Chapter 82: Who Allowed This?

Soon, the helicopter hovered above the rooftop following the signal flare’s location and lowered a rope ladder.

“Fatty! Carry Zhang Zhengchu and go up first!” Wang Zhi shouted loudly.

Fatty didn’t hesitate. He made Zhang Zhengchu tightly hold onto his neck and climbed the rope ladder, pulling himself and Zhang Zhengchu up to the helicopter.

Seeing Fatty go up, Wang Zhi and Liu Li followed, climbing the rope ladder as well.

“Hurry up!” Wang Zhi shouted to Lao He and Su Mu Ying who were still behind.

The two of them quickly finished off their last few rounds of ammunition, then turned and jumped, grabbing the rope ladder. As soon as they did, the helicopter immediately ascended, leaving behind the zombies that were continuously leaping off the building after it.

Hanging from the rope ladder with one hand, the two swayed in the air. As the rope ladder slowly pulled up, they finally reached the helicopter.

“Did you find the items?” the helicopter pilot, Jie Xi, asked expressionlessly, looking down at the group.

“Yes! We found them!” Wang Zhi replied.

“Good. What happened to him?” Jie Xi glanced at the injured Zhang Zhengchu.

“He… his forearm was scratched by a mutated zombie. To prevent infection, I had to amputate it. I’m sorry, Zhang Zhengchu, I…” Wang Zhi said, feeling guilty. If Zhang Zhengchu hadn’t tried to save him, he wouldn’t have gotten injured.

“No… it’s not your fault. We all chose to continue the mission, hehe…” Zhang Zhengchu weakly said, closing his eyes and giving a foolish grin.

“Mutated zombies…” Jie Xi repeated softly, then turned away to look out the window and fell silent.

Wang Zhi looked at Zhang Zhengchu and understood that his lost arm could not be recovered. No matter how much he trained in the future, his disability would prevent him from continuing to fight. His fate would likely be to leave the team and stay inside the Li Ren Tower. However, that was safer, and Wang Zhi decided that he would make sure to leave some survival points for Zhang Zhengchu to live peacefully inside the tower.

About an hour later, the helicopter landed at the base. After they jumped off, they immediately entered the elevator to head back to Li Ren Tower.

Once inside, Wang Zhi rushed out of the elevator and took Zhang Zhengchu to the medical room before heading to the disinfection chamber for a check-up.

After exiting the disinfection chamber, Wang Zhi ran to the medical room and asked the nurse, “How is he? Did he get infected?”

“There are no signs of infection for now, but we’ll need to observe him here for a week,” the nurse shook her head and replied.

“Good, good. Fatty, go get some porridge for Zhang Zhengchu and bring it back,” Wang Zhi instructed Fatty.

“You all go ahead. I’ll stay here,” Wang Zhi said, turning and gazing at Zhang Zhengchu, who had fallen asleep. He didn’t go in to disturb him.

After a while, when Fatty returned with food, the two of them went into Zhang Zhengchu’s room.

Sitting by the bed, neither of them knew what to say. Since Zhang Zhengchu was still asleep, Wang Zhi placed the food aside and they sat quietly for a while before leaving. Before leaving, Wang Zhi reminded the nurse to call him once Zhang Zhengchu woke up.

Afterward, Wang Zhi went through their bags, took out the medicine Su Mu Ying had brought back, and headed to the mission hall to collect the mission items. He confirmed that they had returned with 150 grams of streptomycin, and the 15,000 survival points were credited to their account.

Looking at the increased survival points in his account, Wang Zhi couldn’t feel any joy. If he could go back and do it all over again, he would gladly give up those survival points and never let them enter Z Hospital.

Wang Zhi put away the magnetic card and returned to their quarters with Fatty.

The other four, who had returned earlier, went back to their rooms to rest. After two days of fighting, everyone was exhausted. Wang Zhi came out of the bathroom and didn’t go back to his own room but lay down on the living room sofa to watch over Lingling Yao and gradually fell asleep.

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Later…

In a room on the fifth floor.

“Jie Xi, you’ve already gone outside the tower twice without permission. Don’t you know the consequences of this?” The speaker was Tower Chief Guang, while Jie Xi stood in front of him, her head lowered in silence.

“Hey! I know you’re doing it for Li Ren Tower, but have you ever considered what would happen if those people found out we’re still alive? Do you think Li Ren Tower can still exist?” Chief Guang sighed when Jie Xi remained silent and spoke earnestly.

“Sorry, Tower Chief,” Jie Xi replied quietly.

“Hmm, go back now,” Chief Guang said, motioning for her to leave.

After Jie Xi left, Chief Guang opened a video communication link.

“Dr. Chen, how’s the progress on the virus antibody vaccine?”

“Everything is going well. The compatibility has already been tested at 95%.”

“Good, once the research is completed, notify them for free vaccinations based on the team’s priority levels.”

“Understood, Tower Chief.”

After Dr. Chen confirmed, Chief Guang closed the communication link.

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The next morning, Wang Zhi woke up from the sofa. At that moment, Lingling Yao’s message light was on. Wang Zhi opened it and saw a summons from the medical room. He knew Zhang Zhengchu had already woken up.

He went to Fatty’s room and tried waking everyone up, but Fatty was still fast asleep at his desk, with a painting of a woman under his arm. Wang Zhi picked it up and looked at it. Surprisingly, the painting of Diao Chan was quite lifelike, though Wang Zhi had never seen her in person.

“Hey! Fatty, wake up, Zhang Zhengchu is awake,” Wang Zhi nudged Fatty.

“Ah! What?” Fatty sprang up from his chair, startled, and looked around. After realizing he was in his own room, he relaxed.

Then Wang Zhi went to wake up the other three. The five of them headed to the medical room together.

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When they arrived at Zhang Zhengchu’s room, they found that the bed was perfectly made, but Zhang Zhengchu wasn’t on it.

At that moment, a nurse walked up to them, holding a tray with a white sheet, a magnetic card, and Zhang Zhengchu’s pistol, the Lexion.

Wang Zhi immediately felt something was wrong and hurriedly asked, “Where’s Zhang Zhengchu? Where is he?”

“He… he died,” the nurse said quietly, her head lowered.

“Died… died? How did he die?” Wang Zhi’s heart skipped a beat.

“He… he requested euthanasia. He personally signed the death agreement,” the nurse whispered.

“Who allowed you to kill my teammate? Who allowed this?” Wang Zhi shouted angrily, pointing the gun at the nurse.

The nurse remained silent, not worried that Wang Zhi would shoot her, because she knew the gun was unloaded.

“Wang Zhi! Calm down!” Lao He immediately grabbed Wang Zhi’s hand, taking the gun away.

“Everyone has the right to decide their own life and death. This was Zhang Zhengchu’s choice. Don’t blame the medical room staff,” Su Mu Ying said calmly from the side.

“Sorry.” Wang Zhi realized he had overreacted. After apologizing to the nurse, he took the magnetic card and white paper from the tray.

After the nurse left, she quickly ran away, leaving Wang Zhi and the others behind in stunned silence.