Global Evolution

by Steffen Schmidt

  A level 5 and a level 4 were not that different in power. Chang was stuck in between its upper and lower jaw. Although he felt the force became stronger, he still managed to keep it open. Suddenly, he noticed some strange mucus on its oral lining.

  The mucus was grass-green and exuded a pungent smell; it must be either toxic or extremely corrosive. At the same time, he looked down to the tongue that was still wrapped around his waist, there was mucus secreting from its taste buds too. His t-shirt started producing some smoke after touching the mucus, and a stream of heat came after the smoke on his waist.

  “It secrets acid?!” Chang was shocked after he started to feel the pain.

  Time waited for no one!

  Although Chang was in panic, he didn’t lose his pace. He clearly knew that it was impossible for him to escape in this moment, so he chose an alternative – He held up the frog palate with his left hand arduously and aligned the crossbow to the center of its mouth quickly.

  Whoosh! He pulled the trigger again.

  Without the keratin armour, the bolt easily cut through the air and pierced the oral lining. It slowed down after went through the lining but it continued to penetrate to the abdominal cavity as if it was a marmot digging through the ground.

  “Pop.” The bolt had been deeply inserted into the bullfrog’s body.

  The unexpected injury caused the green acidic mucus to be ejected from its mouth by reflex. The acidic streams were so forceful that it splashed onto Chang’s body like a storm. His t-shirt started to burn off first, and the extremely hot sensation became more apparent on the front of his body. Even though Chang was strong-minded, he could not bear it and started twitching up.

  The acidic burning almost burned off his skin but not his mind. Under the pain, Chang threw away his crossbow and took out the scalpel from the pocket of his pants. He used his greatest strength to slice apart that scarlet tongue.

  The scalpel cut down half of that thin tongue and when the tongue tendon fractured, it sounded like a violin string was cut off.

  The bullfrog instinctively retracted the tongue from the pain, and Chang also fell back onto the ground from its mouth.

  Stepping on the ground solidly, Chang didn’t step back at all but continued to clench the scalpel. And then he advanced, rushing to the front of the bullfrog and stabbing into the delicate skin on its mandible; A vertical cut was created when he jumped up high, the cut was about half meter long and its blood poured down from the top of Chang’s head. He immediately withdrew and picked up the crossbow that he just threw away. He now calmly loaded a bolt in few meters away while looking at the bullfrog struggle vigorously.

  Whoosh!

  The third bolt hit its target – it was completely lodged into the frog’s watery eye.

  After this shot, Chang was sure that the bullfrog had lost its ability of escaping. There were two bolt in its abdominal cavity and eye respectively and the one in the stomach had make a deep penetration. Other than that, the cut on its mandible was fatal since it sliced open its throat. It would be dead even though it had such a strong vitality.

  Everything fell within his predictions. The frog convulsed a few times and tried to jump away from Chang, but the last jump was also its last step; it spun in the air then fell back on its back. The blood kept oozing out from the mandible and it was twitching involuntarily. It was dying.

  After seeing his prey became lifeless, Chang loosened his taut nerves completely, and the pain that had been repressed, came back to him violently—his attention was directed away when he was battling with the bullfrog, but he was relaxed now. The extreme sensation flooded his body and mind. Chang quickly took off his shirt and checked his burn marks.

  Looking down, he found his entire upper body up to his nose had been burned, blisters in all sizes were spread on top of the burn mark. His body had turned red and was rapidly darkening. The intense burning pain came from his whole upper body, making him scream hopelessly.

  “Ah——-!” His scream was shrill; the corrosive burn was one of the most painful forms of injury. He felt like someone had lit up fire on his body, and subconsciously he scratched his body, hoping that can reduce the suffering. But instead, the scratching resulted in quite an amount of charred skin falling off.

  “Chang!” Jing’s voice came from 10 meters away, she detected that level 5 organism was weakening constantly and Chang’s index had been fluctuating up and down. She had inferred the result of this battle.

  Parting the grass, she finally found them, and then she saw a charred and scarlet Chang.

  “Ah!!!” Acid burns were not fatal at the beginning, but the complication came after made some terrifying marks. Some mucus remnants kept making more blisters.

  “Chang, what happened?” Jing cried anxiously after she saw he was suffering. “What, what made this?”

  “Don’t touch me, the mucus is corrosive, get me some water… quickly.” Chang didn’t wait for Jing to reach to her water bottle. He hastily snatched the water bottle from her waist, which was their water supply for the whole day. He impatiently poured the cold water.

  The whole bottle of water flew down from his nose, the acid was diluted. The smoking was stopping and the charring was terminated temporarily. He started to breathe deeply while lying on the ground.

  “Chang, are you all right?” Nervously looking at Chang breathing with difficulty, Jing cried out loudly “Answer me, are you okay?”

  “I……. I am…fine.” Chang lied on the ground, the subsequent complication of burns caused his muscles to spasm unnaturally, but his words sneaked through his clenching teeth. “I….I feel like…I … can’t … stand up. Go….. go back, tell Mr. Li…. tell him…. I got……burned….”

  “And….. there is…….tons….of…. meat…” His voice became quieter.

  Chapter 45: Fret

  “Wait for me here, I am going!” Jing nervously looked at Chang wheezing. She didn’t to want waste even a second; she wiped away her tears and ran south hastily.

  And Chang continued to stay on the ground feeling the pain.

  After Jing left, his body calmed from the state of convulsing in a few minutes. His breathing was still rapid, the blood taste in his throat didn’t go away at all and his breathing began to smell bad as well.

  He took a quick glance at the dead bullfrog and murmured to himself sarcastically, “This is the third time I have asked him to come save me these days.”

  The first time was in the sewer, where he lived through the fear of uncertainty and death. And this time, he became immobile and his skin was burnt off. In total, he succeeded four times and was endangered twice; this was how risky hunting was.

  Although the acid burn made it difficult to breathe, he was feeling much better than last time – it was such a big frog! Moreover, he was safe for now as long as the smell of blood hadn’t attracted other predators. Therefore, even if he looked terrible with the crimson and charred skin, at least his mind was calm.

  Chang even began to analyze the hunting experience these days.

  Needless to say, hunting was challenging and meat storing was impossible. Even though he had all these improvements on his body, getting something was still difficult and risky. That was why Chang was thinking to reduce the times of going out for hunting.

  And this time, the bullfrog was huge enough for them to eat for a while if they had proper preservation methods.

  While Chang was planning all this, his breathing slowly calmed down. Although his shortness of breath was still pretty severe, he had recovered from the hypoxic state, letting his mind become clearer.

  Upon the partial recovery of his respiratory function and mobility, Chang didn’t sit up immediately, the strong sense of weakness still existed. Thinking of this, he simply decided to lie on ground to wait for Qing Shui to come.

  The spot was pretty close to the base, so Chang believed that they would come soon – and as expected, in 20 minutes, he saw that Jing had brought Qing Shui, Pang Zi, Lin an
d the young woman, who lived in the same dorm room and lost her parent not long ago.

  With the help of Jing’s ability, they easily found Chang in the lush grass bush, and the latter struggled to sit up when he saw his companions come. He then revealed a confused look when he noticed the young woman.

  “I didn’t know she is a doctor; I asked her to come for exchange of three packs of hardtacks.” Qing Shui turned to that young woman after he explained, “Dr. Huang, please forgive us for not being very helpful on your parent’s death…I hope you can take a look of my friend here.”

  “Sure.” She still had the numb expression on her face like she was in the dorm; she nodded calmly and crouched down to Chang to examine his injury – she carefully smelled Chang’s breathing and examined the burn marks on his body. She said to Qing Shui, “His obvious symptom is water-electrolyte imbalance; it was caused by the acute kidney failure from the extensive burn.”

  “Acute kidney failure? Is it a serious disease?” Qing Shui furrowed his brow when he heard the young woman’ diagnose. Although he was not a doctor, he knew the severity of acute kidney failure. It was a lethal disease, and it was also difficult to cure. Qing Shui was shocked by the information and had to asked again

  “Is it possible that you can treat him?”

  “From my medical knowledge, it was simply incurable without the right equipment and related medication.” The young woman was still examining, “But I don’t think you need to worry too much, because in theory, the symptom of water-electrolyte imbalance takes at least a few hours to appear even it is caused by acute kidney failure, but he is very special. Due to the evolution of human bodies now, the physiological mechanisms of human body might have changed. Therefore, he won’t die. Instead, I feel like his body is healing itself rapidly.”

  The young woman spoke as she carefully peeled of a piece of charred skin off of Chang’s chest. She observed that piece of skin seriously and said, “The self-repair ability of his is strong, and those failing internal organs seem to be getting better overtime. Look at him; his breathing has become more stable compared to the first time I examined him, and the breathing odor is fading as well. These is evidence of improvement of his metabolic functions. Therefore, don’t worry. If things go well as I predict, he will recover soon.”

  “That’s good…that’s good.” When Chang first heard to the diagnosis of acute kidney failure, his heart sunk and didn’t dare to say anything to interrupt, until the young woman concluded otherwise. He was relieved.

  “Fortunately, they are just burn marks that make my appearance looks bad and are not life threatening.” As he was talking, Chang stroked his chin where the acid burns made red scars.

  “You should not move before your breathing becomes smooth again.” The young woman pressed down Chang’s body so he laid back down and she stopped speaking.

  After Chang felt a sense of security, all the thoughts in his mind refocused onto food. Although he was resting, his mouth didn’t stop.

  “Mr. Li, did you see the bullfrog?”

  “Yes, it is huge and judging by its appearance, it should be edible. Let me double check.” Qing Shui’s attention also redirected to somewhere else after confirming Chang’s safety. He talked while walking towards the bullfrog. He then took out some dried plant powder to cover the bloodiness.

  After doing this, Qing Shui asked Pang Zi to come.

  “Do you bring the stuff I asked you to take with you?”

  “Here they are, I took all of them after I heard Jing saying there was tons of meat lying here.” Pang Zi threw an axe and a long knife on the ground. He also lifted up his t-shirt to take out the woven bags that was tucked between his waist and pants. Pang Zi’s voice had a sense of pity “There is too much meat and we are going to have to throw away a lot; such a waste…”

  “It won’t be wasted, because I am going to find formalin.” Qing Shui pointed at the axe and knife on the ground. “You and Ling can help dissect the frog into big pieces, and then put those into the woven bags. If there is not enough space, then take the legs pieces, since they have more muscle on the legs and are easier to cook. Also, be careful when you are cutting it. There should be acid secretion glands, so don’t touch those spots. Jing and I are going to the hospital to get some formalin.”

  “Got it,” Pang Zi and Lin nodded.

  Finishing his words, Qing Shui returned to Chang and smiled at the young woman, “Dr. Huang, my friend is all yours, please.”

  “No worries,” The young woman feebly nodded.

  “You are going to the hospital for formalin?” Chang sat up from the ground.

  “Yes, you can take a break now, I’ll be right back. And of course, in order to avoid danger, I have to take Jing with me.” Qing Shui looked at Jing, who had been sitting beside Chang the whole time. He grinned at her and squatted in front of her.

  “Alright, it’s my turn to carry you today.”

  Jing looked at Qing Shui, then looked at Chang’s crimson body. She swallowed her saliva and said, “Chang, wait for me.”

  “I will, be careful.” Chang patted on her shoulder and gazed after their figures disappeared in the fog.

  “You still have someone to fret about… I really envy you.” The young woman emotionlessly said.

  Chapter 46: Super Life

  “I am sorry for your loss,” Chang said. Then, he glanced at the direction where Qing Shui and Jing had gone.

  ……

  Qing Shui and Jing were aiming for the general hospital, which was the nearest hospital in this area. If they could find the solution anywhere, it would be there.

  Carrying Jing on the back, Qing Shui and Jing didn’t talk to each other on the way to the hospital; in almost half an hour, they finally arrived at their destination. It had a huge plaque on the gate of the courtyard, and if they went close enough, they would clear see a few characters in the neon light box “Kaifeng General Hospital”.

  “Here we are.” Qing Shui put down Jing, then glimpsed at the extinguished neon light box, and took a quick look over the abandoned hospital. He asked Jing in confusion, “Can you detect any dangerous organisms?”

  “Not at all,” Jing shook her head.

  “That’s strange…” Qing Shui rubbed on his chin and asked again “Are there any humans?”

  “There aren’t any either,” Jing shook her head again.

  “There must be something wrong.” Qing Shui looked around the courtyard and said, “There should be groups of people residing in the hospital, given the fact that there is a large inventory of medication. Even if the “Deadly Evolution” reduced the population significantly, it still shouldn’t be as lifeless as it is now. And there aren’t any traces of mutated organisms… isn’t it weird to you?”

  “I have no idea; we just need to be extra careful.” Jing closed her eyes to sense the surroundings again, she took a deep breath and confirmed, “There is nothing here.”

  “Okay, you’ve never made any mistakes in detection before. Let’s be more cautious and go slower. If anything shows up, we’ll turn back immediately.”

  “Okay.”

  They walked into the courtyard cautiously as they made up their mind. Every two steps, Jing would scout around – but still nothing was found.

  As Qing Shui’s vision was not different from a normal person, he could only see within 3 meters. In his world, the surroundings were bloody red, and except for where he was standing, he was almost completely blind to this world.

  Although the fog was a great barrier, walking along on the traces of the gravel pavement had helped them orient themselves. It was hard for them to miss the direction even though their vision was bad. Therefore, when walking on the “nature-made pavement”, it was relatively unimpeded, uncannily quiet and unexpectedly safe. They arrived at the center of the courtyard – it was strangely smooth.

  “Hold on.” Qing Shui stopped after they got to the center, “There must be something unusual happening here, I am extremely uncomfort
able with this freaking silence. We should go back.”

  “We can.” Jing didn’t dispute with him, “But what about the formalin?”

  “We can go to other hospitals instead of this one; there are quite a few smaller ones nearby.” As Qing Shui said so, he patted on Jing’s head to beckon her to return.

  At the same moment that his left foot left the ground, he realized his feet were nailed to the ground; he immediately looked down under panic and found numerous root-like vines sneakily and vigorously wrapping around his ankles, and the fact that they kept twining up to his legs had almost made Qing Shui scream.

  Without a second thought, Qing Shui pulled out the knife that he always carried and began to cut the vines. But not even his best attempt seemed effective – those pliable and soft looking vines were tough as steel.

  In three or four seconds, the crazy vines had wrapped Qing Shui up to his waist and stopped growing. Jing was not exempt from this sneaky attack either.

  “What’s wrong?’ Qing Shui was obviously flustered and panicked.

  “I don’t know; I didn’t detect anything at all.” Jing was even more terrified, and the ineffectiveness of her ability on this plant made her feel frightened.

  The strange atmosphere sublimated completely until a voice spoke in the air.

  “Hello, human.”

  A normal sentence that was usually used by aliens invading Earth, the voice was old as if it was an echo in a tree hole. The language it used was Mandarin, thus the two understood what it was saying.

  “Who are you?” Qing Shui looked around nervously, and saw a giant hazy shadow.

  The shadow was towering, and Qing Shui couldn’t even estimate how tall and wide it was, he couldn’t even know what it looked like. The reason why he saw the shadow was because it blocked the sunshine on the top of his head, otherwise he wouldn’t know something had approached him.