Chapter 44

Since then, whenever Comrade Liu Zhu, the Captain of the Team 3, saw Shang Si and Zhang Zhiyin these two disgusting people, he would find them unpleasing to his eyes, believing that they had colluded with each other and framed him, this toiling masses.

He could not say that he was unable to get the wood stone to the person above him. It would show he seemingly have no ability and could not do anything well. So he reasoned that the information was insufficient and that he could not find the whereabouts of the wood stone for a while. Then somehow that man suddenly lost his sense of the wood stone, he didn’t blame him or say that he must get it. He only told him to keep paying attention, this matter was then left unsettled. As if the man had always been generous in his way of doing things.

Look at others, look at yourself. Liu Zhu looked askance at Shang Si and slandered inwardly.

Every time Shang Si took charge of a task, he would give the best task to the second team on the pretext of public welfare, and he would follow in person to take a look. He would also give part of his welfare to the second team, and followed the second team when they went out to eat. At first he still bothered to do some cover-up, but afterward, he simply didn’t care and didn’t hide.

This was really! There weren’t anything more for him to say, even if he did, it would be endless.

Fortunately, with the exception of the wood stone matters, Shang Si handled all other things fairly, at least better than Supervisor Mi. He was also lazy to be a bother about it, he just waited for his shift to be over so that he can leave the front line and return back to the base.

On that day, they received another task, which was to clean up a factory, and it required all the three teams under Shang Si to act together.

The factory workshop was full of cold and heavy metal machines. They stood there silently, as if dead, as if alive, watching them one by one. No one could guess what kind of monster was hidden behind the machines.

It was often required for those fighting on the front line to enter into the deepest part of those long-abandoned cities. In the depths of human civilization long occupied by the dead, they found something more difficult to deal with than a zombie, it was called a mutant. Although the zombies were ugly, they still retained a human form, but no definite shapes could be identified in a mutant at all; they often just had several limbs or none at all. They sometimes had more than one head or just had no head. Their facial features were messy and unclear. Their existence was the same as that of a nightmare.

There were many grotesquely shaped monsters in all kinds of online games. In the game, mutants were just some kind of monster which were difficult to beat amidst the zombie’s horde. Although they were ugly, players could just zoom out their camera and they wouldn’t be able to see them. They were all small lumps, just as big as they(the lump) were. It wasn’t until Zhang Zhiyin saw the mutant in the world that he realized how inhuman the existence of this kind of thing was, and even zombies looked much more friendly to him.

Zhang Zhiyin once witnessed the birth of a mutant. Five or six zombies, for some unknown reason, tore and swallowed each other, and the last surviving one ate the other, twitching and growing like an insect and turning into a terrible mutant— it was totally against the normal evolutionary mechanism of the zombies, but like the legendary Gu, they fought each other, and what survived became a more bothersome existence.

Mutants were harder to deal with, but fortunately, they did not seem to be able to evolve like ordinary zombies.

Liu Zhu took two of his team members to push forward into the factory. This place was too big, but the zombies weren’t densely distributed so they had to divide into several routes of action.

It was so quiet that they could only hear each other’s footsteps and breathing sounds. The communicator was pinned to the waist of the battle suit. The light green light on it was shining quietly— everything was normal.

A machine as tall as half a human on the left suddenly let out a sound as if something was moving.

Liu Zhu raised his hand and all three of them stopped and waited quietly in place.

The voice could still be heard, but it didn’t seem to be moving to their side.

Liu Zhu furrowed his eyebrows. Something seemed wrong. If there was a zombie behind it, by nature, it should be going closer to where the living was.

He looked at the two team members and nodded.

Long-term cooperation had made them form a tacit understanding, three people instantly understood each other’s meaning. Liu Zhu was to stay put here for support, and the remaining two went carefully to the place where the voice was emitted.

“There’s a zombie! Wood Elemental, it is at least Level 3!” One of the members shouted.

Another added: “Captain! It’s Level Four!”

The sound of gunfire and their ability manifesting echoed. Judging from their chaotic footsteps, they seemed to be running towards this side. It could be imagined that they were running towards this side while sending out their ability at the same time.

Liu Zhu was waiting to give them support. Suddenly, he felt a bad premonition— This was a battle instinct formed after a long time in the front line.

He felt as if he had been stared at by something dangerous and his back became chilled.

A very weak and harsh scratching sounded behind him like dry branches gliding across the ground.

Something was crawling?

Liu Zhu immediately looked back and met directly with a face that had no facial features looking at him from the ground.

It was a mutant.

Before they split, the captain of Team 1, a Level 5 psychic ability user had already made a wide range of psychic scan to this area. The strongest zombie he sensed with his psychic ability was no more than Level 4. It was unexpected that there was a mutant lurking here.

This guy might be harder to deal with than he thought.

It had no legs, and its torso seemed to have lost its ability to stand upright, but it had six shriveled and deformed arms of varying length. There were also bloodstains on some of its arms. It wiggled forward against the ground like some large spider.

But spiders were cuter in comparison.

Liu Zhu exhaled. He now understood why didn’t the Level 4 wood elemental zombie approach them. It instinctively feared this fellow.

Liu Zhu did not shoot in haste. His right hand was prepared with his ability was focused on the mutant, while his left hand was calm enough to pull out the walkie-talkie and send out a message of seeking help.

“Pa.” On the ground, the mutant sent out a gust of wind, knocking off the walkie-talkie. The black device flew far on the ground, giving a clear echo.

The two team members also realized Liu Zhu’s situation. They looked at each other, bit their teeth, and began to circle with the wooden zombie as much as possible. Fortunately, the zombie had strong defense and control, but its attack was normal, they should be able to hang on for a while if they cooperated well enough.

Liu Zhu aimed at the abdomen of the mutant, the mutant also had something similar to evolution, they would instinctively evolve themselves to hide their vulnerable areas. He judged that the mutant’s weakness was hidden at the bottom of the abdomen that was close to the ground.

Liu Zhu raised his hand and shot with his left hand. It went straight toward the door; Almost at the same time, it dodged sideways, the fireball that had already been prepared under it exploded with a brilliant spark!

The mutant did not have much intelligence. It was totally angry and no longer hid itself. It was surrounded by vigor and its six limbs erected at the same time. Countless wind blades formed a sharp net and rushed toward Liu Zhu.

Liu Zhu could not escape and was scratched by three of them. Black blood instantaneously flowed out of the wound on the arm.

Damn it! There’s poison!

Mutants were a bit difficult to deal with. They often had two or three abilities, one of which was dominant and the other was auxiliary.

Without hesitation, Liu Zhu set up a fire shield and began to fight guerrillas with the mutant.

…

The fire elemental posses the strongest attack power among the common elemental powers, but its defense was rather weak. It also followed the basic settings of game professional balance. The mutant was very aggressive, almost three times as fast as ordinary zombies of the same rank, but it was not fast enough to chase Liu Zhu all the way to a corridor in the factory.

It was a dead end.

Under the threat of death, Liu Zhu burst out with great potential, but at the same time, his physical strength was consumed very quickly.

Looking at the wall in front of him, he could not help but fear that he might die. He turned his head, lowered his eyes, folded his hands, and prepared to send another big fireball to fight for the chance to overthrow the mutant and run away again— if not, just let it be.

Just then, an ice blade flew through the mutant’s neck.

Mutants were smart in battle, or they had a strong survival instinct. Knowing that there were enemies behind it, it did not give them a chance to take advantage of the battle, instead, it abandoned the original prey Liu Zhu. It quickly moved its six limbs to face the new enemy, from the beginning to the end, it did not reveal its weaknesses.

But it was no use.

A thin line of thunder slips through the gap between its limbs and buried itself quietly inside it, and then there was a sudden blast! Purple light flickered through the dark corridor, lighting it up as if illuminated by daylight. Liu Zhu looked at the scene before him and felt only a tingling pain in his eyes.

Even if he held a lot of disdain for him, at this time the heart would inevitably produce some admiration — Shang Si’s level of power, although not the top, his control over his ability was extraordinary. To turn a thunderbolt power into a soft, stretchable line just like a fine thread, what was needed was a very precise control.

The mutant was blown up, and his abdomen was blackened.

Without waiting for it to react, an ice sphere hit the wound on its abdomen, the area of impact was freezing rapidly and dissolved consequently.

Shang Si and Zhang Zhiyin stood on the other side of the corridor, their hands just lowered down.

Perfect cooperation.

Liu Zhu’s breathing gradually calmed down. At this time, he took the initiative to dig out the crystal nucleus. As a result, he unexpectedly dug out three nuclei; one Level 1 wind nuclei, one Level 4 poisonous nuclei, and one Level 4 psychic nuclei. No wonder the Captain of Team 1 could not find it. Presumably, this psychic nucleus was used to provide a psychic camouflage.

Shang Si’s actions had aroused Zhang Zhiyin’s male fighting spirit in an all-round way. In order to guard against Shang Si, he hastily upgraded the Redemption suit, now with the suit’s support, he had reached Level 6. However, the original Level 5 Shang Si also raised his ability a few days ago, stepping into the ranks of Level 6. Every time he had a task, he would intentionally ask to be grouped with himself. His team members would all silently support his request in order to make him had a good relationship with him.

However, after several tasks, Zhang Zhiyin had made some slight improvement on his views regarding Shang Si. Although this guy seemed to be hard to talk to, self-centered, ignorant to other people’s feelings and had bad intentions, Zhang Zhiyin found that Shang Si was sometimes absent-minded and he was not that annoying.

However, this still did not erase the label of the bad intentions he had. After sorting out the mutant, Zhang Zhiyin went straight away. Shang Si gave Liu Zhu a hint and hurried to keep up with him.

Liu Zhu looked at the two men, touching his chin and pondered— Could it be that he assumed wrongly, and it was not the case of Zhang Zhiyin collaborating with Shang Si, and then Shang Si offering private benefits to him; instead, the Deputy Manager really liked Zhang Zhiyin, and it seemed that Zhang Zhiyin didn’t accept him? So the wood stone was just used by the Deputy Manager to show his intention?

To pursue what one loved, it was inevitable that one’s mind became feverish. No matter how big the world was, it was still less important than their wife. Liu Zhu felt that although he was a little older, he still understood the younger people. When he was young, the world had not ended, and his salary was low. He pestered and fought with his colleagues for any task. After saving for half a month, he followed the majority and bought a bouquet for his wife who was not yet his wife at that time. As to why he was fighting so hard on the frontlines, it was all because he wanted his wife that accompanied him throughout the apocalypse and his children to live a better life.

Considering this, and coupled with the handsome explosion from just now, Liu Zhu’s affection for this young man staggered upward until it was a positive value. He silently became a member of the support group “Supporting Shang Si in pursuit of his beloved”.

——————

Zhang Zhiyin put up with it, but in the end, he could not. Turning to Shang Si that was following him, he said what he thought was the most drama-like line: “I have someone I like.”

Shang Si stayed for a while and then asked him as if expecting it, “Whom do you like?” Like he knew that the answer would be him.

Zhang Zhiyin really didn’t know where his confidence came from.

He said, “A great man.” Although everyone knew Dr. Y, he couldn’t say his identity. It seemed a little inappropriate to say “Yin Nian”. After all, Dr. Yin was also a public figure.

“Oh?” Shang Si tried to keep his eyes from shining. “What does he look like to you?”

“Strong, handsome, steady and self-sustaining, smart, the world’s first… he’s a little cold, but he is cool and handsome.” Zhang Zhiyin himself bowed his head after listing them. He looked up and found that Shang Si was looking at him. His face, which was always gloomy and alienated had a faint smile, which filled his ordinary passers-by face with a different glory. He seemed to be very happy.

The most unbearable thing was his rippling eyes.

Zhang Zhiyin couldn’t help adding, “I didn’t say it’s you.”

Shang Si opened its mouth only to close them in frustration.

Since then, however, Zhang Zhiyin had discovered that Deputy Manager had a new hobby—listening to himself praise the person he liked.

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