Chapter 202: The Mermaid in the Iron Box
The ninth floor was a specimen floor. The few skeletons Jiang Yihua had bumped into when she came out were human bone specimens, casually hung outside an iron-clad box, and there were many such iron boxes.
"Thump, thump." Zheng Liang knocked on the iron box and pressed his ear against it for a few seconds. "Sounds like there's water inside."
"Maybe it's some kind of specimen soaking in there." Gu Yu glanced around, then said, "This floor should be safe too."
No sooner had she spoken than a metallic clatter came from nearby. Everyone turned to see a middle-aged man frantically picking up a handle-like object from the floor, stammering, "I didn't know it would break... I just accidentally leaned on it..."
Tie Ge and his group cursed, cautiously approaching but keeping a distance. Only after confirming it was just a decorative piece on the iron box did they angrily say, "Haven't you watched horror movies? In dangerous places, you don't touch things randomly. Touch them and you die. Do you know what people like that are called? Cannon fodder! Dead weight teammates!"
The middle-aged man couldn't lift his head under the scolding, but his peripheral vision caught the iron box behind Tie Ge. Suddenly his eyes widened. "M-moving... it moved!"
Tie Ge immediately spun around and saw the middle of the iron box bulge out and then flatten again, as if something was moving inside.
"Gulp." Someone swallowed audibly.
Wei Bin suddenly said, "What do you think they'd soak in a specimen box two meters tall?"
"Not humans, right?" Xiao Ba said fearfully.
Meanwhile, Xu Huo, Dai Wenqian, Gu Yu, and a few others had already taken out their prop weapons. Xu Huo raised his voice, "Everyone, move toward the elevator. Don't crowd, walk slowly, and don't touch the iron boxes."
The quickest to react were Tie Ge and his group. They dashed over to the elevator in a few big strides and hid behind Dai Wenqian and the others. Seeing them run, the others scrambled backward in a panic, afraid of being left behind.
In the jostling, it was inevitable that someone would bump into the iron boxes. At first, there were isolated "thump, bang" sounds of the iron surfaces rising and falling, but then they gradually increased, like heartbeats, each iron box echoing the others. The sounds grew louder, and by the time everyone had crowded back in front of the elevator, the iron boxes had multiple bulges rising and falling, as if something was pounding from inside. Several bumps appeared on the iron surfaces!
"Thump!"
"Thump!"
"Thump!"
Within just a few minutes, the entire floor was filled with these sounds, and as time passed, the pounding grew louder and more frequent.
"There aren't monsters inside, are there?" Jiang Yihua hid behind Da Zhi, her eyes fixed on the nearest iron boxes.
"Monsters would be fine," Dai Wenqian said. "Monsters raised in tanks aren't scary. What's scary is if they're human mutants."
If the iron boxes contained human mutants, it wouldn't be for breeding but for controlled research. Mutants worth studying, sealed in iron boxes—it was easy to imagine they wouldn't be ordinary specimens.
"The iron boxes are made of special materials. They shouldn't be easy to break through," Gu Yu reassured everyone. "Didn't you see? The boxes returned to their original shape..."
But before she could finish, an iron box a few meters away was punctured. With a spray of foul-smelling liquid, a snow-white arm reached out from inside!
The white arm rotated, its long, sharp nails gripping the edge of the hole, slowly tearing the iron box open.
A large amount of liquid gushed out, and then a naked woman rolled out from inside.
She lay face down on the ground, her back to everyone. Long black hair covered most of her back, and her lower body, writhing, was actually a fish tail shimmering with iridescent colors!
"A mermaid!"
Even the players, who had braced themselves for a fight, couldn't help but be surprised. No one had expected the monster to appear in such a form.
"Wah wah..." The mermaid began to cry.
"She's so pitiful..." Da Zhi said unconsciously.
Jiang Yihua pinched him hard from the side. Before she could speak, she saw Xu Huo quickly step forward. She was about to stop him when she saw him flick out several paper-like objects, then kick the sobbing "mermaid" over with one foot!
The mermaid was sent flying. When her palms, arms, and fish tail touched the paper, the paper curled up and stuck to her body. Whether she tried to push up with her tail or her hands, she would fall back down again.
After falling face-first several times in a row, the mermaid seemed to give up and lay on the ground, crying loudly.
"Aren't we being too harsh? She can't even walk," someone said.
The players remained silent. Mermaids were only beautiful, positive images in children's books.
"Look up," Xu Huo said to the figure on the ground from two or three meters away. "Otherwise, I'll set you on fire. Those scales of yours would look great burning."
The mermaid lay still on the ground, still crying.
"Her mind might be degraded," Dai Wenqian said, approaching her gently. "Don't be afraid. We mean no harm. We won't hurt you..."
Before he could finish, the mermaid on the ground suddenly lifted her head. Beneath bulging eyeballs was a gaping mouth full of fangs. When she grinned, the corners of her mouth nearly split to her ears, revealing her tongue, throat, and all!
She lunged for Dai Wenqian's throat!
Dai Wenqian leaned back and casually tossed a small glass bottle into her mouth.
"Crack!" The bottle shattered on impact. The liquid inside spilled out, hissing and bubbling. The mermaid clawed at her mouth and throat, desperately trying to dig out whatever was inside, but the liquid in the bottle had already corroded her tongue and gums. When she opened her mouth, blood and teeth flowed onto the floor!
The mermaid let out a painful whimper, crawling backward along the ground to escape. But her body was covered in sticky paper, making movement difficult. It took her a while to retreat just one meter, and the two people who had hurt her were still close by!
There was a beast-like, instinctive fear in her eyes.
"So ugly!" Jiang Yihua came over to look, then pursed her lips and said, "Definitely a mutant."
"She was human once, wasn't she?" Gu Yu hesitated as she looked at the thing on the ground that could no longer be called human. "How did it come to this?"
Even when humans mutated, their appearance didn't differ much from humans. Even if they degenerated, how could legs degenerate into a fish tail?
Dai Wenqian pointed at the stitching marks on the mermaid's waist. "Artificial mermaid."
Gu Yu found it hard to accept. "Have the people in the game world all gone mad?"
"Turning from human to mutant is tragic enough, and they're using them for experiments like this?"
"What's the point of such experiments?"
"Probably for display," Xu Huo said, lighting a cigarette. He took a deep drag and added, "This mermaid is actually a man."
Everyone's eyes widened as they looked at the mermaid—though its face was unrecognizable, its body shape was still distinguishable. This mermaid was genuinely a man!