The human-faced rabbit had an animal's body, but its four limbs had changed. It walked upright like a person, with two arms and two legs. Its head stayed bestial. The ears were still rabbit ears, yet the face was fully human, smooth skin without a single rabbit hair.
When they first saw the human-faced rabbit, the group never heard it speak. Later, rumors said the human-faced rabbit could use human language, but that came from other sources. They had never verified it themselves.
The half-human, half-beast in this elevator was not a human-faced rabbit. From the markings on its neck and hide alone, it looked like a giraffe. Its limbs were upright like a person's, but the neck was over a meter long by eye. It had deerlike ears, and a human face.
In short, it was as strange as strange could be.
As terrifying as the shape was, the worse part was the blood spattered across every corner of the elevator. The giraffe's long neck had been snapped into three bends. In the dim cabin light, the scene when the doors first opened had frightened them badly.
Pei Xin screamed, "Ah, th-this, this…"
Pei Xin stammered for a long time without getting the words out, but everyone could tell her reaction was not simple shock.
As doubt spread, Xi Yu said, "Pei Xin, do you think he looks familiar?"
Pei Xin nodded quickly. "Mm. You see it too, right?"
Captain Zhang asked, "What is it? Do you two know him?"
Xi Yu said, "Know him very well. This goes back to before the apocalypse. Let's leave this place first. I'll explain as we walk."
As for the person they knew lying in that elevator—
No one dared to touch him.
…
"Fine," Captain Zhang agreed, and he led the team out of the room at once.
Once they were on the corridor, Xi Yu began to explain. "If Pei Xin and I are not mistaken, the dead man in the elevator was our former colleague."
A colleague?
"That's right," Xi Yu said. "This starts three years ago. Back then, internal staff like us would occasionally receive emails or messages. Every single one said the apocalypse was coming. We did not take it seriously at first, thought it was some prank. But the messages and emails kept coming for a long time. We had to start paying attention.
People from many departments gathered together to research and investigate whether the apocalypse was possible. Our final projection was that it did seem likely. That made us restless. We began field surveys, then drew conclusions from continuous surveys. During those surveys, we discovered that this kind of dense forest existed all over the world.
This forest was unique. No matter what electronic equipment we used, it would not show up on digital maps. Just like before, it was as if it did not exist. But when we went to the site, it truly existed right in front of us.
Faced with something so strange, and with talk of the apocalypse rising, of course we went in to investigate.
At that time there were no such mutated creatures here. The vines were about the same as now, but they were not aggressive. Our research team stayed here a long time. No one was harmed by vines.
It was then that something strange happened. Every animal body here took on a human-sized form."
Lan Jin could not help a brief laugh, though she also heard what Xi Yu was getting at. "You mean the human-sized mutated creatures here used to be your researchers?"
Xi Yu nodded. "Yes. But leadership sealed the information. Those who were part of the early phase knew. Those who were not would never hear a word."
Captain Zhang spoke first. "Don't look at me. I knew nothing about this."
Shen Zhiyu looked at Xi Yu and asked, "Then how do you know? Did you take part? Did you see them turn into mutants with your own eyes?"
Xi Yu gave a bitter smile. "Not just me. With a chance like that, Professor Pei and Pei Xin were there too."
Zhou Zhi frowned and asked, "But mutation should come with abnormalities. Otherwise everyone outside would mutate, not some yes and some no."
Xi Yu explained, "We ran those tests before we even left the forest. The source is not hard to guess. Simply put, it was the difference between indoors and outdoors.
One day, a green light like a scanning beam swept over the forest from above. It shone on the researchers who were outside. Everyone outdoors was scanned. Those indoors only saw the green light with their eyes. Nothing else touched them.
At the time, we lived in simple prefab houses made of color steel. They are easy to set up and take down. We also needed to store research materials inside. We did not cut corners and sleep in tents. Who knew that choice would save many lives.
After the green light passed, we did not relax. We immediately sent the scanned personnel for full body examinations. Before the tests even finished, those scanned by the green light began to mutate.
The process was painful. They would be animal-shaped for a while, then human-shaped for a while, struggling in agony, and in the end they settled into beast form. At first we only thought the form was frightening. We even believed they might still have their own consciousness. The truth was the opposite. They had no self at all. Right after the change, they were violent in temperament, with fierce attack power.
There were no ability users then. Everything came down to firepower. This was our first time meeting such mutants. We had no idea their defenses would be so strong. Ordinary weapons could not handle their attacks. We had no choice but to run. Luckily that batch of mutants could not leave the forest. Otherwise we would not be alive now.
After we returned, we learned that at the same time, every forest like this had the same sweep of green light. Everyone outside who got scanned mutated. From then on, they became the mutated creatures living in these forests."