Revived as a Mutant in the Apocalypse

First Transformation

The same day at dusk, a few miles away from the Sun City's border walls, in a vast dryland with little obstacles, a tall and robust man stood straight with his bare chest raised high, exposing the fine distinct lines of his strong muscles as his messy shoulder-length fiery-red hair danced wildly along the rampage of the wind.
Behind him, torn fleshes and protruding organs of hideous mutants were scattered in a disarray to form a horrifying bloodied path and yet, faced with the strong and repulsive smell of blood, the man's brilliant smile didn't falter in the least but rather intensified.
His ferocious eyes that were giving off dangerous red glints, coupled with the splash of glaring red against his cheek and his 10 curling fingers falling by his side, their tips still dripping with the sticky blood of his prey, made him looked like he was the monster itself and not the poor bodies littered behind him.
'I'm so cool, I'm so awesome. I, Ru Shou, am the strongest in this field!'
Screamed the smug look plastered on the man's irritable face, looking as if itching for a beating. The man was so full of himself, until the voice of his little ancestor humbled him down in the next instant, tucking his tail back in between his legs.
"Red Head, get your fucking butt here!"
A youthful voice, laced with a torrent of irritation, came from behind him or to be exact, from the pile of mutant's corpses the man had left behind.
From amongst the sea of mutilated bodies, the small black head of a delicate-looking young man could be seen moving around to search for something valuable enough to be retrieved, only for his enthusiasm to die a moment later when he found so little of them.
"Useless Shou, I told you to be gentle with the mutants countless times! At least, refrain from damaging their cores and spill too much blood! Now look at what you've done! Close to a hundred bodies and not even a third of them have intact nuclei!"
Upon arriving, the wild and big-statured man Ru Shou, whose size was at least twice bigger than the young man, almost broke into tears at his young master's outrage.
Pouting as if he had been wronged, Ru Shou scooted half a step away from the young man with each word he reasoned out.
"I-I'm terribly sorry, Young Master. I swear that this wasn't done on purpose! It's just that, they're too strong and I can't control my strength. We are evenly-matched so I need to exert my utmost–"
"A 10th-ranked strength ability user against a group of A to AAA-Class Leopolds and you call that by evenly-matched?!!"
Xia Bing fumed as he couldn't stand the useless man's lousy reasoning any longer. He raised his sleeve to wipe off the thin layer of sweat forming against his fair skin, his pair of round brown eyes glaring fiercely upon his bloodied yet nearly worthless surroundings as he threw his dagger to the side.
Anything derived from a high-class mutant would definitely fetch a good price in the market, not to mention these Leopolds' sturdy hide which was not only lightning-resistant, but also had the ability to bounce off certain forms of super energy outburst. What more of their 'nutritious' mutated nuclei that could benefit high-ranked ability users.
It was unfortunate that the damage was done, and the casualty... was too much to the point that it was painful to see. Looking at the huge trove of treasure that had been single-handedly reduced to a pile of cow dung by a certain someone, Xia Bing suddenly felt like killing that certain someone, only to find the man sneakily distancing himself from him.
"You! Still not repenting, aren't you?" Enraged, Xia Bing dispatched the little white furball clinging onto his shoulders. "Snowball, drag him back!"
At his command, the little furball's quirky large ears perked up, seemingly just woken up from its sleep. It then raised its furry round head and cutely blinked, stretching out its four limbs and swiftly gliding to the ground as it rapidly grew in size, before it dashed forward, summoning a trail of dust wherever it went.
A gust of wind came and went as a blur of white shadow tore through the air. Not a minute had passed when the white, and now 10x bigger, furball returned to its master's side with a frantically panicking red-haired man held in its mouth, its pair of pitch-black beaded eyes shining as if asking for a compliment.
"Good boy, now hold him down in place."
Snowball loosened its jaw to cry out loud, releasing the man in its mouth in the process and quickly raised its wide and fluffy bum to sit on the fallen man, holding him in place.
"Aarghh, you dirty rat! What are you so proud of? Look at how dirty you are now with your yellowish-brown fur. You should now be called Dirtball instead! And also, do you think you can do a better job than me? Young Master had let me do the job this time instead since you've messed up before, you dumbass!"
At the furious man's insult, Snowball merely shook his bum to press on him more and wagged his long bushy tail to give the man a few 'smelly' slaps to the face. It opened its mouth wide to continuously bark as if laughing at the man's pathetic state.
"YOU–"
"Enough." Xia Bing coldly spat out, and only by then did the two calmed down. He then turned his head to peer at the far distance, his tone turning heavy.
"The battle happening between the city hunters and the Leopold hordes on the other side will be ending soon. Once they are done, it wouldn't be long for the city hunters to reach our spot."
"Don't forget that the matter of us entering the Hua State shouldn't be known by many. If not, you know the consequences."
"Snowball," Xia Bing affectionately rubbed the creature's stinky fur, "I'll give you a bath once we enter the city so don't mind that dumbass. Go on and have a feast. Since we won't be bringing any home, eat as many as you can."
Snowball obediently barked and reacted intimately against his touch, before swaggering away to feast on its meal. Xia Bing then moved his attention to the red-haired man, "And, Shou."
As he recovered to his feet, Ru Shou instinctively stiffened at his young master's change of tone. "I'll deal with you later on. For now, retrieve the blood sample of each beast and dig out the leftover nuclei if there's still one, which I'm sure most of them do."
He nervously gulped, for he could sense the prick especially from the last part of his words. "Yes, Young Master."
Xia Bing nodded, pulling up his sleeves as he retrieved his dagger. "Move fast. We'll be leaving in 10 minutes."
***
Late at night, at the furthest darkest narrow alleyway, a pile of mutated common brown rats were stacked to the side of a dirty wall. These B-Class mutated rats that were five times larger than normal rats were exactly the culprits behind the city's recent disturbance.
At the moment, hiding within the dark shadows, a humanoid figure was digging into the heap of rotting flesh, gnawing at whatever it found edible.
– Srak, srak, srak...
The sound of fleshes being ripped apart, as well as the rattling noise of empty cans, echoed across the deserted alleyway as the figure showed no concern of being found out by the surrounding civilians, seeming deeply lost in the ecstasy of the delicacy it was now devouring.
"More... I need more..."
A low growl escaped out of its throat as the figure grabbed at another bloodied rat corpse, sinking its sharp nails deep into the flesh and tearing it apart in one swift movement before it wrapped its fingers around a thumb-sized glowing rock falling out of the rat's torn body, popping the rock into its mouth and swallowing it whole.
A hint of purple menacingly glowed against the darkness of its pupils, the strange light in its eyes gradually turning dimmer and more indiscernible as it ate one after another similar rocks it dug out.
When a faint splash of light finally managed to reach the alleyway, illuminating the figure's elongated jade-like nails and purple skin, a hint of clarity seemed to have returned to her mind as she dropped the delicious meal in her hands.
Looking at what she had turned to become, Xie Yi's pale face contorted to one of horror and disgust as she stared at her two bloodied monster-like hands in disbelief, whispering under her breath.
"Mother, what have you done to me?"