Mysterious Man

"Not dead? I charge double for handling live people!" The driver showed no panic even with a gun pointed at him.

"Where is this place? Are we still in District 19?"

Yu Jing had already been deducing the current situation inside the car. The corpses were packed in burlap sacks in the cold trunk, undoubtedly sent by the Research Institute to dispose of the evidence.

"This is a border area between District 19 and District 18, about 230 kilometers from District 19's A-class central city. This is a no-man's-land. You can kill me and dispose of the bodies here along with mine."

The driver's words caused a slight tremor in Yu Jing's heart.

The driver, who appeared to have a potbelly, moved with extreme agility. He took advantage of Yu Jing's momentary lapse in thought to reverse his hands, preparing to snatch back his gun. However, Yu Jing, having experienced death, reacted swiftly.

"Bang bang bang!" Three consecutive shots pierced through the driver's forehead.

This seemingly ordinary young man was so decisive. If Yu Jing hadn't acted decisively, he would have been the one with a bullet through his head lying on the ground.

Having gone through the bloody life-and-death ordeal in the slaughterhouse and knowing friends who were now separated by death, Yu Jing no longer felt any guilt about killing. In fact, Yu Jing considered himself a 'dead person.'

"So cold!"

Yu Jing, who had gradually calmed down, was naked and already chilled to the bone. He immediately reached out and took the driver's clothes to wear for warmth. Fortunately, there was no bloodstains on the clothing.

"Dispose of all the bodies and fill them in here."

Yu Jing's mind was exceptionally calm. He temporarily put aside the reason for his resurrection and focused on dealing with the bodies first.

"Even though it's the wilderness, if the bodies are discovered, the relevant departments will definitely find clues about my presence here through various means."

Gazing at the driver with a bullet hole in his head, Yu Jing quickly stepped forward, grabbed his arm, and prepared to drag him to the nearest pit for burial.

As Yu Jing was dragging the body, he felt a peculiar sensation in his left arm, as if something was moving within his flesh and blood, spreading beneath his skin, and finally breaking through his fingertips.

In Yu Jing's vision, green plant vines grew from the tips of his fingers and penetrated the skin of the driver's corpse.

"Gulp, gulp!"

As if absorbing nutrients, the green plants that had penetrated the driver's body sucked the still-warm flesh and blood within.

This process made Yu Jing feel incredibly horrified. Before the absorption was complete, he immediately let go of his hand. Driven by his own will, the plant growth from his fingertips retracted back into his body.

The driver's previously obese corpse became thin and shriveled, as if it had been deprived of nutrients.

"There are only plants in my arm? What's going on?"

Yu Jing looked at his right arm. Under the moonlight, it seemed as if some green plant was wriggling within his blood vessels. However, from Yu Jing's own perception, these moving objects posed no danger. Instead, the nutrients absorbed made his body feel more comfortable, as if he had replenished some heat and expelled the coldness from his body.

Most importantly, when he withdrew the plants, his arm was under Yu Jing's conscious control.

"Could it have been during that time? The earthquake in the test area..."

Yu Jing's observation and memory were extraordinary. As he flipped through the book of memories in his mind, he recalled the situation when the Butcher was chasing him. His palm seemed to have landed on something sharp on the ground. Combined with the earthquake at the final stage, he suspected that the plant body hidden in his arm might have originated from beyond the Research Institute's tests.

As Yu Jing was contemplating the abnormal situation, beams of flashlight pierced through the wilderness forest, shining directly at his body.

Yu Jing, who had considered escaping, decided to observe for a moment before making a decision. If the police found this place, Yu Jing would choose to stay put and comply with them, as it would be the best course of action once the police investigated the cause.

However, what emerged from the forest with the flashlights were not police officers, but a group of impeccably dressed men in black suits.

"Not the police, are the Research Institute people here to silence me?"

The moment Yu Jing saw the group of men in black, he immediately picked up the driver's handgun from the ground and fled with all his might towards the other end of the seemingly empty forest.

But as soon as he turned, a man nearly 1.9 meters tall, wearing a black trench coat and a round hat, blocked his path. Yu Jing clearly hadn't seen anyone move earlier; he didn't know when this man had appeared behind him.

"I didn't expect it to be like this," the man muttered in a deep voice.

As a pair of sharp eyes under the brim of his hat looked at Yu Jing, the latter trembled, completely losing the desire to escape, as if trapped in a black swamp, sinking deeper the more he struggled.

"In this case, all witnesses must be eliminated. Otherwise, if word gets out, my position will become very troublesome."

As the tall man in front of him muttered this to himself, Yu Jing saw a dark shadow flash past the man's back, followed by a series of miserable screams mixed with the sound of flesh being torn apart.

When Yu Jing looked back, a horrific scene unfolded before him.

More than ten men in black were now headless and dismembered at their previous positions. Yu Jing couldn't comprehend how such a bloody scene could have unfolded in less than two seconds. Compared to this, escaping from the tall, mysterious man in front of him was utterly impossible.

"Aren't you afraid?"

The mysterious man asked Yu Jing, who wasn't trembling and whose eyes showed no significant change.

"Not really... Ah!"

Suddenly, Yu Jing's neck was tightly gripped by the man's gloved hand, and he was lifted off the ground.

"Tell me the most important thing in your life!" the man in black demanded, his fingers tightening their grip on Yu Jing's neck.

"Cough... What do you mean?" Yu Jing was in a terrible state and didn't quite understand the man's request.

However, the man did not answer Yu Jing's question. As time passed, the grip on his neck intensified. If this continued, Yu Jing would suffocate to death.

"To cure my mother's illness."

As Yu Jing finished answering, the fingers that had been crushing his neck finally loosened. Yu Jing slumped to the ground, coughing uncontrollably.

"It seems your consciousness hasn't been taken. Very good, follow me."