Generally, when a human is parasitized by a high-level mutant, they enter an embryonic phase that lasts about two to four hours.
During this period, the host's abdomen will swell as if pregnant. However, unlike the movies, there is no "birth," and no mutant bursts out of the body. Instead, the host is gradually transformed into a similar high-level mutant.
Zhou Jiao didn't know whether she had been parasitized by Jiang Lian or had undergone a genetic mutation to become a new species altogether. She needed time to observe herself.
But observation required one condition: the Special Bureau must not find out.
Although the Special Bureau claimed to be a neutral international organization, everyone knew it was effectively controlled by one of the world's top three conglomerates—BioTech¹.
And BioTech had only two ways of dealing with mutants: dissection and classification for research purposes, or mass extermination.
Zhou Jiao didn't care to find out which fate would be hers.
Stifling the sudden hunger pangs, she tidied up the lab, activated the console's camera, omitted any mention of Jiang Lian, and calmly described the corpse mutation incident from the night before. Then she carried the unconscious Xie Yueze into the break room.
Once everything was done, Zhou Jiao opened the surveillance records.
Perhaps due to Jiang Lian's interference, there was no footage from last night.
She couldn't decide whether that was a good or bad thing.
Removing her lab coat and rubber gloves, she tossed them into the incinerator and left the Special Bureau.
It was still raining outside—a fine, misty drizzle.
Maybe it was just her imagination, but after coming into contact with the damp rain, the mutation in her body seemed to accelerate.
Her fingers began to feel sticky.
Her vision sharpened.
Her hearing became extraordinarily sensitive—she could clearly hear two stray dogs fighting across the street, right down to one of them's heavy, furious breathing.
Passing a convenience store, the aroma of microwaved meals made her mouth water. She couldn't resist buying several boxes of food, and a bottle of cola, thinking the carbonation might curb the hunger.
At the register, the clerk noticed her flushed face, sweat-drenched hair, and the clinical scent of antiseptic wafting from her, and assumed she'd just come from the hospital. He kindly asked if she needed medicine and offered hot water.
Zhou Jiao politely declined, then headed back to her apartment with the food.
The moment she closed the door behind her, the thread of rationality in her mind snapped. She ripped open the plastic lids and started devouring the food.
One box down, she wasn't full. She didn't even realize it had been braised beef over rice until afterward.
Two boxes—still hungry.
Three. Four…
After scarfing down five boxes of food, Zhou Jiao was still starving.
She paused and twisted open the cola, draining it in one go. It did nothing—not even a burp.
Gripping the bottle tightly, she had a fleeting, murderous thought of tearing Jiang Lian apart and eating him instead.
Forcing herself to calm down, she threw away the empty boxes and resisted the urge to clear out the convenience store. She took a quick shower and decided to fight the hunger with sleep.
·
"Riiing— Riiing—"
"Riiing— Riiing—"
At 2 AM, the shrill ring of the phone woke her.
Her sleep had been restless—she kept feeling like something cold and slick was slithering over her body. She wanted to open her eyes to see what it was, but her eyelids felt glued shut.
Though she had slept since morning, she felt as exhausted as if she had pulled two all-nighters.
The phone kept ringing.
"Riiing— Riiing—"
She hadn't changed the ringtone—it was the default factory setting, two mechanical notes looped endlessly. The repetitive melody sounded especially jarring and uncanny in the dead of night.
Like a reluctant octopus squirming in a clay pot, Zhou Jiao reached out and answered.
The call was connected to the apartment's sound system. Immediately, a cold, synthetic voice echoed through the room:
"Name: Zhou Jiao."
"Employee ID: TSZ20492077."
"At 3:45 AM on December 4, 2075, you and 'Employee ID TSX20492019' Xie Yueze used a senior staff member's biometric credentials to illegally access BioTech's internal network and disseminate classified data. This constitutes a serious violation of company rights and is a criminal offense involving the theft of trade secrets… Please open the door and cooperate with the investigation."
Zhou Jiao jolted fully awake.
At the same time, there was a knock at the door: Knock, knock, knock.
A cold voice followed:
"Zhou Jiao, are you in there?"
She didn't respond but forced herself to stay calm and quickly pieced the situation together.
Xie Yueze had used someone's biometric key to log into BioTech's network and leak classified data—that wasn't surprising. After all, he had no real reason to come to the Special Bureau last night.
That she was now seen as his accomplice also made sense.
The corpse mutation had splashed acid that corroded the cables beneath the floor, conveniently causing a lab-wide blackout. It was all too coincidental. If she worked for BioTech, she wouldn't believe her own innocence either.
"Zhou Jiao, are you in there?"
"This is your last chance. If you were forced into this or are innocent, the company will see that you're cleared. But if you resist, the company has the right to forcibly enter and detain you!"
"Open the door, Zhou Jiao!"
She didn't know if she should.
If she hadn't swallowed Jiang Lian's tentacle, the best option would be to cooperate.
After all, this was Yucheng—BioTech's turf.
Here, corporations like BioTech even had law enforcement privileges.
But now, before she understood what her body had become, cooperating might mean clearing her name as a hacker—only to end up as a lab rat.
After more than a minute of silence, the knocking intensified, becoming frantic.
"Knock knock knock!"
"Knock knock knock!"
"Zhou Jiao, are you in there? In there? In there?"
Something in the voice twisted—once cold and official, it now sounded deranged, unnatural.
A chill ran up Zhou Jiao's spine.
Why did his voice change?
What the hell was going on?
Then, suddenly, the knocking stopped.
Silence.
Two seconds later, a new sound replaced it: sharp fingernails scraping across the door, trying to claw through the cracks.
And then came the voice again:
"What are you eating? Smells so good…"
Zhou Jiao froze.
Her blood turned cold.
Because—
She wasn't eating anything.
Whoever—or whatever—was at the door was not human.
But if it wasn't human… then what was it?
Were there other mutants out there, like Jiang Lian, with human-level intelligence?
Ones capable of using her recent experiences to fabricate such a disturbingly plausible lie?
The more she thought about it, the colder she felt.
Forcing herself to breathe steadily, she reconsidered.
Jiang Lian, the most terrifying creature she'd ever encountered, emanated a cosmic, overwhelming power—but even he didn't know why Xie Yueze had come to the lab.
Likely because he simply didn't care.
Then how did the thing outside the door know?
There was only one possible answer:
It wasn't lying.
It was from BioTech.
Rumors had long circulated online about BioTech conducting inhumane experiments, trying to merge humans and mutants to create super-soldiers for corporate warfare.
Zhou Jiao's thoughts raced—fast as lightning.
Clearly, the rumors were true.
BioTech likely had developed a method for human-mutant symbiosis—but hadn't accounted for Jiang Lian.
That's how she'd slipped through their net.
Realizing this, Zhou Jiao sat up sharply.
Ignoring the stabbing pain in her stomach, she dressed quickly, opened the hidden safe behind her wall tapestry, and pulled out a compact handgun.
It had been modified—not enough to kill a mutant, but powerful enough to buy time.
Meanwhile, the knocking turned to a rapid barrage, like a storm pounding her door.
Knock knock knock!
Knock knock knock knock knock!
The thing outside grew increasingly manic, its voice shrill and unhinged, tinged with a chilling mix of greed and delirium:
"Zhou Jiao, are you there? Are you there? I know you're there... What are you eating? Smells so good, so good, so good, so good... Please, open the door, just let me smell it... I won't take it... just let me smell... smells so good, so good, so good..."
Eventually, it devolved into a broken, maddening repetition:
"Are you there are you there are you there—open the door open the door open the door—smells so good smells so good smells so good..."
Zhou Jiao, of course, had no intention of opening the door.
This apartment was assigned by the Special Bureau—45th floor, one bedroom, no kitchen.
She remembered that the bathroom window opened near the rooftop. If she climbed onto the windowsill, gripped the edge of the rooftop, and hoisted herself up, she could slip away like a molting cicada.
But the moment she pushed the window open, she saw something that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Floodlights from parked vehicles lit the area below like broad daylight. Over a hundred security agents from the Biotech Corporation stood in eerie stillness, staring directly up at her. Their posture was unnaturally uniform—some with their heads tilted at angles no human neck should allow.
What the f—k.
She lived on the 45th floor. It should be physically impossible for anyone to see her from down there. Even with specialized goggles, they couldn't have detected her this fast.
There was only one explanation:
Like Jiang Lian before them, they hadn't seen her—they had smelled her.
Zhou Jiao slammed the window shut with a loud bang and cursed.
That damned tentacle Jiang Lian left her with—had it turned her into some kind of invincible monster?
Or just a fragrant prize that everyone could sniff out from miles away?
Escape was impossible.
She could only cooperate with Biotech's investigation.
·
At midnight, a cold, clammy drizzle began to fall from the sky. The fine rain descended like fungal threads, shrouding the city in a slippery, ghostly mist.
Jiang Lian, dressed in a pale gray coat, hands in his pockets, strolled calmly through the rain.
As he passed a closed-down eyewear store, he paused in front of the display, eyes fixed on a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Slowly, he raised his hand and reached straight through the glass to take them.
No one knew that the moment his fingers touched the glass, every molecule of his flesh, bones, and blood instantaneously broke down into quantum particles. Each particle, carrying immense energy, slipped through the infinitesimal gaps between the glass molecules.
All of this happened in a millisecond—fast enough to look, to the naked eye, like he had simply passed his hand through solid glass.
Jiang Lian examined the glasses, then slipped them onto his nose.
Raindrops quickly fogged the lenses, casting a soft white haze over his gaze. Yet it didn't sully his presence—in fact, it only made him seem purer, colder, more detached.
Suddenly, he wiped his lips with a thumb, frowning slightly.
"...What the hell?"
He had released a few tentacles earlier during his walk, letting them wander and feed at will—with one strict rule: no humans, and no human food.
But one of them had disobeyed. It returned with piles of human food:
Braised beef over rice.
Tomato and egg over rice.
Marinated pork rice bowls.
And...
500ml of carbonated beverages packed with sugar, preservatives, artificial flavoring, and coloring.
Absolute garbage.
And it had brought back a lot of it.
Jiang Lian frowned, rubbing his fingers together, tempted to crush that tentacle's consciousness into dust. But after a moment's thought, he let go.
Because that food—it carried a scent he recognized.
A rich, fruity sweetness, like overripe fruit bursting with juice. It was similar to Zhou Jiao's scent...
But different.
Sweeter.
More intoxicating.
As if the flesh beneath the skin had ripened to the brink of decay, ready to split and spill syrupy nectar.
It was more maddening than her usual scent.
Unfortunately, he already knew the truth—human saliva was impure.
Even the most passionate human lovers weren't obsessed with each other's saliva.
Zhou Jiao's scent was gone.
Starting today, he would no longer entertain any base, degrading interest in human fluids.
That's what he told himself—
Yet he followed the scent anyway.
The closer he got, the stronger the split within him grew.
Behind his cold, clean exterior, something monstrous stirred—something vast, ancient, and malevolent. A shadow unfurled behind him, slick and oppressive like a winged abyss stretching across the night.
As he neared the scent's source, the force radiating from him became suffocating. Every living being nearby felt it—an inexplicable terror.
Pedestrians and drivers alike felt something cold and invisible sweep over their ankles and tires, like ocean water flooding the streets.
Jiang Lian stood at the base of a tall apartment complex, lifting his gaze toward the upper floors with eerie detachment.
That scent—
It came from the 46th floor.
No—
The 40th.
The source was descending.
He noticed several "people" standing around, all staring hungrily at the building's exit. The moment the scent's owner emerged, they would pounce like starving hounds, sniffing, biting, devouring.
Jiang Lian observed the scene, his expression blank behind his glasses. Then, he wiped his lips again.
He had no intention of fighting this mob of low-grade mutants for that scent.
Yes—low-grade.
Lower than humans.
Even below humans in the hierarchy of life.
To fight such creatures over a human's scent—
That would be even more pathetic than craving human saliva.
And yet, just as he was about to turn away—
He saw her.
Zhou Jiao.
She was being escorted out of the building by a "man" in a Biotech security uniform.
The man wore black goggles, only his nose and jaw exposed, his entire body wrapped in tactical gear. Despite the disguise, his inhuman traits were unmistakable.
His nose twitched violently, nearly convulsing, as he breathed in her scent with deranged hunger.
And Zhou Jiao didn't resist.
She followed obediently, passively—so different from the way she was around him.
As if... anyone could smell her.
Even the mutants lurking nearby.
Jiang Lian's face darkened instantly.
The air around him plummeted in temperature.
Puddles froze solid in seconds.
Before the "man" and the creatures could even think to flee, a crushing force obliterated them—
Reduced to pulp in the blink of an eye.