Global Evolution

by Steffen Schmidt

  Second, he made another batch of grass mush and smeared the mixture on his exposed skin so that his scent was reduced to a minimum.

  Third, while on his way to the jungle, for the first time he robbed someone. All he harvested from the gang was a full water bottle and a meal that he ate ravenously. After the robbery, he left quickly.

  When he finished his preparations, he stood below the “Welcome to Zhengzhou” billboard, which he’d visited before and which had become even more rusty. The jungle was expanding its territory and expunging all traces of civilisation around it.

  Every inch of the jungle became more vital than it had been previously. The trees reached their arms higher to the sky to compete with their own breeds. By extracting an abundance of nutrient from the underground, their bodies were more stout and solid. Their skins were made up of a thick coat of fungi and fern, and the roots were blanketed by lush bushes. It was nothing like before, and a variety of noises echoed in the jungle. The buzzing sounds were the most clear, but there were many more that could be heard. Together, the inhabitants of this jungle were composing a vivid symphony of life.

  But it could also be the opera of death.

  Chang took a deep breath, smoothing a wrinkle on the bandage around his head. He cautiously chose his path, entering in his most vigilant manner to receive the challenge from the mysterious jungle.

  Half an hour later, the hooknosed woman arrived at the billboard, where Chang had made a brief stop. She was with three gene-altered soldiers and her own troop.

  “Madam, are you sure he went in there?” The agitating buzzing that was heard from the edge of the jungle worried the adjutant. He swallowed.

  “I am 100% positive about this, don’t you trust my nose?” The woman tied her brows. “He is a savage boy, and that I didn’t foresee… What a desperate fightback!”

  “Who do we do now? Should we follow him?” The adjutant hesitated, he seemed terrified.

  “We’ll go after him no matter what.” The woman nodded.

  “Are you sure? He could have died in there already!”

  “Well, in that case, we still have to check. I believe you know the consequences of not completing this mission. Zhuo isn’t amiable on this kind of issue.” The woman tapped on the chest of a gene-altered soldier, speaking again, “I heard that he is still looking for human subject participants, and he can do anything when he is unhappy. If we don’t go back with two people, I can’t assure you that you won’t be one of those in the tanks.”

  “Ah!” The gene-altered soldier roared as the hooknosed woman tapped on him, causing the woman to retrieve her hand by reflex.

  “Alright, alright.” The adjutant swallowed again when staring at these human shaped beasts. He shouted to the troop, “Follow up! We are going into the jungle!”

  Led by the adjutant, the troop slowly entered the jungle. The concentration of plants became thicker the deeper they went. Although the troop couldn’t see beyond three meters, the surroundings dimmed as the lush branches blocked the sky.

  The layered tree crowns created a mottled dome, filtering the sunlight. Thus, the soldiers’ vision was further limited, the difficulty of marching raised. There was no path cultivated, and they had to find their own way; the ground was slippery and bumpy as roots and fungi weaved together. Waist-high bushes that grew in patches added another difficulty for the marching troop.

  The woman was beside her adjutant, guiding the troop with her sensitive nose. She constantly sniffed the air so that she could separate Chang’s scent from others who lived inside the jungle. Even though her nose had become familiar with the scent, and it was unlikely that she would lose the trail, she still proceeded into the jungle with wariness.

  “The scents and odors are mixed all together in the jungle, and most of them are brand new to me. Even though I know his scent, it is time-consuming to distinguish it from the rest. My ability is not helping much in this scenario.” The woman was irritated by the speed of the troop. “And I realised that the advantage of having a troop is dwarfed in here, these normal soldiers are slowing us down.”

  “Then what do you think we should do?” The adjutant was aware of the same problem.

  “Can you take the troop back to the city? I will pursue him with three gene-altered soldiers.” The hooknosed woman’s expression changed as her nose caught an unusual smell. “Where does this heavy blood smell come from?”

  “Where?”

  “It is about 100 meters ahead of us.”

  “It’s normal for there to be a heavy smell of blood in the jungle, I guess, since animals predate upon each other, resulting in bloody residue.”

  “No, this is different. Animals barely waste their food, and even if they were to predate, they would finish their dead prey as soon as possible to reduce the spread of blood scent.” The blood smell obviously overwhelmed the woman’s nose. She said, “This smells like an animal was dismembered. and its blood was deliberately splashed around. Animals won’t risk their lives to do this, it must be made by a human.”

  “You mean this was made by our target?”

  “Yes! It’s him!” The hooknosed raised her pitch, screaming, “The smell is fresh, I didn’t sense it until just now, but it means he’s nearby!”

  “Wait, what do we do now? This must be a trap that he setup for us!”

  “Of course we’ll catch up with him!” she bellowed, waving her hands to the gene-altered soldiers. “The longer we stay in the jungle, the lower our chances of leaving safely get. We have these gene-altered soldiers with us, what are you afraid of when it’s just him alone?”

  “Number One, Number Two and Number Three, the target is that way!” The woman ran briskly while commanding the creatures. As if concerned that the gene-altered soldiers would be unable to understand her order, she added gestures to show them the direction.

  The gene-altered soldiers were killing machines as Zhuo had made them to be. They passed the woman with a burst of speed.

  A trail was blazed through brambles. The creatures were so fast that they forged ahead for over a hundred meters even where the surface was slippery. Soon, they arrived at the area where fresh blood dripped from the branches. The creatures went in different directions to search for Chang, their uniforms dampened by jumping up and down among the branches.

  Chang was hiding behind a tree on the far side, squatting on one of its thickest branches. His mouth was set in a broad grin—the smell of blood was irresistible to the animals that lurked in the jungle. He’d learned this with his own sweat and blood. Therefore, when he saw the blood gradually stain their clothing, he knew that trouble was coming for them.

  As he expected, in less than three minutes, the first wave of predators arrived.

  The first wave was obviously the most speedy. They were a group of beetles, but their size wasn’t enlarged through evolution. By estimation, they were only as big as a human nail but their elytra were hardened to an iron’s. Given their miniscule size, they were flying at a tremendous speed. The tense buzzing made Chang’s scalp feel pin and needles.

  The beatles showered the gene-altered soldiers while they were still looking for Chang. Hundreds and thousands of beatles constituted a falling dome, its shadow diving sharply towards the scaled skin of the creatures, venomous mandibles eager to bite into their muscles.

  “Ah! Ah!” Soon the gene-altered soldiers were covered by these miniscule beatles, making them into “bugmen”.

  Although the scaled skin provided protection against the beatles, they were still troubled. They waved their hands to try and brush off the swarm, yet their efforts were barely effective. Later, as more beatles landed on them, the force pushed them down from the tree crowns.

  The beatles constantly attempted to bite through the scaled skin but failed. They soon realised, though, that they could enter their bodies through olfactory and auditory holes. The bugs even bit into their eyes so that the gene-altered soldiers would lose their vision.

  Even thou
gh the beatles didn’t get any fresh flesh out of this attack, the gene-altered soldiers lost their rationale as the buzzing sound and the itching of their bodies would not go away. They acted on instinct and started running away in anxiousness.

  Some other beetles that arrived later lost the share of the great meal, but they kept circling around to await for something else.

  Bang!

  A gunshot blasted through the buzzing noise, cueing the lost beatles on their next target. A stream of fresh smell of blood quietly suffused the air. As if they had received an order, all the beatles turned to the same direction and dived down.

  The distance was only about one hundred meters, which only took Chang less than ten seconds to cover and find the troop. As soon as he guided the beatles to the gene-altered soldiers, he jumped between trees to find the best sniping spot.

  Without hesitation, Chang shot the first soldier he saw. The mechanism of the handgun provided a great deal of kinetic energy to the bullet, which penetrated through his chest, making a giant see-through blood hole. Blood splashed, and Chang’s second bait was successfully dropped.

  Before the troop could notice him, Chang ran away from this battlefield.

  He didn’t look back for even a second, because he had confidence in the savage predators being able to solve his problem.

  Chapter 96: Battlefield

  The reason why he fled the scene was not only because of the beetles, but also because of the gunshots that were fired by the soldiers under panic. There was one more reason too—the gene-altered soldiers might be able to get rid of the beetles soon.

  After all, the predators that he lured there weren’t the superior ones. His biggest threat, the gene-altered soldiers, was only troubled without incurring any actual damage. That’s why he decisively ran as fast he could. Chang wasn’t a matching opponent for any of those soldiers once they got away from the beetles. The gene-altered soldiers were superior in speed, and Chang would never be capable of outcompeting that. His only advantage was his high familiarity with the jungle and a deep understanding of the nature of the predators that lived within it. He knew those things by heart, and now, was able to utilize his knowledge to defend himself.

  As for the other unstable factors, Chang couldn’t do anything but put hope in the commander’s irrationality and the low intelligence of the gene-altered soldiers, so that he could get away.

  Tearing through the jungle, Chang didn’t look back.

  On the other side, where the troop rested at, the soldiers faced their most terrifying nightmare upon the arrival of the beetles.

  The gene-altered soldiers weren’t injured because of their scaled skin, but to the normal soldiers, it was a catastrophic disaster.

  The beetles had become venomous from the rapid evolution, and the number of them was overwhelmingly large. A bite would benumb the surrounding neurons, and there were hundreds and thousands of the beetles. One word to describe the character of these beetles was bloodthirsty. Firstly, they would inject the disabling venom into their prey, and then tear off their skin and muscles bit by bit.

  The troop was now confronting the deadly and aggressive swarm. The tremendous amount of beetles was undefeatable. Some smarter soldiers immediately dropped their weapons and veered from the battlefield, but most of them were drowned in the buzzing. They collapsed and became a pool of blood and flesh soon after they were covered by the beetles.

  It was merely a swarm of beetles, which were probably the weakest predators in the jungle. Yet, they crushed the armed troop effortlessly. The troop was as expected, losing their rational when grappling with these unknown enemies—some scurried away like frightened rats, and some attempted to shoot in desperation at the shrouding “dark cloud”, but neither of the two choices helped them escape their fate.

  A flamethrower might be a good choice at exterminating these beetles, but none of the soldiers was equipped with this heavy weapon as they were executing the mission in the city. The order from the institute was to capture two targets, ending up in the jungle wasn’t part of their plan.

  Thus, the troop haphazardly fled, few of them getting away. Most ended their short lives in this ghastly land.

  The hooknosed woman and her adjutant were the first few who escaped. They had watched the disaster from afar as they were too powerless to stop the tragedy. Upon reuniting with the three gene-altered soldiers, the hooknosed woman led her remaining subordinates away from the scene with fear lingering in their hearts.

  “What the heck… It was such a simple trap and most of us fell for it. How dangerous can this jungle be?” As they left the swarm, the adjuntant swore in a low voice. “We lost too many soldiers, and I don’t think the deserters will return to the military. We really messed up the mission!”

  “I know, even if we catch the other target by ourselves, punishment is awaiting us.” The woman was worried as well. “We don’t even know where he is now.”

  “Since we failed this mission, why don’t we...” The adjutant lowered his voice again as he spoke. “Why don’t we abort the mission and be deserters ourselves… After all, with your ability, the military will have a hard time finding us, and the target...”

  Smash!

  A fist swiftly and violently flew at the adjutant before he had even finished his request. Its force smashed his head, making his voice vanish in the air. His brain scattered, and the headless corpse was propelled for over ten meters. It didn’t stop until it hit a tree.

  “What are you doing?” Witnessing the brutal slaughter by the gene-altered soldier, the woman howled, “What did you do? Didn’t Zhuo tell you that you all listen to my commands for this mission? What are you trying to do?”

  The woman gazed at the splattered brain, her eyes red. Apparently, the adjutant was a long time comrade of hers.

  “... Mission … Abort … Die ...” As if the gene-altered soldiers didn’t hear her pain, their faces distorted from anger. Three pairs of baleful eyes stared at the woman.

  “I didn’t say to abort the mission, I didn’t!” The hooknosed woman shivered as she made contact with their eyes. She waved her hands, afraid that these creatures might misunderstand her. “I didn’t say I will abort this mission! Do you understand? I won’t abort it!”

  The gene-altered soldiers resumed their expressionless faces as they heard the woman’s words. They stood still as three stakes.

  The woman was relieved when the gene-altered soldiers returned to normal again. She heaved a sigh. “What kind of commands did Zhuo put in your brains? Why did you understand me out of a sudden?”

  The hooknosed woman closed her eyes while standing in front of the corpse. She silently lamented her adjutant’s death, reluctantly leaving the scene as she knew the blood smell may get her into trouble.

  Bringing the gene-altered soldiers with her, the hooknosed woman utilized her hound-like ability to once again track down Chang’s scent.

  And Chang kept creating troubles for them along the way.

  The jungle was terribly dangerous. Chang didn’t dare to go into the center as he was afraid of getting lost, yet he didn’t slow down in case the soldiers caught up. Therefore, he was spinning around the edge of the jungle.

  Because the woman didn’t have an enhanced physique, she could only keep tailing him while distinguishing his scent in the air. She chased with the gene-altered soldiers at her full speed, but Chang’s shadow was still nowhere to be seen.

  Time passed by with this ongoing chasing game.

  By the afternoon, the woman had completely experienced the horror of the jungle. In only a few hours, she had almost died from many incidents—leeches went under her skin, slurping her blood, thin vines hanging down from branches strapped around her neck, attempting to suffocate her. She even got bitten by some venomous beetles at the ankle, and there was also one time, when half of her head got almost chopped off by a strange animal camouflaged as dead wood.

  The pursuit covered her body with scratches. If she hadn’t been
accompanied by the gene-altered soldiers, she would have died more than a couple times.

  On the other side, Chang’s experience with the jungle wasn’t much easier than the woman’s. He too ran into a few dangers, but he managed to get away from them relying on his calculation ability. As he was also an EM in the physical category, his enhancement kept him alive till dusk.

  At that time, Chang reached the limit of his physical capabilities—aided by the sunlight, he was able to avoid dangers with his exceptional vision. But without illumination, his chances of survival were minimal. He knew that he couldn’t waste any more time in the jungle. If they didn’t have a final battle now, he wouldn’t be surviving this night.

  While traveling around, he planned his final destination for this battle—they were going to fight at another place that he knew. In the den of the spiders, who trapped the gigantic millipedes. Hopefully, those monsters could surprise the low intelligence gene-altered soldiers.

  Chapter 97: Spiders and Their Silk

  Sorting his memory while trotting in the jungle, Chang groped around an area along the edge of the jungle.

  The dusk had arrived, and the sun was lowering its face behind the horizon. He sped up his pace, hoping that by the time he arrived at the spider zone, the last beam of sunlight would cease.

  The last rays of the setting sun granted him the ability to see the transparent spider silk, yet leaving his enemies no chance of noticing it. By his estimations, the night would fall completely in approximately 20 minutes, and the hooknosed woman would catch up with him in half an hour.

  He wanted to enter the den when the sunlight was still illuminating the jungle so that he could plan out his path. And hopefully, when the woman and those gene-altered soldiers arrived, they won’t have sight of the thin and shiny spider silk.

  As he calculated, the time he spent on his journey to the spider zone was exactly 20 minutes as he had expected. When he began to see the spider silk, the sun was still lingering on the horizon.