Yellow Hair scanned the room, staring intently for over ten seconds.
No one rushed out, nor was there any obvious movement.
With a puzzled expression, he asked, "Hey! Did someone leave?"
Long Hair and Bearded turned around looking equally confused. The three exchanged bewildered glances.
Yellow Hair suddenly felt his heart skip a beat as he hurriedly turned back to examine the refrigerator.
No one was hiding inside—only chemical reagent tubes covered in frost and other refrigerated chemicals.
"Damn it!" he cursed angrily, kicking the refrigerator before raising his gun to spray bullets wildly around the room.
Bullets rained down on the lab benches, shattering the test tubes and beakers containing chemical solutions. A multitude of colorful, unknown reagents splattered across the floor.
"You dare mess with me?! Come out! Come out! Damn it!"
Long Hair and Bearded sighed in exasperation before turning back, guns raised as they surveyed their surroundings.
Zhou Hanxiang had already moved beneath another lab bench. From the very beginning, she hadn't planned to flee.
This particular bench stored large quantities of iodine and other chemical reagents for experiments.
With practiced ease, Hanxiang opened containers of iodine and other reagents. Her movements were precise and swift as she retrieved glass beakers and test tubes from the cabinet beneath the adjacent bench.
Expertly mixing iodine with organic solvents and crystalline substances, she created a deep purple liquid filled with granular crystals. She then poured the mixture into test tubes, sealing each with polyethylene stoppers.
Footsteps drew closer. Hanxiang picked up one test tube and shook it vigorously. The crystals inside collided, generating heat as the purple liquid bubbled like boiling water.
She rolled it across the floor toward the outside. The test tube shattered against a distant lab bench, and upon contact with air, the liquid transformed into thick, dense purple smoke that rapidly spread.
The three Blue Cosmos members turned at the noise just in time to see the purple smoke billow up, filling the room in mere moments.
They hastily covered their mouths and noses, retreating.
But one after another, the sound of breaking glass echoed from various corners of the room as purple smoke rose everywhere.
"Don't panic!" Yellow Hair shouted. "This smoke can't be poisonous unless she wants to die too!"
Long Hair and Bearded gradually calmed at his words, but soon their brows furrowed in anger.
Gritting their teeth, they cursed and fired blindly into the purple smoke.
"Guard the door! She's trying to escape!"
Yellow Hair reacted quickly, yelling the warning. Long Hair and Bearded, reminded, retreated toward the door while continuing to fire.
Long Hair: "Damn bitch still dares to fight back! Die!"
Bearded: "Damn it, don't let me catch you—I'll make you taste my DD!"
Within the purple iodine smoke, Zhou Hanxiang crouched low, concealed in the darkest, thickest part of the fog near the ground.
Covering her mouth and nose, she crawled forward on her stomach. Bullets whizzed overhead, shattering everything on the tables above.
Her eyes stung and teared from the iodine fumes as Zhou Hanxiang squinted, straining to discern her surroundings while moving toward another lab bench following her memory.
Suddenly, a glass beaker shattered overhead, splattering its contents. A few droplets landed on Hanxiang's forehead.
Instantly, blisters formed on her smooth skin, reddening from the burn. Caught off guard, she let out a pained gasp and accidentally knocked into a nearby lab bench with a loud clatter.
Alerted by the noise, Yellow Hair turned and fired, while Long Hair and Bearded also swung their gun barrels toward the sound.
A hailstorm of bullets from three guns forced Hanxiang to drop to the floor, shielding her head with her arms.
Chemicals spilled onto her, staining her white lab coat in garish colors, scorching patches black, or smoking as they corroded through the fabric.
...
From a distance, Zhou Tianming heard the relentless gunfire, the image of the woman's earlier death flashing in his mind.
Hurry, hurry!
A thick purple smoke billowed from a doorway ahead, flickering under the muzzle flashes.
Ignoring the risk of enemy fire from inside, Tianming rushed to the door, pivoted sideways, and slid into the room using his momentum.
The acrid smoke burned his eyes, but he kept them wide open, unblinking. Mid-slide, he spotted a glowing silhouette and fired immediately.
The figure collapsed, revealing another.
Another shot—the second figure fell with a scream.
Yellow Hair, sensing the shift in gunfire and hearing the cries, realized something was wrong. He lunged forward, vanishing into the iodine fog.
Tianming clearly remembered there were three enemies besides Hanxiang in this room, but when he swung his gun to find the third, the man was already gone.
The gunfire ceased, plunging the purple-smoke-filled room into silence.
Tianming crawled out, his once-beige rabbit mascot suit now tinted purple.
Hiding outside the door, he tried to call out to Hanxiang—but at this critical moment, his tongue, unused for five years, felt stiff as stone, his voicebox rough as gravel. No words came.
His heart sank. Hanxiang didn't know one enemy remained. If she stepped out now…
Thinking fast, Tianming emptied a magazine into the ceiling. Tiles rained down with a crash—a warning for Hanxiang to stay put.
The moment his gunfire stopped, shots rang out from the purple haze, bullets slamming into the doorframe. Tianming ducked.
Then, footsteps echoed from the corridor's far end.
Frowning, Tianming hesitated before darting back inside—only to collide with a lab bench near the entrance.
He dropped flat, bracing for an attack that never came.
Around the corner, several armed Blue Cosmos members sprinted past. One noticed the billowing purple smoke.
He halted, about to investigate, but another pulled him back, pointing at the nearby door's placard: Genetic Biochemistry Lab.
The first man paled and retreated. Both hurried after their group.
Inside, a three-way standoff unfolded in the iodine fog. Though seemingly two against one, Tianming and Hanxiang had no way to coordinate.
Wait for the smoke to clear?
But with Blue Cosmos nearby, too many variables remained.
Without hesitation, Zhou Tianming activated [Sense] again, expanding his Mental Power, but his head grew heavy with dizziness.
The scene detected by his mind superimposed over his deep brown eyes, outlining a clear vision through the purple smoke.
Before he could act, he saw Zhou Hanxiang throw a test tube toward him, spinning rapidly through the air.
His eyes widened in shock as realization struck like lightning—his earlier gunfire at the ceiling had been mistaken for hostility.
He immediately understood he'd been set up by another enemy; that person had deliberately held fire, waiting for them to turn on each other.
Retreating swiftly, he raised his gun horizontally to block.
The test tube shattered against the firearm, splattering its contents.
In an instant, the liquid began smoking and corroding wherever it touched Zhou Tianming.
The rabbit mascot costume proved its worth again—the thick fur temporarily resisted the corrosive liquid.
But a deadlier attack followed. Gunfire rang out, bullets carving spiraling voids through the purple mist as they streaked toward him.
Zhou Tianming retreated further, only to slam heavily into a lab table behind him, sending glass fragments clattering.
Bullets raked across the space.
No time to dodge!
Zhou Tianming activated [Unyielding].
His already depleted Mental Power—down to 69—instantly dropped by another 20, leaving only 49.
Just as [Unyielding] took effect, darkness swallowed his vision. His head throbbed as if struck by a sledgehammer, freezing him in place.
The next moment, bullets riddled his body, jolting him backward until he collided with the lab table again.
His legs gave way as he collapsed unconscious, blood seeping from wounds to dye the beige rabbit costume crimson.