Molten brass wept onto the floor. The lock dissolved.
Alex kicked the door.
BANG.
Metal groaned and swung inward.
The cold died at the threshold. Heat slapped Alex's face. Heavy. Wet. Feverish.
Smells assaulted him. Damp earth. Crushed mint. The sharp, copper reek of spilled blood. In a world of sterile ice, the scent was violent.
Alex breached.
Floor 15 wasn't an apartment. It was a jungle.
Purple UV glare bruised the room. Jury-rigged car batteries hummed, feeding the lights. Two feet of black soil buried the Italian marble. Ferns burst from the drywall like tumors.
[System Notification]
[Environment: Artificial Biosphere (Tier 1)]
[Oxygen: High]
[Temp: 24°C]
Alex kept his weapon raised. His boots squelched in the mud.
A potato patch grew out of a gutted Steinway piano. Tomato vines strangled a crystal chandelier.
Thwack.
Thwack.
Squelch.
Wet chopping echoed from the dining area.
Alex moved. He used the oversized fern leaves for cover. Humidity greased his visor.
He reached the treeline.
A man hunched over a butcher's block in the center of the clearing. Dr. Chen. His lab coat—once white—was a stiff canvas of green stains and dried brown splatter. Hair like a bird's nest of gray wire.
"Eat," the doctor muttered. Voice raspy. Frantic. "Eat. Grow big. Winter is long. Papa knows."
Thwack.
The cleaver came down.
Alex zoomed in.
A leg lay on the cutting board. Severed at the knee. It wore a fuzzy pink sock. Unit 1402. The violin girl.
Chen grabbed the shin. He turned to a massive pot dominating the room.
No tomato plant grew there. A thick, crimson vine erupted from the soil. It pulsed like an exposed artery. Thorns the size of fingers dripped clear, sticky neurotoxin.
[Monster Detected: Blood-Thirsty Vine (Mutated Flora)]
[Danger Level: Medium]
[Diet: Carnivorous]
Chen tossed the meat.
The vine didn't sway. It snapped.
Red whips lashed out. They coiled around the calf. CRACK. Bone splintered like dry wood. The plant yanked the meal into the dirt. Leaves turned a deep, gorged purple.
"Good girl." Chen giggled. He wiped a bloody hand on his coat. "Papa finds more. Neighbors are so... generous."
Alex stepped out.
"High-grade fertilizer," Alex said.
Chen froze. He spun. Cleaver raised. Eyes bulging, bloodshot, unhinged.
"You!" Chen screeched. He pointed the blade. "Thief! My research! Mine!"
"I don't want your salad," Alex said. He aimed at the doctor's center mass. "I want the bugs."
"Liar!" Spittle flew. "Everyone wants her! The cold comes! Only she survives! She is the future!"
Chen slammed his hand against the pot.
"Kill him, darling! Dinner time!"
Dirt blasted the ceiling.
Red ropes whipped the air. The main vine struck.
SLAM.
It coiled around Alex's right arm. Thorns the size of nails raked the alloy plating. SCREE. Metal sparked. The grip tightened. Servo-motors in the gauntlet whined, fighting the crushing pressure.
Chen giggled. A wet, broken sound. "She hugs! She loves! Don't squirm, it sours the meat!"
Alex didn't pull back. He leaned in.
"Bad touch."
He clenched his fist. Fuel dumped into the injectors.
CLICK. WHOOSH.
The gauntlet became a sun.
Orange napalm washed the vine. No scream. Just the violent hiss of flash-boiling liquid. The plant thrashed. Green skin blistered, peeled, and turned to black ash in seconds. Sap boiled into sticky steam. It smelled like burnt hair and spinach.
The vine let go. It recoiled, shivering.
Alex stepped forward. He stomped the burning tendril into the mud.
CRUNCH.
[System Notification] [Critical Hit: Fire Damage] [Target Stunned]
Chen stopped giggling. The cleaver wobbled. He stared at the charred, smoking stump of his "child."
"You... you hurt her..."
Alex moved.
[Str Check: Pass]
He crossed the gap. His left hand snapped out, seizing the doctor's throat. He drove him backward.
THUD.
Chen hit the butcher block. Knives rattled. The cleaver clattered to the floor.
Alex jammed the pistol barrel against Chen's forehead. He twisted it, digging the steel into the sweat-slick skin.
"My turn," Alex said.
Chen shook. Snot mixed with blood on his face. "Don't kill her... please... she needs protein... she's starving..."
"Your fertilizer is trash," Alex said. He nudged the gun, forcing Chen's head back. "Neighbor meat? Garbage. Too lean. Low energy."
Alex leaned close. His eyes were cold. Dead.
"How about real food? Mutant beast corpses. High protein. High mana. The kind of meat that makes a god."
Chen's eyes stopped darting. They locked onto Alex. The madness shifted. Terror dissolved into sudden, fanatical hunger.
"Mutant...?"
"The bugs downstairs," Alex said. "Unlimited supply."