Mutant

Mutant!

Wen Ya's information, taken together, closely resembled the Mutants rumored about in her Previous Life. 520 Official Website

Though not Awakeners, they possessed extraordinary abilities.

Such people were extremely rare among humanity. Perhaps only one might appear among tens of millions.

In fact, people had speculated in their Previous Life that these individuals had already existed even before the Doomsday Game was loaded.

They were usually Taoists, Spirit Mediums, or people with extrasensory abilities.

Unlike Awakeners, who possessed powerful Martial Power and supernatural abilities,

Mutants were often mutations of the Willpower Attribute.

Their willpower could naturally exceed the ordinary human limit of 10 points without being enhanced.

According to the System's judgment rules,

any single attribute that exceeded 10 points before enhancement counted as a Mutant.

After the apocalypse descended,

Mutants would display as Level 1 from the very beginning, unlike ordinary Players at Level 0.

And because they had not undergone training and could not control their Mental Strength, it would leak out.

That was why Lin An had sensed the faint Psionic Fluctuation.

As Mutants, they lacked great strength but possessed tremendous Mental Strength.

And because their Mental Strength was innate, it was not constrained by the System.

Thus, they could freely supply it to other Awakeners, acting as "Power Banks."

Mental Strength was crucial to sustaining combat.

Take Lin An.

His awakened talent currently only had "Strength Burst."

As a support talent, even as merely a First Order Awakener Talent Skill, it could briefly grant him +2 to all attributes.

Meanwhile, Players only gained +1 to all attributes for every level they raised.

Awakeners gained +2 to all attributes whenever they advanced by one order.

That meant that after activating the skill, his strength would increase by the equivalent of two Player levels out of thin air.

Or one Awakener order.

This showed just how powerful Talent Skills were.

Although "Strength Burst" was a support talent and did not consume much Mental Strength,

with his current 14 points of Willpower Attribute, he would be drained after using it around four times in succession.

If it were a damaging skill instead,

such as Lava Ray or Lightning Spell,

ordinary Awakeners would exhaust their Mental Strength after casting them around twice, then have no choice but to rely on their bodies to fight.

But if a Mutant provided Mental Strength support from the rear during battle, an Awakener fighting at full power would be equivalent to gaining more than one additional order of strength!

Therefore, during the apocalypse, such people were frantically sought after by all major factions.

In the apocalypse, nothing was more important than strength.

Fortunate or unfortunate,

no one was willing to resign themselves to being someone else's tool.

Once a Mutant was discovered, they would often be confined and watched.

Fortunately, they would be protected as precious "resources" during the apocalypse.

Unfortunately, Mutants would completely lose their freedom of will.

That said,

in a sense, the reborn Lin An was also a Mutant.

Before he awakened, his Willpower Attribute had already reached 12 points.

Of course, whether Wen Ya truly was a Mutant was only Lin An's guess.

Rather than speculate, he might as well take her first.

Without hesitation,

Lin An shut off Eye of Judgment, turned around, and headed back on foot.

They were only three hundred meters apart.

At his current speed, it would take only a few seconds.

He had always intended to build his own faction.

Not only would establishing a Safe Zone allow him to survive the Doomsday Game more effectively,

but three months after the apocalypse, the Doomsday Game would assign tasks to all Players who had established Safe Zones.

Completing those tasks would grant increases in strength.

Such tasks usually required a great deal of manpower and resources, and solo Players were basically unable to complete them alone.

If Wen Ya was confirmed to be a Mutant, he would naturally bring her under his command.

With a Mutant joining them, not only would his own strength be greatly enhanced,

but in a sense, it would even be equivalent to giving every Awakener in the entire faction an extra order of strength out of thin air.

A suspected Mutant was worth making a move for.

On the roof of the car, Li Zhiping stared fixedly at the wary Wen Ya.

His mouth hung open as meaningless growls came from his throat.

His bloodshot eyes bulged slightly.

Seven minutes had passed since he was infected with the Zombie Virus.

With his already weak willpower and physical condition, he was now on the verge of losing his mind.

"Itchy... so itchy..."

Li Zhiping instinctively repeated the short words as his hands rapidly scratched at his body without pause.

His nails tore through his skin.

He ripped off an entire chunk of flesh, which fell onto the car roof.

It was as though he could not feel any pain.

He scratched faster and faster, as if it gave him pleasure.

One patch, then another.

Sheets of skin fell away like scraps of paper.

Wen Ya forced down her fear and gripped a Utility Knife tightly in her right hand.

She instinctively stepped back, only to realize there was nowhere left to retreat.

"Roar!"

The Zombies below smelled the scent of flesh and blood and grew even more frenzied.

Wen Ya bit her lip hard. There was not a trace of color in her delicate skin, and her little face had gone deathly pale.

From the moment Li Zhiping asked her to inspect his wound, she had vaguely anticipated this moment.

Fortunately, she had grabbed this ring of keys while fleeing.

The keys were on a ring, with a small folding knife hanging from it.

This Utility Knife, only half a palm in length, was the only weapon she could find on the car roof.

"Aaaahhh!"

After large patches of flesh peeled away, Li Zhiping suddenly let out a miserable howl, and waves of nauseating rot stench spread from his body.

His bones creaked, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed into a Zombie.

"Roar!"

His eyes bulged.

The zombified Li Zhiping opened his mouth as wide as possible, tearing the corners of his mouth apart as he howled and lunged at Wen Ya.

Duck!

Wen Ya hurriedly crouched down, trying to avoid the biting lunge.

But although she exercised regularly, she had never had combat experience and only barely managed to twist her body aside.

For an ordinary person, it was already fairly good to remain rational without breaking down under a Zombie attack.

"Bang!"

Wen Ya failed to evade in time and was knocked directly onto the car roof by Li Zhiping's sudden pounce.

Her back slammed against the roof with a dull thud.

Under the tremendous force, her snow-white skin bruised purple and blue, and even her shoulder blade seemed faintly cracked.

A piercing pain shot through her.

Wen Ya let out a muffled groan, but her gaze remained resolute.

Unlike those who could only stand frozen in terror upon encountering Zombies, she clenched the knife with all her strength and viciously stabbed it toward the back of Li Zhiping's head.

The foul, gaping maw was right before her eyes. Li Zhiping's scarlet eyes held nothing but the desire to feed.

"Squelch."

The Utility Knife plunged entirely into Li Zhiping's head.

The blade entered from above the fragile back of his neck, the only area of the brain not protected by the skull.

Like a machine losing power,

the zombified Li Zhiping's brain was destroyed. His body stiffened, then instantly went limp and died.

Having survived the ordeal, Wen Ya struggled to shove Li Zhiping's corpse away and gasped for breath.

Her chest heaved violently, and cold sweat drenched her body.

Her sweat-soaked forehead was framed by disheveled hair.

She had no mood to fix it, only feeling waves of lingering fear.

She had come so close to being devoured alive by a Zombie.

Even the cruelest death by a thousand cuts was nothing compared to such brutality.

Wen Ya's body had gone limp as she shakily tried to stand.

Her shoulder blade sent waves of piercing pain through her back, and she felt incredibly weak.

"Bang!"

"Roar!"

A sudden change occurred.

The space on the car roof had already been cramped.

After Li Zhiping died, blood flowing from his body had covered the entire roof.

With her mind hazy, Wen Ya tried to stand upright but lost her balance and fell onto the roof.

"Ah!"

Wen Ya cried out in pain.

The Zombies below the car were like sharks that had smelled blood.

Several rotten hands frantically grabbed her hair, tearing at it along with her scalp.

Like a drowning person being dragged beneath the water.

Wen Ya struggled desperately, but the blood-covered car roof was simply too slippery.

In the blink of an eye, half her body was pulled off the roof.

Despair and unwillingness filled her eyes.

The Zombies' mouths were inches away.