"Burn!"
"Boom!"
"Kaboom!!!"
The Mutants gathered around the small truck caught fire, with the leaking fuel truck being the first to ignite. The moment open flames appeared, the prepared detonation fuse immediately began burning. Within mere seconds, the gas station exploded, engulfing all Mutants in flames!
Xu Huo used the Ox Shield for protection but was still blasted dozens of meters away by the explosive shockwave, crashing into a residential building before being buried under the collapsing structure!
Under normal circumstances, he would have been dead or severely injured at minimum. Yet in less than a minute, he regained consciousness from the impact, pushed aside the rubble covering him, reset his dislocated arm, and walked out from the ruins.
Staggering to the nearest Pit Cage, he found its entrance wide open, the metal plate used to seal in Mutants overturned to one side. While it had appeared completely normal earlier, Xu Huo now detected a faint medicinal scent around the seal.
"Bzzzz!" A high-frequency sound emerged from deep within the Pit Cage, instinctively drawing him forward with an overwhelming urge to approach and destroy the source of this noise!
"Drip! Drip!"
Shaking his head, he jumped into the Pit Cage passage and quickly crawled along the tunnel toward the sound's origin. With only one underground path, he could advance even with closed eyes. After three minutes and sixteen seconds, he reached the sound source—a high-frequency instrument sealed behind ornate iron bars.
The window showed signs of violent pounding, but the equipment inside remained undamaged.
Xu Huo unscrewed the nearby bolts, punched through the black instrument tormenting his nerves, swept away the debris, and discovered an empty space behind it. Squeezing through, he found himself in a surprisingly spacious room.
As he squeezed through the narrow passage and landed, he bumped into the room's only table. The leather case on top fell to the ground, several differently colored syringes rolling out along with a notebook that tumbled down.
Collapsing onto the floor, Xu Huo barely managed to open the notebook while covering his continuously bleeding nose and mouth, fighting through dizziness to examine its contents.
"...inherent flaws in the evolution serum...death and mutation during evolution process..."
"Initial mutation stage displays perfect evolution characteristics..."
"Accompanied by photophobia, vision deterioration symptoms..."
"Different mutation individuals exhibit varying states..."
...
Quickly flipping through several pages, the content began to change:
"...Dr. Wu...P0S serum...light blue...perfect evolution serum..."
"After use...no longer dependent on oral agents...and halted evolution won't cause mutation or death..."
"...completed version of P0 serum...must be used at evolution's beginning stage..."
"...after consuming P1 Evolution Serum...once second stage evolution begins...evolution process becomes irreversible...S version serum ineffective..."
Trembling, Xu Huo scrambled on the floor searching for the light blue one. His vision was nearly gone now, mental confusion combined with visual impairment making him finally identify two blue syringes, yet unable to distinguish which was the correct P0S serum due to his color blindness!
"Cough!" vomiting a mouthful of blood, he suddenly collapsed to the ground, limbs convulsing uncontrollably!
"Gag! Gag!" Gushing blood clogged his throat, the overwhelming metallic scent numbing all senses and perceptions. Feeling his humanity slipping away, Xu Huo desperately grabbed both syringes and injected them into his arm!
In the pitch-black underground passage, empty syringe tubes clattered to the ground. The person lying beside them continuously emitted pained groans, his curled-up body convulsing violently as he vomited blood in great spurts against the floor. Blood vessels throughout his limbs pulsed repeatedly like young snakes squirming beneath his skin, rushing along his body toward his heart and brain before seeping out through pores, mouth, and nose!
The sounds inside alerted Mutants outside the other two passage entrances. They frantically kicked at the iron bars, the noises from both sides alternating—initially the interior sounds overwhelmed the exterior, but gradually the outside noises overpowered the inside until eventually, the interior sounds faded away completely...
Within the walls, Wang Chaoqing knelt on the suspension bridge holding a flashlight, staring hopelessly at the broken chains. "This gate simply won't open...we can't get out...we're trapped here..."
Ke Liang's palms were covered in blood as he gasped, "If the gate won't open, did we miss the timing and it locked permanently? Should we wait until tomorrow night?"
He glanced down at the Mutants still following them below. "Seems like there aren't any other Mutants...they can't climb up here either."
Gu Yu, who had adjusted her watch's time, said, "It's not about timing—this gate is too heavy, and with the chains broken, the few of us simply can't move it."
"What should we do then? Should we turn back?" Ke Liang looked behind them. "After running so far, I really don't want to go back. I wonder how Xu Huo is doing?"
At the mention of Xu Huo, Gu Yu's eyes flickered. She glanced at the unconscious Shen Xin beside them and said gravely, "We have to try regardless."
Ke Liang kicked Wang Chaoqing. "Go carry Shen Xin."
Wang Chaoqing threw down his flashlight in defeat. "I won't carry her! We finally reached the exit—if we go back, will we ever get out again?"
Ke Liang grabbed him by the collar. "Are you stupid? Will staying here get us out? This side's chains are broken—only by returning to the town can we escape through the west gate!"
Wang Chaoqing suddenly understood and scrambled up to move Shen Xin. "Right, right! There's still the west gate!"
"Let's go." Gu Yu helped support Shen Xin as they began retracing their path along the suspension bridge.
They hadn't gone far when footsteps sounded ahead of them.
"Xu Huo!" Gu Yu rushed forward eagerly, but when the light illuminated the approaching figure, it revealed Lin Pei—holding Xu Huo's sword!
"It's you!" She and Ke Liang immediately went on alert. "Why do you have Xu Huo's item?!"
Lin Pei smiled coldly. "What do you think?"
"Impossible!" Gu Yu slapped the belt around her waist. "This is also Xu Huo's item. If he died, it should have become ownerless."
"You're not wrong," Lin Pei said coldly. "But so what? He's already infected with Mutant poison. Death is just a matter of time."
"Where is he?" Gu Yu demanded.
"Who knows? Probably hiding in some corner of Decibel Town waiting to die."
"He returned to Decibel Town?" Gu Yu recalled what Xu Huo had said earlier and guessed he might have gone searching for an antidote. She stared at the bloodstain on Lin Pei's abdomen. "Looks like you're pretty badly injured too."
Lin Pei's face darkened as he held Shen Yi's Spring Rope in one hand and Xu Huo's sword in the other. "I am injured, but dealing with you lot won't be any trouble!"