The rapidly mutating giant mantis stared intently at Blaita in front of it with its bulging eyes, and in the next instant, it swung its forelegs at him with scythe-like blades!
Bretta moved nimbly and swiftly, leaping away. When he looked back, a mark twenty centimeters deep had been cleaved off the spot where he had just been standing.
Bretta landed easily on the right, still holding the four white roses he had left. He carefully protected them while precisely dodging the alien's next attack. The alien mantis, seemingly even more enraged by this, intensified its attacks, charging fiercely at him.
Bretta, with his light and agile movements, dodged quickly, leaping and dodging several times to easily avoid the alien's attacks. He felt even hungrier, and as he flipped through the air to avoid the scythe, he glanced at it with a flicker of his eye and swallowed hard.
It smells so good.
It must taste delicious.
The mantis was already enormous, and its sweeping, powerful slashing motion created a tremendous commotion.
A drunkard, muttering that he needed to use the restroom, heard the noise and looked up, only to be met with the strange, covered eyes of the mutated praying mantis. Upon seeing its full form, he was so terrified he stumbled backward, nearly losing control of his bladder. He gasped for two seconds, then turned and scrambled away, screaming in a trembling voice shrill with fear: "Aaaaaaah! It's a mutant! A mutant has invaded!!"
The shout attracted a lot of attention, and soon caused a commotion in the boxing ring. The people who had just been coldly laughing and cursing at the boxer on the stage, shouting "Kill him! Kill him!!" were now screaming in terror and pushing each other to run away.
Standing on the other side of the underground boxing ring, Lin Dao, who had taken off his helmet to rest for less than half a moment, keenly sensed the vibrations of the panicked footsteps of the crowd as they fled. He slightly raised his eyes to sense the direction of the air current fluctuations.
Cheng Cheng, who was standing in front of him, frowned and looked ahead, then spoke up: "Boss, it seems something's happened over there..."
He turned around and could no longer see the person who had been behind him.
Bretta carefully held the flower in his arms and deftly dodged again. Seeing the commotion growing, he prepared to lure the "food" to a secluded spot before dealing with it. The alien relentlessly pursued him, causing a series of destructions, leaving nothing but damage to the ground and walls.
As the giant mantis swung its two blades at him, intending to rip him apart, Blaita stepped on the wall and turned around, ready to open his mouth for a hearty meal.
A long, cold-bladed sword instantly blocked his way, stopping the mantis's forelegs and getting stuck with its spikes, producing a piercing sound as the blades clashed.
Blaita sensed the danger emanating from the newcomer and quickly shut his mouth, a drop of saliva falling to the ground and leaving a corroded mark.
The newcomer, wielding a long, cold-weapon sword, swiftly and decisively severed the two forelegs of the alien creature, splattering out a thick, dark green liquid.
Bryta carefully stepped back, afraid that the flowers in his arms would be contaminated. However, when he looked down, he saw that the remaining flowers, after a day of fussing, had wilted considerably and were not in much better shape.
Lin Dao's movements were clean and decisive, without any hesitation. He wielded a long knife with great skill, and soon, with a final strike, he pierced the vital point. The behemoth collapsed to the ground, withered and lifeless.
Bleta's eyes were filled with heartache and regret.
...The food is gone.
The man sheathed his knife and glanced coldly at the blond, curly-haired boy standing not far away.
He wasn't covered in any strange slime, but he looked as if he had been bathed in blood, exuding an aura of mystery and danger. When he looked over, Bretta shivered and shrank back, quite pathetically.
If he had arrived a moment later, he would have discovered his identity, and there would be more than one person lying on the ground now.
Lin Dao stared at the boy in front of him for a few seconds, then walked towards him, carrying a long knife that was still covered in slime and hadn't been wiped clean.
Bretta tensed up, her lips turning pale. She instinctively held her breath, standing obediently with her back straight, holding the few wilted flowers in her hands. The closer the man got, the more frightened she became. This innate fear sent chills down her spine, and she wanted nothing more than to run away immediately, but she was rooted to the spot by his cold gaze and couldn't move.
Lin Daowei lowered his eyes, scrutinizing him with a look of astonishment. This child, who had been watching without fear of the aliens, was now afraid of him. A few seconds later, he abruptly withdrew his gaze, gripped the hilt of his knife, and turned to leave.
As he turned around, Bleta noticed his features and suddenly realized that this was the man who had taken his flowers without paying.
"Oh! Sir..."
However, the other party had already gone far away.
"Boss, are you alright?" Cheng Cheng rushed over in a hurry. Seeing that he was alright, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then, noticing the long knife in his hand, he asked curiously, "Why aren't you using a gun? What if you accidentally get infected?"
Lin Dao lazily lifted his eyelids, took the disinfectant wipe handed to him by someone next to him, lowered his head to wipe the blade, and said in a low voice, "Too slow."
Using a gun is still slow?
Cheng Cheng thought about it and realized that if the alien species moved too fast, it would be difficult to hit the vital point, so the efficiency was indeed... not high.
He suddenly remembered something and said, "Oh right, we just found some broken glass shards from test tubes and some residual unidentified liquid at the site of the first anomaly." Cheng Cheng picked up the transparent isolation bag to show him.
Lin Dao glanced at it and asked, "Have you found out what happened?"
Cheng Cheng: "According to the surveillance footage, the mutant suddenly ran out of the bathroom on one side of the boxing ring in a panic and fell to the ground. Then, he landed face down and bumped into the bottle containing the alien mucus, instantly becoming infected and mutated."
"Panic? He must have seen something," Lin Dao analyzed in a deep voice.
Cheng Cheng thought for a moment, puzzled: "I thought so at first too, but after watching the surveillance footage, only one flower-selling boy came out of the restroom afterwards. Oh right, they went in together. According to the ticket seller, it seems that it was this Southeast Asian man named Maurer who bought the ticket for him."
Upon hearing this, Lin Dao recalled the boy holding flowers he had just seen. Several minutes had passed between the man's fall and infection and Lin Dao's arrival at the scene, yet he remained unharmed, and even the bouquet of flowers in his hand was still intact.
He frowned, wiped the knife clean, sheathed it at his side, straightened up, and walked to the other side.
Cheng Cheng, who was behind him, hurriedly followed. After a few steps, he stopped at a doorway, turned his head, and asked, "What are you doing following me here?"
Cheng Cheng was puzzled. He looked up and saw that it was the men's restroom, so he quickly stopped in his tracks: "I'll keep an eye on it for you."
Lin Dao: "..."
After entering, Lin Dao turned on the tap at the sink and slowly washed his hands. He then took out some paper towels to wash and wipe his slender fingers. As he threw away the paper, his gaze lingered on a blackened depression on the ground. He then squatted down, reached out and touched a bit of the corroded residue on the ground, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger.
He looked up and called out, "Cheng Cheng, come in."
"yes!"
Cheng Cheng hurriedly agreed, and after entering, he found his superior standing to one side in a posture as if examining the toilet floor: "...What's this?"
Lin Dao instructed, "Pry off some of the corroded material from here, take it back and put it in the bag from before, and have Xiang You analyze it." After saying that, he stood up and walked out.
The incident only occurred in a small corner of the boxing ring and was quickly cleared away. The news of the presence of an alien species was quietly buried. Within an hour, the violent and unrestrained boxing match resumed, with shouts and screams filling every corner. No one noticed that someone had just died there, or rather, that an alien species had been killed.
"The two bags of stuff you had Cheng Cheng bring back are being tested." A handsome young man in a white lab coat walked out from behind the testing table, glanced at his superior whom he hadn't seen for months, and smiled sarcastically: "As expected of Colonel Klindall, the most dazzling military and political legend of the Asian Alliance. I really thought you'd been fed to the snakes, but I didn't expect you to survive this."
Upon hearing this, Lin Dao lowered his dark eyes slightly, looking somewhat sleepy, and gave him a warning glance.
Even after being warned, the man in the white coat named Xiang You just shrugged and smiled, then suddenly asked, "Since you're alive, why don't you go back to the Alliance? Do you want to get away first and watch those old guys fight like dogs?"
Lin Dao pursed his lips, always responding with silence, and did not answer.
Seeing his reaction, Xiang You smoothly changed the subject without any embarrassment: "By the way, do you know about the Easton Lab that you guys destroyed before? It seems like something important was stolen from there. After all, it's not something that can be shown to the public, and we don't dare to look for it openly, but I heard that there's a huge reward on the dark web."
As he spoke, he brought up a virtual interface of the dark web and displayed it in front of Lin Dao.
The bounty page has only a simple name.
[Bounty: Easton's Experimental Subject]
[Features: A perfect fusion of alien creatures and humans; preliminary predictions suggest they possess human-like intelligence.]
【feature:……】
[Bounty: ...]
...
Lin Dao's dark eyes widened upon reading the first sentence. Xiang You was quite satisfied with his reaction and continued, "I didn't expect this Easton test subject to be so remarkable. Regardless of whether it's truly a perfect fusion, the fact that it can retain human intelligence means it has resistance to alien infections. If we find it and study it, do you think we could develop an anti-infection vaccine? Or even cure those already infected?"
He laughed as he spoke, feeling as if he were indulging in wishful thinking.
The speaker may not have meant anything by it, but the listener may have taken it to heart.
He stared intently at the bounty screen and said in a deep voice, "If it's really possible, then find it at any cost."
Xiang You was taken aback, realizing he was serious, and nodded: "Yes, this time I specifically applied to the Asian Alliance for this special task force as you requested, and you, as Lin Dao, are on it along with Cheng Cheng and the others. Apart from dealing with some special cases involving alien species, you have a lot of freedom of action, which of course also means it's very dangerous."
He then added, "Mix Base is a mixed zone, with the three major international organizations involved, so it's both overseen and unchecked. It's the best place for you to hide your identity right now. Don't worry about the safe house we've arranged for you; there won't be any problems."
"Um."
With four unsold flowers left, plus the one for which he hadn't received payment, Blatta was severely scolded by his boss. He even had his last ten contribution points deducted from his balance and was told that if he couldn't get those fifty points back, he wouldn't be coming to work the next day.
After a long day of running around and feeling ravenous, Britta held the lifeless flowers in her arms. Thinking of the man who had taken her flowers without paying and then chopped up her delicious dinner, she stood dejectedly at the elevator door, her good temper flaring with anger: "That scoundrel who bought flowers without paying! He made me go hungry all day!"
Lin Dao, who had just reached the elevator, was speechless.
The elevator doors opened, and as soon as Bretta stepped inside, a man followed her in. He looked up and saw a black-clad man wearing a hat, only his listless black eyes visible.
Isn't that the villain he just cursed?
Bretta, who immediately chickened out, was speechless.
As soon as he came in, Bretta could feel the air around him getting colder. After pressing the button for the 27th floor, he quickly and carefully shrank into a corner.
However, the person who came in did not press any floor button.
Bleta became frightened. Could it be that he had discovered he was no longer human and had chased him here to get rid of him?
He gripped the flower stem tightly, his face pale, and rushed out as soon as the elevator doors opened.
Footsteps followed behind.
Bryta: "!"
"Wait," Lin Dao called out to him.
Britta turned her head stiffly.
The man glanced down at the child indifferently, his gaze unwavering: "I'll take all the flowers, plus the one from this morning."
Upon hearing this, Bryta's eyes widened instantly. She immediately placed the virtual payment code in front of the other party and obediently said, "Five white roses will give you fifty donation points. Thank you."
Lin Daoli made the payment promptly.
Suddenly, Bretta had a sudden inspiration and said considerately, "May Colonel Clingdale rest in peace; he was a good man."
Colonel Klingdale himself: "..."
Author's Note: Thank you so much for your support, my little angels! There will be an extra chapter tonight at 9 PM! Diligent author is online asking for comments, favorites, and nutrient solutions!
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 17:02:02 on January 7, 2022 and 14:34:32 on January 8, 2022!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: Jiecheng Eats Okra 1;
Thank you to the little angel who watered the nutrient solution: QwQ 2 bottles;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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