Chapter 17: A Simple and Unadorned Battle
A middle-aged man dressed in a tailcoat appeared instantly. He sported a neatly trimmed mustache and wore white gloves on both hands, resembling a quintessential British butler. He gave a slight bow to the doctor and offered a gentlemanly greeting.
“Good morning, sir! How may I assist you?”
[ID: S077 – Butler]
[Containment Level: S]
[Abilities: Financial management, administration, assassination]
[Containment Protocols: Keep isolated from other entities to prevent contamination or exploitation!]
[Combat Capability: Fighting him will give you a headache!]
[Note: As a competent butler, he will carry out all commands given by his master!]
[Note: The butler is a virtual existence; the bell is his true form. As long as the bell remains intact, the butler cannot truly die!]
The doctor issued an order to the butler.
“Butler! I need you to eliminate the boy inside.”
The butler bowed slightly in response.
“Gladly at your service!”
The door swung open.
Lu Xiao eyed the strange middle-aged man warily, wrinkling his nose.
“There’s a creepy smell!”
Tears streamed down the corner of his mouth as he spoke.
He then raised his hand and emptied the magazine of his pistol.
A volley of gunfire rang out.
The butler stood firmly in place, utterly unharmed.
He tugged at his white gloves and softly remarked,
“Sir, conventional firearms cannot harm me!”
Lu Xiao casually tossed aside his gun and grinned.
“That’s truly unfortunate!”
The doctor, watching the surveillance screen, adjusted his monocle, which gleamed faintly.
“To be precise, conventional physical methods cannot harm the butler!”
On the screen, Lu Xiao shook his neck.
An imperceptible aura radiated outward from him.
The oppressive force of a higher-level being bore down upon the butler.
The butler’s body sank slightly but remained otherwise unaffected.
Fortunately, Lu Xiao had no illusions about easily subduing the butler.
While this technique was effective against lesser entities, it had little effect on true anomalies.
Lu Xiao then crouched low, contorting his body into an eerie posture—like a lizard.
This was a movement technique he had learned from lizardfolk.
It allowed him to crawl swiftly while evading frontal attacks.
The butler flicked his hand, and several knives and forks flew like throwing weapons toward the crawling Lu Xiao.
But Lu Xiao was as slippery as an eel, dodging all damage.
He closed in on the butler at remarkable speed.
The butler’s waist dipped, delivering a whip-like kick toward Lu Xiao’s head.
Lu Xiao caught the leg with both hands.
A sound of bones shattering echoed.
The butler’s leg was twisted and broken by Lu Xiao’s raw strength.
Spectators were stunned.
“How did he do that? Just with his hands, he managed to injure S077 – the Butler?”
The staff looked toward the doctor, puzzled.
The doctor pushed up his monocle.
“It’s likely the curse he suffers from enables his physical body to harm anomalous beings.”
“So the curse has transformed him into a being similar to an anomaly?”
A bright light sparked in the doctor’s eyes.
“This is a remarkable discovery!”
Suddenly, numerous ideas flooded his mind.
If the prison guards could be imbued with this curse, they wouldn’t be so helpless against anomalies!
That was the doctor’s initial thought.
But he quickly discarded it, uncertain of the curse’s consequences.
His gaze returned to the scene.
Lu Xiao had already snapped the butler’s other leg.
At this point, only the butler’s upper body remained intact.
Yet his expression showed no hint of emotion.
His mustache twitched slightly, and countless knives and forks materialized, hurtling toward Lu Xiao.
Yet to Lu Xiao, these were mere child’s play.
He grinned.
“Enough already! These utensils are plenty!”
He was eager to savor the taste of this anomaly.
The last time he tasted such a flavor was when the chainsaw-wielding man had shared some with him.
Just one bite had left him craving more.
It wasn’t that Lu Xiao’s taste was abnormal.
Though humanoid anomalies existed, they bore no relation to humans—they were manifestations of higher-dimensional forces.
Of course, this was connected to the curse within him, though he himself was unaware of this fact.
The doctor shook the bell in his hand.
In an instant, the butler vanished into thin air.
Seeing the proverbial duck slip from his grasp, Lu Xiao’s expression faltered.
He looked around, finding no trace of the butler.
He crouched down, troubled.
“How did he just disappear?”
“Why did I waste so much time talking? I should have bitten right away!”
“So frustrating!”
The doctor placed the bell back into a small lead box and handed it to a nearby staff member.
“Temporary assessment of combat capability: Level 1.”
Level 1 was already a high rating.
Considering Lu Xiao could inflict damage with firearms, otherwise the butler would have been rated as a supernatural anomaly.
Supernatural anomalies are nearly immune to over 90% of conventional firearms.
Only a few types of large-scale weaponry can harm them.
Soon, the door opened, and Lu Xiao emerged.
The moment he saw the doctor, he knew this man was behind the deception.
He bared his teeth in a grimace at the doctor.
“Doctor! Where did that anomaly just go?”
The doctor adjusted his monocle.
“That one? He can’t be fed to you, or it won’t pass inspection!”
Lu Xiao was speechless.
“By the way, how did you manage to injure him?”
The doctor posed his question.
In previous experiments, conventional physical methods had barely harmed S077.
Yet Lu Xiao injured the butler with just his hands.
Lu Xiao scratched his head, puzzled.
“Just like that!”
He did not lie; his moves were simple and unpretentious.
Hearing this, the doctor fell into deep thought.
“The experiment is over. You may return to your room.”
After arranging for staff to escort Lu Xiao back, the doctor returned to the laboratory.
He took out the container holding Lu Xiao’s flesh and blood.
Extracting a piece of the flesh, he dipped a pen into Lu Xiao’s blood.
He summoned the S077 entity once more through the staff.
The bell jingled, and the butler in the tailcoat appeared out of thin air.
“Good morning, sir! How may I assist you?”
The doctor held the pen and whispered,
“Cooperate with me in a small experiment.”
The butler bowed slightly.
“Gladly at your service!”