Chapter 26: Releasing the Masses

Xia Mi was absolutely overjoyed at the intelligence she had gained. She couldn’t help but think that since she had not been poisoned by the mosquitoes yet, and No. 4 Zhuo had already given her the information, there was no way she would actually go to Room 702 to feed the mosquitoes now that she had what she wanted.

Xia Mi’s smile vanished before it could fully form. She felt a sudden numbness in her neck, and blood trickled uncontrollably from the corner of her mouth.

No. 4 Zhuo: “Agreement… is… a contract… You… have… half an hour… of life…”

Xia Mi: “…”

Fine, fine, so that is how we are playing this!

On second thought, it made sense. Since No. 4 Zhuo could transmit so many images through the channels established by the mosquitoes, transmitting a bit of venom was perfectly normal.

Belatedly, Xia Mi finally remembered that this was still No. 4 Zhuo’s nest. No. 4 Zhuo could set many rules within its nest, and everything operated according to those rules.

“I am never casually agreeing to anything ever again!” Xia Mi thought with deep regret.

No. 4 Zhuo: “You… go… kill… Y-057…”

Xia Mi said, “It is hiding in the sewers, crawling around in the dark. It won’t come out on its own. Do you expect me to blow up the entire building’s plumbing?”

No. 4: “Then… you… die…”

“I’m the one who is going to be dead in half an hour, why are you more anxious than I am?” Xia Mi countered. “I have a plan, see what you think. I am a huge temptation to No. 7, it really wants to eat me, and it really wants to eat you too. But No. 7 is very particular about the order of its meals. If the people in this building don’t die, it won’t show itself to eat me. Only when there are no other living humans in this building besides you and me will it appear.”

This was the information the game’s first ending had revealed to Xia Mi.

No. 4 Zhuo thought seriously for a moment before saying, “Half an hour… can’t eat them all…”

Xia Mi reminded it, “You certainly can’t eat this many people in half an hour. There are only five or six hundred of them. Open the building doors and let them out, the evacuation will be finished in a few minutes.”

No. 4 Zhuo said angrily, “Those are my prey!”

When it came to letting its prey go, No. 4 Zhuo stopped stuttering and its voice grew louder, making Xia Mi’s head throb.

Xia Mi’s voice was even louder as she roared in her mind, “Now that you have me, are you still thinking about others? Am I not enough for you?!”

No. 4 Zhuo: “…”

It had been born for some time now and occasionally watched TV dramas with humans. It felt that what the Rong had said wasn’t quite meant for this kind of situation.

Taking advantage of No. 4’s confusion, Xia Mi sent a message to Liao Tianhua: [If I rescue the people now, do we have a way to identify if there are eggs inside them?]

Liao Tianhua: [They can be detected after the incubation period, but the incubation period is very long, so there is no way to tell right now. And once the eggs take shape, the survivors are as good as dead.]

Xia Mi frowned deeply.

Liao Tianhua quickly sent another message: [But if the main body of the Zhuo dies, the eggs in the incubation period will act like Zhuo energy and dissipate automatically after leaving the nest. So as long as you can destroy the Zhuo inside the nest, and no fully formed eggs are detected in these people, they will be absolutely safe.]

Having received a definitive answer, Xia Mi made up her mind. She would get the people out of the building first, then kill No. 4 and No. 7 to ensure the safety of the public.

Time was tight. Xia Mi knew she had to persuade No. 4 Zhuo: “Be good. Don’t lay eggs in them, don’t take their lives. Let them go, and both No. 7 and I will be your feast.”

She didn’t give No. 4 Zhuo a chance to think, intensifying her pressure: “You don’t have time to think. I’ll be dead in twenty-eight minutes. When that happens, you can just wait for No. 7 to turn you into a fried silkworm chrysalis!”

Xia Mi: “I’ll give you one minute to consider. If you don’t make a decision within a minute, I’ll go to Room 701 and blow you up. We can all go down together!”

With that, Xia Mi began a serious countdown: “60, 59, 58, 47, 46…”

No. 4 Zhuo: “After 58 comes 57!”

Xia Mi: “My math is bad, this is just how I count. Think it over yourself.”

In a negotiation, you must never hand over the initiative, you have to keep it firmly in your own hands.

Even though Xia Mi was currently poisoned and trying to protect the residents of the entire building, she still managed to control the situation, forcing No. 4 Zhuo to passively follow her lead.

“32, 21, 20, 19, 16…”

Xia Mi’s countdown became increasingly chaotic. No one knew what number she would count next, she might jump straight from 16 to “5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”

No. 4 Zhuo could only roar: “I… agree!”

Xia Mi said, “You said it. This is a rule you set yourself within the nest. You must keep your word, just like the mosquito poison you gave me.”

No. 4 Zhuo: “I release them… no eggs… you must… let me eat… Y-057.”

Xia Mi: “No problem. But you can’t let Y-057 escape while the nest is open.”

No. 4 Zhuo: “If it… escapes… I can… feel it.”

Xia Mi felt relieved.

She checked the time. Four minutes had passed since she was poisoned, she had twenty-six minutes left.

Xia Mi messaged Liao Tianhua: [Have people ready at the building entrance. I will evacuate the crowd within three minutes.]

Liao Tianhua: [What did you do now?]

Xia Mi: [No time to explain, just move.]

She kicked open the door to Room 703 and said to the three people inside, “Out. Go to the first floor.”

The three had been within the Qing for so long that they had returned to normal. Hearing Xia Mi’s command, they scrambled out of the room.

Xia Mi instructed them, “There is a mother and son in Room 704. The mother is unconscious. Carry her downstairs.”

The three obediently entered Room 704, carried Xiao Pi and his mother out, and ran downstairs as fast as they could.

Xia Mi then went to Room 710. Seeing Sister Li with her stylish short haircut, she shouted, “Downstairs!”

Sister Li had been bitten by the mosquitoes and was heavily influenced by No. 4 Zhuo. No. 4 Zhuo also told her: “Go downstairs with her.”

Sister Li went downstairs in a daze.

Sister Li and the aunt from 704 were the most heavily affected by the Zhuo corruption, but these effects would slowly fade after leaving the nest. As long as there were no eggs inside their bodies, they could return to normal.

Their lifespans would be affected, but Xia Mi couldn’t afford to worry about such things now. Saving whoever she could was all that mattered.

Xia Mi shouted again to the crowd gathered in the hallway of the sixth floor, telling them to head downstairs quickly and in an orderly fashion.

Xia Mi said to Liu Yunxia, “Sister Liu, get everyone in line. I’ll be down in a moment. Protect everyone!”

Xia Mi didn’t go down yet. Liu Yunxia, hearing her shout from the sixth floor, yelled back, “Don’t worry! You hurry up too, Xiao Xia!”

The crowd followed Liu Yunxia’s directions well. When she told them to line up and not to push, they behaved and walked down the stairs in an orderly queue.

An orderly pace was far faster than a chaotic, crowded one.

Three minutes later, everyone had gathered on the first floor. Liu Yunxia shouted “We’re here” toward the stairwell, and Xia Mi heard her from the seventh-floor landing.

Xia Mi said to No. 4 Zhuo, “Open a small exit in the nest and let them out. I want to see if No. 7 can still sit still once it sees everyone leaving.”

No. 4 Zhuo wasn’t entirely stupid. It said, “You… come… 701… protect me… you… not allowed… take chance… run…”

No. 4 Zhuo was worried that once the nest opened, a furious No. 7 would attack it after losing its prey. It was also worried that Xia Mi would take the opportunity to escape through the gap.

Resigned to her fate, Xia Mi returned to Room 701 and sent a message to Liao Tianhua: [Xiao Liao, the main door will only be open for three minutes. You must handle the follow-up reception of the citizens.]

Liao Tianhua: [I’ve already led my men to the building entrance. Mission will be accomplished.]

After sending the message, Liao Tianhua stared at the text he had just written and frowned deeply. For a moment, he couldn’t tell who was the leader and who was issuing orders to whom.

Xia Mi’s ability to seize the initiative and turn the natural order upside down was truly something one couldn’t guard against.

“If I actually let you join the team, you’d steal my position in less than two days,” Liao Tianhua muttered to himself.

Just as he spoke, the black mist trapping Building 6 suddenly thinned in one spot. A small figure was the first to run out, followed by a group of other small figures.

They were a group of children.

Under Liu Yunxia’s arrangement, the children who could run were at the front, followed by women carrying infants, then the elderly, and finally the adults.

Liu Yunxia and her husband were at the very back of the line, with Sister Li following them in a bewildered state.

It wasn’t until these three emerged that Liao Tianhua breathed a slight sigh of relief.

The moment Liu Yunxia stepped out, the black mist behind her swirled back to envelop Building 6 once more.

Except for the deceased and Xia Mi, everyone in Building 6 had escaped to safety.

Members of the Logistics Group stepped forward to arrange medical checkups for everyone, checking if there were any formed eggs in their bodies. Others were responsible for providing comfort and protecting the psychological well-being of the citizens.

The moment she stepped through the main gate, Sister Li’s mind suddenly cleared.

Ever since the nest had opened, her head had been in a fog, drifting between lucidity and confusion, making normal communication difficult.

Only now did she remember every detail of her time with Xia Mi along the way.

She suddenly screamed, “Xia Mi! Xia Mi is still in the building and hasn’t come out! There is still one person left inside!”

Lin Xiaoli saw that Liao Tianhua was the highest commander on the scene. She ran up to him and cried out, “Officer, soldier, leader, comrade, there is still someone inside!”

She didn’t know how to address Liao Tianhua, so she shouted every title she could think of.

Liu Yunxia ran over to pull her back, saying, “Xia Mi will come out. Let’s go for the checkup first. Don’t interfere with the leader’s work.”

“Who told you Xia Mi is coming out?” Sister Li questioned.

Liu Yunxia said, “Xiao Xia said so herself. She told us to go first and that she’d be right behind us.”

Lin Xiaoli said angrily, “Xia Mi is a liar! How many times has she lied to me in this past day and night? She even promised to buy a hundred memberships from me. You actually believe her words?”

Liao Tianhua said, “She didn’t lie to you. Tomorrow, people will go to your shop to buy memberships. We government workers do not lie to the people.”

Lin Xiaoli and Liu Yunxia looked at Liao Tianhua. This exceptionally young, handsome, tall, and upright man didn’t look like a traditional leader, yet the words he spoke made people truly believe in his authority.

Lin Xiaoli shook her head. “You don’t understand. I heard bits and pieces of a conversation just now. Xia Mi was poisoned. She used her own poisoning as a bargaining chip to make a deal with something so that thing would let us out. That thing said Xia Mi only has half an hour before the poison takes effect.”

Because she had been bitten by a mosquito, Lin Xiaoli could also hear the voice of No. 4 Zhuo. It was just that while inside the nest, her consciousness had been so muddled that she couldn’t react to the sounds she heard.

After leaving the nest, she remembered those words.

Only then did Liao Tianhua realize what Xia Mi had done to save everyone.

No wonder Xia Mi kept shouting that time was tight and there was no time left. So that was why.

Liao Tianhua said to Lin Xiaoli, “Sister Li, you don’t need to worry. Xia Mi will be fine. We won’t give up on any comrade.

“Go for your checkup first. Then, follow the staff and repeat what you just told me. We will record it on video. I hope you don’t mind.

“Xia Mi’s achievements this time are worthy of a Second-Class Merit. Your words are proof of her contribution, which is why we need to record it to preserve as material for her record of service.”

Lin Xiaoli said, “I’ll record it as many times as you need. I can even talk to the higher-ups in person. It’s no problem at all.”

“Saying it once for the recording is enough,” Liao Tianhua said.

In a few hours, once the power of the Zhuo dissipated and the corruption was lifted, everyone would forget what had happened inside the nest. This harrowing experience would not affect their future lives.

Therefore, Liao Tianhua had to have Lin Xiaoli record the video before she lost her memory, so that Xia Mi’s sacrifice would have supporting evidence.

Liao Tianhua opened his phone and pulled up Xia Mi’s file. He gazed at the ID photo of Xia Mi’s face and whispered:

“She’s already made such a massive contribution before even joining the team. After she’s in, who knows? In a few years, she might actually become Director Xia.”

With that, Liao Tianhua tucked his phone away and carried a silver-white case into the armored vehicle. The case was identical to the one Zhang Xun had used to store the egg.

“I will undergo the Rong transformation inside this sealed vehicle. If I fail, activate the self-destruct sequence,” Liao Tianhua commanded.

One of the team members tried to dissuade him. “Captain, the risk is too high. You’re throwing your life away!”

Liao Tianhua shook his head. “It’s not that high. We’ve been researching the causes of the Rong transformation for years. The experts summarized the key conditions for becoming a Rong long ago, but they couldn’t risk human lives for the experiments.

“For the past two years, I’ve been consciously training according to those conditions, but my superiors never approved my application. At the time, I also felt that if we were only dealing with ordinary Zhuo, our current strength was enough. There was no need to risk the transformation.

“But now we’ve discovered that someone is intentionally breeding the Zhuo to create terrifying biological weapons. Under these circumstances, we can’t rely on the old ways anymore. We must evolve to face this new enemy.

“Someone has to take the first step. As captain, I should lead by example and be the first to test the waters.”

“Captain!” The team members looked at Liao Tianhua, their eyes brimming with tears.

However, Liao Tianhua’s mind was on someone else.

If Xia Mi heard me say that, she’d definitely see me as a serious rival for the director’s seat, Liao Tianhua thought to himself.

He closed the vehicle door, opened the case, and sliced open the artery in his wrist to lure the egg into his body.

After calmly completing the process, Liao Tianhua used the vehicle’s emergency medical kit to suture the wound on his wrist. He then sent a message to Xia Mi: [Little Xia, if you die, the director’s throne is mine.]

So, don’t you dare die.