Chapter 166: Chapter 155: The Beastman Race
With the sound of footsteps, several figures appeared in the dust cloud.
These figures were all holding weapons, and each wore an electronic shackle around their neck, clearly under someone’s control.
The moment they appeared, a thought crossed Lu Feng’s mind, and he vanished from the spot, logging out of the game and returning to reality.
In a situation like this, he had to give himself a god’s-eye view to better handle things.
Given the chaos of a moment ago, the enemy might not have even noticed him.
Back in reality, he immediately looked at the game screen. The figures had formed a circle, surrounding the area.
Then, another figure walked out. In his hands, he was actually carrying the barrel of an 8-round, bipod-style grenade launcher.
It was now obvious how those grenades had been fired. It was this thing.
The crucial part was that this figure could carry the thing around directly. One could only imagine his immense strength.
As the dust settled, the figure’s appearance became visible. It was extremely ugly.
Even watching through the game screen, Lu Feng’s face showed his surprise. The man’s face was covered in patches of spotted fur.
The fur looked somewhat similar to that of the Mutated Cheetah from earlier.
The figures who had appeared first all looked at this new figure with reverence, but also with visible fear on their faces.
They were afraid of him.
At that moment, the figure walked over to the corpse of the Mutated Cheetah and knelt. He stroked the body with extreme gentleness, as if caressing a lover. His face was a mask of sorrow as he gazed at the corpse.
"You all deserve to die!" The figure’s face turned grim. He then asked, "It looked like there was one more guy who wasn’t dead. Did I see that wrong? Find him!"
The other figures dared not hesitate and immediately began searching the surroundings. A moment later, they found the captain of the Qingfeng Base exploration team.
By now, his mouth was full of blood and his breathing was faint. The figures dragged him directly before the man with leopard-spotted fur on his face.
"To survive an injury like this, he must be an ability user," the leopard-spotted man said grimly. "Put an electronic shackle on him. If he lives, he’ll pay the price. If he doesn’t, load him onto the truck as food."
Hearing this, one of the men immediately fetched an electronic shackle and fastened it around the exploration team captain’s neck.
Afterward, the leopard-spotted man gave another order. "Load the rest of these bodies onto the truck. To think my beloved beast died for this pathetic amount of food. Dammit!"
The men didn’t dare to hesitate, immediately moving to lift the corpses. A hover truck drove over, already laden with quite a few bodies.
They then tossed the corpses of the Qingfeng Base survivors onto the truck as well.
Lu Feng kept his eyes glued to the game screen. He had already taken out his greatsteel blade. With a thought, he entered the game, appearing behind one of the men.
Before the man could even react, Lu Feng had slit his throat.
Then, a notification that sounded in his mind made him pause:
[Congratulations on killing a member of the Cannibal Race. You have gained 50 experience points!]
’Cannibal Race?’ Lu Feng was shocked. A Chapter of the game’s lore came to mind.
Just then, the people nearby spotted him.
"There’s another one!"
"How is he unharmed?"
As they shouted, Lu Feng activated his speed ability and blade mastery, instantly slitting the throats of two more men.
[Congratulations on killing a member of the Cannibal Race. You have gained 50 experience points!]
[Congratulations on killing a member of the Cannibal Race. You have gained 50 experience points!]
The same notification appeared again.
Seeing how formidable Lu Feng was, the last two men with electronic shackles scrambled away in terror.
At that very moment, Lu Feng heard a WHOOSH tear through the air. He saw the man with leopard spots on his face swinging the grenade launcher barrel directly at him.
Startled, Lu Feng hastily raised his greatsteel blade to block.
CLANG!
A crisp metallic clash rang out, sending a shower of sparks into the air.
Lu Feng felt a tremor shoot up his arm, and the impact forced him backward. His face was filled with astonishment.
He was currently Level 12, with a strength of 15—three times that of a normal person.
But this opponent’s strength was even greater than his own.
In the instant Lu Feng was delayed, the man had already swung the grenade launcher barrel at him again.
’Son of a bitch,’ he thought. ’What kind of psycho uses this as a weapon?’
He quickly activated his speed ability, his velocity instantly increasing. He dodged the attack and swung his blade at the man.
The sudden burst of speed clearly startled his opponent. He tried to dodge subconsciously, but Lu Feng was too fast. The blade still couldn’t be completely avoided, and it struck him squarely in the back, sending blood spraying into the air.
"Damn you, another ability user! I imagine your flesh will be even more delicious," the man roared. His face suddenly began to twist, and his body emitted a series of CRACKING sounds.
Before Lu Feng’s very eyes, the man’s arms changed completely, sprouting a thick coat of leopard fur. His hands morphed into claws.
His legs also transformed, becoming stronger and more grotesque.
In that instant, the man charged Lu Feng. This time, his speed was also terrifyingly fast.
Lu Feng clashed with him head-on once more. He barely had time to react. The man’s strength had grown even more immense, and the impact sent Lu Feng flying backward, tumbling across the ground.
It was obvious that, based on his current strength alone, he was no match for this opponent.
But the man was relentless, rapidly charging toward Lu Feng again.
"Damn it, you’re from the Beastman Race!" Based on what had just happened and the man’s current state, Lu Feng finally recalled a piece of the game’s lore.
’Why did it have to be one of these guys?’
Without hesitation, he withdrew from the game with a single thought, vanishing before his opponent’s eyes.
"Damn it, where did he go?"
"Bastard!"
Furious roars echoed through the area.
「The real world.」
Lu Feng was panting heavily. He rushed to his computer to look up information about the Beastman Race in "After the Apocalypse."
The Beastman Race. They were a terrifying race in the post-apocalyptic world, one that even fed on humans.
In the game, the character team Lu Feng controlled had encountered the Beastman Race. Moreover, in the "Beastman Race Crisis" story arc, they had caused a massive uproar.
In the end, it was the City East Alliance that had to organize the various bases in Celestial Sea City and dispatch elite teams just to wipe them out.
Some official sources provided a detailed origin for the Beastman Race.
The Beastman Race started out as human. It was only due to a certain experiment that they mutated, becoming half-human, half-monster creatures.
Their specific origins traced back to the time after the apocalypse began. After the planet’s high-level officials and human elite departed, the social structure collapsed. Many people who were once suppressed by laws and morals were unleashed, and some began to do things without any scruples.
Like human experimentation.
Just like in a Hollywood movie, human experiments often lead to the creation of monsters.
A gene-tech company had secretly conducted human research after the apocalypse, attempting to integrate Mutant Beast genes into the human body to create Genetic Warriors, all in a bid for power.
This backstory seemed incredibly clichéd, similar to a common Hollywood sci-fi script.
But in this kind of environment, where ambition ran rampant, such things were also very normal.
Needless to say, the experiment had problems. The test subjects mutated. Although they gained taller physiques and stronger muscles, they were also left with ugly, twisted faces.
If it were just ugly faces, that wouldn’t be a huge issue. But the reason these test subjects were called Beastmen was that parts of their bodies retained animalistic features, and this was irreversible.
This was also why he was still hesitating to give the Cuticle Ability Crystal Stone to anyone. If using it gave someone a cuticle-based ability that was irreversible, they could easily be mistaken for a Beastman.
The mutation of the Beastman Race gave them power equal to or even greater than that of a Mutant.
For a time, the Beastman Race was a public enemy. Any faction associated with them would be attacked.
Of course, having irreversible physical traits alone wouldn’t have turned these test subjects into monsters.
The crucial point was that the experimental mutation gave their tissue cells an insanely perverted regenerative ability.
In a sense, as long as they weren’t killed on the spot, they could recover from almost anything, even severed limbs.
At the same time, they were immune to things like the zombie virus. These were all supposed to be beneficial mutations.
But there was one very terrible point: their genes seemed to have mutated in such a way that they developed a special culinary preference—cannibalism.
That’s right. They instinctively regarded human beings as delicious food. It was the influence of the Mutant Beast genes, which made their behavior more akin to Mutant Beasts than humans.
If more direct proof was needed, it was reproductive isolation.
These Beastmen had become reproductively isolated from humans.
Reproductive isolation refers to mechanisms that, due to various reasons, prevent closely related groups from mating under natural conditions, or if they can mate, prevent them from producing offspring or fertile offspring. If the isolation occurs before fertilization, it is called pre-fertilization reproductive isolation.
In other words, they could no longer produce offspring with their own "species," humans.
The laughable thing was, they had lost reproductive isolation with certain Mutant Beasts.
What did that mean? It meant that if they fucked a beast, they could produce offspring.
It was precisely because of this that they could also control similar types of Mutant Beasts.
Under these circumstances, it would be more accurate to call them beast-like humans, rather than humans fused with Mutant Beast genes.
Yet, they retained human intelligence. They knew how to capture survivors for food. They even knew how to pickle people in jars, like kimchi, carving off flesh to eat whenever they pleased.
This was the same principle as the "human livestock" that appeared at the end of a certain dynasty in history.
This inhumane practice was even more repulsive than simply killing people outright.
Naturally, they would also force humans to serve them, making them slaughter their own kind. The men from before were clearly in such a situation!
Furthermore, some of these enslaved people simply degenerated, completely surrendering to and helping the Beastman Race, even eating human flesh themselves and becoming members of the Cannibal Race.
After all, survival in the apocalypse was too difficult. In the eyes of some, what difference did it make how you survived?
Most importantly, the Beastman Race also knew how to use weapons.
During their experiments, the gene company had found a secret military base.
Because the experiments went wrong, these Beastmen took control of that military base and could even produce their own weapons.
Only the City East Alliance’s weapon stockpiles could compare to theirs.
The key was, the location of the Beastman Race’s base was unknown. The game only ever provided an unnamed coordinate!
When the City East Alliance organized an attack, the screen just showed a foggy landscape, then faded to black. When the view returned, it was a cutscene of the Beastmen attacking.
And now, a Beastman had appeared, and he had even clashed with people from his Qingfeng Base.
Lu Feng wanted to scream ’What the fuck?!’ It really seemed like Qingfeng Base ran into every possible disaster.
Just then, on the screen, the Beastman seemed unable to find Lu Feng. His face contorted with rage, he stalked toward the captured captain of the Qingfeng Base exploration team, ready to vent his anger!
Comments