Chapter 070: The Avenging Angel Project

“Infected! Su Cheng, stay away from this girl—she’s contracted the bio-plague!”

Seeing the changes overtaking Eri Oohashi, Ayaka Zecheng’s heart clenched. She hastily drew her pistol, training its dark muzzle on Eri’s head.

But Su Cheng acted as if he hadn’t heard Ayaka’s warning. He stepped in front of Eri, shielding her.

“Don’t be nervous. I don’t think Eri means any harm.” He sensed no malice or hostility from the girl—whatever had transformed her, there had to be more to the story.

Besides, Eri had rendered the powerful professional Crow nearly dead without so much as a scratch. If she’d wanted to kill Ayaka and the others, it would have been no trouble at all.

The girl’s eyes showed gratitude when she realized Su Cheng wasn’t drawing his weapon simply because she was different.

“Big brother, I have something to show you.” She opened a safe beside her and took out a sealed glass jar.

Inside were several ant specimens. Through the glass, Su Cheng saw that these ants were different from ordinary ones—their bodies were a thick, blood-red, as if soaked in crimson. The blood ants were enormous, and on their backs were strange patterns resembling human irises.

“These are blood ants from deep in the Amazon rainforest. They feed on the blood of animals. The bio-virus you speak of was developed from a special substance extracted from these ants,” Eri explained, pausing before continuing, “And the one who discovered the blood ants—was my father.”

“Your father was also a researcher for Mitsui Pharmaceuticals?” Su Cheng recalled that Eri’s father had died in a car accident, but it seemed things were not so simple.

The girl nodded, sadness flickering in her eyes. “At first, Mitsui wasn’t trying to create a bioweapon or launch a terror attack. Their project was called the Human Evolution Genome Initiative. My father discovered that a mysterious substance in these blood ants could complete the human genome, enhancing physical strength and extending lifespan.”

“But during the research, an accident occurred—the substance extracted from the blood ants contained a deadly virus. Many researchers were infected and turned into the zombies you’ve seen.”

“To cover up the truth, Mitsui had my father assassinated. My mother was unwittingly dragged in as well and became a casualty.”

Afterward, her grandfather, Dr. Oohashi, uncovered the truth about his son’s death and began plotting revenge.

“Two years later, Mitsui Pharmaceuticals restarted the Human Evolution Genome Initiative, continuing their research on the blood ant virus with government funding. But the virus from ordinary blood ants was flawed and couldn’t be directly used to develop a genome agent. Then my grandfather traveled to the Amazon, where he found a queen ant that had lived for a very long time. From it, he extracted a flawless virus and created a complete genome-repair serum.”

Only now did Su Cheng realize there was never any TX antidote. Everything had been a grand deception orchestrated by Dr. Oohashi for revenge.

“My grandfather named that one-of-a-kind serum ‘Avenging Angel’ and injected it into me.” Eri forced a bitter smile. Though she hadn’t become a zombie, she’d become a tool for vengeance—the linchpin of the Avenging Angel plan.

“If the doctor hated Mitsui Pharmaceuticals so much, why not go to the police?” Ayaka couldn’t help but interrupt.

“It’s useless. The government itself backs Mitsui’s research. To get his revenge, my grandfather secretly uploaded the Avenging Angel plan into Pandora, letting Pandora spread the bio-plague. Unless Pandora is destroyed, this outbreak will never end.”

So Eri, too, was a victim. But the real culprits were Mitsui Pharmaceuticals and the government behind them; the doctor’s goal was to expose the truth. For revenge, he didn’t hesitate to involve innocents.

“That man wanted to use Pandora to control the infected and do evil, so I stopped him.” In truth, when Eri saw her neighbor and his daughter turn into zombies, she was profoundly shaken. It was then that she resolved to destroy Pandora and end the Avenging Angel plan.

That was why she’d followed Crow to the Mitsui headquarters.

At that moment, the game’s system message echoed in Su Cheng’s mind.

“Player Su Cheng has successfully cracked the storyline. Pandora is entering self-destruct mode. The instance will close in thirty minutes.”

The news quickly reached all the players’ phones.

“No way, someone beat the scenario already?”

“Only thirty minutes left before the instance closes—hurry and farm monsters!”

In a department store in Tokyo’s Ginza district, a young woman in dazzling battle armor noticed the system message. Surprise flickered across her striking face.

“Looks like there’s a real master at playing the story. Well, I’m bored of grinding anyway. Let the game end.” A flash of light, and the monstrous zombie beast behind her was cleaved cleanly in half.

Any player present would have recognized this armored girl as Ruri Chengyue, the current top scorer on the leaderboard.

Mitsui Group Headquarters.

“Boss, there are loads of zombies climbing up outside!”

A panicked little girl ran over as dozens of mutated zombies clung to the glass windows, climbing up the building.

—

Crash!

The glass shattered, and the mutant infected broke through from outside, roaring as they lunged at the little girl.

“Are they Spider-Men or what?”

Terrified, the little girl yanked several high-explosive grenades from her backpack and tossed them at the feet of the mutants, then dove behind a desk.

The explosions thundered through the building. The mutants that had lunged at her were blown to pieces, blood and viscera splattering everywhere.

Just as she breathed a sigh of relief, a chilling, manic cackle rang out. A rotting, pus-covered human head poked out from under the desk, and the grotesque face opened its mouth to reveal black, razor-sharp teeth, sinking them viciously into her pale little foot.

“Ah! Don’t bite me!”

She felt a sharp pain, as if a chunk of flesh had been torn away. In a panic, she drew her pistol, aimed blindly at the mutant’s head, and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The mutant’s skull burst, brains and blood splattering over her.

The gunshot drew more mutants toward her.

“No, please!” Ashie turned deathly pale, dragging her bleeding foot as she limped toward Ayaka.

Behind her, six burly mutants chased after her like ravenous beasts, drooling hungrily. These mutants were far stronger and faster than normal infected, and disturbingly intelligent—they could dodge bullets.

Ayaka fired several shots, but the nimble mutants evaded them with ease. One mutant crawled across the ceiling like a gecko and tackled Ayaka to the floor.

A hideously disfigured face, as if burned by acid, pressed right up to Ayaka’s. At such close range, she could even see fat maggots writhing in its eye sockets, and its stench nearly made her faint.

The mutant’s grip was iron-strong, pinning her helpless on the ground.

Just as Ayaka fell into despair, a thick, black gun barrel was rammed brutally into the mutant’s mouth.

A violent gunshot rang out. The mutant’s head exploded, and its heavy body slumped onto Ayaka.

“That was close—nearly died there.”

Ayaka summoned all her strength to shove the corpse off her, her heart still pounding.

The next moment, Su Cheng crouched low, like a predator in the primeval jungle, and charged at the mutants chasing the little girl.

At full sprint, Su Cheng suddenly dodged backward, narrowly avoiding a claw swipe. His dark blade swept out without mercy at the mutant’s vulnerable neck.

The razor-thin blade sliced through the air with a menacing wail.

The mutant’s blood-red eyes reflected a flash of cold steel before its head was severed, flying high into the air.

With his other hand, Su Cheng fired his gun, blasting the airborne head apart with a single shot.

Having dispatched one mutant, the others sensed the threat and abandoned their original target, rushing at Su Cheng instead.

He kicked a chair at them, slamming it into the nearest mutant and forcing it back.

Then, Su Cheng dashed into the midst of the horde, blade flashing.

A crescent arc of steel swept out from him, and a crimson line appeared across the waists of the surrounding mutants.

Rotten, black blood gushed from their wounds as their upper bodies slid off—cut in two by Su Cheng’s blade.

The mutants’ vitality was extraordinary—even bisected, they continued writhing across the blood-slick floor, howling in fury at Su Cheng.

Steel flashed again and again, reducing the mutants to a dozen bloody chunks.

—

“Boss, I got bitten by a zombie.” The little girl was drenched in cold sweat, her cheeks flushed a deep crimson, pitiful as could be.

Anyone bitten by the infected was almost certain to contract the bio-plague.

Su Cheng took a syringe from his backpack and gave her an injection, which temporarily relieved her symptoms.

The syringe contained a virus suppressant; it couldn’t cure her, but it could delay the onset long enough to survive the final minutes before the instance ended.

“The horde’s coming—get ready.”

But at that moment, a tidal wave of zombies surged into the conference room.

Ashie set up her Gatling gun and, as the zombies burst in, squeezed the trigger without hesitation.

“Die, zombies!”

Ratatat, ratatat.

The Gatling gun spat a continuous stream of fire, bullets tearing through the zombies and reducing them to heaps of mangled flesh.

In an instant, Su Cheng’s vision was filled with flying gore.

The fierce barrage formed an impenetrable net, holding the zombies at bay.

Minute by minute, the corpses piled up at the conference room door. Ashie’s arms went numb from recoil, but she dared not relax, gritting her teeth and holding on.

While Ashie guarded the entrance, Su Cheng cleaved to pieces over a dozen mutants climbing in through the windows.

In just a few minutes, the number of zombies they’d killed exceeded a hundred.

“Boss, I’m almost out of ammo!” Ashie’s Gatling gun was smoking, and now the last bullet was spent.

The moment the ammo ran dry, a pack of ferocious mutants charged at her.

Su Cheng appeared in front of her, blade flashing.

Shadowy blades danced like death’s butterflies, slicing the mutants into bloody chunks in a heartbeat.

Yet in the next instant, even more mutants frenziedly hurled themselves at them.

As the zombies lunged, a transparent beam of light enveloped Su Cheng and Ashie, sealing them off from the onslaught.

“Instance [Biohazard City] complete. The system is calculating final rankings. Please wait, players…”

It was finally over.

Ashie was so relieved she nearly burst into tears—if they’d been a second slower, she would have been eaten alive.

“Player Su Cheng: 10,820 points, ranked first!”

To Su Cheng’s surprise, he’d actually overtaken Ruri Chengyue for the top spot. If he hadn’t cracked the scenario at the end, earning an extra 3,000 points, he likely wouldn’t have won the highest rating and reward.

“First place! Boss, you really are amazing.”

Ashie exclaimed in awe. Her own ranking had jumped from the bottom to the top fifteen, promising at least a B grade.

As the final rankings were announced, Su Cheng felt space and time twist around him, as though he’d plunged into a time tunnel. His consciousness blurred.

When Su Cheng came to, he found himself back in the Ginza café.

It was noon, exactly three days earlier.