They were all bioroids, all Level 1 hidden guards.
Qiu Shi felt that the entity hiding behind these mountains of flesh—these infected creatures screaming at them with gaping mouths—was completely different from Xing Bi and his people.
Perhaps it was because they had been wandering in the outside world all this time, always searching for an opportunity to take revenge on humans and those who stood with them, like Xing Bi. Or maybe they had even greater ambitions.
In comparison, Qiu Shi felt that Zheng Ting was closer to being human than Xing Bi and his group.
Obsessive hatred, unrestrained anger, ruthless exploitation of the weak…
And this twisted hobby of controlling a horde of infected creatures just to make them scream at people.
“The entity is not within the mapped area,” Qiu Shi cursed before quickly regaining focus. “All I can see are infected creatures.”
“Charge through,” Xing Bi said.
Lin Sheng and the others coordinated with Xing Bi as if they had rehearsed thousands of different response strategies. There was no need for communication, so Qiu Shi knew this command was meant for him.
“I charge… How the hell am I supposed to…” He was utterly shocked, but despite his doubts, he gritted his teeth and slammed on the gas.
The four-man squad was even faster than his vehicle.
By the time Xing Bi spoke, they had already lunged toward the infected flesh-mountain. Their speed and strength were astonishing, the wind behind them stirring up a trail of black mist.
By the time Qiu Shi pressed the gas pedal, they had already bulldozed their way through the mountain of flesh.
“Your ancestors!” Qiu Shi cursed through gritted teeth.
Were they seriously expecting his car to plow through as well? With that sheer mass, he’d be lucky to make it through in one piece.
But he had no other choice. Officer Dog Li once told him that if he chose to believe, then all he had to do was keep believing.
No matter how many thoughts raced through his mind, his foot never lifted off the gas.
Just over ten meters away from the flesh-mountain, a massive explosion erupted. Flames and shockwaves from within the mountain instantly tore apart the tightly packed infected creatures.
Xing Bi’s group had left bombs inside the heap when they crashed through it.
Qiu Shi’s vehicle surged forward through the chaotic blaze, plowing through a rain of shredded corpses.
Disgusting, but the path was clear.
Still, he could feel the varying firmness of the ground beneath the wheels—the sticky, tangled sensation best left unthought of.
After making it past the mound, Xing Bi turned back to glance at him.
“Fuck!” Qiu Shi cursed, fully expressing his current emotions.
Xing Bi’s lips curled slightly.
Qiu Shi had just opened his mouth to curse at him again when two small bright dots appeared in the top-left corner of the map.
“They’re here!” He called out the coordinates. “Two of them.”
“There’ll be more,” Xing Bi said. “Move forward.”
The four-man team pressed ahead quickly. Qiu Shi noticed that aside from tossing grenades, they rarely used guns. Almost all their attacks relied on blades. The infected creatures attacked like mindless puppets, and to kill them, one had to destroy their heads or necks. Given the combat skills of a Subsentinel, using blades was indeed the faster option.
But these waves of attacking infected weren’t their real target.
Qiu Shi was well aware that the reason they had to clear the way so quickly was to locate the Super-Symbiont—the true source of this nest.
The direction those two symbionts were coming from was likely where the Super-Symbiont was hiding.
As he followed behind, Qiu Shi’s gaze flickered between the dashboard’s icons and buttons. This was the latest model from the Yun City military—so new that no one had even seen it before. The entire design screamed combat readiness. The fact that it was still moving smoothly despite its wheels being drenched in blood and flesh already proved its defensive and maneuvering capabilities.
That meant it had to have offensive capabilities as well.
Li Feng and Captain Yang probably hadn’t expected this vehicle to be thrown into battle so soon, and they hadn’t even given him a manual. Qiu Shi had no choice but to drive while keeping an eye on the map and scanning the dashboard for clues.
Xing Bi and his team were right around the vehicle, so he didn’t dare to press buttons at random…
The two bright dots on the map were rapidly closing in, and three more soon followed.
“Another three, making five in total,” Qiu Shi reported, his heart trembling slightly. The number felt eerily familiar—just like last time.
“He still prefers working in fives, huh?” Lin Sheng remarked.
Qiu Shi suddenly realized—this Zheng Ting might have been in the same squad as Xing Bi in the past.
“Do you guys prefer working in fours?” Qiu Shi asked.
“We’re five now,” Ji Sui replied.
“Do all Level 1 hidden guards talk like this?” Qiu Shi chuckled.
“Some don’t talk at all,” Lin Sheng said.
Amid the chaos and tension, those brief exchanges gave Qiu Shi a fleeting moment of relief.
But just as it ended, the two fastest symbionts had already closed in within fifty meters.
“Turn on the lights,” Xing Bi ordered.
Turn on what the f*ck? What lights? Where the hell were the lights? And why the f*ck didn’t Li Feng leave a manual?
A million thoughts raced through Qiu Shi’s mind, but his hand hesitated in the air for less than a second before pressing the button that looked like a sun.
At the same time, he had already locked onto another button that resembled half a sun—just in case the first one didn’t work.
If the first didn’t light up, he’d immediately press the second.
As soon as he pressed the button, the entire area ahead was unveiled like a massive screen unfurling before his eyes.
The forest turned stark white. The snow became blinding. The infected creatures’ silhouettes sharpened into jagged clarity. And right in front of him, the two charging symbionts came to a sudden, momentary halt, stunned by the sudden burst of intense light.
At that instant, Xing Bi and Lin Sheng had already reached the two nearest symbionts, their blades piercing through their necks simultaneously. Xing Bi then kicked the one in front of him straight into the third symbiont charging from behind.
At the moment of impact, Ji Sui leaped off a nearby tree, soaring through the air before smashing his fist down, shattering the third symbiont’s neck. As the fourth symbiont raised its gun, Xu Jie struck from the side, slicing into the back of its neck with a single slash.
Then, infected creatures surged from all directions, piling onto them like a collapsing human pyramid.
It was clear that the infected controlled by the symbionts they had just killed weren’t part of this wave.
The enemy was smart—whoever controlled these close-range infected was positioned further back. Even if the front-line controllers were killed, the infected wouldn’t stop attacking.
And this time, Xing Bi hadn’t managed to wrest control of the infected from the opposing entity.
In an instant, the four of them were swallowed by the swarm.
The illuminated forest looked like an overexposed stage, where chaos was amplified by the blinding light. Then, a white figure suddenly burst onto this “stage” from the darkness.
Qiu Shi grabbed the gun beside him and flung open the car door.
There was no time to report coordinates or wait for Xing Bi and the others to break free before intercepting.
There wasn’t even time to lean out—he simply braced the gun against the doorframe and fired off a burst in that direction.
Only after his bullets hit the target did he call out, “Xu Jie, behind you.”
Xu Jie’s gun-wielding hand emerged from the mass of infected that had been knocked aside. A single precise shot finished off the symbiont that Qiu Shi had already wounded.
Qiu Shi swiftly pulled himself and his gun back into the vehicle and slammed the door shut.
“Zheng Ting isn’t here,” Lin Sheng said.
The infected around them hesitated in confusion after their controller was killed, but some began drifting deeper into the forest.
“Follow them,” Xing Bi commanded.
Qiu Shi stepped on the gas, driving over the corpses of the infected. Some were piled up, causing the car to jolt as it passed. He misjudged the maneuver, and the car’s front end bumped into Xing Bi’s rear.
Xing Bi turned around. “What’s the deal, partner?”
“Just saying hi,” Qiu Shi replied.
“Hi,” Xing Bi wiggled his hips slightly.
The three others walking alongside him all turned their heads at the same time. Even for bioroids with stable emotions, their eyes betrayed shock they couldn’t suppress.
“F*ck your ancestors, Xing Bi,” Qiu Shi burst into wild laughter.
They had now ventured deep into the forest. Though the trees were sparse, their blackened, twisted branches stood starkly against the blindingly white snow, making the place feel eerie—like a horde of grotesque, contorted creatures.
Beneath the crushed snow, the ground was completely black.
The nest was vast. No one knew whether this Super-Symbiont would be larger than the one from Nest One. The memory of that black, fungus-covered humanoid monster still lingered in Qiu Shi’s mind—the moment it had raised a hand and pointed at him and Xing Bi.
That thing wouldn’t appear on the map. They had to follow the infected and rely on Xing Bi’s team’s senses.
The car’s lights remained on, the beams moving forward with them, continuously revealing more of the terrain.
“It’s ahead,” Xing Bi stopped.
As soon as he spoke, the four of them moved in unison, swiftly clearing out the infected within a semicircle in front of the car.
At the edge of the light, Qiu Shi saw a standing black figure.
Just like the last one, its body was covered in thick layers of black fungus, making it impossible to discern any human features. Dark spores drifted through the air around it.
“Blow it up,” Xing Bi ordered.
Qiu Shi turned to grab the small cannon placed beside him. If the explosion wasn’t enough or something unexpected happened, he could fire a follow-up shot.
His hand had just touched the cannon when he suddenly heard a faint, sharp sound.
“What’s that sound?” He spun around abruptly.
The Super-Symbiont was no longer in the same spot. The creature that Qiu Shi had thought was immobile had taken two steps forward, tilting its head back as if screaming.
But there was no roar fitting its monstrous form.
Only that faint, sharp, almost imperceptible high-frequency ringing sound—one that only Qiu Shi seemed to hear.
Xing Bi didn’t respond.
The four-man squad stood completely still.
“Xing Bi!” Qiu Shi shouted. “Say something, goddamn it!”
Still, no reaction.
Lin Sheng and the others were also frozen in place.
It was the sound.
It had no effect on humans, but it could influence bioroids or symbionts.
“F*ck your ancestors,” Qiu Shi cursed, yanking open the car door and pulling down the small cannon. He hoisted it onto his shoulder and fired at the Super-Symbiont.
As the projectile streaked through the air, blazing with fire, Qiu Shi saw something terrifying—the creature moved. It retreated rapidly, evading a direct hit.
However, the shell struck close enough that, in theory, it should at least leave it half-crippled.
But as the dust settled, Qiu Shi saw that the monster was still standing.
Fragments of shrapnel were embedded in its body, but the thick black fungal armor covering it had absorbed most of the impact. The attack had done little visible damage.
“Xing Bi!” Qiu Shi called again.
As he prepared to fire another shot, a figure suddenly leaped from behind the Super-Symbiont, landing within the flood of light.
Qiu Shi recognized the face immediately.
Zheng Ting.
There was no time to react. Zheng Ting charged straight at Xing Bi.
Qiu Shi suddenly felt the advantage of his enhanced body. He fired another shot at the Super-Symbiont while simultaneously clenching his left hand into a fist and pulling it to the side.
It was one of the control gestures Curator Wu had shown him—a brief disruption technique that lasted less than a second, meant to momentarily interrupt thought processes.
Qiu Shi had no idea if it would work. But right now, he could only assume that Xing Bi was affected by that sound. His shells wouldn’t hit a fast-moving Zheng Ting, and this brief control might be the only way to help Xing Bi dodge.
Xing Bi swayed slightly.
He snapped out of it!
As the cannon shell hit the Super-Symbiont, Zheng Ting reached Xing Bi.
Xing Bi raised his hand and caught Zheng Ting’s arm as it came crashing toward his throat.
But he was still a fraction too slow.
At this distance, with this speed, Xing Bi had only managed to push Zheng Ting’s arm downward slightly.
Qiu Shi watched in horror as Zheng Ting’s fist pierced through Xing Bi’s abdomen—smashing through his body and emerging from his back.
Zheng Ting’s bloodied fist clenched around a metal barbed hook.
When he pulled his hand back, the barbs would tear through Xing Bi’s insides, inflicting devastating damage.
At that moment, Qiu Shi felt like his heart had stopped. The sharp ringing in his ears suddenly amplified, drowning out all other sounds.
Including his own scream.
“Xing Bi—!”
The infected swarmed him, grabbing his arms, entangling his legs, choking his neck…
“F*ck… your ancestors!” Qiu Shi struggled, forcing his way toward Xing Bi.
He could see that Zheng Ting’s hand was trapped by Xing Bi’s grip, unable to pull out of his body. The barbed hook dangled in front of Qiu Shi’s eyes.
He wanted to grab his gun, but the infected were wrapped around him, preventing him from reaching for the weapon strapped to his leg.
The only thing he could do was use every ounce of his strength to drag this mass of infected closer to the front of the vehicle.
There was a winch there.
Gritting his teeth, Qiu Shi grabbed the steel cable from the winch, yanked it out, and wrapped it around Zheng Ting’s wrist—the one holding the barbed hook. Then, he slammed his palm onto the winch’s activation switch.
The motor roared to life, and the steel cable tightened with brutal force.
Qiu Shi clung to the end of the cable, his hand bleeding from the strain, but he felt no pain. His eyes were locked onto the steel wire as it dug deeper and deeper into Zheng Ting’s wrist.
“Ah—!” Zheng Ting let out a pained roar.
The cable severed his wrist.
His hand—and the barbed hook it held—fell to the ground.
At that moment, the sharp ringing from the Super-Symbiont stopped.
Xing Bi released one hand and drove his fist into Zheng Ting’s throat. The impact sent Zheng Ting flying backward, his severed arm ripping free from Xing Bi’s abdomen. Blood dripped from it—whose blood, it was impossible to tell.
Lin Sheng and the others, finally freed from the sound’s control, moved instantly. Three knives plunged into Zheng Ting’s neck from three different directions.
All around them, the infected froze in place.
The chaos of battle came to an abrupt halt, like the world had been put on pause.
Zheng Ting’s eyes were wide open, staring at Xing Bi.
“Humans…” he said slowly, “are not friends.”
“But neither are you,” Xing Bi replied.
“You will lead them… into darkness.”
The three knives withdrew, and Zheng Ting collapsed to the ground.
When Qiu Shi came back to his senses, Lin Sheng and the others had already helped Xing Bi sit against the front of the car.
“How is he?” Qiu Shi rushed over, his hands trembling as he tried to lift Xing Bi’s shirt to check the wound.
Xing Bi grabbed his hand. “It’s not a pretty sight.”
“No wound is pretty,” Qiu Shi retorted.
“It’s scary.”
“I’ve sorted through piles of mangled corpses before,” Qiu Shi swatted his hand away and lifted his shirt. “You think your wound is going to scare me?”
It was terrifying.
If this injury had been on someone else, Qiu Shi might not have reacted much. But this fist-sized hole running from Xing Bi’s left abdomen to his lower back—on Xing Bi—was enough to shake him.
“Is he going to die?” Qiu Shi asked, his voice trembling.
“No,” Xing Bi said. “But I won’t be able to heal on my own.”
“They’ll come back,” Lin Sheng said.
“We return to Xima,” Xing Bi glanced at the fallen Super-Symbiont. “Take that with us.”
They moved quickly—treating Xing Bi’s wound, stopping the bleeding, loading him into the car, and tying the Super-Symbiont onto the roof.
“What about him?” Ji Sui asked, looking at Zheng Ting’s corpse on the ground.
“Leave him here,” Xing Bi said.
Everyone climbed into the vehicle. Qiu Shi turned off the high-beam lights, reversed the car, and started driving back toward Xima Town.
In the rearview mirror, Zheng Ting’s corpse lay on the snow-covered ground, a stark mix of black and white. As they drove away, it shrank into the distance, eventually swallowed by the darkness.
If it had been Curator Wu or Li Feng, they would have taken Zheng Ting’s body back to the lab. A symbiont of his caliber was a prime research specimen.
But Qiu Shi knew why Xing Bi had left him behind.
If they had taken him back, Zheng Ting might never truly die. Curator Wu would extract every piece of information he could, perhaps even experiment on him repeatedly.
Though they had stood on opposing sides, Zheng Ting was still one of their own. Xing Bi understood exactly what he and his kind meant to some humans. In the end, Zheng Ting had chosen another path—all because of that one belief: “Humans are not friends.”
On the way back, they still encountered scattered infected. Without the Super-Symbiont’s “summoning,” they no longer moved northwest, instead wandering aimlessly in the wilderness.
This Super-Symbiont was far larger than the one retrieved from Nest One. It also seemed to have abilities that the first one lacked. Xing Bi had been able to punch through the first one with ease, but this one had taken a direct blast from a bomb at point-blank range and remained unscathed.
Were these Super-Symbionts naturally varied in strength?
Or had someone—on Zheng Ting’s side—played the role of their own “Curator Wu” and modified them?
No one knew.
Qiu Shi’s mind was in disarray. One moment, he was thinking about the thing strapped to the roof of the car; the next, he was consumed by thoughts of Xing Bi’s wound.
For the umpteenth time, he glanced at Xing Bi—who turned his head and met his gaze.
“I don’t feel pain right now, and I won’t die,” Xing Bi reassured him. “Relax.”
“Not painful, huh?” Qiu Shi muttered. “Then why did Zheng Ting scream so miserably when his hand was cut off?”
“That was pain from unwillingness and despair,” Xing Bi said. “Not from physical suffering.”
Qiu Shi didn’t reply.
The three men squeezed into the backseat hadn’t spoken since getting into the car.
Perhaps it was because of whatever they had felt while being controlled—Qiu Shi sensed a quiet sorrow in their otherwise calm demeanor.
Not just because of Xing Bi’s injury.
Something else.
Their other vehicle was still parked where they had left it. Lin Sheng went over to retrieve it, while Ji Sui and Xu Jie switched cars to prepare for when they needed to hide upon arrival.
Only then did Qiu Shi whisper, “Are they okay?”
“I don’t know,” Xing Bi replied. “They might have… remembered a lot of things.”
“Because of Zheng Ting?”
“Mm,” Xing Bi hummed in agreement. “Zheng Ting was strong. If he hadn’t… separated from us, he would have been the team leader.”
Qiu Shi was silent for a moment before asking, “Will this affect Lin Sheng and the others? If they…”
“When they chose to come to Yun City,” Xing Bi said, “their memories weren’t locked. So they won’t be affected now either.”
As they neared Xima Town, Qiu Shi connected with Zhao Yi over the radio.
“Tell Captain Yang to send a medical vehicle to the outer village immediately,” Qiu Shi instructed. “We also need an extra-large containment shield and cleaning agents. Once they drop off the supplies, everyone must evacuate.”
“Understood,” Zhao Yi responded. “Who’s injured?”
“Xing Bi.”
“And you?”
“I’m fine.”
“…Got it,” Zhao Yi said. “I’ll arrange it now.”
Meanwhile, Li Feng burst into Curator Wu’s office.
“Lao Wu!”
“Ah, damn it!” Curator Wu jolted up from his couch nap, startled by the sudden outburst. “What the hell are you yelling for?”
“I’ve got a gift for you.” Li Feng dropped into the chair in front of the desk and tossed a small projector onto the wall.
A video played.
A massive black Super-Symbiont lay inside a containment shield. The fungus on its body was still growing, and black spores drifted through the air around it.
“What is that?” Curator Wu asked. “Where did it come from?”
“Qiu Shi got it, from that large nest northwest of Xima,” Li Feng said. “Doesn’t it look different from the Super-Symbiont stored in the lab?”
“Yes,” Curator Wu leaned in closer to examine the projection. “This one’s attachment layer is… more complex. Do you have any other detailed images?”
“No,” Li Feng replied.
“What about the actual specimen?” Curator Wu asked.
“If needed, it can be delivered to the lab by tomorrow morning at the latest,” Li Feng said.
“Good!” Curator Wu nodded, then turned to look at Li Feng after a brief pause. “But Director Li, you didn’t come here just for this, did you?”
“Curator Wu, your keen insight never fails,” Li Feng said.
“Spit it out,” Curator Wu said.
“Xing Bi is injured,” Li Feng said. “He needs confidential treatment in the lab.”
“Confidential?” Curator Wu narrowed his eyes. “Confidential to what extent?”
“You and me,” Li Feng said.
“I knew it!” Curator Wu jabbed a finger at him. “I knew you wouldn’t just—”
“Curator Wu,” Li Feng interrupted, brushing his hand aside. “The loss of two Level 1 hidden guards isn’t something that can be kept under wraps forever. Right now is the best opportunity to make up for it.”
Curator Wu stared at him.
“The situation is urgent. If the infected from the northwest nest had successfully gathered, the attack on Yun City would have been catastrophic. To avoid wasting time on complicated approval processes,” Li Feng continued, “we had no choice but to act first and report later. Now that the crisis has been resolved, and we’ve also secured critical research material…”
“Li Feng,” Curator Wu said, “you are one hell of a schemer.”
“Thank you,” Li Feng said.
“But even if you make up for it, what’s done is done,” Curator Wu said. “Do you really think you can balance the scales? You’re gambling with—”
“No ‘we,’ Wu,” Li Feng cut him off. “Just me. This mess isn’t yours to clean up—I’ll take the credit to cover the blame.”
Curator Wu was speechless for a long moment. Then he pointed at Li Feng and said, “You’ve planned this all along. With your capabilities, you could use this to get promoted to Minister.”
“I’m not interested in that,” Li Feng said. “Curator Wu, you really don’t know me.”
“Then after running me around in circles,” Curator Wu said, “what exactly do I get out of this?”
“You get nothing—no merit, no fault,” Li Feng said. “And Wu, what’s safer than that?”
“You’re the most well-adapted person in this world,” Curator Wu said, watching him closely. “Alright, since I have no stake in this, what else did you come here for?”
“Everything I just said comes with a condition,” Li Feng said. “The condition that lets you stay uninvolved is… Is symbiosis reversible?”
“What?” Curator Wu frowned.
“Can a bioroid’s symbiotic state be reversed?” Li Feng asked.
“Who told you to ask that?” Curator Wu’s expression darkened.
“Xing Bi,” Li Feng said. “That’s the condition of the deal.”
Oooh, we’re back! Hooray! Thank you for the update!