Chương 46: Containment Unit

The door looked like a mouth torn open. A crooked tear ran from the center of the door up toward the upper right corner. Its edges curled outward, exposing broken array lines and warped alloy layers within. The door had been forced open.

"Syringe," Solly said in a low voice.

"Scanning." Syringe's voice was much more serious than before.

"The space behind the door is large. Looks like a major containment room. Wall interference is heavy, so the scout orb can't go too deep. Spider probes can enter, but there's liquid ahead. Movement will be slow." Carl lowered the heavy axe from his shoulder. The edge touched the ground lightly.

"Why don't we just go in and look?"

"You first," Syringe said. Carl cursed.

"I meant all of us." Logan said nothing. He only moved his shield plate half a step forward. The heavy shield unfolded, blocking Syringe and Adams from the front. Adams crouched beside the door and drew a small air sample from the tear with his detection needle. The reading appeared on Syringe's side at the same time. Adams frowned.

"There are activity suppressant residues inside."

"Activity suppressant?" Rowan asked.

"Something the laboratory likely used to suppress samples," Adams explained.

"It isn't poison, but it lowers mana activity. It works better on mana-beasts. If people breathe in too much, they'll feel dizzy, react more slowly, and may even lose consciousness." Carl turned to him.

"So you're saying there might be knockout gas inside?"

"It isn't knockout gas," Adams said, glancing at him.

"You can think of it as something that makes your body and Source Crystal Core sluggish at the same time."

"So knockout gas." Adams did not bother arguing with him. Solly looked at Grey Raven. Grey Raven stood beside the door, his black robe hanging around him like a shapeless shadow. He did not immediately approach the tear. Instead, he raised his head and looked at the array lines remaining on the door.

"The lock structure has already failed," he said.

"But the internal suppression system may still be active."

"Can we bypass it?" Solly asked.

"No," Grey Raven answered quickly.

"The control point should be inside." Carl muttered under his breath, "Blackwater people really do know a lot." Grey Raven ignored him. Solly raised his hand.

"Formation." Everyone went quiet. Carl moved to the very front. A muddy yellow glow appeared over his chest, then spread along his arm to the handle of his heavy axe. Rowan glanced at the axe twice. A magitech weapon. Syringe controlled two spider probes and sent them through the tear first. The footage shook a few times. Behind the door was a dark space. There was liquid on the floor. The liquid was pale yellow, with an oily film floating on the surface.

Thick life-support pipelines extended from the walls toward the center of the room. Some had already ruptured, and nutrient fluid was still slowly seeping from the breaks. The footage continued forward. Then three enormous glass tanks appeared on the local map. Each one was roughly three people tall. There were no lids on top. The cloudy nutrient fluid inside almost reached the rims, and gray-white water stains covered the surface. Inside each tank, a huge creature lay curled up.

Carl's tense shoulders loosened slightly.

"Those damn toads again?" Gray-green bodies. Bumpy skin. Swollen bellies. Four thick, short limbs. But their eyes were not eyes. Two wet pincer-like organs grew from their eye sockets, like a pair of closed crab claws that occasionally opened and closed. Along their backs, rows of flower-bud-like tumors slowly swelled and shrank with the movement of the nutrient fluid. Their mouths hung half-open. There were no tongues inside. Only a curled, furry claw. A claw growing in the throat.

"I fought one of those just now," Carl said with a grin.

"Not too bad. Took some work." The spore toad on the left route had just been dealt with by him and Solly. It had taken some effort, but it had not thrown the team into chaos.

"Weren't you the one who said you almost got swallowed?" Syringe immediately cut through Carl's pride. When everyone saw the three toads inside the glass tanks, the tense atmosphere eased a little. The worst-case scenario had not happened. At least for now, the space behind the door was not an entire nest. Syringe also let out a visible breath of relief.

"Three Tier 1 reactions. Very low activity. All inside the tanks. Nutrient fluid supply is still running. Suppressant concentration is below standard, but it hasn't fully failed." Carl asked, "So they're drunk?" Adams said, "It means you'd better not knock on the tanks." Carl clicked his tongue.

"You people have no sense of humor." Solly did not relax.

"Don't get close to the tanks. Find the main supply-fluid control point first." The team slowly entered the containment room. The space behind the door was larger than it had looked from outside. The walls were high. The only light came from a single emergency lamp on the front-left wall, leaving the ceiling hidden in darkness. Three giant glass tanks stood in the center of the room like hearts soaked in yellow water. The group spread out and began searching for the control point.

Rowan circled toward the nearest glass tank. The floor was not clean. There were Electric-Fungus Rat skeletons, along with shattered black carapaces. Farther away lay several dried tentacle fragments, like discarded ropes. In the corner was a pile of brown bones, each marked with clean cuts. Not the kind of marks a toad would make. Rowan slowed down. His gaze moved from the toad inside the tank to the floor, then to the wall. A drag mark extended away from the glass tank. But it did not lead toward the door.

It led upward. More precisely, it ran to the wall, then toward the ceiling. He looked up. The green light of the emergency lamp could not reach that high. Only dense shadow covered the upper ceiling. Thick life-support pipelines crisscrossed above, and one waste-fluid recovery shaft had cracked open, exposing a dark inner wall. Around the opening were large patches of dried mucus. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Rowan's eyelid twitched.

Something was wrong. If those three toads were the owners of this room, the remains on the floor should not be arranged like this. Electric-Fungus Rat skeletons around the tanks made sense. The toads could eat them. But why were the toads' pincer-eyes turning toward the ceiling every now and then? They were looking up. The line in Rowan's mind snapped tight.

"Solly," he said in a low voice.

"Something may be above us." Almost at the same time, the toad in the leftmost glass tank moved. Its pincer-eyes snapped open and clamped onto a thin pipe inside the tank. All the flower-bud tumors on its back swelled, stirring ripples through the cloudy nutrient fluid. Carl immediately raised his axe.

"It's coming out?" Solly pulled a tactical flare from his waist and aimed it at the ceiling before switching it on. A large patch of patterned skin flinched under the light. Carl froze. The next instant, the shadow on the ceiling moved. A huge figure was exposed under the light. It was not a shadow. It was a massive body clinging to the ceiling. Its front half resembled a locust magnified dozens of times.

Its folded chest armor, cloudy compound eyes, and forelimbs like serrated scythes were tucked tightly against its sides. But its rear half was not insectoid at all. It was a mass of tentacles coiled around the pipelines, like the body of a giant octopus. A dozen dark gray tentacles clung to the ceiling and the edge of the waste-fluid shaft, each sucker pressed silently against the metal surface. It had been still enough to seem dead. Until it released its first tentacle. Tap.

The soft sound was painfully clear in the containment room. All three toads began struggling at once. The smile vanished from Carl's face.

"Fuck." The monster on the ceiling did not lunge at the team. It lunged at the leftmost toad. Its tentacles dropped like a cold, wet net, reaching straight into the open tank. The scythe forelimbs flashed, the cloudy nutrient fluid burst apart, and the toad was hooked out of the tank by force. The toad rolled out, and the flower buds on its back opened at once, spraying pale yellow spore mist. The furry claw in its throat shot out and grabbed a nearby pipe, trying to drag itself away.

But the tentacles had already wrapped around it. The locust-octopus creature half-hung from the ceiling. Its scythe forelimbs stabbed into the toad's back, and layers of suckers tightened around it. The toad let out a muffled croak, its pincer-eyes snapping wildly, but it could not break free.

"Back!" Solly shouted.

"Don't stand near the tanks!" As soon as he spoke, the second glass tank was affected. The toad inside panicked and leapt straight out through the open top. Its claw-tongue shot out, grabbing toward the nearest target—Adams. Logan swung his shield plate across and blocked in front of Adams. Bang! The furry claw struck the shield, its five finger-like tips digging into the surface. The recoil pushed Logan half a step back. His shoulder hit the wall, and he grunted. He blocked it. But only once.

Solly pressed five fingers downward. Dust on the ground mixed instantly into a muddy ring that wrapped around the toad's hind legs. The toad tried to leap again, but half its body was dragged back to the floor. Carl cursed and brought his heavy axe down, cutting halfway through the claw-tongue. The toad shrieked in pain, and its flower buds sprayed even more spore mist. Solly raised his hand and swept it sideways.

A sheet of water condensed in the air and forced the spore mist toward the other side of the containment room.

"Don't breathe it in! It blocks mana circulation!" Syringe's voice tightened in the channel.

"Large life reaction detected—no, wait, its reaction is split into several parts. I can't identify it!"

"If you can't identify it, stop identifying it!" Carl roared.

"Just tell me where to cut!" Rowan did not rush in. His gaze stayed locked on the rear half of the ceiling monster. The locust forelimbs were dangerous. Fast burst, strong cutting power, enough to tear through protection in one strike. But the real trouble was the tentacles. They were not only for grabbing. They supported the body, shifted its center of gravity, adhered to walls, and fixed attack angles before it moved.

As long as those tentacles remained, the monster could shift freely between the ceiling, walls, and floor.

"Don't just guard the front!" Rowan shouted.

"It can change angles from above!" The shield plate immediately lifted half an inch. At the same time, Solly clenched his hand. Three muddy stone pillars rose from the liquid-covered floor, slanting above the rear line. The next second, a tentacle whipped down from above. The first stone pillar shattered on the spot. The second cracked almost completely before the strike finally hit the edge of Logan's shield. The force pushed Logan back half a step, splashing the liquid beneath his feet.

Without those three stone pillars and Rowan's warning, that tentacle would have struck Adams directly in the head. Adams went pale, but he did not stop. He stayed behind the shield and leaned out just enough from behind Logan to throw two sedative needles at the rampaging toad. The needles pierced the side of its neck. The effect was poor. Adams immediately pulled back behind the shield.

"They're resistant to low-dose sedatives!"

"No shit! They've been soaking in this stuff for who knows how many years!" Carl smashed aside the toad's broken tongue with his axe. He was already covered in spores and nutrient fluid. Grey Raven finally moved. He cut in from the right, and a dark red spell flame extended from his sleeve. His flame whip swept cleanly across the joint of one tentacle hanging from the locust-octopus creature. The smell of charred flesh burst out. The tentacle twitched and withdrew. But the monster reacted faster than expected.

It stopped wrapping the toad and suddenly released the ceiling. Half its body dropped downward, and its locust forelimbs crossed as they slashed toward Grey Raven. Grey Raven retreated. Rowan stepped out with [Wellspring Step] at the same time. A water-blue afterimage slid across the liquid-covered floor. He did not try to block the forelimbs. Instead, he slashed a Water Blade at the tentacle supporting the monster from behind. One cut. The monster's landing point shifted by half a foot.

That half-foot was enough for Grey Raven to avoid the first strike. The second strike sliced past his black robe, tearing away a piece of fabric and exposing a corner of dark armor beneath. The third toad woke as well. It did not immediately attack the team. Instead, it slammed desperately against its glass tank, trying to flee the ceiling predator from another direction. Under repeated impacts, the tank cracked, nutrient fluid poured out, and its huge body rolled onto the floor.

Its claw-tongue lashed blindly toward the nearest living thing. The entire containment room fell into chaos. The old emergency light flickered on and off, and red warnings flashed across the local map. Solly's voice still held the team together.

"Carl, take the one on the left! Logan, protect the rear line! Rowan, watch above! Grey Raven, cut the tentacles!" The toad's claw-tongue had already slipped past the edge of Logan's shield, reaching toward Adams. Carl clenched his teeth and charged. He stomped down, sending a dull thud through the metal floor beneath the liquid. A layer of thick rock skin spread over his shoulders, back, and arms. His axe came down like a stone hammer and smashed into the toad's face.

Half of one pincer-eye was crushed on the spot. The toad was in so much pain that every flower bud on its back opened, spraying spore mist into Carl's face. Carl only cursed and forced his way through the spores for a second swing.

"Come on! Let's see how many times that damn flower can bloom!" Rowan saw this from the corner of his eye, but he did not relax. The mana-blocking spores and the nutrient fluid on the ground were slowly dragging down his rhythm. The locust-octopus suddenly abandoned Grey Raven. Several of its tentacles tightened at once, pulling its body back toward the ceiling like a stretched slingshot. In the next instant, it slid soundlessly along the pipelines and circled above Carl from behind.

"Carl, above you!" Rowan realized what it was trying to do almost the moment it moved. Carl did not turn around. He swung his axe backward. The blade collided with the scythe forelimb, sending sparks and fragments of carapace flying. He blocked it. But he did not block the tentacles. A dark gray tentacle wrapped around his waist from the side, its suckers locking onto the seams of his armor. Tiny bone spurs emerged from the centers of the suckers and stabbed into his flesh. Carl's expression changed.

He roared, grabbed the tentacle with his left hand, and tried to tear it away by force. A second tentacle wrapped around his leg. A third reached for his neck. Solly raised his hand to save Carl. But another toad propped itself up at that moment. All the flower buds on its back swelled as it charged toward Syringe and Adams. Solly's expression darkened. He had no choice but to throw out a [Water Spear] to force the toad back. In that brief delay, the third tentacle had already wrapped around Carl's neck.

Logan slammed forward with his shield, trying to block the claw-tongue, but the toad held him back. He could not support Carl. Grey Raven leapt onto the fallen glass tank fragments. His body cut a short line through the air, almost skimming past the locust-octopus creature's scythe forelimb. An invisible wind blade fell. A wound opened across the main tentacle supporting the monster's weight. Fire and wind dual-phase. The judgment flashed through Rowan's mind.

No wonder Grey Raven's cutting and burst power were so clean. Almost at the same time, Rowan threw out a compressed Water Blade and followed along the wound with a second cut. The main tentacle finally half-snapped. The monster's body sank sharply. Seeing this, Rowan immediately threw out three compressed Water Blades in succession, cutting through the tentacles reaching for Carl's neck. Carl seized the chance. With a backhand swing, his heavy axe severed the tentacle wrapped around his waist.

But at that moment, the locust-octopus creature's forelimb came down. Pch. The scythe forelimb pierced through the lower part of Carl's left shoulder and drove diagonally between his chest and abdomen. Carl's roar stopped. Blood sprayed out and struck the nutrient fluid on the floor, blooming like red ink in yellow water.

"Carl!" Solly's expression sank. Logan knocked the toad aside and rushed toward Carl. The locust-octopus tried to drag Carl up toward the ceiling. Grey Raven lashed out with his flame whip again and burned through another tentacle with precision. When Rowan landed, his knee weakened, nearly dropping him into the liquid. He still swung back with one more Water Blade, forcing the monster to release Carl. Logan dragged Carl free from the tentacles. Carl was still conscious.

His mouth was full of blood, but he was still cursing.

"I'm... not dead yet..." Adams rushed over and pressed both hands over the wound, his face hard as iron.

"Stop talking." This time, Carl truly shut up. Because he no longer had the strength to curse. Just then, all the old warning lights on the wall lit up. Not green. A harsh yellow. Syringe's voice carried clear panic.

"High-risk sample activity exceeded threshold! The old system has been triggered!" Broken warnings flickered across the walls. [Containment unit damaged.] [Multiple samples out of control.] [Sample activity suppression sequence initiated.] Adams jerked his head up.

"Bad. Suppression mist!" Gray-white mist sprayed from the ceiling and wall seams at the same time. The mist sank quickly, like a layer of cold ash falling over them. The locust-octopus creature, the largest thing in the room, was the first to be covered. It tried to crawl back toward the ceiling, but the moment the mist touched its body, several of its tentacles visibly twitched. Its movements, once coordinated, suddenly staggered. The locust forelimbs lifted, but the tentacles at the rear lagged behind.

Gray-white spots began appearing along the seams of its carapace. It was the largest, so it inhaled the most. The three toads also collapsed to the floor after breathing in the mist. The flower buds on their backs opened and closed, but they could no longer spray complete clouds of spores. But the team was not much better. Rowan took only one breath and felt cold spread through his chest. It was not poison. It was not paralysis. It felt as if someone had poured a handful of cold sand into his Source Crystal Core.

His mana circulation turned sluggish at once, as if blocked. Adams swayed, then fell. Syringe cursed through the channel, his voice quickly blurring. Logan tried to drag Carl toward the door, but his movements slowed as well. Solly took something from his clothes and crushed it between his teeth. Grey Raven also raised his hand. A tiny needle under his sleeve stabbed into his wrist. Through his blurred vision, Rowan saw it. They had been prepared for this. The locust-octopus creature let out a shrill insect cry.

Several tentacles flailed against the ceiling. Its suckers slipped again and again before finally catching the edge of the waste-fluid recovery shaft. Dragging its unbalanced body, it squeezed upward inch by inch. Carl suddenly moved. He was too badly injured to stand, yet he still used the last of his strength to grab the heavy axe beside him and throw it.

"Trying to run..." The axe did not hit the creature's body. It only cut off one dangling tentacle. The locust-octopus screamed again. The severed tentacle fell into the nutrient fluid and curled into a twitching knot. Then the creature forced its whole body into the black hole in the ceiling. Its thick tentacles withdrew one by one into the waste-fluid recovery shaft. Soon, only the fading sound of friction remained from within. Rowan tried to stand, but his legs felt filled with lead.

The gray-white mist had already risen past his waist. He saw Logan half-kneeling on the ground, still using his shield to protect Syringe and Adams. He saw Adams with one hand pressed over Carl's wound, the other trembling as it reached for medicine. He saw Solly walking toward Carl, his expression hidden by the mist. Perhaps it was because of the body tempered by [Furnace Melding Art]. Rowan did not fully lose consciousness. He heard Grey Raven's voice.

"It's gone."

"The suppression mist can hold these samples down for ten minutes at most." Solly said nothing. Grey Raven spoke again.

"No need to find another one." After a brief silence, the tip of his boot stopped beside Carl.

"His Source Crystal Core is still warm."