Era of Disaster Chapter 18: Changes

Chapter 18: Changes

Doing some quick checks after killing the seven-tailed snake vulture and eating their fill, they quickly set off for the road again. The giant bird was just an interlude in their original plans, though this interlude was pretty much a dance with death. One of them even died while Bai Yi was covered in injuries from top to bottom.

Although Hong Qi Hua didn’t know how to cook, she was good at first aid. Before heading out she helped Bai Yi to bandage his wounds and then they headed to their next destination – Te Awamutu.

Tongariro National Park was very far from this place, even in normal times it took a day or two by car. In this kind of chaotic situation, how long it took to reach the place depended on their luck. If their luck was bad enough taking dozens the amount of time was entirely possible.

In the end, they were struck by bad luck. When they weren’t even halfway through Ohaupo Road they had no choice but to stop.

On the side of the road abandoned cars gradually appeared and the group of them moved forward slowly with suspicions in their hearts.

Very quickly, Qin Kai Rui’s car at the front stopped and helplessly looked at the long chain of cars that crashed against each other. The rest of them also got off their cars and walked to the scene of the accident and shook their head sadly. At least 30 cars collided with each other and blocked off the entire road, fires from the collisions still burning. A burnt smell wafted through the air and broken gla.s.s littered the floor.

“How pitiful.” Yu Han said coldly.

“Be careful, look for a way through this mess. If there isn’t any then we probably have to abandon our cars like the people before us.” Bai Yi said to the rest after looking at the scene with Momo. Although there was no explicit confirmation, Bai Yi was already the de facto leader of the group.

Khina got down the car and ran over anxiously intending to search for any injured people. Just as she was about to run to the accident scene Hong Qi Hua stopped her.

“Be careful, the cars here are still burning and they might explode.” Hong Qi Hua said.

After hearing what Hong Qi Hua said, their initial curiosity cooled down a bit and they only observed from afar. They tried looking for a possible path for their cars to cross but this accident was really ma.s.sive and blocked off the entire road. The sides of the road were the mountain wall and a steep descending slope, so there was no way for them to drive around either.

At the edge of the road there were even some corpses, Khina immediately jogged over upon seeing them, trying to see if there was anybody that could be saved. However, the moment she ran over she immediately let out a high-pitched scream and starting to swat something on her body.

“Khina!” Hong Qi Hua shouted and immediately rushed over, however in an instant she found a small and thin shadow pouncing for her face.

Hong Qi Hua quickly grabbed her willow leaf knife and swung it at the shadow and her sharp knife instantly split the figure into two halves. After staggering for a few steps, she finally saw that the shadow she cut was a bug that was a few centimetres long. However, it seemed completely different from a normal bug and at this time even more bugs started climbing out from the corpse on the floor and pounced towards Khina and Hong Qi Hua.

“Quick follow me towards the fire!” Hong Qi Hua grabbed Khina and ran towards a place that was still burning.

At this moment, the bugs started to attack the rest of them as well. Although the bugs were quite small, their mouths were filled with very sharp teeth. After hearing Hong Qi Hua’s words, the rest of them also ran towards a burning flame. These bugs seemed to be very afraid of fire, after they neared the fire the bugs stopped approaching and only jumped around at the side.

“Look for fire and disperse these things.” Bai Yi said.

After he spoke, Woolf immediately grabbed hold of a car that was half in flames and exerted his strength. Everybody stared at Woolf with a stunned look. This guy, what is he doing? However, the muscles in Woolf’s body bulged and creaking sounds appeared from all over. Slowly, the small burning car was barely lifted up by him.

‘Bang!’ Woolf threw the burning car out, flames and debris flew everywhere and those bugs also scattered to the side.

“HEHE, Bai, Bai Yi, did you see? I’m super strong now!” Woolf said proudly.

The rest of them were shocked at Woolf’s actions while only Yu Han felt the power in his muscles and wanted to try as well.

“Yu Han you can forget about it, with your skinny frame how can you compare to Woolf!” Seeing Yu Han grabbing hold of a car as well, Qin Kai Rui started to mock him.

However, the ant mandibles on Yu Han’s mouth twitched a few times and then he forcefully exerted his strength. With a creak, the car was instantly thrown out by Yu Han and rolled uncontrollably on the floor, flames flying everywhere. With that Qin Kai Rui instantly shut his mouth and opened his eyes wide at Yu Han. What is this, this guy is even stronger than Woolf? 

Activated cells!

The phrase flashed past everyone’s minds, the main function of activated cells was to produce special energy. Sure enough, although n.o.body could feel the special energy yet but their strength and speed had obviously increased. Moreover, this probably had to do with the genes that they fused with, ants could be said to be the Hercules of the natural world, capable of carrying hundreds of times of their weight. Apparently, Yu Han had fused with the genes of an ant.

All of them blanked out for a moment and stared at Yu Han in astonishment.

Although Yu Han didn’t have much expression on his face but he secret felt happy in his heart. The feeling of being looked up to by others really felt quite nice.

“That’s great, since you guys have become so strong now please make use of it and clear a path for us.” While the others were still in shock, Bai Yi suddenly patted Woolf’s shoulder.

“Huh?” Woolf heard Bai Yi’s words and then held his head in annoyance.

Bai Yi this guy, he really knows how to order people around! However, if they wanted to go through this place then they did have to clear a path for their cars to cross. If it was in normal times, they definitely would not have the ability to do so but now all of them had their strength increased by a significant amount. Yu Han and Woolf’s strength was among the best in the group, with the two of them around it wasn’t much of a problem.

“Be careful!” Bai Yi reminded.

While they were busy clearing a path, everybody was thinking…activated cells not only changed people into monsters but also granted them strength that far exceeded a normal human. If the drug to regain human form really existed like Martin said…would they still retain this strength after regaining their human form?

After the corpses were set on fire and cremated, some of the small bugs inside were also burnt to death while others escaped into the gra.s.s. After the path was cleared, everyone got onto the car again and continued driving towards Te Awamutu.

“Martin, what is this?” Bai Yi held a dead bug in his hand and asked.

“Bai, I remembered telling you before that not only humans were infected by activated cells. I’m not sure why but the majority of lifeforms in New Zealand were infected by it. These bugs are no exception, they will also feel hunger and attack people for consumption. Look, it has already started changing and evolved a set of sharp teeth specially for hunting for food.” Martin grabbed the dead bug and pointed to its head and said to everybody.

Although these small bugs were similar to common locusts or gra.s.shoppers, but they looked much more vicious. They had characteristics of other lifeforms and were much larger than normal bugs, the largest one of them was close to 10cm long.

“Will organisms infected by activated cells normally grow bigger?” Bai Yi asked.

“For the experiments in the research facility, their physical bodies can grow bigger by 1-50 times their original size but growth by 1-3 times are the most common.” Martin said.

“This is really terrible!”

1-50 times increase in physical size, if a human grew bigger by the upper limit he would become 100 metres tall! Moreover, after fusing genes from other organisms their appearance would also undergo great changes. Combined with the size of their body, what are they if not monsters?

“How big is the biggest experiment in the research facility?”

“Great devil snake, 30 metres long but it isn’t the heaviest one. You’re quite lucky, should have met it before.” Martin joked.

Looking at Martin’s wide grin, Bai Yi really wanted to kick his face. My luck is good? What nonsense is this, I met the biggest experiment in the research facility in such a short time.

“Haha, do you think I’m joking? I’m saying your luck is good for being able to escape from the mouth of the great devil snake. The great devil snake is extremely strong, even among the other experiments it is among the peak. To imprison these monsters, we have to use specially crafted anti-corrosion ceramic steel to create their prison. Because they are too strong, there are only 3 monsters of this size in the entire research facility!” Martin explained in detail.

“Three of them, but this is only the number in the Northern Hamilton Research Facility, right? How many research facilities are there in the entire New Zealand?”

“121 of them!”

“What…f.u.c.k!” Bai Yi bit his teeth but really couldn’t hold in it and cursed. 121 research facilities, Martin said that there were 3000 plus experimental bodies in Northern Hamilton Research Facility, doesn’t that also mean that the whole of New Zealand had 30000-40000 experimental bodies?

“There aren’t so many, research facilities differ in sizes as well. The small ones do not have any experimental bodies or maybe only a few, they are just there as a supporting role. New Zealand isn’t too big as well so the total number of experimental bodies is probably around 10000. Moreover, not every experimental body is as strong as the great devil snake.” Martin explained after Bai Yi asked.

“Don’t talk about it like it’s nothing! If they all get released then New Zealand is finished, right!”

“You know it.” Martin shrugged.

Bai Yi pointed his middle finger at Martin, he couldn’t be bothered to curse anymore. This guy is really numb to all these things, becoming a standard example of a dead pig not fearing boiling water. (TN: Chinese saying! I guess Martin’s pretty desensitized.)