Chapter 11: The Encirclement Operation

In the military vehicle, Lin Xiaofeng and Zhao Nana each found a corner to rest in, while Yang Yichen mingled easily with the soldiers. As for Zhang Xingmin, he struck up a conversation with the officer in charge of the operation.

According to the officer, the incident had erupted without any warning, leaving them without an emergency plan in place. To make matters worse, the communications system had collapsed, making it impossible to coordinate with higher authorities in a timely fashion. Nevertheless, they had launched a rescue operation at once. Unfortunately, the disaster was too severe: the garrison in Jiang City was understaffed, and other cities were too preoccupied with their own crises to send reinforcements. They were simply overwhelmed. Fortunately, the Northern Botanical Garden had become a temporary safe haven, sheltering a large number of refugees and minimizing casualties as much as possible.

Just a few days ago, partial communications were restored, and they received a notice from their superiors: the disaster was, in fact, a long-conceived conspiracy—both natural calamity and human malice combined. The organization behind it was termed the “Dark Organization,” and there was a high probability that the mutated creatures and modified humans were their handiwork...

Zhang Xingmin, in turn, recounted their experiences over the past few days, though he omitted the conflict in the warehouse and Yang Yichen’s true identity. The officer listened and praised their courage, saying they had been a tremendous help.

The officer was not exaggerating. Zhang Xingmin’s account of the modified humans was invaluable. First, it confirmed that such beings did exist and had even appeared in the Northern Botanical Garden. Furthermore, his descriptions matched the data the military had on file.

As they approached the gates of the botanical garden, Zhang Xingmin asked anxiously, “Are you sure you can handle the modified humans?”

“Of course! Just sit tight and watch!” the officer replied, then started giving orders for the operation.

There were no shouted warnings, no frontal assault—just a large group of people quietly surrounding several exits in layers. Then, they began using sound devices to launch a sonic attack against the modified humans inside the garden.

“What’s that?” Zhang Xingmin asked, intrigued.

“Sonic weapons! Jointly developed by the Federal Academy of Sciences and the Federal Engineering Institute, specifically designed to target modified humans. They’re harmless to ordinary people,” the officer explained.

“Are you sure these things work?”

“If the data’s correct, they absolutely do. In fact, we just used them on you before letting you on the truck—no problems, right?” the officer said matter-of-factly.

“On us?” Zhang Xingmin was incredulous.

The officer didn’t hide it: “Of course! Otherwise, how could we risk letting you on board? If any of you were modified, we’d be inviting disaster.”

Zhang Xingmin knew the officer was right, but the knowledge left him uneasy. Sensing this, the officer quickly changed the subject. “Want to know how these sonic weapons work against modified humans?”

Zhang Xingmin remained silent, but the officer continued regardless.

According to the data, these modified humans didn’t have mechanical exoskeletons, nor were they products of natural evolution. Rather, they had undergone drug injections or genetic splicing to introduce “rage factors” into their bodies. The type of rage factor determined the specific enhancement, but all of them made humans stronger in some way.

However, these factors came with severe side effects. Under certain sonic frequencies, the rage factors would be fully activated, causing anything from mental breakdowns and frenzied delirium to consequences too terrible to imagine. That was precisely the principle behind the sonic weapons.

Zhang Xingmin was skeptical—until reality forced him to believe. The effects of the sonic assault were invisible, but soon there was movement inside the garden.

The officer handed them binoculars. Through the lenses, they could see everything clearly inside the safe zone. Within about fifteen minutes of the sonic attack, the lower-level modified humans began reacting: clutching their ears in pain, their faces flushed red with agony, sweat pouring down, some even rolling on the ground.

The soldiers maintained their perimeter, not advancing. Inside, the changes continued. As time passed, the lower-level modified humans finally broke down—some lost all reason, some began to self-harm or fight each other, and others simply collapsed in unconsciousness. It was utter chaos.

The higher-level modified humans were not completely immune either. As the sonic weapons adjusted their amplitude, frequency, wavelength, cycle, and phase, even the elite began to show changes. Yet, instead of being rendered helpless, they started to mutate in new directions: some grew sharp talons like eagles, others’ bodies swelled and sprouted long hair, some developed hardened skin with a metallic sheen...

Had they not witnessed it themselves, Zhang Xingmin and the others would never have believed it possible. Suddenly, a thought struck Zhang Xingmin: could the roaming monsters on the street also be transformed from ordinary people? When he asked the officer, the man replied, “I’m just a captain—I don’t know all the details. But rumor has it, some are, some aren’t.”

“Do you mean, besides humans turning into beasts, there are also animals gaining human intelligence?” Zhao Nana, who had overheard, voiced her theory.

“Who knows? It’s probably not that simple,” the captain said, pointing to a group of modified humans now charging toward them. He quickly gave the order to attack.

A hail of bullets tore through the air; some modified humans fell, but the majority were unscathed.

“What do we do, Captain? Bullets don’t seem to work!” a senior officer reported anxiously.

The captain considered for a moment. “Stick to the plan. Initiate Protocol Two.”

“Are you sure?” The officer hesitated.

The captain nodded.

“But there are still civilians inside! If we go through with this, they’re finished!”

The captain remained unmoved. “Do you really think any ordinary person could survive among these monsters?”

The officer said nothing, quietly walking away.

Though Zhang Xingmin didn’t ask what Protocol Two involved, he had a good idea—it was likely the complete destruction of the area. Sure enough, soon after, bombers appeared overhead, incendiary bombs were deployed, and the entire botanical garden was engulfed in flames, lighting up the night as bright as day.

Fire—the great purifier—consumed almost everything. Most of the modified humans could not withstand it: some burned to ash, others, ablaze, charged out in a desperate bid to die with the soldiers. Some troops were injured, and Zhao Nana, as a doctor, took on the role of medic, tending to their wounds.

But it was not over. Since the modified humans had mutated along divergent paths, some were unaffected by fire. Indeed, a group emerged from the inferno unscathed. Standing in the firelight, the metallic sheen on their arms gleamed even more intensely.

“This is bad. The ones charging us have mutated toward a metallic form. The fire may have only made them stronger,” Zhang Xingmin observed, anxiety in his voice.

Just as he feared, the metal men possessed bodies as light and strong as titanium alloys, yet retained all their human intelligence and consciousness. When the soldiers engaged them head-on, it was like eggs thrown at stone—utterly futile.

Bullets were useless, hand-to-hand combat even more so. Flesh and blood could not withstand such force. What now? Casualties mounted. Even retreat offered no promise of escape. The captain looked on, worry etched deep on his face.

Zhang Xingmin and his companions were equally distressed. Something had to be done, and quickly. As a top graduate in bioengineering, Zhang Xingmin longed to dissect one of the metal men, to see whether they had truly become metal. But he had no such opportunity. He could only hypothesize.

The human body is made mostly of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen; the remaining elements are mostly nonmetals. It was impossible for these people to have become true metal. The most likely scenario was that only their exterior had hardened.

If so, then perhaps their structure was like a nut or an eggshell, or like a metal water pipe—hard on the outside, but not invulnerable. It meant there was still a way to defeat them.

Zhang Xingmin shared his theory with the captain. At the mention of water pipes, the captain couldn’t help but chuckle—why hadn’t he thought of that? The total metal content in the human body was less than three percent, so any metal shell must be quite thin. Realizing this, he immediately ordered the troops to switch out their firearms for the latest ultra-hard mechanical exoskeletons.

Following orders, the soldiers stopped wasting bullets. Instead, they donned the new exoskeletons in batches and engaged the metal men head-on. The contest of hardness was brutal. The metal men, perhaps having lost the sense of pain, showed no reaction; the soldiers, however, felt as if their organs were being shattered, yet they gritted their teeth and fought on in shifts.

At last, their persistence paid off. The metal shells of the mutants began to deform and crack, oozing a gelatinous substance, which gradually flowed out in increasing volume...

The battle ended in a bitter victory for the military. The captain’s face remained impassive, but Zhang Xingmin sensed the fear beneath the surface. Their first encounter with modified humans had left them battered and humiliated. What if the enemy had been prepared—would defeat have been inevitable?

On the way back to headquarters, not a word was spoken, but they all knew: even greater trials awaited them ahead.