America: The Cremator

Chapter 112 C-Rank Mystery: The Skin Thief!

The man called Harrison, unfazed by her coldness, walked to the lab bench, his gaze sweeping over the sophisticated instruments. He exclaimed, "I was just passing by and couldn't resist dropping by to say hello. After all, it's an honor for the Drum Group to contribute to your research."

Stella mercilessly exposed his hypocrisy, interrupting him, "Stop with your nonsense, Harrison."

"I've said it many times, your 'Dram' painkiller has severely insufficient clinical data and reports on its effective ingredients; I cannot guarantee its efficacy."

"You won't allow me to conduct clinical research and pharmacological testing on the drug, yet you want me to issue the relevant certificates for you—"

This is impossible for any researcher with ethical standards.

Harrison's smile remained unchanged. He leaned closer to Stella, lowered his voice, and said in a suggestive tone, "Professor, anything is negotiable. If there's anything you're not satisfied with, we can discuss it slowly and in depth."

Stella took a half-step back in disgust, creating distance between them: "Please leave the lab and don't disturb my experiments."

With that, she ignored Harrison and turned to tidy up the other experimental equipment.

At that very moment, the screen of her phone, which she had casually placed on the edge of the lab bench, suddenly lit up.

The phone was set to silent mode, with only the caller's name and contact information scrolling on the screen: Su Long.

Harrison caught a glimpse of the lit screen and the name on it out of the corner of his eye, and his brows furrowed.

His purpose in coming here today is to attack Kristella and obtain approval for the group's drugs as soon as possible.

Once the call connected, Stella was even less inclined to listen to him. Without a doubt, the opportunity she had painstakingly created would be wasted.

It was just a trivial phone call; I can just hang up.

The thought flashed through Harrison's mind. Taking advantage of Stella's focus on pouring the liquid, he subtly stepped forward and cleverly blocked the phone next to him.

Then, he swiped his finger across the phone screen and hung up the call decisively. Only then did he pretend nothing had happened and sized up Stella and her assistant.

Stella was completely oblivious to Harrison's subtle actions; she was focused on preparing the experimental equipment needed for the next stage.

Timothy stood in front of the glass bucket, holding the stylus of the recorder in his right hand, his brow furrowed as he stared at the black mud inside.

At this moment, huge bubbles are constantly rising on the surface of the black mud inside, and when the bubbles burst, they spray out black mist.

Harrison couldn't understand any of this, since he knew nothing about it and thought it was just a normal reaction to the experiment. He was about to continue persuading Stella when Timothy's panicked voice suddenly rang out.

"Professor, something's not right here, it seems a bit—"

Stella turned her head upon hearing this and saw that the black, muddy substance in the glass jar that had just been filled with holy water was churning violently in a way that defied conventional experience. Bubbles that kept rising and bursting on the surface were splashing the murky liquid onto the inner wall of the glass.

The holy water that was just poured in not only failed to purify the black mud, but instead triggered an even more violent reaction.

Stella's expression changed drastically, and she asked urgently, "What's going on? How did the black mud start a supercritical reaction?!"

She rushed to the glass bucket and saw that the black mud inside was churning even more violently than before, and had even flowed into the glass pipes connecting the other two tanks. If the valves hadn't been tightened, the activated black mud would probably have already rushed into the other two tanks and started to aggregate in a chain reaction.

Stella cursed under her breath, "Damn it! How could this happen? Timothy, where's the holy water? Pour it in according to the emergency plan. I'll go get some silver powder to dilute the reaction!"

Having just given Timothy the instructions, she turned and walked past Harrison, quickly reaching the safe in the corner to unlock it and retrieve the silver powder.

Timothy swallowed hard, his body trembling as he unscrewed the cap and, following the laboratory's emergency plan, poured all the remaining holy water into the central glass container, hoping the black mud would be purified.

However, the black mud was not suppressed and purified as expected after coming into contact with the holy water; instead, it surged even more violently.

Timothy watched the internal reaction with some unease.

At first, he thought it was just a normal reaction during the purification process, but the speed of expansion and boiling quickly exceeded the maximum threshold for safe operation.

Timothy turned to Stella, who had just opened the cabinet door, and shouted, "Professor, come quick, look at her reaction—"

Before he could finish speaking, the central glass jar behind him made a dull shattering sound, and before he could turn around to check, he was already flying out of the jar.

The borosilicate glass shattered outwards, the immense impact scattering the black, muddy substance mixed with holy water, along with sharp glass shards, in all directions.

Timothy felt a sharp pain in his face as a black, viscous substance mixed with shards of glass slammed into his face.

Stella, who had just turned around with a tray of silver powder, was startled by the sudden loud noise, causing her wrist to tremble and the tray full of silver powder to fall to the ground, scattering fine silver powder all over the floor.

The piercing alarm blared wildly in the laboratory, the red warning lights flashed incessantly, and an extremely cold atmosphere quickly enveloped the entire laboratory.

Stella looked in horror toward the center of the explosion. The scattered black mud had not lost its activity; it was writhing violently on the floor, rapidly shrinking, gathering, and piling up.

In just a few seconds, a tall, slender humanoid body materialized in front of the experimental table.

It was a hideous monster that completely defied the laws of biology. It had no skin tissue, its body surface was covered with a layer of viscous, translucent secretion, and abnormally large, purplish-red blood vessels were directly exposed outside the muscle fibers, with some kind of transparent fluid flowing inside.

Its head lacks normal facial features, consisting only of two deep-set, hollow eye sockets. Its hands are not palms or fingers; the end of its left hand extends into a sharp, bony dagger-like structure, while its right hand has been transformed into a rough, barbed hook.

Timothy, who was lying on the ground, was terrified and screamed as he scrambled and ran toward the door.

However, he hadn't taken far when the monster swung its left arm violently, and the bone dagger pierced his chest as easily as cutting through butter. Then the dagger rose, lifting Timothy into the air.

Timothy's limbs thrashed futilely in the air, and copious amounts of bloody foam gushed from the corners of his mouth and nostrils, dripping onto the floor.

Stella stared in disbelief at the monster before her, taking several steps back while muttering to herself, "A C-rank anomaly, a Skin Thief—how could such a creature be born from black mud of this quality?"

Ignoring Timothy's struggles, the skin thief raised the hook on his right arm, precisely hooked it behind Timothy's ear, and then pulled it downwards with a sudden force.

With a nauseating tearing sound, Timothy's facial skin was easily peeled off like a face mask.

The skin thief casually tossed the unconscious Timothy into a corner, then covered his own face with the blood-stained skin.

The young assistant's face was violently stretched open during the process, completely distorting the proportions of his features. The torn edges revealed the writhing, deep red muscles beneath, creating an extremely incongruous and eerie feeling.

Then, Timothy's face actually started talking.

It opened its mouth and uttered a few broken syllables: "Professor—I—I'm in so much pain—"

That was Timothy's voice, only it sounded lifeless and indistinct.

Stella and Harrison were now cornered next to the safe, and the bloody scene of their faces being torn apart made them as pale as paper.

The indistinct voice mimicking Timothy made them scream in terror as they frantically tried to find a way to escape.

Unfortunately, the skin thief's massive body blocked their escape route from the laboratory door.

Harrison was terrified by the scene. He screamed and cowered behind Stella, clutching her white coat tightly with both hands: "It's coming! Professor, think of something!"

As the monster with skin on its face approached them, dragging a blood-dripping dagger, Stella swiftly drew a Glock pistol from her lab coat waistband, cocked it, gripped the handle with both hands, aimed at the skin thief's torso, and repeatedly pulled the trigger.

Gunshots rang out deafeningly in the closed laboratory as silver bullets struck the monster's chest, blasting several fist-sized holes in its exposed muscles and blood vessels.

Clear bodily fluid gushed from the wound, but this did not bring it down; instead, it seemed to unleash its more primal ferocity.

Seeing the skin thief approaching rapidly, Harrison suddenly exerted force with both hands, trying to push Stella forward to block the monster's advance. Stella sensed the push from behind and quickly dodged to the side, avoiding Harrison's dark hand, causing him to fall to the ground in a sorry state.

Stella immediately turned around, opened the safe, took out a sealed jar filled with silver powder, unscrewed the cap, and forcefully splashed it at the skin thief.

The fine silver powder dispersed in the air, covering a large area of ​​the skin thief's sticky skin and instantly causing a violent burning reaction.

Thick blue smoke began to rise from the skin thief's body, and the air was filled with the pungent smell of burning protein. It emitted an extremely eerie, high-frequency scream, waved its two mutated arms, and staggered backward uncontrollably.

Stella seized the brief opening, sharply lowered her center of gravity, and slid quickly under the blind spot of the skin thief's waving arm, rushing desperately toward the laboratory door.

Just as her fingers were about to touch the doorknob, her ankle was suddenly gripped tightly by a tremendous force. The powerful drag caused her to lose her balance instantly and fall heavily to the floor in front of the door.

She turned around in horror and saw that the skin thief's right arm, with its hook, had stretched out several meters like a thick vine, the hook at the end gripping her ankle tightly and slowly dragging her back.

"Teach—Professor—Where are you going—Why—why not stay—with me—?" Timothy's voice rang out again from the monster's mouth, but this time there was a hint of resentment in his tone.

Stella, enduring the excruciating pain in her ankle, quickly raised her Glock pistol, changed to a spare magazine, aimed at the extended mutated arm, and fired continuously.

Five shots hit the joint of the arm in succession, finally breaking it completely.

Stella struggled to kick away the severed limb and tried to get up from the ground, but the enraged Skin Thief had already dragged his mangled body to her.

It looked down at its prey on the ground, raised the blood-stained dagger on its left arm high, and plunged it into Stella's chest with a whistling sound.

Just at this critical moment, the metal door in front of Stella was suddenly pushed open from the outside, and a hand with distinct knuckles reached in from outside. The five fingers, like steel clamps, precisely grabbed the skin thief's falling knife arm.

The skin thief's immense strength was completely neutralized by this grab, and the dagger hovered ten centimeters in front of Stella's chest, unable to move down even an inch.

A familiar voice rang out above Stella's head.

"Thank goodness we made it in time, that was really close."