Chapter Thirteen: Ten Years of Silence

Although it was unclear why the strictly hierarchical mutants suddenly experienced such an incident where the lower ranks challenged the higher, the unpredictable nature of the virus’s mutations offered no explanation. Javier could only attribute this phenomenon to some new mutation emerging in the zombie virus. However, with the most troublesome long-armed zombie abducted, the pressure on the defensive line eased considerably.

There was no time for overthinking, but the absence of a sixth-stage mutant was a relief. Javier immediately adjusted the formation, assigning more troops to purge the mid- and low-level mutants. For a time, the casualties among the soldiers slowed, allowing Javier to breathe deeply in relief.

Once the Tyrant and four Lickers withdrew from the battlefield with the captured long-armed zombie, Ye Hai’s gaze fell upon the tightly bound sixth-stage mutant. His eyes shone with fervent light.

This time, Ye Hai intervened not to aid the First Defense Army but because this zombie was simply too unique—unlike any infected creature he had encountered before. Perhaps outsiders like Javier could not discern the differences between this zombie and the other three mutants. But for Ye Hai, who had long dealt with such creatures, the sixth-stage mutant stood out as glaringly as a black man among a crowd of naked white men.

First, most of this zombie’s evolution was concentrated in its elongated arms; otherwise, it showed little difference from ordinary zombies. Its defensive capabilities had not improved significantly, which was highly unusual for an infected creature. While the virus’s mutations manifested in various forms, enhanced defense was nearly universal. There was the iron-winged eagle with a steel-hardened body, the mutant wild boar with a bony shield on its head, even the zombie with a mouth on its belly gleamed faintly with metallic luster. None of these traits were evident in the long-armed zombie.

Second, its combat style differed from the others, who simply charged and struck blindly. The long-armed zombie demonstrated a measure of tactical intelligence, exploiting its arm’s advantage to launch subterranean ambushes. The other zombies lacked such insight; the one with retractable tongues in its belly, for example, never considered using its tongues for surprise attacks in the same way.

If that tongue-zombie adopted the same strategy, Ye Hai reasoned, the army’s defenses would not last minutes. After all, while the long-armed zombie only had one long arm, the tongue-zombie possessed many tongues.

Finally, when the Tyrant attacked the sixth-stage long-armed zombie, Ye Hai’s suspicions were further confirmed.

The ability gap between different stages of mutants was enormous. Crossing tiers to kill was nearly impossible without overwhelming numbers. Yet the Tyrant, a fifth-stage mutant, had effortlessly torn off the arm of a sixth-stage zombie. In Ye Hai’s decade of experience, nothing so absurd had ever occurred. These anomalies compelled Ye Hai to forcibly capture the sixth-stage mutant.

Watching it writhe and struggle on the ground, Ye Hai tapped its ugly face with interest. He murmured, “Are you deformed or just a freak?”

“Clearly you possess the abilities of a sixth-stage mutant, yet your body is so frail, unable even to break free from the restraints of mere third-stage Lickers?”

Suddenly, the zombie’s severed right arm regenerated at a speed faster than the eye could follow, instantly slicing through the Lickers’ binding tongues. At the same time, the forearm opened to reveal a grotesque maw, six rows of fangs, lunging for Ye Hai’s head.

“Regenerating limbs? Such exaggerated self-healing already surpasses T-virus levels, approaching the G-virus. But your defense is weak, easily torn apart by the Tyrant… This is too strange. Almost none of the zombie virus’s characteristics can be found in you… If this weren’t the Zombie Star, I’d suspect you were a new product from the Umbrella Corporation!”

As he spoke, Ye Hai’s right hand shot out like lightning, seizing the zombie’s wrist. The instant his fingers touched, Ye Hai’s expression shifted. An irresistible force surged, nearly overwhelming him and threatening to let the zombie’s maw bite his head.

With a furious shout, Ye Hai’s arm swelled rapidly, thicker than an average adult’s waist. His five fingers transformed into sharp claws, gripping the zombie’s wrist tightly. With a powerful squeeze, his claws snipped through the zombie’s arm like scissors.

The zombie howled in pain, withdrawing its arm.

Ye Hai laughed, “That arm is the only thing about you that hints at being a sixth-stage mutant!”

He then used his monstrous hand to flip the zombie over by its head. With the other hand, he pulled a syringe from his pocket.

Unlike a typical medical syringe, this one was crafted entirely of metal, gleaming with a silvery sheen. The reservoir was a single-helix glass tube, filled with a beautiful sea-blue liquid.

It was the T-virus solution.

Ye Hai plunged the needle into the base of the zombie’s spine, pressing the plunger. In moments, the entire vial of T-virus was injected into the creature.

Having finished, Ye Hai’s transformed arm gradually returned to normal. He tossed the zombie aside.

As the T-virus took effect, the sixth-stage mutant released a series of spine-chilling howls…

Ye Hai stood by, observing with fascination, his eyes glowing with a hint of mania.

He looked for all the world like a sadist who delighted in tormenting zombies.

The T-virus-injected zombie’s body began to dissolve and rot at a feverish pace, only to be repaired again by the virus’s powerful self-healing, repeating the cycle for over ten minutes.

The mutant howled throughout, until the dissolution outpaced regeneration.

Ye Hai sighed and shook his head. “It’s melting… Looks like the experiment failed!”

Once the T-virus entered the zombie, if the host could not withstand the mutual devouring of the viruses, it would ultimately liquefy into a puddle of foul-smelling water.

Ye Hai had witnessed this scenario—where dissolution outstripped healing—many times over the past decade.

The experiment was effectively ended; the sixth-stage mutant failed to be transformed into a Tyrant by the T-virus.

So many years of repeated failures had numbed Ye Hai, and he was not overly affected. Still, the long-armed zombie’s unusual nature had raised his hopes, only to leave him disappointed.

He turned away, casting aside his regret, and looked to the still raging battlefield, smiling lightly. “Onward, next one!”

Just then, a chime sounded in Ye Hai’s mind: “Ding! Highly similar NE-alpha parasite detected. Bio-parasite module activated…”

Ye Hai froze for a moment, then cursed loudly, “Damn! Ten whole years, and you finally decide to chime in!”

“I thought you were dead!”