Chapter 35: Fang Zihan

Thinking of the lizardmen in Building 6, as well as Liu Yunxia and her husband, Xia Mi instinctively gave chase.

Deep down, Xia Mi knew that the most sensible thing to do right now was to find a safe place to play the game. She should first understand the situation of the Black Domain and let “Xiao Mi” die a few times before taking action herself.

However, after seeing that tail, she remembered that the Y-Series eggs in Building 6 had all come from this Pharmaceutical Factory. Liu Yunxia and her husband were the only survivors who had come into direct contact with the Y-Series “Zhuo,” and now the same lizard tail had appeared in the factory’s Black Domain. It was impossible for Xia Mi not to connect these dots.

Xia Mi judged that the lizard tail likely belonged to a Zhuo-corrupted human. Liu Yunxia’s experience suggested that such a person might provide her with critical information, and Xia Mi didn’t want to let that chance slip away.

If she played the game now, she would lose the tail!

Of course, Xia Mi was well aware this could be a trap, but she still wanted to try.

In truth, these thoughts were merely justifications Xia Mi came up with later. The moment she saw the tail, she hadn’t thought of anything at all, her intuition simply told her to catch it. Her body moved before her brain could catch up, and tossing Shield onto her shoulder, she sprinted after it.

She chased it to a corner. Rounding it, she found another turn ahead. The tail lashed left and right twice before disappearing around the next bend.

Xia Mi felt like a fish about to take the bait, being led toward a trap by this tail.

She pulled out a tranquilizer gun as she ran. Reaching the next corner and spotting the tail again, she didn’t give it another chance. She fired directly, hitting the tail.

A standard tranquilizer gun could affect a Zhuo-corrupted person, but the effect was poor. It would only make their body sluggish for a few seconds rather than knocking them out. Only a Zhuo-corrupted tranquilizer gun could induce total unconsciousness in such a target.

Since Xia Mi had to carry Shield, most of the supplies were with Liao Tianhua. Xia Mi only carried portable weapons like her Zhuo-corrupted handgun and a standard tranquilizer gun.

The handgun would only cause injury, and a hit to the tail wouldn’t severely impact a Zhuo-corrupted person. A tranquilizer gun, however, could temporarily rob them of mobility. Even a single moment was enough, so Xia Mi had decisively chosen the standard tranquilizer gun.

Sure enough, the tail stiffened and its speed dropped. Seizing the opportunity, Xia Mi lunged forward.

Rounding the corner, she saw a head of short black hair. She reached out, grabbed a handful of the person’s hair, and shouted, “What are you running for!”

It wasn’t a lizardman.

It was a Zhuo-corrupted human with a human head, the limbs of a leopard, and a lizard’s tail. His appearance was somewhat reminiscent of a creature from the Classic of Mountains and Seas¹, though Xia Mi couldn’t recall the specific name.

No wonder he moved so fast, he had the speed of a leopard. If not for that tail, Xia Mi wouldn’t have spotted him at all.

Xia Mi gripped his hair and forced his face up, wanting to see what he looked like.

In truth, Xia Mi knew that even if she saw his face, she probably wouldn’t recognize him, but she wanted to look anyway.

After all, her parents and teachers had taught her from a young age that one should look people in the eye when speaking, otherwise it was rude.

When she pulled his head back and saw his face, Xia Mi froze for a second.

How strange. This face looked incredibly familiar!

Xia Mi wasn’t face-blind, but her memory for faces wasn’t exceptionally strong either. If she had only seen someone once or just looked at a photo, she would usually find them familiar but wouldn’t be able to immediately place who they were.

This definitely wasn’t someone she knew well, but she had absolutely seen him before.

Xia Mi stared at the man’s face, tilting her head as she thought for a long time, yet she couldn’t figure out where this sense of familiarity came from.

It was the man who spoke first. “You… are you Xia Mi?”

He might look like a monster, but his consciousness was actually normal. He was far more lucid than the Zhuo-corrupted people in Building 6.

“You know me? Where have you seen me?” Xia Mi asked. “Were you a classmate in elementary, middle, or high school? Or university?”

It wasn’t strange for Xia Mi to ask this. Given her life experience, school was the only place where she would encounter “familiar strangers.”

The man replied, “No, I haven’t met you. I’ve only seen your photo from Group Leader Mi.”

Xia Mi knew exactly who he meant by “Group Leader Mi.”

It was Mi Xiangyan, the Logistics Group Leader of the First Team. She held a doctorate and had a unique surname. Among the long list of people needing rescue, Xia Mi had remembered Mi Xiangyan’s name and credentials at a glance.

“Are you from the Second Team?” Xia Mi asked.

“My name is Fang Zihan,” the Zhuo-corrupted man said.

Fang Zihan! Wasn’t this the first member of the Second Team that “Xiao Mi” and Medical Kit had encountered in the Grey Domain?

No wonder Xia Mi found him familiar. She had seen Fang Zihan’s photo and his chibi avatar in the game. These 2D images were very similar to the man himself, but the slight difference from a 3D person had made her recognize him without being able to name him.

Fang Zihan again!

The first person “Xiao Mi” met while carrying the Medical Kit item was Fang Zihan. Now, the first person Xia Mi met while carrying Shield was also Fang Zihan.

Was Fang Zihan some kind of fixed-spawn NPC?

Furthermore, in the Grey Domain, there was a Fang Zihan who looked normal but was clearly mentally unstable. Here in the Black Domain, there was a Fang Zihan who was physically corrupted but seemed perfectly sane.

Xia Mi didn’t lower her guard just because she recognized him as a member of the Second Team. She dropped Shield onto the ground, pulled out her Zhuo-corrupted handgun with one hand, and pressed it against Fang Zihan’s head.

“Give me a reason to trust you and not kill you,” she said coldly.

Fang Zihan looked shocked. “Isn’t our policy for dealing with the Zhuo-corrupted centered on subduing them? Unless the target threatens our lives, we aren’t supposed to harm them lightly. When a Zhuo-corrupted person is conscious and cooperating with the organization, we should try to excise the corrupted parts and restrict their movements. In principle, killing a compliant Zhuo-corrupted person is forbidden!

“Xia Mi, you’re wearing the Disposal Bureau’s Protective Suit and carrying weapons marked with the Bureau’s emblem. You are an honorable warrior, you must follow the regulations!”

Xia Mi immediately felt as if she were facing a formidable foe.

Liao Tianhua was twenty-five years old and a seven-year veteran, not to mention the captain of the First Team, it made sense for him to speak in official jargon. But Fang Zihan was only nineteen and just an ordinary member of the Second Team. Why did he sound so professional too?

She had gained yet another rival!

However, Fang Zihan’s words managed to dispel Xia Mi’s suspicions.

Without having survived the agonizing ordeal of theoretical knowledge exams, one wouldn’t be able to speak so formally and appropriately at a moment’s notice. This Zhuo-corrupted Fang Zihan before her seemed far more normal than the human-looking version in the Grey Domain.

Still, Xia Mi didn’t lower her gun. She pressed on with her questions. “How did you end up like this? What exactly happened in the Pharmaceutical Factory? The Second Team is experienced, why are you all trapped here?”

As Xia Mi spoke, Fang Zihan asked simultaneously, “Xia Mi, aren’t you a trapped resident from Building 6? How did you become an official member so fast? It looks like the crisis at Building 6 has been resolved. We really got trapped in this Pharmaceutical Factory for nothing!”

Both were eager to get answers to their own questions, each expecting the other to stop first. Neither yielded, and they both finished their sentences in a chaotic jumble.

Remarkably, they both understood exactly what the other had said.

Xia Mi jerked her pistol slightly. “Shut up. Listen to me first.”

Only then did Fang Zihan reluctantly close his mouth.

Xia Mi gave a brief answer to his question first. “Yes, the vast majority of people in Building 6 were rescued. All four ‘Zhuo’ are dead. I joined the First Team on an emergency basis to rescue the Second Team. But your efforts weren’t in vain. The intelligence on the Y-Series ‘Zhuo’ that you gathered in the factory helped me eliminate the ones in Building 6.”

“We never sent that intelligence out. How did you know?” Fang Zihan asked, puzzled.

Xia Mi replied, “If you knew, it’s the same as me knowing.”

As she said this, Xia Mi suddenly remembered that her game was titled “Project Queen Bee.” In the first ending of “Hani Apartments,” the dialogue between the two people who appeared at the very end had also mentioned “Project Queen Bee.”

Xia Mi couldn’t help but doubt again: was the game truly just a precognitive ability?

As a precognitive power, her game was actually incomplete. She couldn’t predict things that hadn’t happened out of thin air, the plot within the game only gradually refined itself as reality progressed.

Without finding Shield, she couldn’t open the “Illegal Laboratory” game.

Without entering the nest in the Pharmaceutical Factory, her game would tell her that environmental factors were insufficient and the game could not proceed.

As a precognition-type ability, her game was clearly lacking in foresight.

But the power of the game was undeniably strong.

When the Second Team saw the Y-Series data in the factory, that data appeared in the game.

Combining this with the name “Project Queen Bee,” Xia Mi suddenly suspected that her game might actually be a form of information-sharing ability.

Like insect pheromones, it could transmit information even across great distances.

Someone had once proposed a hypothesis that insects like ants or bees might not exist as individual units, but as a collective whole.

An ordinary worker ant or worker bee was not an independent individual, but rather something akin to a single cell in a human body.

A complete hive was the true individual.

Different bees were different cells, passing information through mysterious connections and integrating it to execute programmed instructions.

Xia Mi felt that her game was like such an information-integrating hive, sharing the information everyone gathered, simulating different outcomes based on that data, and then allowing her to take action.

She couldn’t find a single word to summarize this ability.

Fang Zihan was still asking curiously, “Why does us knowing mean you know? Why? Why?”

“Stop asking me about things I don’t fully understand myself!” Xia Mi said overbearingly. “Tell me, why did you turn into this?”

Fang Zihan explained, “It was ‘Eye’ who became Zhuo-corrupted. He saw a fragment of the past inside the Pharmaceutical Factory and suddenly went mad, opening his nest. The nest enveloped the entire factory, trapping us all here.

“I lost consciousness at the time. When I woke up, I had become a Zhuo-corrupted human.

“But unlike traditional Zhuo-corrupted humans, my consciousness is clear, and my mind isn’t controlled by overwhelming desires. I get the feeling ‘Eye’ doesn’t crave food like ordinary ‘Zhuo,’ so he doesn’t care much about our emotions.

“Right now, I’m searching everywhere for ‘Eye.’ As long as we subdue him, we can escape this danger!”

Fang Zihan spoke with optimism.

He had already turned into a monstrous sight, neither human, nor leopard, nor lizard, yet he remained so optimistic, proactive, and driven. He truly was a warrior with unwavering faith.

The message Shield left said “don’t trust anyone,” but it didn’t say she couldn’t trust a Zhuo-corrupted monster. Xia Mi instinctively decided to trust Fang Zihan.

Xia Mi suspected that Shield’s message was intended for the Grey Domain but didn’t apply to the Black Domain.

The members of the Second Team had been split into two groups by the two colored domains.

One group consisted of those who looked normal but were mentally corrupted, while the other consisted of those who looked corrupted but were mentally normal.

If one encountered a normal-looking teammate in the Grey Domain, not a single one could be trusted.

But encountering a Zhuo-corrupted person in the Black Domain meant they could actually be trusted!

Xia Mi felt her luck was quite good to have reunited with her teammates here.

Thinking of Xiao Liao, who had entered the Grey Domain alone, Xia Mi couldn’t help but offer a momentary silent prayer for him.

It’s fine. Team Leader Liao is a leader, he must have the ability to solve problems on his own. Have faith in the leadership!

Xia Mi quickly pushed Liao Tianhua to the back of her mind.

She released Fang Zihan and asked, “Why were you using your tail to lure me just now?”

Fang Zihan said, “To lead you into the trap we set, of course!”

Xia Mi: “…”

Fang Zihan continued, “I came out to look for ‘Eye,’ but there’s danger everywhere here. The Underground Laboratory, which was supposed to be empty, is crawling with monsters. I have to hide while I search.

“You have to understand, ‘Eye’ is also wearing a Protective Suit. When I saw you from a distance in a Protective Suit, running easily out of the Sunflower Greenhouse, I naturally suspected you were ‘Eye.’

“I couldn’t see your face clearly, so I hid in the corner and waited for you to notice me, using my tail to bait the hook. I’m very confident in my current speed, I was sure I could reel you in.”

“Who knew you had an anesthetic gun on you? Otherwise, I definitely would’ve lured you into a trap.”

Xia Mi asked dubiously, “Why do I get the feeling you actually like being this way?”

Fang Zihan nodded. “Of course! Look at this tail. The striking force of a sweep is nearly four hundred kilograms. And look at these claws, at full sprint, I can hit three hundred kilometers per hour. That’s about as fast as a high-speed train, and the acceleration is incredible. It’s so cool!”

As he spoke, Fang Zihan flicked his tail with pride, slamming it into a nearby alloy wall and leaving a deep dent.

Xia Mi couldn’t help but take half a step back.

Her physical fitness was already impressive after absorbing Zhuo energy, but even she wouldn’t survive a single hit from that tail.

Fang Zihan continued, “The other team members are all super strong, too. We were pretty hopeless at first, but after testing everyone’s strength, we’re all full of confidence. With this kind of power, how could we not take down a Rong?”

“It’s just a bit of a shame. Once we leave this place, our Zhuo body parts will disappear. It would be great if we could keep them.”

He showed none of the anxiety of being trapped, only confidence and a longing for the future.

Xia Mi couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. It was good to be young, so sweet and simple.

She was different. After being broken in by her internship during her senior year of college, her heart was already shaped like a weary beast of burden.

Xia Mi asked, “You said the Underground Laboratory was originally empty. Why are there so many monsters here now?”

“I don’t know. It was like this when we woke up,” Fang Zihan said, shaking his head.

Xia Mi continued, “I’ve dealt with Zhuo before. A Zhuo can’t just conjure monsters out of thin air.”

“The Zhuo I’ve encountered were the same,” Fang Zihan agreed.

Xia Mi sighed. “The Eye’s ability is to see the history of things over the past year. Is it possible that the Underground Laboratory looked like this before it was cleared out? Is it possible that we aren’t in the ‘present’ at all, but inside the ‘history’ seen by the Eye? And that the Eye’s true body isn’t even here?”

“Are you sure that simply becoming physically stronger is enough to escape a phantom ‘history’?”

Fang Zihan’s expression turned ashen, as if he’d been struck by lightning.

Seeing the young man lose hope, Xia Mi stepped forward and patted his leopard-like back, even taking the chance to stroke his smooth fur.

Feline bodies really were soft. She really wanted a cat.

Xia Mi thought to herself.

Translator’s Notes