Chapter 3

The aurora cast a green luster on the ground. This reflected off the man’s dark skin, forming a strange dark green that was like the skin of a lizard or a toad. Finally, the man said, “We aren’t judges. We can’t confirm that he is 100% human.”

“You say.” Horsen folded his arms and dragged his words out for a long time. “The pollution level of the Second Plains is only two stars.”

The dark-skinned man was silent again as he said, “The average variation time of the Second Plains is four hours. It takes four hours.”

“Okay.” Horsen declared. “We will pack up the spoils. If he doesn’t change during that time, we’ll take him with us.”

The dark-skinned man finally nodded. The three of them glanced at each other and seemed to agree.

“My name is Vance.” The tall man in the middle turned to An Zhe, introducing himself.

An Zhe greeted him. “Hello.”

“Horsen.” There was a bit of annoyance on his face.

The remaining dark-skinned man was silent for a long time before spitting out a few syllables. “Anthony.”

An Zhe also greeted him and said, “Thank you.”

“No need for thanks.” Vance smile. “We are all fellow humans. We just had a teammate die and we’re short of manpower.”

After that, he went to the head of the monster and commanded the rest of the humans. “Pack up the body and leave quickly.”

Then Vance took out a pair of gloves and a long dagger from his backpack and threw them at An Zhe. “You go and cut off the legs.”

An Zhe caught them and gave a reply. Then he took a dozen steps forward and stopped beside the half of the monster’s body. He put on the gloves and started to observe the body.

The arthropod was large in size and the shell itself was smooth. However, there were some long, sharp burrs and protruding tubercles. He looked down at the monster’s legs. There were six legs, thin and long. They were divided into three seconds and covered with dense, black and glossy hair.

On the other side, Vance and Anthony dealt with the monster’s head. They removed the shell off its head, letting the brain and other fluids flow out before scraping the inside. Horsen stood guard on the perimetre.

Thus, An Zhe held the dagger and concentrate on cutting the monster’s join. After five minutes, one joint was cut and one leg was separated from the monster’s body, falling to the ground. At the cutting site, white and viscous liquid that was like brain fluids slowly infiltrated the yellow sand.

He heard Horsen’s teasing voice. “Baby, don’t be so disgusted that you vomit.”

An Zhe was unresponsive and quietly continued to cut the next joint. He didn’t have any feelings for the monster. He even felt that it was much cleaner than the beasts that lived in the Abyss.

However, Horsen didn’t want to let him go. Footsteps were heard behind him as Horsen walked over, right hand on An Zhe’s shoulder, fingers caressing the shoulder.”Baby, how old are you this year?”

An Zhe heard a type of greed from this tone. It was the greed of beasts in the face of food. It was just that based on his limited cognition, humans didn’t feed on the same kind. Therefore, he answered calmly, “19 years old.”

An Ze was 19 years old. Since he ate An Ze’sgenes, he was probably 19.

“You look like you’re only 17.” Horsen’s laughter came from his chest and his hoarse voice was sharp and pointed.

An Zhe frowned and didn’t know how to answer.

“Horsen.” At this moment, Vance’s voice came from not far away. “Concentrate on guard duty.”

Horsen snorted and squeezed An Zhe’s shoulder before walking away.

An Ze once again realized that each individual human might have different characters. For example, An Ze was different from the humans who took away his spore while Vance was different from Horsen. An Zhe was very grateful to Vance.

He bowed his head to continue cutting the joints. Each level was divided into three seconds and after cutting them, he neatly placed them in a pile. The shell gave off a metallic luster and was as hard as stone. Once stacked together, they made clear impact sounds.

By the time all six legs were dismantled, Vance and Anthony had also completed the dismantling of the head and came to the other half of the body. Vance glanced at the neat pile of legs on the ground and smiled. “You are quite serious.”

Then he said to Horsen, “You drive the car over there.”

Horsen didn’t speak. He just turned and walked away. An Zhe stood to one side and watched Vance and Anthony take on the monster’s chest and abdomen. He asked, “Can I help you?”

Vance spoke as he used gloves and held a long pliers the size of a human leg. “You haven’t come outside much, have you?”

An Zhe replied, “…En.”

“Just stay there.” Vance used the pliers to pry open the shell over the connection between the monster’s chest and abdomen. The edge of the shell was irregular and there were sharp black thorns at the connection to other shell pieces that flashed with a grey light. “There are many thorns and those with no experience can easily be contaminated,” Vance explained. “The pollution level of the Second Plains isn’t high and there is the possibility of infection.”

An Zhe obediently stepped back and watched them dismantle the corpse. One black shell after another was opened. The viscera and body tissues flowed all over the ground.

He was watching when there was a dull rumbling sound. An Zhe looked to the right and saw a black, rectangular armoured vehicle like a huge crustacean monster. He knew this very well. There were five armoured vehicles in An Ze’s former team. The car got close and Horsen jumped out of it. Vance didn’t raise his head as he said, “Help him carry the things into the car first.”

An Zhe hummed in agreement and picked up the pieces on the ground. Then she carefully tied them together with ropes and handed them to Horsen. Horsen took them and placed them in the storage room of the armoured vehicle.

The huge monster became smaller and smaller and more shells were picked up by An Zhe. He was tying up a stack of shells with rope when his movements suddenly stopped. At this moment, the sharp piece of shell under his hand—the spiky tips on the surface had several condensed liquid drops They were dark and hard to find without careful inspection.

He looked down at the stains on the ground and confirmed that all the liquid in the monster’s body was white, yellow or transparent. What were these dark liquid drops? He remembered the blood that came out of An Ze’s body before he died.

An Zhe turned to look at Vance and Anthony. Both of them were intent on dismantling the body, looking calm as usual. Thus, An Zhe acted as nothing happened and lowered his head, continuing to tie up the parts.

After a long time, the dismantling finally finished. The three people seemed convinced that An Zhe wouldn’t suddenly become a deadly monster.

“Get in the car and return to the base.” Vance ordered. “An Zhe, you come too.”

An armoured vehicle could hold seven or eight people. There was room inside to rest and it was simply divided into three compartments. However, each compartment was very low and narrow so people had to bow their heads to walk inside.

An Zhe was arranged in the outermost space with the door to his right side. He lay down on his backpack. Anthony was in the front driving, Vance was next to him and Horsen was in the innermost compartment.

The door was closed and they were plunged into darkness. Only a dim light shone from a small window to the side. After a burst of shaking, the armoured vehicle started slowly driving forward. There were occasionally bumps but not too much.

An Zhe looked at the darkness in front of him and felt like he was floating in a black tide that wrapped around him as he moved to the Northern Base, which he knew nothing about. He was surrounded by a slight bewilderment and was dazed as he sat quietly in the darkness.

The light from the small window grew stronger and the surroundings were a bit brighter. The car stopped and An Zhe heard Horsen get up. He took three steps and opened the door to get in the cab, going in to replace Anthony. Anthony went back to Horsen’s original position and lay down. He breathed heavily and moved a lot, causing the floor to shake. Then Vance asked loudly, “What’s wrong?” Anthony replied, “I’m a bit tired.”

A long time passed until it was Vance’s turn to replace Horsen. An Zhe instinctively curled up. He knew that Horsen would be sleeping next door to him and was disturbed. There was a delay in the sound of a human lying down next door.

An Zhe opened his eyes wide as he waited. The next moment, there was the rustling sound of footsteps and a man headed straight to him.

“Baby…” Horsen’s voice was low and hoarse. He legs squeezed into An Zhe’s folded legs and his arm went around An Zhe’s shoulder. An Zhe reflectively moved but was pressed to the ground by a greater strength. “Vance, that guy doesn’t know what you do… but I have been with more mercenary teams than he has ever seen.”

An Zhe struggled and gasped a few times. “Please don’t do this.”

“Don’t do it?” Horsen smile. In the dark environment, his smile seemed very fierce.

An Zhe didn’t answer and Horsen released the hand against his shoulder to undo his belt. He seemed very happy that he could hold down An Zhe with one hand. His smile became bigger and his tone was rude and mocking. “Baby, what can you do with this strength? You can’t drive or use heavy weapons. You can only wait to die when meeting monsters? What did your teammates take you out to do? To watch?”

He held An Zhe’s neck as he spoke, leaning close, his stubble against An Zhe’s neck. The acrid smell of smoke drifted over. “I’ve seen many prostitutes like you but this is the first time I’ve seen one so beautiful. What mercenary team were you originally with?”

An Zhe made a sharp gasp as Horsen pressed against him tightly, hot tongue moving over his skin. An Zhe turned his head and coughed from the smell of smoke. His right hand fumbled in the darkness and finally grabbed the dagger that Vance had given to him.

Just then, a huge sound was heard next door from Anthony’s place, like something had been knocked to the ground.

“Don’t worry.” Horsen laughed loudly and called to Anthony, “It can be you in a moment.”

However, his words didn’t seem to have any effect because there was the sound of footsteps coming this way. Horsen cursed and held An Zhe up against the wall, forcibly pulling at An Zhe’s shirt.

An Zhe no longer resisted and gripped his dagger, quietly looking at the dark corridor. White mycelium spread on the ground beside him, as if planning something. The next second, all his movements became still. A monster with a human torso and three pairs of slender legs stretching out behind it walked through the corridor with curled, soft wings, two blood-red compound eyes shining on its head.