An Abominable Creature

Yan Jing had the scare of his life feeling like the irrelevant character of a horror movie who dies first. But who told him to step into professor Z's office without an appointment? Beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead as he stood there frozen with an ugly looking expression terrified out of his mind.

"I am just the tech guy. I am just the tech guy... I didn't sign up for this, " he repetitively mumbled to himself as he took one small step to save his insignificant life but whatever creature that was in the glass room didn't seem too pleased as the banging sounds and growls intensified.

Bam! Bam, bam..... bam! Bang!

Were the accelerated sounds coming from the quarantine room made entirely of bulletproof glass? Yan Jing almost pissed his pants when a person appeared behind him asking, "What are you doing?" in a whisper.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" was Yan Jing's reaction scared shitless. The light was suddenly lit, illuminating the dark research lab exposing an ashen face Yan Jing with his clenched fist on his lips.

"What are you screaming like a little girl for? Sharks, you almost made my eardrum bleed.... tsk," said professor Z questioning how he ended up with this coward as a research assistant. Oh, that's right, his previous research assistant got eaten by sample 32452 thus the reinforced bulletproof glass shield.

Yan Jing's entire body trembled like a leaf as he stammered out an unintelligent answer. "Fi-file, new, new ca-candidate. Su-subject X," replied Yan Jing handing over the tablet with trembling hands. It was evident that the adrenaline hadn't worn off yet accounting for the hands shaking like he had just taken a bath in liquid nitrogen.

At the mention of subject X, Professor Z frowned as he took the tablet away. He scoffed reading the name, Jin Lin. A scowl appeared on his wrinkled face figuring out what this kid was up to. His mother had been picketing outside their headquarters like a 60s hippie with unimpressive board signs and now her second son deliberately chose to associate himself with Equino.

"Interesting..... shit!" he swore when his research assistant did this again,

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!... pro-professor, what, what is that thing?" were the screams of Yan Jing before he hid behind the professor in fright.

To be fair, he had his gaze on the professor this entire time so he didn't take a look at what was making the frightening banging sounds earlier. It was only now when the professor was looking through the tablet that he turned his head and boy, did he regret it.

Inside the glass room was a creature with a two meter tall horse head and a three meter tall skinless humanoid on its back. The horse was a one-eyed skinless thing with fish fin-like legs painting a horrifying picture that had this research assistant frozen in fright.

That wasn't even the major highlight. The humanoid creature was merged with the back of the horse like a messed up version of a centaur.

The horse's eye was ablaze and Yan Jing could clearly see the black blood coursing through the yellow veins.

Its muscles and pale sinews were exposed resembling a pulsing mass that made Yan Jing nauseated. It looked like a creature conjured up by a toddler with PTSD after his or her older sibling told a horror story before bed.

Faced with such a horrifying sight one could understand why Yan Jing screamed like that. He tumbled to the ground as the creature intensified its attempts to break out of confinement.

The professor chuckled watching the horrified look on his research assistant's face. He took out a remote from his lab coat pocket and pressed a button making the glass opaque before taking a seat on the couch at the end of the room.

His gaze was transfixed on the tablet reading through the records with a thoughtful expression. He rubbed his thumb on his dark lips lost in thought that he didn't hear Yan Jing's question.

"Professor, why do you have this abomination in your office?" asked Yan Jing after calming his fragile heart with great difficulty. He knew this company's dark history and dark present but he had not seen it in person.

"Professor..... pro, professor," he called out before finally succeeding in pulling the man back to earth. When the man raised his head, Yan Jing repeated his question which Professor Z didn't hesitate to answer.

"Genetic engineering to cure Alzheimer's," replied the professor before handing the tablet back to him, "accept him but if makes trouble have someone deal with him."

The professor said this before walking over to the DNA sequencer near the workbench. Judging from his expression he was already in work mode making it nearly impossible to extricate himself unless he was done with whatever his mind was focused on.

Seeing that he was no longer needed, Yan Jing turned to leave not forgetting to glance over at the opaque glass room. It was this kind of creature that motivated him to shut his mouth lest he gets to become the main course for a creature similar to the one he just saw.

He silently lit a candle for the recruits like Jin Lin who had no idea what they were getting themselves into. But there is no success without sacrifices. Unfortunately, the sacrifices were human lives. Yan Jing pushed up his glasses as he strode down the corridor heading for his office to make a phone call.

Naturally, Jin Lin had no idea of this but even if he did he would most likely not change his mind. Whenever he felt like giving up he would ask himself WWJCD meaning what would Jin Chen do which was his driving force. He just couldn't wait to cash his golden ticket and enter the gaming capsule version of Equino.