The Creature Keeper - Chapter 19

The Sea Rabbit had already endured for a long time, wanting to see his Feeder.

He couldn’t help but beg the new male Feeder who had taken over him.

Hearing the sound of the door closing, the youth turned his gaze sideways, then floated up from the bottom of the water with eyes full of expectation. “How, is it?”

Zhang Ning exhaled deeply, maintaining the false expression on his face.

“I went to ask her,” the man hesitated, appearing troubled. “But she was unwilling to come. I think she probably doesn’t want to see you.”

The Sea Rabbit’s eyes suddenly reddened. It was the first time he had such a strong reaction to the outside world, almost crawling out of the breeding tank.

Looking at his slender, fair body, the man couldn’t help but approach immediately.

However, even in the midst of emotional turmoil, the youth did not accept him; in fact, he felt a surge of aversion because of the man’s closeness.

“Impossible, Rou-impossible, unwilling, to see me, she… likes me very much…”

This was the first time this Experimental Subject had spoken so much to him; the last time he had responded at all was when Zhang Ning had lied and said he could ask Tang Rou to come and see him.

That time, after fasting for a long while, the Experimental Subject had, for the first time, spoken to him.

He said, “Thank you.”

Zhang Ning suppressed the desire surging in his eyes, telling himself not to scare his prey too quickly.

He reined in the greed that was about to show on his face, instead showing a look as if he had something to say but was holding back. “Actually…”

It was as if he was carefully hiding some truth. After hesitating for a moment, he shook his head. “Never mind, I shouldn’t say.”

The youth was momentarily stunned, suddenly overcome by a nameless fear.

“What, is it?”

Zhang Ning did not speak, his eyes gazing at him with pity.

The youth grew anxious. “You… are you, hiding something… from me?”

Zhang Ning appeared troubled. “You should know as well, Number 17 and Number 4 have advanced. When I went to find her, she was with those two creatures. She likes those two very much, it seems she doesn’t like you anymore.”

For a moment, something in the youth’s clear eyes seemed to shatter.

“She doesn’t want you anymore.”

How could such an innocent youth detect the malice laced in the man’s words?

His long lashes trembled like butterfly wings, his eyes suddenly lost their luster. He could not accept it; those five words were too cruel, like a dagger slicing open his chest, gripping his heart in a bloody grasp.

After a brief silence, the Experimental Subject’s reaction was even stronger than Zhang Ning had expected.

He was furious, even faintly out of control.

“Impossible.” He clawed at his own skin in self-torment, scratching bloody marks on his fair, delicate skin, but his powerful healing ability restored him to flawless whiteness in the next second.

Yet he kept harming himself, his fingers filled with bits of blood and flesh, as if using pain to fend off the panic in his heart. “Impossible, Rou really… likes, me, she won’t, abandon, me…”

So, these cold-blooded creatures really could cry.

Zhang Ning watched with great interest, the desire to torment quietly rising.

The youth’s eyes were bloodshot, sparkling tears clinging to his lashes, as he frantically scratched himself, gradually descending into madness.

On the edge of his emotional breakdown, Zhang Ning spoke leisurely, “Actually, it’s possible for you to be upgraded to Sector S as well.”

The Sea Rabbit seemed to have been paused, suddenly freezing his actions, his red eyes staring straight at Zhang Ning.

“You can advance, I can find a way to help transfer you over.”

Word by word, his voice was like a spell, locking down the youth’s sanity.

Those eyes, already dulled, rekindled a glimmer of hope. He visibly brightened, his face filled with incredulous joy.

“Really?”

The pitiful Experimental Subject placed all his hopes on Zhang Ning.
“……” The man slowly touched his teeth, revealing a hypocritical smile. “Really.”

The slender, beautiful boy was so pure, fragile, and defenseless, without a trace of toxicity. He was easily overwhelmed, quickly stirring up the dark tsunami hidden deep within the heart.

And so easy to deceive.

He hadn’t noticed anything unusual. Human civilization had evolved for thousands of years, but this Sea Rabbit, who had grown up in a Cultivation Chamber since childhood, had seen so few people that he was like a blank sheet of paper. How could he possibly sense the danger looming overhead?

His Feeder was Tang Rou, the dream girl of many men in the Experimental Base, so gentle and sincere.

She was also the oddball of the Base.

She always treated these creatures as sentient beings, even being seen several times interacting with them without any protective measures.

It was this kind of Feeder who raised the Sea Rabbit to be completely defenseless toward humans.

How could such a pure being possibly understand the darkness of human rules?

He even clung to Zhang Ning’s silver-white lab coat as if grabbing a lifeline, his delicate, soft fingers holding tight.

“You, you, send me… over there… can you?”

To her side.

He wanted to be by her side.

He wanted to be with her every day.

The boy’s reddened eyes were full of pleading.

Zhang Ning stared at that fair, delicate hand, his eyes growing increasingly sticky.

The humanoid mimicry of a deep-sea creature, flawless.

Beautiful.

He pretended to hesitate, saying, “But upgrading is a very difficult thing. I have to put in a lot of effort. You should understand the rules of the human world, right? We need an exchange of benefits. Otherwise, if I work so hard to help you, what do I get in return?”

The Sea Rabbit was very happy. He didn’t care about the greed implied in the man’s tone, and asked, “You, what, benefit, do you want?”

“What benefit do I want… Can you give me anything?”

The boy nodded, “Anything, is fine.”

As long as he could see her, anything was fine.

He missed her so much.

He missed her so much it hurt, so much he couldn’t eat.

“Anything…”

Zhang Ning chewed on these words, a thick, greedy desire hidden beneath his cultured facade.

Healing-type creatures were indeed rare, but the Experimental Base focused on weapon research. Besides, with advanced medicine nowadays, this kind of Experimental Subject was not irreplaceable, so the Sea Rabbit’s rating basically had no chance of rising.

But it didn’t matter. He only needed the other party to believe he had a chance of promotion.

“I’ll let you see her.”

.

This time, the disaster in Sector S was even more severe than when Tang Rou first encountered a Level 4 Alert.

Many Metal Blast Doors outside the laboratories had already been destroyed, leaving pitch-black, menacing holes. The floor was littered with broken metal and shattered glass from the collisions. Tang Rou was shocked, lightening her footsteps as she passed by one ruined laboratory after another.

The Cultivation Chambers that should have held Experimental Subjects were empty, violently dismantled and wrecked.

The things inside had escaped-lost control.

The grim metal prisons in Sector S had lost their function, and the Experimental Subjects trapped inside had vanished. She felt as if she had entered a bloody graveyard.

So what exactly had happened?

Tang Rou held her breath as she moved forward, stepping on something different from the cold floor. She looked down and closed her eyes.

The ground was covered with indistinct flesh and unknown parts. She could make out the white Base uniforms belonging to humans, stained red with blood. Access Cards, chips, and Wrist-Worn Phones were scattered everywhere.

A horrifying disaster had occurred here. Just looking at it was enough to imagine the level of danger.