Order is a Shackle

Order Was a Set of Shackles

The sun shone brightly beneath blue skies and white clouds. It was a beautiful day. In the past, sunlight bathing the luxurious villa district would have filled it with an air of wealth and elegance, its beauty too dazzling for ordinary people to take in. But now, the entire district was steeped in deathly desolation, as though cold darkness lay hidden beneath every beautiful facade.

Outside the security hall, there was only a pile of iron scraps melted by intense heat. Clearly, the thermal motorcycle from last night had burned under violent energy until its frame had melted into a heap of metal residue. The zombie corpses nearby had also vanished without a trace, most likely becoming food for other zombies.

Mu Xiao and An Rongru walked outside. An Rongru looked up at the sky, feeling as though a lifetime had passed. Overnight, she had entrusted her life to the man before her, a man she had known for only a short time. If she had still been the dignified, glamorous woman of status she once was, she would never have entertained such an absurd thought, nor would she have ever met a man like him. Perhaps the world's unimaginable changes had made all of this seem only natural. Most importantly, she did not feel even the slightest urge to reject him...

"Let's head back to the landscaped passage first." Mu Xiao interrupted An Rongru's thoughts. "I set up some grenade bombs there yesterday. It's a shame they weren't used. Let's see how many we can recover."

Yesterday, he had intended to use the grenade bombs to ambush that guard mutant, but he had miscalculated and underestimated the mutant's cunning intelligence, so the bombs had gone unused. There had also been too many mutated monsters roaming around at night for him to retrieve them in time. If any mutated monsters had wandered into the grenade-bomb trap during the night, the bombs might already have been used up.

But Mu Xiao had not heard any explosions nearby during the night, so he estimated that the grenade bombs should still be recoverable.

An Rongru nodded and followed Mu Xiao toward the landscaped passage. Before long, they encountered five or six zombies on the road. Both Mu Xiao and An Rongru had psychic barriers concealing their presence, so they could easily avoid drawing the zombies' attention. Still, Mu Xiao had An Rongru deal with them.

She was close to reaching an SS-rank physique and only needed a few more genetic resonances. But to trigger genetic resonance, she had to kill mutated monsters and absorb the "source of evolutionary power" before her physique and evolution level could achieve another breakthrough.

An Rongru understood what Mu Xiao meant. 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 mutated monsters as she had been before. She remained 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 progress.

An Rongru took out her laser pistol and carefully aimed at the zombies ahead. She fired her first laser beam, striking one zombie in the arm and blasting a scorched hole straight through it. But it did not inflict a fatal wound. Instead, it drew the attention of the surrounding zombies.

"Hiss!"

The ferocious zombies had discovered fresh prey. Like a savage gale, they charged wildly toward Mu Xiao and An Rongru.

Zombies were two or three times stronger than ordinary people, with physiques of at least A-rank. Naturally, they were not slow.

"Use your psychic power to lock onto the targets. That will improve your accuracy." Standing beside An Rongru, Mu Xiao guided her as she fired at the swift-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 support abilities, they'll be of great help in combat."

"Mm, I'll try."

Perhaps An Rongru was still unaccustomed to fighting with her abilities. Her shots were neither flexible, accurate, nor fast enough, and she could not help being somewhat clumsy. She only managed to accurately kill two zombies with headshots. The remaining zombies pounced before she had time to continue practicing, so Mu Xiao could only use telekinesis to hold them in place and let her kill them one by one to absorb the source of evolutionary power.

An Rongru still did not dare look too closely at the horrific zombie corpses on the ground, and her stomach felt somewhat sick. Although she had overcome the most basic barrier of fear toward mutated 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 nerves and willpower as strong as his. Besides, she had once been an elegant, well-provided-for woman living a life of luxury. For her to change this much was already a very good start. At least she would not become a mere ornament.

"You just need more practice." Mu Xiao gently stroked her fair, soft cheek, helping her shift her attention from the nausea in her chest.

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

Mu Xiao used telekinesis to collect the blood pearls from the zombies and continued toward the landscaped passage.

They did not encounter any more zombies along the way. Mu Xiao suddenly fell into thought.

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

"If you include the bodyguards hired by the owners, as well as the district's security guards and staff, there should be around a thousand people." An Rongru did not understand why Mu Xiao was asking about the villa district, but she answered honestly. "Only members of my club could purchase villas here. They generally weren't sold to the public. So there weren't many residents. Half of the population consisted of staff maintaining the villa facilities and security personnel keeping the place safe."

"Mm." Mu Xiao pondered for a moment. "Based on what you said, don't you think there are too few zombies here? And the zombies just now were wearing what looked like staff uniforms. We haven't seen many zombies in security uniforms either. Where did the rest of the monsters go?"

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

"Other than monsters like mutants, ordinary zombies have their own roaming areas. Unless some external force drives them away, it takes them a long time to leave their usual range." Mu Xiao could tell that An Rongru had already guessed what he meant.

"You're saying there are survivors in the villa district?" Joy bloomed across An Rongru's face. That meant her daughter was very likely among them.

"There must be survivors. I think there may also be some new humans among them. They may have hunted down 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 so she could prepare for the worst.

"If there are other new humans 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 strength would have?" Mu Xiao watched An Rongru's face turn somewhat pale and knew she understood the dark side of human nature involved.

An Rongru knew that not everyone was as fortunate as she was, having found someone she could rely on. The thought of her daughter truly falling into the hands of those new humans filled her with intense fear and unease.

Without strength, one could only become a plaything of the strong. There had never been any 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 while power could change a person's fate, it was also a demon that fed their ambitions.

Order was a massive set of shackles, locking away the negative emotions and moral taboos of countless people... When the world's order collapsed and human nature lost the restraint of those shackles, negative emotions would become primordial beasts. With all moral taboos gone, there would be only unrestrained indulgence of desire, eventually degenerating into sinister new humans.

Mutated monsters were not frightening. What was truly frightening were the sinister new humans who wielded the power of evolution...

They could not rebuild the world. They only pursued the endless desires of self-destruction and extremity.

If those who had not evolved fell into the hands of sinister new humans, it would only lead to another, even darker disaster worse than death.

Mu Xiao did not comfort An Rongru, because if she wanted to survive in this cruel world, she needed 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 distracted expression, he shook his head. If her daughter had truly encountered a group of sinister new humans who possessed power, then even if she was still alive, she likely would not have been able to preserve her chastity.

Especially since her daughter had once been a wealthy young lady, always high above others and dazzling, like a noble princess. Her status and position would be exceptionally alluring to lower-class people who had once not dared to entertain such hopes. But now that the world's rules had been overturned and those people had gained power, what could bring more pleasure or better vent the desires buried deep within them than forcing down a noble woman they had once not even dared to think about?

An Rongru's villa stood in the central area. It would take at least fifteen minutes to walk there, which showed just how vast this high-end villa district she had built was.

"Is there a small path that won't draw attention?" Mu Xiao did not want to take the main road. If there truly was a group of new humans inside, they could easily spot them first, especially when it was still unclear whether they were enemies or allies.

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

The villa district was enclosed by walls more than ten meters high, with a highly advanced defense system installed above them. It had lost its function now, but there was no denying that the entire district was like a small city. If every source of instability within it were cleared out, it would definitely be an excellent place for a base.

"Pay attention and use Life Detection to sense whether there are any life presences nearby," Mu Xiao instructed.

An Rongru answered seriously and extended her psychic power, probing the surroundings as they moved.

The range of her Life Detection was broader than Mu Xiao's psychic power, reaching at least one hundred meters. She could also lock onto another person's psychic presence, just as she had done with the guard mutant. Even beyond a hundred meters, she could faintly sense their existence. But if the distance was too great or too much time passed, her perception would grow increasingly weaker.

Mu Xiao and An Rongru did not encounter any mutated monsters along the way. Perhaps it was because they were taking small paths, or perhaps, as Mu Xiao had guessed, a group of new humans had taken up residence in the villa district and hunted many mutated monsters, reducing the chance of encountering them.

"If there are other new humans in the villa district, then the commotion when we fought that mutant last night may have already alerted the people inside," Mu Xiao said. The moment his words fell, An Rongru stopped walking and quickly retreated to Mu Xiao's side, telling him that someone had entered the range of her Life Detection.