Chapter 27: A Different Kind of Mutator

Blocking the Peepers required a price that wasn't very expensive—it was only twice the cost of being spied on by the Peepers.

However, full-time shielding cost twice that amount.

Zhou Baiyu had nearly spent his entire fortune on it.

But the higher the risk, the greater the reward.

After exhaling a cloud of smoke, Lin said,

"Interesting little brother, now everything you do in the Gu Tower cannot be spied on by anyone, go ahead."

"It's time, you should drink now."

There was one minute left.

But drinking the red wine allowed one to actively proceed to the prior version.

This was considering that as the level of the pioneers increased, the time they could stay at the transfer station also increased, and not every pioneer would use up all the countdown before going to the prior version.

After ensuring everything was finished, Zhou Baiyu lifted the red wine and drank it in one gulp.

In that instant, the world seemed to be slashed into countless tiny particles by numerous white beams of light.

These speck-like particles began to slowly reassemble.

...

...

Version 1.44, era unknown, Linxiang City, sector C.

Apocalypse descended, humanity retreated step by step, and the cities left for human survival were few.

What appeared in people's sight were countless iron walls constructed with abandoned vehicles and many residential buildings stained with blood…

But hardly any "guardians" could be seen anymore; occasionally, some extremely emaciated and sickly people walked through the streets.

They were mostly hurried, with expressions of panic and fear.

All buildings had been uniformly numbered; some had ten or even dozens of floors, while others only had a few, but all were numbered accordingly.

Building 92 had seven floors. The sunlight shined on it, making it look particularly old…

It seemed, overnight, the entire building was covered with a layer of "decaying yellow."

Zhou Baiyu surveyed all this, standing in the huge shadow in front of the entrance of building 92.

Behind him was the bright world, and in front of him was like the entrance to hell.

Ling Hansu stood right behind Zhou Baiyu, somewhat afraid and clutching Zhou Baiyu, or rather the attendant Jiang Xianwu's wrist—her face flushed red.

Because Jiang Xianwu's clothes were the same as last time they left Midel…

Which is to say—practically no clothes.

"Jiang… big brother, I exchanged for a storage bag at the intermediary that can store some clothes obtained in the prior version… do you want to change into a set?"

Zhou Baiyu was just observing his surroundings, and then he realized that he was actually wearing the emperor's new clothes.

"Really, you can still exchange for such items with the intermediary?"

"Yes… you can talk to your intermediary, as long as you have enough pioneer points, they can do a lot for you."

Zhou Baiyu nodded, and without avoiding Ling Hansu, began changing his clothes.

Speaking of which, the people around didn't care at all that someone was not wearing clothes.

But when the attendant's robust physique was revealed, Zhou Baiyu noticed—

Other people in the surrounding buildings seemed to have greedy looks in their eyes.

Not the kind of lustful greed, but… the greed of the hungry.

"This is building 92; we were directly transported to the entrance… Did you say before that it's very safe inside during the day?"

Zhou Baiyu was ultimately an attendant, nurtured with various drugs by the succubi…

Apart from having good hips and kidneys and looking good, even his senses were very strong.

Vaguely, Zhou Baiyu heard some strange noises coming from the ground.

"Hmm… Monsters and various mutators, those are at night. After the sun sets… it becomes terribly frightening."

The two still had not entered the building.

The entrance to the building was small, with two units per staircase. There were a total of seven floors, housing fourteen families.

Zhou Baiyu was concerned about one thing—

"If it's about survival, why would they transport us during the day? Wouldn't night be okay?"

"Could this imply that something is hidden during the day?"

Zhou Baiyu quickly thought of something.

"The update announcement mentions the introduction of Despair Gu and Hate Gu... This building clearly has nothing to do with Gu buildings, so could its becoming dangerous at night be due to the update content?"

Zhou Baiyu began to gaze seriously at the building, and surprisingly, at that moment, strange remarks popped up in his eyes.

[Object Name: Restaurant.]

[Specialty: Stores meat.]

[Description: Indeed, high-level Mutators can mutate large objects, a building, a ship, even mountains and rivers... But obviously, that's not something you, a minor player, can achieve.

However, this building is indeed about to undergo some sort of change.

Go find the person in this world who is most desolate and most hateful. Don't think that just because you have the God of Death and Reincarnation teasing you, you are guaranteed to survive~

After all, predators are very smart.]

[Status: Unmutatable (Insufficient Level)]

Once again, Zhou Baiyu saw clues and information in the remarks.

This remark wasn't just indicating that items could be mutated.

That made Zhou Baiyu somewhat curious:

"Xueyao, as a Peeker, can you see the information of items? Can other professions see the information of items?"

Ling Hansu nodded:

"I can directly see the attributes of an item, including its destructive power, durability, utility, and specificity. If I use my ability... I can even analyze its origin, composition."

"Other professions cannot see the information of items. It is said that Mutators can, but only the most basic information."

Zhou Baiyu understood, Peekers indeed were powerful.

They certainly saw much more than he did.

But for some reason, he always felt that what he saw—

Could no longer be described as 'the most basic.' In some ways, it was not inferior to the Peekers.

The information in the remarks—finding the person in this building who is most desolate and most hateful—suddenly gave Zhou Baiyu a sense of direction.

Could it be...

Under the influence of the sixth sense, his remarks also took on some "style"?

"Personal characteristics and professions complement each other, so Mutators... are actually an undefined profession. Other professions have stable traits, but Mutators may each be completely unique."

That was Zhou Baiyu's conjecture, and if his conjecture was correct, it would definitely be a good thing.

Ling Hansu said:

"Brother Jiang, should we go inside and take a look? There are boundaries around here, I have explored them, and we cannot approach other buildings..."

"We can only head to this building."

"And... even outside the building, there isn't much room for activity."

Area boundary.

Zhou Baiyu roughly understood that if it was just about surviving, then they should just keep running.

But obviously, his and Xueyao's range of activity was limited; they could only move near the Gu building.

And the mission required them to survive within the Gu building.

Zhou Baiyu looked in other directions—

Outside the enclosing walls, tens of miles to the north, human warriors had built a much stronger "city wall" to resist various bizarre monster attacks.

Behind those warriors were the residential areas from Zone A to E.

Their relatives, friends, loved ones, and children whose innocence symbolized hope for humanity...

All gathered in those five areas.

Powerful warriors, relying on awakened traits and the power of the nine professions, had built a defensive fortification that monsters couldn't breach in the short term.

The corrupted monsters could not break through the defensive line, which meant that the residents living in Zones A to E wouldn't get infected by the corruption.

Normally, that's how it would be.

But recalling the update announcement and looking at this visibly older Building 92...

Zhou Baiyu suddenly realized something extremely terrifying—

Could it be that the downfall of Linxiang City would begin tonight... starting from this building?!

"We must find the person in this building who is the most desolate and hateful... they might trigger a massive catastrophe tonight."