Chapter Ninety-Two: The First “Thank You”

When the bioelectric eel appeared at the second survivor camp, the scene repeated itself almost exactly: panic and chaos everywhere.

This time, Ye Hai did not hesitate. He simply unleashed the bioweapon to seize people.

He also split half of it off and sent it racing toward another camp not far away.

At the same time, Ye Hai himself joined the abduction.

His first target was a man carrying a child.

Blocking the man’s path, Ye Hai looked at the father and son, both of them badly frightened, and said, “The situation is extremely urgent. Getting inside the eel’s body with your child is the only way to survive!”

But the man clearly did not believe him.

He clutched the child tightly and backed away step by step, staring at Ye Hai all the while. His eyes darted about, plainly searching for an escape route.

Once he had retreated far enough, he turned and fled with the child in his arms.

Seeing that reaction, Ye Hai gave a helpless, wry shake of his head.

“Forget it. I’m not even as effective as a licker when I do it myself.”

“Do whatever you want.”

With that, he was about to turn back.

At that very moment, a huge net suddenly dropped from the sky, engulfing the father and son.

The next instant, a three-meter-tall human-faced spider vaulted over the camp’s fence in a couple of strides and appeared beside the fleeing pair.

It seized the net with both hands and tried to drag them away.

The man struggled wildly inside the mesh, but there was no way to break free.

The human-faced spider’s expression did not change. It lifted one spider leg and stabbed straight toward the man’s leg.

It seemed intent on breaking the leg, stripping him of any chance to run or resist.

Ye Hai’s heart sank.

“Fast!”

He shoved off the ground and in an instant blocked the human-faced spider from the father and son.

A sharp claw burst from his back and came down with brutal force, effortlessly cleaving the human-faced spider in two.

Then, with one hand, he tore the net apart.

As Ye Hai bent down and prepared to free the father and child...

the boy caught sight of the terrifying long arm behind Ye Hai.

With a wail, he burst into tears.

He had been frightened senseless by Ye Hai’s bizarre appearance.

The man had not even managed to get up before he snatched the child into his arms and kicked frantically at the ground, staring at Ye Hai in horror and desperately trying to put distance between them.

Understanding that his own appearance had scared them, Ye Hai withdrew the rear arm and said flatly, “A large number of human-faced spiders are charging toward the Plati Black Market.”

“No one will be spared. Human beings cannot outrun those eight-legged spiders.”

“If you do not want to watch your child die a miserable death, or become one of those monsters, then the fish belly not far from here is your only way to survive...”

After dropping those words, Ye Hai turned away with a grim face and left.

The look the child had given him, as if he were a monster, left Ye Hai feeling rather awful.

Shaking his head, he thought to himself, “Since an ART-2 has already reached this place, the main force will surely arrive very soon.”

Ye Hai did not intend to linger here any longer. His next plan was to take the eel toward a position closer to the foot of the mountain.

Only in that way could he buy time to save more people.

Just as Ye Hai was preparing to enter the eel’s mouth, rapid footsteps suddenly sounded behind him.

Turning slightly, Ye Hai saw the child he had just saved looking at him timidly.

“T-thank you!”

Seeing the man hurrying over to his child, his eyes filled with fear and uncertainty, Ye Hai smiled faintly, instantly understanding: the child had come to thank him on his own, not at the father’s urging.

He stepped over to the boy and lifted him into his arms.

The little body in his hands was still trembling faintly.

Ye Hai gently patted the child’s back a couple of times, calming him a little.

“Come along. I think... even if you were to die, you wouldn’t let your child go off alone, would you?”

With that, Ye Hai walked into the eel’s mouth and descended step by step into the darkness of its belly.

After gritting his teeth, the man followed.

They made their way all the way to the laboratory.

Zeroth looked slightly surprised when she saw Ye Hai carrying a child in.

“You like children?”

Ye Hai shook his head and replied, “I can’t stand those little troublemakers.”

“But this little guy was the first person to ever say ‘thank you’ to me.”

“I stood at the mouth of the eel and watched those fellows brought in by the tyrant and the lickers. In their eyes, I saw fear, anger, hatred, and all sorts of emotions.”

“But gratitude was the one thing missing...”

“This little guy was the first to thank me after I had saved nearly a thousand people.”

“So he deserves a little special treatment.”

“He doesn’t need to squeeze together with those filthy refugees, trembling in the dark belly of the eel.”

Zeroth grinned and naturally took the child from Ye Hai’s arms.

Indeed, women seem to be born with a kind of inexplicable warmth.

The child did not resist Zeroth’s embrace at all.

He allowed her to carry him toward the antigravity test platform.

When the child saw Zeroth floating up into the air and landing on the platform, the fear in his eyes had completely vanished.

In its place came boundless curiosity and a desire to explore.

Under Zeroth’s encouraging gaze, the impish little fellow stepped toward the edge of the platform.

After crawling partway down, he poked his head out to look beneath the platform.

Suspended five meters above the ground, the platform seemed impossibly lofty to him.

And how had he floated up there just now?

Just as the child’s little mind was full of confusion, Zeroth had quietly appeared behind him.

“Curious about how you floated up? Why not try it yourself?”

With that, she gave him a gentle sweep of her foot.

The mischievous child tumbled off the platform.

At first he panicked, but when he fell to about three meters, the antigravity force took effect and he floated up again, bobbing in midair.

Children adapt quickly. Soon he had learned to control his body and was gleefully bouncing up and down above the platform.

Zeroth stood on the platform, smiling as she watched him.

Then the child noticed Lister on another test platform, repairing his legs.

Bold as anything, he sneaked over to Lister’s side and stared in amazement at the alloy bones in Lister’s legs as new flesh steadily grew over them.

Seeing that Lister gave no reaction...

he gathered his courage and quietly伸 out a finger, intending to touch the alloy leg bone.

At that moment, Lister, who had been motionless until now, suddenly shouted at the child, “Ah!”

The little rascal was so frightened that he tumbled and rolled straight off the platform.

Seeing the bad-smile on Lister’s deadpan face, Ye Hai rolled his eyes.

Even his heavy mood loosened slightly.

Just a single child had brought a little joy to Zeroth and Lister, and that made Ye Hai feel that all this effort to save people had not been in vain.

Suddenly, a rather anxious voice came from behind Ye Hai.

“Um...”

“Is Mr. Ye Hai planning to keep rescuing people?”

The man clearly knew who Ye Hai was. After all, among the survivors who depended on the black market to live, it would be impossible not to know the great figures of the market.

Even though the corpse hunters rarely showed their faces, the survivors could still identify each of them accurately.

Knowing these great figures was necessary, lest one anger a person who could decide the fate of a camp with a single sentence.

That was one of the basic rules for surviving near the black market.

But knowing someone did not mean trusting them.

The taboo figures of the black market left survivors with only one impression: bloodthirsty cruelty.

Even the corpse hunter organization, which hardly ever interacted with survivors, was seen by them as cut from the same cloth.

That was the main reason Ye Hai’s earlier words had not earned even a single punctuation mark of trust.

Hearing the voice, Ye Hai turned around and saw the child’s father standing at the laboratory entrance, looking at him with a complicated expression.

At the man’s question, Ye Hai shrugged and answered indifferently, “What else?”

The man knelt before Ye Hai with utmost respect and said sincerely, “Mr. Ye Hai, please forgive my ignorance...”

“Thank you for your mercy and tolerance in saving my child.”

“You are different from everyone else.”

“You are a truly virtuous man.”

“I get along well with people from several camps.”

“If you can trust me and let me take some of the camp members to each camp one by one to gather the survivors...”

“I can persuade them to come here willingly.”

Ye Hai was slightly taken aback at first, then his eyes lit up.

He said decisively, “Come with me. I’ll take you to meet the people from your camp...”

“Once we reach the next camp, you’ll immediately bring your people to the various camps and gather as many as you can.”

“If you do this well, I won’t treat you badly.”

Soon, Ye Hai led him to the people he had just brought in.

In the dark belly of the eel, Ye Hai snapped his fingers, and the lamps in the conduits along both sides of the eel’s body lit up.

Once the lights came on, the survivors immediately saw the man who had come in with Ye Hai.

“Vera, you’re all right? That’s great!”

“Where’s Little Fruit?”

“What happened to him? Why can’t we see him?”

The few men eyed Ye Hai warily while welcoming Vera into their group.

After Vera told them that Ye Hai’s purpose was to rescue people...

all kinds of doubtful, puzzled, and suspicious looks fell on Ye Hai.

Ye Hai did not care.

Before deciding to save them, he had not expected to receive anything in return from these people—not even a grateful glance.

“We’re almost there. Bring your people and follow me!”

With that, Ye Hai took the lead and headed toward the eel’s mouth.

Perhaps Vera had some standing in the camp after all.

Even amid all the objections, more than a dozen young and strong men were willing to follow him.

Along the way, Vera assigned tasks to those young men and determined which camp each of them would target.

After finishing those arrangements, he walked up to Ye Hai and said, “Mr. Ye Hai, please do not let this mutant creature emerge directly from beneath the camp.”

“That would only cause chaos and panic!”

“You stay outside the camp. I’ll go in and persuade them.”

Ye Hai nodded and said, “I can do as you suggest...”

“I only need one result!”

With that, the eel had already risen to the surface and opened its mouth...

Thirty meters ahead, everyone could see a brightly lit camp.

Vera and the young men with him rushed out at once, scattering in all directions as they sprinted toward the nearby camps.