Chapter Nine: The Crow That Took Advantage of the Situation

As the majority of mutant beasts and zombies were lured away by the First Defense Army of Giant Tree Star, Zera finally let out a sigh of relief and ordered his subordinates to bring the hovercar back down into the dense forest.

As soon as they came to a halt, Zera opened the car window, took a cigarette from his breast pocket, lit it, and tried to soothe his taut nerves.

Seasoned as he was, Zera found his legs a little weak from fright after what had just happened in the sky; cold sweat had already soaked his back.

Up in the air, the exposed hovercar drew a swarm of mutant beasts. Zera watched helplessly as the sky to the northwest filled with birds, dense as locusts, blotting out the sun.

Just as he thought he was doomed this time, Javier and his warriors, by unleashing high-energy weapons, made such a commotion that all the mutant beasts trailing behind Ye Hai were diverted away.

Regaining his composure, Zera forced a laugh. "Damn it! Who'd have thought those annoying bastards who wouldn't let us go would end up surrounded by mutant beasts... This time, not even wings could save them..."

"Using high-energy weapons so close to the radiation zone... even if the First Defense Army of Giant Tree Star came in warships, they’d probably lose more than half their forces!"

He glanced at the black Star Tail 7 descending slowly overhead.

Zera was at a loss for words.

He truly didn’t know whether bringing Ye Hai along was a blessing or a curse.

If he hadn’t accidentally seen certain terrifying “things” in the villa, he probably wouldn’t have gotten involved with Ye Hai by leveraging the Queen Ant Virus.

But after spending some time together, he found this guy was a magnet for trouble. The Corpse Hunter organization was every bit as bizarre as its reputation.

When Ye Hai opened the car door, revealing Liana in the back seat, Zera finally allowed himself a faint smile.

“Zera, you bastard, you actually tampered with the car…”

“What are you up to?”

“I almost died because of you…”

Ye Hai stormed out as soon as he exited the car, seething with rage. He grabbed Zera by the collar and dragged him out of the passenger seat, slamming him hard onto the hovercar’s hood.

He was like a furious lion.

Seeing their boss treated like this, Zera’s two subordinates moved in from both sides, pressing their pistols against Ye Hai’s temples.

Ye Hai’s expression turned cold and grim, his voice icily indifferent: “Zera, do you really think a few lousy guns can threaten me?”

Pressed against the hood, Zera, a stage two viral mutant, tried to break free from Ye Hai’s grip, but found himself completely immobilized. The strength in Ye Hai’s arms was enough to nearly dislocate his own.

Sensing this, Zera unexpectedly smiled and gave his men a discreet signal to put their guns away.

“Cut the awkward act; you’re overplaying your hand…”

“Let me remind you, before the outbreak, I was this planet’s youngest rising director, and by twenty-five I’d nearly swept every award there was.”

“I’ve seen more top actors than you’ve eaten meals.”

“With acting this stiff, you’d be lucky to play a corpse in one of my productions, let alone get a single line.”

Ye Hai’s face twitched slightly, but he remained unfazed.

Seeing this, Zera realized perfectly well that the kid was seizing the opportunity to extort him.

Still, for all his cunning, Zera’s appreciation for talent was one of the reasons for his success.

Anyone with ability received his respect.

And Ye Hai’s capacity to suppress a stage two mutant like himself was no small feat.

Not to mention his skill at driving a hovercar through a dense forest at 400 kph—Zera had already made up his mind to bring him under his wing.

For someone walking the forbidden paths of the underworld, outwardly glamorous but constantly facing unimaginable dangers, a driver like Ye Hai could save his life during a crisis.

Besides, Zera already considered Ye Hai, this “Queen Ant Virus carrier,” as one of his own.

So Zera said generously, “You can use the Dark Surge Organization’s channels… free of charge.”

Hearing this, Ye Hai’s mind buzzed.

After surviving on Zombie Star for ten years, he knew how precious an offworld channel was.

Most of his daily supplies were sourced through such open or covert offworld channels.

But trading through them always came at an exorbitant price.

Those who controlled the access to Zombie Star were vultures who picked their prey clean.

For every transaction, the “kind” ones took a seventy percent cut, while the ruthless could take up to ninety.

And the Dark Surge Organization was the largest broker in the Pilati Black Market.

To put it bluntly, even the five most notorious figures in the market depended on the Dark Surge Organization for their livelihood.

Now, for the organization’s top agent to personally offer Ye Hai free access to their channels—

This fortune was enough to leave a poor man like Ye Hai dizzy with disbelief.

“Can you let me go now?”

Hearing Zera’s words, Ye Hai instantly switched his demeanor.

With a beaming smile, he helped Zera up from the hood and, solicitous as a lackey, dusted off his coat, grinning obsequiously:

“Master Zera, you’re truly the greatest philanthropist on Zombie Star…”

“From now on, I’ll be your driver and your hatchet man!”

Zera burst out laughing. “What about Raven? Aren’t you his subordinate now?”

Ye Hai immediately feigned confusion and replied without hesitation, “Who’s Raven? If you want, Master Zera, I’ll cut him down for you!”

Though Zera remained unimpressed by Ye Hai’s acting, his eager attitude was enough to earn him a few lines in Zera’s “script.”

Liana and the other two women, as well as Zera’s subordinates, could only stare in mute astonishment at Ye Hai’s rapid transformation—his face changing faster than a Sichuan opera performer.

Their bewildered looks, however, couldn’t dampen Ye Hai’s excitement.

Having the Dark Surge Organization’s channels at his disposal for free was a massive fortune.

Perhaps, with Zera’s help, he could finally establish the biological virus laboratory he’d always dreamed of.

As for his talk of cutting down Raven—there was no chance of that happening.

No one in their right mind would kill themselves, after all.

Raven, the most mysterious of the Pilati Black Market’s five notorious figures.

No one had ever seen his true face.

All that was known was that, ever since the outbreak on Zombie Star, he had formed the Corpse Hunter organization to capture zombies and mutant beasts.

Some of these were sold off to offworld research institutes, but no one knew where the rest ended up.

In truth, Ye Hai stashed them in his own pickup and took them back to his villa for experiments.

Over the years, after using up countless zombies and mutant beasts, he had only succeeded in creating a single T103 Tyrant and five Lickers.

The failed subjects were all tossed into the bioenergy converter beneath the villa, refined into energy blocks and stored away…

Zera would never have guessed that Ye Hai, another forbidden figure of the Pilati Black Market like himself, not only lacked any sense of celebrity but also had not a scrap of scruples…

In all his years as a director, Zera had at last misjudged a “good actor”!