Mutants - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Red Worm

There were actually pools of water in the deep valley. They weren't whole, but scattered one by one, like broken egg yolks coagulated on the ground. The water was filthy, a murky grayish-yellow, and now various parts and components were floating in it.

Of course, there was no shortage of corpses.

By the water's edge, the surface suddenly rippled. A round, balloon-like headless "corpse" floating on the water suddenly moved its fingers, which were also floating. At first glance, the fingers looked normal, but they seemed to twitch uncomfortably before quickly becoming still again.

The inside of the protective suit's sleeve was fully inflated, making it somewhat cumbersome and stiff on the water's surface.

But the neck area looked as if the head had been chopped off. As ripples appeared on the water, the head underneath suddenly broke the surface.

The black and red helmet was made of a special material that was bulletproof and inherently buoyant. However, compared to the inflated protective suit, it was still heavier. She struggled to get used to the soreness in her neck, positioning the helmet's air vents upwards to inhale some oxygen and regain consciousness. Only then could her fingers move, curling inward to press the button on the palm of her protective glove.

Hiss… The protective suit deflated, but it was basically ruined, leaving only a surface layer for protection.

This thing was like a car's airbag, a last-resort stress-activated protection. When the vehicle fell, rolled, and was heavily impacted, everyone's protective suits would activate their emergency inflation state due to the collision between their bodies and external forces. During the first roll, the bodies of the nine people inside the car all swelled into balls, filling the interior space, securing their bodies, and creating stable positions to avoid fatal injuries from repeated collisions inside the vehicle. But even so, most of them were knocked unconscious by the violent spinning and the brain concussions caused by the dull, heavy impacts.

After all, the initial impact had already caused some damage. Furthermore, the protective suits couldn't protect their heads. Some who weren't wearing helmets at the time probably didn't make it.

To be honest, when this weak-looking consultant was praying to the gods, although her prayers had the opposite effect, it didn't stop her body from practicing scientific pragmatism—she had put on the helmet she'd been carrying the whole way.

So, her injuries were likely the lightest of anyone's. But she wasn't the first to wake up just because of that. It was probably because her nerves were now the most sensitive, making her feel the pain more acutely.

Just now, her finger had hurt a lot, as if it had been pricked by something, which caused her to wake up with a start.

As soon as she woke up, her gaze swept around unhurriedly.

The bottom of the valley was dim, the water was dirty, and it was unclear what filth it contained. Her finger was still in pain, as if bitten. The numerous wrecked tanks were no longer smoking, their skeletal frames half-submerged in the roughly two-meter-deep pools.

The pain ultimately drew her attention. She tried to look at her finger and discovered a 20-centimeter-long worm wrapped around it underwater.

Fortunately, her hand was covered by a protective glove. Since it had a control valve, the worm shouldn't have been able to bite her finger.

Because the water was so murky, she hadn't seen it clearly at first glance. Now, as she lifted her finger, she saw it.

What!

Disgusted, she flung her hand forcefully!

The worm was thrown off.

She saw a hole torn in the finger of the glove and assumed the worm had gotten in through there.

There were beads of blood on the pad of her finger, and it hurt, a burning kind of pain.

Sui Xin was about to examine it more closely when she heard a faint sound, like someone gasping for breath with difficulty.

Some were dead, some were alive, and some were half-dead.

Where was this?

Sui Xin had a faint guess when the cliff appeared, but when she managed to see the deep valley clearly through the mist, she was still shocked.

Something was wrong.

This was actually the main canyon road directly in front of the outpost!

They had just circled around from the upper part of the mountain on the side of the canyon—if this route wasn't pre-selected by Ye Chen and Jenny, then who had replaced it and guided them here? Was it the Tianxi Group, the enemy occupying this place, or was it a coincidence?

There were only a few options, but it undoubtedly added a layer of suspense to the outpost mission, which Sui Xin had already assessed as having a ninety-percent chance of failure.

She wanted to get up and run back, but she found her body was sore, and the parts of her body exposed to the air were starting to sting.

This mist was highly corrosive.

The protective suit was making a sizzling sound.

This was trouble. After the inflation function was used, the suit's internal energy was depleted, and it could no longer maintain its defensive capabilities, relying only on the durability of its surface material.

It wouldn't last long; the mist was corroding it.

Sui Xin was already feeling unwell, but upon seeing this, her gaze immediately swept around. She saw a team member with a smashed head floating in a vehicle, his protective suit's inflation function not activated.

No wonder he died.

Sui Xin had no choice but to swim over with effort. When she reached the side, she stripped off his protective suit, preparing to put it on, when suddenly!

What is this thing?

As she took off her own protective suit, revealing the tank top underneath, she suddenly saw a strange ripple on the water's surface behind her, reflected in the dark window of a nearby vehicle.

Fortunately, this vehicle's headlights were still on, flashing intermittently, probably not completely wrecked yet.

Most people were still unconscious, and no other "corpses" were moving nearby. Why would the water surface have ripples like a living thing was moving?

She was standing by the edge of the pool and hadn't moved much, so the ripples had to be coming from over there…

And they weren't circular, but long, thin, and streamlined.

There was something underneath!

Sui Xin was startled. She grabbed the man's protective suit and quickly waded towards the shore.

Splash, splash, the water churned. Probably realizing its prey had been alerted, the rippling stream suddenly became swift and ferocious. Even areas that previously had no ripples now showed dozens of ten-centimeter-long, thin worms.

They were blood-red, looking like earthworms at first glance, but there were countless of them, probably thousands, chasing after her with incredible speed.

Sui Xin was weak and not very agile to begin with. Terrified, she practically scrambled on all fours, stumbling to the edge of the pool. When she looked back, the worms were actually crawling onto the shore.

However, they were following the wet trail, and their speed began to slow.

Hmm? It seems they're aquatic creatures, and their bodies aren't corroded when they come into contact with the mist.

Her chest was burning from contact with the mist. She quickly stripped off her own protective suit, threw it over the worms crawling on the wet trail, and then swiftly put on the new one. As soon as she had it on, she jumped onto her old suit and stomped hard. The squishing sound of the numerous worms being crushed came from underneath.

After making sure they were all dead, Sui Xin caught her breath, picked up a stick, and lifted the suit to look underneath. The mushy flesh and blood still showed no signs of corrosion. The suit, however, was corroded, but it was the fabric and other materials that were damaged, not the metal parts like the buckles.

Huh?

She quickly came to a conclusion: the Red Worms had corrosive abilities, and their body matter was also corrosive, capable of damaging the protective suit material. The corrosive ability of the Red Worms was likely similar to that of the gray mist, both having acidic properties. Their corrosive power reached D-class, meaning they could corrode D-class organic materials like the protective suit and some special composite rubbers in tires, but not metal.

Aquatic, with mid-to-high D-class acidic corrosiveness, a thin, thread-like body of this size, and native to the high-temperature ruins of the Deep Red Sector. From an environmental and historical perspective, they should be a mutated, blood-seeking type of horsehair worm, scientifically named Red Corrosive Ironworm.

A hundred years ago, there were two to three hundred species of horsehair worms, and their biological type was relatively stable. After the climate change disaster, most species went extinct. Some of the survivors mutated, with the Red Corrosive Ironworm being the most dangerous among them.

However, her deliberate use of her own protective suit to cover the worms wasn't just to make it easier to stomp on them and test their corrosiveness, but to verify a hypothesis.

—If the wrong route wasn't a coincidence, it must have been premeditated. She had to verify whether it was the consortium or the enemies at the outpost who did it.

If it was the consortium, it certainly wasn't to slaughter them; there must be some other hidden purpose. In that case, they would have definitely arranged for surveillance. As a member of the mid-level Think Tank, she was very familiar with the methods and capabilities of these large corporations.

She carefully inspected the inside of the corroded protective suit but found no additional surveillance equipment. The original camera had already been smashed to bits by her stomping.

It seemed she had been overthinking things. The masterminds were the invaders at the outpost.

Suddenly.

She heard a noise and turned to look. The remaining worms in the water had crawled onto the corpse with the smashed head, the one she had stripped of its protective suit.

They covered its entire body.

The scene was so horrifying that Sui Xin felt nauseous just looking at it. Before she could even dry heave…

"Ugh…"

Someone else threw up first.

Sui Xin turned her head and saw Jenny vomiting.

"Jenny?"

"It's me… So disgusting. What are these worms?"

"I don't know, but they're very dangerous. Get out of the water quickly and change your protective suit!" Sui Xin didn't specify what the worms were, as she didn't fully trust these people.

Jenny was awake, and so were Ye Chen and the others, more or less.

Sui Xin had been fairly certain before losing consciousness that these people probably wouldn't die. The protective suits of everyone in the vehicle had activated, stabilizing the interior space. Because the space was stable enough, their heads were also pressed and fixed by the inflated suits, preventing major impact. The greatest damage would have come when the vehicle finally hit the valley floor and the space was compromised.

But since she was mostly fine, at least some of the others should have survived.

It seemed their luck was good; the people from the S501 Desert Crawler were mostly alive.

Except for the driver.

He was dead, not moving at all.

But there was nothing to be said. The other vehicles had even more casualties.

Ye Chen was already stripping off a protective suit.

As he was doing so.

Bang!

Sui Xin heard a gunshot. The sound came from behind a vehicle, and it was clearly aimed at a living person.

Was someone trying to steal a survivor's protective suit?

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