Chapter Fifty-One: An Overwhelming Amount of Information

Ye Hai gripped Tang Jie tightly in his hand, his voice cold as he spoke, “Speak. If you can satisfy my curiosity, you might still survive.”

Tang Jie, wearing a look of grievance, asked, “What do you want to know? I don’t even know where to begin.”

Ye Hai replied, “I found your diary in the ART-3 laboratory. It recorded everything from your first encounter with Erita to entering the nuclear power plant. What happened after that? What do you mean when you said Erita fell asleep? And why have you turned into this?”

With a complicated expression, Tang Jie looked at Ye Hai and spoke bitterly, “Since you’ve read my diary, it should be easier to understand. After I followed the soldiers into the nuclear power station, we received news that the outside world had undergone a tremendous upheaval. It was utterly unexpected. For safety’s sake, everyone waited underground for information from the outside… and sealed the gates of the underground base.”

“But we waited for months. At first, we could still receive sporadic distress signals… but eventually, all communication devices fell completely silent.”

“Despair, fear, and confusion engulfed everyone. Some finally couldn’t bear the torment and proposed returning to the surface to seek the truth.”

“That’s when the division began…”

Tang Jie seemed to be struggling to recall the events of that time.

Listening to Tang Jie, Liana felt little, but Javier became fully attentive. He knew this mutated being, Tang Jie, was recounting the events after the outbreak of the zombie virus.

“Some believed the situation on the surface was unclear. Based on the information gathered over those months, they determined a terrifying virus was ravaging the surface—one that spread even through the air. Rashly opening the gates of the underground nuclear station would bring incalculable risks to the entire base.”

“Others argued that it was necessary to go out to investigate… Even if we waited in the base, no one would come to rescue us. Even if not for understanding the outside world, we needed to transfer food and supplies from the military camp to the underground.”

“In the midst of the turmoil, two factions eventually formed. The conservative group, made up of the nuclear plant researchers, ultimately couldn’t stop the fully armed soldiers.”

“In the end, the gates of the underground nuclear station were opened… And that was the beginning of the disaster.”

“When the soldiers took the elevator to the station’s exit and opened the gates…”

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“Not only did air carrying the virus flood into the nuclear station, but countless grotesque mutants poured in as well.”

“They were drawn by the nuclear radiation, wandering the surface, only unable to find the underground entrance.”

“And the soldiers, just like that, let them in.”

“At the same time, the personnel of the underground base began to mutate as the virus-laden air entered.”

“In almost an instant, the entire underground became a playground for monsters.”

“This group smashed open the reactor, and under the intense radiation, they mutated in twisted and frenzied ways.”

“And then, Erita intervened…”

“Just by using the powder from its own scales, it made those frenzied mutants completely submit…”

“I don’t understand how Erita did it, but only then did I realize it possessed such an ability.”

“When Erita turned to look at me triumphantly, I suddenly understood!”

“From the ART-3 laboratory onwards, everyone had already been under Erita’s control… I think Erita decided to rebel against its fate from that moment.”

“Now, I recall the bizarre order to transfer Erita to the nuclear station—it must have been issued by the staff under Erita’s influence.”

“Perhaps Erita was still weak at the time, unable to withstand artillery fire.”

“It used these covert methods, and even, after entering the nuclear station, lay dormant for several months…”

“In hindsight, with plenty of food and supplies underground, there was no need to consider moving provisions from the military camp so soon.”

At this point, Ye Hai interrupted Tang Jie.

“If Erita already had the power to control others, why didn’t it make the staff open the gates when the virus broke out, letting the virus in? Or, why not quietly evolve using the nuclear radiation, avoiding contact with the outside world?”

Tang Jie replied, “I wondered about that myself, but eventually I figured it out…”

“At that time, Erita could only control mutants without consciousness, not humans with minds.”

“It could only subtly influence humans. While raising it, I often felt dazed. Sometimes, when I snapped out of it, I’d realize I was doing things I couldn’t understand—like concealing the fact it had laid eggs…”

“Later, I realized perhaps the workers transporting nuclear waste didn’t fail to see the egg, but… someone helped hide it.”

“As for why Erita didn’t choose to evolve alone but instead enslaved other mutants to evolve with it, even expanding its brood…”

“I believe Erita was wary of something!”

“At first, I thought Erita feared Dr. Ever Schmidt…”

“But later, I realized I was wrong… Maybe it never cared about Dr. Schmidt. It was wary of other things that terrified it…”

“This fear drove Erita to crazily expand its brood, enslaving other mutants!”

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Hearing this, Ye Hai fell into deep thought.

Tang Jie, sensing the atmosphere, paused his story, not interrupting Ye Hai.

If Tang Jie’s account was true, what exactly was Erita, the earliest intelligent mutant, guarding against? Was it the other intelligent mutants subjected to experiments like itself?

Unable to find an answer for now, Ye Hai continued to ask, “How did you merge with the mutants? How many times have you mutated? And Erita? Over these twenty years, how many times has it mutated?”

Tang Jie replied honestly, “Erita put me into its first egg… I don’t know how, but it fused me with the egg. After ten years of incubation, I became this monstrosity! I retained all my human memories, and gained the powers of a mutant…”

“I’ve undergone seven mutations… The queen’s guard has mutated six times…”

Ye Hai, shocked, asked, “What? You’re only at the seventh stage? Then how did you develop psychic powers?”

Javier and Liana looked at Tang Jie in disbelief as well. The powerful Queen Bee, who had tangled with them for so long, was only a seventh-stage mutant?

Just as Tang Jie was about to explain, his eyes suddenly shifted, his face contorted with terror.

From his mouth came a voice that was not his own.

“Don’t try to uncover my secrets… I won’t join the Psychic Alliance to be your slaves… Don’t provoke me!”

Suddenly, chaos broke out. Everyone’s faces changed.

Caught off guard, Tang Jie’s bee stinger struck Ye Hai’s abdomen like lightning, beginning to extract his blood.

“The virus in your body is interesting. It might give me a new direction for evolution…”

However, when Tang Jie absorbed the blood containing the G virus into his abdomen, he let out a dreadful howl, “What is this? Damn it, get out of my body!”

After that strange cry, he fell completely silent.

Tang Jie’s half-human, half-bee form instantly transformed, under the influence of the G virus, into a large cocoon of flesh, pulsating slightly.

A chime sounded in Ye Hai’s mind.

“Zerg module activated… Essence collection progress: 1/1,000,000. Essence collector is incubating. Estimated time: 156 years…”

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