Foreign Object Invasion

The man on the stretcher blurted out, "My birthday."

"×"

The red cross on the screen was unusually conspicuous, accompanied by a deafening alarm.

"Foreign object invasion! Foreign object invasion..."

The mechanical voice repeated coldly and relentlessly, and the area under the glass dome stirred into chaos.

Tu Ran was startled, looking around in confusion. What was happening now?!

Xi Chunzhi had already stepped in front of her, pulling her back while warily watching the man on the stretcher.

Tu Ran followed her gaze and saw a scene that chilled her to the bone.

The "person" on the stretcher, missing a leg, stood up directly.

Where his left leg had been empty, a thick thigh quickly grew out.

Wait, no—Tu Ran looked closely. That wasn't a leg; it was a writhing white tentacle. One, two, three... They stretched out menacingly from the torn pant leg.

Where the sleeve had been, several tentacles also burst through, wriggling like maggots. The human arm was torn off, falling to the ground and rolling a few times.

Tu Ran's shock was beyond words.

God, what was this thing? It could actually possess a human?!

Tu Ran had an innate, visceral fear and disgust for such soft-bodied creatures.

The "shield" was kicked flying by the enraged monster, crashing heavily several meters away.

Guards in combat gear, armed with guns and cannons, quickly gathered and fired at the writhing monster.

The creature's vitality was tenacious; under the dense barrage, it did not die.

Its body was like a bottomless pit of suction, drawing in each bullet and sending ripples through its fleshy mass.

It grew more agitated, thrashing its thick tentacles indiscriminately at the surrounding guards.

Three guards were sent flying by its tentacles, landing in parabolic arcs, heads hitting the ground, limbs bent at grotesque angles—dead on the spot.

More and more guards surrounded it, the firepower growing denser, the sounds of guns and cannons rising and falling, but the situation showed little progress.

Tu Ran realized that this octopus monster was on an entirely different level from the Gu Diao she had encountered before.

Although the Gu Diao was large, it didn't have an indestructible body; a single bomb could blow it to pieces. But this octopus monster clearly had much thicker skin.

As the battle reached a stalemate, Tu Ran noticed Xie Xu, who had been watching from the side, make his move.

He took the gun from his back and aimed at the writhing monster.

His movements were swift and precise as he pulled the trigger.

A blue laser shot from the muzzle, piercing straight into the creature's skull. In an instant, a fist-sized hole appeared in the center of its head.

The tentacles that had been thrashing in the air went limp and crashed to the ground.

Dead.

Just like that.

Tu Ran stared in disbelief, eyeing the laser gun that Xie Xu was calmly slinging back over his shoulder, and swallowed hard.

She wanted one too...

With the octopus monster dead, order was quickly restored under the glass dome. People in white protective suits came to clean up, and the line was re-formed.

The "shield" that had been kicked flying by the octopus monster climbed back up from the corner, unharmed, and resumed his work.

Tu Ran suddenly understood why he was dressed like that:

He was built to take a beating!

Behind her, Xi Chunzhi suddenly sighed and remarked, "Although this method is a bit crude, it's effective. There have been far fewer strange incidents in the state lately."

What method? Tu Ran's mind raced, recalling the octopus monster that had been pierced by the laser. A thought suddenly struck her.

Could it be that answering the questions on the electronic screen incorrectly meant you were a monster?

Monsters possessed humans, but perhaps they didn't inherit the original body's memories?

So they couldn't answer the questions on the screen.

This could be used to distinguish them from the original people who had set out for the monster world.

Tu Ran quickly thought of herself.