Global Evolution

“Ten, he is a ten!” Jing reacted instantly.

“Thanks!” Chang took out a small pistol that he had collected and kept from a dead soldier. He fired twice at the EM with each bullet hitting one of the knees, which resulted in him immediately kneeling on the ground. Chang shouted out, “Stay still and stay silence!”

Zhizhi happened to see this when she walked in.

“Good call! Subduing them without force.”

“I am not fighting against them anyways.” Chang was still holding the pistol, his eyes browsing among the girls to find a face that he was familiar with. He asked her then, “Where is my worm box?”

“They hid it.” The girl pointed at the muscular EM.

His hands weren’t shaking at all, and his eyes not blinking. Chang walked up to the hard-bodied man. “Where is my worm box?”

“What worm box?”

“Don’t fool with me, the box that contains numerous tiny white worms that are edible.” Chang pressed the muzzle on the EM’s temple. “Don’t play stupid, even though your evolution is far more advanced than others’, you can’t take a shot with the pistol pressed to your head. Your head will explode, and your brain will splash about. But I didn’t come here to fight, I just need my worm box back.”

The facial expressions of the men changed, and their tight-pressed lips loosened once they heard what Chang came for. One of them even raised his hand, showing that he was willing to bring Chang to the worm box.

It was rather easy for them to find the worm box as it was only hid in a cabinet that stood against the wall. Chang immediately opened the worm box when he got his hand on it.

If the base number of the worms was reduced, the production efficiency would be reduced as well. Seeing less than half of the worms slowly wriggling in the box, Chang was greatly upset.

“You ate quite a lot, didn’t you?” Chang furrowed his brows.

“I didn’t eat them all, you see, we also have girls living with us. Our lives aren’t as easy as you thought.” The man tried to ingratiate himself with Chang as he saw’s Chang’s disappointment. “We ain’t having it easy, either. We’re just trying to have some fun.”

“I don’t care what your lives are. I’m just here for my box. Now that I lost more than half of my worms, you need to pay me back for my loss.” Chang smiled, his eyes shone with greed as he urgently wanted some other weapons in exchange for food.

However, the man misunderstood him.

“Bro, I see what you mean. Do you like any of our girls? Just take whoever you like. They’re all obedient, I’ve wiped out those naughty ones.”

“You killed them?” Chang maintained his composure.

“Of course.” The man raised his brows. “Why feed them if they’re only trying to run away and kill us?” As if promoting his merchandise, the man pointed at each girl], saying. “The girls we kept know their job and are good at it. Hell knows how much time we spent on training them. Some of them are sisters, so as soon as we controlled one of them, the other would become as docile as a puppy…”

“Sounds fun…” Chang covered his disgust with a smile.

“It was…” The man didn’t finish his words, his voice choked.

“Although it sounds fun...” Strangling the man’s neck, Chang’s fingers tightened. The man’s neck bone broke into two. “This is challenging my bottom line.”

The man’s eyes popped out as a result of being choked to death.

Chang threw away the incapacitated body. He took the worm box from the ground, his hand waved, gesturing for Zhizhi to walk out with him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Chang killed two men with two headshots. The last bullet hit the EM’s forehead but apparently the power of the gun was too weak – the bullet got stuck at the frontal bone. The EM had evolved not only his muscles, but also the density of his bones. In other words, the degree of bone hardening made his bones firmer than steel.

Chang’s index finger was ready to pull the trigger again, but Zhizhi stepped up and stopped him.

“We came here for the worms, why are you killing them? Even though they did something bad, they don’t deserve this, it’s their choice,” Zhizhi almost screamed.

“It isn’t just something bad. Go ahead and ask the girls.” Chang put away his pistol and stopped talking.

To confirm his answer, Zhizhi squatted down to ask one of the girls in front of her. Later, what the girl told her, made her expression gloomy.

Not only had the men molested and raped these girls, they had also threatened and forced them to search for food. To ensure the girls would do so, most of their sisters were put under house arrest.

When they were short on food, they even cannibalized the girls.

“Bastards!” Upon hearing the girl weep out her grief, Zhizhi turned furious. She then pulled out a dagger from her belt and hunkered down, stabbing the dagger into the dying man’s anus.

“F*ck you! Son of b*tch!” Zhizhi’s face was contorted. Her anger pushed her action further, she started moving about the blade that was buried in the man. “Does it feel good, huh?”

“Ah!” the dying man emitted a squeal of pain.

“Just kill him! What are you doing?” Chang asked, standing behind her.

“Killing him won’t relieve my fury, I can’t believe cannibalism exists.” As Zhizhi was speaking, she pulled out the dagger and sliced at the man’s ankle and wrist so that his tendons were cut off. She then dragged the man to the door of the classroom by his collar, shouting to the girls, “Someone tell me, where is the closest washroom?”

“Just turn left in the corridor, you’ll see it...” a girl answered in a shaky voice.

Zhizhi smirked to show her appreciation, then left to the corridor. Seeing this, Chang went behind her hurriedly.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing that you need to worry about, I’m just having a bad day, and I need to alleviate my frustration.” Zhizhi didn’t slow down but sped up. The man groaned in a deep voice but that didn’t make Zhizhi feel any sympathy toward him.

Almost all the citizens knew about the tentacle monsters that evolved and lived in the sewage, and thus, no one used flush toilets nowadays. Thousands of attacks had made humans fear the bloodthirsty tentacles under the toilets, so they became the least safe place to go to. Therefore, most of the washrooms were sealed off—the one in this kindergarten was no exception.

The sealing tape was ripped off in a rough way, and Zhizhi opened the toilet cover, throwing the man onto a seat. She then tied up this EM so that he couldn’t move away, just sit on it.

“May you die in the greatest fear.” Zhizhi even secured the man by having ropes wrapped around his thighs and the toilet. This way, the EM wouldn’t be able to stand up. She laughed. “I’m sorry for stabbing your anus, but you’re dripping blood into the toilet… Let me guess, how soon they will come to you with this flavorful smell of blood?”

“Please...” Her words struck fear into the man. The EM hadn’t even displayed dread in front of a pistol, but this time he begged. “Please let me go, please! I can work for you! You see, I’m very strong and that makes me capable of tons of things. If you do me a favor today, I’ll be loyal to you forever, I promise!”

A series of melodious chuckles came from Zhizhi’s thin lips. She nodded, and her heart was filled with satisfaction. “Sounds pretty nice… but sweetheart, I don’t need anything but for you to go to hell.”

To stop the man from pleading, Zhizhi grabbed a mop from beside the door and shoved its head into the man’s mouth.

The washroom was left with the man alone inside; the air was frozen since Zhizhi had walked out the door. The man’s desperation leaked from his wide open eyes, accompanied by blood dripplling down from his anus. The drops were the tick tocks of a timed bomb. Every second passed slowly breaking down his nerve.

Even though Zhizhi had done something cruel to the EM, her expression wasn’t nervous at all, instead, she kept smiling silently and waved to Chang, who awaited her outside the washroom.

“Zhizhi, I didn’t know you were so cold-blooded...” Chang, too, turned around, walking away with Zhizhi and leaving the hopeless EM alone in the washroom that was suffused with torments of remorse.

The duo returned to the classroom, seeing the girls having found their clothing. They sat on the ground with shirts or dresses loosely covering their young bodies. Their eyes were still innocent as those of puppies. Instead of being filled with fear, they gazed at Chang and Zhizhi, who were now in charge of their lives.

“You can live your own lives now, just go somewhere you want to.” Chang waved his hand. “I know some of the communities are still accepting new members, but I just can’t guarantee your safety there… Your youth is wanted so badly by the gangsters, I can’t say for sure that you won’t be traded again.”

Thinking of their miserable fate, Chang didn’t continue speaking since he knew these teen girls were the most vulnerable in the apocalypse, even if they lived in a relatively safe community. If they were lucky enough, they might became farmers. But most likely, they would be treated as bargaining chips.

Chang looked up at the ceiling, heaving a long sigh. “Just go.” He waved his hand again.

As Chang urged them again, the girls reluctantly left the classroom one after another. All except for that one girl who had met Chang before.

“Can I go with you, please?” she asked.

“No, you cannot.” Chang shook his head.

The girl nodded at his answer and didn’t ask again, but neither did she leave.

“She is smart” Zhizhi commented as a spectator of this conversation. She then threw herself to the bed, falling on her back. “The apocalypse made the bad worse, and the good ones suffer.”

Zhizhi teased Chang, “Hey, didn’t you think of something else when you saw those naked girls?”

Chang walked backward and slowly laid himself on the bed as well. “Even if I wanted to, I know the consequences would make me sad...”

Zhizhi gazed at the ceiling, murmuring. “You are a good guy.”

Keeping his eyes closed, Chang said, “Why do you say that?”

“You have a good nature, kind and caring,” Zhizhi spoke softly. “I’m glad that Zhuo’s special force didn’t kill you.”

“I’m the opposite of good.” Hearing her compliment, Chang wasn’t delighted at all. “I’m just disinclined to take responsibility. I always have the feeling that If I do something good, responsibility comes with it. And I can’t even take care of myself now...”

“If I ever am capable, I wish I could grant them safety...”

...

Chang and Zhizhi had a long conversation that day. Jing joined later, and they ventured to some strange topics. They left the classroom after two hours. Before they went, they checked-up on the EM that was tied to the toilet—he was dead.

The tentacle monster hadn’t killed him. He had died of fright.

The teen girl followed them when they left the kindergarten, but the trio quickened their pace. Soon, she lost sight of them.