by Tai Baiyang
Although the Catastrophe Matrix was severely weakened, the eyes that were looking at Zhang Mu’s direction was filled with hatred. She could not wait to eat Zhang Mu’s meat and torn his flesh apart.
Zhang Mu felt distressed in his heart. It was ironic for her to use her living son as a vessel to incubate the spiders, yet she had such a huge reaction when he only knocked out the little boy.
After watching the whole process clearly, Zhang Mu did not want to stay there any longer. The ocean of black spider eggs was sprawling towards him little by little. Moreover, the scariest part was that in the process, there were new baby spiders crawling out from the eggs constantly, using a faster speed to head towards Zhang Mu.
Seeing that the spider eggs were going to invade with his one-meter range, Zhang Mu lightly tapped on the ground and went to the hole above him without difficulty.
Now, Zhang Mu only had one thought in his mind.
I don’t think I would be able to eat dinner tonight.
Chapter 149: The Truth
After Zhang Mu came out from the hole, the Black Obsidian Beetle and Yuan Rui were already outside waiting for him anxiously.
Upon seeing Zhang Mu’s figure, Yuan Rui finally put her heart at ease. She could not get down from the Obsidian Beetle’s back, so she waved her hand to call out for Zhang Mu, urging him to come over quickly.
“So how is that spider monster with Hao Hao’s mother face?” Once Yuan Rui saw that Zhang Mu was all right, she curiously asked Zhang Mu about the situation inside.
Zhang Mu stuck out both of his hands and said, “She had finished her labor. Now, this factory is going to be the spider’s paradise, and every one of them is her children.” After listening to Zhang Mu, Yuan Rui looked at Hao Hao in her arm, wrapped with the bearskin, in heartache as she did not speak again.
She felt that this child was too pitiful. Losing his mother and yet, he was turned into a breeding vessel for the little spiders by his mother who had turned into a monster.
At this moment, Hao Hao suddenly struggled for a bit and woke up in Yuan Rui’s arm. He opened his mouth and screamed Mother. Yuan Rui, who was watching this, felt even sorry for him as she hugged him tighter.
For some reason, the tens of thousands of small spiders did not come out from the hole that Zhang Mu escaped. Since Zhang Mu was outside now, he could not see the situation inside. However, he did not dare to go in anymore.
Yuan Rui cuddled Hao Hao and said, “Hao Hao can you tell sister how did this happen? Your mother, why did she become like this?” It was at this moment that Zhang Mu finally learned the truth from Hao Hao, who had just woke up. For such a young child to speak the truth, the world was indeed cold and cruel.
This child called Hao Hao was far more mature than those children who were in the same age as him. He had suffered too much pain that should not exist at his age. Zhang Mu listened to him as he spoke slowly in a cold manner as if he was a lifeless robot.
It turned out that Hao Hao and his mother were the residents from a nearby town. On the day of the Cataclysm, they hid together with the survivors from this town into this abandoned factory, waiting for the police or the army to rescue them.
But as time passed by, no one came to save them at all, and people started to lose hope. As the people of this town were just a small figure at the bottom, although there was a food shortage, no one had done anything that was against the human’s bottom line. That was because they were afraid of the laws and regulation of the country, and they feared that when the army or government officials appeared, they would be arrested by their wrongdoings.
Everyone suppressed the darkness in their heart and waited peacefully inside the abandoned factory, just like Hao Hao and his mother, hiding at one corner. The two of them ate sparingly so that the rations would be enough for them.
Until one fateful day, something happened and changed everything.
When Hao Hao said until here, the cold and icy eye held a tinge of fear in them. That was enough to show how much damage and trauma had caused to his small and young mind.
A spider, that was bigger and stronger than the adults emerged from a crack in the factory. During that time, they had a few young men that were pretty strong, but in front of this huge spider, they did not appear to have the ability to fight back. In an instant, several people were gutted, as blood pooled to the ground.
How would the people who live quietly all year round in a small town ever seen this before? Therefore, regardless if there were monsters outside that would eat human too, they ran out of the factory while the spider was eating the dead bodies.
If the matter ends here, then this would be nothing at all, since the people merely encountered a first-ranked mutated animal.
But when Hao Hao’s voice started to tremble, Zhang Mu knew that things were not that simple.
“They, claimed that, this was the monster that God sent to punish them. As for the reason why the monster did not chase after them, was because someone is dead. Once the monster had its fill, it would not come out and eat them anymore.
Therefore, if they wanted the monster to stop attacking them, then they had to feed the monster.
They......” Hao Hao did not continue anymore, but Zhang Mu could already guess the development of the matter.
This bunch of ignorant people thought that feeding the mutated spider would not bring them trouble anymore. As a result, they threw the weak Hao Hao and his mother into the factory, just like giving a tribute to the mutated spider. The ugliness and ignorance of humanity were exposed perfectly at this moment.
After a while, Hao Hao continued the story.
After the mutated spider sniffed the scent of a human, it soon appeared and dragged away Hao Hao’s mother that was protecting in front of him. Hao Hao was scared, but he was more terrified of his mother’s departure, so he followed them closely.
Not sure was it because the spider just ate earlier and was still full, but it did not shred Hao Hao’s mother into pieces, and ate her immediately. Instead, it bound her to a spider web.
Without a doubt, Hao Hao, who was following his mother, was caught by the spider too. The spider abandoned him on another small web with a disordered line.
Hao Hao’s mother was in despair and could only curse the gang outside as they had caused the death of her and her son.
The mutated spider naturally did not understand the curses of Hao Hao’s mother and used its fangs to infuse venom inside her body. She could feel her internal organ, her blood, and her entire body were getting ingested.
Throughout the whole process, she was staring at her son, who was too afraid to say anything on one side. Her desire to survive kept her struggling on this ongoing torture. In the end, Hao Hao’s mother passed away with an endless grudge and concern for her son. However, when the mutated spider was devouring her, all of her resentment was attached to the mutated spider body. Under an odd coincidence, she became the Catastrophe Matrix.
The matters that followed goes without saying. Every people from the town, including the walking dead, were slaughter entirely by the Catastrophe Matrix that was in its endless resentment.
In the end, the obsession to protect Hao Hao was corrupted by the bloody slaughtering. Under the conflict of the resentment and the nature of the mutated spider, she turned insane.
In conclusion, she found the only living creature in the whole town and inserted her eggs inside the young Hao Hao’s body as part of her nature to breed.
Usually, Hao Hao was in a deep sleep. But today, the Catastrophe Matrix was close to her childbirth, so she could not control her power much. As a result, Hao Hao ran out from the factory, which then met Zhang Mu and the others.
Since his memory had stopped at the scene where his mother and him, was pushed into the abandoned factory, he went to Zhang Mu to call for help.
Chapter 150: Thrilling Moment
Zhang Mu could deduce most of the truth from Hao Hao description. It was not like he had never seen such c
ases before. Struck in awe by the unknown, the humans in the early days of the Cataclysm would emit the dark side of human nature. Therefore, Zhang Mu was not surprised by their action for doing such a thing to protect their life.
But it was terrible for this to happen to a woman with a child. However, there was karma, and they had reaped what they sow. The gang that used the mother and son to feed the mutated animal got what they deserved. They had become the first target for the Catastrophe Matrix to revenge on and to turn into its food.
Thus, the human heart is sinister.
However, for this Catastrophe Matrix to appear, it consisted of many coincidences. For example, if the mutated spider had eaten Hao Hao's mother straightaway, she would not turn out like this. But because she had endless resentment during the torture, she had the vital requirement to become a Catastrophe Matrix.
Zhang Mu was left with mixed feelings. It was not easy for her to survive, yet she had ended up like this. The death of Hao Hao’s mother was caused by the people in the town, and they were killed by her as a result.
Chills went down his spine as Zhang Mu suddenly wondered if there was a pair of a big hand hidden and controlled everything. His rebirth was a big loophole in this world already. Then, on which day, which place, and which pitch point would the change be completely erupted because of the loophole he had caused?
However, Zhang Mu did not have the time to think about this problem now. Just a moment ago, Yuan Rui had thrown the flashlight she carried with her into the pitch-black hole. He widened his eye after he saw what was happening inside.
The location of the Catastrophe Matrix was wrapped by a black ocean. Under the illumination from the flashlight, Zhang Mu could see that the black wave was flowing around her body.
Occasionally, a broken limb was revealed. The little spiders which were only the size of a nail, was expanding rapidly. With this, Zhang Mu finally understood what happened.
The little spiders that the Catastrophe Matrix delivered were eating her!
Zhang Mu was unsure if this Catastrophe Matrix had done it willingly, but the fact was placed in front of his eye.
He questioned the Obsidian Beetle in his mind, “Little Black, can you still smell that rotten scent from the monster? It seems that she was eaten by those little monsters she gave birth to.”
The Obsidian Beetle was shocked when it heard the news. It slowly raised its head and tried to sniff the rotten odor that was making it nausea previously. But with such a near distance, it did not smell any of it after many tries.
Its forelimbs slowly straightened up as it looked in the direction of the hole. It said to Zhang Mu, “If you never mention about it, I would not notice it. Just now, the odor that I was used to smelling was gone now. I already tried my best to smell it, but the strong odor was gradually weakening into nothing.”
The Obsidian Beetle spoke again slowly, “But I sensed an aura that made me even worried.”
Zhang Mu asked it with some uncertainties, “That should be the scent of those thousands upon thousands of little spiders. But the scent only made you worried, with no rotten odor from that big monster, right?”
“No.” The Obsidian Beetle answered Zhang Mu with certainty, telling him that it already confirmed this fact.
Then the matter would be harder to deal now. If it was worried, then it implies that the strength of those bunch of little spiders could threaten the existence of the Obsidian Beetle already. And without the rotten odor, there was only one possibility for this to happen.
The human resentment on the Catastrophe Matrix was gone now after it was devoured once again.
The nature of the mutated animal in her body, had enabled her to breed its offspring. Under pressure from Zhang Mu and the Obsidian Beetle, it was forced into labor in advance, which drove her to a weakened state. However, she was a fool as she never did a proper job to cultivate her future generation and prepared some rations for them.
Furthermore, the newly-born spiders did not have any feelings for this mother, who was half monster and half human. When the only living being, Zhang Mu, had left their attacking range, they turned their attention to their mother, the Catastrophe Matrix, who was weak and rooted to the spot.
In the end, she could only watch her own children scrambled to her body and used it as their nourishment for their first evolution after they were born. They devoured everything until there was nothing left of her.
After Zhang Mu saw the scene inside, he could felt his scalp tingling instantly. Formerly, tens of thousands of small spiders with the size of a nail was pretty terrifying already. But now that he looked at it, he saw that these individual being had turned into the size of a fist. The abandoned factory was going to be crammed with spiders by now.
Moreover, it appears that the meat of the Catastrophe Matrix that was shared between them, was finished completely.
Sure enough, the black tide had stopped flowing. While Zhang Mu was stunned and speechless watching them, they had moved towards the hole. Seems like they had found food outside to be their ration now.
Compared to the Catastrophe Matrix, Zhang Mu was more afraid of these spiders. Although the Catastrophe Matrix had a strong mutated power, it was easier to look for loopholes because she was not in her right mind while fighting. Furthermore, there was only one target.
But these pure mutated spiders that were just born would have the most primitive and sharpest combat ability. Furthermore, their number had reached five figures, and that was far from what Zhang Mu could handle.
The most crucial factor was that Zhang Mu was unsure if these little spiders had retained their mother’s ability.
If so, then the scene of those corrosive spider webs smashing all over him would be a disaster even if his psychic ability had recovered into its full state.
At this moment, he thought of retreating and quickly called the Obsidian to fly and took away Yuan Rui plus the mutated wolfdog.
For some reason, the tide of spiders that were flowing towards Zhang Mu’s direction did not come out from the hole all at once. There was only a small group of them.
So where was the rest?
Zhang Mu did not care about them anymore, as the whereabouts of these little monsters had nothing to do with him now.
However, the moment he wanted to run, there was nothing under his foot all of a sudden.
The ground below him, had collapsed!
This ground had turned hollow abruptly.
Zhang Mu’s mind flashed a horrifying thought.
In a few seconds, the remaining little spider was now beside him. Furthermore, they could make the ground collapse?
Chapter 151: Barely Escaped
Zhang Mu subconsciously grabbed the rock neared him, so that he would not fall. However, the rock beside him was incredibly loose too. Without giving him the time to recover, the rock that he grabbed on also started to sink and pulled him down once again when he exerted his strength.
The moment he fell, he saw that the Obsidian Beetle was going to rescue him in the sky. Instantly, an idea flashed through his mind, and the Bloodvine Lotus shot out from his left arm, reaching out to the Obsidian Beetle.
When Zhang Mu was about to fall into the huge pit of spiders, the vines of the Bloodvine Lotus managed to grasp the paw of the mutated wolfdog just in time. In an instant, it wrapped around the paw and fastened around it firmly.
On the other hand, Zhang Mu was controlling the Bloodvine Lotus and quickly exerting his strength to pull himself towards the Obsidian Beetle. Changing the direction abruptly and using the momentum to fly over.
Fortunately, the Obsidian Beetle had advanced to the second-ranked, and the load it could take had increased. Otherwise, it would be hard for it to carry Zhang Mu, an adult man, who used all his strength to pull himself up.
Although it was carrying Yuan Rui, the mutated wolfdog, as well as its body weight, now adding on the force that Zhang Mu suddenly exerted, the Obsidian Beetle continued to spread its wings and use
the wind power for support. So at this moment, it was still holding on and slowly flew upwards carrying Zhang Mu.
“I almost couldn’t hold on when you pulled me all of a sudden. Will you be happy when all of us fell into the big hole together?” The Obsidian Beetle muttered and complained as it was upset with Zhang Mu’s surprise attack.
Zhang Mu scolded the Obsidian Beetle right away, “Otherwise, how am I going to get up? You little brat, don’t act weak in front of me. Just how much weight was this and you couldn’t pull us anymore? What for would I want you as a second-ranked mutated animal? Besides, you are a wind-type mutated animal. You thought I can’t sense the wind power that you are using now?”
A cheeky smile appeared on the Obsidian Beetle as it knew that it was just dissing him. It did not want Zhang Mu to fall too.
Zhang Mu’s face lit up when he found that he was rising out from the hole. But in the next second, the expression on his face froze. He could feel something on his calf pulling him down.
He almost cursed out loud the moment he glanced back. It was just like what he had predicted previously.
These little spiders had inherited the ability from their mother, the Catastrophe Matrix. They were shooting out sticky spider web!
Fortunately, Zhang Mu did not felt any burning pain on his calfskin nor suffered any damage. He concluded that the spider webs, was not corrosive yet.
Not sure whether was it because they did not inherit the power or they hadn't grown up yet, but for whatever reason, it was better this way.
Right now, there were a dozen spider webs on Zhang Mu’s leg, causing the Obsidian Beetle and Zhang Mu to be in a stalemate now.
Meanwhile, the spider webs on Zhang Mu’s calf was slowly tightening!
The little spiders that were burying their head a moment ago, slowly raised their head and looked at Zhang Mu in an orderly mass.
Finally, he could see what the black spiders were up to earlier. It turned out that those black spiders were eating the soil with their heads down. As they needed energy, they treated all the dirt as food. They secreted a large amount of corrosive liquid, then turn all the soil into a digestive fluid and swallowed them back.
