The black panther's roar was deafening. Not just Lan Jin, everyone nearby stumbled back several steps, scared out of their wits.
Maybe it was trying to intimidate them, because the panther strutted forward a few paces, glaring with sharp, defiant eyes straight at Lan Jin and the others.
Lan Jin was speechless. Sure, the roar sounded terrifying, but there was no way she'd actually get cowed by a cat, especially with an electrified fence between them.
But Captain Zhang couldn't help sighing. Ever since they'd been trying to tame the panther, it had always acted like this. It didn't just think it could scare Lan Jin, it thought it could scare everyone.
"That's the situation," Captain Zhang explained. "That's why the base wants you to try. Maybe you've got a way. After all, Nana listens to you like a little lamb. There's gotta be a reason for that."
Lan Jin twitched her lips, not sure what to say.
She glanced at him and asked, "If I train it, can I do things my own way? As long as I don't kill it, right?"
"If it dies by accident, it's not a problem," Captain Zhang said, "but try not to kill it. Would be a shame."
That cleared things up. She nodded. "Alright, leave it to me."
Right after, she flicked a spark of lightning at the panther. Of course, she didn't actually hit it, but the beast twitched instinctively, still traumatized from being shocked before.
It realized it'd been tricked and instantly bared its fangs at her.
Lan Jin wasn't about to back down. Another bolt cracked overhead, and again the panther flinched.
After a few repeats, the panther figured out she was toying with it on purpose. Its fear gave way to fury, and it roared at her with its most fearsome posture, as if enraged it couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't.
That was exactly what she wanted. Just when the panther thought she was bluffing again, Lan Jin sent a bolt right into its body. Its muscles seized, its body stiffened like a board, and it collapsed, eyes wide in disbelief.
Lan Jin chuckled. "Let's go. It won't be getting up today. We'll come back tomorrow."
As they left the training ground, Captain Zhang frowned. "Wasn't that just making the panther trust humans even less? This kind of training, it won't tame it."
"What's so trustworthy about humans?" Lan Jin said lightly. "We don't even trust each other, so why would an animal trust us? I don't need it to trust me, I just need it to bow to me. Captain Zhang, this is a panther, not a dog. It's wild. Without strength, it'll never obey. I don't care what it thinks in its heart, as long as its body knows how to listen."
"That's the thing," Captain Zhang argued. "Even if you tame it like this, the base might not dare use it."
"Then let me tame it first. Once it's under control, you can retrain it however you like. It'll be way easier then."
Her twisted reasoning left him helpless. "Fine, do it your way. If it dies, it dies. But try to keep it alive."
"Got it."
With that, Captain Zhang split off from their group. From then on, Lan Jin's days revolved around two things: dropping Qiao Qiao off at kindergarten, and training the panther.
As she'd said, the beast was incredibly wild, never willing to obey anyone. Only Lan Jin, by sheer dominance, managed to put a sliver of fear into it.
But just a sliver. Every time Captain Zhang thought it was finally changing, that she should try showing it some kindness, the panther would lash out even more fiercely. In the end, he gave up, letting her "torture" it until the beast had no strength left to resist.
Taming the panther was going to take forever. What surprised Lan Jin more was that Lao Yan's side still hadn't produced any results.
Not that she cared much herself, but Captain Zhang nagged in her ear about it every day. How Lao Yan never trusted the base. How if he said there was no vaccine, then there was no vaccine, and where was the base supposed to find one? Meetings were held constantly, trying to find a solution, but nothing ever worked. They couldn't even figure out how the wall drawings of mutant creatures worked, let alone how to stop them.
Lan Jin had no interest in meddling. If the base's people couldn't dig up answers, there was no way she could. She kept her mouth shut. Captain Zhang probably just wanted to vent anyway.
Later, the base couldn't keep those people locked up forever, feeding them well without consequences. So, they carried out public executions—one person each day. Bodies weren't removed but left among the crowd as a grim warning.
Cruel, yes. But if you broke the base's rules and refused to cooperate, what did you expect?
Watching their companions fall one by one, the prisoners finally cracked. Someone broke down and confessed everything.
Turns out, the professor who died in the Capital city's base really had been the mastermind of the incident. His death had been a true accident, nobody saw it coming. The story about the base hiding vaccines had been planted by Lao Yan to stir them up.
As for his real motives, no one knew.
And the "paintings" that summoned mutant creatures? They weren't paintings at all. They came from a device shaped like a flashlight. When switched on, it emitted a green beam. Shine it on a mutant, and the creature's image got stored inside, just like taking a picture.
Later, when the device was switched off and aimed at a surface like a wall or a blank sheet of paper, clicking it would project the stored creature. A few seconds later, the creature would step out of the image, alive and real.
It even had two modes. One created a single summon that vanished once used. The other mode, like the one they'd seen in the dense forest, allowed it to endlessly copy the creature again and again.