In the Communications Office, spanning several hundred square meters, bullets flew everywhere. The place was littered with shattered glass from light fixtures and broken pieces of brick and tile. Entire walls of monitors were blasted into dust. In the laser night vision, besides a misty green haze, almost nothing could be seen clearly.

Chuncao desperately climbed to the top of the main server, firing her weapon as she leaped, trying to jump onto the back of the Zombie Gorilla's neck to hit the back of its head. But while she was still in mid-air, the gorilla swung its arm and slammed into her, sending her flying like a cannonball!

“Roar—”

Zhou Rong's head and face were covered in blood. The intense Alpha Pheromone had extremely stimulated the zombie beast's savagery. It ignored Si Nan's submachine gun spewing fire in the distance, stomped the equipment and iron racks into smithereens, and swung its palm down at Zhou Rong.

Zhou Rong scrambled back, catching a glimpse of the Type 89 heavy machine gun half-buried in the rubble. He rolled over and reached out to pull it, but this time, he couldn't even budge it!

Just as the palm was about to smash him into a pulp, a powerful force suddenly came from his side. Someone threw himself at an angle, pulling Zhou Rong into a roll for several turns. The gorilla's paw smashed into the ground right next to his ear.

“Yingjie?!”

Zhang Yingjie was panting heavily, seeming to be in great discomfort: “Quick, quick, run…”

Zhou Rong pulled him up. Before they could even stand firm, the gorilla’s forearm, embedded in the floor, swept over like a Jiefang truck, knocking them both flying!

For the first time in his life, Si Nan felt such intense shock and anger: “Zhou Rong!!”

The area was now filled with gun smoke, and visibility was extremely poor; anything beyond a few steps was completely obscured. Si Nan couldn't tell if Zhou Rong had already been torn to shreds by the gorilla. In his panic, just as he was about to press forward, his submachine gun fell silent.

Out of bullets!

The submachine gun's rate of fire of 1250 RPM had heated the barrel to a visible red. He had more magazines on him, but there was no time to reload.

In that one second of silence, the gorilla charged in the direction Zhou Rong and Zhang Yingjie had been thrown!

Si Nan gasped for breath. For a rare moment, his mind was blank; he wasn't thinking about anything.

He backhandedly pulled the unused explosives from his tactical pack, threw them fiercely at the gorilla, and simultaneously drew his dagger and sliced it across his palm!

The gunpowder hit the gorilla's back and exploded with a series of loud bangs, instantly blasting away its flesh and blood and successfully diverting its attention back to him.

Si Nan's chest heaved. His open palm was covered in blood as he stared into the zombie's murky eyes, stepping backward one step at a time.

Although there was no theory, it was a recognized fact that zombies had a primal instinct to chase A/O Pheromones, and they were even more sensitive to Omega Pheromones.

The strength of Pheromones was directly proportional to sex hormones, but the ability to detect another's Pheromones varied from person to person. For example, Zhou Rong's Alpha Pheromone was extremely strong and domineering, but his ability to detect Omega Pheromones was quite average; Si Nan's situation was the exact opposite.

Si Nan was extremely sensitive to Alpha Pheromones and had a strong adverse reaction to them, but his own Pheromones were very faint—a result of using Inhibitors for years.

An extremely brief silence fell over the surroundings. Chuncao staggered up from dozens of meters away, dazed and confused. On the other side of the communications hall, Zhou Rong propped himself up with his elbows, his face a mask of blood.

Two seconds later.

The gorilla threw its head back and roared, charging straight for Si Nan without hesitation!

Si Nan turned and bolted, rushing out of the hall like a lightning bolt. The ground behind him trembled violently as the Zombie Gorilla followed in hot pursuit!

“Fucking hell…” Zhou Rong, covered in debris, staggered to his feet. He finally pulled the Type 89 heavy machine gun out from under countless heavy objects and, while loading the armor-piercing rounds, roared hoarsely: “Cao'er! Yingjie! Are you still alive?”

The moment Chuncao opened her mouth, a bloody cough burst out: “It went after Si Nan, quick, chase it… cough cough cough!”

Zhou Rong reached out to pull Zhang Yingjie up, but as soon as he touched him, Zhang Yingjie shuddered as if electrocuted and dodged backward.

“What is it?” Zhou Rong asked.

The roars of the Zombie Gorilla in the corridor outside were getting farther and farther away. Time was extremely tight. In the dim light, Zhang Yingjie's face was ashen and gray, his lips were chapped, and dark circles had formed around his eyes.

He finally seemed to give up on something, letting out a short laugh:

“You shouldn't have saved me, Rong-ge. I'm infected.”

Zhou Rong's breath caught in his throat.

Zhang Yingjie lifted his pant leg. A patch of flesh near the edge of his sock had been scraped open. Soaked by the underground water, it had turned purplish-black and was already beginning to fester.

“What's with that look, Rong-ge?” Zhang Yingjie laughed. “Don't be like that. Come on, give me a gun… Let's not waste this last bit of time. Let me accompany you all for one last stretch.”

“A soldier should not commit suicide, nor will I become a monster. Let me die in battle, as a soldier.”

·

Si Nan rushed down the stairs like a hurricane. The moment he landed, he grabbed the handrail and used the momentum to vault over to the next level—just as his hand left the railing, the metal railing was sent flying by the charging Zombie Gorilla!

After rushing out of the Communications Office, he hadn't run back the way he came, but had instead charged into the stairwell in the opposite direction. Although he had no choice of path in his panic, the narrow space of the stairwell inadvertently created some obstruction for the Zombie Gorilla.

After running out of the stairwell, he plunged into a corridor. A full five or six seconds passed before the gorilla roared, smashed through the floor, and chased after him.

Running at top speed, Si Nan couldn't see his surroundings clearly and didn't even have a spare moment to draw his gun. He never knew his maximum speed could be this fast; he encountered several groups of zombies along the way but managed to charge past them on speed alone.

The Omega Pheromone strongly stimulated the gorilla's predatory desire. The giant monster, over four meters tall and weighing several tons, came crashing down like a road roller, crushing the subsequent groups of zombies into a gory pulp!

In the blink of an eye, he reached the end of several winding corridors. A fork in the road appeared ahead, with both paths shrouded in thick darkness.

Si Nan's pace slowed. More than six consecutive hours of intense exercise without food caused his internal organs to spasm with unbearable, sharp pain.

In that one-hundredth of a second pause, the Zombie Gorilla pounced from behind, slamming Si Nan into the wall!

With a muffled thud, Si Nan spat out a large mouthful of blood.

He felt as if he'd been hit by a tank. The intense pain overwhelmed all his senses. Dizzily, he rolled from the wall to the floor. In a daze, he saw the Zombie Gorilla rushing toward him, the ground beneath him trembling violently.

'No,' he thought.

'I still have something very important… very crucial to do. It can't end like this.'

In truth, he didn't even know where this subconscious thought came from, nor could he say what this supposed crucial mission was. Si Nan's hands trembled as he pulled the Type 64 Pistol from his lower back and fired a single shot into the air.

The metal ventilation duct fell with a crash, staggering the Zombie Gorilla!

Si Nan scrambled up, dragging dozens of kilograms of military gear as he ran forward, quickly changing the drum magazine of his submachine gun as he went. The Zombie King Kong was completely enraged. It tore the man-sized ventilation duct to shreds in a few moves and shot toward him like a supersonic fighter jet, opening its cavernous mouth to bite down on his back.

The foul stench was already above his head when Si Nan's steps abruptly changed direction. He took two steps onto the wall, using the momentum to flip over in mid-air.

His body flipped 360 degrees in mid-air, almost grazing the top of the gorilla's lowered head, and he landed on the back of its neck!

The Zombie Gorilla thrashed wildly, constantly ramming into its surroundings, causing lights and fixtures on the walls to fall. The deadly jolts left Si Nan with a bleeding head and bruises all over his body, but he locked his legs tightly around the zombie's neck and, gritting his teeth, pressed the submachine gun against the back of the monster's head.

Immediately, he held down the trigger, and a storm of bullets instantly fired directly into its skull!

Bang—

The extremely high chamber pressure, sustained for more than ten seconds without a break, pushed the submachine gun's barrel to its limit, and it finally, inevitably, exploded!

At the moment of the explosion, Si Nan's consciousness was extremely hazy. He didn't even feel any pain as he was thrown off. A trail of blood followed his body through the air. After flying for dozens of meters, he fell straight into a deep pit at the end of the fork in the road—

【Biochemical Restricted Area, Trespassers Will Be Killed on Sight】

In the darkness, a green indicator light flickered faintly, bright as a will-o'-the-wisp.

With a brutal crash, Si Nan landed at the bottom of the pit, instantly spitting out a torrent of blood.

His ears were muffled by blood, and a warm stream flowed continuously from his nose. His body twitched and trembled slightly. He tried his best to keep his eyes open and stay conscious, but his vision grew increasingly blurry.

Darkness, like a sky full of feathers, gently covered all consciousness.

·

“Noah…”

“Noah!”

A woman walked briskly through the garden, knelt down, and hugged the little boy who had his back to her. “What are you doing? Why don't you go inside?”

On a hazy morning, the breeze carried the salty, earthy smell of the soil. The garden under the iron trellis was a deep, somber green, but the yellow roses had already withered, leaving only a few dry petals on the thorny branches.

“Daddy doesn't like me.”

The little boy stared at the ground at his feet. The freshly turned soil was still damp. He repeated in a low voice, “...Daddy doesn't like me.”

The woman placed her hands on the little boy's shoulders and turned him around. Her beautiful, melancholic eyes gazed at her son.

She wore a deep pink silk dress. Her features were delicate and profound, her flaxen hair slightly curled, and her light-colored pupils were like pure amber. Her beauty, which had triumphed over time, was breathtaking, but when she looked at something, her eyes always held a touch of faint sorrow. “Why, Noah?”

The little boy pressed his lips together, only whispering after a long moment, “He grabs me.”

The woman took her son's hand and gently rolled up his sleeve. Several shocking scratches were visible on his wrist, the flesh a faint purplish-black.

“...Daddy is tired.” After a long time, the woman gave an irrelevant answer. “He just fell asleep… Come back with Mommy.”

The little boy no longer resisted and was led by his mother's hand deeper into the garden.

“Mommy.”

“Hm?”

“Why is Daddy sleeping in a wooden box?”

Atop the nearby church, stained glass was embedded in the walls, and a cross pierced the gloomy sky. This time, the mother was silent for a very long time before she stopped, bent down, and kissed her son's tender brow. “One day, Daddy will leave the wooden box and return to us forever…”

Her voice held a hint of sadness, but it was still very gentle as she said, “That day is not too far away.”

·

“...Cough…”

“Cough cough cough!”

“Cough cough!” Si Nan suddenly choked out a mouthful of thick blood and pushed himself up with trembling hands.

For a few seconds, he didn't know where he was, couldn't remember what had happened, and even his mind was briefly in a state of confusion.

But then, memories of the past few hours flashed back rapidly, and the sharp pain crawled back into his nerves. His injured internal organs caused his windpipe to spasm, and he retched, vomiting the last of the water in his stomach.

'Did the Zombie Gorilla die?'

'That Zhou Rong guy… the one who acts like a cynical rogue soldier but is surprisingly reliable, was he saved?'

Si Nan finally managed to stop dry-heaving. Thinking of Zhou Rong, he gasped for breath, slumped wretchedly on the ground, and slowly sat up.

Just then, he suddenly heard a sound from ahead—Thud.

The sound was exceptionally clear in the silent space. Si Nan looked up.

This was a circular glass laboratory located underground, open at the top, with elevators along the edge leading to the upper levels. The circular alloy walls glowed with white light, illuminating the testing ground in the middle, which was about the size of a soccer field.

Then came another, faintly louder—Thud!

Si Nan stared at the scene in the center of the testing ground. His pupils constricted unconsciously as he finally understood what had startled him awake from his stupor.

It was a coffin.

Made of black-lacquered pinewood and slightly covered in dirt, it looked as if it had just been unearthed from a 19th-century English manor. Amidst the modern biomedical equipment surrounding the laboratory, it was indescribably out of place.

Even more jarring was a huge silver cross stabbed diagonally into the coffin lid. The edges of the cross were decorated with carvings of flowers and leaves, which were heavily worn and oxidized, almost slicing the entire coffin in half.

Thud!

The coffin lid pushed upward.

Thud!!

Dirt trickled down.

Si Nan stood up and staggered backward, his chest heaving violently with a terrifying premonition.

Thud!!!

The immense force cracked the coffin lid. The silver cross toppled to the ground with a heavy crash!

Si Nan turned and rushed towards the elevator, pressing the buttons forcefully, but the control panel didn't respond!

Bang—!

The heavy coffin lid split in two. Accompanied by a scream that was part demon, part beast, the dark figure inside the coffin flipped over and sat up!

Si Nan stared at it intently. An extremely terrifying guess rose from the bottom of his heart, and a chill spread through his entire body.