"With such a heavy metal door, there had to be something important inside!" Mu Xiao gripped the metal door's handle tightly. His blood surged through his body, his legs rooted like great trees, and a steady stream of strength flowed into his arms. Veins bulged furiously, tightly swollen muscles writhed like coiling dragons, and all the power in his body erupted like never before as he pulled the metal door open with all his might.
The sturdy, heavy metal door slowly opened under his pull.
Mu Xiao's muscles had just undergone intense exertion, yet he acted as though nothing had happened. He quickly calmed his surging blood and aching muscles, then walked down the stairs below.
After undergoing Flexibility Enhancement, most of the ligaments, joints, muscles, skin, and other cellular tissues in his body had gained tremendous vitality in their elastic extension. Naturally, he possessed excellent recovery abilities. As long as he did not repeatedly unleash explosive force that exceeded his body's flexibility limit, he would not need to worry about injury.
The stairs leading to the third underground level went deeper than the previous two descents. Mu Xiao's Mental Power also detected quite a few surveillance and armed devices hidden throughout the stairwell. If the machines had not been invaded by the electronic virus and most of the equipment remained intact, Mu Xiao would not have been able to descend so easily.
"Why so many security measures? What exactly is inside?" After walking for about a minute, Mu Xiao saw another metal door standing ahead. It was likewise an extremely precise and sturdy metal door, only not as heavy as the previous one. Mu Xiao used less than half his strength to push it open.
Once the door opened, Mu Xiao saw mountains of piled-up goods. He subconsciously swallowed and muttered in a daze, "So it's a supply storage area..."
The room, over five hundred square meters and as large as a small plaza, contained countless crates. Sweeping them with his Mental Power, Mu Xiao found electronic components, mechanical parts, Nutrient Fluids and Life Gene Elixirs of various grades, quite a few high-grade Chinese medicinal herbs, weapons and equipment of many different grades, as well as unopened multifunctional robots, miniature probes, maglev sports cars, bullet-shaped nuclear-powered vehicles, and other expensive items.
The largest quantity consisted of various kinds of energy blocks. He also found some Optical Brain equipment.
"If all these supplies had existed before the disaster, they would have been worth at least tens of billions of credit points. The weapons, equipment, Nutrient Fluids, and Life Gene Elixirs alone would have been enough to support an elite force of around three hundred people." Mu Xiao clicked his tongue slightly. No wonder there were so many security measures. It was a massive warehouse. It seemed he had made the right gamble by staying here to explore.
He was certain that part of the supplies had been stored here by the Federation for emergencies. As for the rest, they were probably smuggled goods. It was even possible that someone had abused their authority to seize the assets of certain companies, or acquired valuable goods through other shady channels.
Otherwise, a warehouse could not possibly be this disorganized. Many items had nothing to do with one another, and most lacked clear labels or any classification. More importantly, Mu Xiao found that some goods bore the trademarks of other companies. If they were Federation supplies, they would certainly have carried the Federation emblem rather than other companies' trademarks.
The Lawyer Building was a Federation intelligence agency, so Mu Xiao had no trouble understanding why there were so many different types of supplies.
"I have to move in here!" Determination shone in Mu Xiao's eyes.
The abundance of materials in this huge warehouse made Mu Xiao even more determined to turn this place into a base. He wished he could move in immediately, but there were also many precious medicinal herbs and potions at his residence that he could not simply abandon. His little sister was there as well, and bringing her here involved a certain amount of danger. She needed the ability to protect herself before she could safely come live here.
"I'll return to the residence now and find a way to move everything here. On the way, I'll bring Little Sister along to increase her Gene Resonance count..." Mu Xiao did not touch anything in the warehouse. He left decisively and shut the metal door properly. Then he returned to the floor above and, without minding the trouble, erupted with all his strength once more to close that mountain-heavy metal door.
There was actually a secret exit in the basement.
Mu Xiao did not want to open that secret exit for the time being. Once it was opened, there was no telling what might be outside. Drawing unknown mutant creatures inside would be no good. Besides, if he encountered surviving humans, someone might become greedy, and Mu Xiao would inevitably have to do more killing. So for now, he would use the Lawyer Building as his exit.
Huff!
Mu Xiao exhaled a foul breath, stretched the muscles around his joints, and turned to leave.
Earlier, Mu Xiao had killed several zombies in the stairwell leading up one floor, leaving their corpses behind. He took out a bottle of Combustion Chemical Agent from his backpack, which he had obtained from the machine room, and poured it over them.
A mass of blue-green high-temperature flames rapidly burned over the corpses. After roughly five or six minutes, they turned into a pile of dry, cracked charcoal.
Mu Xiao only left after confirming the flames had gone out. Otherwise, if a fire started here and burned all the supplies, he would be left with nothing but bitterness. Though the stairwell contained no debris and there was little chance of a fire spreading, he did not want to take even such a small risk.
Shortly afterward, Mu Xiao returned all the way to the fourth floor littered with corpses. He had not encountered any zombies on his way back. Most likely, all those that should have died had already been killed by him.
He poured all the remaining Combustion Chemical Agent over the corpses scattered across the floor. Blue and red flames intertwined like a fire monster, continuously devouring the bodies.
The stairwell walls were made of fireproof stone, but the flames were extremely hot. Soon, some of the stone cracked, and thick smoke filled the entire passageway. The ventilation system here had already failed and could not operate. Wave after wave of black, pungent smoke became unbearable even for Mu Xiao, so he entered a room and shut the door, using his Mental Power to observe the burning outside.
The Combustion Chemical Agent did not last very long. After the temperature erupted to a blazing peak, the flames gradually died down.
Mu Xiao detected that the flames had gone out, but he did not leave immediately. Instead, he waited until most of the smoke had dispersed before going in for a look. The ground was covered in bizarre humanoid ash-charcoal, creating an eerily chilling sight.
"This will do for now..."
Mu Xiao also felt uncomfortable with the entire stairwell covered in corpse ash, but if he left the bodies alone, drawing a huge pack of zombies here for a feast would be even worse.
"If I can repair ordinary cleaning robots, they should be able to take care of these minor problems quickly." Mu Xiao understood that what he lacked now was not powerful combat ability, but support capabilities. Whether it was the current cleaning issue or the future task of repairing the underground defense system, he needed the abilities of the Intelligence System.
Starting from the first floor, Mu Xiao closed the rooms outside this secret stairway one by one, reducing the chances of zombies entering or refugees finding this secret passage leading to all the hidden rooms and basements.
After finishing everything, he left through an ordinary room on the fifth floor and returned to the hallway outside the Lawyer Building.
"No survivors, no zombies." As Mu Xiao walked downstairs, he used his Mental Power to scan the surrounding rooms, checking for signs of human life and sensing whether any zombies remained.
It was not because he wanted to save people out of kindness. He simply did not want his "new home" to welcome unfamiliar guests.
Mu Xiao had already regarded this Lawyer Building as his own.
He quickly descended from the fifth floor. After taking several steps, he had just turned a corner.
Suddenly, Mu Xiao's Mental Power caught an unknown object moving as fast as lightning. By the time he reacted, a tall figure had already flashed before his eyes.
Fast!
It was so fast that Mu Xiao had no time to react. The thing that appeared out of nowhere tore through his Black Armor protective suit, severed the straps across his chest, and sent his entire backpack falling to the ground. Five claw marks appeared across his chest, deeply cutting through his muscles, yet strangely, not a single drop of blood flowed out.
"What?!"
Mu Xiao shouted through the pain, but his movements were not slow. He forcefully kicked off the ground, retreating rapidly to the stairwell entrance, and without hesitation blasted Telekinesis forward.
Only then did Mu Xiao see clearly what had attacked him.
It had a tall, gaunt body and blade-like nails covering its hands like claws. Its white hair was stained with blood, its eyes were blood-red, and its tightly packed teeth were a section longer than those of ordinary humans. It bared them viciously, sharp and feral. If it bit someone, it might tear away a huge chunk of flesh and skin.
This was a woman wearing a white work uniform. Without question, she had been a staff member inside the building. However, after mutating into a monster, she had not left. Instead, she had lurked upstairs, undergoing genetic evolution. The instant Mu Xiao appeared, this Mutant Woman launched a sudden attack out of her hunger for flesh and blood.
Evolved Mutant Humans possessed cunning intelligence similar to that of humans, or perhaps simply the instinctive intuition of beasts. Moreover, her strength exceeded Mu Xiao's. She had undergone a full twenty Gene Resonances. No wonder Mu Xiao's Mental Power had detected something rapidly approaching, yet his body had been unable to react in time.
The Telekinesis Mu Xiao unleashed only pushed the Mutant Woman back several steps. It did not harm her at all.
"Damn it! I actually ran into a Mutant Human!" Mu Xiao cursed inwardly. Hunger surged up again, slightly affecting his body. New Humans without a cultivation realm were truly too weak!
"Chitter, chitter..."
The Mutant Woman's tightly packed fangs scraped together, producing a piercing sound like glass being scratched, as if mocking Mu Xiao's weak attack.
"Mutant Humans really are different from those living corpses." Despite the pain, Mu Xiao remained calm enough to analyze the situation. He also noticed that no blood was flowing from his body.
"Looks like there's something unusual about my body..."
As Mu Xiao considered a countermeasure, the Mutant Woman launched a savage attack.
The Mutant Woman sprang up, spread her gleaming blade-like nails, and charged forward at high speed.
Rather than retreating, Mu Xiao counterattacked. Veins stood out angrily on his clenched fist as Telekinesis formed an invisible fist sheath around it, adding another layer of power. He threw a punch straight at the head of the lunging Mutant Woman.
Moving at such high speed, the lunging Mutant Woman could not dodge Mu Xiao's fist, but her claws still raked toward his arm. However, Mu Xiao's heavy punch landed squarely on her face. The impact sent her flipping several times before she smashed into a corridor bench, shattering it into pieces under the tremendous force.
Five more deep gashes that reached the bone appeared on Mu Xiao's arm. The fist that had struck the Mutant Woman's head went slightly numb. Her face was like a steel plate covered in flesh.
The pain cut to the bone. Mu Xiao gritted his teeth and endured it. The wounds on his arm and body had sliced deep into his flesh. Without the Telekinetic fist sheath protecting his fist, it would have hurt even more.
Mu Xiao knew exactly how powerful his punch was. It could kill even an elephant in one blow, yet when it struck the Mutant Woman's face, it had not smashed her to pulp. Instead, the recoil numbed his fist. He vaguely guessed that this Mutant Human's physique, like his own, was close to breaking through into a new constitution. More importantly, her Gene Resonance count exceeded his, which was why he felt suppressed.
"Good thing Telekinesis can be used in many ways. If I used the same tactics as against the Mutant Cat, I couldn't restrain this Mutant Human at all. She could easily struggle free by force, and I'd only waste Telekinesis..." After that thought flashed through his mind, Mu Xiao immediately counterattacked, determined to kill this Mutant Human.
Although the Mutant Woman's head had not burst open, she was briefly stunned and had yet to rise. Mu Xiao leaped into the air, shaped Telekinesis into a drill around his foot, gathered all his strength into the sole, and kicked at the Mutant Woman's spine with the force to split mountains and shatter rocks!
Her spine let out a crack.
"Screee!!!"
The Mutant Woman emitted an ear-piercing, hoarse scream of extreme agony. The pain instantly jolted her awake from her daze. Her tall, thin body struggled violently like a reptile, all four limbs clawing at the ground for leverage.
"This thing really can feel pain!"
In the next instant, the force of Mu Xiao's foot on the Mutant Woman's back was violently thrown off by her sudden burst of strength. She shot straight forward, opening a safe distance from Mu Xiao before finally coming to a stop.
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