Chapter 9
“I’m the one whose minefield you morons just stepped on.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Shen Zhuo’s reaction was nothing short of electric. In an instant, he drew his gun and fired, splattering fluids from several hands. Simultaneously, he kicked the car door open and rolled out of the vehicle.
It was a scene straight out of a nightmare.
On the empty bridge, dozens of living corpses, swollen as if they had been soaked in water, had appeared out of nowhere. Their bodies were covered in cracks, and from within these fissures, countless small eyeballs squirmed and rolled. Even the skin on their faces was stretched to bursting by dozens, even hundreds, of eyeballs, making their features completely unrecognizable.
Was this a biochemical experiment or some kind of special ability?
There was no time for further thought; the living corpses were already lunging!
Anyone else would have been scared witless by such a scene, but Shen Zhuo’s hand was perfectly steady. Bang! Bang! One shot per target until the clip was empty. He then reversed his grip and brought the butt of the gun down, smashing a living corpse’s skull. He sidestepped the spray of black blood and, in one smooth motion, kicked another corpse from behind off the bridge.
More living corpses dragged their feet and leaped forward. Shen Zhuo retreated rapidly, one hand reaching into his suit jacket, his fingers finding a cold, metal syringe in the inner pocket.
“…The human body’s capacity has its limits. There will inevitably be a price for mocking the god of evolution…” a grave warning echoed in his ear again.
“There is no drug in this world that is completely without side effects, Supervisor Shen. The price is only a matter of time.”
Shen Zhuo narrowed his eyes, released the syringe in his palm, and with a flick of his wrist, a folding knife slid out from his sleeve. With a squelch, he plunged it into the throat of the living corpse before him!
Black blood spurted out. A second living corpse followed close behind, but Shen Zhuo sidestepped and threw it over his shoulder, smashing it into a third. The two fell from the bridge in a tangled heap. A fourth living corpse grabbed Shen Zhuo’s hand and tried to bite, but he kicked it hard in the chest, sending it flying several meters. At the same time, with a lightning-fast backhand slash, he gutted a corpse that was trying to ambush him from behind. Rotten entrails spilled across the ground.
Cold, swift, and brutally efficient.
Not a single strike was wasted, not a single movement was superfluous.
Just then, with the crash of shattering glass, a living corpse knelt by the overturned car, pulled out the unconscious driver, Luo Zhen, and opened its gaping mouth wide as it bent over him—
A throwing knife spun through the air with lightning speed, piercing the back of the living corpse’s head.
The countless small eyeballs on the corpse’s face burst, splattering Luo Zhen with fluid.
With his knife gone, a horde of living corpses immediately swarmed Shen Zhuo. He retreated several steps, quickly found the weakest point in their encirclement, and leaped onto the wall. Pushing off it, he spun in mid-air with unparalleled speed, bringing his knee up to shatter the face of an oncoming corpse. Its brain matter instantly exploded.
“Hah, hah—”
Shen Zhuo landed beside the overturned car as the horde of corpses turned and swarmed toward him. He raised one arm to defend himself and it was immediately bitten by another living corpse, blood instantly soaking his sleeve. But as if he couldn’t feel the pain, he used his other hand’s fingerprint to open the car’s trunk.
Then, he single-handedly pulled a submachine gun from the trunk, aimed it at the head of a living corpse, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The living corpse’s head exploded. Muzzle flashes flared wildly as a torrential storm of bullets ripped the encirclement to shreds.
Tens of thousands of small eyeballs burst into the air, and swollen, severed limbs rained down on the ground. In an instant, the horde of living corpses was wiped out!
The gunfire stopped, and the thick stench of blood washed over him.
Only mutilated, rotting corpses remained on the bridge. Shen Zhuo casually tossed aside the empty submachine gun, turned, and walked to the car, patting the driver’s face. “Luo Zhen?”
Luo Zhen’s head and face were covered in blood, a part of his skull clearly caved in. If not for his D-class evolution, he would have been dead. It took several hard pats before he groggily opened his eyes. He tried to call out “Supervisor,” but only a large gush of hot blood spilled from his mouth.
This official car had special safety designs; a level-one alert would have been sent out the moment of impact. The Supervision Office’s backup had to be speeding toward them now, but the crisis was not over.
Shen Zhuo turned his head to look at the military airfield in the distance, then hauled Luo Zhen to his feet and started walking toward the other side of the overpass.
“…Let… go… don’t…” Luo Zhen struggled weakly, his voice broken and unintelligible.
“I… can’t control it… quick, let…”
Luo Zhen’s struggles intensified, as if he were desperately trying to convey some despairing warning, but blood had already clogged his throat. No one but himself could understand him.
Shen Zhuo pulled out his phone and dialed a number. The call connected almost instantly, and an urgent but calm operator’s voice came through. “Hello, Supervisor. The security system has received the impact alert. The emergency response team is on its way and is currently 5 minutes and 20 seconds from your position…”
“Level-two biochemical contamination. Suspect a mutation-type evolutionist has infiltrated, at least B- to A-class,” Shen Zhuo interrupted with a frown. “Lock down the roads near the military airfield. Prohibit civilian vehicles from entering.”
“Yes, sir! Do you require medical resources?”
With a sickening squelch of flesh being pierced, Shen Zhuo’s words came to an abrupt halt.
The phone clattered to the ground, but he didn’t reach for it. He gasped and looked down to see the blood-drenched tip of a blade protruding from his own abdomen.
“…Heh… heh…” Strange gurgling sounds came from the muscles in Luo Zhen’s throat. His whole body was swollen, his eyes glazed over like a controlled, stiff puppet. With a sudden burst of strength, he yanked his hand back, and blood shot up like an arrow.
Thud.
Shen Zhuo staggered and fell to his knees, his abdomen pierced through. A pool of blood instantly formed beneath him.
He gritted his teeth and looked up to see large patches of skin on Luo Zhen’s arm cracking open. From the fissures, numerous swollen bumps were eagerly emerging—they were small, rolling eyeballs. The fluid from the living corpse’s eyes had splattered onto his arm earlier.
He had been assimilated.
“…Supervisor… quick… go…”
Luo Zhen forced out these few words with the last shred of his consciousness. Immediately after, the infection on his arm spread, robbing him of his last bit of sanity. He rose to his feet and lunged at Shen Zhuo, just like the living corpses before.
It all happened in a flash.
Shen Zhuo pressed one hand tightly against the gushing wound, so hard that the veins on the back of his hand bulged. With his other hand, he quickly fumbled behind him and yanked the dagger he had thrown earlier from the back of the living corpse’s head.
The next moment, Luo Zhen was upon him.
Shen Zhuo’s hand moved like lightning, and with a single slash, he severed Luo Zhen’s infected arm!
The arm flew in an arc, and the severed limb hit the ground with a smack. Black blood spewed wildly!
With the infected limb detached, the thread controlling Luo Zhen’s mind seemed to have been cut as well. He froze in place, staggered half a step back and forth, and the dazed look in his eyes cleared.
Then he sprayed out a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground, screaming and clutching his severed arm.
Shen Zhuo gasped for breath, threw the knife to the ground with a clang, his blood-soaked face a startling, cold pallor. He reached into his coat and grasped the metal syringe.
—Just then, in the air behind him.
Clap, clap, clap. A slow, deliberate applause sounded, followed by an admiring voice: “As expected of the Shenhai City Supervisor. Truly magnificent.”
Shen Zhuo whipped his head around.
A man’s figure stood atop a tall lamppost. He had narrow eyes, a square face, and a sinister gaze. His mocking expression was identical to the wanted portrait on the tablet from before.
“…” Shen Zhuo’s pupils constricted. He recognized who this was—Liu Sanji.
But none of it made sense. Liu Sanji was just a low-level D-class evolutionist. He couldn’t possibly have such a powerful biochemical ability to infect and control living corpses. What had happened?
Had he undergone a second evolution?
“Don’t look at me like that, Supervisor Shen. I had no quarrel with you, but someone wants you dead, and I can’t do anything about it.” Liu Sanji looked Shen Zhuo up and down, then smiled maliciously, his mouth splitting into a grin. “Come with me, Chief Supervisor.”
Snap! He snapped his fingers.
A rustling sound came from behind. Shen Zhuo turned abruptly to see the dismembered living corpses on the ground actually begin to writhe and move on their own—
“Hello? Hello?” Bai Sheng stared at his phone in disbelief. “He hung up?”
The Koenigsegg sped through the night. In the passenger seat, Yue Yang rested his forehead in his hand, an indescribable expression in his eyes.
Bai Sheng seemed to find it hard to believe that anyone in the world could bear to refuse a roasted lamb leg he had personally made. After a moment’s thought, he finally figured it out and proactively gave Shen Zhuo an out. “Supervisor Shen is great at everything, he just doesn’t like to trouble others. I could have easily dropped you off and then gone back to give him the lamb leg. It’s no trouble at all.”
Yue Yang said, “…Actually, you don’t need to specifically take me to the airport.”
Bai Sheng was exceptionally considerate. “It’s fine, Director Yue. It’s my fault for keeping you chatting so late. It’s my responsibility to get you to your private jet on time!”
Yue Yang said, “…Actually, you don’t need to specifically take on that responsibility either.”
Bai Sheng was truly the first person in history to drive a supercar on the highway like this. If Yue Yang hadn’t been an A-class evolutionist, the terrifying suspension would have made him vomit up his stomach when they flew diagonally over the first speed bump.
“I should still take the lamb to Supervisor Shen later,” Bai Sheng said cheerfully as he took a corner single-handedly. “I’m his future subordinate. Caring for my superior’s health is what I ought to do. How can I back down just because of one refusal?”
“…”
Yue Yang thought to himself, You should back down. You can’t be his future subordinate. In a couple of days, he’s going to expel you from Shenhai…
Just then, Yue Yang’s phone rang. He saw it was Chen Miao and answered. “Hello?”
“Yue-ge, are you on the plane already?”
The ten permanent supervisors of the United Nations were a rank above ordinary district supervisors. Yue Yang and Shen Zhuo held the only two seats for Asia and were theoretically of equal rank. But B City’s administrative level was higher than Shenhai City’s, so Yue Yang was effectively half a rank higher than Shen Zhuo. For Chen Miao, as Shen Zhuo’s personal deputy, to call the head of the Central Supervision Office “Ge” so casually, there must have been a private connection.
But Bai Sheng was sharper than a ghost. He just glanced over with a smile in his eyes and asked nothing.
Yue Yang said, “No, I’m on my way to the military airfield. What’s wrong?”
Chen Miao’s voice was urgent. “Something’s happened to Senior.”
Yue Yang’s expression changed slightly.
“Senior was supposed to fly to the military district tonight, but his car suddenly overturned on the overpass. Afterward, both Senior and the driver lost contact. It’s highly likely they encountered another accident after the crash…”
Yue Yang cut him off sternly. “I’m heading over now. What’s the specific location?”
From the clamor on the other end of the phone, Chen Miao was also in a speeding vehicle. “—Someone send me the coordinates of the crash site! Immediately!”
With a screech of tires, the Koenigsegg stopped on the side of the highway with its hazard lights flashing.
Bai Sheng jutted his chin forward and smiled. “Isn’t that the overpass right there?”
Yue Yang, still holding the phone, looked up and saw an overpass spanning the night in the distance. A road sign clearly read—Military Airfield, 5 kilometers ahead.
Bai Sheng calmly unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.
Yue Yang was stunned. “Where are you going?”
The car door slammed shut. Bai Sheng leaned his head in through the window and earnestly advised, “This car costs twenty-six million on the road. Don’t drive it into a ditch for me.”
Yue Yang: “…”
Yue Yang’s feelings at that moment were simply indescribable. He watched, wide-eyed, as Bai Sheng took half a step back and then suddenly launched himself backward—
Swoosh!
On the overpass, the dismembered living corpses had writhed together to form a new, humanoid monster. It was deformed and grotesque, nearly three meters tall. Its ribs, still attached to membranes of flesh, folded out from its back and spread, forming a pair of bloody, terrifying “wings.”
Liu Sanji smiled. “Be careful now. Don’t hurt our Supervisor Shen again.”
The monster opened its mouth, and the sound of countless small eyeballs grinding against each other came from its throat. It suddenly shot forward like a bolt of lightning, its rotten claws grabbing Shen Zhuo’s left wrist. Then, with a great flap of its wings, it dragged Shen Zhuo off the overpass!
The night wind instantly howled past. Shen Zhuo was completely suspended in mid-air, blood gushing from his abdomen and raining down on the ground. The rapid blood loss caused his body temperature to plummet, but his captured left hand could barely struggle. The humanoid monster continued to flap its gruesome wings.
Where on earth was it taking him?
In the current situation, a solo infiltration was clearly out of the question. Shen Zhuo took a ragged breath and finally pulled the metal syringe from inside his coat. A small letter, ‘A’, was branded on the metal cap.
He bit off the metal cap with his teeth, revealing the needle. He brought it back toward the inside of his left wrist, and just as he was about to plunge it in—
At that very moment.
A figure leaped from the distance. He was moving so fast that he seemed to flash into existence at the top of the overpass. His tall, slender figure looked down from above, silhouetted against a huge crescent moon.
It was Bai Sheng.
Liu Sanji blurted out, “Who are you?!”
Bai Sheng had his hands in his pockets. He looked down and his eyes met Shen Zhuo’s, who was suspended in mid-air, drenched in blood. He raised an eyebrow in surprise, then chuckled.
“Who hurt you so badly, Supervisor?”
The man’s tone was flippant and improper, but for some reason, the moment he appeared, a terrifyingly powerful pressure washed over them, causing Liu Sanji’s pupils to shrink in an instant. A primal fear shot from his bone marrow straight to his brain.
Without a second thought, Liu Sanji desperately tried to make the first move, but he only saw Bai Sheng’s foot slide diagonally along the railing, and he leaped into the air—
Boom!
A large section of the highway collapsed.
Rubble shot into the sky, and the shockwave lingered for a long time.
Shen Zhuo gasped and opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Bai Sheng’s sharp jawline.
“…”
He turned his head and glanced down.
He was being held horizontally in Bai Sheng’s arms. The humanoid monster was pinned under Bai Sheng’s foot, the terrible impact having completely embedded it in the asphalt. A ring of cracks radiated outward across the highway, with large chunks of rubble overturned, extending more than twenty meters away.
Dust and smoke lingered in the air.
Police sirens wailed from all directions, growing closer. A dozen vehicles from the Supervision Office screeched to a halt, and Chen Miao, fully armed, led his men out of the cars. “Senior!”
Bai Sheng looked down at Shen Zhuo, a hint of amusement seeming to dance in his eyes, but his voice was unexpectedly deep and gentle. “Sleep. It’s over now.”
—Those few words carried a certain irresistible power.
Shen Zhuo opened his mouth, wanting to give him some final instructions, but then darkness descended, and his consciousness slowly sank into the abyss.
The air under the overpass fell silent. Even the lingering dust seemed to freeze in place. Bai Sheng gazed down at Shen Zhuo for a moment, then looked up at Liu Sanji on the overpass and asked with a smile:
“You don’t know who I am?”
Liu Sanji tensed up and took half a step back. “You—”
All the streetlights went out without warning. The world was plunged into darkness, and only the high-voltage power lines on both sides of the highway exploded with a “snap!” of lightning. Electrical currents from all directions rapidly converged at Bai Sheng’s side, growing larger and more dazzling, finally forming a terrifyingly massive ball of high-voltage lightning. It illuminated Bai Sheng’s eyes, which were filled with a bone-chilling smile.
“An evolutionist, murdering the Shenhai City Supervisor on Shenhai’s turf?”
“I’m the one whose minefield you morons just stepped on.”
The next moment.
Before Liu Sanji’s horrified eyes, a violent current surged toward him like a tsunami, instantly illuminating his deathly pale face—
I wonder if those eye masses are actual people, hmmmm anyway, thank you for translating uwu
Yess that’s what I was wondering too! Or is the zombies are actual people as well or if he can summon them by will