Chapter 92
Shen Zhuo held the S-class syringe and shook it: “Science is strength.”
Hastened footsteps echoed through the corridor. Cameron was nearly airborne, being dragged by Bai Sheng at lightning speed. In the rush of wind, he shouted directions, “That way!”
Bai Sheng made a sudden sharp turn, almost throwing Cameron against the wall, but pulled him back in time and continued speeding down the corridor. After several forks, they were confronted with identical maze-like passages, with no sign of Shen Zhuo.
“Shit!” Bai Sheng stopped and cursed, “Wrong way. Do you even remember the route?!”
Cameron retorted, “I was teleported here instantly. How could I possibly remember the route?!”
Bai Sheng: “I thought you were supposed to be smart!”
Cameron: “What a coincidence, I thought you were a double S!”
“……”
The two stared at each other for a long time; both of them had something on their minds that they didn’t know where to start.
“Forget it; let’s not panic.” Bai Sheng waved his hand, forcing himself to calm down. “Shen Zhuo carries three gene interferons with him. There should still be two left, and at least one is S-class. He shouldn’t be in too much danger.”
In Bai Sheng’s opinion, the best team configuration would be himself and Shen Zhuo, Chu Yan, and Yang Xiaodao, and Cameron could go with either group, preferably with the kid’s group. This way, each group would have balanced brains and combat power. Who knows, maybe after walking through the maze, Yang Xiaodao might even irritate his cheap uncle to the point of a brain hemorrhage, which would be a bonus.
The worst team configuration was the current one. Not only was Shen Zhuo alone, but there was also a mechanical deity named Cameron beside him. Bai Sheng was almost certain that he was on Cameron’s assassination list along with Su Jiqiao.
Oh, not necessarily. Maybe the kidnapper of the little princess was Cameron’s top target, and the guy named Su was just not worth his time.
Bai Sheng sighed, rubbed his chin with two fingers, and muttered, “Don’t worry, let’s look for Shen Zhuo and find a way out at the same time. In fact, even if Shen Zhuo is really captured by them, I have a way to solve it, but it will be a bit hard, so let’s try to avoid that situation first. Um, let me think about it… By the way.”
He suddenly remembered something and looked at Cameron, “Is that Burmese guy dead?”
Cameron coldly replied, “Maybe.”
“How did he die?”
“I don’t know. When Shen Zhuo and I encountered him, he was already like that.”
Bai Sheng actually already had the answer in his mind: “I once saw a man named Liu Sanji die in the same way. Was it really not Shen Zhuo who killed him?”
Bai Sheng raised his eyebrows and glanced at Cameron, only to see that the senior UN official in front of him slowly narrowed his eyes, with undisguised sarcasm in his eyes.
“Oh, why,” Cameron drawled, “are you interested in that Burmese guy? Do you have a crush on him? You kept staring at him on the way here. Why? Are you attracted to him? Does Shen Zhuo know?”
“……”
Nice counterattack, Brother Cameron.
Bai Sheng understood everything in his heart. After thinking it over, he took a breath and sincerely admitted, “Ah, you found out. In fact, Shen Zhuo and I both like him very much. We even discussed sending an invitation letter to that Burmese man when we hold the wedding. Why didn’t Shen Zhuo tell you just now?”
Cameron: “……”
Although Cameron’s sarcasm was unmatched, Bai Sheng’s skills allowed him to fight for at least three hundred rounds. Fighting further would just be a waste of time. Both of them realized this at the same time.
Bai Sheng made a truce gesture and continued walking forward in the maze. Cameron followed, saying indifferently, “Please don’t misunderstand, Mr. Bai. I have no hostility towards you. In fact, I understand your feelings. After all, my naive and innocent brother does have an appearance that is hard to resist…”
Bai Sheng, discerning the faint scent of blood in the air to locate Shen Zhuo, lazily raised an eyebrow, “Not at all, Mr. Cameron. If Shen Zhuo wasn’t good-looking, I might not have been so intensely curious when we first met. But after spending some time with him, things would still have developed as they did. Just like if I were penniless, Shen Zhuo wouldn’t change his view of me. He would still see my golden soul and fall deeply in love with me…”
“Pardon me,” Cameron interrupted politely with a fake smile, “but my brother may be foolish, dumb, naive, and low in IQ, but there is no possibility that he will be ugly. Not in ten billion parallel universes.”
Bai Sheng: “……”
“Your being penniless, however, seems quite likely.” Cameron shrugged regretfully and walked ahead.
Bai Sheng stood there, speechless, finally defeated by Cameron’s strong conviction.
·
“Bai Sheng——”
“Bai Sheng——”
“Dad——!!”
Yang Xiaodao roared to the sky three hundred times, finally giving up in despair. “Forget it; he can’t hear us.”
“This kind of high-dimensional space should have some soundproofing ability. Unless we’re very close, the sound waves can’t travel,” Shen Zhuo said, standing up and coughing hoarsely. “Come help me.”
Yang Xiaodao: “?”
Shen Zhuo walked to the end of the corridor. The A-class evolutionist who had been punched earlier was buried under the rubble, showing no signs of movement.
“If I’m not mistaken, his ability should be called spot exchange, a lower version of space tunnels,” Shen Zhuo said. “Help me dig him out. He might be able to get us out of this maze.”
Though Yang Xiaodao was confused, he obediently squatted down and started digging, like a well-trained Doberman, quickly moving the hundreds of kilograms of broken bricks and shifting the ton-heavy metal chunks to the side. As he worked, he asked, “Why can he get us out of the maze?”
“Spot exchange has the limitation that the same two spots can only be swapped once. For example, if I exchange places with you now, I can’t swap with you again, only with someone else. Considering the distribution density of people around when the maze was activated by that Burmese kid on the platform, there should be fewer than 1,500 people inside. So, if we swap enough times, we can find the key person in the maze.”
Yang Xiaodao stood with his mouth agape. “Who?”
“Su Jiqiao,” Shen Zhuo replied. “He’s probably guarding the entrance to the maze.”
Yang Xiaodao, full of admiration, looked at his future adoptive mother with newfound respect but suddenly realized something. “Wait, if we’re really unlucky and have to swap places 1500 times to get to Su Jiqiao, does this ability even allow for that many uses?”
The rubble collapsed with a crash as Shen Zhuo dragged out the bloodied A-class evolutionist from beneath the bricks and said coolly, “That depends on how much a person’s survival instinct can push their potential.”
He then unceremoniously slapped the A-class evolutionist’s face—smack! The sound echoed like a string of firecrackers, and Yang Xiaodao couldn’t help but cover his own face in fear. The A-class evolutionist twitched violently!
He seemed to regain some consciousness, but his vision was blurry and unfocused. He tried to say something, but blood kept bubbling from his mouth, and he began to breathe heavily.
Yang Xiaodao: “?”
“Save… save…” The A-class evolutionist’s pupils dilated rapidly—a sign of someone on the brink of death. “Save… save me…”
Shen Zhuo glanced down at the A-class’ completely collapsed ribcage and, holding his forehead, understood: “This guy is dying, Yang Xiaodao! Your punch was too strong!”
“?!” Yang Xiaodao was horrified. “Maybe you slapped him to death?”
Shen Zhuo: “Impossible, I clearly hit you so lightly, don’t you have any healing abilities at all?”
Yang Xiaodao: “No, no, no, no… none!”
In fact, this A-class had been beaten half to death by Bai Sheng, then suffered a critical hit from Yang Xiaodao’s iron fist, and finally a series of slaps from Shen Zhuo. In addition, the person who was pinned down was more likely to suffer cardiac arrest if he was suddenly rescued, so it was too late, even with medical abilities.
A series of gurgles sounded as a large amount of blood foam surged from the A-class evolutionist’s mouth, and it was clear his life was ticking away.
—We must not let him die. If he dies, his spot-exchange ability is useless!
There was no time to hesitate. Shen Zhuo had no choice. He pulled out the last S-class serum and decisively injected it into his neck!
S-class ability: Gene Replication.
By extracting a tiny amount of DNA from the target, he could acquire the opponent’s strongest ability, limited to one use, with output increasing tenfold.
This was the fatal strike of that Burmese S-class evolutionist. Shen Zhuo had extracted blood afterward to create this gene interferon, originally intended for Su Jiqiao. But now, he couldn’t afford to wait.
Instantly, Shen Zhuo evolved, a deep red S appearing on the skin under his glove. Meanwhile, the A-class evolutionist convulsed violently, his last breath slipping away. Shen Zhuo sliced his throat with one finger!
Blood gushed out, and the A-class superhuman died, his body hitting the ground with a thud.
The life swap ability was successfully copied, allowing for one use with the capacity to swap ten times more people.
Shen Zhuo originally planned to wait here for Bai Sheng, but the S-class serum had a short duration, so he had to move immediately. Rising to his feet, he gave Yang Xiaodao a playful flick on the head.
“?” The teenager, full of grievances, clutched his head. “My dad hit him too! Maybe he was almost dead when he got here. Why don’t you scold my dad?”
Shen Zhuo remained unperturbed. “Favoritism, I suppose.”
“……” Yang Xiaodao was shocked by the adults’ shamelessness. “Aren’t you always advocating for reasoning?”
“Yes,” Shen Zhuo said, twirling the S-class serum vial between his fingers. “Reasoning through strength.”
Yang Xiaodao: “………………”
Yang Xiaodao looked at Shen Zhuo as if his worldview had been shattered, thinking that love must have twisted the adults’ sense of right and wrong. What else could they think of besides each other?
“Let’s get out of here first, find the caster, beat up the Burmese kid, and remove his supernatural power. The most urgent thing is to get everyone out of the maze.” Shen Zhuo warned condescendingly: “From now on, you are not allowed to smash the wall or kill people. You can only kill someone if I tell you to. Understand?”
Yang Xiaodao silently nodded, and Shen Zhuo gave him another playful smack on the head before grabbing him by the collar and activating the spot-exchange ability.
Whoosh!
A mirror-like portal opened, showing the maze corridor several hundred meters away. The riot squad soldiers they had seen earlier were still milling around, confused.
“It’s happening again!” “What’s going on?!”
The soldiers exclaimed in panic, unable to avoid the portal. The ability locked onto two of them, randomly swapping their positions with Shen Zhuo and Yang Xiaodao, who appeared in the soldiers’ midst.
Then the first space door closed, and the second one opened again. This time behind the door was a group of Burmese civilians. The supernatural power randomly locked onto two of them again, and they were exchanged with each other again!
The soldiers watched helplessly as they lost two more of their companions, and Shen Zhuo and Yang Xiaodao airdropped; then Shen Zhuo and Yang Xiaodao disappeared, and two civilians from nowhere airdropped, leaving everyone stunned for a moment.
The civilians and soldiers stared at each other. Moments later, chaos erupted once more: “Ahhhhh——”
·
If one looked down at the entire maze from a high place, one would find that there is chaos in the maze at this moment. Space gates open randomly in various corners. Every time they open, Shen Zhuo and Yang Xiaodao fall in and disappear, leaving behind a panicked cry.
“Slow down! Slow down, I’m getting dizzy!” Yang Xiaodao felt dizzy, and his stomach was churning as he kept shuttling back and forth. “Ahhh——”
Shen Zhuo: “Bear with it! The ability won’t last long; we have to be quick!”
Yang Xiaodao shouted at the top of his lungs in the strong wind: “I know why my dad likes you! All of us are playing RPGs, but you are the only one playing a card-drawing game with such a rich card pool!”
Shen Zhuo scolded into his ear: “That’s because none of you studied science like I did!”
Yang Xiaodao: “……”
The spot-exchange ability had a limitation: there had to be enough people at the target location. Otherwise, like Bai Sheng being stopped earlier, Yang Xiaodao would be left behind. Based on Shen Zhuo’s understanding of Yang Xiaodao’s luck, this kid probably wouldn’t make it to the end. But to his surprise, after over a hundred transfers, they never encountered a lone person, and Yang Xiaodao passed through every time. Even Shen Zhuo was a bit uncertain: “You’re not using your luck, are you?”
Yang Xiaodao’s eyes had turned into mosquito coils: “No… No! If I had used my luck points, wouldn’t I have left long ago!”
This made sense. Yang Xiaodao’s luck was enough to find the shortest route out of the maze blindfolded, stumble upon a five-million-dollar lottery ticket, and have a prize center right outside the maze.
Thinking of this, Shen Zhuo felt a bit relieved. Maybe this kid wasn’t so unlucky after all. Just then, another space door opened, and the scene changed abruptly.
The bright white metal corridor disappeared, replaced by a gloomy sky and a fresh, rushing wind.
They had teleported directly outside the maze to a mountain road, surrounded by high-level evolutionists and the eight or nine-year-old Burmese boy.
They moved directly outside the maze!
Once the supernatural ability was activated, there was no way to brake, and white light covered the entire field of vision.
The Burmese boy was locked in, along with one random evolutionist, and they swapped places.
Shen Zhuo and Yang Xiaodao appeared on the mountain road, while the Burmese boy screamed hoarsely and, with the evolutionist, was thrown into the maze.
The next moment, the space door closed, vanishing into thin air.
Shen Zhuo staggered to his feet on the rugged mountain road. He knew there was no time to waste on scouting the enemy. He grabbed Yang Xiaodao and prepared to open the next space door—
But then, a more powerful and domineering spatial energy hit them head-on.
Similar abilities canceled each other out, and with an additional layer of rank suppression, it forcibly closed the space door Shen Zhuo was opening.
This kind of strong A-class spatial ability could only belong to one person: Shunsuke Noda.
Shunsuke Noda clapped a hand on Shen Zhuo’s wrist, clicking his tongue in surprise: “Impressive, Supervisor. The first one out, huh?”
Before he finished speaking, Yang Xiaodao punched him in the chest, sending Shunsuke Noda flying several steps!
The impact was tremendous; a crack in the ribs was faintly audible. Shunsuke Noda coughed up blood, and Yang Xiaodao dashed forward like lightning, striking him again. Shunsuke Noda was thrown back, crashing into rocks with a thunderous roar.
Shen Zhuo stepped back quickly: “Watch out for his spatial ability!”
This should be a desolate mountain area around Shan State. The road was rugged and deserted. Not far away, there was a Land Rover with its doors open. There were four or five high-level evolutionists waiting for an opportunity to move, and it is obvious that they were about to encircle the enemy.
Shen Zhuo glanced around but didn’t see Su Jiqiao.
Su Jiqiao wasn’t here?
Shen Zhuo’s mind raced. At this moment, not far away, there was a loud bang. In the billowing smoke, Shunsuke Noda caught Yang Xiaodao’s iron fist with one hand. The high-voltage arc crackled and burst several feet away, enough to burn the human retina and illuminate half of the sky above the mountain stream!
The weight of the desperate struggle was more than a thousand pounds. Shunsuke Noda stared at Yang Xiaodao, his wolf-like eyes flashing with a cold light:
“Do I need to use my ability to deal with this kid?”
He suddenly exerted force and swung his hands. The muscles in his upper arms burst out, and the huge force threw Yang Xiaodao into the air and smashed the huge rock into pieces!
The earth-shaking sound was deafening. Shen Zhuo couldn’t help but stagger, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
“The guy surnamed Su hasn’t come back yet, so I’ll just delay him for a few minutes…” Shunsuke Noda casually moved his shoulders, his bones creaking, and sneered as he walked forward: “Let’s collect this kid’s body first.”
