Chapter 93: The Gene Altered Soldiers
Translator: Letty Editor: DarkGem
“What are you talking about?” The girl was frightened, her distorted due to fear.
“Nothing important, I was just asking you if you’ve seen two people that I happen to be looking for.” The hooknose woman fished out two photos from her uniform pocket. “Here they are, an eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy, and a twelve-year-old girl.”
“No… I didn’t see them at all.” Seeing the familiar faces on the photos, the girl lied with a stutter.
Her incompetent lying skills sold her out to the professionally trained soldiers. The woman squinted at the girl, then grabbed the collar of her s.h.i.+rt, lifting the girl up so that she could see into her eyes. She scanned the girl’s face, then threw her to one of the soldiers.
“Get someone to interrogate her. And I need two soldiers to be stationed in this community to get me some fresh information. His scent is everywhere, I’m pretty sure he stayed here for some time.” The woman then commanded the rest of the soldiers, “Follow me! Our targets ran away already.
“Speed up, boys! No matter how far he goes, as long as he is still in Zheng Zhou, I’ll trace him down.”
…
Chang galloped along the street in Zheng Zhou with Jing in his arm. He had no clue of how the military pinpointed where he hid. In this world of chaos, there was no wire or radio communications of any sort. That’s why, it wasn’t easy to put someone as wanted. No one knew where he and Jing had left to, even Qing Shui wasn’t told.
Various thoughts filled his mind, yet his feet didn’t slow down the pace. Chang was much faster and ran away from the troops with ease.
For the next hour, Chang spent every second on sprinting at an unprecedented speed from the east to the south. He didn’t stop until he thought he had made enough distance from his pursuers. He placed Jing down since he was out of breath. Beads of sweat rolled down from his forehead, and inhale as much air as he could to relieve the burning in his lungs.
“Chang, who are they?” Jing asked, her foot brus.h.i.+ng the damp gra.s.s. “Are they from the research inst.i.tute? Did Dr. Huang denounce us again? She is the only person in the community that knew about our past.”
“I don’t think so...” Chang recalled the interactions between them and Dr. Huang—nothing unusual stood outl. “I don’t think she did it, even though she knows about us. Besides, I didn’t see her leave the community in the past two days.”
“Then how did they find us? We also lost our worm box… What about food?”
“I don’t know how they find us, but you don’t need to be worried about food at all. Remember.” Chang patted the crossbow behind his back, saying, “I’m more experienced in hunting now. The worst case is to steal, which I tried to avoid. But I won’t let you starve, okay?”
“Chang, they are hunting us down though, our life is going to be turbulent. Are you sure we can eat our food comfortably with these hunters chasing behind us?” Jing asked her last question.
Her words became their nightmare for the following days.
In the next four days, they hid from place to places as if they were frightened prey. No matter how far they went, the troop always persistently caught up with them in a few hours.
For a few times, they almost got surrounded by the troop when they were having meals. Fortunately, Jing was always able to sense their presence at a distance, and Chang was able to act fast and decisive. Otherwise, they would have been captured by those armed soldiers.
Although escaping from their trail wasn’t challenging, it made Chang more curious about why they were tracked down all the time. He realised that it may not be as simple as denouncement this time.
At dawn, Jing and Chang once again concealed themselves in an abandoned house in a small village nearby. Chang’s curiosity and agitation almost bursted out from his chest. He asked, “Why? Why are they still behind us no matter where we go? We even changed our clothing from time to time, but didn’t find any tracking devices. How then? What makes them capable of tracking us?”
“I’m not sure, perhaps one of them is an EM, and that person may have developed some sort of an ability to track. Think about this, we used to have mammals who could tail their prey for a long distance,” Jing spoke, rubbing her chin.
“Tailing prey...” Chang browsed through everything Qing Shui had told him before, his eyes closed as he concentrated on recollecting every tiny bit of information. Finally, he recalled that Qing Shui exclaimed his praise to mammal olfaction. “Some of their excellent noses are more than a thousand times more sensitive than a human’s...”
“Perhaps, they traced us by smell like a dog?” Chang came to a sudden realization.
On the other side, the hooknosed woman was puzzled by a similar question.
“Manguang, I don’t really understand this. No matter how hard we try, they always run away before we can encircle them. What’s wrong?” the hooknosed woman asked her adjutant—a tall, broad-shouldered man with a skinhead.
“Madam, I’m afraid I can’t answer this question, either. I thought it was pure coincidence until they slipped away from our strategic besiegement,” the adjutant replied. “I brought some soldiers with me to check where we planned to ambush, but none of the traps we set up were activated. That means they discovered our presence by themselves, not by anti-detection devices.”
“That means… One of them is an EM as well?” The hooknosed woman lifted her eyelids.
“Yes, I have a sense that one of them might be a sensory EM. Thinking logically, I think visual mutation is the least possible option because we were lurking underneath wild gra.s.ses and ruins. No matter how good a person’s vision might be, I don’t think he or she could spot us everytime. If they were an olfactory EM, they would have known we were close long before we approached their shelter. The sense of touch and taste aren’t useful in detection in this case at all. Therefore...” The tall man stopped.
“Therefore, this means they may have exceptional hearing?” The hooknosed woman lay a finger on her arched nose bridge. “Not only are they advanced in hearing, but they also were able to run away as soon as they discovered us. Not to mention their speed… This also means...”
“It means they are much stronger than normal humans...” the adjutant continued her unfinished words.
“Well then, this just became difficult.” The hooknosed woman thought over potential solutions. She stood up. “Manguang, I need to return to the research inst.i.tute to inform Zhuo about what is going on here. Ask him to send his special force, we don’t need many but a few. At least they have to be faster than our target. Without them, it will be impossible to capture them.”
“Yes, madam.” The adjutant saluted.
…
In the next two days.
“Chang, they didn’t follow us for the past two days. Do you think the gra.s.s mush worked?” Jing was happy, sitting on the sofa in an empty apartment. “It feels good when no one is after us.”
“I’m not hundred percent sure how well this works though.” Chang lifted his arm, sniffing the rich scent of the gra.s.s.
“I thought Mr. Li used this before, it worked back then.”
“But he also told us that nothing can completely conceal the smell of an organism. It can only be a camouflage scent. If someone’s nose is truly as sensitive as a dog’s, they will catch us regardless of what we do.”
“Chang, you worry too much...” Jing was about to console his idle fear when her facial expression changed suddenly. “Wait, there is a level 31 approaching us at a rapid speed!”
“Thirty one?” Chang was astonished, he was only able to lift Jing up when the door was blown away.
The burglar-proof door was crashed in a piece of deformed metal. It hit the wall with a sickening whomp. Then a figure in camouflage lunged for them.
In Chang’s eyes, the shadow leaped to them at a speed of 17.56 meters per second. It all happened in a blink of an eye, leaving Chang no time to react.
While having Jing in his arms, he predicted the path of the first attack, yet he only managed to dodge with effort. He saw the face of the figure while squinting back.
No ears and nose, its eyelids had excessive folds like a rhino’s. It was hairless and its eyes didn’t resemble any features of human eyes—it was a devil-like creature.
“Sh*t, it must be the gene-altered soldier that Qing Shui warned me about.” Chang immediately switched Jing to his left hand while reaching out for that giant handgun on his back.
The creature didn’t give him the chance of doing so. Having an advantage in speed and flexibility, the creature had already turned around when Chang just got his handgun out. A balled and angry fist struck Chang’s face.
As if the number was automatically generated, Chang knew that within 0.04 seconds, the fist would punch the left side of his face. As much as he attempted to dodge again, his muscle reaction was much slower than his mind. And because of the great disparity between their power, even when he saw the attack coming, his body was locked in place, and Chang failed to avoid the deadly left hook.
Ah!
It hit right on his bones and teeth. His left face collapsed as the supporting structure underneath the skin was smashed into bits. Chang was blown into the wardrobe by the impact of the left hook—the hardwood furniture cracked up. Jing was freed from Chang’s loosened arms, but she was also thrown away by the momentum.
“Ah!” The creature was aware of the need to keep his targets alive as commanded. He caught Jing in the air, then veered to the wardrobe where Chang had fallen.
At the same time, a deafening gunshot sped from the shadow in the wardrobe.
The bullet was faster than its sound. It penetrated the creature’s chest, making a flower of blood bloom.
The gene altered soldier couldn’t bear the shock of the handgun, and his back smacked against the wall in the living room.