Only I Walk Alone

Xiao Chao explained, “Your blood contains the ‘Immortality virus’, which is highly toxic to any living organism. The immortality virus invades the cells of the host organism unrestrainedly, depleting a significant amount of energy. If the host of the immortality virus does not stay in a nutrition pod, they will be drained of energy by the virus and die.”

Wu Ge, struggling to understand, asked, “You said the host of the immortality virus would be drained of energy and die, but I’m still alive and well.”

Xiao Chao replied, “That’s because the cells in your body have been converted into immortal cells, so they have no target and have entered a dormant phase. However, if the immortality virus enters another living being, it will be activated and begin to invade other normal cells.”

Understanding, Wu Ge then asked, “Can you produce artificial blood? This vampire seems like she’s going to starve to death.”

Xiao Chao responded, “Artificial blood is being produced in City No. 97, the closest to our destination. It is expected to arrive in three hours.”

Wu Ge looked at the sleeping blonde little girl on the medical bed, who was visibly shrinking right before his eyes. She had aged down from thirteen to about ten years old, and the recent battle seemed to have depleted her strength, accelerating her shrinking process.

Shortly after, Xiao Chao suddenly said, “The vampire’s genetic analysis has been completed. The death code in the vampire genes has been removed, but an unknown gene segment has been added, making it essential for the vampire to consume human blood to survive.”

Wu Ge asked, “Can this gene segment be removed?”

Xiao Chao answered, “Simulation in progress… Success. It cannot be removed because human blood is the energy source for vampires. Removing this gene would prevent vampires from converting human blood into energy, ultimately causing them to starve to death.”

Wu Ge inquired, “Can’t you modify her genes to allow her to obtain energy from regular food?”

Xiao Chao responded, “Simulation in progress… Success. The gene segment cannot be added due to conflict with the unknown gene segment. Forcing it would lead to genetic collapse.”

Wu Ge hadn’t fully grasped the intricacies of genetics. From what he understood, removing useless gene segments and perfecting gene segments was possible, but arbitrarily adding genes from other animals would lead to direct conflict and genetic collapse.

Thus, acquiring the speed of a leopard, the strength of a bear, or the eyesight of an eagle through genetic modification was impossible, but achieving the speed of Liu Xiang, the strength of a strongman, or the intelligence of a top student was within human limits.

Of course, this was with Xiao Chao’s current technological level. Higher civilizations might be able to do so, as evidenced by the existence of werewolves and vampires, which clearly surpassed these limits. Perhaps their genes had been modified by a higher civilization.

Xiao Chao mentioned, “The same unknown gene segment was found in werewolves, suggesting it’s key to combining the genes of two different organisms.”

Although Xiao Chao speculated, it lacked the desire to research further until Wu Ge requested, “Then add this gene to the scientific challenges, Xiao Chao. I hope you can fully research it.”

Xiao Chao said, “Request recorded, number of scientific challenges increased by 1.”

This was Wu Ge’s role. Without him, even if Xiao Chao knew there was an issue with the gene, it wouldn’t pursue research.

“Cough, cough!” At that moment, the blonde little girl suddenly woke up, sniffed the air, and said in English, “The scent of humans, humans still exist!”

She leaped up and lunged at Wu Ge, driven by her instinct to survive and the hunger in her stomach compelling her to feed.

But the weak girl was no match for Wu Ge, clad in his power armor. Not to mention she bit down on hard steel, Wu Ge quickly grabbed her and restrained her on the medical bed with a “click!”

The blonde little girl bit down on Wu Ge’s wrist, but the hard armor caused her gums to ache terribly.

“Owww, my teeth.”

The little girl was delirious, her gums aching, yet she continued to snap around like a rabid dog, unable to penetrate the hard power armor with her teeth.

Wu Ge tried to calm her, “Be patient, the blood will arrive soon.”

The girl didn’t listen and kept struggling until the robots sedated her, and she fell asleep again. Meanwhile, her body kept shrinking, becoming smaller and smaller.

Xiao Chao explained, “She is burning unnecessary cells to obtain energy, which is why her body is reverting to a younger state.”

The girl now looked to be only about eight years old. If this continued, she was certain to die.

Wu Ge inquired, “Would the blood of other animals work?”

Xiao Chao replied, “No, it must be blood containing human genes. Vampires need to identify the genes when converting blood into energy; only blood containing human genes will be absorbed and converted.”

Wu Ge had to wait patiently, and fortunately, just as the girl shrunk to the size of a four or five-year-old, the robots finally brought the artificial blood. In fact, Wu Ge had been moving toward the robot city with the girl, which saved nearly half the time.

Wu Ge took out a blood bag and placed it near the girl’s mouth. Her fangs instinctively extended and pierced the surface of the bag. She then began to suck the blood instinctively, and as she continued, her body gradually began to recover.

After consuming several meals’ worth of blood, she finally returned to the appearance of a fourteen-year-old girl, and the girl’s condition stabilized, escaping the weakening trend.

Hours later, the blonde girl slowly woke up. Seeing the robots and Wu Ge around her, she became frightened at first glance at Wu Ge, “A mage? A priest? A knight of the church?”

Feeling Wu Ge’s powerful mental strength, she assumed he was a practitioner among humans.

Seemingly intending to escape, the girl found her wrists and ankles were locked with chains. She yelled, “What are you going to do? Let me go!”

She desperately pulled at the chains, her small body bursting with incredible strength, making the chains rattle as if they might break at any moment.

However, when the robots all pointed tranquilizer guns at her, she became docile and timidly asked, “What do you want to do?”

Wu Ge introduced himself, “Let me introduce myself. I am the last human on Earth—Wu Ge.”

The girl’s eyes widened in shock, “The last human? What happened? Where did all the humans go? After humans disappeared, my kin starved one by one, only I survived till now… Where did you humans go?”

Note: Liu Xiang is a Chinese former 110 meter hurdler. Liu is also an Olympic Gold medalist and World Champion.