Mutants - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: A Clean Sweep

What was this Prophet's Guidance? And not only did this guidance classify the evolutionary stage of her life, but it also named her mutant ability.

This was either a self-identification from her subconscious mind or a cognitive awareness bestowed upon her from an external source.

"A prophet? The red light came from space, so could it be a cosmic civilization? Is it guiding the evolution of life on Earth?"

This was a conjecture that anyone with even a little knowledge of cosmology would make.

In fact, after the cataclysmic event back then, the world order had already collapsed. Apocalyptic theories were very popular, and everyone realized their world was about to enter a wasteland and doomsday state. In such desperate circumstances, the idea of praying for external, transcendent powers to save humanity was essentially a form of faith. Thus, the very popular belief in salvation by a cosmic civilization was born.

The consortiums and the Federal government were naturally extremely resistant to such theories, as these beliefs would suppress people's desire to live and curb consumption.

To put it bluntly, they wouldn't allow the thoughts of the masses to be controlled by other faiths.

To combat this, employees like Sui Xin would be internally educated about its existence and its irrationality.

They were taught that this cosmic civilization was no different from the superstitions of ancient times.

The largest sect among them was the Prophet Cult.

The first line of its doctrine was—The Prophet is about to descend. Under its guidance, humanity will find salvation. Through the evolution of soul and body, they will transcend this universe, merge into the Prophet's embrace, and attain eternal life and supreme power.

This was pure brainwashing and superstition.

Sui Xin used to scoff at it, but now, mutation had occurred, and the Prophet had appeared.

"It's also possible that I was predisposed to this, having been exposed to cosmology and the Prophet Cult, so the concept was already in my mind. I'll have to see if other mutants have this feeling later."

If everyone had it, then it would prove that this Prophet Cult was unusually terrifying. It had direct contact with a real cosmic civilization and was not a superstition.

Sui Xin still felt a little panicked inside. She would rather believe this was a biological mutation under catastrophic conditions than the guidance of some other cosmic civilization.

The consortiums were already exploiting humanity enough. If another cosmic civilization came along, regardless of whether it was good or bad, they would still be a subordinate race.

But as her body was rapidly replenished with energy and a burning, sated feeling spread through her stomach, she experienced a pleasure that made every pore in her body feel incredibly comfortable.

The area in her stomach seemed to have grown stronger, and a strange thought surfaced in her mind—it felt as if certain parts had been completed, and the wonderful sensation of those missing pieces being filled in and perfected was simply marvelous.

As she pondered, Sui Xin's initially alarmed and panicked eyes quickly turned cold and resolute.

These crystals were likely genetic crystals formed when the Red Light Radiation entered living bodies and combined with various environmental mutations.

It was also a form of genetic energy. It prompted her own genetic crystal to become more complete and powerful, which was why it gave her such a distinct feeling of comfort.

This was a tremendous boon, meaning she now had the ability to survive, and even rise, in this chaotic, cruel, and collapsing world. But the prerequisite was that she could become strong, not remain this weak.

To be weak and in possession of a treasure was to be true prey, not someone who could survive by just slacking off like before.

Sui Xin pursed her lips. Having regained her strength, she quickly put on her clothes, went outside, and used a knife to cut open Liu Yong's body, finding no prismatic crystal in his abdomen.

Huh?

But she remembered that she probably had a prismatic crystal in her stomach, while Lao Zhang's was in his thigh.

Could Liu Yong's be in his hand?

Sui Xin quickly sliced open the man's left hand. Nothing. She then sliced his right hand.

Found it.

There was a crystal in the man's elbow.

His was a bit larger than Lao Zhang's, and the color was slightly deeper.

Sui Xin ate it again.

"Prophet's Guidance Life Evolution Progress: 1.4% + 0.6%. Current Progress: 2%."

"Evolution Direction One: Skin-Contact Simulation Camouflage Level 2."

Ah, this.

She probably didn't need to find other Mutants to confirm the feeling anymore.

This time, she clearly felt her ability had improved—because she could now distinctly sense the presence of nearby blood.

Dead and living, the different scents were incredibly clear in her perception.

In other words, the Level 2 ability was indeed a step deeper than Level 1; she could already obtain some of the abilities of the camouflaged creature.

The intense smell of blood almost made her vomit.

This was an ability of the Ironworms; they were naturally sensitive to blood, and this sensitivity could be used to perceive the surroundings.

However, there was a time limit. After one skin contact, with her current energy levels, she could only maintain the sensory ability for about thirty minutes.

Sui Xin quickly found three nutrient solutions on the two bodies and downed them in one go.

She was well aware that the feeling of fullness from the energy was an illusion from her stomach, a signal emitted by that crystal. But her stomach was being overridden; it was actually hungry. If she ignored this state, the next time her energy ran out, a fatal stomachache would be waiting for her.

Then she put on another helmet, got into the vehicle, and while checking the vehicle's condition, she also checked the changes in her other hand's control… Soon, a patch of Ironworm-mimicking skin appeared on her palm.

This was a localized change.

A complete transformation was too wasteful. A whole worm was meaningless, just for camouflage. A localized change was more purposeful.

After watching her palm change, Sui Xin manipulated it a few more times before she felt at ease.

But she wasn't in a hurry to leave. Instead, she sat in the vehicle, checking its functions, her fingers tapping on the steering wheel.

Surviving and mutating was a great thing, but now she had to think long-term.

Because the Red Disaster had descended, Tianxi Group must know. But the fact that their experimental guinea pigs had mutated, the company must also know. There were too many surveillance cameras. Her location was obscured by the cold snap and frost, but that might not be the case elsewhere.

"Not only Tianxi knows, the whole world knows. In the eyes of the consortiums, we have definitely become dangerous subjects, as well as the best experimental specimens. They are eager to transfer our genetic mutation abilities to their upper-class figures, and it will also help them research new types of military power. And in the eyes of other ordinary people, we will only become heretics—even if they don't think so, the consortiums and the Federal government will definitely make it so."

The benefit of being well-read was seeing the upper limits of human nature, as well as the lower limits of politics and capital.

Sui Xin was already keenly aware of how difficult the situation was for Mutants like herself. Therefore, with the Red Disaster having receded, the various consortiums and forces must be preparing to surround the ruins for a slaughter and capture.

"Although mutation is powerful, it's currently no match for the consortiums' armies of Adepts and armed forces, not to mention the various other powers. We are few in number, and our mutant abilities are unstable. Unless one is a chosen one who gets a heaven-sent ability like flight from the start, it's difficult to resist. After all, everyone was initially confined to the ruins zone, and our identities are all on record, giving the consortiums a precise location and target list for their siege and hunt."

"So, the strategy remains the same—fake my death. Either the Sui Xin in the pharmacy lives and Xiao Tiantian dies, or both the identities of Sui Xin and Xiao Tiantian die, and I escape the ruins zone with a new identity, live incognito, and evade capture by the consortiums."

"Coincidentally, the ability I've obtained is perfect for this…"

Sui Xin's objective was clear, her thinking sharp, and she quickly formulated a plan.

She got out of the vehicle, ran quickly into the hole, and after a brief search, soon found the boxes that had originally contained the radiation sources.

From these boxes, she dismantled the energy reaction plates. This stuff was more advanced than energy bars. First, the energy was compressed, and it was already loaded onto the reaction plates. It only needed to be activated to use the energy—for example, in an explosion.

Yes, this thing had a self-destruct system. It was also a secondary design by the company for releasing the radiation reaction. For instance, if the first radiation attempt failed, or if an enemy approached, the self-destructing reaction could serve the dual purpose of forcibly initiating the radiation reaction and killing the enemy with the explosion.

The energy reaction plate in each box had an energy level of 30 fa, equivalent to 30 energy bars and 30 Kinetic-01 explosions.

Sui Xin found a total of 3 reaction plates; the other boxes had been washed away somewhere.

After finding them, Sui Xin dismantled the walkie-talkie equipment from the vehicle and used the communication chip and magnetic strip inside to create a simple timed detonation device, the same method Xu Wen and the others had used to make their explosive packs.

She made three of them.

One was placed by Sui Xin at the entrance of the hole, so that once it exploded, both the hole and the area inside would be affected.

Destroyed in one fell swoop.

Then Sui Xin carefully dismantled the cameras inside the wall, using her sensory perception, and connected their feeds to the display screen in the vehicle. She installed one in a spot just outside the blast radius but where it could still see the situation clearly, about ten meters away in a rock crevice. She took the rest with her.

After driving the vehicle some distance away, she stopped and found a good spot.

She secretly installed them in inconspicuous places, then drove the vehicle deep into a side path within the excavation cave, and left via a small path from there.

As she drove, she checked the surveillance monitors.

"Mutation consumes energy. Regardless of how much energy each person needs, I only completed my mutation after draining the Pure Marine Fossils of the deep-sea octopus. These people probably have a strong need for it too. Given the strength of the water flow that washed them away, they were at most swept out to the excavation area plaza. Just like how Lao Zhang and his partner came back looking for a vehicle as soon as they woke up, they'll probably do the same."

So, there was a high concentration of Ability Users near the plaza and the entrance to the excavation area. In the end, they would inevitably split into two groups: one fleeing towards the safe house, and the other re-entering the excavation cave to fight for the Pure Marine Fossils.

Sui Xin quickly drove the vehicle into a branch path extending from the excavation entrance to hide. The excavation route wasn't a single path leading straight to the frost zone with the Pure Marine Fossils; it had many branches. It was only after discovering that the resources near the giant octopus were more abundant that they focused their excavation there.

The place she was hiding now was another excavation branch that had been abandoned for a long time.

After hiding, Sui Xin watched the time pass and kept an eye on the monitors.

After a while, two vehicles appeared on the screen, one after the other.

Sui Xin saw Zhao Er and Chen Shuanggeng in the first vehicle; they were with Liu Yong's group.

The second vehicle carried people from Xu Wen's group, three of them.

The two vehicles carried a total of five people, all likely mutated.

Three more vehicles followed behind them.

A total of 12 people.

Out of over a hundred people, twelve Mutants were discovered here; adding herself and Liu Yong, that made fifteen people.

Not high, but not low either.

The first Red Disaster didn't have such an effect. Was it because the radiation from the second Red Disaster was different, or was it because they had worms and radiation sources inside them, leading to a different biological reaction?

This wasn't her area of expertise, so Sui Xin didn't dwell on it. Instead, she focused on something else—because she had specifically installed a camera at a bend, these vehicles all slowed down to take the turn, allowing her to get a clear look at the people, confirming their numbers and identities. But she also saw that they were all injured to varying degrees.

This wasn't surprising; they had been injured by various explosions before mutating.

So the question was—she had also been injured, even more severely. Why was it that after she mutated, there wasn't a single wound on her body, not even a scar was left, and she was in far better condition than the others?

"Because I absorbed a massive amount of fossil energy?"

Having just mutated, she was still unfamiliar with the specific condition of her body, but she thought—if she could recover from any injury as long as she had enough energy, that would be pretty awesome, possibly even stronger than her mimicry ability.

Unfortunately, she had no opportunity to test it at the moment.

Sui Xin waited a while longer. Just when she thought no one else was coming, she suddenly saw a sixth vehicle drive past like a ghost.

She was startled.

She didn't see wrong, did she? The person sitting in that sixth vehicle… was Zhou Xingxing.

He wasn't dead?

Sui Xin frowned. A flaw in her plan had appeared.

Previously, she had faked Sui Xin's death in the pharmacy, and Xiao Tiantian had appeared. All she had to do was deal with the Xiao Tiantian identity later. Lao Zhang had seen her real face under the helmet, but he was dead. But Zhou Xingxing had also seen it, and if he wasn't dead, then if he was ever captured by Tianxi's people and interrogated, they would discover that the identities of Xiao Tiantian and Sui Xin didn't match up. Then, no matter how she designed her faked death and escape using these two identities, it would be useless.

She calculated that the five vehicles were about to reach the octopus skin.

In that case…

---

In the vehicle, Chen Shuanggeng and Zhao Er were actually feeling quite ecstatic. They never expected to encounter such a great fortune.

Mutation, something they couldn't even have dreamed of.

They were now the evolved ones among humanity, right?

"What A, B, C, D, E? Did we just jump from D to A? No, even the legendary S-class humans aren't as outstanding as us."

"First, let's get the fossils. See if we can absorb the energy directly. If not, we'll sell them. As long as we get out of this station, the good life is waiting for us."

"Our bodies have gotten much stronger. Our injuries will probably heal quickly too. It's a pity there's no medicine."

"It's fine, everyone's in the same boat."

"What about the people behind us?"

"If we have to fight, we'll deal with them. But we can probably persuade them to team up. After all, the company might not let them go either. We can only gather our strength by sticking together."

The two men's faces showed ambition, but also caution. The vehicles were actually not far apart. The closer they got to the end, the faster the vehicles behind them went.

Because everyone wanted to be the first to grab the fossils, just as Zhao Er and his partner were imagining they could still negotiate and team up.

While trying to overtake each other, one vehicle suddenly rammed into the one in front, smashing it against the wall. Before the vehicle could flip and explode, the person inside had already leaped out.

"You bastards, you started it!"

The man was extremely fast, comparable to an Adept. He jumped out of the vehicle, flipped over, and landed on the other vehicle, pulling out a knife and plunging it into the roof.

His strength was immense, piercing straight through, nearly stabbing the driver in the head. The latter dodged, and the person in the driver's seat jumped out of the car. His body swelled, hair grew wildly, and his upper body quickly transformed into that of a leopard. With a furious roar, he sprang with his legs, easily leaping onto the roof of the vehicle and swiping his claws at the man.

The man was knocked down, blood flying from his chest. The driver, seeing this, also got out of the car…

In the chaos, the vehicles behind them sped past.

Zhao Er and his partner's vehicle hadn't reached its destination yet when it was blocked at the chilly opening. The two exchanged a look and got out.

"Let's talk this out, there's no need to fight. We've all mutated, we can team up…"

"Makes sense. How do we split the fossils?"

"Well…"

Before he could finish, Chen Shuanggeng took a quick step, his body like a phantom, erupting with a speed more than ten times that of a normal person. His blade was already out, and with one slash, he sent the opponent's head flying. The other person was terrified, leaping back swiftly, and with a poof, turned into a fat, large rat.

"Holy crap, a rat spirit!"

Chen Shuanggeng's mutation probably enhanced both his strength and speed, with no change in his appearance. Even so, he couldn't catch the fat, hound-sized rat as it fled.

Honestly, it looked both sleazy and bizarre. He frowned, giving up the attack and deciding to defend instead.

Because the large rat had burrowed into the ground.

It could dig that fast?

Chen Shuanggeng was surprised and had to be on guard. However, less than two seconds later, swish, the rat suddenly burst out from underground, pouncing on his neck from behind, its sharp incisors about to bite down.

Just then.

Another knife slashed over.

It sent the rat flying, even severing its tail.

The man who landed on the ground reverted to his human form, looking at Zhao Er, who had made the move, with weakness and terror.

Zhao Er had also mutated. His pupils flickered slightly. The ability he had gained was an eagle-eye motion capture ability.

No matter how fast this rat spirit was, he could see through its movements.

That's why Zhao Er and his partner had the confidence to deal with these people; their mutant abilities were stronger than the others'.

However…

Sui Xin saw these scenes through the monitor and noted their abilities. She frowned slightly. These abilities were all sorts of strange, but they were in their initial stages. Not to mention improving them, they hadn't even adapted to them yet, so their effectiveness was limited.

In that case, there was no need for them to team up in the early stages, because they couldn't deal with the consortium's power at all.

Wait, what was that?

On the monitor, Sui Xin actually saw a knife on the ground float up and suddenly stab into a person's body from behind.

Sui Xin: "!"

---

"Why is it quiet back there?"

Chen Shuanggeng was on alert, looking behind him. He saw that the three vehicles behind them had all stopped, but there was no sound from the people who were fighting before, or the drivers.

"You go get the fossils, I'll keep watch."

Zhao Er activated his eagle-eye vision, while Chen Shuanggeng ran quickly towards the end of the tunnel.

But he had only taken two steps when he heard Zhao Er cry out in alarm. He turned his head and saw Zhao Er slashing wildly at the air. It was indeed empty air, but a knife was floating in it—it was the knife dropped by the person who had been killed earlier. This knife was slashing at Zhao Er out of thin air, but Zhao Er was tracking it with his eagle-eye vision.

And then!

Bang!

Zhao Er was sent flying by a slash, and after hitting the wall, he quickly used his knife to block… The floating knife was forcefully pressing against his neck.

"Fuck, he has an Invisibility Ability!"

No wonder those people earlier had gone silent without a sound. They were probably assassinated by this invisible person.

"I can see a faint outline of him!"

Zhao Er was about to lose his ground and shouted a warning to Chen Shuanggeng. Chen Shuanggeng was shocked and quickly drew his knife and charged over.

Swish.

The invisible person dodged, and the knife fell to the ground. But once the knife was on the ground, his form became completely transparent. Chen Shuanggeng had no idea where he was, and when Zhao Er tried to use his eagle-eye vision to find him, he discovered… where did he go?

As the two were terrified.

Splurt!

Zhao Er suddenly felt a sharp pain in his eyes.

He got close!

The invisible person had gouged out his eyes.

After blood spurted from his eyes, the knife in his hand was snatched by the invisible person…

Chen Shuanggeng heard Zhao Er's scream and saw the knife's movement, and quickly slashed over.

Swish!

Zhao Er's throat had been slit by his own knife. After the blood spurted, Chen Shuanggeng saw the knife turn and slash back at him…

He turned and ran.

He was no match for this invisible person. He had to get the fossils and replenish his energy to have a chance to fight him.

Chen Shuanggeng ran ahead, while the invisible person chased him with a knife.

This scene was bizarre and terrifying. Soon, Chen Shuanggeng got close to the octopus skin, and the invisible person behind him was about to catch up.

But they both saw the octopus skin. No, where was the giant octopus?

And there were bodies on the ground…

The invisible person behind was the first to realize something was wrong—someone had been here and had fought.

There was another Mutant?!

He turned and wanted to run.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

The reaction plate bomb at the entrance of the hole detonated directly.

Boom!

Chen Shuanggeng, who was closer, was directly blown to pieces, while the invisible person was sent flying, knife and all, as he was running…

The explosion swept from behind, destroying the camera on the wall along with it, and incinerating the octopus skin and everything else…

After the invisible person hit the ground, his body briefly recovered, and his face was revealed to be Zhou Xingxing's.

But he faintly heard the sound of a vehicle speeding.

Someone was coming.

The perpetrator was coming.

Zhou Xingxing's eyes were filled with coldness and killing intent. On the verge of death, he crawled up, grabbed the knife, then lay down again, activating his ability with all his might… his body became transparent again.

---

A moment later, the vehicle stopped.

The transparent Zhou Xingxing saw a person.

Wearing a helmet, but the body shape was a bit familiar.

It's her!

It's her!!

This damn Xiao Tiantian…

The bastard who always got the better of him!

Zhou Xingxing's heart was filled with a flourishing killing intent, and he was ready to pounce and kill this bitch the moment she got close.

But Sui Xin seemed completely unaware. As she walked over quickly, she was still muttering, "Mine, mine, the fossils are all mine, you bunch of idiots!"

She arrived, just walking past him.

Swish! Zhou Xingxing suddenly sprang up. After all, he had the aptitude of an Adept. Even if he was severely injured by the explosion, at close range and under invisibility, he swung the knife fiercely at Sui Xin's neck.

But!

He grabbed the knife, got up, and was about to slash upwards from a low position, like a cobra striking from the ground, which required a process and time.

If these actions were locked frame by frame, one could see that in the instant he maintained a crouched posture, raising the knife to slash upwards, his intended prey had already retreated and drawn her own knife.

She slashed down hard and diagonally.

Faster than him, more precise, and with the initiative.

After all, she had seen everything he did on the monitor, including him getting up to grab the knife after being blown up and then lying back down.

Zhou Xingxing was caught off guard and couldn't dodge in time, because the crouched posture he was in was too difficult to maneuver from.

The blade slashed across his chest.

Zhou Xingxing was knocked down by the slash, blood spurting from his chest. The explosion wound on his back gave him even more intense pain. This time, he couldn't maintain his transparent state and became visible.

He tried to get up again, but Sui Xin had already followed up with another stab.

The knife pierced his heart. He was finished.

And Sui Xin had completed her clean sweep—at least this batch of people had been wiped out by her.

Zhou Xingxing coughed up blood, on the verge of death, looking at Sui Xin in disbelief.

"How… did you see me…"

A different helmet, the same cunning and cruel bitch.

He didn't quite understand how he, an invisible person, had been seen through by her. Even Zhao Er with his eagle-eye ability couldn't see through him. Could she have a more advanced perception ability?

"I installed cameras."

A very simple and unadorned answer. Actually, there was also the fact that she could sense the presence of blood and knew he wasn't dead.

He was transparent, but he was also bleeding from the explosion. The smell of blood couldn't disappear with transparency. However, the blood on his body was still part of his physical self and had become transparent along with him, which was quite terrifying. If he hadn't died, and had improved this invisibility ability in the future, he would have become an extremely fearsome assassin-type powerhouse.

Unfortunately, he was about to die.

"!"

Son of a bitch! They fell into a trap!

After his shock, Zhou Xingxing felt like laughing.

Indeed, the brain was the most powerful ability.

Sui Xin squatted down, grabbed his neck, and pinned him to the ground.

"Darling, don't just grab a lady's neck next time. It's very rude."

"But before you die, since I answered one of your questions, you have to answer one of mine—do you know about the Prophet?"

Sui Xin's tone was very gentle. Zhou Xingxing was stunned, his eyes darting away slightly. "What… what do you mean?"

Sui Xin raised an eyebrow and suddenly gripped the knife plunged into his heart.

"Lying to me even as you're about to die. How can I send you off gently now?"

Gak!

The blade sliced through his heart.

Zhou Xingxing's pupils trembled as he experienced, just before death, what "not gentle" meant.

Sui Xin found the fragment inside the bloody corpse and quickly found the other fragments from the other destroyed bodies.

A total of 13 pieces.

How to put it, Sui Xin hadn't initially planned to kill these fellow Mutants. After all, their future enemy was the consortium, and there was no need for them to kill each other. However, given the situation with the Prophet's Guidance and evolution by devouring fragments, she knew that peace within the mutant community was impossible. Plus, she had to eliminate Zhou Xingxing, because both he and Lao Zhang had seen her true face under the helmet after she had "faked" Sui Xin's death. This was also a liability.

Considering all factors—they all had to die.

"And just as I expected, mutants who haven't evolved much really aren't hard to kill."

"Including myself."

However, Zhou Xingxing's reaction before he died also told her that the Prophet did indeed exist. Sui Xin's heart felt heavy, with a sense of dread from being controlled.

Under this sense of dread, she quickly ate all the fragments.

Before eating, she had also compared the genetic fragments of these people. In terms of size and thickness, it was obvious that Zhou Xingxing's was stronger than the others', with Chen Shuanggeng and Zhao Er's coming in second. The others were more or less the same. The smallest piece was even smaller than Lao Zhang's fragment, probably from some useless, weak ability, and its owner had long been killed by Zhou Xingxing.

But strangely, the evolution percentage from the fragments she ate this time was very small. Lao Zhang's fragment was about the same as some of the others', and the latter only gave a 0.1% increase… Zhou Xingxing's was much larger than Liu Yong's, but it only gave 0.7%.

Sui Xin estimated that this percentage was not calculated based on the original base, but on her own current base percentage.

This meant that the difficulty of evolution would increase, and the percentage increase would become more and more difficult, but the degree of strengthening would also be super obvious.

"Prophet's Guidance Life Evolution Progress: 1.4% + 1.8%. Current Progress: 3.2%."

"Evolution Direction One: Skin-Contact Simulation Camouflage Level 3."

What ability would Level 3 bring? Sui Xin felt the burning sensation in her stomach and the increased power in her body. She tested her strength.

Huh? It was already equivalent to that Mutant whose strength and speed had been evenly enhanced.

And as for this Level 3 simulation camouflage, when she tested it again, she controlled the range of change to a single finger.

Her index finger turned into an Ironworm, and as the finger wriggled, it secreted a liquid that, when dropped on a corpse, quickly began to corrode it.

Ah… she'd struck gold!

Sui Xin's expression became profound.

She had originally thought it was an ordinary camouflage and survival skill, but now it seemed that with the increase in evolution and the development of the ability, it was far more terrifying than she had imagined.

"Right now, there are three aspects: one, mimicking external form; two, its sensory abilities; three, its biological secretion abilities."

"But the Ironworm is biologically simple and relatively easy to mimic. Other, more powerful creatures will be harder to mimic. I wonder if I'll be able to perfectly mimic other creatures when I get stronger—like the abilities of other mutants?"

"But the biggest weakness is that this ability is not long-lasting. It disappears after one use and needs to be mimicked a second time."

A skill she had initially thought was weak and useless was now showing her its terrifying side. It was only because she had seized the initiative and evolved first by eating a lot of fragments.

Next, Sui Xin easily picked up these corpses and threw them into the explosion area, letting the flames consume them, then drove away from here.

The exit was now empty—everyone had gone to the safe house.

On the way, Sui Xin didn't forget to dismantle and destroy all the cameras, trying not to leave any hidden dangers.

However, just as the vehicle drove out, Sui Xin heard a commotion coming from the direction of the safe house.

What was making such a loud noise?

Sui Xin was surprised.

Actually, she wasn't in a hurry to compete with those heading to the safe house for the right to open and enter it. Instead, she took care of destroying the end of the excavation area and slaughtering the group of Mutants in the cave because even if that group outside got into the safe house and opened the escape passage, and that door closed, she had two reaction devices to blow it open again.

As long as the station's self-destruct timer, warned of by the main gate, wasn't reached, she was still safe. And she had also intentionally avoided a direct confrontation with this group of Mutants, letting them escape first to draw away any potential company hunting parties.

But now it seemed the situation was more complicated than she had anticipated…

Sui Xin had just driven the vehicle to the outside of the safe house when she found that the safe house door was wide open, with a lot of bloodstains at the entrance.

A massacre had broken out here, causing the people inside to be chased deep into the facility before they even had time to close the door.

So brutal?

Sui Xin was slightly suspicious. She put the two reaction devices into her backpack, slung it over her shoulder, and then walked towards the main door with her knife.

The sounds of fighting and screaming still came from the space within, and of course, even more intense were the roars.

It was rather quiet outside.

As soon as she entered the door, she saw skeletons on the ground.

Very clean skeletons.

Only hair remained.

But there was some strange mucus on the bones, and the hair was also messy.

Sui Xin narrowed her eyes, stepped forward, and used the tip of her knife to pick up some of the hair to examine it. She found that the hair was bent and messy because it had come into contact with a corrosive liquid, which had sizzled and corroded it, causing it to deform and twist.

Could it be?

Ironworms?

Where did so many Ironworms come from here?

Sui Xin was shocked, but… she smelled the scent of blood, coming from—the ceiling.

Swish!

Sui Xin quickly retreated as a black shadow, clinging to the ceiling like a shelter, leaped down swiftly. After missing, it landed and immediately pounced again.

It was so fast she couldn't even see what it was, but Sui Xin had, after all, obtained many fragments. Her level of evolution was not low, and her physique and reactions were much stronger. As it pounced again, she slashed at it with her knife.

Clang!

Sui Xin saw her longsword being caught by its two hands. Calling them hands was a beautification.

They were actually rotten muscle and bone entwined with many Ironworms, and these Ironworms were also different, their bodies having mutated to have sucker-like tentacles.

As for its face, that was even more indescribable.

Mushroom, insect, humanoid form, bestial posture.

A Fungal-Insectoid Mutant.

It had evolved!

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