Chapter 103 – Tomorrow, I Stop Being Human

“Those two are smart. Ningnan has two television station buildings, and they chose the one closer to downtown. In a place like this, even if the army rolls in, they’ll be heavily restricted once fighting breaks out,” Su Lifeng said to Gouzi on the way.

Gouzi nodded along as he listened. In his eyes, Su Lifeng might not have much real-world experience, but because he was so calm and clearheaded, his analysis of situations and people’s behavior often cut straight to the point. Still, Gouzi had yet to figure out one thing… What exactly were they here to do?

Su Lifeng had come here with a plan, of course.

After leaving the building, he kept cautiously moving toward the television station. Along the way, he sent his new phone number in a group text to Su Lian and the others. Less than two seconds later, three replies came in. Without prior agreement, all of them wished him luck, each with a cheering emoji.

He smiled faintly, then slipped the phone back into his pocket.

After watching that news segment in the morning, Su Lifeng had told them his suggestion.

Whether or not to become Mutants.

As it happened, they had also seen the mayor’s personal demonstration…

“I didn’t bring it up before because I didn’t know what someone would go through after becoming one of the Mutants, or whether there would be any side effects. Now, at least, the biggest side effect is clear. Aside from that, there’s another effect that doesn’t quite count as a side effect: the Xenospecies themselves can merge with the genes of all kinds of organisms… It sounds unbelievable to us, but that is simply what kind of organism they are. After we absorb them, those merged genes will also modify our bodies. This process doesn’t finish all at once. Its influence continues over time.”

“But no one knows exactly what those Xenospecies have merged with, so there is no way to know what you will become after absorbing a Xenospecies. There’s also something else I need to make clear. Absorption is only the first step to becoming one of the Mutants. After that, the genetic traits of the Xenospecies will force us to keep absorbing other organisms and keep evolving. On that point, we don’t get a choice. In other words, once you set foot on this road, there is no turning back.”

Facing Su Lian and Jiang Yushi, Su Lifeng held nothing back and told them everything he knew about the Mutants. Compared with an average person, someone like him, who had actually studied the Xenospecies, could naturally explain it in greater detail and with greater accuracy.

Jiang Yushi had spent several days in the lab as well, and she had gained a deeper understanding of some of the Xenospecies’ traits. After thinking for a moment, she bit her lip and asked, “You also mentioned that I have to kill a Xenospecies with my own hands, right?”

“Yes. But I’ll capture the Xenospecies and bring them to the lab. All you need to do is finish them off there. You won’t have to fight them, but you must kill them yourself,” Su Lifeng said. In truth, he had wanted to phrase it more gently, but when he thought of the situation outside, and then thought of that news broadcast… if people wanted to survive, they had to make a choice.

Cheng Xiaomei stayed silent at the side. Last night, it was only after personally witnessing Su Lifeng’s evolution that she had finally accepted what she looked like after her own evolution. But asking her to turn around so quickly and seriously persuade others was still beyond her.

Perhaps for a girl, enduring a physical mutation was an even harder thing. Especially when she thought about how the altered flesh and blood had not originally belonged to her, accepting it required even more courage.

So Cheng Xiaomei only listened quietly. After Su Lifeng finished speaking, she told them the truth: she was one of the Mutants. What gave her a little comfort was that when she manifested the silver-white soft armor and the spike-covered mutation of her arm, neither girl looked at her with any discrimination. Instead, they were amazed. Su Lian even reached out with very little sense of propriety and said, “Can I touch it?”

The moment the words left her mouth, Su Lifeng rapped her on the head.

What was there to touch?!

Su Lifeng looked at the two candidates and asked solemnly, “So, what have you decided?”

Making up one’s mind was hard, but in the end, what relieved Su Lifeng was that both of them chose to become Mutants. After all, he couldn’t protect them every second of the day. Right now, the most urgent thing was for them to have at least some ability to defend themselves.

Still, something Su Lian said left them all feeling rather emotional. “Thinking about how I won’t be human anymore after tonight… it really does feel kind of weird.”

Su Lifeng was silent for a moment, then said, “Hearing you put it that way makes me feel weird too.”

If possible, Su Lifeng still wanted to find them two Xenospecies that were not quite so “weird.” At the very least, nothing like the warehouse case from before, where a Mutant transformation had turned someone into a toad. The thought of Su Lian facing him with a huge lump on her head and going “ribbit,” or Jiang Yushi flicking her tongue at him only for the tip to sweep right across his body, made Su Lifeng shudder despite himself…

“Careful!” Just as they reached a corner, Su Lifeng grabbed Gouzi and yanked him back. At the same time, the military spike in his hand stabbed forward.

As he pinned the shoulder of a figure that had suddenly leaped down from an overhead window, Su Lifeng immediately used the scalpel in his other hand to slit its throat. The Xenospecies, whose face was covered in scales and whose mouth jutted outward, convulsed at once. Blood sprayed wildly from its neck, and then it slid down the wall and collapsed.

Too ugly. Eliminated at first glance.

Gouzi broke out in a cold sweat and quickly, very sensibly, moved behind Su Lifeng. “After you, Su-Ge.”

This place really was exactly as Su Lifeng had said. There were far too many Xenospecies.

In addition, corpses could be seen from time to time on both sides of the road. They were probably ordinary people who had failed to evacuate in time and had ended up as food for the Xenospecies…

The bodies of soldiers and Xenospecies were also scattered everywhere. In an area packed with buildings like this, battles could easily turn into deadlocks.

They had not gone much farther when Su Lifeng and Gouzi suddenly heard a burst of gunfire from the street ahead…

Bang!

Lv Zifeng raised his hand and shot down a Xenospecies that had leaped down nearby, then asked with an ugly expression, “How many Xenospecies have we encountered?”

“Over a hundred, but by rough estimate, there are probably two or three hundred of them. In particular, quite a few High-class Xenospecies are mixed in among them. They appear and disappear unpredictably, and their methods of attack are flexible. We’re in a very passive position,” a stern-faced officer reported, wiping away a handful of cold sweat as he spoke.

Lv Zifeng’s reaction was still fairly calm. “What are two or three hundred? The Xenospecies in Ningnan number far more than two or three hundred. This is only the tip of the iceberg. As for being passive… what combat experience hasn’t been summed up in blood?”

“Yes, sir…”

The officer broke out in sweat as he listened, wiping it away only for more to pour out. Two or three hundred really was only the tip of the iceberg, but this was still the first time they had encountered so many Xenospecies at once…

“Looks like these Xenospecies are still as cunning as ever. They absolutely refuse to clash with us head-on. Otherwise, forget a hundred thousand or several hundred thousand. Even if a million, ten million Xenospecies gathered together, I’d bomb them all the same. But judging from the current situation, they’re no longer satisfied with slow infiltration. They’ve begun adopting a new course of action.”

“Then is that a good thing or a bad thing?” the officer couldn’t help asking.

Lv Zifeng looked at him, then asked back with a complicated expression, “What do you think?”

The two of them fell silent for several seconds. Finally, Lv Zifeng spoke again. “Those two, branded Traitor to Humanity, must be captured. I will personally execute them!”

The thought of the intelligence Deputy Director Wang had risked his life to send, only for it to still arrive one step too late in the end, filled Lv Zifeng’s heart with fury…