Chapter 99: The Calm Before the Storm

In the 24th Ward temporary branch.

Su Xiao walked into the bathroom, covered in hot sweat, and took a shower.

He had preliminarily tested the changes in his body. The exercise intensity that used to leave him exhausted now only left him slightly out of breath.

His Stamina had increased from the original 6 points to 10 points. This wasn't just a two-fifths increase in endurance; his endurance had increased several times over.

Su Xiao was drying his hair as he walked out of the bathroom when urgent knocking came at the door.

After opening the door, an anxious-looking staff member stood at the entrance.

"Quasi-Special Bai Ye, it's bad. Quasi-Special Yuna just requested reinforcements from the branch, saying there's an abnormal change in the 24th Ward underground."

"Abnormal change? What's going on?"

Su Xiao's expression was solemn. He was wary of the 24th Ward; after all, the impression left by his last trip deep into the 24th Ward was too profound.

"A large number of ghouls have appeared in the underground tunnels and are currently attacking the security door. Quasi-Special Bai Ye, you should go see for yourself."

Su Xiao picked up the shirt on the bed and hurried toward the underground entrance of the 24th Ward.

Ten minutes later, Su Xiao arrived at the entrance, and the scene that met his eyes made him furrow his brows.

The entrance area was a mess, with temporary tents scattered about, and large patches of blood could occasionally be seen on the ground.

He touched some blood with his finger; it was warm, indicating it had just been attacked not long ago.

"Bai Ye, over here."

Yuna's weak voice came from within a collapsed tent. Su Xiao walked over quickly.

"Was that door breached?"

The situation was very clear now: ghouls had forcibly broken out from the 24th Ward underground, and Yuna had fought to the death.

Judging by the hole pierced through Yuna's chest, Yuna had failed.

"I think I'm not going to make it."

Yuna's face was pale; the massive blood loss meant she could go into shock at any moment.

"You won't die for now. I brought medical personnel."

Carrying Yuna out of the semi-collapsed tent, medical personnel immediately took over, helping Yuna urgently treat her wounds.

"Bai Ye, those rookies might..."

"Ah, I know."

Those rookies, it was likely that none had survived.

The medical personnel who had come with Su Xiao urgently treated Yuna's wounds and then immediately took her back to the temporary branch. Yuna's lungs had been pierced and required surgery.

Su Xiao arrived in front of the underground entrance. Some bloody footprints could be seen near the entrance; this was the center of the battle.

Yuna could have escaped earlier, but she chose not to. This young girl knew that being an investigator wasn't a cushy job; it was a responsibility.

Su Xiao walked into the underground entrance. The metal door was tilted on the ground, twisted and deformed, with large footprints on it; it seemed to have withstood an attack of significant intensity.

Slight footsteps came from the direction of the surface. Su Xiao became vigilant, and Checking Zhan Long Shan appeared in his hand.

A sneaky figure walked into the underground entrance. Su Xiao rushed forward in a few steps.

The other party screamed in fright at Su Xiao, raised a pistol, and fired a few shots wildly.

"Bang, bang..."

The gunshots echoed far into the underground tunnel, and Checking Zhan Long Shan was pressed against the newcomer's neck.

"Human?"

Su Xiao glanced at the gun in the other party's hand; it was a firearm unique to the CCG.

"Are, are you Quasi-Special Bai Ye?"

The person holding the gun was a slightly chubby young man with a round face. His clothing was covered in dust and blood, but looking closely, one could recognize it as a CCG uniform.

"Tell me what happened here."

Su Xiao didn't need to guess the other party's identity; it was a surviving rookie investigator.

On the way here, the temporary branch staff had already explained the general situation to Su Xiao.

Yuna had taken the rookies to the outer perimeter of the 24th Ward to "whack-a-mole," then encountered an attack by a large number of ghouls. Yuna escaped the 24th Ward underground and requested reinforcements from the temporary branch.

"Wuu~."

The chubby kid slumped to the ground, his pistol dropped, and he covered his face with both hands, crying loudly.

"We, we were attacked. Quasi-Special Yuna told, told us to go first, wuu..."

The chubby kid's emotions were very unstable; he must have been severely traumatized.

Through the chubby kid's intermittent account, Su Xiao understood the whole story.

After Yuna retreated to the surface, she gathered those rookie investigators.

Yuna knew that although the metal door at the entrance was sturdy, it couldn't withstand the ghouls' continuous attacks, so she told the rookie investigators to retreat first, while she stayed at the entrance alone to face the enemy. At that time, Yuna had already prepared herself for death.

A large number of ghouls broke out to the surface, and it was the humans in the areas near the 24th Ward who suffered.

From the perspective of an investigator, Yuna's approach was correct, but a rookie investigator suddenly got hot-headed and insisted on living and dying with Yuna. That investigator was the handsome boy who had wanted to help Yuna treat her wounds earlier.

The handsome boy's action stirred up the emotions of the other rookie investigators. The rookies stubbornly believed that as long as they worked together, they could resist the ghouls.

These rookies were all "straight-A students" at the Ghoul Investigator Academy and were full of confidence in exterminating ghouls.

The actions of these rookie investigators angered Yuna quite a bit.

It would have been a blessing if they didn't add to the chaos. Yuna could be certain that as soon as close-quarters combat started, these rookie investigators would immediately collapse.

Just as Yuna was preparing to teach those rookie investigators a lesson and drive them away with rougher methods, the metal door at the entrance was breached by the ghouls.

What happened next was simple. With the "help" of a large number of pig teammates by her side, Yuna nearly died in battle. Before close-quarters combat even started, those rookie investigators saw the ghouls' man-eating appearance and immediately fled in a panic.

And that handsome, hot-blooded boy was the first to flee after seeing the ghouls rush over. It was precisely because of his flight that it triggered the fear in others' hearts, providing a cowardly excuse.

"Look, I wasn't the first to run." Holding this mentality, those rookie investigators fled; they fled before the battle even began.

That handsome boy ran somewhat slowly and was gnawed down to the bone by the ghouls. His skull was even taken away by a psychopathic ghoul; it would likely be made into a "craft piece."

Yuna was defeated while covering the retreat of her pig teammates, resisting the ghouls, and facing a numerical disadvantage.

"That bastard Ito, he insisted everyone stay. It was us who dragged down Special Class Yuna."

After finishing, the chubby kid cried even louder.

"So, are there any survivors from your batch of rookie investigators? About how many people?"

Su Xiao's question didn't get an answer; the chubby kid cried even more sadly.

"Click, click, click..."

Su Xiao gripped the hilt of Checking Zhan Long Shan tightly. He had the urge to slash this chubby kid.

Everyone had been weak once, but guys who cried incessantly after encountering misfortune were the most incompetent.

"Quasi-Special Bai Ye, what should I do now?"

The chubby kid looked up at Su Xiao, only to find Su Xiao was making a phone call.

The call was connected quickly, and the sound on the other end was very noisy.

"Arima, do you know about the 24th Ward?"

"Static~, know, static~."

The signal on Kisho Arima's side was very poor. After a while, the signal on Kisho Arima's side improved a bit, but it was still intermittent.

"I am currently... not going, just hold the entrance... I can handle it soon..."

Su Xiao heard Kisho Arima's general meaning clearly: have him hold the 24th Ward entrance and not let the ghouls break out to the surface.

"You wouldn't be~, underground, would you?"

Tokyo was a small place; there weren't many places with poor signal. As the Special Class investigator guarding the 24th Ward, Kisho Arima couldn't have left Tokyo.

Thinking about it this way, Kisho Arima could only be in one place.

"Yes, I am under..., you come to the place..., the root... I... understand."

The call was still intermittent, which left Su Xiao speechless.

If he hadn't guessed wrong, Kisho Arima might be deep in the 24th Ward.

"Understood. There is one thing I need to pass on to you: Yuna was also underground earlier and is now heavily injured, but she was discovered in time and has been sent for emergency treatment."

Kisho Arima fell silent.

"That's all."

After finishing, Su Xiao hung up the phone.

The chubby kid looked at Su Xiao with tear-stained cheeks, his eyes full of admiration.

"I..."

The chubby kid just wanted to speak, but Su Xiao raised his hand to signal him not to make a sound. He pressed his fingers against the ground.

A slight vibration came to his fingertips; a large group of unknown enemies was running in the underground tunnel, approaching rapidly.

"I'll give you a mission: return to the surface and contact CCG headquarters, tell them to send more personnel to the 24th Ward." ===== CHAPTER 100 =====