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S1's cries were so faint that it was almost drowned out by its agonized howls.
Behind the tempered glass, Professor Qi and his team watched in astonishment as Qi Yang swiftly pulled the tube from the mutant beast's chest.
A pale yellow liquid oozed from the wound and sizzled as it made contact with the creature's flesh.
The sound of scorching flesh and the beast's relentless howls filled the air.
Qi Yang turned and began frantically searching the lab while rummaging through shelves and examining various solutions and reagents. He muttered to himself, "Amyl nitrite, amyl nitrite," as sweat poured down his forehead.
The group behind the glass was baffled.
Professor Qi was the first to regain his composure. He pressed the intercom on the table and said, "Qi Yang, what's going on? Your experiment isn't finished. You shouldn't just stop abruptly—"
Qi Yang tossed aside a useless reagent and turned to shout, "We were wrong! This isn't just a standard Class C mutant! It's not an ordinary mutant beast at all! We were wrong! All of us were wrong!!!"
Professor Qi was taken aback by Qi Yang's frantic demeanor.
He paused for a moment before responding, "Its regenerative abilities are indeed the strongest we've ever seen. It's certainly not ordinary. But we've already confirmed it has no other special traits. It's just—"
"It can talk! Do you realize it can talk?!"
The moment these words left Qi Yang's lips, the lab fell into a dead silence.
Everyone behind the thick tempered glass froze with their eyes wide with disbelief as they stared at the pale-faced man. Then, almost in unison, they turned their gaze to the black mutant beast strapped to the operating table.
In that eerie, unsettling atmosphere, everyone silently watched the twitching creature. And then, without any warning, almost everyone surged toward the narrow door at the same time!
A crowd of people jammed the doorway and was unable to get through, all shouting and clamoring.
"I want to come in, I want to come in! I am Professor Qi. Let me come in first!"
"Pah! Old Qi, have you no shame?!"
"Everyone, get out! A talking mutant beast! A talking mutant beast!"
...
One male assistant with thick, beer-bottle-bottom glasses didn't join the chaos. He pushed his glasses up his nose and muttered to himself, "Parrots can talk because they have a syrinx and a tongue. The interaction between the cartilage rings and the tympanic membrane allows them to produce sound. But this mutant beast... it can talk?!"
The noisy commotion turned the once-quiet lab into a scene of chaos.
Inside, Qi Yang had no patience for the chaos.
After searching for what felt like an eternity and failing to find what he needed, he resorted to using a small amount of sodium thiosulfate for minimal detoxification.
Staring at the convulsing mutant beast, Qi Yang lowered his head and whispered, "You're strong and you're powerful. You won't die like this, right? You won't die. You can't die like this... right? You won't die."
As if trying to convince himself, Qi Yang kept repeating these words.
The noise from the doorway grew louder, and his expression darkened. He suddenly looked up and shouted, "Shut up! All of you, go find what I need! Stop making a scene here! If it dies, none of our lives will be enough to atone—"
"Boom—"
"Crash—"
A deafening explosion rocked the lab, and the entire building began to shake. Dust rained down from the ceiling, causing everyone to stagger and lose their balance. Before they could recover, another series of violent explosions erupted.
The lights flickered, the stairs trembled violently, and chunks of debris began to fall.
Without a second thought, Qi Yang released the four restraints and scooped up the limp, twitching S1 into his arms.
Before he could move, another thunderous crash echoed and a massive boulder came crashing down!
The sea raged with waves over ten meters high crashing onto the shore.
The sky was a mix of green and black with thick clouds blotting out the sun. Silver lightning bolts streaked down from the heavens and struck the water and elicited agonized wails.
After the apocalypse, this once-popular tourist beach had become a scene of carnage.
Black sand covered the shore, and the once-calm blue waters that gently smoothed the rough stones were now a battlefield. Corpses littered the sand with their blood frozen white, while the bodies of still-twitching mutant beasts added to the horror.
"No way! This black beast isn't a Class A mutant—it's a Class S!"
A woman screamed in terror as her handsome face splattered with white blood.
She flicked her wrist, summoning a deep blue ice spike that cleaved a Class C mutant in two.
"Captain, I just saw Su Weishang heading toward Zone 75 through a side path," a crew-cut man said while clutching his bleeding left arm. "He left the team without permission. This is—"
"Let him go. Su Weishang... he's already distanced himself from the team." Wu Jiqing sighed softly. "Li Yong, you and I will attack this Class S mutant from the front. We need to slow it down and keep it from chasing our retreating team!"
Li Yong nodded firmly and followed Wu Jiqing as they ran in the opposite direction.
Meanwhile, about ten kilometers from the dam of Zone 77, Jing Xia and Ji Chuancheng were making their way toward the beach with the help of a speed-enhanced evolved human. The streets were packed with panicked civilians that slowed their progress.
The cold wind carried a foul stench of decay, making Jing Xia's expression grow increasingly grim.
"This mutant tide is strange," Jing Xia whispered with his voice barely audible amidst the chaos. "Everything I knew from my past life has been completely disrupted. The second mutant tide was supposed to happen a month ago, starting from Zone 17."
Ji Chuancheng's deep eyes focused intently on the anxious young man. "With the base's current strength, a Class A mutant tide shouldn't cause much damage. Even a Class S mutant tide—if it's just one Class S mutant, we can handle it."
"But what if... there's more than one?" After a long silence, Jing Xia finally voiced his concern.
Ji Chuancheng's narrow phoenix eyes narrowed further. He fell silent but tightly gripped Jing Xia's hand, his warmth flowing into the young man's cold palm and offering silent encouragement.
Somehow, the heavy stone in Jing Xia's heart lifted.
He sighed softly and returned the grip. Looking up, he gazed at the smoke-filled horizon, feeling that no matter how difficult things became, they wouldn't fail.
But when Jing Xia saw the massive white beast sprawled across half the beach, his eyes widened in horror, and his breath caught in his throat.
About twenty evolved humans surrounded the mutant beast from all sides, hurling lightning, boulders, ice arrows, and various other abilities at it. Yet, the attacks barely scratched its tough, resilient skin, as if they were mere jokes.
The massive mutant beast with its four thick, powerful legs planted firmly on the ground, resembled a fish but moved freely and breathed air.
Its long tail lashed out, sending three evolved humans flying. Then, with a flick of its mouth, it shot a lightning-like ray that instantly reduced a lightning-wielding evolved human to dust!
Ji Chuancheng's expression turned grim. He was about to step into the battlefield when he felt someone tug at his sleeve. Turning, he saw Jing Xia trembling with his voice filled with fear as he whispered, "Ah Chuan... that... that's a mutant conger eel."
For a moment, Ji Chuancheng was taken aback.
His gaze flickered to Jing Xia's hand gripping his sleeve before he nodded. "Yes, I know. Based on its combat power, it's likely a Class S—"
"No! You don't understand!" Jing Xia bit his lip hard, his face pale. "A Chuan! It's a Class SS mutant! In the third mutant tide—the one that took my life in my past—it led a horde of mutants to attack the S City Base and completely destroy us!"
Jing Xia's emotions were running high, and he didn't realize he needed to control his tone. But in the chaos, no one had the time to pay attention to their conversation.
Ji Chuancheng's usually calm expression gradually cracked. His cool eyes widened slightly, and after a long pause, he murmured, "Is it... really?" His voice carried a hint of uncertainty.
But Jing Xia nodded firmly and the fear in his eyes was replaced by determination. "I'm sure. Back then, two Class SS mutants attacked the S City Base, and this conger eel nearly wiped out five zones. And Ah Chuan... it has intelligence!"
Ji Chuancheng's body stiffened for a moment. After a brief pause, he immediately asked, "What level of intelligence does it have? Can it strategize, avoid danger, or—"
"Its intelligence is high. It can talk! It can communicate with humans!" Jing Xia interrupted urgently. "I wasn't there during that battle in my past life, but the two Class SS mutants were practically unstoppable. Halfway through the battle, it declared—a separation treaty between mutants and humans, unilaterally decreeing the living space for humans and demanding that we acknowledge their king as our ruler and reducing us to slaves!"
'You foolish mortals, you are nothing but discarded shoes beneath our feet.'
'Our king commands me to deliver this message: becoming slaves is your only path to survival!'
—Class SS Mutant Conger Eel.