Eaten Ch.77.2

Chapter 77.2: Monster

He chuckled, releasing Wu Heng and allowing himself to be drenched across his entire lower abdomen.

Wu Heng leaned against Xie Chongyi’s shoulder to rest.

But then, Wu Heng’s fingers were spread apart one by one. A scorching hot member was thrust into his palm. Xie Chongyi’s smile held a hint of wickedness. “A’Heng, it’s my turn now.”

Xie Chongyi remained restless. While Wu Heng worked on him, his fingers and lips never left Wu Heng’s body. His mouth lingered between Wu Heng’s ear and neck, demanding kisses and interrupting Wu Heng’s movements time and again. After several rounds of this, Wu Heng found himself covered in sweat.

After dragging things out for over twenty minutes, Wu Heng’s movements grew increasingly rough. Suddenly, Xie Chongyi reached out, wrapped his arm around the other’s neck, and pulled him tightly into his embrace.

Wu Heng froze instantly, unable to move.

Next, he felt Xie Chongyi’s hand cover his own. A searing heat slammed against his fingers several times before abruptly releasing.

Wu Heng froze. He hadn’t moved much himself—it had all been Xie Chongyi—yet his ears burned fiercer than before.

Xie Chongyi kissed Wu Heng’s jade-like earlobe, seemingly absentmindedly, murmuring, “Like you’re high on grass.”

Then Xie Chongyi stepped off the bed. “The inn has water now. I’ll fetch some to clean you up.”

“No need. You don’t have clean clothes here. I’ll go back to my own room.”

After speaking, Wu Heng walked straight to the door and left.

Xie Chongyi was discarded once more after being used.

—

Lin Mengzhi wasn’t in the room—he probably went visiting someone.

Wu Heng quickly showered after returning to his room. Using the dim light on the wall, he noticed a faint bluish bruise forming on his lower abdomen.

He pressed it with his hand; it hurt a little.

It seemed to have been caused by Xie Chongyi just now.

A metal rod, perhaps?

After finishing his shower, Wu Heng changed into a T-shirt and shorts, scrubbed the clothes he had just taken off, and hung them by the window to dry.

No sooner had he finished all this than someone knocked at the door.

The shop owner’s chubby face wore a lukewarm smile. “Someone downstairs is looking for you.”

“Looking for me?”

“Wu Heng, is it not you?” Liu Wenhai glanced behind him; the room was empty. Then he gestured. “Come on, just go down and see for yourself.”

Wu Heng grabbed a dry towel casually and followed Liu Wenhai, wiping the water from his hair as he walked.

“Why did you get on the wrong side of the base’s security team?” As they stepped into the corridor, Liu Wenhai slowed his pace. His brows furrowed, and his face seemed to bunch up from the tension. “They specifically asked for you, claiming you killed someone and violated base regulations.”

Wu Heng froze. “Killed someone? I didn’t.”

“You say you didn’t, so it didn’t happen?” Liu Wenhai gave an awkward smile. “Telling me won’t help either.”

At the first-floor front desk, a few guards were either squatting or standing. The moment they heard footsteps, they all looked up in unison, their eyes bloodshot with anger.

“It’s him! He killed our team leader!” The short man struggled to restrain his fury. If not for the others holding him back, he would have leapt forward and torn the boy on the stairs apart.

Wu Heng’s head was wrapped in a towel. He didn’t remember the faces of these guards at all, but he did remember getting into a scuffle with someone a few hours ago—and that person had walked away alive and kicking. There was no way they could be dead.

Moreover, it was precisely to avoid a situation like this that he hadn’t killed the other person.

“None of my business.” Wu Heng had eaten his fill, satisfied himself, and now he was sleepy. He wanted to go to bed.

With that, he turned to head upstairs.

“Look for yourself!”

The man’s words had barely fallen when a stone hit the ground, striking Wu Heng’s back with a jolt.

Wu Heng calmly turned his head and spotted the pale red energy core on the step beneath him—pale red, perhaps, because the energy within it had already been partially depleted by several weak kicks. Even more unusual, a few green vines were wrapped around it. The buds and leaves trembled lightly, and the roots penetrated the core, keeping the vine alive.

Sensing a familiar presence, the vines drained the remaining energy in one swift motion and slithered up the boy’s bare calf.

The scene left most of the people on the first floor visibly terrified, some even gasping sharply.

What was that thing?

A plant… becoming human?

“Anything else to say?” The short man’s companion stood up and stepped forward. “Come with us.”

As he finished speaking, the others immediately rose. A sudden gust of wind whipped through the room, the azalea outside shook violently, and miscellaneous items inside collided, clanging and rattling.

The shop owner, seeing this, stuffed himself under the cash register. “Don’t fight in my shop! Running this store isn’t easy!”

Wu Heng lowered his gaze. His face showed no fear; he was simply calculating the pros and cons.

After a long pause, he bent down and picked up the energy core on the step, now completely drained. “I’ll go with you.”

The guards at the door exhaled in relief. They withdrew their powers, and everything inside and outside the room returned to calm.

Passing the front desk, Wu Heng called out to the shop owner. “Please tell my friends not to worry—I have my own reasons.”

Liu Wenhai nodded repeatedly, silently wishing this troublemaker who’d stirred chaos in his inn would just leave already.

At the entrance of the inn was parked a convertible tricycle, much larger and more imposing than the pre-apocalypse models. Though it couldn’t match the size of an armored vehicle, the material of its exterior looked just as sturdy at a glance.

Being closely watched, Wu Heng grabbed the door and climbed into the vehicle. Inside the cabin, a fixed bench ran along each side. He walked straight to the far end and sat down. Soon, several guards climbed in one by one.

The base stood on what had once been the busiest intersection of Meili Town. The roads ran straight and true, with clear directions east, west, north, and south. By now, the streets were lined with dense greenery, and the streetlights were fully obscured. The engine of the tricycle roared as it carried its passengers toward the base’s administrative building.

The evening breeze blew gently. The speeding tricycle drew the eyes of everyone who passed by—but they weren’t looking for entertainment. Their attention was alert. Whenever the guards moved out at night, it meant that some hidden danger within the base had been discovered, or that unknown trouble had arisen inside.

In the nearly two months prior, the base had dealt with seven or eight mutated animals. Zombies would occasionally appear in an abandoned house, and with continuous snowstorms, cleanup and security had become extraordinarily difficult.

Today, spring had arrived. The weather had warmed too quickly, perhaps, but warmth was always preferable to freezing cold. Supplies had increased, and food was more plentiful.

Yet, even on such a pleasant day, the security team had captured someone.

The open vehicle allowed anyone looking on to see exactly who was inside.

Inside the cabin were all five members of Guard Team 1—except for their captain, Song Qianmu. Their expressions were extremely grim.

What was going on?

Finally, their eyes fell on the human boy sitting at the far end. Compared to the tall, muscular guards, the boy was smaller by a noticeable margin. His T-shirt was clean and soft white; his skin pale and unmarked. His damp hair shimmered slightly in the light, and the curve of his neck was gentle as it bowed slightly… he looked like a student.

“I’ve never seen him before. Is he from outside? Why are you capturing him? He doesn’t even look like a zombie.”

The tricycle had most likely been modified by the base itself: large capacity, high horsepower, and incredibly loud.

After just two minutes, Wu Heng reached up to touch his ears, slightly uncomfortable from the noise.

“Don’t move!” A knife suddenly pointed straight at Wu Heng’s neck. Ever since he got on the vehicle, they had been wary of him.

The guards could clearly see the confusion and pity in the eyes of the passersby. They regarded it with contempt—it was foolishness.

Only those who had been through it knew how ruthless and cruel this seemingly seventeen- or eighteen-year-old boy could be in combat.

He might not even be fully human. They had to remain highly alert.

“I…”

At that moment, the vehicle shook violently for no apparent reason. The already nervous man immediately lost control, eyes wide as he shouted at Wu Heng, “What did you do?!”

Wu Heng felt a strong fluctuation of energy. He never held back such information and said bluntly, “A monster.”

The driver’s face went pale. He kept looking around, sensing that something was seriously wrong. “What’s happening?!”

“You’re the one causing trouble!” The man leapt up in anger, and the vehicle jolted violently again.

This time, the man couldn’t maintain his balance. His body fell out of the tricycle, crashing onto the road.

“Sh—he aah—”

Boom—

The man on the ground suddenly floated in midair, pushed up by some unseen force.

The dark shape erupted from the ground out of nowhere, growing straight upward at an incredible speed.

“I’m afraid of heights, I’m afraid of heights, help—uh—”

Splat! The man’s body was pierced. His eyes went wide as he flailed his limbs desperately, trying to call for help, but as soon as he opened his mouth, blood sprayed uncontrollably.

The teammates heard his screams and immediately knew something had gone terribly wrong.

“Quick! Turn around! Hurry!” Panic spread among them. The monsters in the base had supposedly all been cleared out!

However, just as they were turning around, the ground beneath the road they had just passed began to hum with a low, ominous vibration. Black cracks spiderwebbed outward, reaching toward the wheels.

The wheels sank an inch into the ground.

The vehicle shook violently—the unmistakable sign that something was trying to burst up from below.

“Go! Don’t turn around, just go!!!” The short man screamed hoarsely, his eyes as wide as fists as he looked at the lifeless body of his teammate in the distance.

The driver held his breath, the furious shouts from behind fading away. Before he could even get back on the road, his body was thrown into the air.

Fear consumed the driver—but soon, he and the others realized it had only been a scare.

Thankfully, he had merely been knocked aside by the sudden appearance of a mutated creature.

The driver scrambled to his feet, a relief-soaked smile on his face. He shouted joyfully to the people still on the vehicle, “It’s fine! Nothing’s wrong!”

But the smile didn’t last long. Suddenly, a strange, tickling sensation crept up from beneath his feet, which quickly transformed into intense pain.

The ground beneath him split open like blossoming petals, soil spraying everywhere as the earth disappeared from view.

His entire leg was pierced by an unknown creature. The pale-white leg bone jutted upward from his shoulder—the driver’s body hung like a flag on that leafless, tree-like appendage.

But he was human, not a flag. His body was heavy, laden with pain, and his screams echoed throughout the base.

The short man knew that even if they saved the driver now, he wouldn’t survive. Without hesitation, he climbed from the back of the vehicle into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

The wheels crushed the cracks in the ground as they sped forward, narrowly avoiding the mutated creatures that continuously burst up to block their path.

Wu Heng sat in the violently bouncing vehicle. He turned his head and saw that the road behind them was already in ruins. Tall, dense plants had sprouted from the shattered asphalt. In the moonlight, he could see a layer of white fuzz covering their surfaces.

He remembered—he had encountered these not long ago. They were mutated bamboo.

“Your teammate… you’re leaving him?” Wu Heng withdrew his gaze and looked at the remaining people in the cabin with a hint of curiosity.

“We can’t save him.” They didn’t even dare to look. Their faces had already turned as pale and fragile as paper about to tear.

“Then do you still want him?” Wu Heng asked.

“We already said we can’t save him! Leave him! Leave him—we don’t want him!!!” The man across from him went mad, clutching his head as if trying to mentally escape this horrifying, apocalyptic nightmare.

The wind whistled constantly past their ears.

Wu Heng’s polite, measured voice sounded over the chaos: “Since you don’t want him, I’ll take him.” With that, he leapt forward. Vines spread like a net across heaven and earth, and the bamboo shoots that were still erupting outward instantly engulfed the boy’s thin, elongated form.

—————————————————————

Author’s note:

Xie Chongyi: How much does my wife eat every day?

In fact, the entire process is like a couple going from death to life—Wu Heng mentally, Xie Chongyi… (spoilers stop here)

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