Chapter 711: The Battle Had Already Begun

"I don't agree!"

"Yezi, she hasn't harmed us, she hasn't..."

"From the moment she appeared until now, she has never harmed any of us."

"She... she's different!"

Dantai Bie lowered his voice, his clean-shaven face flushed red with anger, like a provoked rooster.

Chen Ye stared at Dantai Bie with blood-red eyes, glaring at him intently.

"You idiot, have you been completely bewitched by that woman?"

"She's just an Anomaly, just an Anomaly! Wake up, you fool, and take a good look! She's not human!"

"And another thing, you idiot, the way you're raising your voice at me, do you think she can't hear you?"

Chen Ye kept his voice low, but his tone grew angrier with every word.

Chen Ye had originally wanted to take out Xu Wan, and he had never once thought he was wrong about this.

Whether it was bringing Xu Wan back to the base.

Or killing Xu Wan and using her as a sacrifice for the Hundred-Ghost Eater.

Or the fact that people would definitely die in this battle.

Chen Ye didn't think he had done anything wrong in any of it.

Because that was the best choice he could make from the perspective of his own interests and safety.

But what he hadn't expected was that after Dantai Bie learned of this plan, he actually came running over to stop Chen Ye.

That was something Chen Ye hadn't anticipated.

Earlier, he had noticed Dantai Bie and that Anomaly seeming to exchange flirtatious glances, and he had assumed it was the creature's ability affecting Dantai Bie.

But he never imagined the influence would be this profound.

Chen Ye was now certain that from the very first moment Dantai Bie laid eyes on that thing, he had become its target.

Facing Chen Ye's fury, Dantai Bie didn't back down. He stared straight at Chen Ye with unwavering determination.

"Yezi, humans have good and bad. Why can't Anomalies?"

"Back at that car rental shop on Sunset Avenue, she could have killed Iron Lion, but she didn't!"

"You're a Superhuman too, you can sense just how powerful she is!"

"She could have killed every single one of us back then!"

"But she didn't!"

"Yezi, she's different from other Anomalies. She's unique!"

"She's so beautiful, so one of a kind. Yezi, she's not like the others!"

With every sentence, Dantai Bie's tone grew more emphatic as he held Chen Ye's gaze.

It seemed he was trying to convince Chen Ye to believe that Xu Wan was a good Anomaly.

"You're fucking insane!"

"Dantai Bie, do you even hear what you're saying!"

Chen Ye was genuinely angry now. He grabbed Dantai Bie by the collar, lowered his voice, and roared into Dantai Bie's ear with something close to a snarl.

If it were anyone else, Chen Ye wouldn't waste so much breath.

But the person in front of him was Dantai Bie.

This guy, from the moment they first met until now, had always been sincere with people, serious about his duties, and wholeheartedly devoted to his friends.

He never slacked off in battle, and he never treated himself as an outsider.

Aside from being a bit of a chatterbox, Chen Ye acknowledged him as a teammate.

But now...

Chen Ye was certain.

The Dantai Bie standing before him had definitely been influenced by that thing's ability.

From the very first second Dantai Bie laid eyes on that creature, he had been affected.

Chen Ye looked at Dantai Bie's stubborn expression.

And in an instant, he understood many things.

Why that creature was so obsessed with beauty and so repulsed by ugliness.

It was her nature.

Human instinct is to believe in what is beautiful.

There's a saying that goes: "The more beautiful a woman is, the better she is at deceiving you!"

Actually, the essence of that saying is: "Even if an ugly woman tries to deceive you, you wouldn't believe her anyway!"

That creature had imitated Xu Lina to obtain a flawless Physical Appearance.

This caused many people to form a favorable impression of her the moment they saw her, and even made them more inclined to believe her words.

Like the Dantai Bie standing right here.

That was the creature's Trait and ability.

The Dantai Bie of the past had never behaved this way.

Pleading for mercy on behalf of an Anomaly? Even trying to convince Chen Ye!

If something like this had happened with Chen Hao, it might have been understandable.

But now... it was happening with Dantai Bie of all people.

In all this time, Dantai Bie had never shown any particular interest in any woman.

Even though Xu Lina and Xu Wan looked so similar, Dantai Bie had never shown any favorable feelings toward Xu Lina.

But now... with the exact same face.

Dantai Bie had lost all composure and principles.

Chen Ye was absolutely certain this was one of that thing's abilities.

An ability that could distort basic cognition and core values.

This was different from Wu Jianshan's "Intimate Relationship" ability.

From beginning to end, Chen Ye had never sensed anything off about Dantai Bie.

This ability... it changed a person's cognition from the very depths of their being.

What a terrifying ability...

A chill ran down Chen Ye's spine! His resolve to eliminate this creature only grew stronger.

Chen Ye was still gripping Dantai Bie's collar tightly, grinding his teeth as he spoke word by word in a low voice:

"You idiot, that's an Anomaly, not a human, not a human!"

"Humans and Anomalies can never coexist!"

"You absolute idiot!"

Dantai Bie shoved Chen Ye away and glanced into the distance.

Sun Xixi and Xu Wan seemed to be looking in their direction.

Dantai Bie's face flushed red as he stared at Chen Ye. "Chen Ye, there are already so few of us humans left!"

"We need to unite every force we can unite!"

"Even if the one across from us is an Anomaly!"

"Just because there were no good Anomalies before doesn't mean there won't be any in the future!"

"Chen Ye, if we can rally these good Anomalies and bring them into our camp, wouldn't we be able to reclaim our cities and rebuild civilization faster? More easily?"

"Chen Ye, I haven't lost my mind!"

"I'm telling you clearly, I do not agree with making a move against Xu Wan!"

Dantai Bie spoke to Chen Ye with an unprecedented solemnity.

As if he were taking an oath!

Chen Ye's blood-red eyes slowly widened. Fury, helplessness, disappointment, panic, bewilderment, all of it was hidden behind those crimson eyes.

Chen Ye only felt waves of suffocation pressing down on his chest.

"You... are insane!"

Chen Ye's tone subsided. He looked into the distance and fell silent.

Then suddenly, Chen Ye understood.

Actually, from the very first second they encountered "Xu Wan," the battle had already begun.

Right now, it was only Dantai Bie who was affected.

The longer she stayed here, the more people she would influence over time.

In just a few short hours.

The entire base had already grown quite warm toward Xu Wan.

Even Chen Ye himself, when Xu Wan called him an "ugly piece of trash" and even gave him the nickname "one of the three ugly," couldn't really get angry about it.

First, because he genuinely didn't think he was ugly, and such claims were simply slander and defamation!

Second, it seemed... that bright and radiant face of Xu Wan's, so completely different from Xu Lina's, made it impossible to muster any anger.

The moment he thought of this, Chen Ye felt ice cold all over.

Actually...

The battle had already begun long ago.

"Chen Ye, I'm begging you, just... why don't you give it a try!"

"I know it's hard for you to trust an Anomaly!"

"But if we can truly verify that Anomalies are reliable, that would be a good thing for us, for all of humanity!"

"Yezi, as your brother, I'm begging you this one time!"

Dantai Bie looked at Chen Ye with earnest eyes, his gaze pleading.

But since Chen Ye had already figured it all out, he paid no attention to Dantai Bie's pleas.

His voice was calm as he looked at Xu Wan and Sun Xixi in the distance.

"So... the battle had already begun."

"Much earlier than I thought."