Two Beasts

"Inferior life! What could you possibly know about the beauty of evolution!"

Kanoe Bo, having evolved once again, no longer resembled a human. Rapidly proliferating scarlet flesh covered his entire body, while sharp tentacles continuously swelled, making him look like a giant octopus monster opening and closing its limbs. Cars weighing over a ton were effortlessly wrapped up and hurled through the air at the special police unit.

A ruptured fuel tank ignited from sparks, unleashing a fierce blast wave. A thunderous explosion erupted, and raging flames spread outward like a tide. Four or five vehicles went off like powder kegs with deafening booms.

"Retreat! Retreat!"

Police cars blocking the street were overturned. The special police unit hurriedly fell back, avoiding the dangerous area that had become an inferno.

"Delicious little snacks… Hahaha!"

The mad doctor leaned forward, his scarlet eyes brimming with savagery. Blurred afterimages flashed past as he dodged the dense hail of metal bullets, and the proliferating flesh covering his body swung six enormous tentacles!

The sharp tentacles, like alien limbs, whipped and danced wildly before suddenly stretching into straight blades. They pierced through a large truck lying across the road and sliced open its metal shell.

The incredibly long tentacles burst from the sea of flames. Several living bodies from the C-C-G, the elite force of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, were skewered together. With a savage yank of the tentacles, human flesh tore apart as easily as cloth.

Kanoe Bo, having devoured his own kind, laughed wildly. Clusters of fleshy growths sprouted from the tips of his scaled tentacles, writhing like living creatures as they directly sucked the blood-drenched flesh clean!

Clearly, after evolving once, the mad doctor’s feeding organs had mutated again, allowing him to consume food far more efficiently. He no longer needed to chew and swallow with teeth like a human, sending food through the esophagus into the stomach to be digested, broken down, and turned into nutrients.

The six tentacles danced wantonly like starving demons, launching a bloody slaughter. The heavily armed special police units could not possibly stand against a monster like a ghoul. Like lambs awaiting slaughter, they were shrouded by the fear and shadow of death, powerless to resist as their blood and bodies became nourishment for their enemy.

A helicopter suddenly appeared overhead. Its rotors spun at high speed, whipping up hurricane-like gusts. The rear cabin door opened automatically, and a sealed metal crate dropped straight down from above.

Just before it struck the ground, the metal crate shattered and came apart. A hulking body landed with a bang, crushing a car beneath its foot.

That hulking body was like a mountain. Its skin was hard and grayish white, while its thick red-and-white muscles twisted together like a mass of black steel wires. Veins bulged and throbbed beneath the flesh, radiating an indescribable sense of power.

A Tyrant zombie!

Hydra’s secret weapon for exterminating ghouls!

A bestial roar rang out like thunder across the empty street, which had long since been cleared and sealed off. The two powerful inhuman monsters stared at each other from afar, their eyes filled with violence and slaughter.

This was a second-generation Tyrant zombie. This improved bioweapon looked vastly different from before. It lacked the horrifying appearance of rotting, peeling flesh. Its grayish-white face was expressionless, and it wore a black one-piece trench coat and knee-high combat boots. Its arms were over twenty centimeters thick, while the fingertips of its right hand had evolved exaggeratedly huge claws. The nails on every finger were many times longer than combat knives—like an entire rack of combat knives fused together!

"A zombie… Hehehe!"

Kanoe Bo let out a twisted laugh. As a Hydra researcher, he naturally knew that bioweapons derived from the Progenitor Virus were unreasonable, brutal, and cruel—nothing more than beasts.

"A monster that can’t think—let me eat you!"

The mad doctor shrieked. His six giant tentacles lashed out in succession, rolling up a large truck that had been cut in half and smashing it toward the other side.

Amid a thunderous crash, the heavy truck trailer was knocked aside by brute force. The motionless Tyrant zombie seemed like a cold machine coming to life. Its vacant eyes suddenly lit up, and its arms, evolved with bony claws, swung fiercely!

Blood splattered everywhere. Severed tentacles fell to the ground, twitching a few times like living things before the Tyrant zombie crushed them beneath one foot. Before that terrifying monstrous strength, even giant tentacles capable of lifting objects weighing over a ton seemed incomparably fragile.

"Kill you… Kill you… Kill you!"

Kanoe Bo gave a piercing shriek. He was gradually transforming into a monster, nearly losing every trace of his humanity.

The two terrifying monsters, mutated and derived from the Progenitor Virus, collided and fought across the empty boulevard. One was a ghoul that had just completed another evolution, a demon wearing human skin; the other was a Tyrant zombie without pain or thought, a bioweapon created by Hydra.

They bit and slaughtered one another. The ghoul’s sharp tentacles pierced the Tyrant zombie’s hard grayish-white skin, yet not a drop of blood spurted out. The torn flesh quickly rotted away, holding no nutritional value whatsoever.

The Tyrant zombie swung its bony claws like combat knives, severing another enormous tentacle. The ghoul seized the opportunity, controlling its tentacles to cut into the other’s chest and churn its internal organs into a mangled mass.

Unfortunately, zombies were aberrant creatures that had long since died. They were not humans who relied on a beating heart to remain alive. The Tyrant zombie raised its leg and kicked Kanoe Bo as he lunged forward. The ghoul’s body caved in and shattered, crashing into the shop behind him.

Viper watched this savage, bloody battle through remote control. Her seductive face was filled with delight; she enjoyed this kind of slaughter overflowing with violence and death.

The Beast had always been branded into humanity’s bloodline. It was an instinct that could not be erased. Even an office worker like Kanoe Bo had learned to bite and kill like a beast after mutating into a ghoul.

The reason this operation to hunt the ghouls had been launched was that Logan, who had originally been within their grasp, had vanished without a trace. This completely ruined Ichiro Yashida’s plan of faking his death. He had intended to use Viper’s specially made mechanical insects to temporarily suppress Wolverine’s healing ability, then use the conflict between Shingen Yashida and Mariko to lure him into the trap.

But during the funeral at Sensō-ji, Logan had disappeared without a trace. Even Yukio, who had remained by his side the entire time, did not know where he had gone. Left with no other choice, Ichiro Yashida could only place his hopes on Hydra once more.

Viper promised Ichiro Yashida that as long as they captured these three ghouls, they could perform a partial modification surgery on him. By relying on the genetic mutations of the Progenitor Virus, he could still achieve the goal of prolonging his life.

Of course, it was not without risk. Ichiro Yashida was highly likely to become a monster like those ghouls—but an old man obsessed with staying alive had no mind for such concerns. He only wanted to escape this decaying body ravaged by illness as soon as possible and regain life and vitality.

"Kill that ghoul. Collect its flesh and make specimens," Viper ordered.

Creatures like ghouls held enormous research value for Hydra. If not for S.H.I.E.L.D., she would even have wanted to turn all of Tokyo into a breeding ground, cultivating them in large numbers to gather more data and materials.