Chapter 28

No one expected that a routine investigation would turn out this way. It was clearly a trap set by someone, with the monkey trapped in the abandoned building and released at the right moment.

How was information about this mission leaked? Was it one of them, or was there a mole within the operations department?

Xiao Shengyun was filled with questions, but now was not the time to ponder them.

These monkeys leaped down from a building more than ten meters high. Smelling the scent of humans in the air, the group of monkeys instantly attacked the four people who were in the empty ruins.

There are too many.

These monkeys are similar to those in the wild, without any obvious deformities. They are a relatively low-level mutant species, but there are still several hundred of them.

Let alone mutants, even ordinary monkeys, these hundreds of them can't be killed off in a short time.

Yue Ning reacted instantly, firing several shots in quick succession. The bullets pierced the skulls of the first few monkeys, and their bodies fell to the ground with a dull thud.

Fortunately, these things can be killed through normal means.

Xiao Shengyun shielded Yue Ning behind him. Yue Ning's talent was support-type, and her only means of attack were guns and hand-to-hand combat, which was inevitably insufficient in this situation.

He tried to transform the source matter into flying blades. After absorbing some of the pollution from Yue Ning last time, he also absorbed the pollutants residing in his body, namely the one in Wang Qing's house. The two seemed to come from the same source.

After absorbing it, my power seemed to have increased.

The flying blade flew directly towards the monkey's head, somewhat like a shooting game, but its bullets were limited.

There are too many of them; we must find a way to deal with them.

From the air, it would be quite a spectacular sight, with large numbers of monkeys gathering in layers and moving toward a certain spot in the center of the ruins.

It's like a piece of candy falling into an anthill, and swarms of ants rush over it at top speed.

None of them possessed defensive talents, and they were currently overwhelmed by the monkeys' attacks.

One batch is killed and another batch surges in, like ocean waves, endless.

Huang Yu released a ring of flames around them, but the aliens did not retreat. They continued to advance, even though their fur was scorched by the flames.

Flames spread from the fur, the skin began to turn black, and the smell of burning began to fill the air.

One life was burned alive, and his kind followed one after another, stepping over the charred remains.

Just as Xiao Shengyun was about to fight his way through, the monkeys suddenly stopped, their bloodshot eyes instantly becoming lifeless, just like the plush toys in the store.

—Mind control.

He turned his head, and Zhou Zhi behind him seemed very calm, but unlike usual, a person's facial muscles are relaxed when they are normal, but his face was tense at this moment.

Xiao Shengyun realized something, and black liquid appeared in his hand, which he splashed towards the direction where the aliens were gathering.

When they come into contact with these liquids, all the alien species are instantly devoured.

"Huang Yu, set a fire in the flower bed in the center."

The flames caused the surrounding temperature to rise rapidly, and even without touching them, people couldn't withstand the high temperature for long.

With a clear division of labor, Yue Ning detected the location of the pollutants, and under Zhou Zhi's control, the monkeys flew towards the flames like puppets.

Xiao Shengyun released black threads from his hands, and many escapees who had managed to break free were suddenly bound by the black threads, their skin sizzling upon contact.

Since it was his first time doing this job and he had no experience, Hei Xian cut the monkey's body into pieces, scattering the body parts all over the ground.

The air was filled with a nauseating smell of burning, and coupled with the squeaking of the monkeys, the center of the community looked like a giant crematorium.

After most of the alien species died, Xiao Shengyun ordered, "Turn off the flames, the temperature is too high and no one can withstand it."

The remaining monkeys were all killed by the black line, which pierced through their heads and killed them instantly.

In the dark room, the light from the monitor illuminated the fearful faces of a group of researchers in lab coats as they watched the footage.

"How is that possible? There are three hundred mutants, and they only have four people."

"What's the panic? This is just the first line of defense."

A man sat in the corner of the room, dressed completely covered up except for his narrow eyes.

He looked at the woman on the screen, protected by her companion, and gave a cold laugh.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief after the pollutants were dealt with.

But various questions arose, such as how the other side knew they were coming here, whether there were other dangers ahead, and whether to call for reinforcements or retreat now.

The others looked at Xiao Shengyun, who was the team leader this time, and all team members would obey his orders unconditionally.

Xiao Shengyun pondered for a while. He didn't care about himself, but this decision concerned the lives of others.

"Shall we continue?" He looked at Yue Ning, the one who had proposed the task.

“Continue.” Yue Ning’s voice was firm.

The other two had no objections, but just to be on the safe side, Xiao Shengyun sent the current situation to Ye Ting, hoping that the other party could send someone as soon as possible.

The current level of danger is far greater than initially predicted.

They were heading to their original destination—the underground parking garage.

"Squeak." This sound instantly made everyone's relaxed nerves tense up.

It's a little monkey.

Underneath the collapsed concrete slab, a fluffy golden monkey suddenly jumped out. While other monkeys were the size of a five or six-year-old human child, this little monkey was only the size of an infant.

The monkey did not appear to be a mutant, so no one noticed it at first.

“No problem,” Huang Yu said.

Neither the detector nor Yue Ning's talent showed anything unusual. It was just an ordinary monkey, which may have infiltrated the monkey group simply because it resembled a mutant.

The little monkey stared wide-eyed at the humanoid creature in front of it, its eyes darting around. Then, as if it had smelled something, it jumped toward the pile of alien corpses.

It finally stopped in front of a corpse; the monkey had been killed with a single blow, but the body was still relatively intact.

It kept circling around, but the corpse could never wake up again.

As if realizing something, the little monkey curled up into a ball and snuggled into the alien's arms, like a child in its mother's embrace.

Pollution not only causes indelible pain to humans, but also affects animals in nature.

“Let’s go.” Zhou Zhi broke the silence.

"Wait!" Xiao Shengyun noticed that there seemed to be something in the ruins where the little monkey had left.

He walked to the ruins, squatted down, and took out a brightly colored flower from them.

The same one that appeared on the bus three days ago.

This seems to be the real bait. You see, while human flesh and blood are attractive to mutants, they're not so delicious that hundreds or thousands of them would chase after them.

This flower is similar to a rose, with petals layered upon each other, soft in texture, like a burning flame.

I feel like I've seen it somewhere before.

Xiao Shengyun thought about it for a while, and the more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed.

He thought of the painting Yue Ning had drawn; it was almost identical.

It seems this thing was also created by the church.

“A fake rose.” Zhou Zhi recognized it; it was the sample he needed recently.

The operations team has found more than a dozen of them, but Zhou Zhi, who has been in the hospital, is seeing them for the first time.

His heart rate increased rapidly as he approached.

He had noticed the abnormality in his body just now, and thought it was caused by strenuous activity or overuse of his talent. Now it seems that it was because of this flower.

Yue Ning, on the other hand, has been in a daze ever since this flower appeared.

It had appeared countless times in her dreams, with large patches of flowers planted on the ground. She would unconsciously reach out to pick them, but each time she pulled one up, a human head was connected to the root of the flower.

There were elderly people, children, young girls, middle-aged men...

She instinctively threw the flowers away, and then the flowers began to shake violently.

Whoosh—

They sway so violently that it seems the stems will break at any moment, and then the flowers will grow and detach from the soil.

One by one, human heads emerged from the soil and lay on the ground; this sea of ​​flowers would soon become a mass grave.

Yue Ning had seen these flowers and people trapped in cages when she was at church, but she couldn't save them at the time.

She put those thoughts behind her while on a mission, but the image remained etched in her mind, becoming a nightmare that haunted her ever since.

"What's wrong, Sister Ning? Did you remember something?" Xiao Shengyun asked, using a more affectionate form of address.

"No, let's keep going," Yue Ning said softly.

The process of getting to the second basement level was very smooth; in fact, there were no obstacles at all.

The underground was pitch black, and the sound of whistling wind could be heard in the empty passage.

However, as soon as the elevator doors opened, the pollution detector emitted a sharp sound.

One thousand, one thousand one hundred, one thousand two hundred...

"Holy crap!" Huang Yu stared wide-eyed at the steadily rising numbers, the instrument in his hand instantly turning into a hot potato. "The pollution level is over a thousand!"

He was young and had only been on a few missions since joining the operations unit when he was honorably wounded and hospitalized.

Previously, we dealt with mutant species with pollution levels in the hundreds. This is the first time we've seen such a large fish. The pollution particles in the air alone caused the instrument readings to exceed a thousand.

Huang Yu suppressed his fear and awaited Yue Ning's instructions.

Although Xiao Shengyun was the team leader for this mission, the other party seemed to be about the same age as him, probably also appointed in a time of crisis. In comparison, the experienced senior sister was more convincing.

The concentration of polluting particles in the air was very high. Xiao Shengyun silently absorbed a portion of them, which replenished the source energy he had lost in the battle.

His innate intuition told him that there were some good ingredients ahead.

Snap—

The searchlights were turned on, and everything below came into view.

The area in front is quite open. This used to be a garage with several main roads and rooms on either side, somewhat like shops lined up on the street.

These rooms all have heavy iron doors, which are mostly closed, with only one or two occasionally wide open, containing wrecked cars and some miscellaneous items.

With so many rooms, how can we conduct a survey?

Xiao Shengyun took a few steps forward and then suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Huang Yu wasn't looking at the road ahead and almost fell on him.

“Someone is watching us.”