“No… I didn’t see them at all.” Seeing the familiar faces on the photos, the girl lied with a stutter.
Her incompetent lying skills sold her out to the professionally trained soldiers. The woman squinted at the girl, then grabbed the collar of her shirt, lifting the girl up so that she could see into her eyes. She scanned the girl’s face, then threw her to one of the soldiers.
“Get someone to interrogate her. And I need two soldiers to be stationed in this community to get me some fresh information. His scent is everywhere, I’m pretty sure he stayed here for some time.” The woman then commanded the rest of the soldiers, “Follow me! Our targets ran away already.
“Speed up, boys! No matter how far he goes, as long as he is still in Zheng Zhou, I’ll trace him down.”
…
Chang galloped along the street in Zheng Zhou with Jing in his arm. He had no clue of how the military pinpointed where he hid. In this world of chaos, there was no wire or radio communications of any sort. That’s why, it wasn’t easy to put someone as wanted. No one knew where he and Jing had left to, even Qing Shui wasn’t told.
Various thoughts filled his mind, yet his feet didn’t slow down the pace. Chang was much faster and ran away from the troops with ease.
For the next hour, Chang spent every second on sprinting at an unprecedented speed from the east to the south. He didn’t stop until he thought he had made enough distance from his pursuers. He placed Jing down since he was out of breath. Beads of sweat rolled down from his forehead, and inhale as much air as he could to relieve the burning in his lungs.
“Chang, who are they?” Jing asked, her foot brushing the damp grass. “Are they from the research institute? Did Dr. Huang denounce us again? She is the only person in the community that knew about our past.”
“I don’t think so...” Chang recalled the interactions between them and Dr. Huang—nothing unusual stood outl. “I don’t think she did it, even though she knows about us. Besides, I didn’t see her leave the community in the past two days.”
“Then how did they find us? We also lost our worm box… What about food?”
“I don’t know how they find us, but you don’t need to be worried about food at all. Remember.” Chang patted the crossbow behind his back, saying, “I’m more experienced in hunting now. The worst case is to steal, which I tried to avoid. But I won’t let you starve, okay?”
“Chang, they are hunting us down though, our life is going to be turbulent. Are you sure we can eat our food comfortably with these hunters chasing behind us?” Jing asked her last question.
Her words became their nightmare for the following days.
In the next four days, they hid from place to places as if they were frightened prey. No matter how far they went, the troop always persistently caught up with them in a few hours.
For a few times, they almost got surrounded by the troop when they were having meals. Fortunately, Jing was always able to sense their presence at a distance, and Chang was able to act fast and decisive. Otherwise, they would have been captured by those armed soldiers.
Although escaping from their trail wasn’t challenging, it made Chang more curious about why they were tracked down all the time. He realised that it may not be as simple as denouncement this time.
At dawn, Jing and Chang once again concealed themselves in an abandoned house in a small village nearby. Chang’s curiosity and agitation almost bursted out from his chest. He asked, “Why? Why are they still behind us no matter where we go? We even changed our clothing from time to time, but didn’t find any tracking devices. How then? What makes them capable of tracking us?”
“I’m not sure, perhaps one of them is an EM, and that person may have developed some sort of an ability to track. Think about this, we used to have mammals who could tail their prey for a long distance,” Jing spoke, rubbing her chin.
“Tailing prey...” Chang browsed through everything Qing Shui had told him before, his eyes closed as he concentrated on recollecting every tiny bit of information. Finally, he recalled that Qing Shui exclaimed his praise to mammal olfaction. “Some of their excellent noses are more than a thousand times more sensitive than a human’s...”
“Perhaps, they traced us by smell like a dog?” Chang came to a sudden realization.
On the other side, the hooknosed woman was puzzled by a similar question.
“Manguang, I don’t really understand this. No matter how hard we try, they always run away before we can encircle them. What’s wrong?” the hooknosed woman asked her adjutant—a tall, broad-shouldered man with a skinhead.
“Madam, I’m afraid I can’t answer this question, either. I thought it was pure coincidence until they slipped away from our strategic besiegement,” the adjutant replied. “I brought some soldiers with me to check where we planned to ambush, but none of the traps we set up were activated. That means they discovered our presence by themselves, not by anti-detection devices.”
“That means… One of them is an EM as well?” The hooknosed woman lifted her eyelids.
“Yes, I have a sense that one of them might be a sensory EM. Thinking logically, I think visual mutation is the least possible option because we were lurking underneath wild grasses and ruins. No matter how good a person’s vision might be, I don’t think he or she could spot us everytime. If they were an olfactory EM, they would have known we were close long before we approached their shelter. The sense of touch and taste aren’t useful in detection in this case at all. Therefore...” The tall man stopped.
“Therefore, this means they may have exceptional hearing?” The hooknosed woman lay a finger on her arched nose bridge. “Not only are they advanced in hearing, but they also were able to run away as soon as they discovered us. Not to mention their speed… This also means...”
“It means they are much stronger than normal humans...” the adjutant continued her unfinished words.
“Well then, this just became difficult.” The hooknosed woman thought over potential solutions. She stood up. “Manguang, I need to return to the research institute to inform Zhuo about what is going on here. Ask him to send his special force, we don’t need many but a few. At least they have to be faster than our target. Without them, it will be impossible to capture them.”
“Yes, madam.” The adjutant saluted.
…
In the next two days.
“Chang, they didn’t follow us for the past two days. Do you think the grass mush worked?” Jing was happy, sitting on the sofa in an empty apartment. “It feels good when no one is after us.”
“I’m not hundred percent sure how well this works though.” Chang lifted his arm, sniffing the rich scent of the grass.
“I thought Mr. Li used this before, it worked back then.”
“But he also told us that nothing can completely conceal the smell of an organism. It can only be a camouflage scent. If someone’s nose is truly as sensitive as a dog’s, they will catch us regardless of what we do.”
“Chang, you worry too much...” Jing was about to console his idle fear when her facial expression changed suddenly. “Wait, there is a level 31 approaching us at a rapid speed!”
“Thirty one?” Chang was astonished, he was only able to lift Jing up when the door was blown away.
The burglar-proof door was crashed in a piece of deformed metal. It hit the wall with a sickening whomp. Then a figure in camouflage lunged for them.
In Chang’s eyes, the shadow leaped to them at a speed of 17.56 meters per second. It all happened in a blink of an eye, leaving Chang no time to react.
While having Jing in his arms, he predicted the path of the first attack, yet he only managed to dodge with effort. He saw the face of the figure while squinting back.
No ears and nose, its eyelids had excessive folds like a rhino’s. It was hairless and its eyes didn’t resemble any features of human eyes—it was a devil-like creature.
“Sh*t, it must be the gene-altered soldier that Qing Shui warned
me about.” Chang immediately switched Jing to his left hand while reaching out for that giant handgun on his back.
The creature didn’t give him the chance of doing so. Having an advantage in speed and flexibility, the creature had already turned around when Chang just got his handgun out. A balled and angry fist struck Chang’s face.
As if the number was automatically generated, Chang knew that within 0.04 seconds, the fist would punch the left side of his face. As much as he attempted to dodge again, his muscle reaction was much slower than his mind. And because of the great disparity between their power, even when he saw the attack coming, his body was locked in place, and Chang failed to avoid the deadly left hook.
Ah!
It hit right on his bones and teeth. His left face collapsed as the supporting structure underneath the skin was smashed into bits. Chang was blown into the wardrobe by the impact of the left hook—the hardwood furniture cracked up. Jing was freed from Chang’s loosened arms, but she was also thrown away by the momentum.
“Ah!” The creature was aware of the need to keep his targets alive as commanded. He caught Jing in the air, then veered to the wardrobe where Chang had fallen.
At the same time, a deafening gunshot sped from the shadow in the wardrobe.
The bullet was faster than its sound. It penetrated the creature’s chest, making a flower of blood bloom.
The gene altered soldier couldn’t bear the shock of the handgun, and his back smacked against the wall in the living room.
Chapter 94: Return to the Jungle
Scrambling up from the shattered wardrobe, Chang was dizzy. He ignored his physical discomfort, gaping at the strange soldier and Jing.
The last shot was fired by intuition, since he was struck on the face and blown away by the force, completely losing his balance and sense of direction. A shower of wood fragments and a collapsed wood panel blocked his view. He merely relied on his calculations before the fall into the wardrobe.
Fortunately, the shot hit the target.
However, although the shot was right on the soldier’s chest, it didn’t cause enough damage. In a few seconds, the creature would stand up again. Its chest bone had slightly collapsed, judging from a shallow indent in his chest. A hole was burnt in its uniform, revealing a blood-soaked spider silk bulletproof vest, as well as flesh and blood.
“What the hell… This monster is also wearing a bulletproof vest?” Upon seeing it, he raised his handgun again.
However, the creature had tasted the power of the handgun. Before Chang had raised his arm, it had darted aside.
The creature was agile. It was slower than a bullet, but still able to move before Chang could act.
In other words, Chang had lost his target before he had even tried to aim. And when he recalibrated his direction, the creature had left his range already.
After a few tries, Chang realized that shooting the creature was an impossible mission. The creature had also thoroughly understood the lethality of the handgun and didn’t dare to rashly approach Chang, either. Even though comparing to it, Chang was slower, but getting closer to him would still be a dangerous action.
The dynamic confrontation only lasted for a few seconds with one constantly pointing and the other dodging. Jing’s scream broke the deadlock.
“Chang! Run! Run! Another one is coming!”
Her voice filled the room, but soon it was replaced by the same heavy footsteps as those that the creature before them had, getting closer up the stairs. Chang quickly glanced at Jing as though he saw the other creature breaking into the room. His ability apprised him that the coming creature would enter the room in two seconds, and he wouldn’t have a chance to get away if he were to face two gene-altered soldiers.
Without further consideration, Chang looked briefly at Jing, then made a cruel decision as Qing Shui would do—he escaped the room without Jing.
Hesitation signified losing the chance to flee. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to take Jing with him since she was in the opposite corner. The backup soldier would catch them both if he were to grab Jing.
The consequences of such a decision were to be avoided.
If both of them were captured, Jing would have no chance of escaping at all. Chang’s decision wasn’t cold-blooded but rational—because the creature had caught Jing in the air instead of briskly smashing her, he knew that its mission was to capture and not exterminate.
Therefore, his abandonment was uneasy but the burden of protecting Jing was lifted.
Knowing that the odds were against him, putting up a desperate fight to rescue Jing was a meaningless sacrifice.
It wasn’t a struggle to choose, and he knew that Qing Shui would have done the same.
Chang broke the window as he sprang up.
He and Jing had hid on the top-level of a seventeen floor apartment. As Chang rapidly descended, the creature was about to go down in pursuit, but was forced back by three resounding gunshots.
Diving through the air, Chang regretted that he’d made a wrong choice for their safe house. Even if his body was enhanced, the force of gravity acceleration would only make every piece of his bone crack if he was lucky. Fortunately, he spotted an area with an abundance of trees.
As if he was swimming, he adjusted his descent so that he fell onto the trees. His landing struck the branches, which cushioned his fall. Although he ended up on the ground on his back, he successfully avoided dying from the crash.
“Ah!” The hard contact with the ground made him groan. But he took a deep breath and picked himself up as soon as he found the pain on the back become bearable. He scurried away so that the troop wouldn’t catch him.
The red fog softly floating in the air like it always did, making the figures of the coming troop dim. He bypassed them and disappeared at the end of the street.
At the same time, the creature stood still by the window, staring at the mysterious red fog. As soon as it lost sight of Chang, it lost the sense of where he fled to as well. It turned around and stood by Jing, matching the other gene-altered soldier.
Five minutes later, a man and a woman walked in. The man was tall and stout, whereas the woman had a distinct hooknose.
The hooknosed woman inspected the room, and her glance ended on Jing. She asked, “One just ran away?”
“Ah.” The creature nodded.
“How did he run away? It doesn’t make sense, I thought you guys were good at this.” The woman tiptoed, carefully observing the creatures wrinkled eyes. “Besides, how did you get hurt?”
“Ah… hurt...” The creature frowned even though it had no eyebrows. It stared at its own chest as if it was just as confused. But it said nothing more.
“There is no point asking them, madam. The intelligence of these gene-altered soldiers is low, they can’t understand complicated phrases.” The tall man walked up, saying, “Instead, maybe that little girl can tell us something.
“Am I right?” The tall man turned to Jing and lifted her up as if she was as light as a feather. “Tell me, where did he go?”
Jing turned her head away, firmly pressing her lips as she passed over his question.
“Manguang, put her down. Zhuo said that we need to treat them nicely.” The hooknosed woman took away Jing and let her stand on the ground. “We just missed one, and that’s not a big deal. It was a hard battle for him to escape from these boys. Look at the shattered wardrobe and the marks on the wall, he must have been crashed into the furniture.
“And that means he was injured, maybe not severely but at least it will slow him down. He won’t be able to run too far. As long as I am still here, who needs to worry about losing track of him?” The hooknosed woman grinned as she spoke. “We still have these gene-altered soldiers, and I am still leading the troop. I think we only need one more try, and he’ll become a bird in a cage.”
As Chang hurtled along the street, wind stroked his face. It was hurting badly as if on fire. The left hook had destroyed the right side of his face com
pletely, and he lost half of his teeth. It was his worst injury ever since his whole right face had collapsed without the support of bones and teeth and the skin drooped and swang as he ran. However, ten minutes later, his condition worsened. The injured side became swollen, as if the droopy skin was a deflated balloon being slowly refilled by a hyperemic response. Thus, now his face looked like an unusual-sized bun. It was also pressing against his right eye, resulting in the loss of half of his vision, This sudden change made him feel dizzy.
“I need some sort of treatment for my face...” Chang ripped off a long piece of cloth from the bottom of his shirt, wrapping his head with it and leaving only his left eye out.
“If I don’t get treatment soon, it will become a permanent problem. But I don’t have time to find a doctor, either.” He struggled with thoughts colliding in his mind. “As long as they are still tailing me, I will be caught once I stop for treatment. I have to exterminate them to gain some peace...”
Chang’s palm covered his swollen face, and he was also filled with sorrow over losing Jing. A hint of resoluteness filled his eyes.
“You’ve been giving me trouble, now I shall let you taste the bitterness…”
Upon making up his mind, Chang dashed towards the jungle on the east side of the city.
Chapter 95: Trap
The jungle was his last bet since he could never be a matched opponent for the military and the gene-altered soldiers. Only in the jungle, where uncertainty and hidden dangers treated invaders equally, Chang would have a chance of exterminating them.
He returned to the jungle, holding the hope of purging his enemy. Without a doubt, the jungle was pitted with peril. The danger within was more deadly day by day as species were evolving. It had been a while since he got out of the jungle, therefore, he implemented a full preparation against the dangers before he went in.
First, he secured the “bandage” around his head so that it wouldn’t fall when he fought.
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