Chapter 48: New Mutants
" " made its U-turn without trouble. The underground hall was spacious enough for the six-wheeled beast to turn around.
In only forty seconds, the nose was already pointed the right way out.
With the engine running at full power, the entire vehicle raced back along the route it had come from.
Meanwhile, split the five Robots under his control into two groups: three retreated with the , and the remaining two stayed behind.
They entered silent mode, shut off all lights, and quietly waited for the unknown monster to take the stage.
Eleven minutes later, the " " drove back to the base entrance.
The heavy blast door slowly lowered after the vehicle passed, sealing everything on the far side of the tunnel behind a wall of steel.
***
By the , the long wait finally had its result.
The two Sentinels crouched in a hollow of the rock wall, their optical lenses switched to passive infrared mode, even their indicator lights extinguished.
The Sentinels' vibration sensors detected the anomaly before their cameras did.
An extremely faint low-frequency vibration traveled down from upstream, about 0.7 hertz—far below the range of human hearing—but the frequency was strengthening.
Then ripples began to appear on the surface of the .
Not the kind caused by wind; the whole river was shaking.
The water looked as if an invisible hand were striking it again and again. Waves surged from upstream one after another, the intervals growing shorter.
Then heard a sound.
More precisely, the Sentinels' sensors received a sound—a muffled, continuous thumping from the darkness upstream.
It sounded like something enormous was forcing its way through the rock, smashing through every obstacle in its path.
The red moss-like attachments on both banks suddenly writhed violently. Spherical protrusions burst open one by one, releasing a cloud of dark red mist.
Seventeen seconds later, light appeared in the darkness upstream.
A cluster of pale, dense points of light—hundreds of them—all moving.
It took half a second to recognize what they were.
Eyes.
A creature covered in hundreds of faintly glowing eyes—it was a !
But this one was far larger than any had encountered before, and the color of its eyes was wrong too.
It squeezed in through the narrow passage upstream, its body so massive that it nearly blocked the entire cavern channel.
Its trunk, a full twelve meters long, was covered in rough gray-white skin. Six thick segmented limbs braced alternately against the riverbed and the bank walls, moving at a speed that seemed impossible for a creature that size.
But quickly realized it wasn't moving normally—it was fleeing.
saw its flanks and back covered in tears, large patches of skin peeled away to reveal dark red muscle tissue beneath.
Pale fluids oozed steadily from the wounds, dripping into the river and instantly staining the surrounding water milky white.
Right behind it came the pursuer.
The thing flowed out of the narrow passage—yes, flowed.
It had no fixed form, no clear limbs.
It looked like a huge lump of bright red, churning, writhing flesh, like a blood-colored carpet.
Flesh at its front stretched forward like tentacles, anchoring to the rock walls and riverbed, then the main body behind hauled itself forward.
Passing the red moss, the attachments swelled wildly, as if recognizing their master, and actively pressed themselves against its surface.
saw it clearly—the moss was absorbed into it.
The variant of the ( for short) let out a shriek of extremely high decibels, sending the river water churning.
It tried to flee faster, gravel kicked up by its six limbs splashing into the river.
But the front of the red flesh mass had already reached its tail.
The instant it touched, the creature let out a scream that bordered on agony, so high-pitched it echoed again and again through the enclosed space.
But it was no use. The red flesh mass had already begun to devour.
Flesh spread out from the contact point, covering it quickly like melting wax, "melting" the creature into itself bit by bit.
The creature struggled frantically, its limbs hooking the rock wall and straining forward, dragging the red mass several meters along with it.
But in the end, more fleshy tentacles wrapped around its rear limbs and pinned it in place like concrete.
From the moment it caught up to the moment it was fully swallowed, the whole process took less than two minutes.
The hundreds of eyes of the creature went out one by one. Only after the last few struggling, blinking eyes were covered by the surface of the red mass did that agonizing shriek finally vanish.
Silence returned to the cavern.
The red flesh mass stayed motionless for about thirty seconds.
Then its surface began to change.
The originally chaotic, formless flesh began to contract and condense.
It shifted from a loose, fluid state into a firmer structure.
The surface gradually hardened, the patterns became regular, and faint traces of segmental differentiation could be seen.
Yet just as it had contracted to about two-thirds of its original volume, it stopped without any warning.
Then it moved upstream, at least twice as fast as before.
Its red body slipped into the narrow passage. Its tail end swept across the river one last time, throwing up spray before disappearing into the darkness.
That was the direction of
was silent for a long time. He'd never bought any vitamins from this company—had he been missing out?
Where were they getting vitamins that strong?
He withdrew the extra attention he had assigned to those two Sentinels, but didn't let them fall back.
Since there was no danger for now, he'd leave them there as a special sentry post and keep watching.
shifted his attention back to the .
[ .]
Here.
[The test tunnel route needs major adjustment.]
Adjust it how?
[We can't dig in the direction of Hairui Biotech anymore. You design the rest and issue a new plan.]
immediately nodded.
Understood.
***
, underground garage of .
The continued running in its blue glow. Thanks to four round trips of hauling by and the others, all the and drones that had been left at the base had been shifted to this frontline mother unit.
A total of 9,721 micro-drones stood fully ready.
's consciousness hovered over the , feeling as if he had opened a game interface.
Every drone in the swarm was a piece he could move directly, and the dense red dots on the map were enemy units.
didn't waste much time and immediately began his planned operation.
Step one: with as the center, clear out a temporary safe zone within a five-hundred-meter radius.
Three hundred Worker Bees rose into the air, formed a ring at the edge of the five-hundred-meter radius, and broadcast a specific, verified sound-wave frequency.
The effect was as immediate as ever.
Ordinary zombies within the sound wave's coverage showed a clear avoidance response—first stopping in their tracks, then starting to sway irregularly, and finally moving away from the sound source.
Not fast, but consistent in direction.
Like a retreating tide, they were driven out of the residential area by the drones.
Fifteen minutes later, within the five-hundred-meter radius centered on the , the red-dot density was visibly dropping.
With the "clearing" done, the next step was "mapping."
split the nine thousand-plus drones into formations of ten, creating hundreds of operation teams, and began a carpet sweep of the buildings in the safe zone.
Building after building.
Like a true swarm, the drones filed in through shattered windows and open entry doors.
Their objective was clear: scan for vital signs, look for survivors.
Most buildings were dead. Apart from the occasional , there was nothing alive.
saw last suppers frozen on dining tables, toys scattered across the floor, desperate words stained with blood on walls.
Every image silently told of the terror and helplessness of the moment disaster struck.
It weighed on him, but he had long been mentally prepared.
He just calmly marked every noteworthy detail on the map as a reference for later cleanup and resource recovery.
When the search reached the seventeenth residential building, unexpectedly discovered something new.
In the drone feed, a silhouette clearly a size larger than an ordinary appeared in the living room on the third floor.
Its skin was a strange dark purple, and the ends of its limbs were swollen into fleshy balls as if overinflated. It moved sluggishly, each step making the old floor let out groans of strain.
It seemed completely indifferent to the approaching drone, mechanically circling in the living room.
[Suspected . Temporary designation: . Traits: immense strength, sluggish movement.]
made a note in his "monster encyclopedia."
He sent a drone lower and played the repelling sound wave.
The 's movements hitched like an old radio disrupted by noise, its huge body beginning to sway unsteadily.
A few seconds later, it crashed through the wall, dragging rubble and broken brick, staggering out of the building, perfectly following its avoidance instinct.
"So for first-stage mutants, this sound wave is very likely effective too." confirmed this point.
Meanwhile, in the stairwell of another building, the drone's thermal imaging scanned an anomalous heat source pressed against the ceiling.
Without the infrared view, an ordinary camera would only see a plain concrete surface.
The thing was extremely gaunt, like a skeleton drained of moisture. Its limb joints bent backward at angles contrary to human anatomy, and its fingers were unnaturally elongated, gripping the wall firmly like spider legs, completely motionless.
[New suspected . Temporary designation: . Traits: mimicry, climbing.]
When the sound wave sounded, the , like a startled gecko, dropped off the wall in an instant. Using all four limbs, it switched between floor and wall at extreme speed and quickly escaped beyond the sound wave's coverage.
In addition, among the fleeing horde, discovered a third kind of he had never seen before. Its body was identical to an ordinary .
The only difference was that its head was densely covered with dozens of eyeball-like growths of different sizes.
[A juvenile ?]
Though he was seeing one for the first time, immediately connected this to the giant monster " " he had once faced—it was as though the missing link in the evolutionary chain had been filled in.
Under the continued interference of the sound wave, this "many-eyed " also showed intense restlessness and unease, ultimately choosing to move away.
"It looks like the sound wave is generally effective against first-stage mutants."
This conclusion put in a good mood, meaning his clearing plan could proceed more efficiently.
But the good mood didn't last long.
When a drone formation flew over a small park in the residential area, an accident happened.
The zombies in that area had long been driven away, leaving it unusually empty.
Yet just as the formation was about to pass out of the park's airspace, a dark shape burst out from the crown of a dead tree below!
It was so fast that it left only an afterimage in the drone's camera.
Bang!
A in the formation was instantly turned into a burst of exploded sparks.
's consciousness locked onto it.
It was an avian about two meters long, covered in dirty, rot-flesh-like tissue. Its wingspan exceeded three meters, and bony claws grew along the edges of its wings.
It had no feathers, and its bare skin was covered in dark red vascular patterns.
After landing its strike, it let out a piercing shriek and pounced on another drone.
[ .]
made the judgment immediately and directed the other Soldier Bees in the formation to return fire with lasers.
The monster showed astonishing agility in the air, a single sideways roll dodging most of the attacks. Only a few lasers grazed its wings, drawing strings of filthy blood.
But that gave room to pull back, and he immediately withdrew the remaining drones.
His supplies were limited; better to spend them sparingly.
The " " monster chased for a short distance, but just as it was about to fly beyond the park, it stopped abruptly. It circled once, then actually returned to the dead tree, folded its wings, and hid itself among the branches again.
Territorial awareness?
tried sending another drone playing the repelling sound wave toward the edge of the park.
Sure enough, the immediately took to the air again, hissing out a threat, but as long as the drone did not enter the park, it would not attack first.
[I see.]
understood at once. It seemed the sound-wave repellant had its limits, too. It was not a conceptual, overpowered tool; its effect on second-stage and above mutants was very limited.
But those stronger monsters seemed to have "territorial awareness." As long as they weren't provoked, they wouldn't be drawn over by the sound wave either.
That was neither a good nor a bad piece of news. At least it gave a more complete understanding of the concept of a "safe zone."
The cleaning and searching continued.
's consciousness flicked between hundreds of drone viewpoints, processing enormous amounts of information, like a true deity looking down on his chessboard.
Time passed minute by minute, and large portions of the map of central lit up.
Yet just as prepared to end the first stage of the search and send the drones back in batches to recharge, an unexpected signal connected to his consciousness without warning.
It was an extremely low, narrow field of view, the picture swaying slightly with minor bumps.
At the edge of the frame, worn plastic casing could be seen; ahead was a wooden floor covered with dust and scratches.
Accompanied by a faint electrical hum, the view was moving slowly.
[A ?]
A flicker of surprise passed through 's core consciousness.
Before he had even finished processing the thought, the view suddenly stopped moving, then was lifted slowly.
A young, dirty face appeared in front of the lens, filling the whole frame.
It was a boy of about six or seven, his face smudged with dirt and his hair in a mess, but his eyes were full of pure surprise and joy.
He carefully held up the , smiled at its camera through tears, and said in a voice thick with sobs.
"It's so great! , you're still here! That's really so great!"
[?????]
My daily routine is doing chores and reading, and also being with the strange uncle...
My daily routine is doing chores and reading, and also being with the strange uncle...
My daily routine is doing chores and reading, and also being with the strange uncle...