A Golden Creature

The tigers, the bears, the leopards…

Lin Chao ran past one area after another; when the mutated beasts saw him, they first pounced aggressively but when they saw the jumbo crocodile behind the man, they fled scurrying.

Minutes later of desperate sprinting, Lin Chao felt his cell energy depleting rapidly. He could only hold on for another minute before all his cell energy was exhausted.

When the energy stored in the cells was fully expended, the recovery speed would become exceptionally slow.

…

The lion's zone.

Zhao Bingbing and the team carefully went around a pride of mutated lions. It was a group of eight, exceeding the maximum the team could handle.

Among the five of them, Zhao Bingbing was the only one who could independently kill a mutated lion. The lady's melee abilities were feeble but the weakness detection and x-ray vision of the Godhead's Eyes enabled her to accurately shoot down a lion!

As for the rest of the men, they were mere ordinary civilians in the past. Their families were harmonious so they had never come in touch with firearms. Despite grinding themselves in training for days when they had acquired the batch of weapons, such skill was not built up in a day or two; their marksmanship could barely pass as beginners.

Even if the mutated lions stood still, they could hardly aim right. Moreover, the lions moved speedily. Nine out of ten shots would miss and the one success was probably from luck.

The team's firearms were not as effective as they had imagined.

If it were melee attacks, it was up to only the red jacket young man and the brawny man. The red jacket young man's power was Flame Manipulation of the Enigma Series but he was currently only a Level F Evolved; the flame that his cells could produce was limited and was unable to reach a wide surface. It could only light a cigarette, make a small fireball to illuminate the surroundings, or heat up cold weapons to add some damage. He was not nearly as effective as the brawny man.

The brawny man's Defense belonged to the Battle Series.

Abilities from the Battle Series took the shortest time to realize their efficacies in the beginning stages. For example, Lin Chao's Speed Enhancement showed multiplication in his speed right from the start and was far more useful than the light-bending power which was weaker in the beginning.

The twins had passable skills in their pistol aim when they shot the normal zombies but tracking the mutated lions by eyes posed a challenge when these beasts were generally eight times more enhanced than a human, they could forget about trying to shoot them.

Three mutated lions were the limit when the five of them were put together. Any more lions and the whole team would be wiped out!

"I think we should just abort the mission," the brawny man said softly and carefully, "These lion monsters are too powerful. It'd be hard to kill several of them even if I blast them with my machine gun and that'd use up too much ammo. It's not worth it."

"We've come to this stage. We'll catch that walking plant soon," the red jacket young man persuaded, obviously reluctant to leave.

Zhao Bingbing nudged her glasses and added her opinion calmly, "I think it's better to abort as well. We've gone through two-third of this lion's place but we didn't even catch a glimpse of that little thing. If I'm not mistaken, it should have already left this region."

"That's right. We have to hide from the pack of lion monsters too, it's taking us too much time to check. Based on that thing's speed, who knows if it's already left this place?" said the elder brother of the twins who was cooler in temperament.

The red jacket young man was caught in between and asked Zhao Bingbing, "Is there really no other way?"

Silent for a moment, the girl spoke, "There is one method."

"What is it?" the red jacket young man's eyes glimmered at once.

Looking into the blue sky, Zhao Bingbing answered, "Drawing it out using the light. The plant is mutated but its pervious characteristics aren't entirely lost. Capitalizing on the theory of photosynthesis, we may be able to lure it out but the chances aren't high."

"Not high?" The young man was stumped.

"Firstly, we have no tools and making tools needs time. Secondly, I have a premonition that there'll be a disaster here soon. So I suggest that we give it up," said Zhao Bingbing.

"Disaster?" The red jacket young man jolted before he chuckled dryly. "May – maybe not? Your intuition came true the last time but it doesn't mean that every time…"

Boom!

An ear-shattering quake cut his words short.

The team was alarmed and quickly looked towards the source of the noise, their jaws dropping in disbelief when they saw it.

In the forest farther from them, a terrifying creature that seemed only to exist in the Jurassic era was bolting out. It was a two-story-tall jumbo crocodile!

Zhao Bingbing's eyes glowed in blue immediately. The world around her was promptly transformed into a colorful canvas in her vision while the red heat in the speeding jumbo crocodile was like a ball of flame, flicking and exuding an astonishing aura.

Other than that, black little dots appeared on the jumbo crocodile's skull, chest, joints of its front limbs and other parts, representing its weakness.

'Bone density…'

'Muscular strength…'

She attempted to analyze the giant's basic physique but her vision was a blur, taken over by the alarming red heat.

It was the first time for Zhao Bingbing, the monster's physique had apparently exceeded the limit of her ocular analysis ability!

Just as she was prepared to retract her gaze, she suddenly saw a tiny red dot in front of the jumbo crocodile. The red dot was about the size of a human but the heat exuded from the body was tremendous, as if burning red blood, shocking Zhao Bingbing.

She stared at the red dot utilizing the ocular power, a massive amount of information was then reflected to her brain and formed strings of data.

'Bones, muscles… physique… eight times of a human!'

Receiving the final data after analyzing and concluding, Zhao Bingbing was astounded, her blue eyes behind the glasses frame blinked.

Eight times! This was the strongest human she had ever seen to this date!

Her physique was three times more enhanced than a normal person while the red jacket young man and the brawny man were five times stronger, but this mysterious person had a boost of eight times. That was nearly double theirs!

Zhao Bingbing could not help recalling the dead monster in the sewer… It was him!

The rest of the team was already ashen-faced with shaking legs that barely supported themselves. The gigantic crocodile-like monster had shriveled them of any fighting spirit.

The brawny man asked in a quivering voice, "Why – how is there a monster like that? It's crazy! A tank will probably be flipped – how does one kill it…"

"Run – run fast!" The red jacket young man managed to get the words outs of his clacking teeth.

Zhao Bingbing withdrew her gaze and said with a frown, "We aren't far from the sewer. Leave all heavy items. We should be able to escape in time as long as we manage to make it to the sewer."

The brawny man threw the machine gun and several rounds of ammunition on him away decisively and dashed in the direction of the underground drain. The others did the same and began their sprints as well.

While Zhao Bingbing ran, she turned back to observe the tiny red dot in front of the jumbo crocodile. Although they were more than ten miles apart, she could see the person's face and even the tiny pores on his face based on the Godhead's Eyes. Amazement flashed in her eyes again when she saw that the person was unexpectedly young.

Run!

Lin Chao felt like he was about to collapse, his vision was already blurry and shaky. It was a physical symptom from a shortage of oxygen due to this neck-breaking sprint. While his evolved lungs could store approximately ten minutes of air supply, his turbo bolt disabled him from breathing and accelerated his body's oxygen consumption.

Dizzy and unable to see clearly, each step felt like it weighed a ton. He was mechanically running now wholly on a tremendous will to live.

The jumbo crocodile was already shortening the gap between them from the back that Lin Chao could almost smell the reek and heat from its mouth.

'Am I going to die like this?'

Lin Chao was indignant. He shouted at the sky and pushed himself to race another distance forward.

It was at this juncture when –

Roar!

An earth-shattering roar came from afar and easily covered Lin Chao's angry shout. Compared to the roar, his shout was inaudible like the raindrop amidst a thunder.

Boom-bam!

The earth shook and as it quaked, a monstrous silhouette of gold sprung up in front.