Perhaps because she had actively fallen into a deep coma, Zhou Jiao was able to sense everything happening in the outside world.
She heard the cold, buzzing sound underfoot, heard Jiang Lian's nearly frantic breathing, and felt his wet, heavy breath spraying across her neck.
—As his breathing grew faster and more intense, the entire nest shook, expanding and contracting in rhythm with his breath, as if it were a writhing stomach trying to devour her whole.
Zhou Jiao wondered if she had made the wrong bet.
Her attraction to Jiang Lian was not as strong as she had thought.
Falling into a coma might actually benefit his terrifying confinement plan.
In a coma, her consciousness drifted in the dark, chaotic sea, with her thinking slowing down dramatically. Even though she knew her current situation was extremely dangerous, she felt no fear.
...It's okay.
Zhou Jiao told herself. As long as she was alive, there was hope.
She had no idea how long had passed, her consciousness floating in and out, the images in her mind distorted and fragmented. It was as if she saw everything and heard everything, yet it all felt like a subconscious hallucination.
It seemed like hours had passed, but perhaps only minutes. It wasn't until her soul broke through the dark, oppressive deep sea that she caught a faint sound from the outside world:
"The patient's subconscious is active, showing reflexive reactions to external stimuli."
"Prepare the dynamic magnetic resonance electrodes, initiate consciousness therapy."
"Why was this sent so late... The blood oxygen saturation has already dropped to 80%! We need to start hyperbaric oxygen therapy!"
...
The hyperbaric oxygen chamber was activated, and the medical staff hurried about.
At that moment, whether it was the dynamic magnetic resonance electrodes or something else, Zhou Jiao's eyes briefly opened for a few seconds.
The medical staff didn't pay much attention; even in a vegetative state, it was normal for eyes to open reflexively or in response to external stimuli.
But Zhou Jiao's eye-opening was reflexive.
Her pupils were dilated, unfocused, but in that brief moment, she suddenly locked her gaze—although it only lasted for a few seconds, it was enough for her to clearly see the figure in front of her.
Jiang Lian stood motionless at the end of the hallway, staring at her with a terrifying gaze.
His condition was dire: half of his face maintained a human form, while the other half was corroded, revealing a horrific, grotesque true face. Countless tentacles, like purple-red, scaleless snakes, wriggled through the bones of his face.
—For the treatment to proceed smoothly, he must stay away from her, or else the medical equipment would fail, and the medical staff would spiral into madness due to his presence.
However, this did not mean she could escape from him.
He didn't speak, nor did he emit those low-frequency sound waves that could affect the mind.
Yet, somehow, she heard his low, cold voice.
—You are mine.
—You can't escape.
After the reflexive eye-opening ended, Zhou Jiao closed her eyes again.
Her consciousness was once more submerged in the deep sea.
It took a while before her brain finally processed Jiang Lian's words.
—How do you know I can't escape?
·
Biotech Office.
Before the secretary could even open the door, Araki Xun kicked it open, rushed to the desk, and yanked open the drawer. He grabbed the scent agent inside and inhaled deeply.
In an instant, large amounts of dopamine were released into his brain, and his muscles relaxed, his face showing a mad, intoxicated expression.
But soon, he violently snapped out of it, throwing the empty scent agent aside and yelling at a researcher:
"What the hell is this?! Why can I smell that woman's scent?!"
The true pillars of the biotech company were the highly-educated researchers.
They held high status in the company and were not intimidated by Araki Xun's reprimands.
The researcher walked over to the monitor and pulled up the surveillance footage from the first floor—under the influence of Jiang Lian's magnetic field, no matter how advanced the surveillance cameras were, the footage was heavily distorted, as if encrypted.
But the researcher still replayed the footage frame by frame, watching in detail the moment when Araki Xun and the others were staring at Zhou Jiao with a lustful gaze. Ignoring Araki Xun's increasingly dark expression, the researcher pressed pause.
"Mr. Araki, what I'm about to say might not be what you want to hear, but I must tell you," the researcher said, "—the 'scent plan' is highly likely to fail."
Araki Xun's face changed rapidly. "Do you know what you're saying?"
"Take higher-order mutated species, for example. As long as humans are in the same room as them, they will be parasitized and mutated into their kind."
The researcher pointed at the blurry figure of Jiang Lian on the screen. "'He' has skipped the parasitic step altogether and can alter our cognition just by his magnetic field, even affecting our subconscious."
The researcher spoke solemnly, "Mr. Araki, please don't think that changes in smell are a trivial matter. Many neurodegenerative diseases begin with a loss of smell."
"Changes in smell are far more dangerous than losing it," the researcher continued. "Many of our senses exist to alert us to danger, such as pain, and similarly, the negative information that you don't want to hear, it's all there to warn us. If our sense of smell changes, you might mistake a deadly chemical scent for..."
"—Why do you think I don't understand these basics?" Araki Xun said coldly. "Just give me the conclusion. What should I do now?"
"The conclusion is that with the current human physiological structure and technology, there is no way to resist this kind of creature," the researcher said gravely, bowing deeply to Araki Xun.
"—Give up, Mr. Araki. Otherwise, humanity will fall into an unimaginable crisis."
Araki Xun's chest heaved violently, his gaze fixed on the researcher. His facial muscles twitched, revealing a terrifying, inhuman quality for a moment.
After a long pause, he finally gritted his teeth and spat out a sentence:
"...I will never give up! You also said it, I'm influenced by 'his' magnetic field, and my cognition and subconscious are altered, which is why I can smell that woman's scent."
"This means what? This means we might succeed! If my obsession with that woman's scent is the same as 'his' obsession with it, then once the fire sprinklers go off, 'he' will go insane. A mindless monster is like a lamb to the slaughter; if the firepower is strong enough, it can be suppressed!"
The researcher fell silent, sighed deeply, and said, "...Then prepare the filtering masks and neural blocking drugs. This will be a tough battle."
"However, if we really manage to obtain 'his' genes..." the researcher murmured, "humanity might undergo a second evolution."
Araki Xun was also intrigued by the prospect of "second evolution," and his expression gradually turned greedy and fanatical.
The atmosphere in the office became eerily calm, with everyone's attention focused on Jiang Lian, but no one noticed the small screen in the lower-left corner of the surveillance footage, where Zhou Jiao's eyes suddenly opened.
—She woke up too quickly. According to standard procedures, she should have been in the chamber for at least two days, but she regained consciousness in just two hours.
A doctor walked into the room.
Once her blood oxygen saturation was back up, her biological monitoring data returned to normal, and for a moment, the doctor didn't realize she had already woken up.
As the doctor stepped closer to examine her MRI, Zhou Jiao suddenly sat up on the bed—at an unimaginable speed, she elbowed the doctor's throat, while her eyes flashed silver as she hacked into the doctor's chip device, cutting off his communication with the company.
All of this was thanks to Xie Yueze. Although he lied constantly, he had genuinely helped her break the chip, turning the company's chip into black market trash, which allowed her to escape the company's AI surveillance.
The doctor froze.
But as a biotech doctor with military training, he immediately attempted to fight back.
However, he didn't know that Zhou Jiao's body had been modified and had strength far surpassing that of an average adult male. Before her, he was helpless.
The hospital room was eerily silent, with only the faint sounds of medical equipment running, while the subtle, terrifying crack of the doctor's neck could be heard.
—Zhou Jiao's expression was cold, her arm muscles tight as she gradually increased the pressure, strangling the doctor into unconsciousness.
Then, without even glancing at the overhead cameras, she calmly removed the doctor's white coat, put it on, messed up her hair, and covered half of her face.
Next, she moved the doctor onto the bed, covered him with a blanket, and connected the various medical devices.
After doing all this, she picked up the doctor's fallen tablet, pried open his eyelids, and unlocked it.
—Thanks to her experience in the company, she felt like she was at home, leisurely and at ease.
Here's your text translated into English, keeping the names intact as you requested:
She didn't immediately leave the hospital room but instead turned and entered the bathroom, triggering the red alert.
Almost like lightning, someone called: "What the hell's going on?! Are you serious?! I just took a sip of hot soup and you hit the red alert? Don't tell me you just accidentally pressed the wrong button…"
Zhou Jiao took a deep breath. When she spoke again, her voice was filled with panic and fear: "…The patient ran away! Dr. Griffin has been knocked out… Oh my god, what do we do now? Are we going to die? I don't want to die, I don't want to die!"
Her voice was thin, almost cracking, like she was on the verge of breaking down.
The person on the other end of the line was initially going to verify her employee number, but upon hearing her panicked, screeching voice, they became irritated and forgot their usual procedures.
"Alright, alright, calm down, I already informed Mr. Araki, and security will be there soon. There are surveillance drones everywhere. She shouldn't have gotten far."
The person hung up with a slam.
Zhou Jiao shrugged and tossed the tablet into the toilet.
There's a saying: Attitude matters when it comes to efficiency.
Here, a bad attitude doesn't just mean yelling or crying; it's about manipulating the other party's aversion to trouble. As long as they're not robots, everyone will try to avoid unnecessary steps when there's a lot of hassle involved.
— Like verifying her name and employee number.
— Or checking the surveillance footage.
Zhou Jiao stood behind the bathroom door, her eyes sharp and calm, quietly waiting for security to arrive.
At the same time, Araki Xun received the news of Zhou Jiao's escape.
He deeply despised small fry like Zhou Jiao and didn't bother checking the surveillance footage. Because of the influence of Jiang Lian's magnetic field, all the footage appeared strange and made him feel nauseous after just a glance.
Only the freaks in the lab would analyze the footage frame by frame.
Araki pressed his brow with force.
He knew Zhou Jiao's main goal had always been to escape Jiang Lian, so her running away wasn't a surprise.
However… it was a bit too soon. The company hadn't yet had the chance to produce a more powerful scent agent.
But… it should be enough.
Araki opened his communicator and ordered the security teams on each floor: "Activate level one alert, all personnel must wear bio-filter masks and prepare for combat!"
He paused for a moment and then decisively added: "One minute later, activate the fire sprinklers."
"Repeat—everyone, wear the bio-filter masks. This is a level one order, it must be executed."
Outside the hospital room, footsteps hurriedly approached. The door was suddenly kicked open, and security personnel rushed in.
Zhou Jiao listened carefully. Two people had arrived, likely to reconstruct the scene of the incident.
— She wasn't wrong. The two security guards, wearing goggles and bio-filter masks, followed by a drone, came in to check for signs of struggle and footprints in the room.
They turned off the lights, and the drone immediately emitted a faint blue light, scanning the floor for footprints.
There were only two sets of prints: one from the doctor and one from Zhou Jiao. There were no other tracks.
The two security guards exchanged a glance.
Where was the "crying, whiny female doctor" the management had been complaining about?
Looking at Zhou Jiao's prints, after leaving the bedside, she had gone straight to the… bathroom?
The two security guards' pupils constricted.
— The target hasn't left!
She's still here in the room!
They had been played!
The "crying female doctor" was her!
Before they could warn anyone, a gust of wind swept through—under the drone's eerie blue light, the bathroom door suddenly swung open, and Zhou Jiao appeared like a ghost, delivering a swift kick to their legs!
One managed to dodge in time, while the other didn't believe she could make him lose his balance, and stood still, taking the hit and crashing to the floor.
Zhou Jiao immediately pounced on him, one hand gripping his throat while the other swiftly slid down to his waist, expertly grabbing his electromagnetic hand-gun.
This gun was ridiculously expensive, sold only to company employees, but its power was equally outrageous. With specially designed tungsten-core bullets, it could even penetrate an armored vehicle.
Well…
She had to thank her time working in the company.
It was like she was right at home.
"…"
The security guard looked in horror as she swiftly loaded the gun, attaching a silencer, and coldly and efficiently ended his colleague's life.
The whole process looked even smoother than he did.
— Wait a minute?? The intel didn't say she was just a normal woman with nothing special?!
Just then, Zhou Jiao lowered her head, tapping the gun's barrel lightly against his face, and asked softly:
"Two choices: I can send you on your way, or you can take me out."
"…I, I can't…" The guard trembled, "I can't take you out. My boss will kill me."
"You're overthinking," Zhou Jiao said coldly, "Their only goal is Jiang Lian. Besides, if you don't take me out—"
She slowly revealed a sweet smile on her face, "I'll kill you instead."
In fact, for someone with her cold, striking features, acting cute with a smile was a terrifying visual effect.
If it were anywhere else, the security guard would be having a heart attack. But now, all he could feel was a chilling sensation creeping up his spine.
…She wasn't kidding.
If he didn't agree, she'd pull the trigger without hesitation and walk away.
Just then, there was a disturbance outside the large windows of the hospital room.
The entire building was in a circular shape, and from each floor, one could see the scene on other levels.
Dozens of drones flew past, casting faint blue scanning light downwards. Dense fog began to spread throughout every floor, like dark smog invading rapidly.
At that moment, Zhou Jiao felt her face becoming damp, and when she looked up, she saw the sprinkler system above her head starting to operate, releasing a fine mist.
What was this?
A fire?
She glanced down and saw the security guards' bio-filter masks. She guessed that the mist was likely some form of biological weapon.
Then, without a second thought, she ripped off the dead guard's mask and put it on herself, continuing to think fast.
What kind of biological weapon could counter Jiang Lian?
— Her scent agent.
Zhou Jiao's eyebrows twitched slightly.
She thought the company might create a synthetic human to negotiate with Jiang Lian, replacing her. She hadn't expected them to use her scent as a biological weapon against him.
Would that work?
Whether it worked or not, this was an excellent chance to escape.
She had originally worried about evading Jiang Lian's sense of smell and whether the company could hold him back. But now, with this move, even if Jiang Lian had eight hundred olfactory organs, he wouldn't be able to smell her.
This was a huge help.
"Sorry, I don't need you anymore."
Zhou Jiao smiled slightly as she shot the security guard in front of her. In his changing face, she quickly donned his helmet, goggles, and uniform, sliding the electromagnetic gun into her waist and running towards the flashing red emergency exit with the other security guards.
These security personnel were terrifying figures in the eyes of ordinary people.
They were cold, tough, highly trained, and equipped with chips and weapons a century ahead of ordinary humans.
While regular people were still using handguns from the 2020s, their cybernetic eyes had automatic targeting functions, AI calculating the shooting trajectory without any errors, ensuring every shot hit its mark.
Yet now, every one of them wore expressions of horror.
Everywhere… was a sea of "tentacles."
They could hear the sound of them dripping from above and below, the metal light fixtures in the ceiling corroded. The hallways and safety passages had become a pitch-black maze, and the only light visible was the bioluminescence of the tentacles.
It was like a flood of glowing algae, surging through the surroundings, beautiful yet deadly, eerie and chilling.
The dark and unknown created a sense of terrifying imagination, and every one of them felt sweat dripping down their backs.
The worst part? Despite being fully armored, with only their noses and jaws exposed, they felt the temperature dropping sharply. A chill ran up from their feet, and they couldn't shake it.
…What was this thing?
Was this really a creature that humans could fight?
What kind of terrifying mission had they sent those people on?
Someone, unable to withstand the suffocating and oppressive atmosphere, raised their electromagnetic submachine gun and suddenly opened fire on the purple-black tentacles ahead!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
—The electromagnetic gun, using railgun technology, could fire projectiles at near-light speed. Its power was immense, with incredible penetrative force. And this was a submachine gun, with a high rate of fire—enough rounds per minute to turn an armored vehicle into a sieve.
But it couldn't pierce those tentacles.
Their advanced technology was useless against these things.
The air thickened with despair.
In the midst of the dead silence, Zhou Jiao began slowly stepping backward, unnoticed in a shadowed corner.
She could already predict some of Jiang Lian's behavior.
If she was right, he was about to lose control.
She had to get out of here—now.
Sure enough, the next moment, a cold, violent, terrifying low-frequency soundwave surged through the entire building like a tsunami.
It was a frequency humans couldn't hear—but she could. Only she could understand what he was saying. The others felt only a wave of nausea and vertigo.
"Zhou Jiao."
He was calling her.
"Zhou Jiao."
He was looking for her.
"Zhou Jiao."
He was commanding her to return.
As the soundwave's oscillations grew more bizarre, internal organs twisted painfully inside many of the team members. Some even vomited streaks of blood—and bits of shredded organs.
"Zhou Jiao."
"Zhou Jiao."
"Zhou Jiao."
Unnoticed at first, the expressions on the security personnel's faces had turned stiff and hollow. Under the influence of the distorted frequencies, something in them had shifted—they had become his subordinates. At least, for now.
One by one, they removed their filtration masks.
And desperately inhaled the particles in the air.
The artificial scent pumped through the system was crude, synthetic, mass-produced—it paled in comparison to hers. But still, it was...
So sweet. So fragrant. So intoxicating.
All of their faces flushed red from the overwhelming inhalation. Their chests collapsed inward from the force of it.
In the heavy mist of artificially manufactured pheromones, there floated a faint trace—barely perceptible—of a natural, bewitching scent.
Her scent.
Where was she?
Where was she?!
Where was she?!?
Come back to him.
Come back to him.
Come back to him.
You can't escape.
"Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao, Zhou Jiao…"
This time, it was in human voices.
Zhou Jiao turned around—and felt her scalp prickle, her blood run cold, every hair on her body standing on end.
Every single person was calling her name.
Searching for her.
Trying to sniff out her unique scent in the chemical fog sprayed from the vents.
Like a nightmarish game of hide and seek.
Everyone else was a monster.
And she was the only human.