The sizzling sound and the scent wafting through his nose made him sway a little.
It was a bit like the smell of fried fritters downstairs this morning.
Tang Xiao subconsciously licked his lips.
At this time, the armed forces finally burst into the kitchen. Several people at the forefront of the charge shouted:
“Hands up.”
Tang Xiao subconsciously raised his hand in the oil pot, revealing the cooked skin. Only a quarter of mycelium was left and fell weakly to the ground.
This terrifying scene made everyone subconsciously raise their guns and aim at Tang Xiao, standing before the oil pot.
Nothing else. He just looked so abnormal.
He was a mess. His white coat was dirty with blood. He had messy hair. His glasses were crooked. His arm was burned, and the skin was peeling off, causing him severe pain. Despite this, he maintained a calm expression. His black eyes hung down, and his pale face had a strange, captivating beauty.
Some people were a kind of beauty when they were healthy, one kind of beauty when they were sick and weak, and another kind when they were damaged in battle.
Tang Xiao didn’t know how well he fit into this state, making people want to see him collapse even more for no reason.
The armed men and the surviving newcomers who witnessed this scene were all temporarily mesmerized. The blonde man was even staring at Tang Xiao in a daze, unable to move his gaze.
“… Are you a newcomer?” Just when the armed men couldn’t decide, the middle-aged man in the protective circle behind him cast an interested look. “Give me your name, number, and a brief description of the current situation.”
Tang Xiao licked his chapped lips and said articulately, “Tang Xiao, df203. As you can see, I was attacked in the kitchen and barely escaped with hot oil.”
This game did not have any face remodeling or in-game name. If it wasn’t for Tang Xiao looking at the identity card before, he couldn’t answer this question.
“Surviving 428’s attack is difficult for anyone to achieve.”
Tang Xiao lowered his gaze and didn’t speak. He just didn’t know how to answer. Babbitt who was standing next to the middle-aged man, was a little displeased, but before he could say anything, the middle-aged man suddenly looked at the mycelium next to Tang Xiao. “Catch it.”
With only a quarter left, the quietly wriggling and crawling mycelium aggregates attempted to escape through the vents. It attracted the attention of the armed forces, and Tang Xiao was able to go to the back of the room after being examined.
It happened to be next to the man who asked the question. “You used the oil pot in the kitchen?”
Tang Xiao subconsciously looked at his badge.
[Bader, Level 5 Scholar, Head of the Laboratory]
Babbitt, who had originally taken them on a tour, was still alive, nodding his head and standing behind this person. Only two or three newcomers remained beside him, and one of the more familiar people, the blonde man, was still looking at him with a strange look.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Kjcu Wljb pera rkfqa j uijcmf ja tlw jcv vlvc’a ajxf tlr ujhf ab tfjga. Lf mjgfv wbgf jybea atlr cfkis jqqfjgfv RUJ atjc atf qjrrfgys. Pa rffwfv atja tf kjr atf ylu wfcabg bo atlr ijybgjabgs.
Kjcu Wljb jcrkfg mjealberis, “Tfr.”
Ktf batfg qjgas cbvvfv jcv jrxfv cb wbgf defralbcr.
Tang Xiao had just breathed a sigh of relief when an enthusiastic voice suddenly came from his back. “Hello Tang, you’re so amazing ah!”
He turned around and found that it was a blond and blue-eyed young man who looked the same age as him. The other party’s face was full of enthusiasm. He was unconsciously gestured with his hand. “You can seriously injure that monster. You’re too powerful! By the way, my name is Dexter Lodge. Hello!”
Tang Xiao simply nodded to the young man and his expression became even more excited. He stepped forward and tried to say something, but the commotion of the heated battle over there drew everyone’s attention.
The monster seemed to be at a disadvantage.
The high temperature of the oil pot was fatal for it. Although it was not dead, it was seriously injured. The heat guns of the armed men showed no mercy, all rushing to decapitate it on the spot.
The little monster that Tang Xiao had seriously injured gradually could not resist. Even the mycelium could not polymerize into a solid body. Its size had been reduced by half, but it still hadn’t given up its resistance.
Tang Xiao noticed the creature’s intense will to survive through its orange-yellow vertical pupils. It stopped looking at Tang Xiao, probably aware that capture would mean immediate destruction. The creature fiercely resisted and nearly escaped the armed team multiple times.
The monster was incredibly fast. Tang Xiao knew this from dying multiple times. He had gained the experience and foresight to anticipate its movements. His ability to hit the monster was not based on his eyesight, but on his previous deaths. Without this knowledge, he wouldn’t stand a chance against the monster.
And these armed men, surprisingly, suppressed the monster with only seven or eight people. Obviously, it was the secret technology weapon that suppressed the monster.
It seemed the lab was much more armed than he thought.
As everyone knew, just when Tang Xiao was seriously assessing the armed strength of this organization, the people in the lab were also secretly alarmed, especially Bader, who knew the monster’s strength better than others, and the armed personnel in charge of the battle.
… That newcomer had been dealing with this monster for so long just by himself? And even hit the monster hard?
Bader stared at the calm Tang Xiao in surprise. He was not the only one present who did this, those few newcomers looked at Tang Xiao with even less concealment. There were even some whose gazes were full of worship.
The newcomers who the Third Eye could choose were all smart people among their peers. They knew too well the difficulty of dealing with this monster unless they were superpowers. An ordinary person was no different from a dish before this kind of monster.
There was no shortage of luck, intelligence, execution, and determination for the ordinary person to evade it in extreme danger and even injure it with a mediocre oil pot in the kitchen.
Bader had read the information of this batch of newcomers in advance. Of course, there were no superpowers in it, so Tang Xiao was simply relying on himself to triumph over the monster. He even seriously injured the other party. This Tang Xiao was the best one in this batch of newcomers.
At this time, Tang Xiao looked at the battlefield, feeling wrong. Generally speaking, isn’t it a priority to capture?
“Don’t we have to leave it alive?” Tang Xiao said in a hoarse voice, “At least it’s an experimental subject.”
“En? No need.” Bader looked at 428 flatly and said, “It was meant to be destroyed. The experiment has failed and it’s worthless to us.”
Failed experiment?
Indeed, Babbitt, who was in charge of the introduction before said that it was a failed project. However, Tang Xiao hadn’t paid much attention to it before when he was obsessed with solving the attack and killing.
Wait, what about his main task?!
Tang Xiao looked in the little monster’s direction. At this moment, the monster had been fully suppressed. The gun was heading toward the fatal point, watching as the blood-colored mycelium grew smaller and smaller.
The vitality in the little monster’s eyes had gradually faded. The intuition of death rang frantically in its brain, but it continued to stare deathly at Tang Xiao, at Bader, and even resisted more violently when Bader said ‘worthless’.
The fact that it was lost couldn’t be changed. The little monster was shrinking visibly. Broken mycelium, gray-white in color, covered the ground. Its resistance was weakening, but it still had enough strength for a fierce struggle.
It was just that its desperate resistance could not slow down the fact that it was gradually sliding into the abyss of execution.
“Wait a minute.”
At this time, Tang Xiao’s hoarse voice sounded. Those present subconsciously looked toward him.
Instantly, at the center of everyone’s gaze, Tang Xiao’s dropping fingers stiffened. He stiffly said, “It’s better to keep it.”
Bader asked with interest, “Why? Do you know the amount of money needed to run a project?”
Although Tang Xiao had never entered the laboratory, he was not completely ignorant. His family had also done related projects at home. His father complained more than once that the laboratory was a gold-swallowing beast, but the results were completely metaphysical.
Li Mu had also approached him more than once drunkenly to complain about how stressed they were.
The little monster would not survive if this project was doomed to fail, unless…
Tang Xiao closed his eyes, and took off his glasses, pinching the frame with difficulty with his burned hand. His intact right hand picked up the corner of his coat and slowly wiped the lenses. An action that both stalled for time and organized his thoughts.
No matter what, it’s no big deal to do it again.
The young man, questioned by the big guy, calmly wiped his glasses without any signs of nervousness. Bader patiently waited for him to finish. After putting his glasses back on, the young man spoke casually.
“PESA material.”
Babbit frowned. “What about it?”
“The hardness of the PESA material is aerospace grade. It takes a long time for even a specialized processing plant to complete the cutting and reshaping.” Upon saying this, cold sweat came out of Tang Xiao’s palms. He didn’t know anything about this so-called PESA material. He knew this knowledge from the blonde man taking the initiative to say it before. Perhaps that blonde man searched for this information when he was stuck, but for him, it could be used to show off.
[Fortunately, there were additional outputs from the experimental process. We’ve recently gone in that direction…]
Li Mu’s words were still lingering in his ears in the morning. Tang Xiao deliberately glanced directly at the dormitory gate. “However, how long has it taken for this monster to corrode the gate made of this material? I don’t think it should take more than a minute. This kind of substance can corrode quickly. I think it should have some research value.”
Hearing this, Bader immediately realized something. His eyes lit up, and he lowered his head to operate his bracelet for a few moments.
Then, a blue translucent projection appeared on his arm, showing the surveillance of the dormitory gate. He stared at the aerial screen for several minutes, the smile on his face getting wider before turning his head to look deeply at Babbitt again.
Babbit’s head was about to drop to his chest. He nodded in a cold sweat. “I’m sorry, Doctor. I–I was too scared to notice…”
Bader let out a cold snort. His expression shifted to a friendly smile when he turned towards Tang Xiao. Implicitly testing, his gaze landed on Tang Xiao’s left arm. “Tang Xiao, isn’t it?” You’re talented, but are you genuinely okay with this? The monster nearly took your life, and your hand could need amputation.”
Hearing this, everyone present saw that the young man was stunned for a moment. His beautiful eyebrows frowned. He asked indifferently and puzzledly, “Is there any inevitable connection between this and continuing the experiment?”
His natural expression, which he took for granted, interpreted another layer of meaning when falling into the eyes of the others.
As if his personal feelings were the least worth mentioning.
In addition, hot oil almost burned his arms, but there was no look of pain on his face, coupled with otherworldly intelligence.
Savant syndrome.The name of the disease appeared in their minds almost instantly.
Along with the recent and increasingly frequent natural disasters and fungal invasions, a variety of new genetic diseases have appeared in humans. Among these, experts considered Savant syndrome to be one of the milder side effects.
It generally manifested as an overdeveloped mind, accompanied by painlessness and excessive devotion to one’s identified cause because one did not perceive pain. They had a strong tendency to fly into a rage after identifying something as a lifelong career, even at the expense of oneself.
If they were a killer, they would be a top-tier terrorist. In the hearts of the people, they would be selfless protectors if they were soldiers. If they were a politician, they would do whatever it took for the benefit of their party.
They were like selfless worker ants in an ant nest. Sometimes they could be heroes, and sometimes they could be demons.
If it was a scientist… Then it was the same as a genius and a lunatic.
The scientists who got this disease in history, without exception, had become the first comets to become famous early and the first to die, illuminating human civilization with their superior minds and burning themselves like candles.
The organization drew a good card this time.
Bader had a reason to continue the experiment and recover the losses. Naturally, he didn’t order the little monster to be killed again but simply had it captured.
After weakening 428 to a certain extent, the armed men brought a transparent vessel that could be powered on at any time. They put on the blood-colored monster that had shrunk into a small ball and walked straight past Tang Xiao toward the door.
Tang Xiao glanced at the vessel and noticed the little monster’s gaze inside. The mycelium was all broken, and the orange-yellow eyeballs had turned scorched black. However, it stubbornly refused to close, and its gaze seemed deep and complex, as if it had become a transparent mycelium itself, stubbornly sticking to the young man.
Tang Xiao sneered, not avoiding meeting the monster’s gaze.
Wait, we’ll be together for a long time.
Thank you for the chapter! ❤
aaahh thank u for the food!
EEHEHEHEHEHEHE, I am so ready for the raising/training arc 😤. Thanks for the chap~
Thank you for the chapter 🙏
I wonder how this game operates… obviously the ‘game’ is just a portal to another world, so does that mean the world resets every time a player dies and creates many parallel worlds? Also does ml retain his memories whenever the world resets? Idk it just feels like that xD