Three days had passed since the surgery.
The underground laboratory had become Jin Ryeong's world. He slept on a cot in the corner, ate the nutrient pills Baek provided, and spent every waking hour studying the manual he had taken.
[Item: 'The Art of Qi Needles' (Fragment)]
It wasn't a sword manual. It didn't teach flashy movements or grand explosions. It taught Flow Control.
Jin Ryeong stood in the corner of the lab, facing a wooden dummy. In his hand, he held a silver needle, thin as a hair and about three inches long.
"The sword is an extension of the arm," the manual read. "The needle is an extension of the intent."
Jin Ryeong closed his eyes. Qi: 5/5.
He didn't throw the needle like a dart. That was for amateurs. If you threw it, the wind would take it. You had to flick it. A snap of the wrist, channeling a burst of Qi through the fingertips to stiffen the metal mid-air.
Snap.
The silver light flashed.
Thwack.
The needle buried itself in the dummy's "throat."
[System Notification] [Skill: Qi Needle (Lvl 1) - Proficiency: 12%] [Accuracy: 85% at 5 meters.]
"Too slow," Jin Ryeong muttered. "If the enemy dodges, I miss."
He pulled the needle out. The tip was slightly bent. His Strength (3) was still an issue. He couldn't penetrate armor or thick bone. He had to target soft tissue: eyes, throat, joints, and nerve clusters.
He looked at his hand. Thousand Venom Hand.
What if he combined them? He channeled the Venom Qi into the needle. The silver metal turned a dull, ominous grey.
Snap.
He threw it again. This time, when the needle hit the wood, it didn't just stick. A small puff of black smoke rose from the impact point. The wood around the needle turned spongy and black.
[Combo Unlocked: Venom Needle.] [Effect: Delivers 'Corrosive Rot' at range. Duration: 5 seconds.]
Jin Ryeong smiled. He finally had a fang that could bite from a distance.
"Assistant!"
Elder Baek's voice boomed from the main chamber. "Stop playing with your toys. It's time."
Jin Ryeong hid the needles in his sleeve—ten of them, tucked into a leather wristband he had sewn himself.
He walked into the main lab.
The stone table was empty. The focus of the room was now the massive iron cage built against the far wall. The bars were as thick as a wrist, inscribed with suppression runes.
Inside the cage sat Jiao.
The former floor-sweeper didn't look human anymore. He was crouched on all fours, naked except for a ragged loincloth. His body was gaunt, pale, and covered in sweat. But his right arm... The Demon Ape Arm had grown. It was now disproportionately huge, dragging on the floor like a club. The red fur bristled with static electricity. The veins pulsed with a visible, orange light—magma Qi circulating through a human body.
"He woke up an hour ago," Baek said, standing safely behind a desk, taking notes. "Cognitive functions are... degraded."
"Degraded?" Jin Ryeong looked at Jiao's eyes. They were yellow, the pupils dilated. There was no recognition in them. Only hunger and pain.
"The beast blood affects the brain," Baek noted casually. "He doesn't speak. He just growls. I need to test his combat reflexes."
Baek kicked a bucket toward Jin Ryeong. It was filled with raw, bloody meat.
"Go in," Baek ordered. "Feed him."
Jin Ryeong looked at the bucket. Then at the cage. "Elder, he looks unstable. If I enter—"
"If you don't enter, you are useless to me," Baek said, his voice cold. "I need to see if he recognizes authority. Or if he is just a rabid dog. You are the test."
Jin Ryeong tightened his grip on the bucket. Of course. He wasn't an assistant. He was a variable.
"Understood."
Jin Ryeong walked to the cage. He unlocked the heavy iron door. Squeak.
The sound made Jiao's head snap up. A low, guttural growl vibrated in his chest.
Jin Ryeong stepped inside. He kept his back to the door, but left it unlatched. [System Activation: Diagnosis Eye]
Target: Chimera-01 (Jiao).
State: Frenzied / Starving.
Strength: 22 (Right Arm), 4 (Body).
Agility: 6 (Unbalanced).
Threat Level: Lethal.
Strength 22. If that arm touched Jin Ryeong, he would explode like a watermelon.
"Easy," Jin Ryeong whispered, holding out a piece of meat. "Eat."
Jiao stared at the meat. Drool dripped from his mouth. He crept forward, dragging the massive arm. Scrape. Scrape.
He was five paces away. Four.
Jiao lunged.
He didn't go for the meat. He went for Jin Ryeong's throat.
"Fast!" Jin Ryeong dropped the bucket and threw himself backward.
The massive red claw swiped through the air where his head had been a fraction of a second ago. The wind pressure alone stung his face.
CLANG.
The claw hit the iron bars of the cage. The bars bent.
"Kill!" Jiao screamed—a word! He could speak! "Hungry! Kill!"
Jiao turned, using the heavy arm as a pivot point to swing his legs around. It was a clumsy, monstrous fighting style.
Jin Ryeong rolled across the dirty floor. He was cornered. The cage was small.
"Elder!" Jin Ryeong shouted.
Baek didn't move. He was watching with fascination. "Fascinating. The aggression is targeted. He ignores the food to kill the threat. Continue, Assistant. Subdue him."
Subdue him? I'm going to die.
Jiao roared and raised the arm for a smash.
Jin Ryeong's mind went cold. Panic was death. Calculation was survival.
Analysis: The arm is heavy. It acts as an anchor. His left side is weak.
Jiao brought the hammer down. BOOM. The stone floor cracked. Debris flew into Jin Ryeong's eyes.
Jin Ryeong dodged right. He reached into his sleeve. Snap.
A silver needle flew. [Skill: Venom Needle]
It struck Jiao in the left shoulder (the human side). "Arrgh!" Jiao flinched, but the pain just made him angrier. The needle was too small to stop a berserker.
"Aim better," Jin Ryeong hissed at himself.
Jiao swung again—a horizontal haymaker that covered the entire width of the cage. There was no room to dodge left or right.
Duck. Jin Ryeong dropped to a squat. The red fur brushed his hair as the arm passed over him.
Now. He was inside Jiao's guard.
Jin Ryeong didn't retreat. He surged forward. He pulled three needles at once.
He didn't throw them. He held them like claws between his fingers.
[Anatomy Check]
Target: Brachial Plexus (The nerve cluster controlling the arm). Target: Axillary Nerve.
Jin Ryeong slammed his hand into the armpit of the massive Ape Arm.
[Skill: Qi Needle (Lvl 1)]
[Payload: Thousand Venom Hand (Paralysis Mix).]
He jammed the needles deep into the soft tissue where the red fur met the human skin.
"Sleep!"
He channeled all 5 points of Qi into the needles.
Jiao froze. The massive red arm seized up. The nerves, overwhelmed by the sudden influx of necrotic Qi and physical trauma, misfired.
The arm didn't stop moving—it went rigid. Jiao, carried by his own momentum, tripped over his own frozen limb.
CRASH.
The Chimera fell face-first onto the stone floor. He tried to get up, screaming in rage. He tried to lift the Ape Arm. It wouldn't move. It was dead weight. Thirty pounds of paralyzed meat anchored to his shoulder.
Jiao thrashed, dragging himself in a circle like a broken toy.
Jin Ryeong stepped back, panting. Sweat dripped down his nose. He held one final needle, poised to throw at Jiao's eye if he recovered.
But the poison was spreading. The grey lines of the Venom Hand crept from the armpit up to the neck. Jiao's movements slowed. His breathing became ragged. His eyes rolled back.
THUMP.
The Chimera passed out.
The cage was silent, except for Jin Ryeong's heavy breathing.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Elder Baek stood at the cage door, clapping slowly.
"Impressive," Baek smiled. "You found the off switch."
Baek unlocked the door and walked in. He didn't check on Jiao. He walked straight to Jin Ryeong and inspected the needles still sticking out of the Chimera's armpit.
"You targeted the nerve connection point.
And you coated the needles in... what is that?
Corpse Qi?"
"Venom Qi, Elder," Jin Ryeong corrected, holstering his last needle. "It numbs the signals."
Baek laughed. "A poison-using doctor. The irony is delicious."
Baek kicked Jiao's unconscious body. "He is strong. Too strong for his mind. But you handled him. That means you can handle the others."
"Others?" Jin Ryeong asked.
Baek gestured to the dark corridor beyond the lab.
"Did you think we would stop at one?
The Sect Leader approved a budget for twenty subjects.
By the end of the month, we will have a squad."
Baek turned to leave.
"Clean him up.
Increase the dosage of the sedative.
Tomorrow, we start production."
Jin Ryeong stood alone in the cage with the monster. He looked at his shaking hands. He had survived. But Baek's words rang in his ears. Twenty subjects.
If twenty of these things woke up at once... no amount of needles would save him.
Jin Ryeong looked at Jiao. He looked at the Ape Arm. An idea formed in his mind. A wicked, treasonous idea.
If he was the one stitching them together... If he was the one maintaining their bodies...
Could he stitch something else into them? A backdoor? A kill switch?
Jin Ryeong smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.
"System," he whispered.
"Analyze the neural pathways of the graft."
[Analyzing...]
[Vulnerability Detected: The graft relies on a central Qi node at the C7 vertebrae.]
[Possibility of Implanting a Parasitic Trigger: 100%.]
"Good,"
Jin Ryeong patted the unconscious monster on the head.
"Sleep well, Subject One. When you wake up... you'll work for me."