When Li Feng returned to the meeting room, the only team that had managed to keep up with the symbiont had once again been left behind, losing three soldiers and causing collateral damage to dozens of inner-city residents.
He took off his jacket, rolled up the sleeves of his pajamas, and leaned on the table, looking around at the people present. The pressure was so overwhelming that he could barely keep his eyes open, feeling like he could fall asleep on the spot.
“Any new updates?” Minister Liu asked.
Li Feng struggled to wake up from his drowsiness, motioned to Curator Wu, who knew him well enough to hand him two small pills. Curator Wu then explained to everyone, “Just some stimulants.”
“Director Li, you’ve worked hard,” Colonel Xu said.
“Not dead yet,” Li Feng said, chewing the pills and looking up at everyone. “Let’s release Lin Sheng.”
The meeting room fell into dead silence. Without Zhang Qifeng there to curse first, Li Feng felt somewhat uneasy.
“Why?” Colonel Xu asked after a while. “Is it related to that phone call just now?”
“The call was from Qiu Shi,” Li Feng said. “Donglin Town was attacked by symbionts, on a larger scale than here. Xing Bi suggests we let Lin Sheng out.”
“Xing Bi?” Minister Liu frowned in thought. “Can we trust him?”
“More than me,” Li Feng said. “They’ve already had a round of fighting with symbionts. Xing Bi himself is also a symbiont, so I hope everyone seriously considers his words.”
“Just Lin Sheng alone?” Curator Wu asked. “Don’t we need someone to kite him?”
“Xing Bi said he’s enough. We can’t find anyone suitable for kiting anyway,” Li Feng said. “If we place some restrictions on Lin Sheng, can we make it work?”
Curator Wu hesitated, looking at Colonel Xu and Minister Liu.
“We don’t have time,” Li Feng pointed at the moving dots on the screen. “Isn’t it obvious what they’re trying to do? They’re looking for the General and Mr. Long.”
Everyone knew this deep down, but as long as it wasn’t said out loud, there was some room for maneuver in decision-making. Li Feng’s straightforwardness left no room for retreat if things went wrong.
“Can we let Lin Sheng act alone?” Colonel Xu asked Curator Wu.
“Short-term control like with Xing Bi last time requires preparation,” Curator Wu said, tapping his chin quickly with his finger. “It might be too late…”
“Inject a limiter into his neck,” Li Feng said decisively. “Set the range to the inner city. If he exceeds it, he’ll be blown up.”
Curator Wu looked at him. “If something unexpected happens during the chase, there will be no turning back.”
“If he can’t strictly follow the mission parameters, it means he’s uncontrollable,” Li Feng said. “If he’s unusable, we destroy him.”
Everyone fell silent again.
Li Feng felt he might be sleep-deprived and was speaking a bit too harshly, so he added, “We all think Xing Bi is more uncontrollable, but so far, he’s far away from us and still controllable. Let’s be decisive, humans.”
The journey from the Emergency Affairs Bureau to the Exhibition Hall wasn’t far, but the road was chaotic.
Half of the checkpoint personnel had been sent to various explosion sites, so bold outer city residents had rushed into the inner city, treating life and death as an eventuality and looting freely to vent their emotions.
Among the small conspiracy group, Li Feng was the youngest and merely a junior director. His car led the way.
The car was pelted with stones and mud, and finally, a few refugees jumped onto the hood, hitting the windshield with some kind of metal object, making a loud noise. The secretary in the backseat was too scared to make a sound.
“Roll down the windows,” Li Feng said to the two City Defense guards in the car. “Shoot anyone blocking the way.”
The two guards opened the windows, leaned out with their guns, fired a few shots into the sky, and then began clearing the outer city refugees trying to climb on.
Although he knew Zhao Lü’s group wouldn’t get involved in this, Li Feng instinctively scrutinized every outer city person he passed. If any undertaker went crazy and got injured in the inner city, Qiu Shi would kill him.
Although Qiu Shi might not even return.
When the car pulled into the underground parking of the Exhibition Hall, the people getting out of the following cars all looked grim. Seven Symbionts and a group of infected could turn the inner city into chaos.
“Our residents have been too comfortable for too long,” Colonel Xu said.
“And so has our military,” Li Feng replied.
“Come on,” Curator Wu raised his voice to cover Li Feng’s words, “Let’s go to the emergency transport pod. The power is independent and safer.”
Curator Wu glared at Li Feng as they walked into the pod.
Li Feng sighed.
He didn’t understand why these people weren’t more urgent. The situation was dire, yet they insisted on maintaining their leadership demeanor.
The laboratory staff had already moved Lin Sheng into the glass chamber, just like with Xing Bi before. Everything was ready, just waiting for the control device injection.
Curator Wu disabled the shield on the chamber, making Lin Sheng visible and audible.
“Lin Sheng,” Curator Wu said, “how are you feeling?”
“Okay,” Lin Sheng replied, lightly moving his neck, his eyes scanning the faces in the lab.
“We need you to complete an emergency mission,” Curator Wu said, holding up the injection device. “The specific requirements will be synchronized with you during the preparation.”
“Alright,” Lin Sheng replied.
Li Feng watched him, not wanting to compare him to Xing Bi, but Lin Sheng was their only activated Level One Hidden Guard besides Xing Bi, so comparisons were inevitable.
Lin Sheng lacked the obvious emotions of Xing Bi. His expression and gaze were much colder, and unlike Xing Bi’s taciturn coldness, Lin Sheng’s was genuine, with almost no physical movement.
“We will now inject a control device into the back of your neck,” Curator Wu said.
The lab staff entered the chamber and injected the control device into the back of Lin Sheng’s neck.
“This is a range controller,” Curator Wu explained. “The range is the inner city area. You have a clear understanding of this area, correct?”
“Yes,” Lin Sheng replied.
“The mission objective is to clear out the symbionts that have invaded the inner city. There are currently seven of them,” Curator Wu said. “If additional targets appear before the mission is completed, they will be added to your objective. The mission ends when all targets are cleared. Understood?”
“Understood,” Lin Sheng replied.
“Director Li, any additional comments?” Curator Wu glanced at Li Feng.
“If a mission target leaves the inner city area, abandon the target,” Li Feng said. “During the mission, ensure the safety of Mr. Long and the General. You may eliminate anyone who could potentially interfere with the mission or pose a threat to Mr. Long, the General, or yourself.”
Everyone in the room looked at him.
“Complete the mission as quickly as possible without damaging inner city facilities,” Li Feng continued. “Also, do not attempt to control the opposing symbionts; just eliminate them. We will be monitoring your physical feedback data in real-time. If we detect any intent to control…”
He walked to the activation device for the controller. “We will activate the controller. Understand?”
Lin Sheng looked at him. “Understood.”
Zhang Qifeng’s car followed the military transport vehicle to the exhibition hall. Watching Lin Sheng’s transfer box being loaded onto the transport vehicle, he turned to Li Feng. “Director Li, you…”
“I’ll ride with you,” Li Feng said, opening the car door and getting into Zhang Qifeng’s car. “We can talk in the car.”
Zhang Qifeng had no choice but to return to the car and instruct the driver to follow the transport vehicle ahead.
“You’re crazy,” Zhang Qifeng said.
“Tell your men to stay away from the target symbionts,” Li Feng said. “Lin Sheng has orders to eliminate anyone he deems interfering with his mission, including military and city defense personnel.”
If Zhang Qifeng weren’t in a hurry to notify his deployed teams, he might have punched Li Feng right then.
After informing his men to withdraw from the target area, Zhang Qifeng turned to glare at Li Feng. “You…”
“Datou is staying home today, right?” Li Feng said. “If he goes out to shoot videos, it could be very dangerous.”
Zhang Qifeng held back his anger, knowing that if Li Feng hadn’t forcibly sent Zhang Sihai home, he might have been blown to bits with the refugees in the sewer.
“I’ll repay the favor,” Zhang Qifeng said.
“Keep it,” Li Feng replied. “I like having people owe me.”
The convoy stopped near the target mountain. Li Feng got out of the car and watched Lin Sheng emerge from the transfer box. He paused for a few seconds and then performed the same action as Xing Bi once did.
He looked up at the sky.
“Move out,” Curator Wu’s voice came through the earpiece.
Lin Sheng ran up the mountain path opposite.
Three refugees, carrying bags full of looted goods, ran toward him from the front, holding iron rods still stained with blood.
“Damn it,” Zhang Qifeng cursed, drawing his gun.
The refugee in front, apparently excited from looting, screamed and swung his iron rod at Lin Sheng’s head.
Lin Sheng didn’t stop. He raised his hand, caught the iron rod, and with a pull and a push, drove it through the attacker’s mouth and out the back of his head.
The force of Lin Sheng’s push was so great that it didn’t stop after piercing one head but went on to impale the second person.
The last refugee, shocked by the scene, screamed and fell to the ground. His two companions stood still for a few seconds before collapsing at his feet.
Lin Sheng had already disappeared at the end of the path.
–
The battle in Donglin Town was over.
It was actually very brief, just over an hour, with losses on both sides.
However, as Qiu Shi and his team drove through the most intense battlefield, they found that the corpses on the ground were mostly human.
Apart from a few in the forest who were shot in the neck by Qiu Shi and damaged by Xing Bi, both sides tried to recover their bio-mechs as much as possible. In the chaos of artillery and gunfire, accurately hitting the neck wasn’t easy, and bringing them back allowed for reuse.
Thinking about this made Qiu Shi very uncomfortable.
“Can those bioroid corpses be revived after being brought back?” Hu Xiaoling asked.
“As long as their cubic brains aren’t violently destroyed while connected to the body, they can,” Xing Bi said. “The body can’t have too much damage either; it’s hard to repair.”
“Cubic brains?” Hu Xiaoling was puzzled.
“The central system; bio-mechanical functions rely on the thing at the back of the neck,” Qiu Shi explained.
“Really!” Hu Xiaoling curiously leaned over to look at the back of Xing Bi’s neck.
“Can you,” Qiu Shi pushed him away, “act like an injured person?”
“This half of my body is numb,” Hu Xiaoling said. “I need to distract myself, or it’ll hurt.”
“I can knock you out,” Xing Bi offered.
“…No thanks,” Hu Xiaoling retreated to his seat.
The outskirts of Donglin Town were severely damaged, with some houses completely collapsed.
But what caught Qiu Shi’s attention was the residents here. Unlike those in Yun City, they didn’t cry or daze. They had already started rebuilding almost immediately after the battle ended.
“Letting them fight symbionts was the right call,” Qiu Shi said. “This town isn’t like Yun City; it’s a town’s army.”
“Good thing this town is small,” Hu Xiaoling said. “If it were bigger, Yun City wouldn’t stand a chance.”
“It’s not small,” Xing Bi said.
“It’s still a lot smaller than Yun City, which consists of several linked mines,” Hu Xiaoling said.
“They have tunnels,” Qiu Shi said, looking at a house that had been blown apart. In the center of the debris of rocks and wood, a hole could be seen.
“How do you know?” Hu Xiaoling asked.
“I’m guessing,” Qiu Shi didn’t elaborate. He didn’t want Hu Xiaoling to dig too much into Donglin Town’s affairs. A corpse collector living outside the city shouldn’t have any stance.
Besides, Donglin Town was no longer the haven for humans rejecting bioroids like Yun City used to be. Most of the original residents who couldn’t fight had already been replaced by the new bioroids and immune human forces.
When they returned to the area beneath Qiu Shi’s treehouse, Hu Xiaoling asked, “Can we drive this car back to Yun City?”
“How did you cross the river when they brought you here?” Qiu Shi asked.
“By boat,” Hu Xiaoling said. “The boat is hidden in the mountains, in a cave, and it’s brought out on tracks when needed…”
Halfway through, he suddenly realized, “But you wouldn’t know about that. How did you cross the river?”
Qiu Shi glanced at Xing Bi.
“We flew over,” Xing Bi said.
“Flew?” Hu Xiaoling was taken aback, then understood. “I saw them on the way! A group of bird-men flying in the sky! They attacked their car. You guys are amazing, flying across such a wide river!”
“Yes,” Xing Bi nodded.
“So, how do we use their boat to get back?” Qiu Shi quickly changed the subject, as Xing Bi might tell Hu Xiaoling about using his body as a skipping stone.
“There’s a crank on this side of the river,” Hu Xiaoling said. “It controls the tracks to extend out, pulling the boat over.”
“Can you find the crossing spot again?” Qiu Shi asked.
“I can,” Hu Xiaoling said. “I made sure to note its location.”
“Reliable,” Qiu Shi patted him on the shoulder.
“Even though I didn’t want you to rescue me,” Hu Xiaoling said, “we all know that if something happened, you wouldn’t just leave me.”
Qiu Shi smiled.
There was no one around the treehouse; everyone seemed to be busy with post-battle reconstruction, leaving them alone.
But Qiu Shi could still feel eyes on them. Halfway up the stairs, Xing Bi said from behind him, “Someone’s in the house.”
Before Qiu Shi could respond, Xing Bi moved to the front.
However, when he opened the door, there was only one person inside, and he was human.
The person had been leaning by the window. Hearing someone enter, he turned and said, “Sorry, the wind outside was too strong, so I came in.”
Xing Bi didn’t speak, just turned to look at Qiu Shi.
Seeing the person’s face, Qiu Shi understood why Xing Bi looked at him.
They really looked alike.
“Holy crap,” Hu Xiaoling whispered from behind, “is that your brother?”
“My name is Qiu Yu. I came quietly. There was no plan for us to meet yet,” the person by the window came over and stood in front of Qiu Shi. “Mayor Luo and great-grandmother should have told you about me.”
“They… mentioned it,” Qiu Shi looked at him, feeling strange.
Xing Bi had said that theoretically, if they wanted to keep him, they wouldn’t fake something so easy to verify. But seeing someone who looked so much like him still felt strange.
Very similar, but thinner, with paler skin, looking like someone who had lived comfortably in the inner city.
Maybe it was because he had always been alone, with no so-called relatives, only close to the other corpse collectors. Seeing someone who was almost certainly his biological brother, he couldn’t understand his own feelings.
No joy, and no particular closeness.
When Qiu Yu tried to hug him, he instinctively raised his hand to block. “Don’t.”
Qiu Yu smiled and stepped back.
“I’m not used to it,” Qiu Shi said.
“Can we…” Qiu Yu glanced at Xing Bi and Hu Xiaoling, “talk alone?”
This seemingly non-combative brother’s request seemed to have no reason to refuse.
“Can you two wait outside for a bit?” Qiu Shi also looked at Xing Bi and Hu Xiaoling.
“Sure,” Hu Xiaoling agreed, but didn’t leave immediately. He walked up to Qiu Yu, “Sorry, just a check.”
Qiu Yu cooperatively raised his arms as Hu Xiaoling patted him down from top to bottom, then followed Xing Bi outside.
“Just say what you need to,” Qiu Shi closed the door behind him. “No need for brotherly sentiments. I don’t feel anything for that.”
“No one knows where you were taken,” Qiu Yu leaned against the table, looking at him. “Our people have been looking for you, hiding and searching.”
“Why look for me?” Qiu Shi said. “In this chaotic world, losing a kid isn’t a big deal.”
“People immune to infection have a better chance of survival in this world,” Qiu Yu said. “We don’t want to give up on this world. We want more immune humans together, even one more is like a big family, just trying to survive better.”
Qiu Shi didn’t respond.
“Father and Mother led everyone, trying to create a safe haven for everyone, free from endless fighting and fleeing, never having to watch loved ones die again, but…”
“They’re dead. As their son, you can continue to be the leader,” Qiu Shi interrupted. “With the effort to find me, you could do anything.”
Qiu Yu looked at him and smiled. “You really are… a bit cold-hearted.”
“I never lived in that haven,” Qiu Shi said. “Never expected anyone to create one for me, and I have no grand vision of creating a haven for anyone.”
The light in Qiu Yu’s eyes dimmed, and he turned his head slightly.
Qiu Shi saw tears in his eyes.
“You can give it a try. You are their son too,” Qiu Shi said.
“I’m not… strong enough,” Qiu Yu’s voice lowered. “I was sick when I was a child. Everyone thought I would die. Though I didn’t, my body has never been well. In this world, someone like me would be eliminated, so they need you.”
Qiu Shi didn’t say anything, just frowned.
“You are the perfect continuation of Mom and Dad. As for me,” Qiu Yu sighed, touching the back of his neck, “even with enhancements, I’m still…”
“Enhancements?” Qiu Shi watched his movement, recalling the small group on the opposite shore who had tied him and Xing Bi up. Several of the humans had that small block on the back of their necks.
“Yes,” Qiu Yu nodded. “We need to coexist with bioroids, and in this environment, we need stronger abilities.”
“Are you crazy?” Qiu Shi couldn’t understand.
“Maybe,” Qiu Yu smiled. “I know that even with these enhancements, I can’t be as strong as you. But… I still want to do something for everyone, even just a little…”
Qiu Yu’s voice trembled, and he spoke with difficulty, “I’ve even thought that if you were as weak as I am… at least then I wouldn’t be the worst, the only one not expected to do anything… But I also hope everyone can be well and that there is a strong person among us…”
Qiu Shi didn’t know what to say. Qiu Yu’s words made him uncomfortable. He understood that feeling of wanting to prove yourself, wanting to do something for others, but being unable to, and having no one believe you could.
He hesitated and slowly walked up to Qiu Yu. He had rejected Qiu Yu’s hug earlier, which might have been another form of rejection.
He opened his arms and gently hugged Qiu Yu.
“So, I hope,” Qiu Yu looked up at him, his hand moving, “that person isn’t you.”
Qiu Shi didn’t react immediately.
But Qiu Yu’s abnormal raising of his arm made Qiu Shi react quickly.
He grabbed Qiu Yu’s wrist.
But he still felt pain in his chest.
The knife in Qiu Yu’s hand was already halfway into his body, the tip angled upwards, entering from the left rib.
