Invaders

"Dr. Brian, are you really going to implant this thing into the baby's brain? Isn't that too cruel..."

"Hmph, cruel? When those bastards descend upon the earth, that's when we'll see true cruelty!"

Where is this...

Is this hell...

Gradually, Xia Leng regained a little consciousness, but everything in his vision was blurred and green, as if he were submerged in thick green liquid.

He wanted to gasp for air, but couldn't open his mouth. He tried to see what was in front of him, but couldn't lift his eyelids. He could only open them a tiny crack.

Through the blur, he could make out what seemed to be two people in white coats, arguing with each other. He could also vaguely hear words like invasion, mutation, and modification.

There were also quite a few other green tanks on the shelves around him, each containing a humanoid life-form.

Could he be inside a tank too...

Xia Leng was confined in this cramped space, and it was terribly uncomfortable. He wanted to stretch, but found wires of various colors plugged all over his body, making it impossible to find a comfortable position.

He vaguely heard the two people in white coats arguing fiercely, but he couldn't join in.

Boom!

Suddenly!

A deafening explosion rang out!

The violent tremor even toppled some of the green tanks, shattering them on the floor!

"Dr. Brian, Subject No. has breached the defenses again!! It's already broken in. We need to get out of here!"

Not long after the explosion, another person in a white coat rushed in and shouted anxiously at them.

"Failed again... Activate the base's self-destruct sequence."

"Doctor! If we start the self-destruct sequence now, then we..."

Roar!!!!

"Do it! Do you want these things to be exposed before their time?! For the sake of humanity, what does our death matter?!"

"Doctor..."

Through his blurred, distorted vision, Xia Leng vaguely saw one of the people in white coats walk over to a control panel. His hand hovered over a button for a long time before he finally pressed it, trembling.

Immediately, danger warning lights flashed wildly throughout the spacious room!

The last thing Xia Leng saw was a blaze of fire filling his entire field of vision, before everything came to an end...

After the deformed drifter brought down his spiked club, he saw that the "food" in front of him had finally bowed its head and stopped moving.

The drifter excitedly bent down, ready to lick the warm brain fluid from the wound on Xia Leng's head. He didn't even stop to wonder why the blood there was black.

As he leaned in, the "food" that had supposedly been beaten to death suddenly raised its head, nearly making the drifter fall over in fright!

He saw that Xia Leng's eyes were now completely swallowed by the darkest black, without a trace of white remaining!

They were like black holes capable of devouring everything, making anyone who looked into them shudder!

The other deformed drifters who were gnawing on Xia Leng's limbs also began to find the flesh and bone in their mouths harder and harder to chew. When they could no longer bite through anything, they finally looked up in confusion!

Countless black tendrils writhed frantically in the horrifying wounds where chunks of Xia Leng's body had been eaten away. Then they began weaving together on their own, filling in the missing flesh!

The deformed drifters were so frightened by the sight that they stopped eating and backed away again and again.

In the wasteland, parasites were just as terrifying and deadly, so they mistook the tendrils for parasites. Some even frantically shoved their fingers down their throats, trying to vomit up the flesh they had already swallowed.

But the drifter who had smashed Xia Leng's head with the spiked club was blinded by intense hunger. No matter what, he was determined to tear a piece of flesh from him!

He opened his rotten mouth, with only a few good teeth left, and lunged for Xia Leng's neck.

Crack!

But Xia Leng suddenly moved even faster, biting down hard on the deformed drifter's neck first!

The drifter was shocked by the sudden pain and tried to wrench himself free, but found he had no strength left in his body.

From the other drifters' point of view, the one caught in Xia Leng's bite began to melt like a candle under the blazing sun, dissolving into a mass of blood until Xia Leng sucked it into his stomach!

The transformation from food to eater took less than three seconds...

After devouring the drifter, the tendrils inside Xia Leng's wounds writhed even more frantically!

In a short time, they had almost repaired every wound on his body!

His skin became even smoother than before!!

At last, the deformed drifters were so terrified by the strange and gruesome scene that reason overcame hunger, and not one of them dared approach...

"What's wrong with these guys? Are they not hungry, or have they fucking learned to be picky?"

The leader, sitting farther back and brooding over his severed arm, suddenly noticed the crowd ahead starting to scatter, their faces filled with fear.

He stood up in confusion and looked. His expression instantly matched theirs, his eyes wide with shock and his mouth hanging open as if he could swallow a fist...

The prey bound to the cross with sharp barbed wire had somehow healed every wound on his body. Even his chest, caved in by the leader's kick and broken ribs, had almost returned to normal!!

"What the... how the fuck did this happen?!"

The leader was so stunned by the sight that his mind went blank. Could this guy be a Baptized One too?!

Among the branches of Apocalypse Warriors, there was one type with incredibly powerful regenerative abilities. Even if their heads were chopped off, as long as their brains remained intact, they could grow a new body after some time!

"No!! It's absolutely impossible!"

The leader quickly dismissed the thought. If the other man was a Baptized One too, how could he have been so easily kicked unconscious? Unless he belonged to the brain-enhancement type—but then how could he have healed his wounds?

Could he be a dual Baptized One, possessing both the abilities of a warrior and a sage??

Heh, the odds of that were one in ten million, but it was possible. Those people usually held senior positions in top-tier Fortresses or mercenary offices.

There was another possibility: he was also a potential Baptized One who had been exposed to Black Rain, and his hidden ability had awakened when he was on the verge of death.

There had indeed been cases of such mutations in the wilderness.

Whatever the case, the leader quickly calmed down, and a greedy smile slowly spread across his face.

If the other man really was a mutated Baptized One, then his skull must contain the special, highly valuable crystal found only in Baptized Ones!

Digging out the crystal in his skull would let him trade it at one of the high-level Fortresses for even more valuable goods. He could also get an expensive mechanical arm to replace his severed right one—or even buy drugs that could raise his rank!!

At the thought, he gripped his steel knife in his remaining left hand and advanced step by step toward the prey bound to the cross, grinning viciously.

Xia Leng also sensed the presence approaching him. He slowly raised his head and stared at the leader with his pitch-black eyes, mechanically uttering three words.

"Invader..."