Chapter 383: Humans

Kai immediately slowed down the hoverboard.

Farrah noticed his reaction and looked at him with concern.

"What is it?"

Kai didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he looked toward the ruins of several buildings in the distance.

Something was there.

He could sense multiple presences hiding among the damaged structures, and judging from their movements, they were not ordinary enemies...

They could be other Survivors or perhaps a new set of A.I. Soldiers.

Kai thought for a moment before revealing what he had sensed.

"Someone is watching us."

Farrah immediately became cautious.

"Survivors? Maybe the scouts outside the city..."

"I don’t think so."

Kai focused his senses in a certain direction.

A few seconds later, several figures slowly appeared from behind the ruined buildings outside the main city...

Farrah’s expression changed.

"What are those?"

They were humans.

At least, they had once been human.

One of them had four arms and four eyes, with its distorted body covered in scars and patches of hardened flesh. Another had an abnormally long tongue that hung from its mouth and nearly reached its chest.

There were others with strangely shaped bodies.

One had two elbows on each arm, making its limbs look unnaturally long and flexible. Another had a long, stretched neck that allowed its head to rise far above the others.

Their appearances were disturbing enough that Farrah instinctively moved closer to Xinyi.

They were familiar beings... They were closer to the ones protecting the Gene Traders.

Kai, however, didn’t immediately attack.

He continued observing them from a distance.

There were more of them than he had initially noticed.

Dozens of mutated humans were scattered around the ruined buildings, and some were even hiding behind broken vehicles and collapsed walls.

They had apparently been watching Cameron City from the outskirts.

Kai didn’t have any good encounters with such mutated humans before, except for the Superhuman Guild that was under Grim’s lead.

Nonetheless, he couldn’t forget his experience with mutants protecting the Gene Traders... They were extremely aggressive. Once they noticed humans, they would usually rush toward them without hesitation and attempt to kill them.

That was why Kai had initially assumed these mutated humans were preparing to attack.

But something felt different this time... They weren’t approaching.

They weren’t growling...

They weren’t charging toward the city or toward Kai’s group.

They were simply watching, so Kai continued observing them carefully.

"They don’t seem aggressive."

Farrah looked surprised.

"Are you sure?"

Kai nodded.

"At least for now."

One of the mutated humans slowly stepped out from behind a ruined building.

It was a particularly strange-looking creature. It had four eyes arranged unevenly across its face, and two of its arms were much longer than the others.

It stared toward Cameron City.

Kai followed its gaze.

The mutated human didn’t seem interested in them at all.

It was looking at the city.

Several others were doing the same.

Kai remained silent as he watched them.

For some reason, the scene felt strangely pitiful.

These creatures were no longer truly human, yet there was something about the way they stood outside the city that made Kai feel as though they were longing for something.

Perhaps they wanted to enter...

Perhaps they remembered that the place had once been their home.

But they couldn’t.

The humans inside the city would never allow creatures like them to enter.

And if they approached too closely, the city’s defenders would probably attack them immediately.

Kai couldn’t help but feel conflicted.

"They’ve been watching the city for a while," he finally said.

Farrah looked at him.

"You think they used to live there?"

"It’s possible."

Kai didn’t know what had happened to these people or how much of their humanity remained.

Perhaps they were still capable of thinking... perhaps they weren’t.

There was simply no way for him to know.

One of the mutated humans suddenly turned its head toward Kai.

Its four eyes stared directly at him while he remained still.

For several seconds, neither side moved.

Then the mutated human slowly turned away and the others followed.

Instead of approaching them, the mutated humans began moving in another direction, disappearing among the ruins.

Kai watched them leave.

"They’re avoiding us."

Farrah looked at the disappearing figures.

"Maybe they’re smarter than we thought."

"Maybe."

Kai glanced toward Cameron City one last time.

He couldn’t do anything about the mutated humans.

Even if they were still capable of feeling emotions or remembering their former lives, Kai couldn’t simply bring them into the city.

Even if he could, it was too dangerous.

If even one of them suddenly lost control, innocent people could die.

For now, Kai turned the hoverboard toward the road leading away from Cameron City.

"Let’s go."

Farrah nodded.

She adjusted her grip around Xinyi while Kai made sure Xian was holding onto him securely.

The two hoverboards soon accelerated across the ruined road.

Behind them, the mutated humans remained at the edge of the city, quietly watching the place they could no longer return to.

Kai didn’t look back again.

He simply continued forward, carrying Xian toward the Codebreakers Shelter.

***

They continued along the ruined road, with the two hoverboards moving steadily toward the Codebreakers Shelter. Kai remained alert as they traveled, occasionally scanning the surrounding area for any signs of danger.

After about four hours, however, he suddenly noticed something ahead.

A large caravan was traveling along the same road.

There were nearly ten heavy trucks moving together in a long formation, surrounded by several A.I. Soldiers. Kai immediately recognized some of them as Sentinels, while others were Spyders moving quickly around the convoy and scouting the surrounding area.

Kai slowed down the hoverboard.

Farrah noticed the change and looked ahead.

"That’s quite a large group."

Kai nodded.

"Yes."

Something about the caravan bothered him.

The A.I. army was clearly protecting the trucks, but Kai couldn’t understand why they were using ordinary vehicles.

The machine civilization possessed anti-gravity ships and various flying aircraft. They had already demonstrated their ability to move large numbers of machines through the air.

So why were they transporting something with trucks?

It was suspicious.

Kai narrowed his eyes as he observed the convoy from a distance.

"Chamber, can you scan those trucks?"

There was a brief pause before his A.I. assistant responded.

[ Scanning the caravan. ]

Kai waited patiently.

Then Chamber’s voice suddenly became more serious.

[ Analysis complete. ]

[ Biological lifeforms detected inside the trucks. ]

Kai’s expression changed.

"Humans?"

[ Confirmed. The trucks contain multiple human life signs. ]

Farrah immediately looked at him.

"Humans?"

Kai nodded slowly.

His bad feeling became even stronger.