Chapter 09: Coordination

Liao Tianhua watched helplessly as Xia Mi walked away hand-in-hand with a terrifying Zhuo-corrupted human, looking as close as sisters. He pressed a hand to his forehead, feeling a headache coming on as he began to doubt his own decision.

A team member beside him spoke up hesitantly, “Captain, is it really okay to trust her? She looks like she has already perfectly integrated with the Zhuo-corrupted.”

Liao Tianhua recalled the way Xia Mi had repeatedly leaped and swung her axe. “I think she is trustworthy,” he said.

“But what about ‘Shield’…” the team member said worriedly. “If Xia Mi’s level of corruption is too deep, she could easily contaminate the Protective Suit from the inside, and by extension, contaminate ‘Shield’.”

The team members had never met “Shield”, but over the course of several missions, the Protective Suits had saved their lives and mental stability countless times. They felt a deep connection to this person they had never seen.

Compared to Xia Mi, whom they had only just met, they felt that “Shield’s” safety was far more important.

Liao Tianhua frowned.

His security clearance was higher; he had seen “Shield” in person and knew exactly what kind of situation she was facing.

During every operation, “Shield” would stay alone in a safe house, surrounded by snipers on the perimeter.

This was to prevent “Shield” from causing a greater disaster if she ever became contaminated.

The moment “Shield” showed any signs of contamination, the snipers would kill her immediately.

The Action Team could not afford to carry extra burdens, so they were forbidden from direct contact or personal relationships with “Shield”.

If “Shield” were to be contaminated, the Action Team would be the ones forced to hunt her down. To prevent emotional factors from causing them to hesitate when dealing with a contaminated “Shield”, this distance was a necessity.

Thinking about the person who had been fighting alongside them all this time while bearing such risks, Liao Tianhua found it difficult to fully trust Xia Mi.

“Shield” had the ability to sever the connection to the Protective Suit. Should he tell “Shield” to protect herself and stop shielding Xia Mi?

But Xia Mi was trying her best. She was in the middle of a dangerous situation, with the entire weight of the mission resting on her shoulders, a civilian without any professional training. If they cut off the protection of the suit, it would be a betrayal of Xia Mi’s trust, leaving her in utter despair.

Liao Tianhua struggled to make the call.

In the midst of his dilemma, a cold female voice suddenly spoke through his earpiece: “I trust her. I am willing to take the risk. Please continue providing theoretical support to Xia Mi.”

Liao Tianhua hesitated. “‘Shield’, our knowledge of Xia Mi is limited to her files. Are you sure you want to entrust your life to her?”

“Shield” replied indifferently, “It does not matter. I do not know any of you either, and I have never met anyone from the Action Team, yet haven’t I entrusted my life to you all the same?”

“Why do you believe in her?” Liao Tianhua asked.

“Shield” gave a soft chuckle. “I think she is quite interesting.”

That single sentence confirmed a suspicion Liao Tianhua had harbored for a long time.

He had always suspected that “Shield” could see what was happening inside the Domain through the Protective Suits.

However, “Shield” never admitted to it. She always claimed she could neither see nor hear anything and could only act according to the Action Team captain’s instructions.

Based on “Shield’s” behavior, Liao Tianhua judged that she understood Xia Mi better than any member of the Action Team. It was possible that from the moment Xia Mi put on the Protective Suit, “Shield” could sense her every move.

She might even be able to control the lives of the Action Team members through the suits.

“Captain Liao?” “Shield’s” voice came through the earpiece. “What is your decision?”

“Shield’s” meaning was clear: she was willing to continue protecting Xia Mi, but Liao Tianhua was the supreme commander here, and she would not disobey his orders.

If Liao Tianhua ordered the operation to be aborted, “Shield” would sever the connection to the Protective Suit, leaving Xia Mi to fend for herself.

Liao Tianhua said, “Continue the operation. Give Xia Mi full support. I choose to trust her.”

“Shield” laughed once and said nothing more.

Meanwhile, the Logistics Group had collected the movement data of all residents in Building 6 over the past year. They were building a big data model to analyze the nesting process of the “Zhuo”.

A Domain of this magnitude could not have been constructed overnight. The “Zhuo” must have been preparing for a year or two, and there would certainly be clues.

Every “Zhuo” has its own preferences and habits. By analyzing these habits, they could predict the “Zhuo’s” movement patterns and parasitic preferences, allowing them to lock onto the parasitic host with precision, saving time and effort.

Liao Tianhua’s phone screen was shared with the Logistics Group’s computers, synchronizing the data so he could edit and relay information to Xia Mi as quickly as possible.

The long explanations from earlier had been sent to Liao Tianhua by the Logistics Group, which he then quickly edited and forwarded. The efficiency was incredibly high.

With nothing else to do, Liao Tianhua and the Action Team members stared intently at the Logistics Group’s monitors.

Analyzing a year’s worth of movement data for an entire building of residents was a massive undertaking. However, with today’s highly advanced technology, the analysis software could generate clear data charts almost instantly once the data was imported.

The big data first analyzed the frequency of use for the public areas of Building 6.

Naturally, the residents of the 11th floor used the elevator most frequently. The person who used it the least, however, was not a resident of the 1st floor, but Xia Mi.

Xia Mi’s name sat at the very bottom of the chart, followed by a conspicuous “0”.

“She lives on the seventh floor and never takes the elevator once. Her physical stamina really is impressive,” a young team member remarked.

Next was the average monthly water bill. The lowest was, once again, Xia Mi.

The young team member was puzzled. “Does she not drink water or shower?”

A member of the Logistics Group spoke up. “Xia Mi has a part-time job as a badminton sparring partner at a gym. She showers there every day. As for drinking water, she mooches off the water at her civil service entrance exam prep course. She brings a large thermos to class and fills up a huge container of water to take home at night.”

Xia Mi had compressed her domestic water usage to the absolute limit, using no more than two tons a month, and she had no direct contact with the water source.

She rarely drank the apartment’s tap water and did not use it to bathe. She only came into contact with the water when washing clothes or her face, making her the person with the lowest frequency of exposure.

Moreover, she had only lived there for a very short time, which seemed to explain why she was the last one to be contaminated.

The Logistics Group staff member said, “The ‘Zhuo’ prefers to parasitize organisms with deep levels of corruption. Based on big data analysis, the higher the floor and the more frequently a person uses the elevator, the deeper their corruption and the stronger their power. These are the preferred hosts for the ‘Zhuo’.”

“There is also the category of people who have lived here the longest or have the most contact with water. The top five residents by duration of stay are 106, 121, 209, 228, and 317. The ones with the highest frequency of water usage are 710, 803, 416, 1005, and 1127.”

Photos of the residents from every room were displayed on the computer screen. At a glance, Liao Tianhua recognized that the person walking down the stairs hand-in-hand with Xia Mi was the resident of 710.

Liao Tianhua pointed at the photo of the hairdresser from 710 and asked, “Why is her water usage the highest?”

The Logistics Group replied, “She is a hairdresser, but she seems to be allergic to hair dye and has a slight obsession with cleanliness. Every day after returning home, she washes her hands and face frantically, insisting on scrubbing away any hair dye she might have accidentally touched. Her water consumption for a single day is more than what Xia Mi uses in a month.”

Liao Tianhua said, “I just saw her. Her strength is staggering. Among all the corrupted humans I have encountered in the past, her power ranks near the very top.”

The Logistics Group noted, “That means the water source plays a massive role in the corruption process. If that is the case, then certain insects that favor water sources are also prone to corruption.”

“For example, flying insects and mosquitoes that lay eggs in the sewers, as well as cockroaches that like to cluster near water sources.”

The more Liao Tianhua listened, the heavier his heart became.

If the “Zhuo” really chose insects as its parasitic hosts, then it would be impossible for Xia Mi to succeed.

He sent the conclusions reached by the Logistics Group to Xia Mi exactly as they were, adding a warning: [The higher the floor, the deeper the corruption. Building 6, the 11th floor is very dangerous. You must be careful.]

About a minute after Xia Mi received the text, Shield’s laughter came through the earpiece.

“Shield, what did you find?” Liao Tianhua asked.

“Nothing,” Shield said, stifling her laughter.

It really was nothing, except that the footage from the 11th floor and the content of the text message were being transmitted to Shield’s mind simultaneously. The sense of contrast was so intense that Shield simply could not hold it back.

Liao Tianhua was consumed with worry, fearing that Xia Mi would be harmed by the hairdresser from 710 or attacked by the corrupted humans on the 11th floor. But the reality was quite different.

Xia Mi arrived at the door to the 11th floor stairwell and said to the hairdresser, “Sister Li, step back a bit.”

The Hairdresser obediently took two steps back.

Xia Mi turned on the loudspeaker on her Protective Suit and shouted toward the 11th floor, “Listen up, residents of the 11th floor! If you do not want to die, do not resist! If you want to live, come out quietly in a moment and let me tie you up. Otherwise, bullets do not have eyes!”

She shouted this three times. Once she was sure everyone on the 11th floor had heard her, she charged into the hallway clutching her machine gun, dropped flat onto the floor, and began firing indiscriminately across the hallway ground.

She kept firing for a full minute before stopping.

Xia Mi had a strategy.

She knew that corrupted humans still possessed a shred of humanity and had desires they wanted to fulfill. As long as a person had desires, they would fear death.

Therefore, she would use the machine gun to clear the way, using overwhelming force to intimidate the corrupted.

At the same time, she did not want to take anyone’s life, so she chose to fire while lying on the ground.

Even if someone ignored her warning and ran out, they would only be wounded in the legs, restricting their mobility without being life-threatening.

If there happened to be a corrupted human who insisted on walking on their hands, Xia Mi could not help them; she could only hope they had good luck.

Xia Mi’s guess was correct. About a dozen corrupted humans of various forms were gathered in the hallway. They had not cared about Xia Mi’s warning at all; some were even curious and had run out to watch the commotion.

Under Xia Mi’s minute-long barrage, these corrupted humans collapsed one after another, clutching their legs and screaming in agony.

Xia Mi stopped firing and felt her shoulder. It felt healthy, with no issues at all.

The recoil of a machine gun was incredibly strong. Many people without professional training would dislocate their shoulder the first time they used one, yet she did not have a single injury.

Xia Mi could feel that it was the Protective Suit protecting her.

She patted the shoulder of the suit and whispered, “Thank you.”

Just as Xia Mi stood up, a head dangled down from above.

This was a corrupted human with eight legs. He had used those legs to crawl along the ceiling, successfully avoiding Xia Mi’s low-level fire.

The scene was quite terrifying, but Xia Mi remained calm. She simply shouted at the top of her lungs, “Sister Li!”

A waterfall of hair shot out from the stairwell. Maintaining a height of 180cm, it brushed past the top of Xia Mi’s helmet and ensnared the Spider-man.

This was something Xia Mi and Sister Li had discussed beforehand.

Xia Mi figured that with so many types of corrupted humans, there might be some capable of flying. If she only fired at the ground, the upper air would be a massive blind spot.

Therefore, she and the hairdresser, Sister Li, had reached an agreement: Xia Mi would handle the ground, and Sister Li would handle the air. The moment Xia Mi shouted, Sister Li would immediately strike, clearing the space above 180cm.

With Xia Mi and Sister Li working together, there were no blind spots.

Having intimidated the corrupted humans on the 11th floor, Xia Mi raised her axe and shouted through the loudspeaker, “Residents of the 11th floor, listen to my orders! Following the order of room numbers, starting from 1101, come out one by one and let Sister Li tie you up. Do not worry, I am here to save everyone. I will not hurt you. But if you do not listen and try to resist, then this spider leg will be your fate!”

To emphasize her words, Xia Mi swung her axe with one hand and chopped off one of the Spider-man’s corrupted legs.

The corrupted parts had no sense of pain. To increase the intimidation factor, Xia Mi also gave the Spider-man a kick.

The Spider-man let out a pathetic cry.

No one on the entire 11th floor dared to resist.

Xia Mi shouted, “I am going to start calling room numbers now. Residents of 1101 to 1105, come out together. Do not try to hide; I will be checking the rooms.”

The residents of 1101 to 1105 walked out trembling. They were tied together by Sister Li, who was waiting outside the door, and crowded into a two-meter space.

Xia Mi stepped in front of them and brazenly pulled out her watch to check their vital signs.

While the timer was still counting down, a text message from Liao Tianhua arrived.

Xia Mi opened it to read: [The higher the floor, the deeper the corruption. Building 6, the 11th floor is very dangerous. You must be careful.]

Xia Mi scanned her surroundings. Every Zhuo-corrupted person she looked at lowered their head in fear, not daring to meet her gaze.

Xia Mi replied: [Don’t worry, Captain Liao. They’re all law-abiding citizens, and they’ve been incredibly cooperative with my work. (*￣︶￣)]

She even added an emoticon at the end of the text, looking perfectly relaxed and at ease.