The commotion at the camp’s outer perimeter caught Zhou Ningning’s attention. With her characteristic sense of ownership over everything she’d decided was her responsibility, she went immediately to find out what was happening.

“What’s going on?” She stopped someone she didn’t recognize.

The person recognized her. “You’re Coal Lady from Huainan, right?”

Zhou Ningning smiled. “That’s me — Zhou Ningning. We’re all one family now.”

“Right, right — welcome, all you brothers and sisters from Huainan.” The brief pleasantry dispensed with: “Coal Lady, you probably haven’t heard yet — Colonel Hu Ge captured the Tentacle Monster alive. The one that attacked the tunnel crew yesterday. The Research Institute people are all rushing over. First near-Heavyweight evolved beast we’ve taken alive!”

“What?” Zhou Ningning stopped. “He captured the Tentacle Monster? By himself?”

“Colonel Hu always operates alone.” The man laughed at himself a little. “That’s what the gap in evolution looks like, I suppose. I’m an iron person too, but I just process machinery here in camp. Nothing like the combat evolved people.”

“Every role contributes to humanity and to this camp — don’t sell yourself short,” Zhou Ningning said, making a rallying fist gesture that carried genuine energy. “As long as you do what you’re capable of, that’s something to be proud of. Don’t measure yourself against others.”

“Thank you — I’ll remember that, Coal Lady.”

“Call me Sister Zhou. What’s your name?”

“Chen Honghui.”

“I’ll remember it. Come on, Chen Honghui — show me where Colonel Hu is. I want to see this Tentacle Monster.”

Standing at the platform’s edge, Zhou Ningning and Chen Honghui had a clear view of Shen Cong’s isolated elevated platform — positioned outside the camp’s fence line, with a sign planted in the ground: No Entry Without Permission.

On the platform, beside Great Vajra, the Tentacle Monster hung from chains. Its forelimbs could just reach the ground, and the moment they made contact it clawed frantically — the stone surface disintegrated under its grip like tofu, scattering pebbles in every direction. But the chains only let it dig ten or fifteen centimeters before pulling it back up. It tried to roll its body; the bindings held it too tightly for that to go anywhere.

“Sister Zhou, that’s the Tentacle Monster — near-Heavyweight! Looks kind of small, but those claws are something else. Put it underground and it’d move like a fish in water. I can’t imagine how Colonel Hu caught it.” Chen Honghui shook his head in admiration. “Edge of Evolution — completely earned.”

Zhou Ningning kept her expression neutral. Internally, she was skeptical. The creature didn’t look near-Heavyweight. Its body was compact — nothing like the massive individual evolved beasts she’d seen in The Huoxue, the ones measuring ten or twenty meters. This thing was the size of a large dog.

Then one of the Research Institute personnel moved closer to get a better observation angle.

The Tentacle Monster’s body compressed — a full-body contraction — and then released. Every muscle fiber appeared to surge into the nasal tentacles simultaneously. One tentacle swelled to a meter in length and whipped outward toward the researcher.

“Watch out!” Zhou Ningning shouted.

The researcher was an ordinary person. No chance of reacting in time.

They could only watch the tentacle — the one that had torn through evolved people in the tunnel — snap toward its target like a whip.

Thud.

No blood. No screaming.

The tentacle fell to the ground, severed.

Shen Cong had been ten meters away, in conversation with Zhang Kan. The moment the Tentacle Monster began contracting — before the tentacle had even extended — something in his processing had flagged it. His hand had moved without waiting for a conscious decision. The Ape King throwing knife was already in flight when the tentacle reached its full extension.

At fifteen-bull strength, the throw was close to a sound barrier event. It hit the tentacle at the joint and cut cleanly through.

Blood spattered the researcher’s face. They sat down hard on the ground.

Shen Cong’s voice arrived, entirely calm. “Someone pick up my knife.”

Zhang Kan recovered from the shock and immediately started shouting. “What are you all doing — trying to get yourselves killed? That is a near-Heavyweight evolved beast! Everyone back — back!“

From the camp’s elevated platforms where people had been watching, scattered applause began, building slowly into something genuine.

That throw had been extraordinary.

Shen Cong didn’t acknowledge the applause. He resumed his conversation with the research staff. His knife throwing had genuinely been poor before the apocalypse — he’d never trained it. But since making the Ape King throwing knives, he’d practiced consistently. Within ten meters, he could place a throw precisely enough to trust.

Chen Honghui clapped hard.

Zhou Ningning clapped too. And despite herself, she felt something shift.

She’d seen him kill Big-Fly Brother — fast, decisive, several people eliminated in seconds. She’d watched the combat footage of him against the Golden Jiao and the Giant Condor. But she’d kept finding reasons to discount it: good weapons, exceptional equipment, particularly the Half-Activated Armor that produced in her an inexplicable pull she couldn’t quite name. She didn’t know what it was made of, but whatever it was, it was clearly extraordinary. Her conclusion had been that the equipment was carrying the performance.

And there was the fact that Big-Fly Brother’s Activity cores, the Violent Ape King’s, the Giant Condor’s — all of it had gone to Shen Cong. She’d read that as accumulation of advantage rather than evidence of capability.

This throw changed the frame.

Reaction speed before the tentacle had fully extended. Accuracy from ten meters, hitting a target moving at full extension speed. The Tentacle Monster caught alive in the first place. None of that came from equipment. The equipment amplified what was already there. Strip away the armor and the bone-gold weapons, and the person underneath was still something that operated at a categorically different level from any evolved person she’d encountered before.

He wasn’t strong because of the weapons. The weapons were effective because of him.

Once that reframing settled in, the embarrassment followed. She’d spoken against giving him special treatment. She’d said, explicitly, that he couldn’t handle the Tentacle Monster without troop support.

She’d been wrong. In the most specific way possible.

I need to apologize to Colonel Hu.

Rescuing the researcher had cost Shen Cong nothing. A reflex throw, executed while doing something else. He’d done it because a disrupted research environment would slow down the iron beast investigation, which was the thing he actually cared about.

Iron beast and iron person were the same fundamental phenomenon. Understand one, understand the other. He wanted these researchers to produce something useful.

“Colonel Hu — until we’ve completed our research, we’d like to keep the Tentacle Monster alive if possible. That way the light rail cab won’t lose its Activity, and we’ll have adequate time to study it.”

“Fine. The coal-hauling truck as well — take it for research. Once it’s fully inactivated, bring the primary metal back to me.”

Neither the iron beast nor the coal truck was currently useful to him. Great Vajra had already reached its primary metal absorption ceiling. The Half-Activated Armor could absorb more, but too much additional mass would compromise mobility before his physical development caught up to support it. The right time to push further was after Great Vajra broke through its ceiling — that would expand the Talent to accommodate more primary metal.

He sent the Research Institute team off and was settling onto the roof for a rest when he saw someone approaching his platform.

Zhou Ningning. Arrived only yesterday.

He was on his feet immediately, watchful, as she reached the platform boundary.

“Stop there.”

“Colonel Hu — I’m here to apologize.”

“For what?”

“When I arrived, I formed an opinion that you didn’t deserve the camp’s preferential treatment. I said things in that direction. But I saw just now — you clearly have the capability that justifies that treatment. I’m retracting what I said, and I’m here to apologize for it.”

Shen Cong’s brow went up slightly. “You had a problem with me?”

“I did. I don’t now. I misread the situation.”

“Then you can go.”

Zhou Ningning nodded. “Thank you for understanding.”

She turned and left.

Shen Cong watched her go.

She shows up out of nowhere to apologize. Completely unprompted. He turned this over. That’s unusual behavior.

“Unhinged,” he concluded.

Then his expression cooled further.

Unhinged people are unpredictable. I need to watch this one carefully.

(End of Chapter 187)