Chapter 6 – Xenospecies

Splash!

Water sprayed in all directions.

“Ah! He’s coming down! Cheng Peng, stay away from me!” the last boy to jump screamed in terror. The Cheng Peng he mentioned was the student who had just been transformed.

No one expected him to jump in after them…

This student clearly wasn’t a strong swimmer. Paralyzed by panic, he flailed around aimlessly in the water.

“Su…” Cheng Peng’s movements were stiff, much like the other injured people who had suddenly “learned” how to swim, but he was noticeably faster.

Su Lifeng froze for a second when he heard his name being called.

He looked at Cheng Peng and saw that a chunk of flesh had been torn from the boy’s face. The exposed wound wasn’t a deep crimson; instead, it was filled with a melting Gelatinous Substance that constantly oozed outward, making the injury look incredibly deep.

Something crawled inside him… Su Lifeng realized instantly.

The problem wasn’t the “injured” people themselves; it was this Gelatinous Substance inside their bodies!

Once this substance entered a human host, it didn’t just transform their physical appearance-it stripped them of their self-awareness.

Even though Cheng Peng was calling his name, his voice was completely devoid of emotion or inflection…

Su Lifeng also noticed that every time these things switched to a new target, the transformed human became more “advanced.”

First, they learned to swim. Now, they were learning to speak…

“Help! Save me!” The boy screamed, breaking down as he tried his hardest to get away from Cheng Peng.

Seeing someone who had been a classmate just seconds ago suddenly turn into a monster, and recalling Cheng Peng’s own desperate struggle when he was first tackled… this level of extreme terror was more than an ordinary person could handle.

Thwack!

Just as Cheng Peng was closing in on the boy, a dark flash cut through the water and slammed heavily into Cheng Peng’s head.

With a dull thud, Cheng Peng was smashed under the surface. The Gelatinous Substance, mixed with gore, splattered everywhere.

“Ah!” The scream actually came from the boy being rescued.

However, he snapped out of it a moment later, realizing Su Lifeng had saved him.

“What are you standing there for? Fight back!” Su Lifeng roared.

“Fight…” The boy finally remembered he was holding a “weapon,” even if it was just a piece of scrap metal.

His instinct was to ask, “Am I supposed to kill Cheng Peng?” but his gaze quickly shifted from terror to a desperate ferocity. “Right, he’s a monster! He’s not Cheng Peng anymore…”

Cheng Peng’s head soon broke the surface again. Almost reflexively, the boy stabbed out with the metal sheet. “Damn it, die!”

Pffft!

Another gash opened on Cheng Peng’s face, but he remained expressionless. His eyes remained fixed on Su Lifeng. “Su…”

“What do I do? He won’t die!” The boy’s newfound courage evaporated instantly.

“Lifeng, be careful…” Jiang Yushi was being pulled back by Cheng Xiaomei. Both girls were pale with fright. Cheng Xiaomei was whispering through her tears, while Jiang Yushi bit her lip, afraid to speak and distract Su Lifeng. In her memory, although Su Lifeng went running and exercised every day, he was essentially a refined, gentle person. Forget a life-and-death struggle like this; he probably hadn’t even been in many fights…

But looking at the other boys, it seemed unlikely any of them would charge in to fight to the death.

If Su Lifeng couldn’t do it, then…

Su Lifeng was indeed feeling apprehensive, but the moment he thought of the vision where he was killed… he gritted his teeth, raised the steel pipe, and swung it down with all his might. “Stop trying to act like we’re friends. I don’t know you.”

Bang!

Bang! Bang!

This time, Su Lifeng didn’t wait for Cheng Peng to resurface. He landed several consecutive blows.

He didn’t stop until his wrists felt sore.

Cheng Peng’s head was almost completely pulverized. After a few final twitches, a length of black, thread-like material suddenly shot out from the wound. With a “whoosh,” it darted straight into Su Lifeng’s wrist.

“Ah!”

This time it was Su Lifeng who cried out, nearly dropping the steel pipe.

Don’t tell me the vision is coming true!

He frantically checked his wrist, but found only a tiny red dot, like a pinprick.

It didn’t hurt, and it didn’t itch.

After staring blankly for two seconds, Su Lifeng snapped back to reality and looked at the boy beside him, who was completely stunned.

The boy hadn’t noticed…

And neither had anyone else.

The Black Thread had moved too fast. Everyone’s attention had been fixed on Cheng Peng; no one had seen what just happened.

Even if they heard Su Lifeng’s cry, they would likely assume it was just the shock of killing someone for the first time.

In reality, after that thread entered him, Su Lifeng’s mind was filled with nothing but questions and panic. He barely felt anything about the act of killing anymore.

…

“The door is open…”

“Enter this World…”

“Evolution Material…”

“By absorbing these materials, the Xenospecies can evolve once more…”

“Once the materials are all absorbed, this World will be useless…”

Another Precognitive Vision flashed before Su Lifeng’s eyes. This time, however, in addition to the pitch-black water and the blood slowly staining its surface, he heard a cacophony of whispers.

The tone of those whispers was identical to the way Cheng Peng had just called out, “Su…”

“We wait here first,” Su Lifeng said, snapping his head up and turning to Jiang Yushi and the others.

…

“Help! What is that monster?!”

“No, stay away from me… Ah!”

The tourists were being tackled one after another as they tried to flee. Witnessing these horrific scenes, Zhang Hai and the others felt a crushing weight of regret… If only they had listened to Su Lifeng!

Those “injured” weren’t just problematic like he had said-they were monsters through and through!

They converted every person they touched; it was like a plague!

Zhang Hai was shaking all over, his voice trembling as he spoke. “This is… this is terrifying. How can such creatures exist…”

“Why are you still talking about that useless crap! What are we supposed to do!” a girl screamed, interrupting him.

Swish!

Not far away, a young woman who had just been converted suddenly whipped her head around and looked at them.

“Hu… mans,” the woman said, having mastered two more words. “Young ones…”

She scrutinized the group of college students, who were already pale with terror. A sudden flash of satisfaction appeared in her eyes, and she lunged forward.

After her transformation, the woman’s speed was significantly faster than before. One student, whose reaction was a step too slow, was snatched up instantly.

“Save me!”

“Jump into the sea! Jump, now!”

Another student let out a shrill cry and was the first to leap into the ocean.

Zhang Hai watched blankly as protrusions began to bulge and slither beneath that classmate’s skin. It wasn’t until the victim’s eyes shifted from despair to cold indifference that Zhang Hai finally snapped out of it and followed suit, leaping into the water.

From beginning to end, no one saved that student. Everyone was completely paralyzed by fear.

Many other tourists, finding themselves cornered, also jumped into the sea. Barely a minute later, the deck fell silent again, save for the constant splashing and wailing echoing from the water.

Dozens of rotting corpses lay on the ground; these were the original group of injured people.

The newly born monsters, however, were clearly much more agile… At first, they were only learning how to wave, but now they had already mastered more human behaviors.

A Girl with a hot figure but flesh sloughing off her face picked up a volleyball from the ground. After a moment of thought, she suddenly raised her hand and threw it.

“Thud!”

The volleyball slammed into the cabin ahead, leaving a shallow dent in the structure.

This was a movement the girl originally knew how to do, but the power behind it was something she never possessed when she was a normal human.

“Hehe…” The girl’s expression remained stiff for a moment, then she pulled her mouth back into a bizarre smile, piecing together a complete sentence one word at a time. “I… like… the human… Biological Species… The ‘World’ opened this time… is good… This place is called… Earth…”

Soon, they walked to the ship’s railing. They didn’t rush to jump into the water; instead, they stood high above, quietly watching the people in the sea.

Every movement of the tourists seemed to be a novel experience for them…

“Do we need to… absorb them… into Vessels for our Xenospecies as well?” the converted middle-aged woman asked.

A crew member beside her replied, “No… no need… although the human Biological Species is… quite good… their biological structure is too complex. It’s difficult to fully absorb them for now; the rate of collapse is too fast…” As he spoke, one of his eyeballs turned into a Gelatinous Substance and slid down his face. “We can use them… to test… how another Biological Species fares…”

The creatures who called themselves “Xenospecies” nodded in unison upon hearing this.

The crowd swam toward the Island, but there were also tourists who couldn’t swim yet had jumped in out of sheer panic, splashing and screaming for help.

Unfortunately, with everyone desperately trying to get away from those monsters, no one turned back to save them.

“Su, are we still not going over…” By the side of the ship, Cheng Xiaomei listened to the chaos around them and asked in a low, tearful voice.

Cheng Peng’s corpse was right next to them; the feeling was truly unbearable.

The sounds coming from the ship and the water filled them with a sense of inescapable despair.

“Wait a little longer,” Su Lifeng said.

As he spoke, he couldn’t help but look at his wrist again.

Strangely enough, that red dot had actually disappeared.

“The wound is gone?” Su Lifeng reached out and rubbed the spot.

Right then, ripples suddenly broke across the surrounding water.

“It’s starting!” Su Lifeng’s expression immediately became one of intense vigilance. He whispered, “Everyone, stay as close to the ship as possible! And pull Cheng Peng’s body over!”