Chapter 192: Chapter 192: Mutants in the Wasteland World
’So-called humanoid settlement.’ Qi Suian was reluctant to admit it, but the AI’s description was spot on.
A group of humanoid lifeforms, hideously deformed by radiation, their skin a deathly pale and their bodies covered in keratinous growths.
And that was just the most basic mutation. Many had even sprouted all sorts of strange organs, though these were merely vestigial and served no real purpose.
Qi Suian naturally drew stares the moment he walked in. After all, the Tai Sui Divine Armor he wore was quite eye-catching.
Fortunately, some semblance of order seemed to exist, as no one made a move on him openly.
The general style was reminiscent of 16th-century Western cowboys, only they didn’t carry guns.
Data from the AI’s monitoring indicated that most firearms were ineffective against them.
It wasn’t that they could block or dodge the bullets, but rather that their mutations allowed them to simply ignore the damage.
Their two core attributes were at least 4 points each, a massive spike in the overall difficulty.
In the Profound World where Qi Suian came from, not even a Tier-9 zombie had stats this high.
Yet here, they were everywhere. The difficulty spike was simply immense.
Thankfully, Qi Suian had managed to perfect the Seven Elements Refining Technique in the Cold Winter World, raising his core attributes to 7 points. Otherwise, he really wouldn’t have been able to keep up with this instance’s difficulty.
’If the common ones have 4 points, there must be elites and bosses with even higher stats.’
Next, Qi Suian decided to try and gather some intel, like the basic lore of this world.
But he got no help. He was too conspicuous, and the locals seemed to regard him with a faint hostility and wariness.
"Hey you, Boss Jack is looking for you." A burly man whose forehead was covered in eyeballs blocked Qi Suian’s path.
After being stonewalled, Qi Suian had actually been planning to go on a killing spree. This settlement was populous, sure, but a clean sweep with his Floating Cannons, leaving just a few survivors for interrogation, would solve the problem.
’I made a rare attempt to communicate nicely, and they didn’t appreciate it. Fine, I’ll just kill them all.’
’But since they’ve come to me, I might as well see what’s going on. If they’re valuable, I’ll capture them as lab subjects first, then kill them.’
’If they can’t provide enough value, I’ll just kill them outright and keep a few as lab subjects.’
’The result is death either way, but there’s a difference in the quality of service. The former gets a quick death, the latter a painful one.’
As for survival? That wasn’t an option. Qi Suian was a newcomer and needed lab subjects to help him better understand this world.
There was no noble justification. These natives were valuable, and Qi Suian wanted what they had.
It was his fault, and he’d admit it. But he had no intention of changing; in fact, he planned to double down.
Qi Suian didn’t care about condemnation or revenge. If he could kill others, then it stood to reason that others could kill him.
"Boss Jack? Who’s that?" Qi Suian asked casually.
"The ruler of Black Heart Town! Everyone listens to him, and you’re no exception!" the man said, staring at Qi Suian with the eyeballs on his forehead.
"Then let’s go. No sense in delaying. I’m curious to see how many eyeballs this Boss Jack of yours has," Qi Suian replied, ready to set off.
The man gave Qi Suian a hard look, said nothing, and simply turned to lead the way.
Soon, they arrived at a place that looked like a bar, a cacophony of noise spilling out from within.
Inside, various alcoholic beverages were on display, each one carrying a hefty price tag.
Qi Suian didn’t linger and followed the man upstairs.
"Boss Jack is waiting for you inside," the man said in a gruff, booming voice before opening the office door.
Qi Suian strode in without a hint of hesitation. The office was quite spacious, its interior decor far more luxurious and extravagant than the rest of the settlement.
In Qi Suian’s eyes, however, it was merely average—not even as well-furnished as his old dorm in the Profound World.
’Then again,’ he thought, ’given their limited resources, decorating it to this extent is actually quite impressive.’
"Which Sanctuary did you run away from, rookie?" Boss Jack asked. He had the build of an ordinary person.
Unlike the other freaks and monsters, his mutations were few: just red, scale-like skin and a long, slender tongue.
But he was extremely powerful. According to the data analysis, his two core attributes were at least 5.5.
The man’s first word was "Sanctuary," making Qi Suian suspect other factions were at play.
"Tell me about this Black Heart Town of yours, and these so-called Sanctuaries," Qi Suian said, sitting down imperiously across from him and instantly seizing control of the conversation.
Boss Jack was stunned for a moment, then a cold sneer spread across his face. "Looks like you’re a rookie with some status in the Sanctuary. You’ve been well-protected."
"This is the Wasteland, not your cozy home."
"Rookie, it’s time you learned the rules of the Wasteland."
As he spoke, Boss Jack stood up and began to stretch, preparing to teach Qi Suian a lesson.
But he had barely gotten to his feet, his body not even fully stretched, when Qi Suian, manipulating the power of the Tai Sui God, seized him by the neck.
The Evil Dragon manifested, and a violent power surged into Boss Jack’s body in an instant.
"You’re right. It is time for you to learn the rules."
"So you don’t fail to understand plain language again." As Qi Suian spoke, he crushed the man’s neck while the Evil Dragon’s power poured into his body.
The scale-like red skin ruptured instantly, and torrents of foul-smelling blood spewed out as if boiling.
His other hand shoved into the man’s mouth and forcibly ripped out Boss Jack’s tongue.
Surprisingly, the thing had impressive elasticity and toughness; Qi Suian had to stretch it out for about three meters before it finally snapped.
After this brutal ordeal, Boss Jack finally understood that *he* was the one who didn’t know the rules.
Qi Suian had dared to be so ruthless because he knew these natives had mutated from the radiation, gaining incredible vitality and extremely potent regenerative abilities.
Killing them was no easy task, but as it happened, Qi Suian had just the solution.
His Floating Cannons were the perfect counter to such abilities. Unless you could resurrect, you were as good as dead.
And abilities like vitality and regeneration had absolutely nothing to do with resurrection.
After about two minutes, Boss Jack’s injuries had fully regenerated.
Qi Suian was developing quite an appreciation for this Extraordinary system born from radiation and mutation.
’Never mind the high base stats, this regenerative power alone is giving me a lot of ideas.’
As for becoming ugly? That wasn’t even something Qi Suian would consider.
’Looks are for a lifetime, but if you’re all looks and no power, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out your lifetime will be cut short.’
That’s why he would always choose power over looks.
He could never understand protagonists who sacrificed power for the sake of appearance, especially when they didn’t even know they were the main character.
Even Qi Suian, who knew full well he was the protagonist and had plot armor, wouldn’t dare make that choice.
"Start talking. Tell me about your people, the Sanctuaries, and how the whole world ended up like this," Qi Suian said, taking Boss Jack’s seat.
He had already usurped the host’s role, so it was only natural to take the host’s seat. He couldn’t very well remain a guest.
’What’s that? My actions might make Boss Jack suspicious?’
’That’s true, but for his suspicion to matter, he’d need the power to turn it into a threat.’
Once he was done talking, Qi Suian planned to turn Boss Jack into a lab subject. Whether he survived that was another question entirely.
He wasn’t worried about being fed lies, either. It wasn’t like he was only going to interrogate this one person.
Besides, he could just interrogate him during the experiments. He wasn’t afraid of the man spouting nonsense then.
Boss Jack wisely chose not to ask why, and obediently recounted the whole story.
The gist of the backstory was this: after the Nth World War, the fighting grew desperate, and someone deployed a powerful contaminating weapon. The resulting radiation transformed the entire planet’s ecosystem into a wasteland.
Of course, while it was called a wasteland, by now all sorts of flora and fauna had adapted to the radiation and mutated.
Humans were no exception. The people alive today were not only stronger than their predecessors, but aside from their grotesque appearances and potentially cumbersome, deformed organs, there were no other downsides.
That being said, there were still plenty of problems. For instance, the radiation levels in their bodies would accumulate, eventually leading to death, so they needed regular medicinal treatments to purge it.
This meant they couldn’t remain in highly irradiated environments for long, or they would die.
If the story ended there, there wouldn’t be much else to tell.
But this was just the story from the perspective of their group, who were known as mutants.
Beyond them, various other factions existed in the wasteland, the most powerful being the Sanctuaries.
The pure-blooded humans living in the Sanctuaries were the true rulers.
They had combat armor, energy weapons, genetic serums, and the comprehensive protection of the Sanctuaries themselves.
Therefore, these pure-bloods not only maintained their human appearance but also wielded immense power.
In terms of regeneration and self-healing, however, they were far inferior to the mutants.
They were also far more vulnerable to radiation; even the ambient radiation of the environment could ravage their bodies.
Their combat armor, however, could effectively resist and insulate them from radiation, and they also possessed superior anti-radiation medication.
The Sanctuaries were supposedly built by the family that started the world war and emerged as the final victor—the Victor Clan. The people living inside them are their descendants.
Thus, in the wasteland, the mutants resented the pure-bloods for their air of superiority, while the pure-bloods discriminated against the mutants, viewing them as unclean abominations.
Qi Suian was wearing the Tai Sui Divine Armor, and though its style differed from the combat armor used in the Sanctuaries, he was still mistaken for a pure-blood.
"Where is the nearest Sanctuary?" Qi Suian’s eyes practically lit up with greed when he heard about the technology the Sanctuaries possessed.
He couldn’t wait to go on a killing spree and plunder their knowledge.
Of course, he had no intention of letting the mutants of Black Heart Town go, either. He planned to study them first.
