Mutant Corpsefolk Leader

Hearing Meng Xuanxuan's words, Tang Yu shook his head expressionlessly. He was no fool—how could he possibly throw his life away for nothing? He only said that because he wanted to scout things out. At the very least, he needed to find out who had killed A-Long and A-Qiang.

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing! Hurry up and go!" Tang Yu shouted impatiently at Meng Xuanxuan, signaling for her to leave first. This was the first time he had ever spoken to Meng Xuanxuan in such a tone.

"Do you think I'm the kind of person who would leave you behind and walk away alone?" Meng Xuanxuan remained unmoved by Tang Yu's words. In her eyes, since they had come together, they had to return together. No one could be left behind.

For some reason, Tang Yu felt a surge of emotion at Meng Xuanxuan's words. A-Long and A-Qiang had once said the same thing to him, but he would never hear either of them speak again. As if possessed, Tang Yu agreed.

As they continued forward, the abandoned buildings gradually grew fewer. In their place were rocks thrust upward by tectonic movement, which had once been submerged in seawater year-round but had finally seen daylight.

Suddenly, Tang Yu spotted the entrance to an abandoned tunnel. Before the Great Cataclysm, the government had planned to build an undersea passage here. Unfortunately, the Great Cataclysm struck before it was completed, leaving it abandoned. A person wearing D-grade armor stood guard at the tunnel entrance. If Tang Yu wanted to enter, he had to break through this line of defense.

Without hesitation, Tang Yu took out another magazine. It was loaded with high-explosive armor-piercing rounds, specifically designed to penetrate mech armor. D-grade armor could not withstand the power of such a shot. Naturally, the bullets were also extremely expensive.

After loading the magazine, Tang Yu took a tubular object from the case on his shoulder and attached it to the muzzle of his sniper rifle. It was a specially made silencer. If one shot startled the enemy, that would be troublesome.

"Whoosh!" With a nearly imperceptible sound, the bullet pierced the guard's chest armor, producing a faint metallic clang. Tang Yu could only pray that the people inside had not heard it.

Even ordinary people over three hundred years ago would not immediately die after having their hearts pierced. They could still survive for ten seconds or even several minutes, much less people now whose gene counts exceeded one hundred. Sure enough, when Tang Yu reached the man, he had not yet fully drawn his last breath.

"Who's inside? What are they doing here? Tell me, and I'll give you a quick death!" Tang Yu removed the man's mask and questioned him directly. Yet inwardly, he was puzzled. This man did not have an Asian face, but the typical features of a Western American.

"...Three days ago... Young Master Dukavi saw someone online saying they had discovered the whereabouts of a Mutant Corpsefolk... leader... and were selling the information for a high price... so Young Master Dukavi... came..."

Crack! Before the man could finish, Tang Yu had already snapped his neck, honoring his promise to grant him a quick death.

"The information was posted by your two friends, wasn't it?"

Tang Yu did not answer Meng Xuanxuan. He merely nodded. The truth was probably not far from that. A-Long and A-Qiang had likely been silenced by this so-called Young Master Dukavi.

"Why didn't you ask how many people were inside?" Meng Xuanxuan was somewhat puzzled. Wouldn't knowing that be more advantageous?

"Since he chose to silence them, that means he didn't want too many people to know about this. So there definitely won't be many people inside. Aside from that fat man, that skinny man, and this so-called Young Master Dukavi, there probably won't be anyone else!"

Meng Xuanxuan suddenly understood. However, neither of them expected what came next to far exceed their imagination.

The seawater outside had receded, but the tunnel was still filled with water. Fortunately, even the lowest-grade D-grade armor was waterproof. After wading forward for roughly three to five hundred meters, they found an artificially built platform protruding above the water. The platform was covered with the corpses of Mutant Corpsefolk, packed so densely that it made their scalps tingle. All of them had been killed by bullet fire. It was likely the work of that bearded man wielding the Dragon Slayer. What an extravagant expenditure—just the ammunition alone must have cost nearly a million Federation credits.

Mutant Corpsefolk had some similarities to humans. They came in strong and weak varieties as well. Most of the ones lying here were juvenile Mutant Corpsefolk. This tunnel must have once been their nest.

There was an elevator platform on the platform, and three sets of armor were neatly stacked in front of it: two standard D-grade suits and one enhanced Wolverine armor suit. Its enhancements surpassed even the armor Tang Yu was wearing. Just as Tang Yu had guessed, there was one fat man, one skinny man, and the so-called Young Master Dukavi.

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Suddenly, a series of heart-wrenching roars came from inside the elevator shaft. Just hearing them made their hearts tremble.

"I'll go down and take a look!" As he spoke, Tang Yu began removing his armor. The elevator platform was tiny, less than a meter in diameter. He definitely could not go down while wearing armor; he had to take it off first. Otherwise, the three people below would not have abandoned their armor either.

"Don't! It's dangerous!" Seeing Tang Yu preparing to put himself in danger, Meng Xuanxuan panicked. They did not know what was happening below. What if something happened to him if he went down like that?

By then, Tang Yu had already removed his armor. Hearing Meng Xuanxuan's words, he shook his head. "Since they went down there, the path I'm taking can't be too dangerous. I just need to be careful!"

Meng Xuanxuan knew Tang Yu's personality. Once he had made up his mind, it was difficult to change it. "Take this laser gun. If there really is danger, you'll be able to deal with it!" As she spoke, Meng Xuanxuan handed the miniature laser gun in her hand to Tang Yu. Laser guns were powerful and compact, but civilian ownership was prohibited by the government, and their cost was too high. Ordinary people found them difficult to obtain, but Meng Xuanxuan was clearly no ordinary person. Tang Yu did not refuse when she handed him the gun. He tucked it at his waist and crawled into the elevator shaft.

The underwater world, which should have been dark, glowed with a faint blue light and appeared especially bewitching. Over the centuries, the Mutant Corpsefolk had transformed this place into an underground city beneath the sea. Though everything was primitive, it also reflected their intelligence. Tang Yu had always harbored a suspicion, and many people online shared it: the Mutant Corpsefolk and modern humans might be inextricably linked. Perhaps they were a tiny fraction of failures in human evolutionary history. During the Great Cataclysm, they had failed to evolve successfully, yet they had not died either. They had merely become neither human nor ghost.

"Miss Xia, are you still not planning to make a move?" The speaker had the typical face of a Westerner, with a hooked nose and azure eyes that shone with a mysterious light. As he spoke, those blue eyes repeatedly swept over the person before him. Though he concealed the greed in his gaze very well, he might not have been able to fool the woman in front of him.

Below him, the slender man who looked like a bamboo pole was fighting a Mutant Corpsefolk. Meanwhile, the bearded man was drenched in blood. The flesh on his chest had peeled back, streaked with blood. His wound had already begun to fester and discolor, clearly infected by something on the Mutant Corpsefolk's body.

"What are you in such a hurry for? I've already drugged both of them. They'll definitely be able to take down this Mutant Corpsefolk leader. Once the two of them are bitten into pieces, the Mutant Corpsefolk leader will fall into the trap. Then you can use your methods to subdue it, and neither of us will have to exert much effort!"

The one who answered was a woman. Her voice was clear and calm. To her, the deaths of two people were as insignificant as crushing two ants beneath her feet, making one's hair stand on end.

Even Dukavi, who had always been arrogant and unruly, felt much of the greedy desire in his eyes fade upon hearing the woman's words. He enjoyed playing with women, especially a classic Eastern beauty like the one before him, but Dukavi knew very well that if he played with this woman, even if he truly got her, he would sooner or later die beneath her.

"Miss Xia, I'm afraid you're mistaken about that!" Although Dukavi was a Westerner, his excellent education had allowed him to speak fluent Chinese, which was quite rare.

"To subdue this Mutant Corpsefolk leader, I'll need to use the Soul Imprint and devote myself completely. What if you attack me at that moment? Wouldn't I be doomed?" Dukavi was no fool. How could he possibly entrust his back to the woman before him?

Hearing Dukavi's words, the woman before him shook her head and smiled with a slight furrow of her brow. "Young Master Dukavi, you can rest assured about that. Killing you would bring me no benefit and would instead cause me a great deal of trouble. As for why I'm helping you, it's because my upcoming experimental research cannot proceed without your support... It can't hold on any longer. Prepare to implant the Soul Imprint!" Her tone suddenly shifted. The smile vanished from her face as she spoke to Dukavi.

At its peak, a Mutant Corpsefolk was a level-four mutant creature, equivalent to a human expert with a gene count of around four hundred. Its entire body was as tough as forged iron; calling it impervious to blades and bullets would not be an exaggeration. This Mutant Corpsefolk leader before them was especially powerful, but for some reason, its strength was very low. It seemed to have suffered severe injuries before this. Otherwise, it would not have been reduced to such a miserable state.

Step by step, Dukavi approached the Mutant Corpsefolk leader lying on the ground and wheezing heavily. Sensing danger approaching, the Mutant Corpsefolk leader immediately struggled to rise. However, its injuries were simply too severe. It had almost been riddled with holes by the bearded man's Dragon Slayer, then fought fiercely with the bamboo-pole man for a long time. Fortunately, its body possessed powerful self-healing abilities. If it had been a human, forget fighting someone afterward—just taking a few shots from the Dragon Slayer would have blown them apart. Only the Mutant Corpsefolk leader's powerful body had allowed it to endure until now.