The heavily armed soldiers huddled together in a semicircle and pulled the trigger with all their might, firing their bullets out of the chambers at the gradually expanding, shapeless monster.
The shell casings that fell off the body of the gun clanged onto the solid marble floor, dancing at the feet of the soldiers like splashes of rain.
In the experimental hall, the sound of gunfire suddenly drowned out all the other noises.
The monster was pushed back repeatedly in the face of a barrage of bullets, that was shot at an astonishing speed, and the slugs plopped and spun into its slimy body, leaving huge holes, in which the slime flowed and spread rapidly along the marble floor.
The slimy body eventually was not able to withstand the metal storm, although it has tried again and again to evolve a crustacean-like skin, again and again, it was destroyed by the bullets.
But in the end, it made a series of quick, snarling noises from its mouth, and it managed to grow out two long legs, with those powerful legs, it was darting left and right, dodging the bullets.
It was very clever. It soon found that all the bullets were aimed at it, so it gathered up its last strength, took the nearest path and headed straight for the semicircle to try to break out.
The soldiers were so well trained, that when the monster moved, they moved the muzzleS of their guns one after another and shot out all the bullets as fast as they could, forming an impassable barrage.
The monster seemed to be desperate. It was moving extremely fast, despite having so many bullets in its body. However, its evolution speed gradually could not catch up with the speed of bullets tearing its body, the slimy liquid was constantly leaking out from its body.
When its sharp legs penetrated two soldiers’ bodies and finally broke through the semicircle, perhaps there were too many bullets in its body, it hit one of the lab tables and fell down on the slippery ground with its body still shaking violently.
It tried to get up, kicking the ground with two of its newly evolved legs and screeching loudly, but it was still unable to get up again.
The guards of the second echelon, in the rear row, were already ready for the attack. They started firing immediately, and at the same time, they held their assault rifles and moved closer and closer to the monster to improve the shooting accuracy, until the monster was completely surrounded.
The monster was dying, but it was still trying to make the final evolution as if once it succeeded, it could help it to get out of danger.
It was very clear that it was trying to evolve the brain, like the fast-forward scenes in a movie.
“Wait!” Professor Sun, who was completely “impressed” by the amazing speed of evolution, rushed out of a group of people in the white coats, and shouted, “we can’t let it die! Otherwise, the dead comrades would die in vain!”
The soldiers did not respond. Although they were the laboratory guards, they were still part of the military system. They only followed the orders of their superior officers. Although they respected professor Sun, no one dared to stop shooting.
“Stop shooting!” the officer Wang glanced at his superior, who was now just one pair of feet and a pile of bones on the ground and quickly said.
The monster seemed like it was going to die very soon, the danger has already been eliminated, if he did not give the order now, the soldiers would definitely kill it, and then the people from the higher up would definitely question him for failing to do his job.
There were a lot of things involved in this. At that time, Major General Wu had forbidden the killing of the monster. It was heard by many soldiers present. If that creature really died under his watch, even if the situation changed so rapidly, that he had no choice but to issue the command to fire, it was hard to guarantee that his rivals would use this incident to cause some troubles for him. This kind of thing was often very difficult to explain.
When the monster was dead, he would be in a very terrible position. Like what people always said, “how can you be sure that you can’t capture it alive?” With just this sentence alone, it would immediately make all the excuses and explanations in his report invalid.
The officer Wang had been in the army for many years. From just a small soldier to the politics within the army, he still knew what he should do and what he shouldn’t do.
His command was so much more useful than professor Sun’s, the sound of gunshot immediately stopped, but the soldiers still maintained the firing posture, their muzzles never leaving half an inch of the monster.
Professor Sun and a group of people in the white coats rushed forward, shouting to get the box, injecting the anesthetic and so on, but there were also some of the dead people’s friends sobbing around the bodies.
Chu Yunsheng stood aside, still in shock. The hall was in a terrible mess. No one had time to tell him what to do or restrict his movement. Only the girl named Yingying followed him all the time, grasping at the corner of his white coat tightly and never letting it go. She was probably still trembling with fear.
Chu Yunsheng also did not have time to care about why she was following him, all his attention was on the monster, from his angle, he could only see a pool of mucus, and through the gaps between soldier’s legs, the monster was still convulsing unwillingly.
At this point, it still did not seem to want to give up on the final struggle, it still desperately tried to evolve its head, as if it could reverse the whole situation.
Although Chu Yunsheng was afraid of its cruelty and ferocity, he also admired its unyieldingness and determination, that even if it knew it was dying, it still did not want to give up.
‘Is this the monster from the other dimension that the ancient book mentioned?’ Chu Yunsheng had a cold shiver, and suddenly, he had this idea.
As if the monster was trying to prove his idea, the brain-like structure, that was hidden behind the mouthparts of the monster, that was trying to evolve crazily, was getting bigger and bigger, even the nerves on the surfaces of the brain-like structure could be clearly seen with the naked eye now.
As its mouthparts were also growing bigger and bigger, and as the veins and nerves of the brain-like structure were jumping rapidly, it seemed like its evolution was about to become successful soon.
But at this critical moment, at the peak of the evolution, as if there was only one step away from a certain threshold, its head suddenly exploded, like a rotten watermelon, and spread all over the ground. It was as if it could not be allowed in this world and had to be erased.
There was even a piece of rotten meat flying over their heads, falling not far away in front of Chu Yunsheng. Although it was dead, it was still twisting repeatedly, scared the girl behind him into screaming again.
“What happened?” Chu Yunsheng must admit that the old man, whose surname was Sun, was very brave. He rushed to the monster that had finally fallen to the ground, and turned it over and over examined it anxiously. If it were Chu Yunsheng, there was no way he would want to get close to that monster.
A young and brave researcher held an instrument, pierced through the body of the monster, tested for a while, and shouted, “the cells have stopped splitting, and it began to die in large numbers!”
“Do something about it!” professor Sun left the monster, rushed to a test platform, searching all the draws to take out a few test tubes, then quickly rushed back, skillfully injected the liquid into the monster’s body.
But the human drugs did not seem to be able to prevent the death of the monster, and about ten minutes later, they had no choice but to declare that the monster was dead.
…
That night, the military cordoned off the scene and formed an investigation team to spend overnight to watch the whole incident video that had been recorded. All the people at the scene were not allowed to leave.
Chu Yunsheng was also forced to stay in the experimental building, along with the girl called Yingying.
Any communication to the outside was banned, although the mobile phone has not been confiscated, the signal has been disrupted, Chu Yunsheng could not contact Yu Xiaohai, and he also did not know if he took the backpack or not.
If he lost the book, it would be over!
Quickly finishing the meal that was provided by the military, Chu Yunsheng found a quiet corner and sat there. Things became more and more strange. It made him very anxious.
He had always been a man, who followed the plans to make sure that everything goes smoothly without accidents.
But the strange chain of events, which had taken place since last night, had left him with no other choices.
Why did he have a blurry nightmare that seemed to be very familiar to him?
Why did he always feel that there was a silhouette behind him?
Was the blood face in the mirror real or it was just him seeing things?
Also, why did he always have familiar feelings towards the people, who he had just met for the first time?
What was the meaning of the noise that the monster made?
…
“Can I sit here?”
Chu Yunsheng looked up and saw that it was the girl, whose name was Yingying. He didn’t know when she arrived before him, but it seemed that she had just washed herself and her eyes were a little red and swollen. Perhaps, she had been hiding somewhere crying. Just look at her pale face, anyone could easily tell that.
“Up to you. I don’t own this place.”
Chu Yunsheng felt irritated, that she had dragged him into this, and because of her, he was almost killed by that monster. No matter what kind of good temperament he had, it was impossible for anyone not to have any resentment.
‘What the hell is all of this?’ Chu Yunsheng was very frustrated.
If it was not because of the background of the girl, Chu Yunsheng might have already started to swear at her. That road was not the main road, how could she drive like that? How could she drive that fast!? Did she not want her life? Or she simply didn’t take other people’s lives seriously.
What she did was clearly harmful! Did she not have any conscience?
Of course, he couldn’t say those words. If he couldn’t endure it, he would be in even bigger trouble. He must endure it, and wait for another two months. Then, they would not be this arrogant anymore!
Chu Yunsheng told himself this, trying to make himself feel better.
“My name is Song Ying, it means shadow.” The girl sat down and said carefully.
She also felt confused about why she had to do it “carefully”. Speaking of the social status, this man and her were not on the same level. If it were not for the car accident this morning, their life paths may not cross each other in their lifetime, because they were two completely parallel lines; and then his courage, the way he acted earlier was no better then how she acted earlier. Even after the monster died for a long time, he still tried to walk far away around the monster’s body, he was even worse than those weak researchers in the white coat.
In terms of other aspects, such as appearance, disposition, manner, and so on, there was nothing above the average males.
But somehow, when she fell to the ground in the midst of the chaos, she had an illusion that both she and the monster had soul-shaking awe and fear for this man.
And, more strangely, even though she was clearly afraid of him, especially his eyes, she wanted to be near him, as if there was a strange sense of security if she stayed near him.
Song Ying actually was very good-looking, especially those two delicate eyebrows on her smooth and fine skin, seemingly tainted by sorrow. It only made men want to hug her and comfort her.
But Chu Yunsheng strongly believed that she was the source of calamity. Even if she was pretty, she would still bring more troubles to him. Originally, he did not want to talk to her, but suddenly he changed his mind. Since he found her familiar, maybe she would also find him familiar as well.
Maybe they really had met with each other before somewhere. Then it would not be an illusion anymore.
So he leaned forward a little, gathered his focus, and looked into the girl’s eyes sternly, staring straight into her pupils, trying to find that strangely familiar feeling.
Under his intense gaze, the girl quickly looked around in panic, and did not dare to look at Chu Yunsheng at all.
“Look at me and don’t move!” Chu Yunsheng lowered his voice and said fiercely. That feeling gradually emerged from his mind again, as if he was about to seize a vague shadow, but it was just blocked by a thin veil. At that moment, he even forgot the girl’s scary background.
The girl was even more nervous. She had never had this kind of feeling before. Apart from her father, no one dared to give her this much pressure, let alone using a commanding tone to talk to her.
She bit her lips and twisted her body nervously. Her instinct told her that she should get up, leave the place, and stay far away from the man, but it was as if there was a great force pressing her down in the chair, no matter how hard she tried, she just could not get up.
Chu Yunsheng felt that he was closer and closer to the thin veil. It was as if he would be able to awaken his memories just by making one more step forward. But the girl was becoming more and more nervous and she began to twist even harder. In order to stop her from looking away again, unexpectedly, Chu Yunsheng reached out both of his hands and held the girl’s head tightly, and urged, “have we met somewhere before?!”
The girl was terrified and wanted to break free, but once she looked at Chu Yunsheng’s eyes, her whole body seemed to have lost all the courage and strength. She was so scared that her eyes were already wet with tears.
Her panic-stricken expression seemed to have pierced through the thin veil and revealed a small chink. Then a flash of light suddenly appeared in Chu Yunsheng’s mind. He was about to remember it!
“I remember it…” Chu Yunsheng shouted excitedly.
“What are you doing! Let go of her!”
At this critical moment, an angry roar appeared from outside, and then a strong figure rushed in like a gust of wind, grabbed Chu Yunsheng by the back of his collar and threw him away.
Chu Yunsheng’s mind was still filled with excitement. But he didn’t expect that someone would suddenly rush in. All he felt was that his collar was suddenly tightened, and then he suddenly began to fly backward.
With a loud bang, the table and chairs were knocked over to the floor.
“Yingying, are you all right?” With a livid face, the burly man stared coldly at Chu Yunsheng, who was laying on the ground with his face facing the ceiling.
It was not that he overreacted, it was actually that he had never seen such a situation. In the past, although those young and handsome offspring of the high-ranking government officials or those rich second generations weren’t well-mannered people, none of them dared to do such things to Song Ying and make her cry.
Maybe the burly man could have handled it a little more calmly, if it had been merely that. But he had just come out of a secret military meeting, and the things that he heard during the meeting left him with no other choice but to act this way.
“I’m fine, uncle Jiang. It’s not his fault.” Song Ying was finally able to look away, but she seemed to be exhausted. If anyone took a close look at her, they could still see little glittering and translucent traces of sweat on her delicate skin.
No one knew what she was thinking, and why she would help Chu Yunsheng to explain it. However, her explanation seemed to have made it worse. The burly man’s face was extremely livid and dark as if he was going to beat Chu Yunsheng up. In the livid face, there was also a faint of concerns.
At this time, Chu Yunsheng staggered to his feet from the ground. His left hand was covering his right elbow, which had bumped into the corner of the table, but there was no painful expression on his face. Instead, his face was filled with terror, as if he had seen a ghost, “that’s not possible, I did not see you in the future. You should be dead! No, this is not possible! You shouldn’t be alive! You should be dead!”
While he was saying, he shook his head again and again, and stepped back towards the door in panic.
He was lost, and his mind was completely in a muddle. In that split second, he felt that the girl should have been dead a long time ago, and she shouldn’t be alive. But a person that was supposed to be dead was currently standing in front of him.
There was no one in the corridor outside the door. It was empty and quiet. However, all of sudden, Chu Yunsheng ran out of the door while shouting constantly in his shaking voice, that it was not possible and she should have been dead until he disappeared in the corridor…
