Book 4 Chapter 19.4 - General
For the current Su, this type of attack that had no technique to speak of and was purely an instinctive charge, even if its speed was faster and its power greater, it still wouldn't pose him any threat. Su's body easily moved out of the way, at the same time sending his foot towards the manager's calf, making him lose balance and fall onto the ground.
The last thing this manager reflected from his eyes was the edge of the heavy sword. The heavy sword in Madeline's hand was raised, slicing up in reverse, directly cutting the manager diagonally in half. Following a thump sound, the two rigid halfs of his body fell onto the ground. The manager was still saying something with an unclear voice, his four limbs aimlessly moving about. Even though he was already no longer a threat, Su and Madeline who were looking at the cut simultaneously frowned slightly.
On the enormous cut across the manager's body, there were unexpectedly only a few drops of dark purple liquid that seeped out. This already proved that his body was nearly devoid of water content!
Water was the source of all life, something that had already been deeply engraved in this world's general knowledge. However, right now, this normal reasoning was being toppled right before Su and Madeline's eyes.
After observing for a bit, Su shifted his attention from the manager's corpse to look around this room. He wasn't a biochemistry specialist, nor was he an abnormal life form specialist, and neither was Madeline. This strange waterless manager was better off being given to a more suitable person, for example, Helen, to deal with. Of course, this would only be possible if they made it out from this place alive.
Su reached out his hand, removing a sticky note from the wall. There were a few lines of nice handwriting, and the words were still quite clear with only a few words blurred with age.
"May 15th. It is already summer on the surface, yet I can only sit here, pretending all day that the fluorescent light is sunlight, constantly enduring the coldness and gloominess. However, a month later, I will have fulfilled three years of work, and will have one month of vacation! My God, I truly can't dare to imagine what an entire month of beach, sunlight, and warm wind will feel like!
Alright, I'll admit that aside from that damn manager, this work really isn't all that bad. At the very least, I can pay back my debt in just five years. That is but a vacation home in the Carribeans with two bedrooms!
However, before I think about these things, I should still make some preparations for the batch of goods coming this afternoon, a batch of the highest grade goods, so I can't make the slightest error on them. Damn it! I hate highest grade goods, and I hate highest grade biological reagents even more…"
There were a few other slips of paper with barely recognizable handwriting, all of them some random sighs of sorrow, grumbling about the work and cursing the manager. However, there were still a few notes that drew Su's attention. After carefully reading them a few times, Su put them in order by time before reading them one more time.
"... damn it, they cancelled my vacation, and they didn't tell me when exactly I can take a vacation! Fuck them all! Also, what was that sudden shaking that happened a few days ago? It was as if a volcano at the bottom of an ocean had erupted or something!"
"... I carried a box of items to the fourth floor. It seemed like those items were quite important, because Director Conier actually watched me carry it himself. He is the entire base's head! During these past few years of working here, this is but my first time going down to the fourth floor. In the past, I was allowed to head down to the second floor at most… however, they still haven't told me when I could go on vacation!"
"... a rather easy week with not much work to do at all. The base doesn't seem to be as damp as before, but now it feels a bit too dry. Damn those fellas who are in charge of air conditioning maintenance! I feel extremely uncomfortable these past few days, maybe I should find a doctor to take a look at me."
"I've had nightmares during the past few days, as if there was something growing within me. I can sense them even when I am awake! My God! However, the doctor is quite busy, so I have to wait a week for an appointment. I know he doesn't care much about a nobody like me. I really hope I can persevere for a week…"
"... tomorrow is the appointment with the doctor, but I don't think I'll last until tomorrow. I am almost certain that there is something hiding in my body! I can feel that it…"
"... there seems to be much less people within the base all of a sudden, and I haven't seen that damn manager for quite some time either. They are definitely hiding something from me…"
After reading these notes, Madeline brandished her heavy sword, completely cutting open the manager whose upper body was still squirming about. All of the organs that a human should have within his body disappeared, replaced with a dark purple organ that filled up his entire chest cavity. Fine tentacles reached out from this organ and extended to various parts of the body, all the way down to his fingertips. It seemed like it was these tentacles that were controlling the manager's movements. However, the interior of that enormous organ was hollow, and from the manager's lower back, a torn opening could be seen, as if something had left through this location.
Su then carefully searched through this room, but he didn't find anything valuable. He gave the manager's dissected body a look before muttering, "Seems like he has become the host of some type of larva. We have to be a bit more careful, especially mindful of conserving stamina."
"Don't worry, I am going to have a new fifth level ability soon," said the young lady.
After walking out from the manager's work room, they found that the entire storeroom was extremely quiet. Aside from those flesh tubes that were rhythmically wriggling about, they didn't see a single abnormal beast, as if they had all gone into hiding. Even those egg clusters that contained embryos stopped moving, as if out of fear of drawing Su's attention.
Su reviewed what he knew about the base's layout, and then he walked towards the storehouse's emergency exit. This small side door connected to two different passages, a maintenance elevator, as well as an emergency staircase. This complex terrain was, without a doubt, advantageous to Su.
Su produced a steel wire from who knew where, winded it about the entrance, and then he reached his hand out to push open the side door. When the side door opened, he immediately dodged to the side.
The wide open security door suddenly released a powerful blast of air, and then an abnormal creature threw itself into the storeroom with a speed that couldn't be detected by the naked eye! It had clearly been hiding for a long time, waiting for prey to fall into its trap before adding a fatal blow! However, this charge of stored power instead landed it right in Su's trap. Its body slammed ferociously into the two thin steel wires, the ferocious assault completely deforming the steel wiring, and then causing it to collapse. Even though its body was sturdy, after this full on collision, the steel wire still inflicted tremendous damage on its body. Its head was almost sliced in half, and the steel wire that entered its chest sliced through its sharp and powerful forelimbs.
The strange creature released large amounts of blood as it collapsed onto the ground. It continuously struggled about to crawl back up, yet this only served to completely separate its forelimbs from its body.
Su walked over to this strange creature's side, about to investigate it, but then he suddenly turned around to look into the passageway. There wasn't only one strange creature that was lying in ambush; the other strange beast had already silently entered the storeroom, and at this moment, it leapt into the air, its shining blade-like enormous teeth attacking Su with full power!