Chapter 47: Bai Yi's 'Hidden Danger'
"I have a question. Bai Yi, you should've come into contact with genes from other organisms multiple times as well, why is it that for you and Momo only the butterfly genes are manifested?" Mavis suddenly asked calmly.
"This question is actually very simple. The number of times gene fusion can occur is determined by the level of the activated cells. From LV1 - LV9, the number of times gene fusion can occur is correspondingly 1 - 9 times as well. So, the only possibility why me and Momo only fused with butterfly genes so far is…" Bai Yi replied composedly.
LV1!
Everyone was instantly shocked, and an ineffable emotion rose in them. What is this, is it sympathy? If the level of activated cells is only 1, then they could only fuse with one kind of genes. In other words, all the things about increasing your strength through fusing useful genes earlier had nothing to do with Bai Yi and Momo. Moreover, every person's individual strength was probably related to the level of the activated cells as well.
"Look at you guys, actually it may be LV1 for sure. There's another possibility, that is the fusion slots for me and Momo were all filled by butterfly genes. Although similarly we can't fuse with genes from other organisms, at least the level of activated cells isn't 1." Bai Yi said reassuringly.
The rest of them wanted to say something upon hearing Bai Yi, but looking at Bai Yi's expression they decided not to continue talking about this topic in case the mood became even heavier.
"On this topic, let me remind everyone again that the gene fusion slots are limited, and we may not have nine slots. Now that everyone had already fused with some genes, it's best to seriously consider what other genes you should fuse with." Bai Yi reminded.
Everyone immediately fell into deep thought, as this was really an issue!
"One more thing!" Mavis continued. Everyone's expression became tense again and then looked at Mavis nervously. It can't be more bad news? Unfortunately, with the solemn expression on Mavis' face it really seemed to be bad news.
"Bai Yi, your recovery rate is slower than Woolf's and the rest!"
"What?"
"When we rescued you to the base, your injuries were actually a bit lighter than Woolf and Yu Han's! However, your rate of recovery was a lot slower than theirs. You even fell into a coma for three days, if not for your vital signs being stable I would've thought that you weren't going to make it." Mavis said. Sara nodded as well. Although she was just a nurse, her medical skills were quite good.
"After asking Woolf and Martin about the battle you guys were in, and examining your injuries in detail, I found out that your injuries were all mainly external. They were mainly focused on your left arm and surface of your torso. However, have you noticed? What hasn't truly recovered is your entire body, if I really had to be precise then it's… your activated cells!" Mavis said gravely.
Bai Yi looked at Mavis in shock, and felt the mild prickling pain all over his own body.
……
An intense emotion screamed silently and crazily inside him. All of sudden, the muscles in his whole body started to twitch and the colourful patterns on his face from the butterfly genes expanded by a third…In a short moment, his muscles started to heat up vigorously, a feeling like his body was burning and screaming crazily, desiring to destroy everything.
Twice, once was when he saved Martin, the other time was when Yu Han kicked him to the wall!
……
Bai Yi woke up with a shock and breathed heavily, at this moment everyone was staring at Bai Yi seriously, especially the coloured patterns that became even brighter on his face.
"You seem like you recalled something."
"Ah, I did remember something." Bai Yi nodded slowly. That was just a memory just now, but Bai Yi seemed to really feel a mild prickly pain and the flaming heat inside his body. At that moment, he really was…
"Martin, do you know anything?" Mavis asked.
"No, I have never seen a situation like this. In truth, the understanding of experimental monsters by you guys may even be more comprehensive than mine now. I was only a side researcher inside the research facility." Martin said. Actually, Martin had already said these words from the moment they met, he wasn't some core researcher.
Mavis gave Bai Yi a thorough check-up again, after being busy for a while she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"There's nothing abnormal! As for the activated cells, none of us understand it much, so we can't give you any opinions. Just be careful no matter what!" Mavis said to Bai Yi after finishing her check-up.
"En, got it." Bai Yi nodded.
"As for the active fusion of genes, I think everyone already understood so now let's split up. Half of us will stay here and guard the vehicles, and the other half will go to the ecological park together." Bai Yi didn't waste too many brain cells on the abnormality in his body. Since it was an abnormality, it was either a good thing or a bad thing. It wasn't like worrying himself sick over it would cause it to disappear, so Bai Yi didn't bother too much about it. To a certain extent, Bai Yi was quite a carefree person.
"Hong Qi Hua, Momo, Martin, Sara, Little Warner, Sharpei, Pupu, you guys stay here. Woolf, Mavis and Heloise, and I will go to the ecological park." Bai Yi said.
"Bai Yi, your injury!"
"It's nothing, as long as it isn't a head to head clash, my injuries won't be a problem. If we encounter any danger then Woolf will handle it for us, isn't that right, Woolf?" Bai Yi said.
"Of course, leave it to me!" Woolf held his head high and stuck his chest out.
Everyone agreed with this and nobody had any other objections. This allocation was quite rational, and everyone was more at ease with Hong Qi Hua around as they could all see her outstanding performance during this period. Bai Yi, Woolf and Heloise were also more experienced in dealing with unexpected changes, and with Mavis around she could treat them if anybody got injured.
……
Bai Yi brought a handgun and that broadsword. Woolf brought along his greatsword and a submachine gun. Heloise also brought a handgun and her own short sword. Mavis was a doctor, so she brought along a first aid kit, but at the same time she didn't forget to bring her short sword with her.
The importance of cold weapons that Bai Yi talked to Hong Qi Hua about was already conveyed to everybody, so everyone planned to start familiarising themselves with it.
"Let's head to the laboratory first!" Bai Yi said.
"Why?" Woolf asked.
"To find a suitable container, like a test tube or reagent bottle to store an organism's muscles or fluids more conveniently. It's not like we have to eat the entire animal for gene fusion." Bai Yi explained.
Woolf was suddenly enlightened and nobody else had any objections, so they headed to the laboratory.
There was no reason for any of them to go to Otorohanga Middle School before, and the area that this school occupied was really quite large due to the low population density of New Zealand. The few of them had already walked a few rounds around the school building. If not for Heloise coming to this school before, all of them would have already gotten lost.
"This place is really damn huge." Woolf couldn't help but to complain after he finally saw Heloise stopping in front of a door. The door was standard-sized, and from just a look Woolf knew that he would never fit through that door. With his size now, walking along the corridor was already a bit of a squeeze.
"This is where they keep all their lab equipment; this place is still surprisingly the same after so long!" Heloise said with some nostalgia. Mavis saw that the room was quite dark and subconsciously went to switch on the light.
Fluorescent lights instantly shined on them and Bai Yi raised his head.
"There's still electricity here?" Bai Yi questioned with suspicion. After so long, the city had had its power cut long ago. Even the base only had a small generator, just barely enough for their daily necessities.
"I only switched on the lights out of habit, I'm not sure." Mavis shook her head. She only thought the room was quite dark, so she went to switch on the light subconsciously, she didn't think about whether there was still electricity or not.
"Heloise, do you know anything?"
"Maybe the students did it themselves." Heloise said uncertainly.
"Students!"
"En, Otorohanga Middle School emphasized a lot on practical skills, and there were many clubs in the school. Maybe this was a product of one those technological clubs, but as for what's going on I really have no idea." Heloise explained.
Students made this? Bai Yi was quite surprised; students in China were all a bunch of bookworms. If they had to make a power generator that could supply the entire school with electricity, then they could probably do it… but just in theory. However, what Bai Yi cared about wasn't this, he didn't even care about how the electricity was produced, it was all good as long as he knew that there was electricity here. Bai Yi brought along a grinder polisher from the base. He initially thought that he had to find electricity from somewhere else, but now he didn't have to go through the trouble.
"Having electricity is a good thing, take the test tubes and we will head to the ecological park." Bai Yi said.
The few of them moved together, taking more than 10 empty test tubes from the laboratory, and used the specialised case to store them. Mavis then carried the case along with her first aid kit. At this time, Bai Yi didn't try to be gentlemanly and carry it for her, Mavis wasn't going to participate in battle, so it was most suitable for her to carry it.
……
Over at Hong Qi Hua's side, all them started to rest after preparing a simple defensive line to guard against unexpected danger. Little Warner played with the knife that Bai Yi picked for him and looked at Momo who was teasing Pupu from time to time. All of Momo's fusion slots were filled by butterfly genes, so she didn't have to be afraid of fusing Pupu's genes and she also really liked this fat and round pet pig.
"What are you thinking about?" Hong Qi Hua came beside Little Warner.
"I'm not thinking about anything!" Little Warner looked at Hong Qi Hua.
Hong Qi Hua looked at Little Warner's pure eyes, she could be sure that Little Warner really wasn't thinking of anything. With New Zealand's change and the death of his parents, he probably hadn't completely understood what had happened as a small kid. Although Little Warner knew some things, he still didn't have the awareness to think about how to adapt to the future world.
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TN: Well if you missed the announcement, to summarize its my holidays now so for the entire month of december i'll be releasing at a rate of 2-3 per day. But when january comes and my school starts again it will go back to a base rate of 1 chapter a day.
Chapter 48: Hummingbird
"This is the ecological park?" Bai Yi asked. Although he knew that New Zealand was a large country with a low population, he was still shocked to see the vast and endless forest enclosed in front of him.
"Yep, this is the ecological park of Otorohanga Middle School." Heloise nodded.
"Let's enter then, be careful!" Bai Yi reminded them.
The few of them entered the ecological park carefully, preparing to find suitable animal genes to fuse with inside. The ecological park belonged to a school, so it only reared some small animals, even if there were any large ones they were few in number. Moreover, it had already been 10 plus days since the activated cells proliferated, so these animals had long run somewhere else.
Walking on the man-made road, Bai Yi suddenly stopped!
"What happened?"
"It's too lush! This is an ecological park belonging to a school, the paved path we are walking on right now must've been what students would normally use to walk, but now the path is almost completely covered by vegetation. There's only one possible reason why it is like this now, and that is within the 10 plus days these plants grew by this much!" Bai Yi explained.
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying that the activated cells accelerated the growth of these plants!" Bai Yi chuckled, Woolf was really quite slow, he couldn't understand until he laid it out in black and white.
"So that's what happened!" Woolf was suddenly enlightened.
The few of them moved carefully inside the park, being cautious and on guard for anything that might happen. However, the entire ecological park was abnormally silent, and they didn't find any animals around. This made Bai Yi, who was on guard against evolved lifeforms, extremely surprised. Where are the animals? Where are all the animals that were originally here?
"What's going on here?"
They stopped at a small open patch of land that hadn't been overtaken by vegetation yet. It was strange that the ecological park had suddenly become so empty, and the few of them wouldn't continue moving until they figured this out. Bai Yi, Heloise and Mavis looked at the park and pondered hard, but as for Woolf, it was better to spare him. Thinking was definitely not his job.
"This became really dangerous!" Bai Yi said, slowly looking at his surroundings.
"The introduction of activated cells would definitely completely destroy the original food chain in the natural world. We don't know what would happen to the organisms in the future, but just the Binging Stage now would ruin the entire food chain. That frightening hunger and appetite would cause various animals to hunt and eat each other, resulting in a great number of animals dying and being eaten by the small minority in a short period of time." Bai Yi didn't wait for Woolf to question him and started to explain.
"The ecological park is so quiet because… a great majority of the animals are already eaten. Under the same reasoning, the animals that are still alive must be those that evolved to become the peak predators in the food chain." Bai Yi said while his right hand held the handgun and his left hand grabbed onto the hilt of the broadsword.
"They're coming!" Bai Yi's eyes looked towards the left, where a bunch of small black shadows were rapidly approaching them.
"What are those!"
"Run!" Bai Yi saw the black shadows, and though he couldn't clearly what they were, he very decisively gave the command because the group of black shadows looked like a swarm of bees. Even if it wasn't a bee swarm, it would be something similar. To the few of them now, it was definitely something extremely dangerous.
"Over there to that building!" Bai Yi pointed to a small house in the middle of the ecological park.
The rest of them immediately followed. Even Woolf, whose confidence had boosted greatly recently did not have any objections. If a few meter tall monster appeared, then he might've had the confidence to clash with it, but with such a big group of bee-like creatures, he wouldn't be able to deal with them even if he had a few more limbs.
The few of them ran crazily, and the black cloud behind rapidly closed in on them.
Bai Yi was the first to barge inside the house and rapidly dashed to the nearest window. Behind Bai Yi, the rest of them followed closely behind him, and Woolf, who was last, slammed the door shut. The moment the door closed, numerous 'Pa Pa Pa Pa' sounds like nails banging on the door rang out. The entire door was shaking nonstop from all the collisions, and their hearts sped up in fear of the door getting broken.
Such great power!
"Go inside, the window won't hold!" Bai Yi saw how violent the banging was and immediately made his judgement. Those small creatures were just following their path and banging on the door. When they try to find another way later, the window definitely wouldn't stop them.
They immediately ran inside the room, and with Woolf's huge size, he almost couldn't squeeze inside. Not long after entering the room, everyone heard the sound of the window glass breaking. Then there was a dense buzzing sound, and immediately after that were the sounds of numerous impacts on the door again. Only after a long while did the sound outside slowly disappear.
Only then did everyone ease up slightly and have the spare attention to observe the room they were in.
"This is a mini-observation room!" Heloise looked around and ascertained. Bai Yi also looked around the room to see if there was anything useful. However, this place was really quite simple, and he couldn't find anything.
"What are those things outside?" Woolf asked.
"I don't know, but it looked like a bee swarm."
"I'll take a look, a few probably died from the collisions." Woolf said as he went to open the door.
"Wait, open a small crack first!" Bai Yi said to Woolf and gestured for Heloise and Mavis to move away. At this time, Bai Yi walked right beside the door and raised the broadsword in his right hand. "Close the door immediately if there's anything!" Bai Yi said to Woolf and nodded his approval.
Seeing Bai Yi being so cautious, Woolf couldn't help but be careful as well, and he cautiously opened the door. The door slowly opened wider and wider. It seemed like the small creatures just now had already flown away. The moment Woolf wanted to relax, the buzzing sound suddenly appeared again. Recalling Bai Yi's words, he immediately tried to shut the door and at this moment Bai Yi also focused his eyes and the broadsword cut down like a ray of light.
'Pom!' the door was shut by Woolf again and at this moment Bai Yi already shifted himself quickly in front of Mavis.
I didn't get everything!
The moment Bai Yi's broadsword fell, he realised he missed two, and immediately placed himself in front of Mavis. Mavis was the doctor here, so everyone had to prioritise protecting her.
Two small shadows shot over like bullets, and Bai Yi instantly moved his sword vertically in front of him.
With a soft 'chi!', one of them just happened to ram into the edge of the sword, and the sharp blade instantly sliced it in half. Bai Yi twisted his head at this moment; the blood splattered a trail of his face, and his changing irises completely captured the process of the small bird being cut in half in detail. However, the remaining one sped past him and Bai Yi instantly raised his left hand to intercept it. The small shadow instantly started spinning and landed on Bai Yi's palm.
'Puchi!', Bai Yi and Mavis let out a groan at the same time.
The small shadow pierced through Bai Yi's palm and landed on Mavis' thigh. Just like a drill, the small shadow dug deeply into her thigh.
"Don't move!" Bai Yi said to Mavis and instantly switched to a reverse grip, the tip of the blade viciously stabbing into the bloody hole in her thigh before stopping the blade by force. After Bai Yi's stab, the thing spinning in Mavis' thigh finally stopped moving and apparently died from his blade.
In this short moment, Woolf and Heloise hadn't even begun to react. Only now did they realise just how big the difference was between them and Bai Yi. It wasn't about absolute strength, but the ability to adapt and react to sudden situations.
With only a few movements, although it wasn't clashing with some giant monster, Bai Yi was still breathing rapidly as cold sweat dripped down. The few of them saw how Bai Yi was, and knew that his injuries were affected again. Woolf and Heloise wanted to say something, but Bai Yi waved his hand, indicating that he was fine, just that it was really hard to act with this injury-ridden body.
Only now could everyone look at the thing that was killed by Bai Yi on the floor.
It was very small, about the same size as a bee, but it had a long and sharp beak that was almost the same size as its body.
"It's a hummingbird… sword-billed hummingbird!" Heloise instantly recognised it. Of course, these hummingbirds were very different from normal sword-billed hummingbirds. All of them took a few more looks, and found that even though they were all sword-billed hummingbirds, there were still differences between them. Apparently, even if the genes they fused with were the same, how it manifested on their bodies would still be different.
"I'm sorry Doctor Mavis, I didn't protect you well!" Protecting the medical personnel was everybody's responsibility.
Looking at how Mavis and the hummingbird's blood mixed together, everyone knew that she had definitely fused with the hummingbird genes. Luckily, from their analysis before, hummingbird genes weren't too bad. It could improve the speed at which her nerves and muscles reacted, just that they didn't know how much they would improve by.
"It's fine, isn't the hummingbird gene one of the genes we were considering?" Mavis waved her hand too.
Mavis had heard much from them during this period of time, but she still hadn't been in any battles with evolved lifeforms, so she was still in shock. Although Bai Yi didn't manage to protect her perfectly just now, his reaction and movements in that moment were simply astonishing. Mavis felt that she couldn't even do one tenth of what Bai Yi did, she had completely forgotten to even dodge.
Mavis didn't use the anaesthesia, as things like that were extremely valuable now. Her body trembled while she extracted the hummingbird corpse from the bloody hole in her leg, and instantly sucked in a breath of cold air.
Heloise brought out a test tube from the case beside Mavis, intending to put the dead hummingbird inside it. Collecting genes from various useful organisms was the purpose of this trip.
"Wait, take this one!" Bai Yi said to Heloise and pointed to the one that avoided Bai Yi's first slash but slammed itself onto his blade in the end.
"Although they are all hummingbirds, this one was the most threatening just now. Maybe its genes are of superior quality." Bai Yi explained.
There was still something like superior quality? The rest of them immediately started chuckling upon hearing his words.
Chapter 49: Awakened Intelligence
"But if you are talking about superior breed, isn't the one that wounded you and Doctor Mavis stronger?" Heloise asked.
"It's not like that. Just now both birds dodged my first strike, but I suddenly felt at that moment that this one was a greater threat, so I moved to stop it. The second one only took advantage of the situation. I have a feeling that the one that rammed into my sword was a little stronger, though… it's just a feeling, so I have no basis behind it." Bai Yi explained.
"S-sorry! It's all my fault, if only I didn't open the door!" Woolf was at quite at a loss.
"It's not your fault, I let you open the door. It's my miscalculation instead; I never expected that these hummingbirds would be so intelligent. They actually knew how to wait in ambush of us." Bai Yi looked at Woolf blaming himself and patted his arm to console him.
"Bai Yi, what did you say just now?" Heloise suddenly asked when she heard Bai Yi.
"It's not your fault, I let you open the door. It's my miscalculation instead; I never expected that these hummingbirds would be so intelligent. They actually knew how to wait in ambush of us." From just a look at Heloise's expression, Bai Yi could guess that she'd thought of something and immediately repeated himself again. Woolf wanted to say something, but Bai Yi waved his hand at him, warning him not to disturb Heloise at this time. This rare moment of inspiration could result in some very important information.
"Intelligent. Yes, these evolved lifeforms are too intelligent!" Heloise finally said to everybody excitedly after thinking for a moment.
"Bai Yi, I noticed recently that Sharpei seems to be able to understand human speech. Was he always so intelligent?" Heloise asked.
"Actually, Sharpei has always been very smart, and it seems to be able to understand what Momo says. But now that you mention it, Sharpei really seems to have become more intelligent." Bai Yi suddenly recalled how Sharpei got the other dog that they met on the way to Otorohanga Middle School to back off.
"Actually, it isn't just Sharpei. Even Little Warner's pet pig, don't you think that it's a little too intelligent?"
Everyone immediately thought of the two pets in their team. Normally they just thought that both Sharpei and Pupu were quite smart and they didn't mess around like normal animals. However, now that Heloise mentioned it, it really seemed like they were extremely intelligent. However, wasn't it a good thing? If the pets were smarter then it would be easier to control them, otherwise it would be troublesome if they ran amok.
"Activated cells!" Bai Yi said gravely.
"En, activated cells!" Heloise.
"Just what are you guys talking about?" Woolf asked.
"It's the influence of the activated cells. We have concluded so far that activated cells have 3 abilities - 1. Activated Capabilities, 2. Gene Fusion, 3. Chain Infection. If my deduction is correct, then we have to add another ability to that…" Heloise looked at Woolf's blank face and explained.
"Becoming smarter!"
"Intelligence enhancement!"
"Awakened Intelligence!"
The three of them spoke at the same time. although they didn't say the same thing, the meanings of it were the same.
"Really, activated cells still have this capability? Why don't I feel anything?" Woolf couldn't help but scratch his head and said dumbly after hearing the three of them.
"You can't be saved, really, even the power of activated cells can't make you smarter!" Bai Yi joked.
"Hahahaha!" Everyone immediately burst out laughing after hearing Bai Yi.
"Anyway, let's just record this down as a guess of ours. As for whether it's true or not, we'll find out after we encounter other evolved lifeforms in the future." Bai Yi said.
At this time, Mavis had already finished wrapping up the wound on her thigh. From the start till end Mavis didn't speak much, but she didn't whine and cry like what a normal girl would do. Mavis, who had already lived to middle age, had plenty of life experience which caused her to become more mature and calm.
"Give me your left hand!" Mavis said to Bai Yi.
"En!"
"Your left hand has really been through many calamities, really, do you not want your left hand anymore?" Mavis looked at Bai Yi's left hand and said. A single sentence left Bai Yi speechless, ever since Te Awamutu his left hand had been continuously getting injured. His left arm even fractured in the battle against Yu Han a few days ago; now that it got injured it really seemed like he didn't want his left hand anymore.
"It couldn't be helped, hehehe…" Bai Yi said meekly.
Very quickly, Bai Yi's palm was bandaged. He took out the communicator and tested it; the distance wasn't too far so they could still communicate.
After the communicator got through, Bai Yi told Hong Qi Hua about their mishap in the ecological park and reminded them to be careful. They had to be wary of not just large animals now, but the smaller animals and insects were just as dangerous.
After they finished talking, Bai Yi's group sat quietly inside the mini observation room, not knowing when those hummingbirds would leave.
"Woolf, you fused with the genes of a dog, so your sense of hearing should've increased by a lot. Can you try to listen carefully and see if you hear anything?" Bai Yi said.
"Oh really?"
Bai Yi was quite taken aback but still followed Bai Yi's words and listened carefully for any sounds outside the room. After focusing his senses, Woolf realised that he really could hear the sounds outside just like Bai Yi said.
Woolf placed his dog ears to the door. After a while he slowly turned around and nodded. "I can hear them; they're still outside. There's a slight buzzing sound. Weird, why didn't I notice it just now?"
"I probably can guess why!" Bai Yi said, looking at Woolf.
"After being infected by activated cells and fusing with many genes, our bodies started to change rapidly. Not just in our physical form but in some other areas: strength, speed, senses…But in reality, just 10 odd days ago we didn't have these abilities. Although we'd already changed, the 'common sense' we had in our bodies for the past decades is impeding our ability to display these abilities." Bai Yi stretched out his right hand and clenched his fist.
"Oh really? That means that we have to practice and familiarize ourselves with our abilities!" Heloise and Mavis nodded.
"En, precisely!" Bai Yi nodded too.
Woolf understood as well after the few of them explained and gave examples in detail. At this time, a long period of time had already passed and based on Woolf's hearing, the hummingbirds were still waiting for them outside. It was Bai Yi's group that seemed to have run out of patience first.
"We can't continue like this. Even if the hummingbirds leave we'll still encounter them when we go out later. We must find a way to kill all of them." Bai Yi said.
"Bai Yi, don't you know knife skills? Just like in the movies, a few lines of light will flash, then all the hummingbirds will fall onto the floor…" Woolf said.
"What nonsense are you talking about, my knife skills are from practicing cooking, they're not something like that." Bai Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Then what do we do?"
"Use that!" Heloise said, pointing at the curtain in the room.
"A curtain?"
"Yes, use this. Wrap this over the crack in the door and open the door, those hummingbirds will definitely rush in and get trapped inside the curtain." Heloise nodded.
"How is that possible? The curtain will be useless, we already saw that the birds were like drills just now." Woolf shook his head.
"No, it can work!" Bai Yi tested the curtain and discovered that the curtain was made of some unknown material; it was abnormally tough and flexible. It should be able to trap those hummingbirds.
They didn't have many resources, so even though this method didn't seem too reliable, they didn't have much of a choice. They first folded the curtain onto itself and layered it, blocking the crack in the door. Bai Yi then nodded to Woolf.
Woolf opened the door again, and this time the buzzing noise came in an instant. Multiple sharp protrusions appeared on the curtain that was used to block the door before the protrusions started to twist.
The curtain was flexible yet tough; it was actually tougher for the birds to break through the curtain than through a hard surface like the glass window.
Animals originally already had the ability to judge their strengths and weaknesses. After becoming intelligent, the more they wouldn't fight an enemy they couldn't win.
After a few minutes, some of the birds were stuck inside the curtain but the others decided to escape. Only now did the few of them let out breaths of relief and looked at the giant curtain bundle with dozens of hummingbirds inside.
"What do we do with these guys?"
"Why don't we grill and eat them?" Woolf asked.
"Dream on; hummingbirds are the smallest species of birds in the world. They're normally around the same size as a bee, and the smallest of them only weigh 2 grams. Look at these hummingbirds. Although they're a bit bigger, they probably don't exceed 10 grams. What're you going to eat from this thing?" Bai Yi suddenly felt like Woolf was just like a clown.
"Er... I just thought that we didn't have enough food, and that we couldn't release them either…" Woolf said awkwardly.
Bai Yi stretched out his hand and cautiously grabbed hold of a struggling hummingbird inside the curtain bundle. The bird very rapidly flapped its wings trying to escape from Bai Yi's hand, but to no avail. After a while, the hummingbird completely accepted its fate and didn't bother to struggle anymore.
Bai Yi stretched out his index finger and stroked the head of the hummingbird with it, and in the end, he totally released his grip.
The hummingbird tilted its head and looked at Bai Yi. It then flew to the window ledge and looked at the curtain. Bai Yi felt that he seemed to understand what the hummingbird meant and slowly opened the curtain bundle. The hummingbirds which were initially trapped flew out one by one. The birds looked at Bai Yi's group for a while and slowly flew away through the crack in the door.
Chapter 47: Bai Yi's 'Hidden Danger'
"I have a question. Bai Yi, you should've come into contact with genes from other organisms multiple times as well, why is it that for you and Momo only the butterfly genes are manifested?" Mavis suddenly asked calmly.
"This question is actually very simple. The number of times gene fusion can occur is determined by the level of the activated cells. From LV1 - LV9, the number of times gene fusion can occur is correspondingly 1 - 9 times as well. So, the only possibility why me and Momo only fused with butterfly genes so far is…" Bai Yi replied composedly.
LV1!
Everyone was instantly shocked, and an ineffable emotion rose in them. What is this, is it sympathy? If the level of activated cells is only 1, then they could only fuse with one kind of genes. In other words, all the things about increasing your strength through fusing useful genes earlier had nothing to do with Bai Yi and Momo. Moreover, every person's individual strength was probably related to the level of the activated cells as well.
"Look at you guys, actually it may be LV1 for sure. There's another possibility, that is the fusion slots for me and Momo were all filled by butterfly genes. Although similarly we can't fuse with genes from other organisms, at least the level of activated cells isn't 1." Bai Yi said reassuringly.
The rest of them wanted to say something upon hearing Bai Yi, but looking at Bai Yi's expression they decided not to continue talking about this topic in case the mood became even heavier.
"On this topic, let me remind everyone again that the gene fusion slots are limited, and we may not have nine slots. Now that everyone had already fused with some genes, it's best to seriously consider what other genes you should fuse with." Bai Yi reminded.
Everyone immediately fell into deep thought, as this was really an issue!
"One more thing!" Mavis continued. Everyone's expression became tense again and then looked at Mavis nervously. It can't be more bad news? Unfortunately, with the solemn expression on Mavis' face it really seemed to be bad news.
"Bai Yi, your recovery rate is slower than Woolf's and the rest!"
"What?"
"When we rescued you to the base, your injuries were actually a bit lighter than Woolf and Yu Han's! However, your rate of recovery was a lot slower than theirs. You even fell into a coma for three days, if not for your vital signs being stable I would've thought that you weren't going to make it." Mavis said. Sara nodded as well. Although she was just a nurse, her medical skills were quite good.
"After asking Woolf and Martin about the battle you guys were in, and examining your injuries in detail, I found out that your injuries were all mainly external. They were mainly focused on your left arm and surface of your torso. However, have you noticed? What hasn't truly recovered is your entire body, if I really had to be precise then it's… your activated cells!" Mavis said gravely.
Bai Yi looked at Mavis in shock, and felt the mild prickling pain all over his own body.
……
An intense emotion screamed silently and crazily inside him. All of sudden, the muscles in his whole body started to twitch and the colourful patterns on his face from the butterfly genes expanded by a third…In a short moment, his muscles started to heat up vigorously, a feeling like his body was burning and screaming crazily, desiring to destroy everything.
Twice, once was when he saved Martin, the other time was when Yu Han kicked him to the wall!
……
Bai Yi woke up with a shock and breathed heavily, at this moment everyone was staring at Bai Yi seriously, especially the coloured patterns that became even brighter on his face.
"You seem like you recalled something."
"Ah, I did remember something." Bai Yi nodded slowly. That was just a memory just now, but Bai Yi seemed to really feel a mild prickly pain and the flaming heat inside his body. At that moment, he really was…
"Martin, do you know anything?" Mavis asked.
"No, I have never seen a situation like this. In truth, the understanding of experimental monsters by you guys may even be more comprehensive than mine now. I was only a side researcher inside the research facility." Martin said. Actually, Martin had already said these words from the moment they met, he wasn't some core researcher.
Mavis gave Bai Yi a thorough check-up again, after being busy for a while she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"There's nothing abnormal! As for the activated cells, none of us understand it much, so we can't give you any opinions. Just be careful no matter what!" Mavis said to Bai Yi after finishing her check-up.
"En, got it." Bai Yi nodded.
"As for the active fusion of genes, I think everyone already understood so now let's split up. Half of us will stay here and guard the vehicles, and the other half will go to the ecological park together." Bai Yi didn't waste too many brain cells on the abnormality in his body. Since it was an abnormality, it was either a good thing or a bad thing. It wasn't like worrying himself sick over it would cause it to disappear, so Bai Yi didn't bother too much about it. To a certain extent, Bai Yi was quite a carefree person.
"Hong Qi Hua, Momo, Martin, Sara, Little Warner, Sharpei, Pupu, you guys stay here. Woolf, Mavis and Heloise, and I will go to the ecological park." Bai Yi said.
"Bai Yi, your injury!"
"It's nothing, as long as it isn't a head to head clash, my injuries won't be a problem. If we encounter any danger then Woolf will handle it for us, isn't that right, Woolf?" Bai Yi said.
"Of course, leave it to me!" Woolf held his head high and stuck his chest out.
Everyone agreed with this and nobody had any other objections. This allocation was quite rational, and everyone was more at ease with Hong Qi Hua around as they could all see her outstanding performance during this period. Bai Yi, Woolf and Heloise were also more experienced in dealing with unexpected changes, and with Mavis around she could treat them if anybody got injured.
……
Bai Yi brought a handgun and that broadsword. Woolf brought along his greatsword and a submachine gun. Heloise also brought a handgun and her own short sword. Mavis was a doctor, so she brought along a first aid kit, but at the same time she didn't forget to bring her short sword with her.
The importance of cold weapons that Bai Yi talked to Hong Qi Hua about was already conveyed to everybody, so everyone planned to start familiarising themselves with it.
"Let's head to the laboratory first!" Bai Yi said.
"Why?" Woolf asked.
"To find a suitable container, like a test tube or reagent bottle to store an organism's muscles or fluids more conveniently. It's not like we have to eat the entire animal for gene fusion." Bai Yi explained.
Woolf was suddenly enlightened and nobody else had any objections, so they headed to the laboratory.
There was no reason for any of them to go to Otorohanga Middle School before, and the area that this school occupied was really quite large due to the low population density of New Zealand. The few of them had already walked a few rounds around the school building. If not for Heloise coming to this school before, all of them would have already gotten lost.
"This place is really damn huge." Woolf couldn't help but to complain after he finally saw Heloise stopping in front of a door. The door was standard-sized, and from just a look Woolf knew that he would never fit through that door. With his size now, walking along the corridor was already a bit of a squeeze.
"This is where they keep all their lab equipment; this place is still surprisingly the same after so long!" Heloise said with some nostalgia. Mavis saw that the room was quite dark and subconsciously went to switch on the light.
Fluorescent lights instantly shined on them and Bai Yi raised his head.
"There's still electricity here?" Bai Yi questioned with suspicion. After so long, the city had had its power cut long ago. Even the base only had a small generator, just barely enough for their daily necessities.
"I only switched on the lights out of habit, I'm not sure." Mavis shook her head. She only thought the room was quite dark, so she went to switch on the light subconsciously, she didn't think about whether there was still electricity or not.
"Heloise, do you know anything?"
"Maybe the students did it themselves." Heloise said uncertainly.
"Students!"
"En, Otorohanga Middle School emphasized a lot on practical skills, and there were many clubs in the school. Maybe this was a product of one those technological clubs, but as for what's going on I really have no idea." Heloise explained.
Students made this? Bai Yi was quite surprised; students in China were all a bunch of bookworms. If they had to make a power generator that could supply the entire school with electricity, then they could probably do it… but just in theory. However, what Bai Yi cared about wasn't this, he didn't even care about how the electricity was produced, it was all good as long as he knew that there was electricity here. Bai Yi brought along a grinder polisher from the base. He initially thought that he had to find electricity from somewhere else, but now he didn't have to go through the trouble.
"Having electricity is a good thing, take the test tubes and we will head to the ecological park." Bai Yi said.
The few of them moved together, taking more than 10 empty test tubes from the laboratory, and used the specialised case to store them. Mavis then carried the case along with her first aid kit. At this time, Bai Yi didn't try to be gentlemanly and carry it for her, Mavis wasn't going to participate in battle, so it was most suitable for her to carry it.
……
Over at Hong Qi Hua's side, all them started to rest after preparing a simple defensive line to guard against unexpected danger. Little Warner played with the knife that Bai Yi picked for him and looked at Momo who was teasing Pupu from time to time. All of Momo's fusion slots were filled by butterfly genes, so she didn't have to be afraid of fusing Pupu's genes and she also really liked this fat and round pet pig.
"What are you thinking about?" Hong Qi Hua came beside Little Warner.
"I'm not thinking about anything!" Little Warner looked at Hong Qi Hua.
Hong Qi Hua looked at Little Warner's pure eyes, she could be sure that Little Warner really wasn't thinking of anything. With New Zealand's change and the death of his parents, he probably hadn't completely understood what had happened as a small kid. Although Little Warner knew some things, he still didn't have the awareness to think about how to adapt to the future world.
_______________________________________________________________________________
TN: Well if you missed the announcement, to summarize its my holidays now so for the entire month of december i'll be releasing at a rate of 2-3 per day. But when january comes and my school starts again it will go back to a base rate of 1 chapter a day.
Chapter 48: Hummingbird
"This is the ecological park?" Bai Yi asked. Although he knew that New Zealand was a large country with a low population, he was still shocked to see the vast and endless forest enclosed in front of him.
"Yep, this is the ecological park of Otorohanga Middle School." Heloise nodded.
"Let's enter then, be careful!" Bai Yi reminded them.
The few of them entered the ecological park carefully, preparing to find suitable animal genes to fuse with inside. The ecological park belonged to a school, so it only reared some small animals, even if there were any large ones they were few in number. Moreover, it had already been 10 plus days since the activated cells proliferated, so these animals had long run somewhere else.
Walking on the man-made road, Bai Yi suddenly stopped!
"What happened?"
"It's too lush! This is an ecological park belonging to a school, the paved path we are walking on right now must've been what students would normally use to walk, but now the path is almost completely covered by vegetation. There's only one possible reason why it is like this now, and that is within the 10 plus days these plants grew by this much!" Bai Yi explained.
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying that the activated cells accelerated the growth of these plants!" Bai Yi chuckled, Woolf was really quite slow, he couldn't understand until he laid it out in black and white.
"So that's what happened!" Woolf was suddenly enlightened.
The few of them moved carefully inside the park, being cautious and on guard for anything that might happen. However, the entire ecological park was abnormally silent, and they didn't find any animals around. This made Bai Yi, who was on guard against evolved lifeforms, extremely surprised. Where are the animals? Where are all the animals that were originally here?
"What's going on here?"
They stopped at a small open patch of land that hadn't been overtaken by vegetation yet. It was strange that the ecological park had suddenly become so empty, and the few of them wouldn't continue moving until they figured this out. Bai Yi, Heloise and Mavis looked at the park and pondered hard, but as for Woolf, it was better to spare him. Thinking was definitely not his job.
"This became really dangerous!" Bai Yi said, slowly looking at his surroundings.
"The introduction of activated cells would definitely completely destroy the original food chain in the natural world. We don't know what would happen to the organisms in the future, but just the Binging Stage now would ruin the entire food chain. That frightening hunger and appetite would cause various animals to hunt and eat each other, resulting in a great number of animals dying and being eaten by the small minority in a short period of time." Bai Yi didn't wait for Woolf to question him and started to explain.
"The ecological park is so quiet because… a great majority of the animals are already eaten. Under the same reasoning, the animals that are still alive must be those that evolved to become the peak predators in the food chain." Bai Yi said while his right hand held the handgun and his left hand grabbed onto the hilt of the broadsword.
"They're coming!" Bai Yi's eyes looked towards the left, where a bunch of small black shadows were rapidly approaching them.
"What are those!"
"Run!" Bai Yi saw the black shadows, and though he couldn't clearly what they were, he very decisively gave the command because the group of black shadows looked like a swarm of bees. Even if it wasn't a bee swarm, it would be something similar. To the few of them now, it was definitely something extremely dangerous.
"Over there to that building!" Bai Yi pointed to a small house in the middle of the ecological park.
The rest of them immediately followed. Even Woolf, whose confidence had boosted greatly recently did not have any objections. If a few meter tall monster appeared, then he might've had the confidence to clash with it, but with such a big group of bee-like creatures, he wouldn't be able to deal with them even if he had a few more limbs.
The few of them ran crazily, and the black cloud behind rapidly closed in on them.
Bai Yi was the first to barge inside the house and rapidly dashed to the nearest window. Behind Bai Yi, the rest of them followed closely behind him, and Woolf, who was last, slammed the door shut. The moment the door closed, numerous 'Pa Pa Pa Pa' sounds like nails banging on the door rang out. The entire door was shaking nonstop from all the collisions, and their hearts sped up in fear of the door getting broken.
Such great power!
"Go inside, the window won't hold!" Bai Yi saw how violent the banging was and immediately made his judgement. Those small creatures were just following their path and banging on the door. When they try to find another way later, the window definitely wouldn't stop them.
They immediately ran inside the room, and with Woolf's huge size, he almost couldn't squeeze inside. Not long after entering the room, everyone heard the sound of the window glass breaking. Then there was a dense buzzing sound, and immediately after that were the sounds of numerous impacts on the door again. Only after a long while did the sound outside slowly disappear.
Only then did everyone ease up slightly and have the spare attention to observe the room they were in.
"This is a mini-observation room!" Heloise looked around and ascertained. Bai Yi also looked around the room to see if there was anything useful. However, this place was really quite simple, and he couldn't find anything.
"What are those things outside?" Woolf asked.
"I don't know, but it looked like a bee swarm."
"I'll take a look, a few probably died from the collisions." Woolf said as he went to open the door.
"Wait, open a small crack first!" Bai Yi said to Woolf and gestured for Heloise and Mavis to move away. At this time, Bai Yi walked right beside the door and raised the broadsword in his right hand. "Close the door immediately if there's anything!" Bai Yi said to Woolf and nodded his approval.
Seeing Bai Yi being so cautious, Woolf couldn't help but be careful as well, and he cautiously opened the door. The door slowly opened wider and wider. It seemed like the small creatures just now had already flown away. The moment Woolf wanted to relax, the buzzing sound suddenly appeared again. Recalling Bai Yi's words, he immediately tried to shut the door and at this moment Bai Yi also focused his eyes and the broadsword cut down like a ray of light.
'Pom!' the door was shut by Woolf again and at this moment Bai Yi already shifted himself quickly in front of Mavis.
I didn't get everything!
The moment Bai Yi's broadsword fell, he realised he missed two, and immediately placed himself in front of Mavis. Mavis was the doctor here, so everyone had to prioritise protecting her.
Two small shadows shot over like bullets, and Bai Yi instantly moved his sword vertically in front of him.
With a soft 'chi!', one of them just happened to ram into the edge of the sword, and the sharp blade instantly sliced it in half. Bai Yi twisted his head at this moment; the blood splattered a trail of his face, and his changing irises completely captured the process of the small bird being cut in half in detail. However, the remaining one sped past him and Bai Yi instantly raised his left hand to intercept it. The small shadow instantly started spinning and landed on Bai Yi's palm.
'Puchi!', Bai Yi and Mavis let out a groan at the same time.
The small shadow pierced through Bai Yi's palm and landed on Mavis' thigh. Just like a drill, the small shadow dug deeply into her thigh.
"Don't move!" Bai Yi said to Mavis and instantly switched to a reverse grip, the tip of the blade viciously stabbing into the bloody hole in her thigh before stopping the blade by force. After Bai Yi's stab, the thing spinning in Mavis' thigh finally stopped moving and apparently died from his blade.
In this short moment, Woolf and Heloise hadn't even begun to react. Only now did they realise just how big the difference was between them and Bai Yi. It wasn't about absolute strength, but the ability to adapt and react to sudden situations.
With only a few movements, although it wasn't clashing with some giant monster, Bai Yi was still breathing rapidly as cold sweat dripped down. The few of them saw how Bai Yi was, and knew that his injuries were affected again. Woolf and Heloise wanted to say something, but Bai Yi waved his hand, indicating that he was fine, just that it was really hard to act with this injury-ridden body.
Only now could everyone look at the thing that was killed by Bai Yi on the floor.
It was very small, about the same size as a bee, but it had a long and sharp beak that was almost the same size as its body.
"It's a hummingbird… sword-billed hummingbird!" Heloise instantly recognised it. Of course, these hummingbirds were very different from normal sword-billed hummingbirds. All of them took a few more looks, and found that even though they were all sword-billed hummingbirds, there were still differences between them. Apparently, even if the genes they fused with were the same, how it manifested on their bodies would still be different.
"I'm sorry Doctor Mavis, I didn't protect you well!" Protecting the medical personnel was everybody's responsibility.
Looking at how Mavis and the hummingbird's blood mixed together, everyone knew that she had definitely fused with the hummingbird genes. Luckily, from their analysis before, hummingbird genes weren't too bad. It could improve the speed at which her nerves and muscles reacted, just that they didn't know how much they would improve by.
"It's fine, isn't the hummingbird gene one of the genes we were considering?" Mavis waved her hand too.
Mavis had heard much from them during this period of time, but she still hadn't been in any battles with evolved lifeforms, so she was still in shock. Although Bai Yi didn't manage to protect her perfectly just now, his reaction and movements in that moment were simply astonishing. Mavis felt that she couldn't even do one tenth of what Bai Yi did, she had completely forgotten to even dodge.
Mavis didn't use the anaesthesia, as things like that were extremely valuable now. Her body trembled while she extracted the hummingbird corpse from the bloody hole in her leg, and instantly sucked in a breath of cold air.
Heloise brought out a test tube from the case beside Mavis, intending to put the dead hummingbird inside it. Collecting genes from various useful organisms was the purpose of this trip.
"Wait, take this one!" Bai Yi said to Heloise and pointed to the one that avoided Bai Yi's first slash but slammed itself onto his blade in the end.
"Although they are all hummingbirds, this one was the most threatening just now. Maybe its genes are of superior quality." Bai Yi explained.
There was still something like superior quality? The rest of them immediately started chuckling upon hearing his words.
Chapter 49: Awakened Intelligence
"But if you are talking about superior breed, isn't the one that wounded you and Doctor Mavis stronger?" Heloise asked.
"It's not like that. Just now both birds dodged my first strike, but I suddenly felt at that moment that this one was a greater threat, so I moved to stop it. The second one only took advantage of the situation. I have a feeling that the one that rammed into my sword was a little stronger, though… it's just a feeling, so I have no basis behind it." Bai Yi explained.
"S-sorry! It's all my fault, if only I didn't open the door!" Woolf was at quite at a loss.
"It's not your fault, I let you open the door. It's my miscalculation instead; I never expected that these hummingbirds would be so intelligent. They actually knew how to wait in ambush of us." Bai Yi looked at Woolf blaming himself and patted his arm to console him.
"Bai Yi, what did you say just now?" Heloise suddenly asked when she heard Bai Yi.
"It's not your fault, I let you open the door. It's my miscalculation instead; I never expected that these hummingbirds would be so intelligent. They actually knew how to wait in ambush of us." From just a look at Heloise's expression, Bai Yi could guess that she'd thought of something and immediately repeated himself again. Woolf wanted to say something, but Bai Yi waved his hand at him, warning him not to disturb Heloise at this time. This rare moment of inspiration could result in some very important information.
"Intelligent. Yes, these evolved lifeforms are too intelligent!" Heloise finally said to everybody excitedly after thinking for a moment.
"Bai Yi, I noticed recently that Sharpei seems to be able to understand human speech. Was he always so intelligent?" Heloise asked.
"Actually, Sharpei has always been very smart, and it seems to be able to understand what Momo says. But now that you mention it, Sharpei really seems to have become more intelligent." Bai Yi suddenly recalled how Sharpei got the other dog that they met on the way to Otorohanga Middle School to back off.
"Actually, it isn't just Sharpei. Even Little Warner's pet pig, don't you think that it's a little too intelligent?"
Everyone immediately thought of the two pets in their team. Normally they just thought that both Sharpei and Pupu were quite smart and they didn't mess around like normal animals. However, now that Heloise mentioned it, it really seemed like they were extremely intelligent. However, wasn't it a good thing? If the pets were smarter then it would be easier to control them, otherwise it would be troublesome if they ran amok.
"Activated cells!" Bai Yi said gravely.
"En, activated cells!" Heloise.
"Just what are you guys talking about?" Woolf asked.
"It's the influence of the activated cells. We have concluded so far that activated cells have 3 abilities - 1. Activated Capabilities, 2. Gene Fusion, 3. Chain Infection. If my deduction is correct, then we have to add another ability to that…" Heloise looked at Woolf's blank face and explained.
"Becoming smarter!"
"Intelligence enhancement!"
"Awakened Intelligence!"
The three of them spoke at the same time. although they didn't say the same thing, the meanings of it were the same.
"Really, activated cells still have this capability? Why don't I feel anything?" Woolf couldn't help but scratch his head and said dumbly after hearing the three of them.
"You can't be saved, really, even the power of activated cells can't make you smarter!" Bai Yi joked.
"Hahahaha!" Everyone immediately burst out laughing after hearing Bai Yi.
"Anyway, let's just record this down as a guess of ours. As for whether it's true or not, we'll find out after we encounter other evolved lifeforms in the future." Bai Yi said.
At this time, Mavis had already finished wrapping up the wound on her thigh. From the start till end Mavis didn't speak much, but she didn't whine and cry like what a normal girl would do. Mavis, who had already lived to middle age, had plenty of life experience which caused her to become more mature and calm.
"Give me your left hand!" Mavis said to Bai Yi.
"En!"
"Your left hand has really been through many calamities, really, do you not want your left hand anymore?" Mavis looked at Bai Yi's left hand and said. A single sentence left Bai Yi speechless, ever since Te Awamutu his left hand had been continuously getting injured. His left arm even fractured in the battle against Yu Han a few days ago; now that it got injured it really seemed like he didn't want his left hand anymore.
"It couldn't be helped, hehehe…" Bai Yi said meekly.
Very quickly, Bai Yi's palm was bandaged. He took out the communicator and tested it; the distance wasn't too far so they could still communicate.
After the communicator got through, Bai Yi told Hong Qi Hua about their mishap in the ecological park and reminded them to be careful. They had to be wary of not just large animals now, but the smaller animals and insects were just as dangerous.
After they finished talking, Bai Yi's group sat quietly inside the mini observation room, not knowing when those hummingbirds would leave.
"Woolf, you fused with the genes of a dog, so your sense of hearing should've increased by a lot. Can you try to listen carefully and see if you hear anything?" Bai Yi said.
"Oh really?"
Bai Yi was quite taken aback but still followed Bai Yi's words and listened carefully for any sounds outside the room. After focusing his senses, Woolf realised that he really could hear the sounds outside just like Bai Yi said.
Woolf placed his dog ears to the door. After a while he slowly turned around and nodded. "I can hear them; they're still outside. There's a slight buzzing sound. Weird, why didn't I notice it just now?"
"I probably can guess why!" Bai Yi said, looking at Woolf.
"After being infected by activated cells and fusing with many genes, our bodies started to change rapidly. Not just in our physical form but in some other areas: strength, speed, senses…But in reality, just 10 odd days ago we didn't have these abilities. Although we'd already changed, the 'common sense' we had in our bodies for the past decades is impeding our ability to display these abilities." Bai Yi stretched out his right hand and clenched his fist.
"Oh really? That means that we have to practice and familiarize ourselves with our abilities!" Heloise and Mavis nodded.
"En, precisely!" Bai Yi nodded too.
Woolf understood as well after the few of them explained and gave examples in detail. At this time, a long period of time had already passed and based on Woolf's hearing, the hummingbirds were still waiting for them outside. It was Bai Yi's group that seemed to have run out of patience first.
"We can't continue like this. Even if the hummingbirds leave we'll still encounter them when we go out later. We must find a way to kill all of them." Bai Yi said.
"Bai Yi, don't you know knife skills? Just like in the movies, a few lines of light will flash, then all the hummingbirds will fall onto the floor…" Woolf said.
"What nonsense are you talking about, my knife skills are from practicing cooking, they're not something like that." Bai Yi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Then what do we do?"
"Use that!" Heloise said, pointing at the curtain in the room.
"A curtain?"
"Yes, use this. Wrap this over the crack in the door and open the door, those hummingbirds will definitely rush in and get trapped inside the curtain." Heloise nodded.
"How is that possible? The curtain will be useless, we already saw that the birds were like drills just now." Woolf shook his head.
"No, it can work!" Bai Yi tested the curtain and discovered that the curtain was made of some unknown material; it was abnormally tough and flexible. It should be able to trap those hummingbirds.
They didn't have many resources, so even though this method didn't seem too reliable, they didn't have much of a choice. They first folded the curtain onto itself and layered it, blocking the crack in the door. Bai Yi then nodded to Woolf.
Woolf opened the door again, and this time the buzzing noise came in an instant. Multiple sharp protrusions appeared on the curtain that was used to block the door before the protrusions started to twist.
The curtain was flexible yet tough; it was actually tougher for the birds to break through the curtain than through a hard surface like the glass window.
Animals originally already had the ability to judge their strengths and weaknesses. After becoming intelligent, the more they wouldn't fight an enemy they couldn't win.
After a few minutes, some of the birds were stuck inside the curtain but the others decided to escape. Only now did the few of them let out breaths of relief and looked at the giant curtain bundle with dozens of hummingbirds inside.
"What do we do with these guys?"
"Why don't we grill and eat them?" Woolf asked.
"Dream on; hummingbirds are the smallest species of birds in the world. They're normally around the same size as a bee, and the smallest of them only weigh 2 grams. Look at these hummingbirds. Although they're a bit bigger, they probably don't exceed 10 grams. What're you going to eat from this thing?" Bai Yi suddenly felt like Woolf was just like a clown.
"Er... I just thought that we didn't have enough food, and that we couldn't release them either…" Woolf said awkwardly.
Bai Yi stretched out his hand and cautiously grabbed hold of a struggling hummingbird inside the curtain bundle. The bird very rapidly flapped its wings trying to escape from Bai Yi's hand, but to no avail. After a while, the hummingbird completely accepted its fate and didn't bother to struggle anymore.
Bai Yi stretched out his index finger and stroked the head of the hummingbird with it, and in the end, he totally released his grip.
The hummingbird tilted its head and looked at Bai Yi. It then flew to the window ledge and looked at the curtain. Bai Yi felt that he seemed to understand what the hummingbird meant and slowly opened the curtain bundle. The hummingbirds which were initially trapped flew out one by one. The birds looked at Bai Yi's group for a while and slowly flew away through the crack in the door.
