It seemed like more than one research lab had been trying to create new lifeforms. A lot of places were doing it now, especially the local government. They were pushing even harder, hoping to develop some kind of new post-apocalypse species or maybe a new kind of livestock.
Which explained why this place was crawling with strange creatures.
Whether they'd evolved naturally and failed, or were the result of injections gone wrong, all of them still had the right to keep living. Even now, they might be generating useful data.
They walked past a cluster of giant pigs tearing each other apart, and Jing Shu saw another section full of disgusting soft-bodied creatures. They looked like a pile of giant snails without shells.
Thanks to her night vision, she saw everything clearly. The creatures were huge and ugly, and their soft tentacles kept stabbing into each other's bodies.
Her vision was too good.
Which meant she had to watch every detail: the tentacles were foaming, pumping out streams of white froth and forcing it into the bodies of their own kind.
Worse, their whole bodies were nothing but tubes and tentacles. They jabbed into each other like needles and writhed nonstop, as if they were spitting saliva straight into their victims.
Once the white foam finished transferring, a thicker white liquid came out, then yellow, then black. It kept going until the soft creatures shriveled up like empty protein bags.
"They're… eating? Eating their own?" Jing Shu couldn't help asking.
In the darkness, these things only made soft clicking sounds. Nobody noticed them. Even the staff didn't expect the girl to pick up on these nasty things.
Because normally, you couldn't see anything in this kind of darkness.
A worker answered, "Kind of."
"Oh." Jing Shu nodded. So they really were eating each other. A moment later the staff added, "It's also mating."
"Huh?" Jing Shu's expression twisted. She'd seen enough animals in her spatial farm to know what mating looked like. When the fat chicken hooked up with the dinosaur chicken years ago, and then all those pairings after that, she was the one who arranged them.
The rhythm of those tentacles, the white spit, the little jolting movements… yeah, she knew exactly what she was looking at.
She pointed at one creature that had shriveled down to a loose piece of skin. "So this is… dying from too much… you know?"
The administrator shook his head. "No, it just transferred itself into the newly born one. This new species is called Xixuebie and is classified as a category 3 dangerous organism."
"Xixuebie? They look like snails without shells. Doesn't seem like they suck blood or anything, and they don't look dangerous." Jing Shu said that while backing away. Her instincts told her she had some kind of connection to this species.
And she was right.
They kept walking. The rest of the failed experiments weren't very dangerous, and they reached the end of the prison-like hallway. Another heavy door waited there.
Inside, it didn't smell nearly as bad. Compared to the dense clusters of creatures earlier, this place had small sealed rooms spaced far apart. You walked ten or twenty meters before reaching the next enclosure.
Jing Shu couldn't see through the doors and didn't know what was inside. She only heard occasional violent thuds, like something inside was trying to break the place apart.
The second level passed too quickly for her liking. She was disappointed she didn't get to see more of the creatures inside.
The third level was even bigger and emptier.
When the sealed door opened, it revealed an enormous independent space. It looked more like a zoo. Visitors stood on a raised platform, looking down at whatever lived below. Everything was reinforced with thick, tempered glass, sealing the space completely.
The lights snapped on with a sharp pop.
Not that Jing Shu needed them.
Two giant pigs stood below.
She stared at the boxes she'd brought and cursed silently. Seriously? They told her to bring whatever container she wanted. How was she supposed to carry something this big?
"Wait. Something wasn't right.The pigs looked wrong."
Jing Shu frowned. Their movements were sluggish, their bodies stiff.
"So…"
The administrator nodded. "Those two pigs are just food for your target."
"So where's my target?" Jing Shu scanned the entire enclosure again and again. With her eyesight, she could spot an ant crawling across the floor.
But there was nothing.
The phone call earlier had described the creature as terrifying, unstoppable, a complete nightmare. They'd warned her again and again about how dangerous it was before finally agreeing to let her take it.
"They're failed products too," the staff member said in a flat tone. "They were so close. It's a pity."
Jing Shu felt her curiosity spike. What the hell was it supposed to be?
"It's now classified as a level one dangerous organism. I don't know why the higher-ups approved letting you take it, but you need to be careful. If not, you might end up dead. During the experiments, it killed several of our colleagues."
He continued, "It's a mutated Xixuebie, evolved from thousands of Xixuebie before mutating again. Xixuebie itself is a failed creation made with excessive injections of red energy."
"The mutated Xixuebie is far more aggressive. It survives by drilling into living creatures with flesh and blood, feeding on them. When necessary, it can manipulate the host's primal instincts and hijack its central nervous system to control the entire body."
"Just like now. It's controlling the two pigs so they don't fight each other and can even coexist peacefully."
"Both Xixuebie and the mutated ones can't really be killed. Their bodies function like perpetual motion machines. That was the original design, so they could reproduce endlessly as a food source for humanity."
See? In the apocalypse, everything eventually became food. If humans had a chance, they'd try to develop anything into edible resources. Most attempts failed, but still, the idea made sense.
Although this one was… interesting.
The staff pulled a lever and sighed. "Getting it out for you will take a moment. Wait here."
Jing Shu nodded.
The entire enclosure below began to shrink, and red lasers slid out from all directions.
Biu.
A sizzling sound filled the air.
Both pigs were sliced cleanly in half. Blood splashed everywhere, but the pigs didn't even scream.
"Holy shit," Jing Shu muttered internally.
The staff nodded. This girl was tougher than he expected.
The lasers kept sweeping across the enclosure, neatly cutting the pigs into smaller pieces.
===
吸血 (xīxuě): Blood-Sucking.
蟞 (biē): It's an ancient term, but in modern context, it's used to describe a ferocious, often aquatic, blood-sucking parasite or pest, similar to a giant leech, water louse, or tick.