The Hurricane mercenary band used an entire fortnight to become famous, after which they dominated the top spot on the ranking board. Yet this chuunibyou mercenary group 《Fight Us!!!》 appeared on the ranking board the moment they became famous. No one had even heard about them before they did so.
This could only mean that just one mercenary team had been sent out to finish the mission, as they hadn’t interacted much with others. But the rewards for these kinds of missions weren’t too plentiful so few mercenary bands would accept them. Only those ability users who didn’t have an organisation—who got together temporarily to do the mission, or do it on their own—would accept them.
Being able to survive on such missions alone proved that their mercenary band had some ability. If there was anything these few months had taught them, it was that women and children mustn’t be underestimated.
Chang Xin took a deep breath. “Captain Gu, this mission requires absolute confidentiality so I hope you can give me a definitive answer. If you refuse to do so, we can only kill you right here and now.”
He signaled to the people beside him, who immediately surrounded Shi Sheng’s team. Everyone else retreated to the side. Their expressions were as if they were getting ready to watch a play; they completely kept themselves out of the matter.
“Captain Chang!” Qing Yu hurriedly stood out. He didn’t manage to finish saying what he wanted to before Shi Sheng pulled him back.
“Boss, there are too many of them. Let’s just submit for now.” Qing Yu knew his Boss was currently feeling testy but with so many ability users here, they were at a disadvantage.
“Submit?” Shi Sheng humphed coldly, arrogance written all over her face. “Only other people submit to me, when did it become my turn?”
Qing Yu was speechless. ‘Boss, even if you want to go all chuuni, can you please pick a better time?!’
Shi Sheng’s volume wasn’t low so Chang Xin heard her words. Even the people further away did.
Some of the onlookers whistled, clearly amused by Shi Sheng’s fearless attitude. They had seen a lot of these kinds of girls who thought the world was the same as it was pre-apocalypse. ‘What? Did you think just because you had a bit of money you could do whatever you want? Strength is the most important now! It seems like this is all the mysterious FU has to offer!’
But even more people were thinking that these youths must have someone backing them. The atmosphere turned tense.
“Ah! Run! Zombies got in!” A sudden shout broke the stalemate. The voice had come from the second floor.
Chang Xin gave up arguing with Gu Nan and lifted his head to look towards the second floor. A few human silhouettes sprinted down from upstairs, Qi Mingxue and Song Shi among them.
‘As expected, wherever the main character goes, trouble is soon to follow!’
A fire-breathing zombie was chasing after them. Shi Sheng frowned slightly. ‘That zombie wasn’t the one from before…
Fuck! There’s more than one of them?!’
“Head for the basement!”
“Hurry, go!”
They weren’t able to deal with fourth stage zombies yet so they could only run. Chang Xin was the one who yelled for them to head for the basement. His people hurriedly opened the door, with Shi Sheng being forced to follow along.
“Shut the door!”
“But there are still people out there…”
“To hell with that! Wait any more and we’re toast! Hurry up and shut the door!” The soldier in charge of holding the door open looked at Chang Xin. Chang Xin looked at the people still outside before nodding his head with some difficulty.
The heavy metal door thudded shut, blocking out the sounds from outside. This place was more like an underground laboratory than a basement.
The emergency lights were still functioning, so although there wasn’t much light here, everyone could still see clearly.
“What happened? How did a fourth stage zombie get in?”
“We clearly checked before that there was no way to get in from above.” The people who had been downstairs all looked at those who had run down from the second floor. Only four people had managed to enter the basement in time. Qi Mingxue and Song Shi were naturally included.
One of them paled before he spoke, clearly still shocked from what happened just now, “It… it was Wang Tu.”
“Fuck! I knew we shouldn’t have let him come! All he ever does is mess things up!” Wang Tu’s reputation was clearly quite bad; everyone started cursing at him once after the first person spoke.
Qi Mingxue saw Shi Sheng—who was hard to miss as she was still surrounded by Chang Xin’s people. Shi Sheng looked back at Qi Mingxue, unafraid, before shooting her a provocative smile.
That smile was filled with malice yet her eyes were apathetic and cold. Qi Mingxue could feel her scalp tingling, it was as if she was being stared at by a vicious beast. Shi Sheng broke eye contact first.
At that same moment, Qi Mingxue released the breath she had been holding. Just now she had some difficulty in breathing…
“Is this place safe?”
“This is a laboratory?? Then are those… human corpses? Come and look at this. What are those? Holy fuck…”
It was too late for Chang Xin to stop them from looking. This place was rather spacious, and there was a lot of apparatus and equipment here. Spaced at regular intervals around the laboratory were glass tanks. A lot of pipes and tubes were attached to the top of these tanks. The tanks were filled with a muddy yellow liquid and within one of those tanks, in that liquid, a person was suspended.
Though to call it a person would be inaccurate. Half of its face had already been zombified while the other half remained the same. It looked like a Frankenstein creature made of human and zombie parts.
“What the hell is that?! I think I’m gonna puke…”
“This place fell after the apocalypse started, so doesn’t that mean these things were already here before the apocalypse began?”
“Heavens, it couldn’t be that those… things outside were made by these people, could it?”
Shi Sheng’s gaze took in their reactions as she looked at Chang Xin gloatingly. “Ze ze, Captain Chang ah, now what are you going to do? Silence them? Ah, a pity, it seems as though your people are outnumbered so you can’t beat them…”
Her voice immediately attracted the attention of those people and they all closed in on Chang Xin.
“Captain Chang, shouldn’t you be giving us an explanation? We risked our lives to help you retrieve a so-called ‘important document’ yet this is what you show us?!”
“Captain Chang, please explain. Were those things outside created by the government?”
“Captain Chang…”
Chang Xin glared hatefully at Shi Sheng. “I didn’t know what was in here either. I’m only obeying orders. What everyone should be focusing on is not this, but how to get out of here.”
“Captain Chang, since you don’t know what was here, how did you know there was an underground lab in the first place?” Shi Sheng continued to cause trouble for him.
Chang Xin kept glaring at her as he replied through clenched teeth, “I was given some information by my superiors before I left. I have a blueprint of this place.”
“Since you have a blueprint, why didn’t you give it to them before? Captain Chang, in my opinion, you’re just treating them as a vanguard to clear out the place for you. This so-called mission is just a cover, isn’t it?”
“Gu Nan, don’t keep trying to sow discord! I don’t know anything!” Chang Xin roared in rage at Shi Sheng. He was a military man, so of course he would obey his superiors’ orders. Besides, this matter had to be carried out for the sake of all humankind…
“Look, you’re flying into a rage out of humiliation. That means I’m probably right. Besides, do you think they don’t have brains of their own? Don’t they know how to think for themselves and decide whether what I said was right or not? Do you think they’re pigs?”