Chapter 26 - 24: Cannon Fodder Must Die

Chapter 26: Chapter 24: Cannon Fodder Must Die

Victor escorted Yin Zhen to the most concealed laboratory deep beneath the Saint Group’s headquarters. The elevator doors slid open, and a wave of cold air hit her in the face. Enormous transparent culture vats lined the rooms on either side, and several researchers in white lab coats worked at their stations without so much as glancing up.

"Ian, S717 is yours. Don’t let anything go wrong this time."

A security guard shoved Yin Zhen inside. Victor exchanged a few words with Ian, then left ahead of them, leaving two armed guards posted at the door.

Yin Zhen rolled her numb shoulder.

Ian looked the same as ever — composed, dark curly hair, slim-framed glasses, a data pad in hand. He tilted his chin toward a pristine white lab coat hanging nearby.

"Change out of your Combat Uniform."

Yin Zhen frowned. As a compliant test subject, getting changed in front of others shouldn’t matter — but...

"Could I... change in a locker room?"

Yin Zhen made the request. Ian looked up, a flicker of surprise crossing his face as he studied her.

His lenses caught the light, making it impossible to read his eyes. She needed somewhere private — she had to inject the Spiritual Enhancer before the experiment began.

[Good Person Card (Activated)]

[Effect: Present this card when you need assistance. The other party has an 80% chance of doing you a small favor.]

"Follow me."

Ian turned and led Yin Zhen to a locker room further inside, pausing to glance at the old mechanical watch on his wrist.

"The experiment begins in approximately eleven hours. You’d do well to cooperate. The company has no intention of letting what happened with S704 repeat itself."

Yin Zhen thanked him and stepped inside, pulling the door shut behind her. The locker room was spacious, with a sink along one wall.

Most areas within the Saint Group were under camera surveillance — but not this room. A black leather motorcycle jacket hung on a hook on the wall. It had to be Ian’s.

He came across as the buttoned-up, suit-and-tie type. The jacket was a jarring contrast.

Yin Zhen had just started unfastening her Combat Uniform when her hands stilled. Her gaze drifted back to the jacket.

Something instinctive made her activate Super Sensing and move closer, cataloguing every scent and every detail too subtle to catch with the naked eye.

Zoe’s Defection had led Yin Zhen to one near-certain conclusion: someone inside the Saint Group — someone right here in this very lab — had been helping Zoe.

Ian was a strong candidate.

After finishing her examination, she used the cover of changing clothes to inject the Spiritual Enhancer. She crushed the syringe through the fabric of her sleeve, then washed the fragments down the drain.

The Spiritual Enhancer had barely entered her system before her mind began to tighten and burn.

After that, Yin Zhen played the obedient puppet, going along with every check and pre-experiment procedure Ian and the other researchers put her through.

Ten full hours. Medicine pumped into her veins one after another. Blood drawn again and again. Shoved into machine after machine.

The headache built exactly as she’d expected — until it was so savage that Yin Zhen began to hallucinate, the researchers bustling around her warping into Fallen Species and Mutants closing in to attack. More than once she nearly lost control and struck back.

The rapid surge in her spiritual power also brought back that strange, murmuring voice — the same one she’d heard when Blood Source Resonance awakened in her after her first encounter with a Fallen Species. A woman’s voice.

She couldn’t make out the words, but she felt the blood in her entire body rising and falling with each whispered syllable.

And the voice was closer now. Much closer than before.

Her will to survive and the burning need to stay alive long enough to get revenge overrode everything else. Yin Zhen ground her teeth through the pain and the savage urge to kill, holding on until every check and every preparation was finally done.

"Should we run another conditioning session on her? Make sure she doesn’t break the loyalty protocol like S704 did?" one of the researchers beside Ian asked.

Ian adjusted his glasses, his expression flat. "Conditioning and knowledge implantation can only be done once. A second session destroys the subject’s brain. This subject’s Extraordinary Ability is already marginal at best. If something goes wrong, are you prepared to face Lucia’s wrath?"

The researcher rubbed the back of his neck and said nothing more.

"Final observation window is thirty minutes. If there are no other issues, we proceed with the consciousness transfer experiment." Ian addressed the remaining assistants. "Take a twenty-minute break and get your energy back. I’ll hold things down here."

The other researchers filed out. Separated by the transparent glass, Ian sat alone outside the observation room, reviewing files on his computer.

Without warning, his wrist communicator buzzed. He glanced at it, a faint crease forming between his brows.

"Stay where you are. I’ll be right back."

Ian spoke into the intercom to Yin Zhen inside, then left in a hurry — so rushed that he didn’t even put the high-clearance tablet on the desk to sleep.

Yin Zhen’s pulse hammered at her temples. She fought through the searing pain in her skull and pushed all five senses to their limit.

The text on the tablet’s screen reflected faintly against the transparent glass — blurry, but not so blurry she couldn’t read it.

[Source Series · Genetic Analysis Report · TOP SECRET]

Sample ID: S000 (Source Blood)

Origin: Blood sample extracted from the leader of the human Rebel Army during the ███ campaign.

Ability Profile: Blood Source Resonance

Genetic Map: (Image)

Analysis Summary:

This ability does not function through traditional "plunder" or "copying" mechanisms. At its core, it operates via molecular-level cellular mimicry — by ingesting a target’s blood, it deciphers the genetic encoding of their Extraordinary Ability and reconstructs identical protein structures within the subject’s own cells, thereby replicating the ability.

Source Series subjects who inherit this ability can theoretically mimic the Extraordinary Ability of any bloodline, without restriction.

The ceiling of the mimicry is determined by the subject’s cellular plasticity and spiritual power, and the ability demonstrates autonomous growth potential.

However, prolonged mimicry may result in cellular memory disruption, carrying an unpredictable risk of Mutation.

[Note]: Whether the spiritual resonance aspect carries its own mimicry capacity or additional applications remains uninvestigated due to a lack of viable research samples.

Current Progress: Among S001–S730, confirmed awakening of "Blood Source Resonance": 0

Suspected carriers of recessive gene: S009 (Mutated), S213 (Deceased), S335 (Mutated)... S704 (Suspected Awakening).

Yin Zhen’s breath caught for a beat. So Blood Source Resonance really was the protagonist’s signature ability.

Then why had she awakened it too?

She’d thought it through carefully. The conclusion she’d reached was absurd — but it might just be the truth.

At the time, both she and Zoe had been locked in solo training rooms, fighting Fallen Species for their lives.

Zoe had the protagonist’s halo. And she... apparently did too.

The main storyline had unfolded in that area. When the World Will went to hand out the protagonist’s cheat, it found two protagonist halos. With both Zoe and her on the verge of being killed by the Fallen Species, there was no time to deliberate — so it handed the gift package to both of them.

That had to be the only explanation.

Ian came rushing back in. Yin Zhen dropped her gaze without a flicker of expression.

Ian moved to the console, noticed the tablet was still on, and flipped it face-down immediately.

He then glanced toward Yin Zhen inside, typed a few commands into the computer, and pulled up the room’s security feed. Seeing that Yin Zhen hadn’t moved from her seat the entire time he was gone, Ian let out a visible breath of relief.

Thirty minutes later.

"All readings are clear. Every metric is normal."

Ian paused, his gaze shifting to Yin Zhen inside.

"Anything you want to say?"

Yin Zhen shook her head.

Ian pressed a few keys on the screen. The observation room door unlocked. Yin Zhen stepped out to find four armed security personnel already waiting at the entrance.

Under constant watch, she was led all the way to the deepest section of the underground laboratory, where she stopped dead.

Through the glass, an enormous sealed chamber was slowly filling with liquid. Something was submerged inside.

No. Not someone. Something.

Its skin was a mottled grayish-brown. One half of the body still vaguely held the shape of a human being. The other half was a mass of grotesque tumors and writhing tendrils — like flesh that had been kneaded into a ruined, formless lump.

Lucia Dracula.

[Special Event Triggered: The Cannon Fodder Must Die]

[Event Requirement: Someone has to die today. Care to guess — you, or Lucia?]

[Friendly Reminder: A cannon fodder’s fate is never their own to decide. Unless, of course, you’re tougher than the other cannon fodder.]