Have we met somewhere before?
That arrow missed its target.
Mu Lan twitched his ears, hearing something rushing toward him at an incredible speed.
In this environment with extremely low visibility, Mu Lan’s exceptionally sharp hearing allowed him to move around freely through the fog. While retreating backward, he nocked an arrow, aiming it based on the sounds made by his pursuer.
As expected, these two arrows missed as well. Mu Lan put away his bow, having no intention of using it again.
The two of them chased each other through the mist, but as time dragged on, Mu Lan lost the desire to keep running. Chasing others for fun was amusing, but being chased down by someone else was not nearly as entertaining.
There were many withered tree trunks scattered across this land. Mu Lan climbed up a large tree in a few swift movements, holding his breath and staying completely still.
The thick fog effectively concealed Mu Lan’s figure. He heard his pursuer catch up to the vicinity, immediately slowing down from a run to a walk.
His pursuer had impressive martial arts skills and was exceptionally agile.
Mu Lan was quite satisfied. After hunting mutants here every day, he could finally encounter something entertaining.
He fished out the dagger tucked into his waist, and the moment his opponent walked under the branch he was perched on, he leaped down abruptly. A withered tree branch snapped under his kick, letting out a sharp and miserable creak.
At the same time, the person below saw a flash of cold light as the blade of the dagger closed right before their eyes.
The gun barrel collided with the knife blade, producing a teeth-grating, sharp screech.
Mu Lan kicked downward. Leng Guang failed to dodge in time, taking a direct hit to the abdomen and stumbling backward repeatedly.
Logically speaking, once you gain the upper hand, you should press the attack relentlessly, firmly exploiting the opponent’s flaws so they have no room to counterattack.
However, at the exact moment of their clash just now, Mu Lan caught a whiff of a fragrance.
A rich osmanthus scent blended with the refreshing aroma of green mandarins. The two scents quietly intertwined in the air before quickly dispersing, forced apart by their respective owners.
At that moment, Amos and his group had already caught up. The scent lingering in the air had not completely dissipated yet, and a look of astonishment appeared on Amos’s face: “It is an Omega pheromone. Why is there an Omega pheromone here?”
Ever since humans developed glands, Alphas have been naturally sensitive to Omega pheromones, and Omegas are the same toward Alphas.
Mu Lan did not understand why his glands, which had always been extremely easy to control, suddenly stopped listening to him.
He instinctively reached for the back of his neck, but realizing what he was doing, he stopped and turned to attack the human in front of him instead. No matter what, the problem definitely originated from this person right here. Coupled with the fact that his subordinates had all arrived, dragging things out any longer would put him at a disadvantage.
Yet the moment he raised his dagger, Mu Lan felt a sharp and searing pain surge from deep within his chest. His body froze, and the dagger slipped uncontrollably from his hand toward the ground.
He heard the person in front of him call out a warning: “Do not shoot.”
Why is this happening? Mu Lan touched his undamaged chest. Clearly, no one had fired a gun, and there were no wounds on his body. This pain was coming from the inside out.
Mu Lan felt his consciousness slipping away from his body. Kneeling on one knee, a pair of lower legs and shoe tips suddenly entered his field of vision.
Following them upward, Mu Lan saw that person’s face, a face he had never seen in any of his memories.
Have we met somewhere before?
As soon as this thought crossed his mind, Mu Lan completely lost consciousness.
In his hazy state, he dreamed of many things. For a moment, it was a desolate city surrounded by zombies, and he brushed shoulders with a long-haired man dressed in blue. Then it was the Energy Lighthouse, where he saw a strange scar on that man’s left wrist. The scenes shifted constantly, mixing everything he had experienced and never experienced together right in front of Mu Lan.
Finally, still standing in front of the Energy Lighthouse, Mu Lan watched large numbers of soldiers descend from starships. They flooded into the lighthouse, and shortly after, the light went out.
Blue Mother Star lost its only light source, plunging entirely into darkness.
Mu Lan walked forward endlessly, trying to escape the gloom, only to find thick fog rising all around him.
The path behind was not the path he came by; the path ahead was not the path he wanted to go. Without a sense of direction, unable to tell day from night, he wandered in circles for a long time, forever unable to walk out of this land.
Suddenly, the back of his hand felt like it had been pricked by a needle. A flash of white light appeared before his eyes, and Mu Lan instinctively tried to block it with the back of his hand, only to find that no matter how hard he tried, he could not raise his arm.
“He looks like he is about to wake up,” the Alpha doctor retracted his hand and said to another Alpha in the room.
Mutants brought back from Blue Mother Star were customarily sent to the central base for research. But unexpectedly, after passing all kinds of examinations, every single indicator showed that he still fell within the scope of a human.
He was simply a human Omega with different ears and an extra tail. He would not cause others to become infected, and his test results also indicated that he had no potential to spread infection to others.
Looking at the medical report, Leng Guang frowned and asked, “Growing up in an environment like Blue Mother Star, is he still considered human?”
“Hard to believe, right?” the Alpha doctor said with a smile. “The antibody concentration in his body is sufficient to resist the infectious substances of Blue Mother Star; he will not be affected too severely. Furthermore, the research experts looked over the video logs you transmitted back this time, and they unanimously agreed that he is fundamentally different from mutants.”
No wonder the central base treated him as a return case, Leng Guang thought to himself. Human experimentation was a major taboo; if they could not be one hundred percent certain that this creature from Blue Mother Star was a mutant, the central base had no right to conduct any experimental research on him.
Leng Guang cast his gaze toward the top of the patient’s head on the hospital bed, where a pair of fluffy ears sat. “Then what about his ears and tail?”
“After all, that is Blue Mother Star,” the Alpha doctor explained helplessly.
That is right, after all, that is Blue Mother Star. Infectious substances lingered everywhere, alongside all kinds of highly contagious mutants. Having high antibodies did not mean one could escape completely unscathed.
“What is he saying?”
Leng Guang’s sharp eyes caught the Omega’s lips moving. Both men stepped forward a bit, wanting to hear clearly what this survivor from Blue Mother Star might be saying in his dream.
The ward was exceptionally quiet. The Omega’s lips opened and closed, and they heard him say: “What the hell, who dares tie up Laozi’s hands.”
Alpha doctor: “…”
Leng Guang: “…”
Mu Lan managed to pry open his heavy eyelids, and the first thing he saw was two tall Alphas standing in front of him with rather strange expressions on their faces.
He tried to lift the hand that had refused to budge no matter what in his dream, saw a needle stuck into the back of it, and reached out to pull it out. Leng Guang reacted with lightning speed and pinned his wrist down.
The Alpha doctor by his side said gently, “Do not be nervous. Your body is very weak right now, and what is being infused is nutrient solution.”
The fluid entered his body without causing any discomfort, aside from making him feel deeply exhausted. Mu Lan lowered his hand and asked in confusion, “I was not even injured. Why am I this weak?”
“Moving from Blue Mother Star to the new planet, experiencing adaptation issues is completely normal.”
The Alpha doctor spoke with a smile on his face, while thinking to himself: Compared to the harsh environment of Blue Mother Star, the new planet is practically paradise. Even if there is an adjustment period, it should not be severe to this extent. Of course, he would not tell the Omega that he felt this way because seven large tubes of blood had just been drawn from him, followed by being transferred into various types of testing equipment that placed a certain amount of wear and tear on his body, causing him to feel dizzy and limp upon waking up.
After all, this Omega looked so fierce. The doctor worried that if he found out the physical discomfort was his fault, he might retaliate. Under the new planet’s laws, the legal system heavily favored protecting Omegas. At that point, even if he had reason on his side, he would not be able to explain it clearly.
Mu Lan shook his heavy head, and with his free hand, he grabbed Leng Guang’s wrist, staring fixedly at him with unblinking eyes: “Your glands are releasing that scent again.”
When his body was developing glands, a portion of humanity had already migrated to the new planet, while those left behind either became mutants or corpses. Having lived on Blue Mother Star for decades all by himself, he naturally did not know that people on the new planet had given this scent a name: pheromones.
From the moment this man gripped his wrist, Mu Lan had caught the scent coming off him.
Green mandarin scent. It smelled quite pleasant.
The only flaw was that it easily coaxed out his own scent. Mu Lan’s instincts told him that spreading his scent everywhere was a very dangerous thing to do. On Blue Mother Star, other mutants could track his location through scent, and now that he was in an entirely unfamiliar environment, maintaining constant vigilance was of the utmost importance.
Suppressing the impulse of his glands to release his scent, Mu Lan’s gaze toward Leng Guang began to turn fierce.
“Hey, hey, hey!” The Alpha doctor hurriedly pulled Leng Guang backward. “You are not allowed to flirt with the patient.”
The law had clear requirements regarding this matter. Without consent, an Alpha casually releasing pheromones toward an Omega could be judged as sexual assault and subjected to detention.
Mu Lan looked at the doctor who had just spoken, a look of confusion on his face: “Flirt?”
“You will understand later.” Dropping those words, the doctor dragged Leng Guang out of the room, leaving the ward instantly quiet.
Now left alone, Mu Lan sat up after lying there for a few minutes and reached out to pull out the intravenous needle again.
This time, no one stopped him. After listening and confirming there were no signs of anyone outside, he leaped out of the hospital bed, intending to escape.
Whether these people were good or bad remained to be seen. He certainly did not want to stay here and sit as a sitting duck. Besides, thinking of the soldiers who had entered the lighthouse, a sense of aversion toward the military naturally rose up in Mu Lan’s heart.
The door was locked, and the windows could open, but Mu Lan’s hospital room was on the nineteenth floor. Looking down from above, perhaps because he had not stood inside such a tall building for a very long time, he discovered he actually had some fear of heights.
The exterior wall of the hospital was completely bare, with nothing for Mu Lan to grab or use for leverage. After scanning his surroundings, Mu Lan abandoned the idea of escaping through the window.
“How can you pull out your own IV?”
A voice came from behind him, startling Mu Lan. Because before the voice sounded, he had not heard the slightest noise.
He glanced sideways at the door, which was not fully shut, where chaotic noises from the outside were squeezing through the gap.
The soundproofing here is actually this good. Mu Lan curled his hand into a fist before relaxing it. Forget it, I have zero strength left in my body. Even if I manage to walk out the door, I probably will not make it very far.
Having been away from human society for far too long, everything here felt both unfamiliar and dangerous to him.