“I see!”
There was a viciously icy glint in Xiao Luo’s gaze. This was the same family that had just been reunited only yesterday, and the memory of them holding each other in front of a supermarket was still fresh in his mind. To think that they had now been abducted and brought here to become live test subjects shocked Xiao Luo. Undoubtedly, this family had no idea that the vacation they so looked forward to would come to such a tragic end.
Nakamura Miko completely misread Xiao Luo’s reaction. She nodded repeatedly and responded, “Yes. This woman’s husband is a prime specimen. In the past, whenever we pushed the threshold, most of the subjects died because they could not handle the high level of pain when we altered their genes. However, this woman’s husband has an incredible mental fortitude, and it was with this willpower that he survived the most painful period of the process. He has now become the first successful genetically modified ‘ultimate soldier’ we managed to develop.”
“Why was his will to live so strong?”
It was not Xiao Luo but Suzuki Ikuo who asked that question. As someone from the yakuza, he genuinely believed that the Ri nationals had gone too far this time. Using human beings as test subjects for such an experiment was far crueler than just killing them outright.
Nakamura Miko looked at the mother-and-son pair in the metal cell. “As a husband and a father, it was his duty is to protect them. He must have survived for the sake of this woman and his child. This cell is under surveillance, so we transmitted the CCTV feed to the laboratory on the second floor. It appeared to give him a powerful motivation to stay alive, and he withstood the pain during the genetic modification process.”
“F*ck, this is excessively cruel, even just thinking about it!” Suzuki Ikuo swore.
“Cruel?”
Nakamura Miko looked at him as if she was staring at an alien. She could not understand why he would say something like this.
“Which room is the Lady Poison being held in?” Xiao Luo asked, carefully suppressing his rage.
“She’s the most dangerous of our test subject, so we detained her in a cell down that way,” Nakamura Miko said, pointing further down the hall.
“This subject’s entire body is covered in very potent toxins, and the average person would instantly succumb to her poison simply by coming into contact with her. If it wasn’t for the genetically modified soldiers, there would have been no way that we could have captured her.”
“Her entire body is coated in potent toxins? How can that be?”
Suzuki Ikuo was starting to feel that this facility was something right out of The Arabian Nights. If her entire body was covered in poison, then how could she still be alive?
“Even with our research and technology, we have found no explanation yet why Lady Poison’s entire body is coated in toxins. Her case is special, and it has become one of our primary areas of focus for our research in this facility,” Nakamura Miko replied.
And soon, they reached the end of the corridor.
Through the window on the metal cell, Xiao Luo could see a restraining device like a crystal coffin that stood vertically. The Lady Poison, Fu Yiren, was confined within it, completely naked. The small space barely made it possible for her to move even a finger. There was a needle stuck in her, and it allowed the researchers to draw her blood by just pushing on a button.
Xiao Luo’s heart sank, and a wave of emotions hit him. It was plain as day that Fu Yiren was now extremely weak after being subjected to this treatment as a test subject. She was not as radiant and enchanting as she once was.
He looked at the metal cell, and then called out coldly, “Open it!”
Open it?
Nakamura Miko started to become suspicious, and said, “Major General Matsushita, she’s extremely dangerous. We cannot…”
SLASH~
There was a swishy sound, and she suddenly felt a chill in her heart. She looked down and saw a knife sticking out of her chest.
Nakamura Miko collapsed without so much as a scream. The mute man was standing behind her with a savage glint to his glare, and in his hand, he gripped a short blade dripping with blood. It was clear that Nakamura Miko had been killed by him.
“Motherf*cker, what are you doing?” Suzuki Ikuo cried. He paled as he looked at the mute man with the fierce face in utter disbelief.
“Ah… Ah,” the mute man said as he pointed his dagger at Nakamura Miko’s corpse. He confronted Suzuki Ikuo as if he was quarreling with him.
Suzuki Ikuo was in great distress. “I understand, I know that you had your tongue cut out when you tried to protect your wife and daughter. Even so, you can’t just kill this woman on impulse. Do you know what you’ve just done?” he said.
“Ya, ya, ya…” the deaf man echoed his sentiments and gestured animatedly.
“You idiot, shut your damn mouth. Just stop messing around!” Suzuki Ikuo scowled.
“Messing around? These guys are much stronger than you are!”
Xiao Luo looked at the mute man approvingly. Suddenly, Xiao Luo’s bones emitted cracking sounds, and almost immediately, his facial features and body structure transformed back to their original form. He was no longer Matsushita Take.
One member of the security squad stationed on the first floor heard the commotion and rushed over. Before he could even speak, Xiao Luo appeared right behind him like a ghost.
“Ooof!”
Xiao Luo’s razor-sharp fingers pierced the man’s back and through his heart like a dagger, as he used his other hand to muffle the guard’s mouth. The man’s eyes widened as thick, fresh blood surged copiously from his terrible wound. Blood gushed through his mouth, but it went no further, for Xiao Luo had his hand clasped tightly over the guards’ mouth, and his life ended in an instant.
Xiao Luo had been clinical in his execution, but the man thrashed around in the throes of his violent death and his struggle was amplified in this quiet underground crypt.
Suddenly, Xiao Luo’s ears twitched as he could hear the footfall of someone approaching. A security guard nearby became suspicious and cautiously made his way over. And, just as he turned past one of the metal cells, he was taken by surprise. Xiao Luo had tailed the guard, and the moment turned the corner, Xiao Luo struck with a violent thrust of his hand squarely on the man’s chest.
SNAP!
There was a gruesome sound of ribs cracking, and a piece of the broken bones pierced the heart. The security guard barely had time to respond before he lost his life.
What sound was that?
What happened?
The other seven or eight guards heard the sound. After some hesitation, they gathered their courage and slowly making their way forward. They had their guns at the ready when they reached the cell that held the Lady Poison.
“Major General Matsushita!”
“Miss Miko!”
The leader of the squad tried calling out for Xiao Luo and Nakamura Miko. He sensed danger.
Xiao Luo was like the grim reaper harvesting souls. He made use of the rows of metal cells as cover. In moments, he had already moved from the southeast corner to the northwest. There was a nasty glint in his eyes, and like a venomous snake, he had it fixed on the security guard standing right at the rear of the squad.
“OOOF!”
Xiao Luo’s Phantom Claw sliced his throat open as his other hand muffled the guard, causing the man to die quietly as he struggled in vain.
In a short time, Xiao Luo used the same covert method to rid another five of the guards. It was also at this moment that the two men at the very front—the last two of the squad—found the bodies of their colleagues. Shock filled their eyes and the squad leader hurriedly pulled out his walkie-talkie to report this matter.
“I’m sorry, but you don’t get to do that!”
A hauntingly ominous voice filtered from somewhere close by. Xiao Luo suddenly appeared behind him, and before the guard could even respond, his index finger and thumb ripped through his neck like a pair of tusks and tore out a chunk of flesh.
With an artery ruptured, blood gushed out of his throat like a fountain. The squad leader still tried calling for help, but with his throat ripped open, he could only make wheezing sounds. He soon lost all his strength as fresh blood poured out profusely, and he collapsed into a pool of his own blood.
Xiao Luo did not waste any time. He bounded toward the last guard and twisted his body in mid-air before he delivered a devastating kick to his chest.
SNAP!
There was another bone-chilling crack, and Xiao Luo sent the last security guard flying like a cannonball. He crashed into one of the metal cells, and his body virtually disintegrated as he slowly slid off the cell wall like a heap of flesh into a pool of his blood. Strangely, he seemed to struggle briefly before he stopped moving altogether.
