Order Is a Shackle

The sun shone brightly beneath a blue sky dotted with white clouds. It was a beautiful day. Ordinarily, sunlight bathed this luxurious villa district, filling it with nobility and elegance inside and out. Ordinary people could hardly even bear to look upon its beauty. Yet now, the entire district was nothing but desolate deathliness, as though beneath every beautiful exterior lurked icy darkness.

Outside the security hall lay only a heap of iron fragments melted by extreme heat. Clearly, the Thermal Motorcycle Racer from last night had melted under the violent burn of energy, its body reduced to metallic slag. The dead Zombie corpses nearby had also vanished, likely becoming food for other Zombies.

Mu Xiao and An Rongru stepped outside. An Rongru looked up at the sky, feeling as though a lifetime had passed. In just one night, she had entrusted her life to the man before her, whom she had known for only a short time. If she were still the graceful, wealthy woman of status she had once been, she would never have entertained such an absurd thought, nor would she have met a man like him. Perhaps the world had undergone an unimaginable change, making all this seem only natural. Most importantly, there was not the slightest trace of rejection toward him in her heart...

"We'll head back to the Greenway Passage first." Mu Xiao interrupted An Rongru's thoughts. "I set up some grenade bombs there yesterday. It's a shame they never got used. Let's see how many we can recover."

Yesterday, he had intended to use the grenade bombs to ambush that Guard Mutant Human, but he had miscalculated and underestimated the Mutant Human's cunning intelligence. As a result, the grenades had gone unused. There had also been too many Mutant Monsters wandering around at night for him to retrieve them in time. If any Mutant Monsters had stumbled into the grenade trap during the night, the grenades might already have all been used up.

However, Mu Xiao had not heard any explosions nearby during the night, so he estimated that the grenade bombs could still be recovered.

An Rongru nodded and followed Mu Xiao toward the Greenway Passage. Before long, they encountered five or six Zombies along the road. Both Mu Xiao and An Rongru could use Mental Power to conceal their presence, completely avoiding the Zombies' notice. Still, Mu Xiao had An Rongru deal with them.

She was close to attaining an SS-Class Physique. She only needed a few more instances of Gene Resonance, but to achieve Gene Resonance, she had to kill Mutant Monsters and absorb their Evolutionary Power Source. Only then could her physique and evolutionary level make another breakthrough.

An Rongru understood Mu Xiao's intention. Moreover, last night Mu Xiao had used terrifying pressure to help her temper her will, hold fast to herself, and face her fears... Now, she was no longer as terrified of Mutant Monsters as before. She appeared calm. Though it was impossible for her to become an incomparably composed warrior overnight, as long as she did not lose her head, it was undoubtedly growth.

An Rongru took out her Laser Pistol and carefully aimed at the Zombies ahead. She fired the first laser beam, striking one Zombie in the arm and blasting a charred hole straight through it. However, it did not inflict a fatal injury. Instead, it drew the attention of the other Zombies nearby.

"Hiss!"

Having discovered fresh prey, the vicious Zombies surged forward like a savage gale, charging wildly toward Mu Xiao and An Rongru.

Zombies were two or three times stronger than ordinary people, at least possessing an A-Class Physique. Naturally, they were not slow.

"Use your Mental Power to lock onto your targets. Your accuracy will improve that way." Standing beside An Rongru, Mu Xiao guided her as she fired at the swiftly moving Zombies ahead. "Get used to using your abilities in battle. Bring out their characteristics. As long as you can use them flexibly, whether they're offensive or supportive abilities, they'll greatly help you in combat."

"Mm, I'll try."

Perhaps An Rongru was still unaccustomed to fighting with her abilities. Her gunfire was not agile, accurate, or fast enough, and she could not avoid being somewhat clumsy. She only accurately shot two Zombies through the head. The remaining Zombies were already pouncing toward her, leaving no time for further practice. Mu Xiao could only use Telekinesis to immobilize them, allowing her to kill them one by one and absorb their Evolutionary Power Source.

An Rongru still did not dare look too closely at the grotesquely dead Zombies on the ground, and she felt somewhat nauseated. Although she had overcome her most basic fear of Mutant Monsters, she still needed time to adapt before she could truly face the cruelty of this world.

Mu Xiao did not demand too much of her. After all, not everyone possessed such strong nerves and willpower. Besides, she had once been an elegant, well-provided-for woman living a luxurious life. Her transformation so far was already a very good start. At least she would not become a mere ornament.

"You'll get better with more practice." Mu Xiao gently stroked her fair, plump cheek, helping her shift her attention away from the nausea in her chest.

"I will." Feeling Mu Xiao's thoughtfulness, An Rongru's heart warmed. Her cheeks reddened slightly as she nodded.

Mu Xiao used Telekinesis to collect the Blood Beads from the Zombies and continued toward the Greenway Passage.

After that, they did not encounter any more Zombies along the way. Mu Xiao suddenly fell into thought.

"About how many people are there in your villa district?" Mu Xiao asked An Rongru beside him.

"If you include the bodyguards hired by the residents, along with the security guards and staff of the villa district itself, there should be around a thousand people." An Rongru did not understand why Mu Xiao was asking about the district, but she answered truthfully. "Only members of my club could purchase villas here. They generally weren't sold to outsiders. So there weren't many residents. Most were staff maintaining the villa facilities and security personnel maintaining safety. They made up about half the population."

"Mm." Mu Xiao pondered for a moment. "Going by what you said, don't you think there are too few Zombies here? And the Zombies just now were wearing what should have been your staff uniforms. We haven't seen many Zombies in security uniforms. Where did some of the other monsters go?"

"Could they have left this place?" An Rongru frowned, not quite understanding the deeper meaning in Mu Xiao's words.

"Other than monsters like Mutant Humans, ordinary Zombies have their own wandering ranges. Unless something external drives them, they take a long time to leave the areas they usually roam." Mu Xiao made it clear that An Rongru had already guessed what he meant.

"You mean there are survivors in the villa district?" Joy blossomed across An Rongru's face. That would mean her daughter was likely among them.

"There are definitely survivors. I think there are also some New Humans among them. They may have hunted most of the Zombies here and might even control this entire villa district." Mu Xiao did not want An Rongru to celebrate too soon. Sometimes, surviving was not necessarily a good thing. He poured a little cold water over her hopes, making her prepare for the worst.

"If other New Humans are here, and they control this villa district, while the world has already lost its order... What kind of mentality do you think a group of people with superhuman power would have?" Mu Xiao watched An Rongru's face turn somewhat pale and knew she understood the dark side of human nature.

An Rongru knew that not everyone had been as fortunate as she was, finding someone she could rely on. The thought that her daughter might truly have fallen into the hands of those New Humans filled her with intense fear and unease.

Without strength, one could only become the plaything of the strong. There had never been a shortage of such examples throughout history. Especially amid an apocalyptic crisis, no one could escape it. Only those who gained strength had the right to live. Yet strength could change one's fate, but it was also a devil that magnified ambition.

Order was a massive shackle, restraining the negative emotions and moral taboos of countless humans... When the world's order collapsed and human nature lost the restraint of those shackles, negative emotions became prehistoric beasts. With all moral taboos gone, only unrestrained indulgence of desire remained, eventually degenerating people into Aberrant New Humans.

Mutant Monsters were not frightening. What was frightening were Aberrant New Humans who had mastered the power of evolution...

They could not repair the world. They only destroyed themselves through endless, extreme desires.

If those who had not evolved fell into the hands of Aberrant New Humans, they would face another, even darker disaster worse than death.

Mu Xiao did not comfort An Rongru. If she wanted to survive in this cruel world, she had to be mentally prepared to face cruel things and adapt to every positive and negative aspect of the world.

There were no signs of explosions in the landscaped woods, and Mu Xiao smoothly recovered all the grenade bombs. Seeing An Rongru's absent-minded expression, he shook his head. If her daughter had truly encountered a group of Aberrant New Humans with power, then even if she had not died, she likely would not have been able to preserve her chastity.

Especially since her daughter had once been a wealthy young lady, always held high above others and dazzlingly radiant, like a noble princess. Her status and position would have been intensely attractive to lower-class people who had once never dared entertain such hopes. But now that the world's rules had been turned upside down and those people had gained power, what could be more exhilarating, or better vent the desires buried deep in their hearts, than forcing down a noble woman they had never even dared imagine possessing before...

The villa where An Rongru lived was located at the center. It would take at least fifteen minutes to walk there, showing just how large this high-end villa district was.

"Is there an inconspicuous side path?" Mu Xiao did not want to take the main road. If there truly was a group of New Humans inside, they could easily discover them first, especially while it was still unclear whether they were enemies or allies.

"I'll lead the way." An Rongru understood Mu Xiao's meaning. Worried for her daughter's safety, she took the lead and headed toward a narrow path beneath the perimeter wall.

The villa district was surrounded by walls over ten meters high, equipped with highly advanced defense systems. Those systems had now lost their effectiveness, but it was undeniable that the entire district was like a small city. If every unstable factor within it were cleared out, it would definitely be an excellent place to establish a base.

"Be careful to use Life Detection. Sense whether there are any life presences nearby," Mu Xiao instructed.

An Rongru answered seriously and released her Mental Power, probing the surroundings as they went.

The detection range of her Life Detection was broader than Mu Xiao's Mental Power, reaching at least a hundred meters. She could also lock onto another person's mental presence, just as she had done with that Guard Mutant Human before. Even beyond a hundred meters, she could vaguely sense their existence. However, the greater the distance or the longer the time passed, the weaker that perception became.

Mu Xiao and An Rongru did not encounter any Mutant Monsters along the way. Perhaps it was because they had taken side paths, or perhaps, as Mu Xiao had guessed, a group of New Humans had already stationed themselves in the villa district and hunted many Mutant Monsters, reducing the chance of encountering them.

"If there are New Humans in the villa district, then the huge commotion when we fought the Mutant Human last night may have already alerted the people inside." As soon as Mu Xiao finished speaking, An Rongru stopped. She quickly retreated to Mu Xiao's side and told him that someone had entered the range of her Life Detection.