Chapter 9: Mutant Creatures Have Appeared

Communication ended.

Liu Daming sighed with relief, loosening the top button of his shirt, muttering, “No matter how many times, I just can’t get used to how these big shots speak.”

Shuanzi whispered a couple of words to A Guang, who impatiently waved him off, signaling him to scram quickly.

Shuanzi walked away, saying, “No need to adapt. They’ll find a way to get comfortable with each other faster than you think. These people are way ‘friendlier’ than those big shots in the Wasteland.”

Liu Daming walked out with him, seemingly oblivious to Shuanzi’s subtext, cheerfully responding, “That’s true. This isn’t the Wasteland after all. I like a world with order—it at least gives humanity a shred of decency.”

Though somewhat extreme, Ji Ting found these views quite normal.

After all, they had witnessed the real apocalypse and experienced firsthand the magnified evil of humanity under extreme conditions.

In other words, they all had some psychological issues.

But in the Wasteland, psychological problems rarely drew attention.

No matter how severe, a person was just considered another “madman.”

Those who could endure survived; those who couldn’t were eliminated.

Shuanzi said, “I had A Guang locate the signal source on Ji Ting. We’ll go pick up the team they sent over.”

Liu Daming nodded, “We’ve been here long enough; it’s time to move.”

The sound of machinery running continuously filled the air as the road and walls shifted with their footsteps, carving out a new passage.

At the end of the road was a cramped, sci-fi-looking room.

A massive control console filled a third of the room, covered in buttons and screens.

On one side of the console stood a collection of impressive devices, their blue glow illuminating the area as they operated.

Above the console hung an enormous screen.

Half of the screen displayed surveillance footage of various city districts, while the other half showed a map flickering with dense green dots.

Shuanzi shouted to the busy people in the room, “Wrench, A Qi, we’ve got work.”

Wrench rolled some Manla grass into a small bundle, popped it in his mouth, and mumbled while chewing, “Cleaning up nearby mutated creatures, right? No need to ask.”

A Qi pressed a button, and the screen switched to a new map.

The new map was an irregular shape, scattered with red dots, its edges dotted with green lights.

Ji Ting stared at it for a few seconds before realizing this was a map of the Anomaly Zone.

The green lights on the edges represented the large military force deployed by the nation to prevent chaos beyond the Anomaly Zone.

Seeing Ji Ting’s focus, Liu Daming explained, “The red dots are mutated creatures we’ve detected. The evolved ones are darker and more obvious on the map. The green dots are humans with detectable life signs.”

Ji Ting said, “Your detection range is wider than we thought.”

Wrench grunted, “That’s why if anything stirs on your side, we notice right away.”

The defenses outside the Anomaly Zone had been under their watch from the start. No minor movement went unnoticed.

As Wrench and A Qi busied themselves, the sound of massive machinery echoed from all directions, as if the entire city were rearranging itself—loud and impressive.

Inside the city, however, there was no sensation of shaking; it remained exceptionally stable.

The machinery’s roar never ceased.

Ji Ting’s gaze locked onto the map, noticing the distance between the sporadic red dots and the city seemed to be shrinking.

Amid fierce artillery and bombing sounds, the red dot closest to the city vanished from the map.

Ji Ting confirmed his suspicion—it wasn’t a trick.

The city was actually moving across the land.

It was both the strongest fortress and the most powerful weapon.

A Qi and Wrench’s hands never stopped working, and neither did their mouths.

A Qi said, “I think Ji Ting’s influence on the boss is unreal.”

Wrench replied, “It’s the first time I’ve seen the boss treat a stranger this well. I almost thought he was really the boss’s younger brother.”

Shuanzi agreed, “Ji Ting’s impact on the ‘main character’ is bigger than on us.”

A Qi realized, “True, we haven’t felt much influence. He just seems pretty normal to me.”

Wrench lazily raised his hand, “If anyone’s gonna take him down, I’m your man.”

Liu Daming sighed, used to his underlings’ antics, and bluntly ordered, “Shut up and do your job.”

A Qi shouted louder than Liu Daming, “Boss, you’re our backbone! What if he’s got other intentions? That’d be dangerous!”

Wrench nodded, “I get it—that’s the beauty trap. Heroes have always struggled with beautiful women…”

Before he could finish, Liu Daming delivered a knock to each of their heads, silencing them.

Ji Ting glanced at A Qi and Wrench’s grimacing faces, guessing the blows were no light tap.

Liu Daming slowly rotated his wrist, flashing a “friendly” smile, “Anyone else wanna say something?”

Wrench and A Qi shook their heads in unison and obediently returned to the controls.

Liu Daming turned his gaze to Shuanzi.

“I didn’t say anything just now,” Shuanzi said, pointing to the newly appeared cluster of green dots on the map, changing the subject, “Those people have arrived. Let’s go pick them up.”

From far away, the noise from the other end of the passage carried clearly—Tian Shu Squad’s astonishment at the previous scene.

Canned Food said, “This isn’t a city; it’s a humanoid walking Gundam.”

Baozi’s voice was full of awe, “This thing can actually move on the ground.”

“What kind of power source do they use to support such a huge city moving quickly on the ground?”

After the teams successfully met, Tian Shu Squad suddenly became serious.

Baozi enthusiastically stepped forward, “Let me introduce—this is Leader Liu. The plan to control the fusion between novels and reality was submitted by his squad.”

Ji Ting shook hands with the plain-looking middle-aged man wearing glasses.

The man skipped pleasantries and went straight to the point upon seeing Ji Ting: “Time is tight; let’s start directly.”

He opened his notebook and projected a PPT.

“First, based on the current fusion of the only two novels with reality, we can draw the following conclusions:

One, your influence on the novel’s protagonist is greater than on other characters.

Two, the protagonist of completed novels is less affected than that of unfinished novels.

Three, protagonists of unfinished novels have no clear recognition of your existence, while those of completed novels have a fairly clear concept of both their own existence and yours.

Based on these points, we’ve submitted a plan to control the fusion trajectory between novels and reality.

Due to urgency and the small sample size, this plan is based on assumptions and carries significant uncertainty.”

“We suspect the fusion’s direction can be influenced by the ‘author’—that is, Ji Ting—and our job is to find how to influence it.”

Leader Liu pushed up his glasses, “Regarding this, we’ve outlined several experimental proposals…”

Surrounded by everyone, Ji Ting held his laptop, fingers flying over the keyboard.

[…But unexpectedly, at this critical moment, Liu Daming suddenly jolted, realizing he had actually traveled back in time.]

Before finishing, the text disappeared in front of everyone’s eyes, the document reverting to its original state, paused at the last update before Ji Ting’s hiatus in the novel.

Ji Ting stopped typing and, unsurprised by the development, said, “I’ve tried many times before—typing or handwriting—anything related to the novel just vanishes into thin air.”

Leader Liu was unsurprised as well, nodding calmly and crossing out the first experimental proposal on the PPT, “Let’s continue.”

The group circled around the sofa, distracted.

The cup by Ji Ting’s side was empty.

He licked his lips weakly and read aloud from the novel’s original text, “Liu Daming pulled out a wooden submachine gun, ‘rat-a-tat-tat,’ unleashing a barrage that stopped the charging mutated creatures…”

Canned Food yawned and whispered to Baozi, “Which part is this? Are we almost done?”

Baozi replied, “Not even close. It just got to Liu Daming recruiting his eighth underling. There’s over a hundred thousand words left.”

Sniper Scope was shocked, “Why is this thing so long? How long do we have to read? Can’t we just jump to the last part? It’s just to make Ji Ting finish the ending, no need to start from the beginning.”

Hacker weakly responded, “According to Leader Liu, this is to avoid interference from other factors causing the experiment to fail.”

Shuanzi listened carefully for a while and commented objectively, “Given his writing skills, it’s already absurd that anyone is willing to read this.”

Liu Daming’s eyes were vacant; he had given up struggling.

For others, listening to the novel’s original text was torture; for Liu Daming, it was public execution.

The group barely held on as Ji Ting read the entire novel from start to finish.

Finally, they reached the main point.

Ji Ting added an ending to the previously paused story—using a storyteller’s style.

…But unexpectedly, at this crucial moment, Liu Daming suddenly jolted awake, sitting up in bed, cold sweat pouring down his back.

It turned out it was all a dream!

After finishing, Ji Ting ignored everything else and drank the entire cup of water in one gulp before hopeful eyes swept the others.

The world was silent. Nothing happened.

At that moment, everyone’s psychological waves reached an unprecedented consensus: “Damn!”

Leader Liu crossed out the second experimental proposal and switched to the next PPT slide, unmoved by the failure, “Let’s continue.”

Morale was low. Shuanzi was the first to suggest, “How about we take a break?”

Canned Food added, “Even if something changes, it might not take effect immediately. We should give it some time. Maybe in a few hours, things will improve.”

Baozi perked up, “Canned Food’s right. Maybe it’s a delayed reaction? Let’s wait for the next wave of mutated creatures. Maybe they won’t show up.”

A Qi looked at the group’s expressions and figured the reading session of “I Have a Base in the Apocalypse” was over.

He pulled out his earplugs just as Baozi finished speaking.

He glanced at the screen with a strange expression, “I’ve got good news and bad news…”

Before Liu Daming’s “knocks” could fall on their heads again, Wrench quickly said, “The good news is the mutated creatures didn’t show up.”

“The bad news is, the evolved mutated creatures appeared.”

Everyone’s gaze shifted to the giant screen, where the deep red dots stood out vividly on the map.