Hyperthermal Hell || Apocalypse Paradise #1 [Complete]

5: Incoming Crisis

Just as the redhead woman's nails extended, Lin Sanjiu kicked the chair forward to block the path of the two people. At lightning speed, Lin Sanjiu turned and ran. Fortunately, she did not close the door when she entered so she had an escape route.

Without even turning her head once, she sprinted for the stairways exit, skipping steps as she ran down. She could hear the immediate footsteps behind her; they continued to chase after her. Midway, she could even hear the young man complaining, "She injured me again!"

Next, she could not hear anything at all, as a single thought occupied her entire mind: Escape. She felt as if she had used up all the oxygen in her body; her lungs began to hurt with a burning sensation. Each time she took a breath, the boiling hot air scalded her trachea. She was not afraid, but the pain was unavoidable. In addition to that, she was still wounded and her limbs felt weak. She simply could not run that quickly in this condition. Just when she could see the entrance of the residential complex, she heard a swish sound beside her ear as metallic nails swiped through the air. Gritting her teeth, she did a forward roll. With that, Lin Sanjiu managed to avoid those metallic nails that belonged to the redhead woman behind her.

She rolled a meter forward, turned her head, and realized that the pair were about to reach her. Just as they reached out towards her...

A piece of white thing abruptly flung into the air by Lin Sanjiu. With a thought in her mind, two large metal gates appeared out of nowhere in mid-air. They fell from mid-air with a swoosh of air, falling heavily on the young man as he shrieked. Lin Sanjiu fell to the ground as her legs gave way under her.

The young man could no longer get up, but she did not feel the slightest bit happy. After all, the redhead lady was the one that posed the largest threat to her, yet she was standing without a scratch at the side of the metal gate.

However, Lin Sanjiu could not run any longer. Each time she transformed a card, it took energy from her. Reverting the metal gate back to its original form had sapped the very last bit of energy that Lin Sanjiu had. Right now, she could not even stand up, so she laid on the ground staring at the redhead woman, feeling extremely bitter.

Unexpected, the redhead woman sighed and did not continue chasing her. She remained where she was and sat down. She frowned and turned back to say to the youth, "Why are you so stupid?"

The youth who was trapped under the heavy metal gates did not actually seem to be mortally injured. He tried hard to cough out twice but gasped then retorted, "I am made of real flesh and blood, I am real and corporeal. Obviously, I can't run as fast as you!" He coughed twice. "I feel terrible... The metal gate is pressing against my windpipe..."

The redhead woman tutted and smiled coldly as she said, "Yeah, you are made of a body of fats. That's why you are so slow. I don't know how you were able to survive till today."

"Well, that is obviously because I have a very high growth potential!"

Lin Sanjiu could not believe her eyes as she watched the duo who had chased after her bickering with each other as if they had forgotten about her existence entirely.

"I mean... Aren't you going to kill me?"

"What?" The young man stuck his head through the metal rails of the metal gates and looked at her with astonishment. "Lady, did you think we were trying to kill you? No wonder you ran like crazy. I was yelling at you, but you did not stop... My evolution is already so advanced, why would I bother to kill you? You are like a newly hatched chick. How would that benefit me?"

Looking at the highly evolved person who was stuck under the metal gates, Lin Sanjiu's mouth twitched, but she did not say a word. At the same time, she felt her heart falling heavily back into her stomach. It was great that they were not hostile, but....

"Lady, please get rid of the metal gates. I'm almost flattened by them now," the young man whined, noticing that no one was speaking a word.

Lin Sanjiu shot a glance at the redhead woman who was sitting on the ground. She did not know why the woman did not try to help. Hesitating for a moment, she replied coolly, "I can do that, but both of you should introduce yourselves first."

"Yes, we should. I am Luther. Nice to meet you. Do you want to shake my hand?" The young man leaned his head through the metal rails. Probably because he spotted Lin Sanjiu rolling her eyes, he quickly laughed and said, "Oh! Yes. This is one of my alternate personalities, she is called Marcie."

Lin Sanjiu's eyes widened. "Your alternate personality?"

"That's right. Before the apocalypse arrived where I came from, I was the second person on the entire earth to be diagnosed with having a genuine case of Dissociative Identity Disorder." Luther sounded exceptionally proud when he said this. He tried his best to raise his chin. "After that, I evolved. I could separate Marcie as an individual entity, but we can't be too far apart... Well, I won't tell you too much about my abilities. Don't ask me about how I knew your parents; this is also one of my abilities..." Realizing that he almost revealed too much, he quickly tried to conceal his words, saying, "Anyway, in short, Marcie is a biologist. She is very interested in humans who have just evolved, so she was a little too eager just now."

Lin Sanjiu looked over to Marcie as she nodded with a serious face.

"But she extended her nails..." Lin Sanjiu looked at Marcie's nails, perplexed. Under her flashlight, those ten fingernails were now back to their normal form, short and rounded.

"She uses them to draw blood. After she draws your blood, she is able to analyze some of your basic stats. This is an ability that Marcie developed herself. It does not actually have any combat value," Luther replied truthfully.

"Wait, you are saying that not only can you evolve and gain abilities, but even your personalities can do that?" Lin Sanjiu was truly shocked. Luther was indeed worthy of the title of supreme overlord of potential (this was what he called himself). "That means, if you continue evolving, you will become a single person with the power of a whole army?"

"It's not that simple..." Luther said with a difficult expression. "At this moment, my ability is pretty useless. Other than her nails, Marcie can't even hurt a person right now. Alright. I can't tell you any more about my power, it is too dangerous. Just let me out from under here. We can talk it through if we have any other misunderstandings."

Lin Sanjiu exhaled deeply. Perhaps suddenly seeing her dead parents was too strange that it spooked her. After speaking to Luther, she realized that she did not feel any malice toward him or Marcie. She grimaced and admitted, "It is not that I don't wish to release you from under the metal gates, but I really don't have the energy right now. I need to rest for a while. Why don't you tell me more about this thing called the apocalypse world..."

Just as she finished her sentence, they suddenly hear an odd "Ahh uh?" sound coming out from the guardhouse.

Marcie, who had been sitting silent, suddenly jumped up. With a grave look, she whispered, "Damn it."