They went back onto the road again, and the mindset and atmosphere around every single person had a perceivable transformation. The scene which seemed like a mass oath-taking session impacted not only Doris’ group. Actually, ever since the change in New Zealand, Bai Yi’s group had it quite good. They lacked neither food nor information throughout their journey, so they didn’t feel it as much. However, after seeing that group of people, they finally realised that the world wasn’t as easy as they imagined.

Live on, and see for ourselves why this world became so cruel!

……

Tongariro National Park laid in the central area of Northern New Zealand. It was the oldest National Park in the country. Trees covered the entire park densely with snow-capped mountains around it and flowing creeks within. The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful, and with its spectacular volcanoes and the ever-changing ecosystem, it was one of the top tourist destinations in New Zealand.

To summarize… this place was extremely big!

Bai Yi’s group stopped at National Park (TN: Apparently there’s really a small town called National Park there). This place was the last town before they entered Tongariro National Park. More than half of the road in front was covered by weeds and other plants. In reality, this was the reason why they travelled so slowly: these plants really grew too quickly. If they did not drive carefully, it would have been easy for the car to flip or fall into the thick bushes. If that happened, they would not be able to move.

Bai Yi stood on top of the car and looked at the direction of Tongariro National Park. In the distance was a vast plain, and even farther than that was a mountain range with snow-capped mountains. Due to the enhancement of the activated cells, everyone’s vision become incomparable to how it was before, and they could see very clearly.

Bai Yi lightly jumped down from the car and stretched his body. His body had finally recovered by more than half at this point in time.

“Tongariro National Park Research Facility!” Bai Yi looked at Martin.

“En, it’s at the feet of Mount Ruapehu.”

“Let’s set off then.” Bai Yi nodded after hearing Martin’s confirmation.

Although they said that it was a park, it was actually more like a protected nature reserve. The farther they headed inside the park, the more fully the road was covered by the plants. Until the end, the heavy truck had to drive in front and create a ‘path’ for them. Only then could the few small cars smoothly drive through. When they came to a stretch of forest, the road was thoroughly covered by thick tree roots and became completely impassable.

“Hong Qi Hua, Heloise, you guys go ahead and scout the surroundings. If the damaged road is too long, we will have to abandon our cars here.” Bai Yi instructed the two of them after getting off the car and taking a look.

“En.” Hong Qi Hua replied, then ran off with Heloise.

“Hey Bai Yi, you should’ve let me go with Heloise.” Woolf got off the car and said to Bai Yi.

“I can’t do that; your body size and agility isn’t suitable for a scouting mission. Hong Qi Hua and Heloise both fused with cat genes, so things like this are much easier for them. Now then, stop pestering me so much. Everyone be on guard. Be careful of ambushes from strange insects and animals.” Bai Yi ignored Woolf and said to the rest.

This place was still relatively close to the road, and empty patches of land could still be found. The underbrush in other areas nearby grew so much that it was even taller than humans now.

After more than an hour, Hong Qi Hua and Heloise ran back and shook their heads at Bai Yi.

“It’s not possible, this road through the forest is completely ruined. If we wanted to fix it, then we’d have to spend too much time.” Hong Qi Hua said.

“We will abandon the cars then. Pack up our stuff and we’ll continue on foot.” Bai Yi said.

“Ah what lousy luck, we have to abandon the cars now.” Woolf scratched his head. Woolf now neared 2.8 meters, and looked just like a real monster. With a body size like his, manual labour definitely fell to him.

The group of them were long prepared for a situation like this. After packing their food, medicine and weapons, they immediately set off again. As expected, Woolf himself carried a 4 meter plus bag made from monster skin, and it was packed full of food. Actually, this wasn’t considered too heavy to Woolf now. He was already approaching 3 meters tall, with the addition of the gigantic bag he was carrying, he seemed like a moving hill.

Of course, everyone else carried some things with them as well, as all of them had decent physical strength by now.

“Momo, do you want to come and sit on top?” Woolf said to Momo.

Momo looked at the monster skin bag swaying as Woolf moved, and at Sharpei at the side. She immediately shook her head and rejected him, climbing onto Sharpei’s back. Ever since Sharpei became big, Momo loved to ride Sharpei and run around.

“Momo, walk by yourself. Remember to keep up with us.” Bai Yi suddenly said.

Momo was just about to climb onto Sharpei’s back, but immediately looked at her daddy after hearing his words. After a while, she realised that her daddy had no intention of changing his mind and helplessly replied in a thin voice: “En!”

The others saw Momo’s plea for help from her eyes. They’d like to help but they were unable to do anything as well. Bai Yi really did love Momo, but every time Bai Yi wanted to teach Momo something, the rest of them had completely no say in it. Even if it was Mavis or Sara speaking, it was still completely useless. In Bai Yi’s words, over-pampering was the same as harming the child.

Bai Yi followed beside Momo, letting her run along with everyone else. He never changed his mind and he didn’t even hold her hand while they ran. After using her puppy eyes on her daddy a few times, she finally gave up and knew that her daddy wouldn’t change his mind. Unwillingly, Momo could only run along with her short legs, trying hard to follow everyone else. Bai Yi and the rest had such a tough time running through the forest, let alone Momo. Any small obstacle in this place was enough to completely engulf Momo.

Very quickly, Hong Qi Hua and the rest ran along the road and disappeared in front, leaving Momo, Bai Yi, and Sharpei behind.

“Daddy!” Momo fell down again, her eyes looking like they were about to cry, making her seem very pitiable yet adorable.

“Stand up. If there’s a branch blocking you then chop it off yourself!” Bai Yi said, drawing his broadsword and hacked apart a branch blocking their way on the road. Only after awhile did Momo purse her lips and draw her own short sword, learning from whatever Bai Yi did.

“Grab your sword well and mind the angle. Isn’t it too stupid if you accidentally hurt yourself? Also, move faster, how long do you want others to wait for you?” Bai Yi said to Momo.

Momo kept on holding onto her willpower, as well as a bit of hope, hoping that somebody would come and help her, hoping that her daddy would be soft-hearted… Very unfortunately, after running for the entire afternoon, Momo’s entire body became covered in dirt from all the sweat and dust, but there was still no sign of older sister Hong Qi Hua or Sara. Nobody came to help her, really nobody did. Even Sara, who doted on her the most usually, did not come. As she felt disappointed, her mindset gradually started to change as well.

Your daddy is really damn scary when he gets serious!

It was definitely a joyful thing to receive help from your friends, but you definitely couldn’t put all your hope on that, Momo!

Only when the sky turned dark did Bai Yi carry Momo and raise his speed. After an hour, they finally caught up with Hong Qi Hua and the rest of them. At this time, they had already set up a camp on a relatively undamaged patch of road. The tar road always felt quite dirty normally, but at this time it was much better than the soil and vegetation everywhere.

Momo wiped herself clean simply and then very quickly fell asleep after eating. After such a long period of high-speed running in the afternoon, she was already extremely exhausted. This was still after being strengthened by the activated cells. Normally she could never endure to this extent.

“You are really strict!” Mavis said.

“China has a saying: a benevolent mother raises a failure!” Bai Yi said.

“You are a devil, devil father!” Sara said in a fit of discontentment. Honestly speaking, even she felt her heart ache seeing Bai Yi train Momo like this. Momo was still so young. Normally she could even see some teenagers whine and try to curry favour with their parents. “Why did Momo choose you at the start? If I knew earlier…” Sara kept on muttering to herself.

“Ah…” Bai Yi smiled and neither retorted nor tried to explain himself.

……

After a few days, they finally reached the place where the research facility was located. Everyone really suffered a lot. By now they finally knew the large difference between walking and driving, this was especially so in the New Zealand that became like a primordial forest. This was still them moving along the original road, and they could roughly see where to go. If they really had to travel in the wilderness, they didn’t know if they could cover even one tenth of the distance.

Along the way they encountered numerous evolved lifeforms both large and small, and almost everyone fused with another one or two genes in some unexpected situation. Only Bai Yi and Momo remained the same without any changes.

“Here?” Bai Yi asked Martin.

“En, this is also what I saw by chance, along with the document about the drug to regain human form. In reality, where every research facility is located is a secret to low level researchers. I saw the document that time just out of luck.” Martin added.

“Then we’ll enter. Be careful.” Bai Yi said to everyone.

By now, everyone’s appearance had completely changed, looking just like a group of demi-humans from different races. You couldn’t even tell that Woolf and Martin were humans anymore, they were completely monsters. Similarly, colourful patterns appeared all over Bai Yi’s body, making him look like a mutated caterpillar.

Everybody placed their hopes on the drug to regain human form that Martin talked about, or else even if they managed to return to human society, they would never be able to stay in it.

Entering the unassuming building, everyone slowly searched the place and finally found an electric cable train heading downwards. Bai Yi tested it and realised that this research facility still had power.

“The generators inside the research facilities are all independent. They all have their own miniaturized nuclear reactor inside.” Martin explained.

“How advanced, but what I’m worried about isn’t this. I can’t help but feel this scene feels mysteriously familiar.” Bai Yi looked at the electric train and did not immediately get in.

“Resident Evil!” A few of them immediately said at the same time. (TN: Imagine a train with just one cabin, just like the one the movie characters escape from the Hive in. And it starts!)