Volume 4, Chapter 37 – Even the Game Designers Would Cry

“Glug glug glug…”

The moment the bomb was thrown into the culture fluid, countless bubbles began rising to the surface.

Subject No. 3 seemed to sense that something was wrong. It started struggling with all its might, but its weakened body made the struggle look utterly feeble.

Only with great difficulty did it finally crawl to the edge of the tank.

“Boom!”

The bomb exploded instantly inside the culture fluid!

A yellow flash filled the entire space in an instant. Water churned violently, the culture tank was blown to pieces, and the culture fluid sprayed outward like a river bursting through a dam.

Luckily, Anran had already dodged away. The floor was covered in culture fluid and shattered glass, and she sprang out with her gun in hand.

Subject No. 3 collapsed on the ground. Its slime-like body was badly mangled, and one of its arms had been torn off and fallen to the floor. Even separated from its body, it was still writhing nonstop.

This monster’s vitality was terrifyingly tenacious.

Anran saw small damage numbers constantly floating above its head, yet it stubbornly refused to die.

Scout.

Name: Subject No. 3 [Bleeding] [Weakened].

At that thought, Anran immediately poured a little Red Silk Reagent onto the severed arm.

At the same time, she used Scout again.

Subject No. 3 [Bleeding] [Weakened] [Suppressed].

An extra Suppressed status had appeared.

That very lively arm had already gone limp, lying soft and weak in the fluid. Subject No. 3’s mangled body remained where it was, its eyes full of hatred locked tightly on Anran, its claws waving. Even in such a desperate state, it still wanted to make trouble.

“Gross!”

Bang, bang!

Two bullets shot into Subject No. 3’s eyes.

At the same time, Anran also received a game notification.

“You killed Subject No. 3 and gained 5000 Free EXP.”

Anran was so shocked her mouth fell open.

This thing itself was worth 5000 Free EXP?

Jackpot!

Anran’s eyes started glowing red.

She had Red Silk Reagent in hand, and there were still sixteen monsters stronger than Subject No. 3. If she really killed them all, she would gain at least one and a half levels, and if she got lucky, maybe even two!

If she wiped out this base, she would probably reach Level 18!

Woohoo!

“Aila, let’s go!”

Kicking Subject No. 3’s corpse aside, Anran opened the first door.

Ahead were Subject No. 7 and Subject No. 8.

Slime Bigmouth Monster No. 1 and Slime Bigmouth Monster No. 2!

One on the left and one on the right, the two bigmouth monsters immediately crawled up to the edge of their tanks the moment they saw Anran and Aila approach. They opened their huge mouths wide, looking as though they were grinning excitedly at the sight of prey.

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Sticky fluid constantly dripped from their mouths into the culture liquid.

Hunger, greed, devouring…

It was feeding time!

The excited eyes of the bigmouth monsters shone with vicious light.

Heh heh…

Anran climbed onto the culture tank.

Splash splash splash!

Bombs were limited, so Anran did not keep using them. Instead, she lifted the lid of the tank, while she and Aila stood on opposite sides and fired into it.

“Aoo!”

“Ao!”

The slime bigmouth monsters struggled angrily inside the tank, but that Weakened status meant they could not bring much of their strength into play.

It was simply too miserable. Ferocious and powerful artificial monsters had been reduced to target dummies for Anran to farm EXP on while soaking in culture fluid. Soon they were beaten to the brink of death. They tried to fight back with their claws, but Aila smacked the claws right back down with one swing of her iron rod. In the end, after one final cry, they died under Anran’s finishing shots.

“You killed Subject No. 7 and gained 5600 Free EXP.”

“You killed Subject No. 8 and gained 5800 Free EXP.”

…

Bang, bang!

Bang bang bang!

“Ao!”

“Woo…”

“Roar roar!”

Rainer, who was in the middle of mixing reagents, had his brows tightly furrowed, his eye sockets practically sunken in.

He could not stand the noise outside anymore. At a critical moment like this, what the hell were those experimental subjects doing?

“What exactly is going on? Where is Shu Mingxu?” Setting the test tube into the instrument, Rainer shouted furiously.

He had gone almost two days without sleep. When his bloodshot eyes glared at the researchers beside him, he almost scared them into pissing themselves.

“S-Supervisor, I’ll go out and take a look right away.” A man in a white coat immediately stepped forward.

The atmosphere here was too oppressive. With the experiment on the verge of success, Rainer looked like he had gone mad.

Along with the occasional low growls coming from beneath the white cloth, almost no one wanted to stay here anymore.

If they angered Rainer and got thrown in as monster food, they would be finished.

Rainer burst out laughing. “Go see who’s causing trouble. I wouldn’t mind turning him into Subject No. 24’s food later, hahaha!”

“Yes, yes, yes.”

The white coat answered in a submissive voice.

He pushed the door open. The instant he looked up, his entire body froze.

“What now?” Rainer roared.

The white coat said, “The… the isolation doors in the corridor have closed.”

“The isolation doors are closed?” Rainer said in surprise. “Hurry to the monitoring room and see whether the experimental subjects got out or whether those lackeys of the Empire have broken in.”

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No. It still needs twenty more minutes.

Rainer hurried back to the instrument.

“What are you all standing around for? Hurry up and mix the reagents! If you don’t want to die, then behave yourselves! If the Empire’s lackeys break in, not a single one of you will escape!” He had no energy left to care about anything else. No matter what accident had occurred, he had to focus on this most crucial tube of reagent.

“Yes.”

“Hurry, hurry.”

Once people like them, who had conducted this sort of experiment, were caught by the government army, the outcome was easy to imagine.

Those researchers all forced themselves to focus on the reagents in front of them as well.

The white coat who had gone out to investigate turned left and headed straight to the monitoring room. The control switch for the other side was also inside the monitoring room.

The moment he walked in, he only needed one casual glance across the screens to be stunned stiff.

The room where Subject No. 3 had been was in complete chaos. The culture tank had been shattered all over the place, the floor was covered in culture fluid, and the monster itself was gone.

“Did it escape?”

The white coat muttered to himself. The fear on his face could not have been clearer.

These were savage monsters. If they got out…

No wonder the isolation doors had been shut. He had no idea how the coworkers in the office area were doing.

The white coat turned and looked at the room where Subject No. 7 had been.

Hm?

Subject No. 7 was still lying there at the bottom of the tank, but… why was its body twisted into such a mess? Could it be aftereffects from the Red Silk Reagent injection earlier?

Then he looked at Subject No. 8.

Hm?

Where was Subject No. 8’s head?

Why had it fallen to the bottom of the tank?

Could Subject No. 3 have done that, evolving through mutual devouring?

The white coat quickly spun around and looked at the monitor on the opposite wall behind him. This time, he finally found the culprits.

Inside the room where Subject No. 14 was being held.

The glass wall had been smashed apart, the culture tank had been opened, and one fully armed figure was lying across the edge of the tank, continuously firing at the subject inside.

On the other side of the tank, a very short figure stood on a raised platform, gripping an iron rod. Every time Subject No. 14 made a move to lash out with its claws, that figure would swing the rod down.

The ferocious Subject No. 14 could not use its strength at all. It could only keep trying to attack, only to be beaten back over and over again.

Soon the tank was filled with blue blood.

“Holy shit!”

The white coat leaned over the monitor, staring in dumbstruck disbelief at the divine maneuvering of Anran and Aila.

Red Silk Reagent hung at Anran’s waist. If anything changed, she could splash some on the monsters at any time.

She and Aila had already killed seven monsters. From kill EXP alone, her total accumulated EXP had already reached 114,300, enough for her to level up again at any moment.

“Roar…”

The damage numbers floating from Subject No. 14 had gradually risen from -67 and -56 at the start to -145 and -164.

After taking seven or eight gunshots and several blows from the rod in a row, it finally could not hold on any longer.

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“Woo…”

Splash. Its body, more than two meters tall, sank straight to the bottom of the tank at last.

“You killed Subject No. 14 and gained 7700 Free EXP.”

Very satisfying.

Anran jumped down from the culture tank.

“Aila, jump down. I’ll catch you!”

Aila jumped down and landed right in Anran’s arms, her head buried deep in Anran’s chest…

Pfft. It was not really buried deep, but there was still some softness there.

“Next target, Subject No. 15 across the way.”

Anran turned, her gaze landing on Subject No. 15 opposite her.

“Woo woo…”

The ferocious monster actually shrank back a little on instinct, pressing itself tightly into the corner of the tank.

If the game designers knew what was happening here, they would definitely cry.

These monsters were supposed to be bargaining chips added to the somewhat weaker Morningstar Resistance!

And yet before they could even be released, they were getting slaughtered by this damned NPC!

At exactly what point had the game’s development gone so wrong?

“-100000”

As she walked, Anran leveled herself up once more.

She allocated the extra 5 attribute points as +3 Intelligence, +1 Agility, and +1 Strength.

Six attributes: Strength 29, Agility 33, Endurance 40, Intelligence 58, Spirit 20, Charisma 9.

At the same time, she spent two skill points to unlock the Scout class skill “Killing Blow.”

Killing Blow: The next bullet is guaranteed to crit, dealing double damage after damage conversion. Costs 50 stamina.

Before advancing to a Basic class, all active skills either consumed stamina or had cooldown times.

But after reaching a Basic class, differences in all aspects began to appear.

For example, a Basic Swordsman would unlock a sword aura gauge at that point. Skill use could consume sword aura, and flexible use of sword aura was the foundation of a Basic Swordsman’s fighting style.

Crash!

The glass wall outside the room holding Subject No. 15 was smashed to pieces.

Subject No. 15, huddled in the corner of its tank, immediately trembled.

Unlike the other experimental subjects, Subject No. 15, though still bloodthirsty and savage, had been transformed from a beast and still retained quite a bit of intelligence.

Seeking advantage and avoiding harm was the law of survival for beasts.

Having watched with its own eyes as Anran and Aila brutally killed Subject No. 14, Subject No. 15 could not help but feel fear.

“Are those two the real monsters?”

In the monitoring room, the white coat even started wondering whether he was hallucinating.

Crash!

There was no actual sound, but in his head he automatically imagined the shattering of a glass cup.

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If this kept going, then would not all the experimental subjects outside be killed by the two of them?

Should he report this to the supervisor or not?

The white coat fell into hesitation.

While he was wavering, the “cowardly” Subject No. 15 tried to launch one last counterattack before dying, only to be shoved back underwater by Aila, then finished off by a shot from Anran.

8000 EXP. Nice!

Bang!

At that moment, the door to the monitoring room was kicked open. When the white coat turned his head, he saw Rainer walking in with a terrifyingly grim expression.

“What exactly is going on? None of you take me seriously anymore?”

“S-S-Super…” The white coat was too frightened to speak.

“Get lost!”

Rainer slapped him flying with one hit, then walked over to the monitor.

Now he too saw what Anran and Aila had done.

A new isolation door had been opened, and the two intruding “bandits” were reaching their poisonous hands toward Subject No. 16, which was excitedly pounding against its tank.

…

Rainer’s face darkened.

He had already seen the experimental subjects that had died miserably.

“Trash. A bunch of trash!”

Furious, he strode over to the wall, suddenly yanked open a panel, and pressed the button inside.

“Hm?”

A red light suddenly flashed before her eyes. Anran instinctively used Mechanical Interference and dodged to the side.

Even so, the bullet still grazed her arm, slicing open a small wound.

-28!

Compared to Anran’s 850 HP, 28 damage was nothing. But if she had dodged any later, she very likely would have been shot in the head just now.

She looked up and saw that a machine gun and a camera had suddenly extended from the ceiling.

Because she had used Mechanical Interference in time, both of them now seemed to be jammed.

…

Anran’s expression sank. She jumped up and slashed that gun down with one strike.

Then she raised her middle finger at the camera!

“Fuck your mother!”

Do not be fooled by how short she was. She could jump pretty high.

…

Rainer laughed in fury. “Heh. Hahaha. Hahahaha. Interesting. Open all the remaining culture tanks. Open all the isolation doors too. I want to see just how many the two of them can fight!”

“Supervisor, but the isolation…”

The white coat had just started to say something when Rainer immediately bellowed, “If you don’t want to die, then do it now!”