Chapter Five: Escape and Contingency

Hearing Zera’s words, Ye Hai rolled his eyes in exasperation. He stood up helplessly and said, “Mr. Zera, that’s really not an auspicious thing to say!”

But Zera was unfazed. He grinned, grabbed a piece of bread from Ye Hai’s table, and stuffed it into his mouth, mumbling, “One of us smuggles people, the other smuggles zombies—what luck are we supposed to be hoping for? Luck itself would take a detour if it saw us coming... hahaha!”

As Zera burst into laughter, one of his men suddenly called out, “What’s that?”

Both Ye Hai and Zera turned their heads, just in time to see a tiny white speck shooting toward the villa at unbelievable speed.

Thanks to the T-virus modifications, Ye Hai’s eyesight was extraordinary. With just a glance, his scalp tingled and he cursed furiously, “RPG... Zera, you damn jinx!”

Without hesitation, Ye Hai barreled through the floor-to-ceiling glass that separated the terrace from the bedroom, diving over Leanna and the other two women.

At the same time, Zera and his men reacted with swift agility, leaping down from the second-floor terrace.

The next instant, a deafening roar erupted, and violent flames shot skyward.

The tremendous force of the explosion tore half of Ye Hai’s villa apart, the blast centered on the bedroom...

The three-story, thousand-square-meter luxury villa that Ye Hai had poured his heart into was now ruined.

Thrown by the shockwave, Zera tumbled to his feet behind a large tree, spitting out dirt and grass with a grim expression.

“How did they find my trail so quickly? How is that possible?” he muttered. “Using a whole slave-hunting squad as bait to fake my death—now it’s nothing but a ridiculous joke!”

As Zera’s mind raced for a way out, one of his men rolled over beside him and reported, “Boss, Ye Hai was buried under the rubble because he turned back to save the others...”

Glancing back at the collapsed villa, Zera shook his head and sighed, “Anyone infected with the Queen Ant virus will instinctively protect the ‘Queen’ in times of danger!”

Mistakenly believing Ye Hai was infected with the Queen Ant virus, Zera felt he’d found a reasonable explanation for Ye Hai’s actions and went on, “Originally, the Queen and her soldier ants were meant to be our trump card in the radiation zone. I hadn’t expected them to be triggered here. Hopefully, that guy hasn’t caught on...”

“If he’s one of the Corpse Collectors under the Crow, he won’t die that easily.”

“Go, dig through the rubble and see if you can rescue him. He’ll be of great help when we head into the radiation zone!”

Hearing the unmistakable command in Zera’s tone, his subordinate’s face went pale.

Damn it, there’s no cover near the villa, and the enemy’s firepower is overwhelming...

Going to rescue someone now is practically suicide.

But seeing the hungry look in Zera’s eyes, the subordinate knew: if he dared defy Zera’s order, his own brains would be splattered before the RPGs even got him.

Left with no choice, he gritted his teeth, crouched, and rushed over to start clearing the debris.

...

Beneath the rubble, Ye Hai had thrown himself over Leanna to shield her from harm.

He groped around for a moment before remembering that the women under the blanket were still naked.

But at this moment, his mind was in no state for such thoughts.

His villa had been inexplicably blown to bits and he was buried alive; Ye Hai was furious, his voice cold as ice as he asked, “Are you all right?”

Hearing Ye Hai’s voice, the panic-stricken Leanna clung to hope and quickly replied, “We’re fine, none of us are hurt!”

Hearing this, Ye Hai’s dark expression eased slightly.

He’d finally seen hope for activating the Veronica Virus module—if an RPG had wiped that out, he’d have lost his mind.

In the darkness, Leanna couldn’t see that Ye Hai’s back was a bloodied mess, pierced and slashed by splinters, glass shards, and steel rods.

Silently, Ye Hai pulled each embedded object from his flesh.

At the same time, his wounds healed before their eyes, closing rapidly.

The T-virus had given Ye Hai a terrifying regenerative ability.

In moments, not a trace of injury remained beneath his tattered robe.

Leanna wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but in that suffocating darkness, she sensed other strange presences besides Ye Hai.

During the chaos of the collapse, when she’d flailed her arms in panic, she thought she’d grabbed someone’s arm.

That arm was icy cold, lifeless—like a corpse. The brief touch had made her skin crawl, as if pricked by needles, and she’d recoiled instantly.

Now, the four of them were pinned under the wreckage, unable to move. Though it was pitch black, Leanna keenly sensed that someone—or something—was lifting debris off Ye Hai, piece by piece.

Not far above her, she heard coarse, heavy breathing... but the breath was unnaturally cold, as if she were shivering in a frozen wasteland.

...

“Damn, more RPGs—take cover!”

Zera’s two men were cautiously clearing rubble when, only minutes after the last attack, the enemy fired again.

It seemed the attackers were still observing from afar, not yet willing to show themselves—these shots were just probing.

As Zera’s men scrambled for cover, three RPGs streaked through the air toward the villa’s ruins.

Zera exclaimed in dismay, “It’s over—the Queen Ant virus wasted just like that... Where’s that guy’s little pets? Why haven’t they come out yet?”

If those three RPGs detonated in the debris, the shockwaves alone would kill everything buried below.

With a wave of his hand, Zera motioned for his men to retreat and made to escape himself.

He no longer held out any hope of saving Ye Hai.

At that critical moment, three shadowy figures burst from the treetops, flying toward the fiery trails of the incoming RPGs.

Boom... boom... boom...

Three explosions resounded.

All three rockets were intercepted midair.

...

Zera’s jaw dropped in astonishment. “What just intercepted those RPGs? Did you see?”

His men shook their heads, equally baffled.

Just then, a tremendous commotion erupted from within the wreckage, flinging debris aside.

Moments later, Ye Hai appeared through the dust, his robe in tatters.

He scooped up the three women, stacking them like dominoes, drawing startled cries from them.

Then he grabbed the blanket, tied the ends in a dead knot, and slung it over his shoulder—an act so smooth he looked like a seasoned kidnapper.

Zera was left dumbfounded.

“What are you standing there for—waiting to die? Move it!” Ye Hai shouted, waving at Zera before disappearing into the woods behind the villa without looking back.

...

“Zombie crows?”

“Why did those things intercept our rockets?” a middle-aged officer asked, prodding the shattered remains of a crow with his boot, perplexed.

None of the soldiers around him had an answer.

He glanced in the direction Ye Hai and the others had fled and said, “Forget it. Keep on their trail...”

Once everyone had left, the once-luxurious villa was nothing but ruins.

Suddenly, the debris began to shift.

Before long, a massive, over-three-meter-tall, pallid, bald giant crawled from the wreckage.

Even wrapped in a heavy black military coat, the raw power in his body could not be concealed.

Etched clearly on the left side of his forehead were the characters “T-103.”

It was obvious: this bald giant was no human, but a zombie.

He was none other than the “Tyrant,” one of the T-virus’s ultimate B.O.W.s!

Soon, five hideous, crawling creatures emerged beside the Tyrant. Their crimson musculature was completely exposed, hands and feet transformed into deadly claws.

Though humanoid, they moved on all fours, their pulsing brains bursting from their shattered skulls, fully exposed to the air.

They looked like giant skinned frogs with human brains—utterly revolting.

Anyone who’d played Resident Evil would recognize these infamous monsters—the Lickers!

After slithering out of the rubble, they silently set off in pursuit of the escaping group...