The air inside the laboratory seemed to freeze for an instant, with only the dust continuously falling from above indicating that the recent intrusion was not an illusion.
Faced with Cross's blatant humiliation, the muscles on Charlie's face, covered in black fur, twitched slightly. Before it could erupt, it was Haixin, sitting in the high-backed chair, who spoke first.
This Corpse King pushed the round-framed glasses on the bridge of his nose, his gaze piercing through the lenses, carrying a disappointment akin to looking at an unworthy child, and said calmly:
"You don't even know how to offer water to a guest?"
Haixin's voice was steady, yet each word felt like a needle piercing Charlie's self-esteem. "Have you spent too long with those 'Bloody Cross' lunatics? Charlie, that low-level group fanaticism has made you so rude and caused you to lose that supremely calm rationality and sharp insight you once had. You are regressing."
Charlie's pupils contracted sharply, and a low, guttural growl escaped its throat.
But at that very moment, the battle situation changed abruptly.
captain Robert Cross had absolutely no intention of wasting words. In his tactical visor, two red targeting boxes had completed data analysis: Target A - Corpse King Haixin - high-value capture target, threat level unknown; Target B Charlie - worthless hybrid mutant creature, eliminate immediately.
Without a word, Cross violently swung his left arm. The tactical launcher mounted on his wrist instantly popped open. With several light "whoosh" sounds, a few micro-fragmenting missiles, only the size of a finger, trailing flames, shot straight for Charlie's face!
Charlie's reaction was astonishingly fast, precisely its racial talent as a "human-chimpanzee chimera" — possessing human intelligence, yet retaining the intuition and explosive power of a beast.
Instantly, it dropped to all fours, like a giant black spider, and shot sideways in a bizarre posture that defied human biomechanics.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The missiles exploded where it had just been standing, flames engulfing the expensive office chair, the blast wave sending surrounding instruments flying.
"Haixin!!!"
Having narrowly avoided disaster, Charlie did not counterattack Cross. Its hatred for its creator had overwhelmed everything else. It pushed off with all four limbs, its claws gouging deep grooves in the floor, its entire body shooting like a black cannonball, trailing afterimages, straight for Haixin several meters away!
Its claws tore through the air, aiming directly for Haixin's throat.
However, faced with this death so close at hand, Haixin remained expressionless, not even blinking.
Just as Charlie's fingertips were about to touch Haixin's lab coat —
"Click."
A crisp sound of mechanical engagement.
Haixin, along with the massive metal high-backed chair he was sitting on, instantly plummeted downward! A dark, deep well opened in the previously seamless metal floor panel, swallowing this Corpse King, then closed again with extreme speed.
Charlie lunged into empty air, its claws scraping a series of glaring sparks on the metal floor.
"Damn it!" Charlie angrily hammered the ground.
At the same time, the smooth metal walls around the laboratory suddenly flipped over, revealing mucus-filled biochemical incubation chambers.
"Hiss — Roar —!!"
A chilling roar echoed throughout the underground space. Over a dozen Lickers, with exposed muscles, brains directly exposed to the air, and possessing sharp long tongues and claws, crawled out from the walls. They had no eyes, but their keen hearing instantly locked onto the two living beings in the area — Charlie and Cross.
Haixin's voice reverberated through hidden speakers above the laboratory, carrying a hint of playful reverb:
"Since you all wish to demonstrate power, let my children play with you. This is a lesson about'survival of the fittest.'"
Cross violently planted his left foot back, the stun baton in his hand glowing with a blinding blue electric arc, his body's center of gravity lowering. The situation had instantly become troublesome.
Charlie: "Hmph, trying to play the numbers game?"
Charlie got up from the ground. It glanced at the Lickers surrounding it, then at the vigilant Cross, a cruel, cold smile curling at the corner of its mouth. It pulled out a specially made silver whistle from its chest, placed it to its lips, and blew hard.
But the whistle did not emit any sound audible to humans, only an extremely high-frequency ultrasonic wave instantly penetrating the thick walls.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
A few seconds later, the laboratory's heavy blast-proof door was blown open by directional explosives!
"For Lord Charlie!!"
"Blood sacrifice! Blood sacrifice!!"
Countless "Bloody Cross" fanatics, eyes bloodshot, bodies smeared with bloody symbols, rushed in like a bursting flood. Some wielded machetes and fire axes, others held automatic rifles scavenged from who-knows-where, and some even had explosives strapped to them.
These lunatics didn't care about the terror of the Lickers. Stimulated by both desire and faith, they slashed at anyone they saw and killed any monster they encountered!
A three-way melee instantly erupted!
A Licker had just shot its long tongue, piercing a believer's chest, when the next second, its spine was severed by three other believers with chainsaws and machetes; Cross sidestepped a Licker's pounce, and with a backhand shot, blew off the head of a gunman trying to ambush him from afar.
The entire core laboratory instantly turned into a meat grinder.
"Die! Weak humans!"
Just as Cross activated the tactical launcher on his left arm's armor, and a few high-explosive grenades turned a group of Lickers and believers ahead into bloody pulp, a black shadow, using the chaos as cover, silently approached his blind spot.
It was Charlie!
This ape displayed astonishing tactical acumen. Using its subordinates' lives as bait, it finally bared its fangs. Leaping high, its powerful arms, like hydraulic clamps, smashed viciously towards Cross's head!
If this blow landed solidly, even wearing the Black Watch tactical helmet, Cross would have a hard time.
But Cross seemed to have eyes on his back.
Just as Charlie descended, Cross, without turning his head, suddenly crouched down, his right leg sweeping backward like a steel whip, while simultaneously thrusting the high-frequency stun baton in his hand backward at an extremely tricky angle!
"Zzzap —!!!"
"Aoo —!!!"
A piercing, agonized scream, completely devoid of human linguistic characteristics, resounded throughout the area.
Cross's stun baton accurately stabbed into Charlie's defenseless chest, tens of thousands of volts of high-voltage electricity instantly discharged! Charlie's prideful muscles instantly spasmed, its black fur emitting a burnt smell, its entire body convulsing violently like an electrocuted frog.
"Too slow, monkey."
Cross turned around. Seizing the moment Charlie was paralyzed, he gripped the stun baton with both hands and swung it hard like a baseball bat!
"Thud!"
The baton solidly connected with Charlie's face, sending several bloody fangs flying. Charlie's massive body was directly sent flying over ten meters, crashing heavily into a pile of discarded instruments.
Several Bloody Cross Infected individuals, driven mad by bloodlust nearby, seeing this, roared and raised their weapons, charging at Cross.
Cross snorted coldly, not interested in prolonged combat. He raised his left hand, the grappling gun on his wrist firing a high-strength fiber rope that instantly embedded into the shattered dome above.
"Zzzip —"
The rope retracted, and Cross instantly soared into the air, disappearing into the dim smoke and dust above.
The Bloody Cross believers below lost Cross as their target.
Instantly, they were once again locked in a chaotic brawl with the Lickers.
At that moment, an extremely arrogant, somewhat morbidly excited voice came from above the dome:
"Hahahaha! Daddy's here!"
Immediately following was a grating sound of mechanical rotation.
"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"
Those weren't ordinary gunshots; they were the heavy, rhythmic roar of a rotary grenade launcher!
Countless black grenades fell like hail, covering almost every corner of the laboratory — the entire central battlefield was instantly engulfed in a sea of fire.
"BOOOOOOM —!!!"
The continuous explosion was deafening, flames shooting skyward.
Those Bloody Cross believers and Lickers still fighting were instantly shredded by the high temperature and shockwave. Severed limbs flew everywhere, a mist of blood filled the air. The entire core area looked as if it had been plowed over, leaving only a field of charred, bloody pulp.
Before the dust could settle, seven ropes descended.
captain Cross slid down expressionlessly, landing steadily on a relatively intact piece of floor.
Behind him, six fully-armed Black Watch "Specialist" elite squad members followed closely. One particularly burly Black Watch Soldier (Expert No. 1), carrying two rotary grenade launchers, was grinning, looking at the scene before him with an expression of lingering satisfaction.
"Area cleared, sir. These lunatics are as brittle as chips."
Cross ignored his subordinate's nonsense. His icy gaze pierced through the smoke, locking onto the distant black figure struggling to crawl within the pile of wreckage.
"Target B is not yet silent." Cross recharged his stun baton, the blue electric arc appearing particularly glaring in the dusty air.