"Honkai Sickness... the Changkong City disaster... Could there be a connection between the two?"
The dimly lit path was obscured in shadows. The bushes on both sides rustled in the night wind, which carried the smell of city smoke and alcohol. Su walked alone on this deserted road toward the border of Changkong City.
The sight of the Honkai Sickness patients shown to him by Director Fal today had left him shaken. The spreading purple patterns were like the scripture of a demon, cementing Su's determination to find a cure for the Honkai Sickness.
Immediately, a suspicion arose.
Why was the outbreak of Honkai Sickness so close to the time of the Changkong City disaster, the truth of which the government was concealing? Was there a correlation between the two?
What exactly was behind the makeshift wall that had been built?
Su could not suppress his suspicion. His intuition told him that behind that wall lay something that could help him understand the current situation. So, after work, he immediately took a secluded route toward the towering wall.
Closer.
As the wall approached, Su looked up and realized how absurdly high it was. To support a wall of that height, the thickness must also be incredible.
Su hid behind a patch of bushes and peered out: "Why was a structure of this scale built in such a short time?"
Residents within five kilometers of the wall had been evacuated, ostensibly because of radiation leaking from behind the wall, making the surroundings eerily quiet. Su crept cautiously toward the wall.
No guards? Because of the so-called 'radiation'?
Su squatted in front of the wall, carefully observing the surroundings. All he saw was a desolate emptiness. There wasn't even a single sentry.
He soon figured out why there were no guards.
"No entrance?" The unpainted wall stood like a mountain. The tightly packed material forming the wall was so dense that not even a mosquito could squeeze through. Forget an entrance, it was impossible to even find a spot to climb.
Su stroked his chin, thinking: "Do they rely solely on helicopters for entry and exit?"
Shaking his head, Su decided to circle the wall to see if there was a hidden entrance.
Several hours passed. Su's legs were shaking, yet he couldn't find any opening in the wall, which looked identical to hours ago. At one point, in his daze, he wondered if he was experiencing a gaiting demon.
"Ha... Ha... Ha..." Su held his knees, sitting on the ground drenched in sweat, despairing as he gazed at the high wall before him.
Is there really no way?
Su thought of the Honkai Sickness patients in their beds, gritted his teeth, and stood up again.
"Stop."
"Click."
A cold sensation shot from his tailbone all the way up to the back of his head, instantly freezing Su in place. He dared not move or look back.
He could feel the chill of a gun barrel pointed at the back of his head.
It was an almost palpable, icy stare, scrutinizing him from head to toe as if he were a lifeless piece of meat. Then, an voice cold enough to freeze water commanded: "Hands up. Turn around."
Only then did Su remember he was so paralyzed with fear that he hadn't raised his hands. If he had been deemed uncooperative and the person had opened fire...
He swallowed hard, raised his hands above his shoulders, and slowly turned around.
The figure, hidden in the shadows, only revealed a hand clutching a gun.
The gaze intensified.
"Name, occupation, age."
"Su, doctor, 19 years old."
"...Correct." The gun still pointed at him, but the muzzle lowered slightly, and a sapphire-blue light flickered.
Su's heart clenched. This isn't an interrogation; is he cross-referencing information to see if I'm lying?
Does that mean this person is with the government?
"What are you here for?"
I can't lie.
Su didn't know why he warned himself. If he lied, this person would see right through it.
"I want to enter Changkong City."
"Why."
"I want to find a way to treat Honkai Sickness."
"..."
"You're a government official, aren't you? You must know about the Honkai Sickness!" Su bit his lip, shouting at the figure, "Please, can you tell me the truth about Changkong City?"
His eyes were sincere and pure, filled with compassion for the sick.
"We do not disclose any information to unrelated personnel." The person in the shadow lowered the gun and stared silently at Su. "I am not a government official."
"Then who are you?"
"The hospital you work for has a partnership with us. If you want to know, ask your superior."
The figure turned and disappeared into the darkness. Their words lingered in the air: "You have thirty seconds to leave this place."
Lin stood on the rooftop, watching Su leave using the thermal scan provided by his visual display. He turned and jumped to another rooftop.
Su...
Lin remembered the name. Kevin often mentioned his good friend, a medical genius. They often spent holidays together.
I didn't expect him to come here to investigate. Is it because Kevin lost contact?
[Lin, shall I upload the recorded conversation to the database?]
"No."
Since Kevin no longer contacted Su, being even more decisive than Lin, it meant Kevin also didn't want Su to get involved in the Honkai. Lin would also try his best to prevent Su from discovering the truth.
The hospital Su worked for had a partnership with the Moth of the Flame. Some Honkai Sickness patients would be sent to the Fifth Branch for serum research, and the Fifth Branch would provide some technical support. However, the hospital didn't know the true nature of the Moth of the Flame, only that it was a pharmaceutical company.
Risking his life for his patients...
Lin recalled Su's resilient and compassionate gaze, sighing deeply.
[Jumping device activated]
[Lin, your output is only 30% of normal. Please avoid using Burst Mode]
"Understood. Mission start."
[Mission started]
Lin darted from the rooftop like a black meteor, running up the high wall. He reached the top in just a few seconds.
The first sight was Changkong City, which looked mostly unchanged from over a month ago. After the Moth of the Flame's sweep, the Zombies and Honkai Beasts in the city had been largely defeated, but the Honkai energy concentration couldn't be eliminated overnight. Residual Honkai energy still promoted the birth of Honkai creatures in the city.
Lin should have been at the Fifth Branch, but he received a mission stating that special Zombies were detected crossing the high wall. Since the Fifth Branch's combat squads were also temporarily deployed, he was sent to eliminate the Zombies.
Special Zombies that can cross the high wall?
The base of the wall facing Changkong City had automated machine guns. If a flying Honkai Beast, like a Rushing Honkai Beast, approached, it would be automatically suppressed. And yet, a Zombie managed to cross the defensive line and climb a wall of this height?
Lin's thermal scanner was operating normally, scanning the target location mentioned in the mission.
Everything looked normal in the visual display. Nothing was moving.
Did it already leave?
The cold moonlight shining from behind the clouds cast Lin's shadow onto the ground, stretching it long, like a thin ghost.
What Lin, with his thermal scanner on, didn't see was a shadow, taller and thinner than his own, quietly approaching him from behind his shadow.
A pair of scarlet-red eyes lit up in the darkness, staring at Lin's back.
And then...
"Shing—"
A curved blade cut the moon and slashed toward Lin's back.