The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 145: Catastrophe Matrix

The atmosphere immediately became even spookier after such a frightening statement was yelled from a ten years old child using his childlike voice. Although the little boy in front of Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui had emerged with such a terrifying face, Zhang Mu did not detect any sense of danger from his body.

Is it because he was too weak? Is that why he did not feel threatened by the boy even by a tiny bit?

But why is it that at this time, his intuition was telling him that the truth to this matter was getting more and more complicated?

An empty small town, an abandoned factory, and the strange boy, all of them had an odd presence. However, Zhang Mu still could not catch the most vital point regarding this matter.

The little boy ran unsteadily on his legs towards Zhang Mu’s direction using a typical child’s pace, without any particular ability.

After stumbling for a while, when the little boy rushed in front of Zhang Mu, Zhang Mu did not even release his Bloodvine Lotus and merely used his hand gently, to stop the boy from moving farther.

Even though Zhang Mu was restricting his advancement, the little boy was stilling trying to reach Zhang Mu’s body by stretching out both of his hand. However, his efforts were in vain, as all he could touch was empty air. From the strength of this little boy, Zhang Mu could sense that this hideous little walking dead was indeed a regular ten years old boy.

Despite that, the spider veins on his face and the fangs protruding out from his mouth, were indicating that he was no longer human.

Zhang Mu searched carefully in his memory and realized that he never heard of such matters in his past life. So what is this precisely? How could he have the appearance of a walking dead, yet managed to retain his intelligence?

While Zhang Mu was pondering, Yuan Rui walked in front of him. After she removed her hand that was blocking her vision, she was in a shock the moment she saw Hao Hao’s current appearance. Right now, he looked incredibly scary.

Nevertheless, she could still faintly recognized the little boy that cried in her arm previously. Soon Yuan Rui also started to panic and questioned Zhang Mu, “Uncle, what happened to Hao Hao? Look at him, did he get bitten by a walking dead when he ran out alone? Can he be saved now? Hao Hao is only a child, and is still young.”

Zhang Mu’s voice also filled with doubts as he replied to Yuan Rui, “I don’t know what is happening right now. His current state looked as though he had been bitten a while ago and is turning into a new type of walking dead. But just now you should have heard it too. Hao Hao still can talk and communicate with us, and that is contrary to common sense.”

As a matter of fact, there was another speculation in Zhang Mu’s heart. Currently, Hao Hao was behaving similar to the intellectual type of walking dead in his past life, with the appearance of the walking dead, yet possessing the intelligence of a human being. Although they did not have much strength, they could control the walking dead to protect them. However, he felt that the chances for this to happen were extremely tiny. One was that the period of the Cataclysm was too short while the other was that the intellectual type of walking dead would not put themselves in such a risky condition.

Yuan Rui looked at Zhang Mu, who always knew everything, but could not give a definite answer this time. She looked at Hao Hao’s face covered with spider veins, and the painful expression on his face. Hence, she went near his body and gently put her hands on his back, preparing to use her life energy and transferred them into his body.

Zhang Mu also agreed with Yuan Rui’s action since he knew that Hao Hao was under his control now. Furthermore, it was within the one-meter range of his psychic barrier so he could not do anything dangerous to her.

But what Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui never expected, was that when Yuan Rui’s life energy passed through Hao Hao’s clothes and touched his skin, there was a wisp of green smoke rising from his body. It frightened Yuan Rui so much that she quickly withdrew her hands.

At this time, Hao Hao was screaming in pain. Although the spider veins on his face had faded a little, the psychical pain and the struggle to resist was evident. He was controlled entirely by Zhang Mu and could not move a single muscle.

With that, something occurred that made Zhang Mu’s blood ran cold. Tiny black eggs were oozing out of Hao Hao’s skin. Looking at the horrible scene, Zhang Mu could felt his flesh crawling all over his body. Only when the life energy that Yuan Rui infused had depleted, managed to stop the tiny black eggs from oozing out one after another.

The moment Zhang Mu wanted to go over to see what happened precisely, a cry of a woman’s voice sounded above him suddenly, “Who is the one that hurt my Hao Hao? My son, what happened to you? Who bullied you? Don’t worry, Mother is here, and Mother will help you to take revenge.”

It sounded like an anxious cry from a normal mother who cares deeply for her child. But when Zhang Mu and Yuan Rui shifted their eyes up, the image of a caring mother was wiped from their mind entirely.

Indeed, that face had the appearance of a middle-aged woman. Also, the eyes that were looking at Hao Hao, who was in Zhang Mu’s control, had filled with concerns. But the problem was her lower body! Her lower body was an enormous spider body! Eight spider legs were supporting the body by inserting deeply into the solid walls.

Is this a Catastrophe Matrix?

When Zhang Mu saw this, he immediately thought of the rumors regarding the Catastrophe Matrix in his past life. It was the product of fusing a mutated animal with a human being. When the mutated animal was eating a human that was not willing to die, their grievance affects them as they merged into one body. The probability for this to happen was very rare as the mutated animal must kill the human at a slow pace. Usually, the mutated animal was slowly tormenting them to death, leading the emotion of resentment to form intensely. Furthermore, the most influential factor was that this human need to possess strong willpower to survive, to attach their souls on the mutated animal when it had departed from their human body. In the end, the head of the mutated animal would transform into the human’s face.

However, in most cases, the Catastrophe Matrix had disordered thoughts. As the human’s intellect had subdued by agony beforehand, coupled with the wild nature of the mutated animal, thus, the brain of the Catastrophe Matrix would not grow adequately. Even though they were not smart, but their strength would develop at an explosive rate.

Right now, this Catastrophe Matrix on the wall seems to be formed when a mutated spider was eating, and this should be the mother that Hao Hao had mentioned earlier. Everything made sense now.

Zhang Mu also found that the belly of this Catastrophe Matrix above him was enormous, just like a pregnant woman going for labor. Linking back to those tiny black eggs that were oozing out from Hao Hao’s body, he suddenly thought of a horrible fact and shuddered abruptly.

This Catastrophe Matrix is going into labor?