|
.png)
The situation, which had initially seemed to tilt slightly in humanity's favor, suddenly reversed.
The collapse of the towering structure gave no one time to react.
When the Mutated Conger Eel led nearly ten thousand C-Class and above Mutated Creatures while riding the waves toward the shore, most of the Evolved Beings on the beach began to lose confidence.
The dark, overwhelming mass alone was enough to instill fear in anyone who laid eyes on it. And when they finally made landfall, the sheer magnitude of their presence that were shaking the very earth, made many realize the vast disparity in strength between the two sides before the battle had even begun.
Jing Xia and Ji Chuancheng exchanged a glance and immediately understood each other's intentions this time.
Meanwhile, Professor Qi and his team, who occupied a strategic observation point, were seething with anger.
Professor Qi's graying eyebrows shot up with his cheeks flushed—half from anger and half from urgency. "They’re playing with us! First, they give us a glimmer of hope, only to cruelly crush it. These Mutated Beasts have truly become cunning, truly like demons!"
Professor Lu, standing beside him, though older and less prone to anger, was also fuming. "Are they so sure of their victory that they’re toying with us like this?!"
Hearing this, Professor Qi gradually calmed down.
He stared intently at the scene on the beach for a long time before suddenly uttering, "At worst, we’ll go down fighting!"
Professor Lu was stunned for a moment but did not object.
Indeed, the worst-case scenario had been anticipated by all of them three months ago.
It would come down to deploying Stab-2 and ensuring mutual destruction with the Mutated Beast army. However, Qi Yang and Ji Chuancheng had opposed such an extreme measure at the time but the dire situation they had foreseen was now unfolding before Professor Qi’s eyes—
The Mutated Beast King had not arrived!
An SS-Class Mutated Conger Eel, an SS-Class Mutated Orca, dozens of S-Class Mutated Creatures, and countless other high-level Mutated Beasts—none of these could compare to the Mutated Beast King.
After bringing the Mutated Orca's genes back for research, Qi Yang discovered that, like the Mutated Conger Eel, these super Mutated Beasts, which evolved at an astonishing speed and in unique directions, shared a peculiar trait: chaotic gene sequences.
Their chromosome counts differed from those of their ordinary counterparts, and their gene expressions exhibited characteristics of multiple species. The Mutated Conger Eel was still somewhat recognizable, but the Mutated Orca seemed almost entirely alien.
And then there was S1.
To this day, Qi Yang has yet to determine S1's species.
Having imprisoned S1 for several months, the Research Institute had amassed more genetic data and blood analysis on this Mutated Beast King than on any other high-level Mutated Creature. However, once these samples were removed from the creature’s body, they became useless and yielded no results.
It was as if something mysterious and unfathomable existed solely within the Mutated Beast itself—something that had yet to be discovered—and was the root cause of its extraordinary mutations.
The human front had retreated to a position close to the dam.
The most elite teams from Group A to Group G formed a defensive net in pairs, one to cover the retreat of those behind them, and the other to buy time for the artillery units on the dam to kill a few more Mutated Beasts.
However, Jing Xia and Ji Chuancheng did not follow the retreat.
The outermost line of defense was composed of Evolved Beings from Group A and Group B.
The former was Ji Chuancheng's personal guard that was currently led by Yu Kai, while the latter gathered the top forces among the external Evolved Beings, including an earth-based Evolved Being whose strength was on par with Ji Chuancheng.
"Hold the tail!" Yu Kai shouted.
Jing Xia and three members of Group A were positioned at the tail of the Mutated Orca.
Without hesitation, they all climbed onto the slippery body of the beast before unleashing their Special Abilities and using various methods to firmly anchor the orca's tail into the ground.
"Screech!!!"
A sharp, icy barrage of water-based attacks shot out from the enraged orca's mouth that were directly aimed at Ji Chuancheng and Yu Kai. However, the two showed no fear.
Yu Kai even laughed heartily before splitting off with Ji Chuancheng to dodge the attack.
After prolonged battles with Ji Chuancheng, the once calm and collected Mutated Orca had turned into a fiery Tyrannosaurus Rex. When it realized where it had shot, the Conger Eel angrily turned and roared, "You damn Tiger! I came to save you, and you dare attack me!"
The orca immediately calmed down as it realized that it had fallen into a trap.
At its original speed, even if Ji Chuancheng and Yu Kai had dodged, it could have turned and fired again. But its tail had been pinned down by Jing Xia and the others for dozens of seconds!
Those precious seconds left it no room to maneuver, and it ended up puncturing the already charred tail of the Conger Eel with several more holes.
The Mutated Orca was well aware of the humans' tactics—simply to sow discord and turn them against each other.
"Xiao Kang, calm down! Let's hold off these elite humans first, so they can't go to the rescue!"
The Conger Eel snorted two puffs of white air. Although its tail was still throbbing with pain, it didn't object to the orca's plan.
Jing Xia couldn't help but find it amusing: these two Mutated Beasts were boldly discussing their strategy in the middle of the human camp and using human language.
Was that really okay? Were they really that confident?!
But this was a misunderstanding on Jing Xia's part.
The orca indeed wanted to use a non-human language to plan with the Conger Eel, but the truth was, the brain of this Mutated Conger Eel was so dull that it could only speak human language and the bubble talk of its own Conger Eel family!
And the former was something it had been forced to learn under the orca's command.
If it weren't for S1's ruthless methods, the Conger Eel would probably still only know a few words like "bugs" and "humans."
Group A, the elite Evolved Beings of the S City Base, were now entangled with the Mutated Orca.
Group B, the elite forces from outside the S City Base, were also tied up by the Mutated Conger Eel and unable to break free.
This stalemate was precisely what the humans did not want to see.
These two Mutated Beasts were indeed formidable foes, but the elite Evolved Beings that were capable of taking on a hundred enemies each, had far more significant roles than merely holding them off.
Whenever one of them attempted to break away to aid other humans being chased by Mutated Beasts, the Conger Eel or the Killer Whale would immediately unleash their immense power to block their path.
The stalemate on the battlefield seemed unbreakable for the moment.
Apart from the two SS-level Mutated Beasts and the two groups of human elites still locked in fierce combat, the other Mutated Beasts had already driven the humans to within 500 meters of the embankment.
The battle had shifted from an initial balance to a situation where humans were on the defensive and the Mutated Beasts were on the offensive, all too quickly for anyone to react.
Professor Qi watched as an elite from Group B was struck by a Thunderbolt from the Conger Eel, losing their right leg, and then saw the Mutated Beast army pressing the other Evolved Beings to within 100 meters of the embankment.
And he could no longer hold back.
"Lieutenant Chen, bring over the Stab-1 equipment." Professor Qi ordered. After a pause, he raised his right hand but hesitated for a long moment in mid-air, and then sighed, "And bring Stab-2 as well."
A white-coated assistant, hearing this was momentarily stunned and leaned in to whisper, "Professor, are we not waiting for Major Qi?"
Professor Qi let out a deep sigh as a bitter smile appeared on his wrinkled face, "I know that little monster too well. If he could have done it, he would have been here by now and not waiting until this moment. And even if he had truly developed Stab-3 to the explosive range he mentioned, he would still not use it."
The assistant asked in confusion, "Why?"
Professor Qi looked up to gaze at the Evolved Beings fighting valiantly, "A single Stab-3 shell within that explosive range, could only kill one Mutated Beast. He didn't develop Stab-3 just for this battle, but for humanity."
The assistant, still bewildered, scratched his head but Professor Lu naturally understood his old friend's meaning, "That little monster once said that the most challenging part of Stab-3 is the shell. It must surpass the attack power of Stab-2 while reducing the effective range to a diameter of ten meters. At this point, the gun is not the most important; it's the bullet."
Professor Qi nodded and continued, "What he wants to kill is not that SS-level Mutated Conger Eel, nor that SS-level Mutated Orca. Perhaps the only thing worthy of humanity using Stab-3 even without the possibility of testing it first is that one..."
"King of Mutated Beasts."
The assistant finished Professor Qi's sentence, then also deflated with his head hang in silence.
The researchers who had chosen not to evacuate to the emergency shelter and follow Professor Qi, now looked despondently at the blood-stained scene on the beach with their hearts heavy with sorrow.
If you were to ask these young people who they admired the most?
It wasn't the stern and solemn Professor Qi, the de facto head of the Research Institute, nor the kind and approachable Professor Lu, who could be a mentor. Instead, it was that eccentric, neurotic, sharp-tongued, and ruthless... Major Qi.
Such is the genius of youth.
These researchers were all top-tier geniuses before the apocalypse.
Whether it was a 12-year-old Ph.D. graduate, a 10-year-old international science award winner, or a 20-year-old planet namer, such elite talents had always been well-protected by the Chinese government, and they truly possessed remarkable talents.
But when they truly encountered the unparalleled genius of the Chinese military...
They were utterly outmatched.
They couldn't compete in academics, they couldn't match in research, and even in looks... well, at first, they were on par or even slightly better. But who knew what that freak had done to himself as he turned into a pretty boy!
These incidents were somewhat of a joke in the high-pressure environment of the Research Institute. But even though they knew on the surface that Major Qi was a carefree, irreverent freak, these young researchers still held a glimmer of hope in their hearts—
Perhaps this man could develop Stab-3 at the last moment and turn the tide!
Just like he did during the first Beast Tide War, when a single, magnificent high-torque strong electric nuclear magnetic cannon completely reversed the course of the battle!
But... this time, it seemed they were really overthinking it.
"Hey?! Who's that?!" a sudden exclamation rang out with the voice of a young female researcher.
The other young elites no longer had the energy to care about what was happening.
Because the worst-case scenario was just the deployment of Stab-2 and leading to their mutual destruction with the super Mutated Beasts.
But when a red-eyed researcher accidentally looked up and saw the figures standing atop the high embankment, he shouted in shock, "Major Qi?!" Everyone else, equally horrified, rushed to the windows and strained to see the tiny figure in the distance.
The researcher who recognized Qi Yang was one of the few Evolved Beings in the Institute.
His Evolution was visual, though not highly advanced but it was perfectly useful in this moment.
There, standing tall on the 60-meter-high beach embankment with his white clothes billowing in the wind, was none other than Qi Yang... and beside him, Zhang Bendan.