The first one to notice something was wrong was Wen Qianshu.
She was originally sitting in the car, chin propped on her hand, looking out the window. She watched two crows land on the ground, hop around twice, and then suddenly take flight.
Wen Qianshu’s gaze followed them upward. They were like two pebbles thrown towards the sun, but they startled all the sparrows on the power lines into flight as well.
All the birds were circling high in the sky, feathers drifting down to the ground.
Wen Qianshu yanked open the car door and jumped out.
A wave of hot air rushed to meet her, enveloping her head like a giant steamer basket covering this part of the world.
Their SUV was parked near the main gate of the training camp. Wen Qianshu shouted at the people by the gate: “Close the main gate, there are zombies!”
Two team members were standing there, looking confused upon hearing her. Fortunately, Lou Jiu followed her out and repeated the order.
One team member immediately went to close the gate. The other hesitated for a moment, and just as he moved, Wen Qianshu had already rushed over, pulled him back, raised her leg, and kicked the gate hard.
The iron gate clanged from the kick. Wen Qianshu dropped to the ground and slid the bolt shut. Almost the next second, a zombie slammed against the gate, baring its teeth.
No, it wasn’t just one zombie, it was many zombies.
They seemed to appear out of thin air, swarming forward, crashing against the iron gate, their fingers reaching through the gaps, waving and grasping.
Wen Qianshu took two steps back. She saw that the first zombies to arrive were already being crushed by those behind them, who were still pushing forward, about to pile up. “Run!”
She turned and retreated: “Notify your Captain Shang!”
The team member had already taken out his communicator, shouting as he ran to the car. Lou Jiu vaulted into the driver’s seat and opened the passenger door: “Get in!”
Wen Qianshu jumped into the car. Before the door was even properly closed, Lou Jiu had already turned the steering wheel, and the car spun around and drove inward.
The crows began to cry mournfully, and the sparrows circled in the sky.
Wen Qianshu reached for her goggles and put them on. “What is Jiang Yin thinking?”
She barely managed to escape with her life, why would she cause such a huge commotion all at once? Is she afraid the base won’t catch her fast enough?
The person in the back seat was reporting the news. Lou Jiu gripped the steering wheel, her eyes glancing at the rearview mirror. “They’re following us.”
Shang Ci and the others were waiting at the entrance of the indoor training building. Lou Jiu honked the horn, and without stopping, the car drove straight over the stairs and through the entrance.
Shang Ci and the others closed the door. “What’s going on?”
Lou Jiu opened the car door, raising her gun. “I don’t know. A lot of zombies suddenly appeared.”
The two in the back seat were still shaken. The remaining members of the search team looked at each other in dismay. Wen Qianshu also got out of the car. “I suspect Jiang Yin wants to trap us here.”
Otherwise, why would zombies from outside the training camp appear right after they had just finished clearing out the ones inside? Shang Ci: “Trap us? What can she do—hiss—”
He started making a call.
Wen Qianshu also thought of it. “Where’s Jiang Yao?”
Shang Ci: “I’m looking for her—alright, I can’t get through.”
Wen Qianshu paced a few steps, hearing the sound of heavy objects slamming against the door. “You said you sent her away earlier. What did you have her do?”
Shang Ci: “Gao Bai’s family wanted to visit and needed a search team member to accompany them, so I sent Jiang Yao.”
The zombies at the door were still ramming it, and their numbers were increasing. It sounded like some strange percussion music. But fortunately, the door of the training building was much sturdier, and their ramming yielded no results.
Wen Qianshu: “What about her now? Is there any way to contact her?”
Lou Jiu looked down at her phone. “She’s coming this way.”
Several people looked at Lou Jiu at the same time.
Lou Jiu paused, her five fingers gripping the phone with the screen facing out. On it was a map, and a small red dot was moving quickly across it. “I put a tracker on her.”
The surroundings were extremely quiet, with only the zombies still ramming the door. In a way, they were truly persistent.
Lou Jiu: “I’ve always been worried about her. Is there a problem?”
Shang Ci: “Uh, no problem—”
But Jiang Yao is so cautious—Shang Ci couldn’t help but ask: “Where did you put it on her?”
Lou Jiu: “In her restraint device.”
That’s right. Inside the base, Jiang Yao always wore a portable restraint device, and it was the most common model. After customizing a restraint device for Wen Qianshu, Lou Jiu had made a copy of Jiang Yao’s.
The comprehensive physical examination inside the base required the removal of restraint devices. Lou Jiu took advantage of Jiang Yao’s check-up to replace her device.
Wen Qianshu threw her arms around her waist, exclaiming in pleasant surprise, “Sister, you’re amazing!”
Lou Jiu didn’t reply, but let her hug her. Seeing Wen Qianshu lean in to look, she moved the phone in front of her eyes.
Shang Ci, who also wanted to see the map: “…”
He had no choice but to use his height advantage to look from behind.
Wen Qianshu: “In her direction, next to it is—”
Lou Jiu: “The research institute.”
Wen Qianshu: “She’s going to the research institute?”
Wen Qianshu made a snap decision: “We have to go find her.”
Shang Ci: “What do you mean?”
Wen Qianshu: “I suspect Jiang Yin is at the research institute.”
Shang Ci: “Why?”
Wen Qianshu of course knew why. Because in the original world, Jiang Yao and the final boss perished together. So now, with the outside being so dangerous, for Jiang Yao to still be running there, it was very likely she had guessed that Jiang Yin or Li Shan was there.
Why? After all she had done, was Jiang Yao still going to be so stubborn and go to her death?
No, that’s not acceptable. She had to stop Jiang Yao.
But Wen Qianshu couldn’t possibly say this to Shang Ci, so she could only say: “No time to explain. Is there any way to get to the research institute from here?”
Shang Ci: “We can force a breakout, but it will take some time.”
Lou Jiu looked down at the map. “I know a way to the research institute.”
She raised her eyes and added, “We don’t have to break out through the main entrance.”
Shang Ci thought for a moment. “Alright.”
He turned to Wen Qianshu, as if wanting to arrange for her to stay here or leave for a safe place. However, Wen Qianshu spoke first: “I’m going with you.”
A team member: “But, you’re not yet—”
Shang Ci interrupted him: “Alright.”
The team member: “Captain, we can’t let an intern do something so dangerous—”
But Shang Ci patted his shoulder, signaling him to stop, and turned to Wen Qianshu, saying, “I trust you, Qin Shu. I trust that you already have the abilities of an official search team member.”
“Stay close to us, and protect yourself.”
They quickly assembled their weapons and followed Lou Jiu to the top floor, listening to her say, “There’s a small building nearby where staff members live. From there, there’s a small alley…”
When they reached the rooftop terrace, Lou Jiu raised a gun-like weapon, aimed at the opposite building, and fired a steel claw that embedded itself in the wall. She tugged on the rope connecting the claw to the muzzle, confirmed it was secure, then pulled it tight, tied it to a fixed point, and laid the gun horizontally, locking it in a groove. “Did they teach you this in the training camp?”
Wen Qianshu: “Yes.”
Lou Jiu tossed her a zip line pulley, hooked her own, took two steps back, started running to build up speed, and leaped. Her form was perfect. She slid across quickly, landed steadily on the ground, and ran a few steps to dissipate the momentum.
Afterwards, Lou Jiu checked the steel claw and gestured to Wen Qianshu. Wen Qianshu followed, also successfully landing on the top of the opposite building.
Shang Ci and the others followed closely behind, landing one after another. Shang Ci looked down and frowned. No one knew how many zombies Jiang Yin had sent in, but the current scene was not optimistic.
The street outside the training camp was actually filled with zombies.
Fortunately, Shang Ci had issued a warning earlier, so most of the base residents had already taken shelter nearby and were looking out their windows worriedly. A few unlucky ones, or those who didn’t take it seriously, were now lying on the ground, being devoured by zombies.
The sounds of chewing human flesh and tearing skin came from below, almost piercingly loud on the empty street.
Lou Jiu followed Wen Qianshu’s gaze. “The search teams have probably started to take action, but it won’t be this fast.”
Wen Qianshu: “Yeah.”
Shang Ci: “They’ve already sent people to the research institute, but the outside is surrounded by zombies, so they can’t get through for the time being.”
As it turned out, their group in the training camp was actually the closest to the research institute.
Shang Ci quickly submitted an application, deciding they would go check on the research institute first.
They sprayed another layer of corpse-stench spray on themselves and called out to Wen Qianshu, “Let’s go.”
This scent could mask the smell of humans to a certain extent and numb the zombies, but if they got too close, they would still be discovered. So after taking a shortcut to approach the research institute, they only climbed up from the back and entered through the rooftop balcony, not daring to barge through the main entrance.
But soon, they discovered they had worried too much.
The research institute was filled with a bloody smell. Many remains lay on the floor, limbs hung on the backs of chairs, and blood was splattered everywhere, like a living hell. The zombies were busy feasting and had no time to distinguish the scent of living people from the smell of blood.
Lou Jiu had frequented the research institute as a child and still had some impression of its layout. The group went down the stairs, and the journey was relatively uneventful.
They had originally planned to find the surveillance room first, but unexpectedly, they saw Jiang Yin directly along the way.
The sixth floor of the research institute was a rest area, designed as a loft. The upper-level offices formed a circle, leaving a large hall in the middle. At this moment, the light-colored sofa was stained with dark blood, but there were no zombies in sight, only Jiang Yin, sitting alone on the sofa with her knees together. Her face was half-turned, she wore an oversized restraint device, and with her long eyelashes and delicate nose, she looked very quiet and graceful at first glance, completely out of place with the scene.
The few of them were hiding by the wall. Wen Qianshu: “…”
She turned and typed, showing it to Lou Jiu: “She’s been bitten.”
Lou Jiu and Shang Ci frowned, but Wen Qianshu suddenly saw a hand appear by the door behind them. The hand flashed past, and Wen Qianshu raised her gun, aiming at the door.
The person inside the door chuckled lightly and said, “Little girl, so ruthless.”
Lou Jiu also raised her gun and aimed at the door.
Shang Ci said, word by word: “Li—Shan—”
The sound was suppressed under his tongue, as if squeezed out through gritted teeth.
Li Shan, this search team captain, was very refined and handsome. He had a slender figure, single eyelids, and even had a scholarly air when he smiled. He joined the search team with Shang Ci and became a captain in the same year, but he was responsible for internal base activities for a long time. When he spoke, he was either joking or setting up the next joke.
It always made people forget that he was actually very strong.
His movements were agile and steady, almost ghostly. It was unknown how long he had been following them. If Qin Shu hadn’t discovered him, he might have been able to follow them indefinitely.
For the first time, Shang Ci was so glad they had brought Qin Shu along.
Li Shan: “Captain Shang.”
The next moment, the door was opened, and zombies poured out. Li Shan mingled among them, smiling as he looked at them.
The search team members immediately began to fight back. Shang Ci made a gesture, blew away a zombie blocking his path with a single shot, and rushed straight towards Jiang Yin.
“Don’t be in such a hurry.” Li Shan’s speed was astonishingly fast. Before several team members could react, he had already grabbed the back of Shang Ci’s neck and slammed him to the ground from behind. “Wait for me.”
However, Wen Qianshu leaped from the side and ran quickly towards Jiang Yin below.
Li Shan raised his hand to block her, but then abruptly pulled it back. Lou Jiu’s bullet almost grazed his arm and hit the ground.
Li Shan: “Doctor Lou, there’s no need for this, is there?”
Shang Ci, however, took the opportunity to flip over. Li Shan raised his leg to wrap around his waist, and Shang Ci used this position to slam him hard, crashing his entire body against the wall, and said fiercely, “Your opponent is me.”
Li Shan and Shang Ci were soon locked in a struggle, neither able to overpower the other. And Li Shan understood his situation; most of his movements were in close combat with Shang Ci, so Lou Jiu couldn’t get a clear shot.
Lou Jiu turned swiftly, chasing after Wen Qianshu while shooting the zombies around her.
These zombies were like madmen. Under Jiang Yin’s control, they frantically pounced on the search team. Like human walls, they came one after another.
The smell of blood, the stench of rotting zombies.
Li Shan and Shang Ci fought, the dull thuds of fists hitting flesh, the gunshots and curses of the search team members, the shrieks of the zombies.
Wen Qianshu broke through the siege amidst this chaos. Under Lou Jiu’s cover, she was like a sharp knife cutting through, grabbing two zombies by the waist and taking them with her as she crashed through the railing.
“Bang.”
They fell to the floor below together, hitting a table and then rolling onto the ground.
With two zombies to cushion her fall, Wen Qianshu was only a little dizzy. She staggered to her feet, learned her lesson from last time, raised her gun, and without waiting for Jiang Yin to speak, fired a shot at the space between her eyebrows.
It’s over, it has to be over now—
Wen Qianshu thought, panting.
She didn’t care how much information they wanted to get from Jiang Yin, nor did she care what secrets she was hiding.
She had to kill Jiang Yin, she couldn’t let Jiang Yao perish with her. She had to complete this mission, she absolutely had to repair this world line—
It has to be over now—
The bullet flew out, grazed past Jiang Yin’s ear and over her shoulder, and hit the wall behind her with a “swish.”
Wen Qianshu was stunned.
Jiang Yin had dodged her shot.
She didn’t make any big movements, just slightly tilted her body and stood up.
Just—
Stood up.
Jiang Yin smiled, her voice pleasant. Her eyes looked over, like the deepest, darkest night.
She said: “It’s you.”
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