When Captain Zhang said that, everyone relaxed a little. Then all eyes fixed on the monitor.
The machine was being operated by Captain Ji from A City base. Once everyone focused on the screen, he pressed the button in his hand.
In an instant, a streak of green light shot out from a thin seam running down the middle of the flashlight pen, stretching from one end to the other. Honestly, if they hadn't used this setup and had stood there in person, they would've been completely bathed in the light. Its range and intensity weren't small either, not by a long shot.
Captain Zhang muttered, "Those guys in the cells said the light shoots out from the sharp tip, right? Sharp tip my ass, it's the whole damn body."
Just from that detail alone, the prisoners had been hiding plenty.
The beam didn't move, holding steady in one direction. After a while, it cut off on its own. If they compared the timing to the speed of the sweeping green light in the forest, the duration actually matched pretty well.
That meant the strange light in the forest really could've come from this thing.
The flashlight pen didn't have just one button. Another was for taking pictures and projecting.
For photos, they had to shine the green light directly on a mutant creature, then press once. The beam would shut off automatically. When they wanted to use it again, they pressed the same button once to turn it on, then pressed twice more, and the captured image would project onto a wall or paper.
The operation was stupidly simple.
But no matter how they used it, it wasn't like what those prisoners claimed. The beam didn't come from the tip at all, and the fact they lied about that meant their intentions had been anything but pure.
Captain Zhang said, "Since we've finished testing this flashlight pen, why don't we throw in a few people and test it again?"
Didn't they say anyone hit by the green light would turn into a humanoid mutant? He wanted to see for himself if that was true. Besides, if those people hadn't been so vicious to begin with, he wouldn't have suggested something this cruel. He thought his idea would be shot down by the higher-ups, but to his surprise, nobody objected. After a short silence, everyone agreed.
So Captain Zhang eagerly pulled a few prisoners out of the cells, strapped them to the machine, and pushed them into the beam.
Then came the waiting.
Captain Zhang recalled, "When Lao Shi got swept by the green light, I remember that even by the time we escaped the forest, he hadn't started mutating yet. I figure it takes some time for it to kick in."
But the situation then wasn't the same as now. Back then, none of them had been hurt by mutants, so they hadn't gone through the fevers, which meant their bodies didn't carry any of the mutation factors.
So yes, it made sense Lao Shi hadn't changed immediately. But these people...
They didn't have to wait long at all. Their bodies started reacting fast. At first, they just felt sick and crouched on the ground trying to ease the discomfort.
But soon the pain grew unbearable. They writhed and rolled across the floor, screaming like damned souls. As their howls echoed, their bodies twisted. Beastly shapes flickered across them, then human shapes, over and over. For a long time, they shifted back and forth, until at last, their forms locked into horrifying half-human, half-beast monsters.
"Too terrifying. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd have thought it was a bad joke."
Everyone who witnessed it was shaken.
"What the hell is this thing, that it can turn people into monsters like that?"
Neither human nor ghost, just abominations.
The people of Blue Star, who'd always thought of themselves as advanced in technology, had no idea how something like this could even exist. How could it twist a body into such a state?
"Shouldn't we destroy it? What if someone with bad intentions gets hold of it?" someone asked.
"But if we destroy it, what if we need it later?"
"Need it? What the hell would we ever use this for?"
The man shook his head. "That's not what I mean. Its appearance is too strange. There has to be some secret behind it. If we destroy it and later find out we actually need it, what then? We should just keep it safe, don't let anyone steal it to do evil."
"That makes sense. We might need it one day. But maybe we should dismantle it and study it?"
Study it?
"Yeah. Didn't we confirm the green light doesn't hurt you if it doesn't touch skin? When it swept through the forest, people saw it but were fine as long as their skin wasn't exposed. If we wear protective suits so no skin's touched, can't we take it apart safely for research?"
The higher-ups wanted that research badly, but they knew the risks too.
"What if something dangerous happens during the process? We don't even know what this thing really is. What if dismantling it triggers something uncontrollable?"
Even so, nobody rejected the idea.
"If that's your plan, we won't stand in your way. But weigh the risks carefully, and make sure you minimize any direct danger before starting."
So it was settled.
Meanwhile, the freshly transformed humanoid mutants hadn't realized how strong they'd become. All they felt was horror at their own grotesque shapes. They screamed and shrieked in panic, terrified of themselves.
Captain Zhang said, "I've never dealt with humanoid mutants before, so I don't know how dangerous they are. But my advice is to execute them now, before they cause trouble."
The higher-ups immediately agreed.
The poor souls who'd just mutated never even had time to discover their new abilities before they were killed on the spot.
…
Plenty of questions still hadn't been answered. The higher-ups decided to put the executions of the remaining prisoners on hold until they had the full picture.
When those prisoners learned their deaths were postponed, none of them felt relief. They all knew the truth: what lay ahead was worse than death. Their lives had turned into real hell, every day filled with dread as they waited for the end.