Settlement, District Two.
A burly man howled as he crashed through the tent, staggered two steps, then fell to the ground and began twitching nonstop.
One side of the tent bulged outward and finally tore open, as two zombies burst out running wild, roaring as they pounced toward the nearby crowd.
District Thirteen.
A woman holding an infant stumbled toward the headquarters building, with a zombie hot on her heels.
Judging by their speeds, it was only a matter of time before she was caught, but at this moment, no one would come to the aid of this mother and child.
District Twenty-Six.
Several tents burst into raging flames, with cries and screams rising and falling amid the chaos.
Some citizens, in their panic, shrank entirely under the covers, praying that the zombies wouldn’t find them.
Anyone with even a bit of brains was running toward the barracks, while quite a few citizens, frightened out of their wits by the sudden change of circumstance, ran amok like headless flies in the settlement, which only caused even greater chaos.
Chaos spread as quickly as the plague.
The population density in the settlement was simply too high—a hidden danger that people had noticed, but unfortunately, there was no way to resolve it in a short time.
So once zombies appeared in the settlement, the situation spiraled out of control.
Of course, amid this panic, there was still a group of people who remained calm.
To be precise, the chaos in the settlement had been deliberately created by some of these people.
“Dong dong da dong~ Dong dong~ Dong dong da dong~ Bang! Bang! Bang!”
A young people in a gray hooded sweatshirt hummed a tune, swaying his head as he walked toward the research center.
His laid-back appearance stood in stark contrast to the panicked fleeing crowd nearby, as if they weren’t in the same time and space.
The explosion head youth, with his hair dyed in all colors of the rainbow, squatted on top of a tent, holding his hand to his forehead as he surveyed the surroundings.
To be honest, most people made this gesture to shield their eyes from the sun, but it was the middle of the night now, and on top of that, he was dressed in a full suit, giving off an utterly incongruous vibe.
Three men in black suits gathered together. Notably, it was the middle of the night, yet they were still wearing sunglasses, which made them look especially odd.
The bald man spoke up: “Boss, something’s not right. We only caught three infected, right? But looking at this movement, it seems like infected have appeared in seven or eight places.”
“Tch, isn’t it obvious that a bunch of guys had the same idea as us?” The boss curled his lip. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter anyway. This is all to attract the army’s attention—the more chaos, the better.”
The bald man was a bit panicked: “No, boss, I’m worried that even the army won’t be able to control the situation by then. This military base has tens of thousands gathered inside.”
……
Research center building.
“What’s going on out there?”
Zhou Zongming frowned and hurried to the window to check the situation.
It was the middle of the night now, after all, with low visibility. He could at best tell that the settlement was in chaos.
He had no idea what exactly had happened.
His bewilderment didn’t last long. Two phone rings sounded one after the other.
Zhou Zongming and the rapid response force captain exchanged a glance, instantly realizing something was seriously wrong.
They both picked up their phones at the same time. As they listened to the information coming from the other end, Zhou Zongming’s complexion turned extremely ugly.
He strode to the isolation door and slammed his fist against it, his tone icy cold: “Who the hell did this?!”
His intuition told him that A Gu definitely knew the reason, and might even be connected to this chaos.
But A Gu just gave a mocking smile, too lazy to respond.
Even if it wasn’t overtly shown, in reality, most death fighters subconsciously felt a psychological sense of superiority toward “natives”—it was just a matter of degree.
The situation was urgent, and seeing that A Gu clearly had no willingness to cooperate, Zhou Zongming naturally wouldn’t put all his eggs in one basket. He turned and began issuing orders to the rapid response force team members.
“He’s very skilled. Leave four people to guard here. If he comes out of the isolation room, no need to report—just shoot to kill on the spot.
Old Yang, you hurry and take your men to seal off the passages between the various areas of the settlement. If necessary…”
Zhou Zongming paused for a moment here, then continued: “If necessary, you’re authorized to open fire on citizens who force their way through. Hold on until Second and Third Platoons enter to clear the infected.”
The settlement was divided into a total of forty areas, with nearly fifty thousand people gathered.
Although zombies had already appeared in eight areas, the situation hadn’t yet reached its worst.
Zhou Zongming knew very well that once he gave this order, the citizens in areas with zombies could only pray for themselves.
There was no other way—fifty thousand people versus a few thousand; the priorities were clear.
He had to make the tough call without any trace of womanly compassion, or else not only those few areas but even the other more than thirty areas would be impossible to hold.
Soon, aside from the four team members left in the laboratory to guard A Gu, the entire rapid response force withdrew from the research center.
Once everyone had mostly left, Lu Bai, who had remained silent throughout, finally stood up and walked to the window.
“Ke Jianghao probably isn’t your real name, right?”
Zhou Zongming glanced at Lu Bai. He actually had a bellyful of questions he wanted answers to from him, but the timing wasn’t right now—he needed to go to the scene to command.
“I’ll settle accounts with you after this is over. Things are chaotic enough already. You stay put here and don’t cause me any more trouble.”
He didn’t have anyone restrain Lu Bai. With that, he hurried off.
The vast laboratory fell quiet once more.
Lu Bai silently watched the scene outside the window for a moment, let out a long breath, then turned to A Gu in the isolation room and said, “I figure these four guys can’t stop you, but whatever—you’re welcome to try escaping.”
His affable smile, in this context, instead sent chills down the spine.
The four team members on guard heard Lu Bai’s words, which clearly looked down on them, and all felt somewhat displeased.
But before they could refute, they watched in horror as Lu Bai propped one hand on the window ledge and lightly flipped out.
Witnessing this with their own eyes, the four team members stood on the ground staring at each other.
One of the team members’s eyes nearly bulged out: “This… this is the fifth floor, right?”
Bang!
Lu Bai, leaping from the fifth floor, smashed heavily onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
With the boost from Blood Rage, he didn’t even need to roll to dissipate the impact force.
“Can’t owe any more favors. Though it’s just to clear my mind, this one’s way too hard to repay.”
He stood up straight, sighing with a hint of self-mockery.
Then his expression hardened. He stomped the ground, borrowing the violent power feedback from the earth, and shot forward in a burst.