The entire abandoned laboratory seemed to have been carved out of some basement.

Ye Zhuangyan spent ages wandering around what could loosely be called an underground laboratory, but found only two areas.

One was filled with all sorts of strange experimental equipment, with a shattered glass chamber in the middle.

The other seemed to be a living area, about a third smaller than the laboratory. It had a wardrobe, a refrigerator, a table, and chairs, but no bed.

But now, only the ceiling lights still worked, casting a dim glow.

Everything else was covered in a thick layer of dust. The meat in the refrigerator reeked of rot, and the vegetables had grown so moldy they were hardly recognizable.

The two or three little white mice trapped in a box in the laboratory had rotted away, too.

The smells of mold and decay, mixed with the odors produced by various unknown chemical reagents reacting with one another, filled the entire basement.

An ordinary person couldn't have lived in a place like this for long.

But the rats scurrying through the darkness seemed to be thriving.

…

Grrr…

Ye Zhuangyan's stomach let out a miserable growl.

She was hungry…

But none of the food was edible anymore. It had all either rotted or gone moldy.

How many days had this body gone without food?

Ye Zhuangyan had no idea.

Still, she could tell that her body wasn't ordinary.

Ye Zhuangyan might look like a frail, underage girl, but she was nothing like an ordinary human.

Her body's instincts told her that she could go ten days, even half a month, without eating or drinking water and be just fine.

She wouldn't feel hungry unless she went more than a month without food.

And though the hunger would grow stronger over time, she could apparently block it out with her mind.

Of course, hunger wasn't the only sensation she could shut off. She could also adjust her other senses, including her sense of smell and taste.

In short, Ye Zhuangyan was now a monster wearing human skin.

But Ye Zhuangyan had only just taken over this body and hadn't adapted to it yet. That made it hard for her to control her senses or block out the hunger.

“I'm so hungry…”

The intense hunger in her stomach sent a signal straight to her brain.

Ye Zhuangyan had searched for an exit for ages, but found nothing. The ventilation shaft was sealed shut, and she couldn't get in.

There was a passage that should have led upstairs, but something seemed to be blocking it with wooden boards. She couldn't get out.

If she hadn't had this monstrous constitution, Ye Zhuangyan figured she might have fallen asleep after first waking up and never woken again. She wouldn't have had the strength to search for an exit, either.

Ye Zhuangyan trudged back to the laboratory where she'd first woken up, looking listless.

Then she saw several large gray rats brazenly out in the light, eating pale green liquid spilled across the floor.

Ye Zhuangyan walked over without trying to hide herself, but the rats, busy enjoying their meal, didn't scatter at the sight of the unexpected visitor.

Ye Zhuangyan figured her appearance might have made them think she wasn't a threat. They ignored her as if she were part of the background.

Ye Zhuangyan slowly crouched to watch the rats. They weren't afraid, and simply carried on eating.

Ye Zhuangyan guessed the pale green liquid might be some kind of nutrient solution.

Her body might once have grown while immersed in the glass chamber in the middle of the laboratory, which had been filled with nutrient solution.

She just didn't know what had happened afterward. The researchers had all vanished, leaving their experimental subject—now a monster—to fend for herself.

“I'm so hungry… Those look so good…”

Ye Zhuangyan looked at the living creatures before her as if they were little jellies.

“Maybe I should… eat them…”

A certain melody surfaced in her mind, tempting her to eat them.

She instinctively swallowed, but the moment she remembered that the jellies in front of her were actually rats, she snapped back to her senses. She shook her head hard, trying to push the strange thought out of her mind.

“No. I can't eat them!”

Ye Zhuangyan forced herself to stand and tried to look away, but she couldn't.

She realized that, physically, she felt no disgust or revulsion at the thought of eating rats.

On the contrary, her body's instincts told her they were edible, and eating them would ease her hunger to some degree.

After all, she…

wasn't really human anymore.

She'd only imposed her own idea of what it meant to be “human” on herself, even after she'd become a monster.

Ye Zhuangyan knew that people could eat other people under certain circumstances.

But did people who ate other people still have the right to call themselves “human”?

By comparison, if eating the “jellies” in front of her was just a way to stay alive, then maybe it was acceptable.

Still, Ye Zhuangyan worried that if she kept lowering the bar for what it meant to be human, would she still be Ye Zhuangyan, the human being?

Ye Zhuangyan had no way of knowing.

But when she came to her senses, it was already too late.

The rats beneath the lights had vanished without a trace. A faint smell of blood lingered at the tip of her nose.

Ye Zhuangyan felt something wet at the corner of her mouth. She raised a hand and wiped it.

A smear of blood remained on the back of her hand.

Ye Zhuangyan understood that, without even realizing it herself—

the “jellies” were already gone.

Did she feel sick?

No.

Disgusted?

No.

All she felt was calm.

Ye Zhuangyan understood that the thing she'd been clinging to was meaningless.

A monster was still a monster.

Even if she called herself human…

So what?

Ye Zhuangyan's lips curved slightly—

she was smiling.

…

“There's no way out.”

After eating the “jellies” and regaining a little strength, Ye Zhuangyan didn't give in to despair. She searched the basement again.

The ordinary exit was blocked, and the ventilation shaft had been welded shut.

The only way out was through the sewer.

After going back and forth through the room several times, Ye Zhuangyan had found nothing. So she tried moving some things around to see if there was a hidden compartment.

And then Ye Zhuangyan really did find one.

The compartment led straight to the sewer.

While she still had some strength and energy, Ye Zhuangyan used the tools left behind in the laboratory.

After spending nearly half an hour at it, she finally opened the sealed hatch.

Unlike the mix of rotten, foul odors in the basement, the sewer reeked of a much stronger stench.

But after getting used to her body, Ye Zhuangyan had learned how to shut off her sense of smell.

She took one last look at the abandoned underground laboratory.

Then Ye Zhuangyan plunged into the sewer.

The abandoned laboratory fell silent once more, with only the steady tick of a clock left behind, as if it would never stop.