Inside The Black Mist

Chapter 73 - Rapid Evolution

According to the research of the Fortress Scholars, the way of production of the Dark Folk could be described as "unconstrained."

So discovering viviparous organisms wasn't particularly strange. But if it was related to some kind of ritual, it was enough to attract attention.

Looking at the giant organ that might be a placenta, Han Shu said disgustedly, "This thing seems to have been born for some purpose. Ji Yu, we need to find it. Maybe we can get some relevant clues from it."

Ji Yu sighed, "Captain, you are increasing my workload. I request that this part of the work be included in the task settlement."

Han Shu didn't object, "No problem, go ahead and do it."

The woman looked at the black mud on the ground, then glanced at the window where the thing had left, "Don't you guys want to get some fresh air outside the building?"

Han Shu was the first to walk out the door, "I've been wanting to get out of here for a long time. I'll make sure to include this in the mission report later. Four Eyes should allocate some extra contribution points for our tortured noses."

Ji Yu nodded eagerly, "Captain, you occasionally come up with some good ideas."

Han Shu laughed heartily.

Tianyang and Cangdu exchanged a glance, but the latter suddenly turned his head as if he had been shocked, as if one more second of eye contact with Tianyang would infect him with some disease.

Cangdu swung his ponytail and strode out.

Tianyang shrugged and was the last to come out behind the window. Behind the window was a small courtyard with a shed. The shed had collapsed, pressing down some unidentifiable debris.

The footprints extending from the house led towards the shed, but the footprints, stained with black mud, became increasingly fragmented and faint as they extended.

Han Shu and the others arrived at an alley behind the shed. The footprints extended about ten meters forward before disappearing completely.

Ji Yu took out tweezers and a small test tube from her multi-functional waist pouch. The bottle contained some pale blue liquid, apparently some kind of solution.

Tianyang watched as she squatted down, using tweezers to pick up some solidified black particles from some footprints and put them into the test tube. After shaking it vigorously, the liquid in the tube turned pale purple.

Ji Yu then took out a small spray bottle. She extracted the liquid from the test tube with a syringe, then injected it into the spray bottle and sprayed it on the ground.

Beside her, Han Shu whispered, "If we had a Harmonizer Sublimator among us, it would be easier. Those guys have tracking abilities and can easily find the clues we need. Unfortunately, we don't have that rank in the Sky Fortress, not even one."

On the other side, Ji Yu carefully sprayed the ground, walls, streetlights, and trash cans...

After a while, some traces appeared in various corners. They were all purple marks, forming a new set of clues.

Ji Yu shook the spray bottle in her hand, "Can I expense the consumables?"

Han Shu rubbed his forehead, "Alright, you won't be shortchanged, hurry up and get to work."

Ji Yu beckoned with her finger, "Follow me."

Although not as convenient as Harmonizers, Hunters also had some tracking abilities. Soon, following the clues found by Ji Yu, the four of them left the complex alleyways and walked onto the main street, arriving at a place similar to a community square.

Here was a damaged fountain, with the tiled road already in ruins. The flowerbeds once used for landscaping now only had solidified soil, with no grass in sight.

Around the square, some public facilities were either covered in thick dust or scattered into various irregular pieces. Beside a device similar to a walker, a figure suddenly entered everyone's sight.

Tianyang and Cangdu almost simultaneously raised their assault rifles, but Ji Yu boldly walked over, shaking her head, "Don't be nervous, it's already dead. No, this is... its shed?"

"What on earth, it can actually shed its shell?" Han Shu walked over with long strides, the illumination in his hand falling on the creature.

Tianyang and Cangdu also came over, the two youngest members of the team, looking down at the ground curiously.

It was a humanoid creature, at least its upper body had human features, with a humanoid head and hands, but its head was disproportionately large.

Especially the posterior part of the brain, which extended backwards, looking like some kind of large cocoon.

Its lower body resembled that of a crawling animal, with a short but stout tail and four short legs, like those of a seven or eight month old baby.

Except no baby would have four legs.

This thing had already hardened, as Ji Yu had said, it was more like some kind of exoskeleton. From the forehead to the tail, there was a crack in the middle of the shell, surrounded by transparent mucus.

From the distribution of the mucus and the traces they dragged, it seemed like they had been brought out of the shell by something.

Ji Yu collected some of the mucus, put it in a test tube, and threw it into her waist pouch.

"A viviparous creature that sheds its shell like an insect, it's like a devil's masterpiece," Han Shu raised the illumination tool, and under the light, the residue on the ground extended outward from the community square.

"Its evolution speed is very fast."

Ji Yu stirred the mucus with a stick, and when she lifted it up, strands of transparent threads came out, "These things haven't solidified yet, which means they came out of the shell not long ago. From birth to this community, even if its speed is slow, it wouldn't have taken more than an hour."

"In just an hour, it shed its shell, obviously entering the second stage of evolution. If we look at it from the perspective of human growth periods, it has already transitioned from infancy to childhood. I wonder how long it will take for it to reach adolescence."

"But I think we'd better find it quickly. No matter how you look at it, its speed and range of movement should increase with evolution. We may lose track of it because of this."

Han Shu shrugged, asking, "So what are we waiting for? We have three hours until dinner time. I hope that before then, we can at least figure out where this 'newborn' went."

Ji Yu nodded, "Follow me."

Near this community, there was a clearly planned area of ??buildings. The shape, height, and layout were exactly the same, resembling the apartment dormitories in the upper area of the fortress.

Tianyang speculated that this should be the residential area for town residents. However, the buildings were almost side by side, unlike the apartment dormitories in the fortress, where each building had at least dozens of meters of distance between them.

From this perspective, it was not difficult to see that before the inversion slid into darkness, how prosperous it was.