Tu Sanqi had always trusted her instincts.
And her instincts had never been wrong.
Following her intuition, Tu Sanqi dashed straight to the edge of D City near the protective net. Yet her sense of detection was fluctuating—sometimes strong, sometimes weak.
She slowed her pace.
Scanning the surroundings, she saw no signs of disturbance.
Tu Sanqi furrowed her brow slightly, and her eyes unconsciously turned scarlet… at one moment, she looked up without warning.
The person sitting atop the protective net gazed at her indifferently. Those red eyes mirrored her own.
“It’s you!” Tu Sanqi recognized him.
It was the high-level zombie who had been swept away by the sandstorm and had called her a “kindred” before!
A high-level zombie had infiltrated the city! How dangerous was that!
Tu Sanqi was about to press the alert button on her communicator… but the instant her fingertip touched it, the high-level zombie swooped down and grabbed her hand.
“Useless,” the high-level zombie said calmly.
Tu Sanqi pressed her lips together, twisting her hand free, and tried to activate the alarm again. Yet the zombie said, “Aren’t you curious why none of the ability users discovered me?”
“Not curious,” Tu Sanqi replied coldly and pressed the alert.
The high-level zombie didn’t stop her, calmly waiting until she had notified everyone before approaching her again.
Tu Sanqi ran, but soon a shadow loomed above her.
The high-level zombie’s ability was flight!
No wonder it was so difficult to chase!
Realizing she couldn’t outrun him, Tu Sanqi stopped and faced the landing zombie, her right hand quietly reaching for her firearm.
She knew ordinary bullets would do almost no damage to a high-level zombie.
But… she had no intention of shooting!
“I’ll kill you!” Once the zombie came within striking range, Tu Sanqi leapt up above him. Instead of firing, she swung the gun like a club, smashing it against his forehead.
The high-level zombie: “…”
He suppressed the urge to flinch, lifting his hand to block what should have been harmless…
Wait.
He couldn’t block it?
His arm seemed instantly uncontrollable. Tu Sanqi’s critical strike landed perfectly, and, unexpectedly, the high-level zombie was knocked down.
Both froze for a second.
Tu Sanqi even doubted if this was a trick!
How could a high-level zombie fall so easily?
But she didn’t have time to dwell. Following her principle of “hit as much as you can,” she swung the gun at him a few more times.
The high-level zombie, unused to such trivial physical damage, pressed his lips together and frowned slightly—but in a fleeting glance at Tu Sanqi, he noticed her scarlet eyes, different from before.
Instantly, the zombie covered her eyes. His uncontrollable arm regained strength, and he grabbed Tu Sanqi by the collar.
He snatched the gun from her hand, and when he realized she was reaching for something in her pocket, Tu Sanqi struggled.
But in a blink, the zombie threw her aside.
Tu Sanqi opened her eyes and saw the medicine in his hand.
“You stole this last time too!” she frowned.
Seeing the mix of anger and frustration in her eyes, the zombie didn’t answer yes or no.
He pocketed the medicine carefully and said one meaningful sentence:
“Congratulations on awakening.”
Tu Sanqi froze.
…
When Tu Yu and the others arrived, Tu Sanqi had just retrieved the gun the high-level zombie had kicked away.
Su Rumeng immediately checked on her and relaxed, “Good, no injuries.”
If she had been bitten by a high-level zombie, the consequences would have been severe.
Tu Yu and Lin Lu scanned the surroundings habitually. Finding nothing, Tu Yu noticed Tu Sanqi seemed unsettled.
“Scared?” Tu Yu reached out to pat her head comfortingly. “You’ve never seen a high-level zombie before, right? Don’t worry—they’re just a bit harder to kill… Did it attack you?”
Tu Sanqi checked her gun, shaking her head. “No fight. Maybe it didn’t want to be discovered. By the way, did Xue Ying and the others know?”
“They know,” Tu Yu replied, pursing his lips. “High-level zombies are cunning. If it didn’t want to be noticed, it likely plans to remain hidden in D City… who knows what it’s thinking.”
Lin Lu, watching nearby, added, “Xue Ying’s team has already dispatched people to search the entire city.”
They wouldn’t allow a high-level zombie to hide in the city.
Tu Sanqi nodded and stayed silent.
Cheng Shi had originally planned to go to the First District.
But as he was about to depart, he realized a problem and turned back to find Captain Lu.
“If you were from the First District, would you be suspicious if you saw me return suddenly?” Cheng Shi asked sincerely. “I’m just going back to catch up with old colleagues—that’s normal, right?”
Captain Lu folded his hands, also asking sincerely, “You mean, going back to meet the colleagues who all had conflicts with you, to catch up?”
Cheng Shi: “…”
He fell silent.
Captain Lu didn’t interrupt, but carefully looked at the messages from the Engineering Department and Mei Jun, and asked Cheng Shi to review them.
The Engineering Department’s messages contained the evaluation data of the machine Tu Sanqi and Fei Yucheng built, analyzed by several engineers, along with a production plan.
Mei Jun’s message was a report applying for rewards for the two of them.
The more Cheng Shi read, the more complicated his emotions became.
“Fei Yucheng has always been reserved. I remember Mei Jun brought him to the First District for treatment, and that guy Yue Lin called him mentally weak,” Cheng Shi said regretfully. “Back then, Mei Jun should have just beaten Yue Lin to death.”
Captain Lu twitched at the corner of his mouth. “You really wish for chaos, huh.”
Cheng Shi snorted coldly, then looked at Tu Sanqi and fell silent again.
“She’s talented too,” Captain Lu said, leaning back slightly.
Fei Yucheng had Mei Jun’s guidance since childhood. Tu Sanqi, however, had been thrown into things on the fly.
If the district invested effort in her training, her future achievements wouldn’t be less than Fei Yucheng’s… She was a promising talent.
Snapping back to reality, Captain Lu suddenly asked Cheng Shi, “Are you sure they have the virus suppressant?”
Cheng Shi looked up cautiously. “About a ninety percent certainty.”
“Good,” Captain Lu said. “Then I’ll grant you clearance.”
Cheng Shi was surprised.
“You don’t need to return to the First District,” Captain Lu said. “The R&D secure zone outside the district has always been connected with the First District.”