Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Wilderness Island

The ground, gray-black and rotten, bubbled ceaselessly; the oak and hornbeam trees twisted into grotesque shapes, their branches like the withered claws of witches. Underfoot, unknown grasses oozed a sap the color of blood; in the low-lying spots, tufts of fuzzy mycelium grew thick. This was the scene Ji Cheng saw when he slipped into the forest.

"I'm in a forest nestled in a river valley," Ji Cheng recalled, thinking back to the things he'd observed while descending from the air. "The entire island is cut apart by several valleys, forming a crescent shape, and through the dense fog, I could just make out the ruins of some buildings."

He pulled on his gloves and brushed aside the surface layer of decaying earth, revealing a markedly darker and drier soil beneath, at least a finger joint thick.

"This is a charcoal layer. Judging by the accumulation above, there must have been a major fire here some fifty or sixty years ago—enough to sweep across the whole island," Ji Cheng mused. "That would coincide with the time Baishan Star lost contact with the Empire."

At this thought, Ji Cheng's brow furrowed.

By his reasoning, this small island could now be considered part of the wilderness zone in the strictest sense.

Generally speaking, any area that once had human inhabitants and metal objects, but lacked regular military sweep-and-clear operations, would be classified as a wilderness zone, with a risk of mutated animals.

This meant that, aside from being wary of other competitors, he also had to guard against attacks from mutated creatures at any moment.

Ji Cheng glanced at the bubbling rot of the earth and activated his biochemical mask. A pale arc of light shimmered in front of his face, forming a shield that would filter out toxic molecules from the air.

He pressed on, and as he ventured deeper, the oaks and hornbeams gave way to a dense mass of black beech trees. Even through the mask, the scent of mold was unmistakable. The ground was strewn with detritus, webs, and fungi. In some places, the trees were capped entirely by umbrella-shaped mushrooms and poisonous toadstools.

The woods were silent; most of the birds had likely migrated, leaving only the hoarse caws of crow-like creatures echoing from the outskirts.

Suddenly, Ji Cheng froze, slipping cautiously into the shadow of a beech tree.

A faint rustling came from ahead, followed by the grating sound of "tsss, tsss, tsss," and then the snap of a dead branch.

A metallic flood, formed entirely of bottle caps, surged forth from the groaning trunks.

"Bottle cap spiders," Ji Cheng wiped the sweat from his brow, "just a false alarm."

Among mutated animals, bottle cap spiders were among the least aggressive. Their bodies were fused with a medley of beer caps in various colors and brands, making them look more like heaps of household trash.

These spiders had no eyes. Their heads and torsos bore hornlike protrusions, and their legs bristled with sharp spines. While their blindness made them less dangerous, anyone who blocked their path would be instantly shredded into bits, chewed to pulp, leaving not a trace behind.

The metallic tide, stretching at least twenty meters, swept past, and the forest fell silent once more.

"Since this place was chosen as the site for ability-user selection, there shouldn't be any mutants too dangerous," Ji Cheng thought as he trudged along the path left by the bottle cap spiders. His wrist computer was already recording his movements.

"According to the scholars on Baishan Star, mutated animals are classified as Tail, Body, Order, and Transcendent. The mightiest Transcendent-class mutants are comparable to those who have undergone third-stage gene injection."

"But these classifications don't always reflect their true strength. Their combat abilities fluctuate greatly, mainly because each kind of mutant has its own specific method of restraint."

A person armed with a firearm, if knowledgeable, could handle some Tail-class mutants. Without such knowledge, even an ability user could easily meet their end.

Take the bottle cap spider, for example—it fears burning alcohol most. The tumor-like organ below its thorax explodes violently when exposed to flaming alcohol, triggering a chain reaction. A mere twenty liters of alcohol at seventy-five percent concentration could have wiped out the swarm he just passed.

But to confront them head-on would be a challenge, even for an ability user, despite their low classification.

Ji Cheng was confident in this area. He had memorized the "Comprehensive Guide to Energy Crystal Mining," which devoted dozens of pages to mutated animals and their specifics; he knew how to deal with most common types.

While calculating his bearings from his path, he moved forward with utmost caution.

Even after their connective tissues mutated, these beasts retained certain instincts, including territoriality.

Research suggested that bottle cap spiders liked to crawl along the edges of other mutants' territories, leaving crisscrossing tracks like webs. It was their unique way of weaving.

Ji Cheng followed these tracks, hoping to avoid other mutated creatures.

Whether by luck or fate, he traveled several kilometers without encountering any mutants or other competitors who had been dropped onto the island. It seemed as though he was utterly alone in this region.

Night descended, and with it, the sea wind brought a thunderstorm.

Thunder boomed intermittently overhead as rain, thick as oil, poured down in sheets, splattering the rotten soil. The wind, however, soon swept the storm away.

In the aftermath, the entire valley was shrouded in an even denser fog.

Ji Cheng continued along the bottle cap spiders' trail until he heard the sound of running water, finally allowing himself to relax.

"Typically, the riverbanks are safer."

He parted a few stiff branches, revealing a river choked with colorful foam. Even from a distance, the acrid smell of cyanide assaulted his senses.

Chemical pollution—common enough in the wilderness.

By habit, Ji Cheng glanced left and right, about to step forward when his expression shifted. He crouched, retreating a few steps without a sound, and looked impassively to his left.

There, the mist twisted and parted, revealing a bizarre figure.

It was shaped like a demon monkey, its body shrouded in long, dense, dark-red iron wire. Its muscles bulged, teeth and claws razor-sharp, and its gaping maw stretched from one ear to the other.

"Three-Eyed Iron Demon." Ji Cheng knew there was no avoiding this one. He drew his Vulture pistol without hesitation.

He recalled the "Comprehensive Guide" by heart, and the details of the beast leapt to mind:

[Species]: Three-Eyed Iron Demon
[Mutation Grade]: Lower Tail
[Habitat]: Moist, dense jungle; rocky tropical thickets
[Radiation Tolerance]: Low
[Diet]: Rotting viscera or oily pollutants
[Genetic Origin]: Believed to be a fusion of demon monkey and construction waste
[Identification]: Body covered in dark-red iron wire; bony protrusions along the sides of the nasal bone, with ridged spines running lengthwise, bright red in between; robust physique.
[Physical Structure]: Body length 131-156 cm; tail 12.2-15.6 cm. Adult males have lighter hair on the back and darker chest and belly. Females are paler, with shorter, broader faces and blunter snouts.

The Three-Eyed Iron Demon was another Tail-class mutant; the dark-red iron wires served as both armor and weapon.

The rust on these wires harbored millions of bacteria and deadly compounds. Even a minor scratch would allow these horrors to dissolve all flesh, muscle, and bone in hours, leaving only rapidly decaying innards—a meal for the Iron Demon.

Ji Cheng crouched, raised his gun in a flash, and as the mechanical sight framed the beast’s massive head, a short bullet split the air, striking directly between its two eyes.

The creature fell as if struck by lightning, the heavy lead-core bullet tearing out a mess of fetid tissue and splattering it across the soil.

That was the Three-Eyed Iron Demon's weak spot: a thumb-sized hole in the center of its hard skull, devoid of skin or the dense iron wire, where a pupil-like blackness concealed its brain.

But one shot was not enough to finish it.

Using the cover of grass, Ji Cheng darted forward. His arm tensed, muscles knotting and swelling, turning a dark blue-black as the Tyrant Serum surged.

His arm became as hard as forged steel, utterly unfazed by the toxic wires, as he reached for the Iron Demon’s throat.