The Mutant Snake-Man's name was Liang Yong. Forty years old and the general manager of a publicly listed company, he had just been arrested for embezzlement before his transformation. In his youth, he had loved eating wild game. After government restrictions made it unavailable, he had developed a taste for snakes instead.
He had been bitten by a snake just before the apocalypse. On the very day it began, Liang Yong mutated into a snake person, opened his mouth, and swallowed the police officers who had come to arrest him. He then ate plenty of passersby, swallowing zombies along with them.
His common skills after mutation were [Binding Kill], [Knockback], and [Devour]. His derivative skill was [Sonic Attack], which could cause dizziness, hallucinations, and vomiting.
He leveled up by devouring.
Headquarters had also updated its rating criteria, classifying this Mutant Snake-Man as a three-star monster.
For now, the highest rating was provisionally set at Ten-Star.
The moment Bai Shu opened the forum, the data section updated with information on this wanted mutated snake person.
Chen Xiaofei was treating his wounds and couldn't help complaining, "This information came way too late. Couldn't they have filled in the details sooner? My head's still spinning, my ears are buzzing, and his health bar was way too hard to whittle down!"
"Bai Shu, put how tough he was in the report later, too."
Wang Weihu said this while bandaging his own wounds.
They had pulled over in an emergency lane. Wang Weihu poured disinfectant straight onto himself, still trembling from the pain as he did so.
There was no helping it.
It was a physiological reflex.
Both men had plenty of external injuries. Fortunately, ability users had strong constitutions, and the bleeding had already stopped. All they needed was to disinfect and bandage their wounds.
After taking some oral medication, they would be as good as new in a week at most. Ordinary people would have been bedridden for months, if they survived at all.
Bai Shu nodded at their words. His left ear was even bleeding a little from the Sonic Attack, but he had no time to worry about anything else. He uploaded the Mutant Snake-Man's data first, in case other squads encountered the same type of monster.
"Since nobody accepted it, the reward for this wanted mission had gone up to two hundred thousand points. It just came through. I'll transfer a hundred thousand to Little Class Monitor, and the four of us can split the remaining hundred thousand equally. Any objections?"
Bai Shu pushed up his glasses as he spoke, but none of them had the energy to care about that right now.
Wang Weihu said, "Anything's fine. I don't mind."
Chen Xiaofei grimaced as he wrapped himself in bandages. Hearing this, he nodded too. "Sure. We could even give Little Class Monitor more. If she hadn't pulled out that hidden finishing move at the end, the three of us really would've died here today."
Wang Weihu wholeheartedly agreed. He glanced down at his injured fists and couldn't help clenching them. "Too weak. I mean we're too weak. They've started dividing these things into star ratings now? That was only three stars."
Just a three-star monster,
And it had nearly wiped out their squad. On their usual missions in the past, the four of them had worked together flawlessly, yet today they had nearly died.
Chen Xiaofei fell silent too. In a rare display of dejection, he couldn't help sighing.
Bai Shu quickly finished the report, then divided the points and transferred them to their respective account cards. "If you're already getting discouraged, I suggest you look at the forum. We're still in the early stages of the apocalypse, and the highest-level monsters to appear so far are only Five-Star. Besides, Headquarters said there'll be an extra reward for successfully killing this three-star Mutant Snake-Man. We have something to look forward to."
After all, the four of them plus one little zombie had taken down a three-star Mutation Monster.
His point was that they had already done something pretty damn impressive.
Wang Weihu and Chen Xiaofei paused, then both crowded around Bai Shu. On the tablet, a prominent trending thread was full of people singing their praises.
-What??!! Which brave team accepted that mission nobody dared touch? Oh, it was the 3A Special Operations Team. All right, no more questions.
-Holy shit, a three-star Mutation Monster! What kind of squad is this? They're insane!
-What's the story behind the 3A Special Operations Team? Total civilian newbie here. Someone explain, please.
With the arrival of the apocalypse, plenty of new slang had sprung up on the forum.
For example, combat squads with military backgrounds called themselves regulars, while squads made up of ordinary people who had only gained abilities because of the apocalypse called themselves civilian newbies.
Everyone was chatting up a storm.
No matter how hard life got, people still needed gossip, or they would go crazy.
People needed somewhere to unwind.
Hanging around on the forum was a great way to relieve stress.
When someone asked about the 3A Special Operations Squad, helpful comrades from other units stepped in to explain.
-The 3A Special Operations Squad? Nothing special. Just a combat squad that got an A rating for three straight years, thirty-six consecutive monthly evaluations, that's all. [bitter] [world-weary] [I'm really not crying]
-Civilian newbies, don't listen to the nonsense above. Every single person in that squad is seriously impressive. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in the legendary A Group. I hear A Group has seven teams, and 3A is still one of the strongest! Basically, they're the people at the top of the pyramid. Ordinary folks like us shouldn't compare ourselves to them. They're a bunch of animals! Not afraid of death or exhaustion, the kind who can go ten days without food and not die!
Other comrades chimed in with their agreement and +1s. Their commanding officers had probably compared them to this squad plenty of times, judging by how weary and pained they all sounded.
The civilian newbies responded with awed exclamations, thinking they were unbelievably cool!
-No wonder they're so good. That's incredible! Our squad ran into a one-star mutant animal before, and that was already terrifying. We almost got wiped out. This was a three-star Mutation Monster! It used to be human, not even an animal. That sounds like so much pressure.
-Hahahaha, you really are an adorable civilian newbie. Never killed anyone before, huh? Those of us who are regulars have taken down actual people before, so the psychological pressure isn't too bad. Mostly, it's just disgusting when the enemy looks neither human nor monster.
-Oh, it was the 3A Special Operations Squad? No surprise, then. Didn't you see the photos and videos from the scene? God, huge chunks of flesh everywhere. Ugh! How strong do you have to be to chop a three-star Mutation Monster into pieces?
-Damn, now that you mention it, those chunks still have snakeskin on them. Don't they just look like cuts of snake meat? They look so much like chopped eel. Now I'm hungry.
-??? Don't go too crazy up there!
-Hey, people can't-or at least shouldn't...
In short, everyone was having a great time discussing it, worshipping their 3A Special Operations Squad as elite heavyweights. Only the squad members themselves knew it was a little...
Chen Xiaofei rubbed his nose. "We really don't deserve all that praise this time. If it weren't for Little Class Monitor, we might not have beaten that guy."
Wang Weihu felt pretty guilty too.
Bai Shu turned to look into the back seat of the vehicle, where Qin Luo and Xu Duoduo were both asleep. As soon as they had gotten in, Qin Luo had hurriedly wiped the blood off himself, slapped on some medicine, and wrapped his wounds in bandages. Then he had grabbed a small blanket, hastily wiped the blood off the little zombie, and fallen asleep with her in his arms. The little zombie had closed her eyes and gone to sleep as soon as she got into the vehicle.
Chen Xiaofei asked hesitantly, "Should we wake them up? At least Qin Luo's wounds need to be properly rebandaged, right? Little Class Monitor hasn't changed her clothes either..."
Wang Weihu leaned in for a look. The two were sleeping soundly, nestled against each other.
Bai Shu shook his head. "Forget it. Let them sleep first. I don't know what's going on with Little Class Monitor, but Qin Luo falling asleep after a fight is nothing new. The latest research says sleep helps mutants quickly recover their stamina and heal their wounds. If you two can fall asleep, go get some rest too."
Before you continue