Chapter 30-30- Woodlice
It is midsummer again. The blue sky is clear and the sunlight pours down from the sky like melted amber, giving the abandoned port a golden edge.
Sixteen-year-old Rosalyn stood atop a half-collapsed watchtower, silently surveying the abandoned harbor below. A salty sea breeze brushed against her nose. The tower walls below were covered in moss and creeper, and dewdrops shimmered in the sunlight.
Compared to when she first arrived six years ago, the young woman was undoubtedly much more mature and beautiful. Her figure had grown to nearly 1.7 meters, a head taller than the teacher she once looked up to. Her delicate face had lost its childish roundness, replaced by a calmness very similar to her teacher's, yet with a touch of freshness.
After looking down for a while, she leaned her notebook against the rusty railing and began to write down.
"Gray Harbor City's harbor area, a gathering place for deformed beetles... They are all basic beetle forms, no evolved forms have been found... Their bodies are rotting, covered in flesh and blood... Their main attack methods are claw strikes and horn ramming... Note: They prefer to stay in dark areas like shipping containers and cracks in breakwaters, so beware of sneak attacks..."
After a while, all the observation information about the distorted beetles was recorded. Rosalyn hummed an unknown tune and left the top of the watchtower like a gust of wind, swaying and floating down to the abandoned streets of Gray Harbor City.
Observing and recording information on various deformed bodies was a long-term task given to her by her teacher at the end of last year.
The main reason is that after long-term training and with the support of military-grade weapons, Rosalind has fully acquired the ability to survive on her own in this wasteland world. Therefore, she no longer needs to continue to operate in certain limited safe zones and can freely explore areas outside the central area and even outside the city of Ish.
Of course, there were two dangerous areas that could not be approached: the Ish Mountains and Luya City behind them. These were high-risk areas that even the teacher feared, and Rosaline, having learned to think before acting, naturally stayed away from them.
Walking slowly on the dead silent street, stepping on gravel and rubble, the sunlight cuts the shadows of the ruins into sharp corners.
But in the next instant, two enormous woodlice suddenly leaped out from the shadows of the nearby ruins. They were deformed, flesh-covered woodlice, over a meter long. Their blood-red heads were devoid of any external organs, only a gaping, fang-filled, abyssal maw. They transformed into two foul-smelling black shadows, charging straight at the girl's head.
A look of surprise clearly flashed across Rosalin's face, but she didn't panic, because being attacked by sudden mutants while walking on the street was a very normal thing, and she was used to it.
Dark red glowing runes suddenly appeared on the surface of her skin and clothing. She immediately burst out with great strength, kicking the ground hard, creating cracks in the ground while dodging to the side, avoiding the fatal blow.
Then he skillfully pulled out the alloy battle blade hanging diagonally in the metal scabbard from his waist. As a blue light flashed, the two deformed woodlice shattered like skin bags filled with pus, splashing out fishy yellow body fluids. Rosaline, who was well prepared, used the Wind Control to blow away the fluids in advance, and not a drop of fluid got on him.
"Huff... Damn it, no matter how many times, it still scares me..." She muttered, cleansing her beloved sword with simple water magic and putting it back into the scabbard.
Then she looked down at the two woodlouse corpses.
This is actually what is commonly known as the watermelon worm, but it is frighteningly large, and the huge mouth on its head is densely packed with no less than hundreds of fine and sharp teeth. Even children who have played with many watermelon worms will probably be scared and have a claustrophobia attack here.
However, staring at the two corpses was not Rosalin's way of desensitizing herself. She had seen too many disgusting deformities over the years, and two giant woodlice were nothing.
What really puzzled her was that she had not discovered this kind of deformed woodlice during her exploration of Gray Harbor City last year, but now there were more and more of them, as if they were rapidly reproducing somewhere.
But the key point was that the mutants possessed terrifying resilience and a lifespan that seemed almost immortal as long as they ate. The only thing they hadn't witnessed was reproduction. The primary source of these mutants was still wild animals breeding, then being infected and transformed by the mutants, a cycle that repeated itself over and over again.
So why are there more and more deformed woodlice in Gray Harbor City? As a student and seeker of knowledge who shoulders the expectations of her teacher, Rosalyn feels that she has a responsibility to investigate and find out.
Try to gather clues first, retreat as soon as you find any danger, and go back to inform the teacher...
She warned herself silently, then walked into an alley and picked up the magic skateboard she had left there. The runes lit up, and the skateboard silently advanced, carrying her through the iron fern-covered streets and deeper into the depths of Gray Harbor City.
Because she was flying low to the ground with little noise and was not conspicuously exposed in mid-air, Rosaline did not encounter much danger along the way.
However, when she approached the core area of the port, a burst of dense and heart-pounding rustling sounds and inhuman roars caught her attention.
Rosalin immediately controlled the skateboard to climb up and landed on the roof of a nearby ruined building that was still relatively intact. She saw a scene that shocked her - hundreds of deformed woodlice were moving in a group, eating all the animals and deformed creatures they encountered along the way.
Afterwards, the well-fed woodlice will immediately return to their original location and will not be attacked by any of their companions, while the other woodlice will continue to rush, with no one knowing where they are going.
Rosaline was stunned. This group of deformed creatures actually knew how to act in a group, had a common purpose, and did not attack each other at all!
This doesn't fit her impression of the basic mutant as a "killing machine without self-awareness" at all!
Impossible, how could this happen? Could these be evolutionary?
Rosalyn frowned, feeling a strong sense of weirdness and uneasiness.
In the teacher's classification, deformities are usually divided into two levels.
The most basic type is called the "Basic Abnormality," or "Basic Form" for short. Its characteristics are head abnormalities, exposed flesh, head deformities, and a lack of self-awareness. It will attack its own kind and eat anything in sight.
The advanced type is called the "evolutionary type", which is characterized by a reduced area of exposed flesh and blood, the evolution of new offensive or defensive organs, and a lower biological instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm.
Rosalyn has dealt with both levels over the years.
Among them, the base forms were the most numerous, often being killed instantly by her, just like the woodlice just now. Evolved forms were rare, and the differences were huge. Strong Evolved forms could chase Rosaline and make her flee, while weaker Evolved forms were only slightly more difficult to deal with than the base forms.
But the current swarm...
If they were base forms, they could recognize their companions and wouldn't attack each other. If they were evolved forms, despite their tens of thousands, their deformities were limited to large patches of flesh covering their heads and skin, perfectly consistent with base forms.
Why is this happening? Could it be a unique characteristic of the aberrant woodlouse, a way of using pheromones to distinguish among its companions?
But if that's the case, why don't other insect mutants have this ability?
Moreover, the direction in which some of the members who had just eaten retreated was the Ish Mountains, which happened to be one of the two places on Ish Island that the teacher had seriously emphasized to her that should not be approached!
Could this have anything to do with the dangers within the Ish Mountains?
Thinking of this, Rosalyn had already begun to have the idea of retreating in her heart - just in case, she would go back to find the teacher first!
But just as she was about to step on the skateboard and fly back to Ish City quickly, suddenly, a malicious gaze aroused her vigilance.
She immediately raised her head and saw a dark human-shaped shadow standing on the top floor of a ruined building not far from her, staring straight at her.
It was a humanoid aberration draped in pitch-black scale armor, undoubtedly a top-level evolved form! It had four pairs of dragonfly-like wings on its back, and its arms ended in two sharp bone knives. Its pitch-black face resembled an iron mask with huge gray-white compound eyes, yet the outlines of its human-like features could still be discerned.
Wow... such a high degree of evolution... This is probably the most evolved aberration I've ever seen, and it's way ahead...
Rosalin's mood became suppressed, and her bony right hand slowly reached for the alloy blade at her waist, ready to fight and retreat.
According to the teacher, among all biological aberrations, the less exposed flesh and blood, the higher the degree of evolution. And when all exposed flesh and blood are completely restrained, this is the monster that stands at the pinnacle of aberrations, and even the teacher must deal with it with all his strength.
Pulling out the alloy battle blade, Rosaline backed away little by little, trying to step onto the magic skateboard. But to her surprise, during the whole process, the humanoid deformed being standing on the rooftop of a high-rise building, looking down at her, did not do anything to stop her escape attempt, as if he was watching a drama that had nothing to do with him.
Why didn't he attack? Rosalyn's vigilance and doubts intensified. She even suspected that the other party might have limited vision. Although he seemed to be looking at her, he couldn't see very far.
But at this moment, she suddenly saw that the mouth of the deformed humanoid face looking down at her was slowly rising up, revealing a tiny arc that was anthropomorphic, contemptuous, and full of malice.
Is that a...laugh?
Rosalyn suspected that she had seen it wrong, but the moment she blinked, the figure of the humanoid deformed body suddenly disappeared from the roof, as if it had never existed.
(End of this chapter)
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