The hunting team leader quickly learned about the attack on the laboratory, and he also learned that Subject Seven had been killed.
The hunting team leader watched the video at the door and judged that the person was definitely not Dean Zhang, or if he was, he was being controlled.
"So, you guess it was done by a monster?" the base leader asked.
"It's hard to say, we'll only know once we find it."
Soon, the owner of the vehicle was also identified as a freelance hunter. Footage of him entering the base at dusk was also available at the base.
They became even more certain that this must have been done by a monster, possibly some kind of shape-shifting monster.
"What is it doing coming to the base?" The base leader was puzzled and wary.
Even the most intelligent monsters of the past primarily displayed their cunning in hunting. Therefore, humans were often arrogant in the face of monsters; their millennia-old wisdom was far beyond what monsters could match.
But this incident was a slap in the face for them.
The other party wasn't after food at all; it had other, more advanced needs.
"A simple monster with only a hunting instinct, if it evolves, will want more..."
The thought of this possibility sent a chill down their spines.
"Subject Seven is dead. What are your thoughts?" the hunting team leader suddenly asked.
He was more concerned about the death of Experiment Subject Seven than the deaths of the researchers or Dean Zhang's escape. This was their biggest crisis at the moment, far exceeding the issue of monster evolution.
Many people in the base knew that the odor-eliminating agents used by the hunting teams were made from the blood of these special monsters. The hunting teams needed to go out every day to hunt monsters.
The monster in the lab is dead, and the Scarlet Witch is outside, so the raw materials are cut off.
The base leader was also worried: "Fortunately, there are still more than 700 boxes of odor eliminator in the warehouse. If we use them sparingly, they can last for a year and a half."
"You know perfectly well that's not what I wanted to talk about, I..."
"Ding-dong." Before the hunting team leader could finish speaking, an urgent phone call came in.
The leader picked up the phone: "It's me, what's up?"
After someone said something on the other end, the leader's face visibly turned black.
"The warehouse was attacked, and we only managed to salvage thirty odor-eliminating tablets." The leader said this after hanging up the phone, and everyone in the room paled.
Without odor neutralizer, they wouldn't be able to leave the base at night.
"The odor neutralizer is a minor issue; at most, we won't go out at night anymore. The biggest problem isn't the safety of the base?" The hunting team leader slammed his fist on the table...
The leader avoided his gaze and said to the others in the office, "You may all leave now. The captain and I have something to discuss."
Soon, only the base leader and the hunting team captain remained in the office, who were also the two most powerful people in the base at present.
"Eighteen years ago, it was the six of us who discovered that empty coffin and found nine fragments of scrolls inside. Through those scrolls, Monster Number One was unexpectedly born."
The base leader remained silent, waiting for the hunting team leader to get to the point.
"This special monster's blood can shield its aura, and if buried in an empty coffin, it can protect the entire base. We used it to create eight smaller monsters. The last one was stolen and has not been found since."
The hunting team leader took out a cigarette but didn't light it. "It's been eighteen years already."
Their base has always had an invisible guardian. Without 'it,' the base would become monster dinner like other bases, disappearing completely from the world.
Who would have thought that the guardian was actually one of those monsters?
A special monster's vitality can sustain the shielding function for nearly three years. The sixth monster has already died in the empty coffin. Originally, the seventh little monster could have lasted another three years, but accidents always go hand in hand with disasters.
"Unless the ninth fragment can be found, the Scarlet Witch must be retrieved," said the hunting party leader.
The hunting team leader and the base chief exchanged glances; there were some secrets that only they knew.
The base leader remained silent for a long time before taking out a tattered page and a reagent from a secret safe in his office: "This is the Scarlet Witch's birth paper, and also, her umbilical cord blood solvent."
A drop of red solvent was dripped onto the paper, instantly turning it into a red line, while a ring of burning marks began to appear around the edges of the paper. The base leader wiped away the solvent, and the paper returned to its original tattered and damaged state.
"A single sheet of paper like this can last for a maximum of three hours."
"That's enough. I'll bring him back tomorrow at noon, when the sun is at its strongest." The hunting captain took it and walked out of the office.
Who are you? What do you want?
The car drove all the way to an old warehouse before stopping. Ren Yifei got out of the car, opened the trunk, and dragged out a man who was tied up, blindfolded, and gagged.
They dragged him into the warehouse, tied him to a chair, and then tore off the duct tape from his mouth. His first words were, "Who are you, and what do you want?"
Unable to move and knowing he might be in a distant, unfamiliar place in danger, he didn't scream hysterically. Instead, he searched for any possibilities and even calmly negotiated with the kidnappers.
The head of this lab was more difficult to deal with than any of the NPCs Ren Yifei had encountered before.
"Can you tell me about your son?" Ren Yifei asked.
The person in charge in the chair was stunned for a moment. He did not expect the kidnapper to act unpredictably. His first question was about his son. He was caught off guard.
"What? Can't you say?" Ren Yifei continued to ask.
"No, you can. What do you want to know?" After a long silence, the person in charge spoke, his lips pursed, revealing his true feelings at that moment—anger.
The topic Ren Yifei chose shattered his composure, stirring up the emotions of the person in charge.
"It seems there's some discord between you and your son?" Ren Yifei guessed, his tone certain. The son died because of certain regulations in the lab, while the father was still doing well as the person in charge. This showed that their relationship, or rather, their philosophies, were quite different.
The lab director said coldly, "You kidnapped me here, surely not for my family's private affairs."
"Alright, let's start with the experimental subjects he was in charge of. Or, if you'd like, you can start with the 'New Human Project.'" Ren Yifei had already opened the earliest document, which clearly stated: New Human Project.
"The New Human Project?" The lab director's voice rose slightly. "You... how did you know?"
"Don't worry about how I know, can you tell me?"
"The New Human Project was initiated by the base to fuse human and monster genes to create a new kind of human capable of surviving in this world. However, the project failed, and they are a unique and irreplaceable species."
The lab director finally spoke.
"Monsters? Maybe not. Have you really forgotten the origins of those monsters after deceiving yourselves for so long?" Ren Yifei interrupted him.
Ren Yifei was bluffing him. He was certain that things were definitely not simple, and those monsters held too many secrets.
The lab director turned pale: "I don't understand what you're saying... ah—"
An arrow grazed his neck and flew backward, leaving a shallow gash that wasn't fatal, but was painful enough.
Suddenly, many sounds arose in the darkness, all drawn by the sight of blood.
"What are these sounds?"
"Monsters," Ren Yifei laughed, "but don't worry, they won't hurt you for now. Just don't lie. I don't like people lying to me."
The lab director realized something: "This isn't the base?"
"No," Ren Yifei told him the definitive answer, and casually shot an arrow that killed a small monster that had come to hunt for food. The monster bled profusely, and then turned into a small piece of paper in front of him.
Ren Yifei held up his crossbow and aimed it at the laboratory director in the center.
After a silence of more than ten seconds, the head of the laboratory spoke: "The first special monster, I remember it very clearly, it was originally a child in the base."
Bloodshed erupted in the laboratory; Subject Seven was killed; Dean Zhang defected from the base… This night was destined to be anything but peaceful.
The base leader continued investigating the laboratory, while the base's hunting team split into two: one continued searching for the Scarlet Witch, and the other went to find Dean Zhang.
The suspect drove away, and they decided to follow the tire tracks.
But this time it wasn't as easy for them to find their former teammates during the day; it was nighttime, the monsters' time.
"Captain, how long are we going to have to wait?" The team members were extremely anxious. They had found the tracks, but they had encountered a huge creature on the road, which blocked their way.
The hunting team leader frowned: "Wait for it to pass."
The 'it' they were referring to was a writhing dragon-like creature, over ten meters long, that moved incredibly slowly.
Unlike other creatures, this monster is green and has many needle-like outer skins, resembling a green hedgehog. The tips of these spines are red, secreting a clear, sticky substance with a sweet fragrance.
Occasionally, other small monsters are attracted by the sweet scent and land on it. They will then be entangled in a superglue-like slime, and the monster's long tail will curl up to wrap around, break down, and digest its prey.
Yes, it is not an animalistic monster, but a plant similar to sundew that feeds on animals.
While the hunting party waited for the slowpoke to leave, some players, such as Saman, received news that the lab had been massacred.
Saman not only learned about the massacre at the laboratory, but also that the NPCs were planning to target the players.
The baby-faced man and the middle-aged man from the hunting team have been identified. The laid-back trio is on the wanted list, and the NPCs have sent people to capture them.
Because Saman's original self was a solitary and reclusive person, and he was similarly so, no one suspected him. The handsome player, on the other hand, had been spending his time at an entertainment venue, and with a group of people as witnesses, he wasn't arrested either.
As for the rest, they are either excessively low-key, or simply ghosts or disguised individuals.
"The killing of Subject Seven has thoroughly enraged these NPCs. They need these special monsters; without Subject Seven, all that's left is the Scarlet Witch," Saman analyzed.
"It's hard to say why the people in the lab were massacred, but it's a fact that it indirectly forced the NPCs to go to great lengths to find the Scarlet Witch."
"He's in trouble."
Regardless of whether it was the Scarlet Witch or not, the thought of him becoming a test subject, or even dying, made Saman uncomfortable. He turned on his computer and copied the data.
The base is officially controlled by a single entity, but their practices are too greedy, and there are resistance forces within it. This information is exactly what we need to leverage to utilize these forces.
"Since they're so free, why not find them something to do?"
Outside the base, an old warehouse.
"Human?" Ren Yifei murmured to himself. After he had accepted the fact that he was a monster, he was suddenly told that the Scarlet Witch was human?
No, to be precise, they are monsters transformed from pure humans.
But why is the Scarlet Witch considered 'hope'?
Ren Yifei checked the time. If nothing unexpected happened, the NPCs should be on their way and probably very close. He didn't have much time left.
The lab director was unaware of Ren Yifei's thoughts; he continued talking about the New Human Project.
Around him were some small monsters that had turned into paper. One arrow shot them off one by one in a row, and the other small monsters became afraid. Throughout this time, the head of the laboratory remained very calm.
Ren Yifei occasionally doubted the head of the laboratory. With such a high level of mental fortitude, how could he be so easily frightened into revealing the key information?
It was as if he had spoken up on his own initiative.
With questions lingering in his mind, Ren Yifei listened quietly to his story.
The lab director had been in charge of this new human project for a long time.
Other researchers who came later in their studies assumed the eight little monsters were just special creatures, but he knew perfectly well that these little monsters had once been human, and that they had mutated overnight. The method of mutation was known only to a few, and he didn't know it either.
"The Scarlet Witch was the last one, and also the most thorough one."
The lab director recalled events from long ago: "When he was brought here, he was just born, an infant, but he already had monstrous features. He was photophobic, unable to eat human food, and turned to ash after being injured. The other seven were different; they retained more or less human characteristics."
He chuckled. "I suspect this child was already a monster the moment he took his first breath."
The author has something to say: Monsters are created by the human mind.