Chapter 419

The title is wrong: Chapter 419, hah.

The female doctor's voice echoed in the empty sewage pipe, carrying a hint of hysterical madness.

The female assistant stood frozen in place, her face deathly pale, the phone light in her hand trembling slightly, reflecting her terrified face.

"I... I ask them?" Her voice was almost drowned out by the squeaking of the rats.

Those crimson eyes flickered in the darkness; dense masses of rats slowly crawled down from the pipe walls, baring sharp teeth, closing in on her.

The female doctor took a step forward; her specially made medical suit transmitted tremendous power, making her light as a swallow. At the same time, she took out a syringe from her medical kit and hurriedly jabbed it into her own thick thigh.

Potent medicinal strength instantly swept through her whole body; her speed doubled again in an instant, and she fled forward with a face flushed red.

The female assistant's legs seemed nailed to the ground, unable to move. She also wanted to turn and flee; her medical kit likewise contained a second-rate "stimulant."

But she also wanted to inject herself to escape with her life.

But she couldn't!

She had to complete the female doctor's task.

The experimental charter stated in black and white on white paper: Junior assistants must obey unconditionally and meticulously complete tasks assigned by experimenters.

This is the code established by the Mentor!!

"Aaaah, Senior Sister, did you guys receive...?"

The female assistant screamed at the rustling sounds with a face full of despair. She howled like a madwoman, violently shaking her whole body, flinging off the rats falling onto her.

A fat rat was flung away by her with great force; with a slap it crashed heavily into the pipe wall, instantly splattering a pool of foul-smelling blood.

However, this did not scare off the other rats; instead, it ignited their madness.

More rats surged in from all directions like a tide. They bared sharp teeth, frantically tearing at the female assistant's clothes, trouser legs, hair, even her palms.

In less than 10 seconds, the female assistant fell heavily to the ground, her whole body covered in rats, turning into a wriggling pitch-black mass, barely showing a human outline.

Her breathing grew weak, consciousness gradually blurring; only the rats' squeaking and tearing sounds remained by her ears.

"Silly child, how could you be so obedient?"

A gentle voice suddenly pierced through the rats' rustling, as if coming from a distant void, yet also seeming right by her ear, carrying an indescribable comfort and reproach.

Immediately after, dense "puff puff" sounds erupted in the air; countless rat bodies instantly exploded, blood mist scattering like fireworks.

Several dead-white, bone-like curved blades flashed into existence out of nowhere; their edges sharp as if cutting tofu, effortlessly tearing the rat swarm clinging to the female assistant into pieces.

Flesh and fur mixed together, like shredded black cotton wadding, scattered all over her.

The female assistant's vision was blurred by the blood mist for an instant; then, a man's face entered her sight.

His features were gentle, yet revealed a hint of unfathomable cold severity; a pair of profound eyes hid behind gold-rimmed glasses, as if able to pierce the soul.

He wore a well-tailored black suit; the fabric clung to his frame, outlining an elegant contour.

In his chest pocket, two playing cards slightly revealed their corners, exuding a terrifying mystery and power.

"Give me your hand!"

The man's voice was low and powerful, as if carrying irresistible magic.

The female assistant dazedly extended her hand; her fingertips touched that bizarre palm split open to reveal bone.

The palm was icy and terrifying, as if extended from the abyss, yet at this moment it brought her an unprecedented warmth and sense of security.

The next instant, a huge hole suddenly blasted open in the rat swarm; foul-smelling viscera and skin with fur stuck to it were smashed to bits by terrifying white bone.

Dark red blood drew arcs in the air, like splashed paint, dyeing the surrounding pipe walls a patch of crimson.

A string of ghostly afterimages shot out from the hole, so fast they nearly tore the air, emitting a "whoosh" of wind-breaking sound.

Those afterimages were like countless roaming snakes, drawing eerie arcs in the air, sometimes crossing, sometimes separating, as if performing a death waltz.

The afterimages were not static; they twisted and dodged like real people, flipping and maneuvering in mid-air, and even wriggling shadows followed beneath the afterimages' feet.

The rat swarm frantically pounced on those afterimages; sharp teeth gnashing with "crunch crunch" sounds, yet they only bit into clusters of dissipating air.

The afterimages seemed to mock the rat swarm's incompetence, silently dissolving into wisps of black smoke, dissipating in the damp air.

Countless crimson eyeballs reflected on the slimy pipe walls; the rat swarm's manic shrieks shook iron rust down in showers; sharp claws scraped ear-piercing screeches on the metal surface, yet they never captured the lingering temperature and breath of one man and one woman.

They flared their nostrils, sniffing frantically; foul saliva dripped from sharp fangs; tails whipped the pipe walls in manic agitation.

Finally, the lead giant rat let out a piercing shriek; the entire rat swarm, carrying the fury of being fooled, charged toward the next pipe.

As the rumbling sound of the rat swarm faded into the distance, the man finally slowly released the hand tightly gripping the female assistant.

In that instant, those ferocious protrusions between his palm and wrist bones, seemingly about to burst through skin and bone, suddenly all retracted beneath the skin, returning to the warm appearance normal humans should have.

The female assistant, having survived the disaster, gazed at the man before her; her heart held not a trace of fear, but instead gave birth to an inexplicable reluctance to part with the residual cold temperature on that palm.

"Life is the most precious thing a person has; how could you stay in place waiting to die just because of someone else's order?"

The man looked at the female assistant and spoke in a voice full of magnetism:

"Don't make this kind of foolish mistake again; after all, you won't encounter a kind-hearted passerby to save you every time."

The female assistant stared blankly at the man before her; clearly a stranger she didn't know, clearly the bones inside his body were terrifying and eerie, clearly the pipe was pitch dark and damp...

Yet, she felt as if she had glimpsed a dazzling, scorching light.

The man before her was completely different from the cold, rigid, strictly ruled environment she had felt in the Laboratory in the past; it was a kind of human warmth and brilliance she had never captured from the Mentor or Senior Sisters.

"But... I should obey orders; this is the rule set by the Mentor, the principle I have always followed."

The female assistant's voice was as fine as a mosquito's, revealing her inner struggle and confusion.

The more she spoke, the quieter her voice became:

"Ah, sorry... I, I didn't mean that... th-thank you... thank you for saving me."

Watching the female assistant's flustered behavior, the man became even more certain of his judgment: the woman before him had already lost her own personality, and didn't have much of a brain either.

A prime target favored by pyramid scheme organizations and telecom fraudsters in his past life.

Fortunately, the man wasn't that low-grade scum.

He is.....

End of Chapter