The protagonist chased the villain, and Tiandao screamed in anger

On the third floor, in the artificial ecological room, a brand new silk-covered pupa appeared hanging upside down.

"Doctor, 049 seems to have entered the second stage after drinking the blood." Outside the glass, Kobayashi was still taking notes.

"But... after drinking blood only once, its growth rate seems to be a bit faster." Honestly speaking, compared to the silkworms that spun silk before the end of the world and the butterflies that grew through complete metamorphosis, 049's growth rate was much faster.

How big will it eventually grow to? Will it become a butterfly after emerging from the chrysalis this time?

They can't know yet.

The doubts in Xiao Lin's mind also lingered in Du Yansheng's mind.

He hopes to find a way to save the world from 049, but as of now, there has been no progress in the research on 049.

"You set up a camera here to film the complete transformation process of 049."

"Ok."

Urged by the evening bell to get off work, Kobayashi quickly set up the tripod.

After setting up the recording program, the two people left in front of the glass wall. The sensor lights in the corridor gradually dimmed and went out as they left.

The surroundings became completely quiet, and in the video recorder, the pupa hanging under the branch did not change at all.

The darkness of the environment gradually deepened with the driving of the institute's lighting effect control console. In the upper right corner of the camera panel, the numbers representing the time were jumping little by little.

Inside the pupa, 049's soft body is rapidly dissolving into liquid, like the metamorphosis of a butterfly, breaking down and reassembling.

In the process of continuous cell fission and differentiation, new flesh, bones and wing veins grow, absorbing the liquid nutrients accumulated in the pupa bit by bit.

After a long time, the hovering pupa suddenly moved imperceptibly.

There is a layer of silky outer shell that bulges out regularly from the inside out, and the creature inside is breaking out of the shell like a chick pecking at an egg.

The pointed limbs poked a gap from the inside, and the serrated tibias cut through the solid fortress they had woven in a labor-saving way.

The transparent multi-legged tentacles forcefully break the crack in the pupa, stretching the oval pupa horizontally. From the camera's view, it looks like the crack suddenly exploded, and a limb is the first to poke out from the gap.

049 shed its bloated skin, its body became slender, the color of its head and abdomen became darker, with some blue scales mixed in the black color, and its colorless tentacles were hidden in its abdomen.

Overall, it is 90% similar to butterflies.

It grasps the pupa with its sharp claws on its toes, drags its large, still wet and curled wings, and skillfully climbs out of the narrow shell onto the branch, emerging from the cocoon as a butterfly.

As 049 moved, the wet wings gradually spread out and hardened, becoming a pair of butterfly wings with ripples of light. The camera outside the glass quietly recorded everything, until the transformed 049 disappeared into the branches...

The hot water created warmth in the room. You Mu's wound had almost healed, with a new scab growing on the horizontal wound.

Following the doctor's advice, he protected the wound, applied a waterproof protective patch, then stepped into the bathtub and lay in the warm water to wash away his fatigue.

The fan blades of the ventilation ducts are rotating at high speed to provide ventilation. Six floors underground, the oxygen supply system needs to work at a higher intensity to ensure the safety of people in the institute.

With his neck resting on the edge of the bathtub, You Mu closed his eyes and concentrated. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard the sound of some air rushing in his ears.

I opened my eyelashes which were wet from the heat, and out flew a trembling butterfly in the mist.

It seemed to have broken in accidentally, showing timidity towards the unfamiliar environment, but it curiously hovered above You Mu's head for a long time.

It seemed to have no idea where to stop, surrounded by water vapor and damp walls.

The arm placed underwater floated to the surface, causing a wave of ripples. You Mu stretched out his hand, slightly raised his knuckles, and provided a place for the creature that had 'accidentally entered' to stay.

The shrunken paws gently fell down, grasping the human's fingers, and 049 finally stopped.

It felt a little awkward using biwings for the first time, but the changes in its vision and body and the enhancement of its senses allowed it to quickly adapt to its new body.

Slowly descending with the butterfly, You Mu leaned sideways on the edge of the bathtub, his arm resting on the narrow ceramic table, leaving only his wrist to move his fingertips and gently rotate, observing the appearance of the butterfly.

After the transformation, 049 is indeed much more beautiful.

Butterflies are the most beautiful insects in nature, and their pair of beautiful wings are very much in line with human aesthetics.

The one on his fingertips is very conspicuous even among the large family of butterflies.

The black background of the forewings is covered with blue scales, and the wing tips present a pupil-like circular pattern with subtle red and orange spots, which is in line with the survival characteristics in nature.

The edges of the hind wings spread out in a wavy manner, and the tail is very long, like a beautiful ribbon on a girl's clothes.

The fingertips under his feet were turning, and 049 kept adjusting his body shape so that his head with tentacles was always facing the human in front of him.

Its food needs to be within your sight at all times.

After molting again, it felt that it seemed to have become a little stronger and perhaps it could eat the prey it had been eyeing for a long time.

But the colors of his own butterfly wings were reflected in his compound eyes, and the words that this human had said before suddenly popped up in 049's slightly larger brain.

Now it isn't ugly anymore, is it?

049, who has not yet evolved an imitative vocal system, cannot speak, and naturally cannot know what humans think of him now.

It always remembered that this person smelled good and his blood was sweet, just like the liquid in the cocoon that was very useful to it.

049 was a little greedy, and its curled mouthparts moved, wanting to taste that flavor again.

Unfortunately, it can no longer see the red color of blood. The human's wounds seem to have healed, and it can even hardly smell the smell of blood.

However, when getting close to humans to read their scent, 049, who still smells fragrant, feels very hungry.

It lowered its head and used its beak to test a patch of skin under its feet. 049 was extremely hungry and wanted to suck some blood, but it didn't know where to start. The claws of its mouthparts were obviously enough to tear the fragile skin of a human.

With trembling fingertips, he forced Butterfly's gaze to return to his face. He pushed aside her wet hair, propped up her face, and suddenly started talking about Butterfly:

"After the end of the world, there are very few naturally occurring butterflies. Butterflies have a very short life cycle. Some can live for half a year, while others can only live for half a month. Not to mention the research institute, even in the outside world today, it is rare to see butterflies."

049 fluttered its wings. Although it didn't understand why the human mentioned these things, it felt happy that it seemed to be the focus of the other person's words. However, it was no longer happy afterwards.

"On the sixth underground floor of this research institute, do you know how unreasonable your presence is? 049."

Humans easily saw through its disguise and even called out its reference directly.

049 was a little dazed, and its wings stopped opening and closing, as if it was a rusty piece of equipment stuck in the middle of its operation.

The butterfly's wings were poked by the human's forked tentacles. 049 heard the human in front of him say again: "A qualified experimental subject must first learn to perfect camouflage."

Waving its tentacles, 049 felt that he understood what was said.

So he flew out of the human's sight, hid his body, and landed again, landing on the other person's shoulder.

The skin of the neck is wrapped around the blood vessels. When 049 got closer, he was attracted by the aroma and couldn't help but use his beak to touch the human skin to satisfy his craving.

It wanted to bite the human, but when it thought about biting it and having to spend its own energy to heal the other person, it felt that it was a bit unreasonable.

It still needs that energy to grow. When it grows up, it doesn't have to save food, nor does it have to watch it helplessly.

049 thought his plan was a good one, so he endured his hunger and just licked a few drops of water on his skin.

Eating the water droplets could replenish the moisture in the body, but 049 didn't feel satisfied enough, so he simply put it directly on his skin and sniffed the fragrance coming from the flesh.

The sticky feeling on the back of his neck could not be ignored. You Mu put on a coat and walked out of the bathroom. He took out a clean test tube from the cabinet in the workroom and pulled off the thing stuck on the back of his neck with his backhand.

The pulling sensation was very light, and since the opponent was invisible, he could only feel the general shape, and could not see the specific object with the naked eye.

However, the soft tissue object wrapped around the wrist feels slightly cool, and has a gel-like texture that feels a bit like aloe vera. The sticky touch can easily cause discomfort.

"Stop pretending, come out and cooperate."

Shaking off the things stuck on his hands, You Mu disinfected his hands, took out sterile gloves and put them on, and then took out a cotton swab.

Turning around, I saw a...

You Mu is a little hard to describe.

In its current complete form, 049's wingspan can reach about centimeters. The enlarged wings are more colorful, with more intricate details and patterns, but the body connected to the wings looks like a parasite.

There are compound eyes of different sizes attached to the head. These eyes should have different functions, but they can help 049 effectively and quickly judge the degree of danger of the enemy.

The most shocking part should be the abdomen. A willow-leaf-shaped gap appeared between the originally symmetrically arranged hard limbs, and something of varying thickness, similar to a snake's tail with scales but overly soft, between arms and tentacles, stretched out from the body.

[You...] Tiandao, who was about to tell You Mu about his new discovery, just came out to take a look and was frightened by 049's new appearance.