On a pitch-black night, the moon hung high in the starry sky, illuminating the city below and [HeLa Cell], which had taken root in its center.
It had been almost a day since [HeLa Cell] came to the city, and it had changed tremendously in less than a day.
It had been nothing more than a dog when it arrived, but now it could control the entire city. The people here, however, seemed to have almost all been eaten by [HeLa Cell].
[HeLa Cell] let its thoughts wander as it continued using its tentacles to search for the people remaining in the city. But for some reason, they seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth in an instant, and it couldn't find them anywhere.
Suddenly, one of its tentacles found something.
The tentacle shot out like a hunting snake and struck its target.
Once the thing stopped moving, [HeLa Cell] wrapped a tentacle around it and lifted it up for a closer look. It discovered that the thing wasn't a living creature, but a machine that looked like a dog.
[HeLa Cell] had never seen anything so strange before. It was clearly a machine, yet it walked on legs like a living creature.
But [HeLa Cell] didn't think much of it. With a casual squeeze, it crushed the mechanical dog to pieces.
At a military base somewhere, the higher-ups watched the final video footage sent back by the mechanical reconnaissance dog, every one of them frowning deeply.
A scruffy-bearded officer spoke, his voice trembling slightly:
"It's actually true! City C really has been invaded by an 'aberrant'!"
Another middle-aged officer pressed a hand to his forehead, his tone grave.
"The intelligence has been confirmed. City C has indeed been invaded by an aberrant.
"I suggest we use [Thunderstorm] to deal with it directly. After all, judging from the intelligence we have, this 'aberrant' possesses strength at least at the 'City Destruction' level, and there are even signs that it's approaching the 'Super Aberrant' level.
"It's best to deal with it as soon as possible."
But another officer quickly objected.
"What about the residents of the city, then?! I don't believe everyone in the city could have been evacuated in such a short time!"
The officer who spoke looked relatively young, and there was a trace of anger in his voice.
The middle-aged officer closed his eyes and sighed softly.
"See for yourself, Officer Sun."
The middle-aged officer tossed him a document.
"It's the current intelligence on the city."
Officer Sun was somewhat puzzled, but he took it and began reading. After only a couple of glances, his expression froze, then gave way to disbelief and anger.
"City C... population, one million... number evacuated... five thousand... number of survivors in the city..."
Officer Sun swallowed, and several seconds passed before he managed to force out the final line:
"Current number of survivors in the city: zero!"
"The attack by this 'aberrant' was too sudden. We didn't even see how it got in before it had already begun slaughtering the people in the city. Although the local government did its best to evacuate the public, they only managed to save five thousand people."
The middle-aged officer spoke with a grim face, while Officer Sun's face twisted with anger.
"Smack!!"
Officer Sun slammed his hand on the table, his voice filled with fury.
"Start drawing up a subjugation plan right now!"
The other officers all nodded in agreement.
Should I move to another city? There doesn't seem to be anything left to eat here. But how am I supposed to move?
After searching the city several more times, [HeLa Cell] pondered as it squirmed its disgusting body. In its current body, it would take at least twenty years for it to starve to death.
But no one knew whether tomorrow or disaster would come first, so the evolution cell still wanted to find a place with food, just in case.
But just as it had suspected, moving its current body would be extremely difficult.