Chapter 1 — Midnight Snake Knocks On The Door

In the Middle of the Night, a Snake Knocked on My Door The snake's knock was very polite. Three hours, stop, then three more hours. The rhythm is identical to that of a hotel room service staff. The only problem was that the place I was staying in was not a hotel, but what was standing outside the door was a three-meter-long black king cobra.

"Attention all staff! Experiment number 7 has escaped from the detention area. The final location is determined to be near the staff dormitory of area B."

The voice of the security captain rang out on the radio, carrying unconcealed fear.

“Repeat, this is not a drill. Experiment number 7 has extremely high aggressiveness and… imitative ability.”

PART 1 I looked at the black scale slowly sliding through the crack in the door, and quickly adjusted the radio volume to the lowest level. He heard it. It knows I'm inside.

“Lam Vi, did you hear that?”

The security captain's voice became even lower.

"Absolutely do not open the door. That thing can learn how to talk like a human."

There was a crackling noise on the radio, followed by a short period of silence.

"The last time it opened its mouth, it used Ms. Truong's voice from the cleaning department. Ms. Truong was swallowed by it three days ago."

I slowly backed away, my back pressed against the cold wall. The phone screen lights up. It was a WeChat message from colleague Tieu Chau.

"Vi Vi, number 7's eyes are horizontal, like human eyes."

“It's not a snake.”

“It's something else.”

PART 2 My name is Lam Vi, twenty-three years old, I am a cleaning staff at Thanh Thanh Biological Research Institute. I say I'm a cleaning staff, but actually I have to do everything: feed the experimental animals, clean up waste, record basic data, and sometimes even have to run to buy coffee for the other PhDs. When I applied for a job, the human resources department told me that this was a national scientific research agency, specializing in advanced biotechnology research. I've never been to college, so I don't understand those terms. I only know that this place includes accommodation and a monthly salary of eight thousand yuan. For someone like me who grew up in an orphanage with no relatives and no support, that was enough. It wasn't until three days ago that I realized what was in the third basement. That day it was my turn to be on night duty, in charge of bringing disinfectant solution to the laboratories. While pushing the cart through the corridor of area C, I heard the sound of a person crying. The sound came from behind the door labeled “Detention Room No. 7”. It was a woman's cry, broken, like something was covering her mouth. I thought a colleague was locked inside, so I reached out and pushed the door open. The door is not locked. As soon as the door opened a small crack, the crying immediately stopped. I see it. A giant black mass curled up in the glass room. The scales reflected the cold light under the white lamp. Its body was at least as big as my waist. Its head was bowed low, as if sleeping. Then it raised its head. Those eyes looked straight at me. The eyes are horizontal, the pupils are amber, surrounded by an unusual white ring. Those are not snake eyes. It was a human eye, forcibly attached to the face of a snake. I ran away. I ran all the way back to the dormitory, locked the door, then curled up, my whole body trembling. Day The next day, I looked for the manager to resign. He just smiled and gave me an additional agreement.

"Confidentiality clause. Once signed, you cannot leave. The fine for violating the contract is three hundred thousand yuan."

He pushed up his glasses, still maintaining the same gentle expression as before.

"Tieu Lam, the treatment at our place is very good. You can work with peace of mind. What happened in the third basement, just pretend you've never seen it before."

I did not sign. But I can't leave either. Because I don't have three hundred thousand yuan. PART 3 It is now twenty-seventeen in the morning. It's been forty-three minutes since number 7 escaped. I cowered in the corner of the dorm room. On the phone screen, messages from the work group continuously appear.

"Two people from the security team have lost contact. The last location is in the cafeteria area B."

“Area C has been blocked. All staff remain in place awaiting orders.”

"There was an abnormality in the access control system of the A dormitory building, suspected of being damaged by external forces. Attention A staff—"

The last message was only half sent. The sender's profile picture is a middle-aged man wearing glasses, the caption's name is "Dr. Luu". I looked at that profile picture for three seconds and suddenly remembered that Dr. Luu's office was on the first floor of area A. Less than fifty meters from my dorm room. There was no longer any movement outside. There was no sound of scales rubbing against the ground, no low hissing sound. Absolutely no sound at all. It was so quiet it was like nothing had ever happened. But I know it's still there. Because the black scale under the door still didn't move. It's waiting for me to open the door. The phone vibrated again. Tieu Chau sent a voice message. I turned the volume down to the lowest level and put the phone to my ear.

“Miss Vi Vi, I just looked up number 7's experiment records.”

Her voice was shaking.

"Do you know why it is called number 7? Because before it there were six other experiments, but all of them failed. Experiments from numbers 1 to 6, when developing to the third week, all had the same rejection reaction..."

“They grow human teeth.”

The voice message pauses for a few seconds and then continues.

“Number 7 is different. Number 7 has lived for seven months. Doctors say it is the most successful product, because in its genetic sequence there are thirty-seven percent human genes.”

“Sister Vi Vi, it has a human part in its body.”

“It recognizes people, knows how to think, knows how to take revenge, and knows…”

The voice message has stopped before the sentence ends. I bowed my head and looked at the screen. In the chat box, another line of text appeared.

“It can also imitate human voices to trick people into walking out.”