Hans continued until the seventh floor. His eyes scanned the empty hallway. Clean floors and an odor-free path—a drastic appearance to his first time venturing out in the apocalypse.
Kenji stood right outside the door that led to his previous apartment room. That guy stood steadier than a tree, and more protective than a dog.
Hans was amused as to what to call Kenji now. A very loyal servant?
The system already assured that, but this was no longer just loyalty. This was pure obsessiveness.
"I hope I didn’t take too long," Hans closed in. "Had to take a little stroll on the sides. Nostalgia had to hit me of all times."
"Commander, you are just in time," Kenji saluted. "Please come in. I will guard from the outside."
"Don’t be too harsh on yourselves," Hans walked past Kenji. "Rest occasionally. We’ll be here for a day or two."
"Understood, Commander."
The door closed. Silence replaced the hallway noise.
Hans exhaled and looked around. The room was mostly the same as he remembered—except it wasn’t.
Dust had settled on the furniture. Spiders had planted cobwebs on the ceilings and corners.
A chair had been dragged to face a small table, and on that table were the documents Kenji and the rest of the soldiers had delivered, stacked in such a way that no single paper would be able to drift away.
Hans pulled the chair out and sat.
"System," he muttered, "no interruptions unless something is trying to endanger my troops."
[ Understood. ]
He took the top folder first. On it was Dmitri’s handwriting.
Practical and straight to the point.
Although he already had skimmed parts of it, skimming was skimming. Reading and studying the intent behind was a different thing.
Hans flipped the first page.
Route to Pandora District.
The report wasn’t simply just written text. It even involved illustrations too.
Is this a report or a goddamn textbook?
With great interest, Hans plowed through the paragraphs and used the vivid illustrations to reference what Dmitri talked about.
By the time he leaned back, the sun was already at its peak. Yet Hans couldn’t bring himself but be mesmerized by the first report.
Grefort City’s underdeveloped southern area had truly helped him this time.
If it wasn’t for that, perhaps Dmitri’s path to Pandora District would have been extremely perilous.
Sure, there were occasional contact with zombie hordes, but in comparison to the city center, it was merely a drop in the ocean.
However, the existence of a new zombie special made him re-evaluate the threat once more.
Biler—a long-range zombie that could spit acidic projectiles from at least hundreds of meters away.
Not only were they accurate, but they were fast as well. If not for their enlarged bellies that leaked of green liquids, Zolyah may had a harder time locating its presence.
"If this is just the first report, what else is there on the rest?"
Without hesitation, he pushed the first folder aside and grabbed the second one.
The document contained information about the three SAS agents and the defected one, Elias Crowe.
"Tracking a financier in Pandora district, huh?" Hans tapped on the table.
"No wonder the foreign countries were making a mess near Ashington’s borders," he connected a few dots from the online news. "I hope that guy is dead now. If not..."
It would be another thorn to Hans’s ambitions.
He flipped to the next page.
On top was Elias Crowe’s name—martial arts master blessed with a silver tongue and good physique.
"How problematic."
Hans frowned. Just the information about Elias’s mastery in martial arts proved the enemy’s competence.
Not only that, years of experience under the SAS would make it hard to track this guy down.
"Better leave it to luck," Hans sighed. "Oh, what’s this? Large footprints?"
Dmitri narrated how their team encountered large footprints in Elias’ previous territory.
The tall buildings were apparently grazed by something big, yet for some reason, it continued straight into the city center.
A large paragraph of text was crossed out, detailing Dmitri’s uncertainty of what that creature was.
However, the newly written paragraph corrected his previous thoughts—the answer more chilling than what Hans had expected.
```
Tyrus Shearman, the scientist from Pandora District, told me where those large footprints came from.
Apparently, the HVT’s objectives of plundering Project HELIX III supplies in Pandora was primarily halted by the presence of a giant zombie, at least six-story tall, that patrolled the central-southern area of the district.
Fueled by his courage and desperation, the HVT has scoured the district for days in search of a solution.
Tyrus, with his powerful sensory skills, stalked this HVT under great curiosity.
No longer than a week, the said HVT has managed to find the anchor towards the giant’s patrolling behavior.
A three-meter meteorite shard, or at least what Tyrus has described. The HVT grabbed the said shard and lured the giant out of its nest.
On the way out, Tyrus observed that the HVT has carved a creepy smile on their face. In fact, he headed straight into his own territory and decimated his own forces.
It was an irrational move coming from a former SAS agent who wanted to defect and rule the world by his own power.
Tyrus conjectured that the large meteorite shard may have influenced the HVT—a conclusion that I had arrived myself too.
What remains as a mystery was the giant’s behavior of continuing straight to the city center. However, what I can only hope for now is that we never contact it.
Not until the Commander has sufficient armor and tanks to support our cause.
```
Hans didn’t move for a while.
The room was quiet, but his head wasn’t.
A six-story infected. It wasn’t just a special. It was an extraordinary threat.
A walking disaster that could step over walls like they were Lego blocks and crush his entire army as if they were ants. Calling it a monstrosity was no different from a compliment.
Can I even... have a chance against that?
Hans had just promoted. He had just calmed himself thinking he was finally head.
And yet the world reminded him of the truth—he wasn’t.