Book 1 Chapter 14: HuntingThe Mutant Ant!
A few days later, on the sixth floor.
*Sphhlt!
With a cleave of the axe, a zombie was split inhalf.
With flowing movements, Ye Chen dove amidst thehorde of zombies. With each cleave he struck, he took the life of a zombie.
After a few moments, the floor was covered indozens of zombie corpses. Black blood seeped out to cover the floor. With tornlimbs and shredded bones, each of the zombies was reduced to a mangled heap.Not one of the corpses remained in one piece.
"How brutal…."
Bai Long nervously looked upon the carnage ashe gulped audibly.
Amidst the pile of mutilated corpses, Ye Chenstood there with hardly any blood staining his clothes. Even so, onlookerswould undoubtedly claim him a visage of ruthless savagery, a demon-possessedkiller. Turning around, he shot Bai Long a glance and ordered: "Those two roomsover there. Clear them out."
"T-that is…. I seem to be unwell at the moment,no doubt struck by an ailment. C-can I…." Bai Long stammered with considerablestrain.
Ye Chen went over to his sister and instructed:"Tonight, you are to prepare a meal fit for two, nothing more."
"Ooh! I suddenly regained my memories; clearout those two rooms is it? Right away!" Bai Long who was sluggishly looking atYe Chen moments ago, shook his head exaggeratedly and hurriedly picked up hiswatermelon knife before marching towards the indicated rooms.
Over the past few days of zombie hunting, even BaiLong was allowed to indulge in feasting upon mutagenic flesh raising hisstrength to that of five men. Ye Chen on the other hand had reached thirty andhis sister, Ye Zhu reached twelve.
With Bai Long gone, Ye Zhu began dissecting thecorpses on the floor. Originally, it was intended for Bai Long to take overdissection work. However to Ye Chen"s dismay, the guy seemed to possess luckworse than his own. He only found a single fingertip-sized piece of mutagenicflesh after dissecting more than a dozen zombies. Therefore, the role ofharvesting the corpses was left for Ye Zhu to take over.
"You intend to train up his survival skills,right?" Ye Zhu inquired while dissecting the corpses, saying: "Or else withyour ability, clearing those two rooms will be a cinch!"
Ye Chen reluctantly glanced at his sister, itseemed like the girl could read his thoughts like a book.
Eventually, Bai Long returned exhaustedly withhis clothes stained in blood. Sweating profusely while panting like a dog, heexclaimed: "I"ve finally f-finished. Took everything I had."
Ye Chen nodded, saying: "Now go drag thosecorpses over, Xiao Zhu will dissect them."
Ye Chen did not attempt to hide the secretsbehind harvesting mutagenic flesh. After all, they were going to co-existtogether from now on. It"d be a pain to hide it from him anyway so he might aswell be open with the guy. Furthermore, he had already decided to take himunder his wing. It"d be silly to keep him out of the loop.
Hearing Ye Chen"s words caused Bai Long to sagin exhaustion. However, noticing his cold demeanor, Bai Long reluctantly stoodup while grumbling: "It"s not like I"m afraid of you, I"m only doing it foryour sister"s sake!"
After the dissection work was over, the threeproceed to the elevator, returning back to the eighteenth floor.
After cleansing themselves, they each attendedto their separate ch.o.r.es. Ye Zhu would prepare dinner while Bai Long helpedwith any heavy lifting as well as laundry work. While they were busy, Ye Chenrested himself on the sofa while deep in contemplation.
In the living room, the sound of popular musiccould be heard.
Wiping the floor with a mop, Bai Long hummedmerrily to the music. Swaying his head to the rhythm, he moved about in a wackydance. Anyone who didn"t know any better would consider him bonkers. Entrancedby the upbeat tune, Bai Long hefted the mop in the fashion of a guitar,caressing it while humming in self-absorbed splendor.
His carefree display filled the room with aharmonious serene.
Ye Chen welcomed such a change of pace. Eventhough Bai Long"s singing was slightly off-key, he didn"t attempt to criticizehim.
"Dinner"s ready!"
Around 7:00, night started its descent. Withthe windows and curtains shut tight, the three gathered around the table fordinner.
"Today"s harvest was pretty decent." Under thelights, Ye Zhu commented as she placed two large bowls of mutagenic flesh onthe table. Her charming features were flushed red with cheer.
Bai Long was ecstatic; he immediately preparedto stretch out his chopsticks. Yet before he could do so, Ye Zhu placed a smallbowl of mutagenic flesh before him. With a bright smile, she exclaimed: "Yourkill count today has improved much more than yesterday, keep it up!"
Bai Long shifted his gaze between his tiny bowland the other two large bowls. Pitifully, he directed a pleading gaze at Ye Zhu,suggesting: "Allow me to partake in your burden of finishing your meal!"
Ye Zhu giggled while saying: "Okay!" Saying so,she pinched a small piece of mutagenic flesh and placed in into Bai Long"sbowl.
"That"s it?" Bai Long was astonished.
Ye Zhu earnestly nodded, saying: "Brother saidthat since you weren"t involved in that much work, eating excessively will onlylead to indigestion."
Bai Long felt like he was on the verge ofpuking blood. Desperately, he shifted his pitiful pleading gaze towards YeChen. However, it was in vain. From the start, Ye Chen never bothered to somuch as even look at the guy. Piece by piece, he continued to eat withindifference, minding his own business.
Bai Long felt so resigned that he couldn"t cryif he tried. Exasperated, he said: "Fine, in place of G.o.d, I"ll forgive thisbunch of misers!"
Finishing today"s harvest of mutagenic flesh,Ye Chen felt his strength raise a few notches. He now possessed the strength of31 men.
His current estimated stats were:
Strength: 1550kg!
Speed: 100m/2s!
Reaction time: 0.008s!
When Ye Chen attains a reaction time of around0.004s, he would be able to perceive the trajectory of bullets, allowing roomfor evasion. A reaction time of 0.001s would render virtually all pistols uselessagainst him; even bullets fired from a sniper rifle could be evaded.
"Something the matter?" noticing his odddemeanor, Ye Zhu inquired with a raised brow.
Ye Chen turned to glance at his sister, saying:"Tomorrow, I"ll be heading downstairs to hunt a mutant ant. While I"m at it, Iwon"t be able to hunt zombies with the both of you, so be extra careful." Afterwhich, he turned to glance at Bai Long, instructing: "My sister"s safety is inyour hands, take care of her."
Bai Long puffed his chest, declaring: "But ofcourse!"
Ye Chen did not explain further, he moved toprepare some necessities for tomorrow"s hunt.
It has been 20 days since the apocalypsestruck. If he couldn"t capture the mutant ant before the end of the month, itwould undergo another mutation, causing it to gain the strength of 60 men. Bythen, hunting it would be even more difficult.
"Capturing that mutant ant is my ticket tobecoming a genome warrior! Only then will I be considered strong enough toprotect Ye Zhu." Ye Chen"s eyes were filled with resolve, capturing the mutantant was imperative!
The next day, upon awakening, Ye Chenimmediately began preparations for today"s operation.
First, he placed a gas cylinder in front of theroom that contained the mutant ant. After which, he readied some weapons beforeputting on a leather vest made of mutant dog fur and hide. It offered far moreprotection than the thick clothes he had before. A claw swipe from an ordinaryzombie had no way of getting past such a vest!
They only had two such vests, which wasnormally worn by Bai Long and Ye Zhu. Today, Ye Chen was wearing Bai Long"svest.
"Brother, you must be careful. If it"s too muchto handle, please retreat!" Ye Zhu exclaimed with worry.
Ye Chen nodded while saying: "I"m sure I canmanage. I"m more concerned for the both of you. Don"t get yourselves scratchedby the zombies. If a mutant beast appears, flee immediately."
"He"ll be fine, relax!" Bai Long smiled whilenodding.
Later….
After seeing off the two, Ye Chen began hisoperation. First, he carried the gas cylinder into the bedroom of a nearby room.After fiddling with the wiring, he dug a hole underneath the bedroom door inorder for the mutant ant to enter it.
Ye Chen released the gas before placing a bowlof syrup on top of the cylinder. Afterwards, he stuffed the gaps in the doorwith wet towels after pouring a trail of syrup along the floor. The trail ofsyrup went all the way to the door of the mutant ant"s room.
With the preparations done, Ye Chen dived intoan inconspicuous position and laid in wait.
*Bang! Bang!
Within moments, the mutant ant began rammingits room"s door. With terrible ease, it ripped the st.u.r.dy door off its hingesand proceeded down the syrup train unhindered.
Ye Chen silenced his breathing and clenched thefireman"s axe tightly. He was currently hiding within a cabinet in the livingroom. With the cabinet door opened by a smidgeon, he peeked outside. It lookslike the mutant ant was following the syrup trail nicely and was about to enterthe bedroom….
"Burn!"
With a cruel glint in his eyes, Ye Chen yankeda white string, triggering the switch in the bedroom. With a *click, a tinyspark caused the gas saturated bedroom to explode violently. The bedroom doorwas instantly sent flying, followed by furious jets of flame showering outengulfing its surroundings. Everything around the doorframe was burnt pitchblack.
Ye Chen quickly dashed out of the cabinet andrushed for the bedroom. He knew that detonating a gas cylinder wasn"t enough tokill the mutant ant.
Arriving at the doorframe, Ye Chen found thatthe room"s interior had been reduced to a smoldering mess. Right beside thetorn gas cylinder was the mutant ant; its exterior has been charredconsiderably causing it to writhe helplessly in agony. It seems like theexplosion even took off some of its legs while cracking open its st.u.r.dyexoskeleton.