When Brad got home, he heard his wife's pained groans.
The eyes of this salesman in his early forties dimmed without him realizing it.
He looked at the photos hanging on the wall. In those pictures were him and his wife together.
Back then, they were still young. Back then, they were filled with sunshine.
In the photos, they laughed freely, their eyes shining, as if suffering and darkness would never find them.
But last year, everything changed.
His wife came down with a terrible illness. They had already done everything they could.
Brad sold the house, the car.
All the money went into his wife's treatment, so they started renting, started cutting back on everything.
Living a life they once believed they would never have to live.
Even so, his wife's condition kept getting worse.
Every day, she groaned in pain.
Because of the severity of the illness, that once gentle and beautiful woman, now spoke harshly, her expression twisted.
Brad had never known that illness could change a person like this.
He knew it wasn't his wife's fault. It was the virus tormenting her, making her want to vent.
But even so, more than once, Brad had wanted to run away.
To escape this place.
Escape this hell.
But he couldn't.
He loved that woman deeply, and he hadn't forgotten the vows he made when they got married.
So he forced himself to stay by her side, forced himself to live in this hell.
"Brad!"
"Where did you go?"
"Hurry up and give me the medicine!"
"I'm going to die from the pain!"
"Brad, you bastard, did you run off?"
His wife started cursing again from the room.
Brad sighed, opened the door, and saw the woman on the sickbed, already reduced to skin and bones.
Because of chemotherapy, his wife's once glossy, thick hair was now completely gone.
Her features had sunk in, her eyes were clouded, her expression vicious.
Seeing the door open, she grabbed the air conditioner remote beside her and hurled it over.
"I thought you died out there!"
"Look at you, Brad."
"The way you look at me now is full of disgust."
"You've started to despise me, haven't you?"
"What, fallen for some pretty girl?"
"Is it Sonya next door who works at the bar?"
"Or that cashier Mary from the supermarket?"
Brad sighed, "I'll get your medicine right away."
"I don't want your pity!"
"Get out!"
"Get the hell out!", The woman's sudden anger made her forget the pain as she roared like a lioness.
Brad covered his face for a moment, then said, "Honey, there's a new medicine."
"It might cure you."
"I've already contacted the seller."
"He should be here soon."
Just then, the doorbell rang outside.
"He's here."
"Wait a moment."
"You'll get better soon."
Brad rushed out, as if trying to escape the room, and quickly reached the front door.
He opened it.
Outside stood a black man, wearing a gold-plated chain, dressed in an exaggerated style.
On his feet were leather shoes inlaid with gold pieces, so bright they almost blinded Brad.
"You're very lucky, Mr. Brad."
"This is the last one left."
The man looked around, then carefully took a box out of his pocket.
He opened it. Inside was a syringe.
Brad looked at him, "It'd better be as effective as you say, or I won't let you off."
"Damn it, this is my last savings."
He took out two hundred dollars and put it in the man's hand.
The man glanced at the watch on Brad's wrist, then smiled, "Sir, since this is the last one, the price has gone up."
"If it's not five hundred dollars, I won't sell it."
Brad's expression changed, "How can you do this?"
"I can, because I'm the seller."
The man pointed at Brad's watch, "Of course, if you're willing to give me that watch, I can still take the two hundred."
"You're a bloodsucker!", Brad said bitterly, but he still took off the watch.
He looked at it with deep reluctance, "My wife gave this to me."
"Like this, leave it with you for now."
"I'll buy it back for three hundred."
The man had already put the watch on his wrist, then handed the syringe to Brad, "Then you'd better be quick, or I can't guarantee I won't sell this watch."
Then, humming some unknown country tune, he left.
Brad closed the door, went back inside, and took out the syringe, "Honey, this is the medicine I told you about."
"They say it can cure any disease."
His wife looked at the suspicious syringe, "Brad, this isn't poison, is it?"
"You want to get rid of me?"
"You want to kill me!"
Brad explained, "No, no, it's not like that."
"Trust me, it cost all our savings, and the watch you gave me."
"No."
"Help!"
"Help!", The woman screamed.
Brad ignored everything, jumped onto the bed, and easily restrained his already very weak wife.
He injected the syringe into her.
Whether it contained some kind of sedative or not, after the injection, the woman's eyes went blank, and she quieted down.
Brad panted as he stepped down from the bed, looking at his wife with anticipation.
This was his last method.
He had already given everything for her. If this still couldn't save her life, then he had nothing left.
Time passed bit by bit. Half an hour later, the woman woke up.
After an hour, her eyes began to regain their shine.
After two hours, her complexion turned rosy, and she was even able to sit up.
"This is amazing, Brad."
The woman could already get out of bed, though she was still skin and bones.
But that body was now clearly brimming with vitality.
No longer like before, lifeless.
"I feel like I've been reborn."
"There's endless strength in my body right now."
"This is incredible."
Seeing his wife smiling, Brad's eyes grew moist.
He hadn't seen her smile in a year.
Seeing Brad's reddened eyes, the woman said apologetically, "I'm sorry, honey."
"For what I said before."
"I didn't mean it. I just couldn't control myself."
Brad shook his head, "It's okay. It was all worth it."
"Now that you're better, it won't be long before we can go back to our old life."
The woman walked over and hugged her husband. She wanted to give Brad a strong embrace.
To express what she felt inside at this moment.
So she hugged tightly, "I love you, honey."
With her eyes closed, she heard a crack, like bones snapping.
The woman froze, then opened her eyes to look.
Blood bubbled out from the corner of Brad's mouth. His eyes were wide open, as if he couldn't believe he had died just like that.
The woman was startled, quickly let go, and saw her husband like a piece of wood that had been snapped.
His body bent unnaturally to one side and collapsed onto the floor.
She immediately let out a scream. Then she saw that her hands had swollen at some point.
And her skin had turned a light blue.
In the next second, tentacles like an octopus burst out from her skin.
"AHHHH! What's happening to me?"
She kept backing away and crashed into a mirror.
The woman turned around and saw her head gradually swelling, her skin stretched thinner and thinner, then blue fluid seeped out from beneath it.
She watched herself in the mirror, slowly transforming into a monster.
She didn't know what to do. At that moment, she heard someone knocking on the window.
But this was the sixth floor.
She looked out the window and saw a figure floating in midair.
Then that figure suddenly lost its solidity, like a ghost, and flew in, entering the bedroom.
It was a man wearing a black combat suit, with blond hair and blue eyes, a red cape fluttering behind him.
The woman immediately screamed, thinking the man in front of her was a ghost.
Alex looked at the woman in front of him, her head swollen like an octopus, her hands waving tentacles.
Judging by her expression, she seemed to think he was the monster.
He couldn't help but find it amusing, "Why are you screaming?"
"You look more like a monster right now, okay?"
Two hours ago, he got the notification of the disaster event so he chose to accept the case and found this place.
Seeing the woman in front of him, he knew she was his target.
Since the task didn't require killing the monster, Alex wasn't in a hurry to act.
He saw a syringe on the ground, picked it up, and looked at the woman, "You injected whatever was in this, and that's why you ended up like this?"
The woman nodded, trying to speak, but only produced some muffled sounds.
It was obvious her genes had already been altered, even her human vocal organs were gone.
"Why did you inject something with an unknown origin?"
"If I'm right, nod. If not, shake your head."
"Do you understand?"
The woman nodded.
Alex thought for a moment, then asked, "You were testing a drug?"
The woman shook her head.
"You were sick?"
The woman nodded.
'Good.'
Alex glanced again at Brad's corpse on the ground.
"This man injected you?", The woman nodded.
"He was your husband?"
Nod.
"He got it from someone else?"
Still a nod.
At this point, Alex had basically figured out the outline of the situation.
The woman in front of him was sick. Her husband got this syringe from somewhere.
Most likely he had been deceived, thinking it was some kind of miracle drug.
And it turned his wife into a monster.
It was very similar to that previous "abomination" case.
Alex saw a phone on the ground and was about to pick it up.
At that moment, the woman, now a monster, lunged at Alex, seemingly having lost her mind.
Alex mercifully sent out a burst of "heat vision," letting her leave this world.
Then he picked up the phone.
After searching for a bit, he found that one number had been contacted frequently recently.
The latest call was this morning.
Alex dialed the number while releasing a few strands of information flow from his fingertips into the phone.
The call connected quickly.
["How is it, Mr. Brad?"]
["The effect's pretty good, right?"]
["Your wife should be full of energy by now, huh?"]
["That watch of yours is pretty nice. When are you coming to buy it back?"]
["Why aren't you saying anything?"]
While the man kept talking nonstop, Alex had already used his "information domain" ability to lock onto his location.
Then he used his "mind domain" ability to anchor that person's mental coordinates.
BOOM!
Alex's figure vanished from the air.
When he appeared again, he was inside a room.
Inside, the man was holding a phone, twisting his hips on a dance mat.
Startled by Alex's sudden appearance, he yelped and dropped the phone to the floor.
"Y-you! You!"
The man blinked, "Are you Homelander?"
Alex clasped his hands behind his back and walked around, then looked out the window. The streets outside were filled with Black residents moving about.
Clearly, this was a Black community.
"What's your name?", Alex asked.
The man said excitedly, "My name is Mr. Mailexi. Are you really Homelander?"
"How did you do that just now?"
"You just appeared in my room. Is that your new ability?"
Alex smiled, "Mr. Mailexi, did you sell something to Mr. Brad today?"
Mailexi shrank back, trying to dodge the question, "I didn't, I—"
"Mr. Mailexi, I'll ask one more time."
"Did you sell something to Mr. Brad today?", Alex's eyes emitted a terrifying light.
The man cried out in fear, "Please don't kill me, Homelander."
"Yes, I admit it."
"I sold a medicine syringe to Brad."
"Good," Alex pressed, "Where did that thing come from?"
"I got it from a guy named Mike. I can take you to him."
"Good," Alex grabbed the man by the collar and, with a whoosh, smashed through the house and flew into the sky.
In the community, people coming and going all looked up, because they heard Mailexi's screams.
———
In no time, Alex landed on the lawn of a house.
Letting go, Mailexi fell onto the grass.
He groaned for a while before getting up, rubbing his backside, "Sir, this is Mike's house."
Alex didn't waste words. His figure blurred and passed straight through the wall into the living room.
There was no one in the living room. He scanned the house and finally found a man in the bedroom.
Alex immediately went to the bedroom. On the bed lay a man in his forties, foam coming out of his mouth.
A quick scan was enough to confirm that he was already dead.
On the table beside him was a suicide note, roughly saying that he had fallen into heavy debt, couldn't repay it, and had no choice but to end his life.
Alex's gaze deepened. He looked at a computer nearby and released strands of information flow from his fingertips into it.
He quickly found that there were no files stored in the computer.
Alex then connected to the internet, using his "information domain" ability to search for the man's data.
The result showed that, apart from some basic information, everything else, including Mike's insurance, medical records, and even work information, had all been wiped clean.
"Suicide, huh?"
Alex smiled faintly, then skillfully hacked into the federal surveillance network.
Before long, he discovered that someone had visited Mike earlier that morning.
By pulling up street surveillance data, Alex tracked the vehicle that person had driven.
In the end, he found that the car had been driven into Willis Pharmaceutical Company.
———
[Willis Pharmaceutical Company]
Dr. Kyle, wearing electronic prosthetic eyes, walked into the laboratory.
Several assistants followed quickly behind him.
"Doctor, we already have detailed data from several test subjects."
"Next, we can proceed with more advanced experiments."
Dr. Kyle gave a soft acknowledgment, "The previous method of drug testing gave us data that was too limited."
"To obtain experimental data from different races and conditions, we deliberately leaked some sample drugs and spread them through that man named Mike."
"Now that we've gathered enough data, that man Mike needs to be dealt with."
"This project of ours does not exist on the Defense Department's side."
"If something goes wrong, they won't take responsibility for us."
"We have to be careful."
A female assistant said, "You can rest assured, Doctor."
"Mr. Shaer already handled it this morning."
"That man named Mike, due to heavy debt, has already taken poison and killed himself."
"Also, Mr. Shaer cleaned up all his traces, including Mike's medical records, credit card records, and work information."
Only then did Kyle nod.
At that moment, he heard a voice ask, "What is the Chimera Project?"
Dr. Kyle was immediately startled.
He looked toward where the voice came from.
In front of a computer, at some unknown time, a figure was standing there.
That red cape looked so striking in the white laboratory that Dr. Kyle almost thought he was seeing a ball of fire.
Homelander!
Dr. Kyle's heart raced, his breathing quickened.
He almost shouted.
"WHY..."
'Why is Homelander here!'
Of course, he didn't know that after Alex found clues through street surveillance, he followed them here.
After easily entering the lab, he released information flow and read the lab's computer files.
He discovered an interesting project.
The Chimera Human Experiment Project!
That was why he asked.
Then he turned around, his gaze landing on Dr. Kyle.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, "I've seen you before."
"Hmm, at the Defense Department."
"Wilson was holding a meeting back then. The fact that you could attend means you're not simple."
Alex walked over.
Dr. Kyle's back was already soaked with cold sweat.
He forced himself to stay calm, "Homelander, why are you here?"
"Why can't I be here?"
Alex spread his hands with a smile, "Don't you always say I'm the protector of this country?"
"Since I'm the protector, where in this country can I not go?"
"Or are you doing something here that can't be seen in the light?"
"So you're afraid I'll find out?"
As he said this, Alex's eyes lit up.
In an instant, his immense pressure made everyone present struggle to breathe.
Dr. Kyle's voice trembled, "No, there's nothing here that can't be shown."
The pressure suddenly vanished.
Alex smiled kindly, "Is that so?"
"Then that's reassuring."
"Let's go back to the original question."
"What is the Chimera Project?"
"This project must be very important."
"After all, you've already killed for it."
As he spoke, Alex moved his finger slightly, and a computer screen immediately popped up with multiple windows.
In those windows was the entire process of Shaer leaving Mike's house and then going to Willis Pharmaceutical Company.
Seeing this, Dr. Kyle couldn't refute it.
He could only say, "The Chimera Project is a biological experiment."
"We extract gene fragments from different organisms and attempt to integrate them into human genes. Thus enabling humans to possess certain animal traits to solve some health issues."
"For example, we can integrate lizard genes to allow disabled people to regenerate limbs."
"Or integrate naked mole rat genes. Their lifespan is ten times that of other rodents, and their bodies never deteriorate, meaning cancer."
"Therefore, their genes can be used to try to cure cancer."
Alex spread his hands, "So you're doing something so great."
He smiled, eyes narrowing slightly, "I thought this was some Defense Department project, secretly researching something to deal with me."
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