Chapter 206

"How did these guys end up in Xijing City? I thought they only operated in profitable cities."

Lapith looked at the logo in her hand from side to side.

"I don't mean to belittle Xijing City, but as far as I know, Xijing City has a very good public security situation."

As she said this, Lapith's expression was sincere.

Clearly, while Suzuda City is a large city of enormous size, it also faces certain difficulties. The larger the city and the more people it has, the more intractable the problems become, which is inseparable from the background of this era.

Seeing that Efnir and Lapith were both deep in thought, Anilas added, "Besides that, we also discovered these."

Anilas took out her tactical command board, and some tattered uniforms appeared on the screen. Although they were stained with blood, their original appearance could still be vaguely discerned; they were researchers' white uniforms.

Efnir raised an eyebrow, pondered for a moment, and said, "You look somewhat familiar..."

"Of course you'll find Efnir familiar; it's an ICS uniform," Anilas said. "The first Mutated Entity to appear, the one you killed, was an ICS researcher."

This sentence reminded Efnir of the scene at the time; the uniform worn by the woman who had become Mutated Entity was indeed this style.

Efnir turned around and looked around again.

"This isn't a research lab under ICS, is it? Does that mean these Mutated Entity researchers actually came from inside the tunnels?"

"I can't be sure... but, Efnir, after carefully comparing all the Mutated Entity corpses, I've discovered one thing—these Mutated Entity all appear to be researchers and mercenaries."

"So that means..."

"Strange."

Lapith crossed her arms, and a small mound of furrows appeared between her beautiful brows.

"Have you compared them with other Mutated Entity encountered by other soldiers? If all those who have become Mutated Entity are researchers and this Causseque mercenary, then some things are obvious."

"After comparison, they are not far apart."

Efnir and Lapith listened thoughtfully.

Anilas deep breath and continued, "In short, I've already sent Lan and Feng down to check the situation. They'll contact me immediately if there are any new discoveries."

"Let's go down and take a look, but we still need to leave some people on the ground to keep watch."

Lapith suggested.

101. Eating

The passage leading underground is covered by Mutated Entity vines and goes deep inside, leading directly into a tunnel.

As soon as you enter the passage, the pungent smell of decay hits you. The original hanging ladder is now entwined with some small plant roots, but these plants have no leaves. Instead, they are wrapped around the walls in a kind of fleshy vine, looking like both dead and living things.

The walls were damp, and the plant tendrils that covered the walls seemed to change shape as the people moved around.

An eeriness permeated everything.

Without paying much attention to the plants, Efnir, Anilas, and Lapith entered the tunnel through the passage, followed by Iris, Trilice, and Lin.

When everyone descended into the tunnel, Lan and Feng were already waiting for them.

"Thank you for your hard work. Did you find anything?"

"No, we haven't gone any deeper. This looks like a tunnel leading to a more profound area. I haven't figured out what's ahead because these things are holding us back."

Lan was referring to some corpses lying not far away.

These corpses appeared to be soldiers of Causseque's private military contractors, their bodies riddled with bullet holes, and their blood and Dregs, like scorched ash, were a mixture of remnants. Their chests, as if drained of blood, had collapsed, their color a strange grayish-purple, with dark red roots coiling like blood vessels, spreading outwards from the center like frozen, cracked earth.

The corpses showed no particular signs of decay and looked little different from the Dregs, but they were still covered with those strange plant-like organisms.

These Mutated Entity died at the hands of Lan and Feng.

These deadly Mutated Entity pose no threat to the agents.

Efnir crouched down in front of a corpse, and gently turned the body over with her spear, exposing its back.

The roots of the strange plant, which had already died and turned to ash, had withered and curled up inside the corpse's chest cavity. Efnir glanced at it a few times, then got up and walked into the passage ahead.

"This doesn't look like a typical tunnel."

Efnir frowned and said.

The passageway in front of us was also covered with plant roots and stems, much wider than a typical underground tunnel, looking like a subway tunnel, wide enough for a car to pass through.

"Yes, the tunnel ahead doesn't lead to the surface or any other tunnel. Lan and I roughly surveyed the area and found that this tunnel is a shortcut to deeper inside."

"Deeper?"

"Yes," Feng nodded and continued, "We haven't had time to check ahead yet, but there's no doubt that this tunnel will lead to an area we've never been to before."

At this moment, Lapith came to Efnir's side, looked up and around, and saw the plant roots spreading from all around and even covering her head.

"I'm getting a little creeped out; it looks like I've crawled into the belly of a giant creature."

Lapith smiled jokingly, showing no fear or timidity on her face. Instead, she became curious about the strange scenery.

She reached out through her gauntlet to the plants clinging to the wall, and as her fingertips touched them, the tendrils around her suddenly snapped back at her, only to be caught and crushed in the next second.

"Collect these things as samples."

Lapith handed a piece of root to Rin behind her.

Lin took out a glass tube with metal ends tightly fastened together, carefully placed the root between Lapith's fingers into it, and stored it in her suitcase.

"Tsk..." Trilice stood behind Lapith, looking around with disgust. Her hands unconsciously twirled her hair. Her huge scythe leaned against her side, and pink strands of hair flowed down her half-exposed shoulder. She shuddered, and the strands of hair swayed with her. "This reminds me of the roast meat I ate yesterday. How disgusting. I really want to burn all this stuff."

"Kite, cut off all these roots," Efnir said to Kite, crushing several tufts of roots that were slowly encircling them with her spear. "These things give me a bad feeling."

Because Efnir saw "dust" on these roots.

Although extremely faint, it is indeed present.

This thing probably possesses some degree of consciousness; it is a living being.

"Um."

Kite stepped forward, gripped the hilt of her sword, and with a flash of silver light, severed the roots of the plants on the wall in front of her, leaving deep Fracture in the surface. As Kite drew her sword, both Lapith and Trilice turned their gazes to her, secretly observing this Second-Generation Order Weapon user and her Order Weapon.

She slashed three times with the same blade, severing all the vines around the passage. The roots lost their vitality and turned into grayish stems.

"That's fine."

"Mmm, that feels much better. The air seems fresher too."

Trilice casually crossed her arms, stretched out her body, and lifted the giant scythe.

Efnir also raised her hand and gripped her weapon tightly. "Let's go ahead and see what's happening; perhaps we'll find something."

She gazed into the depths of the tunnel, where something vaguely gave her a premonition, along with flowing "dust."

The tunnel was wide, which was good news for everyone except Anilas, and Lan.

Especially for Efnir, Lynn, Trilice, their Order Weapon are a spear, a long-handled mace, and a giant scythe, respectively. These weapons are not very suitable for fighting in too narrow an area. The wider the tunnel, the more freely they can fight.

"The area ahead is what we just explored. Beyond that, the signal coverage drops off, and the road splits into two forks, which is why we didn't proceed rashly."

"Wait, what's this?"

As soon as Feng finished speaking, Lapith and Efnir stepped forward and blocked their way, staring intently at the darkness not far ahead.

Although it was pitch black everywhere, the agents could see almost anything with just a sliver of light; their night vision was even better than that of most nocturnal animals.

In the darkness ahead, something was slowly wriggling, and if you listened carefully, you could hear a faint, sticky rustling sound.

"It's Mutated Entity, but it doesn't quite look like one."

"Lapith said."

At this moment, the strange thing seemed to notice the movements of Efnir and the others. Its thick vines paused for a moment, and the next moment, a pair of huge eyes pierced through the darkness and were imprinted in everyone's eyes.

At this point, the agents also saw its appearance clearly—it looked like a very fat, short human, or rather, Dregs.

Like other Mutated Entity, it also had clusters of blood-red vines rising from its back.

But unlike others, it seemed to be chewing something inside its excessively large mouth. This was the first time Efnir and the others had ever seen Mutated Entity "feeding".

102. Tearing

At the feet of that enormous Mutated Entity were the mangled limbs of other Mutated Entity, which appeared to have been mostly eaten.

What's in its mouth...?

The Mutated Entity was completely oblivious to the arrival of Efnir and the others, engrossed in enjoying the food in its mouth. The teeth-grinding chewing sounds and sticky wriggling noises were enough to give anyone goosebumps.

"It's another Mutated Entity," Efnir glanced at Feng, whose expression was subtle. "Judging from the corpses at its feet, they are probably the Mutated Entity corpses you left behind. They look like they've been completely devoured."

"Tsk..." Trilice stroked the giant scythe in her hand, strands of hair curling between her fingers. "The steak I ate yesterday..."

Lapith approached Anilas and Maple, and asked in a low voice, "Was it here before?"

"No." Feng shook his head, quite certain. "This guy wasn't there when we withdrew. If it had, we wouldn't have left it behind."

"It appears to have appeared later," Lan added.

"In short, kill them."

"Anilas said."

Yuan stepped forward and accepted the task. Her steps were as light as a leaf on the water, and her right hand gently reached to her waist, resting on the hilt of her sword.

Her chestnut-brown hair swayed gently with each step. In the dimly lit tunnel, she concealed her breathing and walked straight behind the Mutated Entity without being noticed.

Lapith nodded silently, without saying a word.

Those Mutated Entity were exceptionally sensitive to auras, but they were completely unaware of it as Yuan deliberately concealed her presence. There was a reason why Yuan was selected as a member of the Second-Generation Agent team from the Central Province. Just like Anilas and the other members of the Muse Squad, they were all top performers in the training camp.

At this moment, the blade at the kite's waist was drawn half a finger from its sheath. The next instant, a flash of cold light disappeared, and the wind pressure suddenly rose. The fat Mutated Entity let out a sharp shriek from its throat. The thick vines broke and twisted all at once in an instant, and its chest was smoothly split in two from the middle of its body, leaving a knife mark and a large amount of black blood on the wall.

The shriek stopped abruptly, the large chunk of meat split in two and piled on the ground. Yuan sheathed her sword and stepped back, letting out a soft sigh as if she hadn't had enough.

However, at that moment, the large chunk of flesh that had already been cut into two pieces suddenly stood up, and the thick vines, which had clearly been severed, inexplicably reappeared in front of Yuan and swung violently at her as she had just sheathed her knife.

"Kite! Watch out!"

Anilas shouted loudly, and Iris was also startled by this sudden scene.

But she wasn't nervous or afraid. Instead, she turned and stepped back immediately, quickly throwing a punch and closing her fist. Her agile reflexes allowed her to dodge the vines' desperate counterattack with lightning speed. She gripped the knife in her backhand and swung it horizontally with the scabbard. At the same time, she lightly tapped the hilt of the knife with her right hand. In the next instant, a cold light flashed like mercury, and a dense, impenetrable net of blades covered her entire body.

Blood mist rose, and fragments rained down. Then Anilas fired a shot that rang out, severing the attacking vines inch by inch. But at that moment, the tendrils on the wall seemed to come alive, with more vines writhing and stabbing out like water snakes. Kite sheathed her sword again and cut down half of them with a single strike.

"Yuan! Come back quickly!"

"Efnir shouted."

Although the attacks from the Mutated Entity and the roots on the wall were fierce and sudden, the kite itself was quite strong, so it escaped unscathed.

But unlike the others, Efnir had noticed some unusual movement of "dust" at the beginning. It was spreading throughout the space, but now it was rapidly converging on the corpse of the dead Mutated Entity.

Therefore, Efnir instinctively became alert.

But by the time Efnir gave the warning, it was too late. Just as the kite made its move, the Mutated Entity that should have fallen and died suddenly stood up strangely, its lower body stiff and trembling. Facing the kite, its skin trembled and writhed inch by inch, and several more vines suddenly lashed out at the kite.

"Kite! Come back!"

"Um!"

Anilas and the others also noticed the Mutated Entity. Yuan Yi cut the vine with her sword and immediately took a step back, preparing to retreat.

However, the Mutated Entity's half-body suddenly stiffened and turned, facing directly towards the kite. The next moment, it took a step forward in a twisted posture that no human could possibly do. The gray flesh was twisted and torn apart by its contorted movement. The kite was horrified and hurriedly slashed out with its sword. However, before the blade could reach it, the gray flesh suddenly split open, and a delicate gray hand suddenly pierced through the Mutated Entity's navel.

Puff--

Facing the kite's blade, the Mutated Entity's body was sliced in two, and its hand was also split in two.

The grayish blood stained the walls, but the severed corpse did not fall. Instead, it lunged straight at the kite. The arm that had been cut off halfway from the abdomen still reached out towards the kite with all its might. At the same time, the arm rapidly thickened and grew stronger, and the granulation tissue at the wound wriggled like an earthworm. The grayish blood did not splatter but instead condensed and was absorbed by the granulation tissue, strengthening its limb.

At the same time, another hand emerged from the Mutated Entity's waist and legs, growing wildly and stubbornly pushing outwards. The Mutated Entity's already obese body expanded like a balloon in an instant, and the black veins beneath its gray skin pulsated like a river.