Chapter 12: 12

In fact, Shi Qing still underestimated the possible outcomes to his situation. When he woke up from passing through the vortex, he was greeted with a decayed, rotten face. It smelled putrid, and to top it all off, the eyeballs were actually falling out.

As he had recalled earlier, classmate Shi Qing could be considered a coward. He could hardly bring himself to glance at the TV screen when Resident Evil was playing. Even so, he was subject to many sleepless nights for the little he did see. However, at this moment he was currently faced with a three-dimensional, ultra-close-range, high-definition view of his nightmares. He could only manage to think—what the fuck was this sorcery?!

In that moment, something that he was even more incapable of comprehending happened. He was unable to control his own body, and flew straight toward this stereotypical zombie face. He slammed straight into the forehead before him with a sickening crunch, and was inundated with flesh and blood, a pungent odour, and a general sensation of stickiness. What was this? Was this…it must be the brain!

…It was a rotten brain, and he was actually touching it.

QAQ…let people live!

After he paused for a few seconds, he felt his body turn around and hit something as hard as a rock, and he crushed it. He finally broke away from the oppression of that disgusting place, and was able to breathe the fresh air.

When Shi Qing gasped for air, he finally figured it out.

His free body turned out to be a dagger! Even better, he had just exploded a zombie’s head! He should feel honoured, ha, ha!

The thing that left him speechless was that he was not being wielded by Qin Mo. Rather, he belonged to a military officer guarding the scientist Leng Lin.

The name of the officer was Li Su, and he had the rank of colonel. He was remarkably brave and fierce at fighting; he had killed more zombies than Shi Qing could imagine. More importantly, he was good at using a variety of weapons. Whether it was a firearm, a knife or a dagger—all were good. Even a fruit knife could be used to great effect.

Today’s situation arose because ammunition was precious, and for that reason it was saved for desperate situations. This was why Li Su pulled out a dagger to deal with the zombie instead of a gun. Shi Qing was able to join him just in time to pierce through the zombie’s rotten forehead…

As the fighting continued, Li Su did not know that his dagger has been possessed by a coward.

Once he understood his current circumstances, Shi Qing’s tears flowed like a river. He should never have abandoned the jade as his body. Compared with Li Su’s dagger, being Qin Mo’s jade pendant was good, very good—could not be better!

He really did not want to get intimately acquainted with those ‘beloved buddies’, but he still found himself being thrust into their brains. Although he was a dagger, he still felt himself growing nauseated to the point that he might retch if he could.

At this time, a zombie rushed over with several loops of intestine hanging out. When he looked straight at him, his heart was enveloped with fear, and he felt even more nauseated. If not for his excellent willpower, he would have disregarded his situation and started yelling long ago.

Li Su responded swiftly and violently. He leaped sideways to evade the incoming attack, turned around, raised his hand, and in one fluid motion he stabbed the zombie through the forehead. Unlike the first time this had happened, Shi Qing was subjected to more than just the disgusting smell of putrefaction. This time he saw the skin ulcers and tumbling maggots lurking within the body. Just as he almost could not help but want to scream, a deafening gunshot rang out, and a meteor-like bullet streaked in front of his body, and entered the zombie’s skull with no resistance.

As soon as the head was struck, the nucleus within the brain ruptured due to the force, and the rotten body quickly slackened and was reduced to a pool of blood.

Shi Qing was completely dumbfounded for a moment, and then quickly filled with joy. He did not have to enter the head of the zombie, and he was not surrounded by disgusting brain matter! God, it is great. It really is so good. His entire life was now bright and sunny!

He quickly scanned his immediate surroundings and saw a man standing nearby with a gun. He was outfitted in pure black combat clothes, gloves, a belt, and leather boots. The entire get-up was very practical. Coupled with his outstanding appearance, it served to give him an impressive bearing and strong presence. Shi Qing shifted his line of sight; although the tough-looking face was unfamiliar, he was elegant and handsome.

Shi Qing was momentarily puzzled over this person’s identity, but as soon as he saw those jet black pupils, he understood.

Qin Mo—it was Qin Mo!

Qin Mo glanced at him, and then something caught his attention. He glanced sideways, raised his hand, and fired off three shots. With those, he quickly and accurately took out the three zombies that still surrounded Li Su.

Then he strode forward, and when he reached Li Su, Qin Mo held out his hand and ordered, “Give it to me.”

Li Su saw that his own dagger was in the other man’s line of sight. He cursed him within his heart, mother fucker, what does that even mean?

Despite the situation, the fighting continued; zombie after zombie emerged incessantly. Li Su ignored Qin Mo. He just wanted to turn around and fight, but the desert eagle[1] was pointed directly between his eyes.

Fuck! What kind of fucking mental case was this guy? Li Su paused; he had almost shouted just that, but he suddenly stopped when he looked into Qin Mo’s eyes.

Li Su had fought in many life and death situations over the past couple decades, and he was keenly aware of death. He could clearly feel that the eyes gazing upon him were filled with killing intent. Those eyes were merciless and cruel; if he resisted in the slightest, that man would definitely pull the trigger.

“For you,” he spat as he handed over the dagger, but he deliberately clenched the handle, and pointed the blade towards Qin Mo.

Qin Mo was indifferent, and he did not hesitate to grasp the blade. The sharp edge of the blade cut into his palm, causing blood to drip down his wrist, but he did not even notice. He had snatched the dagger so quickly, it was almost like it was his in the first place.

Once he had it, he did not even move his hand to grasp the hilt, and he did not put it back in a sheath. He just held it tightly, as blood seeped out from between his fingers; they were inextricably linked. While that hand was clenched on the dagger, he raised the desert eagle in his other hand and fired off several rounds. His shots were quick, relentless, accurate, and he exhibited marksmanship worthy of recognition. In addition, his body coordination was also very good, his movements were rapid, and his dodging showcased his agility. He always managed to strike vital points, and with that accuracy he even managed to take out three zombies with a single shot.

Li Su stood there with a stupid look on his face for half the day, and then fixed his expression, and flatly spat, “Fucking mental case,” and then pulled another dagger out of his belt. He turned toward towards a zombie with broken arms and mangled legs.

The fight lasted for three hours, but they finally exterminated the zombies in the area. Once that happened, they hid in an abandoned food freezer, and paused for a quick break.

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They did not know how many times they had fought. The initial squad of thirty individuals had been reduced to only seven people. Leng Lin was still safe, and the remaining group of six consisted of three soldiers and three mercenaries; somehow it was evenly proportioned.

Although the two different groups did not get along, they had experienced so many life and death situations together, so they could at least easily coordinate with one another. After all, no one wanted to sacrifice any more lives.

Li Su could not help but glance at Qin Mo. The mercenary sat down at the edge of a nearby wall, and his gun was tucked away, but he still held onto the dagger. He stroked the sharp blade with his slender fingers, and his gesture gave off a somewhat ambiguous feeling. It was like a greedy person had obtained a priceless treasure, or a demonic cultivator had come across a beauty unmatched in her generation; he displayed a blatant desire to monopolize and pollute the item in his hand…Li Su was disgusted by his own thoughts and scolded himself within his heart, branded Qin Mo as a mental case in his mind, and turned a blind eye to the whole situation.

During the confrontation between Qin Mo and Li Su, Shi Qing carefully observed everything. Qin Mo had rescued him from the disgusting and brain-filled world, and that made him extremely happy. Precisely because of this happiness, he unconsciously got closer to Qin Mo.

Although Qin Mo’s character had yet to be fully explored, at least he attached some importance to Shi Qing. While it could be due to the contract between them, no matter the reason, Qin Mo was willing to save him within the first few moments of their arrival. He was even willing to harm himself—this act, Shi Qing took care to remember.

Since there were many people in the vicinity, it was inconvenient for Shi Qing to speak. In order to express his gratitude, he did his best to manipulate his strange body, and softly rubbed the hollow of Qin Mo’s palm with the handle of the dagger…

Qin Mo looked down at him, and even spoke out loud, “Are you afraid?”

Even though Qin Mo started talking, Shi Qing did not respond. Li Su heard him speak, and looked over, stunned. All he saw was Qin Mo looking down, completely focused, at the dagger.

Li Su could not help ridicule the man in his heart…is this fucker talking to the dagger? Maybe he should get rid of this mental case, ah, there was definitely something wrong with him.

Due to his wild field of vision, Shi Qing was keenly aware of the gaze of his ‘former master’, and did not dare to move again. He was afraid of being discovered as a unique dagger and then reclaimed.

Seeing that he had gone motionless, Qin Mo gently touched him, and whispered, “I’m afraid, be obedient and stay by my side.”

Shi Qing: “…”

Li Su: …Hey, mercenary, why did you abandon your treatment?

Everyone filled their stomachs during their break, and then spontaneously gathered around Leng Lin to plan their next move.

Leng Lin was the only surviving scientist from the original research group. He had immersed himself in research for dozens of years, and had secretly been doing his own research on the instruments used in the original research. Ten days ago he had finally broken through and made some progress. Using the original data collected from the experimental subject, he was able to detect them with the instrument. This success was also the beginning of the mission to collect samples[2].

However, this device had a limited range; it could only detect an experimental subject within a radius of one kilometer.

They broke into the zombie base camp, and after taking innumerable risks, they finally detected an experimental subject with the device. This meant that as long as they were able to capture the experimental subject, they could collect the necessary sample and return.

Unlike how it sounded, it was not so easy to accomplish in reality. Although they were excessively cautious, they were exposed in an unknown manner, and met with a raging tide of zombies. This caused their team to suffer heavy losses, as well as losing the signal from the experimental subject. For this reason, they had to fall back to their current location and take their time making a decision on their next move.

Li Su summarized their current resources first, “Our food and ammunition can last up to five days, so if we take into account the two days for the return trip, we only have three days to do what we need.”

His firm voice fell on their ears, and was met with utter silence.

Originally, it was anticipated that the mission would take ten days. Five full days had passed, and in that time they lost twenty-three team members and many supplies. The outcome thus far had failed to meet people’s expectations.

Now, only seven people remained, and they only had three days to complete their objective. On top of that, they had also lost the signal they finally found with great difficulty…could they really collect the samples they needed?

The situation was not optimistic. Even though all of them were well-versed elites, they could not help being discouraged by what felt like a hopeless situation that was gradually squeezing them in.

Leng Lin quietly watched everyone, and then broke the silence, “In half an hour, we should continue searching for the signal of the experimental subject.” Having said that, he looked over at Li Su.

Li Su was the spokesman for the government side in this operation. That, coupled with his remarkable abilities, gave him the right to have a say.

He pondered for a moment, and just when he wanted to say something, he was interrupted.

“Stay here.”

Just a quick note on updates in case you don’t read PUP. I will likely be slowing down with my releases a bit now that summer is here.  Gotta spend time with the family when I can! But it won’t be a crazy amount, fear not.

Also, a quick note: the next chapter is twice the usual length so it could take me a bit longer as well.

Desert Eagle – a type of gun  It didn’t specify the experimental subjects, but I’m assuming that was what was intended.

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