Chen Dang’s words didn’t fully convince Qiu Shi; everyone in Donglin Town seemed less reliable than Li Feng, including the ordinary residents.
But the successive explosions in the jungle were credible, as was the rapidly spreading smell of gunpowder carried by the wind.
Donglin was under siege, and whoever the attackers were, they were dangerous at this moment.
“Turn off that damned jammer of yours,” Qiu Shi said.
“That…” Chen Dang hadn’t finished speaking when another explosion occurred.
Qiu Shi saw some chaotic sparkles before a map appeared in front of him. Small flashing numbers indicated that the map was continuously collecting and updating environmental information.
“Forget it, no need to turn it off. Your jamming system has already been bombed,” Qiu Shi said, putting on his headset. He then hopped onto the staircase railing, slid down a few loops, and jumped off.
Xing Bi followed suit and jumped down.
Hu Xiaoling mimicked Qiu Shi’s sliding method, breaking the railing just before reaching the bottom, but landed successfully.
“Follow me,” Qiu Shi said.
“Okay.” Hu Xiaoling raised his gun.
Chen Dang slid down a rope: “The west side is weak in defense.”
“We’ll go east,” Qiu Shi said.
“Find a way to go around them,” Xing Bi said, “Get behind them.”
“Thanks.” Chen Dang glanced at them, then jumped onto a passing vehicle. He took a box of weapons from it and threw it beside them before heading towards the most heavily bombed area.
“Damn!” Hu Xiaoling knelt down as he opened the box and began strapping on the equipment. “Can we take these back to Yun City? Captain Zhao would go crazy!”
“Watch the weight,” Qiu Shi warned as he selected a gun and a few grenades. They were going for a sneak attack; too many weapons would be a burden.
Xing Bi indeed headed east. Qiu Shi didn’t know how he determined that going east would get them behind the attackers, but he didn’t ask, just followed.
As they passed through the town, they saw that the residents were fully armed and systematically dispersing in all directions, with none running randomly.
“Damn,” Hu Xiaoling said, “What kind of town is this? Ordinary residents have skills above our city defense department.”
The map showed a gap formed by a fallen old tree ahead. Climbing over the wall and jumping out from there would lead them into the forest.
Qiu Shi reported the coordinates: “There are two bioroids outside.”
“How do you know?” Hu Xiaoling asked in shock.
“From Donglin,” Xing Bi said, “Not symbionts.”
“Even that can be identified?” Hu Xiaoling asked again, shocked.
Xing Bi had already climbed onto the wall and asked, “Can you get up here?”
Qiu Shi ran a few steps and used the momentum to climb up.
“You asking me? Sure.” Hu Xiaoling, though not slow, was a bit surprised. Being a corpse collector, he was used to living outside the city where barriers and mountain ridges were common. Climbing was a basic skill.
After they climbed over the wall, the light from the town’s torches vanished, plunging the surroundings into darkness. Under the huge and dense canopy, neither moonlight nor starlight could penetrate.
Two bioroids from Donglin, perched on the trees, heard their movements and tapped their boots.
Xing Bi tapped the tree trunk twice in response, and the sounds from above ceased.
“What kind of signal is this?” Hu Xiaoling whispered, “Is it exclusive to the bioroids?”
“Yes,” Xing Bi replied, “Shut him up.”
Qiu Shi smacked Hu Xiaoling on the head, “Shut up and follow closely.”
There was no fighting in this part of the jungle, probably because the terrain was too complex. Although there were no rocks and mud like in the dense forests of Yun City, the thick, tangled roots protruding from the ground made it almost impossible to find an inch of flat ground, and one could easily trip if not careful.
Xing Bi moved forward silently and quickly. Before long, his dot on the map was about fifty meters ahead, and he maintained that distance.
In the distance, gunfire suddenly intensified as Donglin’s armored vehicles left the town and began their counterattack.
At the same time, Qiu Shi noticed two bright spots appearing to their left on the map, moving in the direction they had just come from, maintaining the same distance and speed.
“Symbionts,” Qiu Shi reported the coordinates and quickly moved toward the nearest one, “Two.”
Xing Bi quickly approached the first one, and the dot disappeared almost soundlessly.
Qiu Shi could see a gray shadow in the darkness. At the moment his companion died, the shadow froze for two seconds, giving Qiu Shi a chance to fire a shot.
With a muffled sound, the dot disappeared from the map.
“Damn,” Hu Xiaoling couldn’t help but curse, “What am I even here for?”
Two cracking sounds followed as Xing Bi crushed the necks of the two symbionts.
As they continued forward, Qiu Shi felt like cursing. The roots on the ground were invisible and sometimes reached thigh-high, making a hundred meters more exhausting than climbing a mountain.
But soon, he realized the correctness of this path.
At the extreme detection range of the map, a few bright spots appeared at the top, constantly moving, appearing and disappearing on the map.
“Three hundred meters straight ahead, there’s a group,” Qiu Shi said.
“They might be in the trees. I’ll go from above,” Xing Bi stopped, “They can sense each other. Once I take out the first one, they’ll notice.”
“Okay,” Qiu Shi responded, then turned to Hu Xiaoling, “Follow my lead and throw grenades.”
“No problem!” Hu Xiaoling whispered.
“Be quick.” Xing Bi said, then started moving forward at a faster pace.
He didn’t consider the speed of his human companions and the human stragglers, but in this situation, there was no other choice but to keep up.
When collecting corpses at night, it was usually Qiu Shi and Zhao Lü who did it. In this kind of darkness, Qiu Shi could still adapt, biting his teeth and pushing his limits to move through the roots by jumping and running.
Hu Xiaoling was running chaotically behind, but it was clear he was giving it his all.
A few minutes later, they stopped.
Qiu Shi couldn’t see where Xing Bi was, only his red dot on the map to his right front.
They were very close to the symbionts now, able to see figures moving and a vehicle, which looked like a group preparing to reinforce.
After Hu Xiaoling was ready, Qiu Shi quietly reported the coordinates of the symbiont closest to Xing Bi, “We aim for the vehicle.”
Then, they heard the faint sound of rustling leaves, indistinguishable whether it was someone or the wind.
The small bright spot disappeared.
As Xing Bi rushed towards the gathering point, Qiu Shi suddenly raised his hand and threw the grenade in his hand. Given the distance, it wasn’t close for a grenade throw, and he used all his strength, feeling a sharp pain in his back as he threw it.
Hu Xiaoling also threw his grenade, but it fell short.
However, Qiu Shi hadn’t counted on his contribution; the main purpose was to create more impact.
Qiu Shi’s grenade exploded near the vehicle, followed by Hu Xiaoling’s.
After two loud explosions, several dots disappeared from the map, but Qiu Shi noticed two small dots rushing towards him and Hu Xiaoling at high speed.
Gunfire erupted from Xing Bi’s direction, and his voice came through the earpiece, “Above.”
“Xiaoling,” Qiu Shi immediately dove under a huge tree root and aimed his gun at the canopy, “Right above you.”
A figure leaped down, firing two shots in their direction.
One shot hit the root near Qiu Shi’s face, splattering wood chips and causing a burning sensation. The other shot hit Hu Xiaoling in the arm.
The figure landed, and Qiu Shi, gritting his teeth, leaned out and fired a shot.
Relying on his experience of collecting corpses at night while avoiding sudden appearances of infected, and with the light from the explosion, Qiu Shi’s shot hit the figure above the chest, though he couldn’t be sure if it hit the neck.
Hu Xiaoling also fired a shot, almost simultaneously with another figure landing.
Qiu Shi didn’t have time to check if Hu Xiaoling was hit again; he rushed over, knocking Hu Xiaoling aside, and fired two shots at the figure, confirming that he hit the neck as the symbiont fell.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the previously fallen symbiont was no longer in place.
When he turned around, he only had time to see a shadow.
Then he was knocked to the ground, his head hitting the tree root behind him hard, then the ground, and his gun was knocked out of his hand.
He reached out to grab the gun, but a hand grabbed his throat. At that moment, he didn’t even feel pain, just a sense of seeing his great-grandmother, whom he had just chatted with.
Hu Xiaoling, likely hit by two shots, tried to knock the symbiont off Qiu Shi but was too weak.
Qiu Shi, struggling, reached for the knife on his leg, but his hand was weak and lacked strength.
Xing Bi descended from the air.
Qiu Shi saw it clearly.
He saw Xing Bi descend and punch the bioroid on its back.
After a muffled sound, there was a creepy sound of bones breaking.
Xing Bi’s hand pierced through the symbiont’s chest, grabbing the hand that was strangling Qiu Shi’s neck and pulling it back.
The bloody scene before him, filled with an overwhelming killing intent, left Qiu Shi in a mix of shock and indescribable fear. It took him two seconds to start breathing after the pressure on his neck disappeared.
Xing Bi stood in front of him as the symbiont’s body slowly slid off his right arm and fell to the ground.
In the glow of the explosion behind, Xing Bi’s face was indistinguishable, but the black and red mixed blood on his right arm was visible, slowly dripping from his fingertips.
Xing Bi took off his coat, wiped his hands with it, and tossed it aside. He bent down and extended his left hand, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Qiu Shi grabbed his hand and stood up with his help.
Standing face to face with Xing Bi, Qiu Shi looked into his eyes, and Xing Bi looked back at him.
“If I had fired, I would have hit you,” Xing Bi said.
“I know,” Qiu Shi also took off his coat and wiped the blood splattered on his face, “I’ve just never seen such a deadly move before, it startled me.”
“Were you scared?” Xing Bi asked.
“For a few seconds, yes. It’d be fake to say I wasn’t,” Qiu Shi looked at him and, after thinking for a moment, clicked his tongue, “Now I know what a Level One Hidden Guard is.”
“Is Hu Xiaoling dead?” Xing Bi asked.
“… No,” Hu Xiaoling, sitting on the ground nearby, said, “I’m still salvageable.”
“We’ll drive over,” Xing Bi said.
“Okay.” Qiu Shi checked Hu Xiaoling’s wounds. He had been hit twice, once in the arm and once in the shoulder, both on the left side.
“Find a box to drag him with,” Xing Bi said.
Qiu Shi paused, then laughed, “Damn.”
The vehicle was quite good, an all-terrain modified car with high wheels, and many shrapnel marks on the body, but it drove fine.
This car would probably struggle with the tangled terrain from earlier, but it should be fine driving toward Donglin Town’s entrance. Plus, it had a cannon and what looked like a machine gun.
Hu Xiaoling’s face lit up with excitement when he saw these weapons. Even injured, he wouldn’t abandon the car.
“They don’t have many people,” Xing Bi said, “No more than thirty.”
“How do you know?” Hu Xiaoling asked from the back, holding his shoulder.
Qiu Shi also looked at him, wanting to know the answer, as the map now showed no useful information.
“I can sense it,” Xing Bi glanced at Qiu Shi, “You could also say I heard it.”
Qiu Shi nodded, not speaking. Xing Bi was also a symbiont, one who was constantly adapting and improving.
“Who’s driving?” Hu Xiaoling asked.
“I will.” Xing Bi sat in the driver’s seat.
Qiu Shi sat next to him, lifting the machine gun mounted on the front of the car to figure out how to use it.
“If you need to fire the cannon, let me know.” Hu Xiaoling hugged the cannon in the back seat.
Once the car started, it was extremely bumpy, often tilting close to ninety degrees. Qiu Shi felt like he would be thrown out while holding onto the car frame, but Hu Xiaoling, out of love for the cannon, managed to hold on.
The dense gunfire and explosions ahead gradually became clearer. The combat and destructive power of dozens of symbionts were already impressive. If there were more, it would be an unimaginable scene.
Qiu Shi’s map began to display terrain altered by explosions, black infection stains, and an increasing number of small bright spots. However, in this situation, he couldn’t distinguish friend from foe.
No, he couldn’t distinguish enemy from enemy.
But approaching from the side and rear in a symbiont’s vehicle, they had the advantage as the enemy couldn’t distinguish them either.
“Front left,” Xing Bi said, “Three in the tree canopy.”
Qiu Shi lowered the gun and fired at the three bright spots in the tree, causing three figures to fall.
After this attack, the symbionts immediately noticed their presence, and several dots started moving toward them.
“Get out,” Xing Bi said, “Hu, fire a cannon straight ahead.”
Qiu Shi and Xing Bi jumped out of the car from both sides, while Hu Xiaoling hunched down and fired the cannon forward.
As Qiu Shi aimed his gun ahead, Xing Bi had already rushed forward.
This time, Qiu Shi could see that Xing Bi maintained a distance of about thirty meters. After clearing the two nearest ones, he returned to the car.
“Aren’t we fighting anymore?” Qiu Shi glanced at him.
“Let them suffer some losses too,” Xing Bi said, “Donglin’s combat power is stronger than Yun City’s.”
“I can see that,” Hu Xiaoling lay on the back seat, “We don’t have to exert ourselves too much; there’s no benefit… These weapons must be taken back, so it’s not a wasted trip.”
Qiu Shi didn’t respond, and Xing Bi also fell silent, quietly squatting by the car door without moving.
After a while, Qiu Shi, feeling uneasy, slowly moved to the other side of the car door and squatted down.
Xing Bi glanced at him, his voice low, so low that Hu Xiaoling couldn’t hear but it was clear in the earpiece.
“Are you trying to control me?” he asked.
“No,” Qiu Shi reached out and squeezed his wrist, “I just wanted to ask if you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” Xing Bi said, “If there’s a problem, I’ll tell you in advance.”
“I need to contact Li Feng,” Qiu Shi said, “I’m afraid they’ll block us again if we wait.”
“Okay,” Xing Bi responded.
Qiu Shi could sense something was wrong with Xing Bi, but it wasn’t the kind of wrongness from being controlled. It was more like he was feeling down or a bit uneasy.
In his life, he had faced despair almost every day, making him sensitive to these negative emotions.
Xing Bi sensed his gaze, turned to look at him, and said nothing.
But after a moment of silence, Xing Bi leaned over and rested against him.
Four consecutive explosions occurred in the inner city, blossoming in all directions. The last explosion even caused a power outage in one district of the inner city.
The entire inner city was in chaos. It seemed that for the first time, people truly realized how important the Security Bureau was. Li Feng sat in the car, his phone never stopping.
As they passed through the valley tunnels, he watched the panicked people running outside in the smoke and fire from the explosions. Through the car window, he could hear all kinds of cries and curses.
Many infected had also entered. Even if these fleeing people survived this attack, it was uncertain whether they could survive the subsequent infection checks.
In the face of these creatures, the residents of the inner and outer cities were equal.
“All the explosions are in areas where new refugees were introduced,” the secretary kept reporting the situation beside him, “Feedback shows that the City Defense Bureau has already locked down from the inside, and the army is setting up defenses on the outskirts… Inner city alert! Bio-signatures detected…”
The bioroids entered through the sewage outlets. When the City Defense Bureau reached the location to lock it down, a massive explosion collapsed the sewage outlet. A third of the underground tunnels that hadn’t seen daylight for a century were exposed to Yun City’s stars. The bioroids and infected broke through the underdeveloped defenses of the City Defense Bureau, which could only suppress refugees.
Choosing the sewage outlet as the breakthrough point was smart. Outside was a rift, making the defense very weak, but for the bioroids, it wasn’t difficult.
Now, the inner city’s forces were concentrated in several key areas: water and electricity, and supply warehouses—all under the Security Bureau’s control. Listening to the reports, Li Feng started to get a headache.
Yun City, even if it only superficially appeared peaceful and harmonious, had been a utopia for too long. Many might have already forgotten the dangers of the outside world. Faced with such sudden events, everything was so clumsy and chaotic.
The driver drove him to the Emergency Affairs Department. Colonel Xu and Minister Liu were already there. Curator Wu had arrived a few minutes before Li Feng and was standing in front of the screen, watching a bunch of flashing data and information.
Their small conspiracy team originally had an external liaison group, but the group leader had been blown up on the way to the meeting.
“Director Zhang can’t make it,” Colonel Xu said, “For now, it’s just us…”
“Is he dead?” Li Feng asked.
Colonel Xu frowned at him.
“No, he’s not dead,” Minister Liu said, “He’s on-site assisting the army with the search.”
“Does Director Li have any issues with Director Zhang?” Colonel Xu asked.
“I usually do,” Li Feng sat down, yawning amid his busyness, “But not when it comes to work. I’m worried he’s dead.”
Li Feng was being honest. Whether they got along or not, the City Defense Bureau had coordinated with the Security Bureau for years, so some level of tacit understanding was necessary. If Zhang Qifeng were dead and replaced, it would definitely cause chaos.
“Our security system shows a total of seven bioroids,” Curator Wu briefed Li Feng, “But now…”
Another explosion sounded outside, very close, causing the lights in the conference room to flicker.
“We’re not sure if more bioroids will enter,” Curator Wu, surprisingly calmer in a crisis than usual, continued, “We will provide real-time coordinates to the military for cleanup, but…”
“But so far, not one has been cleared,” Li Feng said.
“Correct,” Curator Wu nodded, “Their movement speed and coordinated defense are significantly higher than the bioroids we’ve encountered before.”
“Seven Level Ones,” Li Feng said, “Sounds like they could all be Level One symbionts.”
The conference room fell into a brief silence, and the noise from outside was audible.
“Yes,” Curator Wu said, “Quickly clearing them in a short time will be difficult. I’m just afraid their goal isn’t only to destroy the city’s facilities…”
Li Feng’s pet alerted him to an incoming call, a special tone belonging to Qiu Shi.
“I need to take this call.” Li Feng quickly got up and walked out of the conference room, putting on his headset in a corner of the hallway, “Qiu Shi?”
“Long story short,” Qiu Shi’s voice came through, accompanied by gunfire, “We got ambushed in Donglin.”
“Symbionts?” Li Feng asked.
“How did you know?” Qiu Shi was surprised. Without waiting for an answer, he quickly asked, “Is Yun City in trouble?”
“Are you and Xing Bi safe? Did you find Hu Xiaoling?” Li Feng asked.
“How’s Zhao Lü and the others?” Qiu Shi quickly answered his questions, “Safe, and yes, we found him.”
“The Symbionts’ target is the inner city. The outer city is now hiding and watching the show,” Li Feng said.
“Is the situation serious?” Qiu Shi’s voice was a bit somber.
“Manageable,” Li Feng said, “Do you have any insights on these symbionts? There are seven in the inner city, and they’re hard to clear.”
“Li Feng,” Xing Bi’s voice came through, “Send Lin Cheng out to clear them. One of him is enough.”
____
Author’s Note:
I’ve seen some people getting confused between the bioroids and the infected. Some kind commenters have explained it in the comments, but I’ll summarize it here again.
Bioroid: An artificial human, a chemical reaction system with metabolic capabilities that can maintain a certain form for a certain period (the last part is copied from Baidu Encyclopedia).
Symbiont: A bioroid that actively chooses to let fungi coexist in their body (they won’t die, and a strong enough Level One symbiont can become a symbiotic host, controlling other symbionts, like our Bi Bi and Lin Cheng).
Infected: Humans infected by fungi, losing self-awareness (and will die). The latent infected now are completely controlled by the host (and will die after use).
