While Wen Chu moved forward slowly, the Ability User Base had already plunged into unprecedented chaos.

There were low-level mutated animals gone mad everywhere, densely packed and endless. Kill one, and countless more would surge up.

The ability user squads shouted hoarsely for an orderly evacuation to maintain order. However, witnessing an ability user squad member being covered by cockroaches and rats and turning into a skeleton in an instant, everyone was scared out of their wits and rushed frantically towards the outside of the city.

Although there were zombies outside the city, in the tenth year of the apocalypse, humans had long developed a sophisticated set of methods to deal with zombies.

Compared to the overwhelming mutated animals and plants inside the city, the zombies outside seemed exceptionally kind and cute at this moment.

Amidst the chaos, ability users fell one after another, screaming.

Blood splattered on the ground. People scattering in panic didn’t notice that the mutated animals and plants unanimously avoided the ordinary people in the base.

The base leader and the president of the Ability User Association had realized something was wrong as soon as they learned the laboratory was precisely smashed and a large number of ability users suffered heavy casualties. They quietly hid in the secret room located underground beneath the laboratory.

The chubby dean who hid with them wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and asked tremblingly, “What’s going on? Hasn’t there been constant disinfection work in the city? Why are there so many mutated animals?”

The base leader looked at the surveillance on the ground, both fearful and gnashing his teeth. He said angrily, “The disinfectants used are all products from your laboratory. How would I know what went wrong?”

The president next to him was calmer, pondering, “This attack is too precise. The other party must be a high-level ability user who came prepared, has a grudge against us, and knows us very well. Has anyone not been dealt with cleanly recently?”

The base leader and the dean recalled for a moment and looked at each other.

Speaking of offending people, they had offended too many.

But they were certain that among the people they offended, there was absolutely no such high-level ability user capable of manipulating mutated animals.

“Happening right on the eve of the general election, and knowing about this laboratory…” The dean narrowed his eyes slightly. “Then it should be someone related to the laboratory.”

He quickly recalled in his mind the ability users who died unnaturally in the laboratory that he could still remember.

There were simply too many souls under his hands. He still had some impression of the earliest ones, but later it became a routine procedure, and he didn’t even remember their names.

But coincidentally, in that extremely distant memory, the figure of a white-haired boy emerged.

“The first experimental subject…” The dean murmured.

The base leader and the president looked at him together.

The dean was completely immersed in his own memories, muttering, “Do you still remember? Eight years ago, that child who was sent here while differentiating into an ability user. I detected that he would possess a rare healing ability, so I asked you to transport him here.”

“Clues appeared during the differentiation. I cut his skin, and he healed almost instantly. Later, I found a severely injured ability user, who also began to recover slowly after approaching him.”

“But after that ability user recovered, he actually lost his mind, muddled and confused, as if under mind control.”

The faces of the people present darkened slightly, all recalling this incident.

“But didn’t he die?” The base leader said. “I was the one who transported the body. The equipment at that time wasn’t mature enough. Something went wrong when you extracted his ability crystal core, and his body died along with the crystal core.”

“Even his body went into the crematorium and turned into a pile of ash. No matter how strong the healing ability is, it can’t bring ashes back to life, right?”

The dean sighed: “You’re right, I was overthinking.”

However, the face of the Ability User Association president became extremely ugly: “Did he have an older brother? Wearing a hood at that time, only revealing a pair of blue eyes, seemed to be a foreigner too.”

Having given up on this clue, the dean started investigating the surveillance in an attempt to find traces, answering absent-mindedly: “Seems so?”

The president’s lips trembled slightly, spitting out a word.

“…Xiu.”

That mercenary who suddenly joined the Ability User Base a year ago and acted alone.

Having short blond hair and a pair of highly recognizable transparent blue eyes.

Clearly powerful, yet he acted alone, only taking bounty missions, refusing recruitment from the three of them.

That was also why the president had thoughts of eliminating Xiu.

Hearing this name, all three people present suddenly realized something and reacted quickly.

“Not good!”

Before the words fell, only a “boom” was heard. A fresh bamboo shoot broke through the earth.

The mutated bamboo broke through the solid wall of the safe house with unstoppable force. In the crack of the hole, a fat rat the size of a piglet flashed dangerous red light in its eyes.

“Run!” The base leader immediately tried to escape through the safe passage.

But the growth rate of the mutated bamboo was too rapid. Its root system spread rapidly like parasites, wrapping around the entire safe house.

Densely packed roots broke through the earth, creating more cracks in the safe house. Bamboo shoots popped up one after another and grew rapidly.

The bamboo forest rising from the ground was like an impregnable cage, trapping the three people and countless mutated rats and cockroaches in one room.

“Xiu!! Is this your doing!”

While awkwardly dodging the mutated animals, the president frantically released abilities at the bamboo.

But he was a water ability user. Hitting the bamboo with water balls not only left no scars but made the bamboo grow much faster.

The base leader was no better off. Although he was a lightning ability user with the strongest offensive power, a patch of lightning could electrocute countless mutated animals, but he was also the primary target for the mutated animals to entangle.

Kill ten, and there were a hundred more behind. Sticky blood and juices were underfoot, and his body was filled with a foul smell, making him much more wretched than the president.

There were even pregnant female cockroaches. One strike of lightning, and countless small cockroaches poured out of their bellies.

When had the base leader ever fought such a disgusting battle? After throwing another patch of lightning, he retched on the spot.

The dean had long huddled under the desk shivering. He had no abilities and hid the fastest.

Wen Chu’s voice rang out at this moment.

“I am not Xiu.”

The boy’s tender voice echoed in the room, stunning all three people inside.

It wasn’t Xiu coming for revenge?

Could they have offended another control-type ability user?

The president’s brain worked the fastest, gritting his teeth: “Are you an ability user hired by Xiu? Whatever reward he gave you, we are willing to give you double, no, triple!”

He stared fixedly in the direction where the voice came from, just waiting for the other party’s reply.

“Ah…”

The boy’s voice hesitated.

Splattering water sounds came from the black hole broken open in the safe house. The three watched helplessly as a mass of soft tentacles moved out.

The tentacles emitted a human voice: “He gives birth to little tentacles for me. Can you give birth?”

Identical blank expressions appeared on the faces of the three.

Whether it was a talking monster or the bizarre reward of “giving birth to tentacles,” it was obviously beyond their cognitive range.

Short half a second later, the base leader was the first to strike a lightning bolt at Wen Chu.

“Where did this mutated monster come from! Stop spouting nonsense here and let us out quickly!”

The lightning hit the soft tentacles without leaving a trace. The tentacles just caved inward a bit, then bounced back elastically.

Wen Chu pouted.

So painful.

But it didn’t cause much damage.

His biggest characteristic was being relatively resistant to beating. No matter what attack landed on him, as long as it wasn’t like fire that would spread continuously, it wouldn’t cause much damage.

Luckily, there wasn’t a single fire ability user present.

Wen Chu had observed in the dark for a long time just now, only daring to appear openly after confirming this.

He moved his tentacles forward, controlling the mutated bamboo to reinforce the cage again.

“Impossible,” Wen Chu’s voice was light and soft, appearing innocent yet cruel in this situation. “If you don’t die, Xiu will be sad. I still need him to carry tentacles for me.”

With his words, a long-lurking bamboo shoot grew rapidly, directly piercing through the abdomen of the base leader who couldn’t dodge in time.

The dean was so scared he shrank into a fat ball, trembling and crying bitterly: “Don’t kill me, I-I-I-I-I will carry tentacles for you!!”

Bottom line, values, ethics—all became the most insignificant things in the face of life and death.

The fat dean had no idea what this “carrying tentacles” was, but it didn’t stop him from agreeing profusely to survive.

Wen Chu retreated in disgust: “No, I don’t like ugly people, let alone that I only want ability users.”

The fat dean: “…”

Still doing personal attacks at a time like this?

He gritted his teeth: “I still have a son, his name is Chen Yaozu, temporarily out on a mission outside the base. He is an ability user. If you need…”

The president was so shocked that he even got distracted in the battle: “Isn’t that my son?!”

The dean laughed wildly: “Of course not. Your good son was swapped by me as soon as he was born and dumped in the wilderness. Even that illegitimate son’s genetic test report is fake!”

“Old Chen, when you bullied me in school back then, did you ever think you would have no descendants?”

The president’s eyes were splitting with rage, ignoring dodging the surrounding bamboo and mutated animals. He controlled his water ability and pounced to tear at the fat dean.

“No wonder that damn brat is such a bastard! I thought his mother spoiled him, turns out he’s the seed of you damn fatty!”

He hit the fat dean with a water ball, knocking him to the ground directly.

Wen Chu didn’t waste the opportunity; a bamboo directly broke through the earth.

The dean wasn’t as lucky and agile as the base leader. He was directly pierced through by the bamboo, constantly spitting blood from his mouth.

The president didn’t let him go. A water ball smashed down, pressing him further onto the bamboo, saying viciously word by word: “You probably don’t know, your good son was sent by me to the Northern Forest yesterday. I asked Gu Lingfeng to kill him, to save him from hindering my official career.”

Actually, he didn’t know if Gu Lingfeng succeeded. After all, Xiu, who should have died, now had a high-level mutated monster helper; maybe Chen Yaozu also got lucky.

But this didn’t prevent him from delivering a heavy blow to the fat dean at the last moment of his life.

The dean’s eyes trembled, revealing an expression of anger and despair at the verge of death.

He gasped “He He” wanting to make a sound, but only blood gushed out of his throat.

In just over ten seconds, his gaze dimmed completely.

Carrying endless malice and unwillingness, he died staring fixedly at the president.

The Ability User Association president burst into wild laughter.

“Hahahahaha—Cough Ah!”

Another bamboo broke through the earth.

Wen Chu had no interest in their ethical drama. He wouldn’t waste such a good opportunity, directly making the president the second unlucky ghost skewered on bamboo.

Before the president could laugh out loud, he died completely on the bamboo.

Only the base leader was left.

He had been pierced through the abdomen by bamboo earlier, his face pale from excessive blood loss by now, and mutated animals were still swarming constantly.

Rats and cockroaches jumped up whenever they had a chance to bite fiercely at the rotten flesh of his abdomen. The base leader was already at the end of his tether.

Wen Chu wasn’t polite either, skewering him onto the third bamboo.

Thus, the three main culprits who made Xiu hate until now were all dead.

As for those ability users who improved relying on the “nutrient solution” extracted by the laboratory, they were chased and beaten fiercely by countless mutated animals and plants outside, and not many were left.

Wen Chu looked at the battle situation in front of him with satisfaction, lying on the rat’s back carefully curling up his tentacles to prevent getting stained with blood. He came to the main trunk of the mutated bamboo, extending a tentacle to pat it in appreciation.

This was the great hero of this siege operation.

Without the bandit-like root system of the mutated bamboo, he and the rats would probably have been digging holes outside the city wall for half a day.

The mutated bamboo shook its leaves, making a “rustling” sound, emitting a faint green light.

Nourished by so much ability user blood, it actually began to advance.

Evolving from the original rank-five mutated plant to rank-six.

Wen Chu was astonished.

Advancing by relying on ability user blood was actually so easy?

Then what did his life of struggling for a year without raising a single rank-five plant count as?

Count as his love for farming?

Wen Chu felt stifled at heart, but the mutated bamboo was quite happy, shooting up even higher in a flash.

It directly broke through the roof with the three corpses, hanging them high on the bamboo like flags to celebrate.

Seeing this, the crows flying all over the sky let out hoarse cries, landing one after another to enjoy the feast, and then began to emit advancing light one after another.

Wen Chu: “…”

Wen Chu finally understood why these people were obsessed with using ability users for experiments and why the interest chain behind this was so strong.

If he had known earlier that eating one ability user could have such a big breakthrough, he wouldn’t have holed up in the forest farming, but taken this group of mutated plants out to crack down on crime.

Too late to think more. Controlling so many mutated animals and plants at the same time had made Wen Chu shrink by a large circle.

Enduring the dizziness, he controlled the mutated rat, asking it to quickly take him and the remaining mutated animals and plants to evacuate successively.

Before evacuating, he paused again, asking a rank-five mutated crow the size of a small helicopter to tear off the heads of the three and take them away.

Had to bring back some evidence to prove he did it; otherwise, how could he make Xiu dead set on giving birth to tentacles for him.

Thinking of the fat dean’s words just now, Wen Chu couldn’t help shuddering.

Eww—

“I only want Xiu.” Wen Chu muttered to himself, following the mutated rat to evacuate on the ground.

The ground was already a scene like purgatory on earth.

Countless remains of ability users were scattered everywhere in the city, explosions and fires rose everywhere, and mutated animals ran rampant.

Countless people surged out of the city, thereby attracting many zombies. Fierce gunfire began to sound outside the city as well.

When Wen Chu came, he gave an order for all mutated animals and plants to kill ability users with the smell of the laboratory, and didn’t intend to do anything to unknowing people.

When he drilled out of the rat hole again, he took a worried look.

Unexpectedly, without the base leader and the president, the human organization was actually quite decent.

Having fought zombies for more than ten years, they were long adept at it. After getting rid of the endless mutated animals, people used firearms to suppress the zombies that came upon hearing the sound.

The zombies nearby had been swept several times, and with the home field advantage, they faintly had the upper hand.

Many people even took advantage of the Ability User Association being tied up to secretly dig zombie crystal cores to earn extra money, actually having brilliant smiles on their faces.

Wen Chu was relieved and rode the rat away.

Long after he had gone far, when people cleared the zombies, the mutated animals in the city also gradually retreated at some point.

When the people who had temporarily fled to the city gate went back carefully, what they saw were corpses all over the ground and three incredibly conspicuous headless corpses skewered on bamboo.

“What is this?” Sharp-eyed people discovered the collapse under the bamboo and leaned in to take a look.

Seeing the messy experimental base underground, everyone present showed a blank expression.

The bamboo, having absorbed enough energy, moved.

It pulled its roots out of the ground, tossed the three people skewered on the bamboo, and ran away supporting itself with roots under the horrified gaze of the crowd.

Leaving only the rubble leading to the laboratory.

“These clothes… seem to be the base leader’s?” Someone barely identified the deceased.

Everyone looked at each other.

After a silence, someone finally started tentatively digging the rubble, wanting to go into the laboratory to find out.

Soon more people joined in, greatly speeding up the clearing.

And this evil buried underground for a full ten years was finally fully revealed to people’s eyes.

…

Wen Chu didn’t care whether humans would continue the experiments or end the evil; he purely went to help Xiu take revenge.

Now carrying three heads, he returned fully loaded.

It was already past five in the morning. Faint morning light appeared on the horizon. There were no lights in the forest, so they could only grope forward under the gray-blue sky.

Wen Chu didn’t want to disturb the pregnant man’s sleep. He rolled in the stream first to wash off the dirt on his body, then found a patch of flowers to roll in.

Finally, he shook himself dry, confirming he was a fragrant little tentacle, before letting the crow carry the heads home with him.

Perhaps due to pulling an all-nighter and overusing power, Wen Chu was dizzy now and could barely crawl.

He felt it and realized it was because the mutated bamboo and several mutated animals were still reluctantly absorbing blood in the city.

Wen Chu headache-inducingly ordered them to come back quickly.

If this consumption continued, he wouldn’t be able to afford these mutated animals and plants.

He crawled listlessly to the cave entrance, asked the crow to wrap the three heads with leaves and put them at the door, while he rolled in with splattering sounds.

Quietly rubbed up next to Xiu.

Xiu was still sleeping deeply.

He was almost drained today and was carrying a tentacle. It was when he was exhausted, so he didn’t notice the little tentacle beside him going out quietly to do something big and coming back.

Even in his dream, he was constantly recalling his child.

Pretty, well-behaved, quiet.

The child he raised single-handedly, expecting him to grow up healthily, never woke up after the high fever of differentiation.

The most ridiculous thing was that three years after the other’s death, he belatedly awakened an ability.

If only he had been the one to awaken the ability first back then… maybe they wouldn’t be separated by death.

Xiu frowned in discomfort, only feeling waves of chill in his heart.

Was it heartache?

It seemed not.

Xiu was trapped in a nightmare, trying to open his eyes to check the situation several times without success, only sinking into the nightmare of the past, watching helplessly again and again as the white-haired child left.

The little tentacle sleeping on his chest was already sleeping crookedly.

Wen Chu was really tired. Rolling to Xiu’s side, he subconsciously clung to the other’s chest and slept.

Mutated animals and plants were still relocating back one after another, which continued to consume his power. He was constantly shrinking in his sleep.

Smaller and smaller, smaller and smaller, finally—

The transparent little tentacle disappeared.

Replacing it was a delicate white-haired boy curled up sleeping in Xiu’s arms.

.

Morning, six o’clock.

Xiu was woken up on time by his biological clock.

He struggled to open his eyes, spent three seconds sorting out the current situation, and closed his eyes resignedly.

One hour until the general election.

He was imprisoned in a damp cave, giving birth to batches of small tentacles for the tentacle monster in darkness, while his enemy was to accept the crowd’s embrace in the base thousands of miles away.

No matter how resigned he acted, he couldn’t help feeling sorrow and despair.

Suddenly, Xiu sniffed lightly.

He smelled a strong scent of blood.

What happened? Someone broke in?

Did they fight with the little tentacle? Whose blood?

Xiu instantly disregarded everything else, immediately opened his eyes and sat up to go out and check the situation.

However, just as he opened his eyes and sat up, seeing clearly the person in his arms, he froze completely on the spot.

A white-haired boy was curled up in his arms, sleeping soundly.

The boy looked no more than seventeen or eighteen, naked, with long white hair cascading down to his ankles.

Even with eyes closed tight, one could see the other’s exquisite features, pure and natural, like an elf grown out of thin air from the forest.

His rapid movement obviously disturbed the other party. The boy frowned slightly, opened his eyes in confusion, and made a sticky sound.

“…Xiu?”

The azure eyes of the boy in front of him overlapped with the round eyes of the little white-haired child across eight years of time.

With a “boom” in Xiu’s brain, it went completely blank.