Chapter Summaries

During her first interrogation by the Great Xia Nation, the chained [HeLa Cell] began recounting how she had learned to survive after being born. Her memories reached the moment she copied the ant that had attacked her.

• The middle-aged man accused [HeLa Cell] of killing the people of City C and demanded that she tell the truth about her past.
• [HeLa Cell] struggled to speak through the chain in her throat as a female researcher recorded her words.
• [HeLa Cell] recalled surviving by absorbing water and nutrients, then eating nearby cells until she grew into a mass of flesh.
• [HeLa Cell] ate through seaweed, was washed ashore, and learned to wriggle across land.
• A large ant bit [HeLa Cell] and left, after which [HeLa Cell] transformed into a smaller ant.

[HeLa Cell] adapted to life as an ant, then transformed into a black snake and a dog after consuming larger prey. As the dog, it found a white-haired girl beside a large tree.

• [HeLa Cell] lived among ants, then killed a snake from inside its belly and transformed into a black snake.
• [HeLa Cell] killed and swallowed a large black dog, then changed into a larger version of the dog.
• [HeLa Cell] adjusted to its four-legged body and explored for food.
• [HeLa Cell] spotted a tuft of white beside a large tree and approached, revealing a beautiful girl.

[HeLa Cell] killed a frail white-haired girl, copied her body, and realized that humans were weak prey. He followed the scent of more humans to a picnic, where he attacked Han Xuan.

• [HeLa Cell] approached the white-haired girl while disguised as a dog, then killed her and licked the blood from the grass.
• [HeLa Cell] copied the girl's body but discovered that it was too weak to stand, and understood why she had not fought or fled.
• [HeLa Cell] returned to his black-dog form and followed the scent of several humans, growing faster as he ran.
• Yan Ling, the captain, Han Xuan, and a younger girl prepared dinner and pitched tents at a picnic.
• Han Xuan heard a noise in the bushes, and [HeLa Cell] leaped out and bit his arm before Han Xuan kicked him away.

[HeLa Cell] fought a group of armed travelers who discovered its regenerative ability and unusual strength. After adapting to their attacks and wounding the captain, it faced a new threat as the captain summoned transparent threads around it.

• [HeLa Cell] bit the vice captain, but he kicked it into a tree and the group identified it as a variant.
• [HeLa Cell] realized the vice captain’s flesh contained abundant energy and charged the group again.
• The captain sliced off [HeLa Cell]’s head, but it tried to retrieve it and regenerate, so the vice captain shot it while the captain severed its neck again.
• [HeLa Cell] healed from its wounds and regrew its head, then adapted to the captain’s next attack and scratched his face before he cut its head off once more.
• [HeLa Cell] dodged a gunshot after hearing it, healed the bullet wound, and the captain summoned transparent threads that wound toward it.

The group destroyed the HeLa Cell’s body, but one surviving head ambushed Xiaoxiao as they prepared to leave. The chapter ended with the HeLa Cell biting into Xiaoxiao’s neck.

• Yan Ling trapped the HeLa Cell with her flaming sword and cut its body into pieces while the captain shot off its limbs.
• The group burned the HeLa Cell’s remains and believed it was dead after Yan Ling checked the ashes.
• The captain decided the group would return to City C after resting and eating, while Yan Ling treated his wound.
• Han Xuan spotted a surviving HeLa Cell head reaching for Xiaoxiao and shot through its hand.
• The HeLa Cell grabbed Xiaoxiao’s shoulder and tore a chunk from her neck.

HeLa Cell ambushed Xiaoxiao, leaving her critically wounded before turning to fight Yan Ling. As Brother Han and Yan Ling tried to stop HeLa Cell, she adapted to their attacks and charged Brother Han, who shot at her dog leg.

• HeLa Cell ambushed Xiaoxiao, drank her blood, and tore flesh from her shoulder as she fled.
• Brother Han found Xiaoxiao badly wounded, and the captain used Void Chrysalis Silk to stabilize her before asking him to help Yan Ling.
• HeLa Cell regenerated and fought Yan Ling, forming a bone blade and resisting the girl's flames.
• Brother Han shot at HeLa Cell to create openings for Yan Ling, but HeLa Cell learned her fighting techniques and attacked him instead.
• Brother Han retreated while fending off HeLa Cell, then knocked her blade aside and fired at her dog leg.

Yan Ling defied the captain’s order to retreat and charged at the rapidly regenerating [HeLa Cell], while Han Xuan used his last shots to help her evade its bone whips. The captain was left badly wounded, and the fight continued with Yan Ling closing in on the monster.

• Yan Ling wounded [HeLa Cell], but the captain shoved her aside and took its bone blade through his abdomen while using [Void Chrysalis Silk] to stabilize Xiaoxiao.
• [HeLa Cell] tore off the captain’s right arm, and the captain cut its bone blade before Han Xuan fired at it.
• [HeLa Cell] swallowed the captain’s arm, regenerated its injuries, and grew bone whips that forced Han Xuan to dodge.
• The captain ordered Yan Ling to retreat so she could report the threat, but she refused and charged at [HeLa Cell].
• Yan Ling dodged the monster’s attacks as Han Xuan repeatedly shot out its eyes and diverted a bone whip to open a path for her.

Han Xuan and Xiaoxiao escaped after Yan Ling and the captain died fighting [HeLa Cell], but the evolved xenogene tracked them down. As [HeLa Cell] closed in, Han Xuan prepared to take a pill, while Xiaoxiao clung to him instead of fleeing.

• Yan Ling charged [HeLa Cell], but an eye on the back of its head let it kill and devour her.
• The captain pinned [HeLa Cell] with his blade long enough for Han Xuan to carry the injured Xiaoxiao away, then died holding the xenogene in place.
• Han Xuan remembered meeting Yan Ling and the captain, and Xiaoxiao woke as he rested beneath a tree in the rain.
• [HeLa Cell] ambushed them, but Han Xuan used his special ability to dodge its attack and saw that it had evolved after devouring the others.
• Han Xuan told Xiaoxiao where to find his bank card and took a pill from his pistol, but Xiaoxiao embraced him instead of running.

Xiaoxiao fled [HeLa Cell] toward City C, but lost her leg and hand before falling from a cliff. [HeLa Cell] headed down the mountain toward the city, while a young man in City C went looking for Hela after she failed to answer his messages and phone call.

• The man sacrificed himself with a transparent pill to blast apart half of [HeLa Cell]'s body, then threw his pistol to Xiaoxiao and urged her to live.
• Xiaoxiao ran through the woods toward City C, but [HeLa Cell] severed her left lower leg before she reached the edge of the forest.
• Xiaoxiao crawled to the cliff and tried to shoot [HeLa Cell], but missed; [HeLa Cell] severed her right hand, and she fell over the edge.
• [HeLa Cell] swallowed Xiaoxiao's severed limbs, decided City C might hold more humans, and ran toward the road down the mountain.
• A young man left a supermarket with groceries, messaged and called Hela without getting a response, then went into a nearby alley after noticing the smell of blood.

A boy discovered a strong smell of blood in an alley and called the police, but [HeLa Cell] killed him before he could report what he had found. When officers arrived, [HeLa Cell] killed several of them and pursued the survivors as they escaped in a patrol car.

• The boy smelled blood in the alley, called 110, and tried to leave.
• [HeLa Cell] smashed the boy’s phone, killed him, and devoured him along with its other prey.
• Police officers entered the alley and identified [HeLa Cell] as a xenogeneic.
• [HeLa Cell] killed an officer who peered around the corner and another who tried to hold it off with a handgun.
• The surviving officers fled in a patrol car, and [HeLa Cell] pursued them.

[HeLa Cell] stopped a fleeing police car by anchoring himself to it with bone whips and overturning it. After transforming into a giant crocodile-like form, he began swallowing the wreck with an officer trapped inside.

• [HeLa Cell] hooked two bone whips into the police car and resisted as the officers tried to drive away.
• An officer fired at [HeLa Cell], but missed as he shook the car and dragged it down the road.
• [HeLa Cell] heaved the police car onto its side, and it slid into a fire hydrant.
• [HeLa Cell] retracted his bone whips and grew into a giant lizard-like crocodile as water sprayed over him and the wreck.
• An officer woke inside the overturned car, but could not escape as [HeLa Cell] crushed and began swallowing it.

HeLa Cell devoured people in the city and kept growing, spreading its tentacles across the streets. It ended as a scarlet mass clinging to a skyscraper, poised between the city and darkness.

• HeLa Cell ate a police car and grew metal scales across its body.
• HeLa Cell ambushed pedestrians, killing and devouring people as they fled.
• HeLa Cell grew too large to chase its prey, so it sent out a tentacle to catch people.
• HeLa Cell grew more tentacles with eyes and mouths, using them to hunt across the city.
• HeLa Cell became a scarlet mountain of flesh clinging to a skyscraper as its tentacles fed it.

After [HeLa Cell] consumed nearly everyone in City C, military officers confirmed the threat and ordered a subjugation plan. With the city apparently emptied of food, [HeLa Cell] wondered how it could move elsewhere.

• [HeLa Cell] searched City C for survivors, found a mechanical reconnaissance dog, and crushed it.
• Military officers watched the machine’s final footage and confirmed that an aberrant had invaded City C.
• A middle-aged officer reported that only five thousand of the city’s million residents had been evacuated and that no survivors remained.
• Officer Sun slammed the table and called for the military to draw up a subjugation plan.
• [HeLa Cell] considered leaving City C to find food but realized its current body would be difficult to move.

HeLa Cell was attacked by fighter jets that destroyed its tentacles before withdrawing, then missiles leveled the surrounding city and seemingly killed it. Military headquarters sent a special investigation team to City C to confirm the target’s death.

• HeLa Cell watched the sky and considered how to move its enormous body without overheating.
• Fighter jets attacked Evolution Cell with missiles and blasted off all its tentacles, leaving it unable to move or resist.
• The fighter jets withdrew after the lead pilot reported that the plan was complete.
• Missiles struck HeLa Cell and continued bombing until the surrounding buildings had been razed.
• Military headquarters ordered a special investigation team to search the area and confirm the target was dead.
• The special investigation team headed for City C under its captain’s leadership.

A special investigation squad headed by Captain Nanming deployed to City C, while the HeLa Cell struggled to recover from a devastating attack. As its scattered pieces began gathering, the HeLa Cell sensed that they were being destroyed one by one.

• Liu Xiaogang bragged about his looks and complained that he had no time to find a girlfriend during the flight to City C.
• Captain Nanming announced the squad would arrive in five minutes and ordered everyone to prepare.
• Four squad members jumped from the fighter jet over City C, and the youngest called for Nanming as he fell without a parachute.
• The HeLa Cell recalled how a fast-flying object had blasted its body into pieces and realized humans had caused the attack.
• The HeLa Cell tried to gather its scattered chunks so it could escape, but sensed that one piece after another was being destroyed.

HeLa Cell realized the armed soldiers were closing in on his main body and decided to disguise himself as a young woman so humans might spare him. Meanwhile, Sun Hai investigated the moving flesh fragments and entered the ruined city center, where he called for support.

• HeLa Cell saw through the fragments' memories that heavily armed soldiers and mechanical dogs were destroying them and approaching his main body.
• HeLa Cell recalled that humans tended to help their own kind, especially women and young people, and began transforming into a human girl.
• After a teammate reported that a collected biological sample was highly active, Sun Hai ordered it cooled down.
• Sun Hai followed the flesh fragments to the ruined city center, carrying a black great scythe and carefully searching through the smoke.
• Sun Hai radioed nearby teammates to request support, and they acknowledged his call.

Sun Hai discovered a naked, unresponsive girl in the ruins and called his teammates to bring clothes and medical supplies. After covering her, he carried her back and ordered the team to withdraw.

• Sun Hai detected a possible life-form with the scout robot dog and approached cautiously.
• Sun Hai found a naked girl sitting silently and expressionlessly among the ruins.
• Sun Hai called his teammates to bring clothes and prepare medical supplies, then waited with the girl.
• Sun Hai's teammates arrived with clothes, and he covered the girl with a coat.
• Sun Hai picked up the girl and ordered the team to pull out.

Sun Hai returned to the plane with a girl he had found alive and ordered his team to take her to the nearest hospital. The squad headed there so doctors could check her injuries before they reported the situation to the higher-ups.

• Feng Xuan prepared medical supplies after Sun Hai radioed that he had found a strange girl and asked for clothes and medical gear.
• Feng Xuan waited for the team, doubting that anyone could have survived the bombardment.
• Sun Hai arrived carrying the girl, and his team covered her with clothes.
• Sun Hai asked whether any female team members were present, and Feng Xuan said the rookie would not arrive for several days.
• Sun Hai ordered the squad to take the girl to the nearest hospital and report the situation to the higher-ups, and Feng Xuan drove them there.

At the hospital, Feng Xuan learned that the girl was physically well, while Sun Hai discovered her identity and was asked to care for her during his suspension. Sun Hai eventually looked at the stars and made a decision about Hela.

• A nurse told Feng Xuan that the girl was healthy apart from low blood sugar and could leave after her glucose infusion.
• Nanming told Sun Hai that the girl was Hela, a seventeen-year-old with albinism whose father had died and whose mother was terminally ill.
• Nanming informed Sun Hai that he had been suspended for two months after ordering the team to retreat.
• Nanming asked Sun Hai to look after Hela until a newcomer arrived, warning that otherwise she might be sent to a psychiatric hospital.
• Sun Hai silently hung up, pondered the request, and finally made a decision while looking at the stars.

Sun Hai brought Hela to his apartment, believing she was a vulnerable girl who needed care, while Hela remained wary and misunderstood his actions. After settling her in, he fed her beef noodles when she grabbed the scalding food with her hands.

• Sun Hai drove Hela to his apartment building and gently led her from the car to the elevator and upstairs.
• Sun Hai told Hela she would live with him and prepared a blanket and pillow for himself on the sofa.
• Hela tested the sofa, found it comfortable, and gradually lay down while Sun Hai cooked.
• Sun Hai served Hela beef noodles, and she grabbed the hot noodles with her bare hand without reacting to the burn.
• Sun Hai fed Hela the rest of her meal by hand, then threw away his own noodles and decided to get her a spoon.