall like a phantom, quickly disappearing into a side path. His movements were light and swift, his steps carrying a strange rhythm, as if he could anticipate whether anyone was around the next corner.

【Cognitive Misdirection · Minor】 Energy silently permeated the air. This was not true invisibility, but a subtle interference with his own sense of presence. In the eyes of panicked crowds and highly focused guards, he was like an insignificant shadow, an easily overlooked background element. Occasionally, gazes would sweep over his location but unconsciously slide away, leaving no deep impression.

He moved quickly along the path planned by the editor. He passed through storage rooms piled with sundries, climbed cold maintenance ladders, and squeezed into narrow, pipe-filled ventilation shafts. The air was filled with the smell of engine oil, dust, and an increasingly strong, peculiar odor resembling a mix of rust and decay. The lighting here was even dimmer, and the emergency red lights appeared particularly eerie.

The further down he went, the clearer the painful resonance from the seed of source blood became. At the same time, another extremely uncomfortable sensation began to emerge—the strong smell of blood, and the desperate energy residue emitted when life was forcibly twisted and extracted.

He arrived before a heavy iron door marked "Energy Pipeline Maintenance - Unauthorized Entry Prohibited." The door had an electronic lock, which was clearly force-locked after the alarm sounded. But on the wall beside the door, there was an inconspicuous pipe entrance for inspection, and the grille seemed a bit loose.

According to the editor's scan, this was the closest and most weakly monitored node leading to the target area.

Just as he was about to start dismantling the grille, a suppressed, beast-like roar, mixed with sporadic gunshots, came from the passage on the other side of the door! The sounds rapidly approached!

Lin Mo's eyes narrowed, and he immediately darted behind a pile of spare pipes, completely concealing his presence.

"Bang!"

The heavy iron door suddenly bulged inward, as if struck by immense force; sparks flew from the electronic lock, and the door hinges groaned under the strain. This was followed by an even more violent impact!

"Boom!"

The entire iron door was violently forced open, twisted metal fragments scattering. A massive, distorted figure burst out from the darkness of the passage behind the door!

It was no longer human. It stood over two and a half meters tall, its muscles bulging and contorted, tearing its original guard uniform into rags. Its skin was an unhealthy grayish-black, covered in thick, pulsating dark red veins. Its head was deformed, its jaw protruding, and saliva mixed with blood dripped from its fangs. Its eyes were pure blood-red, devoid of any reason. Its right hand had mutated into a massive, bony claw, still stained with fresh blood and shredded flesh.

Clearly, this was not an external Corruptor, but a "product" from within the Shelter—most likely a failed experiment from the underground "farm," or perhaps... a guard contaminated and mutated by some force!

The monster rushed out of the passage, its blood-red eyes immediately locking onto the general direction where Lin Mo was hiding. Despite the cognitive misdirection, it seemed to rely more on some berserk sense of smell or energy perception. It let out a deafening roar, imbued with a strong scent of blood and a mad desire for destruction, and lunged forward! Its bony claw tore through the air, emitting a piercing shriek.

Lin Mo's pupils constricted. There was no escaping!

In the nick of time, the jade slip in his Sea of Consciousness glowed brightly. There was no time for complex editing; he could only rely on his most primal reactions and the most basic interference with energy.

【Reality Anchor · Local Enhancement】 He instantly injected his barely recovered energy into a small area of air and ground in front of him. This was not to create an indestructible barrier, but to greatly enhance the "density" and "stability" of the matter in that area, making it instantly as thick as heavy rubber.

The monster crashed into it!

"Thump!"

A dull thud, as if it had hit an invisible, elastic wall. Its forward momentum was abruptly halted, and the enhanced air rippled almost imperceptibly. The monster's massive body experienced a brief rigidity and loss of balance.

Now!

Lin Mo darted out like a leopard, not retreating, but narrowly sliding beneath the monster's raised claw, which was stiff from the impact! He had no weapon in his hand, but he pressed his fingers together like a blade, a trace of highly condensed editor energy swirling around his fingertips. Like the sharpest carving knife, in the instant he passed the monster's ribs, he slashed hard!

"Rip!"

The tough, grayish-black skin was cut open with a gash deep enough to expose bone; dark red blood, mixed with a strong putrid smell, splattered out. At the wound, a tiny wisp of editor energy drilled inside like a living thing, beginning to disrupt its chaotic energy structure from within.

"Awooo—!" The monster let out an even more pained howl; the wound did not heal immediately, and instead, tiny energy sparks, like a short circuit, flickered, making its movements noticeably slower and more chaotic.

Lin Mo had no intention of prolonging the fight. His goal was below, not to get entangled with this monster here. He used the moment of the monster's injury and loss of control, his figure flashing, to slip into the opened passage leading deeper.

Behind him, the monster's even more frantic roars and the thudding of it wildly attacking the walls echoed.

The passage sloped downward, and light almost completely disappeared, with only a faint red glow from distant emergency lights. The smell, a mix of blood, decay, and desperate energy, was so strong it was almost suffocating. Strange, dark red, viscous substances, like biological tissue, began to appear on the walls, slowly wriggling as if alive.

The jade slip's vibration became more pronounced, both a warning and a guiding longing for a power of the same origin.

He proceeded cautiously along the passage, the editor scanning ahead at full power, avoiding several obvious energy traps and remnants of surveillance cameras. This place had clearly seen battle; broken experimental equipment, congealed bloodstains, and several tragically dead bodies in lab coats or guard uniforms were scattered on the ground.

Finally, at the end of the passage, appeared an even heavier metal door, looking like a bank vault door. The door had a complex double structure of mechanical and electronic locks, but now, the door was actually slightly ajar! There were signs of violent prying on the door frame, and several clear, large claw marks remained on the door—it seemed the monster from before, or other similar monsters, had forcibly broken through from the inside.

Through the crack in the door, a dense bloody light emanated, accompanied by a mind-twisting whisper, like the wailing of countless people, or the pulsation of a giant heart.

The seed of source blood... was inside.

At the same time, Lin Mo also sensed several faint human life signs within the door, like candles in the wind, ready to extinguish at any moment.

He took a deep breath, suppressing the accelerated heartbeat caused by approaching the core fragment, and adjusted his physical state to its best. Energy flowed within him, and the editor was in a battle-ready state, ready to be activated at any moment.

He gently pushed open the heavy, damaged door.

The scene behind the door unfolded before his eyes like a painting of hell.

This was an extremely vast underground space; rather than a laboratory, it was more like an evil sacrificial ground. In the center was a huge, circular platform constructed from some dark metal, and in the middle of the platform, suspended, was the core fragment of the seed of source blood.

But unlike when he saw it at the maintenance station, here, its light was no longer a relatively stable dark red, but flickered violently like an uncontrolled pulse, releasing unsettling bloody ripples. Countless thick, blood-vessel-like energy conduits extended from around the platform, forcibly piercing into the core fragment's light, greedily drawing its power. The other ends of these "blood vessels" were connected to dozens of vertical, transparent life-sustaining pods around the platform, filled with murky liquid.

Inside most of the pods, twisted, deformed, inhuman bodies were immersed, some still twitching unconsciously. And in a few pods closer to the core fragment, Lin Mo saw several relatively intact humans, both male and female, their bodies connected by conduits and electrodes, their faces contorted in pain. Their life energy was being forcibly extracted and injected into complex and bizarre instruments in front of them, seemingly attempting some kind of forced fusion or modification. Their consciousness seemed to be awake, enduring endless torment, and the faint life signs were coming from them.

And on one side of the circular platform, a figure in a stained white lab coat, his back to the door, was frantically operating a control panel, muttering to himself, seemingly oblivious to the commotion at the entrance.

It was Zhou Weian.

"Almost... almost there... as long as I can stabilize this peak output, the preliminary fusion will be complete... I will become the god of the New Humans..." His voice was distorted by excitement and a degree of madness.

Lin Mo's gaze passed over Zhou Weian and landed on the painfully pulsating seed of source blood. He could feel its wailing had turned into a scream on the verge of collapse. The attacks from external Corruptors, the forced extraction by internal experimental subjects, and Zhou Weian's current madness were pushing it to the brink of complete destruction.

He had to stop him immediately!

Lin Mo stepped through the door, his cold voice echoing in the vast and bloody underground space:

"Researcher Zhou, your 'New Human' project, it ends here."