Chapter 48

Chapter 48

On the road, Zhang Hongyuan asked, "How did you know there was someone there?"

"I 'saw' it," Lin Jiaxu replied, then, remembering they couldn't perceive things that way, added after a moment's thought, "but not with my eyes."

Zhang Hongyuan paused, "How can you see without using your eyes?"

Lin Jiaxu blinked innocently, "Just close your eyes and try hard to 'look' toward the place you want to see, and you'll see it."

Zhong Qian rubbed his forehead. The kid's description was too abstract; who could possibly understand how he did it?

He mused, "Is it a unique ability of the Aberrants?"

"I don't know, but I can do it. And don't call me an Aberrant."

Lin Jiaxu's cheeks puffed out slightly; he disliked being referred to that way.

Zhong Qian said, "I didn't say you're an Aberrant, just stating a fact."

The kid frowned, still hating being categorized with Aberrants. "I'm human."

"Alright, you're human."

Zhong Qian smiled. When the kid wasn't being difficult, he was quite compliant—no need to deliberately provoke him.

However, the kid's aversion to Aberrants was palpable.

Satisfied, the child added, "Besides seeing, there's also feeling and smell. There's the scent of humans and the odor of Aberrants over there."

To be safe, Zhong Qian took out a wireless earpiece and handed it to Lin Jiaxu. "Put this on yourself."

"How do you do it?"

Guang Yongwang looked on enviously.

Lin Jiaxu stated matter-of-factly, "I was born with it."

These were skills he was born with. Who would ponder why they know how to eat? He certainly didn't.

Zhong Qian, seeing Lin Jiaxu engrossed in conversation, reached out to help the child put on the earpiece. "So you saw people in the distance and sensed their presence?"

"Yeah."

Lin Jiaxu adjusted the earpiece himself, nodding in confirmation.

All of this clearly surpassed human capabilities, but Zhong Qian himself possessed a special sensitivity to contamination and Aberrants, though his range wasn't as extensive as Lin Jiaxu's, so he accepted it readily.

The vehicles proceeded in an orderly fashion, with Lin Jiaxu providing directions.

As they drove, the road grew increasingly bumpy and uneven. Zhang Hongyuan glanced at the ground, observing that a once-intact section was now fractured, riddled with several potholes.

Judging by the dark marks on the ground and nearby walls, it seemed a battle had taken place here. Zhang Hongyuan felt a surge of hope—the more traces of human activity, the more it confirmed they were heading in the right direction.

There might truly be people here.

"Be careful," Zhong Qian warned. "There are signs of combat here; danger might be lurking nearby."

To help Lin Jiaxu assess the situation, he cracked open the car window on his side.

The child stared intently at the undulating road ahead, where shadows flickered, overlapping and separating.

This scene was remarkably similar to the abandoned building Lin Jiaxu had encountered at Christmas. The previous building had suddenly drawn him in, but here, space itself seemed to overlap, with something massive yet invisible obstructing the road.

What exactly was amiss? The child racked his brain.

The vehicle was about to reach the invisible structure when Lin Jiaxu suddenly cried out, "Stop quickly! There's no road ahead!"

Guang Yongwang slammed on the brakes, jolting everyone forward with the inertia. Zhong Qian swiftly grabbed Lin Jiaxu, and the two tumbled heavily back into their seats.

Lin Jiaxu bumped his head on the visor and groaned, "Ow, that hurt!"

Once the vehicle came to a stop, Lin Jiaxu braced against Zhong Qian and sat up again.

Gazing at the empty road ahead, Lin Jiaxu still couldn't comprehend why, even at such close proximity, he couldn't see the place he had "seen" with his naked eyes.

"There's something ahead; I really saw it," Lin Jiaxu insisted.

Zhong Qian explained, "It's an illusion. Illusions created using contamination energy can deceive the eyes, so even though you sensed it, you can't see where the illusion is with your naked eyes."

Lin Jiaxu blinked, then lowered his head in thought: "So that's how it is..."

Could he create illusions too? It didn't seem difficult; perhaps he could do it?

The child stealthily observed the illusion, planning to try it out once they returned.

Zhong Qian narrowed his eyes, which flashed a bright orange-yellow, and saw contamination rapidly gathering ahead.

Zhong Qian placed his hand on the metal block on his belt. "Captain, there's an Aberrant here, likely high-level."

Zhang Hongyuan also sensed the contamination energy and shouted, "Everyone, prepare for combat!"

In mere seconds, the hidden Aberrant seemed to realize it had been discovered.

A colossal tree suddenly materialized on the empty road, strikingly similar to the tree from the area where they had encountered the rats.

The difference was, this tree's crown swayed unnaturally, then abruptly transformed into sharp branches.

Razor-sharp branches shot toward them, the whistling wind grazing the vehicle and piercing the ground behind them.

In that critical moment, Guang Yongwang executed a sharp swerve.

The armored vehicle skidded sideways but soon crashed hard against an invisible wall. Teammates in the vehicle behind immediately pulled out machine guns and opened fire on the attacking branches, buying them a precious moment.

Lin Jiaxu suddenly remarked, "This tree is the same as the one where those rats were crawling before."

An earlier nagging suspicion crossed Zhong Qian's mind—could this tree be connected to the rats from before?

But now wasn't the time for such thoughts; the Aberrant was attacking.

"Captain, should we just blast it?" Guang Yongwang shouted.

"Blast it? But there are people ahead," Lin Jiaxu interjected.

Zhong Qian quickly urged, "We can't blast it; there really are people in the illusion!"

Zhong Qian couldn't spot anyone, but within this range, his innate perception allowed him to sense a great many survivors nearby.

These people were likely within this space, their presence merely concealed by the Aberrant's abilities.

"I get it now!"

Guang Yongwang stopped thinking about obliterating everything and immediately veered to dodge the branches attacking from all directions.

The colossal tree ahead gave them no chance to escape; countless branches burst through the concrete from the ground, like enormous stumps blocking their teammates' vehicles in the rear and cutting off their escape route.

"Captain, we can't drive out. What do we do now?"

Zhong Qian stood up: "I'll handle it."

Zhang Hongyuan also readied his weapon. As the captain, he couldn’t let a team member face combat alone, even though he knew this Aberrant posed little threat to Zhong Qian.

Zhang Hongyuan: "The contamination concentration here is high, but the Aberrant’s level should have just exceeded A-rank. Stay in the vehicle. Seize an opportunity to break through. Xiao Qian and I will distract it!"

Everyone: "Copy that!"

Lin Jiaxu watched as Zhong Qian opened the car door and got out.

Before getting out, Zhang Hongyuan glanced at the location on the computer—the red zone overlapped with the marker representing their position.

They were right at the epicenter of the contamination in New City.

Seizing the opportunity while they were out, Lin Jiaxu quietly slipped out behind him, running after Zhong Qian.

He glanced at the menacing, enormous black tree, gauged the difference in their power, and muttered under his breath: "Weaker than me, but a bit stronger than that multi-limbed freak last time."

Lin Jiaxu found a relatively safe spot by the roadside and hunkered down, watching Zhong Qian, who had turned into a glowing lightbulb.

Even wearing protective gear, Zhong Qian’s speed didn’t falter. He swiftly grabbed the branches and the attacking limbs, slicing clean through the large tree’s branches thrusting toward him, and was about to scale the tree.

The kid was annoyed. Watching as an observer this time, it seemed Zhong Qian was a notch stronger than him, handling the fight with surprising ease.

"Hmph, I’ll be that strong when I grow up too." Lin Jiaxu stood up, no longer wanting to watch.

The kid dashed toward the illusion constructed by the Aberrant, a few halos of light gently shimmering in the air.

Something suddenly zipped past Guang Yongwang’s face, then vanished from view in the blink of an eye.

Guang Yongwang was taken aback—the small figure looked quite familiar. He wondered if he’d seen things and quickly turned to look inside the vehicle, but the seats were empty.

It really was that kid.

"When did the kid get out of the car?"

He grew anxious and quickly yelled to Zhang Hongyuan and the others: "Lin Jiaxu got out of the car! He suddenly disappeared up ahead—he might have slipped into the illusion!"

Zhong Qian froze mid-motion. This kid was more dangerous and more important than the Aberrant—he couldn’t afford to lose him.

Fortunately, he’d come prepared. Lightly tapping his comms with his left hand, he lowered his gaze to search for the kid’s traces. "Kid, what’s your position?"

Through the earpiece, the kid’s voice came through. He looked at the illusion, where the scene was as tranquil as outside the highway, and said: "I’m inside the illusion."

"What are you doing in there?"

"I’m on a hunt."

Ever since learning that the people in New City weren’t dead and were hiding, Lin Jiaxu had been very curious about where they were hiding.

They were much better at hiding than those kindergarten kids who always insisted on playing hide-and-seek with him.

Hmph, those kids were dumb.

Whether behind the sofa or the door, or even the bathroom… he didn’t even need to look to find them. It was no fun at all. These people hid much better—it shouldn’t be so easy to find them.

The kid looked left and right, treating it like a game as he searched around.

"Don’t go too far. Stay safe, and speak up if anything happens." Zhong Qian pondered for a moment but ultimately didn’t tell him to come back.

The kid’s fighting prowess was quite high, and they were in a contaminated area—essentially his element. If he couldn’t defeat the Aberrant, he could still run. There shouldn’t be anything here that could harm him.

He’d be fine.

"Yeah, yeah, got it."

The kid replied dismissively, quickly ending the lecturing communication.

He was busy looking for people right now.

After Lin Jiaxu entered the illusion, Zhong Qian approached the main trunk of the giant tree.

His long blade left a trail of afterimages, its gleam cleaving the air.

Under such an attack, the blade that should have struck the tree’s core only cut through the tree’s bark. Its thick hide made the attack seem like just a scratch.

Zhong Qian muttered "troublesome" and sighed: "Another hard-to-kill monster."

Zhong Qian’s form shifted, and intense flames burst forth from his body. The color of his hair instantly brightened to a vivid yellow, blown by the scorching air.

With a twist of the dark long blade in his hand, he swung it down fiercely, stirring the surrounding contamination and air.

The giant tree’s branches waved wildly, its dark trunk emitting a sizzling, burning sound.

Suddenly, the ground shook violently, and the giant tree quickly retracted its branches, vanishing from the empty highway.

Zhong Qian nimbly leaped back, flipping in the air before landing on the ground: "It escaped?"

"It ran away?"

Everyone was a bit caught off guard.

This plant-mimicking Aberrant seemed to possess some intelligence. Realizing it couldn’t prey on this target, it chose to flee decisively.

Zhong Qian was speechless. Recently, he kept encountering Aberrants like this—just like that little brat, howling and grabbing onto people when they couldn’t win a fight.

He sheathed his blade, looked in the direction the Aberrant had fled, and walked toward the folded space of the highway illusion. Reaching out, he touched it, and his hand passed through the space, meeting an air wall.

"There’s a wall here," Zhong Qian said.

Zhang Hongyuan walked over and tried as well. "Can’t get through."

No one knew how Lin Jiaxu had managed to enter.

"Then we’ll just break through it."

If they couldn’t find a way in, it didn’t matter—it would just be a bit more troublesome.

Zhong Qian's gaze sharpened as he raised his blade and slashed fiercely at the invisible wall.

"Sshhriiip—"

A scorching heat emanated from the invisible wall, searing open a gap several meters wide. Through the opening, he could see the empty buildings at the end of the desolate highway.

"It must have fled into the illusory realm. I'll go in first," Zhong Qian said.

Zhang Hongyuan cautioned, "Be careful."

Zhong Qian stepped through the opening: "Copy that."

Zhang Hongyuan dusted himself off, turned back to the vehicle, and, with the other team members, drove into the ruptured opening.