A New Life Form?
Because there were no windows, the power room was dim and shadowy, with only the faint sunlight filtering through the narrow iron door barely illuminating the interior.
In the dark corners of the power equipment and the small side rooms, darkness still reigned. Xiao Yi's eyes hadn't yet adjusted to the gloom, so he could only vaguely make out some flickering specks of light.
Daring not to slacken for even a moment, Xiao Yi tucked his pistol into an easily accessible spot on his belt, gripped his modao tightly, and advanced step by cautious step into the power room.
The first thing that caught Xiao Yi's eye was a patch of dried blood on the floor. Judging by its color, it had been there for quite some time.
Following the trail, he saw drag marks leading toward a small room off to the side of the power room.
Xiao Yi clenched the modao in his hand, a fine sheen of cold sweat beading on his forehead without him realizing it.
This power room was far too eerie. Combined with the faint metallic tang of blood and the stench of decay hanging in the air, it gave Xiao Yi the unsettling feeling that he'd stumbled into a horror movie set.
Especially after the monster ambush he'd just survived—he couldn't shake the sense that in this spine-chilling environment, some other abomination would leap out from behind him at any second!
The door to the small room was ajar. Xiao Yi pressed himself against the wall beside it and used the tip of his modao to nudge the wooden door open.
There was no sound from inside, no monster bursting out as he'd half-expected. But a faint rotten stench wafted out!
Stepping back two paces, Xiao Yi gripped the blade with both hands and peered inside with utmost vigilance.
The sight hit him like a punch to the gut, drawing in a sharp gasp of cold air.
A mangled corpse lay sprawled on the floor, its flesh torn and devoured. One leg was stripped to bare white bone, its neck bore bite marks surrounded by rotting flesh, and a massive splatter of blood stained the snow-white walls and power boxes.
A wave of foul odor assaulted him.
Even more horrifying, beside the body was a pile of bones and three skulls!
"What the hell happened here?"
Xiao Yi stared at the pile of bones, his hand trembling slightly on the modao's hilt.
This was no zombie handiwork! Zombies never ate that cleanly!
The partially devoured corpse showed far less decay than the others back in the villa.
Clearly, this person hadn't been dead long.
A chilling possibility suddenly struck Xiao Yi...
Could the zombie he'd just killed have been breeding these people as a slow food supply?
Unlikely! That zombie had been smarter than average but not particularly strong in a fight...
Or maybe... the people trapped in here had survived by eating each other one by one?
Either way, the thought sent a shiver down his spine.
"Wuu wuu wuu~~~~"
At that moment, a faint, feeble whimper echoed from within.
Xiao Yi furrowed his brow and, staying on high alert, carefully traced the sound deeper inside.
In the corner behind an electrical box in the power room's side annex, Xiao Yi found the source!
An infant!
Or more precisely, an infant-like monster!
Yet this half-human, half-monster baby looked utterly adorable!
Even more endearing than a normal human infant.
It showed no hint of aggression.
Just like the mother monster he'd slain earlier, the little creature had pale blue skin and captivating red eyes. Its body was bald and smooth, devoid of hair, but its pointed ears evoked the dark elves from Warcraft.
Spotting Xiao Yi, the apparently just-awakened little monster clambered up from a pile of clothes, giggling as it crawled toward him.
Only then did Xiao Yi notice its bald, stubby tail.
And from its exposed genitalia, it appeared to be female... or rather, a little female monster...
The modao's gleaming edge hovered before the creature, but it seemed oblivious, beaming at Xiao Yi with a silly, sweet smile.
One downward swing, and this bizarre little monster would die by his blade.
The lurking mother monster...
The recently gnawed male corpse...
The pile of bones...
And now this adorable little monster...
The clues suddenly clicked together in Xiao Yi's mind.
The raised modao hung frozen in midair, unable to descend.
"Forget it. I'll let you live—for now. You're just a baby; you haven't done anything wrong."
Gazing at the little monster, which seemed affectionate yet wary of him, Xiao Yi sighed softly, turned, and left the annex, gently closing the door behind him.
He wouldn't kill it, but he wouldn't release it either.
Non-kin were unpredictable; who knew what this thing would grow into?
If he let it out and it attacked him—or Stephanie Seymour—he'd regret it forever.
Xiao Yi wasn't some bloodthirsty psycho, nor was he a naive bleeding-heart fool.
After inspecting the final storage battery room, Xiao Yi finally relaxed enough to examine the power room's wiring.
The generator sat right there in the power room, undamaged and fully operational.
He checked the distribution boxes, storage batteries, and lines—no issues; everything was intact and functional. The storage batteries were even fully charged.
So the problem was likely the circuit breaker being off or damage to the external wiring.
Drawing from his experience fixing the villa's circuits, Xiao Yi suspected the breaker.
Please don't let it be the wiring, he prayed silently. With his limited electrical skills and the current conditions, a damaged line would be impossible to repair.