Chapter 529: 529

Chapter 529: Superhumans in Another Form

“The enemy has caught up! They never give it a rest!”

A’Ji jumped up and asked in a quivering voice, “Big Brother Chao, wh-what should we do?”

“Don’t panic. I think I’ve got it.” Meng Chao stared at the dark end of the underground tunnel and took a moment to contemplate their situation. “The abnormal beast secretly set up one or a few Deification Capsule pharmacies in Leprosy Village and recruited a large group of criminals and people who don’t care about their lives. At a critical moment, it even managed to identify the village chief and kill him. It even nearly assassinated Ms. Mulian. All these things are impossible unless there’s a mole helping him.

“Since Wild Wolves were formed a few years back and have been slowly taking over the authority in Leprosy Village, the mole is most likely someone in Wild Wolves and probably close to Wild Wolf.

“In other words, if we can drag the mole out and let Wild Wolf know that the monster civilization’s tentacles have already invaded his territory, perhaps we can gain his trust and make him feel a sense of danger.”

A’Ji could not quite wrap his brain around this. “Makes sense. But how are we going to drag the mole out?”

“Perhaps we don’t need to drag them out. The mole is going to come to us on his own.”

Meng Chao stared at Su Mulian with an intense gaze and smiled. “After all, we have the most fatal bait to the mole and the abnormal beast!”

At the center of Leprosy Village was a crossroad known by the villagers as Slag Street.

The sides of the street were full of broken down and dirty buildings, which illegal workshops set up to refine weapons.

Exhaust and poisonous smoke roared and spread out endlessly over here.

Even without the Vortex causing trouble, this place looked like a grotesque, living hell.

But this hell was the most important source of income for the villagers.

Dragon City did not have enough resources. Before they gained full victory in the northern offense, there was a lack of guns and ammunition. All the bullets had to be reloaded, and when there were dozens of chips on cold weapons or when they were broken, they had to be sent to the workshops to be returned to working condition.

To maximize the power of those weapons, Dragon Citizens loved carving runic symbols, embedding crystals, and injecting acid and poison into normal bullets and weapons.

The process of embedding crystals as well as injecting acid and poison into weapons was very dangerous.

After all, bullets and cold weapons were cheap consumables.

The weapons used by normal citizens were created with minimal costs, so they were bound to be unable to hold supreme-grade crystal fragments that had high damage but produced low pollution.

They could only embed all sorts of low-grade crystal fragments that had a lot of impurities, high radiation, and created a lot of pollution.

They could increase the weapons’ penetrative power and damage to deal severe blows to the monsters, but the creators would also be corroded by radiation pollution, and if they continued producing such weapons for a long period of time, they would burn away their precious lives.

Applying acid and poison to bullets and cold weapons was the same.

It was useless to just smear acid and poison extracted from a monster’s body on bullets and cold weapons.

Acid and poison would not stay on metal for long. Even if they stayed, they would destroy the durability of the bullets and blades. So, even if they hit the monsters, it would be difficult for the acid and poison to be released completely into the monster’s body the moment the metal contacted flesh.

For this reason, all sorts of chemicals had to be made to blend with the acid and poison and the mixture was then repeatedly spread on the weapons.

This process was very dangerous.

Many chemicals would enter the human body even if someone wore three layers of gloves and corrode the bones and nervous system, causing many weapon creators to suffer from all sorts of diseases, like osteoporosis, pain in their nerves, or a deterioration of their immune system.

Many weapon creators had waxy skin, swollen joints, or missing teeth even while still very young. All of it was because of the effect from the chemicals, acid, and poison.

War was a double-edged sword.

While humans were fighting against monsters, they gradually turned into hideous monsters themselves. This was a brutal reality they had to accept.

Due to the strong side effects, normal citizens usually did not want to create unique weapons with powerful acid, poison, or high radiation.

Even if they were really poor, had no other path to take, and were willing to use their long-term health in exchange for temporary livelihood, for the sake of protecting the environment, the government did not let normal citizens set up weapon forgeries in densely populated downtown areas and pollute the environment.

And since Dragon City was often shrouded by fog, if the forgeries were set up in rural-urban fringes or outside the city, they would be easily invaded by monsters.

Hence, most of the weapons with strong acid, poison, and high radiation were created in the lair, which was noisy and polluted, anyway.

And after the gangs repeatedly subcontracted such work out to others, in the end, the work to create weapons with strong acid, poison, and high radiation ended up in the hands of Leprosy Village, or at least, the most dangerous parts of this work ended up in their hands.

For the survival and advancement of human civilization, someone had to make a sacrifice.

The villagers quietly endured the pain and created the unique weapons that would allow the citizens to fight against the monsters until the very end.

The villagers were the descendants of the zombie infectees, and were already deformed and had all sorts of congenital diseases from the moment they were conceived. Their average lifespan was much shorter than that of normal people.

Since someone had to be sacrificed, it was the best choice for Dragon City if the villagers took the most dangerous but also the most crucial task.

Besides, there was a severe lack of resources and space in Dragon City. Everyone had to do their best to survive. Due to various reasons, the villagers could not find dignified jobs like the superhumans who graduated from universities.

Then, if they did this job, they would be working in a field within the limits of their power, and at the very least, they could put bread on their tables. Wasn’t this something good?

Perhaps this was what the gang members were thinking when they passed the weapon creation deals to Leprosy Village.

But the villagers’ genes were incredibly unstable, and they often went through all sorts of mutations.

The long period of exposure to high radiation, highly polluted low-grade crystal fragments, acid, poison, and other monster materials caused many villagers to become weaker.

But a small number of villagers managed to get through this survival of the fittest and went through a brand new genetic mutation.

They gradually got used to the highly polluted environment with high radiation. In their incredibly horrible environment, they drew upon their raging vitality and fighting power to become brand new superhumans.

These superhumans were formed through a completely different system than the cultivation system in the world outside, but they possessed power as well and were equally prideful. They formed Wild Wolves.

At that moment, the leader of Wild Wolves stood at the balcony of the largest weapon forgery in Slag Street and looked at the raging flames and pillars of smoke that rose in the distance. He also watched the sky; it was filled with spinning dark clouds that were so thick and dense that the sky was completely covered.

Below him were murderous and angry Wild Wolves. They gathered in the courtyard in front of the factory. All of them were the deformees who had gained the “prize” by surviving stubbornly through the decades-long, brutal game of survival in Leprosy Village—they were the deformed superhumans with superpowers.

They were currently bringing out large amounts of highly polluted weapons and ammunition with powerful acid, poison, and high radiation from the secret armory under the illegal weapon forgery and arming themselves to the teeth.

Ten years ago, after Wild Wolf took over the management rights of most of the weapon forgeries in Leprosy Village, he secretly kept some of the raw materials that they were supposed to deliver to the outside world so that he could slowly fill up Leprosy Village’s own armory.

He also tained a group of strong deformees who could withstand powerful acid, poison, and super strong radiation. They used the worst possible environment to gain the most terrifying fighting strength.

He could not explain why he did this.

Perhaps he just did not want Leprosy Village to continue being the way it was and remaining the trash dump that was at the bottommost level of Dragon City. He did not want to rely on the scraps left by others but to struggle to survive.

He did not expect that one day, the weapons the villagers had managed to keep after paying an innumerable price would really be of use.

His gaze moved from the black sky to the burning village, then moved to the armed Wild Wolves. Wild Wolf’s lips twitched, revealing sharp canine teeth.

Just like his name, he had a face that looked like a hungry, wild wolf.

But he looked especially tall and strong. He was more than two meters tall and weighed nearly 200kg.

Most of his muscles had been compressed, forming bulky muscles that looked like explosives. His bones were especially dense and so sturdy that they could rival the super alloys used to make motorized armor and heavy sabers. He did not give off the feeling that he was suffering from enema, though. Instead, he gave off a fierce and strong presence.

The hair all over his body stood like steel needles from his rage. They shone with a bronze light, and it created the illusion that he was wearing a mighty armor made of bronze.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Heavy footsteps approached him.

Wild Wolf did not even need to turn his head around to know who it was. It was his right hand man—Strong Arm Zhang Tie. He had been a worker in a weapon forgery, and after being exposed to years of high radiation and highly polluted materials, he slowly gained a sturdy body and endless strength.

“Wild Wolf, the situation is bad! It’s time for you to make your decision! If we continue staying in Leprosy Village, we’ll end up dead!”

Zhang Tie’s arms were like two maces, and his fists were like morningstars. His body was even bigger than that of Wild Wolf, who was already big, but he was not a brute who was all brawn but no brains. Instead, he was really street smart.

His eyes shone with a cunning spark, and he continued, “The fire caused by the explosion earlier might seem to have been extinguished, but that’s just the fire on the surface!

“There are still a lot of dangerous spirit energy and chemical substances in the spirit energy pipes and underground drains. With just a small spark, they might ignite. Some of them have even been lit up already and might explode at any moment!

“You should know better than I do that many spirit energy and chemical substances can go up in flames with just the smallest amount of oxygen. While they’re burning, they will release thick, black smoke and poisonous smog that will engulf the entire village.

“And after years of illegal operations, there are countless hidden and abandoned drainage pipes under Leprosy Village. All sorts of liquid waste, residual liquid, and sediment from creating weapons and gene medicine are blocking those pipes. We’re basically sitting on top of napalm bombs and explosives. Destruction might fall on our heads at any moment!”