What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH169-171

Chapter 169| Chapter 170| Chapter 171

Chapter 169: I Didn’t Expect You to Be Scared

Xiao Yue’s pupils trembled slightly.

Pei Yanting and the others who had just arrived turned their attention to Pei Xiqing, who remained seated with an unreadable expression.

For the first time, the usually eloquent and easygoing woman radiated an undeniable sense of absolute determination.

The old man slowly raised his head, as if waiting for her answer.

After a few seconds of heavy silence, Pei Xiqing stood up. Flanked by Shadow, she stepped forward, pausing just long enough to cast a sweeping, meaningful glance over Xiao Yue and Pei Yanting.

“Absolutely.”

So much weight was carried in that single look. Yet, the profound gentleness and unwavering resolve in her eyes were not meant for any of them.

Xiao Yue’s heart trembled violently. He stared at her retreating back, his lips pressed into a tight line, his expression caught somewhere between anger and devastation.

Pei Yanting had also heard her declaration. She clenched her fists tightly. Behind the lenses of her black-framed glasses, her eyes—which bore a faint resemblance to Pei Xiqing’s—were swirling with cold calculation.

The old man did not make things difficult for them as they left, and the rest of the survivors soon filtered out of the bizarre village.

Tang Yitong jogged up and tightly grabbed Pei Xiqing’s hand. “Sister Qing’er, were you angry just now?”

Pei Xiqing shook her head. “No.”

She hadn’t been angry. Rather, in that single, clarifying instant, all the confusing plot holes and key narrative nodes she hadn’t understood before had finally clicked into place. The dark clouds obscuring the truth of this world had completely parted.

Tang Yitong pouted. “Good. Because those guys are clearly bad news. Back in the wilderness, they attracted zombies everywhere they went. Even the zombies can’t stand them, let alone normal people!”

Pei Xiqing smiled. “Yeah.”

Tang Yitong turned her head and cheekily winked at the older men in her squad.

Captain Tan Yuanxin cleared his throat and stepped forward. “Our immediate priority is to scout the perimeter and see if there’s any viable passage leading back to the surface.” He paused, his tone shifting into something more serious. “But honestly, Miss Duan… our original mission down here was to investigate certain production lines in the black market. After hearing what was just said back there, it’s more than enough reason for our team to temporarily shift our objectives.”

Pei Xiqing raised an eyebrow. “Change your mission? What if my goals put me directly at odds with your base’s official stance?”

Tan Yuanxin lowered his head respectfully. “We carry out the base’s orders. However, headquarters currently hasn’t issued any new directives regarding this subterranean Ghost Market. Please don’t worry about us becoming your enemies, Miss Duan.”

“Do you know my identity, then?”

“After hearing that conversation, it was hard not to guess.” After all, there was only one man who had single-handedly saved the majority of humanity from the apocalyptic outbreak five years ago.

“I appreciate your loyalty,” Pei Xiqing smiled softly. “But military duty is paramount. I don’t want any of you to act against your conscience or your orders.”

Whether she had to help kill the host parasite or prevent its death, she was going to stand firmly by Duan Xiaolin’s side.

Tan Yuanxin met her gaze. “If it weren’t for you, Miss Duan, we would have died in those cages long ago. If there is ever anything you need, please just give the word.”

“Thank you.”

The group fanned out, but there was nothing around them except the frozen human corpses and the sprawling, macabre mass graves.

The search yielded absolutely nothing. Dejection quickly set in among the survivors.

“Damn it! How the hell do we get out of this nightmare?!” one man shouted, his patience finally snapping. “I’m so sick of this! If we don’t find an exit right now, we’re all going to starve to death down here! When I get back, the base is going to hear about this! What kind of sick luck is this?!”

Fuming, he violently punched the frozen “ice sculpture” standing beside him.

Just like before, the frozen corpse instantly shattered into a million pieces, its crystalline remains dissipating into the freezing air.

At first, no one paid him any mind. It wasn’t until the man, still muttering angry curses, suddenly bumped his boot against a hard object hidden in the frost. Curiously, he dug it out of the frozen dirt.

The moment he realized what he was holding, he shrieked in absolute panic. “It’s a parasite!”

“How is that possible?!” another survivor yelled. “The parasites are all trapped on the upper levels! We barely managed to climb down here! We’ve been walking for hours and haven’t seen a single one!”

“It really is a parasite!” the man insisted frantically.

Everyone looked around in the dim light. “There aren’t any bugs here! Could you shut up and stop trying to cause a panic?!”

But just as the words left his mouth, another survivor accidentally bumped into a nearby ice sculpture.

The moment that frozen corpse shattered, a terrifying chain reaction began. All the surrounding ice sculptures shattered simultaneously. The frozen bodies crumbled into fine dust and vanished, leaving behind the gruesome reality of what they had been concealing.

The sight was deeply horrifying.

Shadow and Tan Yuanxin’s squad instantly sensed the impending danger. Shadow reached out, pulling Pei Xiqing securely behind him. “Be careful.”

Xiao Yue also realized the dire shift in the atmosphere. “These ice sculptures were packed so densely together. There must be countless parasites hibernating beneath them! With so many mutated zombies and corpses around, it was inevitable that they would use these bodies as incubators. Everyone, stay on high alert!”

“Tsk, whatever,” a cynical survivor scoffed. “I just crushed a dozen of those frozen popsicles earlier and nothing happened. There’s nothing to be afraid of!”

“Exactly. These people have been dead for five years. The zombies from five years ago barely even knew how to mutate. How could they possibly be so— ah!”

The man opened his mouth to complain, but in the next second, a grotesque, fist-sized bug launched itself directly into his gaping maw. It forcefully shoved itself down his throat in a single, violent motion, completely cutting off his breath.

The onlookers could only watch in sheer horror as the fat, segmented worm visibly wriggled down his esophagus and plunged into his stomach.

A second later, the man’s expression twisted into one of unimaginable agony. With a sickening rip, his stomach violently burst open from the inside. A massive, bloated parasite weighing nearly fifty or sixty pounds spilled out of his ruptured abdomen in a shower of gore.

Pei Xiqing: “…”

Why are we dealing with these things again?

Since transmigrating into this apocalyptic world, she had seen far too many of these disgusting creatures. Unable to stomach the gruesome sight, she covered her eyes with one hand while blindly firing her gun at the scuttling bugs near her feet. “Yitong, let’s go!”

Tang Yitong drew her twin machetes, slicing cleanly through several of the bloated bugs before bounding over to Pei Xiqing. “Sister, you’re actually scared of them! Hahaha!” she teased playfully. “You aren’t even afraid of the worst zombies, but a few fat bugs freak you out? Honestly, I think these things are way easier to deal with!”

“Easier?” Pei Xiqing asked incredulously.

“Zombies are way harder to kill!” Tang Yitong spun around, kicking a lunging parasite out of the air. “I just didn’t expect you to be squeamish, hehe.”

“They’re just too bizarre,” Pei Xiqing muttered. Zombies were just mutated humans—sure, they looked gruesome with their rotting flesh and pus-filled eyes, but they made a twisted sort of sense. These parasites, however, were terrifying cross-species abominations. It was like seeing flies with horns, or rats skittering around on dozens of centipede legs. It defied all logic and churned her stomach.

“It’s okay, don’t be afraid!” Tang Yitong reassured her, stepping backward to stand protectively in front of Pei Xiqing. “Just watch me chop them all to pieces!”

With that, she flourished her dual blades and began furiously hacking at the swarming insects.

However, everyone soon realized that the regenerative capabilities of these underground parasites were even more terrifying than those of the zombies. The dozen or so legs Tang Yitong had just severed regrew in the blink of an eye. The parasites violently absorbed the ambient supernatural energy, the flesh of the fallen ability users, and even the surrounding organic debris to complete their parasitic life cycle and mutate further.

Gradually, the effects of standard bullets and low-level supernatural attacks became negligible.

The sheer, overwhelming numbers of the regenerative swarm forced the entire group back into a defensive corner.

Xiao Yue wiped a bead of cold sweat from his forehead. With a massive, concentrated burst of supernatural energy, he violently repelled the vanguard of the parasitic swarm, creating a brief buffer zone.

But everyone knew it was only a temporary reprieve.

Chapter 170: 009

The massive swarm of parasites that had been frozen beneath the ice sculptures for years had finally been fully awakened. Their numbers seemed endless, increasing by the second.

There were just as many mutated bugs as there were frozen corpses in the cavern.

They rushed forward like a mighty, terrifying army.

The survivors’ living space was rapidly compressed to the extreme, forcing them to huddle tightly together.

“Captain Xiao! Didn’t you say you could save us?!” one of the desperate survivors screamed. “Didn’t you promise that as long as we followed you, we would all get out alive?! Why are we all going to die here now?!”

“That’s right!” another yelled, pointing furiously at the S1 soldiers. “Aren’t you supposed to be this legendary, overpowered special forces unit?! How come you can’t even deal with these damn bugs?!”

“If you hadn’t been so stubborn, insisting that we’d find a way out by venturing deeper into this Ghost Market, would we have followed you into this deathtrap?!”

The S1 soldiers angrily stepped forward, raising their weapons. “Don’t push it! If it weren’t for our Captain, you ungrateful bastards wouldn’t even be alive today! What kind of nonsense are you spewing?!”

“Exactly!” another soldier chimed in. “We haven’t even pointed out that you’ve been nothing but a dead weight this entire time, constantly causing trouble for us! You were the ones who carelessly woke up this massive parasite colony, and now you have the nerve to blame us?!”

The two groups argued endlessly, their voices bordering on hysteria.

Pei Yanting finally had enough. “That’s enough!” she snapped, glaring at the civilian survivors. “Have you no shame?! Why are you even arguing with them?” she asked her team. “They’re just cowardly scum who came here for the black market auction. They don’t even deserve to be alive right now.”

“Who the hell are you calling a coward, you arrogant bitch?!” a man spat back, furious. “That wasn’t what you were saying a few days ago! You tried to play nice and woo us when you needed the numbers, but now that disaster strikes, you just want to abandon us and curse us out?!”

Pei Yanting bit her lip angrily.

She opened her mouth to shoot back a sharp retort, but Xiao Yue stopped her.

“Let’s see if you all actually have the ability to survive this first,” Xiao Yue said coldly to the crowd.

After he finished speaking, he stepped forward, standing entirely alone at the front of the group.

He was preparing to hold off the massive wave of incoming parasites entirely with his own strength.

Three distinctly different auras of supernatural energy began to flash and violently swirl around his body.

Pei Xiqing watched Xiao Yue’s back from the shadows.

Is this damn protagonist halo going to kick in again?

She silently drew her gun, pointing the barrel directly at Xiao Yue’s back.

A dark, indifferent smile played on her lips. She really wanted to see exactly what Xiao Yue could accomplish without the help of his plot-mandated golden fingers.

But before Xiao Yue could fully unleash his tri-elemental ability, someone in the crowd suddenly pointed toward the cavern ceiling directly behind the swarm of parasites. “Look… Look! What is that?!”

Everyone snapped their heads in the direction he pointed.

It was the exact location where they had all fallen from the upper levels.

As everyone knew, when descending into the Ghost Market, there was a massive, steep drop between each cavern layer. This specific level was the very bottom—a deep, bowl-like depression that represented ground zero of the apocalypse. Anyone who wanted to enter this area had to brave the massive drop from the cliffs above.

Now, descending rapidly from the dark heights above, several heavy tactical grappling ropes swayed in the air. The figures sliding down the ropes wore identical black combat masks, but the leader’s stark white hair whipped wildly in the wind.

Still suspended in mid-air, the white-haired man raised a heavy assault rifle with one hand and fired a single shot. The bullet accurately pierced a massive parasite’s weak point, causing it to violently explode.

A fully equipped, elite special forces team descended from the sky like a pack of fierce, nocturnal cheetahs.

The moment the white-haired man hit the ground alongside his squad, he unleashed a hail of gunfire into the surrounding parasites with the heavy machine gun in his hands.

The specialized hydro-bullets, packed with violent explosives and parasitic toxins, instantly carved through the battlefield, utterly halting the swarm’s advance.

In just one short minute…

Hundreds of massive, mutated parasites were completely wiped out.

Ling Lang stepped heavily onto the crushed skull of the final parasite and casually kicked its remains aside. He turned around, scanning the crowd. His eyes briefly locked onto Pei Xiqing, acknowledging her presence, before shifting directly to Xiao Yue.

Slowly, deliberately, Ling Lang raised his hand and gave Xiao Yue a thumbs-up.

The next second, he slowly turned his thumb down.

Trash.

It was an extremely arrogant, humiliating provocation.

Xiao Yue’s gathered supernatural energy sputtered and died. Clutching his chest, he suddenly coughed up a massive mouthful of black blood, falling to one knee.

Pei Xiqing smiled brightly.

She happily gave Ling Lang a thumbs-up in return.

Long Yan walked over, smoothly pulling off her tactical hood and mask. “Xiqing.”

Pei Xiqing was genuinely overjoyed. “Sister Long Yan!”

Long Yan was wearing a sleek, form-fitting combat suit that perfectly outlined her stunning figure. She looked over at Pei Yanting, a faint, mocking smile on her lips. “Pei Yanting, I’ve heard everyone say you’re quite the genius when it comes to computing and physics. We should definitely have a little ‘discussion’ about that sometime.”

Pei Yanting glared at her. “Who are you?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

Long Yan walked up to Pei Xiqing, gently patting her shoulder and giving her arm a soft squeeze. “You’ve lost weight.”

“Sister Long Yan, what are you doing here?”

“It’s not just her. I’m here too, you know. Why aren’t you surprised to see me?” Ling Lang interjected, pulling off his mask and shaking out his stark white fur coat. “This damn place was really hard to find, but honestly? These bugs were way too weak.”

As he swaggered over, the rest of his elite squad members stepped out from the shadows one after another.

It was Fu Feng, Nie Bin, and the rest of the crew.

It was an incredibly pleasant surprise to see Ling Lang’s team again.

Pei Xiqing grinned. “You guys arrived just in time.”

“Nonsense,” Ling Lang scoffed playfully. “How else are we supposed to make a dramatic, professional entrance?”

Long Yan smirked. “Someone was rushing all the way here in an absolute panic. Just now, when we couldn’t find a clean route down from the cliffs, he almost ordered us to use C4 to blow the entire ceiling open.”

Pei Xiqing covered her mouth, chuckling softly. “Thank you.”

The surviving auction-goers, realizing they were saved, began to laugh in sheer relief. They patted their chests, looking at the squad with flattering, desperate eyes. “Thank you! Thank you so much! It’s Captain Ling Lang’s team! We’ve heard so much about you!”

“Oh my god, is this the strongest elite team from the capital base?!”

“They’re here! We’re saved!”

Even Tan Yuanxin couldn’t help but murmur in awe, “How interesting… This situation actually warranted deploying Unit A009.”

Tang Yitong looked at him, confused. “What? Captain, do you know them?”

“Well, they’re a legendary strike team directly under the command of the Central Headquarters. I’ve only ever heard rumors about them; I’ve never seen them in person until today. I don’t even know their official squad name, just their classified codename: 009.” He paused, his expression serious. “Although they aren’t technically stationed at Headquarters, rumor has it they have a very direct relationship with Franlun’s enforcers. You could say they act as Franlun’s elite non-staff operatives.”

“Then where is the actual team from Franlun…?”

“I haven’t seen them,” Tan Yuanxin chuckled dryly. “Franlun’s official members are far too secretive. They don’t show their faces easily.”

“I really want to meet them! They must be even more powerful!”

“009 is already the absolute pinnacle of combat strength.”

As the group chattered excitedly, Ling Lang walked right past them, completely ignoring their praises. He only looked at Pei Xiqing.

“I’m only here to save you,” he stated flatly. “I don’t give a damn about the rest of these people. Let’s go.”

Pei Xiqing gestured to the masked man standing beside her. “Aren’t you going to save our Brother Wang Yue, too?”

“Who the hell is Wang Yue?”

Shadow: “…”

Ling Lang rolled his eyes. “What a tacky, basic name.”

Shadow spoke up, his voice deadpan. “It’s me, Captain Ling Lang.”

“Is it you? Do you really still need my help?” Ling Lang scoffed, not even bothering to look at him, and turned to leave with his men.

The panicked survivors rushed forward, blocking his path. “Captain! Captain Ling! Please, you have to get us out of here!”

Ling Lang smoothly drew his handgun and pressed the barrel directly against the closest man’s forehead. “I’m not some bleeding-heart hero who goes around saving every piece of trash he finds. You are not my responsibility.”

“Then we’ll just follow behind you! We promise we won’t try anything tricky!”

Ling Lang smiled darkly. “I think it would be better for you to go find some Holy Father to save you. My squad only welcomes wicked, ruthless people. I don’t want anyone who isn’t utterly unforgivable.”

“Captain, please stop joking! Please save us! We can give you anything you want!”

“Fine,” Ling Lang sighed dramatically, lowering his gun. “Since the true host parasite down below is about to break out anyway, we might as well go together. You guys can act as our frontline vanguard. Let me see some of that ‘sincerity’ you’re offering.”

The group of survivors froze in place, horrified.

“R-really?”

“Why would I lie to you? No one is leaving this place,” Ling Lang sneered. “It’s just a matter of dying now or dying a little later. If you want to follow me, then get moving.”

Pei Xiqing gently took Tang Yitong’s hand. “Come with me.”

Tang Yitong looked down shyly and called out sweetly, “Captain! Let’s go! We’re following Sister Qing’er!”

Tan Yuanxin smiled warmly. “Understood.”

Ling Lang stopped in his tracks, staring intensely at Tan Yuanxin. A strange, sour look crossed his face as he glared at the Second Base Captain for several seconds. He then whipped his head around to fiercely glare at Pei Xiqing. In the end, he didn’t say a single word, just gritted his teeth and stalked away.

Pei Xiqing: “…”

No way. She hadn’t even done anything to offend Ling Lang!

This crazy guy was acting up again!

Chapter 171: The Most Dangerous Place

After careful consideration, the survivors unanimously decided to follow Ling Lang’s team.

If they were going to die anyway, following Ling Lang would at least delay the inevitable, and perhaps even offer a sliver of a chance at survival. After all, these were members of the elite 009 Special Forces. If they stayed behind, they would likely be ripped apart and turned into monsters by the parasitic swarm within the hour. It was far more practical to stick with 009. This classified team probably had a few hidden cards up their sleeves.

Xiao Yue had originally prepared for a desperate, all-out battle against the parasite swarm. But because of Ling Lang’s sudden intervention and blatant provocation, the massive amount of supernatural energy he had condensed violently stalled in his body. The sudden backlash caused his muscles to seize, and he violently coughed up a mouthful of dark blood. The humiliation and internal injury were almost worse than death.

Ling Lang didn’t even bother looking back at the desperate crowd trailing behind him. He led his squad straight toward the densest cluster of frozen corpses.

Someone asked nervously, “Captain Ling, is it really… really a good idea to go this way? There are so many ice sculptures here. Just a moment ago, we were swarmed by parasites just because someone accidentally bumped into one. There are even more of them in this area. If we accidentally bump into them, wouldn’t it be even harder to escape?”

There were more than a dozen frozen statues blocking his path. Ling Lang nimbly turned sideways, slipping past them one by one without touching a single frost-covered limb.

“The people frozen here were soldiers and researchers who volunteered to stay behind and join the X-Force five years ago,” he said coldly. “If you can’t even show them a shred of basic respect, then you deserve to die.”

“If they hadn’t sacrificed themselves to stay here, the host parasite would have broken out and destroyed the surface world long ago.”

Hearing this, the survivors who had disrespectfully kicked the corpses earlier lowered their heads in guilty silence.

Pei Xiqing followed closely behind. The scrape on her foot made her gait slightly unsteady, and she nearly stumbled into one of the ice sculptures.

Long Yan quickly pulled her aside. “The parasites hibernating here are in their terminal stage. Aside from the massive zombie pits, this is one of the most dangerous areas in the Ghost Market. We possess less than 10% of the research data on the parasitic variants down here.”

As she spoke, she guided Pei Xiqing to sit on a nearby rock. Lifting her injured ankle, Long Yan opened her portable medical kit to treat the wound. Halfway through the examination, she paused, looking confused. “Has medicine already been applied to this?”

Where would anyone even find medicine in a hellhole like this? There wasn’t even clean water.

Long Yan had initially expected Pei Xiqing’s scrapes to be severely infected and worsened by the trek. To her surprise, the original wounds were almost completely healed, leaving only a few minor new scratches.

Pei Xiqing stiffened slightly but quickly smoothed down her skirt. “Yes, Brother Wang Yue helped me apply some earlier. I’m fine now.”

Long Yan smiled. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“By the way, Sister Long Yan, there’s a violent lightning zone in the cavern sector above us. Did you see it on your way down?”

“Oh, you mean that place? I know it well. It used to be a massive power plant, but it was abandoned years ago. The backend control system collapsed a long time ago. As the black market above began to expand, the various illicit factories and workshops needed a massive power grid. They tried to repair it, but the electrical leakage was catastrophic. That’s how that lethal ‘lightning zone’ formed.”

“Does that kind of raw electricity help improve your lightning abilities?”

“It can, but not by much. Industrial electricity is fundamentally different from the pure, supernatural lightning energy produced by an ability user’s body. It’s incredibly difficult to absorb and refine.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” Long Yan chuckled. “If people could gain or improve superpowers just by getting electrocuted, then 99% of the ordinary survivors in the bases would be chewing on live power cables right now.”

“That makes sense.”

Long Yan looked up, her expression turning concerned. “What’s wrong? Why are you asking about that? Were you struck by the stray currents when you passed through?”

“Yes, I was.”

“Is it serious? Let me see.”

“It’s alright now, the numbness faded.”

Long Yan patted her shoulder gently. “You can’t rush supernatural evolution. Instead of relying on dangerous external phenomena to force a breakthrough, it’s much safer to just absorb a few high-level crystal cores.”

Everyone packed up and continued following Ling Lang deeper into the cavern.

Pei Xiqing stood still for a moment, subconsciously staring down at her own palm. There seemed to be faint, microscopic sparks of blue electricity arcing beneath her skin. She stared in stunned silence for half a second, only snapping out of her daze and hurrying to catch up when Shadow gently called her name.

It clearly wasn’t Ling Lang’s first time navigating this abyss. He guided them flawlessly along the safest paths, avoiding every hidden danger and entirely bypassing the hibernating parasites. The further they went, the closer they got to the towering underground mountain range. Ahead lay sheer cliffs, jagged rocks, sprawling ruins, and highly toxic underground flora scattered everywhere.

Long Yan turned to issue a stern warning to the survivors. “Everyone must be extremely careful once we enter the mountains. Do not touch anything you shouldn’t touch. Do not scream at things you shouldn’t be looking at. If anyone messes up, triggers a trap, or hinders our squad in any way, do not blame us for being ruthless.”

The survivors hadn’t expected the path to lead directly into the treacherous mountains. Terrified, they quickly clustered into tight groups of three for safety.

With every few steps, the eerie, terrifying atmosphere of the dense, sunless petrified forest threatened to overwhelm them. The mountain peak was dizzyingly high, disappearing into the cavern’s gloom. There was no actual road; they were entirely reliant on Ling Lang and his elite squad to hack a path through the overgrown darkness. Sharp, shrill noises echoed intermittently through the trees, and bizarre black shadows constantly darted across their peripheral vision.

Whenever someone nervously whipped their head around, the feeling of being followed vanished in the blink of an eye. It was as if their own eyes were deceiving their brains, yet their hearing and primal intuition constantly screamed warnings of imminent danger.

Anyone lacking serious psychological endurance would have suffered a mental breakdown in this ghost mountain. Pei Xiqing, of course, didn’t believe in literal ghosts. She knew it was just the deeply mutated, infected creatures using the environment to create an overwhelming sense of crisis and mystery.

Following closely behind Long Yan, the group trekked for over three grueling hours. They were constantly scaling jagged rocks and climbing steep, treacherous inclines. The physical toll of those three hours felt more exhausting than the entire journey over the past few days combined.

Upon finally reaching their destination, Ling Lang raised a clenched fist, signaling the team to halt.

Everyone looked up, panting heavily. All they could see was a massive, sheer stone wall completely choked by thick green vines. Several thousand-year-old petrified trees surrounded the clearing like a ring of silent giants, peering down at them and radiating a suffocating sense of oppression.

Pei Yanting noticed a tiny, pale object clinging to a branch near her head. Thinking it was some kind of dormant insect, she cautiously poked it with the tip of her pen. The brittle shell cracked open, revealing that it was completely hollow inside. Frowning, she looked away.

Ling Lang stepped forward and firmly pressed his bare palm against a specific section of the vine-covered stone wall.

The moment his palm made contact, an intricate, glowing blue biometric lock materialized. Lines of digital code rapidly scrolled across the ancient stone surface.

A crisp, mechanical electronic voice suddenly echoed through the silent clearing: “Authentication successful.”

The massive stone wall groaned and slowly began to slide upward, revealing the sprawling space hidden deep within the mountain.

It was an underground laboratory facility that had been abandoned for God knows how long. The interior was incredibly vast, with a vaulted ceiling nearly ten meters high, stretching deep into the hollowed-out core of the mountain. The entire facility had been reclaimed by nature; thick moss and creeping vines blanketed the walls and floors, casting everything in a dark, cold, and damp green hue.

The group walked past endless rows of massive, cylindrical experimental containment tanks. They could clearly read the faded biohazard labels detailing countless horrific mutant species. It took them nearly ten minutes of walking just to reach the central sector of the facility.

An eerie green light filtered down from a reinforced skylight far above, illuminating a colossal, cylindrical glass containment tank situated right in the center of the hall. The tank stretched from the floor all the way to the vaulted ceiling. Its sheer width was staggering, but the massive, horrifying entity suspended within its glowing green preservation fluid was what truly stopped everyone in their tracks.

“Oh my god! What the hell is that?!” someone shrieked. “It’s terrifying!”

One of the survivors had wandered too close to the glass. A cold sweat broke out across his entire body, his legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor in sheer terror. Pointing a trembling finger at the massive tank, his voice cracked in panic: “Inside it… It’s a colossal, ghost-like parasite!”

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