Chapter 08: Getting a Card

When she found herself unable to grasp Liao Tianhua’s hand, Xia Mi felt lost, bordering on despair.

She didn’t want to die, and she certainly didn’t want to die pathetically by turning into one of those monsters.

There were so many things she wanted to do. She wanted to find a stable, good job. She wanted to buy a house in a big city with excellent medical facilities so she could bring her parents to live with her. She wanted to have a life that people envied.

Even if she couldn’t have those things, she just wanted to live.

Her parents had worked so hard to put her through school; she couldn’t let them find out about her death through a news report on TV.

It wasn’t just her; everyone in this building felt the same.

The husband of the mother and son in 704 had left his home to work in Africa just to maintain their high cost of living.

The boys in 702 were struggling to survive in the big city. Like her, they likely had parents back in their hometowns who didn’t care about success or fame, only that their children remained healthy.

The Hairdresser in 710 was walking the line between morality and survival just to complete her tasks.

Everyone just wanted to live well.

Xia Mi’s despair lasted less than a minute before she realized that if she let herself sink into it, death would be her only destination. If she took action, then even in the final moment before she died, she could go out still clutching her dream of finding a stable job.

Fighting for your life meant being full of hope until the very end.

And so, Xia Mi quickly pulled herself together and thought of Hani Apartments.

This game had already helped her escape death several times. Perhaps it could do so again.

Since she couldn’t construct a path in reality and didn’t dare to take a blind leap of faith, what about in the game?

In the game, she wouldn’t get tired. Death could be undone by loading a save file. It could help her eliminate many wrong choices.

She tried it in the game, and sure enough, she obtained the weapons.

Xia Mi donned the Protective Suit, slung the machine gun across her front, tucked the grenades into the specialized pockets of the suit, and placed the crucial laptop back into her backpack. All the while, she didn’t forget to carry her five foot long axe.

It was fortunate that Xia Mi possessed the strong height genes of the Shandongese¹. Standing at 173cm, she was tall enough to support all this equipment without being bent double by the weight of the weapons.

She even managed to free a hand to send a message: “Captain Liao, I’m your mobile unit now. What was your original plan for entering this building? Tell me the mission details, and I’ll execute them.”

Liao Tianhua saw no reason to keep hanging off the ladder just to look cool. He climbed back into the helicopter, removed his helmet and gloves, and focused on messaging Xia Mi.

Liao Tianhua: “First, let me explain the use of these three items.

The Protective Suit is designed to prevent team members from being corrupted by the Zhuo. Once you put it on, there are no gaps in your defense. You don’t have to worry about touching mutated areas. The helmet features a 360-degree visor, allowing you to see attacks coming from your blind spots.

The machine gun’s primary purpose is to deal with mutated humans. Its advantage is that as long as there are mutated humans nearby, it has infinite endurance. Its magazine isn’t filled with bullets, but with the mutated parts of those humans. The magazine is currently full and can fire continuously for ten minutes. When you run out of ammunition, you can find materials on the spot. Use the axe to chop off an mutated part, then place the magazine on the severed piece. The magazine will automatically absorb the mutated part to refill the ammunition.

The grenade is different from the machine gun. There is only one, and it can only be used once. It is meant to deal with the Zhuo itself. Our team only has this one.

Your mission is to find the actual Zhuo within Building 6, detonate the grenade inside its body, and purify it.

Once it is eliminated, the mutation process in others will stop. After that, you just need to use the axe to chop off the mutated parts of their bodies one by one, and they will be saved.”

The message was long. Xia Mi read it over several times, feeling moved by how much better it was to have professional help. These weapons were incredibly useful.

After finishing the message, Xia Mi raised several key questions:

“First, what exactly is the Zhuo? Is it a monster? What does it look like specifically, and how big is it?

Second, when using the machine gun, do I just spray indiscriminately or only target the mutated parts? Will the machine gun bullets harm the human parts of the mutated people?

Third, when facing a monster that can deploy a Domain, can we only use modern weapons? Aren’t there any cool skills or superpowers?”

Liao Tianhua answered them one by one:

“First, the Zhuo has no fixed form. It is hidden within this world and has existed since ancient times. It has coexisted with humans for millennia; wherever there are people, there is Zhuo.

The Zhuo feeds on human emotions and desires. Once it identifies its food, it patiently builds a nest and weaves a web like a spider, turning the entire area into its lair. That is the Domain you are currently in.

The process of mutation is the process of the Zhuo gaining human trust. It falsely fulfills human desires, using mutated parts to assimilate human emotions. mutation starts on the surface of the body. Once a human accepts the mutation, the mutated parts gradually invade the body from the skin. They follow the blood vessels step by step to invade the heart and brain, absorbing the emotional energy within.

Because mutation has the two characteristics of ‘fulfilling wishes’ and ‘appearing beneficial to humans,’ the severed mutated parts can be utilized by us to create weapons.

The nesting process of the Zhuo is very slow. Generally, a Zhuo’s lair can only encompass a very small area. A situation like this, where it affects an entire building, is unprecedented. We estimate that the Zhuo in Building 6 has been lurking there for at least a year.

This is a Zhuo that has endured a full year without feeding just to capture the residents of an entire building. It is bound to be cunning, patient, and highly skilled at camouflage, making it extremely difficult to catch.

The Zhuo possesses parasitic and mimetic abilities. It might be parasitizing an mutated person, or it might have turned into a non-human life form within the building. However, it won’t be very large. Usually, they take the form of insects, rats, or small fish, nothing larger than a cat.

Therefore, anyone in this building could be the Zhuo, and any cockroach could be the Zhuo.

The scale of the Zhuo in Building 6 of Xingfuli Apartments is something we’ve never seen before. Even for us, it would be difficult to determine its location in a short amount of time.

There is only one characteristic that identifies a person parasitized by the Zhuo: the host’s vital signs will cease. Their heartbeat and breathing are merely disguises maintained by the Zhuo, differing from those of a real human.

Our team members are professionally trained and can distinguish a real person from a Pseudo-human at a glance. Since you haven’t undergone this training, you must rely on the instrument built into the wrist of your Protective Suit. You need to place the watch within two meters of the subject and collect one minute of heartbeat data to get a result.

Second, the lethality of a machine gun is the same as your axe; it is indiscriminate and can kill humans.

Third, I do not have superpowers, but some of my colleagues do. That Protective Suit you’re wearing was crafted by a colleague who possesses the power of Shield. It isn’t the suit itself protecting you; rather, Shield is using the suit as a medium to bear the Zhuo’s pollution on your behalf.

This Protective Suit is very safe, but if signs of mutation appear on the suit itself, it means Shield has been contaminated. Should this happen, remove the suit immediately and inform me at once.”

After reading the third answer, Xia Mi froze for a moment before quickly asking: “Then what happens to Shield?”

Liao Tianhua replied: “At that point, Shield’s life depends on the outcome of the field personnel’s actions. If the Zhuo is successfully eliminated, Shield will be like any other Zhuo-fied person; we simply purge the contaminated parts of the body. If the mission fails, the Zhuo-fied person, the field personnel, and Shield… will all be handled collectively as Zhuo.

Article One of the Guidelines for Handling Supernatural Incidents: Every field operative must remember that you carry lives and responsibility on your back. No matter the time or place, do not abandon your mission.”

Xia Mi touched the Protective Suit. Feeling the garment’s connection to the life of a stranger gave her a sense of being protected, but also a spontaneous sense of duty.

Liao Tianhua: “If you feel the difficulty is too great or you cannot bear the weight of Shield’s life, you may abandon the mission.”

Liao Tianhua wasn’t joking. Without professional training, it would be extremely difficult for Xia Mi to locate the Zhuo within this building.

Once the Zhuo parasitized someone, Xia Mi would have to waste a full minute just to confirm their identity. A cunning Zhuo wouldn’t exactly stand still and wait for her to test them.

For professional Action Team members like Liao Tianhua, constant training had turned this identification into an instinct. A single glance was all they needed to spot a Pseudo-human.

The efficiency of their operations was worlds apart from Xia Mi’s.

Liao Tianhua hadn’t originally intended to tell Xia Mi the secret of the Protective Suit. He feared the burden of Shield’s life would pressure her, perhaps causing her to hesitate in direct combat with Zhuo-fied individuals out of a desire to protect the suit.

Xia Mi thought for a moment and replied: “Actually, it might not be that difficult.”

She put away her phone and opened the door to the Rooftop.

Xia Mi had been on the Rooftop for over an hour. It was now 4:30 AM. the hairdresser from Room 710 had grown bored waiting outside and was busily braiding hair to pass the time. The ground was covered in various hairstyles she had woven.

Seeing Xia Mi open the door, the hairdresser sat up. Because Xia Mi was fully geared up with her face completely hidden, the hairdresser first glanced at the axe in Xia Mi’s hand to confirm her identity. She said with pleasant surprise, “I thought you’d actually committed suicide. It’s good that you’re still alive.”

Xia Mi crooked a finger. “Come in.”

The Hairdresser was cautious. She sent her hair ahead to scout the way, only stepping inside once the strands had covered the entire Rooftop.

This process took over a minute. Xia Mi had already used her watch to test the hairdresser’s identity, confirming she was a real person and not a Pseudo-human parasitized by the Zhuo.

Xia Mi pulled the hairdresser toward the area beneath the helicopter. the hairdresser couldn’t see the helicopter, but Liao Tianhua could see Xia Mi dragging a Zhuo-fied person onto the Rooftop.

Liao Tianhua: “What are you doing? She is a powerful Zhuo-fied individual. Even with the Protective Suit, her hair can wrap around your neck and strangle you.”

Xia Mi sent back a reply that seemed completely irrelevant: “Captain, how many people are in our department?”

Liao Tianhua: “There are only 20 front-line members, but if you include technical, medical, logistics, and administrative staff, it’s about a hundred.”

Xia Mi opened this specific message and showed it to the hairdresser. “Look,” she said, “I successfully joined this unit.”

The Hairdresser gasped in delight. “You actually got a Bianzhi position?”

Xia Mi typed: “Captain Liao, if our unit collectively bought two thousand yuan membership cards at a certain hair salon to save all the residents in this building, would you agree to it? It’s a total of two hundred thousand yuan.”

Liao Tianhua: “What nonsense are you talking about? The Protective Suit you’re wearing alone costs more than a hundred thousand. If two hundred thousand could save this many people, our entire unit would pay for it out of our own pockets!”

Xia Mi beamed and said to the hairdresser, “My unit has over a hundred people. They’re planning to buy cards from you as a group. Can you give us a discount?”

The Hairdresser sucked in a breath. “A hundred people! Then I won’t have to worry about my sales targets for five months!”

Xia Mi added, “Only five months? Our captain is loaded. To him, ten or twenty thousand is just pocket change. He might even renew them.”

The Hairdresser said, “Xiao Xia, if you can really make this happen, I can talk to the store manager. We’ll do eighteen hundred per card, and I can even give you a hundred yuan kickback² for each one.”

Xia Mi replied, “I don’t need a kickback. I just need you to do one thing.”

The Hairdresser became wary. “What is it? You don’t want me to… entertain your captain, do you? Even if he buys a hundred cards, I won’t… is he handsome?”

Xia Mi hurriedly said, “No need to sacrifice your dignity. What I need is very simple. Look, you have so much hair; you could tie up a dozen people at once.”

The Hairdresser nodded. “If I bundle them together, tying up dozens isn’t a problem.”

Xia Mi said, “It would be even better if you could stack those dozens of people within a two meter radius. We’ll start from the 11th floor and tie everyone in the building up for one minute. Just one minute. I won’t hurt them, okay?”

“And that’s all it takes to sell the cards?” the hairdresser clearly didn’t think tying people up with hair was anything illegal. After all, she had originally intended to drag Xia Mi into her room with her hair to force a sale.

“Once the job is done, I guarantee at least a hundred people will come to sign up for memberships,” Xia Mi said.

The Hairdresser thought it over for a moment, then nodded. “It’s a deal!”

Xia Mi sent a message to Liao Tianhua: “Captain Liao, get ready to sign everyone at the office up for a membership card.”

Liao Tianhua: “…”

He couldn’t hear anything from within the Domain. All he knew was that after Xia Mi had spent some time chatting intimately with a terrifyingly powerful Zhuo corrupted human, the two of them were now walking downstairs hand in hand.

Liao Tianhua: “Xia Mi, what on earth did you do?!”

Translator’s Notes