Ouroboros.
“This is…”
Qin Hongyi looked at the symbol as a chill shot up her spine. “That banned Eden Project?”
“Bingo.”
Gu Chen stared at the projection on the wall.
The vertical pupils in his eyes appeared uncontrollably once again, glowing with an eerie green light.
“Back then, the old man didn’t join the Eden Project for immortality or anything like that.”
Gu Chen extended a finger and traced the ouroboros pattern in the air.
“He wanted to create gods.”
“The coordinates hidden inside this seal point to the entrance of Eden Laboratory Zero.”
“If my guess is correct,” Gu Chen turned to look at Qin Hongyi, “not only will we discover the truth behind my body’s mutation there, but also the perfect reagent that can completely resolve the genetic rampage.”
“What Qin Mu truly wants isn’t the black vault at all. It’s this.”
A wave of numbness spread across Qin Hongyi’s scalp.
One Gu family black vault was already enough to shake the entire Beijing elite circle.
Now it was connected to the legendary Eden Project that could turn people into monsters.
“Gu Chen.” Qin Hongyi’s voice tightened. “You want to go?”
“I must go.”
Gu Chen put away the magnifying glass and downed the red wine on the table in one gulp.
“This body is useful, but having to rely on sucking your blood and emotions every few days to stay alive is too damn pathetic.”
He slammed the empty wine glass onto the table. “The thing I, Gu Chen, hate most in this life is begging others for help.”
“I need to find that perfect reagent and turn this body into a tool that’s completely mine.”
Qin Hongyi looked at the savage ambition growing wildly in his eyes and suddenly smiled.
A bold, unrestrained smile.
“Fine.” She stepped forward, domineeringly wrapping her arm around Gu Chen’s waist and pulling him against her.
“Perfect timing. There’s no place left for me in the Qin family anymore anyway. If we’re heading into hell for an adventure, how could we leave out this demon?”
“However…”
Qin Hongyi’s tone shifted as her fingers traced teasingly across Gu Chen’s throat.
“Before that, shouldn’t you pay the storage fee for these past five years?”
“What storage fee?” Gu Chen leaned back warily.
“That golden turtle might have been ugly, but it kept me company for five whole years.”
Qin Hongyi’s eyes darkened. “Now that you’ve destroyed it, shouldn’t you compensate by offering yourself as my new decoration piece?”
Gu Chen was about to curse when he suddenly felt a rush of heat in his lower abdomen.
The genetic agitation he had just suppressed flared up wildly again because of how close they were.
“President Qin wants a decoration piece?”
Gu Chen gritted his teeth. Suddenly, he hooked an arm around Qin Hongyi’s neck, hanging his whole body on her.
His eyes flowed with charm as he said seductively, “Then it depends on whether President Qin has what it takes to properly play with this decoration.”
Boom!
A thunderclap exploded outside the window.
But even louder than the thunder was the sudden surge of hormones igniting inside the room.
This night was destined to be a sleepless one.
Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away.
Inside a massive underground air-raid shelter hidden deep in the Western Mountains, a man in a
white lab coat stared at a flashing red dot on the screen.
That red dot was exactly the coordinates projected from the seal earlier.
“The bait has been swallowed.”
The man pushed up his glasses. The lens reflection hid the manic smile in his eyes.
“Welcome home, Subject 001.”
…
The elevator descended. The floor numbers jumped from 3 to -1.
The cabin was deathly quiet.
Gu Chen stood barefoot, fiddling with the private seal in his hand and making clicking sounds like he was playing with walnuts.
“President Qin.”
Gu Chen stared at the changing floor numbers.
“Do you think that old bastard Qin Mu is hiding under his blanket right now, crying so hard he’s blowing snot bubbles?”
Qin Hongyi deftly loaded two submachine guns with a crisp click.
“Cry? He’s probably sharpening his knives, dreaming about chopping the two of us into minced meat to feed the dogs. Qin Mu has a squad of Black Knights. All of them equipped with heavy exoskeletons. Their firepower is enough to wage a small-scale siege.”
“Oh, sounds pretty scary.”
Gu Chen leaned bonelessly against the wall and yawned.
“I hope they can actually take a hit. It’ll be perfect for loosening up my muscles and bones.”
Ding.
The elevator doors opened.
The underground parking garage was vast and eerily silent, with only the distant hum of exhaust fans echoing.
A few pale fluorescent lights flickered weakly, stretching their shadows into twisted shapes.
“Something’s wrong.”
Gu Chen stepped forward with one foot, but it hovered mid-air without landing.
His originally clear black-and-white pupils instantly contracted into needle-thin vertical slits.
The fine hairs on the back of his ears stood on end.
An ultra-low frequency noise—inaudible to normal people but sounding like ten thousand bronze bells tolling in his enhanced hearing—came crushing in from every direction.
Gu Chen let out a muffled groan.
The seal slipped from his hand and clattered to the ground.
It felt as if someone had driven a jackhammer straight into his skull and was stirring his brains into tofu pudding.
His knees buckled.
He collapsed straight down, both hands desperately clutching his ears.
His nails instantly tore through his earlobes as beads of blood streamed down his cheeks.
“Gu Chen?!”
Qin Hongyi’s expression changed drastically. She caught his falling body.
“Where were you shot?! Talk to me!”
“Sound… wave…”
Gu Chen forced the words through gritted teeth.
His features twisted in unbearable pain, turning his stunningly beautiful face terrifyingly contorted.
“Infrasound… targeting… the nervous system…”
His bones vibrated. His internal organs resonated.
This wasn’t mere noise.
It was a custom-made torture device designed specifically for Eden Project subjects.
For an ordinary person, it would cause nothing worse than chest tightness and nausea.
But for a monster like Gu Chen, whose senses had been amplified dozens of times, this was pure death by a thousand cuts.
Zzz— Zzz—
From behind the pillars surrounding the garage, three heavy black armored riot vehicles slowly drove out.
Mounted on their roofs weren’t machine guns, but three massive black speakers emitting the lethal frequency.
The vehicle doors opened.
Twelve fully armed soldiers marched out in formation.
Their black heavy exoskeletons gleamed with cold light.
Full-coverage helmets covered their faces, and the bayonets on their assault rifles looked chillingly sharp.
Black Knights.
“Target confirmed. Mobility neutralized.”
The lead captain’s voice came out distorted through a voice modulator.
“Recovery team, move in. Sever all four limbs. If Miss Qin refuses to cooperate, kill on sight.”
Qin Hongyi looked at Gu Chen convulsing in her arms, blood leaking from all seven orifices.
A blood-red fury exploded in her eyes.
It was the rage of having her territory invaded and her private property destroyed.
“Recover my ass!”
Qin Hongyi dragged Gu Chen behind a concrete pillar, raised both guns, and leaned out to unleash a barrage.
Ratatatatatata!
Bullets sprayed toward the iron cans like pouring rain.
But in front of the heavy exoskeletons, 9mm pistol rounds were nothing more than tickles.
They only produced a few sparks with no real effect.
“Suppressing fire.”
The captain didn’t even bother dodging. He simply raised his hand and waved.
Boom!
Twelve assault rifles fired at once.
The dense hail of bullets instantly chewed away a huge chunk of the concrete pillar.
Shrapnel flew everywhere, slicing across Qin Hongyi’s cheek.
She was pinned down so hard she couldn’t lift her head, only able to desperately shield the man behind her.
Meanwhile, the deadly infrasound continued to intensify.
Gu Chen curled on the ground, letting out low growls that no longer sounded human.
“Hot.”
Gu Chen tore at his collar, his nails digging into his own flesh.
Since his human nervous system couldn’t endure it, then he would stop being human.
Crack.
His spine emitted a sharp sound.
Gu Chen’s entire body arched backward at a grotesque angle.
Dark red patterns rapidly spread across his originally fair skin.
His muscle fibers writhed and swelled madly.
The fitted velvet long shirt was instantly ripped apart.
Roar!!!
A thunderous roar erupted.
The sound drowned out even the gunfire, carrying the overwhelming pressure of an apex predator.
Qin Hongyi whipped her head around.
Gu Chen was standing.
But he was no longer the sharp-tongued, arrogant Young Master Gu.
He stood barefoot. The concrete beneath his feet had cracked from the pressure.
His eyes were completely blood-red, vertical pupils filling his entire eye sockets.
His finger joints had thickened dramatically, and his nails had grown three inches long.
A monster.
This was exactly the god the Eden Project had attempted to create.
“Hungry.”
Gu Chen tilted his head. His gaze locked onto the armored vehicles.
Although his brain felt like it was about to explode, instinct told him that destroying those things would make the pain stop.
Boom!
Without any run-up whatsoever.
Gu Chen shot out from behind cover like a purple cannonball.
His speed was so extreme that the human eye could only catch afterimages.
“What the hell?!”
One Black Knight tried to swing his gun around.
Gu Chen was already mounted on his neck.
No flashy techniques.
Gu Chen locked his legs around the opponent’s metal helmet.
Using his core strength, both hands gripped the neck joint of the exoskeleton.
“Up!”
The sound of metal tearing rang out.
The soldier, who weighed over three hundred pounds together with his armor, was violently ripped off the ground!
Then, just like dismantling a hairy crab, Gu Chen suddenly tore both hands outward with brutal force.
Rip!
The tough armor tore apart like paper, revealing the terrified human face inside.