The laboratory was shrouded in silence, broken only by the low humming of precision instrunts and their dim lights.
Suddenly, two black silhouettes slipped through a crack in the door—one remained in shadow form, while the other manifested a physical body.
One moved in full view, the other lurking in the darkness. It seed that after the previous failed attempt to gather information, these two shadows had learned to operate just like their “senior counterpart.”
New lines of text continuously flashed across the analyzers they wore, indicating a stream of communication between them.
“Target is on the move, signs of escape detected, analyzing surroundings...”
“No possibility of escape, proceeding with operation...”
They suddenly froze, as if sensing sothing.
White mist began to flow from one of the glass vessels on the workbench, with a blurred figure drifting inside.
This figure swayed intermittently, as if regaining consciousness.
“Target located, initiating retrieval...”
As the latest information flashed across their analyzers, both black silhouettes darted toward the figure with such speed that their movents left afterimages!
The physical shadow lunged directly for the experint table where the indistinct figure lay!
Its arms morphed into sharp spikes that glead faintly in the darkness.
The other shadow stayed intangible, rapidly circling to the opposite side to approach the target.
The black spikes ca crashing down, aid precisely at the blurred figure’s head in an attempt to eliminate it in a single blow. At the sa ti, the shadow solidified into a corporeal form and attacked from the other side.
But—
Light!
Just as the situation reached a crisis point, two massive tentacles—octopus-like in appearance—suddenly lashed out from the mist, grabbing the descending spikes in a perfect counter!
The two black silhouettes hesitated for a split second at the sight.
“Target incorrect, aborting operation...”
“Abort failed, initiating escape...”
The analyzers imdiately displayed two new lines, and the shadows, regaining their senses, wisely decided to break off their weapons on the spot!
Click!
The spikes slipped from their grasp as the shadows reverted to their incorporeal forms and tried to flee.
But at that mont, unseen waves surged from the mist, rapidly enveloping the entire laboratory!
Predictably, both shadows were forced back into physical form. Glancing back, they saw Specin 16 rising from the research table, its container already opened. A strange emotion twisted its coal-black face.
“Attention all units: Six just inserted an analyzer into a biological specin...”
“Before the next deploynt, please confirm whether target is a specin, though... we won’t have a next ti...”
“Operators 003 and 004 will soon be decommissioned...”
It was a slaughter. The shadows that had been hunting players stood no chance against a biological specin like this.
Disard and stripped of their powers, reduced to re shadows, they were as helpless as infants before Specin 16.
Rrrr—
The tentacles tore them both in half, and Specin 16 began devouring them greedily. Lined with circular, knife-like teeth, the tentacles made short work of tearing and consuming the shadows.
Bai Lian, watching from the side, witnessed the entire scene.
As for the Hidden Seal with its symbol, which couldn’t be reused for more than five minutes and would fail if detected—its applications were strictly limited. Typically, players only used it in very specific situations.
But for soone like Bai Lian, such restrictions were irrelevant.
Observing Specin 16 reveling in its al, Bai Lian stroked his chin and remarked,
“So it’s as I suspected—my other theory is confird as well: the mothership only cares about biological data, since they have no ans of dealing with biological specins themselves.”
“Or perhaps they can handle it, but only with great difficulty—after all, these shadows are completely suppressed by Specin 16.”
【Damn, Bai Shen, this is insane! He stuck the analyzer right into Specin 16 and tricked the shadows and it into attacking each other?】
【Looks like whoever wrote that didn’t understand what ‘mutual destruction’ really ans. How is it mutual destruction if one just utterly annihilates the other?】
【Hahaha, you’ve got to pity these shadows—they never expected soone to shove an analyzer directly into a biological specin.】
【Honestly, only Bai Shen could pull off a trick like this under the noses of all the researchers. No one else could do it.】
【I don’t get it—why does everyone except Lin Ya seem to lose their wits the instant they run into Bai Shen?】
【You don’t get it? Bai Shen was already tunneled into the dungeon the mont the kettle started steaming.】
【What’s that supposed to an?】
【Just wait and see!】
...
Suddenly, in the middle of its feast, Specin 16 froze. Its heart-shaped head abruptly snapped in a new direction.
That’s where Bai Lian now stood—the stealth effect had run out.
But Bai Lian didn’t panic, or rather, he’d anticipated this the whole ti, even as Specin 16’s tentacles whipped toward him at blinding speed!
Min Tong materialized from thin air above Bai Lian’s head: a massive, emotionless eyeball that fixed an unblinking stare on Specin 16.
The tentacles aiming at him jerked to a halt mid-air, as if hesitating. They seed to instinctively sense the threat from the eye.
But Bai Lian gave them no ti to reconsider. A beam of annihilation burst from Min Tong and fired without warning!
Ssshh!
The beam severed one of the tentacles, which instantly began crumbling to ash—decay spreading rapidly to the rest of the body!
Specin 16 didn’t hesitate, tearing off a chunk of itself to stop the spread and ensure survival.
“You don’t even have eyes... Now that’s just unfair...” Noting Specin 16’s lack of eyes, Bai Lian couldn’t help but frown at the absurdity.
One shot wasn’t enough? Two, then. And if that still failed, he’d have to go all out—
Ssshh! Ssshh! Ssshh!
Beams of annihilation tore into Specin 16 one after another, rcilessly.
Specin 16, which had just grown a replacent limb, didn’t even have ti to respond before a barrage of annihilation beams reduced it to ash.
Not a trace remained—no hope of regeneration, even if such an ability existed.
Bai Lian glanced at the gaping hole in the floor, then turned and headed over to the laboratory’s glass jars.
Inside each jar floated specins at various stages of recovery—all version of No. 16. Once removed, each one would regenerate into a new Specin 16.
“The key to solving this problem...”
Donning gloves, Bai Lian retrieved a segnt of Specin 16’s tentacle from one of the jars and laid it out on the experintal table.
He picked up a scalpel and, as though slicing sashimi, cut the tentacle into thin, uniform pieces—like octopus slices.
A full hundred portions: each writhing slice continued moving after being cut, slowly sprouting new tissue.
Bai Lian found an empty jar and dropped all the slices inside. They imdiately stopped growing.
“One hundred samples of biological data... This should do the trick, right?”
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