Lu Chenentropy becomes a "virus" melting pot in the Hive Laboratory. Dr. Heisen laughs wildly and announces the truth: he is the living key to unlock the "Ark Engine."
Wen Shifei was brought into Lao Qiang's steel fortress by the hound Rick, and Ajie was in critical condition.
Lao Qian saw his daughter Qingyi's alloy hairpin collapse instantly, and then a drilling sound came from deep in the fortress - Qingyi's cage was being drilled open!
Icy cold. That was the only feeling that could anchor Lu Chen's chaotic consciousness. A bone-piercing, bone-deep cold, mingled with the pungent smell of disinfectant, the stench of rusty blood, and the burnt stench of high-voltage electricity burning metal. Like a sticky, toxic oil, it enveloped his shattered body, seeping into every cell.
Intense pain followed, like billions of red-hot steel needles, relentlessly and mercilessly piercing every nerve ending in his body. The fractured left shoulder was the port of a hellish furnace, where boiling magma mixed with icy venom poured endlessly into his veins, corroding his bones and incinerating his soul. Every beat of his heart was like a tiny bomb detonating, pumping even more intense pain through every limb.
His consciousness sank and tore apart in the boundless abyss of pain. Countless shattered and distorted images, like venomous snakes, gnawed at his remaining sanity.
The cold metal restraints dug deep into his flesh, dark blue arcs of electricity danced wildly across his skin, and his inhuman howls seemed to still echo in his ears...
A dark purple, viscous substance, wriggling like a living thing, was frantically drilling into the cracks in Mithril's left arm. With a cold hunger, it greedily gnawed at something dormant deep within the metal...
Dr. Heisen's crazed, twisted face swayed outside the reinforced glass, his icy blue eyes burning with morbid excitement: "Burn! Suffer! Let the will of the 'worm' and the power of the 'legacy' be nurtured in your body! Birth! My 'virus'!"
And... Vincent K's gentle yet soul-frozen voice, like the final judgment: "Ark... Engine... New Era..."
"Ugh...ah..." A faint, beast-like groan escaped Lu Chen's cracked and blistered lips. He used up all his remaining willpower and slowly and painstakingly opened his only remaining right eye.
His vision blurred and shaky, like looking through a layer of cracked, blood-stained frosted glass. He found himself strapped to a cold metal platform, his body stretched out in a cross-like position. His wrists, ankles, waist, and neck were all tightly bound by thick alloy restraints. The cold metal dug deep into his flesh, leaving blood marks. His left mithril arm was held alone, exposed to the pale shadowless light. The cracks on his arm grew deeper and more terrifying. Dark purple veins, like living blood vessels, squirmed and spread wildly across the silvery-white metal, emitting a faint, heart-wrenching radiation. Countless hair-thin nerve probes and IV catheters, like parasitic vines, penetrated deep into the cracks in his arm and throughout his body, connecting to the complex equipment that gleamed with a cold light. Every weak breath brought a piercing pain that tore through his body. He tried to struggle, but it felt as if every bone in his body had been drained out, making even moving a finger impossible. Only the pervasive, soul-deep pain was truly real. He could clearly sense, deep within Mithril's left arm, a cold, chaotic will filled with an endless desire for destruction. Catalyzed by the raging protoplasmic factors of the "Bury Worm," it was becoming increasingly active, increasingly...hungry. Like a forcibly awakened, malevolent parasite, it greedily absorbed his pain and vitality, thriving.
"Target consciousness... partially recovered... neural link strength... increased to 87%... 'Worm' protoplasm fusion rate... 35%... 'Legacy' activity fluctuations... intensified..." A cold electronic synthesized voice sounded not far away, broadcasting the despairing data without emotion.
Lu Cheneng struggled to move his eyes. At the edge of his vision, he saw Dr. Heisen's face, contorted with extreme excitement. He stood before a massive holographic console, his hands twitching frantically across the virtual interface. His icy blue eyes were fixed on the frantically jumping data and the real-time 3D scan of Mithril's left arm on the screen. He let out an uncontrollable, eerie laugh, like a bloodthirsty hyena.
"Yes! That's it! Stay awake! Lu Cheneng! Feel the pain! Feel the throbbing of this power brewing in your body!" Heisen's voice was sharp and piercing, full of sadistic pleasure. He turned around abruptly, and through the reinforced glass, his fanatical eyes were fixed on Lu Cheneng's painful face. "Your body is the perfect melting pot! Use your despair and pain to sacrifice for the birth of the 'virus'! Soon... soon you will be able to feel... the great power that will tear apart all the old order!"
Despair, like an icy tide, completely overwhelmed Lu Cheneng. He closed his eyes, his teeth sinking deep into his lower lip, tasting the rich taste of blood. Qingyi…Ajie…Shifei…where are you…? Did you escape? He would rather die now, reduced to ash, than become the furnace that breeds monsters in the hands of the chaebol! He even more unwilling…to become a monster that has lost its self, with only the desire for destruction in its wake!
At this moment, an even stronger, colder force of will struck, like an invisible hammer, slamming into the depths of his chaotic consciousness! It came not from any external stimulation, but from... the awakening "thing" deep within Mithril's left arm! It was no longer simply hungry and confused, but also carried a cold, scrutinizing... curiosity? It was as if a being from above had truly "seen" the interior of its container for the first time.
My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com