After All Species Mutated, I Activated Cheats [Apocalyptic] - Chapter 4

Everyone’s breath hitched completely. Aside from the curse Lu Mian spat out, no one wanted to speak.

The lights in the hallway flickered on and off, as if the wiring had a bad connection. In those brief seconds when the light flared, the sight before them was enough to make anyone’s legs go weak.

On the pale tiled floor, fleshy insects as long as an adult’s arm crawled back and forth. Six thin, bright red legs moved incessantly, creating a rhythmic scratching sound.

Lu Mian forced himself to look closely. His gaze swept over those eerie, smiling faces, and a cold sweat broke out across his back. These insects were the very same human-faced butterflies that had broken their wings!

Suddenly, with a sharp pop, the hallway lights cut out entirely. In the pitch darkness, pairs of longing eyes flickered with a faint, eager glow, staring at them without moving a muscle.

Old Wang shouted, “Holy crap! Run!”

His voice was loud and piercing. Ignoring the ringing in his ears, Lu Mian followed the others and bolted.

In the dark, he stepped on something soft and squishy. A second later, the sound of a baby crying erupted from behind him.

Old Wang swung his pickaxe, slamming a “butterfly-stick” that was blocking the path against the wall. It hit the ground with a wet thud, and judging by the sound, it wasn’t light.

Old Wang was stunned, “No way! These things can cry?”

Lin Feng slammed a door shut, putting his weight into a stomp to crush a butterfly-stick that had tried to sneak in. “Heaven knows if they’re crying or excited! Maybe in their eyes, we’re just a hot, delicious meal.”

This comment drew immediate protests from the group.

Xiao Sun pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, his face twisted in misery. “Don’t… stop scaring me!”

Brother Chen added, “Can we focus on something positive for once?”

The group climbed up another floor. It wasn’t physically exhausting, yet their limbs felt heavy and weak.

The door to Room 502 was tightly shut. The sound of a baby crying drifted out from behind it. Compared to the chaotic wailing in the hallway, the cries inside sounded much more organized and disciplined.

Xiao Sun pulled a key from his pocket but hesitated to open the door. “There are probably even more of those bugs in 502. Should we think of a plan first?”

As he spoke, the sounds of fluttering wings, scratching, and crying grew closer in the dark hallway. It didn’t seem like they were going to be given the luxury of time to strategize.

Old Wang snatched the keys from Xiao Sun’s hand and moved to open the door without hesitation. “We’ve come this far, there’s no use overthinking it. I thought the hallway would at least be safe. I figured we had strength in numbers, so we’d push through, take a look, or maybe save someone. But who knew the hallway would be crawling with them? We’re surrounded like dumplings in a pot. There’s no escape either way, so we might as well go in and fight. Maybe we can actually win a life for whoever’s inside.”

His words were blunt, but they made sense. Xiao Sun sighed and stopped resisting.

The group stepped back, tightening their grip on their weapons.

When Old Wang opened the door, an indescribable sour stench wafted out. It smelled like something fermenting, mixed with the rot of decaying meat.

They exchanged glances, a bad premonition rising in all of them at once.

The apartment was dim, the lights off. The baby’s crying stopped the moment they opened the door. This meant whatever was inside knew they had arrived.

The smell of rotting meat grew even thicker. Lu Mian slowed his breathing, suppressing the nausea churning in his stomach as he crept inside.

After only a few steps, he bumped into Xiao Sun. He stepped back and was about to ask what was wrong when he realized the men in front of him were standing frozen, staring toward the living room.

Lu Mian followed their gaze. The sight that met his eyes caused his brain to buzz, going blank for a moment.

By the faint moonlight, he could dimly see a person “placed” on the dark sofa. He thought of it as “placed” because the body was wrapped in a thick layer of something, obscuring the outline of the legs. The head rested against the back of the sofa while the feet touched the floor, making the body as stiff and straight as a log, with the lower back suspended in the air.

This was clearly not the posture of a living person.

Directly in front of this corpse, the area was densely packed with human-faced butterflies. Some were wingless “sticks” and others were fully winged, covering the walls and ceiling. Centered around the corpse, they formed a living web.

It looked as though these creatures had been holding some sort of pilgrimage before the group interrupted.

Now that their “grand ceremony” had been disturbed, the human-faced butterflies turned their heads in unison, staring directly at the intruders.

A breeze blew through, fluttering the white sheer curtains in the living room. The butterflies’ wings trembled, shaking out a cloud of fine powder.

Someone swallowed loudly. Though the sound was tiny, it startled the swarm. They moved toward the group with terrifying synchronization, their hollow mouths twitching.

The baby’s cry started up again!

Lu Mian cursed under his breath, “The person is already dead, let’s get out of here!”

The others finally snapped out of their shock, but it was too late.

Lin Feng whispered, “We can’t!”

Lu Mian looked toward the main door. Through the gap, he could clearly see the human-faced butterflies gathering outside. That door was their only exit, and though they hadn’t locked it, the path was now blocked.

Inside the room, the butterflies continued to close in, gradually surrounding them in a circle. Just as everyone thought the fight was about to begin, the swarm stopped abruptly.

The sudden silence was suffocating. A moment later, a weak coughing sound came from the sofa. It was a repetitive, hacking sound, as if something was stuck in the throat that could neither be coughed up nor swallowed down.

Lu Mian stiffened, looking toward the sofa. The tightly wrapped corpse was standing up in a way that seemed to defy gravity. The wrapping on its chest heaved as something struggled to break free.

Old Wang stammered, “Is that… not dead yet?”

Lu Mian backed away, his unease growing. He watched the rising figure. “Doesn’t this look like… a corpse reanimating?”

Brother Chen noted, “A bit too accurate.”

Xiao Sun pleaded, “Can we use less creepy terms, please?”

Old Wang asked, “Are these butterflies poisonous? Should we just make a break for it?”

Lin Feng pointed out, “They seem to have powder on them…”

“You mean on their wings?” Old Wang said. “I saw it when the wind blew earlier. What happens if that powder touches you?”

Lu Mian felt around on the shoe rack behind him and found a high-heeled shoe. Narrowing his eyes, he hurled it forward. The shoe arched through the air and landed a direct hit on the twitching figure by the sofa.

The creature seemed stunned for a moment after being hit, but then its writhing became even more violent.

Lu Mian muttered, “Maybe you’ll end up like that thing.”

Old Wang gasped, “You mean… we’ll die? Or reanimate?”

Lu Mian kept his eyes fixed on the struggling corpse. “I don’t know. The one twitching over there was likely dead before the butterflies showed up. What we can confirm is that the powder from their wings can reanimate a body.”

He paused, then added, “Doesn’t that thing look a lot like… a pupa?”

The others stared at the corpse and fell silent.

Brother Chen took a small step forward. “So, it’s going to emerge from a cocoon?”

Lu Mian grabbed a few more shoes from the rack, all high heels. He raised an eyebrow and tossed them to the other side of the living room. “Probably.”

Several butterflies chased after the shoes and caught them mid-air.

Seeing this, Lu Mian squinted. He couldn’t shake the feeling that these insects were showing a strange reverence to the corpse, like worker bees serving a queen.

Suddenly, Old Wang yelped again, “Crap! It’s coming out!”

Lu Mian gripped his club so hard it creaked.

Amidst the quickening cries of the swarm, a hole was torn into the wrappings of the corpse. Something insect-like hovered at the opening. Seconds later, with a loud rip, the wrapping was torn in two.

A pungent, fishy stench hit them. Everyone doubled over, gagging from the overwhelming smell.

Lu Mian wiped the bile from his lip and looked up.

It was a giant, human-shaped butterfly-stick. It had a human-sized torso with six arms growing from its chest. The lower half wasn’t legs, but the long, bloated abdomen of a butterfly.

Its head was bowed, its body supported on the coffee table by its six hands. Two long, thin antennae sprouted from its smooth, hairless head.

Its back was far more grotesque. A large, shriveled mass of flesh resembling a tumor sat there, dripping with a mysterious, wet fluid.

As the breeze blew again, the stench intensified. Lu Mian held his breath, his eyes watering from the acrid air.

As the wind hit the creature, the slime on its back dried at a visible rate. It began to tremble violently, and pained groans escaped its throat.

The “tumor” on its back slowly unfurled. Four thin, pale pink wings of flesh opened gradually. Under the moonlight, Lu Mian could see the intricate network of blood vessels within the nearly transparent wings.

The body that was once human had now completely metamorphosed into a massive human-butterfly!

Lu Mian watched, unable to process the sight. He had no idea what kind of species he was even facing anymore.

The cries of the smaller butterflies became chaotic. Somehow, he could sense a note of excitement in the noise. They were celebrating.

Lu Mian covered his ears, his vision swimming from the high-frequency sound and his eardrums throbbing with pain. He watched as the human-butterfly began crawling toward them using its six hands.

Suddenly, the creature lifted its head.

Lu Mian found himself staring into a pair of compound eyes that were larger than a human face. The creature looked at him silently, things spinning rapidly within those massive eyes.

Then, on that horribly mutated face, a slow smile began to spread.

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