The vegetation in the rainforest was so dense it was like a heavy green blanket, blocking out all moonlight and reason.
Lin Bei moved through knee-high bushes, his thighs scratched by thorny palm leaves. Strangely, these wounds didn't send the expected stinging pain. Instead, there was a mild heat, as if countless tiny fibers were rapidly weaving and repairing the injury.
He stopped, checking the wound by the faint blue fluorescence. The bleeding had stopped, and the wound was covered by a thin, crystal-like film.
"Stop looking. That is the 'Biological Compensation Mechanism.' Your body is automatically adapting to the environment here."
The cold voice sounded in his mind again. Lin Bei didn't panic this time. Pressing his faintly burning chest, he whispered to the air, "Who are you? Why are you speaking in my head?"
"I am Aya. You can understand me as the administrator of this 'laboratory'." The voice paused. "The other half your father left is thirty meters ahead, at the drainage outlet beneath the lighthouse base."
Lin Bei pushed through the final layer of dense ferns, and the view suddenly opened up.
The historic Fitzroy Lighthouse stood like a lonely white bone on the edge of the cliff. But in the rock layer beneath the lighthouse, eroded by years of ocean waves, a jagged crack had opened up.
That was the "drainage outlet" Aya spoke of.
The Secret Base Underground
Lin Bei turned sideways and squeezed into the rock crevice. The space inside was larger than expected and unusually dry.
The blue coral fragment in his hand suddenly shone brightly, illuminating the rock walls. This was not a natural cave; the walls were covered with dense, vein-like wires that converged into an old server array.
It was Lin Jianguo's secret base.
In the center of the servers, a cylindrical glass tank filled with dark blue liquid was suspended.
Lin Bei walked up to the glass tank, his breath completely stalling.
Floating in the liquid was a human arm.
It was a left arm, severed smoothly from the shoulder. The skin presented a texture that was nearly transparent. But that wasn't the most terrifying part. The horror lay in the fact that there were no bones inside this arm; instead, it was filled with blue veins made of countless tiny, flowing blue coral polyps.
In the palm of the hand, there was a groove that perfectly matched the shape of the coral fragment in Lin Bei's hand.
"Old man... what kind of insane experiment were you working on?" Lin Bei's voice trembled.
"He wasn't researching an experiment. He was trying to 'assemble' you," Aya's voice carried a hint of pity. "Seventeen years ago, you were born with congenital gene collapse. To save you, Lin Jianguo brought the 'Core Seed' out from underground and used it to replace your immune system."
"This arm is the real part of your body that had to be amputated due to rejection back then. It is the only 'Original Spare Part'."
The Hounds in the Dark
Just as Lin Bei tried to comprehend all this, the sound of heavy boots on gravel came from outside the crevice.
"Infrared signal is right here. The kid can't run."
It was the pursuit team from Siren Company.
Lin Bei's heartbeat instantly accelerated, and the frequency from the crystal resonated with his heart again.
"They brought a 'Molecular Decomposer'," Aya warned. "If they catch you, they will take you apart like dismantling machinery just to retrieve the seed in your heart. Lin Bei, you have only one choice."
"Attach that hand back?" Lin Bei looked at the eerie left hand in the glass tank, his stomach churning.
"No, let it actively 'eat' you."
Flesh and Blood Fusion
Lin Bei had no time to hesitate. A black-clad guard appeared at the crevice entrance, the red dot of his laser sight fixed firmly between Lin Bei's eyebrows.
"Target acquired. Preparing for recovery." The guard pulled the trigger.
In that instant, Lin Bei violently smashed the glass tank. Dark blue liquid splashed everywhere. The moment the transparent arm touched the air, it seemed to come alive like a snake, springing up and slapping directly onto Lin Bei's left shoulder.
"Ah—!"
A violent burning sensation instantly swept through his body. Lin Bei felt countless tiny "tentacles" piercing his nerves and burrowing into his blood vessels. The left side of his body began to rapidly turn transparent, the blue veins growing wildly, reassembling his original flesh and blood as nutrients.
The laser beam hit Lin Bei's chest, but a shocking scene occurred:
The moment the laser touched Lin Bei's skin, it deflected like light entering a prism, grazing his shoulder and shooting into the rock wall behind him.
The First Counterattack
"How is that possible?" The guard froze.
Lin Bei slowly raised his head. His left eye had turned the same deep blue as the coral fragment.
He tentatively waved his "new" left hand. He didn't feel any heaviness; instead, the air felt as malleable as water.
Lin Bei grabbed at the empty air toward the guard.
The water droplets seeping from the rock walls instantly froze into hard ice needles.
Swish—!
Dozens of ice needles shot out at speeds surpassing bullets, precisely pinning through the guard's weapon and exoskeleton. The guard screamed, thrown out of the crevice by the massive impact, landing heavily on the rocky beach below the cliff.
Lin Bei looked at his left hand; the blue fluorescence flowing under the skin was like living magma.
"Do you feel it?" Aya's voice held a complex emotion. "This is the power of the 'Container.' You are no longer human; you are the fang of this island."
Lin Bei clenched that nearly transparent fist and turned to look at the dark drainage pipe leading underground.
"Lead the way, Aya. I'm going to ask that old man if he ever asked for my opinion before turning me into this monster."