Chapter Five: First Encounter with Biochemistry (III)

Chapter Five: First Encounter with Biohazard

Thank you all for your support. Just a little effort—move your fingers, tell your friends about this book—will give me more motivation to keep updating. If you have a recommendation ticket, please vote; if not, just add it to your collection. Both are a source of inspiration for me, and with motivation comes explosive progress.

Now, on to the story.

“I hope when you’re covered in blood, you’ll still be able to say that,” Schuster said with a cold smile.

“Uh…” Jan Lan was instantly silenced.

Matthew Addison and the leading lady stepped out of the central computer room. The Black mercenary looked utterly exhausted. Glancing at the corpses in the corridor, he said, “There’s no way to deal with them right now. Let’s take the Red Queen’s mainframe back to the company first. Kaplan, what’s the situation in the Hive?”

Kaplan tapped a few times on the computer and replied, “All good. All defense systems are down. We can walk out of the Hive in a straight line.”

Matthew Addison nodded. “Good. Then now—”

He hadn’t finished speaking when a burst of gunfire erupted from the direction of “Cafeteria B.” Addison and Kaplan exchanged glances, gripped their guns, and dashed out. Alice and two other main characters followed close behind, and the Reincarnators, exchanging looks, also hurried after them.

When Schuster and the others reached Cafeteria B, he paid special attention to the containers that once held the Lickers. The green lights that used to shine atop the containers had all turned red, indicating the cryogenic systems had failed. The thought of such a terrifying number of Lickers made him want to stay and rack up points, but he decided to prioritize protecting this group of Reincarnators.

At the entrance to Cafeteria B, Rain, the long-haired female mercenary, was standing there cursing, clutching her hand. Addison asked, “What happened? I heard gunfire.”

A chunk of flesh was missing between Rain’s thumb and forefinger, blood pouring freely—a horrifying sight. Gritting her teeth, she replied, “Sir, we found a survivor, but he’d gone mad. He bit me…”

Addison frowned. “So you shot him?”

Rain answered loudly, “Sir, but he’d lost his mind!”

“Rain, let me treat you, or you’ll become one of those monsters. Just look at their blood—it’s not human.” Schuster suddenly stepped forward.

“Hmm? Thank you.” Rain was startled for a moment, then offered her hand.

Nearby, Addison knelt to inspect the blood stains. The blood was already half-dried and viscous—clearly not freshly spilled. A sense of dread welled up in his heart; he decided they needed to get out immediately.

A faint green light enveloped Rain’s hand. As soon as it touched, black blood spurted out, bubbling on the ground—just like the death animation of zombies in the Resident Evil games. The wound then healed before their eyes in five seconds.

“Successfully saved the infected mercenary. Reward: one C-grade plot item, 500 reward points.” More earnings—so it seemed his earlier intuition was correct. Schuster had suspected that saving Rain would yield reward points, but he hadn’t expected a C-grade plot item as well.

“It’s a miracle, but who exactly are you?” Addison asked, staring in astonishment at Rain’s healed wound and the black blood on the floor.

“I’ve studied some materials on dark creatures, and I’m a mid-level member of the Church. This is Holy Light magic—it can heal and expel darkness,” Schuster lied smoothly.

Rain came over to thank Schuster, “Heh, thank you!”

“Tell everyone not to get bitten, or they’ll become monsters too,” Schuster said.

Addison stood and shouted, “We’re leaving the Hive immediately!”

Rain, surprised, asked, “Sir? Weren’t our orders to secure the Red Queen’s mainframe and stand guard until backup arrives?”

Addison shook his head with a bitter smile. “There’s no backup anymore. Get ready to move out!”

At that moment, Jan Lan quietly approached Schuster. “Weren’t you afraid of changing the plot when you spoke just now?” she whispered.

Before Schuster could answer, Zhang Jie scoffed, “You’re the impressive ones. As newcomers, you’ve actually altered the plot and survived… Take a look at your watches—does Matthew Addison’s name still show?”

Jan Lan and Zheng Zha both looked down. Sure enough, Addison’s name had vanished, leaving only a blank space.

Zhang Jie sneered, “From now on, we can act freely. Remember, you can do anything—as long as you survive.”

From a distance came the sound of metal scraping. Rain and JD, guns drawn, moved toward the noise. After a few steps, a man in a lab coat dragging a sledgehammer appeared from around the corner, followed by several unsteady figures.

JD racked his gun. “Stop, or I’ll shoot!”

Of course, these “people” couldn’t stop—they’d long been turned into zombies by the T-virus. As more appeared from every corner, their work clothes and lab coats were in various states of decay; some had begun to rot, and others, with ankles grotesquely twisted, still staggered forward. Zheng Zha saw one whose head was only half intact, the gray-white bone and brain matter exposed—a sight that nearly made him vomit.

“Stop! Or I’ll shoot!”

Bang!

Addison was the first to open fire, sending the sledgehammer-wielding zombie flying. Yet, it quickly staggered back to its feet, riddled with bullets but barely bleeding.

Bang!

Zhang Jie’s Desert Eagle roared, the zombie’s head exploding like a watermelon. He sneered, “Go find an exit—leave this to me!”

Addison hesitated, then shouted, “All team members, keep formation! JD, find us an exit! Rain, guard the prisoners! The rest, stay with me!”

Zheng Zha glanced back—Zhang Jie wasn’t firing yet. He spun the Desert Eagle around his finger, letting the zombies get closer, then unleashed a string of shots, blowing away the heads of those nearest. His shooting speed and accuracy were beyond ordinary—far beyond!

Schuster, meanwhile, was even more brazen. With zombies just four meters away, he leisurely drew another pistol and—

Bang, bang, bang—the two guns danced in his hands like magic, firing alternately, heads bursting all around.

Click, click—both guns empty, he tossed them skyward, loaded two magazines with a flourish right out of an action film, caught the falling guns, and the shooting dance began anew.

Beside him, Lolita took care of zombies flanking from behind, mowing them down like wheat.

Watching the three in action, Zheng Zha decided it was safest to imitate Zhang Jie—never shooting at zombies more than ten meters away, as that was his effective range. With no sights on these pistols, it was all about gun feel, and as a first-timer, he could only dominate within ten meters.

Others, unaware of this, saw Zheng Zha raise his gun and fire, always hitting headshots as if he never needed to aim. Addison noted this with approval, and he and the other mercenaries kept their eyes forward, leaving the zombies behind to the four in the rear.

Li Xiaoyi’s eyes sparkled as he exclaimed, “Brother Zheng Zha, you’re incredible! You must have used guns before—how many reward points is that?”

Addison suddenly turned. “Reward points?”

Li Xiaoyi’s face instantly turned ashen, likely having heard a warning and suffered a deduction—a stroke of bad luck, ending up with negative points and no reward at all.

Addison gave the three of them a puzzled look, then turned back toward the front. Jan Lan patted her chest and whispered, “That was close. I thought we’d changed the plot again.”

Jan Lan had a great figure and a lovely face, and her chest bounced with her sigh of relief, catching the eyes of both Zheng Zha and Li Xiaoyi. Realizing the attention, she quickly folded her arms. “Do you think something’s happened to Zhang Jie? We can’t see him anymore.”

Suddenly, the zombies ahead began dropping with headshots. Zhang Jie charged through, shouting, “What are you doing? Didn’t I tell you to stay close? Haven’t you seen the movie? A Licker’s about to break out here!”

With that, his Desert Eagle blazed, mowing down the oncoming zombies. He didn’t wait for Zheng Zha’s group, but sprinted off after the mercenaries. Snapping back to their senses, Zheng Zha and the others hurried after him.

Schuster and Lolita had the easiest time of all; their hit rate while moving remained perfect, taking down at least fifty zombies along the way.

When everyone finally regrouped in the Red Queen’s server room and sealed the doors, they were, for the moment, safe.

PS: I’m thinking of turning the Red Queen into a supercomputer—a toy for the main heroine, perhaps? Just kidding. What else is there here but toys anyway?