Chapter 129: The Monster in the Zoo

Chen Xiao did not refuse the "invitation" from White Gloves. He stepped outside with him and got into his white luxury sedan.

The car quickly drove away from the unfinished buildings street.

"I didn't expect you to come with me," White Gloves smiled, looking at Chen Xiao inside the car. "After all, I tried to capture you just two days ago."

"As you said yourself, circumstances change," Chen Xiao replied, appearing very calm. "Enemies can become friends, and friends can become enemies."

White Gloves seemed to frown slightly. "Your personality is somewhat different from the description in your file."

Chen Xiao smiled noncommittally and said nothing more.

Largely matching Chen Xiao's speculation, the car soon arrived at a familiar place.

The Chishan Wildlife Park in City K!

This Chishan mountain covered a vast area. Viewed at night, the mountainous terrain was peaceful. From the dense mountain forests, the rustling sound of the wind and occasional cries of startled birds could be heard.

At the entrance of the wildlife park, the daytime scene of bustling tourists was completely gone. It was desolate and quiet.

In fact, Chen Xiao had already harbored some vague suspicions in his heart.

The collar... the commission... Gonggong... the strange cases at the wildlife park. And finally, the day he suddenly saw Gonggong's retreating figure in the zoo.

A person like Gonggong would not wander into a wildlife park for no apparent reason.

The zoo gates were closed, but when the car drove up to the entrance, the gates silently and automatically swung open.

Sitting in the car, Chen Xiao could see two men in black suits standing at the zoo entrance, bowing their heads toward the passing car and respectfully stepping aside.

At a glance, Chen Xiao saw that the duty officer inside the zoo's security room had already slumped over the desk.

"Rest assured."

Perhaps sensing his thoughts, White Gloves said faintly, "We don't kill people casually."

Not killing casually did not mean not killing at all.

Chen Xiao muttered this phrase silently in his heart.

The car quickly drove into the zoo.

Because he had visited during the daytime a couple of days earlier, Chen Xiao clearly remembered the layout of the zoo. The car quickly passed from the exhibition area deeper into the park, entering the animal safari zone.

At night, the safari zone was dead silent. Only the monitoring devices around the isolation ditches and barrier walls were still functioning.

Upon entering the safari zone, Chen Xiao saw tour buses parked by the roadside—those tour buses reinforced with wire mesh windows—as well as jeeps used by the staff.

Everything around them was so quiet.

White Gloves still wore a leisurely expression, holding his ceremonial cane in one hand while using a white handkerchief in the other to wipe his forehead.

"There are police in the zoo," Chen Xiao said after a moment of thought. "I certainly hope you don't spark any conflicts with the police."

"We won't," White Gloves replied, shaking his head and keeping his words brief.

Soon, however, he looked at Chen Xiao. "Soon, you won't even need to make a move. You only need to watch from the sidelines. Witness with your own eyes that this matter has come to an end."

Traveling all the way through the safari zone, it seemed that every time they passed an isolation barrier, White Gloves' subordinates had already opened the gate beforehand.

Before long, Chen Xiao saw a roadside sign:

"WARNING! FIERCE ANIMAL SAFARI ZONE! DANGER!"

Chen Xiao frowned.

The car stopped in a slightly open space. To the left was a small grove and a large expanse of lawn, while to the right was a pond.

"We are quite lucky, because that fellow Gonggong doesn't seem to know how to drive wild beasts. Therefore, for him, this commission can only be accomplished by using the most foolish method of waiting by a stump for a hare to dash against it, just waiting for the target to appear. Fortunately, we don't have to do that."

Wait? Target?

Though Chen Xiao had questions in his heart, he did not voice them, choosing instead to watch quietly.

"We can begin." The ceremonial cane in White Gloves' hand tapped lightly against the front passenger seat.

The driver operating the car was a white man wearing a driver's uniform. With a rather nondescript appearance, he immediately stepped out of the vehicle. The driver walked a few steps to a spot about twenty or thirty meters in front of the car, then rummaged through his pockets.

Soon, he produced something resembling a whistle and brought it to his lips, blowing it softly.

Chen Xiao's expression flickered slightly.

That whistle was indeed no ordinary whistle; it was a special device that emitted an audio frequency that only animal ears could capture.

That frequency was extremely difficult for human ears to hear.

"You'd better roll up your windows," White Gloves smiled faintly. "Not out of fear of danger, but... the scene shortly might be rather bloody. I am not particularly fond of the smell of blood."

Though Chen Xiao did not understand, he complied.

Soon...

From the grove on the left side, a sudden commotion arose.

The low bushes and grass were gently parted. A brownish beastly shadow slowly probed outward step by step. The brown shadow was quite massive, its paws crushing the short grass on the ground as it cautiously pushed out half its body. The magnificent brown mane around its head revealed its identity!

It was a lion! A young and robust male lion!

The lion seemed somewhat irritable, likely disturbed by the sound of the beast whistle. It immediately spotted White Gloves' driver standing there. The lion looked somewhat puzzled, but even more alertly fixed its gaze on the distant human—the human who had trespassed into its territory.

Although this was a wildlife park, life within the safari zone had allowed the lion to retain a high degree of its wild instincts.

The lion approached cautiously, circling craftily.

Having watched programs on National Geographic, Chen Xiao recognized the lion's hostility and heard the low, threatening growls it emitted.

Watching as the lion lowered the front of its body to the ground, its hind legs coiled with spring-like power, seemingly ready to leap and pounce at any second...

Yet White Gloves' driver stood there with a completely serene expression.

Just as Chen Xiao watched the lion close in step by step, preparing to execute its charge, the driver suddenly waved his hand toward the lion and let out a low, whimpering moan from his throat...

That sound seemed to mimic the roar of some wild beast, yet also resembled the sound of weeping, appearing exceptionally bizarre.

随后, the driver's voice transitioned into notes with very strange pronunciations. The sound carried a peculiar vibrato, nasal resonance, and some highly difficult vocal runs.

He seemed as though he were chanting some kind of spell.

Even stranger was that upon hearing these sounds, the lion's previously tensed body instantly relaxed as it raised its head. Its eyes stared at the driver for a good long while, seemingly hesitating, before it lowered its head and slowly walked closer step by step.

When the lion reached a distance of just one step away from the driver, it stopped moving. Next, it performed an action that left Chen Xiao astonished.

It actually extended its head, rubbing the side of its head affectionately against the driver's body—just like a giant pet dog!

"My driver is no mere animal tamer," White Gloves smiled slightly.

Watching as the driver gently knelt down, wrapped one arm around the lion's neck, and stroked its mane back and forth.

Chen Xiao's heart stirred suddenly. "What kind of supernatural ability is this?"

"An ancient supernatural ability. Its history is many times older than the combined histories of the Service Agency or the Club!" White Gloves smiled faintly. "Remember, in this world, supernatural beings actually existed a very, very long time ago—far earlier and more distant than we can imagine. As for my driver, his ability had a special designation in ancient European legend, passed down from the ancient Celtic language..."

Pausing for a moment, White Gloves smiled and uttered a term familiar to many.

Anyone who had read fantasy fiction or played online games knew this term. It was not Chen Xiao's first time hearing it, but... he had never expected that such a thing truly existed in reality! And furthermore, it had been classified under the category of supernatural abilities!

What White Gloves said was:

Druid!

Druids who manipulate nature. "Druid is actually just a pronunciation in the ancient Celtic language. Generally, this type of supernatural ability is divided into two categories: one is the manipulation of plants, and the other is animals. My driver happens to belong to the latter. Well, if I were to use a more formal term, I would prefer to call this ability natural organism manipulation."

Following that, the lion appeared exceptionally docile, even sticking out its tongue to lick the driver's leg as its body sprawled flat on the ground.

At this moment, the driver produced a metal flask from his breast pocket—a sealed container. After he slowly unscrewed the cap, the lion on the ground instantly flipped over, sprang to its feet, shook its mane, and burst forth with a trace of alertness!

The flask was sealed with some kind of liquid. The driver carefully sprinkled the liquid onto the surrounding ground. As the liquid flowed out, it appeared golden-yellow and emitted a peculiar odor, resembling some kind of strong, pungent chemical solution.

This odor seemed to make the lion very nervous. Its previous docility vanished completely as it anxiously looked around, emitting low, rumbling whimpers.

"What is that?" Chen Xiao frowned from inside the car.

"We lost a few precious biochemical beasts," White Gloves explained faintly. "One of them is a very precious creature. That biochemical beast was secretly taken away from the Club by the two brothers you encountered. Unfortunately, they were poor trainers and lost the biochemical beast, so they are searching for it, and so are we. Fortunately, however, our organization has a Druid. And the liquid in this flask is a sample of that biochemical beast's bodily fluids and urine. When I arrived in City K, I saw the news. What happened here confirmed to us that after escaping, that biochemical beast hid here... In a city, is there any place more suitable for such a biochemical beast to inhabit than a wildlife park? There is plenty of space here, and enough..." He paused here, looking at the lion. "Enough food!"

White Gloves' expression grew slightly excited. He smiled, "This kind of biochemical beast is a very cunning and intelligent creature, extremely crafty! Finding it is not easy; we can only figure out a way to lure it out ourselves. Fortunately, in nature, almost all wild beasts have the habit of using their urine and scent to mark their territory. Therefore, sprinkling this sample of urine from another of the same species of biochemical beast here might make it think another of its kind has invaded its territory, forcing it out."

"What kind of... biochemical beast is it?" Chen Xiao asked, suddenly recalling the Owlbear he had encountered.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you... That Owlbear you encountered also strayed from our organization! That Monica is also one of the traitors," White Gloves laughed leisurely. "We ran into some trouble a while ago; a batch of people suddenly defected from the organization, bringing about some chaos. A batch of precious biochemical beasts was stolen, and some were unique samples cultivated through many years of painstaking effort! If not for this chaos, I wouldn't have made a special trip to City K."

Chen Xiao wanted to ask more, but White Gloves' eyes suddenly lit up because the Druid driver in front had just made a strange gesture toward the car.

"It's here!" White Gloves discarded his handkerchief and cane, looked at Chen Xiao, and spoke with a hint of profound meaning in his tone. "I knew you would definitely carry a detector with you. Now... you might as well put it on!"

Chen Xiao unhesitatingly took out the detector—that pair of glasses given to him by Phoenix—and put them on.

Soon, the detector's radar display began to show fluctuations.

"On the right?"

Chen Xiao frowned.

By the pond on the right, the water suddenly rippled, and a black shadow slowly emerged from the pond.

That black shadow looked just like a rock, or perhaps a large lump of mud.

After crawling out of the water, it inched its way onto the bank step by step, dragging across the green lawn and leaving behind a patch of black muddy prints.

Soon, that mass of what appeared to be rock and mud underwent a series of wriggling movements before rising to its feet within Chen Xiao's field of vision!

It resembled the "pill bugs" Chen Xiao used to see in summer when he was a child. When its body curled up, its outer shell looked like earth and stones, but once unfurled, it transformed into a monster!

Standing upright, by visual estimation, this thing was nearly two meters tall. Its entire shell looked very hard, featuring an inverted triangular head and two large eyes, much like some kind of insect.

Countless black spots of various sizes covered its entire body.

What surprised Chen Xiao even more was... the appearance of this monster was simply...

It looked as though it had been pieced together!

The pair of hind limbs currently supporting its standing posture—the left foot was covered in black fur, which by its shape resembled a wolf's hind leg, while the other leg on the right was covered in plum-blossom-like patterns, as if transplanted from a sika deer!

Behind it, a hard layer of horny skin covered its back... resembling an alligator!

And its upper limbs...

Its upper limbs did not appear to have been transplanted from any animal; rather, they seemed "original."

Yet it was precisely this pair of upper limbs that was even more shocking!

The slender upper limbs did not look particularly robust, but they were covered in a hard outer shell, and at the ends were two long, blade-like bone spurs! Each was about one meter in length!

Much like...

"A praying mantis?" Chen Xiao couldn't help crying out in a low voice.

That's right!

This monster looked just like a praying mantis nearly two meters tall, wielding two giant blades like a mantis in its hands!

"It is not a praying mantis," White Gloves smiled slightly. "To be precise, thirty-five percent of its genes come from the insect known as the praying mantis. As for the rest, they are drawn from six different creatures, including... a portion of human genes as well."