Terror

Once Yao Bei finished making arrangements, everyone set out.

Tu Ran split her team into two groups. She led Shen Yunhe, Le Qin, and the other second-generation pioneers to take the lower level, while Xiao Di and Min Tao, who usually worked together and had good chemistry, took a group of second-generation pioneers to clear the first deck.

The lower level was filled with workspaces and storage rooms. The lighting was dim, and some spots were pitch black. As Tu Ran's team descended, the air was thick with dampness and the stench of fish, enough to make one nauseous.

Each step of their combat boots landed on sticky, greasy surfaces.

This was supposed to be a luxury cruise ship? Tu Ran switched on the beam of her combat helmet and looked around. This place looked like an unlicensed food-processing shack—dirty, messy, and reeking. The rich passengers up top probably had no idea their meals were prepared here.

The corridor on this level was extremely narrow. It was hard to believe that in such a massive cruise ship, two people could barely walk side by side. Tu Ran had to make them walk single file, with her taking the lead and another first-generation pioneer bringing up the rear.

The corridor was lined with compartments on both sides. Some were open, showing stacks of boxes of various sizes. Others were closed, and each one had to be opened one by one.

Tu Ran kicked the doors open, while Le Qin and Shen Yunhe hid on either side and rushed in. The rest scouted the surroundings to guard against any lurking Aberrants.

After kicking open five doors in a row, all revealing stacked cargo, the group's taut nerves inevitably slackened a little.

Tu Ran walked expressionlessly toward the sixth closed door.

"Get ready," she said through her helmet, reminding the others to keep their wits about them.

They couldn't afford to let their guard down.

"Three, two, one!"

Bang! Tu Ran kicked the wooden door open.

A thick, heavy smell of blood mixed with heat rushed out. Without her air purification system on, Tu Ran's eyes rolled up and she nearly passed out.

Shen Yunhe and Le Qin charged forward with their people, but they only got two steps in before the light beams from their combat helmets illuminated the room. Their footsteps froze, and none of them dared take another step.

Dismembered arms and limbs were piled all over the floor—all human. It was like the pile of dead fish in the previous room, but worse.

Blood pooled on the ground, and Le Qin and Shen Yunhe were standing right in it. They hastily backed away, their boots making sticky, squelching sounds.

The noise made everyone's hair stand on end.

Tu Ran felt a chill too. It was the first time she'd ever seen such a gruesome scene, and her stomach churned violently.

She would rather fight the gene monster that caused this face-to-face than look at such a hair-raising sight.

But she had to stay calm.

She was the pillar of this team. If she panicked, the others would probably throw down their gear and run.

She calmly swept the light beam from her helmet across the entire room, confirming there was no gene monster inside. Then she said, "On to the next room. Everyone, stay alert."

The gene monster's food was here, so the gene monster itself couldn't be far.

The group left the room and headed for the next one.

The next door was already open, and the scene inside was visible from outside. It was a small restroom—probably where the crew handling the food slept. It was cramped, with a bed taking up most of the space. No one was inside, but there was a large patch of blood on the bed.

As expected, whoever was in there had met with an accident.

"Next," Tu Ran said decisively, turning around.

Tu Ran had initially expected to find a gene monster in the lower level—after all, the "food store" was there. But after searching the entire floor, there was no sign of any gene monster, not even a trace of any humans.

It wasn't in the lower level.

Had it gone up to the upper decks to work off its meal?

Tu Ran had no choice but to lead her group up in force, contacting Min Tao and Xiao Di through the communicator at the same time.

"Haven't found anything yet," Min Tao replied, his side punctuated by the occasional sound of kicking doors.

Tu Ran stopped in her tracks.

They were currently on the narrow stairs between the lower level and the first deck. When she stopped, the pioneers behind her came to a halt one after another and looked up at her, puzzled.

Tu Ran's brow furrowed deeply.

The blood from the pile of corpses earlier hadn't fully dried, which meant the gene monster hadn't left long ago. It had stored its fresh food there, yet it had disappeared without a trace... Tu Ran glanced at Le Qin and Shen Yunhe's combat boots.

A single drop of red liquid glinted on the toe of one boot in the dim light.

"Zhao Shan is missing!" someone at the end of the stairs suddenly shouted.

Tu Ran was speechless. How had they only just noticed that someone was missing? She vaulted over the stair railing, landing on the lower level, and sprinted toward the room filled with dismembered limbs.

The gene monster must have been hiding on top of the doorframe.

The room had been dark, and she hadn't gone in. Shen Yunhe and Le Qin had only taken two steps inside before being scared back by the sight. If the gene monster had been lurking up there, they would never have spotted it.

When they reached the room, the door was shut.

They hadn't closed it when they left!

Tu Ran kicked the door open and was greeted by the sight of a disheveled, hairy monster clinging to a pioneer's body, its multiple limbs wrapped around him.

One of its claws had already pierced through his chest—thankfully on the right side, a ways from his heart. The pioneer trembled weakly, his lungs damaged, blood pouring out of his nose in thick streams, all caught by his combat helmet.

Attracted by his blood, the monster's mouth gaped wide and clamped onto the helmet with an impossibly wide bite. The helmet was made of special materials, tough enough that the monster couldn't bite through it, so instead it stretched its jaws wider, as if trying to swallow the man's head whole.

Tu Ran's sudden intrusion startled it for a moment. Then it quickly scrambled off the pioneer and crawled toward her.

Yes, crawled.

With its fangs and claws, its hair hanging all over its face, Tu Ran's scalp tingled.

This gene monster wasn't among the three that Zero had listed.

There were more than three gene monsters on the ship!

She raised her machine gun and fired a rapid burst at it.

The gene monster, caught off guard, was driven back a few steps. But it quickly steadied itself, even adapting to the bullets' impact, and charged forward against the hail of fire.

Tu Ran dodged to the side, and the monster's claws dug straight into the wooden panel across from her. As it wrenched them free, Tu Ran drew the long blade from her back, infused it with "Tremendous Strength," and swung at the monster's neck.

The blade sank halfway in instantly. The monster's head, losing some support, slumped forward slightly.

But it wasn't dead yet. It kept pulling its claws free.

Tu Ran was about to strike again.

Shen Yunhe, Le Qin, and the others arrived. They caught sight of the monster and couldn't help drawing sharp breaths, but they didn't hesitate to raise their guns. Bullets crackled past Tu Ran's blade and hammered into the monster's body.