Skinwalker Belle – Chapter 402 – Am I This In Demand Now?

A chill ran down his spine.

“Something’s wrong!”

Lu Yuan sprang up from the supply crate, his bragging mouth snapping shut in an instant. His entire demeanor shifted. The soldier’s swagger was gone, replaced by pure vigilance.

As a Light-attribute Ability User, he could sense even the slightest shift in light and shadow around him. Just now, a patch of sunlight on the training ground had inexplicably vanished.

“Everyone on alert! Something’s gotten in!”

He bellowed, a ball of light condensing in his palm as he hurled it toward the empty shadowed area on his right.

Boom!

The light sphere detonated, striking nothing solid. But that patch of distorted air began to warp, like an oil slick on water being peeled apart, and ten figures slowly materialized from the void.

The moment they appeared, a suffocating wave of bloodlust swept across the entire training ground. The soldiers who had been listening to Lu Yuan’s tall tales hadn’t even processed what was happening before their legs gave out, knees nearly buckling to the ground.

“Sharp reaction.”

The leader spoke. His voice grated against the ears, like a spoon scraping an iron pan.

He wore a dark gray special-issue combat suit, his hood pulled low. When he raised his head, even the veteran soldiers charging forward for a desperate fight skidded to a halt, eyes bulging wide.

“This… is this even human?”

Beneath the hood, the face still bore human features, but the skin was covered in a fine layer of cyan-gray scales. On either side of his forehead, two dragon horns spiraled upward.

And he wasn’t the only one. The five men and four women behind him each had their own peculiarities. One dragged a thick tiger tail covered in yellow fur, another had long, pointed ears thick with fuzz, and one figure had both arms transformed into a pair of massive claws.

If they hadn’t all been wearing Blue Star Federation combat suits, Lu Yuan would have thought invaders from another world had come to kill them.

“Stand down.”

A figure emerged from the command post entrance. Chu Chen strolled out slowly, a chocolate ball clutched in each hand. Dark circles under his eyes, he swept his gaze across the ten “monsters,” unhurriedly popped one into his mouth, and crunched down.

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“From the capital?”

He asked through the chewing.

The dragon-horned leader fixed his gaze on Chu Chen—not looking at him like a person, but appraising him like merchandise.

“Commander Chu is indeed sharp.”

He stepped forward, the aura of a High-order Evolver radiating openly from him. “Allow me to introduce myself. Xu Zhen, captain of the Federation Capital Special Action Team.”

“I’ve been sent by the Chief to take over—no, to invite Commander Chu to join us.”

“The Chief? Chen Dingjun?”

Chu Chen leaned against the doorframe, looking casual, but his mind was racing. The readings on his energy detector made him discard all pretense of nonchalance. Of these ten people, the weakest was at early Stage Six. As for Xu Zhen, the leader—his presence felt like it was pushing straight toward Stage Seven.

“Quite the unique look you’ve all got there.”

Lu Yuan planted himself in front of Chu Chen, light pulsing in and out of his palm as he kept running his mouth. “Federal fashion sense has gotten this wild now? Ditching being human, going full Mutated Beast?”

Xu Zhen didn’t even acknowledge him. His eyes stayed locked on Chu Chen.

“Chu Chen, you’re a smart man. That fool Wang Shan sold himself as a dog to the aliens just to stay alive. But we’re different. We’ve mastered the direction of evolution.”

He pointed at the horns on his own head, his expression fanatical. “Only by fusing the genes of powerful creatures can humanity truly survive the post-apocalypse. With your brains and our technology, we can forge a perfect army—even fight our way back to the other world.”

Chu Chen swallowed the chocolate in his mouth and popped in another piece.

He raised a finger toward the clawed creature standing behind Xu Zhen, his tone flat with not a trace of fluctuation.

“You call this evolution?”

The dragon-horned man beside Xu Zhen’s face darkened.

“In this era, survival is the only truth. Whether you’re human or monster, only those who can slaughter all their enemies deserve to be called evolved. Chu Chen, the leader thinks highly of you. Don’t force us to get rough.”

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“Then I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.”

Chu Chen flicked the sugar crumbs off his hand and met Xu Zhen’s vertical pupils directly.

“The ones who ordered the Chosen Ones to hold the Rift to the death and forbade them from rescuing civilians—that was your group, wasn’t it?”

His voice was neither loud nor soft, but every word landed with crystal clarity.

“In my eyes, you’re no different from Wang Shan.”

“You’re asking for death!”

The tiger-tailed brute behind Xu Zhen roared, stamped his foot, and transformed into a blur of yellow and black streaking straight toward Chu Chen.

“Making a move on my commander right in front of me? You think I’m just decoration!”

Lu Yuan cursed and turned into a streak of light that shot forward to meet him.

Boom!

Light and claws collided head-on, the shockwave sending nearby supply crates tumbling over.

Lu Yuan retreated three steps.

The tiger-tailed brute fell back two as well, eyeing him with a hint of surprise.

“Light attribute?” Xu Zhen narrowed his eyes. “That genius from the Federation legends who awakened at level five—Lu Yuan?”

“Too bad you’re still only at mid-level six after all this time. What a waste of talent.”

Both sides were at each other’s throats, on the verge of an all-out brawl.

Then a piercing air-raid siren suddenly blared across the entire Western Sichuan base.

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Woo—woo—woo—

That frequency meant a large-scale enemy assault.

“Reporting to the Commander!”

A communications soldier stumbled out, his face drained of all color.

“Radar has detected a large number of high-energy signatures rapidly approaching from the east! Count exceeds five thousand! They’re all… all those controlled Mutant Soldiers!”

Chu Chen’s brow twitched slightly as he looked at the surveillance feed.

Dense ranks of Federation soldiers with ashen faces surged toward the base, like an anthill that had been kicked open.

Leading them was a burly bald man whose energy fluctuation had already reached the late level-six tier.

If Lin Fan had been present, he would have recognized the man as the bald-headed figure who had stood beside Wang Shan in the underground of Kunlun Mountain.

“Well, well. Wang Shan hasn’t been idle either.”

Chu Chen stared at the surveillance screen, but there was no trace of amusement in his eyes.

That was the Puppet Legion of the compromise faction.

The same tactic used to control Chen Mo and turn the Western Sichuan garrison against their own people.

Wang Shan used mental control combined with drug catalysis to turn living people into machines that knew only how to kill.

Compared to these half-human, half-beast creatures before him, those hollow-eyed puppets were the ones that truly sent a chill down your spine.

“Looks like your mortal enemies have arrived too.” Chu Chen tossed the tablet aside and spread his hands. “Since when did I become so popular?”

Xu Zhen’s expression shifted at the sound of the alarm.

He turned eastward, sensing that nauseating wave of mental control.

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“Wang Shan’s lackeys…”

He spat on the ground, then turned back to stare at Chu Chen, his tone carrying a suppressed urgency. “Chu Chen, there’s no time. Come with us—this is your only way out right now. Those puppets have no reason. Once they break in, your—”

“Come with you?”

Chu Chen shook his head.

He walked over to Lu Yuan and patted the man’s taut shoulder.

“I’ve got a picky appetite. I can’t stomach half-cooked food.”

He looked up at the dark clouds beginning to press low on the horizon.

“I’ve got no interest in being a lab rat or a puppet. In the Western Sichuan Base, there are only people who die standing—no dogs who live on their knees.”

“Want to take me away?”

He paused for a moment.

“Then you’ll have to ask my brothers here if they’ll allow it.”

Clack.

In unison, the hundred-plus veterans around him raised their weapons—half aimed at the ten Genetic Augments, half trained on the direction of the base gate.

Before them stood sixth-rank powerhouses; behind them came an army of thousands.

But not a single one of these veterans, who had fought their way out of the demon city, moved a step.

Xu Zhen watched this scene, the last trace of warmth draining from his eyes.

“Since that’s how it is,” he said, “breaking them and taking him away works just the same.”