More than a thousand eyes stared at each other for a full minute.

"Er, hello..." After examining the animals, who stood neatly and had their eyes full of wonder and longing, William said hesitantly, "We're not the guards here. We're here to get you out of here. Yeah. You must have been tortured here by that damn fellow. So don't be suspicious now. Get in line and follow us out of this horrible lab -- no, it's better to call it a prison."

Suspicion did not vanish from their eyes. But then a gray shorthair cat, standing by the window, leaned out hesitantly and approached William with a slow, hesitant step in full view. Then he looked up and the tears glistened faintly against his turquoise eyes. He took off a small circular marker he was wearing around his neck and handed it to Ranran.

"A feline infectious peritonitis terminator?" She frowned as she read the words.

"Were you created by Thomson, the shorthair cat who lives in a tree house, using gene editing?" William asked.

"Yes." Said the cat, wiping his eyes lightly with his paw and swallowing the tears, "So you have passed my master Thomson's house?"

"You guessed it. He was the one who told us that you were taken into this lab, that you saw strange sights, and that you longed to escape and be free again." William heaved a deep sigh and looked up at the thousands of stars embedded in the night.

"Your master could not restrain his tears when he mentioned it. He is now extremely regretful that he had let you out alone that day, and is very concerned about your safety. So we promised him we would get you out. He gave us something too! Now these friends of yours must believe us!" Said Natalie, taking out the round medal that Thomson had given them.

Just then, a wisp of milky starlight trickled down through the window and caught the medal. Gradually, the shape of a cat appeared on it. He still wore the familiar red cap, under which the bright green pupils seemed to be staring into the distance, and he carried a red diary book at his waist.

When the cat saw this, tears immediately gushed out. "My master! I don't know that, during these days, how many nights he had not slept, how many tears had wet his pillow cover, and how many times he had sat at the window over and over again, saying my name! I really shouldn't have been alone! What happened to my master when I was imprisoned so long? Can anything happen to him? It's all my fault! ..." He could not bear it any longer. He threw himself into William's arms and sobbed.

Seeing this, the other animals bowed their heads and remained silent.

"He is our best friend," Said a sika deer, "and now that he has proved who you are, we are free from suspicion."

"But there are hundreds of us. How on earth are you going to save us all?" Asked the thrush, who was standing in her ear.

The spider robot smiled and replied, "Don't worry, we've already got two big planes ready. What's more, we found a secret exit where the planes were parked. We've figured out how to get from inside the lab to the exit quickly, so please keep up with us. Besides, I hear there's a scary sports car here. To avoid waking it up, none of you are to make any noise during this process! Got it?"

"Got it!" Cried the animals in chorus.

"SHH! You'll wake up the sports car!" Ranran said angrily.

"Sorry," Said the sika deer shamefully.

"Let's go!" Said William, turning and sprinting out of the door and disappearing down the corridor in the twinkle of an eye. The others were also galloping and following him closely.

"Here! Keep up!" Whispered the spider, pointing to a long narrow corridor.

The animals had to change formation. They caught glimpses of blood on the pale walls now, and heard clearly, in the howling wind, the screams of endless distance. Then they imagined their poor compatriots being killed by a giant laser cannon on the top floor. Unable to bear to recall the terrible pictures, they closed their eyes, just desperately forward.

A few hundred meters later, they turned a corner, descended a stairs and entered a corridor. On both sides were animals that had "died heroically" -- in the words of those robot henchmen -- and their valuable special genes. The sika deer, who had just spoken, galloped along with the line, scanning the "valuable experimental materials".

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"Ah, isn't it Philip? He has the gene 722EU, which makes his nervous system more sensitive and strong."

"Alas, now he is asleep in heaven, and will never hear us again." Sighed a little horse beside her, shaking his head.

"This is Schleiden's gene OS5, this is Watson's gene K7MD, and others' 825TB, S1U and X99..." Said the sika deer in a tearful voice, "God bless them..."

The horse lowered his head, too, and fell silent.

"Come on!" William ran out into an open space, and the gene-edited animals changed formation again. Hard, cold iron doors flew by on either side. These rooms contained thousands of special genes, extracted by the laboratory's owner from the "valuable experimental materials" that "died heroically", and these would be permanently archived and immediately sent to his room. Just a few hours ago, patrols of robots would have been patrolling the area, but now all of them had been destroyed by tiny spider robots.

The owner of the laboratory could not have dreamed of this.

When they reached the end, they turned a corner and saw the secret exit. That was only about a few hundred meters away.

But suddenly there was a dead silence, so quiet that even the breathing of the animals was as loud as thunder. Then, to their surprise, they saw black gas rising in front of them that Black Ghost spotted in the sky.

"Get down!" The spider robot pulled an electrical switch and everyone was instantly drowned in a perfect darkness of unfathomable depth.

Photon, who was outside, heard the spider's cry. "No! Will they be in danger!" He was so anxious to go to open the door and let the animals out. But Black Ghost stopped him.

"It must be the black gas. I know the feeling." Said Plane 1, "Don't open the door. I think your master will be all right." They said with confidence.

Photon had to bounce back, but he was still worried. "You must hold on, Master!" He could not help sweating.

William lay tight on the ground, trying to hold his breath, not daring to make a sound. Gradually he felt the black gas passing slowly over the top of the line. Wherever it went, the air became as heavy as stone. Finally, after about a minute, the black gas disappeared and the switch turned on itself.

"Run!" At once the spider ran to the door. Fortunately, although the door had not been used for a long time, the noise was not enough to startle the sports car. The panicked animals rushed frantically toward the bombers, each animal being pushed by the line behind. And they did that very quickly indeed, for just five minutes later the last animal -- a thrush -- squeezed through the hatch.

"Ha ha, there's still room. It's not very crowded." She said to herself.

William gave a gesture, and all nine engines roared and tugged the three eagles into the slightly whitened sky.

Photon shook his wings a few times to wish them good luck before disappearing into view.

"Quick, quick!" The spider robot immediately took the rest of the party back the way they had come. "This laboratory can no longer exist. We need to take the secret tunnel because that's where the device to trigger the bomb is." He said.

Before they reached the entrance to the secret tunnel, however, they saw a book around a bend.

William opened it in the quietest and quickest way possible, but he had to turn dozens of pages before he saw the words.

I've had this idea for a long time. Since the first moment I learned about gene editing technology, I have been deeply attracted by its unique charm. Imagine how you could beat an illness, win a race, or achieve the dream you've always wanted with just a little thought! And for me, it was that last point that led me to build this lab.

So I have to say my dream - yes, I want to conquer this planet, all of it!

Perhaps the most powerful means would be biochemical weapons. So I set out to design a creature that would have as many specific traits as possible that we don't have today. Thus, destroying the creature by most conventional means makes no sense.

Ha, how nice! So you need to collect all kinds of special genes. So I started designing all kinds of traps to trap the gene-edited animals. The results were good -- 300 animals visited my lab in a week. The robots and I analyzed their specific genes, isolated them and stored their preparation methods. In the end, let the animals quickly put an end to this painful experience!

It is now bearing fruit. I've collected tens of thousands of genes, which will be enough to build the most basic skeleton. The following special genes are going to be processed by me into some fur -- that is, the repair of the skeleton.

You can't imagine how excited I am to see this great project moving forward, little by little. Maybe in a few months, my ultimate weapon will walk out of the lab and realize my great dream!

Let it crush all lofty mountains, dry up all the flowing rivers, break through all the lines of defense that are seemingly indestructible but in fact destructible, and conquer this planet!

I will be the greatest scientist in history! Let the universe tremble for me!

"Greatest scientist, humph." Said William with a sneer, "What a magnificent sight it would be if your dream came true."

They moved on to a bank of switches. It was a safety measure designed by the spider himself. Only by flipping a switch could they re-enter the secret tunnel. "Twirl this!" Said the spider, when he saw the hint he made. But a slip of his hand triggered another nearby switch, which was connected to the room where the sports car was parked. It would alert the sports car that something unusual had happened.

The party stood stiffly on the spot for fifteen seconds. Then, in a panic, they rushed to the entrance to the secret tunnel. With a quick move, Natalie started the engine and launched like lightning.

Yet before this, they heard Devil's scream,

"Da -- Vroom!"