Chapter Ninety: Though We Harbor Demonic Monsters, Our True Hearts Are Human!

As the three exchanged bitter smiles, a blinding shaft of light fell from the sky and struck the ART-2 formation at once.

With a single blow, it slew thousands of the human-faced spiders scattered across the mountains.

At the same time, a gale roared through the forested slopes.

Joe, Zero, and Lister were hurled high into the air by the dreadful shockwave.

Joe cried out, “Orbital strike, area suppression!”

“Master is really seeing us off in style…”

Just as the shockwave, laden with searing heat, was about to engulf them, a colossal sea eel burst from the ground.

Its maw gaped wide, and like a baseball catcher snatching a pitch, it swallowed the three of them in an instant.

Then it plunged headlong back underground.

The three were tossed and battered senseless within its belly for quite some time before they felt someone seize them by the collars and throw them into the laboratory.

They slowly lifted their heads and took in the surroundings.

Joe let out a long breath and sighed in relief. “Whew… good thing you arrived in time. No need to die after all!”

“Master, you really are heartless. Couldn’t you have acted sooner?”

“We were just about to run out of strength and die!”

“If you’d come earlier, we wouldn’t have suffered so much…”

Ye Hai could not be bothered with Joe’s grumbling complaints. He looked at Zero and Lister, then grinned.

“Zero, you really did come back just in time…”

“Otherwise, Joe the useless one would already be dead!”

“By then, you’d have become a widow.”

Hearing Ye Hai tease her, Zero laughed brazenly and said, “Little Joe’s got only a bit of meat on him that’s of any use… I’d just get a clone made and keep the useful bits!”

Joe shot Zero a fierce glare and said unhappily, “Madwoman, that’s a wish you’ll never get!”

Zero gave him a contemptuous look, flicked her right hand into a claw, and said disdainfully, “Want to try me?”

At once, the tiny spark of courage Joe had just managed to summon was extinguished by a bucket of ice water dumped straight over his head.

He clamped his legs shut.

“A real man doesn’t fight with women…”

Zero burst out laughing and said in a mocking tone, “You spineless man, is that the last shred of stubbornness you’ve got?”

Ye Hai shrugged and could not be bothered to continue paying them any mind.

After all, it was always like this whenever they met.

Flirting, provoking, bickering…

And then, backing down.

Of course, for a man to bow to a woman… that was normal, wasn’t it?

Turning to Lister, Ye Hai crouched down and deliberately reached toward the other man’s empty place.

Then he focused his gaze on the middle and made a regretful face.

“So close. What a pity…”

Seeing Ye Hai’s shameless expression, even Lister’s poker face twitched at the corner of his mouth.

At last, Lister looked at Ye Hai with ill humor and said, “Mr. Ye Hai…”

“How are you still alive?”

“I dug more than thirty pits for you in the forbidden zone… and carved twenty-five epitaphs, each with a different elegy and pattern.”

“When you die, I’ll be able to personally throw you in and bury you.”

“And I’ll recite the memorial prayer for you!”

Ye Hai grinned. “That sounds wonderful…”

“When I die, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

With that, he grabbed Lister by the back of the neck and dragged him across the floor toward the workbench.

Havel stood nearby, watching the three’s “intimate interaction” with great interest.

He found it highly amusing.

As Ye Hai dragged Lister past Havel, Lister lifted his head slightly and greeted him with a faint smile and a nod.

At that moment, Havel felt that the man rather had the manners of a gentleman.

But the next second, Havel realized he had been far too naive.

“Hello… should I bury you too?”

“I’ve dug a pit that’s both spacious and sturdy!”

One sentence made the corner of Havel’s eye twitch.

Was this perhaps how the First Corpse Collector expressed friendliness?

Hearing Lister speak nonsense again, Ye Hai shook his head helplessly and said, “This is Havel, the Seventh Corpse Collector. From now on, you’ll be fellow disciples.”

“The old man even praised this fellow’s talent in genetics, virology, and mechanical engineering as a once-in-a-millennium marvel… but a dead tree cannot be carved, and a wall of dung cannot be plastered!”

“But he did pass the Cocoon Trial in the end!”

“And in one step at that, with direct injection of the G virus.”

Hearing Ye Hai’s introduction, Havel was slightly startled.

“That nasty old man… actually thinks so highly of me?”

“That sounds like an ancient language from Sea Wolf Star. It seems rather profound… but why does a compliment have to use words like dung and dirt?”

And when Ye Hai mentioned that Havel was a host of the G virus, Zero and Lister both turned their eyes toward him, revealing a trace of admiration.

What kind of thing the G virus was, they had never seen it for themselves, but Ye Hai had once described it to them.

It was absolutely a wild little horse that could not be tamed.

Yet Havel had actually managed to conquer it.

At that moment, Havel straightened his chest.

He accepted their admiration without the slightest politeness, thinking inwardly:

“Sure enough, that nasty old Donald may be terrible at teaching, but he has a sharp eye for people.”

“I never imagined that after all these years as a pirate… with no chance to study, I’d still possess a gift for virology and genetics that countless people would envy.”

“Looks like I’ll have to work a little harder!”

“I need to bring my talent to fruition as soon as possible…”

“Right, what was it the old man said yesterday about the structure of human genes?”

“Spiral structure? Helical structure?”

“Who cares! All that matters is that I’m gifted…”

Though it was a beautiful misunderstanding, the result seemed quite good.

Zero and Lister quickly accepted Havel because he was a host of the G virus.

Havel, because of the admiring looks the two of them had given him, decided they were good people and readily accepted them in turn.

And because of Ye Hai’s words, he also accepted Donald and the fact that he himself was a genius of genetics.

Ye Hai dragged Lister up onto the examination table and tossed him aside.

“The materials are all here. Make your own legs.”

“You look pitiful as can be…”

“The pits I dug for you could bury two of you.”

“…”

Lister did not want to bother with Ye Hai. The fellow was shameless and tedious.

Then Havel’s communicator sounded again.

“Officer Havel, the mutants above you have not been fully cleared. They are now moving rapidly toward the Platini Black Market. Please evacuate immediately!”

Havel was slightly taken aback and asked, “Any movement from the other two directions?”

“The mutants in the other two directions are still moving slowly underground. No significant change…”

“Good, I understand. Report immediately if anything happens!”

After speaking, Havel turned to Ye Hai and asked, “What do we do?”

“The people in the black market will probably all be killed or captured by ART-2 before long.”

“Can we make ourselves scarce now?”

“And where are we supposed to run? To that unlucky villa of yours?”

Hearing Havel’s words, Ye Hai fell into silence.

He seemed to struggle for a moment.

After a little while, he turned to Joe and asked, “How many people are there at the foot of the mountain?”

Joe looked at Ye Hai with slight surprise.

“About twenty-three or twenty-five thousand.”

“There’s constant comings and goings every day, births and deaths too. It’s hard to get an exact count.”

Ye Hai gave a slight nod, then turned to Lister and asked, “How many people can the three bio-fortresses—the sea eel, sea snake, and sea urchin—hold when fully loaded?”

Lister stared fixedly at Ye Hai for a long while.

Then, weakly, he said, “A load of one hundred thousand would definitely be no problem, but the internal space is only so big. One bio-fortress, at most… maybe ten thousand people.”

Ye Hai nodded and looked around at everyone.

“Yavel, later, take Joe and head to the summit. Gather the teacher and the remaining corpse hunters.”

“Find the sea urchin and the sea snake, and load everyone into them.”

“Oh, and call Zera and bring his people as well… I still have use for him.”

“When all that is done, bring the two bio-fortresses down here…”

“And help me transport the survivors at the foot of the mountain.”

Joe curled his lip and said, “Well, well… Master, have you grown merciful?”

“What should I call you?”

“Hero? Savior? Or something else?”

“You actually care about those ants?”

“How rare…”

Ye Hai looked at Joe and the others, all of whom wore faint expressions of mockery on their faces.

It seemed they found his conduct inconceivable.

Ye Hai merely explained calmly:

“The old man said that we have now been exposed to the eyes of extraterrestrial powers…”

“And moreover, all the intelligent mutant factions on Zombie Star have begun to emerge. If we do not build our own power…”

“One day in the future, we will suffer utter ruin.”

Zero snorted dismissively and said:

“Build power?”

“Bio-weapons are fine already… strong, obedient, cheap!”

“I don’t see those survivors as having much use.”

“To save those filthy wretches means risking being torn apart by ART-2.”

“Those things are not weak, you know. Just look at our poor Lister.”

Lister muttered softly:

“Take in more than twenty thousand survivors?”

“Dissecting and burying those maggots is a terribly boring thing to do!”

Seeing the others object, Ye Hai said expressionlessly and without room for argument:

“I need living people to restore productivity… not brainless bio-weapons.”

“What I have decided is settled. Just carry out my order.”

Restore productivity with living people?

What a flimsy excuse. Could that possibly be more useful than mutants?

Yet no matter how flimsy Ye Hai’s reason was, Joe, Zero, and Lister all broke into sincere smiles.

Together they said, “Yes, Acting Lord!”

“Where you point, there shall be our resolve, even unto death…”

They had thought the others would not willingly accept his decision.

Yet at that moment, there was not the slightest trace of reluctance or one thing said and another done on their faces.

Instead, they were filled with respect.

“You…”

“Are you messing with me?”

At once, Joe and Zero burst into hearty laughter.

A rare smile appeared on Lister’s usually expressionless face.

“The old man once said…”

“We all hide demons within us… yet at heart, we are human!”