Chapter 7: A Ruthless Streak

“My name is Leon. I’m the new officer reporting for duty,” Fang Qingzhou said.

“You’re Leon S. Kennedy?” Elliot looked Fang Qingzhou up and down in surprise.

“Why did you come here? Weren’t you told to stay away?”

“As a police officer, I felt something must have happened in Raccoon City, so I rushed over to help,” Fang Qingzhou said.

According to the memories previously provided by the system, Leon had been assigned to the Raccoon City Police Department after graduating from the police academy.

However, just as he was about to report, he received orders instructing him to remain on standby at home, and that someone would come pick him up later.

Leon waited at home for several days, but no one ever showed up. Having lost contact with the Raccoon City Police Department and sensing something was wrong, he drove to Raccoon City on his own to report for duty.

Later, when Leon drove to a gas station on the outskirts of the Raccoon City Police Department, Fang Qingzhou had taken his place.

“What an enthusiastic young man…” Elliot’s expression grew conflicted, a mix of admiration, regret, and an inexplicable sorrow.

He stared at Fang Qingzhou for a few seconds, his lips moving slightly before he slowly spoke. “If none of this had happened… you would have made a fine cop…”

Fang Qingzhou fell silent. Leon might have been an outstanding police officer, but he was not. He was merely an ordinary person caught up in this crisis, without such lofty ideals; all he wanted was to survive.

Yet there was no time for them to chat any further. The previous gunshots had alerted all the nearby zombies.

Thuds began rattling against the previously closed doors. Before long, several were forced open, and a handful of zombies stumbled out, closing in on Fang Qingzhou’s position.

The two zombies in the lead were still wearing police uniforms, clearly former officers of the department.

“David… Sean…” Elliot looked at the two uniformed zombies with a mournful expression, clearly recognizing them.

Fang Qingzhou grabbed Elliot’s arm, pulled him half a step behind him, and leveled his gun forward.

“Don’t stare at them. They aren’t the people you knew anymore.”

Elliot snapped back to his senses. Though his eyes remained rimmed with red, he quickly drew his service weapon, only to find the chamber completely empty. His face turned pale as he cried out, “I’m out of ammo!”

“Stay behind me and don’t make any sudden moves.” Fang Qingzhou pulled the trigger, putting a bullet right between David’s eyes.

The zombie’s head snapped back, but it merely swayed. Its rotting mouth remained twisted in a sneer as it continued to shamble forward.

“Just as tough as expected.” Fang Qingzhou frowned slightly, but after everything he had been through, he was no longer panicked like before. He raised his muzzle slightly, aiming straight for the eye socket.

The bullet tore through the eye.

A burst of dark red fluid sprayed out, and David crashed straight to the floor.

【Zombie killed × 1, EXP +10】

From the other side, the zombie Sean lunged close, a putrid stench washing over them. Its decaying fingers were inches from grabbing Fang Qingzhou’s collar, drawing a horrified gasp from Elliot.

Fang Qingzhou sidestepped nimbly to evade the clawing hands, gripped the heavy pistol butt, and swung it with vicious force straight across the zombie’s face, knocking it flat onto the ground.

Without hesitation, he shoved the muzzle deep into the zombie’s open mouth and pulled the trigger, blowing its head apart in an instant.

【Zombie killed × 1, EXP +10】

“Fuck you! You really think your daddy scares that easily?!” Fang Qingzhou yanked the gun free and forcefully shook off the thick saliva and blood clinging to it.

In his original world, he had never so much as killed a chicken, but deep in his bones, he had possessed a ruthless streak since childhood.

During his senior year of high school, he had failed the college entrance exams and endured the gossip of everyone around him. He decisively repeated the year, doing nothing each day but eating, sleeping, and studying, ultimately gaining admission to a top-tier Project 985 university^[1].

Yet after graduation, the job market took a turn for the worse. College graduates struggled to find work, and even a degree from a 985 university had depreciated. Many of his classmates returned to their hometowns, and everyone assumed he wouldn’t be able to survive in the big city either.

Instead, he frantically sent out resumes, landing a sales job only after submitting over a thousand applications. He didn’t look down on the sales position either; instead, he threw himself into the grind furiously, allowing him to buy both a car and an apartment in the metropolis in cash within a few short years.

Though the apartment was small, barely a few dozen square meters, and the car was worth only around two hundred thousand Yuan, they were concrete proof of his hard work.

Now that he was in a world where social order had completely collapsed, that ruthless grit was fully awakened. He refused to believe he couldn’t escape Raccoon City alive.

The gunshots drew in even more of the undead horde. Doors on both sides of the corridor burst open one after another as zombies shuffled out in growing numbers, completely blocking the path ahead.

Watching the mounting swarm of zombies, Fang Qingzhou couldn’t stop the hand holding his gun from trembling slightly. His fully loaded weapon held twelve rounds; having fired four shots, he only had eight left.

Yet there were eight zombies right in front of them now. He couldn’t hit every eye socket, and theoretically, it would take at least twenty-four rounds to put them all down.

Fang Qingzhou turned to look at Elliot, who was trembling faintly, visibly terrified as well.

“Elliot, I’ll clear a path for you! Run for it the second I do!” Fang Qingzhou said through gritted teeth.

“What?!” Elliot froze.

He hadn’t expected Fang Qingzhou to let him go first. The disaster in Raccoon City had been raging for days, and over that time, he had witnessed the ugliest depths of human nature.

Countless people had abandoned others to save their own skin, or even shoved bystanders into danger just to buy themselves a chance at survival.

He had never imagined that someone would willingly cover for him and let him escape first.

“Stop wasting breath! When I say run, you run! I’ll cover you!” Fang Qingzhou barked.

This wasn’t because he had suddenly decided to play hero. Rather, Elliot was the only one who knew the route out of the police department and out of Raccoon City itself. If Elliot died here, there was no telling how long it would take him to find his way out alone.

His confidence came from the fact that he didn’t fear infection. The most terrifying thing about zombies wasn’t that they devoured people, but that a single bite or scratch would transmit the T-Virus and turn a person into one.

But with the Protagonist Aura, the last thing Fang Qingzhou worried about was infection. After weighing his options, he decided this was the optimal solution.

“Damn it… at worst I take a few bites… Just find a couple cans of first aid spray later, spritz myself, and I’ll be fine…”

Fang Qingzhou gritted his teeth and charged toward the zombies, shouting at the top of his lungs.

“Run!”

The zombies’ cloudy eyes snapped toward him in unison. Rattling wheezes rasped from their rotted throats as twisted arms clawed wildly toward him.

Relying on Bristleback’s resilience and pain reduction, he rammed through the two zombies in the front row. In the chaos, he shoved the gun barrel into the mouth of one and blew its head apart with a single shot.

This was the only way to make sure every single bullet killed a zombie. The horde was completely drawn to him, swarming in densely, and along the side of the previously blocked hallway, a gap barely wide enough for a person to slip through opened up.