The night was heavy with fog, draped over the wasteland like a suffocating blanket. The bitter tang of gunpowder clung to the air, mixing with the stench of charred earth.
Wei Long's boots struck the ground in a frantic rhythm—thud-thud-thud—each step trembling with desperation. His breaths came in short, ragged gasps.
He wasn't running.
He was fleeing.
For all his years as a decorated soldier, experience became useless. Fear was all over him—his entire being as a human, overtaking every instinct he'd spent decades sharpening.
This wasn't what he'd signed up for.
Wei Long and his team was the most efficient military squad—they were spoken with awe, the squad who'd survived battles others wouldn't dare approach.
He had led his squad through impossible odds, completed missions others deemed suicide, and emerged victorious every time.
But not this time.
The government had promised them everything: freedom, financial stability, care for his ailing parents.
No more missions.
Just one last job.
However, there was no preparation, and the government seemed to be rushing them by sending an agent directly at their front door step.
At that time, Wei Long contemplated a lot.
It was too good to turn down.
Too good to be true that something felt wrong.
Yet… he'd agreed without hesitation.
Why wouldn't he and his squad?
Too many benefits that most of them couldn't refuse.
But as the mission unfolded, it became clear why they hadn't bothered to prepare them.
Preparation would have been useless.
His squad—brothers who used to laugh in the face of death—were now gone.
All of them.
The "target," the so-called creature they were sent to neutralize, had torn through them like a knife and treated their squad as a cardboard material.
They'd tried everything.
Bullets, explosives, airstrikes—it didn't matter.
The creature shrugged off their most advanced weapons like they were nothing. Its shimmering black scales deflected every attack, its monstrous form impervious to their desperate attempts.
And now, it was hunting him as he was the only one left.
Wei Long's instincts screamed at him to keep moving, to not look back. But then a low, guttural roar shattered the silence—a sound so deep it seemed to echo inside his chest ribs.
It came from every direction at once.
Ahead, he spotted a jagged hole in the ground, dark and gaping.
He didn't think of anything.
He dove in, despite smelling the air filled with damp and stank of rot.
His hands shook as he pulled a small, worn cross from his pack. Clutching it tight, he muttered a desperate prayer. "God, if you're listening... give me strength. Not mercy—just strength. Let it count. If I leave this life, my family-"
A low rumble interrupted his words.
The ground quaked, loose stones tumbling around him.
He froze, heart pounding, and looked up.
An enormous reptilian eye filled the gap above.
Its slit pupil narrowed as it locked onto him, the moonlight glinting off its glossy surface.
Wei Long's breath caught.
The eye vanished, replaced by a mouthful of jagged teeth, curling into what could only be described as a twisted grin.
Claws scraped against the edges of the hole, sending chills down his spine.
He scrambled back, raising his rifle with trembling hands.
Bang!
The shot echoed in the narrow space.
Bang! Bang!
Sparks flew as the bullets struck the creature's claws, but it didn't even flinch.
Click.
The rifle jammed.
Wei Long cursed, his fingers fumbling for another weapon. His hand brushed against a cold surface of a grenade that was clipped to his belt.
Above, the creature growled, its hot, putrid breath rushing into the hole.
In a split second, the air shifted, pulling him closer to its gaping maw.
Gritting his teeth, he yanked the grenade's pin and hurled it into the beast's throat.
For a moment, there was silence.
Then—BOOM!
The explosion shook the ground, flames roaring out of the hole in a flash of green light.
Wei Long pressed himself against the wall as searing heat licked at his skin.
For a second, hope flickered.
Maybe it was over.
But then he saw it.
The explosion had triggered something deep inside the creature—some kind of bio-engineered core.
The green flames intensified, roaring into an unstoppable inferno that consumed everything in their path.
Wei Long didn't have time to think, to move, or even to scream.
The darkness swallowed him whole.
Far away, in a hidden military headquarters buried deep beneath the earth, a room full of monitors displayed the aftermath.
The screens showed the creature's lifeless body sprawled across the wasteland, its once-impenetrable scales charred and cracked.
The room erupted into cheers.
Generals, commanders, and officials from allied nations stood, clapping and exchanging relieved smiles.
One of the generals, a grizzled man with a thick gray mustache, spoke first.
"It's over. The creature is dead." His voice was heavy with emotion.
Another, a younger officer, shook his head in disbelief. "I can't believe it. After everything… it's finally over."
An older woman, her uniform adorned with medals, leaned forward, her gaze fixed on the screen. "The creature's dead," she uttered. "We stopped it before it reached the ocean and evolved. The world owes that man everything."
The gray-mustached general nodded solemnly. "We owe it all to him. To Wei Long. If he didn't, I'm afraid that Bioengineered weapon of destruction would have grown—" he stopped.
Silence fell over the room.
Slowly, as one, they rose from their seats and saluted the screen where Wei Long's last stand played on a loop.
"You have saved the world, soldier," the older woman said quietly. Her voice was thick with gratitude. "You have saved us from a global apocalypse that could have happened if that creature was released to the ocean."
The room remained silent, their salutes seemed determined.
They knew the cost of this victory.
Wei Long, the hero they had sent to face the impossible, had paid the ultimate price.
His name would never be forgotten.
In the history of mankind, there are warriors whose sacrifices shine brighter than their victories.
Wei Long's light will never fade, for in his final hour, he shielded the world from the darkness.
In an endless span of darkness, Wei Long was there, his body—or was it a body?—frozen.
The last thing he remembered was the explosion, the searing heat, and the sensation of being swallowed by green flames.
"Is this death?" he muttered.
It was so dark he couldn't even see his hands—if he still had them. Yet he could feel his thoughts moving, strangely detached from a body he wasn't entirely sure existed.
"I hope they took good care of my family," he sighed. He felt too tired to think. He wanted to rest.
Just as the despair of endless blackness began to creep in, a faint glow appeared before him.
The glow expanded, forming some words.
Installing...
Wei Long blinked.
What?
Installing?
Installing what?
He watched the glowing text flicker, the little pulsing dot at the end dragging on like a poor marching soldier.
In a second, the screen shifted.
The glow intensified, and new text appeared in a crisp, radiant font.
Profile information of the Bio-engineered creature -
Name: Wei Long.
Level: 5 Mortal Beast.
Age: 8 hours.
Race: Dinosaur Hybrid.
Current: Juvenile Dinosaur.
Innate Ability: Predatory Bio-engineering.
Clan: Blue Eyes White Heaven Dragons.
Innate Bio-engineered Abilities:
Bio-engineered Mortal Healing (Peak).
Bio-engineered Mortal Toxic Scales (Peak).
Bio-engineered Mortal Camouflage (Peak).
Bio-engineered Mortal Reptilian Communication (Peak).
Bio-engineered Mortal Predatory Senses (Peak).
Innate Bio-engineered Hidden Instincts:
Unknown.
Unknown.