Chapter 74

Since 3357, when Wen Jiuze was awakened from Cryogenic Chamber 002 by the Beifeng District First Research Institute, their hard days began.

Before they could fully investigate the hero who had completed many significant missions and was posthumously honored as a martyr, they had already encountered Wen Jiuze’s difficult and… crazy personality.

This person, who had been asleep for three hundred years, emerged from the cryogenic chamber filled with suspicion and distrust. Even when he couldn’t remember anything, he resisted their treatment.

After the first round of revival treatment, when he regained some memories of the past, they thought things might improve. Who could have known that things would only get worse?

After an initial period of silence, he began asking a lot of questions.

“What year is it now? Where are we? Who are you people? And most importantly, where is Xue Ling, the person who should be with me, from Cryogenic Chamber 001?”

“Where is Xue Ling?” became the phrase he repeated the most.

At that time, everyone at the research institute was still excited about discovering a mutated virus carrier from the early days of the apocalypse. They wanted to study the unusual virus in his body, not realizing this was just the beginning of their miserable ten years.

They told Wen Jiuze countless times that his cryogenic chamber was found in a certain ruin, which had already been explored several times without finding any other chambers.

But Wen Jiuze didn’t believe them. He didn’t even accept the second round of revival treatment and directly escaped from the research institute.

They had guards at the door of his ward, and there were security checks at the entrance of the institute, but no one knew how he managed to escape.

If it hadn’t been for his terrifying appearance making it impossible to hide his tracks and the numerous surveillance cameras and patrols in the Beifeng District, he might have really managed to escape.

To calm him down, they brought him to see the ruins with his own eyes, but this didn’t seem to soothe him.

He insisted on checking every cryogenic chamber found at the same time. Even the chambers that had been deemed unrecoverable and were buried after being tested as having no chance of awakening, he had to inspect them all.

After confirming that the one he was looking for was not in those chambers, they thought he would give up.

But he quickly made the research institute understand what true stubbornness and determination meant.

If he couldn’t find her at the same site, he was sure she must be somewhere else.

While continuing with his revival treatments at the research institute, he started researching all available thawing records from the past three hundred years.

Because many of the records required high-level clearance, after finishing his treatments, he directly joined the abnormal team of Beifeng District.

Many of the thawed people couldn’t adjust to living with ordinary people, but they possessed abilities far beyond normal humans.

To manage them, each district assigned them various jobs.

At the same time, in gratitude for the contributions and identities many had before freezing, they were offered excellent living conditions and compensation.

Wen Jiuze could have chosen an easier job, but instead, he chose to join the most demanding and elite abnormal team.

This team, consisting entirely of undead from the seven districts, was tasked with completing missions that ordinary teams couldn’t handle, such as eliminating the most stubborn mutated animals.

Of course, they also held high-level authority.

Wen Jiuze used this status to gain access to high-level data and checked all the thawing records of the cryogenically preserved people across the entire region.

He stayed at the First Research Institute for six months before spending the next three to four years searching through the vast thawing database.

Meanwhile, he took advantage of the tasks assigned to the Abnormal Team and traveled through all seven districts in search of people.

It would have been fine if he was just looking for people on his own, but he didn’t spare the researchers at the Beifeng District Institute either.

Since he had to leave Area A to take on tasks in other districts, he couldn’t dedicate much time to the investigation. So, whenever there was an opportunity, he would request for the researchers to join him.

The reason he brought them along was simple—they were experienced. They had been responsible for Wen Jiuze’s revival project in the past, which led to Wen Jiuze’s restless soul haunting them, ruining every holiday they had.

Although there were subsidies and extra pay, who would willingly do such tedious and hopeless tasks for ten years? It was soul-crushing and frustrating.

Wen Jiuze ignored all their suggestions and refused to listen to their terrible guesses. Every time he appeared at the institute, he would randomly grab someone and take them with him.

The destinations were equally random—sometimes it was a storage point for cryo chamber in another district, other times it was a research institute in another area, or a cold storage site and private research lab found in a wasteland.

Such dangerous wastelands, where mutant animals lurked nearby, eyeing them hungrily.

Although Wen Jiuze was powerful and ensured their safety, who among normal people would want to be forced to work in such a high-pressure, perilous environment?

The researchers at the First Institute had considered fighting back, but Wen Jiuze rose to power too quickly.

He was a top performer in the Abnormal Team, and given his special background, the higher-ups were lenient with him. As long as he didn’t cross a line, they let him do as he pleased.

In the end, only the researchers at the First Institute were left hurt.

They became tools to appease Wen Jiuze, constantly enduring his surprise attacks and psychological torment.

Over the past decade, the name “Xue Ling” was most frequently mentioned—not by Wen Jiuze, but by the researchers at the First Institute.

This name had nearly become their mental demon.

One of the popular jokes at the First Institute was about a researcher who, while sleeping, repeatedly muttered “Xue Ling” in his sleep. His girlfriend found out, thinking he had another lover, and angrily broke up with him.

“Yes, it’s this unlucky guy. At that time, he was grabbed by Wen Jiuze for a task in a wasteland lab, where he helped Wen Jiuze dig up over a thousand bodies from the cryo chamber.”

Xue Ling glanced at the person being pointed out. At first, he looked calm, but upon a second glance, she noticed he was laughing and crying at the same time.

Xue Ling: …You guys are really exaggerating.

Sitting on the hospital bed, with no time to feel sorrow, Xue Ling was surrounded by a group of middle-aged men who were ecstatic.

They looked like patients with a terminal illness who had suddenly found hope, as if after ten years of research, they had finally seen the light. The mental state of each of them was clearly not normal.

At that moment, Xue Ling was the most normal person in the room.

Looking at their glowing eyes, Xue Ling didn’t dare to speak.

It felt like when a family loses their dog and is grieving, only to be told by a group of people that the dog is still alive but has caused a lot of trouble, biting them and destroying their homes.

Xue Ling pulled on the dog’s collar and faced the excited victims. The feeling of joy at having it back was completely overshadowed by their overwhelming reaction.

So, after all that was said, where was Wen Jiuze?

Wen Jiuze was on a mission.

A dangerous, urgent, and confidential mission.

But these kinds of missions were just part of the daily routine for the Abnormal Team.

The team Wen Jiuze was part of had nine members, and it was the most elite Abnormal Team in the Beifeng District.

Although they were located in the most dangerous wasteland area, a place even ordinary people feared, their demeanor remained relaxed.

Two members were sitting on a steel ruin, grilling meat. Two others were sitting on broken stone benches playing cards. One person was sitting nearby making handcrafted knitted items, and another was using a knife to poke at mutated ants that kept emerging from the ground.

The most hardworking members, the captain and deputy captain, returned from sweeping the area and surveyed their teammates, immediately feeling a headache.

“Xiao Dong and Xiao Gu, stop grilling that stuff, you can’t eat it!” the captain shouted.

The two grilling meat responded, “I just want to taste it, chew a bit and spit it out.”

“Plus, I found this hundred-year-old hot sauce in the ruins. It’s amazing!”

“Even though we’re called ‘The Undeads,’ that doesn’t mean we can eat anything without dying. You two are taking things too far,” the deputy captain said.

“Xiao Tang, stop poking those ants!”

Xiao Tang got up and tossed a giant, shiny, mutated ant into the fire, “Eat this, get some protein.”

“Ah, you’re going to kill the mutated bug meat I just roasted!”

“No fighting! And no eating! Everyone, stop!”

“The mission’s almost done, we should be heading back… Wait, where’s Wen Jiuze?” the leader asked.

The two who were playing cards paused and said, “Where else would he go? Of course, he’s looking for hidden research labs around here, searching for cryo chambers.”

“He really is persistent, looking for so long and still not giving up.”

“…Who’s going to go get him? We need to leave,” the captain said.

“I’m not going. Who would dare disturb him now? He might still be angry if he hasn’t found anything. If you go and annoy him, what if he kicks you to death? I saw him kick a cryo chamber into pieces last time. Scary, he’s the kind of guy who could snap a mutant bear’s spine with a single kick.”

“Brother Wen isn’t that scary. He’ll probably just grab you and throw you. You won’t die.”

“If you’re not afraid, then you go.”

“I’m not going! Brother Wen might not hit people, but his expressionless face and silence are terrifying.”

Just as they were talking, someone appeared at the corner of the ruins.

A tall figure, carrying weapons and empty-handed, walked through the suddenly quiet teammates without showing any expression. He stepped onto the aircraft that was parked nearby.

“It looks like he didn’t find anything again,” someone whispered.

The others stood up one after another, reluctantly leaving the half-cooked meat on the grill and the unfinished cards. They silently boarded the aircraft.

If you make the “Team Boss” wait too long, he will really drive the aircraft away by himself.

Every time after completing a mission, the hardest part was always the journey back. The two most talkative young members of the team were silent.

Finally, the captain, who was piloting the aircraft, cleared his throat and said, “Wen Jiuze, you’re still going straight to the research institute like before, right?”

A cold, deep voice came from the dark corner of the back seat. “Mm.”

The youngest team member, Xiao Dong, quietly said, “Brother Wen, let me take the weapons back to the team for you.”

The person sitting alone at the back didn’t say anything. He kicked the weapon at his feet over to Xiao Dong.

Xiao Dong quickly picked it up and carefully placed it beside him.

Dong Yang was the youngest thawed person in the team, and he admired Wen Jiuze the most. He had been pulled out of a cryo chamber from a ruined site by Wen Jiuze.

If it weren’t for Wen Jiuze, he didn’t know when he would have been found.

Over the years, Wen Jiuze had unearthed many cryo chambers. Many of the people, like Dong Yang, were taken to the research institute for treatment.

But the person he had been looking for the most had yet to be found.

The abnormal team’s aircraft could pass directly through air security to enter the habitable zones. After flying over the first research institute, it began to descend.

When they reached the right altitude, Wen Jiuze stood up, opened the cabin door, and jumped out.

The aircraft circled the wide helipad of the first research institute before quickly flying away.

Wen Jiuze carried nothing on him and his clothes were still covered in the dust and stains from this mission.

He walked across the helipad towards the large building ahead but didn’t hear the usual commotion.

The group of researchers would always hide when they saw him. There would always be noise and frantic shouts, but today, it was surprisingly quiet. There were no panicked voices or footsteps running around.

Now, with his extremely sharp senses, Wen Jiuze casually glanced up at the building.

His gaze quickly swept across the corridors of the building, then shifted to the sky bridge connecting the buildings.

There, a dark figure caught his attention for a couple of seconds.

The person was wearing the blue hospital gown meant for the thawed, and even from this distance, Wen Jiuze could see their thin body and a corpse-like appearance.

He had seen too many thawed people. Those whose bodies had been frozen for too long, losing their vitality, looked like this.

Her appearance wasn’t special, but she was crouching by the corridor, seemingly having noticed him as well.

She quickly lifted herself on tiptoe, as if trying to get a better look at him, then visibly froze and hurriedly took two steps back, her movements frantic.

She squatted for a few seconds before peeking around the corner, half of her face emerging to look at him.

Wen Jiuze watched her series of actions without shifting his gaze.

An absurd certainty suddenly filled his mind.

His steps slowed, then quickened, and finally, he broke into a run.