Ouroboros

Chapter 6

“Fuck, what the hell is that?? What the hell is PU-31?!”

“Did the command centre do a last-minute mission change?”

“Think with your brain. Those at the top would definitely not do something like that.”

“Did we get mixed up with another squad’s mission? Or is this a prank by that group of people from the ninth squad?”

“And what’s this about the chaser of darkness?! We can’t go back if we don’t finish this mission??”

“Cap Song, have you encountered something like this before?”

Following the chaotic chatter, Ji Yushi’s question made everyone quieten down.

The black combat uniform made Ji Yushi appear even more slender but his tone was calmer compared to his teammates.

“First time.” Song Qinglan answered, “Have you encountered this in your Recorder missions?”

Seeing him remain silent, it was presumed that he had also not encountered this before. Song Qinglan raised a brow, “Why? Afraid?”

Ji Yushi shook his head, “No, it’s enough if I can just lie down and win.” (KKnotes: For those who have forgotten, lie down and win basically means do nothing and profit off them)

Everyone was shocked: “!!!”

They didn’t expect Advisor Ji to actually say something like that out loud! Was it really okay to do this in such a situation?!

Ji Yushi continued to look calm, as if he had no burden whatsoever.

He appeared to be determined to be a salted fish. (KKnotes: Basically to be useless/to do nothing)

Song Qinglan: “……..”

Forget it. Everyone has their own ambitions.

Not wanting to speak anymore, Song Qinglan looked around before picking up a broom and going outside.

The black wall was just ahead. He poked at it with the broom and saw that it could go through. It seems that it wasn’t a physical body. The broom in his hands however suddenly became very light. As he pulled it back out, the part of the broom that was inserted into the black wall was gone, as if it had been ‘eaten’ by the black wall.

This terrible scene made everyone sweat nervously.

They couldn’t help but imagine the horrific scene of themselves recklessly touching that black wall and becoming physically mutilated or possibly even split in half.

As they saw earlier, that black wall could move.

Although it was still now, no one knew when it would start moving again. Clearly, they should leave this park management office as soon as possible.

Song Qinglan threw aside the broken broom: “What did the mission rules say?”

“De-death elimination.” Someone answered.

“It’s good that we know.” Song Qinglan turned to everyone and said sternly, “Pick up your weapons and try not to die on me. Since we can’t go back anyway, let’s figure out what this PU-31 is.”

*

The squad ventured out of the park, reaching a not so spacious intersection.

In Star Era 1470, the building density was much higher than the time and space they came from ten years ago so having a space in the centre of the city to use as a park was already very luxurious and, as a result, the streets near the park were relatively narrow.

The city was barren and emptier than expected. There were no signs of life around.

Wrecked cars were messily scattered by the sides of the roads, various shops appeared to have been smashed and burns and there were also blood stains everywhere along with an occasional mutilated corpse or two. It really felt like it was the end of the world.

The deeper into the city, the more silent it was. The only sounds that could be heard was everyone’s heavy breathing transmitted through the communicator. No one spoke.

The team members bypassed the black wall and continued on while looking around vigilantly.

They didn’t know when that black wall would move again and at times they would look back to check, only to see that it was still sitting there in the distance, having wiped out half the world.

“Wait.”

Song Qinglan’s voice sounded in the public channel and he made a fist gesture.

Everyone stopped.

It was already 6 o’clock in the morning.

The late summer sun filtered through the gaps between the tall buildings, casting a golden glow onto the charred asphalt road.

In that blinding light was a group of people.

To be more precise, it was a group of zombies.

There was a pool of flesh and blood in the middle of the road. It could be seen that it was a fresh corpse with all its inner organs scattered outside of the stomach. The group of zombies at this moment were scrambling around the corpse, feasting on the corpse’s limbs and internal organs, devouring hungrily.

The sound of chewing mixed with hoarse and low growls could be heard very clearly even at a distance of seven or eight metres away.

Although they had mentally prepared themselves, witnessing the scene of humans eating humans was still too shocking.

Before everyone had the time to digest this scene, they heard a terrified cry from behind.

“Ahhh!!!”

Not far away in the shadows of the buildings was a woman covered in blood. She had just rushed out of a building and closely following behind her were twenty or thirty zombies, frantically reaching out, trying to tear her apart.

On this end, that woman’s cry had alerted the group feasting in the sun.

They immediately looked up with their grey and turbid eyes and their bright red mouths. Like demons from hell, they immediately rushed towards the team!

“Fuck!”

Someone cursed and soon following that, someone said, “Save her!”

‘Bang, bang, bang’. Several gunshots sounded. Song Qinglan successfully struck a few of the zombies chasing after the woman and, at the same time, the other teammates had fired at the group of feasting zombies which were rushing towards them, blasting their heads and splattering it all across the ground.

The silence of the city was broken by the sound of gunfire.

“Grrrrr—-”

Like they had poked a hornet’s nest, within a few seconds more dormant zombies appeared in all directions. They came out of the shadows, from the buildings and from hidden corners around the street like a tide and rushed over at an alarming speed.

“Go, go, go!!”

“Hurry!!”

Gunshots sounded one after another, resonating throughout the street.

The woman had rushed over to them in a blink of an eye. Ji Yushi was about to pull her over to safety, but his expression suddenly changed.

At a short distance of about ten metres away, that woman transformed from a living human into one of those demons at a speed visible to the naked eye!

“Shoot!!! She’s no longer human!!”

Someone shouted behind him.

Ji Yushi felt like he had just woken up from a dream. He pressed the trigger and the Diamond Bird struck her in the head, scattering her brains in all directions.

The woman instantly fell to the ground and was stepped on by countless other zombies rushing over.

“Behind you!!”

He was suddenly pushed, and he heard an explosion close to his ears. Ji Yushi only felt a warm sensation on his neck. Song Qinglan had blasted off the head of a zombie behind him. With his face covered in blood and brain juice, Ji Yushi’s vision was blurred and his ears still roared from the blast earlier. Song Qinglan said something to him with a frown but he couldn’t hear it.

In a blink of an eye, the streets were densely covered with zombies. It was hard to find an escape route.

“Thud——”

Song Qinglan had already used his long legs to easily climb onto the roof of a car amidst the rain of bullets.

He held Shen Mian and, with full firepower, directly blasted out a ring of bloody corpses with the squad as the centre.

Everyone had a chance to catch a breath.

Li Chun similarly jumped onto the roof of another car and shouted while shooting, “Cap Song, there’s too many!!! What should we do?!”

Song Qinglan had his brows deeply furrowed. His pupils shrank and he commanded, “To the left! Convenience store!”

Most of the shops along the street had already been destroyed and the convenience store with the metal barrier was very conspicuous.

More and more zombies were attracted over by the sound of the gunshots and the zombies close at hand continued to attack the living humans.

Bloody corpses were littered all over the ground. No one paid any attention to what they stepped on and just hurried desperately in the direction pointed out by Song Qinglan.

Tang Qi and Tang Le occupied the left and right flanks respectively while Zhou Mingxuan was at the very front.

Song Qinglan and Li Chun used their height advantage and quickly helped open a bloody path for them.

Ji Yushi wiped away the blood on his face. They had successfully reached the door to the convenience store.

Someone cursed, “It’s locked!”

With long-term tacit understanding, Duan Wen didn’t hesitate. He raised his gun and directly smashed the shops identification panel, causing it to let out a piercing alarm. The metal barrier outside the glass door was lifted by Zhou Mingxuan who soon managed to open a small gap.

When Ji Yushi turned around, he saw that Song Qinglan had jumped off the roof of the car, tumbled across the ground to dodge the zombies before quickly striding over.

Song Qinglan’s face was as cold as frost. He yelled as he fired with his gun, “Li Chun! You fucking haven’t played around enough?!”

Li Chun had become too immersed with killing. At this moment, he was cursing as he shot at the zombies constantly climbing towards him.

When Song Qinglan yelled, Li Chun seemed to have returned to his senses. He looked over at his teammate who was rushing to the convenience store, “I’ll cover for you! Hurry up and go!”

Song Qinglan reached the convenience store and, with amazing arm strength, he and Zhou Mingxuan managed to lift the barrier high enough for everyone to climb through.

“Grrrrr——-”

What they didn’t expect was that almost at the same time as lifting up the barrier, five or six zombies with grey eyes and pale faces suddenly flew out from inside like rabid dogs!

‘Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!’

Following the sound of consecutive fires, the zombies all fell to the ground.

Every bullet accurately struck each of their heads.

Everyone was taken aback for a moment: “!!!”

Standing right before the door was Ji Yushi. With his face covered in blood, they couldn’t see his expression clearly.

He held Diamond Bird in both hands and his arms trembled slightly from the recoil of shooting consecutively.

The last corpse laid in front of him with wide eyes and a bullet right between his brows.

Song Qinglan was also stunned for a moment. He quickly recovered and commanded, “Clear up the entrance and close the door after going in!!”

Now wasn’t the time to gag. Duan Wen immediately dragged the corpses away and rolled in. Following him was Ji Yushi who had changed everyone’s impression of him in an instant.

The two didn’t dare relax after entering and quickly patrolled around with their guns at the ready.

All they could see was a completely trashed convenience store. Most of the shelves were empty, as if they had just been raided. Apart from that, there were no other zombies, so it looked safe.

Amid the gunfire, Li Chun was the third one to roll in.

And following that was Zhou Mingxuan and Song Qinglan.

Corpses quickly piled up. Song Qinglan kicked away the zombies trying to get in and added a shot for each of them, but the appearance of living humans attracted more and more zombies. These zombies pushed at the door and frantically tried to burrow in. The zombie’s blood and brain juices instantly dyed the entrance of the convenience store red and the metal barrier had caved in looking like it was soon about to collapse!

Just as they were at their limits of holding the fort, Tang Le was forcefully pushed into the convenience store by Tang Qi.

Tang Le’s hair was wet with blood. He quickly turned back and shouted, “Brother! Hurry in!!”

Tang Qi however remained standing outside with fresh blood stains on his face. After sending Tang Le in, he slammed the metal barrier down and proceeded to shut himself out!

Everyone was shocked!

“Tang Qi———”

Song Qinglan immediately dropped Shen Mian and moved to lift up the metal barrier but at this moment Tang Qi raised his right hand and used it to wipe away the blood on his face.

Three fingers on his right hand were missing and the fresh bite mark was still dripping with blood.

Just like that woman earlier, Tang Qi’s youthful appearance gradually turned pale and his bright and determined eyes turned grey and turbid at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Countless zombies appeared from behind Tang Qi, biting and tearing at his flesh.

He remained unmoved.

“Brother!!!” A despairing cry sounded through the convenience store. Tang Le who had witnessed everything rushed to the door like an injured beast.

His teammates held him back, their eyes equally as red.

Tang Qi’s eyes outside the door were completely glazed over. Within a few seconds, everything that belonged to him was gone. He started to let out low growls and started to slap and hit the metal barrier outside like the other zombies.

He had become a member of the zombies now.

“Brother!!!” Tang Le was pressed down onto the ground by his teammates. This one metre eighty man cried with extreme sorrow, “Brother!!!”

Song Qinglan stepped back and slammed his fist heavily on the wall.

His dark hair scattered loosely against his forehead and there were faint veins along his neck. Strong anger and aggression could be felt emanating from his body.

“Are we going to die?! Behind us is the black wall and before us are those zombies!” Li Chun looked around with red eyes, “It hadn’t been long and we already………There are so many outside. What should we do?!”

The zombies outside rushed over like waves. One wave after another, there was no chance of them breaking through. As shown by Tang Qi just now, once bitten, one would mutate within just a few seconds.

The metal barrier of this convenience store probably wouldn’t be able to last very long either.

As soon as this question was asked, the convenience store fell silent.

Their current predicament was a hundred times more dangerous than expected. No one had expected that someone would lose their lives so soon!

Standing in the corner was Ji Yushi. Sticky blood slowly dripped from the hair on the side of his ears.

The scene of Tang Qi mutating was too terrifying.

The metal barrier creaked. More and more zombies gathered outside the convenience store.

Hearing the growls at such a close proximity while trapped inside a small convenience store, despair enveloped everyone.

But Song Qinglan said, “If we stay, we’re only waiting for our deaths. Now isn’t the time to give up!”

Ji Yushi raised his head.

He saw Song Qinglan pick up Shen Mian from the ground, no longer looking at the terrible looking teammate outside who had followed him through countless life and death situations.

Knowing that everyone was counting on him, Song Qinglan gritted his teeth and gave an order in a deep voice, “Check and see if there is another exit!”

The teammates started to move but they soon returned to their original positions.

“Cap Song, we made no discoveries!”

“There is a window in the bathroom, but it is only thirty centimetres in size. We can’t get out from it.”

“There should be an exit in the warehouse.”

Ji Yushi’s ears were still ringing from the close proximity blast earlier and his eardrums hurt severely so the tone of his voice was a little strange.

After witnessing the death of a teammate, Ji Yushi’s pale face that was stained with blood was even paler than before, “But I’m not sure what’s outside that exit. It may be even worse.”

Everyone was slightly surprised.

This newly joined Advisor Ji who had just revealed his abilities earlier at the door looked extremely fragile at this moment, like a wounded flower in a greenhouse.

Everyone suddenly thought of the zombies that have fallen under his gun.

Duan Wen, “I’ve already checked. The four walls of the warehouse are just walls!”

Ji Yushi said, “Not possible. I remember the layout for this area!”

Song Qinglan asked, “Have you been here before?”

No. Song Qinglan quickly dismissed that thought. They had only just come this this so-called PU-31 and haven’t even had the chance to figure out what this place was so it wasn’t possible for Ji Yushi to have come here before.

Ji Yushi explained, “No! On the way here, I saw a plan of the window layout for the buildings in this area. This place is a commercial district and the buildings have fixed requirements, so the ground floor layout of each building is exactly the same. There should be an exit in the warehouse.”

Someone couldn’t help but ask, “Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?”

Ji Yushi, “I’m certain.”

Everyone quickly came to warehouse which didn’t have any windows in sight.

If one didn’t have a good sense of direction, it would be difficult to tell where they were facing when in an unfamiliar space.

But Ji Yushi’s mind was like a living 3D architectural drawing. He pointed at a wall and said quickly, “This place here should have a window about 120cm high and 80cm wide. Because this place was planned to be the convenience store’s warehouse and considering issues of theft and humidity, it was likely sealed up. The shop keeper kept the fake windows outside to keep the appearance of the building the same.”

Everyone was suspicious. Was there really someone who could remember everything they see without a single mistake?

Song Qinglan had now calmed down. He knocked on that wall.

Time was running out. After confirming that it was indeed a flimsy brick wall, Song Qinglan asked, “What’s behind the wall?!”

Ji Yushi could see some trust in his eyes. He calmly said again, “Back alley. But I’m not clear on the situation in the back alley.”

It wasn’t a situation for them to hesitate: “Directly blow it open!”

They did as they were told.

Everyone backed away and, together with Song Qinglan, Tang Le used a high energy gun to blow open that wall.

‘Boom—–’

Loud noise travelled in from outside the warehouse!!

That metal barrier at the entrance had finally collapsed! Countless crazed zombies rushed into the store. Their chaotic footsteps and the sounds of shelves being overturned sounded like the death god warning them of their imminent death.

“Quick, quick, quick!!”

“You guys go first!!”

The opportunity was just in front of them, but the warehouse door was just a thin piece of wood and it was very quickly deformed by the zombies.

Zhou Mingxuan leaned back against it, barely supporting it with his body as a shield. He urged loudly, “Go!”

Li Chun followed Duan Wen quickly and hurriedly climbed out of the window which was revealed after blasting open the wall.

But soon, the flimsy warehouse door fell to the ground and countless zombies rushed in. Zhou Mingxuan reacted too late and was instantly overwhelmed by the zombies!

Gunshots sounded and blood spattered.

Tang Le who was already on the verge of breaking down cursed with red eyes, “Fuck you!! This father here will kill you all!!”

Blood and flesh splattered across the warehouse. Song Qinglan’s face was tense. He fired Shen Mian round after round.

After catching his breath, Song Qinglan grabbed Tang Le’s clothes. When he looked back at Ji Yushi, his gaze was filled with force, “Ji Yushi! Take him away!!”

Ji Yushi’s body was completely covered in blood, looking extremely horrible, “There are too many! Let’s go together!!”

Tang Le, whose face was stained with someone’s brain juices, staggered back a few steps from Song Qinglan’s pull.

Song Qinglan killed a new wave of zombies with the gun in one hand while he used the other to push his teammate over, “Didn’t you want to help? Don’t speak nonsense and leave now!! I’ll hold up the fort!”

More and more zombies poured in. There were also zombies attracted to the back alley.

Seeing that Song Qinglan was too busy to take care of anything else, Ji Yushi no longer hesitated. He pushed Tang Le out of the window and closely followed behind him.

Li Chun shouted from a car not far away, “Get in!!”

‘Bang!’

After landing, Ji Yushi killed a zombie rushing over and quickly got in the car with Tang Le.

There were deafening gunshots behind him.

“Where’s Cap Song?!” Ji Yushi heard Duan Wen in the car ask, “Tang Le!! Where’s Cap Song?!”

Intense gunfire in the warehouse stopped abruptly.

Ji Yushi instantly realised something and Song Qinglan’s determined expression floated to his mind.

He immediately turned to look at the window where they had jumped out from. Zombies poured out of it continuously but the domineering Song Qinglan was nowhere in sight.

Duan Wen’s voice changed. It was as if he was crying and also as if he was howling, “Identification card!! Find it!!”

Dozens of zombies surrounded the car, the pounding outside reverberating in everyone’s heart.

In this era, the car had to be unlocked using one’s fingerprint and starting it up the usual way wouldn’t work. Li Chun searched around the cars storage box while trembling in fear before finally finding a spare identification card.

The car roared and white smoke formed as the tyres spun against the ground. The zombies ahead were hit by the car leaving dark red marks following the collision.

Outside of the back alley, the street as usual was bright and sunny.

The black wall in the distance had become the city’s backdrop.

At this moment, time seemed to have slowed down. Everyone’s faces showed disbelief and their faces were frozen with fear and horror.

Under the sun, a large spacecar suddenly appeared before them.

As soon as they started their escape, they were crushed to pulp and completely wiped out.

KK has something to say:

Aaaannnd everyone is dead. THE END! (Just kidding)