Chapter 18
The surface level of the bluish artificial seawater decreased with Rand completely oblivious as to why— the water in the fish tank was less than a quarter full.
The large empty section of space that was vacant made the whole aquarium seem a bit odd.
Rand took a step forward in shock and began examining the aquarium. In his initial thoughts, this sort of situation naturally occurs due to a crack in the aquarium. He stooped down and surveyed as he looked for possible cracks inch by inch, but in fact, every inch of the aquarium was in good condition.
Rand felt utterly perplexed. He even kneeled down and crawled behind the table to inspect the water supply line. He then proceeded to feel around the carpet under his knees to see if there was a moistness there that shouldn't be. He reached out with his hand and felt around the carpet, the liquid seeping from the underside of the thick gray fibers dampened his palm. He soon found that the wallpaper at the back section of the aquarium was also wet, the surface of a nearby leather ottoman was covered with fine water droplets... It feels like during the time he was unconscious, an invisible flame caused the water in the aquarium to boil over and then vaporize into steam to soak the furniture in the vicinity.
Everything is all so confusing, and...
There is something about it that doesn't feel right.
A few seconds later, Rand discovered where that feeling of unease came from— he found that Munster had sunk to the bottom of the water and was just stopped motionless on the coral stones that were already broken down into slag.
This is clearly very rare for it. Munster is always swimming, even when it was injured and forced to stay in the salad bowl nothing changed, it kept on swimming around. But now, however, that sort of astonishing vitality was completely gone. It powerlessly floated in place, its fins sway slightly, and at the same time, the scales on the body turn into a faint greenish-gray.
A clear and easily seen display of weakness.
"Oh no."
Rand's gaze went blank for a moment and after a careful observation of Munster's state, he produced a distressed cry. He thought in alarm that perhaps in the short period of time when he was unconscious because of his damn neurofunctional asthma, a problem also emerged with Munster who might have been sparing no effort to struggle to make the water in the aquarium splash out (it's hard to explain how those tiny droplets that appeared on the surface of his home, but Rand obviously did not think too much).
Not long after, Rand fished out the oxygen pump from the fragmented coral stones. It had already ceased working and the plastic casing was filled with baffling veined patterned cracks (that thing looked rather like it had received an enormous impact). He wasn't too sure if this was the cause for Munster's poor health, but he still tried to change out the fish tank with a new oxygen pump and allocated artificial seawater to fill up the aquarium.
Yet apart from this, Rand found himself unclear of the root cause for Munster's unexplained weakness.
He attempted to call the numbers of some pet hospitals within the city of Kansas according to the phone numbers written down on the yellow pages, but the doctors said one after another that they did not have much treatment experience for an unknown pet fish. A few people recommended him to quickly dredge up the sick fish in order to avoid infecting other fish— this sort of remark made Rand feel a burst of anger. He directly hangs up his phone and returns to the side of the aquarium.
The color and luster of Munster's body grays out at a speed visible to the naked eye. Rand gazes at it sadly and began to feel that he was going to lose him.
"Hey, don't do this."
He spoke to the ailing fish. He reached his hand in and felt like fishing it up. He didn't know what went wrong, maybe it was the "seawater" that was allocated? He wants to transfer Munster to another container and change out all of its water. Maybe table salt and drinking water would be able to make it a little bit more comfortable... Rand feels that his mind was a complete mess, it was as if there is a swarm of bees buzzing inside.
When his fingers touched Munster, the latter slightly moved, it used its mouth to touch Rand's finger with its mouth, a large piece of a translucent membrane of skin, perhaps, fell off from the small part where it contacted Rand's finger. The gray epidermis underneath was an ugly grayish-white tender flesh, which seemed to also have a hint of light blue capillary blood vessels.
Rand ensued to accidentally run into Munster's abdomen and another large chunk of scales fell off its skin in succession. This time, Munster violently convulsed, it appeared to be in extreme pain.
Rand yanked his hand back in complete terror. He didn't dare to touch it again.
"Oh God, what on earth happened?"
For the first time, he experienced that type of deep distress— the communication barrier between a pet and a human that creates an inability to communicate.
Rand sincerely hoped that Munster could be able to tell him what was wrong in a way he could understand, yet at this moment, he feels the pain of that small living being but he is completely powerless to do anything.
Shallow grief fills the heart of this man.
Look, those policemen, those police officers always bring tragedy— it was as if a voice was talking beside his ear.
After that, Rand once again summoned the courage to go over to the fish forum he had logged into before. He sent out a post and asked for a solution without holding any high expectations. However, as everyone very quickly recognized him, he failed to obtain any useful replies save for a few ridicules.
When Rand returned to the side of the aquarium for a second time, Munster's figure had already disappeared without a trace. Rand's heartbeat halted for an instant... After a few seconds, he found that the "cocoon" that kept Munster busy for a long time had a new variation.
That one entrance on the side has been enveloped in a layer of translucent film. Through that layer of film, Rand vaguely saw a figure faintly squirming in the inside.
It was naturally Munster, it seemed to be busy doing something, its head was slowly swaying... After a while, that layer of translucent film became the same exact white as the rest of the parts. Rand realized at this time that as the entrance was sealed, Munster's "cocoon" turned into a very standard round form.
An hour ago
Washington—
"...Yes, that's right. I must admit that the searching efforts are progressing slowly. But the reality is that we don't have a better way. Experimental Body No. 7371 itself is a Level 8 Mutant Form. Moreover, according to the information left of it, it shows that it has an extremely strong possibility of transformation...... Rest assured, the living embryo is that... I am awfully sorry, but that Red Scale embryo has already lost nearly all activity and so the Experimental Body No. 7371 is the most vital form we have at hand... Listen, even if it is now forced to metamorphize into its larval form, this level of experimental forms already possess extremely powerful defensive measures, we don't have any means at hand to screen or distinguish its wave band..."
A few minutes later, Vincent hangs up on that researcher's phone call.
He massaged the bridge of his nose and felt that his patience for these good-for-nothings had already reached its limit. This group of fools have clearly already been petrified, like a flock of hens that are under a strong light, not useful in the least. It's not like there isn't an even more radical method, it's just that they are afraid to be in direct contact with it. The massacre left behind by Experimental Body No. 7371 when it escaped the floating island laboratory left an excessively deep psychological shadow for those who should theoretically be impervious to the law and natural morality.
Thinking of this, Vincent's mood became even more vile than before.
He made a simple gesture and some security guard standing at the door left without a word. He was a capable child and Vincent knew that he would very soon obtain a batch of new blood to handle this matter.
Although the problem still stands.
"The people from the Ministry of National Defense want to have a talk with you..."
Carolyn noiselessly handed over the telephone from the other side of the room.
"They want to talk about this accident."
Vincent drew out the corners of his mouth and only the people he was closest to could understand that this was the way he expressed contempt. He did not immediately give Carolyn a reply, and his gaze fell on the engraved nameplate on the other side of the table— Deep White Biotechnology, next to the company's logo, a two-faced mermaid with two tails and four arms.
For a split-second, he suddenly felt tired, but that terrifying mermaid turned its head to face him as if it were alive and split its mouth open, it then showed a sinister smile.
......
"Let them know that I will call back later." After a moment of silence, Vincent rejected that call.
Carolyn worriedly fixed her eyes on his pale face.
"Are you not feeling well?"
She asked.
Vincent creased his brows and just when he was preparing to answer her "everything is fine", that chilling cold hit him.
Vincent tightly clenched his teeth, using his formidable self-control to maintain calmness and shook his head in view of the other people.
As if receiving a silent message, except for Carolyn, all of the security personnel in the room retreated.
In the wake of the metal door closing together, this enormous office, which has a sci-fi vibe, has grown even quieter.
"Vincent?!"
Carolyn immediately realized what had happened. She ran to the front of Vincent's office desk in a panic, pulling the drawer open and rummaging around for something.
But Vincent couldn't even perceive all of this. He blinked and the ominous symptoms had grown a bit more severe.
The table twisted like a dancing grass, the ceiling gradually began to distort, and the most significant thing was those images, oh, those images, just like locusts, whizzing toward him—
Blue seawater...
Bright red blood...
The broken pieces of corpses...
The ice-cold streaming water that brushed past his scales...
Everything is almost pleasant, including that sort of gratifying pleasure after the slaughtering.
However, after a few seconds, a kind of muddled panic bubbled up in him. Some extremely horrible, extremely painful things happened.
These kind of strong emotions that seem to mince his heart are more "fresh" than the previous "memories", but it was also because it was too "fresh" that the emotions flowing all over the place through Vincent's nerves are like an electric current, leading to a hellish torture-like pain.
With only a little deviation, Vincent has assimilated into the consciousness of that illusion and thoroughly mingled together with it.
[Get out—]
Vincent screamed out at the instant where his mind nearly fell apart.
Although that was just him screaming in his mind.
[I am just me]
[You can't affect me!]
The tsunami of consciousness, just as it came, was instantly driven back by Vincent.
He climbed up to the shore from the sea of hallucinations and returned to the true reality.
Meanwhile, Carolyn finally took out the medication from the drawer. She stayed by Vincent's side and rolled up his sleeves, she then fiercely stuck the medication into his body that had already begun to twitch.
Following the golden medicinal liquid being injected into his blood vessel, the hallucinations faded away.
Of course, the medicine brought about huge side effects, the pain nevertheless has not subsided. In great pain, Vincent was like a dead man paralyzed in his chair. He was pouring sweat and his body was unconsciously slightly convulsing.
His body at present doesn't have the slightest ounce of strength, he can't even move a single finger in accordance with his conscious movements.
From his current point of view, it's just right for him to see a group photo on his desktop.
Tall and handsome, the fair-haired youth just like a reincarnation of Apollo cheerfully holds the boy in his arms. The boy has skin as white as ivory and light golden curls. His eyes seem to be suffused with a trace of vexation.
Vincent fixed his eyes on the two people in the photo and slowly took in a deep breath.
After the pain eased a little, Carolyn rushed over. She cupped her hands on Vincent's face and inquired in a trembling voice.
"Are you synchronizing?"
Vincent took a little time to make his eyes focus on the woman in front of him.
He nodded his head in an extremely feeble manner.
After receiving an affirmative answer, Carolyn powerlessly fell to the ground in that split second, her face paled due to panic.
"This kind of non-triggered mental synchronization... It's beginning to flow back, right? When did it start?" A glimmer of wetness emerged in her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?"
......
After a long time, Vincent's unusually weak voice faintly sounded.
"Ever since it escaped," he said, "I can't control it, Carolyn, it's right in the middle of transforming..."
Right at this moment, the special beeping tone that represents the emergency contact came from the communicator on the office desk.
Vincent was too weak and Carolyn was also in an extremely chaotic state, neither of them took any notice of it.
After three beep tones, the contact is automatically projected onto the metal curtain wall of the office.
A thin, skeleton-like researcher with bluish-black rings around their eyes now appeared with a feverish gaze in front of Vincent and Carolyn.
"Call, call the general headquarters... here is the SIREN-II base of the Arctic Pole ... I am a work personal left behind to take care of things, Georgian Lee, I am now reporting an emergency to you, requesting for communication encryption..."
In theory, the graphics should be exceptionally smooth and clear. At this time, however, for unknown reasons, it seems to be touch and go. The screen is covered by pixelation from time to time caused by the communication lagging. It is also because of this reason that the left-behind scientist Georgian Lee's face appears to have a kind of distortion and malevolence that is difficult to describe in words.
Carolyn looked at the screen, and her heart uncontrollably began to violently palpitate.
As the mechanical tablet's sound of the "encryption completed" report fell, Georgian Lee's voice was like being shredded into pieces by a strong gale and was thrown disjointedly into this deathly quiet office separated by a distance of thousands of miles.
"...five minutes ago... Experimental Form No. 7928, Experimental Form No. 9036, and Experimental Form No. 9787 remaining in the spare Petri dishes of SIREN-II... there was an appearance of cocooning activity... the base was thus subjected to... an attack of extreme infrasonic waves... requesting... for aid......"
His last word didn't even finish before the whole screen suddenly froze.
That hoarse voice came to an abrupt end and the office instantly fell into a dead silence. Until a few seconds later, the pleasant mechanical tone sounded once more.
"Communication was interrupted due to signal issues, we are currently working hard to fix it for you, please wait a moment."
However, both Vincent and Carolyn nevertheless clearly knew in their hearts that this signal would very likely never appear in front of them again.
(TN: Oh how the plot thickens... It seems the Arctic Pole base isn't doing too hot. Do we all remember our friends who are currently at the Arctic Pole base, Dr. Simon and Mr. CIA Ryan? They get the next chapter although it won't be a good time for them lol~)