Chapter Seventy: Astonishing

Ye Hai and his companions slowly made their way through the corpse hunter's laboratory, heading toward the center. Before long, they caught sight of a distant white wall. Roughly estimating, it stood over five meters tall. The wall curved in a wide arc, enclosing an area whose true size was impossible to discern from afar.

Inside the wall, a strange gray substance filled the space, rendering everything within a haze. Outside, the environment was perfectly normal, as if the wall divided two utterly separate worlds.

None of the group spoke. The entire team moved in silence, the atmosphere tense and oppressive.

When they reached the base of the white wall, a sudden bang rang out. Everyone looked up; Teach and Nangong instinctively took a step back, their eyes filled with fear as they stared at the exposed section atop the wall.

There, clinging behind a transparent energy shield, was a terrifying mutant. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of slender proboscises pierced through the shield, reaching out beyond the wall.

“What is that? An eighth-stage mutant?”
“Why has its form changed so drastically, yet the size is so small?”

Staring at the strange creature—barely a meter in size—Harvey could not tell what kind of bird had been infected to create it.

Its size was clearly inconsistent with the massive forms typical of high-stage mutants. Yet its grotesque appearance and bizarre features suggested a mutation of the eighth stage.

Baffled, Harvey asked.

Ye Hai looked up at the creature, his teeth aching, and replied, “It's just a mosquito. Don't ask me what stage it's in.”

“The old man’s creations can’t be judged by any standard you know…”

A mosquito?

The group looked up again. The meter-long creature, with its dense, stabbing proboscises, was indeed reminiscent of a mosquito—at least in that feature. Otherwise, nothing about the monster connected it to a mosquito.

A body a meter long, proboscises half a meter in length. Its head was covered only by those needle-like feeding tubes, with no other visible organs. Its body was a strange, dark purple, seemingly fully metallic. Muscular wings protruded from its back.

No matter how they looked at it, the group could not reconcile this mutant with the mosquitoes of their memories.

As they stared at the bizarre creature, another loud bang sounded.

Before they could turn to look elsewhere, another bang followed.

Then, their ears were assailed by a rapid, rain-like series of impacts.

Within seconds, the entire interior of the energy shield was filled with these terrifying mutant mosquitoes.

It was as if a giant glass wall had become covered in mosquitoes, sending chills down their spines at a single glance.

Worse yet, each mosquito was nearly half a meter long.

Their needle-like proboscises pierced the shield, waving frantically in the direction of the group, desperately trying to break through the transparent barrier.

Aside from Ye Hai, Joe, and Big Lung, everyone felt their courage drain at the sight.

Teach wiped the cold sweat from his brow and asked, “If these things break through the shield, wouldn’t we all be sucked dry in an instant?”

Big Lung grinned and replied, “No, Teach. After the boss modified these mosquitoes, they’re no longer satisfied with just blood…”

“The venom they secrete can dissolve a human instantly…”

“And then they consume everything…”

“A single mutant mosquito has quite the appetite. With my size, I’d probably be two meals for one!”

His hearty smile made everyone shudder.

Nangong, frowning, spoke up, “This energy shield—if I’m not mistaken, it’s an anti-gravity barrier used on small spacecraft to prevent physical collisions…”

“It’s strong enough to withstand impacts from small meteors!”

“That these mutants can pierce such a shield with their flesh is unbelievable!”

“Can they be controlled? If deployed on a battlefield, these mutant mosquitoes would wreak havoc!”

“The sight of them draining entire bodies could instill terror and break enemy morale…”

Nangong quickly recovered from his shock, his interest in this biological weapon piqued.

If they could be controlled and produced cheaply…

These mutants would be perfect for deployment in the chaos of the war-torn star.

After a pause, Nangong continued, “With such voracious appetites… how do you feed them?”

Big Lung blinked and replied, “Feed them? Why bother?”

“They eat a lot, but they don’t starve easily. As far as I know, even after three years without food, they stay quite lively…”

Ye Hai understood Nangong’s intentions in asking about the mutant mosquitoes.

He could only smile wryly and shake his head, “If we could control them, there wouldn’t be so many anti-gravity shield generators here.”

“The old man’s research always considered control, but perhaps he simply didn’t care enough to bother.”

“In the core zone of the forbidden area, only one mutant is controllable!”

“As for these mosquitoes… they’re meant as food for another giant!”

“Since our arrival has attracted so many mutant mosquitoes, the big one should appear soon!”

As soon as Ye Hai finished speaking…

A massive, blood-red maw slammed into the barrier from the mist beyond.

That terrifying mouth, several meters wide, cleared a patch of mosquitoes from the shield in a single bite.

This violent impact truly startled the group.

Especially as the mouth, bristling with jagged teeth, descended from above, threatening to engulf them.

Even Teach and Nangong, veterans of countless battles, felt their legs go weak.

Fortunately, the gigantic maw did not breach the shield.

And the monstrous beast in the gray mist showed no interest in the group.

It simply devoured the mutant mosquitoes in huge gulps.

“My god! The size—is this an eighth-stage mutant?”

“What on earth is it?”

Harvey’s question was met with a helpless shrug from Ye Hai.

“It’s a moray eel. Who knows what the old man did to this poor creature!”

“A saltwater fish, forcibly transformed into a land-dweller…”

“The soil inside is its ocean!”

Harvey and Lianna sensed the twisted humor of that wretched old man.

Staring at the mutant eel, both gulped nervously… suddenly not wanting to meet Mr. Crow after all.

“Do we have to dodge its attacks to meet Mr. Crow?”

Ye Hai shook his head and sighed, “That ridiculous old man… always up to the most outrageous things!”

“If you want to see him, you can’t avoid this giant…”

“Because…”

“The old man’s laboratory is inside the belly of this monster!”

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A few words about the second plot arc.

Lately, my state has been poor. Since May Day, I’ve only taken a single day off for the Dragon Boat Festival, working overtime the rest of the time… I’m exhausted. The constant rush of daytime work with no rest, writing late into the night, and weekends without breaks has gone on too long, making my mind buzz every time I try to write.

Last week’s failed attempt at advancing to the sixth frequency affected my mood, worsening my condition.

This plot arc has had so much setup, the pacing has slowed too much—I feel it myself.

The main reason is that in my original plan, ART-2 and the Psychic Union were two major storylines. But after finishing the bee arc and moving right into the spider arc, I felt it was too monotonous. So I decided to merge the second and third major arcs.

These two storylines are important, as they involve the main boss, worldbuilding, and key supporting characters of the Zombie Star chapter.

But the continuous overtime in May exhausted my limited stock of drafts. With daily updates, I rushed the beginning of the second arc and didn’t handle it well.

Merging the major storylines led to a surge in characters, resulting in the current situation…

Big Lung, Teach, Nangong appeared, then Kobayashi and the Psychic Union, then the ARMY-3 faction.

Now, the “First Crow” has appeared!

The pacing is truly chaotic.

To be honest, the so-called First Crow was never in my original plan.

Some readers have noticed his abrupt introduction…

It’s mainly because I made major changes to the Psychic Union’s setting, which led to the old man’s unexpected creation!

Once the old man appears, the cast for the second and third acts will be fully introduced.

Then, I’ll return to advancing the main plot.

Thank you all for your patience.

And finally, thank you to all my readers for your continued support!