Chapter 123: My Mistake

"I hope he is still alive," Liu Mu could only think of one person, "Scan again. If he had time to collect these scraps of meat for his companions, he had time to hide."

The answer hardly needed guessing; it was the first person Liu Mu saw after her body was reborn—Lv Ping.

As Tan Ziyan's deputy, it was not strange for him to know information related to the Mutation; given the level of confidentiality they held, it should be said that knowing anything was normal.

But the results of the Heitao A scan still showed no living humans. It did scan quite a few plants, which were currently devouring each other; once the Mutation was successful, this valley would be occupied by the plants.

Niu Boyi was also arranged by the system to identify scents and find people. After it circled the vicinity and returned, it brought news, "The scent is very faint, winding back and forth. Doggy isn't sure if he left the valley."

Judging from the scene, Tan Ziyan and the others still had their wits about them when they mutated, knowing to collect 'food' that could replenish their body's energy as much as possible, so the possibility of him leaving alone was slim, unless some other incident occurred.

But no matter what the incident was, it could not change the fact—Lv Ping had inhaled the Red Mist. His comrades were all mutating, and he could not let go of them; between the two options of Mutation and death, the result leaned toward the latter.

... Liu Mu remembered the young man named Qizai from before, who had become a ball of flesh after his Mutation failed.

As for him, I'm afraid there won't even be a corpse left, just 'good stuff' that destroys the body and wipes away all traces.

But this cruel deduction should not be told to the few people present for the time being.

The microparticles that made up the Red Mist seemed to have an attractive force between them; the Red Mist in the entire valley was like a huge, tangled ball of yarn—as long as a few strands were pulled, the whole lot could be sucked away.

The process took nearly two hours, and when the Red Mist in the ruins was cleared, the rain grew heavier.

The Mutation of Tan Ziyan and the remaining three was still ongoing, but at this moment, the two who had been fighting each other suddenly showed a violent rejection reaction.

The food they had eaten was vomited out, along with body fluids; their convulsing bodies kept squeezing inward, and soon the vomit turned into fragments of internal organs...

Liu Mu currently had no effective medicine to control the Mutation, so she could only inject them with a large amount of sedative, hoping to let their bodies quiet down.

But, in less than ten minutes, both lost their vital signs.

Two shriveled skins remained; their internal organs, fat, and muscles had been almost entirely squeezed out of their bodies, and what squeezed them was the skin, which had exceeded five centimeters in thickness after the Mutation.

It was like a fig that had been squeezed hard; the scene was nauseating.

Liu Mu expressionlessly confirmed that the camera she had set up earlier was working, then took out her phone and carefully took photos of those two piles of things.

This was Mutation; it was crueler and more dangerous than human Natural Awakening.

But the main reason this time... was inhaling an excessive amount of Red Mist!

The broken Base still had the scent of Red Mist; the residual amount was not much, but Liu Mu could smell it. She watched the other two nervously, her eyes full of worry.

Tan Ziyan regained his senses after the two died one after another. His pair of thighs had snapped cleanly from the middle; at this moment, a layer of transparent membrane had grown over the huge wound, stopping the bleeding, and one could even see the flesh, blood, and bone marrow inside pulsing rhythmically.

"Are there others?"

He seemed to know what had happened and accepted the status quo very calmly.

Liu Mu focused the camera in this direction, turned back to meet Tan Ziyan's stiff, ashen face, and unable to control her emotions, could only answer with gestures.

She pointed at the two of them, meaning that it was only the two of them.

The other one was the soldier who had been banging his head against the wall to restrain himself earlier; she recognized him but had barely spoken to him, and his name should have been something like Jie.

She didn't remember his surname.

"Two," Tan Ziyan looked around unwillingly; except for the sound of rain hitting his aching brain, it could be said to be deathly silent.

They hadn't expected the Sky Viper to choose to perish together so decisively; this kind of situation was the worst, the hardest to deal with, and the casualties were the greatest.

The bombs the opponent had set were too dense, and the protective gear on their bodies was simply insufficient to cope.

"No," Liu Mu sighed softly, her eyes drooping, "He won't make it either. You are the only survivor."

Tan Ziyan looked over in a panic; the young man who had been frantically eating food was now letting out a desperate wail from deep in his throat.

His movements suddenly stopped, then his body began to curl up, and he just fell to the ground and stopped moving.

In just a few seconds, his vital signs disappeared.

"It is my mistake."

Liu Mu felt as if someone was blowing air into her heart, making it swell and ache; it was guilt, and she could barely breathe, "I'm sorry, I will find a way to compensate you."

"... Compensation," Tan Ziyan picked up the frozen meat, took a bite, and made a crunching sound. Amidst this sound, he smashed a fist hard against his broken leg, "From the day we put on our uniforms, sacrifice was the destined ending. Liu Mu, this is the fate of a soldier, and it is a real war. You cannot be blamed, nor can anyone else; it was our choice, and it is the end of the Special Operations Team."

In a sense, choosing to join the Special Operations Team was choosing to give one's life, unless one was crippled like Tan Ziyan was now, after which one could hide one's name and live out the remaining days.

The membrane ruptured due to the ultimate strike, and blood flowed again.

Liu Mu paused for a moment before going over to grab Tan Ziyan, who was still trying to hit himself, "It's meaningless. Self-harm, suicide—in the apocalypse, they are all meaningless. Big Brother, you said it yourself, this is war; at least you are still alive, right?"

The Stop-bleeding Coagulant did not have much effect, and the bandage she had just wrapped still quickly soaked through with blood. Liu Mu, who was always rational, finally panicked and could only take out more bandages to try to help Tan Ziyan stop the bleeding.

"It might bleed for a while. After the body finishes the Mutation, the wound will usually heal automatically. If you're lucky, you might even grow new limbs. We just need to ensure you don't die halfway, so... don't keep doing this."

Tan Ziyan let out two muffled laughs, but there was not a hint of a smile on his face; it was more like self-mockery, "Meaning? Come to think of it, since I met you, I've felt you were a very capable person. Now it seems I still underestimated you. Liu Mu, even in this situation, you can still firmly choose the most advantageous path; I truly admire you."

"I've just suffered more losses since I was young," Liu Mu tried her best to stay calm, but a trace of despair grew in her heart; Tan Ziyan's condition was not stable, and Heitao A kept issuing warnings.

They had inhaled too much Red Mist, far too much; even if they were chosen by the Mutation, they could not withstand it.

Tan Ziyan felt it even more clearly himself; something in his body was tearing at him. At first, it was his short leg that hurt, but now he felt pain everywhere.

A man bleeds but does not cry; he bit his mouth until it bled, but his great endurance was also nearing collapse.

He had to speak again, "Help me take care of your sister-in-law, Little Mu, tell her I... sacrificed for the mission. Tell her not to be sad for too long."

"In the future, the Barrier will provide compensation; tell her not to leave Haicheng easily."

His breathing became difficult, "Listen, other Barriers are fiercely competing for interests. Chief Yang is an upright man who works for the people. You, cough cough, you try to stay, absolutely do not go to the North... those people, for the sake of profit, might very well start a war..."

These were all internal confidential messages; Liu Mu naturally did not know them before. She shook her head frantically, "Big Brother, hold on! I will find a way to save you, I'll find a way right now!"

The fact was, when she found them, she had already injected the Inhibitor that Heitao A had preliminarily formulated into them, but this kind of medicine could not compete with the excessive amount of Red Mist at all.

"No need. At first, calling you 'Little Sister' was because I wanted to be able to cover for you, but now I have to... beg, beg you. I, cough cough," Tan Ziyan's mouth and nose began to bubble with blood; his Adam's apple rolled up and down as he swallowed the fresh blood, wanting to say a few more words.

"You watch yourself too, Liu Mu. Although Haicheng has the Chief, it is not as harmonious as it looks on the surface. If, if they exclude you, you go back to the Scrap Station, take your sister-in-law with you, and those facilities you hid underground... there are still many disasters to come. I, I thought I could continue to protect you all..."

"No! Tan Ziyan, hold on! I have a way to save you, Big Brother, your wife is still waiting for you at home! Aren't you planning to have children? Hold on!"

Liu Mu grabbed Tan Ziyan's neck to prevent that strange force from snapping his neck, while frantically asking Heitao A in her mind if there was any other way to save him.

The Black Rain was bitter, and Tan Ziyan's intermittent breathing was equally labored.

【The Red Mist dosage is far too high; it has already begun to dissolve his tissues. Host, the only thing I can do is use the Giant Sun Fragment to suck away part of the Red Mist so he can hold on a little longer, but the effect will not be great.】

Liu Mu flipped her palm, and a black stone fragment no larger than a fingertip appeared in it. "How do I do this?"

After she asked, she felt a scorching aura overflow from her blood vessels and enter the Fragment.

The veins on Tan Ziyan's face, who was feeling increasingly uncomfortable, bulged violently, as if black insects were emerging from beneath his skin.

"Use the stone to cut open the blood vessel; that is the Red Mist sensing the Fragment and wanting to come out."

Liu Mu did as Heitao A said; as her skin broke, fresh blood also gushed out, splashing onto her face.

This bit of pain was no longer something Tan Ziyan could feel; he kept talking, intermittently telling Liu Mu some secrets hidden by the higher-ups. Beyond genuinely wanting to help Liu Mu, he mostly hoped the latter could look after Zhuo Qing.

His wife, Zhuo Qing, was a formidable military doctor who understood the ways of the world, but this was the apocalypse; without martial strength, how many years could she live in peace?

Moreover, the Zhuo Family was not simple. When Tan Ziyan fell in love with Zhuo Qing back then, he had to struggle desperately to earn enough military merit to be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel just to barely obtain her family's consent. Yet even so, the Zhuo Family had never looked upon the young couple with any regard over the years, never allowing them to touch the family's inner circle.

Fortunately, Zhuo Qing was also a pure person without much desire for power, so the two had left the family and lived happily for so many years.

"Stop talking, stop talking, you won't die, you can't die, Big Brother, I promised Sister-in-law I would bring you back!"

After leaving the valley following the explosion, Liu Mu simply could not face the possibility that Tan Ziyan might be dead; having returned to find him still there, how could she let go?

She did not cry, but her eyes turned red.

In the apocalypse, how many true friends can one have? Teammates who go through life and death this time might stab you in the back the next; someone like Tan Ziyan is likely someone she won't encounter many more of in this lifetime.

The Giant Sun Fragment pressed against the cut wound, slowly absorbing the Red Mist from Tan Ziyan's blood.

But as the blood flowed more and more, Tan Ziyan's condition did not improve.

Liu Mu could already feel the bones beneath her palm softening bit by bit, and the muscles were flowing like thick liquid.

"Don't, Big Brother, don't die, I beg you. If even you are gone, how could I have the face to go back?"

"Heaven Viper, New World Plan, *cough cough*, Liu Mu, grow strong, you can't hide from it, those people aren't just targeting the aliens..."

"Beware of the Jiang Family, take, take our Military Tags. If you can't get away, join the Special Team; once you join, they won't dare to touch you... you all... help me protect her..."

"Wife, I'm sorry, this time I really can't go back."

Liu Mu watched helplessly as the sturdy man turned into a pool of liquid in her hands; those dark eyes were filled with worry and unwillingness before they melted away.

Finally, he seeped into the muddy ground, and she could grasp nothing.

"Big Brother," Liu Mu's hands kept scooping up the viscous mud; apart from his clothes and personal items, there was nothing left. "Big Brother, Big Brother..."