Chapter 47: Settling a Private Grudge First

"No!" Liu Mu was waiting for someone, "Let's settle a private grudge first."

Niu Boyi did not quite understand why his Master would make enemies with people just after arriving at this Base, but killing those beasts was certainly more interesting than killing people.

Human bodies were so weak; one bite would snap them in two, the texture was crunchy, and the taste was better than beasts.

If Liu Mu knew that Niu Boyi was already comparing textures, she would definitely slap a big palm across its head.

However, those two people did not make her wait too long; when the squad behind one of the bunkers suffered casualties, the two who had previously snatched Liu Fugui's watch filled the gap.

"You can go now, but don't kill anyone."

Niu Boyi had not received specific instructions regarding the targets of the revenge, but Gouzi did not care; it could finally go out and slaughter!

Of course, Liu Mu would not kill the soldiers either; she just wandered nearby, driving the Mutated Beasts to attack a certain target, and then she would go over to 'rescue' them.

The wild dogs had not grown larger in size, but all the fur on their bodies had fallen off, their original skin had become dark and smooth, their original ears had turned into two retractable soft tentacles for attacking, and the muscles of their faces and mouths protruded in a very uncoordinated way, increasing their bite force several times over.

Their four limbs were the same as normal hind legs, with the upper part muscular and the lower part thin and bony, and white sharp claws grew on their feet; they had completely undergone Mutation.

The steel pipe in Liu Mu's hand broke after only two exchanges due to striking the wild dogs' heads, so she had to take out her Dog-leg Knives; this time, it was dual blades.

Dealing with beasts did not require many moves; it was a contest of speed and strength. Once you spotted the vital point, one strike was basically enough to move on to the next one. Of course, this was hard for ordinary melee fighters to achieve; besides her strength and speed being several times that of a normal person, the visual advantage she had just discovered also gave her great assistance.

The wild dogs were almost in slow motion within her field of vision, so she could kill one with every strike, taking at most two exchanges to kill one.

Coupled with Niu Boyi easily pouncing and killing nearby, the two of them did not know that such combat power directly shocked everyone.

Even Song Yulin, who was controlling the overall battle situation from upstairs, felt her heart race, but she remained calm, continuously issuing orders to adjust her personnel deployment based on the actions of Liu Mu and Niu Boyi.

The focus was simple: let Liu Mu and her companion handle the tough nuts to crack.

This point was quickly discovered by Liu Mu, so she also changed her strategy, directly giving up her position and letting a large number of Mutated Animals charge straight at the defensive fortifications.

"It's impossible to suffer a loss," Liu Mu's blade intentionally veered half an inch, and the wild dog, enraged by the wound, pounced toward the two soldiers behind the bunker who had snatched the Rolex.

At the same time, she was also prepared to retreat, because after the wild dogs, she saw a large number of Mutated Rats.

The two soldiers were gone; Liu Mu hacked the wild dog to death with a few slashes, stripped the gold watch from the soldier's severed arm, stuffed it into her pocket, and retreated while fighting.

Regarding the Black Rain, these animals were more sensitive than humans; Liu Mu would not find it strange if more varieties came, it was just...

She looked up at Song Yulin, who was commanding from the rooftop; this leader seemed to have been preserving her strength and did not care much about the lives of the Survivors, so what was she protecting?

After a brief eye contact, the expression on Song Yulin's face did not change in the slightest, and Liu Mu made up her mind; she was not someone who would risk her life for others, let alone the fact that the people here had almost nothing to do with her.

The Truck parked in the distance was filled with scrap and had not been attacked; the direction of her fighting kept changing, and she was already prepared to slip away. It was just that Niu Boyi, who was unilaterally slaughtering these Mutated Animals, was having too much fun and could not quite keep up with Liu Mu's call.

In just a few minutes, Song Yulin discovered Liu Mu's direction of movement and guessed her intention, "Send another team to guard the right side of the gate; don't let that person and dog leave."

The subordinate who received the order had an objection, "There are Mutated Animals approaching the back gate as well; we need more firepower support."

"Do not waste ammunition," a cold light flashed in Song Yulin's eyes, "These people will be sent away sooner or later; our Base is not a shelter, we don't need people without value."

The subordinate originally wanted to argue further, but left in a hurry after being glanced at by Song Yulin.

That's right, the purpose of this Base was not to take in Refugees; Song Yulin did not care about the life or death of these people at all. Including now, what she wanted to protect was not the Refugees in the Base, but what was being built beneath the Base.

The orders she received were different from Yang Shuo's; scientific research was the future of this Base and the future of all mankind; it was impossible to waste more resources on these useless Refugees.

The General Command's order to relocate Refugees had already been issued; the future Haicheng Barrier would be built with the Yang Shuo Base as the core and would provide comprehensive security for the research base after it was fully completed.

Almost all the troops under her command were engaged in the construction of underground fortifications; this was also the reason why there were few soldiers on the surface and the security was lax.

As for Liu Mu's dog, Song Yulin had not received relevant intelligence before, but one look was enough to know that this would be an excellent Experimental Subject.

Whether Liu Mu was willing or not, that was not important; when necessary, she could also be a dead person.

Inside the Stadium, Liu Fugui took 110 Zhou Shuying and her daughter, and 108 He Qizheng and his wife, to find a place to hide. Unlike other small groups in the Base, they had always been very low-key; besides not wanting to attract trouble, they also wanted to figure out the situation in the surrounding area.

Everyone was indeed very panicked in the first two days after arriving, but after Liu Fugui found them and told them what to do in the future, the two families felt as if they had found their backbone and listened to everything this former Boss said.

When Liu Fugui returned, he casually told a familiar-looking soldier about the news of the Mutated Animals, and then entered the crowd that was still unaware, quietly leading his people toward the back of the Stadium.

They did not want to leave through the back door; one could imagine that the Mutated Animals could not possibly be coming from only one direction.

Just as they were low-key exploring, they discovered a few days ago that the elevator near the east side door of the Stadium was still running, and the fire escape next to it was guarded by special soldiers who did not allow anyone to approach.

But Liu Fugui had spent a few days giving things and acting weak to get familiar with the soldiers guarding here; one afternoon, he treated the soldiers to cigarettes, and 108 He Qizheng took the opportunity to walk a distance underground through the fire escape.

According to what he said after coming out, there was a very large space below, which looked no smaller than the Stadium above. There were many soldiers working inside, but he did not dare to go too deep and only looked from the sidelines, not knowing what these people were actually doing.

Afterwards, Liu Fugui guessed that they must be working on something important below, and the Base's main military force was not protecting them, the Refugees, but what was below; therefore, it was safer below than above.

Originally, they just wanted to get as close to the east gate as possible, thinking that if the Mutated Animals really got in, these soldiers would actively resist to protect the space below, and then they might have a chance to survive.

But when they arrived, they found that the guarding soldiers had also been transferred to fight, and the fire escape and elevator entrance were empty.

"The camera locations have all been figured out; A Zheng, you lead the way in front, be sharp, I'll walk at the very back."

Liu Fugui's symptoms of being flabby would not disappear so quickly; walking a bit faster made it easy for him to make loud breathing sounds, wheezing and panting, which was worrying.

"Okay, Boss," He Qizheng used to mainly move and deliver goods; besides having strength and being good at driving, he also had the advantage of being good at remembering the locations of things.

Ever since Liu Fugui told him to keep in mind the surveillance and various exit locations in the Stadium, he had been paying attention.

The five of them successfully passed through the fire escape; there was no surveillance on the spacious stairs, but there was one on the left side of the exit, so they could only try to walk against the wall, as this was a blind spot.

Liu Fugui's destination was not the spacious underground space, but a utility room down the fire escape; it was more than ten meters from the ground and was a room originally configured in the Stadium for storing miscellaneous items, and it was also the most inconspicuous one.

The small door was locked; several people looked at Liu Fugui silently. Having run a hardware store for half his life, he knew the structure of various locks very well and once joked that if the hardware store couldn't stay open, he could still do door-to-door locksmithing.

Now it was finally put to use; when they went out to find supplies, they had been to the hardware store a few times and brought back some small tools that were not easily discovered.

He took out a small screwdriver and fiddled with the keyhole of the padlock a few times; the lock made a slight sound, and the shackle popped out.

The group was overjoyed, and 108 He Qizheng was about to push the door open immediately, but Liu Fugui heard an unusual sound amidst their cautious breathing, "Wait a minute!"

He reached out to stop him, but it was too late; the door was pushed open a crack, and before they could dodge, something behind the door slammed into them.

The iron door knocked the two people in front flying, and the three behind were not spared either, being smashed to the ground.

Eight-year-old Ning Xia opened her mouth to cry, but was covered by her mother, 110 Zhou Shuying, who coaxed her in a low voice, "Be good, baby, you can't cry, you can't cry, it will attract bad people."

Large tears slid from Ning Xia's terrified big eyes, and she raised her small hand, pointing inside the door, without making any more sound.

The few people who had not yet climbed up looked over in unison, and then a terrified female scream broke the horror that had left them almost unable to move.

Liu Fugui was the first to react, "Run!"

As he stood up, he scooped up eight-year-old Ning Xia in his arms, not caring if he would be discovered, and the group ran outward in a disheveled panic.

Behind them, in that room, it was packed with people—no, to be precise, those could not be considered people.

Their pupils were grey-white, their flesh and blood rotting, and their foul-smelling, festering bodies were covered in excess tissues and organs. At just a single glance, one could clearly see that some had already turned into the likeness of animals: dog heads on human bodies, rat limbs, snake-like skin, and twisted appendages that made one's scalp tingle.

Originally, they had been locked up by iron chains, but those chains had been corroded by the secreted mucus, and combined with catching the scent of living people, they easily broke free from their restraints during the riot.

He Qizheng's wife was so frightened she lost all her strength and slipped several times, forcing him to carry her on his back and chase frantically after Liu Fugui and the mother and daughter, Zhou Shuying, who had already run far ahead.

When they were secretly gathering information, they had heard about Mutation many times, and later heard that the military had been attacked by Mutated Animals several times while out on missions, but they had never seen it with their own eyes; this counted as gaining some experience.

The commotion behind them made one's scalp tingle; Liu Fugui was truly desperate to save his life, and despite his poor stamina, he was actually running at the very front. Not hearing familiar footsteps, he turned his head and shouted, "What are you doing? Run! Don't dawdle if you don't want to die!"

Zhou Shuying was about ten meters away from him, and seven or eight meters behind her was He Qizheng, who had just carried his wife on his back.

It was no small matter that Liu Fugui looked back; the little girl in his arms finally began to scream. Right behind He Qizheng, a hand covered in sharp claws chased after him, and it looked like it was about to strike his scalp.

"Little He!" He wanted to warn him, but it was already too late. He Qizheng's wife also noticed the danger and shifted her body to the side, just in time to watch as He Qizheng's scalp was torn open by that festering, sharp-clawed hand.

"Ah!" The scream was short; it was emitted by He Qizheng's wife. The three people behind only saw her body being swallowed by a monster that looked like a wall. She used her hands and feet, trying to grab onto He Qizheng, but before she could exert any force, only one hand remained clinging to her husband's arm.

A living person, gone right before their eyes.

He Qizheng clutched his head, wanting to save her but not knowing where to begin.

"Go!" Just then, he was violently yanked backward by someone, "Run! Hua'er is gone!"

Liu Fugui shouted loudly. He Qizheng was pulled into a stagger; the torn scalp pained him so much he could barely hear anything, and one eye was matted shut by his own blood, but he still understood that Liu Fugui had come to save him.

He immediately stopped thinking about it, and while calling out his wife's nickname, he followed along and ran!

The monster emitted a thick, fishy, rotting stench. After Liu Fugui shoved Ning Xia to Zhou Shuying, he still risked danger to save the couple, and only after getting close did he see clearly in the dim light what that thing was.

It was the same thing that had run out of the utility room earlier, only unlike the individuals that could be distinguished before, this thing seemed to be all the monsters in the room fused into one, rolling like a giant ball. The larger its volume, the slower its speed, but one thing was very clear: it ate people!

The four of them stumbled and climbed up the fire escape stairs, and just as they were about to reach the exit, several pitch-black gun barrels appeared before them, "Who goes there!?"

Amidst the stern shouts, they were forced to stop. Zhou Shuqin held the child tightly, "Help! There's a monster, the monster is going to eat people, save us!"

Liu Fugui was also a coward; if it weren't for his deep feelings for the others, he wouldn't have risked his life to save He Qizheng just now. Seeing the soldiers, he also followed suit and shouted for help.

But seeing that those gun barrels had no intention of moving away at all, he fell into despair.

That rumor secretly circulating in the Base was true; it was these people who kept the monsters locked up below. Had they never thought about what would happen if the monsters escaped and ate them, the Survivors?

Of course they had thought about it, but they simply didn't care!

Since they didn't even care about the lives of thousands of Survivors, would they care about the few of them?

Impossible; it now seemed they would even be silenced.

"We came in by accident, sirs, sirs, let's talk this over," Liu Fugui blocked the women, children, and the wounded, pulling out a smile uglier than crying, "It's me, Number 103, brother, didn't we smoke together yesterday? Let us pass, that monster..."

"What monster?" The soldier leading the team revealed a cruel smile, his eyes staring straight at Liu Fugui. The latter immediately understood, "Nothing! There's nothing! We didn't see any monster, brother, Captain brother, we didn't see anything at all, we never came down here today."

"Hmph, it seems you know quite a lot," the Captain raised his hand, and just as he was about to give the order to kill, a loud crash suddenly came from behind.

The double fire doors were violently forced open, and immediately after, a massive dog head poked in, its large eyeballs rolling around to search, and only after seeing the people did it let out two low, rumbling growls.