After All Species Mutated, I Activated Cheats [Apocalyptic] - Chapter 17

The muscles on the landlord’s cheeks had split into several segments, twitching like a mantis’s antennae. Yet, even through that monstrous, mutated mess of a face, one could still see a bone-chilling grin.

Lu Mian’s heart skipped a beat. He took a small step to the side, and the landlord’s head rotated smoothly to follow his movement.

Lu Mian forced a smile that looked more painful than crying. “Hey, big brother, there’s really no need to be so polite. You don’t have to come out to see us off.”

The grin on the landlord’s face widened. The split muscles shifted as if he were trying to speak, but all that came out were a few sibilant, hissing gasps.

The landlord froze, a flicker of bewilderment appearing on his mutated face. He tried to move his mouth again, but he still produced nothing but tuneless, wheezing breaths.

Old Wang asked in a low voice, “What is he doing?”

Lu Mian leaned back slightly. “He probably didn’t realize he’d lost the ability to speak.”

Brother Chen added, “Well, no duh! His mouth is split open like a blooming flower, and he still expects to talk? What was he thinking…”

The landlord’s confusion lasted only a few seconds. He didn’t seem to care much about retaining his human traits. He glanced back at Alan, who tilted her head as if receiving a signal. Then, the landlord stepped aside, clearing the way to the main entrance.

Alan raised her purplish-red forelegs, her needle-like mid-legs surrounding the door. With a series of sharp stabs, she pried the entire door frame loose and kicked it aside.

The doorway, which had been too narrow for a mantis, was instantly expanded into a gaping hole large enough to accommodate their massive bodies.

Alan lowered her head, and after a chorus of scraping sounds, she successfully squeezed inside. At the same time, the shutter at the back of the group let out a piercing screech. Several mantises crawling down from the roof shredded the sheet metal effortlessly. With that, the group’s final barrier was completely torn to pieces.

The landlord’s mouth remained split open, transparent fluid dripping onto the red plastic bags on the floor. The steady drip-drop sounded like a countdown to Lu Mian and his friends’ deaths.

Lu Mian backed up, accidentally stepping on Old Wang’s foot. He jerked his foot back to avoid hurting him but nearly slipped in the process, frantically reaching out to steady himself against a shelf.

His eyes widened as he felt the object beneath his hand. That texture—rows of neat, circular protrusions—felt incredibly familiar.

He tore at the plastic wrap with all his might, successfully pulling out a plastic bottle. In the next instant, several mantises lunged at them simultaneously, only to recoil as if they had been electrocuted before making contact!

Lu Mian stared at the nearly empty mineral water bottle in his hand, his heart leaping into his throat.

The shelf he was standing by happened to be stacked with cases of mineral water. That was what he had felt, and those few cases of water had just saved their lives.

Old Wang and the others were also holding half-empty water bottles, their hands shaking like leaves.

Old Wang gasped, “Holy crap! If it weren’t for this water, we’d be toast!”

Brother Chen urged, “There’s not much water left. We need a plan, fast!”

Lu Mian bit his lip. Driven by a powerful will to survive, he actually began to calm down.

He did a quick head count: there were seven mantises surrounding them.

He grabbed a pack of water and tossed it to Lin Feng, who was standing on the outer edge. “Everyone, take some water! We’re breaking through toward Brother Lin’s direction to reach the kitchen, then out through the small door. Remember, move fast!”

With that, the group coordinated perfectly, splashing water at the surrounding mantises.

Realizing their intent, the landlord hissed and stepped forward, only to be driven back by the water Lu Mian swung his way. He growled in frustration but didn’t dare charge blindly.

Using their limited supply of water, they quickly navigated to the kitchen. Lin Feng and Old Wang each grabbed a gas cylinder while Lu Mian and Brother Chen held the rear with the water. The four of them successfully escaped the mantises’ circle through the kitchen door.

Unwilling to let their prey go, the mantises leaped onto the roof to follow. Because of their fear of water, the number of times they struck out with their legs decreased significantly, but even so, the group’s water supply was vanishing rapidly.

Along the way, Brother Chen had to fend off mantises with water while acting as a living map. By the time they reached the entrance of the swimming center, he was gasping for air. “This… this is it. It’s locked. Who’s going to break the lock?”

Old Wang was about to smash the door with the gas cylinder when Lu Mian’s sharp eyes caught a dark shadow flickering on the ground. He instinctively yanked Old Wang back.

An instant later, a purplish-red mantis leg slammed down from above. Brother Chen reflexively splashed some water upward, and the leg retracted with a whoosh.

Thanks to that strike, they didn’t actually need to pick the lock anymore.

Lu Mian entered the swimming center and did a quick sweep of the environment. The facility wasn’t large. Aside from a massive pool, there were only five rows of spectator seating. Further back were the men’s and women’s changing rooms, and a public restroom sat on the far right.

The pool water hadn’t been changed in a long time. It was of poor quality, looking murky and greenish, with a layer of grime floating near the edges.

Lu Mian shouted, “This is enough water! Quick, put the gas cylinders behind the door and open them! Let the gas out!”

Gas only ignites when it reaches a certain concentration and meets an open flame. However, they were also at risk of gas poisoning. They had to get out of this enclosed space before the concentration exceeded what their bodies could handle.

The commotion at the main entrance grew louder. Lu Mian looked back to see Alan’s enormous head poking through the doorway, followed by her purplish forelegs, her steel-like mid-legs, and finally, her entire long abdomen squeezing through.

Behind her were the green mantises, a half-size smaller, crawling in through the narrow opening in the same fashion.

Old Wang sucked in a breath, his brain stalling as his true nature slipped out. He asked mischievously, “Which one is Cuicui?”

One of the green mantises that had just crawled in tilted its head toward Old Wang.

Old Wang: “Guess it’s you, then…”

Brother Chen dragged Old Wang further inside, unable to stop himself from complaining, “Do you have nothing better to do?!”

Old Wang made a long face. “We might not make it out later. This was the only question I had left before I die, can’t a guy get some closure?”

Lin Feng barked, “Stop fooling around! Get into the changing room, don’t let them hook you!”

The swimming center was small. Once all seven giant mantises had squeezed inside, the only place left to hide was the changing room. Perhaps the presence of the pool water was working; as soon as the mantises entered, their attention was clearly divided. Several of them kept shifting their gaze back and forth between the humans and the pool.

Hiding inside the changing room, the group peered out from the door frame. The thickening smell of gas in the air was becoming nauseating. Old Wang covered his nose. “Now what?”

Lu Mian slowed his breathing, his eyes darting toward the entrance. “Wait! We wait for the ‘mantis brother’ to come in too!”

Brother Chen raised an eyebrow. “Wait for him?”

Lu Mian nodded. “Since they both turned from humans into monsters, the butterfly queen’s strength was already incredible. The four of us couldn’t do anything to her and only killed her by pure luck. Logically, a mantis should be much more powerful than a butterfly. Who knows if he has some special skill? We have to be careful.”

Just as he finished speaking, the light from the main entrance was largely blocked out. Everyone looked toward the door, and the air fell into an eerie silence for a few seconds.

The one appearing at the door was indeed the mantis brother, but he had changed significantly from just a few minutes ago.

His upper body had inexplicably shrunken by at least half, and his back was unnaturally hunched. Two fleshy protrusions had sprouted from his shoulder blades, and four wings as thin as cicada silk had grown from beneath them, draping over his body like a transparent cloak.

His hands had completely degenerated, all five fingers gone. His arms looked like bare branches, his wrists bent forward and covered in reddish-brown barbs. His legs had withered to skin and bone, looking as though they might snap at any moment, yet they had been weirdly elongated, making him much taller.

At this point, the mantis brother had completely shed his human shell and become a mantis! He pitched forward, his forelegs stabbing into the floor with a loud thud, shattering the smooth tiles instantly.

Old Wang’s eyes glazed over. “Hiss! He’s… so hard!”

Lu Mian kept a wooden face, choosing not to comment on Old Wang’s choice of words. He found a discarded slipper near the changing room door. While the mantises were preoccupied with the pool, he chucked the slipper out.

The slipper sent ripples across the calm surface of the pool. Sunlight streaming through the windows reflected off the water, creating dancing flashes of light. The mantises, with their superior vision, were dazzled by the glare, and their last shred of restraint vanished!

With a powerful thrust of their sturdy hind legs, the giant mantises lunged into the pool one after another, creating a continuous, frantic splashing.

Alan stood by the edge of the pool, her long abdomen writhing unnaturally. Several thin, black, wire-like strands burst through her abdominal wall, struggling to crawl out.

As expected, they were parasitized by horsehair worms!

Half of Alan’s body was already touching the water. Her powerful hind legs kept kicking at the ground. If the mantis brother hadn’t been tightly clutching her long abdomen, she would have already been struggling in the water like the others.

Lu Mian’s expression sharpened. “Now! Move!”

Having been prepared for the signal, the group took off at full speed toward the main entrance.

In the pool, the abdomens of those mantises had been ripped open by the parasitic worms. The pool looked like a boiling pot, with mass after mass of black horsehair worms nearly filling the entire basin.

Lu Mian and the others tried their best to keep their eyes forward. Even as the active swarm of worms flickered in their peripheral vision, they could only hypnotize themselves to ignore it.

Just as they were about to escape the area of the pool, a sudden splash rang out.

Lu Mian’s heart accelerated in sync with the sound. He knew the mantis brother couldn’t possibly hold Alan back forever. That splash was the sound of Alan falling into the pool!

In the next second, Lu Mian felt something latch tightly onto his arm. Sharp points pierced his flesh, and a needle-like pain jolted his nerves.

To save the skin on his arm, he skidded to a halt and looked back.

The mantis brother’s forelegs were clamped firmly onto his arm, the reddish-brown barbs hooking into his flesh. Even a slight movement brought a heart-wrenching pain. At the end of his massive abdomen, countless horsehair worms, looking like strands of hair, were thrashing about, struggling to reach the pool.

And that mantis face was pressed right against the back of Lu Mian’s head, agonizingly close!

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