Chapter 12
Tang Xiao was fully awake now. He realized he was still in the game—he’d been so tired that he’d forgotten to log out. Which meant the scene before him was...
“428? How did you escape?!” Tang Xiao clutched his chest and tried to sit up, overcome by an inexplicable sense of foreboding.
The basis of Tang Xiao and 428’s cooperation had been the military balance maintained by the Third Eye. Now that 428 had somehow regained the ability to escape, it could return to its starting state at any moment.
Can the Third Eye get it together?! How can they let a test subject run wild?!
Thankfully, things didn’t seem to be heading in the worst possible direction.
The monster didn’t move. Its orange-yellow vertical pupils remained fixed on Tang Xiao.
How had it escaped? By using the new ability it had just acquired, of course.
After consuming enough flesh, 428 had sensed that it had awakened another ability. Driven by a powerful will, it had successfully escaped its new cage, leaving a subsidiary body behind to cover its tracks.
Its body had grown warm and comfortable after absorbing enough flesh, and it even felt the urge to sleep and digest. But for some reason, the emptiness in its heart hadn’t been filled. Instead, it had grown more restless after Tang Xiao left.
428 thought it over and decided that perhaps it was worried its prey might die.
Humans really were fragile creatures. A light touch was enough to make them disappear. Although it hadn’t ‘finished eating’ him before, it would be a shame if the young man died outside. It had to take responsibility and eat him clean.
So, after acquiring its new ability, 428 quietly left the laboratory and followed the young man’s scent to where it was strongest.
Following the ventilation shaft into the dormitory, 428 found the young man lying on his bed, asleep with his eyes closed.
The young man’s face was pale. His glasses lay on the bedside table, his lips were bloodless, and their corners were slightly pressed together, lending him an unconscious air of vulnerability.
428 felt a faint itch in its heart, though it couldn’t say what the feeling was. Following the impulse, it drew closer and closer, until their skin nearly touched. It could even hear the steady beat of the young man’s heart, proof that he was alive.
428 felt a little regret, though not that much. Then the sweet scent rushed into its ‘nose.’ The little monster swallowed and couldn’t resist licking him.
Then the human woke up.
Faced with Tang Xiao’s question, 428 opened its mouth and blurted out, “...Hungry.”
Still hungry?
Tang Xiao was so angry he laughed. He really wanted to curse: What do you take me for, a blood bag you can drain whenever you want?
Yet when his eyes met 428’s vertical pupils, what came out was something else entirely: “I’m a little run-down lately. The doctor said I need to build up my strength. How about you come back in a few days?”
Hmph. Once 428 left, he’d anonymously report the laboratory’s fire-safety problems. This time, they had to expose every safety loophole.
428 didn’t say a word. Tang Xiao knew he couldn’t beg for mercy now, or his behavior would be too different from how he’d acted in the laboratory. All he could do was appeal to its feelings and reason with it.
“If you don’t go back, you’ll be done for if someone finds out you escaped. Or are you confident you can take on the Third Eye right now? If you devour me here and my life data disappears, there’s a good chance the higher-ups will notice.”
“I won’t eat you.”
Really? Then could you at least wipe away that drool?
At some point, mycelium had already crept up and hooked around the hem of the young man’s clothes, like a beast ready to capture its prey.
428 hadn’t actually intended to devour his flesh. He hadn’t even finished digesting the energy he had just absorbed. It was simply that the moment it saw Tang Xiao, it couldn’t stop drooling.
“You... won’t get hurt.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
428 raised its head and stared straight at Tang Xiao. Mycelium reached the young man’s lips, and as Tang Xiao’s pupils widened in shock, it said something scandalous:
“Other fluids... will do too.”
Tang Xiao: ?
The sticky mycelium caught Tang Xiao by the wrist. He shuddered and hurriedly pried the humanoid monster’s face away, keeping his expression calm as he activated the security function on his wristband behind his back.
Smack!
Though the little monster was right in front of Tang Xiao, it caught his right hand as if it had eyes in the back of its head. Blood-red mycelium swallowed the wristband, then gathered and grew into a head. That strange face pressed down again, its long tongue licking the cold sweat at the young man’s temple.
The young man’s face looked even paler. He stared coldly at it.
His gaze was completely different from before. Yet, for some reason, this look pleased 428 more than the young man’s docile demeanor just moments ago.
Tang Xiao, on the other hand, was completely beside himself.
Was there something wrong with this game? Was it really a respectable game?
All the guesses in Tang Xiao’s mind were blown away by the little monster’s suggestive words. His excellent human brain instantly filled with all kinds of indecent nonsense, which flashed by like a barrage of comments.
Wait! He didn’t mind what 428 looked like, but nonhuman... nonhuman was still a bit much!
He was about to refuse, but nearly had his mouth blocked by the mycelium. All he could do was clamp his mouth shut and protest with his eyes.
The little monster acted as if it couldn’t see the young man’s displeasure. It even seemed a little aggrieved and confused. “You said you’d provide me with nutrients... Why are you refusing?”
There wasn’t a trace of human embarrassment or lust in its orange-yellow eyes. It genuinely thought it had found the perfect way to get what it needed without hurting the young man.
But the young man was covering the source of that scent so tightly that not a trace could escape.
The mycelium reached the entrance to the source of the scent several times, but couldn’t get inside.
Tang Xiao couldn’t speak and couldn’t bring himself to overcome his embarrassment. 428 didn’t seem ready to give up either, and so they remained locked in a standoff.
Just then, someone knocked on the door.
Rocky: “Tang, are you asleep? I forgot to tell you earlier—tomorrow’s the weekly group meeting. Bard will probably be there to check our experimental progress and evaluate us newcomers. Should we discuss what to do?”
There was no sound from inside the room. Tang Xiao kept his mouth tightly shut, afraid that 428 would give him a COVID test.
At that moment, 428 suddenly turned its head toward the door.
Fragments of information flashed through its mind. That voice sounded familiar.
And it seemed like it had heard it somewhere before...
It suddenly turned to look at the young man pinned beneath it. Its orange-yellow vertical pupils rolled as it said, “Xiao Xiao... your heartbeat’s so fast.”
Tang Xiao’s gaze flickered, but it was too late to control his heartbeat.
“Before... you never... refused.” 428 narrowed its eyes and looked thoughtfully toward the door.
Tang Xiao’s heart nearly skipped a beat.
Damn it, his last save point was before he’d confronted 428.
It had been Rocky calling from outside the laboratory that saved Tang Xiao before. 428 might not make the connection, but what if it realized that his earlier ‘offering himself’ had only been a lie to buy time...?
No, it might already be suspicious because Tang Xiao was acting differently now.
428’s mycelium stretched toward the door. The moment it touched the doorframe, it stopped.
A faintly richer scent filled the air.
Like honey, or a perfectly ripe peach—sweet and fragrant.
The young man, who had refused to open his mouth no matter what, seemed to loosen his restraint. His thin, soft lips brushed against the mycelium reaching toward him, as if by accident.
A thunderous explosion went off in 428’s mind, leaving it utterly blank. By the time it came back to its senses, the mycelium had already broken free of its control and eagerly burrowed into that irresistible place, greedily sucking up the fluid whose allure rivaled that of blood.
Fragments of information imperceptible to ordinary people were contained in the fluid. Inside 428, they reassembled into the components it needed. It was far more enticing than any food—a true attraction arising from some kind of rule.
The one being ‘kissed’ wasn’t having a very good time. Tang Xiao instinctively shut his eyes, his scalp tingling. Sometimes, a game being too realistic wasn’t a good thing. Who could have imagined that a college student who hadn’t even given away his first kiss would have it happen in a game, and with such an intense partner?
No, this wasn’t a kiss at all. At most, it was feeding.
Tang Xiao tried to hypnotize himself, forcing himself not to think about what it meant.
But wasn’t it getting a little too carried away?!
Tang Xiao’s mouth was going numb and felt terribly dry. He finally couldn’t take it anymore and pushed at 428, but it didn’t budge. He bit down hard, nearly chipping his own teeth.
What kind of mycelium was this? It was way too hard!
“Tang?” Rocky seemed to hear something and called out in confusion from outside.
Rocky was outside the door. The monster was inside.
Tang Xiao’s scalp tingled, and his ears burned red. All he could hear was his heartbeat, the monster greedily swallowing, and the wet sounds in his mouth. He could hardly think, let alone understand how things had gotten to this point.
No matter what, he couldn’t let anyone find out that 428 had escaped from the laboratory again. The new experiment was going smoothly, and they’d collected enough biological samples. If anyone found out 428 had escaped again, he wasn’t sure he could protect it this time.
At the same time, he couldn’t let 428 notice Rocky outside the door.
Tang Xiao steadied himself and pulled the heat-ray gun from beneath his pillow, pressing its muzzle against 428’s head.
Under the young man’s icy glare, the little monster reluctantly withdrew its mycelium. Tang Xiao suppressed the urge to retch, glared at him in warning, and called to Rocky, “I’m going to sleep. If you need anything, we can talk tomorrow!”
“Uh, but it starts first thing tomorrow morning.”
“It’s fine. You go on!”
“...All right.”
The footsteps outside gradually faded away.
The situation inside the room, however, was nothing like the easygoing scene outside.
Tang Xiao propped himself up, still holding the gun muzzle to 428’s forehead. He put some distance between them, wiped the corner of his mouth, and kept his gaze cold as ice.
428 didn’t act rashly. It tilted its head, apparently unable to understand why the young man was so angry.
The atmosphere in the room grew somewhat oppressive. After a long while, Tang Xiao said, “I refused because this act means something different to humans... Never mind. You’ve already gotten what you wanted. I think you should go back now.”
“You’re... angry?” 428 slowly formed words with its newly acquired vocal cords, one at a time. “Why?”
Why?
Tang Xiao’s cheek twitched. He was asking why?
“I told you, kissing has great significance in human culture. I don’t want that to happen again.”
“Why?”
Tang Xiao couldn’t be bothered to explain anymore. “I think we need to establish some basic understanding. Since we’ve agreed to work together, I expect us to respect each other. When I was resisting just now, you should have stopped.”
“Also, since we’ve agreed to work together, you shouldn’t have recklessly escaped the laboratory. Someone could have found you.”
“Won’t... be found.” 428 still didn’t really understand this so-called ‘respect.’ It only answered the second part. “Left... a double.”
Tang Xiao’s eye twitched. “You still should have been careful. How do you know if you were caught on camera along the way, if anyone saw you, or if the surveillance data could reveal flaws in your double? You know nothing about human technology. You should go back. If the other researchers suddenly return to the laboratory, they could find out.”
Thankfully, although 428 remained silent, it still heeded Tang Xiao’s warning. Its mycelium disappeared into the ventilation shaft.
After 428’s shadow had vanished completely, Tang Xiao let out a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the bed, all his strength gone.
That completely chased away his drowsiness. He immediately clicked to exit the game.
It really was better to go back to reality and rest.
Wait, what had Rocky said outside the door just now?!