At that moment, Yu Jing's unfocused eyes instinctively flicked toward the butcher behind him—only to see an utterly bewildering sight. The butcher was using the crude, makeshift stitching needles he carried to sew up the wound on Yu Jing's back.
"Why..." Yu Jing couldn't understand the reason. But if it weren't for his iron willpower, he would have already fainted.
His vision grew hazier and hazier. Just before he lost consciousness, Yu Jing mustered all his strength to cough up the blood choking his throat and shouted loudly, "Jiang... Tian! Don't come out!"
The desperate shout tore open the freshly sewn wound on his back, and an unbearable pain exploded through his body, plunging his eyes into darkness as he lost consciousness.
...
Meanwhile, the research institute's tests were underway.
Over two hundred kilometers outside the A-Level city district, a vast desert sprawled beneath the circling armed helicopters. Below them lay a massive crater—like a meteor impact—with a diameter stretching several kilometers.
Forty-eight hours after the incident, armed forces and scientists from Zones 19, 18, and 17 had gathered, setting up camps and facilities within a ten-kilometer radius of the site to collect data.
Initial findings confirmed the object was indeed some kind of meteorite. Yet life-sign detectors revealed strong biological activity at the impact site, and numerous caves had formed at the crater's deepest point.
Thirteen specialized squads were dispatched to explore the deepest caves, hoping to uncover traces of an "extraterrestrial visitor." After all, this desert, regularly used for nuclear testing, should be completely inhospitable to life—except perhaps for certain super-powered beings.
One team, composed of ten armed personnel and three scientists, had ventured into one cave for five hours, reaching an unexplored underground area over a thousand meters deep. The life signs detected by their instruments were growing stronger.
"This is...!"
The lead officer, a man in his fifties, caught sight of a green object clinging to the cave wall under his flashlight. It was even writhing slightly on the surface.
"A plant?"
Under the beam of the flashlight, the tiny green organism—initially about the size of a fist—grew rapidly within seconds, swelling to roughly the size of a human face.
"Absorbing light to accelerate growth?"
Driven by his scientific curiosity, the officer took out a scalpel and a test tube to cut a sample of the strange green plant for study.
But as the blade neared the plant's surface, the organism—possibly sensing danger—quickly detached itself from the wall and leapt toward the officer's face.
"Officer!"
The armed guards were helpless to fire. The green plant stuck to the officer's face and swiftly entered his mouth.
Before their eyes, the officer's body began to wither rapidly, as if all fat and protein were being drained away, turning him into a desiccated husk. From his navel, thick green vines sprouted and spread outward in every direction.
"What the hell is that thing?!"
Terrified soldiers aimed their weapons at the plant and fired. But the first bullet only provoked a frenzied counterattack. The plant assaulted not only the soldiers but the remaining two researchers as well.
Vines penetrated through mouths, sucking dry every nutrient from the bodies before multiplying from the navels.
After absorbing the nutrients of thirteen humans, the green organism grew to nearly a hundred meters in length. Driven by phototropism, it rapidly spread across the desert floor.
Within just half an hour, the entire army camp of tens of thousands was overrun. Armed helicopters in the sky, tanks, and missiles on the ground—all were destroyed. Video footage of the event was immediately transmitted back to the central bureau of the Chana Empire.
Satellite observations revealed that nearly one-third of the desert was now completely covered by this green vegetation, which continued to spread outward. Should it reach inhabited human cities, the consequences would be catastrophic.
At a conference table, top national officials gathered.
"The data indicates this plant can absorb virtually all forms of energy. Nuclear weapons might only serve as nourishment for it... Shall we deploy special operatives? This incident should be classified as an SSS-level mission. Only these super-powered individuals are capable of handling it properly."
"Judging by the rate at which this plant absorbs light energy, it will reach the nearest human settlement in no more than ten minutes. Even if we classify this as an SSS-level mission and dispatch the psychics to handle it, time will likely run out. I believe we should use an antimatter missile to attack—this form of negative energy should effectively suppress the growth of this lifeform."
"Antimatter technology for military use is still in the experimental stage and hasn't undergone any detonation tests. If something goes wrong, it could drain all the energy on Earth. I don't support deploying antimatter weapons."
At that moment, a man in a suit seated at the head of the conference table spoke up: "Considering both viewpoints, we will first deploy the antimatter missile to destroy the source. Once detonated, this incident will officially be classified as an SSS-level mission. Psychics will then be sent in to manage any fallout from the explosion and clear the remaining plant matter that survives. If possible, we might even be able to retrieve a core sample of this unusual plant."
After his words, the room fell silent for a moment before all the leaders quickly reached a consensus—there was no time to waste.
Thirty seconds later, a bomber released a small missile—no bigger than a grenade—from the heart of the green mass covering nearly half the desert. As the precision-guided missile made contact with the ground—
"Boom!"
A massive tremor shook the earth from the blast point. The antimatter inside was fully unleashed, furiously absorbing every bit of energy nearby.
The green vegetation began to wither en masse from the center outward, but the stimulus caused the outer edges to accelerate their growth—an instinctive survival response. Some branches quickly pushed into human inhabited areas.
"A fascinating lifeform," one observed.
Prepared in advance, dozens of exceptional individuals stood ready at the desert's edge, where it met human villages. With a mere gesture, they caused large swaths of the invading plants to wither and die.
While the antimatter missile decimated the core of the vegetation, the psychics swept through the fringes to eliminate the remnants and collect samples. Still, a small fraction of the core continued spreading underground, attempting to escape.
In fact, some of the plant's tendrils burrowed through the hundred-meter-deep bedrock towards District 19's A-level city. There, they unexpectedly encountered the walls of a special underground structure.
By instinct, the plants sensed life within the building and tried to penetrate it, seeking to absorb vital energy to fuel their growth and spread…