Bang! Bang! Bang!
Shen Zhuo’s reaction could only be described as lightning-fast. He drew and fired in an instant, fluid bursting from several hands. At the same time, he kicked the car door open and rolled out onto the ground, rushing out of the vehicle.
It was a nightmare of a scene.
At some unknown point, dozens of swollen living corpses, as if bloated from soaking in water, had appeared on the empty bridge. Their bodies were covered from head to toe in cracks, countless tiny eyeballs rolling inside the splits. Even the skin of their faces had been burst apart by dozens, hundreds of eyeballs, making their features impossible to distinguish.
A biochemical experiment? Or some kind of ability?
There was no time to think further. The living corpses had already lunged at him.
Anyone else would have gone insane from fear by now, but Shen Zhuo’s hand was extremely steady. Bang! Bang! One shot per corpse until his magazine ran dry. Then he reversed his grip and smashed the gun butt down hard, cracking open one corpse’s skull. Black blood sprayed out. He twisted aside to avoid it and followed through by kicking the corpse behind him off the bridge.
More living corpses dragged their feet and threw themselves at him. Shen Zhuo retreated quickly, one hand slipping into his suit jacket and touching a cold metal injection tube in the inner pocket.
“...The human body has limits to what it can endure. Mocking the god of evolution will inevitably exact a price...”
The heavy warning rang by his ear again.
“There is no drug in this world without side effects, Supervisor Shen. The only question is when the price comes due.”
Shen Zhuo narrowed his eyes, released the injection tube in his palm, and flicked a folding knife from his sleeve. With a wet sound, he stabbed through the throat of the living corpse in front of him.
Black blood burst out. A second living corpse followed immediately, only for Shen Zhuo to shift aside and throw it over his shoulder into a third. The two tangled together and tumbled off the bridge. A fourth living corpse grabbed Shen Zhuo’s hand and tried to bite him. He kicked it several meters away square in the chest, then whipped his hand back like lightning and gutted the corpse ambushing him from behind. Rotten organs spilled all over the ground.
Cold, fast, forceful, and efficient.
Not a single strike was ineffective. Not a single movement was wasted.
Just then came the sound of shattering glass. A living corpse knelt beside the overturned car and dragged the unconscious driver, Luo Zhen, out. It lowered its head and opened its huge mouth over him—
A throwing knife came spinning in like lightning and pierced the back of the corpse’s skull.
Countless tiny eyeballs on the corpse’s face burst, splattering half of Luo Zhen’s body.
Shen Zhuo had thrown his knife, and the swarm of corpses immediately closed in around him. He retreated several rapid steps, quickly locating the weakest point in the chaos, then vaulted onto the wall, kicked off for leverage, and twisted in midair with terrifying speed. His bent knee smashed straight into a corpse’s face, bursting its brain matter in an instant.
“Hah... hah—”
Shen Zhuo landed beside the overturned official car. The corpses turned and surged toward him. He raised one arm to block, only for another living corpse to clamp its jaws around it. Blood instantly soaked through his sleeve, but he seemed unable to feel pain. With his other hand, he used his fingerprint to open the official car’s trunk.
Immediately after, he pulled a submachine gun from the trunk with one hand, aimed it at the living corpse’s forehead, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The living corpse’s entire head exploded. Muzzle fire flashed wildly. Bullets flew like a violent storm, tearing the encirclement open.
Thousands upon thousands of tiny eyeballs burst into the air. Swollen severed limbs scattered across the ground. In an instant, the entire swarm of living corpses had been swept away.
When the gunfire stopped, a thick stench of blood rushed toward him.
Only incomplete, rotting corpses remained strewn across the bridge. Shen Zhuo casually tossed aside the emptied submachine gun, turned back to the car, and patted the driver’s face.
“Luo Zhen?”
Luo Zhen’s head and face were covered in blood. A section of his skull had clearly caved in. If not for Class D evolution, he would absolutely have been dead by now. Only after several heavy pats did his unfocused eyes open. He tried to call out, “Supervisor,” but only hot blood overflowed from his mouth.
This official car had a special safety design. At the instant of impact, a level-one alert would have been issued. Reinforcements from the Supervision Office had to be racing over at this very moment, but the crisis was not over.
Shen Zhuo turned toward the distant military airport, then exerted force and helped Luo Zhen up, heading for the opposite end of the elevated bridge.
“...Put... me... down... don’t...” Luo Zhen made a faint attempt to struggle. His voice came out broken and impossible to make out.
“I... can’t control it... let go...”
Luo Zhen’s struggle became more violent, as if he were desperately trying to convey some hopeless warning. But blood had already blocked his throat. No one but himself could hear him clearly.
Shen Zhuo took out his phone with one hand and dialed a number. It connected almost instantly. The operator’s urgent but calm voice came through the line.
“Hello, Supervisor. The safety system has received the collision alert. The emergency response team is already on its way and currently five minutes and twenty seconds from your location—”
“Level-two biochemical contamination. A mutation-type evolutionist is suspected to have infiltrated the area, estimated between Class B and Class A.” Shen Zhuo frowned and cut him off. “Seal off the roads near the military airport. Prohibit civilian vehicles from entering.”
“Yes! Do you require medical resources?”
There was a wet sound of flesh being pierced. Shen Zhuo’s voice stopped abruptly.
The phone clattered to the ground, but he did not pick it up. He only lowered his head, breathing hard, and saw a blood-soaked blade tip protruding through his abdomen.
“...Hah... hah...” Luo Zhen’s throat muscles made a strange writhing sound. His whole body was swollen, his eyes unfocused, like a stiff puppet under someone else’s control. He abruptly pulled his hand back with force, and blood shot upward like an arrow.
Thud.
Shen Zhuo staggered and dropped to one knee. His abdomen had been pierced clean through from front to back, and blood immediately pooled beneath him.
Gritting his teeth, he looked up and saw large cracks splitting open across the skin of Luo Zhen’s arm. Inside the cracks, many swollen lumps were rising one after another—tiny rolling eyeballs.
The fluid that had sprayed from the living corpses’ eyes had splattered onto his arm.
He had been assimilated.
“...Supervisor... run...”
With the last of his self-awareness, Luo Zhen barely forced out those few words. Immediately afterward, the infected area on his arm expanded, stealing the final shred of his mind. Like the living corpses from before, he rose and lunged violently at Shen Zhuo.
It happened in a flash.
One of Shen Zhuo’s hands pressed hard against the wound spurting blood, so hard the tendons and bones stood out on the back of his hand. His other hand groped quickly behind him and yanked free the dagger he had thrown into the back of the living corpse’s skull earlier.
The next instant, Luo Zhen pounced in front of him.
Shen Zhuo raised the knife and brought it down. In a flash of steel, he severed Luo Zhen’s infected arm.
The arm traced an arc through the air. With a slap, the severed limb hit the ground, and black blood sprayed wildly.
As the infected limb was cut off, the thread controlling Luo Zhen’s mind seemed to be severed with it. His entire body froze in place. He stumbled half a step forward and back, and clarity returned to his blank gaze.
Then he vomited a huge mouthful of blood, collapsed to the ground, clutched his severed arm, and screamed.
Shen Zhuo breathed sharply. The knife clattered from his hand onto the ground. His blood-soaked profile was a shocking, cold white. He reached into his coat and gripped that metal injection tube.
And just then, in midair behind him—
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Slow, unhurried applause sounded, followed by an admiring voice. “As expected of the Supervisor of Shenhai City. Truly spectacular.”
Shen Zhuo turned his head.
A man stood atop a tall streetlight. Narrow eyes, square face, sinister gaze—the mocking expression on his face was identical to the wanted photo from the tablet earlier.
“...” Shen Zhuo’s pupils contracted. He recognized him.
Liu Sanji.
But none of this made any sense. Liu Sanji was only the lowest-level Class D evolutionist. There was no way he could possess such a powerful biochemical ability capable of infecting and controlling living corpses. What exactly had happened?
Had he evolved a second time?
“Don’t look at me like that, Supervisor Shen. I originally had no quarrel with you, but someone wants your life. I have no choice.” Liu Sanji sized Shen Zhuo up, then smiled maliciously and bared his teeth. “Come with me, Chief Supervisor.”
Snap!
He snapped his fingers.
A rustling sound came from behind. Shen Zhuo turned abruptly and saw the mutilated corpses scattered across the ground begin to wriggle on their own—
“Hello? Hello?” Bai Sheng stared at his phone in disbelief. “He hung up?”
The Koenigsegg sped through the night. In the passenger seat, Yue Yang held his forehead, his eyes filled with an indescribable look.
Bai Sheng seemed unable to believe that anyone in this world could be so cruel as to refuse a lamb leg roasted by his own hands. After thinking for a moment, he finally came up with an excuse for Shen Zhuo on his own initiative.
“Supervisor Shen is good in every way. He just hates troubling other people. Actually, after dropping you off, I could totally turn around and bring him the lamb leg. It wouldn’t be any trouble.”
Yue Yang said, “...Actually, you don’t need to go out of your way to take me to the airport.”
Bai Sheng was especially considerate. “It’s fine, Chief Yue. It’s my fault for dragging you into chatting so late. I’m responsible for getting you onto your official plane on time!”
Yue Yang said, “...Actually, you don’t need to go out of your way to take responsibility for that either.”
Bai Sheng truly was the first person in history to drive a supercar onto a highway like this. If Yue Yang had not been a Class A evolutionist, the terrifying suspension when the car flew sideways over the first speed bump would already have made him vomit his stomach out through his throat.
“I’d better bring the lamb to Supervisor Shen later.” Bai Sheng took a turn with one hand on the wheel and said cheerfully, “I’m his future subordinate. Caring about my superior’s health is what I ought to do. How can I back down at the first refusal?”
“...”
Yue Yang thought, You really should back down. You won’t be his future subordinate. In a few days, he’s going to expel you from Shenhai...
Just then, Yue Yang’s phone rang. He saw that it was Chen Miao and answered. “Hello?”
“Brother Yue, have you boarded the plane already?”
The United Nations’ ten permanent Supervisors ranked above ordinary jurisdictional Supervisors. Yue Yang and Shen Zhuo occupied the only two seats in Asia and were, in theory, of equal rank. But B City’s administrative level was higher than Shenhai City’s, so in practice Yue Yang stood half a step above Shen Zhuo. For Chen Miao, as Shen Zhuo’s personal deputy, to call the head of the Central Supervision Office “Brother Yue” so easily meant there must have been some private connection between them.
But Bai Sheng was shrewder than a ghost. He only glanced over with a smile at the corner of his eye and asked nothing.
Yue Yang said, “No, I’m on the way to the military airport. What’s wrong?”
Chen Miao’s voice was urgent. “Senior is in trouble.”
Yue Yang’s expression changed slightly.
“Senior was supposed to fly to the military district tonight, but his official car suddenly flipped on the elevated bridge. After that, both Senior and the driver lost contact. It’s very likely they encountered some other accident after the crash—”
Yue Yang cut him off sternly. “I’m going over now. Where is the exact location?”
Judging from the noise on the other end of the line, Chen Miao was probably also in a speeding vehicle.
“Get someone to send me the coordinates of the crash site! Immediately!”
With a screech of braking, the Koenigsegg pulled over on the side of the road with its hazard lights flashing.
Bai Sheng lifted his chin toward the front and smiled. “Isn’t that the elevated bridge?”
Yue Yang held the phone in one hand and looked up. In the distance, an elevated bridge cut across the night. On the roadside sign, the words were written clearly:
Military Airport, 5 km ahead.
Bai Sheng calmly unbuckled his seat belt, opened the door, and got out.
Yue Yang was stunned. “Where are you going?”
The door shut with a bang. Bai Sheng leaned in through the window from outside and earnestly reminded him, “This car cost twenty-six million landed. Don’t drive it into a ditch.”
Yue Yang: “...”
Yue Yang’s feelings at this moment were simply indescribable. He watched helplessly as Bai Sheng took half a step back, then suddenly shot backward through the air—
Whoosh!
On the elevated bridge, the mutilated living corpses wriggled together on their own and formed a new humanoid monster. It was malformed and grotesque, nearly three meters tall. Ribs with fleshy membranes flipped out from its back and unfolded, forming a pair of bloody, terrifying “wings.”
Liu Sanji smiled. “Careful. Don’t hurt our Supervisor Shen again.”
The monster opened its mouth. From its throat came the sound of countless tiny eyeballs grinding and squeezing against one another. Then it shot forward like lightning. Its rotting claws grabbed Shen Zhuo’s left wrist, and in the next instant, it spread its wings and dragged Shen Zhuo off the elevated bridge.
Night wind roared in at once. Shen Zhuo’s entire body hung in the air. Blood gushed steadily from his abdomen and scattered toward the ground. The rapid blood loss was causing his body temperature to drop quickly, but his captured left hand was difficult to struggle free. The humanoid monster was still flapping its horrifying wings.
Where exactly was it trying to take him?
Under the present circumstances, charging alone into enemy territory was clearly out of the question. Shen Zhuo drew a hoarse breath and finally took the metal injection tube from inside his coat. A small letter was branded on the metal cap.
A.
He bit off the metal cap, exposing the needle. Then he turned it toward the inside of his left wrist and was about to drive it down—
Just then.
A figure bounded over from afar. Because he was too fast, it looked as if he had appeared out of thin air at the top of the elevated bridge. His tall figure stood above them, backlit by the huge crescent moon overhead.
It was Bai Sheng.
Liu Sanji blurted, “Who are you?!”
Bai Sheng had both hands in his trouser pockets. He looked down from above, just in time to meet Shen Zhuo’s eyes in midair as the latter hung there covered in blood. Bai Sheng’s brow lifted in surprise, and then he laughed.
“Who hurt you this badly, Supervisor?”
His tone was clearly flippant and improper. Yet for some reason, at the instant he appeared, a terrifyingly powerful pressure came crashing down. Liu Sanji’s pupils contracted sharply, and instinctive fear rushed from his bones straight to the crown of his head.
There was no time to think. Liu Sanji desperately tried to strike first.
But all he saw was Bai Sheng’s foot slide diagonally along the railing, then his body flew down through the air—
BOOM!
A vast section of the highway collapsed.
Crushed stone shot skyward. The tremor lingered for a long time.
Shen Zhuo opened his eyes, breathing hard. The first thing he saw was the sharp line of Bai Sheng’s jaw.
“...”
He turned his head and glanced downward.
His entire body was being carried horizontally in Bai Sheng’s arms, while the humanoid monster was pinned beneath Bai Sheng’s foot. The terrifying impact had embedded it completely into the asphalt. Ring-shaped cracks radiated into the distance along the road, large slabs of stone overturned, extending more than twenty meters away.
Dust and smoke drifted thickly, rising without end.
From all directions, police sirens drew nearer. More than a dozen Supervision Office vehicles raced over and stopped. Fully armed, Chen Miao led his people out of the cars.
“Senior!”
Bai Sheng lowered his head and met Shen Zhuo’s eyes. There seemed to be a trace of teasing flickering in his gaze, but his voice was unexpectedly steady and gentle.
“Sleep. It’s all right now.”
Those few words carried some irresistible force.
Shen Zhuo parted his lips, wanting to give him a few final instructions, but in the next moment, darkness swept over him like the tide. His consciousness slowly sank into the abyss.
The air beneath the elevated bridge went still. Even the drifting smoke and dust seemed to freeze with it. Bai Sheng lowered his eyes and watched Shen Zhuo for a moment, then looked up at Liu Sanji on the elevated bridge and smiled.
“You don’t know who I am?”
Liu Sanji’s whole body went taut as he retreated half a step. “You—”
Without warning, every streetlight went out at once.
The world plunged into darkness. Only the elevated power lines on both sides of the highway exploded with a crack of lightning. Electric current rapidly converged from all directions at Bai Sheng’s side, growing larger and more dazzling, until it finally formed a terrifyingly massive sphere of high-voltage lightning, illuminating Bai Sheng’s eyes and their chilling smile.
“An evolutionist trying to murder the Supervisor of Shenhai City on Shenhai territory?”
“I’m the man whose minefield you just stepped on, you idiot.”
The next instant—
In Liu Sanji’s horrified gaze, violent electric current surged toward him like a mountain collapsing and a sea overturning, illuminating his deathly pale face in a flash—