Huo Ling didn’t actually go anywhere. After throwing out a few harsh words, he immediately rushed upstairs to the third floor to get Lin Shuangshuang’s test report. What’s the difference between this and angrily washing someone’s underwear? Zhao Pingsheng couldn’t help complaining after watching the surveillance footage in the living room.
But business came first.
“I need to tell you something. Don’t be surprised yet—I detected the XD-0 gene in her body.”
Huo Ling froze.
The reason they formed a team in the first place was largely connected to this gene.
Six years ago—
Zhao Pingsheng was an intern at a hospital when, one early morning, he saw a batch of strange patients being admitted. That same day, he was forced to sign a strict confidentiality agreement. While trying to figure out what was going on, Huo Ling suddenly ran into trouble. It was said that his girlfriend disappeared out of nowhere after breaking up with him.
They were childhood friends. Though they didn’t often contact each other due to being busy with their own lives, they were still like family to each other. So Zhao Pingsheng called him—and for the first time, he saw his calm, steady friend completely lose control of his emotions.
Huo Ling had always been extremely stable since childhood. Rarely emotional.
Zhao Pingsheng was shocked, but quickly composed himself and helped him sort through everything—how she disappeared, whether anything abnormal happened before that.
And more importantly—when did his friend even get a girlfriend???
And apparently, they had been together for six years.
Huo Ling said he had only saved her by chance, and she stuck to him afterward.
Everything had seemed normal before she disappeared.
But no matter how many connections he used, he couldn’t find any trace of her information.
It was as if she had been deliberately erased.
Around that time, a large number of people were going missing, and public pressure was already at its peak.
That was when Zhao Pingsheng told him about the hospital situation, suspecting illegal experiments were being conducted.
And not on animals—but on humans.
Not fiction. Not movies. Not imagination.
Those “patients” that night were not normal humans at all. They could even be described like the so-called ability users in apocalypse novels.
When the real apocalypse later arrived—
After Zhao Pingsheng encountered other ability users, he realized those “patients” didn’t quite fit the definition either. As everyone knew, abilities usually fell into elements like metal, wood, water, fire, earth, or rarer variants like lightning, storms, petrification, mental or spatial powers. But ability users themselves did not mutate—their abilities were purely external output systems.
Yet those patients had parasites in their bodies. They were more like a fusion of humans and animals or plants.
Just remembering it made him nauseous. There had been five “patients.”
He had seen all of them. One had a massive wound from chest to abdomen, yet the internal organs had turned plant-like. One had brain hemorrhaging that required a craniotomy, but when opened, it was full of insect eggs. Another had compound insect eyes. Two others had human bodies but animal limbs.
Even the interns all vomited—including him.
It was beyond disturbing. Pure mental contamination.
That night, almost all medical staff on duty were busy trying to save those five people.
But none of them had experience treating anything like this. They could only assist the leader who brought them in and follow his instructions during surgery.
Later, Zhao Pingsheng secretly investigated further and actually managed to trace some clues. That was when he learned those “patients” were called humanoid weapons. Over the years, technology had advanced, but humans had become more and more insane. Those scientific lunatics were beyond saving.
Combining this with the recent surge in missing persons, Zhao Pingsheng couldn’t help connecting everything.
At the time, Huo Ling also shared his situation, but there was one thing he couldn’t understand.
If she had been chosen as a humanoid weapon, why would she agree? Why abandon being human to become a monster? And her breakup had been abrupt.
Too sudden.
Could someone really convince a person so quickly to become a “monster”?
Zhao Pingsheng only had a suspicion and couldn’t be 100% certain. But he secretly kept blood samples from those five “patients” and successfully detected the same gene in all of them.
The XD-0 gene.
And now Huo Ling had brought her in—and it really did match.
Their original suspicion had turned out to be true.
The only thing left unknown was what exactly had happened.
Lin Shuangshuang clearly didn’t want to talk about it, which made things even more troublesome.
Huo Ling lowered his eyes, lost in thought. After a while, he asked, “What gene was she fused with?”
It couldn’t be a fish, right?
With a seven-second memory?
Zhao Pingsheng cleared his throat. “Not a fish—but close. Also aquatic.”
Huo Ling looked at him.
“It’s a jellyfish.”
Huo Ling froze.
No wonder her hair moved… and felt so soft and alive.
At the same time
The little jellyfish monster was making her bed very seriously, trying her best to straighten the sheets.
Luo Na brought her a washbasin. “Towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, cup, comb, tissues—all here. You can pick any blanket you want. If you need anything else, just tell me.”
Lin Shuangshuang nodded earnestly. “Okay, thank you.”
Apart from the three teammates’ rooms, the remaining rooms on the second floor were storage rooms.
Her new room was converted from one of them. A small bed was set up—foldable metal frame, very sturdy, clearly built to last. It looked extremely solid and comfortable.
There was also a mattress.
The only thing missing was bedding, which she was currently assembling.
She wasn’t very skilled.
Back when she was in the organization, there had been cleaning staff.
She had never done housework.
And during those six years, Huo Ling had taken very good care of her.
Those were her happiest six years.
Luo Na was kind—she not only brought supplies but also helped make the bed. Lin Shuangshuang kept thanking her, which made Luo Na too embarrassed to keep gossiping.
She could only tell her to rest early. “Your hair color is really pretty. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
Lin Shuangshuang nodded. “Okay.”
She looked very obedient.
After Luo Na left, she sat on the bed in a daze. She looked down—she was wearing Huo Ling’s clothes.
She couldn’t help but sniff them again.
Then she crawled into the blanket and wrapped herself tightly inside.
This way, his scent would be stronger.
She thought she was very smart.
With his scent, she could sleep well—but unfortunately, her dreams were not good.
They were chaotic and fragmented.
Sometimes she was in the organization.
Sometimes in Huo Ling’s home.
Then she was back in a laboratory—a cold place filled with harsh white lights.
Huo Ling wasn’t sleeping either.
He lay quietly on the bed with one arm under his head. The fourth floor was extremely silent.
But Zhao Pingsheng’s words kept echoing in his mind.
“These humanoid weapons all have a pollution level, which is closely tied to their bodies. It’s also called sanity value. Once the pollution reaches 90%, their bodies begin to manifest mutations. If it can be reduced before reaching 95%, there might still be hope—but once it exceeds 95%…”
It’s over.
The humanoid weapon will completely lose its sanity—
and turn into a full-fledged monster.