The Great Merchant in the Cataclysm

Chapter 113: How Weak Humanity Was

When Zhang Mu noticed Gu Lin’s emotions, his heart started to waver.
However, he got rid of this thought very quickly.
He knew that this was not just emotion for him, it had turned into a physiological instinct for him.
Zhang Mu did not believe that he could change.
Even he didn’t believe it himself.

Zhang Mu seemed to understand why Gu Lin was the only one who still had some conscience even though he was the most arrogant among all the cannibals.
He was just trying to hide the fear and guilt in his heart.

Zhang Mu heard Zero saying that he had already given Gu Lin a chance already.
Now that he thought about it, he must have tried to rebel once but failed.
He was on the brink of sinking in and completely sinking in so he struggled and that was why he tried to resist against Zero’s control.

However, Zhang Mu couldn’t do anything too.
Once you betrayed the human race, there was no turning back.
This was a path of no return.
This conclusion was formed in the future after some experiments in the survival bases.

Some of the survival bases leaders saw the potential on the cannibals and tried to lock up those cannibals that were forced, hoping that they would change.
After all, most of the cannibals used to be evolvers with very powerful abilities.

They thought that if they could subdue these cannibals and used their powers appropriately, their survival base would become more powerful.
Thus, they tried to change them using with this thought in mind.

However, things didn’t happen as they want it too.
At the start, these cannibals acted like a normal human being.
They could eat normally and talk normally.
They even made friends with the people who were guarding them.
But, after some time, they started to reveal their real self.

They couldn’t eat anything and their temper got worse.
When they looked at the guard, they wanted to attack him.

They only wanted to eat human meat now!

The person guarding them would never give it to them so they actually started attacking each other because they wanted to eat the meat on each other’s body.
No matter what the consequences were, they just wanted to eat human meat.

When the survival base saw this, they used a lot of effort and kept them apart in the individual rooms.

There were no living objects within the sight of the cannibals so they started attacking the bed and the cages.
They attacked anything they could see.
If these cages were not enhanced by evolvers with special abilities, these powerful and crazy cannibals might have escaped.

The leaders still had hope that this was just a process of recovering from the addiction but after some time, they didn’t think like this anymore.

Why? Because these cannibals didn’t eat the food they prepared.
They smashed the plates and didn’t touch the pork or lamb meat or beef that was given to them.
An eerie thing happened after that.

They started eating the meat on their own body!

No one could forget how they tore the meat off their elbows and thighs and stuffed them into their mouths with glistening eyes.
They would never forget this scene for life.

The cannibals lost too much blood and couldn’t move anymore.
They were covered with wounds and you could even see their bones.
Their powers were slowly degrading too.
The leaders finally lost their interest in them.

If they lost their abilities, what was their use? Why not just show them to the furious crowd and let them be an avenue for venting their anger?

After a few days past, they stopped breathing so they sent people in to collect their corpse.
The guard opened the cages and wanted to move these corpse away.
However, he found something frightening.

Their tongue was all gone!

In order to satisfy their psychological instinct even when they had no energy and couldn’t move, they bit their tongue and swallowed it.
They did all of these just because they couldn’t break away from the temptation.

From then onwards, all the survival bases agreed on the execution of cannibals.
Once any cannibals were found, they would be killed on the spot.

After recalling the pieces of evidence from the survival bases, Zhang Mu no longer looked at Gu Lin with any emotions.
Zhang Mu believed that in that second, he really wanted to change but even he himself didn’t believe that he could do it.
Hence, he asked Zhang Mu to kill him.

Zhang Mu thought for a while and summoned the Bloodvine Lotus.
He made a huge hole and buried all the big pots as well as Gu Lin inside the hole.
Then, the vines moved and soil flew in the air.
The hole was filled up again and Gu Lin got buried.

His hometown tradition was to keep a full corpse.
If he was left outside, he might be eaten by mutated beast.
Zhang Mu thought that since he promised him, he should do his best to fulfill his promise.

This might be the last shred of dignity Zhang Mu gave to this cannibal who still had some conscience.

He summoned the Bloodvine Lotus back and walked towards the unfinished building with the key.

The unfinished building was eerily quiet but Zhang Mu knew that the normal humans Zero bred were just underneath him.

He walked down the steps into the basement and passed by a dimly lit path.
Very soon, he found the meeting room that Gu Lin mentioned.

He walked in and looked around.
He saw the big flower pot.
He rushed forward and kicked it into pieces.
He saw a small black hole behind the flower vase.
Gu Lin didn’t lie to him.

This place was really a good hiding spot.
The edges of the door blended well with the surroundings.
If Gu Lin didn’t say it, Zhang Mu would not have found this place.

When he inserted the key and unlocked the door.
He frowned.
The smell was too disgusting.

Everything was in a mess.
There were people all around the room, lying or sitting down.
Most of them were really in disarrayed and some didn’t even have clothes on them.

Human waste and signs of urine surrounded these people but they had no reaction at all.
It was as if they couldn’t see it.

Even when Zhang Mu came in, there was no reaction from these people at all.
They seemed to be used to the fact that a few people would be taken away every day.
They knew what happened to these people.
They also knew that they could not escape.
It was just a question about when they would be eaten.

When he saw these numbed people, Zhang Mu felt despair.
Have they got used to being treated like food?