"It's that thing!"

Xiao Su reached out to grab it, but missed and lost her balance, tumbling into the water.

"Holy crap..."

In the scalding water, Xiao Su's palm was cut and bleeding profusely by an unknown hard object. Fortunately, golden light appeared at his feet in time, allowing his wound to heal and his consciousness to return.

Shekh's long tail coiled around, reinforcing the area covered by the golden light and trapping what was inside.

The three of them stared at it closely and got goosebumps all over.

The ground inside the golden ring was covered with a dense mass of barnacles, their pointed tips pointing upwards, stacked one on top of the other, their shells sharp and pointed. If it weren't for the buoyancy of the water providing cushioning, Xiao Su would have been in serious trouble.

Sheh captured several, but none of them survived. No wonder she and Shi Jinzhe didn't notice anything amiss.

"They're all dead shells. Something is controlling these barnacle shells, right here on this level. Let's keep going."

Pushing the protective valve on the fourteenth basement level, the water temperature inside had exceeded seventy degrees Celsius. Shi Jinzhe used the laws of genes to change his physique again to adapt to moving in hot water.

The water here is almost chest-deep, and Shekh swims to find his way.

The dark figure swayed underwater, and Shi Jin would put his hand on her tail, and would help her walk a few steps even when he had nothing to do.

"Hey, hey, is it convenient for you to talk, boss?"

In the deep passage, Sun Qi's deliberately lowered voice came from the golden rattan ring.

Shi Jinzhe: "To make a long story short."

"I've learned that there are two factions in Dota City. One is a small group of conservatives who follow the rules of their ancestors and control the entire operation of the shelter."

Another group, the "Innovators," believes that the shelters will one day cease to function, and humanity must save itself and adapt to the outside world; they are the dominant force here.

Sun Qi was panting heavily when a gunshot suddenly rang out in the background, followed by the sound of running footsteps.

"...But these were the initial ideas of these two factions. Later, they discovered the existence of mutants in the wild...As time went on, the two factions became more and more extreme. The conservative faction believed that unequal strength would only bring oppression to ordinary people and was extremely hostile to mutants."

"...The innovators believed that the world should be a dog-eat-dog world where the strong are supreme... With the help of the mutants, they gained the upper hand, but the result was that there was a clear class distinction in the shelters, and the lower class could not survive at all."

With Shang Shan's help, Sun Qi dodged the bullets and quickly ran down the safety passage.

Unexpectedly, even though his and Shangshan's fingernails were full of mud, they were still cleaner than this group of people. They blended in for a short time, but their identities were exposed because they didn't smell bad enough.

Sun Qi threw a corn bomb into the crowd behind him.

These lunatics are so hungry they can't tell the difference between humans and animals. Even knowing they came with the rescue team, they still tried to eat people. It's absolutely insane.

Panting heavily, Sun Qi said, "The shelter's supply depot is on the twelfth floor underground. The people up there haven't eaten for days in order to avoid the monsters below. We're heading down now."

Shi Jinzhe stopped in front of the steel door with a triangular lightning bolt symbol. "What kind of monster is that?"

"The innovative group created monsters by hybridizing ordinary people and mutants; they called them water ghosts."

After a few loud bangs, there was suddenly no sound from Sun Qi's end.

"Eat seeds when you're injured."

After leaving these words, Shi Jinzhe instructed Shekh to open the door in front of him.

After Xiao Su's fall, the things in the motor room were no longer hidden away, and along the way, their feet were covered with barnacles.

The door in front of him was held together by barnacle glue with extraordinary strength, and Shekh had no chance to break it even if he didn't want to.

She corroded the gate blocking her way: "Let the people here fix it themselves when the time comes."

The tightly sealed gate was corroded and emitted white smoke. In the white smoke, a small barnacle seemed to be trying to attach itself to Shekh's snake tail.

Shekh flicked his tail, and his previously warm face suddenly turned cold.

The entire motor room was filled with white smoke, and Xiao Su couldn't see anything, so he simply stood there with his head in his hands.

He heard the metal pipe being deformed by a heavy object; that must have been Sher's tail. Not having vented her anger enough, she struck it several times.

If this were a person, they would have been smashed into a pulp.

...

"...You're not from the shelter?"

Xiao Su's tense body was terrified by the muffled voice, and she covered her mouth with both hands to keep from shouting.

Sheh stopped smashing things and waited for the white mist to dissipate, when he saw Shi Jinzhe standing in front of a hunched-over man.

The man was shirtless, his legs twisted and deformed, and he was huddled helplessly on the ground. Behind him was a barnacle shell as tall as an adult.

He raised his scarred face and cautiously asked again, "Aren't you from the shelter?"

Shi Jinzhe, with practiced ease, fabricated a story: "We are mutants, and we've lived for a very long time..."

Do you know Bing Zhou?

Shekh cut straight to the point; she was burning up and had no patience to wait, so she decided to deal with the mutant in front of her slowly.

"Bing Zhou? You know Bing Zhou?"

The mutant on the ground immediately changed from being half-dead to being in a more alert state. "Where is he?"

Sheh recalled her earlier guess that Bing Zhou must know something about the shelter, and when he mentioned the shelter, he revealed his murderous intent.

Considering this person's situation, and combined with the driver's statement that all those seeking refuge were being subjected to human experiments, the outcome is clear.

She asked, "Did you cause the temperature system imbalance? What's with all this water?"

Seeing that Sheh did not answer the question directly, the mutant remained silent.

Shi Jinzhe conjured a flower with a flick of his hand. "He called out to Bing Zhou through this flower, and after contacting him, he told me what the shelter was all about."

The mutant uttered a "Hmm?" and reached out a thin hand to touch the flower. "...Is this a real flower?"

"Who's speaking?!"

Bing Zhou's rough voice was amplified by the flowers, echoing like a loudspeaker throughout the motor room.

The mutant instantly became excited: "Bing Zhou, it's me, it's Ke Ke!"

Shi Jinzhe touched his eyebrows; a name that is concise and to the point.

He took the flower and said to Bing Zhou on the other end, "We met at the nuclear power plant. I found this mutant in the lower levels of Dota City. I'll tell you the reason about the flower later. He's in very bad condition right now. You can prove to him that we know each other and that it's believable."

Upon hearing this, Bing Zhou summarized the nuclear power plant matter for Ke Ke in one sentence, and Ke Ke finally lowered her guard.

"I didn't make the shelter this way..."

He stepped aside, revealing the barnacle shells behind him.

Water was constantly overflowing there, like a spring, flowing endlessly.

Inside the barnacle shell, an infant is immersed in water, neither crying nor making a fuss.

The shell clung to the barnacle shell. "The people here call him Water Ghost. From birth, his body constantly exudes water, and this water can attract the algae that humans need most."

At first, the people in the shelter were happy, but they soon discovered that the water ghost was too young; he couldn't control his superpowers. The radioactive monsters from outside Dota City followed the algae, gathering in ever-growing numbers, and the humidity in the shelter could no longer be controlled.

Shi Jin asked Ke Ke, "Why are you hiding here?"

"...Because the water ghost was out of control, the people here had no choice but to send out a rescue message, hoping to get rid of this hot potato, but the rescue team was slow to arrive."

Shell sighed, "The shelter is too old to withstand the water ghost's immersion, so the conservatives want to kill him, but the innovators disagree. They believe the water ghost still has research value; he was the first successful experimental subject to be born, and he can attract algae, which is of great significance to humanity..."

Shekh, with his sharp eyes, grasped the key point: "Where did those mutants used for experiments go?"

“They ran away…” Shell said, hanging its head. “Humans are fighting. They’re the ones who caused the temperature system to become unbalanced. Do you want to fix it? Then come with me.”

Keke dragged his body outwards, and after swimming a few meters, he noticed there was no movement behind him. He turned around and asked, "Aren't you coming?"