"Officer Hoang, you are truly too powerful."
Lam Pham gave Officer Hoang a thumbs-up, saying with great excitement, "I told Tan Linh many times to stop going down the wrong path, but he just wouldn't listen, insisting on being stubborn. Now that he has met you, Officer Hoang, he has received the punishment he deserved."
This praise came from the bottom of Lam Pham's heart.
Only to have Officer Hoang look directly at Lam Pham and roll his eyes.
"Do you think I'm blind?"
"Uh..."
Lam Pham's eyes widened, looking at Officer Hoang in great surprise. He never expected Officer Hoang to start bantering with him. In his view, this was simply a monumental step forward.
"Haha, Officer Hoang, what are you saying? How could I say you're blind? Your judgment of people is better than anyone's. I'm too busy admiring you to do anything else," Lam Pham heaped praise upon Officer Hoang.
Officer Hoang deserved such praise.
He had been hunting zombies outside all this time, working incredibly hard. Before, Officer Hoang was in another place, and in a short period, he had wandered all the way here.
Although he didn't know what had happened along the way.
It must have been extremely arduous.
"I'm leaving."
Officer Hoang's presence was even stronger. After devouring Tan Linh's flesh and blood, his genes had been perfected, moving closer and closer to a state of perfection. This was a tremendous good thing. Naturally, the stronger Officer Hoang was, the better. Only then could he survive safely in the apocalypse and do more things.
Lam Pham really wanted to take Officer Hoang to the Sunshine Shelter and have Chuc Thanh take a good look at Officer Hoang's current condition, to see if he was even more awesome than before.
"Officer Hoang, why not chat a little more?" Lam Pham said.
Officer Hoang turned his head back, looked at Lam Pham, who had also made great sacrifices for the apocalypse, and said slowly, "You've done well. I have high hopes for you. Because of you, the apocalypse can have more hope."
"Wow..." Lam Pham's eyes widened, nearly popping out. This was the first time he had heard such praise from Officer Hoang, which gave him an indescribable excitement. "Officer Hoang, I have always been working hard. Don't worry, I believe the apocalypse will definitely end in the hands of our generation."
He couldn't treat the apocalypse as if it had nothing to do with him. If everyone thought that way, then this world would truly be beyond saving. He imagined how countless pioneers of old, under circumstances with no benefits whatsoever, had laid down their lives and shed their hot blood.
Although Lam Pham knew he was definitely not that noble, he was willing to dedicate himself, to fight against the zombies in the apocalypse, and to struggle against the law-breaking criminals of the apocalypse.
He knew that Tan Linh and Professor Kim both wanted to live, and he also knew that life was precious.
Unless absolutely necessary, he would not trample on life.
But he couldn't let them live.
Because their survival would lead to more deaths, and for those innocent people who had already died, their spirits would not be able to find peace.
Therefore, bringing them to Officer Hoang was an extremely wise choice.
"Keep it up. See you again." Officer Hoang turned and left, even breaking into a run, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Lam Pham scratched his head, blinked a few times, and muttered to himself, "How strange. Why does Officer Hoang always seem so eager to run away every time he sees me? Could it be that I look a bit scary?"
He touched his face, feeling that he was quite handsome.
Once, he was designing a villa for an auntie. The auntie patted his hand and said to him with a voice as gentle as water, "Young man, are you willing to be a kept man for the rest of your life?"
He had shaken his head at the time, telling the auntie with great determination.
Striving can make me grow, can enrich me. I am willing to enjoy life through hard work.
Later, that bid failed and was taken by another company. The auntie had no other meaning; she probably just wanted Lam Pham to experience the harshness of society and go through a good beating during his striving process.
But how would Lam Pham know all this? He just thought his design proposal wasn't good enough.
After all, his skills were inferior to others, so there was nothing he could do.
The main reason Officer Hoang was always so eager to leave was that he felt he was rather useless in front of Lam Pham.
Thinking back on all that had happened, Officer Hoang felt that he had been in a very sorry state.
Many times, he was almost beaten to death.
Then Lam Pham would descend from the sky and save him from dire straits.
Furthermore, he would occasionally break off a zombie's limbs and throw them in front of him, acting like a very scared ordinary citizen who needed the protection of an officer.
Officer Hoang thought, does Lam Pham take me for an idiot? Does he really think I don't know?
There were truly too many such incidents. For Officer Hoang, just seeing Lam Pham would remind him of those past events. So the best solution was to leave as soon as possible after the matter was resolved, and temporarily avoid too much interaction.
...
Hoang City, Sunshine Shelter.
"The Tan Group is finally gone."
The first thing Lam Pham did upon his return was to gather everyone and tell them about the situation with the Tan Group. Everyone knew that the Tan Group and the Mutator organization were the two organizations Lam Pham had been searching for in the apocalypse.
Now, learning that the Tan Group had finally been eradicated.
Their moods were very good, and Co Hang was especially joyful and sighed with emotion.
Professor Ha looked at the faceless, limbless corpse before him, "He is Tan Linh, right?"
Everyone looked at the mangled corpse.
A chill ran down their spines.
It was truly cruel to the extreme, to be made into this state.
Lam Pham said, "Yes, he is Tan Linh. Through various circumstances, he became a Mutator. He was clearly developing in a failed direction, but who would have thought he could extract high-quality genes from the bodies of other Awakened or Mutators to replace his own inferior genes..."
He rattled on, relaying what Professor Kim had told him, word for word, to Professor Ha.
Then he told them about how Officer Hoang had devoured the other party and achieved his own evolution. They were very familiar with Officer Hoang and all nodded silently after hearing it, expressing that this was good. Officer Hoang becoming stronger was a truly joyous occasion.
Professor Ha said, "In that case, I will extract the high-quality genes from Tan Linh's body. It will be perfect to inject them into Dong Dong and Little Than. This way, the genes in their bodies will be changed, and they should be able to develop in the most perfect direction."
Zombies could extract high-quality genes from it by eating it raw, but the image was too horrifying. Dong Dong was so young, holding a piece of flesh and blood, his mouth full of blood. That would look a bit bad in the end.
Lam Pham said, "Yes, that's possible."
Co Hang said, "Little Pham, were there no survivors in that Tan Group base?"
Lam Pham shook his head and said, "No. It was too late when I went. All the living people had been used for research. It's not like before. Back then, the apocalypse had just begun, and they wanted to do research, but they had no targets, no direction. They would often keep survivors alive. But now they have figured out the methods, so the survival rate is very low."
Co Hang sighed, feeling regret for not being able to find the Tan Group sooner. If they had found it earlier, they could have saved more survivors. Unfortunately... it was all too late.
Lam Pham patted Co Hang's shoulder and said, "Brother Hang, we've tried our best. At least here, we have many living people. Everything has to be taken one step at a time. The progress now is very good. Now there's only one Mutator organization left. I believe as long as we keep searching, we will definitely find it."
He thought of Chung Hong. That woman was already investigating the situation. He hoped there would be a good result.
"I understand. Everything is going very well."
Co Hang nodded and said no more. Besides, it was really very good. Look at the current Sunshine Shelter; it was truly full of vitality. This was the fruit of their labor from the beginning of the apocalypse until now.
...
A few days later.
The entrance to the Tan Group's base.
A figure stood there silently, looking at the open passage, unable to come to his senses for a long time.
While at his own base, he received the message from Professor Kim, his brother. His first reaction was urgency, but he quickly suppressed this feeling.
Lam Pham. The person mentioned in his brother's message was Lam Pham.
He naturally knew how terrifying Lam Pham was.
So he didn't go immediately.
Only now did he hurry over. He knew his brother was definitely dead. Falling into Lam Pham's hands, how could there be any possibility of survival?
He entered the base.
The surrounding walls were severely damaged. It was obvious a battle had taken place, otherwise, how could it have ended up in this state?
Professor Kim's younger brother's face was cold as he walked slowly down the tunnel. He knew where his brother had hidden the item. This was what his brother had told him long ago.
Not long after.
He stood before a door. This was his brother's bedroom. He entered the password. With a click, the main door opened, and he walked straight inside. The things in his brother's room were arranged very neatly, just covered with a thin layer of dust, indicating that no one had lived there for a long time.
He came to a painting, took it down, and there was a safe on the wall. He continued to enter the password. The safe opened, and inside lay a box.
This was what his brother had spoken of.
He opened the box. A single syringe of serum lay inside.
There was also a recording pen.
The man turned on the recording pen, and Professor Kim's voice came out.
"Little brother, when you hear the contents of this recording pen, it means the Tan Group is finished. Be careful of Lam Pham from the Sunshine Shelter. He is, to this day, a human whose evolution I cannot fathom. Alright, let's not talk about that for now. You see the serum inside; you must keep it safe. This is what I have saved for you. Even that guy Tan Linh doesn't have it."
"In my process of researching zombies, your brother discovered the ultimate secret of evolved zombies, Awakened, and Mutators. Ingesting it will cause one's own genes to evolve in the most optimal direction, without needing to absorb external forces..."
Upon discovering this good thing, Professor Kim naturally thought of using it for himself, but he was under Tan Linh's control. If his body underwent any changes, Tan Linh would discover it at the first moment and then eat him as food.
So he could only hide the serum.
He left it for his last relative in the apocalypse, his younger brother.
After listening to the recording, the man clenched his fists, his chest heaving once. "Brother, I will avenge you."
Without a second thought, he directly injected the serum. With a clatter, the empty syringe bounced on the ground, while the man stood there as if in a daze, completely still, his eyes wide open, with strange threads flowing within them.
"Ah..."
He screamed miserably, fell onto the bed, and a low roar came from his throat. His hands gripped the bedsheets tightly, as if some foreign object in his body was about to come out.
He opened his mouth, and with a "wah," a large amount of thick, black blood sprayed all over the bedsheets.
"My body feels like it's about to catch fire."
He screamed, the intense pain tormenting his body.
But he believed his brother would not harm him. So he endured this pain and carefully felt the changes in his body. He knew this was the effect of the serum, changing his body's structure.
And this process was painful.
...
In the wilderness.
A bonfire was burning.
Quy Thu Nguyet, Pang Vien, and Chu Loi sat around it, watching a pot of food cooking.
"It's been so long, and Kieu Uy still hasn't contacted us. Did he really choose to cooperate with us?" Pang Vien asked. Since they left the base, they had been wandering outside. For Quy Thu Nguyet, nothing was more important than finding living survivors.
Quy Thu Nguyet said, "Don't be anxious. If it were that easy to find, the organization behind it would have been discovered long ago."
Pang Vien heard this and nodded, "That's true."
He looked at the desolate surroundings. Everything was too desolate. This was the destructive power of the apocalypse, bringing terrible effects to some ecological environments. But for some environments, it was actually beneficial. Nature would repair everything; all it needed was time.
Chu Loi, who had been silent on the side, listened quietly. For him, being accepted was probably his greatest fortune. Because by their side, he could finally experience how comfortable it was to sleep peacefully.
Just then.
Quy Thu Nguyet's expression hardened. "Be careful, there's movement."
Instantly, Pang Vien and Chu Loi became alert. They knew Quy Thu Nguyet's hearing was extremely keen. Often, when they hadn't discovered danger, Quy Thu Nguyet had already sensed it.
The sound of car engines.
The roar of motorcycles.
Two types of sounds came from the distance. In an instant, the people in the cars and on the motorcycles also saw Quy Thu Nguyet's group, who were tidying up. They didn't change direction, but instead headed towards them.
"Hey... look, there are still living people! Haha... let's go play with them."
"Damn it, it's so hard to find living people now."
"What are you talking about? Aren't we people?"
"No, we are Mutators."
"Hahaha..."
They laughed wildly, not thinking there was any problem at all. In their hearts, they were Mutators, the strong ones in the apocalypse. Who else could make them afraid?
"Mutators..."
Quy Thu Nguyet's expression grew serious. She naturally knew about Mutators. Lam Pham had been searching for the Mutator organization all this time, but the organization's location was extremely mysterious, and very few people knew it.
"Old Pang, Old Chu, prepare for battle. The ones who have come are not friendly," Quy Thu Nguyet reminded them.
Pang Vien said fiercely, "They won't even let people eat in peace. These people are really hateful."
He gripped his giant axe, ready at any time. As long as they dared to make a move, he would just chop them into mush with the axe in his hand.
Chu Loi was also the same. He would not be afraid. He had long held a breath in his heart, just so that Quy Thu Nguyet and Pang Vien would not look down on him.
Soon.
Two cars and one motorcycle stopped.
A total of seven Mutators came out very arrogantly.
Pang Vien's eyes were extremely sharp. He saw at a glance that behind one of the cars, a person was tied with a rope and had been dragged all the way. He couldn't see their face, but he could tell that the person was already a bloody mess. No one knew if they were still breathing.
"Look..." Pang Vien pointed over there.
Quy Thu Nguyet and Chu Loi looked over and also saw the person being dragged.
Their expressions were extremely solemn.
From this alone, they could tell that this group of Mutators who had come were definitely not good people. They had long since fallen into depravity in the apocalypse, completely becoming beasts in the darkness of the apocalypse.
A female Mutator sat on the roof of a car, chewing gum, her eyes looking playfully at the three survivors they had found. She couldn't help but smile and say to her companion beside her.
"Look at how comfortable that woman is. And what are they wearing? Why does it look so familiar? It's like I've seen it somewhere."
As she spoke these words.
The other six Mutators observed carefully.
Among them, a bulky Mutator seemed to have thought of something. His expression suddenly changed dramatically, and he exclaimed.
"Armor! This is the armor I saw in the 'Zombie Illustrated Guide'! It's provided by the Hoang City Sunshine Shelter! They are related to that place, they are people from there!"
Having become Mutators, they naturally knew about these things.
It could even be said to be essential reading.
No matter who it was, they had all been told that the most terrifying figure in the entire apocalypse was Lam Pham. His strength was unimaginable. If you encountered him, you might not even have a chance to escape.
Although this made many newly empowered Mutators very displeased.
But seeing the person who had given them strength being so certain, they also took it to heart.
Instantly.
The seven Mutators had the intention to retreat. Even the woman sitting on the roof of the car stood up in front of the car, thinking of leaving. They were unwilling to have any involvement with people from the Hoang City shelter.
It wasn't until one of the Mutators spoke that their intention to retreat slowly disappeared.
"What are you afraid of? It's not Lam Pham who has come. They are just wearing armor. How can we, who are full of power as Mutators, be scared like this just by hearing 'Hoang City Sunshine Shelter'?"
As he spoke these words.
Everyone looked at each other.
"That's right, that makes sense. They are just wearing armor. And that guy might not even be wearing armor."
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. What's there to be afraid of?"
"There are seven of us, and only three of them. Can we still be afraid?"
Instantly, the seven Mutators became arrogant again.
Quy Thu Nguyet took a step forward, pointed at the person they were dragging, "You are human. Even if you have become Mutators, how can you treat your own kind like this? The apocalypse is already a disaster. Do you want to become accomplices to this catastrophe?"
She really didn't expect that human beings, under the temptation of power, would become so evil.
She knew many people would change.
But this change was too devoid of any humanity.