Chapter 34.2 – Bloody Ferrara (6)
◎This sister is so fierce◎
Bartel managed to capture the zombie Zhang Lei amid the chaos.
He was ecstatic, and his cold mechanical arm spiraled forward, puncturing Zhang Lei’s left side. Then, he stood there, one hand on his hip, and laughed heartily, “Hahaha, the A-level task is mine!”
The previously puppet-like Zhang Lei, who had been moving around unnoticed by everyone, suddenly sprang into action. His expression twisted grotesquely as he raised his head. Dark patterns on his neck bulged, and he let out a harsh roar. From the center of his pitch-black pupils, invisible ripples spread out in all directions. Within arm’s reach, all awakeners who couldn’t escape in time were turned into stone statues, frozen stiff in their tracks.
This was Zhang Lei’s power, the “Stone Gaze.” Originally, it had the effect of immobilizing enemies who met his gaze briefly. However, after turning into a zombie, his power mutated into the even more terrifying “Petrification,” with an expanded range of effect.
Two awakeners who were entangled with each other were both hit. Their bodies turned as hard as stone, and one of them happened to be standing on the edge of the railing, losing his footing and tumbling down the spiral staircase. With a loud “crash,” he instantly shattered into pieces!
Bartel maintained his posture with his mechanical arm extended, and half of his original eye nervously rolled around.
It was too late; he was the closest person to Zhang Lei and couldn’t escape.
“Clang!”
The fearsome zombie swung a powerful slap, knocking Bartel’s head off.
“Swish, swish.”
A nimble figure was swiftly approaching the scene, and the alert Zhang Lei turned his neck nervously, his nerves twitching.
Then, its entirely black pupils met Song Ke’s round, unreactive eyes.
The two stared at each other for a full two seconds, during which Song Ke remained completely unfazed. She calmly swung her long-handled machete, striking Zhang Lei squarely in the face. His facial features were flattened, eye sockets caved in, and he was almost knocked out. Song Ke flicked the tip of her blade, hooking his collar, and then ran away.
The shadowy figure followed closely behind her, and just as pursuers were closing in, he released something onto the ground, causing a roaring fire to erupt, blocking the pursuing superhumans.
The two of them soared up and down, swiftly returning to the sixth floor, where they joined their waiting teammates and disappeared from view.
As the petrification effect wore off, Elder Xiang hastily ordered, “Where are they? Retrieve Zhang Lei!”
A space distortion appeared behind him, gradually revealing a blurry awakener. In a hoarse voice, he said, “The target has disappeared. I can’t detect them with my mental power.”
“Hmph,” Elder Xiang snorted, “Then seal off all entrances; they can’t escape.”
A lean awakener hurried over to report, “Elder Xiang, Duanmu Qi and the others have withdrawn.”
“Withdrawn? At a time like this?” Elder Xiang was slightly puzzled. Duanmu Qi had just been loudly declaring that he wouldn’t give up on the A-level task, and now he had gone silent? Something was definitely not right.
Elder Xiang’s sharp eagle-like gaze showed his discernment. He toyed with his jade thumb ring, then gave a stern command.
“You, go find out what happened.”
“Yes, Elder.”
As Elder Xiang took a few steps forward, Bartel’s head was rolling towards him, and he kicked it away with a snarl, “Useless!”
…
With Zhuang Qingyan as their living navigator, Song Ke and her companions swiftly navigated the complex maze of corridors. Sometimes, what appeared to be a dead-end wall would miraculously transform into a passageway under Zhuang Qingyan’s guidance.
The pursuers from behind couldn’t keep up with them and quickly lost their way in the labyrinthine structure, disoriented and directionless.
After shaking off the annoying pursuers, the group reached the third floor and found a locked office. They forcefully entered the room, dumping the half-beaten zombie, Zhang Lei, onto the floor. Song Ke finally had the chance to take a closer look at the two individuals who had come with them.
First was the shadowy figure she had been battling. He was a young man, perhaps even taller than Zhuang Qingyan, with dark skin, a robust physique, and dressed entirely in black combat gear. His eyes were wild and untamed, resembling a lone wolf.
Noticing Song Ke’s gaze, he responded with a cold, ruthless stare, and the greenish gleam on the blade in his hand flickered ominously. His ability likely had something to do with venom or assassination.
The other person, the mastermind behind the interference with Song Ke’s combat using her singing, revealed her true appearance. Surprisingly, she was a woman with a soft appearance, likely in her mid-twenties. She had chestnut-colored voluminous wavy hair loosely tied into a ponytail, fair and smooth skin, and full, rosy lips. Even without makeup, her beauty was astonishing, and up close, she seemed to emit a radiant aura.
Song Ke was taken aback by her extraordinary beauty and couldn’t help but be mesmerized.
With a slight smile, the beautiful woman gently parted her vermilion lips and smiled at Song Ke, saying, “Let’s quickly divide the spoils.”
Song Ke was bewildered. “Di-Divide the spoils?”
“Hey, we agreed that the zombie belongs to you, and the crystal belongs to us. Don’t think about reneging on the deal!” the beautiful woman reminded her.
“Hey, sister,” Xu Xing leaned closer and whispered to her, openly informing Song Ke of the deal Zhuang Qingyan had made behind her back. He spilled all the details about Zhuang Qingyan’s negotiation while watching him in the corner of the office. Zhuang Qingyan’s expression didn’t change, and he casually smiled when he noticed Song Ke’s gaze, showing no signs of guilt about using her as bait for their deal.
Song Ke didn’t mind. After all, she had no idea what the “crystal” they were talking about was, and she trusted that someone like Zhuang Qingyan wouldn’t let her down. In any case, it was done, so she had no objections.
Song Ke turned her attention back to the two individuals in front of her. “We won’t renege on the deal.”
“Then go ahead and deal with it, kill it,” the beautiful woman nodded towards Zhang Lei on the floor.
Upon hearing this, Xu Xing quickly hid behind Song Ke, clearly not eager to engage in such a dirty job.
Zhuang Qingyan couldn’t be counted on either. Although he didn’t hesitate to kill Wu Yarou and Yang Bo earlier, he had no intention of getting involved this time.
Song Ke seemed to be the only one left to handle the task. She gripped her cold, serrated saw, hesitated for a moment, and suddenly remembered something. “We need to, to complete the mission.”
Almost forgetting, they hadn’t completed the mission yet! How were they supposed to complete it? Did they have to bring the zombie Zhang Lei back to Ferrara, and submit it in front of everyone in the commission center? Just the thought of it was quite…
The beautiful woman chuckled and pointed to her own terminal. “It’s not that complicated. You can complete it at the terminal.”
Song Ke looked down and realized that she was right. Special assignments could be submitted remotely, but the verification process seemed quite strict. It required recording a video and scanning the biological data of the target. She wasn’t very proficient with the terminal, and in her haste, she ended up fumbling around and couldn’t figure it out. Feeling increasingly flustered, she handed it over to Zhuang Qingyan to operate.
“Stop dawdling,” the beautiful woman impatiently urged, pouting charmingly. “Su Cha.”
The young man named Su Cha walked forward, raised his hand, and swiftly slashed Zhang Lei’s neck. Zhang Lei didn’t even make a sound; his head was severed.
“Alright, hand in the task.”
Song Ke finally managed to understand the process and aimed the terminal at Zhang Lei. It automatically scanned the biological data, and after a few seconds of calculation by the artificial intelligence in the background, a prompt appeared on the screen: “Confirmed, the target is deceased, mission accomplished.”
Before Song Ke could even see how much the mission was worth in Alliance coins, the beautiful woman pressed, “Now, it belongs to us, right?”
She put down the terminal and nodded eagerly, saying, “Yes, yes!”
The beautiful woman crouched down, took Su Cha’s dagger, and swiftly thrust it into Zhang Lei’s head. With a quick motion, she pulled something out—a pure white crystal.
She wiped the crystal clean with a tissue and held it in her hand. She was about to speak when suddenly, a mournful cry echoed from the corner of the office.
“No, no… Leizi, Leizi wuwuwu!”
A woman wearing municipal hall uniform with disheveled hair rushed out. Her two colleagues couldn’t hold her back and were dragged out from behind the filing cabinet. Their faces were pallid, and they seemed mentally drained, having been trapped here for several days.
The woman stumbled and knelt on the ground, cradling Zhang Lei’s broken head. She cried out in agony, “Why did you kill him? Why did you do it!”
“He was a good person, such a good person! He worked so hard and never took a day off. He was saving up just to marry me. We were supposed to get married next month! Why, why did this happen…”
“Ahui…” one of her colleagues tried to pull her away, but she forcefully shrugged him off.
In the depths of her sorrow, Ahui continued to mutter, “Finally, Leizi became an awakener after all the hard work. We thought things would get better, but you killed him. You killed him!”
Both Liu Xiaohui and Zhang Lei worked at the municipal hall. Before Luli Port fell into the zombie apocalypse, they had been working tirelessly in the office, unable to leave when the chaos began. When they finally realized the situation, the first floor had already been overrun by zombies.
With no other choice, they hid inside the filing cabinets in the office and waited for rescue. They endured this for a whole week without any sign of help. Eventually, their water and supplies ran out. Zhang Lei, the only awakener among them and Liu Xiaohui’s fiancé, made the courageous decision to go out and divert the zombies’ attention, hoping to secure a path for the others.
On October 1st, he left the office with two male colleagues and never returned.
Liu Xiaohui remained curled up inside the filing cabinet, praying fervently to the heavens, hoping that her fiancé would return soon. However, as time passed, her consciousness began to blur, and she could no longer hold on.
Just moments ago, Liu Xiaohui had heard voices from outside the room. She thought her fiancé had returned, so she summoned the last of her strength and peeked through the door’s crack, only to witness a woman thrusting a knife into Zhang Lei’s head.
Liu Xiaohui was overwhelmed by despair. “You have to pay for this! You have to pay for Leizi!”
She seemed to descend into madness, stood up with difficulty, and stumbled toward the beautiful woman’s face. Unfortunately, she couldn’t reach her and was forcefully kicked away by the silent Su Cha, crashing heavily to the ground.
“What are you doing!” Two male colleagues rushed over, filled with grief, anger, and despair. They helped Liu Xiaohui to her feet, glaring at Su Cha and the woman.
Su Cha’s kick had been gentle, but Liu Xiaohui was already at her limit. She couldn’t stand anymore, and her emotions had completely unraveled. Tears streamed down her face as she hurled the most vicious curses at the woman who had killed Zhang Lei.
The beautiful woman listened to her curses without any change in expression. Suddenly, she exploded, “Open your eyes and see clearly. He was already a zombie!”
“I’m not a saint! What’s wrong with killing a zombie?”
“Even if it wasn’t me, there were at least thirty other people downstairs waiting to kill it. Sooner or later, it was going to die! You don’t need to stand on your moral high ground to condemn me. Since you let him out of this room, he was destined to die!”
Liu Xiaohui was drenched in a shower of verbal ab*se, and she stared blankly at Zhang Lei, whose face was twisted in a grotesque manner. His inky-black pupils were nothing like a human’s.
“No… it’s not true. I don’t believe it. Leizi… Leizi…” Liu Xiaohui held Zhang Lei’s hand, crying inconsolably.
Was it true? Liu Xiaohui asked herself. Was it because they had unanimously agreed to send Zhang Lei, the only awakener, out when they needed someone to divert the zombies? Even she, his fiancée, didn’t oppose it. Hadn’t they indirectly caused Zhang Lei’s death?
The beautiful woman sighed. “I’m not the one who makes the rules. Don’t blame me. If you want to blame someone, blame this absurd world.”
Song Ke, who had been watching quietly, was impressed by the woman’s logical and cutting insults. She stared at her in awe.
The beautiful woman suddenly turned her head and glared at Song Ke. “What are you looking at? Did I say something wrong?”
Wow, this sister is so fierce.
