46: Chapter 46 Blood Night Descends (Part 2)

As those words were spoken, the burly man with Hardened Skin reacted the fastest.

His fist smashed against the iron bars, bending the entire iron rod into an arc, yet his gray, metallic-textured skin didn't even show a white mark from the impact.

"Don't come over here! I'm warning you, I can shatter all your bones with a single punch!"

Yan Zheng: (ꐦ˘ω˘)

Brute walked to the front of the first iron cage, gripped the iron bars with its left hand, sank its five fingers into the metal surface, and then pried them apart.

The iron bars tore like tin foil, opening a one-meter-wide gap in the middle.

The burly man's fist came smashing toward him, landing solidly on Brute's chest scales.

Thud.

After the dull sound, Brute didn't budge an inch.

The burly man's fist bounced back, the skin between his thumb and index finger splitting open in three places, oozing beads of dark red blood.

"Your skin hardness is approximately between 4 and 5 on the Mohs scale, which is quite good among human Mutants."

Yan Zheng stood in the center of the corridor with his hands behind his back, his tone sounding like he was giving an academic critique.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Brute's scale hardness is above 7."

"There's a difference of two levels. Sir, please don't hurt your precious fingers any further."

Before the burly man could throw his second punch, Brute's right hand had already gripped the top of his head. Its five fingers closed in, as if crushing a gray watermelon.

Crack.

The sound of the skull shattering echoed in the iron cage for two seconds.

The burly man's body went limp. Brute let go, and the corpse slid to the ground.

The system panel popped up a golden notification.

[Extraction available. Hardened Skin-type X-Gene material ×1 (Quality: Good), Reinforced Bone material ×1 (Quality: Excellent).]

"Extract."

Dark green black mist surged out. Six seconds later, the body disappeared, leaving only a pool of blood on the ground.

Yan Zheng: (✧‿✧)

"One."

In the second iron cage, the thin man with long fingers did not resist.

He curled up in the corner, tucking that pair of thirty-centimeter-long fingers against his chest, trembling all over.

"Please don't kill me, I can do anything! I can help you fight, I can help you steal things, anything!"

Yan Zheng tilted his head.

"Sir, do you know how to play the piano?"

"What?"

"Just kidding."

Brute's palm covered the back of the thin man's head, its movements as gentle as petting a cat.

Then, it applied force.

Snap.

The cervical spine broke, clean and swift.

Yan Zheng: (˵ꐦ⌓ꐦ˵)

[Extraction available. Limb Extension-type X-Gene material ×1 (Quality: Good), Ordinary Bone material ×1.]

"Extract."

The acid-spitting woman in the third iron cage didn't wait for Brute to walk over.

She opened her mouth, and a stream of yellow-green acid shot out from the depths of her throat, heading straight for Brute's face.

The acid hit the left side of Brute's face.

A hissing sound of corrosion came from the surface of the petrified scales, a cloud of white smoke rose, and the air was filled with a pungent chemical odor.

Brute paused for half a second.

A shallow indentation had been corroded into the surface of the scales, less than a millimeter deep.

Then, Brute stepped into the iron cage.

The woman screamed and retreated, her back hitting the brick wall, and she opened her mouth to spray a second burst of acid.

Brute blocked with its left arm. The acid splashed onto the scales of its forearm, the smoke grew thicker, but the corrosion depth on the scales remained only on the surface.

Brute's right hand passed through the smoke screen of acid and gripped the woman's jaw.

The fingers tightened, the jawbone shattered, and the acid flowed backward from her damaged mouth into her own throat.

A hoarse whimper lasted for two seconds.

Yan Zheng turned his head away. It wasn't that he couldn't bear to watch, but the smell of the acid was too overpowering, stinging his eyes until they watered.

"Extract."

[Acid Spray-type X-Gene material ×1 (Quality: Good), Ordinary Bone material ×1.]

The three iron cages were cleared.

Only the last one remained in the corridor.

Yan Zheng walked to the front of the fourth iron cage, looking through the bars at the young man with orange-red skin inside.

The young man stood leaning against the brick wall, his entire body radiating visible heat waves. The surface of the iron bars near him had already been baked to a faint red glow.

His expression was surprisingly calm.

"You aren't with The Hand."

"Hm?"

"The Hand doesn't keep things like this." The young man's gaze passed over Yan Zheng and glanced at Brute. "And The Hand doesn't collect corpses."

Yan Zheng: (ᴗ꒳ᴗ)

"Your observation skills are very sharp, sir."

Yan Zheng removed his mask, took his gold-rimmed glasses out of his waist pouch and put them on, a gentle curve appearing at the corners of his mouth.

"Do you mind telling me when your genetic runaway started?"

The corner of the young man's eye twitched.

"How do you know my genes are in a runaway state?"

"Your body surface temperature has risen by approximately twelve degrees in the past three minutes, from seventy degrees to eighty-two degrees."

Yan Zheng tapped his finger on the iron bars, but the scalding heat from the tip made him pull his hand back.

"This is not a normal fluctuation in body temperature; this is a stress response of the X-Gene chain under excessive pressure."

"Your genes are burning themselves."

The young man was silent for a few seconds.

"It started three months ago. I can't control it; it's getting hotter and hotter."

"The underground Doctor at the fighting ring said I have at most half a year left, after which I'll burn into a pile of ash."

"That's why Boss Liu didn't put you on the trade list. A ticking time bomb that's spiraling out of control—Kingpin's people wouldn't want that."

Yan Zheng crumpled his mask into a ball and stuffed it into his waist pouch, his tone carrying a hint of genuine regret.

"Sir, to be honest, if your genetic state were stable, you would be a priceless treasure."

"Unfortunately, since it's in a state of collapse, the effective extraction window is very short."

The young man stared into his eyes.

"Who exactly are you?"

"Someone who deals in second-hand goods."

Yan Zheng: (≖ω≖)

Brute pried open the iron bars of the fourth cage.

The young man did not retreat. His skin temperature was rising rapidly, the air was baked until it distorted, and fine cracks began to appear on the concrete floor around the iron cage.

"Don't touch me."

The young man's voice was hoarse. An orange-red glow shone from beneath his skin, like a reactor about to melt down.

"When I get hot, I can even melt iron. That shell of your big guy won't be able to handle it."

Yan Zheng raised his hand, signaling Brute to stop.

"Mr. Brute, wait a moment."

He watched the high-temperature glow surging beneath the young man's skin. The temperature reading on the system panel had jumped to one hundred and twenty degrees and was still rising.

"Sir, your genetic disintegration speed is accelerating."

"If you keep burning, in about four to five minutes, the X-Gene chain inside you will completely snap."

"At that point, your cells will liquefy from the inside out; the entire process will last about ten seconds."

The young man's lips split open, and fine, tortoise-shell-like cracks appeared on his dry skin.

"I know."

"Can I take a look?"

The young man was stunned for a moment.

"Look at what?"

"Look at the process of your gene chain breaking."

Yan Zheng's voice carried an uncontrollable focus, his eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses reflecting the increasingly bright orange-red glow.

"This kind of high-temperature runaway X-Gene disintegration is an extremely rare terminal form among Mutants."

"I want to record it in its entirety."

The young man looked at this strange man dressed in a mix of a suit and ninja attire, a curve approximating a bitter smile splitting his lips.

"You're a fucking pervert."

"I've received that evaluation many times."

Yan Zheng: (˵✦ω✦˵)

Four minutes later.

The young man's body began to emit a light like an incandescent bulb. The temperature reading jumped past three hundred degrees, and the air inside the iron cage was baked into a transparent distortion.

He didn't scream; he just quietly closed his eyes.

Ten seconds later, the light extinguished.

Inside the iron cage, there was only a small pile of grayish-white ash and a skeleton sintered by the high temperature. The surface of the bones was covered with a layer of glassy glaze, refracting a faint, eerie light under the emergency lamp.

[Target deceased. Extraction available. High-Temperature Physiology-type X-Gene material ×1 (Quality: Excellent), Heat-Altered Bone material ×1 (Quality: Rare), High-Temperature Energy Residue ×1.]

"Rare quality bone material."

Yan Zheng's breathing quickened for a beat.

"High-temperature sintering actually improved the bone quality; it's the same principle as firing ceramics in a kiln."

"Extract."

Dark green black mist swept over the ash and the skeleton, storing everything in the inventory.

Four iron cages, cleared.

Yan Zheng glanced at the timer on the system panel; from the moment Brute pried open the first iron cage until now, it had been a total of eight minutes.

"Now, time to set the scene."

He took the shuriken from his waist and walked to the brick wall of the backstage corridor, raising his hand to throw.

Cling.

The hexagonal shuriken nailed into the mortar joint, sinking three centimeters into the wall at a fifteen-degree downward angle, consistent with a trajectory thrown from a height.

The second and third were nailed beside the iron cage and at the corner of the corridor, respectively.

Yan Zheng picked up the ninja short blade stained with the guard's blood and carved a mark on the brick wall of the second iron cage.

A closed fist, five fingers curled, palm facing outward.

The Hand's "Hand of the Black Sky" emblem.

He had practiced the depth and angle of the carving many times; it was almost indistinguishable from a mark left by a real ninja.

Yan Zheng: (˵ˊᗜˋ˵)

"Next, the smoke bomb casings."

He took two empty The Hand smoke bomb casings from his waist pouch and threw them on the ground at the entrance of the corridor.

Traces of incense powder still remained on the surface of the casings, and a faint scent of sandalwood mixed with musk drifted in the air.

"Mask fragments."

Two pieces of a ninja mask, broken beforehand, were tossed beside the entrance to the front hall, The Hand-stitched seams on the black fabric clearly visible.

"Footprints."

Beside the bloodstains on the corridor floor, he stepped out three footprints using the captured soft-soled ninja shoes, pointing from the backstage toward the front hall to simulate a retreat route.

Yan Zheng stepped back a few paces and surveyed the entire backstage scene.

The six guard corpses were scattered in three locations, the angles of the blade marks were uniform, and the characteristics of the fatal wounds completely matched The Hand's combat style.

Shurikens nailed to the wall, mask fragments scattered on the ground, and the scent of incense permeated the air.

The clearly carved The Hand emblem on the wall was like a business card left at a crime scene.

"The final step."

Yan Zheng walked into the medical room in the back of the fighting ring. The lock wasn't broken; the key was given to him by Liu Kun earlier.

The safe was under the table, and Liu Kun had sent the password via text message yesterday.

Six digits. It opened to reveal a portable hard drive and a cooling box.

Inside the cooling box, twelve tubes of frozen blood samples were neatly arranged, each tube labeled corresponding to the identification numbers of the four Mutants.

Yan Zheng took out the hard drive and tucked it into his inner pocket, then opened the cooling box and tipped the blood sample vials upside down on the floor one by one.

The pale red frozen liquid shattered and mixed with the various medicinal residues already on the floor, making it completely impossible to separate or extract.

He put the empty cooling box back into the safe, closed the door, but didn't lock it.

Letting Wesley's people see this emptied safe and the broken glass all over the floor would have a better effect.

Yan Zheng walked out of the medical room and returned to the utility room along the path he came.

Brute and the three Skeleton Soldiers were already waiting at the pipe entrance.

He turned back for one last look at the backstage of the fighting ring, which had been perfectly staged as a crime scene of an attack by The Hand, and nodded.

Yan Zheng: (✦꒳✦)

"Mr. Nogami, I'll be borrowing your name for a bit."

"As for the interest, we'll settle that later."

Brute crawled into the pipe entrance first, followed by the Skeleton Soldiers one by one.

Yan Zheng went down last, covered the iron plate back into place, and even used his fingers to smooth the dust patterns on the cover back to their original shape.

8:31 PM, the entire operation concluded.

From entry to extraction, twenty-six minutes.

There was still an hour and a half until the handover time agreed upon with Wesley.

"That's enough."

Yan Zheng took off the ninja outfit in the pipe, stuffed it into Brute's hands, and changed back into that dark gray hoodie.

He felt the outline of the hard drive in his inner pocket, and the corners of his mouth curved up in the darkness.

"Complete biological material of four Mutants plus four genetic map blueprints, plus a complete gene archive hard drive."

"Mr. Kingpin spent 150,000 U.S. dollars in bribe money, but in the end, all the goods ended up in my pocket."

"Mr. Wesley, I'm sorry."

Yan Zheng walked unsteadily through the standing water in the pipe, his voice bouncing back and forth between the concrete pipe walls.

"This buffet tonight, it really tasted quite good."