Infiltration

Light saturated every corner of the room, leaving no room even for shadows beneath the tables.

The flat floor was webbed with a dense network of pipes and cables. At the very center, where the lines converged most thickly, stood a tempered glass vat filled with bubbling green liquid. It was twice the height of a person and as wide as a man’s embrace, with gurgling bubbles rising steadily to the surface.

Several researchers in white lab coats were busy tapping away at their keyboards, occasionally glancing at their colleagues’ monitors, which displayed scrolling streams of complex data.

Clack-clack.

The heavy door, resembling a bank vault, groaned as its locking mechanism twisted open. A black-haired girl appeared in the doorway, followed closely by a white-haired man.

Recognizing the girl’s identity, one of the researchers quickly alerted his colleagues. They scrambled to form a line in front of her, shouting in unison:

“Good day, Director! We are always ready for your inspection!”

“Haha… I’m just here for a look. Go back to your stations, don’t let me interrupt your work.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The researchers returned to their posts, and the girl carefully lifted the hem of her skirt. She stepped over the intricate mess of floor cables in her small black leather boots, moving as if she were playing hopscotch.

Moving with quiet grace, she finally came to a stop before the glass vat, peering at the creature suspended in the green fluid.

It was a plant-type Dream Husk with a singular, massive eye—captured through the joint efforts of the new recruit, Feng, and the veteran, Uncle Shui.

It’s really quite ugly. Does their appearance get worse the lower their rank is?

Haidier thought to herself as she reached out to touch the surface of the glass vat.

Beep!

A warning alarm suddenly blared from a researcher’s computer. The data on the screen dissolved into gibberish, spreading to the other monitors like a rampaging virus.

“That’s strange? What’s happening?” one researcher cried out, hammering at his keyboard, only to find every key unresponsive.

“This shouldn’t be happening. Is there a problem with the base’s network?” Another researcher checked his phone, but he couldn’t find a single cause for the glitch.

While the researchers were in a frantic scramble, the Dream Husk inside the vat suddenly twitched!

The creature, which was supposed to be completely dead, suddenly rolled its massive eyeball, fixing its gaze directly on Haidier.

“What are you looking at? You knew you couldn’t keep up the act forever, didn’t you?” Haidier wasn’t afraid in the slightest. Instead, she stood with hands on her hips, tilting her head back to meet the Dream Husk’s gaze head-on.

The Dream Husk’s great eye suddenly widened, its white sclera flushing a deep, violent crimson. Its head and limbs lost their original hue, turning a ghastly blood-red. Simultaneously, the liquid inside the vat began to churn and boil with a ferocious gurgle!

Sensing the impending danger, the researchers slammed the emergency alert buttons, broadcasting the news of a live Dream Husk appearing within the Bureau to every branch.

“The Hunter left you behind and let us catch you on purpose. To stay dormant for so long even while pretending to be a corpse… I wonder where your inside man is hiding?” Haidier continued to stare into the vat, which was on the verge of exploding as countless boiling bubbles submerged the creature’s body.

Cr-crack!

The sharp snapping sounds signaled that the glass was reaching its limit. The researchers looked toward the white-haired man at the door, but he merely stood with his back turned, seemingly indifferent and entirely unconcerned for the little Director.

“Still, if you hurt my team members, I won’t be able to show any mercy.”

Haidier nodded to herself with an air of annoyance. A celestial blue light ignited in her eyes. She raised her right hand and made a grasping motion in the air. The outward force of the impending explosion was instantly overridden by a freakish power, forcing the vat into an implosion!

BOOM—

A muffled yet deafening sound shook the room!

Glass shards, the Dream Husk, and the green liquid were all crushed together, compressed into a tiny black dot. Even the surrounding scenery began to warp and distort!

The researchers felt a sudden vacuum pull; their bodies were dragged uncontrollably toward the center of that tiny dot!

The floor cables near the point of collapse were ripped up by the roots by the imploding air. The moment they touched the black dot, they were shredded into a million pieces. Papers flew off the tables, and small items like teacups were sucked in by the ferocious wind.

The room felt like the edge of a localized hurricane, yet Haidier stood perfectly still. Her long hair fluttered gently toward the center, as relaxed as if she were bathing in a spring breeze.

“It’s over.”

With that soft sentence, Haidier sealed the fate of the Dream Husk.

The black dot collapsed until it vanished entirely, leaving only the wrecked laboratory as proof that anything had occurred at all.

The researchers stared at Haidier with lingering fear, marvelling at the terrifying strength of [The Player] while simultaneously realizing their research subject was gone.

“Sigh…” one researcher began to lament, but a colleague immediately nudged his shoulder.

“Thank the Director, you idiot! We didn’t even realize the Dream Husk was still alive! We would have been in for it sooner or later!”

“Oh, right! Thank you, Director!” The researcher bowed deeply to Haidier, who merely responded with a smile.

“It seems we’ll need to strengthen our detection protocols. If I hadn’t stopped by, I wouldn’t have noticed it was playing dead.”

“Yes, ma’am! I’ll go explain the situation to the Security Department right away!” The researcher hurried out, brushing past the white-haired man.

Haidier looked at Uncle Shui, who stood guard outside the door, and walked toward him.

“Uncle Shui, while I was dealing with the Dream Husk just now, did you notice anyone else coming by?”

“No one, Director,” Uncle Shui answered with meticulous precision.

“Sniff, sniff.” Haidier’s nose twitched as she closed her eyes to catch a scent.

“What are you smelling?” Uncle Shui asked, turning his head.

“Smoke. Tobacco. It’s diluted to such a low concentration that you can’t smell it, but I recall that smoking is strictly prohibited within the Bureau.”

“Smoke?” An image flashed across Uncle Shui’s mind: Feiguang!

“I may have been careless. The direction of the Security Department… isn’t that way.”

Haidier opened her eyes and looked in the direction the researcher had run. She swept her hand horizontally through the air; golden particles appeared in the wake of her movement, and the phantom outline of a golden longsword materialized in the void!

Thump.

The hilt landed in Haidier’s hand. She gave it a light swing, then held the blade horizontally to her right side.

“Uncle Shui. This matter with your apprentice—should I do it, or will you?”

Hearing Haidier’s words, Uncle Shui silently clenched his teeth.

“There is no need for you to act, Director. I will settle this with him myself.”

“Then I’ll send you out. I’ll be watching.”

A flash of gold flickered in Haidier’s eyes as she slashed her sword downward!

……

“Phew! I’m finally out!”

The “researcher” had shed his white coat and removed his various disguises. He had sprinted all the way to the main entrance of Chengyi Limited!

Feiguang felt lucky to have infiltrated the Bureau and made it out alive. Who could have known [The Player] would be home? He had truly taken a massive risk!

But thanks to the items provided by his boss, he had successfully bypassed everyone’s gaze and secured a fragment of the Dream Husk.

Feiguang patted his pocket, preparing to leave this remote area as quickly as possible.

Crack!

A golden light suddenly erupted behind Feiguang. He spun around to see a vertical rift in space—a jagged crack in reality itself. From within the rift came a voice filled with fury.

“Feiguang! You have gone too far!”

“Uncle Shui?!”