‘Disgusting…’
‘So disgusting…!’
‘How could there be such a terrifying-looking creature?!’
The uncontrollable post-traumatic stress reaction churned Xin Hexue’s stomach like stormy seas, but since he had barely eaten anything all day, there was nothing he could vomit out.
The sound of water rushing from the faucet continued without pause.
The white pill was swallowed up and disappeared in the swirling current. Xin Hexue seemed to hear the notification sound of “points -75.”
His face was pale, and his eyelids squeezed shut for a moment.
There were even more frightening things now.
Xin Hexue had to stay calm, even though the intense mental strain made from the one glance made his whole body feel cold and weak.
He kept retreating toward the door, and because he had to guard against the mutant launching an attack at any moment, Xin Hexue had to face him head-on.
Until his back pressed against the icy cold wall.
Xin Hexue’s Adam’s apple rolled up and down involuntarily.
The mutant approached step by step, and Xin Hexue’s nerves were stretched tight. When the mutant was only three steps away, Xin Hexue suddenly grabbed the ceramic potted plant and the glass jar of incense from the counter and hurled them one after another.
There was a series of harsh sounds as objects were shattered into pieces.
The mutant seemed stunned by the barrage. He was nailed in place, surrounded by shards of broken porcelain and glass. His shell was soaked through with fragrant liquid, which was now dripping steadily.
The scent was overwhelmingly strong and piercing.
Number One slowly lifted his head.
Xin Hexue’s figure was no longer in sight.
Taking advantage of the mutant’s sluggish reaction, Xin Hexue had already escaped the washroom.
Number One didn’t understand why Xin Hexue was so afraid of him.
He had shown no intention of attacking; he was just very worried about him.
The non-human way of thinking only allowed Number One to recognize the fear on the young man’s face, but he could not analyze the reason.
In Xin Hexue’s eyes when he looked at him, there was even hidden disgust.
‘Disgust.’
‘Why?’
Before they left home today, he had even helped tidy up the master’s clothes, and the master had praised him for knitting a sweater for the mechanical cat.
The mirror in the washroom almost completely covered the wall above the sink.
The ceiling light and the wall lamps on both sides were bright.
Number One slowly turned his head and saw himself in the mirror.
The dark black carapace covering his whole body was like iron armor, bulletproof, but dull in color and not bright. His pair of scorpion pincers gleamed sharply with a cold light, capable of slicing a hair, and looked full of aggression, completely mismatched with the soft and gentle young man.
Number One’s tail, that had been wagging at high frequency, drooped to the floor involuntarily, full of discouragement.
………
Xin Hexue quickly fled from the washroom.
Adrenaline surged in large amounts when faced with danger, and his heart pounded so fast it felt like it was about to heave out of his throat. With nerves stretched too tightly, even the hand he used to steady himself against the wall was trembling.
These were completely uncontrollable reactions, the body’s spontaneous response under stress.
He had already crossed two hallways.
There was no sign of the mutant behind him; it seemed that the mutant had not given chase.
Xin Hexue’s legs weakened,
In his weakened state, he had to lean against the wall to stay upright.
Two security guards appeared at the end of the corridor, searching hastily for something as they ran over.
One young guard spotted Xin Hexue. “Sir, are you alright?”
As he asked, he also blushed like some inexperienced rookie who had never seen the world.
The young man looked somewhat disheveled.
The top two buttons of his shirt were undone, exposing a bit of the smooth curve of his neck and the hollow of his collarbone, carrying an inexplicable and ambiguous pink hue.
His complexion was as cold and pale as frost and snow. His whole person should have been pure white, but at this moment, the corners of his eyes were wet and reddened, giving off a fragile aura, as if a slight push could topple him.
The young guard stammered, “Y-you don’t look well. Do you need help?”
Xin Hexue let out two coughs, his lip color deepening from pale to a vivid red. He reported to the security team, “There is a mutant in the manor. I saw it in the washroom. It jumped down from the ventilation duct.”
The young guard’s expression immediately turned serious and questioned him about the mutant’s location.
Because of the drug’s effects, subtle reactions were already surfacing on Xin Hexue’s body. After explaining the location, the two guards hurried off in that direction.
Xin Hexue leaned against the wall.
[The antidote was flushed down the drain.]
He asked K: [Can I still get the points back?]
K was silent for a moment. […The mall does not have a refund channel.]
Although he could help the host purchase items through the system mall, the mall was directly affiliated with the Big World Corporation headquarters.
K only acted as a purchasing agent.
Xin Hexue gritted his teeth and could only move forward slowly.
K informed him: [I checked the drug you were affected by.]
[It is a potent aphrodisiac sold on the black market, named “Infernal Fire,” but it mainly targets Omegas. If the affected person does not engage in marking activities with an Alpha within two hours, they will lose consciousness and die.]
This drug had no other means of neutralization except relieving the desire manually, so it was quite popular among some Alphas in the lower city’s black market.
The only fortunate thing was that Xin Hexue was a Beta. Without glands, the drug’s effects on him were weakened. He only needed to manually resolve it within the time limit, just like last time, even if this method was much less efficient than direct sex.
Xin Hexue’s head was dizzy and heavy. He could no longer distinguish the path clearly, nor did he remember where he had turned left and right.
He twisted the door to a lounge open.
It was a spacious suite for guests to rest in. The Pei family had decorated these guest rooms thoroughly, with a living room, bedroom, and bathroom, all complete.
K: [The remaining three points can be used to unlock the host’s body protection program.]
Xin Hexue barely kept conscious. “What is this program?”
K explained: [After unlocking, the body protection program can automatically trigger under special circumstances, enhancing the host’s physical abilities, especially endurance.]
He even gave an example: [You won’t faint like last time when the drug’s toxins hadn’t been fully cleared yet.]
K was referring to the beginning of the plot, when he accidentally ingested the drug that Xin Bao had slipped into the tea in the restaurant, and he fell unconscious in the bathtub after a single manual session.
Xin Hexue was speechless and choked slightly. “……Thanks for the reminder. Unlock it.”
………
The Cutter had not forgotten his mission.
When the security team searched around the manor and even reached the washroom, only broken ceramic shards and glass fragments remained at the scene. There was no sign of the Cutter.
The guards discovered the damaged ventilation duct, borrowed a ladder to climb into the duct, and tried to track him.
However, the ventilation pipes were covered in dust, and the pitch-black environment made it difficult to see. Plus, the ductwork branched off in all directions, greatly reducing the efficiency of tracking the mutant.
Some people followed the ducts, while others continued searching and guarding each ventilation outlet.
Although it was possible that a mutant had infiltrated the manor, so far only one victim had been found unconscious in the garden, and the Pei family’s security team was fully equipped with high-tech light weapons specialized for mutant species, so the mutant-related news did not cause a major panic.
People simply moved the banquet to a more open area in the central lawn.
The pond, flowers, fine wine, and delicacies still painted a scene of paradise.
People bustled about, chatting and laughing, clinking glasses in celebration.
This group had long been blinded by debauchery, their minds dulled by alcohol and pleasure. They had never paid attention to the chaos of the District Six’s black market, let alone heard or seen the barren wilderness of District Thirteen.
They occupied the core zone, a paradise, a haven, an Eden of indulgence where everything seemed harmless and all threats were laughable.
Qiu Yuan rotated his wrist, causing the vodka in his glass to ripple. Through the semi-transparent liquor, everyone’s figures and faces looked distorted and blurry.
And black.
Qiu Yuan still wore sunglasses perched on his nose.
He smiled knowingly.
The Cutter should almost have succeeded.
Although Qiu Yuan was quite dissatisfied with the Cutter’s recent performance.
Some time ago, he had sent a message instructing the Cutter to investigate Pei Guangji’s villa on the mountainside according to the address he had provided.
But it was like a stone sinking into the sea, with no reply.
Qiu Yuan even suspected that this might be a sign of rebellion, that the Cutter had grown disloyal.
But he understood the Cutter’s single-threaded, utterly simple brain. This mutant basically lacked basic thinking ability. The reason it was still the best weapon of the Huozhong organization was because of his instinct for slaughter. It was no exaggeration to say that killing was a conditioned reflex engraved into his genes.
However, today’s performance had greatly disappointed him.
He was foolish enough to be spotted by a witness in the garden and had failed to clean up the loose ends immediately, giving others the chance to find the unconscious victim in the garden.
Thus causing the Pei family’s security team to mobilize.
Assassinating Gerald should have been completed silently, the best scenario being an unseen approach and an untraceable retreat, leaving only a few traces of mutant provocation at the crime scene to terrify these people sufficiently.
Qiu Yuan drained his glass, and a faint burning sensation rose from his stomach.
Behind the sunglasses, his eyes were an ocean-deep blue.
Fortunately, he came to the friends’ gathering.
He even added a banquet.
His eight tentacles had already spread out to different corners of the manor, each tentacle equipped with a secondary brain, launching attacks that could be described as mental pollution and ensuring that the security team would not interfere with the Cutter’s assassination plan.
Of course, the high-tech light weapons the guards carried were completely useless against the tentacles.
After all, these weapons were manufactured by the Qiu family’s arms factory.
Qiu Yuan lifted the corner of his lips.
He raised his glass towards Xi Zhengqing not far away and saw the other man hurrying through the crowd, seemingly searching for something.
Qiu Yuan arched an eyebrow. “What are you looking for?”
He glanced at Xi Zhengqing’s side. It was empty. The smile on Qiu Yuan’s thin lips grew meaningful, and he asked with great interest. “Did you try to poach someone and failed?”
It was as if he found this particularly amusing.
The gloating in his tone was undisguised.
Xi Zhengqing shot him a cold look. “He’s gone. I told him to wait for me on the first floor of the banquet hall, but now I can’t find him, and I can’t reach him either.”
Pei Ying happened to come over from the other side. In just a few months, his manners had improved significantly; even as he walked by, he remembered to smile and exchange pleasantries with the guests.
But upon hearing Xi Zhengqing’s words, the taut string in his mind snapped with a “pa” sound.
The young Alpha strode forward impulsively and grabbed the other Alpha by the collar. The atmosphere was tense, as if a fight could break out at any second.
Pei Ying’s brows drew together fiercely as he glared at Xi Zhengqing. “What do you mean by that?! Xin Hexue is missing?”
Xin Hexue had face blindness and his body was so frail, not to mention there might be a mutant species still hiding somewhere in the manor!
Xi Zhengqing brushed Pei Ying’s hand away in disgust. “I’d like to ask why the Pei family’s security is so bad that even a mutant could sneak in easily?”
‘Quarreling?’
‘It’s great to quarrel.’
Qiu Yuan watched the drama unfold with great interest and fanned the flames. “Don’t panic. How could an adult just disappear? He’ll turn up soon.”
Xi Zhengqing clenched his fists, trying hard to maintain a normal expression under the curious gazes of many guests. “I couldn’t find him in the banquet hall. I’ve already sent people to search each room.”
Pei Ying gritted his teeth. “The Pei family estate covers ninety thousand square meters, with almost three hundred rooms. You want to search until past midnight?”
The nearly three hundred rooms didn’t even account for attached spaces like bathrooms and walk-in closets connected to the bedrooms.
Qiu Yuan watched the two facing off.
He noticed that both Xi Zhengqing and Pei Ying treated that young man with an unusually special attitude.
‘Xin Hexue…’
Qiu Yuan silently repeated the name in his heart.
‘What kind of person is he?’
Just then, someone approached with a young waiter. Xi Zhengqing asked, “Did you find him?”
The man replied, “Young master, he said he has seen Mr. Xin before.”
Kirk glanced at Xi Zhengqing nervously, then at Pei Ying, and realized that the job he had just landed a month ago was about to go down the drain.
He said nervously, “Yes, if Mr. Xin is a Beta with black hair and black eyes, with an Oriental appearance, then I have seen him…”
Pei Ying was impatient and asked bluntly, “Where?”
Kirk explained in a fluster, “It was like this. When I went to deliver wine to Mr. Xin, I accidentally stumbled a bit, and the wine spilled onto Mr. Xin’s clothes. I took him to the washroom to tidy up, and then went to ask the butler for a clean set of clothes…”
“But when I went back, Mr. Xin was no longer in the washroom, and I haven’t seen him since…”
Xi Zhengqing caught onto the information, his brow furrowed as he questioned Kirk, “Why did you go deliver wine to him?”
Xin Hexue usually only drank tea and never touched alcohol.
Kirk stammered and explained, “It was Mr. Gerald’s order, he asked me to deliver the wine… with the drug… to his Oriental Omega lover, and then take the person to the lounge. I just…just mistook the person, I didn’t mean to harm Mr. Xin!”
Kirk didn’t even reveal the senior who gave him the order.
Xi Zhengqing took a deep breath.
After hearing only the first half of the sentence, Pei Ying had already left, hurriedly looking for someone.
Xi Zhengqing ordered, “Detain him first and continue searching.”
After speaking, he left, moving so swiftly that it seemed like the wind was under his feet, the tails of his tuxedo jacket curling up behind him.
Qiu Yuan paused slightly when he heard Gerald’s name.
The first person found unconscious in the garden had been Gerald’s Omega lover, so that person naturally hadn’t had the chance to appear in the banquet hall. No wonder, following the chain reaction, the waiter who had received the order mistook the target.
Gerald was Old Master Pei’s trusted aide and also held an important position at the Federal Security Bureau.
Qiu Yuan had, of course, deliberately looked into this man’s conduct and past.
His eldest son, Cook, was already twenty years old, but Gerald was still fooling around, with mistresses everywhere. His private life was so chaotic that it was beyond a mess. Moreover, his lifelong hobby was forcibly seizing what he wanted, repeatedly challenging the federal laws meant to protect Omegas.
Many of his so-called lovers had been forced into it through money, power, and all kinds of dirty tricks.
Qiu Yuan’s brows arched toward the center.
In his sea of consciousness, among the eight tentacles monitoring the surroundings, two of them suddenly left their posts in silent agreement. They stopped blocking the guards, who were like headless flies, and instead moved simultaneously toward a certain deep part of the manor.
As the central brain, Qiu Yuan immediately commanded, [What are you doing? Return.]
There was a burst of silence from that side.
After a long time, the same voice returned.
[..No.]
[You are just the main brain, why must we listen to you?]
Then, as if an old television set from the last century was turning to static, a continuous buzzing noise filled the connection.
The voice transmission kept breaking.
Not long after, Qiu Yuan heard the sound of running water.
It was unknown as to where his two tentacles had reached.
They were even communicating…
[His hands are so small…]
[Why so white?]
[He smells so good.]
Qiu Yuan: ?
Qiu Yuan: [What exactly are you talking about?]
There was another silence.
A few seconds later, the two tentacles voluntarily severed the information link between the peripheral nervous system and the central nervous system.
Qiu Yuan, who was unilaterally cut off from communication, raised his eyebrows in shock and suspicion.
………
This drug called “Infernal Fire” had an aphrodisiac effect that surged wave after wave, as if it had no end.
Just as one wave of heat subsided, another would rise.
Xin Hexue leaned against the edge of the bathtub, the warm water rippling around him.
He had already climaxed once, his eyelashes were damp with physiological tears, and even the simple act of lifting his fingers felt exhausting.
His lips, originally pale and bloodless, had turned red due to the heat, and even the tips of his ears were flushed.
The colors were so vivid it looked like a pink dream.
Xin Hexue breathed slowly, his chest rising and falling with each breath.
The strange sensation attacked again.
The manual method was too inefficient. Xin Hexue assessed his physical state; judging by the drug’s potency, he would have to endure several more rounds.
He hated this state of being unable to control his desires. Between the surging waves of lust, he only had fleeting moments of clarity.
Since that was the case, he might as well just have sex directly.
One time should be enough to solve the problem.
The second wave of the drug’s effects gradually kicked in, and it was growing more and more intense, which forced Xin Hexue to make a decision quickly.
Those target candidates were temporarily ruled out.
From a rational perspective, this level of intimacy would disrupt his original plan.
But to be more honest, the real reason was that Xin Hexue found Xi Zhengqing somewhat distasteful.
That guy was like a dog…if he got too excited, Xi Zhengqing would probably ravage him to the point of falling apart.
Xin Hexue had no intention of giving him that chance.
He needed to find someone obedient enough.
The precondition before that was cleanliness.
Xin Hexue thought of a detachable bionic man.
He exhaled a breath of hot air and let out a muffled cough before picking up the communicator on the shelf, which showed countless missed calls.
He needed a quick resolution.
Xin Hexue opened the remote connection app for the bionic.
Perhaps it was because of this particular bionic’s special master-protection programming that made Number One stubbornly insist on following him out, behaving not like a butler-type bionic but more like a bodyguard-type. However, because it was impossible for him to attend the banquet, Number One had ultimately stayed back on the aircraft.
The remote connection software matched to the bionic man could, after being authorized for real-time location access, enable the “bionic auto-follow” function.
Xin Hexue left a message for Number One, “Come here immediately.”
He was so hot he felt dazed.
When he placed the communicator back on the shelf, he almost dropped it.
The dizziness blurred his consciousness. Xin Hexue closed his eyes and pressed at the center of his brows.
The brief darkness from closing his eyes made him unaware that two uninvited guests had slipped into the bathroom.
His waist was narrow, and his thin abdominal muscles felt soft to the touch when relaxed. One of the tentacles seized the opportunity, wrapping its suction-cup-covered side around the excessively beautiful and fragile prey.
The other tentacle slipped into the bathtub, its size expanding upon contact with water, and lightly touched the delicate calf.
Xin Hexue’s eyes snapped open in surprise.
‘In the bathtub…!’
‘Tentacles had actually grown out from the bathtub…’ He thought dazedly under the effects of the drug.
