Chapter 557: Outing  

During the early morning at the forest, the weather was humid as it had accumulated a night’s worth of dew, clear as crystals, lying atop of broad flora leaves. If you walked past the forest, it would appear as if it was raining.

Luo Yuan wiped off the droplets on his face, his clothes were soaked to the point that the cloth was sticking onto his body making him feel uncomfortable. However, others like Wang Shishi and Huang Jiahui were high in spirits, it was as if they were skipping instead of walking.

The mutant was the most active of them all. When she reached the location, it was as if she finally returned home. She was so excited she couldn’t contain herself and started climbing trees, running and jumping around the area, and sometimes being attracted by the sudden random movement of a bush nearby. Out of curiosity, she ran towards the direction of movement to investigate the bush.

As a perfect ecological cycle, naturally there were many wild animals lurking around. Most of the wild species were harmless as most were small to medium-sized herbivores. Of course, there were some typical carnivorous beasts. But within the eyes of the mutant, they were not even a threat.

As she rampaged through the forest, causing mass panic among the local faunas along the path, the mutant’s clothes got dirty and caked with mud. But she was enjoying each moment and didn’t seem to get tired.

The mutant had experienced significant changes in these short years. Her scales were no longer visible to the eye and her blue skin had slowly reversed into a normal, fair skin tone. As of now, her appearance closely resembled a human. If one wasn’t being observant, no one could tell she was a mutant. From a perspective, this could be a result of an organism adapting to their surroundings, a sort of camouflage ability.

"This dew is too much!" Luo Yuan said, preparing to clear off the dew drops in the forest.

Who knew Wang Shishi was telepathic and quickly stopped Luo Yuan saying: " Don’t move, Brother Luo. We’re currently experiencing life, recall the bitterness in the old society and contrast it with happiness in the new!"

He stopped abruptly and looked around this area. He saw nothing but a dark environment with trees so tall it looked as if they’re towering into the clouds and its’ leaves resembling a net-covering on the top of an umbrella. The entire forest showed traces of life and movement within nature. Other than the harmless mutated beast, the scenery looked exactly like a post-apocalyptic earth.

"This place looks like Earth!" Luo Yuan whispered gently, then eventually cast off his thought.

The rest of the gang had the same thought as Luo Yuan and they all couldn’t help it but look at him with a strange look in their eyes.

One year ago, Luo Yuan was keeping a low profile. Although he looked like he was the same man as before, in truth, he could never return to the way things were before. After witnessing Luo Yuan’s horrifying "true form", there isn’t anyone who couldn’t have their mental state affected after witnessing such thing.

To top it off, his temperament had become colder and alienating. Although it was much better than during the period without sensibility. But when compared to the past, he was a totally different person. Not only that, his lust towards females had become stale and he no longer had any sexual desires, as if he was another person.

Besides Wang Shishi and the mutant remaining heartless towards Luo Yuan, the others’ feelings towards Luo Yuan was a mixture of awe and vigilance to a stranger. The relationship between both parties was in a semi-cold state.

However, as of now, when the gang saw the scenery that resembled a post-apocalyptic Earth, they were reminded of the hardships they all went through together. If Luo Yuan was not there utilizing his strength in the cruel post-apocalyptic world to support a safe shelter from harm, how can they be here to weep and resent everything?

When they thought of these, all their eyes brightened up.

This naturally was not reality, but a simulated virtual reality. Ever since Space City was built, it was followed by the continuous advancement of quantum computation. The construction of the virtual reality never stopped but was expanded to be much more precise and realistic.

Nowadays, the whole virtual reality had spanned across ten million hectares. The space was as large as the Jiangnan Province and the outer ring of the space area even expanded to about one hundred million kilometers in range and above that, even the celestial bodies were roughly replicated.

When you were inside the simulation, it’s hard for people to differentiate the simulated world from reality and suddenly you’ll feel as though that you’re on Earth.

The truth is the Virtual Reality was already mimicking reality to such a degree that there was close to no difference from actual reality itself.

Due to the hindrances of various factors, only in Virtual Reality was that Luo Yuan and the gang could be in touch. This gathering was one of the rarer outings they had together.

Half an hour later, everyone had made it up to a mountain hill.

Below them lied the dense forest and at the top of the mountain was a flat rocky platform, this was naturally the result of an intended design in the Virtual Reality. Gazing down all the way from above and the distanced city was still within the view from the mountain.

"We can finally say we’ve reached our destination!" Zhao Yali thumping onto her chest while gasping for air, her smooth and silky skin was drenched with sweat after climbing the mountain for the past few hours. For a neutral type of body in the Virtual Reality, this was definitely not an easy achievement.

Her eyes glanced towards Luo Yuan and found there wasn’t any sweat on him at all, and his breathing rate was slow and steady, almost as if he was not worn out from the vigorous exercise they all went through just now.

You had to know that the body types in Virtual Reality would remain the same, there was no way one could re-adjust it.

"Yu.....Yuan, why aren’t you sweating?" she hesitated for a moment, but then proceeded to call Luo Yuan by his old nickname.

"My total control over one’s body is not something that you can match." Luo Yuan spoke for a sentence, even though when compared the split idea and the total amount of diving into a Virtual Reality was an insignificant part, controlling every inch of muscle on your body was a relatively easy task for him.

But when he finished, then he realized that Zhao Yali wasn’t interested in the theory behind how can one have total control over his body, she was just trying to start a conversation. He then immediately smiled and said, "Sis Yali, we’re all tired, let’s get some rest for now."

"What about Luo Lan?" at this moment Huang Jiahui asked.

Luo Lan is the name of the mutant, the name follows Luo Yuan’s surname. At first, the gang tried to give her a name when Luo Yuan hasn’t transformed for the second time, so they thought of giving her Luo Yuan’s surname, which also had a double meaning of remaining alert, which reminded them to be mindful of sticky situations.

"I guess she’s still behind us, she’s running everywhere. Even when I yelled at her, she refused to listen." Wang Shishi grumbled.

When you think of it, Wang Shishi wasn’t young at all. Due to the fact that she had consumed the Core of the Power Crystal, she still looked like a young woman in her 20s. But the reality was that she’s close to 40 although her personality remained of a heartless little girl.

As if she was called upon, the mutant leaped out from a tree panicking, an absolute look of panic within her eyes. She hissed something while running away and then behind her, a group of hornet emerged chasing swiftly after her.

When she saw Luo Yuan, she went straight in his direction. As if she was bullied and was seeking her parent. In her heart, Luo Yuan was the strongest of the group.

When the group saw how the situation played out, they started laughing. Even Luo Yuan starting smirking, although he had already known what would be the outcome.

Luo Yuan waved his hand slightly, and poof, all the wasps chasing the mutant was gone, vanished into thin air, as if they had never appeared.

After this incident, even though there was some awkwardness, it cleared up quickly.

The group of people sat at the side, looking at the majestic mountain scenery, cracked a few jokes. Luo Yuan occasionally would join the conversation but not much was spoken, he was more of a bystander than an active participant in the conversation. The difference in points of perspective in life brought a significant difference in conciseness. It is already impossible for him to mix in with the group under this atmosphere, all the topics they’ve discussed never sparked Luo Yuan’s interest. He preferred to sit at the side, quietly looking at everything, and enjoyed each moment of it.magic