Searching for someone in northern Myanmar, and you call that earning tuition fees?

"Huff...huff...Mr. Su, my pipe is clogged!"

Jerry had a file folder over his head and half a roll of electrical tape wrapped around his neck, looking just like a terrorist who had just committed a robbery but got lost.

He pointed to the marker tube stuck in his mouth and let out a choking whistle: "It looks like snot got in... I have rhinitis, it happens when I'm nervous..."

"Hold it in." Su Ming didn't even turn his head.

"Um... Mr. Su," Jerry mumbled, a pen in his mouth, "there really are dead people further ahead. I have elderly parents and young children to support, and I still have thirty years of mortgage payments to make in Miami..."

Su Ming walked ahead, the meat mallet in his hand scraping lightly against the wall, making a sizzling sound that made your teeth ache.

"Don't worry." Su Ming didn't even turn his head. "If it's a work injury, Shield Biotech will help you pay your mortgage. If not, then you don't have to pay it. Either way, you're not at a loss."

Jerry: "..."

He wanted to call the police, but he was on the terrorists' side.

The gate to the ecological cultivation area is made of thickened bulletproof glass, with yellow biochemical warning signs affixed to it.

Jerry, with a file folder over his head, swiped his card with trembling hands.

"drop--"

The sound of the pressure valve releasing air rang out, and the door slowly slid open.

A humid, sweet, and slightly fishy smell wafted over. This place didn't feel like a laboratory; it was more like a nightmare version of a primeval forest.

Inside the enormous culture tank, dark red vines pulsated like blood vessels, connecting to a huge glass chamber in the center.

"No...don't kill me!" Jerry's legs trembled, and the breathing tube on the file folder swayed back and forth. "I'm just someone who changes light bulbs and checks the expiration dates of fire extinguishers! These inhumane experiments have nothing to do with me! I wouldn't even dare to dissect a frog!"

Su Ming ignored him and fixed his gaze on the glass cabin in the center.

A girl was curled up there.

She looked to be under twenty years old, skin and bones, with dozens of transparent tubes inserted all over her body, and pale green liquid being continuously drawn from her body and transported to the surrounding vines.

She became a human-shaped battery that had been drained of its juices.

Ling Qiao gasped, the muzzle of the gun in her hand trembling slightly: "Beast..."

As if sensing the presence of a living person, the girl struggled to open her eyes. Her eyes were cloudy and murky, with no whites, only black pupils, filled with deathly stillness.

"Kill...kill...me..."

The girl's voice was faint, like the buzzing of a mosquito, and came through the loudspeaker outside the glass enclosure, with a hoarse, electric sound.

"Please... kill me... it hurts so much..."

Ling Qiao's eyes welled up with tears, and she abruptly pressed the gun against Jerry's forehead: "You bunch of beasts! She's still a child!"

"It's none of my business!" Jerry cried, raising his hands in terror. "This is a local tribeswoman captured by Venom! They say her blood has a rare antibody that can suppress the virus's rampage... I'm innocent! I'm a law-abiding citizen! My grandma is a vegetarian!"

Su Ming stepped forward and reached out to press down on Ling Qiao's trembling gun barrel.

"Calm down."

He walked up to the glass wall and looked at the emaciated girl through the thick bulletproof layer.

He raised his hand and placed it on the glass.

"Want to die?" Su Ming asked.

The girl paused for a moment, then nodded frantically, the tears streaming from her eyes not being tears, but pale red blood.

"It's easy to die. I can blow you and this broken vine to smithereens right now." Su Ming's voice was calm. "But if you die, you won't see your mother again, and... your mother probably doesn't want to receive a box of ashes."

The girl paused, and a glimmer of light finally appeared in her lifeless eyes.

"Can...can he survive?"

"Yes, I can." Su Ming pulled a folding knife from his pocket and gently flicked the blade away. "But I charge a lot. Rescuing you won't be all I'll do; I'll also have to take down this bastards' hideout. That's an added-value service."

He turned to look at Jerry, who was still cleaning the snot out of his pen.

"Open the door."

Jerry shuddered in fright, sniffling back his snot. "B-Big Brother! Don't open it! There's an infrared alarm in here. If you turn it on, 'The Gardener' will be here immediately! Those are three monsters! Who can withstand that?!"

"That's exactly what I want—for them to come."

Su Ming pulled out a handful of red powder from the sachet at his waist; it was the pollen of the "Drunken Soul Vine" that he had collected outside.

"If the door isn't opened, how am I supposed to get my 'gift' inside?"

Ling Qiao suppressed her anger, her eyes hardening: "Jerry, open the door! I'll take responsibility if anything happens!"

"What are you talking about! If you die, how can I live?!" Jerry cried, but under the threat of Su Ming's swaying fleshy hammer, he still tremblingly placed the ID card on the sensor area.

"Beep—Ecological zone unlocked."

The moment the door opened, a piercing alarm blared, echoing throughout the entire base!

The scarlet alarm lights then began flashing wildly.

"Warning! Core area invasion! Gardener squad deployed!"

Ignoring the alarm, Su Ming strode into the ecological zone and stood before the girl.

The girl looked at him in horror.

Instead of immediately cutting the vines, Su Ming extended a finger and gently pressed it on an acupoint between the girl's eyebrows.

"Take a nap."

The girl felt a surge of warmth, her consciousness relaxed, and she fainted.

"Su Ming! He's here!" Ling Qiao turned around abruptly, pointing her gun at the end of the passage.

The ground there was shaking more and more violently.

Boom!Boom!Boom!

Like a Tyrannosaurus Rex passing through.

Three giants, each over two and a half meters tall, with grayish-green skin and bulging muscles, smashed through the iron gate at the entrance of the passage and rushed in with a foul stench.

They had no pupils, only the whites of their eyes. They wore specially made heavy armor and carried rotary machine guns.

"Is that a person?!" Jerry screamed and immediately shrank into a crevice in the rocks by the pool, his movements so practiced it was heartbreaking.

"Jerry," Su Ming called out.

"Here! I'm writing my will!" Jerry stammered as he wrote and drew on his pants.

"Make sure your breathing tube is firmly inserted." Su Ming took out the evidence bag containing red powder from his pocket.

"The next segment is called 'Spring is Coming'."