"The one in this car least likely to find an Omega is you," Chuncao commented.

The armored vehicle rumbled over the road surface. The Zombies on both sides of the highway turned their heads at the sound, but the dust and smoke were already far away, heading toward the dilapidated and desolate B City up ahead.

"When you said 'least', did you include our team's temporary worker, Comrade Xiao Si?" Zhou Rong asked.

Zhang Yingjie, who was in the front passenger seat checking the road conditions, turned his head and smiled, "Rong-ge doesn't get it, huh? Good-looking Betas are the most popular with Omegas. They talk about being considerate, gentle, and mutually respectful..."

Zhou Rong pointed at Si Nan and said unhappily, "What about him looks gentle? What about him looks respectful?!"

Si Nan was hugging an Uzi submachine gun, his head leaning against the shaking wall of the vehicle, feigning sleep with his eyes closed. He showed no intention of even opening his mouth.

"Si Xiaonan would probably have a tough time too," Chuncao evaluated objectively and fairly. "The ones who'd have the easiest time are either Yan Hao or Xiangzi. As for Yan Hao, not much needs to be said. A handsome face is an advantage anywhere, and he has a natural, deep, melancholic, campus-hunk vibe, which definitely meets the little Omegas' requirements for gentleness and respect."

Yan Hao, holding the steering wheel, said politely, "Thank you for the organization's affirmation."

"Xiangzi's case is simple. He can use his background to bully his way through, and if that doesn't work, just throw money at the problem," Chuncao said casually. "Right, Xiangzi? How about you show our Rong-ge the ropes someday, and we can all..."

The expressions of Zhou Rong, Yan Hao, Zhang Yingjie, and Ding Shi—who had been listening with a smile without a word—all changed drastically at the same time. "Don't bring it up—!"

But it was already too late.

Guo Weixiang turned his head and said slowly, "I knew you recruited me for this..."

"He's having another episode," Zhou Rong said helplessly.

In the urban area of B City, the long, endless streets were completely empty. The roads were piled with blackened corpses, the stench of decay nauseating. Flies covered the rotting bodies and sewers, exploding in a buzz as the vehicle drove past.

The display windows of the shops on both sides were all shattered, shelves were overturned, and debris was scattered everywhere, as if the city had endured the catastrophe of a riot.

"In what way have I held the whole team back, you tell me?"

Guo Weixiang was agitated and full of sorrow, his finger pointing at each person in the car, one by one. Si Nan, who had originally been sitting beside him, had silently shifted three feet away. He was now sitting next to Ding Shi, feigning sleep with his arms crossed in the exact same posture as before; even the angle of his tilted head was unchanged.

"I knew it when I joined the team. Why was I the one chosen out of more than a thousand applications? Was there really no funny business involved? Why wasn't I kicked out when I failed the first assessment? Wasn't it really because you wanted to find partners through me?"

"Tell me, besides failing the first assessment, in what other way do I not meet the requirements of Unit 118? Hasn't my performance these past years been plain for all to see? I feel that from any angle, I'm qualified to be in Unit 118. Why is it that my whole life, people have only ever seen my family background, and no one has ever acknowledged my own abilities and worth?!"

"Has he suffered some psychological trauma..." Chuncao asked in a low voice.

The whole team shook their heads at her in unison. Zhou Rong whispered, "Probably born with it."

"So he's had episodes before?"

"Three times since he joined the team. You weren't here for the first two, and you were on vacation and missed the third one."

"You don't see me as a real, proper soldier," Guo Weixiang concluded, speaking with absolute certainty. "You look at me through colored glasses, thinking I'm some princeling who can't handle hardship and will sooner or later request to leave the team. You think recruiting me was just to save face for a superior, and that because my family is well-connected, you could meet Omegas through me, maybe even help the whole team stop being single. You deny my value as a member of Unit 118, even though I..."

Young Master Guo was impassioned, and everyone else in the vehicle was scared into silence.

"But," Si Nan suddenly opened his eyes and said seriously, "you can't even stop being single yourself."

A deathly silence.

Si Nan said, "And you still want to be the Big Rooster."

Zhou Rong couldn't stop him in time and closed his eyes in despair.

Yan Hao turned back from the driver's seat, craned his neck to glance at Guo Weixiang's expression, then slowly raised the steel partition between the driver's cabin and the rear compartment.

·

B City was like a colossal, ferocious beast of flesh and blood spanning the world. Its streets and alleys were the intricate blood vessels within its body; the deeper one went into the city, the closer one came to the monster's terrifying heart.

The main road out of the city was completely gridlocked with cars, with Zombies shuffling in twos and threes through the endless traffic jam. Drivers who hadn't escaped in time had been bitten to death in their seats, half their bodies held in place by seatbelts, their ashen, decaying faces swaying blankly.

The road into the city was slightly better. Though vehicles going the wrong way were strewn about, Yan Hao, with his superb driving skills, either ran them over or swerved around them. It was only when they got off the expressway that their path was completely blocked by a collapsed overpass.

"What do we do?" Yan Hao asked. "Turn around and find another route?"

"The GPS is dead. At critical moments, we still have to rely on The Big Dipper..." Zhang Yingjie sighed, opening the military-grade tablet. After a moment, he shook his head. "No good. The nearest detour would take two hours, and there's no guarantee it hasn't already been overrun by the Zombie horde—Yan Hao, you're a local, come see if The Big Dipper is still accurate here?"

After trying to get a lock for a while, Yan Hao said in surprise, "It works! Looks like there are still operational ground monitoring stations. This calls for a celebration with firecrackers!"

Yan Hao cautiously glanced into the rear compartment. Xiangzi had finished his outburst, and Zhou Rong was sitting beside him, one arm around his shoulder, painstakingly reasoning with him.

Everyone else nearby was drowsy. Yan Hao lowered the steel partition and asked, "Who wants to celebrate that The Big Dipper's ground stations are still operational by setting off a 'firecracker' and blowing up the rubble ahead?"

Zhou Rong, as if granted a pardon, immediately raised his hand. "Me, me, me!"

Everyone stared at him, then immediately turned their gazes elsewhere in unison. At the center of their attention, Si Nan—who had ignited the firestorm and had been pretending to be asleep with his eyes closed ever since—could finally keep up the act no longer. He coughed, stood up, and got out of the vehicle carrying his tactical bag.

Demolition is a highly technical skill. Si Nan took out the plastic explosive he had made from nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, soap, rubber, and chewed gum. He carefully packed it into the crevices between the load-bearing bricks, using gunpowder as a detonator, then jumped down from the rubble and struck a military-issue match.

He walked toward the armored vehicle and casually tossed the match behind him.

The flame traced a graceful arc through the air and landed precisely in the rubble.

The next moment, an earth-shattering explosion erupted, and the violent gust of wind whipped Si Nan's clothes up!

With his bag over one shoulder and a hand in his pocket, his handsome face was expressionless as he walked toward the car door, his back to the soaring flames. Zhou Rong laughed, "Look at him trying to act so cool..." He then shot to his feet, his roar changing pitch, "Si Nan! Run—"

Before he finished speaking, a massive shriek accompanied by a violent tremor rose from the center of the explosion!

The blast of air instantly sent Si Nan flying. With a loud bang, he was thrown spread-eagled against the front of the armored vehicle a dozen steps away!

Si Nan felt the world spin. His vision went black, and blood gushed from his nose.

But at that moment, he had no time to feel the pain. The instant his vision cleared, through the blurry windshield, he saw the dumbfounded expressions on Yan Hao's and Zhang Yingjie's faces in the cabin—both were staring behind him, as if at some unbelievable sight.

Si Nan clutched his nose and turned around.

A black shadow at least two stories tall rose up from the ground, shrouded in swirling debris. Its entire body was engulfed in rolling flames, and its pained roar echoed down the highway. Every time it beat its chest, countless pieces of rotting flesh were shaken loose, raining down to the ground.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!

Zhou Rong scrambled onto the roof of the vehicle, hoisted up the Type 89 heavy machine gun, and opened fire without hesitation!

The ammo belt fed rapidly into the machine, scattering metal casings everywhere. The black shadow roared under the storm-like hail of bullets, lifted its foot, and took a thunderous step forward!

Yan Hao rushed into the rear compartment, found an armor-piercing explosive round, and threw it up to the roof. Without looking, Zhou Rong caught it securely and loaded it into the machine.

Yan Hao then dashed toward the front of the vehicle to pull Si Nan to safety, but in the chaos, he only saw Si Nan leap across to the other side of the highway, roll into the median strip, and curl up, covering his head.

With no time to reach him in that critical moment, Yan Hao could only duck and cover his head.

The next instant, Zhou Rong pulled the trigger. The armor-piercing explosive round shrieked through the air and blew the monster's head off!

BOOM—

The monster didn't even have time to roar before its body crashed heavily to the ground and finally fell still.

Flames crackled and burned fiercely on the rotting corpse. The rubble had been leveled. Still shaken, the special forces soldiers jumped down from the armored vehicle.

Yan Hao staggered to his feet, shaking his head, which throbbed with pain from the blast, and went to help Si Nan.

But he had only taken one step toward the side of the road when he heard Si Nan sharply stop him, "Stay back!"

"You..."

Si Nan took a step back, clutching his nose. "Don't come any closer!"

Yan Hao hesitantly stopped.

"A public attempt at showing off that failed. He needs a few minutes to cool down..." Chuncao patted his shoulder from behind and whispered, "Let him be furious with himself in peace for a bit."

Yan Hao: "..."

·

The flames gradually died down. The stench of rot mixed with gunpowder filled the entire highway. For several hundred meters in either direction, the shockwave from the explosion had swept the area clear of Zombies.

The asphalt surface was pockmarked, with terrifying cracks radiating outwards for dozens of meters.

Si Nan finally finished washing the blood from his nose with some mineral water and walked over, sniffling. He saw the others gathered around the enormous rotten corpse. Zhou Rong prodded the remains of the monster's head with the barrel of his submachine gun and said softly, "A gorilla."

Chuncao said, stunned, "King Kong?!"

Yan Hao was full of suspicion. "How is that possible? It's obviously infected."

This giant chimpanzee's body was completely decayed, its fur had fallen out, and its bones were exposed in all four limbs. It gave off the unique stench of a Zombie—the foul odor was truly overwhelming, but at this moment, no one could spare it any thought.

Everyone was in disbelief, and a terrifying thought simultaneously surfaced in all their minds.

"If the Zombie virus can infect animals..." Yan Hao murmured, "That shouldn't happen. We haven't seen any other infected animals on our journey. Rats, insects, chickens, ducks, cats, dogs... they all avoid Zombies, and there's never been a recorded case of a zombie animal attacking a human."

Zhang Yingjie also frowned deeply. "And how could the virus make its host mutate into a King Kong? Has the virus itself evolved? Impossible, that's completely the wrong evolutionary path."

"Is it really a chimpanzee? Rong-ge, you're sure you didn't misidentify it?"

"Chimpanzees and humans share a very high degree of genetic similarity. Maybe that also applies to viral infections..."

Zhou Rong ignored the discussion around him and walked over to the Zombie Gorilla's forepaw, which lay splayed on the ground.

He put on a pair of full-fingered black leather gloves, pulled them tight, and squatted down to search for something amidst the filthy, rotting fur. Si Nan came over and squatted beside him, watching silently. After a moment, Zhou Rong finally found what he was looking for.

—Near the paw of the Zombie Gorilla's right forelimb, a thin metal chain was tangled in its fur. The chain was now so tight that it was deeply embedded in the blackened flesh.

Zhou Rong gripped the chain with two fingers and nodded at Si Nan.

Si Nan drew the military dagger from his thigh holster, severed the metal chain with one flick, and a blood-smeared stainless steel nameplate clattered to the ground.

"Group E, Number 71998," Zhou Rong read softly.

Si Nan asked, "What does that mean?"

Zhou Rong clenched the stamped nameplate in his palm and said in a low voice, "It's a laboratory code. Someone was using chimpanzees as carriers to research an Antiviral Vaccine, but the virus mutated, and things got out of hand..."

He slowly rose to his feet and gazed north.

At the far end of the highway, smoke billowed. Across most of the dead city lay the B Military Region, buried in ruins.