Rise of Apocalyptic Talent

Chapter – 5 Mutation

“That’s what’s going to happen to us, isn’t it?” one resident choked out.

“I don’t want to be eaten by monsters; I don’t want to die.” Another person shouted somewhat hysterically, obviously scared to death already.

“Damn, why isn’t there a phone signal? When will the cops arrive? Why isn’t the government sending the army here?” With a tired expression on his face, a fat man in the rescue team turned to look at Lao Zhang. He knew that Lao Zhang had been a soldier before, that Lao Zhang was also the one who led them to block the stairwell, and that now that they had obtained temporary safety, he had regarded Lao Zhang as the backbone.

“Stop sobbing, everyone!” Lao Zhang rose slowly, and everyone else fixed their gaze on the man.

“I understand that everyone is terrified, and I am as well, but now is not the time to cry; instead, we must concentrate on survival, surviving until the army arrives to save us. I am confident that the government will not overlook our concerns. The rescue forces will undoubtedly arrive to save us, but to be saved, we must first ensure that we survive until then!”

The words of Lao Zhang had an impact. An Sheng observed hope in the eyes of at least half of the population, but will the situation be as Lao Zhang predicted? An Sheng didn’t believe it at all. Of course, An Sheng was looking forward to the rescue force’s arrival, but logic told him that this calamity was more complicated than only hurting this institution or this city.

It’s been more than ten hours since the torrential rain and flooding began. Even the network and power have not been restored, despite no signs of rescue forces arriving, and why is that? The solution is self-evident.

If this is a minor calamity, the state will undoubtedly dispatch rescue personnel. Even if we believe that the rescue troops are on their way and have not arrived yet due to some unforeseen circumstance, at the very least, military planes or drones should have been dispatched to scout out the situation!

The reconnaissance unit, however, was not heard or seen by An Sheng.

From this look alone, it is clear that the extent of this calamity is far greater than everyone here believes… As far as An Sheng can tell, the tragedy has affected the entire country, if not the entire world.

If An Sheng could make such assumptions, how could Lao Zhang, a military officer, fail to make the same assumption? Obviously, he is fully aware of the circumstances, as well as the gravity of the issue… Even if he does, he won’t express it in front of others at such a crucial time.

On the higher levels of this structure, there are still many survivors… if these individuals are to survive, they must have some hope in their hearts. As a result, keeping them clouded to some degree is the best option.

Furthermore, even if Lao Zhang has said such a thing, many individuals in the rescue forces have recognized the oddity of the situation and the resulting problems, but the solution to this problem is something they are unable to trust… Lao Zhang’s statements were intended to give these folks hope as well.

And Lao Zhang’s comments were effective; they instilled hope in the hearts of many locals, who began to assist them… Soon after, other individuals emerged from their homes to assist with the reinforcement of the defense wall at the stairwell’s entrance. The survivors all recognized that this was their last line of defense and that if the enemy (living dead) penetrated it, their lives would be in grave danger.
Everyone contributed all of their heavy items from their rooms and obstructed the stairwell entrance. Following Lao Zhang’s advice, the corridor leading to the fourth level began to amass debris ahead of time, leaving just one passage for one person to proceed to the upper floors and blocking the zombies below.

While everyone was busy fortifying the stairwell, those sick people who were poisoned but did not die began to mutate in the rooms where they were poisoned but did not die.

Previously, the poisoned persons were quarantined because of fear that the virus, bacteria, or whatever is causing this unusual scenario could be spread and affect everyone. However, because the dead people downstairs had been resurrected and turned into man-eating monsters, members of the rescue team went to assist Lao Zhang in blocking the lower floors, forgetting about the individuals who were being held here.

People who have not died from poisoning have a less joyful mutation process than those who have. These people have been suffering from a high temperature for the entire day and are now completely exhausted.

The areas of their skin that had been exposed to the bloody rain developed red blotches and a burning feeling as if scorching fireballs had been buried there. The twenty persons in the room were frantically rolling around on the floor due to the extreme scorching pain.

The erythema quickly covered these patients’ entire bodies, and twenty or so people curled up in anguish like twenty or so steamed prawns that had just come out of the pot. The intense pain was too much for a man who was lying at the door. He tried to stand and looked for help. He was on the lookout for something that may terminate his life swiftly, and he happened to notice a fruit knife on the coffee table not far away.

He strained to reach over in an attempt to pick up the fruit knife till he got it in his grasp, and once he did, he slowly aimed the knife’s tip towards his throat and stabbed it hard…

The man died with a satisfied expression on his face at the time of his death. Perhaps death was a welcome release for him.

The deceased man bounced off the ground in an odd manner the next minute. There was no blood streaming from the fruit knife’s piercing of the throat. As if it were broken glass, the wound began to crack and shatter.

The fruit knife, which had been supported by the skin, fell to the ground with the shed skin.

The next scene, on the other hand, was something the man had not anticipated. Under the man’s shed skin, scales the size of fingernails began to sprout, resembling fish scales, and the teeth in his mouth also succumbed to the same destiny. They began to fall out, or rather, were pressed out by newly formed teeth. The new teeth were no longer human-like, but rather as rigid as crocodile teeth.

Not only this man was mutated, but all of the other humans in the room were as well, and their bodies were all mutated. Each person’s alterations were unique, with one thing in common: they all turned into monstrous monsters.

…

An incomprehensible sense of crisis raced through An Sheng’s entire body just as he wished to rest, and the hairs on his entire body rose up as if he were suffering from an electric shock! An Sheng didn’t know why, but he was aware that a threat was approaching him.

“Something dreadful is about to happen, Sister Su, Brother Zhang!”

When Lao Zhang and Su Yao, who were carrying the sundries with An Sheng, heard his quick warning, they stared at him bewildered. A terrified cry erupted from downstairs the following second, as if to validate An Sheng’s remarks.

An unknown object ensnared the neck of a large member of the rescue crew. The big man was dragged backward by a significant force after being entangled in his neck. A person standing next to him could clearly see what was tugging the overweight man.

The tongue belonged to a monster whose entire body was covered in scales, and the owner of the tongue was a monster with a thick and long tongue.

This man was terrified by the monster’s abrupt presence and let out a wild scream.

Hearing the sad howls, Old Zhang and An Sheng dashed downstairs to assess the situation. They watched a scenario where a fat man was going to lose his head to a creature with scales all over his body as soon as they exited the stairway!

…

The creature appeared to be chewing a meatball, with the sound of bones being crushed in his mouth audible. A bloated humanoid being nearly three meters tall stands behind the scaly monster. Its limbs and torso resemble a corpse covered with blisters over an extended period. Except for a massive eyeball, all of the facial features that were meant to be present on the face have vanished.

But that wasn’t the worst of it; what happened next almost terrified even retired veteran Lao Zhang.

The bloated monster in front of them proceeded slowly towards the headless corpse of the fat man. As he got closer, his bloated and fat torso began to creep slowly, and soon a huge crack appeared from the navel to the neck, and what everyone saw was actually a row of sharp teeth, the belly of this one-eyed monster turned out to be this guy’s giant mouth, and the bloated monster opened its giant mouth and swallowed the fat man’s headless corpse in a single bite!