Chapter Sixteen: Mutual Astonishment

This terrifying sphere of lightning, over a meter in diameter, filled Ye Hai with dread.

Originally, this was a device used on interstellar warships as a sort of space mine, preventing smaller ships from approaching the main vessel. Once a small ship was ensnared by this ball lightning, all its electronic systems would instantly shut down, leaving anyone inside utterly defenseless. This was also the pirates' favorite method for plundering merchant ships. On most planets, sphere lightning served as a purely defensive tool. However, the military of Giant Tree Star retained their pirate traditions, wielding sphere lightning as an offensive weapon.

For starships, there was little recourse; the sphere lightning would persist until it drained the ship’s systems. But for living beings, being struck meant disaster on a different scale. The powerful electrolysis reaction of the sphere lightning could rapidly vaporize all the water in the human body, leaving behind nothing but a withered husk. Even the zombie virus, capable of surviving in extreme conditions for a time, required water to remain active. Because of this, sphere lightning was the natural nemesis of almost every living thing.

Ye Hai had no idea whether an eighth-stage mutant could withstand such an attack, but he was certain that no seventh-stage mutant he knew could survive it. Instantly, Ye Hai realized he was in a desperate predicament.

There was no time for hesitation. With one hand, Ye Hai seized a mutant, wielding it like a hammer as he charged madly forward, heading straight for Javier’s position. He knew he could not hope to break through the surging tide of mutants in a short time. There was only one safe place left on the battlefield: Javier’s stronghold. The enemy reinforcements must possess extremely precise targeting capabilities; otherwise, under such a barrage, even the soldiers of Giant Tree Star and their legion commander Javier would be reduced to dried corpses alongside everyone else.

Though Ye Hai loathed exposing himself, in a moment where life and death hung in the balance, he had no choice. Unleashing his full power, Ye Hai revealed the terrifying strength of a Super Tyrant. After clearing a space around himself using two mutants as bludgeons, he gathered his strength and leapt nearly ten meters vertically—about three stories high. Each landing slammed a deep crater into the ground as he barreled toward the First Defense Army’s position.

Such a display soon drew Javier’s attention. In his eyes, a fearsome mutant, standing three and a half meters tall, skin an ashen gray, its body rippling with muscle like living stone, was charging straight for their position.

The mutant still generally retained a human shape, but its claws, each over half a meter long, could bisect lesser mutants with a single swipe. The raw power emanating from this creature far surpassed that of the previous sixth-stage mutants. Javier’s pupils contracted sharply.

With difficulty, he forced out the words, “A seventh-stage mutant?!”

“It’s been hiding among the other mutants, waiting for the right moment to strike?”

“A seventh-stage mutant has developed intelligence? Impossible!”

Javier screamed, “All firepower, concentrate on that seventh-stage mutant—now!”

The soldiers of the First Defense Army, who had just begun to relax with the arrival of reinforcements, stared in shock at their commander’s outburst.

Seizing this brief moment, Ye Hai, mid-leap, curled his lips in a slight smile and extended his right arm. Instantly, four long tongues wrapped tightly around his muscular forearm. Using the muscles of his waist and abdomen, Ye Hai spun himself three hundred and sixty degrees in midair, hurling the four Lickers like cannonballs straight into Javier’s formation.

Each Licker clung to one of the T-103 Tyrant’s limbs, crashing down among the soldiers and sending up great clouds of dust. This move only confirmed Javier’s worst fears—the seventh-stage mutant zombie possessed extraordinary intelligence.

Finally, the soldiers of the First Defense Army reacted, raising their weapons and firing wildly into the thick smoke.

The next moment, the T-103 Tyrant burst from the haze and, with a single punch, tore a nearby soldier in half, the upper body erupting into a mist of blood. As the Tyrant ignored the portable laser and electromagnetic weapons, continuing its rampage, the four Lickers suddenly emerged from the ground behind the soldiers, transforming their tongues into deadly spears that skewered three or five men at a time like candied fruit on a stick.

Chaos engulfed the defense line. The agile Lickers darted through the gaps in the crowd like specters, reaping lives with every movement. The T-103 Tyrant, meanwhile, bulldozed forward like a heavy tank.

Some soldiers, terrified, lost all composure, accidentally shooting their own comrades. Panic spread like wildfire. The hundred-strong unit that had held steady for nearly an hour against the mutant onslaught crumbled in an instant.

But what truly drove Javier to despair was that the seventh-stage “mutant” had, amid the confusion, leapt into their midst as well. Upon its arrival, it acted like a commanding general, observing the carnage with cold detachment, making no move to join the slaughter.

Javier turned his face slightly, watching the seventh-stage mutant from the corner of his eye, not daring to let it out of his sight for even a moment.

In just a few seconds, half his men had been killed. Javier turned fully to face the mutant, lifting a red remote control in his hand.

“My controller is the trigger for the Orbital Weapon!” he declared. “If I press this, the weapon will activate… you and your minions will die without a doubt. I know you can understand me. Let my people go, and all the advanced energy blocks are yours to consume! Otherwise, we all die…”

As his words fell, Kanter stared at his brother-in-law in shock. “What’s gotten into you? Mutants have no intelligence, they can’t understand—”

Before Kanter could finish, his mouth hung open, speechless. The seventh-stage mutant gently waved its arm, and at once, the bald zombie and four monstrous mutant frogs ceased their slaughter and retreated in unison to stand behind their leader.

At that moment, Kanter finally recognized them as the ones who had just abducted the long-armed zombie. Javier, meanwhile, was thrown into utter turmoil.

“It’s just as the scientists predicted! After continuous evolution, the zombie virus will regain intelligence and form a rudimentary ‘survival of the fittest’ social structure… But according to their calculations, that shouldn’t happen until after nine evolutions! What on earth is this seventh-stage mutant?”

While Javier was stunned, Ye Hai’s mind was in even greater turmoil.

“Orbital weapon? Crap! The flagship of the First Defense Army, the ‘Crimson Queen,’ is parked in orbit?!”

“What did Javier just say? That ninth-stage mutants will regain intelligence and form new social structures?”

“If this intelligence evolves far enough… If the mutants develop a social hierarchy, what fate awaits the humans of Zombie Star?”