One day, about two weeks after a sig­nif­i­cant dis­cov­ery that promised to expe­dite their mys­te­ri­ous work, Pro­fes­sor Max­on and von Horn were deeply engaged in their lab­o­ra­to­ry with­in the so-called court of mys­tery. Their recent break­through seemed poised to rev­o­lu­tion­ize their exper­i­ments, though von Horn, always cau­tious, armed him­self against poten­tial dan­gers their cre­ations posed.

Mean­while, Sing Lee, tasked with prepar­ing meals, decid­ed to engage in catch­ing gulls, ven­tur­ing silent­ly through the jun­gle. His acute sens­es caught sight of Budu­dreen and the tall Malay, Rajah Muda Saf­fir, plot­ting in hushed tones on the beach—a dis­cus­sion cen­tered around seiz­ing a white girl for the Rajah, hint­ing at treach­ery and rewards, and the omi­nous sug­ges­tion of using a kris (dag­ger) for silence.

Back in the work­shop, a dis­cus­sion unfold­ed between the pro­fes­sor and von Horn regard­ing the eth­i­cal and moral ram­i­fi­ca­tions of their experiments—artificial beings show­ing signs of phys­i­cal prowess yet lack­ing in men­tal fac­ul­ty. Von Horn sees them mere­ly as things, sug­gest­ing their destruc­tion, while Max­on, despite acknowl­edg­ing their imper­fec­tion, sees it as mur­der to elim­i­nate them. An intense com­mit­ment to his plan for these beings to sub­stan­tive­ly prove his the­o­ries emerges, pas­sion­ate­ly con­veyed by Max­on.

That night, under cov­er of dark­ness, Sing Lee stealth­ily gains entry into the lab­o­ra­to­ry, result­ing in the shat­ter­ing of a vat—Number Thirteen—which was par­tic­u­lar­ly sig­nif­i­cant to Max­on’s exper­i­ments. The next morn­ing reveals the con­se­quence of Sing’s actions: a seem­ing­ly per­fect cre­ation, phys­i­cal­ly ide­al, but with a dazed and ques­tion­ing demeanor, evok­ing a mix of pride and pater­nal care in Max­on.

Amidst these sci­en­tif­ic endeav­ors, Vir­ginia Max­on, feel­ing neglect­ed and pon­der­ing over her feel­ings for von Horn, ven­tures beyond the safe­ty of their com­pound. Unknown to her, the escape of Num­ber One—a mis­shapen experiment—sets a dan­ger­ous chain of events in motion. The crea­ture, dri­ven by a new­found desire upon see­ing Vir­ginia, attempts a clum­sy abduc­tion, prompt­ed by a grotesque fas­ci­na­tion and the wish to pos­sess her beau­ty for him­self.

As Vir­gini­a’s scream pierces the jun­gle, von Horn and Max­on rush towards the source, only to find the camp desert­ed. Vir­gini­a’s encounter with the aber­ra­tion con­fronts her with the stark hor­ror and real­i­ty of her father’s experiments—a chill­ing tes­ta­ment to ambi­tion’s unin­tend­ed con­se­quences.