The Creature Keeper - chapter 47

After a long while, the phone lit up again.

“The Most Beautiful Woman in the Universe” sent a link.

“Shocking! The Wonders of Nature! A roundup of male creatures in the wild who willingly let themselves be eaten by females after mating-if you don’t share, you’re not a member of the Collective!”

“…”

Tang Rou looked up and saw Aselan’s face, illuminated by the phone’s glow, giving her a subtle “you know” smile through the crowd.

“…………”

At the meeting, several senior leaders of Babel Tower were arguing about something.

It sounded like the discussion had moved on to social appeasement plans.

“Why don’t we temporarily disclose only the parts that won’t cause panic?” someone with a senior title at the long table suggested.

“Just say there are still many new species in the world yet to be discovered.”

This idea was actually reasonable.

According to current data, humanity has explored less than 3% of the ocean.

Three percent seems so insignificant in the vast, unknown sea.

“Then let’s release some samples from Zone D, and say they’re newly discovered deep-sea species.”

A senior professor from Babel Tower said.

As the meeting neared its end, the Shepherds decided to use this method to temporarily comfort the frightened Flock.

However, just as they were finalizing the contents of the public announcement, several videos began circulating online again.

The meeting was urgently halted, and the footage was quickly projected onto the public screen. The conference room fell silent.

Sharp, chaotic, and all kinds of sounds came from the speakers.

Tang Rou stared at those images, and for a moment, her eyelid twitched.

Someone asked, “If we say… these are newly discovered marine creatures, will anyone believe it?”

On the screen was a video someone had shot with their phone at a subway station.

Suddenly, a large amount of water vapor appeared in the train tracks, like a bathroom shrouded in white mist. The sunken tracks quickly filled with water level with the ground.

People waiting for the train curiously gathered, pulling out their phones.

“Is it pouring outside?”

“Could it be a flood?”

People drew closer and closer, all looking toward where water was spilling out.

Suddenly, bubbles rose under the water, and the splashes grew larger, as if something was about to emerge.

“What is that!” someone exclaimed.

The camera focused on the tracks.

A ferocious, hard, black-brown limb broke through the water’s surface, grabbing the subway station tiles, followed by a second, third, and fourth limb.

A terrifying creature with a human face slowly crawled up from the water, covered with countless branch-like, jointed tentacles.

Like a spider in dirty water, but with a bizarre human face.

The crowd at the subway station was startled, but then there was a commotion; everyone’s first reaction was to think it was some kind of performance art, since it had a human face.

When people encounter something beyond their understanding, their first reaction is to assume it’s fake.

Some even boldly approached it, filming its face with their phones and excitedly saying,

“Hey, bro, are you guys doing an event? Special effects makeup? Or is there a hidden camera nearby?”

“Is this a prank show?”

More people gathered around, and some even wanted to reach out and touch its limbs.

Just as they spoke, the creature moved.

It was incredibly fast, its limbs striking the ground with a crisp, hair-raising sound.

Tap tap tap tap tap-

So fast, it sounded like someone rapidly typing on a keyboard.

In the blink of an eye, it chose the nearest person filming with their phone, and in a single bite, tore through both phone and person, leaving only a bloody, mangled cross-section of the upper body behind.
Blood spurted from the artery, splashing onto the woman standing closest.

The Human-faced Monster turned its head and gave her a grotesque smile.

“Aaaah!!-”

The woman let out a piercing scream. The surrounding people were stunned, scattering in all directions like spilled marbles, fleeing chaotically as the situation spiraled out of control.

However, having long abandoned exercising their limbs, humans were not fast once they left their vehicles.

In an instant, the alien creature pierced the nearest woman’s heart, forcibly squeezing it, and hooked her under its body with its limbs.

At its lower abdomen, an even more terrifying and gruesome maw opened, swallowing the blood-drained, convulsing woman whole.

In a flash, the footage shook violently, only the ceaseless, agonizing screams and cries for help could be heard.

The video became blurry as the phone’s owner ran, the monster chasing the fleeing people and slaughtering as it went.

Some people averted their eyes uncomfortably.

The Social Public Relations Department Secretary said, “It’s not just this one.”

With that, he opened another video clip.

In the next video, a giant monster, several stories tall and massive in size, wreaked havoc purely through its weight, destroying many vehicles and shops along the streets.

If she hadn’t seen similar things before, Tang Rou would have thought this looked like a sci-fi movie effect.

“There were many witnesses to this. At present, all creatures that entered the city have been captured, and patrols have been reinforced around the city’s perimeter.”

“The coastal areas near all medium and large cities must be cordoned off.”

“No gatherings near the seaside are permitted.”

After the meeting, Tang Rou was unsettled.

She declined Aselan’s invitation to dine and once again headed toward Zone A.

Just as she reached the door of her former Office, she was stopped by Zhang Ning.

He frowned, looking displeased. “Why are you here again?”

Tang Rou suppressed the unease in her heart, keeping her manners. “I came to check on Number 17. I brought him a bag of candy this morning, but I didn’t see him. Is he here now?”

“Hmph, a bag of candy. He doesn’t need that,” Zhang Ning muttered impatiently. “He finally finished his experiments and can rest a while. You’ll only disturb him if you go.”

“He’s doing a test?” That made her even more determined to go.

Seeing Tang Rou trying to bypass him and enter Zone A directly, Zhang Ning’s voice suddenly rose sharply.

“He’s resting! Don’t you understand human language?!”

People nearby stopped and glanced over.

They recognized her as the Feeder who had recently been promoted from Zone A to Sector S, and began whispering in hushed tones.

“That’s her?”

“I heard she got promoted recently. Two of her Experimental Subjects made it to S class, so she got to move up, too.”

“Did you know Song Yina was harmed by her before…”

“Deputy Chief Song is still in critical condition, and now she wants to barge into Deputy Director Zhang’s Office? Isn’t that going too far?”

Tang Rou frowned. “Deputy Director Zhang, it seems you’re preventing me from seeing him.”

“You’re overthinking it.”

Zhang Ning paused, then switched to a gentle tone. “Xiao Tang, I hope you can understand. He’s my Experimental Subject now, and we’re still getting used to each other. If you go see him, he might act out for a long time afterward.”

His gentle and scholarly demeanor left no room for animosity.

“Please don’t make things difficult for me. It’s hard enough for a new Feeder and an Experimental Subject to adjust. If you just show up and then leave, I’ll be left to clean up the mess.”