XG 175 - I am the owner of that gene

"She is quite powerful. But she is no match for our Lordship."

"So, what's her ability?" Ghost asked curiously. Jasmine could link to her underlings and see what they saw. It was a skill solely belonged to a natural-born necromancer.

"You could find it out yourself."

"It's too risky to enter their base. Maybe I will try once she comes out of it. Why did she not come out lately?" Ghost grumbled. Just when he was ready to attempt again, Wong Xue Guo suddenly stopped coming out.

"If she doesn't come out, go to her instead."

Ghost perked up. "Are you going to try again?"

"My offence game has not really started yet. I'm just testing the water." Jasmine carefully cleaned the plucked hearts with water, wiping them dry before placing them into a suitcase that was occupied with similarly beating hearts.

"Oh? I don't remember you have created a new underling. Did you plan to make a new one?"

"There's no need. My zombies will be enough."

The pile of bones stirred, slowly standing up like soulless soldiers, as they waited for Jasmine, to order them.

Ghost snapped his fingers after getting an idea. "Hey, let's work together. Kill one of them for me, but don't make the injury too serious or else I won't be able to explain why 'I' am not dead."

"Our reward for the kill could not be shared." Jasmine locked the luggage after cleaning the last heart.

"So stingy," Ghost grumbled under his breath as Jasmine walked away with a group of heartless zombies behind her. Jasmine's help would be useful, but that does not mean he has no way to infiltrate the base.

🥝🥝🥝

Walking down the endless corridor with tall pillars decorated in a white and gold theme, Wong Xue Guo could not find a single person. The tiled floor was a good thing for her barefoot, the temperature was also skin friendly. This unknown place resembled the Greece palace interior from the olden days that she had seen in movies.

Fainting from absorbing Ari's heart and waking up in a totally different place reminded her of travelling down Woojin's memories. But other than waking up in a totally different place, everything was different.

While some would be flattered to wake up and find themselves on a wide, soft and grand bed inside a luxurious themed bedroom, Wong Xue Guo was not one of them. It strangely gave her unexplained chills. She was wearing a white dress with no shoes in sight and was forced to walk around barefoot on the smooth and dirtless white tiles.

There was no single window, and the creepy silence gave her the thought that the windowless interior prevented those people inside from seeing the truth outside the beautiful cage that they were trapped in.

The endless corridor finally showed something new, not that she could walk any further with a large door blocking her way with no other path. It was also the only door she saw other than the bedroom she had woken up in.

The door was similarly styled to the rest of the interior, with gold patterns that she does not recognize on the white door. Skeletons were also printed on the door, its contradicting image to this pure interior gave her even more creepy vibes about this place.

This place was trying hard to appear harmless, but it was unable to completely hide the traits of its true nature.

Is the 'Lord' behind this door, waiting for her? Did he think she was weak and decided to just pull her over and 'get it done' to save the hassle?

If she could not use her shadow ability in this place, she would definitely do her best not to open the door and accept a bad ending. Even knowing the danger, she was conscious of the fact that it was useless to delay, and might as well get it over with.

The door parted open by itself with just her fingertips grazing it. Welcoming her, the door opened as wide as it physically could, and inside was the same blinding white and gold interior, only that it was much grander.

Half sprawling on a long antique couch with impressive muscles on his arm, a charismatic man wearing similarly designed white clothing as hers was stared straight at her, his gaze beckoning her to enter.

He was truly the most breathtaking man she had ever seen, enough to stun her to a spot for a long while. After gathering her scrambled mind, she vaguely found that his looks reminded her of someone, but she could not recall from the top of her mind.

His charming eyes were full of allure that her shadow nearly went out of control, eager to swim up to this stranger. Her shadow's weird behaviour raised up her guard.

Her lips twitched when the door behind her closed by itself, resisting her body's impulse to dive out before the door completely closed. "Are you the 'Lord'?"

"I'm the owner of this place and someone that can answer your questions."

"Let me rephrase my question. Are you the one that released the Alpha gene to the world?"

The researchers had checked that the gene existed since their ancestor's time, and unknown how early it was. Wong Xue Guo does not know whose graves they had dug to discover that truth. Or for what reason was the suspicious team she had seen one night, sneaking to the other side of Musihada's empty land to dig the soil and stuffing suspicious black bags into it.

The gene had always been dormant in our body, and only special circumstances could trigger it awake. But it never turned anyone into a zombie, at least not in reported cases.

Until now.

"I am the owner of that gene."

Her shadow sprang from her body and formed into the shape of a tiger. It charged toward the sinister man under the charming facade, where the latter was not even cautious towards the incoming danger.

Is the 'Lord' even stronger than she expected?

Wong Xue Guo's eyes widened when a shadow in the form of a tiger, which was twice the size of her shadow tiger, emerged from the Lord's shadow.

The adult tiger easily subdued her tiger, placing a heavy paw on her shadow's head and pushing it to the floor. As if her shadow tiger was a cub, the adult tiger carried it up by the scruff.

"You-!" Gritting her teeth, Wong Xue Guo had her shadow tiger break free, but as if it was a real cub tiger, it hardly dared to struggle under the adult tiger's carry.

The adult tiger dropped her shadow before the Lord. Fearing the intense dominating presence that was familiar to it, yet also fiercely loyal to its owner, her shadow stood up and bared its teeth at the Lord.

"You have a cute shadow servant. Unlike mine."

The adult tiger gave its owner a glance before looking away, unconcerned that it was despised.

Never had she thought her ability would be the same as the Lord's. She truly believed Chen Yibo's theory that their ability was likely to be the polar opposites, the two sides of the magnet, the natural enemies!

... But it does explain why both of them could absorb energy from the zombie's hearts.

Shit. This pie is too big for me to swallow!

"I only shared my genes with one human."

"...Are you trying to justify yourself? You are blaming that one person that turned into a zombie and bit others as the catalysts?"

"That human isn't a 'zombie'."

"... Could you not answer my questions with one vague answer?" It gets annoying real fast. Especially when it gave dual meaning.

"That human I bestowed with my gene is the one you misunderstood me as."

Wong Xue Guo gave him the dull look of someone that was so frustrated and finally gave up. She really disliked his way of answering which forced her to turn the answer around to understand it. Not only that, there was no confirmation if her understanding was in the right direction or not.

The adult tiger bumped its head at the little tiger, whose strength was impressive enough to overturn the cub. Laid on its back with legs apart, her shadow gave the adult tiger a chance to step on its soft belly.

The little tiger would have tried its best to wriggle away if its owner did not summon it back by dissolving its form. Wong Xue Guo gave the adult tiger a cold look when it glanced at her after her shadow returned back to her body.

"If you really share your genes with the 'Lord', that means you agree with his actions. What is the reason for you bringing me here?"

To kill me?