Just as Keke was telling Shi Jinzhe how she was tricked into entering the shelter, Shekh had already arrived at the eighth floor.

Carrying Sun Qi and Shang Shan, whom she met along the way, she asked the engineer in the eighth-floor lobby where he was being held.

Sun Qi pointed the way: "Go to the left."

The thick snake tail swept across the obstacles, and the crowd, which had just settled down, once again scattered headless due to Shekh's arrival.

The bullets fired by the two groups were dissolved by the black-gold liquid. Shekh passed through the hail of bullets unharmed. With a single glance, he swept across the entire hall, and in just a few breaths, the whole place fell silent, turning into a collection of stone statues with only their blinking eyes remaining.

The three of them made their way down a corridor. Sun Qi clutched his shoulder. "I don't know exactly which room it is, but it's in this area. Shall we split up and search?"

"unnecessary."

Shekh stood at the entrance of the corridor, his palm swiping forward, and drops of black-gold liquid floated into the air and seeped into the cracks of the tightly closed door.

The gold vine ring on her hand was broadcasting the conversation between Shi Jinzhe and Ke Ke live; she heard everything they said clearly.

Whether they're innovators or mutants, Shekh simply despises all forms of deception. Once she's gone, these people can figure out how to fix the lock themselves.

If you can't stop people who want to rob you and kill you, then you deserve it.

One after another, the doors in the corridor opened, creating a scene reminiscent of a horror movie under the flickering lights.

A dozen or so people rushed out of the door, only to be frozen in place by Shekh in an instant.

After them, a bald, middle-aged man with a square face tiptoed out. When he saw the snake's tail coiled at the entrance of the corridor, his heart nearly stopped in fright.

Looking up again, I realized the upper body was human, with a square face. I breathed a sigh of relief; at least it wasn't a real radiation monster. But it was a mutant…

His face showed disgust.

It was the mutants who turned them into this. The main control room on the lower level has been flooded for several days. I don't know if it can still be used. If it can't, how will the people here live in the future?

The square-faced man stepped back, not intending to leave, when a purple figure suddenly bumped into him. Shekh grabbed him by the back of his collar and dragged him away without a word.

"If you weren't an engineer here, I would have torn you to pieces for that look."

"Yes, yes! Let me go!" The engineer grabbed his collar, feeling like he was being strangled.

"Shut up."

Hearing hurried footsteps rushing up from the lower level, Shekh released the petrification from the stone men with guns, snatched the guns from their hands, and threw them to Shangshan and Sun Qi.

"Get behind me, then attack."

Its lightning-fast movement meant that its pursuers couldn't even catch a hair on Shekh's head, watching helplessly as a purple shadow slipped away before their eyes.

Sun Qi and Shang Shan raised their guns and fired swiftly before the others could react, covering their retreat.

The engineer felt nauseous from the speed, but had nothing to vomit. He felt as if his brain was separating from his body, and his soul was about to detach from his body.

In the sweltering and humid emergency passage, Shi Jinzhe had just finished walking down the last flight of stairs to the eighth basement level when he saw a man being thrown down from the seventh basement level.

The engineer was so dizzy and disoriented from the fall that he couldn't even get up.

Shekh clapped his hands to remove the dust: "He thought I was a mutant. The look in his eyes made me unhappy. I've cleaned myself up. You can treat him."

"Then let's treat him for an hour first. He'll be fully recovered once the temperature system is fixed."

Shi Jin slammed his fist on the engineer's back, dragged him into the control room on the eighth basement level, shoved him into a chair, and then patted the engineer's shoulder earnestly:

"Fix this place as quickly as possible. As long as you fix it properly, you'll be fine, understand?"

The engineer nodded repeatedly and immediately got to work.

The healing array has been activated, resolving the unbearable temperature issue for ordinary people. Now, only the water ghost remains as a problem.

What should we do with this child?

Xiao Su was so overwhelmed by his crying that it felt like a little person was running around in all 360 degrees in her mind, and she was completely numb.

"Can you give him to me?" Keke pleaded. "I won't harm him. I'm hiding him so that those people won't get him."

Xiao Su: "I can't make that decision, so don't ask me."

"You don't want to hurt him, so you want to hurt me?"

Sheh hadn't been in a good mood since she came in. Now, with a stern face and a soul-searching question, it didn't seem like Keke wanted to harm her, but rather like she wanted to devour Keke.

"...I just thought you were another group of mutants and ordinary people teaming up to deceive me, so I wanted to put a barnacle shell on you to see what you were thinking. Although Bing Zhou proved that you were trustworthy, what mutant doesn't have any abnormal characteristics at all?"

Shell pointed at Shi Jinzhe and Xiao Su, "When I was a test subject, I heard researchers say that the reason why mutants' bodies have such obvious abnormal characteristics is to be able to hold more energy. It's not that they don't have it... that's why I..."

He stammered and couldn't continue speaking.

Xiao Wu is right. The world is full of wonders, and he just hasn't seen enough of it, which is why he got fooled.

Ke Ke was very downcast, his gaze falling on the water ghost in Xiao Su's arms. He doubted himself, wondering if he really had the brains to raise this child properly.

His companions who came in with him were all dead, leaving only this child...

As he thought about it, he sadly began to cry along with the water ghost.

Shekh closed her eyes, speechless. It was too noisy; could someone save her ears?

The cries of this mutant cub were so penetrating; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them a demonic sound.

After thinking it over, she finally asked, "How did you calm him down before?"

Keke: "We connected with each other on a spiritual level, and I kept singing to him and telling him stories..."

Shekh waved to Xiao Su, "Give it to him quickly."

Once the water ghost was in Shell's arms, it finally calmed down.

The world suddenly became quiet, and everyone in the control room, except for the shell, breathed a sigh of relief.

The engineer, in particular, was under immense psychological pressure being in the same room with so many mutants, but now he could finally relax a bit.

Ten minutes later, Shang Shan carried the exhausted Sun Qi to the control room, and the two collapsed on the floor as soon as they entered.

Shi Jinzhe expanded the range of the formation to replenish their energy.

Now we just need to wait for the engineers to finish their work, and then this rescue mission will be complete.

Three hours later.

The engineer, who was doing the work of several people, collapsed. "It's okay now. The temperature in the shelter is dropping, and the drainage system is returning to normal."

Little Su drawled, "Good heavens, it's finally a success!"

Shang Shan: "Finally, I can leave."

"...What are you thinking about?" Sun Qi teased him. "Have you forgotten about the advanced quest where you have to find algae?"

"Depend on."