Give up? Cheng Ming asked himself in his heart.
He was asking himself, and also that voice—the voice from the mysterious girl.
The other side did not answer.
A hint of retreat had already risen in Cheng Ming’s heart. His goal was only to join the hunting group; now that this goal was achieved, there was really no need to continue this so‑called combat power test.
But at the same time, he recalled the request the mysterious girl had made of him earlier—to charge toward the most dangerous places on the battlefield. And if he wanted to take on those missions with the highest level of danger, he had to show enough strength. If he only entered the hunting group with just a passing grade, he would probably be assigned to some marginal combat tasks and find it hard to stand out in any encirclement operation.
Cheng Ming had always been very low‑key in how he conducted himself, yet that mysterious girl wanted him to do the opposite, which left him deeply conflicted.
Before Cheng Ming could make a decision, G09 began to change.
Its back was facing Cheng Ming. Its entire upper body drooped down, and its two arms touched the ground directly.
Right after that, the weird matter attached to the mechanical skeleton and acting as "muscle" suddenly swelled, causing G09’s body size to expand several times over—within moments, G09 transformed from a humanoid bio‑robot into a beast‑form robot.
"A gorilla?" Looking at the four‑limbed G09, Cheng Ming couldn’t help muttering under his breath.
"What form is this?" One of the "interviewers," a thin man with a gaunt frame, forehead full of frown lines, looking at least in his sixties, turned to the burly man known as Mr.Meng. "I remember G09’s mechanical skeleton shouldn’t support shape‑shifting to this extent, right?"
"Gorillas, like humans, are primates, and thus have a very similar skeletal structure. When G09’s mechanical frame was first designed, a certain amount of redundancy for transformation was reserved, and the weird‑matter cells will ’evolve’ on their own based on actual combat conditions. This is all very normal variation, Director, you don’t need to worry."
"This is weird matter. Do you know why weird matter is called ’weird’?" The gaunt old man, the director, frowned. "To be honest, I’ve never really approved of the Group’s internal research into weird matter... it’s a quagmire, and we’ll only sink deeper and deeper."
"All of this is to adapt to the changing times." The girl sitting in the middle spoke. "If Father hadn’t overruled all objections back then and increased investment in the field of weird‑matter research, the Bai Group would probably already have been swallowed up by the other two companies."
"Now isn’t the time to be discussing this." The middle‑aged woman on the far left cut them off. "We just need to make sure G09 doesn’t lose control."
"The control technology for G09 is very mature, and the activity of the weird‑matter cells is only at thirty percent, still far from the fifty percent warning threshold... talking about loss of control at this point is perhaps an insult to our technical department." Among the five "interviewers," the young man who had earlier said Cheng Ming’s ability was "burst‑type" suddenly spoke. "Even in the worst‑case scenario, if G09 really does lose control, the built‑in high‑intensity inhibitor can instantly suppress the activity of the weird‑matter cells down to a safe level. There’s no need for you all to worry."
While this "interviewer" was discussing G09’s safety, the G09 that had turned into a giant gorilla had already pounced toward Cheng Ming. Its huge hand swept out, and it directly grabbed Cheng Ming’s body in its palm!
"What’s going on?!" The middle‑aged woman was so startled by the sudden development that she shot to her feet.
"I told you his ability couldn’t be maintained for long." The young man spoke with a trace of contempt. "Mr.Meng, I think we can end the test."
"Mm." The burly man nodded and waved at the technicians controlling G09 off to the side.
...
Cheng Ming felt as if all the bones in his body had been crushed. Indescribable pain surged from every part of him—he didn’t know why, but that speed he’d had just now was completely gone. Not only that, the lag effect on everything else in his field of vision, aside from himself, had also vanished completely.
Only in such a situation could Cheng Ming truly realize how fast G09 was—his brain hadn’t even had time to react before his body had already been seized by G09.
Vaguely, Cheng Ming seemed to hear a soft laugh from the mysterious girl.
"I said the test is over, didn’t you hear?" The burly man turned to look at the technicians sitting at the control console, a hint of puzzlement flashing in his eyes.
"I‑I’ve already cut the power supply to G09’s mechanical skeleton!" One of the technicians looked somewhat flustered. "Logically, G09 should have stopped all movement by now!"
"What do you mean ’logically’?!" The burly man’s tone carried a trace of anger. "Can’t you see No.116 is about to be crushed to death by G09?!"
"Don’t panic." The young man among the "interviewers" stood up and strode quickly toward the console. A work badge that had been blocked by the table swung against his chest.
On the badge, besides his photo, there was a line of text indicating his position: "Tao Ge, Chief Engineer of the Weird‑Matter Technology Department, Bai’s Military Industry."
Tao Ge walked up to the console and motioned for the technicians to move aside. Then he pulled the keyboard over and began typing rapidly, speaking to the technicians as he worked: "In a situation like this, you need to manually remove the safety limits, then inject a strong inhibitor into G09’s weird tissue. Remember, with the first injection you only need to use twenty percent of the dose. If G09’s weird tissue shows no sign of contraction..."
With a "clack," Tao Ge pulled down the manual lever that controlled the inhibitor injector.
But a second later, the lever he had pulled down bounced back up.
Inhibitor injection failed.
Tao Ge’s expression instantly turned serious, and his ten fingers began striking the keyboard much faster.
"Could the injector needle be jammed? Impossible... the physical strength of the weird tissue hasn’t exceeded that value... check the control circuit: normal; check the pressure valve: normal; re‑check the control circuit: still normal... Strange, if everything is normal, why did the injection fail?"
"Tao Ge, how much longer do you need to fix this?" The burly man slapped the table, neither too hard nor too lightly. "No.116 is about to give out!"
"There’s a small problem with the inhibitor injector, it’ll be fixed soon!" Tao Ge said without turning his head.
"A small problem? Are you sure it’s a small problem?" The burly man also walked up beside the console and grabbed the lever. "All I need to do is pull this lever down, right?"
"I’ve already removed the safety restrictions. Under normal circumstances, once you pull this hand‑lever down, the inhibitor will be injected into G09’s weird tissue, but..."
Before Tao Ge finished speaking, the burly man yanked the lever all the way down.
"Tss..."
Several jets of white vapor sprayed out from the gaps in G09’s muscle tissue. Immediately afterward, all the control console’s screens went black.
"The console has frozen! G09... G09 still shows no sign of stopping its activity!" One of the technicians turned around, shouting in terror.
The metallic mask on G09’s face slowly came loose and fell to the ground, revealing a face without any features.
Two slits appeared on that face, and in the next instant the slits suddenly widened, becoming a pair of blood‑red eyes.