After All Species Mutated, I Activated Cheats [Apocalyptic] - Chapter 14

On the main artery of City X, a silver car sped down the empty street. Hot on its tail were several giant mantises, each larger than the vehicle itself. The rhythmic thrumming of their wings was loud enough to drown out the roar of the engine.

Brother Chen gripped the steering wheel as it vibrated violently under his hands, his eyes locked on the road ahead. “The turn for our neighborhood is just up here, but we can’t shake those big bastards. What’s the move?”

In the jolting back seat, Lu Mian struggled to click his seatbelt into place. “We can’t go back! Those things are high-tier threats. To them, the people in our complex would be nothing more than a tray of fragrant twice-cooked pork. Head the other way!”

“Got it! Hang on!” Brother Chen shouted.

He yanked the steering wheel, and the force of the turn slammed everyone to the left as the tires screeched against the asphalt.

The city’s landmarks were almost entirely buried under overgrowth. Along the long stretch of road, they could only catch glimpses of the azure sky through the dense canopy of mutated leaves lining the streets. Lu Mian gripped the door handle, searching the sea of green for any useful information.

Suddenly, a splash of blue amidst the verdant mess caught his eye. His evolved compound eyes allowed him to read a road sign over a hundred meters away. The sign was half-hidden by overgrown weeds, leaving only the last two characters visible: “…ping Road?” Recalling the local geography, Lu Mian quickly identified their location.

“Brother Chen, turn into the intersection a hundred meters ahead,” Lu Mian directed. “That’s the Heping Road alleyway. If I remember correctly, it’s just wide enough for one car to pass! Turn there!”

The Heping Road alleyway was the only piece of the old city center that had never been redeveloped. It was a dense cluster of self-built houses, a labyrinth of twists and turns where nine out of ten first-timers would get hopelessly lost.

Plans to rebuild this old district had been shelved due to the sheer scale of the project, and it had unexpectedly become City X’s most famous food alley, home to countless local delicacies.

As a local through and through, Brother Chen knew the alleyway like the back of his hand. He licked his dry lips. “If we go in there, we’ll have to slow down. If the mantises catch up…”

Lu Mian glanced back at the silhouettes looming behind the car. He counted four of them. “It’s fine. The buildings in the alley are packed tight. While there’s enough room for a car on the ground level, the second floors all jut outward significantly. Those mantises are too bulky to get down here. From their perspective, they’ll only see our car through a tiny crack. It’s much safer than the open road!”

“Holy crap, they’re gaining on us!” Old Wang yelled.

Brother Chen grit his teeth. “Going into the alley! Hold on tight!”

The brakes screeched as the car made a nimble turn, accurately finding the entrance to the narrow alleyway hidden behind the trees.

Lu Mian gripped the handle, his palms aching from the tension.

The alleyway was a maze of intersecting paths. Brother Chen maneuvered the car through the narrow passages. Just as Lu Mian predicted, even though the giant mantises had caught up, they were forced to hop across the rooftops several stories up, unable to reach the car.

Old Wang let out a long breath. “Lord have mercy. Why is our luck so rotten? We finally go out for a stroll and we hit the jackpot like this…”

Lin Feng’s tensed muscles relaxed slightly, though his expression remained grim. “We can’t just keep driving aimlessly in here. We need a way to lose them.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out,” Brother Chen said. “I just filled the tank last time. I can circle this place a dozen times if I have to. Take your time.”

Through the semi-transparent sunroof, Lu Mian kept a close eye on the four giant mantises overhead. They weren’t just brainlessly chasing the car, they were clearly coordinated, occupying four distinct positions. Whenever the car turned into a new alley, the mantises adjusted their formation, keeping the group boxed in.

“Brother Lin is right,” Lu Mian noted. “Circling the alley isn’t a long-term solution. The longer this drags on, the worse off we’ll be.”

Suddenly, Lu Mian noticed a change in the sound of the wings. He looked up and saw the mantis on the right side of the car accelerate. Its hard middle leg lunged down through a gap between the buildings, stabbing straight toward the car!

“Brake!” Lu Mian barked.

Brother Chen’s reflexes were sharp. He slammed on the brakes, sending everyone flying forward. If they hadn’t been wearing seatbelts, they likely would have gone through the windshield.

But it wasn’t the sudden stop that made their hearts sink, it was the yellow-green limb that appeared less than a meter in front of their bumper.

Brother Chen cursed out loud, spun the wheel, and floored the gas again.

A second after the car lurched forward, another yellow-green leg stabbed into the spot they had just occupied, the angle of the strike scraping a layer of plaster off a nearby wall.

Old Wang looked at the shattered concrete floor and walls, hissing through his teeth. “My god! Are their legs made of iron?”

Lu Mian had no time for complaints. He was hyper-focused on the four mantises, his brain rapidly calculating the trajectory of their strikes. “Brake! Gas! Left! Right! Gas! Right…”

Brother Chen followed the instructions with pinpoint accuracy, his hands and feet working in perfect sync. The constant shifting between the brakes and the accelerator sent the passengers tossing and turning in their seats.

In an instant, the brief respite they had gained by entering the alley vanished, replaced by a new, deadlier crisis.

The crisis of being turned into human kebabs.

Lu Mian focused intensely on predicting their next move, terrified that one wrong call would lead to an iron leg piercing through the car. But at that moment, the mantis on the right side began to bloat. Its large abdomen expanded like a balloon, transforming from a sleek oval into a bulbous sphere.

With a loud pop, the overextended abdomen finally reached its limit and burst.

Suddenly, a deluge of dark brown matter poured down, completely coating the car’s sunroof and windshield. Long, thin horsehair worms began to writhe across the glass, coiling around one another like a messy ball of black yarn.

At the sight, Lu Mian’s scalp prickled with horror. Goosebumps erupted across his arms, and a wave of revulsion washed over his skin.

“Crap! I’m losing it!” Old Wang screamed.

With his visibility gone, Brother Chen panicked and brought the car to a halt.

“Get out!” Lu Mian roared.

He didn’t have time to soothe his terrified nerves. The moment the car stopped, he unbuckled, threw open the door, and leaped out in one fluid motion. He didn’t dare look back, fearing it would haunt his nightmares forever.

The others were just as fast. Within seconds, they had abandoned the vehicle. The silver SUV was promptly riddled with holes by the iron legs of the remaining mantises.

They pressed themselves against the walls, running forward without a moment’s pause. The mantis legs pursued them relentlessly, the thud-thud-thud echoing through the narrow path. The concrete walls of the residential buildings offered no protection, crumbling under the strikes like crackers. Flying bricks and stone nipped at their heels, driving them forward like a death warrant.

Lu Mian looked at the upcoming intersection, his heart sinking.

Where they were now, the buildings provided cover, but the intersection was much wider. A giant mantis had already landed at the junction ahead, its massive compound eyes staring directly at them, the palps near its mouthparts twitching violently.

“Damn it! Is it just waiting for dinner to be served?” Brother Chen shouted.

“What do we do?” Old Wang panted.

While dodging the mantis legs, Lu Mian scanned their surroundings. He spotted a building with its door slightly ajar near the intersection. “One o’clock! The house with the vermilion tiles on the doorframe! The door is open, we’ll hide in there and find another way out!”

But just as the words left his mouth, Old Wang, who was leading the pack, suddenly vanished.

Brother Chen’s eyes widened. “Eh?”

A second later, Brother Chen also disappeared from Lu Mian’s sight.

Lu Mian’s brow twitched. He had clearly seen a hand reach out and yank Old Wang and Brother Chen inside. Not wanting to wait for an invitation, he followed them into the iron door that had suddenly swung open. Lin Feng, running last, was equally quick to follow.

Once they were inside, the homeowner slammed the door and locked it with practiced speed. A split second later, a series of booming thuds shook the door. Dents appeared on the metal panel, some so deep that pinpricks of light from outside shone through.

Cold sweat broke out on their skin as they scrambled back, away from the door.

The booming lasted for a while, making everyone’s ears ring. Miraculously, the seemingly flimsy iron door held firm.

Eventually, the giant mantises gave up on their meal, and silence returned to the outside world. The homeowner, standing in line with them, let out a long sigh of relief and looked at the door with a pained expression. “I’m glad I ordered the thickest steel plates when I had this door made. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have dared pull you in.”

Likely having not spoken for a long time, the person’s voice was tight and high-pitched, sounding like a eunuch from a historical drama, which made the listeners slightly uncomfortable.

The group finally regained their composure and expressed their gratitude to the person who had saved them.

Old Wang, being naturally social, instinctively reached out to pat the person’s shoulder, but after getting a clear look at the homeowner, he awkwardly pulled his hand back. “Uh… thank you!”

“Much appreciated!” Brother Chen added.

“Thanks,” said Lin Feng.

Lu Mian understood Old Wang’s hesitation. The person before them was difficult to describe in a single word. He followed the lead of Chen and Lin, tactfully avoiding a title. “Thank you,” he said simply.

The man was quite imposing. From his features alone, there was no mistaking his gender, the faint shadow of a beard on his chin made it clear he was a man.

Old Wang had hesitated because the homeowner’s face was covered in heavy, smoky eyeshadow, and he was wearing a voluminous, snow-white gauze gown.

The kind of puffy, white gown with a hoop skirt that would be considered extravagant even for a woman.

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