It wasn't just the mother toad that was provoked; the larvae beneath her skin were equally agitated.
While Xin Ye struggled to eliminate half of the unhatched mutants, the remaining larvae, sensing the encroaching danger, attempted to burst from the incubation layer prematurely.
He had no intention of letting a single one escape. He plunged his blade into a nearby pore and swept his hand out, slaughtering two more larvae that tried to flee. These underdeveloped creatures looked identical to the first mutant Xin Ye had encountered on the ground floor.
The wounded Surinam toad, recovering from the fresh waves of pain in her tongue and back, began to struggle violently once more. This time, she changed direction, leaping toward the exit of the amusement park.
***
On the other side, Xing Yue and Mirror had settled Lian Muyun next to a vending machine.
Mirror saw that the flesh on Lian Muyun’s left hand had mostly rotted away, with white bone faintly visible beneath. Fearing that failing to clean the mucus and scrape away the necrotic flesh would lead to irreversible damage, he drew a clean knife to perform emergency treatment.
Xing Yue retracted her Unbroken Threads from Lian Muyun’s body. "Aren't you coming back with me to find Xin Ye?"
Mirror’s movements faltered for a moment before he lowered his head to continue with the blade. "He and I have always shared a faint telepathic link. The sensation I just received was the strongest since the moment of my birth... He told me not to go back yet."
Of course he wanted to go back! But the absolute priority of an ability to obey its master’s commands restrained his movements. If he went back now, he would only be a hindrance.
"Then I’ll go." Xing Yue wasn't surprised by Mirror’s choice. She knew Mirror was likely more worried about Xin Ye than she was, but worrying didn't always mean staying by someone's side. "Don't worry, I'll be back soon. Take care of Lian."
Mirror nodded, kneeling by the vending machine as he focused entirely on Lian Muyun’s left hand.
Xing Yue hesitated for a moment, deciding to take off her multi-function watch and hand it to Mirror before leaving. However, just as she unbuckled the strap, the floor tiles beneath her feet began to vibrate. Her hand shook, and she accidentally snapped the buckle back into place.
Mirror felt the vibration too. Since he was only halfway through the procedure, he could only ask, "Can you go to the railing and look down? I’m hearing a lot of noise."
"...It sounds like insectoid mutants?"
The situation they feared most was one crisis following another. Xing Yue immediately agreed, rushing to the railing in a few quick strides to look down.
The upper floors of the large mall were designed with circular platforms surrounding a central void for the escalators, allowing shoppers to look directly down at the commercial activities on the first floor. As Xing Yue leaned over, her vision was immediately met by a swarming, suffocating mass of black.
It took her a moment to recognize the mutants, searching her memory for the answer.
Wood-boring beetles.
A massive swarm of wood-boring beetles. Moreover, because they had evolved toward an insectoid form, they had grown wings... they were a staple of the Surinam toad's diet.
Soon, the croaking of toads echoed from the lower floors. Though much weaker than the mother toad from before, the sheer volume of their combined cries was staggering.
Hunger overrode their instincts for self-preservation. Mutants began leaping from the second, third... even the seventh and eighth floors like dumplings being dropped into a pot, plunging into the small whirlwind formed by the insects. Some of the more fragile juveniles were killed instantly upon impact with the ground floor.
Xing Yue’s limbs went cold. Her mind was filled with a single thought: *It’s over.*
Mirror couldn't see the scene below, but seeing Xing Yue’s stiff back, he knew something terrible had happened. Lian Muyun was on the verge of waking up from the pain, so Mirror administered more medicine to keep him unconscious. While maintaining the precision of his surgery, he monitored their surroundings and noticed something off. "Xing Yue, the vibrations are getting stronger. It’s not coming from downstairs."
If it wasn't from below, there had to be another cause.
Giving herself three seconds to calm down, Xing Yue released her Unbroken Threads, letting them sense the vibrations to find the source. The threads slithered across the floor like snakes, but they hadn't traveled far before they struck the source.
Sensing her threads being blocked, Xing Yue looked up in horror and saw a mutant appearing on the other side of the floor.
...A second Surinam Toad Mother had jumped over.
Xing Yue gripped her threads tightly, pulling on the unbreakable lines with all her might as if that were the only way to find a modicum of inner peace.
On the way here, hadn't Jian Weiwei said there was only one?
They had been lied to. They had been played.
This Surinam Toad Mother was clearly not in her brooding period; her back lacked that nauseating layer of incubation skin. If Xin Ye were here, he would have immediately realized that the juveniles being slaughtered downstairs were this toad's offspring, and the hormone detection Jian Weiwei mentioned had come from the other mother.
The scales had tipped completely against them. Just when Xing Yue thought things couldn't get any worse, she noticed something strange.
The Surinam toad before her seemed to have darker skin. Aside from the red staining the webbing of its forelimbs, its body was darker than the mother toad she had seen in the dim light of the amusement park.
No, that wasn't the toad's natural color. It was...
An energy clinging to it—the color of "Black Box" energy.
Leng Xianye hadn't appeared for a long time. Lian Muyun had only been missing for a short while and was unconscious; what about Leng Xianye...?
Behind the newly appeared mother, a small green toad hopped out. It was the one that had summoned the other high-level mutant in the mall.
A sharp pain spread through Xing Yue’s chest. Her vision blurred, and when she wiped her face, she realized there were tears at the corners of her eyes. She didn't understand why she was crying. Was Leng Xianye really that important to her? They barely spoke a few words to each other normally...
No, now wasn't the time for personal emotions.
She had to kill this mutant.
Xing Yue mentally calculated a distance that wouldn't affect Mirror as he treated Lian Muyun. She took two steps forward, closing the gap. The mutant, already in an aggressive stance, seemed stunned by the human's boldness. It sensed an A-rank... was this human really just an A-rank?
If its offspring hadn't come running back, and if its appetite hadn't been whetted by the insects and the scent of human blood below, it wouldn't have wanted to meddle in this mess. The esper who used black energy earlier had already been a massive headache. The abilities of the others were unknown, and it lacked the confidence to escape with 100% certainty.
The existence of the Mutant Investigation Department was no secret among mutants; after all, human influence on the natural world had been profound even before the apocalypse. This toad had fought many espers before this incubation period and survived, though it had sustained many injuries. With experience, its judgment of an esper’s rank had become increasingly accurate. It could feel that this girl’s rank... was fluctuating.
Xing Yue didn't wait for the mutant to act. She struck first.
The Unbroken Threads were suddenly coated in a layer of silver-purple lightning. They became conspicuous, yet far more lethal. With the speed of a thunderclap, the arcs of light coiled around the toad’s body and tightened instantly, slicing through its flesh and erupting in blossoms of blood.
Faced with a lethal threat, the Surinam toad lost its reason. Ignoring the threads tearing away large chunks of its flesh, it lunged directly at Xing Yue.
She wasn't without a way to dodge, but there were two people behind her.
Xing Yue took the hit head-on. She was pinned under the toad’s foot and dragged for a distance before being snatched up by its tongue, which coiled around her waist. Although her uniform could resist most of the corrosion, the exposed skin touched by the saliva began to dehydrate and dissolve.
A large portion of her tied-back hair was also severed.
Yet the Unbroken Threads did not stop their assault. They even found the toad’s blood vessels and burrowed inside, aiming straight for the heart. The toad tried to kill Xing Yue instantly to stop the threads, but the remaining lines fiercely protected their master, leaving Xing Yue’s hands free to struggle and manipulate her ability.
The human who appeared to be in a desperate plight was invisibly reclaiming the advantage, inch by inch. Covered in wounds, a smile slowly spread across Xing Yue’s lips.
She could do it. She could kill this mother toad. Right now.
Mirror had finally finished clearing the necrotic flesh. He was shocked by Xing Yue’s direct action and didn't dare delay for a second. After quickly binding Lian Muyun’s wrist, he drew the gun from his waist and fired a shot at the upper part of the toad’s tongue.
The toad recoiled in pain but still refused to let go of Xing Yue.
The outer material of the uniform had held out for a long time, but it was now beginning to dissolve. Mirror felt his heart rate accelerating. He feared that once the liquid corroded through to her waist, it would damage Xing Yue’s internal organs—something that couldn't be fixed by mere emergency treatment.
He fired several more shots in succession. Seeing they were useless, he prepared to charge in for close combat with a dagger, just as Xin Ye had done, but his heart rate slowed down at an inopportune moment.
Mirror’s footsteps faltered.
A slowing heartbeat meant Xin Ye was approaching, which was why he felt a sense of relief.
Xin Ye was indeed approaching.
He had been carried out of the amusement park by the toad. He originally thought the Surinam toad wanted to move to a space more advantageous for itself, but instead, it crashed directly into the nearby railing, trying to hurl Xin Ye off the top floor.
Xin Ye managed to hold on, but he couldn't withstand the force as the mutant righted its body, sliding down a significant distance. He stabbed his dagger into the toad’s thigh when he reached its leg, barely steadying himself, only to be kicked in the ribs by a raised hind limb. This time, the pain finally overcame his willpower. A momentary mental blankness caused Xin Ye to lose his grip, and he slammed onto the floor.
Even though no one was there to see his moment of weakness, Xin Ye immediately raised a hand to cover his mouth. Blood flowed between his fingers, dripping into the mucus on the floor tiles.
As expected, he was still too weak.
Sensing the weight on its back was gone, the Surinam toad stopped advancing and turned to look at Xin Ye, who was sprawled on the ground.
An emotion that used to belong only to humans flashed in its eyes: the hatred of losing its children and the triumph of a victor.
The principle of "finishing the job" wasn't just a trope for the protagonists of novels; it was well-known among villains too, whether human or animal.
Although Xin Ye couldn't stand up for the moment, and his appearance—exceptionally beautiful even by mutant standards—made him look even more fragile, the mother toad decided to go over and deliver a final stomp.
This human was very beautiful; he would probably look even more reassuring as a meat pancake.
Xin Ye struggled to lift his head, seeing a massive shadow approaching, slowly looming over him.
He was going to die.
But he didn't want to die yet.
He didn't want to die...
Just as the massive foot was about to crush his body, Xin Ye gritted his teeth and rolled to the side with all his strength, narrowly dodging the stomp.
The mutant hadn't expected its attack to be evaded and began to reassess the human's capabilities.
He forced himself to stand, his entire body trembling violently.
His hand moved to the badge pinned over his heart. The sharp points of the star were somewhat prickly. From the small pouch behind the badge, Xin Ye pulled out a mirror fragment and held it in his hand.
"Teacher Xun."
He knew Xun Yin was listening, even if the other didn't speak.
"If I survive and kill this toad... stop treating my life like a script, okay?"
After saying this, Xin Ye heard a heavy intake of breath. It was Xun Yin’s breath.
A faint smile touched the corners of his mouth, reflected in the mirror fragment.
Xin Ye felt his entire body burning with heat. The tremors caused by his injuries ceased in that instant. He felt as if he were standing on a simulated combat field for the first time, not knowing if his ability was truly powerful, simply and purely looking forward to a victory.
The fragment in his hand emitted a dazzling light. Holding the shard as if it were a dagger, he charged toward the mutant.
***
