Strange Mutated Creatures

[Site selection complete. Additional optional missions obtained.]

[1. Kill Mutated Creatures and receive rewards based on their number and strength.]

[2. Explore the fog-shrouded town and investigate the cause of the fog.]

[3. Resolve the anomalous incidents in the fog-shrouded town.]

Three additional missions popped up in the chatroom, but Lin Ye was more concerned about where his three teammates had gone.

Lin Ye had been teleported into a small supermarket. Outside was extremely thick white fog, and there was no one around.

Zhou Wen: I'm in a room in a house. Something seems to be moving outside the door. I'm afraid of alerting whatever's out there, so I don't dare use my mental power to sense it.

Hu Tingting: I seem to be in a school cafeteria. Something's wrong here. There seems to be something moving on the walls.

Xu Changnian: I'm in a hospital ward. There are strange noises in the corridor.

Lin Ye: I'm in a supermarket. I'm going to clear it out. Come here and regroup. Message me if you need help.

Zhou Wen: Understood.

Hu Tingting: Understood.

Xu Changnian: Understood.

None of the three asked Lin Ye for help. The system assigned sites based on strength, and anyone matched with Lin Ye was no novice.

Lin Ye began checking the supermarket. It had only one floor, but covered a large area, with over a dozen large shelving units as well as other areas, such as restrooms, offices, and storerooms.

While checking the shelving units, Lin Ye found a small refrigerator that would fit in the shelter.

I can take it when I leave.

The shelter had always needed a refrigerator to store mutation organs and chunks of corpses, but space was limited, and a large refrigerator would not fit.

After checking between the shelves, Lin Ye began inspecting the other rooms. The storerooms, offices, and other areas were all fine. Only the restroom remained.

As soon as Lin Ye approached the restroom, he sensed something hiding inside. It was a strangely shaped mass of flesh, with numerous mutation organs constantly performing their functions within it.

Drawing the Red Blade, Lin Ye took out a mirror and held it around the corner. Though his perception was powerful, humans were ultimately visual creatures, and seeing things with his eyes made the situation easier to understand.

The restroom was crammed with flesh. It had long since lost its biological form, becoming an expanding mound of meat that crowded the space.

Lin Ye put away the Red Blade. He sensed no danger from this mound of meat. Ultimately, the thing had already lost most of its biological characteristics and had no aggression at all.

But how did it mutate into this?

Lin Ye found it rather strange.

Biological mutation was actually heavily influenced by the environment and an individual's wishes. He found it difficult to imagine what sort of mutation process could produce something like this.

Could it be human intervention? But what would be the purpose? Experiments? Or mass-producing mutation organs?

But there's no need to go to all this trouble for mutation organs, is there? Dealing with Mutated Creatures is much easier than influencing the direction of mutation.

Lin Ye did not dwell on it for long. He cut open the misshapen flesh and removed the unusually active mutation organs inside.

After dealing with the restroom and confirming there were no other anomalies in the supermarket, Lin Ye left to search nearby for other supplies.

He mainly wanted to find a gun store and acquire a batch of firearms. Though ordinary guns could not handle powerful Tier-1 Mutated Creatures, they were more than enough for weak, brainless ones.

Let alone Mutated Creatures that had not even reached Tier 1.

The town did not seem to have a gun store, but Lin Ye found a batch of police equipment at the nearby police station. Though neither its firepower nor its quantity matched the previous batch, it would do.

When Lin Ye pushed a shopping cart back to the supermarket, his three teammates were already waiting inside.

Lin Ye: Use the chatroom for important matters. Something's wrong here. Those Mutated Creatures show signs of human intervention. I suspect someone is up to something in this town.

"I brought back some guns. Take whichever you want. Who knows what happened here? Everyone's turned into those freakish things."

Lin Ye put on a puzzled expression.

Zhou Wen: I think something's wrong too. The monsters here look especially frightening, but none of them are very strong. It's a bit like performance art.

"Ah, I hope we finish investigating soon. My girlfriend's waiting for me to come back and marry her."

Zhou Wen sighed.

Hu Tingting: Everyone at the school has disappeared. I found some notes left by students, with a few clues recorded in them. To summarize, in the period before the fog covered this town, a strange illness was spreading here. Its early symptoms were a little like a cold, but much more severe. Some patients even had temperatures as high as 43°C, but even with temperatures that high, they didn't die. Instead, they could work and live normally. The hospital couldn't find the cause either. That's all the useful information in the notes.

"Want me to introduce you to a few boyfriends? I have quite a few friends who like cute kids like you."

Hu Tingting spoke with a smile.

"No thanks. I don't want to catch any strange diseases."

Zhou Wen's words carried an insinuation.

Xu Changnian: The hospital had detailed records and plenty of specimens. I took some pictures. There are lots of technical terms and figures in them that I don't really understand. You can take a look.

Xu Changnian sent over a dozen pictures to the chatroom, then said with a stony face:

"Do you have any female friends? I've never dated anyone."

His expression looked less like he wanted a date and more like he was demanding repayment on a loan-shark debt.

"Uh, my friends don't date, but they can help you take care of your needs. If you need them, I can introduce you to a few more."

Hu Tingting did not look at the pictures. She had left school before finishing elementary school and gone out to scrape by in the world. Pictures that were exhausting just to read were best left to the high school students.

On the surface, Lin Ye and Zhou Wen took turns making small talk, but both were secretly reading the information in the pictures carefully.

Meanwhile, Xu Changnian checked the equipment while chatting earnestly with Hu Tingting.

"A few won't really be enough. Tingting, could you introduce me to some more?"

Hu Tingting glanced at Xu Changnian's lower body in surprise and said in astonishment:

"Huh? A few still won't be enough? My friends are all seasoned experts. But if that's not enough, it's no problem. I can't promise more, but I can still call over a few dozen girls. I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

Xu Changnian fully loaded the shotgun and said with satisfaction:

"Great. Last time I went to a matchmaking agency, the woman there stopped after introducing me to just three people. She insisted on referring me to a colleague. Her colleague was even worse. After introducing me to just one person, she told me to go home and wait, and never contacted me again."

Hu Tingting stared at Xu Changnian, speechless. She felt a little sorry for those matchmaking agencies.

Lin Ye: I've more or less figured out what's going on.