Chapter 7: A Deadly Struggle!

When Chen Chong roared and lunged forward to attack, time itself seemed to freeze in that moment.

In the vast Experiment Hall, the scent of blood still lingered near the experiment table, not yet having dissipated. The eyes of the white researchers were wide open, their expressions of extreme terror still spreading across their faces. Even the quickest reactor had only just put his hand on the alarm button on the corner of the table and not yet pressed it. Katherine, the target of Chen Chong’s attack, had just barely turned her head, her eyes filled with utter disbelief.

Under the effects of the Ultra Divine Water, Chen Chong’s neural reactions, physical fitness, strength, and speed had all explosively increased, greatly surpassing the limits of an ordinary person! Although he had not triggered unparalleled potential and combat power like the Saiyan physique in the comics, for his ordinary human body, it could be considered a complete and total rebirth!

Chen Chong’s escape plan was very simple, but he had one absolutely crucial prerequisite to escape through the underground river behind the Experiment Area: he needed Katherine, who possessed the highest identity and clearance in the entire base! Whether for escape or personal vengeance, he had to immediately seize control of Katherine and take her as a hostage!

From the moment he burst up from the experiment table, Chen Chong had calculated everything clearly. From the researchers reacting and pressing the alarm, to the guards at the hall entrance using their ID cards to open the door and rush inside, it would take a full 4 to 5 seconds. And right now, the distance between Chen Chong and Katherine was no more than 5 meters. With his astonishing strength, reactions, and speed that far surpassed ordinary people, crossing this 5-meter distance only required—

0.5 seconds!

Whoosh!

In less than the blink of an eye, amidst the fierce howling of a strong wind, Chen Chong had pounced across the five-meter distance and arrived right in front of Katherine. At the same time, his five fingers spread open and he grabbed fiercely towards her shoulder! If this grab landed solidly, Chen Chong’s current strength and the sharpness of his fingertips would instantly pierce through Katherine’s shoulder blade, rendering her completely unable to resist!

However, in this lightning-fast instant:

“Screech!”

Facing Chen Chong’s fierce grab, Katherine, who had looked utterly incredulous, suddenly burst out from her mouth with an extremely shrill and piercing shriek! This shriek seemed to contain some sort of inexplicable spiritual force. Everyone in the hall who heard the sound, including Chen Chong, felt as if a steel needle had been stabbed directly into their brain in that instant, an agony worse than death!

Being the primary target, Chen Chong let out a muffled grunt. He felt a splitting headache and dizziness. His originally certain and deadly pounce and capture immediately lost its accuracy. He failed to seize Katherine, and instead, Katherine dodged away, leaving only five deep, bloody gashes behind!

As Chen Chong forcibly stopped his momentum and turned around, two streams of hot liquid suddenly flowed from his nostrils.

It was blood.

“Katherine is also an Awakener!”

In that split second, amidst the severe pain, a thought flashed like lightning through Chen Chong’s mind, making his heart turn cold.

Right now, the hall was filled with waves of miserable shrieks. Clearly, the eerie shriek Katherine had just unleashed was an indiscriminate attack, and no one else escaped it. An unexpected and unforeseen variable and oversight had finally appeared in his plan: Katherine, a researcher, was actually an Awakener who possessed strange abilities too! And this crucial piece of information, Chen Chong had been completely unaware of throughout these past three months!

“Almost… I was almost…”

Opposite Chen Chong, a trace of lingering fear remained on Katherine’s beautiful face, and her voice seemed unusually hoarse from the strange outburst she had just performed.

She had been careless!

She had never imagined that Chen Chong would regain his senses so quickly, nor that this toy would dare to suddenly rise up and attack her. Even more so, she hadn’t thought he would almost succeed, even injuring her and forcing her to expose her identity as an Awakener!

Katherine was not a natural-born Awakener. Because of her exceptional abilities in biological research, she worked for the organization, and in exchange, she obtained a priceless gene-mutagenic agent and successfully became an Awakener. This matter was considered a personal secret of hers, unknown to anyone in this Experimental Base except for Diris.

However, this hidden secret had clearly helped her immensely at this moment.

Having successfully overcome the crisis, Katherine stared intently at Chen Chong with undisguised venomous malice and cruelty in her eyes:

“Very good… my little darling, you’ve given me quite a surprise. You think…”

“Darling my ass!”

Bang! Forcibly enduring the pain in his brain, Chen Chong let out a ferocious grin, interrupting Katherine’s nonsense. Like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, he fiercely charged in to attack again!

The shriek Katherine had let out earlier had only caught him off guard. With his willpower, the actual damage from that level of sound wave wasn’t that great. By now, a good 2 or 3 seconds had passed. The guards outside the hall door might charge in at any second, and in another ten or so seconds, a large number of fully armed guards would arrive. He had no time to waste. He had to capture Katherine within this extremely brief window of time. Even if Katherine was an Awakener possessing superhuman strength, he had to stake everything and make a desperate, life-or-death gamble!

“You lowly thing, just who do you think you’re facing!”

Hah! Facing Chen Chong’s ferociously violent lunging attack, Katherine’s face turned ashen. She suddenly stepped forward, her long, slender, snow-white leg sweeping out like a steel whip. It actually produced a sharp sound of tearing through the air, her movement swift and fierce to the extreme!

This kick shot straight for Chen Chong’s head. Not only did it lack any hint of allure, but it was filled with a sharp, lethal viciousness meant to kill, clearly a military-style combat technique. Moreover, she was wearing high heels with pointed tips right now. With her Awakener strength, if this kick landed solidly, there was no doubt it would directly kick a person’s head into pieces!

She didn’t unleash that strange sonic wave attack from before. Actually, it hadn’t been long since she became an Awakener. She was only just beginning to master that ability, and that single, hasty use had already damaged her vocal cords. Using it again risked rupturing her windpipe, so she couldn’t launch a second attack in such a short time. However, even so, she was not afraid of facing Chen Chong’s lunge.

Katherine had always been an ambitious woman who believed in the supremacy of power. She was definitely not as harmless as her beautiful appearance suggested. Besides research, most of her time at the base was spent seeking guidance from Diris on various combat and killing techniques. She was extremely hardworking and made rapid progress, earning Diris’s admiration.

Given all this, Katherine simply did not believe that a Chen Chong who had just become an Awakener, and had not undergone any training, could be her match!

Whoosh!

Chen Chong’s reaction was equally astonishing. Amidst the surging gusts of wind, his hairs stood on end. He instantly sensed the immense power of Katherine’s kick, a power flesh and blood could not withstand. He suddenly ducked his head and hunched low, avoiding the lethal trajectory of Katherine’s high heel aimed at his skull. Yet he still lunged forward, carrying a suffocating and ferocious aura, crashing towards Katherine without any regard!

“Foolish!”

Katherine’s gaze was full of contempt. Her violently sweeping kick exploded mid-air, changing its course in mid-move! Her long, fair, gleaming leg reflected brilliant light as it chopped down towards Chen Chong’s head like a mountain-splitting axe!

Bang!

A horizontal sweep followed by a downward chop! Facing Katherine’s swift and fierce change of attack, Chen Chong could only barely turn his head aside. Then, his shoulder half caved in with a sickening crack of breaking bones, and his entire body slammed kneeling onto the ground as if struck by a massive boulder!

In that instant, Katherine’s contemptuous and gratified gaze met Chen Chong’s cold and savage eyes.

From Chen Chong’s eyes, a clear and unmistakable emotion was conveyed:

Got… you… now!

“Ah!!”

Almost at the very same instant, the dull thud of impact, the sound of bones cracking, and a shrill, venomous scream of agony all rang out together!

Chen Chong, having taken a defensive posture with his arm, was kicked flying several meters away by Katherine, crashing back and toppling a series of machines, which produced a crackling sound of electrical sparks. And Katherine, the one who started it all, showed no posture of a victor. Instead, she directly collapsed to the ground, her expression twisting as she screamed incessantly!

At some unknown moment, on the long, beautiful leg she used to launch that fierce kick, a gleaming scalpel was deeply stabbed into the gap of her knee joint, blood spurting out wildly! This was exactly what happened when Chen Chong ate Katherine’s kick head-on while simultaneously, with a savage ferocity, stabbing the scalpel hidden in his other hand upward, crippling one of her legs!

“Ah! Ah! Damn it!”

The extreme, searing pain nearly drowned Katherine’s consciousness. Having only learned fierce combat techniques from Diris but lacking an iron will and real life-or-death combat experience, the moment her leg was crippled, Katherine instantly revealed the fragility and panic of an ordinary woman.

Crash!

In less than half a second, Chen Chong, who had been kicked flying several meters away, suddenly stood up from amidst the pile of debris! One of his arms hung limp and useless, at least two of his ribs were broken, and the breath he exhaled carried a strong, coppery tang of blood. Yet he seemed to feel no pain from the excruciating agony of broken bones, his eyes burning like raging flames within a stream of icy cold!

Both were seriously wounded, but the difference in their mettle was immediately obvious!

Whoosh!

Without a word of nonsense, charging forward, there was only the urgency and brutality of a life-or-death struggle. Enduring the pain of his broken arm bone and shaken internal organs, Chen Chong once again lunged at Katherine, who was screaming, struggling on the ground, and trying to stand up!

Vaguely aware that mortal danger was about to strike, Katherine instinctively wanted to dodge or even resist. But the extreme pain, coupled with a scalpel stabbed into her knee joint, made it impossible for her to even stand.

“Wait!”

Leaning against a work station, Katherine screamed in pure horror and desperation:

“We can…”

Crack!

Without giving her a chance to finish, Chen Chong, swift and violent, lunged from several meters away and instantly stomped heavily down on her other, undamaged knee, shattering it completely!

“Ah—!”

Katherine’s beautiful face twisted grotesquely, like a vicious ghost, as she let out another heart-wrenching scream of agony. Any man seeing her current miserable state would feel a pang of pity.

“I know Awakeners have relatively strong vitality.”

Chen Chong stared with a ferocious grin at Katherine, whose hands were striking and clawing madly in the air, trying to attack him:

“You won’t get another chance!”

Stab! Stab!

Chen Chong bent down, grabbed the sharp objects scattered on the floor— a fountain pen, a box cutter—and ruthlessly stabbed them into Katherine’s elbows and both shoulder blades! Her limbs were completely crippled, making further resistance utterly impossible!

Katherine’s white lab coat was stained mostly red with blood. Even drenched in blood, she was still screaming desperately, her voice growing hoarse. And at this moment, only less than 6 seconds had passed since Chen Chong burst up from the experiment table.

Bang!

Just as Chen Chong finished doing all this, before he could even catch his breath, the sharp crack of gunfire erupted in the Experiment Hall. He let out a muffled grunt as blood blossomed on his shoulder.

It was the two guards at the entrance, who had finally entered the Experiment Hall. After a split second of dazed shock and fury, they instantly locked onto him and fired their guns!