Chapter 41

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Qi Wu stared at the patterns on the soft-bodied creatures for several seconds. Although the color of their bodies was gradually fading, he still felt dazed and dizzy.

It was as if a cold finger had reached into his skull and was gently stirring his thoughts, interfering with his ability to perceive.

His brain was trying to tell him that what he was seeing was merely a flat bedsheet, not two soft, black-and-red corpses.

Qi Wu was familiar with this sensation.

He also knew exactly what it meant.

When he had still been weak, he had used the same method to deceive the Head-Carrying Woman who had been pursuing them.

It was an instinct for survival that had surfaced without any instruction whatsoever—a form of innate mimicry.

Although the soft-bodied creatures growing atop the bones looked quite feeble, Qi Wu could sense that they shared the same origin as he did. Or rather, they were a kind of most primitive, most fundamental “monster.” And perhaps precisely because they possessed no other means of attack, these “sea anemones” were extraordinarily adept at camouflage. They could even conceal the stench of the corpses through their own propagation, while the patterns on their bodies nearly perfectly disrupted the visual perception of anyone who saw them.

If the distorted shape of the perfume bottle had not disrupted the integrity of those patterns when reflecting the scene, Qi Wu might never have discovered that two corpses were lying on the bed just beyond the wall.

This discovery, wholly outside his plans, made his heartbeat quicken.

A sense of agitation rose within him.

The clothes on the corpses had long since been soaked through with bodily fluids, but Qi Wu could tell that the dead were two middle-aged humans, one man and one woman.

The sizes of their clothes were exactly the same as those of the garments left in the wardrobe.

These were Xie Xishu’s parents.

Qi Wu was certain of it.

In his mind appeared the face Xie Xishu had worn earlier when mentioning that his parents were still abroad—a face filled with relief and lingering fear.

The corpses had decayed severely. Moreover, there were no signs that any other monsters had invaded this place. Qi Wu even wondered whether they might have died before the mutation began.

No. Impossible. If that had been the case, Xie Xishu could never have remained completely unaware.

Did Xie Xishu know that his parents were dead?

And should he tell the boy this horrifying news?

…

Countless thoughts slid chaotically through Qi Wu’s mind, leaving him confused and bewildered.

After his mutation, he had long since lost his fear of corpses. Yet these two people on the bed filled him with dread. Somewhere deep inside, he felt that he had glimpsed something unusual—some truth that was far from pleasant.

But when he tried to describe precisely where that strange unease came from, he found himself unable to put it into words.

Qi Wu could not help leaning forward slightly, trying to see the bodies of the Xie couple more clearly.

Then he saw the mobile phone submerged in the corpse fluid.

At first, the dead had probably been holding the phone between their overlapping hands. But now, because the bodies had decayed so badly, the phone had fallen inside one of the skeletons and was covered in half-dissolved viscera.

When Qi Wu pulled it out, he had no hope whatsoever that it would still power on.

He merely used the bedsheet to roughly wipe away the unidentified slime clinging to it, then tentatively pressed the power button.

To his complete surprise, the phone’s screen actually lit up.

After going black several times, the phone finally managed to stabilize. Qi Wu discovered that every application and file within it had been wiped clean. Only one conspicuous video recording remained on the home screen.

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Qi Wu hesitated for a moment before carefully tapping it open.

The screen flickered several times. Then a woman appeared.

Xie Xishu had unquestionably inherited that woman’s delicate features. Even though she had a child already attending high school, there was no denying that she was still beautiful.

And yet, in the video, there was something indescribably strange about her.

Her eyes were deeply sunken in their sockets, but her pupils shone with an unnatural brightness. A vein in her neck throbbed violently as she spoke. She appeared so agitated and feverishly excited that, at first, Qi Wu failed to realize he was watching the woman’s final testament.

“We made a mistake.”

“A terrible mistake.”

Those were the woman’s first words to the camera.

“It began with the extinction of countless forms of life. Plants, animals, even insects were disappearing from the earth every day at an astonishing rate. Then came ocean pollution, nuclear wastewater, chemical agents, microplastics… All of these things kept entering the ocean and disrupting the marine water cycle. Changes in the oceans destabilized temperatures, and extreme weather broke records year after year…”

“From the age of fifteen onward, the global warning systems never stopped issuing alerts. Based on the meteorological and biological data transmitted continuously from around the world, almost every major artificial-intelligence system reached the same conclusion: within the next thirty years, humanity would face an irreversible population extinction.”

At this point, the woman drew a deep breath.

“I couldn’t accept it,” she murmured.

“I couldn’t accept that my child would one day die in agony during a food crisis or a climate disaster. I couldn’t bear to watch a sentient species as intelligent as humanity vanish soundlessly into the river of history. So when my husband discovered that highly radioactive, low-temperature molten matter rising from the depths of the earth, we chose to use it—to win a chance of survival for humanity, and for my child.”

“Once exposed to that molten matter, mammals undergo an extremely pronounced evolution. They become more vigorous and develop far stronger vitality. Their rates of nutrient absorption and digestion rise to astonishing levels…”

“This evolutionary path would be humanity’s only hope of surviving the extreme natural environment of the future.”

As she spoke, the woman clutched a handful of her hair. Yet while describing the various benefits of the so-called subterranean molten matter, she showed no excitement whatsoever.

Instead, a trace of fear appeared upon her pale, nervous face.

“At least, that was what we believed at the time,” the woman rasped.

“My colleagues and I worked for many years. We conducted countless experiments, and eventually determined the safest irradiation frequency.”

“My child, Xie Xishu, was on the verge of death because of a genetic disease. To keep him alive, my husband and I were the first to use that substance on him. At first, the results were wonderful. Truly wonderful. That child escaped the Reaper’s scythe through the strength of his own life force. He became so lively, so cheerful. So adorable.”

“…But he was no longer my child.”

The woman whispered hoarsely, one word at a time.

“It was only then that I suddenly realized we had been deceived. The ‘thing’ that crawled down from the hospital bed was not human at all, just as the so-called molten matter from the earth’s core was not ordinary lava…”

“It was an entirely new and unknown form of life. It was too cunning, too devious. It had been imprisoned deep within the earth for so long, only for us foolish humans to bring it to the surface. We allowed it to grow and spread wherever we could not see, and then allowed it to gradually occupy my child’s body, disguising itself as a human being.”

“I don’t know who you are, whoever is watching this video. Perhaps the world you live in has already been destroyed. Perhaps you have merely come to investigate my death. Either way, I must warn you: do not trust it.”

“That thing… can distort perception and memory, as well as the human will.”

“How ridiculous.” The woman’s expression gradually twisted. She repeatedly pressed her temples, doing so with such force that even the whites of her eyes began to redden. “My husband and I both knew that child was not truly ours, yet we still couldn’t stop ourselves from wanting to love him, raise him, and provide him with everything he needed.”

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“I cannot harm it, even though I know it will bring utter destruction upon all humanity.”

“According to my calculations, I can say with certainty that the creature will soon enter its species’ breeding season. It is in heat. I know it. I can feel the change. It is more dangerous than before. In order to expand its range of potential mates, it will transform every human being on earth into one of those… disgusting… deranged monsters… It will… It definitely will…”

“If you don’t believe me, look at me.”

The woman gave a bitter laugh and raised her face toward the camera.

Her once-delicate features were now covered in horrendous裂?

Her once-delicate features were now covered in fissures.

Each fissure held a blood-red eyeball, writhing and twitching.

Qi Wu had already grown accustomed to the grotesque forms monsters could take, yet even so, his heart tightened when he looked at the phone’s screen.

“It wants me to pay more attention to it. Heh…” As she spoke, the woman rolled the dozens of eyes embedded in her face, chittering softly. Her voice drifted between laughter and sobbing. “It wants me to look at him more, and then I became like this.”

“How terrifying. And yet I even feel that perhaps it doesn’t matter. My reason is being distorted. I am… I am turning into a monster.”

“I don’t know how much longer I can hold on, but I want to leave this world as a human being, while I still possess this tiny fragment… this tiny fragment of human will.”

“The world I knew is about to be destroyed. How absurd. In an attempt to save humanity, my husband, my colleagues, and I opened Pandora’s box together—and brought the life of the human species to a complete end.”

“I don’t want this…”

At that moment, the sound of a door opening came from the video.

A man’s voice followed.

“Darling, what are you doing? Didn’t the doctor say you need to rest? I noticed you haven’t taken your anti-anxiety medication these past few days…”

His voice suddenly stopped.

Then came a heart-rending scream.

The woman’s head swayed slightly before she stared fixedly in the direction from which the man had appeared.

Her expression grew somewhat dazed. After standing motionless for several seconds, she staggered to her feet.

“I’m recording a video. I’m documenting the crimes we committed.”

“Shh—shh—don’t be afraid, darling. It’s me. Shall we go together? Together, we can atone for our sins.”

…

The phone’s stand shook and then toppled over.

The screen immediately went black, but the video continued to record faithfully the sounds echoing through the room at that time: a man’s shrill screams and desperate struggles, along with a woman’s tuneless, incoherent muttering.

At last came a wet, horrifying sound—the sound of flesh, skin, and sinew being violently torn apart.

Some time later, someone picked up the phone again.

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