MTLNOVEL Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Marked!
Consciousness returned in fractured pieces. Chu Xun's fingers twitched against crisp linen instead of the combat knife he'd expected. His eyes snapped open to sterile white walls - the unmistakable clinical chill of Chu City's medical ward.
"Third time this week," he groaned, recognizing the antiseptic sting in his nostrils. "This place should start charging me rent."
Memory fragments reassembled - the acidic blood gamble, the mysterious rescue. His left hand flew to his chest where the Xenomorph's card now pulsed warmly beneath his shirt. Relief flooded him as the familiar obsidian card materialized, its surface etched with new details: Xenomorph Summoning Card - Absolute Obedience Protocol Engaged.
A metallic click drew his attention to his hands. His breath hitched. Two-inch talons extended from his fingertips, glinting like surgical steel under the overhead lights. Experimental pressure against the bedframe produced shrieking grooves in the alloy frame.
The door hissed open before he could further test this development. Dr. Nan Gong's stiletto heels punctuated her entrance, the clinical white coat doing nothing to soften her glacial beauty. "Three visits in as many days." Her crimson nails tapped a tablet screen. "Shall I reserve your permanent suite?"
"Just passing through." Chu Xun casually pulled the sheet over his claw marks. "Any idea who brought me in?"
"Anonymous drop-off." The physician's mercury-colored eyes narrowed. "Though I'm beginning to suspect you're conducting field tests for trauma surgeons."
As Chu Xun fled the interrogation, Dr. Nan Gong's gloved finger traced the acid-pitted bedsheet. Molten polyester dripped from smoking craters where his blood had fallen. Her usually impassive face lit with predatory delight.
"Fascinating," she purred, collecting samples into cryo-vials. "Let's see what makes you bleed poison, little moth."
Outside, Chu Xun shuddered despite the sweltering heat. The crawling sensation between his shoulder blades intensified as he passed surveillance drones humming in their charging ports. Somewhere between the gene-altered street vendors and augmented beggars, invisible eyes tracked his every move.
His mutated claws retracted with conscious effort, leaving half-moon indentations in his palms. The Xenomorph card burned against his sternum - not with pain, but warning. Chu City's labyrinthine alleys seemed to constrict around him, every shadow pregnant with threat.
Unseen in her observation tower, Dr. Nan Gong watched thermal signatures bloom across her screens. The readout showing Chu Xun's biodata spiked abnormal - corrosive plasma in bloodwork, skeletal density quadruple baseline, electromagnetic signatures syncing with an unknown energy source.
"Specimen X-001," she murmured, initializing containment protocols. Her reflection grinned back from the darkened glass - part scientist, part spider admiring trapped prey. "Let's discover how much regeneration you truly possess."