Facing the sudden rush of darkness, Reno raised the laser gun in his hand towards his chest, feeling a tremendous force hitting the gun. Reno couldn't control his body and was thrown backward.
Bang!
He slammed heavily into the wall, looking at the laser gun in his hand, which was bent from the impact. This shocked Reno immensely.
Although the laser gun was made of T3 nickel alloy, primarily known for its high-temperature resistance, its strength was also considerable.
Bending a laser gun with a single blow was definitely not within human capabilities.
Looking up, Reno saw a grotesque figure standing before him.
It was a kind of ugliness that defied description, with thick fur covering its face, its eyes a ghastly green, flashing with ghostly light, its arms unusually long, almost reaching its knees when hanging down.
As Reno looked at it, the creature covered its face with its hands, seemingly unwilling to show its face to Reno. But then it realized the futility of its action.
So it dropped its hands and let out a howl towards Reno, then lunged straight at him.
Its arms swung, and one of its right claws slashed towards Reno.
Reno kicked off the wall and rolled on the ground, narrowly avoiding the claw grazing his back. The claw left deep marks on the wall, its sharp nails like knives leaving five deep scratches.
The swift movement of the claw made Reno realize how the doctors died earlier.
"Damn!" he exclaimed, not waiting for the hairy man to turn around before hurling the laser gun in his hand.
The hairy man casually swatted the laser gun away, shattering it into countless pieces in mid-air. But the next moment, he saw Reno holding two silver handguns.
"Goodbye, buddy!" Reno said coldly.
Flames spewed from the barrels of the guns.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Reno fired continuously while lying on the ground.
Bullets hit the hairy man, who emitted a piercing scream, blood splattering from his body. He howled frantically, swinging his claws, trying to charge towards Reno to tear him apart. But the powerful kinetic energy from the silver guns prevented him from advancing, causing him to stagger back instead.
But even so, he didn't fall. Instead, he emitted a furious roar.
Then he jumped up suddenly, dodging the incoming barrage of bullets, and stabbed towards Reno's chest with his right hand.
"Damn it!" Reno didn't expect to encounter a monster that bullets couldn't kill. He rolled on the spot, and the claws grazed his body again, piercing into the floor. As the hairy man tried to retract his hand, Reno quickly turned around, and a silver bullet shot out from his left hand gun.
The bullet rotated in the air, emitting a deathly wail, and penetrated through the hairy man's left temple with a bang. His head exploded.
The hairy man's body swayed a few times before falling to the ground weakly.
"Oh my God, what was that?" Nora exclaimed in shock again.
"I'm not sure. I just hope he wasn't from the Abrodi ship," Reno sighed.
He stood up, walked over, and lifted the left wrist of the hairy man to examine it.
Most starship soldiers would tattoo the abbreviation of their ship on their wrists, as a form of emotional attachment formed from living on the starship for years.
Of course, not every soldier did this, but it was generally sufficient as a judgment criterion.
There was no tattoo of the starship name on the wrist.
Reno breathed a sigh of relief. "Probably not."
"From his previous reaction, he doesn't seem to have lost his mind... Well, I mean, he is indeed a human, right?" Nora said uncertainly.
"Should be. I wonder what experiments those damn doctors did to him to turn him into this." Reno replied with lingering fear.
Glancing back at the wall, which was made of alloy but torn apart by a single claw, Reno could fully imagine the incredible power of this hairy man's claws.
"They're making weapons of war?" Reno pondered, "They're bio-humans, damn it. This place is a laboratory for bio-human experiments!"
Reno suddenly understood.
"Hope they haven't subjected our people to such experiments," Nora said nervously.
Bio-experiments were explicitly illegal, but now they were being conducted under government leadership.
And it seemed that some people were planning to combine bio-experiments with psychic experiments.
No wonder it required a capture operation.
This matter couldn't be discussed; no one would accept it!
"Jupiter One, send a small robot to my location. I might need some backup," Reno said to the terminal.
His mech contained some miniature robots mainly responsible for ground searches and surveillance work, which were not very useful, but better than nothing in the current situation.
After speaking to the terminal, Reno quickly walked towards the corridor.
He had to find his companions as soon as possible.
"Claire! Teckos! Where are you?" Reno shouted regardless of the situation, releasing a metal dragonfly.
"Help me..." a faint voice came at this moment.
Reno's spirits lifted, following the direction of the sound.
The voice came from behind a door on the side of the corridor.
Reno ran to the door and pushed it, but it didn't budge. The door was made of ultra-strong alloy, explaining why the hairy man couldn't break it. From the marks left on the door, it seemed that the guy had attacked it quite a few times.
"Open the door!" he said.
"No, there's a monster outside."
"You mean that hairy guy? He's dead."
"You mean Charlie? Thank God, is he finally dead?"
"His name is Charlie?" Reno replied, "I don't know. I forgot to ask for his name before I smashed his head."
"Thank God," a sigh of relief came from behind the door. It seemed there were still quite a few surviving doctors.
A small hole appeared above the door, revealing a face peeking through. After looking around and confirming that there was no one else except Reno, the door finally opened.
The person opening the door was a female doctor with a long ponytail, wearing a pair of decorative golden wire glasses.
She hid behind the door, observing Reno, who entered.
There were five doctors in the room, three men and two women, one of them an elderly man who seemed quite dignified. Besides him, there was a young man in a security uniform, holding a gun, looking nervous as he stared at Reno. "Are you from the First Battalion? I haven't seen you before."
Reno raised his hand, and a bullet hit the young security guard's wrist.
Bang.
The wrist bone shattered, and the gun fell to the ground.
"No, I'm not," Reno replied.
He walked over, picked up the guard's gun.
"Ah!" screams echoed in the room.
"Alright, everyone, quiet down," Reno aimed the gun at everyone, and they all fell silent, even the guard who had his wrist broken stopped his wailing.
"I'm sorry I'm not your friend, in fact, I'm the one who forced you all to come down here," Reno said.
"Johnny Reno? Are you Johnny Reno?" Finally, someone realized what was happening and called out.
It was a female doctor, who walked over to Reno, looking at him with astonishment. "Are you the one who defeated Major McLaren and his battalion all by yourself?"
"Just equipment suppression, nothing special," Reno modestly replied, then changed the subject. "So, can anyone tell me where my comrades are?"
"You mean the soldiers from the Abrodi ship?" the old man suddenly spoke up.
Reno aimed his gun at him. "Yes, and you better give me a good answer. I don't like killing, but regardless of my reluctance, the fact remains that I've killed more people today than I have in all the years before... Do you know what that means? It means I'm feeling pretty terrible right now. I might just give up on myself because of it. I mean, who cares about killing six more when you've already killed five hundred?"
Everyone was horrified.
The old man trembled as he said, "Rest assured, they're all fine, unharmed."
"Where are they?"
"In the cryogenic chamber."
"You froze them all?" Reno's voice turned menacing.
No one likes the feeling of being frozen; only those who have experienced long space voyages know that the prolonged sleep feels like death. Every awakening feels like a rebirth.
"It's not for long," the old man hurriedly replied. "We can't handle over three thousand people otherwise. Each one of them has superpowers, which can cause various troubles. This is the most appropriate way to deal with them."
"Does that include the hairy one outside?"
"Charlie was a failed experiment. We didn't expect him to escape..."
"Failed experiment?" Reno charged over and delivered a kick, landing squarely on the old man's body. "You turned a living person into a beast, and you call him a failed experiment?"
The force of Reno's kick was considerable, nearly breaking the old man's bones.
He screamed, clutching his chest. "It's his uncontrollable animal genes. We need even stronger genes to suppress this primal instinct."
"So you turned to the soldiers from the Abrodi ship?" Reno asked sarcastically.
"You obtained powers that weren't meant for you, and now there needs to be an investigation. Meanwhile, we need stronger test subjects. It's a dual need, one experiment, two demands!" the old man retorted loudly.
"But it's not the Abrodi's demand, have you considered how we would feel about it?"
"Experiments require sacrifices! You're soldiers; sacrificing on the battlefield or in the hospital, what's the difference?" Unexpectedly, the old man argued back loudly. "It's the same death. At least dying here would be more valuable! When you die for this cause, you'll still be heroes, your families will be taken care of, and your contributions will help the Federation gain more powerful technology."
"God!" Reno was utterly dumbfounded. "Is that your reason for doing this? I thought you'd give a more legitimate excuse. Such as humanity being on the brink of extinction, our inability to fight against the godly race, and so on. At least that way, it sounds more noble, and I could understand you more..."
"We can fight against the godly race, but we'd rather become gods ourselves!" the old man shouted excitedly. "The godly race has opened a door for us. Through studying them, we've made significant discoveries. One day, we'll be like them, possessing infinite power. That is the power of gods!"
"We will become gods!"
"And to achieve all this, sacrifices are necessary!"
"As soldiers, you serve the country, sacrificing for the nation. Sacrificing in experiments is just another form of service. Compared to war, it's more selfless, more noble..."
Bang!
The gun went off.
The old man didn't say another word.
Blood stained the wall behind him as he slowly fell, his eyes filled with astonishment, as if surprised: How dare you, how could you kill someone like me, a great scientist?
"Sorry, I just couldn't bear to hear anymore," Reno said.