Chapter 10: Survivors

With the effective cooperation between Xia Mi and Sister Li the Hairdresser, Xia Mi managed to test every single person on the 11th floor within twenty minutes.

No one on the 11th floor was parasitized by the Zhuo.

While she was at it, Xia Mi sliced off the more prominent contaminated parts from their bodies, intending to use them as ammunition reserves for her machine gun.

After finishing the harvest, she asked, “Does anyone have a long rope and a large bedsheet? I need to bundle these things up.”

Just as Xia Mi had said, the residents of the 11th floor were good citizens who cooperated with organizational work, as well as very friendly and enthusiastic neighbors.

The moment Xia Mi pointed her machine gun at them, several people volunteered, raising their hands to contribute their own bedsheets and nylon ropes. Some families didn’t have sheets large enough, but they had needles and thread to sew smaller sheets into one massive one.

Spider-man even offered to help Xia Mi tie a sturdy knot to ensure the rope wouldn’t break. His only condition was that Xia Mi stop cutting his legs. He had eight legs in total, and Xia Mi had already chopped off four. The remaining four were his actual limbs; if she cut any more, he would truly be finished.

The contaminated couldn’t distinguish between their mutated parts and their original bodies, but they knew which parts could regenerate and which areas were gone for good if damaged.

Spider-man knew that the four legs Xia Mi had cut off would slowly grow back, but if the remaining four were severed, he would lose his life.

Xia Mi never intended to cut off Spider-man’s actual limbs anyway, so she naturally accepted his terms.

Once the contaminated parts were bundled, Xia Mi didn’t rush downstairs. Instead, she sat in the hallway to contemplate her next move.

Sister Li, meanwhile, was waving her hair around as she interrogated the residents of the 11th floor. “You… can’t sign up for a card directly through me. However, you can… each give Little Xia 2,000 yuan, and let Little Xia act as an agent to get you a membership card.”

The fierce, contaminated residents of the 11th floor: “…”

They had already obediently accepted being tied up, let people search their homes, handed over their sheets and ropes, and allowed that terrifying woman to chop off their regenerative parts. Why did they still have to cough up money?

Xia Mi was speechless. Earlier, Sister Li had said colleagues couldn’t sign each other up for cards, yet after just a short while, she had come up with a way to use Xia Mi, a normal person, as a middleman agent. She was certainly clever and flexible.

Xia Mi intervened immediately. “Sister Li, you can’t force people to sign up for cards. What we did just now was for the benefit of the people. The borrowed bedsheets and nylon ropes will be compensated at market price in the future; everything is according to regulations. But forcing people to buy memberships is an abuse of power for personal gain. You’ll be disciplined for that.”

“So… many… people…” Sister Li said, her voice full of lingering regret.

The desires of the contaminated were extremely intense. Without the deterrent of force, they would prioritize satisfying their own cravings.

Xia Mi sighed and raised her machine gun toward Sister Li. “Sister Li, if you keep disregarding the rules like this, I’ll not only cancel those 100 membership cards, but I’ll also carry out direct punishment on you.”

Sister Li immediately retracted her wild, flying hair and said gently, “Fine, fine, no memberships then.”

A resident under Xia Mi’s protection, seeing her about to sit on the cold floor again, thoughtfully brought over a small stool.

Xia Mi thanked them and sat down on the chair with a commanding posture, pondering her next strategy.

The operation on the 11th floor had been fast. The process of identifying the Zhuo took only twenty minutes. At this rate, she could check every resident in the entire building within 200 minutes. She could definitely finish the screening task within the remaining time, but Xia Mi felt it was no longer necessary.

Because once the operation on the 11th floor ended, the Zhuo would absolutely stop parasitizing humans.

The entirety of Building 6 was sealed. Now that Xia Mi had demonstrated her formidable search capabilities, that cunning Zhuo would certainly avoid a direct confrontation. Instead, it would choose to stall for time.

No matter how Xia Mi and the others struggled, people from the outside couldn’t get in. The longer time passed, the deeper the level of contamination in Building 6 would become, and the more the situation would favor the Zhuo.

Xia Mi looked at the intelligence Liao Tianhua had sent regarding the possibility of the Zhuo parasitizing insects. She asked: [Captain Liao, would blowing up all of Building 6 really stop the Zhuo from escaping? Can you guarantee that not even a single cockroach will get out?]

A moment later, Liao Tianhua replied: [No.]

Xia Mi leaned back slightly, waiting for Liao Tianhua’s subsequent message.

She guessed he wasn’t finished.

Sure enough, Liao Tianhua followed up with an explanation: [Destroying the entire building isn’t about eradicating the Zhuo at all costs. It’s about ensuring the outside world doesn’t see the situation inside this building, avoiding social panic, and preventing the birth of a new Zhuo.]

This message made Xia Mi’s skin crawl. She hurried to ask: [A new Zhuo?]

Liao Tianhua replied: [Generally speaking, the Zhuo won’t eat everyone in its nest. In the initial incidents, there are usually one or two survivors. These survivors look perfectly normal. After rehabilitation training, they can even engage in normal social activities.

However, within one to ten years of the incident, the survivors will suddenly go mad, smashing their heads against walls. They claim there are bugs in their heads eating their brains, and they have to dig the bugs out.

Some survivors will insist that doctors perform a craniotomy on them. If the doctors refuse, they do it themselves.]

Regular hospitals would certainly refuse. The survivors chose methods like using chainsaws on their own heads, laying their heads on train tracks, or jumping from high-rise buildings to ensure their heads hit the ground first to perform their own “craniotomies.”

The dark text made Xia Mi’s own brain ache. She asked: [After the surgery, are the survivors still alive?]

Liao Tianhua: [They die on the spot.]

Liao Tianhua: [We didn’t understand why this was happening. So, at the request of a survivor, we arranged for a forensic doctor from the Disposal Bureau¹, wearing a Protective Suit, to perform a craniotomy on her. They found thousands of white insect eggs inside her brain.]

Xia Mi looked away, glancing at the “cute, friendly, and helpful” neighbors around her, trying to use them to alleviate the mental pollution brought by the text messages.

However, as soon as she turned her head, she saw the four legs Spider-man had just lost. They were constantly splitting, wriggling, and regenerating. It was the same for the other neighbors. Meanwhile, Sister Li had hung up a man wearing a five-figure watch by his wrists, trying to threaten him into buying a membership card.

It didn’t seem to alleviate the pollution at all; if anything, it had worsened it.

Xia Mi looked down at her phone. Liao Tianhua had sent another message: [Rest assured, a single person cannot hatch thousands of Zhuo. When we performed the craniotomy, we discovered that these eggs were devouring each other. They fight inside the survivor’s brain, which is what causes the headaches.

The forensic doctor carefully removed the eggs one by one. Once removed from the brain, the eggs vanished. Unhatched Zhuo cannot survive in the open air.

The doctor removed as many eggs as possible before suturing the survivor back up, using professional absorbable surgical staples to close her skull.]

Xia Mi replied: [Her? Is she still alive?]

Liao Tianhua: [She is doing very well. We tried to perform craniotomies on other survivors suffering from headaches, but the survival rate was only ten percent. Even those who survived suffered brain trauma during the surgery and developed mental issues. She is a special case.

As for those survivors who died before we could intervene, they have likely already successfully gestated new Zhuo.

Therefore, our stance on the Zhuo is this: if we cannot purify the host of the Zhuo, we will destroy the nest.]

Xia Mi typed: [So, blowing up this building isn’t necessarily to kill the original Zhuo, but to eradicate the newborns.]

Liao Tianhua’s reply was chillingly clinical: [Yes.]

Xia Mi understood now.

Stalling for time only benefited the Zhuo; it was a disaster for everyone else in the building.

She couldn’t keep using these inefficient methods.

Xia Mi didn’t lose heart. She pulled out her computer and opened Hani Apartments, prepared to try some extreme measures in the game that were impossible to use in reality.

Just as the game launched, Xia Mi saw a line of elegant, handwritten script appear on the visor of her Protective Suit: [Do not worry, I can protect you in the final explosion.]

Xia Mi froze for a moment.

“Shield?” she whispered, turning off her microphone so her voice only echoed inside the helmet.

The line of text in front of her was wiped away by something unseen, and a new sentence quickly appeared: [Allow me to introduce myself. I am Shield, and I am also Survivor No. 008.]

The number reminded Xia Mi of the survivor Liao Tianhua had mentioned who survived the surgery.

It seemed that Liao Tianhua’s message had triggered a memory of past events for her, and she had decided to reach out and soothe Xia Mi’s nerves.

Shield made a promise: I will protect you.

Translator’s Notes