Dark Civilization Volume 1 Chapter 14

Book 1 Chapter 14: Hunting The Mutant Ant!

A few days later, on the sixth floor.

*Sphhlt!

With a cleave of the axe, a zombie was split in half.

With flowing movements, Ye Chen dove amidst the horde of zombies. With each cleave he struck, he took the life of a zombie.

After a few moments, the floor was covered in dozens of zombie corpses. Black blood seeped out to cover the floor. With torn limbs and shredded bones, each of the zombies was reduced to a mangled heap. Not one of the corpses remained in one piece.

"How brutal…."

Bai Long nervously looked upon the carnage as he gulped audibly.

Amidst the pile of mutilated corpses, Ye Chen stood there with hardly any blood staining his clothes. Even so, onlookers would undoubtedly claim him a visage of ruthless savagery, a demon-possessed killer. Turning around, he shot Bai Long a glance and ordered: "Those two rooms over there. Clear them out."

"T-that is…. I seem to be unwell at the moment, no doubt struck by an ailment. C-can I…." Bai Long stammered with considerable strain.

Ye Chen went over to his sister and instructed: "Tonight, you are to prepare a meal fit for two, nothing more."

"Ooh! I suddenly regained my memories; clear out those two rooms is it? Right away!" Bai Long who was sluggishly looking at Ye Chen moments ago, shook his head exaggeratedly and hurriedly picked up his watermelon knife before marching towards the indicated rooms.

Over the past few days of zombie hunting, even Bai Long was allowed to indulge in feasting upon mutagenic flesh raising his strength to that of five men. Ye Chen on the other hand had reached thirty and his sister, Ye Zhu reached twelve.

With Bai Long gone, Ye Zhu began dissecting the corpses on the floor. Originally, it was intended for Bai Long to take over dissection work. However to Ye Chen's dismay, the guy seemed to possess luck worse than his own. He only found a single fingertip-sized piece of mutagenic flesh after dissecting more than a dozen zombies. Therefore, the role of harvesting the corpses was left for Ye Zhu to take over.

"You intend to train up his survival skills, right?" Ye Zhu inquired while dissecting the corpses, saying: "Or else with your ability, clearing those two rooms will be a cinch!"

Ye Chen reluctantly glanced at his sister, it seemed like the girl could read his thoughts like a book.

Eventually, Bai Long returned exhaustedly with his clothes stained in blood. Sweating profusely while panting like a dog, he exclaimed: "I've finally f-finished. Took everything I had."

Ye Chen nodded, saying: "Now go drag those corpses over, Xiao Zhu will dissect them."

Ye Chen did not attempt to hide the secrets behind harvesting mutagenic flesh. After all, they were going to co-exist together from now on. It'd be a pain to hide it from him anyway so he might as well be open with the guy. Furthermore, he had already decided to take him under his wing. It'd be silly to keep him out of the loop.

Hearing Ye Chen's words caused Bai Long to sag in exhaustion. However, noticing his cold demeanor, Bai Long reluctantly stood up while grumbling: "It's not like I'm afraid of you, I'm only doing it for your sister's sake!"

After the dissection work was over, the three proceed to the elevator, returning back to the eighteenth floor.

After cleansing themselves, they each attended to their separate ch.o.r.es. Ye Zhu would prepare dinner while Bai Long helped with any heavy lifting as well as laundry work. While they were busy, Ye Chen rested himself on the sofa while deep in contemplation.

In the living room, the sound of popular music could be heard.

Wiping the floor with a mop, Bai Long hummed merrily to the music. Swaying his head to the rhythm, he moved about in a wacky dance. Anyone who didn't know any better would consider him bonkers. Entranced by the upbeat tune, Bai Long hefted the mop in the fashion of a guitar, caressing it while humming in self-absorbed splendor.

His carefree display filled the room with a harmonious serene.

Ye Chen welcomed such a change of pace. Even though Bai Long's singing was slightly off-key, he didn't attempt to criticize him.

"Dinner's ready!"

Around 7:00, night started its descent. With the windows and curtains shut tight, the three gathered around the table for dinner.

"Today's harvest was pretty decent." Under the lights, Ye Zhu commented as she placed two large bowls of mutagenic flesh on the table. Her charming features were flushed red with cheer.

Bai Long was ecstatic; he immediately prepared to stretch out his chopsticks. Yet before he could do so, Ye Zhu placed a small bowl of mutagenic flesh before him. With a bright smile, she exclaimed: "Your kill count today has improved much more than yesterday, keep it up!"

Bai Long shifted his gaze between his tiny bowl and the other two large bowls. Pitifully, he directed a pleading gaze at Ye Zhu, suggesting: "Allow me to partake in your burden of finishing your meal!"

Ye Zhu giggled while saying: "Okay!" Saying so, she pinched a small piece of mutagenic flesh and placed in into Bai Long's bowl.

"That's it?" Bai Long was astonished.

Ye Zhu earnestly nodded, saying: "Brother said that since you weren't involved in that much work, eating excessively will only lead to indigestion."

Bai Long felt like he was on the verge of puking blood. Desperately, he shifted his pitiful pleading gaze towards Ye Chen. However, it was in vain. From the start, Ye Chen never bothered to so much as even look at the guy. Piece by piece, he continued to eat with indifference, minding his own business.

Bai Long felt so resigned that he couldn't cry if he tried. Exasperated, he said: "Fine, in place of G.o.d, I'll forgive this bunch of misers!"

Finishing today's harvest of mutagenic flesh, Ye Chen felt his strength raise a few notches. He now possessed the strength of 31 men.

His current estimated stats were:

Strength: 1550kg!

Speed: 100m/2s!

Reaction time: 0.008s!

When Ye Chen attains a reaction time of around 0.004s, he would be able to perceive the trajectory of bullets, allowing room for evasion. A reaction time of 0.001s would render virtually all pistols useless against him; even bullets fired from a sniper rifle could be evaded.

"Something the matter?" noticing his odd demeanor, Ye Zhu inquired with a raised brow.

Ye Chen turned to glance at his sister, saying: "Tomorrow, I'll be heading downstairs to hunt a mutant ant. While I'm at it, I won't be able to hunt zombies with the both of you, so be extra careful." After which, he turned to glance at Bai Long, instructing: "My sister's safety is in your hands, take care of her."

Bai Long puffed his chest, declaring: "But of course!"

Ye Chen did not explain further, he moved to prepare some necessities for tomorrow's hunt.

It has been 20 days since the apocalypse struck. If he couldn't capture the mutant ant before the end of the month, it would undergo another mutation, causing it to gain the strength of 60 men. By then, hunting it would be even more difficult.

"Capturing that mutant ant is my ticket to becoming a genome warrior! Only then will I be considered strong enough to protect Ye Zhu." Ye Chen's eyes were filled with resolve, capturing the mutant ant was imperative!

The next day, upon awakening, Ye Chen immediately began preparations for today's operation.

First, he placed a gas cylinder in front of the room that contained the mutant ant. After which, he readied some weapons before putting on a leather vest made of mutant dog fur and hide. It offered far more protection than the thick clothes he had before. A claw swipe from an ordinary zombie had no way of getting past such a vest!

They only had two such vests, which was normally worn by Bai Long and Ye Zhu. Today, Ye Chen was wearing Bai Long's vest.

"Brother, you must be careful. If it's too much to handle, please retreat!" Ye Zhu exclaimed with worry.

Ye Chen nodded while saying: "I'm sure I can manage. I'm more concerned for the both of you. Don't get yourselves scratched by the zombies. If a mutant beast appears, flee immediately."

"He'll be fine, relax!" Bai Long smiled while nodding.

Later….

After seeing off the two, Ye Chen began his operation. First, he carried the gas cylinder into the bedroom of a nearby room. After fiddling with the wiring, he dug a hole underneath the bedroom door in order for the mutant ant to enter it.

Ye Chen released the gas before placing a bowl of syrup on top of the cylinder. Afterwards, he stuffed the gaps in the door with wet towels after pouring a trail of syrup along the floor. The trail of syrup went all the way to the door of the mutant ant's room.

With the preparations done, Ye Chen dived into an inconspicuous position and laid in wait.

*Bang! Bang!

Within moments, the mutant ant began ramming its room's door. With terrible ease, it ripped the st.u.r.dy door off its hinges and proceeded down the syrup train unhindered.

Ye Chen silenced his breathing and clenched the fireman's axe tightly. He was currently hiding within a cabinet in the living room. With the cabinet door opened by a smidgeon, he peeked outside. It looks like the mutant ant was following the syrup trail nicely and was about to enter the bedroom….

"Burn!"

With a cruel glint in his eyes, Ye Chen yanked a white string, triggering the switch in the bedroom. With a *click, a tiny spark caused the gas saturated bedroom to explode violently. The bedroom door was instantly sent flying, followed by furious jets of flame showering out engulfing its surroundings. Everything around the doorframe was burnt pitch black.

Ye Chen quickly dashed out of the cabinet and rushed for the bedroom. He knew that detonating a gas cylinder wasn't enough to kill the mutant ant.

Arriving at the doorframe, Ye Chen found that the room's interior had been reduced to a smoldering mess. Right beside the torn gas cylinder was the mutant ant; its exterior has been charred considerably causing it to writhe helplessly in agony. It seems like the explosion even took off some of its legs while cracking open its st.u.r.dy exoskeleton.