Hal felt an invisible gaze from behind.

He instinctively turned in that direction and spotted Riley huddled in a corner.

He seemed to be injured, a flicker of pain flashing across his face. But when he noticed Hal looking his way, Riley quickly yanked down his pant leg, glared fiercely back, and even gave him the middle finger.

His lips moved silently, cursing: “Bastard!”

Hal turned his head expressionlessly.

In this situation, he had no interest in quarreling with a brainless brute who only had brute strength.

The helicopter hovered above the rooftop, dropping down a safety rope ladder for them to climb.

“Professor Leeson, you first.”

Leeson was their primary mission target, and Edmond intended to give him the first chance.

The man nodded and climbed up the rope ladder without hesitation.

Right after, the arrogant woman shoved her way forward. “I’ll go second.”

The other researchers, though seething, dared not object and gave way.

The woman grew even more smug.

Seeing “Leeson” board the helicopter, she immediately followed.

But she was weak and slow, fumbling clumsily until she finally managed to crawl into the cabin.

One by one, the remaining personnel began evacuating.

Just then, the baseball bat wedged against the iron door was smashed open by the horde of zombies.

The squad had to retreat while firing at the same time.

But too many zombies surged onto the rooftop—fast, relentless, flooding the place like a tide.

The captain and Hal stayed behind to cover the retreat.

“Hal, grab my hand!”

At the critical moment, Edmond was already on the rope ladder. Despite the helicopter swaying dangerously, he caught Hal firmly in time.

“Got it!”

Hal kicked away a zombie clinging to his boot, used the momentum, and leapt onto the lowest rung of the rope ladder.

The helicopter lifted off with both men hanging on. Zombies hurled themselves toward them, only to plunge screaming into the abyss below.

Exhausted, the captain and Hal finally climbed into the cabin and collapsed onto the floor.

“So damn slow, delaying the flight. Can’t you move any faster?”

The same woman started whining again.

Amid the drone of the helicopter blades, everyone in the cabin loathed her, but because of her identity, none dared to speak up.

Just then, a teammate noticed something wrong: “Riley, Riley, what’s happening to you?”

Riley tilted his head back, trembling violently. Dark bluish blotches spread across his skin.

“He’s infected, throw him out!”

The woman screamed again.

Edmond frowned. “Hold him down and tie him up.”

Riley was their comrade, and Edmond wasn’t willing to toss him out from a hundred meters in the air.

He turned to “Leeson.” “Professor Leeson, could you give him an injection of serum?”

“Leeson” turned coldly, face blank. “The serum is too valuable. It cannot be wasted on an irrelevant person.”

“That’s right,” the woman immediately echoed. “The serum is for experiments. Without instruments and data, it has no research value if used now.”

Suddenly, Riley leapt from his seat, lunging straight at the woman and sinking his teeth into her shoulder.

She let out a pig-like shriek:
“Ahhhhh! I’ve been bitten! What do I do? What do I do?”

Everyone near her instantly scrambled away, terrified of being bitten themselves.

No one helped her.

Only Edmond rushed forward to pull them apart, but in the struggle, the helicopter lurched violently.

Chaos erupted inside the cabin.

Riley then spotted Hal and tried to pounce at him too—yet at that moment, the tilted aircraft threw both him and the woman out the cabin door.

They plummeted from the hundred-meter height, while the helicopter steadied once more and order returned.

The pilot asked nervously, “We just hit a turbulent draft… nothing happened, right?”

No one answered.

Only “Leeson” said coldly, “No problem. Keep flying. We need to return to camp quickly.”

Losing an assistant seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.

---

Separated from the military and free from restrictions, Su You rested briefly after dinner, then resumed scavenging.

Though the streets outside were crawling with zombies, she rode her motorbike and, with her skillful mastery of spatial powers, was rarely surrounded.

Reaching a safe spot, she stowed away the bike and continued her sweeping night raid for supplies.

Supermarkets, fast-food joints, fruit shops, bakeries, hardware stores, gas stations, auto dealerships—she looted them all.

Stores that appeared clean and untouched were clipped directly into her base’s trade zone using her ability.

Shops infested with zombies, she only stripped of intact packaged goods, abandoning the premises.

Her slight obsession with cleanliness wouldn’t allow otherwise.

In just one night, she single-handedly swept through the bustling streets near the city center, stuffing her base with mountains of supplies.

Thanks to the body enhancers she had taken, she could keep going without sleep, her stamina and mental energy still full.

Frankly, all the supplies she gathered could last her ten lifetimes.

As for how many people would eventually live in her base, she wasn’t too concerned.

After all, humans are social creatures. Even with food, water, a safehouse, comics, TV, and music, being the last human alive would eventually drive her insane from loneliness.

Like in that classic zombie film, where the protagonist lived for years with only a dog, clinging to the hope of finding a cure—but his mental state had completely deteriorated.

So, she was prepared to let others into the base. But they would first have to pass her screening.

Standing on the cold, windswept street, Su You gazed at the desolate cityscape.

Ruined as it was, it still bore the marks of human civilization. Yet tomorrow it would be reduced to ashes in a massive nuclear blast.

Some survivors must still be hiding here—waiting in terror for dawn, unaware that what awaited them was utter annihilation.

Suddenly, Su You’s ears twitched. Amid the night wind, she heard faint, broken notes of piano music.

She turned toward the sound, spotting a nearby building.

According to the map, it was a bakery. The windows were pitch black, giving no sign of life.

She decided to check it out.

---

In the dim basement of the bakery, more than a dozen people huddled together.

They had been customers when the outbreak began. The shopkeeper, realizing something was wrong outside, had shut the door and led them into the basement.

Fortunately, none of them were infected, so when tragedy unfolded above, they managed to survive.

Little Jenny clutched a music box, its carousel just having stopped. She looked at her father, who had just returned from outside.

“Daddy, are the monsters gone yet?”

Robert shook his head, scooping his daughter into his arms. To his wife, he said, “They’re still roaming nearby. They haven’t moved on.”

His wife, Elisa, sighed. “Then what do we do? The helicopter broadcast earlier said the city would be wiped clean after the third day, eliminating all infected sources. Survivors must leave.”

“But the streets are full of zombies. How do we get out?”