Apocaly Utopi apocaly utop

Chapter 5 Crisis

"Ugh..."

The woman curled up on the floor and suddenly let out a low groan, breaking the tense atmosphere in the room.

"Ah... that hit really hurt a bit..."

Watching "Emma's mother" rub the back of her head as she stood up, Emma felt her eyelids twitch—this was bad, two against one. Not only did the other side have a tall, burly man, but she was also exhausted, her arms and legs weak, barely able to defend herself...

"Emma's mother" straightened up, cracking her neck. When she turned her face again, she had transformed into a teenage boy of about seventeen or eighteen.

"Ah, really. Out of all the people with both parents alive, we had to run into an orphan..." The boy didn't even glance at Emma, first complaining to his accomplice. "Emma's father" nodded silently, taking two steps out of the bedroom.

After two steps, "Emma's father" transformed into a middle-aged red-haired white woman. She spoke fluent Chinese, asking the boy, "Did she hurt you just now?"

The boy grinned, showing a row of white teeth. "Of course not, she's not that strong."

Seeing the two of them acting so naturally, as if she weren't there, Emma felt a pang of bitterness—she quietly took a step back, her voice trembling as she asked, "Are you also from the 'New World'?"

The boy's eyes lit up with interest. "Oh? So do you know that much? I underestimated you. No wonder you acted so decisively. Hmm, I noticed earlier that you seem to have evolved a bit... your potential must be quite high."

The boy's tone was light and cheerful, as if he were talking about a game he enjoyed. If it weren't for the fact that this boy had just transformed into her deceased mother, luring her into the room, Emma might have actually let her guard down.

"My friend... is she really dead?"

The boy shrugged exaggeratedly. "She's in the bathroom. Seems like she got too dehydrated and tried to get some water. But does it look like there's a drought here? Anyway, not a drop came out of the tap... Oh, and her body doesn't look great. I'd advise you not to look."

Tears welled up uncontrollably in Emma's eyes, and she quickly wiped them away, glaring at the two across from her as she took another step back.

She had already encountered an "evolved human" from the New World—Buck. Now, suddenly faced with two more, Emma's vigilance was at its peak. "If you didn't kill my friend, why are you here? And why did you trick me into coming in just now?"

The boy spread his hands. "We can't choose where we will land when we come over! This time, ending up in someone's house was actually pretty lucky—we even got a bed to rest on... Anyway, your friend was already dead when we arrived."

"Then why pretend to be my parents? How did you know about them?" Clearly, this boy loved to talk, and he had already revealed quite a bit of information in just this short time—Emma planned her next move and deliberately asked another question.

Perhaps seeing through her intentions, the red-haired woman cut in before the boy could answer, waving her hand to stop his eager response. With a cold expression, she said, "I wanted you to come in."

With a sharp metallic sound, the red-haired woman's nails suddenly extended half a meter, gleaming faintly in the dark. She smiled. "I just wanted to see how far the people of this world have evolved."

Almost the moment the red-haired woman's nails shot out, Emma kicked the chair forward to block their path and turned to run. Fortunately, she hadn't closed the door when she entered, leaving her an escape route—

Emma didn't dare look back, bolting straight for the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time. Footsteps immediately followed behind her, relentless, accompanied by the boy's complaint: "... She hurt me again!"

Then, she could hear nothing else, her mind consumed by a single thought: escape. The oxygen in her body seemed to have been squeezed out, her lungs burning with pain. Every gulp of air she took in was scorching hot, searing her throat—though Emma wasn't afraid, the discomfort was unavoidable. Combined with her injuries and her weak limbs, she couldn't run fast. Just as she was about to reach the complex's main gate, a sharp metallic whistling sound reached her ears—Emma gritted her teeth and rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the red-haired woman's long steel claws.

She rolled about a meter away, looking back to see the red-haired woman and the boy catching up, about to pounce on her—

Emma flung a white card into the air, and with a thought, two large iron gates suddenly appeared, falling straight from the sky and slamming down on the boy, who let out a scream. Emma's legs gave out, and she collapsed to the ground.

Seeing the boy pinned under the gate, she felt no joy—because the red-haired woman, the biggest threat to her, was still standing unharmed outside the gate!

But she couldn't run anymore. Each time she transformed a card, it drained her energy; summoning the iron gate had used up the last of her strength—she couldn't even stand now, lying on the ground, glaring fiercely at the red-haired woman, filled with resentment.

To her surprise, the red-haired woman sighed, didn't pursue her, and instead sat down. She frowned, turning to the boy under the gate and asking, "How can you be so clumsy?"

The boy, who had been crushed by the heavy gate, didn't seem to have suffered any fatal injuries. He coughed a couple of times, then gasped, "I'm made of real flesh and blood, solid and heavy, of course I can't move as fast as you! Cough, cough... this is so uncomfortable... it's crushing my windpipe..."

The red-haired woman scoffed, sneering, "More like a pile of fat, moving so slowly. I don't know how you've survived this long."

"What are you talking about? If it weren't for my high potential—"

Emma stared dumbfounded at the two pursuers bickering as if they had completely forgotten about her.

"Uh... aren't you going to kill me?"

"Huh?" The boy's head popped out from between the gate's bars, looking at her in surprise. "Sis, did you think we were going to kill you? No wonder you ran like a maniac. I kept calling for you, but you didn't stop... I'm highly evolved. What good would it be killing a little fledgling like you do for me?"

Looking at this highly evolved human lying pinned and immobile under the gate, Emma's lips twitched, but she held back any retort. At the same time, her heart finally settled back into place—now that they weren't hostile, this was the best possible outcome. But—

"Sis, can you get rid of the gate? It's crushing me flat." Seeing no one was paying attention, the boy whined again.

Emma glanced at the red-haired woman sitting on the ground, not understanding why she was just standing by. After a pause, she said coldly, "Fine, but first you need to introduce yourselves."

"Of course, of course. I'm Jack, nice to meet you. Want to shake hands?" The boy rested his head on the gate's bars, probably seeing Emma roll her eyes, he quickly added, "Oh, right, this is my other personality, Shirley."

Emma's eyes widened. "Another personality...?"

"Yep. Before the 'New World' descended in my world, I was the second globally confirmed case of dissociative identity disorder."

Jack's tone became incredibly proud as he talked about this. He tried to lift his chin. "Later, I evolved and was able to separate Shirley, but we can't be too far apart yet... Well, it's related to my ability, so I won't tell you too much, and don't ask me how I knew about your parents, that's also my ability..." Realizing he was about to say too much, he quickly covered up, "Anyway, Shirley is a life scientist, very interested in newly evolved humans, so she got a bit impatient earlier."

Emma turned her gaze to Shirley, who nodded solemnly.

"Then why did she extend her nails like that..." Emma looked puzzled at Shirley's nails. Under the flashlight, her nails now looked perfectly normal, short and rounded.

"For drawing blood... after drawing blood, she can analyze some basic data—it's an ability Shirley developed herself, not much practical use in combat." Jack explained honestly.

"Wait, you're saying—not only can you evolve abilities, but even the personalities you split off can too?" Emma was genuinely surprised now. Jack really lived up to his title of "potential prodigy." "So, if this keeps up, you could essentially be a one-man army?"

"It's not that simple..." Jack said with a pained expression. "Right now, this ability is pretty useless. Besides her nails, Shirley can't even hurt anyone. Alright, alright, revealing too much about abilities can be deadly. Can you let me out now? We can chat about anything you want, okay?"

Emma let out a heavy sigh.—Perhaps it was because she had just seen her deceased parents, the scene had been too bizarre... After talking with Jack for a while, she really didn't sense any malice from him or Shirley. She smiled wryly and admitted, "It's not that I don't want to let you out, it's just that I'm completely drained now. I need to rest for a bit. Why don't you tell me more about this 'New World'..."

Before she could finish, a strange "Gurgle?" sound came from the guard booth nearby.

Shirley, who had been sitting quietly, suddenly jumped to her feet, her expression grave as she whispered, "... Oh, no."