Chapter 80: Li Gang's Mutation

Pain, it is truly painful.

Li Gang feels as if thousands of ants are gnawing at the muscles all over his body; gnawing is one thing, but they are gnawing while moving, what the hell is this.

"Boss, how about I just, just, damn it, fuck! I'll just stay here by myself, I want to curse!"

It is not that he has never experienced pain; back then, when his arm suffered a comminuted fracture and his whole body was covered in wounds, his teammates carried him out of the primeval forest, and the torment in between was not light either.

Even during team training, there were times he was so sore all over that he would tremble while peeing...

But all of these combined cannot compare to the "tossing and turning" that is about to flip his body upside down right now.

"You're quite concerned about your image," Liu Mu says, having just finished laying out the supplies she might need, looking back at him.

"This is only just the beginning, endure it. By the way, when your body repairs itself later, your bones will likely be restructured; if you really can't stand it, I can knock you out."

Li Gang rolls over on the ground; under the pale illumination light, sweat mixed with dust covers his head and face.

"Boss, sister, let's just say, can't we use a painkiller?"

"Don't even dream about it. First, I don't inject anesthesia; if I don't master the dosage, you'll lose your life. Second, anesthesia is very expensive and basically impossible to get now; don't you know that from treating illnesses in the Barrier?"

Ruthlessly dispelling Li Gang's hope, Liu Mu says even more ruthless words, "The Mutation process cannot stop, and you might need more Red Mist in the middle; you had best prepare yourself mentally from now on to face any possibility."

Li Gang stops rolling and lies on the ground, doing his utmost to relax his body, his jaws clenched tight, "I can, do it!"

Fearing he might not hold on if he keeps stubbornly enduring, Liu Mu feels a sliver of sympathy and thinks for a moment, saying, "Sing a song; don't your armies always sing? Think about the days before, when your body was healthy, when you had something to look forward to."

The eyes of the man on the ground brighten slightly, and he actually starts singing intermittently, "Cold wind drifts, falling leaves, the army is a green flower, my dear, comrade-in-arms, you, you don't, miss home..."

Liu Mu takes out a sterilized metal syringe, breaks an ampoule, and draws the emerald-green liquid medicine inside into the syringe.

"This is an Inducer; don't ask about the source, if you ask, it's confidential."

She stabs the needle directly into Li Gang's waist, quickly pushing the medicine in amidst his pained cries, and pretends, "Ah, I forgot to say in advance, this has to be injected directly into the kidney. Don't worry, the kidney won't have any problems."

The man on the ground is already in too much pain to speak, with only the melody carved into his soul humming in his mouth.

To be honest, compared to the Mutation of those young people like Yang Pingxi before, Li Gang's process is bound to be more painful, but his performance is much better than theirs.

Those few had their nerves paralyzed by mycelium, and for the greater part of the Mutation process, their consciousness was unclear, which could be considered a blessing in disguise.

Liu Mu sees Li Gang's skin gradually turning red and knows the critical moment has begun; sure enough, she hears the bones in his arms and thighs clicking and clacking.

【Heitao A online, biological Mutation detected nearby, would you like to enable vital sign monitoring?】

【Enable it, do you have any suggestions?】 Most of what Liu Mu is doing now does not need to rely on the system.

A perfectly good recycling system has almost been reduced to a storage and isolation space, which makes her, someone who likes to maximize the value of things, feel it is a waste.

【Vital sign monitoring enabled, practical data for normal human Mutation stages is being read and verified; would you like to generate a medication usage list based on existing data?】

Liu Mu is very clear about this data; it comes from the records of human Awakening of abilities and animal Mutation in the apocalypse of her previous life.

But now, Li Gang is neither Awakening nor is he an animal being mutated by the environment, so she is a bit hesitant.

【Enable it, if the situation is different, recalculate. Sigh, Xiao A, we don't have much medicine left, do we?】

In the apocalypse, even when it has already entered the fourth decade, medicine—especially the kind needed during human Awakening—remains extremely scarce and is almost entirely in the hands of the high-ranking officials in various Barriers.

The supplies she managed to get were exchanged by their entire team using Crystals, and since they are stored with her, they are hers.

With the assistance of Heitao A, Li Gang's level of pain should have been reduced somewhat.

His old and new wounds were reshaped in just five minutes; seeing that he is about to lose consciousness from the pain, Liu Mu kindly says, "Congratulations, Gangzi, your bones have already regrown. Try moving them and see if they are the same as before?"

A flash of light passes through Li Gang's dull eyes, which had been tortured into lifelessness. It was precisely because of the injury to his arm that his career was ruined, and he even became a retired soldier receiving a disability pension.

Now, he lets out a muffled groan, lifts his right hand, makes a fist, releases it, makes a fist, releases it again, and finally hammers hard against his own previously fractured leg...

Well, aside from the original pain of the Mutation, there is indeed no longer that needle-pricking and tearing sensation from the bones; he smiles weakly, "Sister Xiao Mu, I'm a little hungry."

He had eaten three big bowls of rice and a big bowl of stewed meat for dinner, but in less than half an hour, he feels ravenously hungry, wanting to tear into something and swallow it to fill that black-hole-like emptiness.

"Normal, the Mutation process consumes a lot of the body," Liu Mu, who had long been prepared, unscrews a bottle of Nutrient Solution and pours it into his mouth while pinching Li Gang's chin.

Gulp, gulp, it is empty soon, and Liu Mu does not continue.

"This is concentrated Nutrient Solution; drinking it will help you hold on for a while."

Regardless of Li Gang's skills, his body is still just an ordinary human body in terms of the conditions for Mutation; for this kind of concentrate provided to apocalyptic ability users, an ordinary person only needs to drink one or two mouthfuls to get a day's worth of nutrition and calories.

This is also the reason why she is so stingy, except when using it for herself and Niu Boyi.

Li Gang only feels a fishy and astringent taste rolling from his mouth into his throat, and the places it touches burn slightly, as if it were some kind of weak acid.

Fortunately, his current sense of taste cannot overcome the pain in his body; he does not vomit it out, and after drinking it all, the hunger indeed vanishes in an instant.

It is just that the discomfort and pain show no signs of dissipating.

Li Gang's consciousness gradually becomes blurred; he has a dream, seeing his late grandmother planting vegetable seedlings in the courtyard of their old home.

He sees the day he went to join the army again; his grandmother was wearing his Dahonghua, and she wanted to wipe away tears but was afraid Li Gang would not leave with peace of mind, so she held back, only urging him repeatedly to take good care of himself while away.

Then came the army recruit training, then the selection into the special forces, then another selection from the special forces, and finally, entering the special operations team.

Next, naturally, came the missions.

In all kinds of missions, bloody corpses were everywhere; he also learned to kill, and even after killing, he could chat and laugh with his teammates and eat meat in big mouthfuls.

"Kill! Captain, let me go, I guarantee I'll complete the mission!"

"Cold wind drifts, falling leaves, the army is a green flower..."

He starts humming the tune again.

What surprises Liu Mu is that even under these circumstances, Li Gang does not sing a single word wrong.

"It's about time for recovery to begin."