The Fallen Merman

The firearm was brand new, so Clownfish loaded it with ammunition. The muzzle was aimed at the infected patients swarming in front of them. Firefly’s flash bomb was thrown just in time; blowing up at the side rear just as the bloody nails of an infected patient was about to touch Clownfish’s wrist. The infected patient was knocked five to six meters away by the impact of the explosion. His back harshly slammed against the wall, and he slowly slid down. Even if these infected patients were tenacious, they still needed time to get back up again and rush over to bite them.

But when there was a team member in an attack position fighting at the same time, Firefly’s support ability would be maximized. Under his precise throwing and blasting of flash bombs, no infected patients could get close to Clownfish. This also gave the Clownfish, who was good at mid-range combat, room to play. 

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the infected patients were blown to pieces by the shotgun shells one after another. Suddenly, something tightened around both their waists—an alpha’s arms wrapped around them. With one in his left arm and the other in his right arm, Bai Chunian dragged the omegas who got used to killing back and closed the door. His fingers fiddled with the broken hydraulic pressure lock, kneaded the alloy together, and resealed the security door.

After the security door was closed again, the sea anemone that turned into floating foam evaporated and disappeared. The two little omegas slumped their backs against each other and panted.

Clownfish held the gun as he rested with his head buried in his arms. Even if the hot muzzle burned a red mark on the skin of his neck, he would not let go.

Bai Chunian stretched out his hand to remove the gun that was burning Clownfish’s skin, but Clownfish suddenly trembled, hugging the gun even tighter. He looked up at Bai Chunian in a panic. He was practically displaying a stress response; feeling nervous without the gun in his hands.

The Alliance Medical Association doctors survived the catastrophe, quickly opening their medical boxes to examine Firefly and Clownfish.

The atmosphere was a little silent. There were two high-level alphas’ soothing pheromones floating in the air.

Bai Chunian squatted on the ground and dismantled the belt hanging on him. He counted enough bullets and pushed them towards the two little omegas, revealing his canines. “Use them sparingly, don’t think bullets are free.”

Han Xingqian slowly sat down and rested with one leg bent against the wall. His restoration ability also used up his glands. 

Firefly quietly moved away from Dr. Han, sat facing the corner with his knees tucked in and his forehead against the wall. There was nothing more humiliating than one’s own protector being a high-level alpha. If there was, then that would be pretending to still be very strong in front of him.

“It unexpectedly became new. However, the amount of bullets didn’t increase…” Clownfish finally calmed down and looked at his gun. He muttered to himself, “What a powerful J1 ability, but it’s a pity that it’s only a J1 ability…”

Everyone’s glands had the opportunity to differentiate again after the first time. In other words, advancing from J1 differentiation to M2 differentiation, and even A3 differentiation. Every time the glands differentiated, it was bound to produce a differentiation ability along with it. Furthermore, as the grade increased, the power increased exponentially.

Pegasus gland’s J1 ability, “Strength Reset,” could revitalize the stamina, energy, and equipment integrity of the targets within its range to its original state. However, because it was a J1 ability, it was very limited. The durability limit would be changed to half of the original after each restoration. In other words, if a shotgun had a service life of 1000 rounds(i.e. the gun is scrapped after 1000 rounds of shotshells are fired), after going through Pegasus gland’s restoration, its performance would be completely restored to a new state, but now, its service life would become 500 rounds(i.e. the gun would be scrapped after 500 rounds of shotshells are fired). After it was restored to a new state once again, the gun’s service life became 250 rounds, and so on. Strength Reset could be used infinitely, but for a shotgun with a service life of 1000 rounds, it only needed nine consecutive restorations to make the gun completely useless. 

Also, the restoration won’t be limited by the state of the shotgun at the time. Even if only one shot was fired with the brand new shotgun, through Pegasus’s restoration reset, the shotgun service life would still be half of the original.

The same was true for the restoration of living beings. If a person ran for 30 minutes, he would feel extremely exhausted. After one restoration, they would immediately be full of energy. But after only 15 minutes of running of the same intensity, they would feel completely drained. This state would continue until the person was fully rested.

This was exactly why it was such a pity. If Strength Reset emerged during M2 differentiation, then it surely could restore equipment and strength without any side effects.

“What do you know?” Bai Chunian casted a mocking glance at Clownfish. 

Samael’s circular ring chased from the corridors and toward them. Bai Chunian pulled off the Nova shotgun from Clownfish’s back and fired at the flying ring. The ring was fully pierced with small holes by the shotshell and broke instantly.

They couldn’t stay here for too long. Bai Chunian stood up and walked ahead with the Nova in his hand to open up a path. After all, many of the doctors following them were physically weak. The top priority was to evacuate the doctors from Enxi Hospital, while the matter of looking for Lin Deng should be put aside for the time being.

A roar of propellers from afar came closer. Through the closed glass windows in the building, two armed helicopters could be seen approaching in the distance. The exterior was painted with a striking orange PBBw Storm Forces number. The helicopter gradually approached Enxi Hospital and dropped two hanging ladders.

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He Wenxiao: “Silver Wolf, roger. I have occupied the high grounds of the high-rise rooftops in the R&D area, over.”

He Wenyi: “Snow Wolf, roger. I am currently strengthening the communication signal, over.”

They broke the blocking device with the military airborne precision instrument and Bai Chunian’s communicator responded.

After the communication was connected, Bai Chunian led the others to the rooftop while asking He Suowei, “How cool! What wolf are you, Captain He?” 

He Suowei said seriously, “Report your location and the number of hostages.”

Bai Chunian: “There are ten members of the Alliance Medical Association next to me. There are also two other trainees in the building protecting the medical staff of Enxi Hospital. I can’t get in touch with them right now. Since you’re up so high, quickly help me find them.”

The voice in the communicator was a little noisy. He Suowei issued a search order and brought a group of Storm Special Forces to quickly descend with a zipline. A team who were heavily armed and wearing gas masks quickly landed on the rooftop.

Bai Chunian raised the muzzle and shot at a ring. He warned He Suowei, “Samael’s M2 ability is ring tossing. If you get caught in it, you’ll be infected. If you get caught again, you’ll go crazy and bite indiscriminately. Be careful.” 

After understanding the situation, He Suowei warned the rear team members with gestures.

The 19th floor where they were located was very close to the rooftop. Bai Chunian had Han Xingqian take the doctors through the security door to the rooftop to meet with the PBB and evacuate. He took Firefly and Clownfish downstairs to find the medical staff of Enxi Hospital protected by the other two special trainees according to the location received through the communicator.

Bai Chunian walked in front with the Nova shotgun. Firefly and Clownfish followed behind from the left and right, forming a triangular formation so that they could keep an eye out in all directions at all times.

They checked floor by floor and found fresh blood on the 7th floor of the building. Blood dripped throughout the way. 

When they turned the corner of the corridors, they saw the doctors at the end of the path. They were strangely covering their mouths and were all nervously sitting in the corner. Some were crying silently; forcing themselves to cover their mouths, not daring to make even a single sound.

The mongoose alpha stood in front of the doctors, holding a nearly scrapped AK47 in his hands. Due to continuous usage, the rifling was worn out.

His complexion was grave. Even though he saw Bai Chunian, only a split-second comfort was revealed in his eyes.

He didn’t dare move. 

Everyone didn’t dare move.

In front of them, the Nile crocodile alpha’s arm was tied with a strip of cloth torn from his clothes to stop the bleeding, and the blood from the wound soaked through his shirt. He was calmly leaning against the wall to reload the AK, one round, two rounds, three rounds…

His eyes were severely congested and abnormally red, and his pupils had become very small.

Firefly and Clownfish immediately understood—Nile crocodile had been bitten and was already infected with the Looping Virus. The incubation period was over, so he was showing symptoms of being in the early stage of infection. 

Bai Chunian quietly approached Nile crocodile.

In the early stage of infection of the Looping Virus, he would repeat something he did when he was still alive. When he realized that what he was doing was different from earlier, he would enter the late stage of infection and die in the late stage of infection.

But what if he didn’t realize it?

Bai Chunian quietly approached from the blind spot of Nile crocodile’s view and slowly raised his hand from behind Nile crocodile. As long as Bai Chunian could knock him out, he would never realize that what he had just done was different from before, so he would have a chance to find a way to rescue him. 

Bai Chunian’s movements were extremely gentle and unhurried. It didn’t bring about even a tiny bit of airflow.

Just as he was about to make Nile crocodile faint, a colorful ring flew from the air and hit his back. Bai Chunian instinctively turned sideways to dodge, but the ring suddenly changed its target—it turned at a right angle and went straight towards Nile crocodile.

The last shred of pupils in Nile crocodile’s eyes faded and was filled with a bloody red. The corners of his mouth stretched up, revealing a clown’s smile.

Bang! A decisive gunshot sounded, and a scorched hole appeared between Nile crocodile’s eyebrows. The bullet passed through his head, splattering a large amount of blood on the wall. 

Bai Chunian held the gun in his left hand, the muzzle between Nile crocodile’s eyebrows. There was no shaking or hesitation in his movements, the smiling expression in his eyes disappeared, and his whole body exuded coldness.

Firefly covered his mouth and slowly slumped to the ground.

“You guys take the doctors away.” Bai Chunian put away the gun.

Firefly and Mongoose wanted to take their classmate’s corpse with them, but Bai Chunian stopped them in a low voice, “He has been infected, he can’t be taken out.” 

The three trainees dragged their heavy footsteps to evacuate the medical staff from Enxi Hospital to the rooftop, leaving only a lonely rotting corpse on the ground, wearing the bulletproof vest of the IOA special training base.

The hospital became empty and quiet. A long echo of footsteps falling on the floor would also be heard. Bai Chunian sat beside the corpse that was rapidly decaying until he could not make out its appearance anymore. He lit a cig and rested.

After smoking, Bai Chunian put his hand on Nile crocodile’s rotting smiley face, and suddenly, the body disappeared.

Along with the pus and blood spots that came out of his body, it evaporated silently, leaving only some dust and footprints on the clean ground. The corpse of Nile crocodile seemed to have never existed. 

Bai Chunian bowed and picked up a marble from the place where the corpse disappeared, then put it in his pocket.

The inside of Enxi Hospital was filled with a strong and pungent high-level pheromone, but all the living people were evacuated, and no one was subjected to this violent oppression.

Bai Chunian took out his phone from his pocket and asked the crawler omega according to the agreed contact info, “Where is Samael?”

Crawler: “My surveillance shows that he took Dr. Lin Deng into the underground garage. He’s probably planning to take the hostage and drive away.” 

Crawler: “I prepared a sports car for you. It’s in the underground garage.”

Crawler: “I remotely decoded all the code doors in the building. Follow the route I tell you to get to the underground garage in under a minute.”

Bai Chunian got up, put his hands in his pants pockets, walked slowly to the window, and raised his foot to give it a light kick.

The wall suddenly cracked and collapsed, making a loud banging sound. The thick brick wall and twisted apart steel bars exposed the outside. 

There was a huge gap in the outer wall of the building. Bai Chunian slowly jumped down, his toes lightly stepped on the awnings and small balconies to cushion force. It took ten seconds to land in front of the garage entrance.

A large number of infected patients poured out through the breached gap. Like a swarm of bees chasing food, they crowded together and madly rushed towards the city. Four heavy machine guns carried by helicopters fire at the infected patients, the rotten smell and reeking blood permeating the air.

A brand new armored sedan prepared by Crawler awaited him with the door swung open.

The screen next to the steering wheel showed the route navigation sent by Crawler. Two red dots were displayed in the navigation; one represented Samael’s car, and the other represented Bai Chunian’s car. There was already a considerable gap between the two cars. 

Bai Chunian got in the car and closed the door. He started the car, stepped on the pedal, and the sedan rushed out of the garage with a low, long roar. He picked up the communicator, “Captain He, 408 is already on the city’s roadway. Help me clear the way, I’m chasing him right now.”

He Suowei was near the helicopter, so his voice seemed very noisy and shrill, “By yourself? Do you have any weapons?”

“Stop nagging.” Bai Chunian raised the corner of his lips, “I won’t take the credit for it. Once I catch 408, whether he lives or dies is up to you guys.”

The black sedan rushed out of the garage and slammed into the crowd of infected patients who were biting hysterically. The blood outside the car window flashed by, turning into mottled and dirty patches due to the extremely fast speed. The speedometer was approaching its limit, and the black sedan was like a lightning bolt on the highway. 

The citizens of Enxi City had already evacuated, and many of the citizens’ cars were parked on the highway. Bai Chunian was driving straight out of the way. Following the position on the navigation, the shadow of the red car speeding ahead came into sight.

The armored vehicles of the PBB military received orders to start clearing obstacles at various intersections. After confirming that Samael was sitting in the red car speeding ahead, Bai Chunian leaned out half of his body in the fast-moving car and fired with his left hand, shooting intermittently at the rear wheels of the red car. Two bullets bursted Samael’s car tires. Bai Chunian then immediately pulled back his body into the driver’s seat to maintain the speed and balance.

The rear tires of the red car burst and almost overturned. In the middle of the road, the car took two sharp turns and continued to rush towards the river bridge.

The opposite side of the bridge was very close to the border of a nearby city. Without a cross-city approval, the military couldn’t enter the area of the nearby city at will. It was too late to apply to the higher-ups now, so they must detain Samael in Enxi City by all means necessary. 

Samael also leaned half-way out the window. He was dressed the same as the one on the projection—wearing an exaggerated red and gold striped plastic clown costume, an exaggerated smiley mask, and a red ball on the tip of his nose that was both comical and weird.

He provocatively waved at Bai Chunian. A red and white ring gradually emerged from the top of the red car he was in. The number of rings changed from one to two, and from two to four. The number of rings kept increasing and were flying towards Bai Chunian’s sedan.

Bai Chunian calmly turned the steering wheel, the tires rubbed against the ground and made a screeching noise, and the S-shaped drift dodged the rings that came at him. He pressed the button that opened the sunroof, picked up the rifle in the car, stood up from inside the sunroof, and fired at the red car in front.

PBB took the lead in getting permission to close the river bridge. They did whatever it took to trap Samael within the city. The river bridge was cut off from the center, raised up separately, and the slope of the bridge where the two cars were located was getting steeper and steeper. 

But even if the bridge was cut off in the middle, Samael had no intention of slowing down. He even went at the highest speed and flew out at the edge of the separated bridge, trying to rush across the bridge by relying on inertial motion.

Bai Chunian furrowed his eyebrows while holding the steering wheel. “God, bestow me with something that can knock this bastard down. When Laozi goes back, I will eat vegetarian food for three days.”

The river water surged, the sky quickly accumulated turbid clouds, and thunder and lightning meandered in the dark clouds. An electric current suddenly came from afar, and a fish-shaped creature was partly visible in the water. The bewitching sound of the giant beast in the sea was drawn-out and ethereal.

Suddenly, a merman whose tail was full of electricity burst through the river. He jumped out of the river and stopped in the air, at the same height as the red car flying over the bridge. 

The river water gathered in Rimbaud’s hand, the water solidifying into extremely hard hydrated steel. It formed into a transparent bazooka, and he carried it on his shoulder. The gale swept across the river surface, and the surging waves were compressed into two round water bombs in the bazooka on Rimbaud’s shoulder. The water bombs were fired one after another, locking onto and hitting the red car where Samael was in.

The two round water bombs hit the body of the car in succession. The water that had been forcibly compressed in the water bombs exploded, which was equivalent to all the energy from the surging waves stirred up by the storm on the river surface being blasted on the sedan.

It was like the sedan was being grasped in the large palm of a sea demon and being dragged into the bottom of the river by the act of God. It plunged deeply into the silt, sinking a few meters into the ground. The river once again surged, and a huge circle of houses on the riverside dock were directly engulfed and washed away.

Manta Ray’s M2 differentiation ability, “High- Explosive Water Bomb”: Does not cause any direct damage, but will blast off everything regardless of grade.