Apocalypse: the Most Ruthless Person

“Just now, you haven’t finished the story, Mr. Xie. What happened after Li Zhaohua injected himself with the Transformation Liquid?”

Zhang Su no longer dwells on the Edge Squad affair.

“After Li Zhaohua injected himself with five doses of the Transformation Liquid, things became uncontrollable!”

Xie Yanshan’s face showed a pained expression, saying, “At that time, he was in a manic state, able to deform a safe with a single punch, even bulletproof glass couldn’t withstand his body’s impact, his muscles and bones had improved tremendously. We were terrified. In a panic, I saw a remote control drop from Li Zhaohua, I knew it was the lab’s self-destruct device remote control…”

At this point, Xie Yanshan paused, with painful memories flooding his mind.

“So it was Mr. Xie who pressed the detonation button.”

Zhang Su nodded thoughtfully, thinking that this person is quite brave, probably wanting to perish together with Li Zhaohua, but the other’s answer was surprising.

Xie Yanshan shook his head, saying, “Mr. Zhang overestimates my courage. When I saw the remote control fall to the ground, I knew it was bad news, my heart was in my throat! The threat shifted from Li Zhaohua to explosion, because Li Zhaohua was separated from us and wouldn’t harm us, but if he detonated the explosives in his manic state, we’d all be doomed.”

“We panicked, a colleague volunteered to go into the room to pick up the remote control. Except for me, everyone else strongly urged him to go, not that I was altruistic… It was because I knew, Xiaozhao went in with the resolve to die, and if the jade and stone were to be burned, we wouldn’t escape either, so I didn’t let him go…”

Xie Yanshan seemed afraid of others getting the wrong impression and explained further, “Unfortunately, arms don’t twist legs, since everyone agreed, I had no choice. So when Xiaozhao entered the room where Li Zhaohua was, I quickly hid in the storage room. I don’t know what happened afterward, the next thing I heard was an earth-shattering explosion…”

The group was silent. Through Xie Yanshan’s description, they could guess that it was Xiaozhao who pressed the remote, intending to die with the non-human ghost-like Li Zhaohua, but ultimately, his wish was not fulfilled.

Zhang Su pondered silently. According to Xie Yanshan’s account, it also made sense that when he stood on the tank talking to Pan Guoliang, someone suddenly died, likely Xiaozhao, who pressed the button before he was killed, probably with a slight self-destruct delay. So about twenty seconds later, a violent explosion occurred!

“Why did Li Zhaohua suddenly inject himself with the Transformation Liquid?”

Zhang Su asked the core question. If it weren’t for this matter, the Edge Squad members could have all been recruited, which would be a tremendous force!

“He craved power, wanted to possess the strength of 003 and 004,” Xie Yanshan said in a heavy tone, “Li Zhaohua personally participated in all the zombie transformation experiments. He repeatedly told me humans could have such abilities too, and he wanted to be the first one!”

The madman indeed succeeded, although possibly not as he expected.

“Huh?”

Finding chatting boring, Pang Dakun, digging through the ruins alone, suddenly spoke, beckoning Zhang Su while he bent over, “Uncle, uncle come and see, what treasure is this?”

As he spoke, he twisted his body and fished out from a pile of ruins a safe resembling a glass thermos, inside lay a test tube about the width of an adult’s index finger, half the length of a chopstick, holding a bright red liquid inside, unlike human blood, more like diluted red ink.

“Let me see it…”

Xie Yanshan squinted his eyes, stretching his hands forward.

“Here, Mr. Xie.”

Zhang Su took the safe box, glanced at it, and handed it to Xie Yanshan.

Xie Yanshan took it, looked closely, then suddenly made an unexpected move.

“Hey!”

He raised the safe box high and slammed it toward the ground, as if the item carried immense evil that must be destroyed.

“Hey!”

Though Zhang Su was internally unprepared for the opponent to destroy the test tube without a word, the opponent acted decisively and slightly evaded him, leaving him unable to react.

“Hey!”

Unexpectedly, Pang Dakun swiftly moved, as if he anticipated Xie Yanshan’s actions, dived forward, clutched the glass safe box to his chest, squatted to neutralize the force, then stood up and cursed.

“You old disgraceful thing, Master Kun found a treasure for you to see, and you dare smash it, are you crazy?”

The little thief king wouldn’t let such a treasure be wasted in someone else’s hands, wasn’t this a slap in the face!

“I warn you, don’t move!”

Qi Xiaoshuai and Lu Yubo quickly sandwiched Xie Yanshan between them, their daggers and food sampling device already pressing against his neck and chest.

“Mr. Xie, what do you mean by this?”

Zhang Su was quite speechless. If it weren’t for the subtitles showing he had already surrendered, he would have every reason to suspect this guy’s hidden motives.

“Alas.” Xie Yanshan sighed heavily and said, “Having walked on the brink of life and death, I realize many past mistakes, zombie transformation liquid is too evil, it shouldn’t exist in this world.”

Hearing Xie Yanshan’s words, Pang Dakun froze, not expecting that what he found was the zombie transformation liquid, treating it more as a treasure and gently brushed off the dust.

“What nonsense!”

Zhang Su sternly rebuked, “Is the corpse army that destroyed the Cyan Dragon Corps evil? Are the zombies feeding on human flesh evil? Are the alien races invading human civilization evil?”

“Huh?”

Originally, Xie Yanshan had a bitter and lifeless expression, but upon hearing Zhang Su’s last question, he suddenly perked up, his highly nearsighted eyes looking towards him: “Mr. Zhang, do you know the cause of the catastrophe? Can you tell me?”

“Damn it, I’m asking you a question! Answer me first! Is it more evil to turn people who are destined not to survive into zombies, or are zombies that feed on humans more evil?”

“Zombies are evil, and zombies that feed on humans are even more evil.” Xie Yanshan nodded hastily, his attitude drastically changed, wholeheartedly agreeing with Zhang Su’s viewpoint.

“Are you willing to devote yourself to research in the future, to help your companions resist the zombies?” Zhang Su shouted closely to his face, as if worried the other couldn’t see his expression clearly.

“Willing, willing!”

Xie Yanshan nodded repeatedly, even though he was sprayed with saliva on his face, he didn’t dare to wipe it off, feeling the anger of his savior, which made him nervous. Truly, kindness doesn’t lead armies, benevolence doesn’t govern, how can a leader be polite?

“Good!”

Zhang Su’s nose almost touched the other’s nose, and he heavily gripped the other’s shoulders, saying: “So, just now, was that tube of stuff the Zombie Transformation Liquid?”

“Yes, yes…”

Xie Yanshan felt the hot air sprayed on his face, his expression very peculiar.

“Bozai, take Mr. Xie to the vehicle to rest, no need to come back!”

Zhang Su let go of Xie Yanshan’s arm and gave Lu Yubo a look.

“Alright, let’s go, Mr. Xie.” Lu Yubo lifted a food sampler and pointed it towards a spot easier to climb.

Xie Yanshan didn’t resist, climbing out of the rubble with Lu Yubo’s assistance.

After Xie Yanshan left, Pang Dakun, who had been sitting with an unhappy face, stood up and handed a glass safety box to Zhang Su, saying, “That guy is really bad!”

Zhang Su laughed and rubbed Pang Dakun’s head: “He’s not bad, just impacted too much, a little mentally unstable; he’ll get better. Well… get more people to search, see if there are any more valuable things to take!”

Since they found one tube of Zombie Transformation Liquid, perhaps there’s more, and Zhang Su wasn’t planning on missing any possibility.

Continuing to search within the safe area, two more tubes of Transformation Liquid were found, but unfortunately, one tube had broken, leaking liquid, and couldn’t be used. Not knowing the exact situation, they didn’t dare touch it casually.

Otherwise, there was nothing else valuable found.

After searching the command center debris, everyone started moving weapons from the armory, and Zhang Su didn’t participate in these heavy tasks; he led a few others to find another tank.

“Old Pan, you need to teach me how to drive a tank. We need to drive these two tanks back!”

Zhang Su jumped into the tank’s cockpit, noticing everything seemed intact, feeling pleased. However, Pan Guoliang’s words immediately deflated him.

“Sorry, Brother Zhang, you can only drive away the one I hid in before, because the engine of this tank is gone.”

Pan Guoliang mimicked a clown smile.

“Gone? What do you mean…”

Zhang Su didn’t quite understand Pan Guoliang’s joke.

“The engine has been removed; don’t know what it’s been taken for.”

“No wonder the cockpit looks so new, damn…” Zhang Su helplessly patted the tank’s armor; this thing is truly tempting, regardless of Petrified Skin Zombie, Fire Zombie, or Venom Zombie, it could crush them all!

“Well… if we can’t drive it, let’s take the shells.”

Just as Zhang Su was preparing to climb into the gunner’s hatch, Pan Guoliang stopped him, shaking his head: “Don’t bother, the stored shells have all been fired…”

“Damn it! Didn’t see you guys firing much the other night, how come they’re gone?”

Zhang Su was frustrated, wondering if the tank was truly only going to serve as an ornament at the camp.

“We fired, fired over twenty rounds! Just had a bit of a hit-or-miss rate…”

Pan Guoliang shrugged.

“I just want to know if the camp still has any tank shells?” Zhang Su’s mood wasn’t great; tank shells aren’t easy to come by.

Pan Guoliang held up two fingers and said, “The tank I hid in has two shells, can try looking in the armory, but it’s a long shot…”

Zhang Su shook his head and headed towards the busy armory, understanding that peacetime camps won’t stockpile too much firepower, especially heavy firepower like tank shells.

As expected, guns, bullets, hand grenades, even rocket launchers and grenades were found, but no trace of tank shells, Zheng Xinyu and Zhang Ya were helping move items while taking inventory, and finally reported the situation roughly to Zhang Su.