Hundreds of sinister-looking mutants surged in from the ends of two main roads. It was as if a horde of terrifying phantoms, hidden in the darkness, had left their lairs and quietly sealed off every escape route for their unsuspecting prey. Those pairs of cruel, blood-red eyes cast their gaze from afar, and when they converged on the people, they formed an invisible net, chilling and brimming with naked killing intent.

This should be the instinctive reaction deep inside any normal person upon witnessing such a scene. However, Brian Carter felt something entirely different. He only sensed that the blood-red light in those terrifying creatures’ eyes actually carried a faint, inexplicable sense of intimacy.

It was truly bizarre.

After all, they were supposed to be his mortal enemies!

“Machine guns up front, break through for me—”

Amid Henry Clark’s furious roar, the driver in the lead assault vehicle suddenly slammed the accelerator, and the heavy machine gun mounted on the roof unleashed a barrage of bullets ahead. As the vehicle sped forward, a fan-shaped space was carved out by the hail of gunfire. Seeing this, all the other vehicles in the yard immediately followed, engines roaring deafeningly as they raced to break out of the city.

The GAU449 six-barrel rapid-fire machine gun was immensely powerful. Moreover, the soldiers were already well-versed in the mutants’ airborne assault tactics. As a result, several mutants attempting the same old trick were completely suppressed by the soldiers’ fire from inside the vehicles and could only crouch in the ruins at the corners, glaring coldly at the prey that should have been theirs.

Perhaps unwilling to accept defeat! From the rooftop of a building by the roadside, two mutants who had been lying in wait suddenly leapt down. Because their angle of descent was so tricky, the soldiers inside the vehicles could only fire upward in a panic. No one noticed a strange, agile figure darting in from the left side of the vehicle. By the time everyone reacted, the mutant who had succeeded in the sneak attack had already slipped in through the armored rear hatch.

“Watch out—”

Brian Carter reacted instantly. Sensing something was wrong, he swiftly drew the dagger from his waist and thrust it through a gap inside the vehicle. Just as the tip was about to pierce the mutant’s throat, he suddenly heard a strange, unfamiliar voice in his mind—one he had never heard before.

“The first gene lock has been activated. Alien lifeform level: Parasite Soldier. Baseline: One star.”

The sudden change made Brian Carter’s expression freeze. A few seconds later, when he snapped out of his shock, the blade of the dagger in his hand was already buried deep in the mutant’s black neck.

Chapter 5 Mutation

The wheels rumbled over the gravel-strewn dirt road, sending the vehicle swaying and jolting. This only added a touch of weariness to the faces of the soldiers who had just survived a deadly battle inside the vehicle.

The mutants did not continue to block the convoy. After the corpse of the attacker was thrown from the assault vehicle, the rest seemed greatly startled, quickly vacating their positions and shrinking into the shadows of nearby buildings, silently watching the human convoy speed away.

Brian Carter leaned his head back against the hard armored wall of the vehicle, silent. Even now, his mind was still filled with everything that had happened just minutes before.

That voice was definitely not an illusion. He was certain he had really heard it. But… how to put it, the voice that appeared in his mind wasn’t the familiar Chinese he was used to. It was a completely foreign language he had never heard before.

Yet, he could somehow understand it.

Maybe it couldn’t even be called “hearing.” How to describe it! It was as if a voice lurking in his mind, a mysterious consciousness, used this special method to let him “know” what was happening to him.

It was all just too bizarre. Brian Carter felt like this was something that only happened in movies.

And the look in the eyes of the mutant he killed was so strange. The blazing red light in its eyes seemed to fade for a moment. The usual ferocity and savagery were gone. In their place, it seemed… it seemed to be fear, and… and respect…

Could that be possible? No, it sounded more like a joke.

Gene lock… Parasite Soldier… Damn it, what the hell are these things!

“Hoo—”

Brian Carter yanked open the collar of his protective suit, taking a deep breath, trying to clear all the strange thoughts from his mind. But the more he tried, the more the chaotic thoughts swirled around like flies, leaving him restless and unable to find peace.

Just as his fingers finished unbuttoning his collar, Brian Carter’s body suddenly trembled slightly. The hands that were about to pull the collar apart froze in place as if shocked by electricity.

Shoulder… wound… That’s right, that wound—the spot where he was stabbed by a mutant while escaping Kunming. Could it be… have I finally become one of those monsters?