Male Lead, Please Don’t Covet the Mob Character Cannon Fodder (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 24

Smash!

Xiao Ai, the new laboratory assistant, knocked over a specimen on the lab bench. The glass jar did not shatter, but its contents spilled all over the floor.

As the transparent nutrient solution flowed slowly across the tiles, Xiao Ai crouched down to clean up the mess. Suddenly, a green object on the floor caught his eye. He looked closer and discovered it was a piece of flesh covered in scales.

What beautiful scales!

His hand reached out uncontrollably toward the bloody lump.

“What are you doing?”

Xiao Ai looked up and met Bai Lin’s inorganic yellow pupils. Startled, he jumped to his feet and bowed repeatedly. “I am sorry, Mr. Bai Lin! I accidentally knocked over this culture jar.”

On any other day, Bai Lin would have scolded a clumsy assistant, but he had been in a good mood lately. He spared the man, glanced briefly at the floor, and said, “Fine. Clean it up.”

“Yes, yes!” Xiao Ai waited until Bai Lin had exited the laboratory before standing straight. He hurriedly cleaned the floor and ran back to his quarters like a thief with a guilty conscience.

Once inside his room, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and opened his clenched palm. Inside was the thumb-sized piece of green flesh he had snatched. It was embedded with a dark green scale that emitted a faint, haunting fluorescence, glowing like a precious gemstone.

He did not know what had come over him; it was as if he had been possessed when he took it from the lab.

Midnight

Xiao Ai was awakened by a strange noise. He sat up groggily and realized the sound was coming from Xiao Kang, his roommate in the opposite bed. It sounded like someone was chewing.

He looked at Xiao Kang, who had his back turned, and asked confusedly, “Xiao Kang, what are you eating in the middle of the night?”

There was no answer, but the chewing stopped.

Xiao Ai was suspicious, but since he and Xiao Kang were not particularly close, he did not feel like prying. He assumed it was just a strange habit and prepared to lie back down.

However, the moment his head hit the pillow, the sound started again. He rolled over and covered his head with the quilt, but the chewing sound seemed to vibrate directly inside his skull.

After tossing and turning, Xiao Ai finally could not take it anymore. He got out of bed and grumbled, “Xiao Kang, can you be a bit quieter? It is very noisy.”

When he reached the side of the bed, he found Xiao Kang with his eyes closed, sleeping deeply. He was not eating at all.

What is going on?

Then he noticed the chewing was coming from inside the blanket. Hesitating for a moment, Xiao Ai suddenly whipped the quilt aside.

His eyes widened in absolute horror at what lay beneath.

Xiao Kang was completely naked. His abdomen was hideously swollen, and through the thin layer of skin, Xiao Ai could clearly see a long, rope-like creature moving around.

It was covered in fine black scales, nearly as thick as an adult’s arm and about a meter long. It pushed against Xiao Kang’s stomach, making him look as though he were ten months pregnant.

What is this?

Xiao Ai’s entire body began to tremble. He wanted to run, to scream for help, but his feet felt glued to the floor. When he tried to cry out, only a weak whimper escaped his throat.

This faint sound was not enough to trigger the room’s alarm, but it caught the attention of the monster inside Xiao Kang.

A triangular head pressed against the skin of the abdomen near Xiao Ai. Cold, crimson vertical pupils pinned him in place.

Cold sweat poured down Xiao Ai’s face. He dared not breathe, but his teeth chattered uncontrollably, the clicking sound loud in the silent room.

Under Xiao Ai’s terrified gaze, that triangular head actually tore through the stomach and crawled out!

As the pitch-black body slithered out along with a gush of fresh red blood, Xiao Ai’s heart gave out under the intense shock, and he blacked out.

“Xiao Ai! Xiao Ai, wake up!”

In a haze, Xiao Ai heard someone calling his name. He opened his eyes to see Xiao Kang looking at him with a worried expression.

The bloody memory flooded back. Xiao Ai screamed and pushed Xiao Kang away with all his might.

Xiao Kang fell hard and grumbled, “Ouch! Xiao Ai, what is wrong with you? Why did you push me?”

Xiao Ai looked at the smooth skin visible beneath Xiao Kang’s shifted shirt. He scrambled off the bed and yanked the shirt up further.

There was only a smooth stomach. No horrific gash, no monster. Xiao Ai collapsed to the floor, his tense shoulders finally relaxing. He whispered, “It was a dream.”

“A nightmare?” Xiao Kang realized. “I was wondering why you were acting so strange today.”

“Yeah, I am sorry,” Xiao Ai began to apologize, but as he looked up, the words died in his throat.

A triangular object the size of a fist was protruding from the side of Xiao Kang’s head. Xiao Ai’s pupils reflected a creature that looked like a cross between a snake and a lizard, its head covered in spiked scales.

“Xiao Ai?” Xiao Kang asked, confused. He waved a hand in front of Xiao Ai’s eyes. “Are you okay?”

Xiao Ai’s wooden gaze followed the voice back to Xiao Kang’s face. Seeing him acting as if everything were normal sent a wave of monumental panic through his heart. He scrambled up on all fours and bolted out the door.

Xiao Ai burst into the Guard Team’s duty room. “Help! Help!”

The two guards on duty looked at each other. “What happened? What is the emergency?”

Xiao Ai panted, his voice trembling. “My roommate, he, he turned into a monster!”

“What? Are you joking? What kind of monster? Did you see it clearly?”

“A snake, no, a lizard, no,” Xiao Ai clutched his head and sat on the floor, his mind breaking. “I do not know! It crawled out of his brain! I saw it with my own eyes! You have to believe me!”

Yu He frowned at the hysterical Xiao Ai. He did not believe the monster story, but he decided to check it out just in case.

“Xiao Wu, stay here. I will go take a look.”

Yu He crouched down. “Where is your roommate? Lead the way.”

“No, no, no! I am not going back!” Xiao Ai backed away, shaking his head, looking at Yu He as if he were a terrorist.

Yu He sighed. “Then you have to at least tell me where the room is.”

Xiao Ai curled into a ball in the corner. “In the quarters.”

“Fine.” Yu He stood up. “Xiao Wu, watch him. I am going.”

Xiao Wu crossed his arms and looked at Xiao Ai with disdain, then sat back in his chair.

On the other side, Yu He arrived at the room. The door was not fully closed. He pushed it open and saw a person lying on the floor.

It was a man, face down. Yu He guessed this was the roommate. He drew his gun and walked over cautiously.

The man was not breathing; he was dead. The cause of death…

Yu He scanned the body, his eyes eventually landing on the back of the head, which was slightly caved in and hidden by hair. He moved the hair aside, revealing a fist-sized hole. The cavity was pitch black, with no brain matter or anything else inside.

Yu He touched the edges of the hole. His fingers came away with a sticky, bitter-smelling fluid.

Hiss!

Yu He could almost imagine the terrifying scene of something crawling out of this man’s skull. More chillingly, that thing was now loose.

Where could it be?

He scanned the room but found nothing suspicious. Suddenly, he thought of the man in the duty room.

Realizing something was wrong, Yu He tried to call Xiao Wu, but there was no answer.

“Damn it!”

Yu He turned to rush back. The moment he hit the door release, a black shadow lashed out, sinking its teeth into his neck.

Yu He’s eyes bulged. His mouth fell open as he collapsed backward.

Once he was confirmed unconscious, the one-meter-long creature with spiked scales slithered slowly back into the hole in the back of Xiao Kang’s head.

With the sound of bones snapping and shifting, Xiao Kang, whom Yu He had confirmed dead, stood up once more.

He walked over to Yu He, knelt down, and opened his mouth. A thumb-thick creature crawled out of his throat and slithered into Yu He’s ear.

A moment later, the bite mark on Yu He’s neck vanished. He opened his eyes, stood up, and acted as though nothing had happened.

Inside the pitch-black confinement room, where day and night were indistinguishable, Qingshi had lost track of how many days had passed.

He lay limp in Jia’s arms, his eyes glazed. From head to toe, even to his fingertips, he was covered in the Male Lead’s marks.

When the heavy doors finally hummed open, he only gave a faint glance, lacking the strength to care.

Jia, however, saw the light and carried his mate toward the exit.

The light outside was not as blinding as Qingshi expected. Only a few overhead lights were on. Stranger still, there was not a single person outside the confinement room.

What is that lunatic Bai Lin up to now?

“Qing, bath. Where?” Jia asked, holding Qingshi against his chest.

Qingshi’s eyelids drooped. He had realized that the Male Lead could easily sense his desires, just as he could faintly feel the Male Lead’s emotions. This connection had grown clearer as their intimacy increased.

“That way. My room,” Qingshi pointed.

Along the way, Qingshi noticed the base was eerily silent. The lights were dim, and they reached his quarters without encountering a single soul.

Qingshi found it bizarre. When did the security of Dawn Base become so lax?

He opened the door. Sixteen, the butler robot, had powered down due to a depleted battery. Qingshi asked Jia to set him down and walked unsteadily into the bathroom.

Jia tried to follow, but Qingshi ruthlessly pushed him out and locked the door.

Fortunately, there was still some power left in the water heater. He turned on the shower and let the hot water soak him.

The water washed away the sweat and saliva from his skin, but it could not erase the strings of crimson marks. He could not understand how things had escalated to this point.

Is there any hope left for the mission?

Qingshi wondered, his mind filled with uncertainty.

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