Chapter 174.2 – Key (17)

◎ Are you sneaking a snack outside? ◎

The desolate jungle of Huangyuan was almost silent, with no birds, no beasts, and even the chirping of insects was sparse. Only the lush mutated plants covered the sky, and after a whole day of searching, Song Ke and the others found nothing. Not to mention the Zombie King, even the previously blood-red zombies seemed to have collectively disappeared.

Qiong Mingcheng couldn’t help muttering, “Damn, where did all the zombies go?”

Duanmu Qi thought of something, “It’s very similar to the Mirror Lake incident.”

He was referring to the first round of the Throne Race: Finding the “Flag,” where the situation was also like this, with no sign of zombies anywhere.

“But I’m sure this time it’s definitely not the City Lord’s doing,” Qiong Mingcheng joked.

“Ilya?” Song Ke casually asked, realizing he hadn’t heard any news about the super AI for some time.

“Yeah, it seems like he went on a long journey, and now Ferrara is governed by other AIs taking turns.”

On a journey? Song Ke suddenly remembered the time when Ilya insisted on going to Tongwan with them. It seems that this super AI, after acquiring a physical form, has become more and more independent in its actions.

Lu Xiaoyu’s wheelchair passed by the talking group smoothly, his tea-colored eyes blinking lightly, his expression unchanged.

It was almost seven o’clock, the narrow sky getting darker. Song Ke and the others gained nothing, and their points did not increase at all. In the end, they found an open space to camp and decided to make do for the night.

“Sister, there are tents over there!” Xu Xing ran down the hill to report.

Song Ke went over to take a look and indeed found many messy tents on the dried riverbed covered with mud and moss. Roughly counting, there were about a hundred tents, resembling a medium-sized team. Everyone looked at each other in surprise. Has someone else been to this radiation-prone area?

Su Cha jumped down to inspect and returned after a moment, saying in a deep voice, “No signs of fire, the tents were not set up temporarily, it’s been a while.”

He picked up a piece of wood stake with numerous claw marks, “From the construction method, it doesn’t look like… normal humans.”

If it were humans with wilderness survival experience, they would set up tents in a flat and open windward place. They wouldn’t choose a dried riverbed with the risk of rolling stones in nearby canyons. Moreover, the openings faced in all directions without a scientific layout, seemingly just to satisfy the habit of living in groups.

“Not like normal humans? Haha, it can’t possibly be zombies, right?” Qiong Mingcheng scratched his head and made a dark joke.

Unfortunately, no one laughed.

“Oh my god! It can’t be, right?” Qiong Mingcheng stared in astonishment. Did zombies really set up these tents?

That night, a blazing campfire lit up the center of the camp, illuminating the camouflage tents. Ghostly shadows lurked in the distant dark woods, and the wind whispered. Everyone was solemn, taking turns on night watch. In the end, the night passed without any incidents.

Oh, there was something – the sound of knocking and banging coming from Lu Xiaoyu’s tent for most of the night. It finally quieted down in the early morning. The pale-faced young man emerged and slipped into Song Ke’s tent next door. They stayed there for several hours, only appearing together at dawn.

When Lu Xiaoyu entered, it was Fan Peng and Duanmu Qi on night watch. Fan Peng, an honest person, didn’t gossip behind their backs despite witnessing the whole thing. He just had a sudden realization about their relationship. Then, he asked in confusion, “Aqi, I remember there were two people in wheelchairs among them?”

Duanmu Qi nodded uncertainly, “They didn’t mention them. Maybe… they sacrificed.”

In the apocalypse, farewells were often commonplace, and Fan Peng made a few remarks without dwelling on it.

Early the next day, Song Ke gathered everyone and issued new instructions, “Continue moving forward. If you encounter zombies, don’t attack. Notify Lu Xiaoyu first.”

Today, their luck seemed better than yesterday. By noon, both Su Cha and Xiao Chen had found wandering zombies.

Lu Xiaoyu spread open his palms, and two mechanical mosquitoes slowly took off, approaching the targets under his control.

A faint mechanical sound arose as the lifelike mosquitoes extended their thin proboscises, “biting” into the translucent skin of the unfortunate zombies. The two unlucky ones paused for a second, looked around in confusion, finding nothing unusual, and lowered their heads again. After wandering around the area, they disappeared again before nightfall.

“What are they doing?” Duanmu Qi asked.

“Locators, with chips inside,” Song Ke said mysteriously. It was an invention they had come up with during a sleepless night, with Lu Xiaoyu handling the practical aspects while she proposed the “mosquito-shaped” design.

Not long after, the moving positions of the two zombies appeared on Lu Xiaoyu’s screen.

“We suspect that these zombies have a tendency to gather,” Song Ke explained seriously. Various signs, such as dragging away the bodies of their kind after death or building tents, indicated that Huangyuan’s zombies had a clear sense of communal living.

“And, they are consciously avoiding humans.”

After Song Ke finished speaking, she paused for a moment. She hadn’t deliberately connected the clues, but when these features were put together… why did it feel a bit familiar?

It wasn’t until nightfall that the two moving zombies finally stopped, surprisingly ending up in the same location. The two teams stealthily navigated through the silent jungle, eventually discovering that the location was a vast, open valley.

Surrounding them was pitch darkness with no light at all, and the group put on night vision goggles. What they saw was an intense green, faces of zombies with indistinct features, countless thin limbs gathered together, forming an endless sea of corpses. Looking from a distance, it seemed like moving ghostly shadows, and the number was impossible to count.

In the center of the zombie sea, there was a distinctively different zombie. Its size was considerably larger than its surrounding counterparts, and although its facial features were uneven, there were clear contours. Judging from its body curves, it appeared to be a female in its past life.

When the other zombies returned, each one would approach it closely, affectionately nuzzling against it before running away in different directions. It was as if the returning children couldn’t wait to be back in their mother’s embrace. What was even more shocking was that there were many small zombies in the valley, some even shorter than Xu Xing. They were protected by adult zombies, and behind them were tents similar to those seen on the dried riverbed.

Song Ke silently stared at the leading female zombie, gradually understanding. It seemed like this was the zombie king of Huangyuan.

“Are these… really zombies?” Fan Peng’s voice trembled.

The stereotypical image of zombies in the human mind is fierce, grim, constantly craving flesh and blood, irrational monsters. However, the peaceful coexistence of the zombie group before them, an unprecedented scene of tranquility, completely overturned their preconceptions. If this news got out, it would undoubtedly shock the world.

Song Ke sighed silently, a certain intuition gradually becoming a reality, “They are not zombies; they are… the Fallen.”

It wasn’t simply “zombies without crystals.” Due to radiation effects, the humans here didn’t mutate into zombies for some unknown reason. Instead, they became a third species, rejected by both humans and zombies – the Fallen.

Similar to the Braided Head and Dirty Chin that V587 had encountered before, but that time there were only a few scattered individuals, unlike now—

The entire Huangyuan was the headquarters of the Fallen.

Due to the shock, Fan Peng became distracted for a moment, breaking a dry branch underfoot, which rolled down the valley. It was a very faint sound, and considering the hundred-meter distance, it shouldn’t have been noticed.

However, the zombie king in the valley suddenly lifted its head, and its crimson eyes stared straight towards the high ground, emitting a sharp, long howl.

Oh no! Song Ke thought to herself.

Tens of thousands of agile Fallen rushed over, swarming like an endless army of the living dead. In a matter of moments, they surrounded Song Ke and the others, turning them into an isolated island in the sea of zombies.

*

Northern Base.

Zhuang Qingyan didn’t see Ning Rong until the next day. He had locked himself in the radiation laboratory for a whole day and night. Despite looking extremely tired, his eyes were bright. As soon as he saw Zhuang Qingyan, he couldn’t wait to take off the entire set of isolation suits, “I was just looking for you about the second phase of the clinical plan…”

Zhuang Qingyan raised his hand to stop him, “Dr. Ning, how did you withdraw from the Eternal Life Project?”

Ning Rong was taken aback, “Just… a normal resignation. And all permissions were revoked. Otherwise, my research wouldn’t be so difficult. But I didn’t sign any contracts to sell myself. You know, when Old Zhuang invited me to join, it was still early, and there was no such thing. If I wanted to leave, they had no reason to stop me.”

Zhuang Qingyan took off his gold-rimmed glasses, rubbed his forehead, “So, you voluntarily resigned, and it wasn’t He Qiuhong who recruited you?”

“Of course not. I signed a confidentiality agreement, the kind drafted by the Awakener Department. She didn’t know the details of my research.”

Ning Rong honestly confessed, “After regaining my freedom, due to financial constraints, I looked for a new place for almost half a year. Originally, I was thinking of going to Baishen. Before applying for an independent laboratory, I happened to see the recruitment notice from the Northern Base. I thought, experimenting where they pay so generously, what’s the difference, right? I contacted He Qiuhong’s secretary at that time, what was her name… Ye something Mei.”

Zhuang Qingyan tapped his fingertips on the desktop, his eyes sinking into contemplation.

“Is there a problem?” Ning Rong asked in confusion.

Zhuang Qingyan sighed softly, “Dr. Ning, you’re quite old, why are you still so naive?”

Ning Rong: “…” You also know I’m quite old, and now I’m being educated by this younger generation?

Although He Qiuhong’s personality was not great, she had always been cautious in her actions, with the necessary sense of vigilance.

In the later stages of the Eternal Life Project, the entire project team split into several factions, and the research progress came to a standstill. Many senior scientists were poached by various regions. Zhuang Qingyan originally thought that Ning Rong was also in this situation. If He Qiuhong had invited him on behalf of the Northern Base, she would surely have cleared any hidden dangers behind Ning Rong.

As a result, Ning Rong turned out to be a freelance scholar who actively offered himself, even idling for half a year. So there was a significant possibility that He Qiuhong did not realize Ning Rong’s importance. She was probably unaware that he was once a core member of the “Eternal Life Project.” She likely considered him just a renowned biologist. Hence, He Qiuhong arranged awakener guards for the laboratory to ensure Ning Rong’s safety but didn’t assign anyone to track him. This led to several meetings between him and Ning Rong without any apparent anomalies.

“You’ve been monitored,” Zhuang Qingyan stood straight, speaking in a cold tone.

“Let’s not meet again in the future,” Zhuang Qingyan’s demeanor was icy. “Don’t drag me down.”

His assistant, munching on a piece of bread, walked past, holding a transparent screen, and dropped everything upon hearing Zhuang Qingyan’s scumbag remarks.

Zhuang Qingyan added, “Stay in the laboratory. If there’s anything, contact me online.”

Muttering, Ning Rong said, “I didn’t plan to go out. It’s you who insisted on calling me…”

Zhuang Qingyan’s eyes flickered as he quickly recalled their few meetings. The first time was in this laboratory, amidst chaos, exchanging a few words in haste. Later, they communicated through terminals. The second time was in Qianzhan City, where Ning Rong came and left alone. The third time…

“Ding ding – ding ding.”

The temporary terminal, with only communication functions enabled, made a beeping sound, interrupting Zhuang Qingyan’s thoughts.

He glanced down at the incoming call, a gentle smile appearing in his eyes.

“Song Keke, has the mission been completed? Are you coming back tomorrow?”

“Uh, about that…” Song Ke’s voice sounded a bit uneasy. “It’s just… it might take a little longer.”

Zhuang Qingyan furrowed his brow. “How much longer? Isn’t it three days as agreed?”

“How long will it take?” Song Ke seemed to be consulting someone nearby. Two or three unfamiliar male voices followed, discussing, “District C26, Fenak… quite far. If everything goes smoothly, it’ll take around ten days round trip.”

“…Ten days,” Song Ke felt a bit flustered. “I promise, as soon as possible!”

Zhuang Qingyan’s sharp eyebrows slowly lifted, and he casually asked, “Who is talking? Are you sneaking a snack outside?”

Song Ke: “?”

Song Ke was shocked, “No, no.”