Chapter Ninety-Three: The Attack of the Genetic Synthesizers

Chapter Ninety-Three: The Attack of the Gene Synthesizer

"What are you talking about?" The young girl stared in terror at the woman in military attire.

"It's nothing. I was asking if you saw two people just now." The woman with the hooked nose pulled two photographs from her uniform pocket. "Here, they look like this—one is a boy in his teens, the other is a girl around seven or eight."

"No, I didn't see them." The girl was stunned for a moment as she looked at the photos, recognizing the figures who had just departed, but she stammered out a lie.

Her clumsy attempt at deception could never fool the professionally trained woman before her. With a single glance, the hooked-nosed woman grabbed the girl and tossed her to a soldier who had just arrived.

"Leave someone to interrogate her, station a squad in the neighborhood to ask around about the targets’ whereabouts these past two days. The scent of the mission targets is everywhere here—they must have lingered for quite some time," she ordered, then shouted to the soldiers pouring in behind her, "The rest, follow me. The targets have fled."

"Keep up the pace. No matter where he runs, as long as he hasn’t left Zhengzhou, he won’t escape our pursuit!"

...

Cradling the little girl, Liu Chang sprinted swiftly through the streets of Zhengzhou, unable to fathom how the military had tracked them down. In this chaotic world, with no radio or television, it was hardly simple to issue a manhunt. Before leaving, even Li Qingshui had not known where they would finally settle.

As he ran, holding the girl and pondering endlessly, Liu Chang still couldn't unravel the mystery, but his rapid pace soon left behind the army comprised of ordinary people.

An hour later, Liu Chang had run from the east to the south of the city. Feeling he had sufficiently outdistanced their pursuers, he finally set the girl down, gasping for breath.

"Brother, who are those people trying to catch us?" The girl, now standing, asked, "Did the research institute send them? Did Dr. Huang betray us? She’s the only one we know in that neighborhood!"

"I don’t think so," Liu Chang recalled Dr. Huang’s expressions over the past couple of days and replied, "She didn’t seem like it. And although she knows our background, she hasn’t left the neighborhood much these days."

"Then how could those people find this place? Also, our insect box is lost—how will we eat now?"

"I don’t know how they tracked us, but don’t worry about food." Liu Chang patted the crossbow on his back. "Finding food isn’t too difficult for me now, and if need be, I’ll steal it for you. Don’t worry."

"But with those soldiers chasing us, brother, will we ever eat in peace again?" the girl asked, voicing her final concern.

Her question soon became the nightmare haunting them for days.

During the next four days, Liu Chang carried the girl as they hid throughout Zhengzhou, seeking every secret place, but they could never shake the relentless military, which pursued them like maggots on a carcass.

Several times, they were nearly surrounded while eating, but thanks to the girl’s ability to sense danger and Liu Chang’s heightened senses, they managed to escape; otherwise, they would have long been caught by the gun-toting soldiers.

...

Although they narrowly escaped danger several times, the fact that they were found wherever they hid over the days left Liu Chang confused, realizing this was more than a simple betrayal.

That evening, hiding in a dilapidated hut in a deserted urban village, Liu Chang held the girl and wondered aloud, "No matter where we hide these days, they always track us down. We've changed clothes several times, but found no strange tracking devices. How can they pursue us all over the city?"

"I don’t know. Maybe it’s some evolved ability. In nature, aren’t there hunters that can track prey for thousands of miles?" the girl mused, resting her chin on her hand.

"Thousands of miles tracking..." Liu Chang racked his brain for knowledge Li Qingshui had once shared and suddenly recalled his explanation of animal olfactory nerves: "A thousand times more sensitive than humans..."

"Could it be they’ve been smelling our trail like dogs?" Liu Chang’s heart stirred, and he found his answer.

Meanwhile, the hooked-nosed woman was troubled by the same question.

"Manguang, after all these days, no matter what method we use to surround them, why do they always escape beforehand?" she asked her deputy—a tall, buzz-cut man.

"I don’t know. At first, I thought it was coincidence, but even our carefully planned ambushes were detected. I can’t figure out how they do it." The tall man replied, "Afterward, I had people examine our ambush sites, but found no traps or devices. This means they detected us themselves, not through any external means."

"So, one of them must also be a mutant?" The woman raised her eyelids.

"Yes, I suspect they’re a sensory type. Vision alone couldn’t account for it—they were inside buildings during some ambushes. Even with superb eyesight, they couldn’t see us. If it’s smell, they’d detect us even earlier. Touch or taste is even less likely, so..." The deputy paused.

"So, their hearing must be exceptional?" The woman touched her curved nose. "Not only do they detect us, but after sensing our presence, they escape at speeds several times faster than ours. That proves another point!"

"Yes, their stamina far exceeds ordinary soldiers," the deputy added.

"That makes things difficult!" The woman pondered a moment, then stood. "Manguang, return to the institute and report to Zhao Zhuo. Tell him to send us a few elites—no need for many, just the best, and at least faster than the targets. Without such elites, this mission will be hard to accomplish!"

"Yes, ma’am!" The tall soldier saluted.

...

Two days later.

"Brother, those soldiers haven’t caught up these past two days. Maybe the grass juice we smeared on ourselves worked?" Sitting on the sofa in an empty apartment, the girl was pleased. "Not having to run for our lives feels so good!"

"Can that stuff really cover our scent completely?" Liu Chang raised his arm, sniffing the grassy odor.

"Teacher Li used it before—it must be reliable!"

"But Teacher Li also said nothing can fully mask a person’s scent, only confuse it, not conceal it completely. If the trackers’ noses are as sensitive as animals, they’ll find us," Liu Chang worried. "After all, deceiving humans’ senses is much harder than deceiving animals!"

"Brother, you worry too much..." The girl was about to comfort him when her expression suddenly changed. "Oh no! A lifeform with a danger rating of thirty-one is rushing toward us!"

"Thirty-one?" Liu Chang was startled. He had just picked up the girl when a tremendous crash sounded at the door.

The reinforced door was smashed by a tremendous force from outside, crumpling into twisted metal and slamming into the wall. A green figure in camouflage burst in, lightning-fast, heading straight for them.

To Liu Chang’s eyes, the figure rushed at him at a speed of 17.56 meters per second—astonishingly fast, closing the distance in a blink.

Holding the girl, Liu Chang made a precise calculation and predicted the attack, narrowly dodging the first strike. In that fleeting glance, he caught sight of the attacker’s face.

No ears or nose, wrinkled eyelids like a rhinoceros, hairless face, eyes with pupils utterly unlike those of ordinary humans—a true monster.

"Oh no, it’s those gene synthesizers!" Seeing the creature’s appearance, Liu Chang switched to holding the girl with one arm, reaching for his massive handgun with the other.

The monster gave him no chance. With absolute speed and physical superiority, Liu Chang had barely gripped the gun when the creature spun and hurled a fist at his face like a cannonball.

The fist was incredibly fast. Liu Chang calculated its velocity—it would strike his left cheek in 0.04 seconds. He wanted to dodge, but his body couldn’t keep pace with his mind—his thoughts moved, but his body lagged behind. The gap in physical abilities was too great. Even having calculated the attack route, the distance was too short, and he failed to avoid the nearly lethal blow.

Boom!

His left cheek took the hit, the bones and all his teeth on that side shattered, his cheek collapsed, and he was sent flying, crashing headlong into the wooden wardrobe. The girl he held was flung aside by the force.

"Ha!" Seeing both targets thrown, the monster caught the girl in midair, then sped toward Liu Chang, who was trapped in the wardrobe.

At that moment, a thunderous gunshot rang out from within the wardrobe.

Even faster than the gunshot, the bullet whistled from the barrel, striking the monster’s chest and blossoming a beautiful spray of blood.

With a crash, the monster was blasted away by the powerful shot, slamming hard against the living room wall.