Chapter 299: Is It Human or Zombie?

"What the hell!"

As Zhang Su wondered at his companion's strange behavior, Zhao Dezhù let out an exclamation and turned back: "That pit's four or five meters deep—there's definitely something down there!"

"Definitely. The Edge Team's lab is right beneath us, and that modified zombie was released from here—it took out half a building on the spot!"

Pan Guoliang grimaced, his lips trembling; the scenes from last night would haunt him for life, impossible to forget until death.

Zhang Su stepped over a chunk of rubble half his height and stood beside the pit, peering down: bent rebar protruded from the concrete slabs, flames flickered over some unknown object, thick black smoke curled into the air, carrying the stench of burnt flesh and materials.

Most striking were the human remains—blood and shredded flesh scattered everywhere; no guesswork needed, they were the people who'd hidden here, likely believing they'd escaped death, only to meet their final fate.

A heavy metal door lay overturned in the rubble, slightly warped; if nothing went wrong, it must've been the lab's security door, now dropped four or five meters below ground level.

"Why would there be this much explosive in the lab? Was it for self-destruction?"

Zhang Su glanced curiously at Xin Qi.

"There's no such thing as Captain Pan—I'm Pan Guoliang, from Tianma Isle!"

Zhang Su stared at the ruins in disbelief: those inside the lab would've fought to survive, unlikely to press the detonator themselves; accidental triggering was even less plausible—such critical triggers always had safeguards.

Zheng Xinyu spoke thoughtfully.

Zhao Dezhù sneered: "Could they've just given up, feeling no hope left?"

Xin Qi waved his hands awkwardly: "Big brother, I don't have the clearance to know that—you'd have to ask Captain Pan..."

"Regardless of whether they had any sense of sacrifice, this explosion... was definitely triggered by someone. But why?"

"Could there have been more than one person down there, and they turned on each other?"

"Uh, Su-ge, it's blown to hell down there—still going down to check?"

Pan Guoliang scoffed: "These explosives were secretly installed by Ma Juguang for our Second Team. There were only two remote detonators—one with the Edge Team leader, the other with Ma Juguang himself. Li Zhaohua must've been hiding down there, but we don't know why he triggered it. Oh right—Li Zhaohua was the Edge Team leader."

As Zhang Su was speaking, his ears twitched; with his hearing restored, he caught an unusual sound.

"I have no idea."

"They had zero sense of sacrifice..."

Zhang Su nodded knowingly: "These precautions were necessary—the Edge Team really had some sense of sacrifice."

"We avoided entering the lab before because we feared the building might collapse. Now it's like this, feels like it could cave in any second—so we shouldn't... wait..."

Zhang Su gave Zheng Xinyu a strange look, wondering if her luck extended even to logical deduction.

His thoughts mirrored hers, but he'd deduced it from the subtitles in his mind—he knew someone died first, then the explosion happened. Zheng Xinyu had no such information.

Pan Guoliang shrugged; only the person involved could explain this kind of thing.

Lu Yubo stared at the ruins with disgust—blood and tissue everywhere, nothing of value left.

"Officially, most troops only know about Zero Zero Zero to Zero Zero Three. But there's also the hidden Zero Zero Four, plus many short-lived modified zombies—some extremely dangerous. We installed explosives to prevent any uncontrollable monsters from escaping, just like high-risk labs install self-destruct systems. If a monster breaks loose, we blow it up—no catastrophic fallout."

Pan Guoliang hurried to clarify: "You might not know, but the Dragon Army's Science Division has an Edge Team—they research all kinds of twisted stuff: human modification, zombie modification, you name it!"

Rustling, now like skin scraping concrete, now like crushed eggshells.

"Wait—there's movement down there. Did you hear that...?"

Zhang Su's gaze sharpened; he bent slightly, tilting his head to listen more closely.

"Nope... who the hell's that strong?"

Everyone exchanged glances—they didn't doubt Zhang Su's judgment; if he said something was there, it was there. But surviving such an explosion? That was a miracle!

"Not human!"

Zhang Su suddenly frowned, stepping back half a pace and raising his rifle to his chest: "There's a zombie down there!"

Even through the rubble, he recognized the unique cry—the guttural, wailing moans were unmistakably zombie.

Elsewhere, one zombie wouldn't concern him—there were dozens of elite soldiers here; even a hundred could be eliminated with terrain advantage. But here, he dared not underestimate—the pit below was the Edge Team's lab.

Most crucially, Zhang Su detected something unusual in the low growl—it differed subtly from ordinary zombie cries, and his instincts went on alert.

The others, puzzled by Zhang Su's extreme caution, nonetheless went on guard, ready to attack at any moment.

In an instant, the scene fell utterly silent—only the crunch of footsteps on broken stone echoed. Every eye fixed on the pit, as if frozen in a painting, the cold wind whipping their cheeks, yet no one dared relax.

Aowuowu!

Suddenly, a muffled zombie roar erupted from deep within the pit—this time, everyone heard it clearly, their faces paling.

"Shit, there really is a zombie—probably turned from the corpses just blown up?"

Zhao Dezhù raised his rifle, tilting his head to peer down, eyes sharp with caution.

"Could it be, like Old Pan said, other modified zombies still hiding down there?"

"Fall back—fall back first..."

After hearing that roar, Zhang Su grew even more tense. Others missed the nuance, but to him, the sound was different.

He heard something unnatural. Ordinary zombie cries had zero awareness or emotion—after a while, they sounded stupid. But this one was different: it radiated pure ecstasy, like basking in the midday sun, then gulping half a bottle of ice-cold beer in the shade—and beneath it, a deep, ravenous hunger for slaughter.

Zhang Su was certain this wasn't his imagination—it was genuine emotion radiating from the sound.

Ssssh, ssssh.

Tianma Isle's men moved with precision; as soon as Zhang Su gave the order, they began retreating slowly. But the terrain was complex, so progress was sluggish—and precisely because of the scattered rubble, every corner offered cover.

Then—whoom! a slab of rubble the size of a mahjong table erupted from the pit, spinning through the air like a movie effect before crashing sideways.

"Holy shit!"

Qi Xiaoshuai leapt forward on all fours, his agility saving him—he barely dodged the debris. One hit, and he'd be crushed.

Aowu aowu eeeep...

But no one paid attention to Qi Xiaoshuai—because after the rubble flew out, a figure emerged from the pit. It could be called human—it had too many human traits. But it could also be called a zombie—it possessed zombie qualities too.

"What the fuck..."

Zhao Dezhù's pupils contracted as he stared at the half-human, half-zombie creature, speechless.

The figure standing in the pit was unmistakably no ordinary zombie—tall and slender, about two meters high, its clothes torn apart by some unknown force and further shredded by the explosion, hanging in tatters, barely covering anything.

Exposed skin revealed its entire body glowing red, like a boiled shrimp. Closer inspection showed it had no skin at all—muscle tissue laid bare, thick cords and strands, threaded with white fascia, giving it the eerie look of a dwarf stripped of flesh!

Precisely because of these features, it looked less like a zombie and more like a human.

Whether from the explosion or not, the zombie emitted white mist from its entire body—its temperature was extremely high. Its eyes were pure white, with a tiny black pupil like a bean embedded in the center. Alone, it looked absurd; on a face of exposed muscle, it was horrifying.

(End of Chapter)