Brother

"Really?"

"Are you willing to be with me?" The younger sister stared blankly at Ye Chuan, clutching her chest, her eyes brimming with tears, as if she never expected him to say such words.

She was just a monster… just a monster!

Yet Ye Chuan was willing to accept her.

From another angle, the sister's terrifying form began to shrink, eventually reverting to her original small monstrous appearance. Her tentacles swayed, and two of them even formed the shape of a heart.

"Yeah." Ye Chuan nodded.

The sister extended her tentacles, tightly entwining them with Ye Chuan's arm. The slender appendages even wrapped around half of his body.

Surprisingly, it felt warm.

Though a bit slimy, Ye Chuan firmly grasped her tentacles. But the moment they touched, he suddenly caught a glimpse of her monstrous form—

A blood-red body covered in writhing tentacles, countless eyes weeping bloody tears as they stared at him, eerie and unsettling.

"…" The shocking sight made Ye Chuan pause for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure and smiled. "Little sister, I want to ask you something."

"What do you want to know, brother?"

"Are you one of the test subjects?" Ye Chuan asked.

A flicker of pain flashed in the sister's eyes, as if recalling a terrible memory, but she didn’t lie. "Yes," she murmured. "I’m one of them."

"My body… it was special. They kept dismembering me, healing me, over and over… until I became a complete monster."

Her words, simple as they were, couldn’t fully convey the cruelty of it all.

"And the Principal… he’s the one behind the experiments."

"I couldn’t help it…"

"I couldn’t help it…" The girl whispered weakly. Ye Chuan reached out and gently stroked her ash-gray hair. "What about the basement?"

"The basement…"

The sister fell silent for a long moment. Just as she was about to speak, a sickening thud pierced the air—

Something warm splashed onto her face. Blood.

Dazed, she looked ahead—

Ye Chuan’s chest had been impaled by a dark-red spike. He hadn’t even had time to react.

The spike had come from behind. Turning, she saw the Principal standing there, his expression cold. The spike was his elongated, monstrous arm!

"Brother?!!!!!!"

With a brutal flick, the Principal hurled Ye Chuan’s body into the bushes, where he lay motionless.

"He’s dead." The Principal’s voice was hoarse. His once-thin frame had swollen into a grotesque form as he glared at the girl. "This is absurd. You’re coming back with me now."

As he spoke, two figures emerged from behind him—the sister’s parents!

"You… how dare you?!!!!" The sister’s scream was so piercing it could tear through the air.

Her body swelled violently, her tentacles lashing out with terrifying force, instantly impaling her father. His body melted away, leaving only an empty husk.

Yet the Principal remained unfazed. He seized one of her tentacles, and a pained cry escaped her lips as her body deflated, shrinking uncontrollably.

"Ugh!!!!" The sister collapsed, wailing in agony.

The Principal drove his spike through her body and began dragging her away. Then, as if remembering something, he glanced at the mother.

"You. Dispose of that one. Even if he’s dead, stab him a few more times."

He meant Ye Chuan, lying motionless in the distance.

The mother’s face was expressionless, but at his words, a vicious grin twisted her lips.

"Brother!" The sister struggled, but her monstrous strength seemed useless against the Principal.

"Ah!"

With a brutal yank, the Principal hauled her away. Moments later, the mother’s muscles writhed beneath her skin, tearing through as she transformed into a monster, slowly advancing toward Ye Chuan.

Just as she raised her claws to shred his body—

A flash of cold light severed her arm at the wrist!

"Wha—?!"

The monster mother staggered back in shock, staring at the figure before her.

Ye Chuan, who had been lying lifeless, was now standing, casually brushing dust off his clothes.

"You… how?" The monster mother gaped at his chest—bloodstained, yet the wound had inexplicably healed. His skin was completely intact!

"Just messing with you. Did you really think I’d die that easily?" Ye Chuan popped another pill into his mouth, then lunged forward—

A single slash, and the monster mother was cut down.

Staring at the empty husk on the ground, Ye Chuan rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then turned his gaze toward where the sister had been taken.

"So… the parents couldn’t be trusted because they were the Principal’s monsters. But the sister, even as a monster, was still family I could rely on?"

Hmm… Since the Principal is preoccupied with her now, it’s time to check out the basement.

As for the sister’s safety, Ye Chuan wasn’t worried.

The Principal’s behavior made it clear—he feared something about her. Or perhaps the monsters of the Silent Academy needed her. Otherwise, why let her attend school as a normal student?

There were still unanswered questions, but the basement might hold the clues.

Ye Chuan pulled out a hoverboard, tested it briefly, then soared into the air. Skimming low, he swiftly maneuvered toward the academy.

It was after school hours. From afar, the academy was shrouded in shadows, the illusion of sunset fading around it.

Without hesitation, Ye Chuan scaled the wall with his hoverboard and landed silently on the school grounds.

He kicked open the locker room door.

"Ahhh!!" A chorus of shrieks erupted as four or five monsters lunged at him—an ambush.

"Oh? A welcoming party?" Ye Chuan swung his blade wildly.

Though the monsters managed to wound him, a flash of green light instantly healed his injuries.

With another slash, he cut down one of them, twirling his sword casually. "You think I didn’t stock up on potions?"

"Can’t run out. Literally impossible."

After dispatching the monsters, Ye Chuan donned a pair of magic goggles and kicked aside a locker, revealing a hidden staircase leading downward.

"This must be the basement."

Even with the goggles, the darkness below was impenetrable.

"Whatever. Let’s go."

Ye Chuan stepped inside.

At the end was a door.

Click, click. He twisted the handle, then hacked at the metal door until it gave way.

Stepping through, he froze.

The room was drenched in crimson. Piles of skeletal remains crowded the corners, aged yet bound by thin red threads.

At the end of the thin thread lay a massive, pulsating mass of red flesh, throbbing like a heart.

The next moment, countless densely packed eyes opened across the fleshy mass, all fixed on Ye Chuan.

"Big brother..."

Those words froze Ye Chuan in place, sending a wave of icy dread coursing through his entire body.