The Creature Keeper - Chapter 20

Faint sounds echoed from the depths, as if some living creature was still fleeing; the subtle rustle of flesh passing over shattered glass was exceptionally clear.

Tang Rou realized she shouldn’t move forward any farther. She halted, quietly pressed herself against the wall, minimizing her presence as much as possible.

Floating ripples and reflections from the water danced across the floor. Tang Rou looked up and saw, behind a giant glass structure more than ten meters tall at the corner, numerous researchers in silver uniforms drifting in suspension.

Their bodies were immersed in dark blue seawater. Some were intact, some terribly mutilated, some with viscera spilled out, long intestines floating like ribbons, swirling around the corpses.

Tang Rou covered her mouth, suppressing the surge of nausea in her throat.

She hid herself carefully, for countless unknown dangers wandered in the darkness.

But unexpectedly, her phone rang again. Tang Rou instantly hit the answer button, clamping the wristwatch to her ear, terrified that something might hear the piercing ringtone.

Aselan’s voice came through, faintly trembling-Tang Rou could imagine she was facing some kind of terror. “Where are you right now?”

Holding her breath, Tang Rou gently tapped twice on the microphone.

Hearing those two faint taps, Aselan’s tone grew more frantic. “You’re in Sector S? Rou, get out of there now!”

Tang Rou tapped the microphone again, expressing a question.

“A lot of people have died… all the containment tanks in Sector S are broken, the Experimental Subjects have all escaped!”

Aselan didn’t need to explain. Tang Rou had already seen it.

Because there were bodies.

Shattered bodies.

Tortured bodies.

Corpses with terror still in their eyes.

Aselan’s voice was strained, and Tang Rou could picture her on the verge of tears. “Rou, I was wrong, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have let you come… I never thought things would turn out like this, it’s too horrible.”

Tang Rou kept her hand over her mouth and asked softly, “Where are you? Don’t worry, I’m okay right now.”

On the other end, Aselan seemed to be steadying her breathing before replying, “I’m safe for now, I have a team of Security Officers with me, but some people here have died. The smell of blood seems to attract them, so we’re getting ready to relocate. We’re at Hexagonal Plaza. You mustn’t come here-there are many rampaging Experimental Subjects.”

“Hexagonal Plaza?” Tang Rou was startled. “Where is that?”

“It’s a place you haven’t been to, inside Sector S. Don’t come here. If you get a chance to leave, do it quickly.”

“But Number 17…”

“Forget about him. He’s strong, he’ll survive, but you’ll die!”

Tang Rou nodded, about to reply, when she suddenly noticed a massive shadow spreading across the ground in front of her. A chill crept up her back inch by inch. She slowly looked up…

A gigantic, hideous, gray-brown creature with spider-like jointed legs hung upside-down above her head. It had no head, and six bizarre eyes were set into its abdomen, staring straight at her.

For a moment, their gazes locked. The creature’s cephalothorax split open, revealing a mouth full of jagged fangs and bloody flesh, as if giving a gruesome, bloody smile.

In an instant, alarms blared in Tang Rou’s mind.

Her whole body tensed. She turned and ran, and the giant creature chased after her, its long, hard limbs clicking against the floor.

“Clack, clack, clack, clack…”

The crisp, rapid sound of its armored shell striking the ground pounded in Tang Rou’s chest with every beat.

A human’s legs are no match for an eight-legged arthropod. Soon, Tang Rou felt her heart thumping faster and faster, her breathing ragged. She was burning through her strength, and her legs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead.
The escape route was maliciously blocked by shattered metal doors, and the entrance to Sector S was occupied by a strange and enormous figure. She was forced to search for another path to survival.

But the sound of running footsteps attracted not only the Sea Spider, but seemed to lure other things as well.

Tang Rou rounded a corner, gritted her teeth, and threw her shoe as far as she could. The noise of the heel striking the ground drew the pursuing creatures toward that direction, and Tang Rou seized the chance to turn and run.

Without her shoes, her footsteps were indeed much quieter, but the fragile human skin on her feet was instantly pierced by shards of glass. Sharp pain shot through her soles, blood and flesh oozing.

Tang Rou felt she was losing a lot of blood; her lower body above her feet was growing colder inch by inch.

Yet she had no energy to care about this. After barely evading the Sea Spider and thinking she could finally breathe a sigh of relief, she suddenly saw a colossal creature several meters tall, like a moving mountain, heading straight for her.

Its speed was much slower than the Sea Spider’s, but its massive size allowed it to cover many of Tang Rou’s steps in a single stride. Exhausted, she dodged the monster and continued searching for a way to survive.

Pain stimulated her nerves, and her will to survive drove her adrenaline, making her afraid to stop.

Tang Rou wanted to leave Sector S, but despairingly realized she had lost her sense of direction during her escape.

Animals navigate by magnetic fields and smell; humans rely on their brains for a sense of direction.

But her thoughts felt scrambled, as if something was interfering, a tangled mess with no way out.

In the midst of chaos, it seemed as if some force was guiding her, leading Tang Rou-like a headless fly-into a long, dark corridor. She passed through broken metal mesh and several heavy solid gates, and the environment suddenly grew much brighter.

Tang Rou didn’t know how long she had been running. Slowly regaining her senses, she looked up and found herself in an open-air space.

Above her, the sky was covered in thick, heavy clouds. Lightning seemed to dart through the gaps, illuminating the earth.

She had no idea where she was, only that before her lay a vast field, as wide as dozens of soccer fields, with no end in sight.

The oppressive clouds hung low over the sky, and soon the sound of drizzling rain began.

Tang Rou wandered in a daze, discovering that the edge of the open space was lined with tall, thick walls. She slowly looked around, sketching a pattern in her mind.

A hexagon.

This was the place Aselan had warned her never to approach-the Hexagonal Plaza.

……

“Crack-”

A bolt of lightning split the sky, suddenly illuminating the wide plaza.

The stark white light outlined the twisted and bizarre giant creatures scattered across the plaza, casting their terrifying faces into sharp relief.

Tang Rou covered her mouth, crawling cautiously on the ground. Rainwater slid down the strands of hair on her forehead, flooding her eyes and blurring her vision.

Her Wrist-Worn Phone had long been soaked by the rain, now silent and covered in cracks. At this moment, Tang Rou couldn’t even contact Aselan.

At the center of the plaza stood a gigantic glass structure, dozens of meters tall. The massive glass occupied half of Tang Rou’s field of vision, like a transparent cage from a sci-fi film imprisoning some alien beast.

Now, it appeared so grim, a huge and silent landmark in the plaza, gazing expressionlessly down at the absurd earth.