Beyond the massive alloy door, three straight diverging paths lay ahead, their surfaces marred with even more splatters of blood and scattered fragments of flesh and bone.
Linda had already drawn her handgun, her palms sweaty with anxiety. Clearly, enormous dangers lurked within this subterranean laboratory.
Choosing to veer down the path on the right, the pair stumbled upon a chilling sight: a severed hand soaked in its own sanguine fluid. Grasped within its lifeless fingers was a special manuscript.
"My dearest Anna, this is your father James," the document began. "I heard the Tower of Babel Amusement Park is now complete. I promised to return home and go there with you."
"My work is almost finished; just another two weeks, at most. Then I'll be back home."
"Don't worry, this time… I will definitely make it back!"
Linda sighed after reading the manuscript.
"He was just a father who loved his daughter, thinking of her even in his dying moments," she said.
Charles nonchalantly replied, "Yes, he was a good father."
"But besides that, he could also be a serial killer. The deaths of thousands outside the school may very well be tied to him!"
Linda was taken aback. With Charles' words echoing in her ears, her sympathy for the man vanished instantly.
He deserved to die! What a scumbag!
Suddenly, from around a distant corner, came an unsettling grating noise. It sounded like someone—or something—was dragging a heavy metal object. The point of contact with the ground was so sharp that sparks flew as it moved.
This was the only explanation for such a disquieting sound.
Both froze, their eyes fixed on the distant corner, muscles taut in a split second, bracing for what would come next.
Charles and Linda quickly ducked behind a wall, peeking just enough to survey the distant scene.
As the scraping noise grew louder, a massive white arm unfurled before their eyes. The arm sported hundreds of tendrils, each ending in a pumpkin-sized human head.
However, these heads were a grotesque sight to behold, malformed with muddled flesh and blood. Strangely, a male human's private organ dangled at the upper end of the colossal limb.
The horrifying sound they'd heard was the bone-on-bone friction of these heads scraping against the ground.
"What the hell... is that?!" Linda felt as if her sanity was fraying at the edges.
However, Charles appeared entranced, his eyes twinkling with a hint of excitement. "What a beautiful creation!" he exclaimed.
"???"Linda was baffled.
"What should we do next?" she asked, lost for a plan.
Can't afford to gaze at this sanity-diminishing creature for too long; after all, not everyone is like Charles.
Charles reasoned:"This underground research facility likely holds crucial clues but also comes with substantial risks. We need to tread carefully."
Linda nodded her head.
Then, to her bewilderment, she watched as Charles unsheathed a scalpel and charged toward the distant monstrosity.
"Damn it!"
"What happened to being cautious?" she thought. "What is so enticing about that enormous limb that you'd approach it willingly?"
Frozen for a moment, Linda stomped her foot in frustration, picked up her own gun, and followed in Charles's reckless footsteps, charging at the beast.
She felt as if she had lost her mind.
But when it came to Charles, her trust was unconditional.
Clearly, this massive arm was not to be trifled with. Upon spotting Charles, the monster abruptly pivoted and lunged toward him in a strange manner, leaving a long trail of blood in its wake.
Just as the two were about to clash, Charles's eyes flew open, and he managed to halt the eerie creature's movements.
It was only for ten seconds.
But it was enough.
For all its ghastly appearance, the creature was not particularly strong.
It was a medium-level threat, and it had a fatal weakness!
"Mutant: Medium-level Threat"
"Note: Just a half-finished creation."
"Weakness: Hemorrhoids on its rear end."
"P.S: Clearly, the lunatics conducting these terrifying experiments didn't consider that even mutants can develop hemorrhoids from prolonged sitting."
...
Ever since Charles's data became scrambled, the annotations he saw became more detailed. The most useful piece of information, naturally, was the creature's weakness.
There was a critical reason Charles had decided to slay this mutant.
Although the mutant seemed horrifying, it was only a medium-level threat and, crucially, it had a fatal weakness. Killing it would not be a difficult task.
Charles didn't even have to deliberately search for its hemorrhoids, because this mutant's rear end was conspicuously located on its head.
With a swift motion, he hurled the scalpel.
Whizz!
Minimally invasive surgery was successfully performed.
The massive limb collapsed instantly.
System: Congratulations, you have slain the mutant. Your abilities have been enhanced!
Behind him, Linda approached and glanced at the now motionless mutant on the ground. Astonished, she exclaimed, "Is it dead?"
"Correct," Charles said, his eyes fixated on the corpse on the ground, a vivid curiosity brewing within them.
"This creature should have been a perfect organism, but its creator was evidently lacking."
With a flash of cold light, the scalpel in Charles's hand danced masterfully. He deftly cut away the external muscle tissue, revealing the creature's neural network and internal organs.
"This guy has twenty kidneys. It's utterly inconceivable."Charles was speechless.
Just by observing the anatomical oddity of the mutant's genitalia located on its head, Charles knew that this monster must possess some extraordinary capabilities.
However, even someone as discerning as Charles couldn't have guessed that the mutant had twenty kidneys.
What on earth were the mad scientists who cultivated and modified this monstrosity thinking?
Wiping the blood off his scalpel, Charles, accompanied by Linda, proceeded deeper into the corridor from which the mutant had emerged.
At the end of the passage was a massive petri dish replete with a nauseating, moldy placenta. Nearby lab equipment was stained with fresh blood, and assorted experimental data were scattered around.
Charles bent down to pick up an experiment log from the hand of a half-devoured corpse on the ground.
...
"August 17th"
"Subject S-501 is in excellent condition; all organs are growing as planned. Interestingly, when lab assistant accidentally injected it with a triple dose of male hormones, its kidneys actually grew healthier and more robust than before!"
...
"August 24th"
"The Chairman visited and highly praised our work. Soon, we will all receive tens of millions in bonuses and could even benefit humanity as a whole... My name will go down in history!"
...
"August 26th"
"Those madmen claim they've successfully created their 'Predator.' I don't know what that is, but it leaves me with a sense of unease."
...
"September 3rd"
"During dinner, I asked Alex whether they could stop the mutant if it went berserk. He seemed to ignore my question entirely, instead boasting about how perfect their creation is, and how in the future it could even grant humanity eternal life. When I pressed him further on the issue of the mutant going rogue, he became angry, insulting me and knocking over my meal tray."
...
"September 12th"
"... What have these damn madmen actually created?"
...
"September 13th"
"We paid a heavy price for our foolishness. Everyone will die... including me!"