OP: AMP Ch. 196

"Oh! OH!"

Indigo watched the scene unfolding before him. The bizarre visual glitching effect made his eyes burn from the effort of tracking it. But he couldn't look away. He was too excited.

Change didn't frighten him. Even death was an acceptable outcome in his experiments. What truly unnerved him was when nothing changed at all. Stagnation was failure. But this?

Situations like this were incredibly rare in his research. Normally, after being modified with his serum, beasts would begin showing gradual changes. The transformation process was usually subtle at first, barely noticeable, then steadily accelerating over days or weeks. Take the segmented bear, for example. Originally just a black bear, nothing special about it. After being injected with his IQ modification serum, nothing had happened immediately. For two full days it had looked and acted like any other black bear. Even on the third day, observers wouldn't have noticed anything unusual unless they were paying close attention.

But then its arm had started developing what looked like fracture patterns. Except they weren't fractures at all, they were new joints forming beneath the skin, additional articulation points that would give the limb unnatural flexibility and reach. The process was similar to how insects underwent metamorphosis inside their chrysalis. They liquefied their entire internal structure and slowly rebuilt themselves from that nutrient-rich soup. Complete metamorphosis, breaking down and reconstructing everything.

Creatures modified by IQ serum underwent something comparable. But instead of total internal liquefaction, their metamorphosis occurred in localized areas over the span of three days, or sometimes continued developing over weeks as their bodies adapted to the new genetic instructions.

The simplest analogy was a tadpole transforming into a frog. That was metamorphic development in its purest form.

The IQ serum forced ordinary beasts to undergo that same process, turning them into what Indigo called synthetic beasts. Some grew larger with increased body mass. Some developed additional segmented limbs or redundant organs. Others actually compressed, their bodies condensing into denser, more lethal forms. But the result that had pleased Indigo most, his crowning achievement before Marcus had arrived, was the electric bird currently housed in another lab. A modified avian specimen capable of generating and discharging actual electricity from its body. That creation had crossed into the realm of energy manipulation. Powers that shouldn't be possible through biological modification alone.

If he could continue his research, develop the process further, refine the techniques... He believed he could create mythical beasts. Not just modified animals with enhanced abilities, but creatures that matched the legendary Mythical Zoan Devil Fruits. Beasts that existed only in folklore and imagination, brought into reality through science.

He'd been so close to that breakthrough. He could feel it within reach. But time had run out. Shiki's plans were accelerating, and resources were being diverted to mass production rather than research. Yet now, looking at what was happening to the sheep in front of him, his eyes blazed with fanaticism. This could be it. The breakthrough he'd been chasing.

The sheep's body flickered faster now, each phase shift accompanied by visible growth. Its frame was expanding, limbs stretching longer. Normal sheep in Minecraft didn't have horns, but now curved horns began sprouting from the creature's skull, growing and twisting as he watched.

For the first time, the blocky animal looked like a proper sheep should look. But the mutation wasn't finished. Not even close.

The sheep's upper body began to swell grotesquely, muscles bulging beneath the skin. Its white wool started receding in patches, revealing knotted muscle tissue that flexed and writhed. The texture looked wrong, too dense and defined. More like a bodybuilder's physique than anything that should exist on a sheep's frame. Then its limbs started twisting, bones creaking as they lengthened and reshaped themselves. The hooves began splitting apart, forming five separate digits that looked disturbingly like human fingers.

Indigo felt no fear at all. Only pure, overwhelming excitement. He was so focused on the transformation that he completely ignored the low growl emanating from the sheep's throat, a sound that was growing steadily louder and more hostile.

But his assistant wasn't having nearly as good a time. He had witnessed countless creatures undergo metamorphosis after IQ injection. He'd seen things far more disgusting and horrific than this, organs turning inside out, skin sloughing off in sheets, bones breaking and reforming at wrong angles. None of that had ever bothered him. He could eat lunch while watching the most gruesome transformations imaginable.

Hell, after witnessing this process day in and day out for months, anyone who couldn't stomach it had long since quit. Not only had he adapted to the horror, he'd learned to appreciate it. He'd even developed the habit of offering commentary on particularly interesting mutations. But now, hearing the sound coming from the sheep's throat, every hair on his body stood on end.

It wasn't just a growl. The sound was harsh and grating, full of resentment and rage and something that might have been agony. It felt like it was rising from somewhere impossibly deep, from an abyss that shouldn't exist in the normal world. Even when he covered his ears with both hands, pressing hard enough that it should have blocked out all sound, the sheep's growl continued echoing inside his skull. Like it wasn't traveling through his ears at all, but somehow resonating directly in his brain.

He swallowed hard, his throat suddenly dry. He wanted to resist the fear, push it down. But every echo hammering through his mind carried the same message: Run. Get out. Flee while you still can.

His eyes locked onto the sheep's gaze. Normally they looked dopey and harmless, the universal expression of herbivores that had never been predators. But it felt like being watched by something malevolent. Like staring into an abyss and realizing something was staring back.

Cold sweat dripped from his forehead, running down his face in streams.

"This seems dangerous," he managed to say. "Maybe we should... step back? Get some distance?"

Indigo was still riding his wave of excitement, but he wasn't completely irrational. The assistant's warning cut through his enthusiasm and brought him back to reality.

"Right! Someone get Cage Number Five in here!"

At his command, several large men rushed into the chamber carrying the reinforced iron cage. Initially they showed no fear, after all, they were research facility security personnel whose entire job was handling synthetic beasts. Anyone without real combat ability had died long ago in this line of work. The survivors had either adapted to constant danger or were simply tough enough to handle whatever came their way.

But as they approached the still-flickering, still-mutating sheep, and that raspy growl from its throat hit their ears, no, hit their minds directly, they froze mid-step.

Every instinct screamed at them to drop the cage and run.

"What are you doing? Put the cage over it!" Indigo snapped impatiently.

The men shook off their paralysis and moved quickly to position Cage Number Five over the sheep. It was a simple task, something they'd done hundreds of times before. But by the time they finished lowering the reinforced bars into place, all of them had cold sweat running down their backs. Inside the cage, the sheep moved. Just a slight shift of its weight, nothing dramatic. But its eyes locked onto one of the security guards with unnerving precision.

The guard's breath caught in his chest. The sheep's expression showed no emotion. Just those blank horizontal pupils staring at him. But in his mind, the growl suddenly increased in volume, growing so loud it felt like his skull might crack from the pressure. His vision started to distort at the edges. He could see it so clearly, the sheep suddenly lunging forward, bars or no bars, jaws opening wide and tearing out his throat.

Terror overwhelmed every other thought. His legs gave out and he collapsed, sitting heavily on the floor. He tried to stand but his legs were trembling too violently to support his weight. Then he felt warmth spreading across his lap, followed by the smell of urine.

He'd pissed himself.

Indigo noticed immediately and his expression soured. "Get out!"

As if he'd been granted mercy, the guard scrambled away on his hands and knees, crawling in his desperation to escape. He wished he had two extra legs so he could run faster, terrified that the creature behind him would somehow break free and chase him down.

This was just the beginning.

Anyone who met the sheep's gaze seemed to experience similar hallucinations. The mental assault was targeted. The low growl in their heads would intensify, vision would distort, and fear would take over.

The assistant had already retreated all the way to the chamber doorway. From that distance, he could still hear the growl echoing in his skull, but the fear it caused was at least manageable.

Even Indigo, still riding his excitement high, had finally noticed that something was wrong with this creation.

Despite his fascination, rationality was reasserting itself. He was proud of what he'd created here, thrilled by the sheep's abilities. But he wasn't stupid enough to believe his creations couldn't hurt him. He'd seen plenty of beasts that, the moment they regained enough strength, immediately tried to kill their creator. True loyalty was rare among modified creatures. Most animals started with relatively gentle dispositions. But after undergoing IQ modification, they almost always became more prone to brutality and destructive behavior.

Of course, some of that was by design. The agony they experienced during transformation was part of his methodology. Even ordinary animals were capable of hatred. The deeper that hatred ran, the more likely the beast was to survive the modification process. And the stronger it would become.

The gentle ones, the creatures that never fought back or showed aggression, often died from stress before metamorphosis even finished.