Chapter 253: Mutation

Inside the vehicle.

Nie Yang glanced at the tactical watch on his wrist.

Three minutes had already passed.

And the communication channel was still filled with dead silence and electrical static.

On the laptop screen in L's lap, only a glaring red warning remained.

Nie Yang's warm smile had long vanished, replaced by a heaviness like a storm about to break.

He unscrewed the Thermal Cup but didn't drink, merely staring at the floating goji berries inside, his gaze deep.

"L, raise the drone to its highest altitude, activate wide‑angle thermal imaging; I want to see the whole building."

"Copy."

L's fingers tapped the keyboard, and the drone silently ascended, displaying the full view of the Tongzi Lou on the screen.

The next second.

The pupils of the two people inside the vehicle contracted sharply at the same time.

On the screen, that old Tongzi Lou was "coming to life."

It's not a metaphor.

It is literally coming alive.

Beneath the originally mottled exterior wall, something was writhing, bulging the wall into uneven flesh‑like pouches.

Countless pale, sharp Bone Spikes pierced the concrete, like a monster flashing fangs, waving in the downpour, greedily reaching toward the neighboring building.

"The building's structure has undergone an unknown biological Mutation," L's voice quivered for the first time, "Energy readings are soaring exponentially, already surpassing the B Ji threshold, and still rising!"

Nie Yang jerked his head upward.

That building.

All the lights had gone out.

Immediately after, a sour‑tooth, bone‑crunching "creak"—as if bones were being forced to compress and recombine—pierced the rain's clamor, clearly reaching everyone's ears.

A strong sense of danger made the hairs on Nie Yang's nape stand on end.

He slammed the Thermal Cup onto the console, his normally gentle square‑shaped face turning completely cold, his eyes sharp as knives.

"We can't wait any longer."

"Notify the perimeter, all Special Forces units, heavy fire, breach!"

"Yes!"

At his command, a dozen fully armed Special Forces operatives lurking in the shadows around the complex surged out like leopards, their custom rifles already chambered.

Nie Yang flung the car door open, icy rain instantly soaking his Windcoat. He drew a uniquely shaped shotgun from beneath the seat, its barrel etched with silver patterns, each cartridge emitting a faint blue glow.

"L, stay in the vehicle and handle technical support. Also, request reinforcements from headquarters."

"... Understood." L adjusted his glasses, his gaze complex behind the lenses.

Nie Yang said no more, hoisting his gun, and sprinted boldly into the rain.

"Team One and Two, frontal breach! Teams Three and Four, break windows from the flank!"

Nie Yang's voice traveled over the tactical channel to every operative.

"Copy!"

"Bang!"

The two leading operatives hammered the rust‑stained iron door of the Tongzi Lou open with a breaching hammer.

Yet the scene beyond the door left everyone frozen in place.

It wasn't the expected filthy hallway.

Nor was there any pungent mildew or stench.

What unfolded before them was a… living space.

Underfoot was no longer hard concrete but a dark‑red, soft, flesh‑like carpet that gave slightly under weight, even pulsing beneath.

The walls were covered with spider‑web dense black veins, like exposed blood vessels rhythmically beating, transporting some fluid deep into the building.

The air was thick with a nauseatingly strong scent of stomach acid and blood.

"My god... what the hell is this place?" a young operative couldn't help dry‑heaving.

"Maintain silence!" Nie Yang barked low, "Put on tactical masks, activate internal‑circulation breathing systems, everyone, stay on guard!"

Inside the vehicle, L saw this hellish scene through the first‑person feed transmitted by the drone.

A crack appeared on her icy face.

"The drone has entered the target building's First Floor; internal structure has completely altered, no longer matching the original blueprints. Wall tissue analysis… composition is mixed human genes and unknown biological protein…"

Before she could finish, the drone's camera jolted violently.

In the view, the former ceiling suddenly sprouted tendon‑like tentacles, their ends bearing eye‑resembling tissue, staring intently at the drone.

Zzla—

The screen went black.

"Drone lost contact," L's voice returned to flat, though his keystrokes quickened.

Nie Yang led the Special Forces squad, cautiously advancing deeper into the building.

The entire First Floor lobby had become a massive, constantly writhing digestive‑tract maze.

The original stairs vanished, replaced by an upward‑extending, slime‑covered flesh passage, its opening opening and closing as if breathing.

Every direction branched into paths, each seeming to lead deeper into darkness.

"Captain, what do we do? There's literally no path!"

"If there's no path, carve one out!"

Nie Yang's gaze flicked, and he raised his hand to fire a shot.

Boom!

The deep‑blue projectile slammed into the flesh wall before them, blasting a huge opening.

The wound did not bleed; instead, it spewed a torrent of thick green acid that sizzled as it corroded the ground. And that wound was writhing and healing at a visibly rapid pace.

"Damn! This thing has ultra‑fast regeneration!"

The squad members opened fire, and the dense hail of bullets temporarily suppressed the flesh wall's healing speed.

"Go!"

Nie Yang led the charge into the opening.

The inner walls of the passage were even more slick; the sticky liquid rose past the ankles.

After only a few steps, Nie Yang suddenly stopped, staring rigidly at the wall on the right.

The squad members followed his gaze and all sucked in a gasp of cold air.

On that faintly pulsating flesh wall were embedded two human faces.

Their features were twisted, expressions forever frozen in the terror and anger of their final moments, their skin fused with the flesh wall, like two Weird bas‑reliefs.

The most terrifying part was.

Their eyes were still moving.

Those two hollow, soulless eyeballs stared straight at Nie Yang.

"Help... me..."

"It... hurts..."

That plea, more than any wailing scream, made the hair on one's scalp stand on end.

"These... are the residents of this building?" a squad member said, voice trembling.

Nie Yang gave no answer, only gripping his shotgun tightly, his knuckles whitening from the strain.

"Keep moving forward!"

He suppressed the surge in his heart, his voice cold as ice.

However.

In the instant he turned around.

All the squad members behind him, including himself, froze.

The road they had come in on.

The opening they had blasted open with firepower.

Had vanished.

Not only the opening, but also the massive door they entered through, had disappeared without a trace.

In its place were rows upon rows of huge, stark white, sharp bones sprouting from the floor and ceiling.

They interlaced up and down like the ribs of some colossal beast, forming an airtight cage.

At this moment.

These rows of "ribs" were slowly closing inward, accompanied by a teeth‑aching "creak".

That stance was meant to grind this group of intruders into pure meat paste.