How can you possibly compete in agility with such a giant creature in the water!

　　Swish!

　　The tentacle stopped above James Carter's corpse.

　　A clear look of confusion appeared in the giant eyes of the mutant octopus. It stared at the corpse and then at several indistinct figures behind it, seemingly unable to tell them apart.

　　“It worked!” William Scott secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

　　What he was betting on was that these mutants all had the ability to think!

　　But judging from what he had seen earlier, the thinking ability of these mutants was still very limited at the moment.

　　Their behavior patterns seemed somewhat rigid...

　　That’s why he thought of “deception”—there are many successful examples of this in biology.

　　Protective coloration, camouflage, misdirection...

　　The male student’s eyes were frozen; in that instant just now, he felt as if he had already died...

　　The mutant octopus couldn’t make a decision for a moment, but it wasn’t willing to give up so easily either. Instead, the boy with the metal sheet was too small a target and wasn’t being noticed for now.

　　William Scott glanced in the direction of the boy with the metal sheet, suddenly gritted his teeth, and slowly raised the steel pipe.

　　Grace Johnson noticed his movement and immediately had some guesses, her expression suddenly becoming tense.

　　“Hoo...” William Scott let out a gentle breath, his body slowly leaning forward.

　　He felt Grace Johnson grab him, her delicate face streaked with tears, looking at him in terror.

　　But soon, Grace Johnson slowly let go of his arm, just silently shedding tears.

　　“I won’t die.” William Scott gripped the steel pipe tightly, saying to himself.

　　The next second, he suddenly lunged forward, grabbed the tentacle, and then stabbed the steel pipe in hard.

　　William Scott only heard a “puff” sound, and the next moment, the sound of water gurgling filled his ears, along with the terrified screams of Emily Carter and the others.

　　The mutant octopus’s tentacle was terrifyingly strong, and the suckers had tremendous suction, but none of that mattered to William Scott right now...

　　“It’s not over yet, there’s one more step.” He had never been this calm before. Even though he had been restraining his emotions all day just to survive, he had never been as clear-headed as he was now.

　　As the tentacle thrashed violently, William Scott yanked out the steel pipe with all his might. As a large amount of gelatinous fluid gushed out, he was suddenly pulled up to the surface.

　　“Now’s the time!”

　　He swung his arm and hurled the steel pipe toward the boy with the metal sheet: “Give and take, no need to thank me!”

　　The boy with the metal sheet, who was desperately swimming away, turned his head, and a look of despair instantly appeared on his face, his features twisting: “No... don’t!”

　　The mutant octopus’s judgment was limited... Earlier, the metal sheet had made it notice that these figures might be living beings, and now its gaze followed the steel pipe.

　　There was still its blood on that thing—if that gelatinous fluid could be considered blood.

　　Compared to the metal sheet, this thing was even stranger to it.

　　This was probably the first time it had ever been hurt by something like this...

　　The mutant octopus’s massive body moved at once, chasing after the steel pipe—right toward the boy with the metal sheet.

　　William Scott crashed heavily into the sea, and immediately began frantically swimming toward the cruise ship.

　　Grace Johnson felt as if her heart had completely stopped during those brief one or two seconds just now.

　　When she saw William Scott surface, she finally raised her hand to cover her mouth.

　　“Let’s go, let’s go!” William Scott said.

　　At this moment, another mutant octopus was hunting tourists, and the boy with the metal sheet and the steel pipe would be enough to occupy this mutant octopus’s attention for a while.

　　“No, no, it shouldn’t be like this!” The boy with the metal sheet watched the mutant octopus draw closer and closer. His survival instinct drove him to keep swimming forward, but with a whoosh behind him, a flash of red appeared before his eyes... it was his own blood.

　　To the mutant octopus, this human still didn’t have much presence. After slapping him to death with a tentacle, it dove down to chase the steel pipe...

　　“There are still quite a few... humans who made it to the island.” The middle-aged mutant woman reported her observations.

　　The girl next to her nodded: “Mm... plus the ones from before... should be enough for the intelligent species...”

　　A few minutes passed, and their speech was noticeably smoother.

　　“But that... special human biological type hasn’t been converted, nor is he dead, nor have we... found him...” the middle-aged mutant woman said.

　　“Maybe... he’s gone to the island too.” The girl stared toward the island and said, then showed a much more natural smile than before. “That would be best.”

Chapter 009: Facing Reality

　　Splash!

　　On the other side of the island, a splash sounded from behind a few rocks, and then William Scott and the others climbed ashore.

　　After getting as far from the water as possible, everyone collapsed as if all their strength had been drained.

　　“Ugh...” One boy’s face twitched, and he suddenly crawled to the side and started dry heaving.

　　The others looked just as bad as he did...

　　Seeing so many people slaughtered up close—the shock was simply overwhelming.