Mutants - Chapter 2
Chapter 2: Helmet
It was a Sahr Hyena!
The global climate had changed drastically, as had the land and sea. Certain man-made sources of radiation had spread, and so had biological systems. After the earliest rounds of destruction and the test of survival of the fittest, some species from the past, once irradiated, adapted far better than humans. Thus, new, stronger breeds emerged.
The hyena family gave rise to the Sahr Hyena, unique to the Deep Red Gobi.
When it emerged from the ground, Sui Xin saw smooth, glossy black skin like leather, a slender body, and sharp limbs. Its head was pointed, with a protruding skull that had a metallic texture, its hardness comparable to diamond.
Its head acted like a shovel, allowing it to quickly burrow through the sandy soil towards its destination.
Its digging speed alone couldn't possibly catch up to the vehicle, which could only mean they had been lying in ambush here all along.
It was worth mentioning—Sahr Hyenas could be tamed.
"There are Sahrs, they're coming up!" Sui Xin warned.
The fastest Sahr was incredibly ferocious. After bursting out from the ground beside the speeding vehicle, it leaped onto the tall tire with a single push of its sharp claws. The tire was thick and resilient, but the Sahr's destructive power was formidable. A single swipe of its claws left a gruesome gash. If they were allowed to keep tearing at it, the tire would soon burst!
Snipers were meant for high-altitude and long-range high-damage targets. They were unsuitable for small, agile, close-combat targets like the Sahr Hyenas, and it was a waste of energy. After confirming they were not within the enemy's firing range, Ye Chen decisively lowered the car window.
Whoosh!
A Sahr eagerly abandoned the tire and leaped up.
Bang.
Ye Chen's assault rifle was pressed against its head.
A direct headshot. Blood even splattered onto Sui Xin's side. She subconsciously touched her neck; her fingertips felt a hot, foul stench.
It was similar to the smell of a fish carcass left in a garbage can for two or three days in summer.
Zhang He and the others also chose to shoot these Sahrs at close range. Even so, Sahrs emerged endlessly from the nearby sand.
The seven vehicles provided covering fire from the front and back, controlling the number of Sahrs…
"They're catching up."
"The Sahrs are just a delaying tactic. These bastards, who knows how much rotten human flesh they used to tame and breed so many of them."
"It seems to be the Red Eye Organization from the Deep Red Sector. Damn it, those sick perverts!"
Sui Xin could already see a dozen or so haphazardly modified off-road vehicles speeding towards them in the distance. There were several snipers on the roofs, not all equipped with precious weapons like long-range cannons; most had assault rifles.
Sui Xin couldn't see the situation over there clearly with her naked eye. She fumbled in her backpack and took out a pair of glasses. With the high-magnification assistance of the glasses, she could finally see the people inside the modified vehicles, which were covered in graffiti of various skulls, human limbs, and naked women. Most of them had a fierce appearance, their clothes and hairstyles exuding the malevolence of a ruins-dwelling organization. Some even had eyeballs hanging from their earrings.
The eyeballs were dripping with blood.
The moment she saw the other party, she happened to see that the person was also wearing glasses and seemed to have seen her too. He actually grinned, holding a gun in one hand while raising the other, making a gesture of crossing and bending his fingers at her.
When he smiled, he revealed blackened teeth, coated with some unknown pigment.
Sui Xin's expression changed slightly, and she looked away as if frightened, but just then.
Crash!
A Sahr's ferocious dog head suddenly appeared at the car window, replacing the man's frightening face. It snarled at Sui Xin inside the car, revealing canines an average of five centimeters long beneath the flesh of its upper jaw, while its sharp skull was aimed at the window.
Bang!
It rammed the window once. The window was also made of special material and withstood the blow, but a faint crack appeared.
Once the enemy's firing range closed in, the reconnaissance team wouldn't be able to focus on shooting the Sahrs. They would have to divert their attention to attack the enemy, and inevitably, some Sahrs would continue to attack the tires or windows.
"Damn it, can't you hold a gun and shoot?!"
Zhang He looked down on dead weight like Sui Xin the most. If he were in her position, he would have dared to open the window and shoot…
"No, if I open the window, it will get in."
This consultant was thin, her fingers so slender that it looked like she could collapse just from holding a backpack. She probably couldn't even hold a gun properly. After being scolded, she seemed a bit flustered and retorted.
"Useless! That's why I'm telling you to shoot! What are you looking for?! Don't you have a gun?"
Zhang He and Lin Dan had just started to have a slightly better opinion of this person because her knowledge had proven useful. But as soon as they entered a combat situation, they still loathed non-combat personnel who held them back.
Sui Xin's lips moved, but she still didn't dare to reach for her gun. Zhang He rolled his eyes, forced to divert his attention to wait for the Sahr to break the window before shooting it. In his mind, however, he was thinking it would be best if it just bit her to death. So, he deliberately delayed his timing, while verbally urging her to open a crack in the window. As long as the Sahr lunged for her throat, it would expose its head and the back of its neck to him.
One bullet could accomplish the goal.
Anyway, the enemy had already been exposed, so she was of no use anymore.
However, this soft-looking Consultant Sui wasn't so obedient. She suddenly pulled something out of her backpack.
A sausage?
No, why are you pulling out a sausage at a time like this? To show off your superior standard of living as a mid-level employee of the corporation?
As frontline personnel, the salary provided by the consortium could indeed afford some food, but most people wouldn't be so extravagant. They would always stretch one Alliance Credit to do the work of five. A single sausage was worth one credit, which could buy a nutritional supplement that, when diluted with water, could feed two children for a full day.
But, after this person took out the sausage, she tremblingly tore off the outer wrapper.
Then.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle. The tender red meat rapidly blackened and rotted upon contact with the air, as if a slimy substance was breeding on it. Then, it released a smell.
Holy crap!
It stinks…
The moment this thing came into contact with the air, it oxidized rapidly, releasing a special gas.
The crowd, almost knocked out by the putrid stench, was shocked. Ye Chen glanced over, and before he could say anything, this cabbage-like consultant hastily threw the sausage towards the window—towards Zhang He's side.
She probably wanted to throw it outside, but she was too nervous and her aim was off. It landed near Zhang He, not out of his firing window.
Ye Chen clearly felt the Sahrs outside going into a frenzy. Coupled with the smell and the Sahrs' natural inclination for carrion, he had an epiphany.
"Zhang He, throw it far away!"
Zhang He watched as the incredibly foul-smelling sausage landed on his leg. For a moment, he felt as if a bucket of swill had been overturned on him.
But he immediately grabbed the sausage and hurled it outside!
The major consortiums had strict selection criteria. Combat personnel generally had to have superior physical fitness or talent. The average strength of their personnel was much greater than those rough-and-tumble types outside. Even a loudmouth like Zhang He had astonishing arm strength. He threw the sausage a good thirteen or fourteen meters away.
And he threw it right next to an approaching, ugly enemy off-road vehicle.
Awooo, awooo, awooo.
Dozens of Sahrs charged madly in that direction.
Sui Xin's gaze swept over the mark on Zhang He's pant leg, then moved away without a change in expression, continuing to look weak and pale…
Taking advantage of the enemy's chaos, Ye Chen aimed his gun directly.
The enemy's car windows were not made of bulletproof glass.
Bang!
The enemy driver was shot in the head.
The vehicle flipped over immediately.
And while the Sahrs were densely gathered together, Ye Chen shouted, "Knox!"
Knox immediately aimed his sniper cannon at that vehicle.
He aimed at the fuel tank underneath the overturned vehicle.
Boom!
The vehicle exploded, and the flames engulfed a large number of Sahrs.
"Fuck! This small Tianxi team is even equipped with a pharmacist?"
"Probably not, there's no intel on that."
"Then they must have some kind of drug to deal with the creatures of the Deep Red Sector. Damn it, these big consortiums are so fucking rich!"
The young man with the eyeball hanging from his ear pressed his tongue against his palate and suddenly said, "Maybe they really do have a pharmacist."
He remembered the girl's body shape and skin, and her timid, useless demeanor like a little white rabbit. She didn't seem like a frontline combatant, more like some kind of knowledge-reserve personnel or someone with technological skills cultivated within a large corporation.
That would be very useful.
"Surround them! Don't let them get away."
Before Ye Chen and his team could ask Sui Xin a few more questions, they saw these desperadoes crazily swarming them.
They were probably afraid that without the help of the Sahrs, the team would completely escape.
Ye Chen knew that if the reconnaissance team was truly trapped here, failing the mission before even reaching the outpost, not only would he likely die here, but even if he escaped, Tianxi Group would execute him.
Useless trash has no value in survival—someone had to take responsibility for the loss of these Tianxi military resources.
Ye Chen gritted his teeth.
"Kinetic-01 sweep strategy, prepare!"
At Ye Chen's command, everyone was startled. Sui Xin seemed a bit slow to react. Jenny grew anxious and immediately went over to help her fasten the secondary seatbelt and put on the protective helmet.
After putting on the helmet, the inside was lined with a special sponge-like material that enveloped her facial features and head, but she could still see outside and breathe.
Sui Xin saw the dozen or so off-road vehicles outside firing wildly, trying to prevent the reconnaissance team from breaking through the encirclement, while using suppressive fire to gain an advantage and close in… They were indeed getting closer.
This group had rich experience in wilderness hunting.
Just as they approached the dangerous distance of a two-hundred-meter diameter… Ye Chen pressed the red button in front of his seat, entered his fingerprint, and activated it.
A mechanical voice sounded.
"Kinetic-01 activated, initiating, launching!"
In a matter of seconds, Knox's head ducked down… and the roof hatch slid shut with a clatter.
The other tanks performed similar operations.
On the Red Eye Organization's side, during such a large-scale hunt, the person in charge, the young man with the eyeball earring, suddenly shouted with sharp intuition, "They've got a big move, fall back, quick!"
It was too late.
The roof of the S501 Desert Crawler had already released a floating compass-like device, similar to a drone, only about three or four centimeters in diameter. After flying into the air, it began to spin on its own.
It could rotate at high speed, dozens of times per second, but after one second, it had already opened its valves, flinging things out with centrifugal force.
Tianxi Group's research and development weapon code name—Kinetic-01.
Its weapon specifications were above that of a long-range cannon, with higher technological content and energy levels. It rapidly flung out three points of blue light, which shot out like a regular triangle of light streams to fixed points, landing with a clatter on the circular line of the Red Eye Organization's vehicle fleet that was surrounding them in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree formation.
As the young man exclaimed in alarm.
The three fixed-point devices, at first glance, looked like the exquisite silver-leaf throwing stars that children often play with. After landing, they flashed with a beeping sound.
And then…
Boom!
The triangular fixed points exploded.
The explosive force was more than ten times that of the previous cannon shell.
Of course, the price difference was even greater. This one set of Kinetic-01 cost 30,000 Alliance Credits.
The immense impact directly destroyed the five closest enemy vehicles. Their vehicles were of poor quality; the windows shattered and the frames were destroyed. The people inside died without even having time to scream.
Flames raged.
The impact also shattered the windows of the other vehicles… or simply overturned them.
Wiped out in one wave.
At this moment, Ye Chen pressed his earpiece and coldly notified the entire team.
"The counter-hunt begins."
"Kill them all within five minutes!"
With so many vehicles disabled and the distance being so close, the armed personnel immediately poured out of their vehicles like dumplings, weapons in hand.
Only Sui Xin and Jenny didn't move, but Jenny was responsible for long-range targeting of enemy positions, assisting the others in their kills.
While helping, Jenny observed Sui Xin and found that she was very nervous. Whenever someone outside came within a certain range, she would subconsciously shy away from the window.
"Don't be afraid. We have more people on our side now, and we have the advantage in personnel and equipment. This bunch of rabble is definitely no… Ah!"
Bang!
A heavy thud suddenly sounded on the roof. Before she could react, a black shadow slid down from the roof and looked at Sui Xin.
Through the car window, Sui Xin saw the bloody eyeball hanging from the man's ear.
The man wore a triangular, cone-spiked metal thumb ring on his left hand, and he viciously scraped a circle on the car window.
It had already been slightly cracked by the Sahr earlier.
This thumb ring was made of a special metal alloy, capable of cutting through composite steel-gold glass.
Sure enough, after destroying the structure of the window glass, he fired a shot at the window.
Bang!
The entire window shattered.
Sui Xin was not a combatant; her mobility and physique were inferior. Amidst the shattering glass fragments, she fell to the other side in terror… but her collar was already swiftly grabbed by the man, and her body was yanked to the window like a little chick.
The man attempted to pull her directly out of the window. The glass shards cut her arm. As she cried out in pain, Jenny immediately drew her gun to shoot, but her body was a step too slow… The car door on the other side was pulled open, and a ferocious-looking convert drooled at the sight of Jenny.
"A woman!"
He was about to grab her and take her away as well.
Bang!
A bullet missed, because this person also had a sensor device on him. After a narrow escape, he fired back. Lin Dan, who had arrived, used the cover of a nearby vehicle to force him away from the car, but the man instead switched cover and kept approaching him… until they were only three meters apart, leaning against the same vehicle.
Lin Dan suddenly leaped onto the roof of the car. Before the man could notice, he fired from above with the gun in his left hand, using the high-ground advantage to kill the man with a point-blank shot. Then, with a whoosh, he quickly leaned back, slid down the roof, and at the same time, the bullets fired by the other Red Eye thugs from his sliding angle missed their mark.
A moving target is hard to hit.
After landing, Lin Dan rolled on the ground, kicked out his leg, and dodged to the side of a vehicle as bullets riddled the car body.
On the other side, the young man had pulled Sui Xin down and was about to run towards a vehicle, but a black shadow blocked his path.
Aiming at close range was inconvenient.
After this person appeared, he switched from an assault rifle to a short knife.
Swish!
The young man dodged to the side. Ye Chen's short knife grazed his hair, and as a few strands fell, the young man quickly grabbed Sui Xin's throat.
"Back off!"
He pressed the terrifyingly sharp thumb ring against her throat, forcing Ye Chen to retreat, preparing to take Sui Xin hostage and leave.
Ye Chen narrowed his eyes.
The young man suddenly had a bad feeling. Sure enough, Ye Chen pressed a button on the knife's hilt, and tiny silver needles shot out from the back of the blade, flying towards the 1.9-meter-tall man.
At this height, Sui Xin, who was a head shorter than him, couldn't block the attack for him.
The young man's pupils contracted, and his reaction was swift. He quickly retreated. This retreat gave Ye Chen time, and he had already raised his gun and fired.
Bang!
A bullet at this range was too vicious.
The young man had no choice but to let go of Sui Xin, lean back, and do a backflip on the spot. In mid-air, he drew a scimitar from his lower back and threw it sharply.
The scimitar whizzed towards Ye Chen, spinning and cutting.
Ye Chen immediately retreated. Clang! His short knife struck it, and it bounced away, sticking into the ground at an angle.
The young man flicked his wrist. The magnetic force from his watch attracted the scimitar on the ground, causing it to fly back. He caught the scimitar, and with a flash, reached out to grab.
He had originally intended to grab Sui Xin, whom he had thrown aside, but Chucks and the others had already arrived.
"Fuck!"
"Kill him!"
These people were numerous and powerful. The young man from the Red Eye Organization gritted his teeth and had to quickly jump onto an approaching off-road vehicle. With his left hand, he threw the scimitar, cutting off one person's wrist. The hand, still holding the gun, fell to the ground. It was that sharp. And with his right hand, he could simultaneously draw his gun and aim it at Sui Xin's head.
Ye Chen was shocked: This person can accurately attack with both hands? Could he be at the "Martial Initiate" level?
"Martial Initiate" was an introductory term for combat skills in this world where order was on the brink of collapse, and "seizing" resources was the ultimate and increasingly mainstream method.
However, this person's strategy for Sui Xin was clearly to kill her if he couldn't have her!
Bang!
The bullet hit.
"Consultant Sui!"
"Sui Xin!"
Just as Ye Chen and the others were feeling anxious, they saw the bullet hit its target with a bang, but it ricocheted off.
Not only did it ricochet, but because she happened to be lowering her head in a daze, the angle was just right, and the bullet… bounced back.
Ah!
The young man's shoulder was hit by the ricocheting bullet. He was shocked. In pain, the earring he was wearing fell off, and the eyeball landed on the ground, sizzling from the high temperature.
How could a bullet just bounce back? It wasn't a superpower.
—Because she was still wearing her helmet.
That helmet seemed to be quite impressive. A bullet hitting it was like a bean hitting a steel plate; it didn't do much damage. It was just that the force was a bit strong, causing the bullet to ricochet back and her head to snap back with a thud, hitting the car tire.
Of course, as a result of the ricochet, the young man's shoulder was pierced, even his collarbone was penetrated.
He only had his collarbone pierced by the ricochet, but she had hit her head on the car door!
This showed how good the material of the helmet was; it was definitely C-class material.
"Fuck, I hate these consortiums!"
"You little weakling, just you wait!"
The young man clutched his shoulder wound, retrieved the scimitar with his magnetic watch, and as the car started and sped off, he roared in anger as he fled.
The team's bullets chased after the car's rear, firing a volley, but unfortunately, they still couldn't stop the man from leaving.
"Is this person the leader of Red Eye?"
"I don't know, there's no information on his identity in the intel."
"Damn it, is the intelligence department useless?!"
The certain little weakling, who was dizzy from the impact, tried to stand up by holding onto the car body, but she had no strength. So, she responded to the man with a retching sound.
I feel so sick, my head is spinning.
How do I take this helmet off?
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