Global Evolution

The capacity of the cylinder was five bullets. Except for the one that Chang had fired for the headshot, the remaining four were all he had. He shot them all at once.

His decision came with reason—although the gene-altered soldiers were encumbered by the tenacious spider silk, it was still hard to aim for fatal injuries. Thus, in order to improve the damage dealt, he had to fire more shots.

Besides, the spiders over his head were also getting in the way of him shooting accurately.

Therefore, of these four shots, two were shot to prevent the soldiers from jostling. Although only the last two whacked them, the force of the bullets disrupted their ability to move—one thrust into Number Two’s chest, the impact of the bullet fracturing his chest bone and resulting in a big hole in the center of his chest. He fell backward, pushed by the invisible force of the bullet. Number Three lost his balance due to the hit on his thigh and rolled, blown away by the handgun’s great might.

The spiders acted out of instinct when they saw the gene-altered soldiers severely wounded. They bounced off of the webs more quickly, ejecting their silk on the gene-altered soldiers more intensively.

The first batch of the spiders were suicide squads since the gene-altered soldiers smashed them when they landed on their bodies. However, the spiders were fearless. They continuously set foot on the mushy corpses of their brethren, leaving no room for the gene-altered soldiers to stand up.

Soon after, Number Two and Number Three were enveloped in “chrysalises”. Their strong physiques weren’t helping them in this situation anymore. They wriggled on the ground as if they were two unborn silkworm.

As the only witness of this brutal predation, Chang now understood why the millipede had roared resentfully before it died—its gigantic and brawny body would habe been useless in this chrysalis. Death was the only fate for those caught in the spider silk.

The gene-altered soldiers were turtles in jars. Chang knew by heart that the spiders would torture them to death in all the ways they knew how.

Even though Chang had trapped his biggest enemies, he was still distressed.

He nimbly slaughtered the four arachnids that surrounded him and exited the den of the spiders. His first goal outside was to find the hooknosed woman, since as long as she was alive, there would be no peace for his mind.

The chasing game during the last few days had helped Chang to identify the person with the tracking ability. If he didn’t exterminate the woman this time, she would then bring more special forces in her next pursuit.

In fact, Chang was blessed with good luck that he had escaped being annihilated. If he was to confront these super humans again, the odds might not in favor him like this time.

Thus, capturing the woman was his primary concern now. The troop was put to rout, and the gene-altered soldiers were imprisoned in the chrysalises. He must not let the leader flee back to the lab.

Chang returned the way he had come, but the woman was nowhere to be seen at the place where he had fired his gun. “She might have witnessed the gene-altered soldiers’ situation... Or she might have just smelled all of those things happening there,” Chang thought. “She is gone...”

Without hesitation, Chang sprang up to chase after the commander. To his amusement, he didn’t need to go far to find the woman. She didn’t take any action at all when she saw him. All because she was hopelessly stuck in the worst possible situation. She was stuck in a spider web.

“Hahaha, I was going to kill you, you know.”

The woman was stuck in a weird posture as the glutinous spider silk fixed one of her arms to the spider web. Chang looked around, knowing that the spiders wouldn’t come until they finished gnawing the gene-altered soldiers. He said, “It seems like it isn’t worth the effort to kill you, the spiders will help!”

Chang hated this woman, more than he had ever hated any other person in his life. Because of this hooknosed woman, Jing was captured, and he didn’t even know if she was still alive or not. He was also forced into this jungle, constantly escaping from the jaws of death. Half of his face had collapsed thanks to the gene-altered soldiers, and it would never be the same even if he got it fixed. The woman had brought all of those disasters to his life, and he wished for her die in excruciating pain so that she would suffer like he had suffered.

As he spoke, Chang raised his leg. He thought of kicking the woman so that the spider silk would wrap tighter around her, and the vibration made would deliver a signal to the spiders to come for their meal.

But he reconsidered it. This was too cruel even though he wanted the worst possible fate for this woman. After all, she was merely an executor of Zhuo’s evil plan. Plus, Chang could never forget about the other woman who he had relieved from pain with a bullet. He put down his foot, pulling out his dagger.

“Tell me where Jing is! If you do it, I’ll let you die at ease.” Chang put the blade against the woman’s neck, saying, “Or the spiders will let you know what hell feels like. They won’t kill you at first, but disable you with their venom! Then they will cut slits in your skin with their sharp mouthpieces to lay eggs in. When the eggs hatch, you will be the source of nutrient for their newborn babies. It is at that time that the effect of the disabling venom fades away. Those evil babies will nibble at your flesh bit by bit. By the time that happens, you will be regretting your decision not to answer me now.”

“...” The woman swallowed, her mind in chaos because of Chang’s words.

“Don’t even try to bite off your tongue to commit suicide, I won’t let you do it. If you dare to attempt it, I’ll stuff your mouth and you’ll still die as I said you will.

“Now, hurry up and tell me where she is. The spiders are coming.” Chang listened carefully and heard the gene-altered soldiers screeching—it was a scream mixed with desperation and rage.

“Please, please don’t kill me. I can lead you to where she is.” Apparently the woman had heard the last roar as well. She quickly said, “I am the only person who knows where she is. Plus, I was a spy serving in the military, so I can tell you inside information. Even if you kill me, you have to know that I am not the only tracker working with Zhuo. He will just send someone else to pursue you. But if you keep me alive and let me join you, my ability will be able to aid you to backtrack them.”

The woman hurried her pleading as she noticed Chang’s hesitation, hastily saying again, “There is no reason for you to not believe me. I think you have heard about what kind of person Zhuo is. Do you think I’ll remain alive if I were to go back to report?”

The gene-altered soldiers released their last shriek, followed by a scream. Hundreds of spiders were dismissed from the battlefield. They once more bounced towards Chang and the hooknosed woman.

“All right, you are indeed a good persuader. You got a lighter or something similar on you?” Their conversation was brief as some of the spiders began to enter Chang’s view range. “Hurry up! Do you have it or not?”

“No! I don’t smoke.” The woman saw the spiders bouncing over her head, and the shadows brought out a howl from her. “Do something, please! I don’t think a lighter would help at all.”

“Well then, we only have one solution.” Chang kicked over a spider with a back flip, raising his dagger and chopping off her forearm. Blood gushed out from the amputation site, and her forearm was left behind on the spider web forever. Chang lifted the woman and quickly ran away from the spider zone.

He kept on sprinting at his full speed to escape from the spiders. Because they could only bounce between spider webs, he wasn’t concerned that they would catch up with him. In fact, if he wasn’t in the den of the spiders, the chance of getting caught would be zero given their chasing speed. It would have also been impossible for them to swathe the gene-altered soldiers if they weren’t in their territory.

In Chang’s eyes, the spider webs were avoidable. Even if the terrain of the jungle was complicated, he found his own route using his calculation ability. He didn’t slow down even though he was carrying the woman with him. A moment later, he lost the spiders and headed towards Zhengzhou like he had done the first time.

Chang was much faster now than last time he had been in the jungle, so soon after, he crossed the edge of the jungle and returned to the city.

“Blood, blood...” The commander groaned in Chang’s arms. “Help me stop the bleeding, otherwise I’ll die...”

Glancing at her pale face, Chang put her on the ground, and ripped off a long piece of cloth from his shirt to tighten it around her upper arm to stop the blood from oozing out.

“This is the best I can do. You aren’t a weak EM, I think you’ll survive this.” Chang double-checked her amputated arm and said, ”We’ll get Jing first, and after that, I’ll find you a doctor. Neither of us can stand for long with our injuries.”

Chang pointed at his bandaged face when he explained it to the woman.

The woman nodded, asking, “Jing, is this her name?”

“It is.” Chang too nodded. He stared at the murkiness of the sky with his single eye. “She is my family.”

“Are you an EM with mutated vision?” The woman looked at Chang.

“Not exactly.” Chang pulled her up from the ground, asking, ”You are an olfactory EM, aren’t you?”

“I am,” the woman admitted. “My nose is a thousand times more sensitive than a normal human’s, I can easily track down anyone by their scent.”

“What’s your name?”

“Zhizhi He.”

“I thought your name would be more muscular, I didn’t expect such an elegant name.” Chang gently patted her back, chuckling. “Alright, we need to find Jing first. After that, we can talk.”

The woman was a person who understood the times, so she began guiding Chang with her nose.

They returned to the urban area. Although it was dark, Chang’s vision was still above 10 meters with one eye. He found that his night vision was better than before. Perhaps it was because he was using only one eye, or maybe due to the second evolution he had underwent. The realization cheered him up a bit, and this was the only finding that made him feel happy during the last few days. Following Zhizhi, he was led to an underground garage at a residential area he used to hide in. In front of the garage gate, he saw two soldiers standing guard.

“It’s here!” The woman pointed at the garage with her remaining arm.

Nodding silently, Chang raised his palm and knocked out the woman.

He then reloaded his crossbow and his handgun, moving ahead stealthily.

Two bolts were shot at the guards’ foreheads, and he managed to take them out with one bolt each. Chang picked up an assault rifle from one of the dead guards and fired towards the other ten soldiers in the garage.

He didn’t stop until he ran out of bullets. He was sure that none of them had escaped from this sneak attack.

The gunshots had also wakened Jing. Her sleepy eyes saw a person soaked in blood and full of bandages slowly walking toward her.

“Let’s go, we gotta leave here,” the person with the horrifying appearance spoke. His voice was familiar and made her feel warm. Jing was lifted into his arms, and the person turned around and left the garage.

A note to readers: Zhizhi He, Zhizhi consisted of two identical Chinese characters, meaning tree branches or bamboo branches. It is supposed to be an elegant and girly name, but her personality is the opposite of her name.