The Self-Evolved

From the surveillance monitor, these people were warmly welcomed by the other survivors once they entered the building. By rough estimation, there were thirty to forty survivors in this hotel building and about ten of those were assigned firearms; most of the rest were young women with a few elderlies thrown in.

This was a mini assembly site but the rules of survival here were obviously not as brutal as what they would be later during the apocalypse. While the young women had ambiguous relationships with the men who wielded firearms, they were not blatant playthings. No one had torn off the veil of morality yet.

Lin Chao saw a very young boy in the center of the group, about sixteen or seventeen years old, with a distinct look of youth. The people clustered around him like he was on a pedestal. However, it was clear that this young boy was the actual master of the assembly site.

It surprised Lin Chao.

He took note of it before following the monitor to track Lin Shiyu. She was carried to a luxurious room by a brawny man and thrown onto the bed. The man seemed to be considering something as he looked at her body before shaking his head and closing the door behind him as he left.

Since then, the room had stayed closed, evidence that Lin Shiyu was still inside.

Lin Chao glimpsed at the room number then the brawny man who carried her back before dropping his gaze on the boy leader, promptly locating him through the surveillance screens.

He was currently in the underground wine storeroom of this hotel.

Lin Chao opened the security room and hid within the light, swiftly dashing to the wine cellar.

He did not meet any survivors on his way as they were in their respective rooms. Some were wasting time away on game consoles, some slept the time away, while others pondered how to keep on surviving.

Lin Chao easily arrived at the wine cellar.

He paid attention to the movement behind the door before opening it silently with his unlocking skills upon hearing no sound.

The refraction of light made his body transparent. From the inside, it looked like the door was automatically opened as if blown ajar by a soft breeze.

Lin Chao scanned the room briefly.

The wine cellar was incredibly spacious and stored an assortment of exquisite red wine as well as rare renowned white wine on the shelves. In spite of it, there was no one in there right now.

Lin Chao was doubtful. The monitor showed that the boy leader did not leave upon entry. How could he disappear?

He entered the cellar and looked around alertly. Soon enough, he caught on to soft noises that came from the back of a shelf.

With eyes that slightly glinted, Lin Chao stealthily went to the front of the shelf and spied from the gaps. There was a small storeroom behind the shelf with its door half open while a rotten stench emanated from it.

Through the gap, Lin Chao squinted when he saw the situation inside.

There were a few wooden racks in the room with two women hung on them. Their beauty was above average, and both of them were buck naked. One of them was completely intact while the other was a little too tragic to look at. Her chest was cut flat while a gash ran down between both sides of her ribs with her intestines and internal organs all gone. There were several human arms belonging to both males and females on the table beside the rack.

Blood was everywhere in the pungent, dimly lit storeroom!

Roar!

A few low growls came from the darker part of the small room and six festering arms extended from the darkness, grabbing the arms on the tainted table before returning to the darkness where chomping sounds were heard.

Zombies?

Lin Chao was quite startled.

He would never mistake something like this – the rotten arms belonged only to zombies!

Aside from the boy leader, a girl wearing a black fitting formal dress and a black veil that covered the upper half of her fair face and eyes, leaving only the lower half of her nearly perfect cheeks and lips colored in bold red that contrasted against her snow-white skin stood at the front of the bloodied table. She looked stunning and had an elegant chill about her.

"Is this really okay?" The boy leader looked at the darkness fearfully and took involuntary steps backward.

The black gowned girl had a ringing voice that was tinged with the naivety of a young girl that did not fit her finesse. She grinned. "Don't be afraid. How adorable are they/ They'll evolve after eating another ten people! By then, it'd be a piece of cake for you to rule this city with their help."

Swallowing, the boy leader turned to look at her worriedly. "Yu, ac–actually… it isn't important whether I take over this city or not. I just want to be with you."

"What a foolish thing to say," the girl replied softly as she held his face, "These monsters are all over the place outside. We've got to do this if we want to stay alive!"

Taking in the beautiful face and the faint sweet smell of her up close, the boy leader blushed easily and stuttered, "I... I know."

"Good boy," the black-dressed girl said as she gently stroked his hair, "We've got to do something when both of us have such strong powers. Now that the world is filled with chaos, let us be the rulers of the new world! Bring another two people over tomorrow."

The boy leader paused. "Will that be too frequent? The people who recently went missing were reported to have gone out on their own or have been eaten by zombies. Won't people begin suspecting if more goes missing?"

"Bring whoever dares suspect a thing over then," the black gowned girl announced casually while tipping the boy's chin.

The boy leader could see his own reflection from the inky orbs that were her eyes and felt his heartbeat quicken. He panicked a little and turned away. "Okay."

The corners of the black gowned girl's lips lifted at an angle as she replied, "I heard that someone brought a young girl back this afternoon. You can send her here tonight. A kid is pretty much useless anyway and will only waste food…"

"Who is it?!" She turned around abruptly, sharp gaze trained outside.

The boy leader was stunned. Going over to open the door, he saw nothing outside and spoke curiously, "There's no one."

The girl wore a slight frown. "That's impossible. I felt an unusual disturbance just now. There's got to be somebody! Could it be… someone with a special ability like you?"

"I don't think so." The boy leader was unnerved.

The girl's eyes fell behind him when she suddenly stared hard and shouted, "Move away, quickly!"

With a jolt of speed, the boy leader sidestepped and turned back to see a young man in black casual wear holding a steel bar standing where he had been. Like a ghost, he made absolutely no sound.

The boy was secretly exclaiming his luck as he was almost ambushed. However, he did not know that Lin Chao had not been planning to ambush him at all or his head would be smashed no matter how spontaneous his response was.

Lin Chao stared at the girl in the black fitting dress icily. A wave of killing intent surged within him when he heard what she said just earlier which unexpectedly revealed his presence. It was a fortunate thing as well, especially since he was beginning to feel boredom creep into him from hiding.

Both of them were most probably Self-Evolved. Although they were considerably stronger than normal Evolved beings, they were not much of a threat to him.