Nuclear Radiation Mutants

Years of reading science fiction had taught her one thing: the plainer and more unassuming something looked, the more it deserved attention.

As her mind wandered, Tu Ran suddenly lost her footing. She stumbled forward three or four steps before barely managing to steady herself.

What the hell was that?

She looked around in alarm. The branches of the towering trees in the distance were thrashing violently, and dust was rising slowly from the ground.

The earth was shaking!

She struggled to keep her balance while glancing back over her shoulder. She could hear a sound like helicopter rotors thundering toward them.

But the ancient trees, dozens of feet tall, blocked her view.

Tu Ran grew more and more puzzled. She turned to look at Xie Xu.

Xie Xu, however, didn't seem surprised at all. He kept walking forward with steady, confident strides.

Tu Ran suddenly sensed something off.

The direction he was heading led straight into a sheer cliff face.

She looked up. The barren mountain wall, its pale yellow rock and sand exposed, towered a hundred feet high, blotting out the sky. She couldn't even see its peak.

He wasn't planning to climb that, was he? Tu Ran swallowed hard.

Sure, his gear was top-notch, but he wasn't a gecko. Climbing a cliff that steep was impossible—unless he could fly over it.

Which was actually possible.

Realizing that, panic seized Tu Ran.

She didn't yet know how far human technology had advanced in this world. But given that her original body had been bold enough to come to this godforsaken place alone, humans clearly had plenty of confidence in their tech. They might well have developed flying vehicles.

Tu Ran called out urgently to Xie Xu's retreating back: "Take me—"

Before the word "with" could leave her mouth, she was dumbfounded again.

Xie Xu didn't use a flying vehicle as she'd expected. He simply lifted his leg and stepped straight into the mountainside. Ripples spread out from him in waves, like water, and within a second, he had vanished from sight.

What the hell was that?! A wormhole?

Technology had gotten this advanced?

She didn't have time to marvel. The ground began to vibrate with a deep, rhythmic pounding, growing more intense—as if hundreds of beasts the size of mountains were charging toward her, ready to shatter the earth beneath their feet.

Even the light in the sky dimmed.

Tu Ran thought back to the only words Xie Xu had spoken. It hit her: the explosion from her bomb blasting that chicken monster had probably drawn every other creature in the area straight to her.

She made a split-second decision and threw herself at the spot where Xie Xu had disappeared.

The moment she hit the wall, a blinding white glow enveloped her. It had the texture of jelly, soft and comfortable.

The last image burned into her vision made her blood run cold.

Over a dozen shaggy monsters were racing toward her at full speed. Their bodies were shaped like tigers, but their lower faces resembled wild boars, with vicious tusks jutting out. Worst of all, their upper faces looked eerily human.

What the hell were those?!

Nuclear radiation mutants?!

Tu Ran's worldview had just been shattered yet again.

Thankfully, she'd been fast enough.

If she'd been even a step slower, she would have been devoured clean by those freakish hybrids by now.

She lingered in the jelly-like substance for only an instant. Then, before her eyes, an entirely different scene materialized.

Centered on where she and Xie Xu now stood, a semicircle of densely packed rifles and cannons surrounded them, sealing off every escape route.

Behind the gaping black muzzles were countless pairs of vigilant eyes. Soldiers in full combat gear trained their weapons on her and Xie Xu. She had no doubt that if they made so much as a twitch, these men would pull the triggers without a moment's hesitation.

Helicopters circled endlessly overhead, as if they could unleash a barrage of shells at any second and blast her to smithereens.