The night wind of the wilderness remained biting, carrying the lingering scent of gunpowder smoke.
Captain Cross's combat boots thudded heavily, echoing through the deathly silent woods. The members of the specialist squad behind him were in a state of post-battle euphoria—this morbid excitement was a common trait among Black Watch Soldiers. The afterglow of slaughter left their hormone levels far beyond those of ordinary people. Back in Manhattan, they were often given another name by the Marine Corps: "Savage Maniacs."
"Wooo—that was satisfying! That big piece of rotten meat was completely crushed by us. I even heard the sound of every single one of its bones cracking!" Specialist No. 2 laughed wildly while checking his grenade launcher.
"Its wails are the best lullaby for me tonight. If I could do this every day, I wouldn't even need those damn sedatives." Another soldier licked his lips, a violent glint flashing in his eyes.
"If I hear those rookies calling me 'Baby Killer' behind my back again after we return to base, I'll personally rip their heads off and stuff them into the toilet."
"Shut up, you animals. There's something ahead." Captain Cross cut off the incessant chatter of these war junkies. He stopped in his tracks, his gaze locking onto two overlapping figures beneath a withered tree.
A soldier ran forward, prodded the bodies with his gun muzzle, and shouted back, "Sir, there are two corpses here. It's that soldier who evacuated earlier and that woman."
"I see them, soldier." Cross walked over, looking down at the two figures huddling together. The girl's hand was still tightly gripping the Gardener's hand.
"Burn them," Cross ordered directly.
"But, sir, this woman clearly committed suicide with a headshot. There shouldn't be a need for cremation for epidemic prevention, right?" Specialist No. 5 spoke up unexpectedly.
"Hahaha, what? Specialist No. 5, do you want to have a go while it's still warm?" Specialist No. 2 laughed wantonly, his tone full of lewd mockery.
Cross whipped his head around, the murderous intent in his eyes instantly silencing the rowdy soldiers. "I said burn them. If I have to repeat myself, I'll personally blow your head off."
"Understood, sir!"
The soldiers dared not say another word and quickly brought out individual flamethrowers.
Whoosh—!
The scorching orange flames instantly engulfed the two corpses under the withered tree. The fire licked the flesh, making a tooth-aching sizzling sound. In this purifying blaze, the final remains of the Gardener and Zhou Xili gradually turned to charcoal, becoming entangled and indistinguishable from each other. Cross watched the scene expressionlessly until the fire died out, then led the squad into the depths of the darkness.
Meanwhile, the perspective shifted to F City University, inside the core office of the campus base.
The neon lights outside had faded, replaced by cold searchlights sweeping across the campus playground. Lin Xuan leaned back in his swivel chair, focused on a book titled "Commander's Basic Manual," which had been produced by the system for 1 point of Biomass.
[Ding! The Cultist Giant Corpse mission has been completed. Rewarding host with 500 Biomass and 4 Gentek scientists. Please check them, host.]
The system's cold notification sounded in his mind, and a slight smile appeared on Lin Xuan's lips.
"So fast? As expected of Cross, clean and efficient."
He stood up and walked to the large floor-to-ceiling window. The campus base was no longer what it used to be. The once vibrant campus had now been transformed into a steel fortress. The towering walls were covered with machine gun bunkers and virus sensors.
Under the guard of 1,700 Marine Corps soldiers and over 50 Black Watch Soldiers, this was the only pure land in F City. However, Lin Xuan knew very well that this was far from enough.
As the virus mutated further, the infected appearing in the city ruins became increasingly powerful, and even "infected with special abilities" began to emerge. Conventional light weapons sometimes seemed inadequate against these monsters.
"I need more overwhelming force."
Lin Xuan opened the system mall and locked his gaze onto an icon of a wild-looking steel beast, entirely pitch black.
[thermobaric tank]: A heavy vehicle exclusive to Black Watch. Equipped with a large-caliber thermobaric shell barrel, it can generate ultra-high pressure and extreme temperatures, instantly draining the oxygen from the target area and turning all carbon-based lifeforms into ashes.
This killing machine was specifically designed to deal with giant infected that could not be destroyed by conventional firepower.
Lin Xuan glanced at his attribute panel:
[Biomass: 4711]
Summoning one thermobaric tank required 3,000 Biomass.
"It's enough." Without hesitation, he clicked the confirmation for the exchange.
[Confirmed consumption of 3,000 Biomass. Deploying thermobaric tank...]
In the open space of the campus playground guarded by Marine soldiers, space began to distort violently, and blue electric arcs jumped wildly in the air. Amidst the chilling mechanical roar, a black tank with three massive barrels and a faint cold glow appeared out of thin air, its heavy treads crushing the concrete ground.
Lin Xuan looked down at the super tank on the playground, the fire of ambition flickering in his eyes.
Deep beneath the F City University Gymnasium, the originally dark and oppressive air-raid shelter had been transformed into an underground laboratory filled with cold metallic textures and precision instruments. This was also one of the cores of the base, the "laboratory" that would determine the future direction of this world.
Cold white shadowless lights spilled onto the clean marble floor, and the air was filled with the scent of high-concentration disinfectant and the scorched smell of overheating electronic components. Dr. Karen Parker was focusing intently on a sample under an electron microscope. Her efficient blonde hair was tied back, and her brow held a near-obsessive fanaticism.
As the heavy airtight door hissed with pressure relief, four haggard-looking scientists in white coats entered the laboratory under the escort (custody) of Black Watch Soldiers.
"Ah! Dr. Parker, you're here too!" Dr. John Smith, walking at the front, saw that familiar back, and a flicker of light burst into his dull eyes. He was once Karen's colleague.
Karen Parker turned around, took off her goggles, and a flash of surprise crossed her eyes, which was immediately replaced by a professional coolness. "Dr. John Smith? And the rest of you... Heh, it seems Commander Lin Xuan's 'recovery work' was more thorough than I imagined. You've come too."
"Yes, a few Black Watch members hauled us out of that hellhole." Another scientist wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with lingering fear and looked at the surrounding experimental equipment. "What do we need to do now?"
"Study this 'wonder of the world'." Karen pointed to the gene spiral model pulsing on the large screen, her tone becoming serious and fanatical. "The virus in this world... there is an extremely eerie 'intron lock' on its genetic sequence. It doesn't fit the evolutionary logic of virology. Although it doesn't have the near-miraculous recombination ability of the 'blacklight virus' we encountered before, it is a twisted freak when it comes to protein folding and host cell modification. Come on, everyone, we have new food. I can't handle this polymorphic coding alone; give me a hand."
The scientists quickly entered a working state, their instinct for exploring unknown viruses overriding their fear of the apocalypse. They gathered around the central test bench, various obscure and difficult terms clashing fiercely in the air.
"Dr. Parker, look at this transcriptome data." Dr. Smith pointed at a string of complex base sequences, his brow furrowed. "When its RNA polymerase performs transcription, it actually exhibits a high degree of 'non-random mutation.' This doesn't look like a product of natural evolution; it's more like it was forcibly induced under some specific 'epigenetic pressure'."
"Exactly, that's what I call the 'lock'." Karen skillfully operated the control panel and brought up another set of comparison charts. "After invading the host cell, it doesn't immediately destroy the nucleus. Instead, through a 'pseudo-parasitic' method, it embeds its own viral vector into the host's non-coding DNA regions. Pay attention to its envelope glycoprotein structure; this trimeric conformation can evade almost all known immune recognition mechanisms."
"This 'lysosomal escape' efficiency is simply astounding." another scientist exclaimed. This explained why those special infected possessed explosive power and metabolic speeds far beyond ordinary people.
"Dr. Xu, that's the key point." Karen's gaze deepened. "A fragment similar to 'telomerase repair factor' is embedded in its gene chain, allowing for ultra-fast repair while large-scale cell damage occurs. This is a morbid dynamic equilibrium. If we can crack this 'intron lock,' perhaps we can analyze its multi-directional differentiation in different environments."
"Dr. Parker, you mean we should try to perform 'co-evolutionary intervention'?" Dr. Smith lowered his voice, a dangerous light flashing in his eyes.
"Not just intervention, John." Karen sneered, casting her gaze toward the one-way see-through glass above the laboratory. She knew Lin Xuan was sitting in the office above, watching through the surveillance.
"In this world, mediocrity is the most lethal poison." Karen Parker turned around. "Now, get to work. We need to complete the first stage of the 'blood toxin sprayer' within 48 hours—that is, the pungent 'blood pool' you all know about."
"Commander Lin Xuan doesn't keep idle people. If you don't want to become 'material' on the test bench, show the skills you had at Gentek."
The atmosphere in the laboratory instantly dropped to freezing point, then was replaced by more intense keyboard clicks and the sound of instruments running. These top-tier brains were weaving the source that could solve the world's pollution in the darkness.