Chapter 744: The Demented Genius
“It seems that avoiding her is no longer an option…” Ling Mo thought helplessly.
“Sh-sh-sh…” The Zombie Snake slithered slowly along the narrow pa.s.sageways between the televisions, its “scales” continuously producing a faint friction sound as it moved. When Ling Mo didn’t know the truth, this sound didn’t bother him much. But now, hearing it gave him gooseb.u.mps all over.
He vaguely remembered seeing a similar scene before, probably in a report about ichthyosis patients…
However, the degeneration of this Zombie Snake was evidently much worse, and it didn’t seem to be a disease at all. Rather, it was some sort of mutation appearing on its skin.
Ling Mo continued to retreat and suddenly realized that the narrow pa.s.sageways left between these televisions were probably the “snake paths” typically used by this Zombie Snake!
And for her, these televisions probably served the same purpose as caves.
He had entered out of curiosity to take a look, only to find out it was a snake nest!
What kind of researcher would come up with something like this?! And why wasn’t the door locked if such an important Experimental Subject was tied up here?!
But it didn’t matter if he couldn’t figure it out; the stranger this Zombie Snake was, the more Ling Mo wanted to get to the bottom of it.
In the process of advancing and retreating, Ling Mo had also gained some understanding of this Zombie Snake’s behavior patterns. She could barely make any sound, and her speed and strength were mediocre under some unknown limitations. As long as one could accept her appearance, she was not too difficult to handle…
“Alright… at worst, I’ll just think of you as Little Red Riding Hood who wandered onto the wrong set…” Ling Mo exhaled softly and resolutely stopped moving.
Catching snakes by hand was already outdated; what he had to do now was catch a “snake person” bare-handed…
Even though this wasn’t done by his main body, apart from not sharing the sense of pain, all the sensations a Zombie Puppet felt from external stimuli would be fully reflected in Ling Mo’s psychic light cl.u.s.ter.
So… it was pretty much the same as if he were doing it himself!
“I hate empathy…”
Ling Mo muttered under his breath, then extended his hand while keeping his eyes locked on the Zombie Snake that was still slithering towards him.
His gaze s.h.i.+fted from the Zombie Snake’s head to its tail as he rapidly a.n.a.lyzed in his mind, “My speed should be about the same as hers, and our reaction times are likely similar as well. But she clearly has low intelligence and only has her mouth and tail… I, on the other hand, have both hands and feet.”
The Zombie Snake, after all, was a creature that was neither fully a zombie nor fully a snake. She had lost the advantages of being a zombie and didn’t possess the flexibility and instant attack capability of a snake…
However, these were merely her apparent weaknesses for now. If she had higher intelligence, it would be a completely different story.
This was one thing Ling Mo found fortunate…
With a quick sideways glance, Ling Mo slowly backed into a side pa.s.sage. Conveniently, there were a few stacked televisions there, blocking him from the Zombie Snake’s ground-level viewpoint.
“Sh-sh-sh…”
The Zombie Snake soon emerged from around the corner but suddenly stopped crawling.
Her yellowish eyes fixed on the dark pa.s.sage, a trace of confusion flas.h.i.+ng through her gaze.
No one was in the pa.s.sage…
But just then, she abruptly opened her mouth, forcing out a barely audible sound from her throat, “Ah!”
At the same time, she whipped her head around and instantly spotted the figure.
At this moment, instead of retreating, the figure stepped forward, firmly planting a foot on her tail!
“Phew, didn’t think I’d actually manage to step on it…”
Ling Mo had just breathed a sigh of relief when the Zombie Snake began to struggle frantically, twisting her head desperately, trying to break free.
Her arms were bound by iron rings, leaving her with only her mouth to use, but given her current condition, biting Ling Mo was evidently out of the question…
Meanwhile, Ling Mo’s main body was frowning as he braced himself the moment he stepped down. Despite being prepared, he hadn’t antic.i.p.ated that stepping on the creature would feel this strange.
Of course, the strange sensation also had a lot to do with the fact that the Zombie Puppet wasn’t wearing shoes. As an Experimental Subject, if Ling Mo hadn’t found a lab coat, this Zombie Puppet might have been running around the building naked late at night…
“Quite strong, huh…” Ling Mo found it somewhat difficult to keep his foot down. The Zombie Snake might not be fast, but it certainly wasn’t lacking in strength.
His eyes glanced at the Iron Chain beneath the Zombie Snake, and he used his other foot to step on it as well. Then he squatted down, using his knee to press down on the Snake Tail while reaching out to grab the chain.
With a strong pull from Ling Mo, the upper half of the Zombie Snake finally stopped struggling. She remained in a semi-upright position, staring at Ling Mo with her mouth still open.
Ling Mo noticed that the Zombie Snake’s waist seemed rather inflexible, even somewhat stiff.
He stared at her waist for a moment before cautiously grabbing the edge of her red s.h.i.+rt and slowly lifting it.
“Whoa…”
He immediately let go of the s.h.i.+rt after a brief glance.
Next, his eyes s.h.i.+fted to the piece of paper hanging between the Zombie Snake’s b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
“Just as I thought!”
After reading the first line of tiny text, Ling Mo was certain of his hunch.
He looked back up at the Zombie Snake’s face… Ignoring the scales, her facial features appeared quite normal for a female zombie…
“A mutation snake limb transplant… so it’s essentially a splicing…” Ling Mo turned to look at the constantly wriggling piece of Snake Tail still behind her, his confusion deepening. “How could such a thing be successfully done between different species? Even Black Silk can only parasitize and be with Yu s.h.i.+ran, merely sharing a body through psychic infiltration right now…”
But as he read further, Ling Mo was utterly shocked!
The researcher behind this must have been a genius, but this genius certainly had some wild ideas!
“So that’s how it is… After selecting a suitable mutation snake and a zombie, they would feed each other’s blood to them over an extended period, unifying the direction of the virus mutation in their bodies. Finally, they would complete the transplantation…” Ling Mo was in utter shock. Theoretically speaking, it’s true that a virus can alter the host’s DNA, but to actually develop such a creature based on this theory-with such actionable steps-definitely had to be the work of a super genius!
“Hmm? But…”
Ling Mo quickly noticed the word “but” and eagerly read on.
“However, maintaining this delicate balance is extremely difficult, especially post-transplantation. If the supply of these two kinds of blood is interrupted or if the dosages are imbalanced, the connection points between the Snake Tail and the zombie’s body will begin to rot, eventually causing the Snake Tail to fall off… The newly created hybrid also didn’t meet the expected outcomes, but as a semi-successful product, I still believe she qualifies as an ornamental creature. Although, despite my strong recommendation, the Big Boss courteously declined my offer to gift it to him…”
“This can’t be considered a good gesture! It’s practically a nasty recommendation!” Ling Mo felt a chill down his spine. Although the note was printed and didn’t show handwriting, the tone clearly indicated the Researcher’s personality! Ling Mo even suspected that all the modified Experimental Subjects he had encountered, including No.0, No.1, the Canine Zombie, and the artificially induced variation zombies discovered by Ye Lian, were likely the results of this individual’s work! At the very least, this person played a crucial role in the experiments.
This was a bona fide mad genius!
“But this Big Boss… Could he be the leader of Niepan’s headquarters?” Ling Mo paused briefly to consider but then brushed it off. This “Big Boss” had nothing to do with him-as a matter of fact, if anything, they were enemies. Under these circ.u.mstances, it was best to avoid any contact altogether.
“Wait a minute… The Snake Tail is connected to the upper half of this zombie, so where is the snake head, and how is it linked to this zombie’s body?”
A sudden alarming thought struck Ling Mo…
He hurriedly looked around. Fortunately, everything was quiet…
But just as his gaze swept past the doorway, Ling Mo vaguely caught sight of a fleeting shadow.
“Who’s there?!”
Ling Mo glanced down at the Zombie Snake, hesitated for a moment, and then headb.u.t.ted her with a fierce thrust.
As the Zombie Snake wobbled and collapsed, Ling Mo quickly took control of the Zombie Puppet, making it stand up swiftly, and chased after the shadow.
His perception of this floor had completely changed; the figure hiding in the shadows might not be human-it could very well be some sort of strange Creature!
He had just infiltrated the place and couldn’t afford to reveal his presence so easily.
“Whatever is dampening the sensory perceptions here, it’s definitely not for fire or theft protection-it’s designed to facilitate the Researcher’s storage of these Experimental Subjects! But such conditions are dangerous for humans. How did that person manage this?”
Ling Mo’s mind was racing as he pursued the elusive figure. Through his exploration, he was gradually piecing together the true layout of the sixth floor.
“Where did it go…”
The brief delay upon finding the shadow was enough for Ling Mo to lose sight of it by the time he reached the Corridor.
He looked around, a hint of urgency flas.h.i.+ng in his eyes.
A few seconds later, he suddenly shut his eyes.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
The master ball quickly crawled over from the other end. Although it was challenging for it to scan the environment in its current state, finding a moving Creature should still be within its capabilities…
As soon as Ling Mo reunited with the master ball, he guided the Zombie Puppet to open its eyes and silently walking forward.
There were no corners nearby; the figure might be hiding in one of the adjacent rooms…