Chapter 55 - 51: Heart-Fluttering Moment

Chapter 55: Chapter 51: Heart-Fluttering Moment

White Phosphorus and Lighthouse rushed over the moment they heard the gunshots. Sure enough, they found their captain. However, their footsteps skidded to a halt as they closed in and saw the corpse undergoing mutation.

"Tuner?" White Phosphorus’s voice trembled in disbelief.

Standing behind her, Lighthouse opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a single word.

The Mutant abruptly raised its head, undergoing a grotesque Transformation. Its face was now covered in dense scales, and it let out a hoarse howl at them from a maw packed with razor-sharp teeth. It sprang from the ground and lunged at Yin Zhen.

Lighthouse took a long stride forward, his entire body turning to steel. He locked his arms tightly around the frantically struggling body. As the scales scraped against his metallic skin, they produced a harsh, grating screech.

"Snap out of it!" Lighthouse yelled, the corners of his eyes turning red.

Blood Flame ignited around White Phosphorus’s fist. Tears welling in her eyes, she charged forward and smashed a punch straight into that mouth full of fangs. The Blood Flame exploded from the inside. Black blood spewed out, splattering across her diving suit.

Lighthouse let go. The Mutant’s entire head had blown apart, leaving it dead beyond doubt.

White Phosphorus stood dumbfounded before the corpse, while Lighthouse stood in heavy silence.

"The spore infection spreads too fast. Without suppressants or a cryo-pod, there was no saving him from the start," Yin Zhen’s emotionless voice came from behind them.

Lucia had faced the exact same situation when spores invaded her wound. However, she had been injured on the coastline with a medic right beside her. They had administered the suppressant in under three seconds and rushed her into a cryo-pod in record time.

Turning around and seeing Yin Zhen’s blank expression, White Phosphorus assumed she was also suppressing her grief. That was exactly how Lucia was—she never let anyone see her vulnerable side.

"Captain..."

Yin Zhen walked up to Lighthouse and held out her hand. "Give me the explosives!"

Lighthouse unslung the case of explosives from his back and handed it to her. It was heavy, packed with a massive payload.

Yin Zhen strapped the explosives firmly onto her back. "Find an evacuation route and wait to extract me. I’m going to blow that thing to hell!"

"We can’t let you go alone, Captain. Let us go with you."

"I can transform into a Raven and fly out!"

She turned and left without looking back. In White Phosphorus’s eyes, she looked exactly like a heartbroken survivor going to avenge her lover.

White Phosphorus stood rooted to the spot, watching the direction where Yin Zhen had disappeared. Lighthouse crouched down and gathered the mangled remains of the corpse, trying to find something nearby to wrap the body in so he could take it home. But there was nothing.

Overcome with grief, the towering brute smashed his fist into an adjacent iron plate.

White Phosphorus patted Lighthouse on the shoulder. "Once the Captain blows that thing up, we’re still going to have a bitter fight on our hands!"

Lighthouse wiped his eyes and stood up, following White Phosphorus to search for an extraction route.

Carrying the explosives, Yin Zhen returned to the spot where they had previously separated. Zoe and Ian were nowhere to be seen.

Yin Zhen searched in the direction they had gone. The passageway grew narrower the further she walked. Translucent red membranes began to appear around her, draping down layer by layer like gauze curtains billowing in the wind, resembling the outer sac of a developing embryo. The deeper she ventured, the denser these "curtains" became. They stretched from both sides toward the center, nearly sealing off the entire passage.

Yin Zhen turned sideways and squeezed through the gaps. At the end of the corridor, the space suddenly opened up.

It was a massive cavernous chamber. The fleshy walls were smooth and moist, glowing with a dim red light. There were no spores or tentacles here. In the center of the chamber, a cocoon hung suspended in midair.

The outer layer of the cocoon was made of the same translucent red membrane. It was as thin as a cicada’s wing, allowing her to clearly see what was inside.

Inside was a giant humanoid creature. Its pure white body looked like snow and porcelain, reminiscent of untainted moonlight. The skin across its entire body was an almost transparent white. Its long white hair cascaded down like silk, wrapping around its figure. Its facial features were blurred yet soft, impossible to distinguish by gender or age. It exuded a transcendent, almost divine beauty.

A pair of wings rested folded against its back. Pure white membranes stretched over pronounced skeletal structures, and the curves formed by every single bone were exquisitely beautiful.

Yin Zhen’s heart suddenly clenched. Something forcefully plucked a chord deep within her brain, emitting a deafening buzz. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the white humanoid creature. Something swelled within her chest. She wanted to get closer to it, to touch it. She wanted to possess it.

Realizing that she was being influenced by the cocoon, Yin Zhen instinctively struggled for a fraction of a second before suddenly relaxing her guard completely.

[Detected that the Player’s brain phenethylamine concentration has breached the infatuation threshold. Copper Card event "Infatuation" completed. (You’ve fallen head over heels for some unknown entity. What a beautiful exploitation of a bug!)]

[Reward Obtained: Word count +3000, Item "Power of Love Brain"]

[Power of Love Brain: A pale red crystal shard with sharp edges that grows hot when held. It is said to be a fragment of a heart crushed by a love-struck fool, though whose heart it was remains a mystery.]

[Item Effect: Consume word count while harboring intense love or hatred, and write a person’s name on your arm. Your blood will inject this emotion into the shard, transforming it into a curse. The curse ignores defense, ignores distance, and ignores all protection, acting directly upon the target’s soul.

The curse will make the target experience the devastating, heartbreaking sensation of losing their true love. The initial onset lasts for 3 hours, followed by 7 random attacks over the next 7 natural days, each lasting for 1 hour. Whether the target is tortured to death by the pain entirely depends on the intensity of your love or hatred for them.]

[Special Explanation: Infatuation is the most unreasonable thing in the world. It can make you bare your heart to someone, or it can make you pull out a knife and bare theirs. Don’t ask why. Just don’t mess with someone driven by the Power of Love Brain!!]

Yin Zhen had no time to review the rewards. Now that her goal was achieved, she forced herself to look away, struggling to suppress the completely irrational physiological response.

Before she could completely avert her gaze from the entity, she spotted Zoe.

She was wrapped in the fleshy membrane and suspended in midair like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web. Her limbs were spread wide and her head was tilted slightly back. Her eyes were open but unfocused, her pupils dilated as if she were staring at something far, far away. The translucent red membranes extended from her body and connected to the cocoon like umbilical cords, slowly reeling her in.

The creature inside the cocoon opened its arms toward Zoe, like a mother waiting for her child to return to her embrace.

Ian was positioned below her. He was also wrapped in the fleshy membrane, pinned securely against the wall. He was still conscious and struggling desperately.

Seeing Yin Zhen appear at the edge of the entrance platform, Ian’s eyes suddenly lit up. His mouth was sealed shut, leaving him unable to speak, but he jerked his chin toward the cocoon.

His gesture clearly pleaded for her to save Zoe.

Yin Zhen’s gaze sharpened. Tightening the straps of the explosives case, she leaped into the air, transforming into a pitch-black Raven as she flew toward Zoe.