WMSR — QT Chapter 147

 

WMSR – QT Chapter 147

By

siofra

Chapter 147: The Senior of the Apocalypse

Xiao Yi maintained an outwardly composed demeanor as he continued advancing with the main contingent, studying Lin Jiawen's retreating back with an inscrutable gaze, wondering how... the situation had turned out.

The surge of speed Lin Jiawen unleashed upon catching sight of the survivor safe zone allowed him to outpace the main vanguard by a wide margin, placing him at the compound minutes ahead of everyone else. However, upon reaching the entry gates, Lin Jiawen froze in his tracks. A massive crowd had gathered at the checkpoint—some comprised of administrative personnel, others consisting of family members and loyal followers of the ability wielders who had deployed to Z City. Yet that wasn't the critical factor; what shattered his equilibrium was spotting someone who possessed no logical reason to materialize at this specific location: Gu Song, why was he standing here as well?

Gu Song was the exact individual he had personally assigned to safeguard Mengchen. Under zero conceivable circumstances should he be stationed here. What precise chain of events could possibly explain Gu Song waiting for him at the gates, unless—

Lin Jiawen's heart hammered frantically against his ribs, accompanied by a suffocating, ominous premonition. Yet he drew a deep, stabilizing breath, forcibly shoving the visceral panic down into the recesses of his chest. Nothing is wrong, he told himself. Even if an actual crisis had materialized, it was guaranteed to be the malicious handiwork of Xiao Yi. Regardless of any interference, Mengchen remained completely safe; so long as Mengchen was unharmed, he would eventually orchestrate a way to reclaim him and bring him back to his side.

Anchored by that resolve, Lin Jiawen cast a backward glance toward Xiao Yi—who was currently catching up from the rear—his eyes flashing with an edge of lethal, icy brilliance.

Conversely, Xiao Yi had been monitoring Lin Jiawen's movements the entire time. Seeing Lin Jiawen pivot to glare at him with that specific expression triggered an immediate surge of elation. Could it be... that the plan has succeeded?

Suppressing his internal anxiety, Lin Jiawen stepped forward to undergo routine administrative checkpoint clearance while immediately signaling Gu Song to approach: "What happened?"

Gu Song ambled forward with leaden, heavy footsteps. Confronting a Lin Jiawen who remained entirely oblivious to the catastrophe, he felt utterly unequipped to articulate the truth. Among all personnel within the outpost faction, he maintained the most extensive contact with Lin Jiawen and possessed the clearest overarching perspective of his psychological state; hence, he understood with agonizing clarity that their collective operational failure scaled to an absolute, catastrophic level.

The reality concerning Mr. Ling's accident had only reached his awareness downstream. Upon uncovering the truth, he abandoned all pretense of tracking zombie rats. Learning that those operatives had brazenly permitted Mr. Ling to walk out of the sanctuary alone and unescorted, he cast aside all calculations regarding the blizzard and external wasteland perils, bolting directly into the wilderness to scour the terrain. Regrettably, the heavy snowfall blanketing the region throughout the day had completely eradicated all footprints, leaving him empty-handed after twelve hours of frantic searching. Noting the encroaching twilight and remembering that Lord Lin was scheduled to return, he raced back to the compound in a desperate panic.

Staring directly into Lin Jiawen's fixed gaze, Gu Song felt a bitter taste coat his mouth, entirely incapable of formulating how to break the news that the person he was tasked to protect had not only been bitten by a carrier of the zombie virus but had subsequently vanished without a trace.

As Gu Song's lips twitched silently, he ultimately elected to raise his hand and silently extend the sealed envelope left behind by Mr. Ling.

Lin Jiawen had spotted the nervous tremor gripping the envelope in Gu Song's hand from the outset. Seeing it offered directly to him, a flicker of suspicion crossed his features, though he reached out and accepted the paper.

Yet the instant Lin Jiawen ripped open the envelope, shook out the stationary, and registered the familiar handwriting alongside the harrowing import of its prose, every drop of color drained instantly from his face—leaving his complexion as deathly pale as the paper itself.

Lin Jiawen's eyes locked with lethal fixation onto the ink, as though he intended to burn a physical hole straight through the fibers. After a prolonged, suffocating silence, he jerked his head upward, pinning Gu Song beneath an indescribable, hollow gaze: "Is this... true?"

Confronting Lin Jiawen's stare, Gu Song suffered an involuntary shudder. Though Lin Jiawen's vocal delivery remained soft—so gentle it carried a haunting, fragile hint of desperate optimism, pleading for confirmation that the message was a cruel hoax—the quiet restraint only amplified the crushing dread. Lacking any alternative, Gu Song offered a stiff, mechanical nod, his voice rasping dryly: "It's true."

"Did you witness it with your own eyes?"

"Witnessed with our own eyes."

Drawing a sharp, ragged breath, Lin Jiawen fought desperately to suppress the violent trembling wracking his respiratory system. His voice dropping into a hoarse, fractured whisper, he delivered his final inquiry: "At what hour this morning did it occur?"

"Around... eight o'clock."

Almost before the final syllable cleared Gu Song's lips, Lin Jiawen wheeled around without a fraction of a second's hesitation. The heavy canvas sack of pharmaceuticals and the rigid, square bundle of books he had dragged across a thousand miles were violently discarded onto the frozen earth—scattering precious, irreplaceable medical supplies across the snow-covered ground. Propelled by an explosive burst of kinetic velocity that pushed human ability wielder limits to the absolute redline, his silhouette vanished into the distance in a blinding flash.

Meanwhile, Xiao Yi—operating on various collateral indicators—had deduced that his grand operational strategy had achieved complete success. Having rehearsed a refined tactical defense in his mind to deflect Lin Jiawen's anticipated aggression, he approached the perimeter gates only to witness Lin Jiawen rocket past him in the opposite direction without casting a single residual glance his way, hurtling out of the sanctuary like a fired projectile.

What on earth is happening?

The assembly waiting at the gates extended far beyond Gu Song's cohort; the coordinator in charge of the zombie rat sweeps was likewise present, pacing nervously as he awaited Xiao Yi's return to brief him on the compounding domestic crisis. Spotting Xiao Yi's frame approaching, the man sprinted forward: "Boss! A catastrophic emergency occurred—an individual infected with the zombie virus surfaced inside the base today!"

What? Xiao Yi froze. Weren't the zombie rats an entirely fabricated narrative engineered by their own apparatus? How could a genuine zombie infection manifest?

Recognizing that Xiao Yi had just returned from the field and lacked situational awareness, the coordinator delivered a rapid-fire debrief: "The index case of the infection was isolated in the slums, followed by three secondary transmissions—all resulting from direct bites inflicted by an active vector. We have successfully quarantined or purged every single vector from the base."

Purged from the base... In a flash of intuitive lightning, Xiao Yi connected the dots back to Lin Jiawen's abnormal, erratic fracture of composure. A sickening wave of dread churned in his stomach as his voice warped into an ugly snarl: "Who exactly was infected? Name the targets."

Realizing precisely what operational data Xiao Yi was attempting to extract, the coordinator swallowed hard, his throat tightening: "Two civilian males from the slums, Miss Qi Yuanyuan, and... Mr. Ling Mengchen."

As the absurd, horrifying hypothesis achieved absolute clinical verification, the world went completely black before Xiao Yi's eyes, leaving him staggering backward as though instantly stripped of every ounce of physical strength.

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