Chapter 122: Her Fear

The steamship rounded the cape; it was already midnight.

In the cloud-covered sky, one could faintly see the North Star, shining right above the protruding rocks of the cape.

Atop the dark gray rocks, two figures—one large, one small—stood side by side, their silhouettes cast in deep black by the ship's lights.

"Yahoo! My dear friend!" Liu Mu stood on the maintenance platform of the smokestack, giving the illusion that she was standing above the mist.

The light shone upon her as well, gilding her slender black silhouette with a layer of gold, imbuing it with a touch of... human radiance.

How to put it?

Li Gang put it this way: "How is it that she looks kind of cool?"

Gouzi said: "Woof woof woof, as expected of my Master! Awoo~!"

The howl was so loud it left Li Gang helplessly covering his ears, yet it gave the nervous crowd on the ship the illusion of seeing the moon through the clouds.

It was just a pity that when they looked up, they still could not see the full moon.

The sea breeze stirred the rain; Li Gang raised a hand to stop Niu Boyi's massive "greeting."

"Brother Gou, I know you're happy the Boss is safe, but don't be happy too soon..."

Li Gang shook his head hard to clear the dizziness from the roar, then let out a long sigh. "Do I really have to say it?"

Niu Boyi, having shut his dog mouth, let his ears droop. "Let's just go home; there definitely won't be any survivors."

"I think so too, but I'm afraid the Boss won't be able to take it." Li Gang turned around, his raincoat, like a black robe, fluttering in the sea breeze; his back looked heavy with worry.

The ship docked at the pre-planned bay; the people on board looked at the one person and one dog appearing below, terrified and not knowing what to do.

Most of them came from remote mountain villages or dark, sunless factories; they knew something major had happened to the world, but this was their first time seeing a dog larger than an adult elephant.

Liu Mu had only brought Hong off the ship; when Li Gang came to meet them, he introduced the two sides.

Facing Niu Boyi, Hong did not show much surprise; his Laboratory was filled with mutants, and the mutation of other animals was within his expectations.

Li Gang, however, was a bit curious about this child. "You say he is Red Flower? Isn't he a bit too weak?"

"I am responsible for the research portion, not a combatant for the Sky Viper," the twelve-year-old child did not feel looked down upon, just explained with a cold attitude, then asked, "Where are your people?"

This was also what Liu Mu wanted to know, but she did not ask immediately; she was somewhat pessimistic about the current state of the Special Action Team.

"Have they already evacuated?"

Li Gang met Liu Mu's eyes, and after a long moment, he shook his head slightly. "Something happened. A large area of Red Mist suddenly appeared in the valley. I couldn't get in, and they... haven't come out."

During the raid, his task as a sniper was to observe and provide support from the perimeter; neither he nor Niu Boyi had participated in the battle at close range. The moment the Red Mist appeared, he moved away from the observation point, intending to discuss countermeasures with Liu Mu, but only found Niu Boyi wandering the coastline.

Through difficult "communication," he learned that Liu Mu had gone to the ship alone; there was nothing he could do but wait.

Now that she had returned, over twenty hours had passed, yet the Red Mist in the valley showed no signs of dissipating.

"Red Mist?" Liu Mu's expression changed instantly, and she sprinted toward the valley. "You guard the ship."

Her words were blurred by the air; Li Gang patted Niu Boyi. "Go help her."

Gouzi had been unhappy about Liu Mu leaving him behind, but at Li Gang's call, he let out a heavy "wooroo" before following.

"Little friend, let's get to know each other again." Li Gang draped an arm over Hong's shoulder. "What exactly was your Sky Viper's New World Plan again?"

Hong suddenly looked up, staring straight into Li Gang's eyes through his thick black bangs. Seeing the other's certainty and threat, he slowly lowered his head again. "Big Sister knows too, right? Are you testing me?"

He had clearly misunderstood something; Li Gang naturally wouldn't explain, only leading him toward the ship. "Call her Boss. Besides, she's the second sister, not the big sister, right?"

"Then... who is the big sister?" Hong looked up again, a flash of murderous intent in his eyes.

Li Gang slowly lowered his arm, no longer showing the kindness he had for a child. "I advise you not to think about touching the Boss's big sister; she will tear you to pieces."

—Besides, Xu Xiaofeng is the girl I've got my eye on; you brat, being this sinister, aren't you afraid I'll take action right now?

"I won't kill people the big... the Boss values," Hong turned his face away, quite dissatisfied, his whole body filled with a gloom that did not belong to a youth. "The New World Plan has already been initiated; you are a step late, and it cannot be stopped."

"Whether it can be stopped or not, the Boss doesn't care. Just explain the aftermath, so the Boss doesn't have to find time to ask," Li Gang didn't know much, but after following Liu Mu for these days, besides cutting weeds and pulling roots, he had learned one thing—how to bluff.

No merchant is not treacherous; no treachery, no merchant.

"Xiao A, is there anything?"

On the high ground at the edge of the valley, Liu Mu stared fixedly at the surging Red Mist in the valley floor, her hanging fingers trembling slightly.

She suppressed her fear; beyond the massive area of Red Mist, there was the Special Action Team, whose survival probability was infinitely close to zero.

Even though she hadn't stayed to confirm the casualties of the explosion, the Red Mist alone was enough to claim the lives of those remaining.

Mutation?

Could the conditions for mutation be met here?

Thinking of the horrific scenes she had once witnessed, Liu Mu hesitated to take the next step.

"Master," sensing Liu Mu's fear, though he didn't know the reason, Niu Boyi pressed tightly against her; Gouzi wanted to protect his Master!

Within a sufficiently close distance, Liu Mu, Niu Boyi, and the system could communicate directly.

Heitao A: 【Host, the source of the Red Mist has been detected; please view the terrain perspective map. They used lead-alloy to bury the Fragment underground, bypassing external scans.】

"It was the explosion that destroyed the containment, then. These people already know how to use the Red Mist for Mutation." The latter half of the intelligence naturally came from Hong, but Liu Mu hadn't expected the Red Mist to spill out in such large quantities. "What method did they use?"

【There should be a stimulation device; it might be helpful for our research. It is recommended to recover it as soon as possible.】

Liu Mu was still hesitating, her trembling hand wiping the rainwater from her face. "What about the vitals? Are there any... signs of life?"

"Woof woof woof, I really hope Captain is still alive. Master, let the doggy go in first to take a look." Niu Boyi received the information from Heitao A almost simultaneously; he could see several moving red dots gathered together.

Liu Mu saw them too; cold sweat broke out on her palms. She took a sharp breath of the icy air to suppress the trembling of her body before speaking with difficulty, "Let's go in together."

Damn it, so many years have passed, yet I still fear it like a coward. I clearly saw such a scene once on a derelict ship, and even now, I subconsciously think of it as a living hell.

Devouring each other... that is the only way out for mutants lacking nutrition. Not animals, but people—living, breathing people eating people.

Liu Mu thought she would see such a scene again, and with people she was familiar with, but when everything appeared before her eyes, she almost drew her gun to kill.

Bloody white bones were scattered over the makeshift buildings that had already been blown apart; four remained alive.

Two were fighting each other, while another was smashing its head against a wall that had already begun to Shatter.

The last one lay on the ground, where his legs should have been was a bloody, mangled mess, missing his vital lower limbs. Yet, all around him were many scraps of flesh stripped from other bodies... This man lay amidst such bloody, shredded meat, constantly emitting a repressed cry that sounded like both sobbing and laughter.

It was unclear, but he was fleeing from that flesh and blood which had come from his own kind...

【They are in the midst of Mutation, their bodies unable to obtain sufficient supplemental nutrition; the instinct to feed should have long ago swallowed their reason, but I do not understand, how are they holding back?】

"Because it belongs to their comrades."

Liu Mu stepped forward quickly; without needing her to say more, Niu Boyi went over and forcibly separated the two who were beating each other.

"I don't have much food with me, eat as much as you can."

Under Niu Boyi's powerful suppression, the four were tied up in four different directions; although they were restraining themselves, it was clear they were on the verge of a breakdown.

Such endurance might also be considered an instinct—the instinct as comrades not to harm one another!

The result of emotion battling emotion was that they did not feed on their comrades... No, that's wrong, it was offered to the Captain.

Even while in the midst of Mutation, Tan Ziyan remained their spiritual leader. But facing the piles of meat on the ground, this spiritual leader who had lost his legs had not moved a muscle either.

Liu Mu had never had such teammates before and could not understand this sentiment, but she admired people who possessed such willpower.

After getting more nutrient solution and sending a few bottles to Zhuo Qing for research, it was completely gone; now, she could only give them the cooked food brought from the Scrap Station and what she had gotten from the cold storage on the ship.

In the blood-red mist, Liu Mu sat in the middle of the group; only the mist around her struggled as if it were solid, then was sucked into the invisible space.

Niu Boyi breathed greedily; it was originally quite a distance away from its next Evolution, but that unseen system said it could try absorbing more Red Mist to see if it could evolve early, so Liu Mu did not stop it.

As for the current situation of one human and one dog, the Red Mist could hardly have much direct impact on their bodies anymore.

As their physical capabilities increased, their tolerance also kept rising; this was just how things were.

But the four people eating could not withstand Red Mist of this concentration; if it had been any later, it wouldn't just have been them breaking down and devouring each other—they might have directly turned into some inhuman thing.

As the Red Mist gathered in the valley, the food the few had eaten gradually began to take effect, and the Mutation visible on their exteriors began.

In order for the few to safely pull through, Liu Mu had no choice but to put the Giant Sun Fragment along with the device holding it into the Recovery Space.

At the same time, she also needed to clear away... the remains of the special team members; there were not many complete bodies left.

While cleaning up the latter, Liu Mu gradually realized her own shallowness; the flesh and blood offered around Tan Ziyan did not belong to his teammates.

Then, the question that could not be ignored was,

【Host, the DNA does not match the special operations team members. Who collected this meat? Was the person who collected it trying to make Colonel Tan eat it? Why?】