Chapter 345 - 169: Mutant

Chapter 345: Chapter 169: Mutant

Then they were discriminated against, ostracized, and treated like monsters.

The people they had helped turned on them and cursed them. The people they had protected drove them away. Again and again this happened, until finally, their minds twisted.

Since you call us monsters, we’ll be monsters for you.

Since you want to kill us, we’ll kill you first.

And so they started down another path, a path filled with slaughter and hatred.

Xu Mo looked at the woman, at the hatred and madness on her face, and didn’t know what to say.

He couldn’t say she was right. The indiscriminate slaughter of innocents could never be justified. Those people they killed, those they bullied, those innocent survivors—what had they done wrong? They were just unlucky enough to run into this group of twisted individuals.

But Xu Mo couldn’t simply say she was wrong, either. Weren’t the people who ostracized them, discriminated against them, and treated them like monsters also at fault? Weren’t the people they’d helped, who then turned on them, also in the wrong?

It was a tangled knot, one that couldn’t be undone.

Xu Mo thought of Luo Li.

Luo Li was also a Mutant. She wasn’t sure if she could still be considered human, but she hadn’t become like this. She had taken other residents, both Mutants and normal people, and hidden away in Luochuan City, building walls to live out their lives.

Faced with the same circumstances, different people make different choices.

These people had chosen hatred, revenge, and slaughter.

But Luo Li had chosen isolation, coexistence, and survival.

Xu Mo sighed softly.

"How many people have you killed?"

The woman froze for a second, then laughed—a chilling smile that made one’s blood run cold.

"A lot! I can’t even remember! Men, women... some we ran into, some we hunted down. We killed every last one of them."

She stared at Xu Mo, her eyes full of defiance.

"You want revenge for them? Come on! Kill me! There are only a few of us left anyway. I’m a dead woman walking, so dying by your hand makes no difference!"

Xu Mo watched her and pressed his lips together.

The woman kept laughing, gasping for breath. Eventually, her laughter turned into a fit of coughing, and she began spitting up blood. Bloody froth sprayed everywhere, staining her clothes and the grass around her.

"If you don’t kill me, I’ll kill you once I’m better! I’ll kill more people just like you!" she said hoarsely. "All of you normal people deserve to die! You all deserve to go to hell! I’ll hunt you down one by one and kill you! I’ll let you have a taste of what it’s like to become a monster!"

"There are always those who must endure humiliation and carry on. Sometimes... it’s just better to walk away."

With those words, Xu Mo stood and raised his gun.

BANG.

The report exploded across the open wilderness, then quickly faded away.

The woman’s smile froze on her face. The twisted grin remained, but her eyes had lost their focus.

Xu Mo holstered his gun. He stared at the corpse for a long time.

After a long while, Xu Mo began to clean up the scene.

All five bodies belonged to Mutants. Xu Mo dragged their corpses from the car and piled them by the side of the road. Then, he found a few gas cans in the car and poured gasoline over the bodies.

He struck a match, and flames roared to life.

The bodies twisted and shrank in the blaze. The fire CRACKLED, and the air filled with a nauseating smell mixed with gasoline.

Xu Mo stood by the pyre, watching the burning corpses, and was silent for a long time.

He remembered the woman’s words.

"By what right do you normal people get to live?"

He had no answer to that question.

He wasn’t one of the people who had discriminated against them; he hadn’t treated them like monsters. But he wasn’t one of them, either, and he couldn’t truly understand their pain.

All he could do was eliminate threats when they appeared. Nothing more.

The fire slowly died down, leaving only charred remains.

Xu Mo turned and walked toward the two vehicles. Inside were supplies—food, water, ammunition, and medicine. For any survivor, these supplies were a small fortune.

Xu Mo looked at the supplies, then at the two vehicles, but in the end, he didn’t touch anything. He felt that the supplies were tainted.

Leaving the keys in the ignitions, Xu Mo returned to his own SUV and started the engine.

’If Zhao Dazhu and his group find this place, maybe they’ll get these supplies and vehicles. With the cars, they’ll have transportation when they eventually leave. With the supplies, they can hold out longer. That mother and daughter, the little girl named Niuniu... maybe they’ll have a slightly better chance of survival.’

’As for whether they’ll come, or when—that’s out of my control.’

Xu Mo stepped on the gas, and the SUV continued forward.

In the rearview mirror, the two vehicles sat silently by the side of the road, growing more distant and smaller until they finally disappeared from sight.

Ahead, the straight road stretched into the distance, with no end in sight.