Chapter 130 – Mutants

“Are you really just going to leave her out there?” Chu Yi didn’t like Ju Xinlan, but he was a good guy at heart and started looking worriedly at the glass door.

Kano Mai rolled her eyes and said, “Don’t worry, I just want to scare her. You and Jin don’t really mind how she just goes off like that, but kindness is very precious in a Handbook Challenge and cannot be wasted on those who don’t cherish it.”

“Actually, I really don’t mind her. Everybody who becomes a Handbook owner for the first time would definitely feel fearful, so it’s only normal for one to behave crazy,” said Chu Yi as he scratched his head. He remembered the way he had behaved when he went through his very first Challenge. If not for Su Jin, he’d be dead by now.

Kano Mai shook her head and just laughed. “You really don’t have to be so worried. I saw that Jin is more or less done with all the zombies, so none of them would be able to get close enough to her to hurt her. I just wanted to teach her a lesson.”

The other newbies had been really frightened by Kano Mai as well, since she had flared up so suddenly and done something so extreme. They were a little relieved to hear that Kano Mai wasn’t as cruel as they thought her to be, but they also realized that she was the team member whom they had to be most careful around.

They were a lot more relaxed when it came to Chu Yi. This cheerful boy seemed to be genuinely kind hearted. Even though Ju Xinlan had been so unreasonable and insulted him, he hadn’t taken it to heart. They weren’t sure if they would have been as magnanimous as Chu Yi if they were in his shoes.

Meanwhile, Ju Xinlan was still wailing and shrieking outside the supermarket. If the group couldn’t see her, they might have thought that some zombie was tearing her to pieces. But actually, she was curled into a ball, leaning against the glass door desperately and just screaming away with her eyes closed.

“Is she stupid or something? Her screaming is as good as announcing to all the zombies that there’s food right here,” grumbled Zhang Lei. Her screams were really grating his ears.

Kano Mai seemed very annoyed by her screaming as well, so she got up to get Ju Xinlan back in. But just as she got up, a black shadow suddenly came flying towards her.

“Watch out!” Chu Yi called out. He swung his metal bat so quickly in front of Kano Mai that it resembled a wall rather than a bat.

The shadow was flying very quickly, but Chu Yi’s bat was just as fast. After his bat blocked the shadow’s initial attack, he flicked his wrist and sent the bat flying out.

Bang! The metal bat hit the shadow, but the shadow was not stunned by the attack. It nimbly used the force from the collision to fly further back.

Kano Mai had been startled for a second, but quickly realized what just happened. She dropped to the floor and slid across the floor, reaching the shadow in an instant.

“HA!” Kano Mai used a Japanese swordfighting technique, wielding her vegetable knife like a samurai. Her knife glinted like a real sword that had just been unsheathed.

Clang! The shadow couldn’t dodge her attack in time, but it was still too fast and managed to avoid getting killed. It merely lost a limb.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Kano Mai’s attack gave Chu Yi time to get ready to counterattack. Immediately after Kano Mai’s knife had sliced through its limb, Chu Yi stood in the shadow’s way.

“Ha!” Chu Yi let out a low shout and slammed the shadow with this palm. This time, the attack hit the shadow straight on, so it yelped as it flew straight into the wall.

Everything had happened in no more than three seconds. The fight was over even before the newbies knew what was going on.

“Sister Mai, are you alright?” Chu Yi exhaled deeply. If he hadn’t been watching the surroundings all this time, that shadow might have taken Kano Mai down with that sneak attack.

Kano Mai was also frightened by the thought of what could have happened. The rest of them came over and they were all shocked when they looked at the unconscious shadow on the floor. It turned out to be a child.

“That’s not a child. What is this thing?” Kano Mai frowned. This zombie was extremely skinny and looked like a child, but upon closer inspection, this thing’s limbs were shorter than usual, but broader than normal. Its head size was also too large for a child.

“Is this a Level 2 mutant?” said Chu Yi. Kano Mai nodded. Based on its speed, it was definitely more powerful than the ones they had seen so far. It made sense that this was a higher level mutant.

“This was the thing that attacked the Boss just now, right?” Chu Yi took a second look. This thing was about the same size as the one that attacked Su Jin earlier, so it was probably the same creature.

Kano Mai wasn’t so quick to jump to a conclusion. She said cautiously, “It’s probably the same type of creature, but it might not be the exact same one. We’ve all got to be careful.”

After that, she went to open the glass door and dragged the inconsolable Ju Xinlan back in. Ju Xinlan was shaking violently from fear. Su Jin had killed off all the zombies just outside the supermarket, but while there were no live zombies coming after her, sitting in a pile of zombie limbs was still terrifying.

“Shut up, or I’ll throw you out again,” Kano Mai threatened her. These words did the trick. Ju Xinlan used both hands to cover her mouth and she stared at Kano Mai with terror in her eyes.

Meanwhile, Chu Yi looked around to see where the shadow mutant could have come from and was able to trace its tracks back to an opening in the floor.

“Is that a basement?” Chu Yi cautiously looked into the basement and gasped silently. He slowly backed away from the opening, then walked back to the group standing at the glass door and whispered, “Run! We’ve got to get out of this place now!”

“Huh?” Everyone was confused and didn’t hear him clearly.

“There’s a basement of sorts further in and it’s full of the same mutants as the one just now! They’re…they’re coming out!” Chu Yi flung the glass door open and said in an urgent voice, “We need to run now!”

Immediately after he finished saying that, the sound of something pouring out came from the opening in the floor as those children like mutants rushed out from the basement.

Kano Mai picked up Ju Xinlan and ran out. Ju Xinlan was noisy and irritating, but Kano Mai didn’t really want to leave her to die either. All of them dashed out of the supermarket, but they had no idea where Su Jin had gone. They took a quick look around them but couldn’t find him.

“AHHH!” Ju Xinlan was terrified and started screaming again. As she screamed, the noise from inside the supermarket increased, and countless mutants came spraying out from the glass door of the supermarket.

“Shut up!” Kano Mai hissed. When she saw that saying that was useless, she struck her palm against the screaming woman’s neck and knocked her out.

“The mutants were attracted to her screaming. They were resting in the basement, but her screaming was too loud and it woke all of them up.” Chen Duo was a timid girl, but she could analyze the situation quite clearly.

The group couldn’t really move very quickly as their backpacks slowed them down. Zhang Lei and Shen Hongjiang were really struggling because they weren’t as strong as Kano Mai and Chu Yi. They could keep up at first, but they started lagging behind after some time.

“Just throw the backpacks away! Staying alive is more important!” said Chu Yi anxiously.

The two men left the backpacks behind and were able to run more quickly now, but the problem was that the mutants were just too fast. They could catch up with them in seconds.

“Where is Boss?! We’re going to die at this rate!” Chu Yi slowed down to use his metal bat to bash the mutants that were about to pounce on the newbies.

Just then, their expressions fell as they looked in despair at what was in front of them. Another group of mutants were blocking their way from the other side. These things were not entirely without any intelligence.

“We’re doomed!” Even Chu Yi despaired at this situation. They either needed their Spirit Power back, or they needed Su Jin to appear. There was no way the two old timers could protect everyone.

The mutants surrounding them started making weird noises, as if they were guests at a banquet getting ready to eat by saying a prayer first.

Boom! All of a sudden, there was an explosion as a bomb killed a large group of the mutants blocking their way. The group was stunned and didn’t know who was helping them.

“This way! Hurry up! We don’t have much time!” Some men in special combat uniforms shouted at the group as they waved their arms.

Nobody knew where these men were from, but they were clearly more friend than foe. Kano Mai and Chu Yi exchanged glances, and made a decision on the spot. Staying alive was their priority.

The group started moving towards the men while trying to watch out for any mutants trying to attack them. The men also helped by throwing bombs to kill off most of the mutants.

A few minutes later, the group finally reached where the men were. The men didn’t explain themselves and just motioned to the group to follow them.

The group didn’t have any choice. There were still many mutants coming after them and they had to find a safe place to hide.

They followed the men round the city for a while before arriving at a library. The library was fairly rundown and it was surrounded by some simple barriers.

“This place is safe, so you can go in and have some food and take a rest,” said one of the men to the group.

Chu Yi said, “I’m sorry but we don’t want to go in. We’ve got another companion out there and we would like to look for him.”

“There’s another survivor?” The man was surprised.

Chu Yi nodded. The man said without hesitation, “In that case, let me go with your group. My mission is to search the city for survivors.”

Kano Mai broke her silence, “I’m sorry, but who are you people? Are you from the government? Or some other organization?”

“We’re the messiah of this world, the last hope that this apocalyptic world has,” said the man with a gentle smile.

Kano Mai became even more wary. As far as her own experiences went, none of those who said they were a messiah of sorts turned out to be anything good.