"Answer me another question: How much do you know about the mutants who help the innovators seize dominance?"

Through the ripples of the water, Sher could see the tension in Keke's eyes.

"What are you saying about 'dominating'..."

“There are no mutants on the fourteenth floor below, and there are conservatives who hate mutants on the upper floors. Your appearance is unusual, so it is not easy for you to hide among them. Apart from you and the water ghost, there are no other mutants here. And why didn’t you take this child with you when you left?”

Shekh raised the barnacle in his hand. "And why do you want to attach yourself to me?"

Having traveled this far, Shi Jinzhe knew best whether there was life in the lower levels. This barnacle that wanted to attach itself to her snake tail had life energy, unlike the others that blocked her way; it was alive.

"You want to parasitize me?"

Shekh crushed the barnacle. "Did you cause the temperature imbalance? Answer yes or no."

Things were developing in the direction that Ke Ke least wanted to see. He didn't understand. With Bing Zhou's guarantee, shouldn't they also trust him?

Why the suspicion? What did he do wrong?

Ke Ke dared not answer the question; his shell was useless to these two people.

His intuition told him that if his answer differed from what the snake woman expected, he would suffer a terrible fate.

"I……"

Shell wanted to stall for time, but Shekh didn't give him the chance and slammed him against the wall with his tail.

Tell me your reasons.

Shi Jinzhe advised from the side, "I advise you to listen to her and tell the truth."

He took the child, called the Water Ghost, out of the large barnacle and felt a small, sharp protrusion on the child's back—it was a barnacle.

“I know you can control the human body you parasitize by controlling barnacles.”

Shi Jin turned around and severed the connection between the water ghost and Ke Ke with an incredulous look in his eyes.

With a loud wail, the water ghost, which had been quiet since they entered, burst into a cry. The sound was even more devastating than the howling of ghosts and wolves, and for someone like Sheh who preferred quiet, his patience completely gave way.

Shekh ripped apart the barnacle shells behind him, staring directly into the shells' eyes, petrifying their bodies down to their necks.

"I don't care if you live or die. Now tell me, where is the temperature control system?"

The unprecedented killing intent made Ke Ke give up struggling, and he answered with difficulty, "...on the eighth basement level."

Shekh withdrew from the petrochemical plant and said, "Lead the way."

The shell slid into the water, making a few gurgling bubbles, before Shi Jinzhe used vines to wrap it up and take it away.

Passing by Xiao Su, he handed over the squealing water ghost, saying, "Soothe him, don't let him cry."

Xiao Su hurriedly took it, as if she were holding a big water bag.

As the water ghost's emotions fluctuated more, the water level rose on the fourteenth basement level, and Shi Jinzhe caught a glimpse of two flashes of electricity from the exposed power lines above his head.

This is not good.

I don't know if Sun Qi ate the seeds or not.

Shi Jinzhe tried calling out to Sun Qi, who hadn't responded, "Are you all alright?"

"...We're escaping to the lower levels."

Shang Shan's voice came from the other end, "Sun Qi was shot. I don't know what they used in the bullet. It wasn't fatal, but he seems to be suffering a lot."

"Of the information you've gathered, how much is related to the shelter's control system? What would be the impact if the main system were shut down?"

“The main system can’t be shut down.” Sun Qi said weakly from the other side, “The main system has passwords for both opening and closing. Nobody knows what the password is for opening it. If it’s shut down, they won’t be able to operate the shelter anymore.”

Shi Jinzhe: "Tsk, troublesome."

The system is designed for them to come and rescue people. The indigenous people here have the highest priority. If the main system shuts down and the shelter is destroyed, the indigenous people will only survive this crisis, and their lives afterward will be over.

“Actually, there was an engineer at the top who was in charge of these things…” Sun Qi said, “but he was injured and locked up by the innovators.”

Shekh interjected, "Which floor are they on?"

"...Up to the eighth floor, the information I gathered was that he was bald."

Shekh tossed the shell to Shi Jinzhe, "I'll go find someone. You take him to the eighth basement level."

Having said that, it flipped over, sank into the water, and disappeared.

He was free again, but before he could escape, several vines wrapped him up and tied him up again.

Shi Jinzhe warned, "Behave yourself and come upstairs with me."

Shell was utterly despondent.

"Tell me, why are you doing these things?"

Shell remained silent.

“I’m easier to talk to than my wife. Tell me the reason, and I can cure all your disabilities.”

Keke was starting to get interested.

"...Is it only because she's not here that you dare to say that?"

"She doesn't need me to speak." Shi Jinzhe tightened the vine. "If you don't want her to come back and punish you, just tell the truth."

"..."

Amid the water ghost's heart-wrenching cries, Ke Ke spoke slowly: "My companions are all dead; they were used as experimental subjects."

Shi Jin asked, "Is it a hybridization experiment?"

"Yes... Initially, the innovative group used ordinary women as the mother, but the mutant embryos absorbed nutrients too quickly, and the mother would be drained and eventually die along with the fetus. Later, they switched to using mutant women as the mother, and after many experiments, they finally succeeded. The Water Ghost is this successful child."

Keke raised her head, which had been hanging low. "This is a very humiliating experiment. Being injected with aphrodisiacs in front of a group of people, having no dignity as a human being, and having to be constantly changed as a test subject like a lab rat, performing for the experimenters here again and again..."

Ke Ke said somberly, "Actually, I just look a little strange, but I'm still a human being."

From his solemn tone, Shi Jinzhe detected a subtle sense of grievance. He asked, "How did you manage to be caught by the innovators?"

"They're traitors. There are traitors among the mutants. They're indulging in the good life in the shelter."

"Is this life... good?" Xiao Su broke down while trying to comfort her child.

Ke Ke cast a glance at me. "With your delicate skin, you must be living a very good life. You can't understand our lives."

"Having electricity, water, and protection is much better than our precarious lives in the wild. So some people whose mutations are not severe take advantage of the opportunity to exchange marriages in various shelters to impersonate ordinary people and become members of this community. After living here for a long time, their mentality changes."

"Like the Innovators here, because they seek their own way out and believe in the supremacy of strength, the mutants thought that everyone should get along, so they chose to help them. But in reality, the Innovators went back on their word and sent these mutants into the laboratory after they had used them."

Shi Jinzhe: "Then, in order to survive, the earliest group of people deceived you, the later ones?"

"...You're very smart. Besides controlling barnacles, my superpower also allows me to establish a mental connection through barnacle shells. One day, I received a message from an old friend who said that the Dota City shelter is willing to accept mutants..."

Ke Ke sniffed: "Actually, we haven't been in touch for a long time. We're not on the same path. We were just childhood playmates. But I thought that there are many mutants whose superpowers are extremely useless. They have the right to choose their own lives, so I discussed this with Bing Zhou."

Those who are willing to come aren't really willing to come. Their ability to protect themselves isn't much better than that of ordinary people. They just feel like they're holding everyone back. They know what they look like, and they know they'll face a lot of discrimination if they enter the shelter..."

Xiao Su listened intently and casually asked, "What happened next?"

Ke Ke smiled helplessly: "Later, Bing Zhou didn't trust the people at the shelter, so I suggested that I go with the people who were willing to come to see for ourselves. Then, as soon as we came in, we found that everyone had been deceived..."