Global Evolution

Chapter 120: Chasing the Super Life

Translator: Letty Editor: DarkGem

They all got a hangover.

The next morning, Chang sat up from the bed with his head throbbing. As usual, Zhizhi stayed in his room. He took the clothes hooked behind the door and changed into them.

"Are you heading out?"

"Yeah."

"Is it dangerous?"

"I’m not sure, we’ll see."

He took his crossbow as well as his handguns, zipped up his jacket, and secured his dagger in its sheath. He was all set to go.

"I think we should close the bar for two days, and don’t forget to lock the door," he said to Zhizhi. "He’s going to make his decision public today, so be ready for the riot that goes around. Don’t forget to take care of yourselves.

"I won’t be back for at least three days. Mr. Li will send soldiers to be stationed beside the bar to ensure your safety. As long as you stay indoors, you guys will be safe," Chang said while checking bullets for his two handguns.

The Shark was an upgraded Pfeifer Zeliska with larger bullet capacity. Compared to the old one that he had used, the power of this was shockingly destructive.

The handgun sacrificed its accuracy to improve its capacity and destructive power. Even if it was used to fight against the gene-altered soldiers, the power would be great enough to punch holes in them at close distance. However, beyond the fifty meters range, the aim became unpredictable; more precisely speaking, the Shark wasn’t design for shooting over thirty meters —this was due to its pursuit for destructive power.

Though, long range shooting wasn’t essential to Chang. Because the furthest he could see was thirty meters—past that distance, the sniping crossbow always performed better.

Chang doubled-checked his equipment in the room, then left the bar, waving to Zhizhi before he turned his head.

His mission today was to investigate the habitat of those unknown super lifes. Before Qing Shui got too drunk yesterday, he left a piece of cloth with a special scent to Chang. Needless to say, Qing Shui’s intention was clear.

Of course, Chang still had a choice of not executing the mission. Though as Qing Shui had said, the threats were coming closer, and all of these seemed to be interrelated with them in innumerable ways. He couldn’t run away from or pretend to not know them. Chang thought, as long as he could help, he would try to make things better in his own way.

Chang sniffed the cloth diligently, then gradually paced towards the source of it.

The pedestrians on the street were still innocent of the incoming disaster. They thought that they could thrive through the days in the red fog, but the striking fact of the end of their peaceful lives was ahead of them in the most cruel way.

In comparison to the first apocalypse, the second appeared to be more brutal. None of the citizens were prepared for the sudden change of the air, but the second time would be the coming of the super lives’ attack. Humanity seemed to be so fragile in front of threats that exceeded them in power.

Humanity had grown to be more prosperous, but all these treasure of knowledge and wisdom were taken by the Willow in the blink of an eye compared to the human history.

At the edge of the jungle, Chang glanced towards the south, where Wuhan was. A Willow with millions of brains grew there; he couldn’t imagine what the city had become.

He sighed and then entered the whimsical jungle.

Under the daylight, the jungle was dumped into profusion.

The sun shredded its beams through the branches, the shadow mottled on the ground. The jungle changed its colors through evolution and mutation, and trees grew into shapes that endeavored for more warmth and light. Plants were no longer dressed in the plain looking greens. Fungi reached out their volva in damp shadings. Some plants shifted uncomfortably when Chang screened the sunlight on them.

The fern on the ground shook their arms around, constantly seeking for a more suitable living environment.

The vibrant jungle was splendid yet beset with crisis. Here was just the bottom of the ocean, the difference of a coral reef could hardly be told from a red octopus.

Trotting through the jungle consumed a lot of energy for Chang as he needed to pay full attention to every detail around him. Even though his olfactory ability surpassed Zhizhi’s to a point that his was comparable to a rat’s. He was able to tell apart the dangers lurking within the jungle, but mutation often brought out new species that he had never met before, so Chang could never be sure even of his own safety.

Chang took off the sniping crossbow from his shoulder. In this jungle, the loud noise of a gunshot would be a tempting lure to hunters, so he decided to investigate with the crossbow.

His goal today was to locate the habitat of the super life, so that he could lessen Qing Shui’s burden. If Qing Shui needed to search for the super life, at least he would have a rough estimation of their hiding spot. Yet the jungle played naughtily by messing with Chang’s nose. The trace of that special scent lingered in the air yet was almost impossible to find.

He explored the area, heedfully and without hurry, as he walked through this flirtatious jungle.

Under the guidance of the scent, Chang entered from the north entrance of the jungle. It was the same route that they had taken in the Yessie battle. The scene was familiar but much had changed here. The journey deepened the hard frown on Chang’s face.

A warning sign was waiting ahead of him, yet he had to trespass into the forbidden zone.

It was a region fraught with toxicants.

Four years ago, when Qing Shui detonated the hypermutable bacteria bomb beside the Yellow River, the bacteria suffused the region, bringing an end to the species residing within. The bacteria even traveled beyond the battle zone. It almost infected the whole area that was occluded by the jungle.

Although Qing Shui’s squad sterilized the whole battle zone afterwards, the hypermutable bacteria was almost impossible to completely disinfect. Not only did the remainders reproduce, but also their resistance aided them in surviving by infecting other species.

Those infected species suffered from the torment of infection, but if they lived through the period, they would have an exclusive spot to occupy in the jungle.

Thus, after four years, the infected zone was more deadly and poisonous than any other in the jungle. Species in this zone were not only able to produce antibodies to resist the hypermutable bacteria, but also carried the bacteria themselves. More than that, they used the bacteria as a defensive weapon .

When the news reached Qing Shui’s ears, he was greatly impressed by the imagination of the nature. At the same time, he ordered a prohibition to this zone.

"This is tricky..."

As Chang looked around, he realized the the colors around had become monotone. The branches of the trees grinned at him, and the footprints of animals and insects were less frequently seen. It worried him.

"Humans are the masters of destruction but nature is the master of creation..."

Chang looked back to the fantastic world behind him, then turned to the greyness in front of him. He decided to stop here.

"It’s too dangerous, even it’s me, I may get infected somehow," Chang murmured to himself. At the same time, a branch with a slim lump burst apart, and a shower of black juices splashed toward him.

"What!"

Chang dodged out of instinct, but the black juices were forced out from the lump and ejected intentionally toward Chang. He jumped back for a step but that wasn’t out of the splash zone. The juice rain was a concentrated stream, so he was able to avoid most of it.

However, what made the situation worse were the simultaneous bursts of other lumps, as if the trees were conscious of an invader. The black juices came as multiple streams of spray toward his location.

Dodging wasn’t the ultimate solution in this situation as more and more lumps were triggered.

On Chang’s camouflage uniform, there were two drops of black juice sprinkled and stained. Soon, the acidic juice corroded through the cloth layer, while a stinky smell of rotten eggs came forth from the spots.

Chang swiftly removed the jacket and threw it in to the air as a lure. He sprang away from the besieged circle, returning to the fanatically vivid world.

It was life threatening here.

To mark the spot, Chang peed on a tree before leaving the place—a place he shouldn’t intrude by himself.

This was a place unintentionally and artificially made, which wasn’t at a danger level that he could handle with ease.

He veered, thinking that he should report this to Qing Shui immediately.

At the moment he was turning to leave, a strange scent reached his nose. It was extremely familiar to Chang—the scent of the target! However, the scent seemed to came from the other direction instead of the poisonous zone.

However, Chang didn’t want to take the initiative to chase after it. Whatever that super life so named by Qing Shui was, it was not something that he could compete with. He came here to confirm its location and the scent assured his doubts. He was delighted as he moved at a steady pace.

Unexpectedly, the scent smelled like it was approaching Chang. It came a few times faster than him—it must’ve been attracted by his pee mark.

Perhaps, perhaps that organism was searching for humans too.

Thinking of this, Chang sprinted away without hesitation, keeping to his highest speed. He even utilized his navigation skills to map out a route that was the most difficult to go through. However, his efforts seemed useless as that organism caught up with him after one hundred meters.

Chang was sure that he couldn’t run away from the pursuer. Instead of endeavoring to flee from it, he sprang up and clawed with his hands at a tree, coordinating his movements so he moved like a gecko. Once he reached a branch, his hands instantly operated the sniping crossbow and he aimed it at the source of the scent—a fishy smell.

The trigger was pulled and the bolt shot off from the trigger mechanism. It tore layers of leaves, finding its way to the target.

"Ah!"

The bolt was nowhere to be seen but the voice came from a place beyond his vision; the scream sounded like a human’s.

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