Charging Forward Like a Boar

The instant the sun's rays were completely swallowed by the buildings, the Darkseekers behind him erupted into a collective frenzy like manic patients. Their bodies swung wildly as they moved, as if they were constantly sprinting at their absolute limit.

Li Wei wedged his pen into the blank page where he had just written a sentence and rose from his chair. His right hand turned into a blade, his left into claws, and he turned to face the grayish-white-skinned Darkseekers.

After three years of mutation, these Darkseekers were no longer the mindless creatures they had once been. They possessed a higher level of intelligence, and when they saw Li Wei's hands transform, they showed confusion.

But the constant frenzy in their brains still drove them to attack Li Wei—for food!

Facing Darkseekers who vastly outnumbered him, Li Wei was like a warrior capable of fighting an army alone. He charged into the enemy ranks and slaughtered in all directions!

His blade thrust forward and swept sideways, cutting seven or eight Darkseekers from the chaotic horde cleanly in half at the waist. As his right-hand blade swung, his left hand did not remain idle either. He grabbed their severed limbs and began absorbing them.

After the virus merged with humans, it had produced strange changes. It made them irritable and violent without completely stripping the Darkseekers of judgment, and it had also created a strict hierarchy.

Li Wei devoured these Darkseekers because he wanted to know why they had gained intelligence and judgment. The result disappointed him. Their intelligence had not evolved independently; it had emerged only as their brain functions gradually recovered.

His gaze passed through the hundreds of Darkseekers before him and locked onto a male Darkseeker standing atop a sedan at the rear of the horde, draped in tattered clothes. He seemed to be the leader of this group.

That Darkseeker was looking at him as well, and it let out an angry roar.

Li Wei had assumed the roar was merely an instinctive display of intimidation, but he had not expected that after the Darkseeker leader roared, all the remaining Darkseekers would stop their meaningless attacks on him, turn around, and flee together!

"They actually know to run when they can't win!"

Seeing the Darkseekers flee, Li Wei had no intention of chasing them. He watched them leave, then transformed his hands back to normal. He extended his left hand in front of him and squeezed out a drop of concentrated virus stock.

After the virus stock fell to the ground, it rapidly expanded from a single drop into a... pig.

A giant pig over four meters long and more than two meters tall. Its body was covered in fine bristles, and its face had no eyes or nose, only a gaping bloody maw and a pair of curved tusks as thick as battering rams.

This was a mutated monster born from an altered Hunter. He had originally wanted to make a bear, but after the virus landed on the ground, external environmental factors had caused it to mutate uncontrollably into this...

But that was fine!

Li Wei jumped onto the giant pig's back and slapped its rear. The giant pig squealed in pain, then began running wildly on all fours.

Every time its four hooves hit the ground, they left a crater in the asphalt. Under Li Wei's deliberate control, the giant pig weighed as much as eighty tons. Its purpose was to serve as his transportation—and his entertainment!

Charging forward like a boar!

The cars blocking the weed-choked road were sent flying one after another. From time to time, Darkseekers that had never witnessed his strength before burst from the buildings on either side like mad dogs and attacked him.

But Li Wei's right hand extended and transformed into a long biological-metal spear. Any Darkseeker that tried to block their path was ruthlessly impaled, then pierced by tiny tendrils extending from his body and assimilated and absorbed.

"Roar, roar, roar!" Manhattan Island was destined not to be peaceful tonight.

The tireless Darkseekers madly pursued the boar rider, but they feared the spear in his hand. After several rounds of slaughter, they merely followed and rarely launched attacks.

Li Wei continued like this, charging from the docks all the way to the vicinity of a landmark in the city center.

His gaze shifted to a building on the right, and he exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? Isn't that the Empire State Building?"

As if he had discovered something fun, Li Wei controlled the giant pig to turn and race toward the Empire State Building.

The nearby Darkseekers followed like shadows, like tireless machines. But after approaching the Empire State Building, they seemed wary of something. They stopped at the edge of Fifth Avenue, roared in frustration for a while, then turned and left angrily!

Li Wei was currently using a dual special vision of thermal vision and Pulse Sensing. He could tell that the Darkseekers behind him had stopped pursuing him, and he could also see the thousands upon thousands of heat sources near the Empire State Building.

One characteristic of the Darkseekers in the world of I Am Legend was that their body temperatures were much higher than those of humans, averaging as high as forty-two degrees Celsius.

So when he activated thermal vision and looked toward those buildings, densely packed Darkseekers filled Li Wei's sight. Another distinct roar seemed to ring out, and thousands of Darkseekers rushed from the ground floors of the buildings and ran toward Li Wei.

Though the giant pig had no eyes, it could still sense the outside world. The number of Darkseekers here was several times greater than the ones that had just chased them, yet it maintained its charge, smashing through everything in its path as it raced straight for the Empire State Building.

As they approached Fifth Avenue in front of the Empire State Building, several abandoned tanks appeared in the road ahead.

Without needing Li Wei's control, the giant pig had already accelerated at full power and rammed headfirst into the tank's road wheels. The collision produced a heavy explosive boom.

The tank blocking the road was sent flying into a building by the giant pig, which weighed nearly a hundred tons, crushing a large group of Darkseekers rushing out below.

Beside a shattered window in a nearby office building, a tall Darkseeker dressed in unusually refined clothing saw this and let out another furious roar.

Li Wei had thought they were afraid and wanted to retreat like the smaller group of Darkseekers earlier, but that was not what happened.

Since they were within the Empire State Building's territory, he might as well call this Darkseeker faction the Empire!

The Empire's leader roared with a distinct rhythm. The thousands of Darkseekers that heard its roar did not flee. Instead, they changed their method of attack!

The next moment, Li Wei was buried beneath countless pieces of debris. The Darkseekers in the nearby office buildings threw every object they could lift at him!

"Good lord!"

His right hand transformed into a shield to block the debris thrown at him. Li Wei could only think, Good lord, these Darkseekers are way too intelligent!

Although this debris dealt practically zero damage to him, if it struck an ordinary animal or human, it would absolutely smash their bones and tear their tendons on the spot.

Rather than a new species, these Darkseekers were more like new humans who had inherited human civilization.

Perhaps in another hundred years, the Darkseekers here would be able to communicate with one another and, from the perspective of new humans, conduct archaeological studies of ancient human civilization.

But when Li Wei looked at them now, they were not much different from monkeys—like the monkeys at certain tourist attractions, throwing things around everywhere!

Once the giant pig had charged through the flying debris and reached the entrance of the Empire State Building, Li Wei jumped off its back. He retracted his shield and left the surrounding Darkseekers to the giant pig, while he began running up the walls of the Empire State Building.

He climbed three floors with every three steps, racing up the Empire State Building at incredible speed. At last, he reached the top, grabbed the more-than-sixty-meter antenna at its peak with his left hand, and stood still as he surveyed the city's towering buildings.

He could see farther when flying, but the view from "standing" high above had a sense of being truly present, without feeling distant and unreachable.

Clinging to the top of the Empire State Building, he kept looking around and felt the wind rushing against him. He could not help muttering, "Is this King Kong's perspective?"

Though it was not dawn, the city still looked quite nice from this angle.

What a shame there were no planes. Otherwise, he could try swatting one!

After taking in the view, Li Wei stepped on the antenna and leaped hard... the Empire State Building's sixty-meter antenna was finished!

With his arms spread wide, he jumped from the Empire State Building more than four hundred meters above the ground. Head pointed toward the loosely scattered Darkseekers below, he adjusted his direction and accelerated into a dive.

After two seconds of rapid freefall, his body twisted when he was ten meters above the ground, turning his feet downward.

Boom!

"Ah!"

Inside 11 Washington Square Villa, a Black man jolted upright in bed after the thunderous crash. Sam, the dog sleeping beside him, woke up as well.

Robert took several deep breaths of the murky air and frowned slightly, as if uncertainly trying to recall something.

A moment later, he turned his face south, wearing a puzzled expression.