Chapter 9

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Chapter 9: Mercenaries

【One】

Wu Zhi was shaving his face when his mind wandered off. He stared at the man in the mirror who was already completely mature.

Without him noticing, so much time had already passed. In this place, in this never-changing environment, with that never-changing person, it was as if time had been shackled. It walked increasingly slower, its existence growing increasingly indistinct. Having suddenly grown aware of the passage of time, Wu Zhi remembered Wu Yuan’s final smile:

—Zhizhi has to continue growing like this. Taller and taller, stronger and stronger, more and more handsome… Ahhh, how I really, really wish I could personally see Zhizhi so old that his teeth fell out—[1]

Wu Zhi pressed his forehead against the mirror. The man in the mirror had a weird indescribable expression.

He did it, you know. He would grow more and more, older and older, and then welcome… his final stage.

—Then, what about that person? What should he do?

Wu Zhi grabbed his chest. All of a sudden, his heart was in agonizing pain.

***

Time passed. Just as Wu Zhi thought he would spend his whole life in the hotel, that day, he heard a miraculous racket.

Wu Zhi, who had been watching the TV series and films on CDs, was taken aback. With clumsy, panicked movements, he turned off the television, held his breath and perked up his ears attentively. Then, he finally heard it. In this lonely city, it was a racket that did not come from Wu Zhi or Ye Qingling.

Those were gunshots, explosions, and ear-piercing growls and screams.

Boom— Wu Zhi only felt the entire hotel quake. He gripped his clutch, moving close to the window in a frantic search for something— His heart couldn’t beat any faster. What in the world was he anticipating, what was he anticipating?

Then, Wu Zhi saw it. Below him, a red and black figure appeared on the empty, desolate street. They sprinted along the streets, opening fire ceaselessly behind them as if something terrifying was pursuing them. Upon seeing the hotel standing tall at the city center, the two figures seemed to pause for a beat, before they ran towards it without hesitation.

Wu Zhi continued staring until they ran and disappeared into the hotel. He felt his hands sweat, as if in anticipation, as if in fear of something. Ye Qingling was not here today. In the whole hotel, he was the only one who could receive the two guests about to arrive.

Some noises came from below. He guessed the duo had discovered the bottom floors were destroyed, which prevented their entry. After a couple of clangs, silence returned. Wu Zhi waited for a while, before he couldn’t resist going to the window again to check if they had left.

What welcomed him was a bullet that penetrated the glass and brushed past Wu Zhi’s ear. He instinctively covered his head with his arms. The shattered glass assailed his body, leaving behind stabs of pain. The next moment, Wu Zhi was knocked to the side by the figure that broke through the glass.

“Hey! Here I thought some terrifying monster was here, but turns out we only got a rat here.”

The intruder was a brawny black-clothed man. He had bleeding wounds all over his body, but he did not mind them at all. The black-dressed man held up a m5g43 submachine gun[2]. He shouted outside, “Come in! Not a fucking thing in here. Just a rat.”

There was a long silence outside. Then, he heard a rustling sound. A red-clothed woman climbed in. She seemed to be in a terrible state and pinched her nose with furrowed brows. She rummaged through her pockets for a long while before she fished out something — a mask. She put it on, pulling down the goggles on her forehead to her eyes. This completely incongruous outfit seemed to make her feel better.

By this time, the man was already looking all around the hotel, letting out surprised clicks of his tongue constantly.

“Misha! Misha! Come here, quick! …Holy crap, you won’t believe what I just found!”

The black-dressed man dashed back in excitement, bottles of alcohol in his arms.

“Booze! Food! Cigs! A whole lotta ‘em!” The man’s hands excitedly danced in the air, gesturing with all his might. “Boundless! Just boundless! There’s even essences and body wash!”

Hearing that, the red-dressed woman couldn’t help being moved too. Heaven knew how long it had been since she last used body wash. In this apocalyptic world, essences and body wash were all luxuries used by those rulers to win favor from their women!

Misha couldn’t help following the man and sprinteded to the other rooms too. She opened the door to a room, and was blown away by the piles of food that filled up the room. She robotically opened the next room and the next room, numbly gazing at the supplies filling up the rooms, a quantity that could make the rest of the world go mad.

My Lord, was she dreaming? The supplies in this room could completely support the birth of a new military clique.

A thought suddenly struck Misha. Her dazed face sharply changed. She swiftly sprinted back to the very first room. That man there!

Wu Zhi swayed as he picked himself up from the glass-littered floor. Leaning against the wall, he felt emotions so complex they were inexplicable. Sensing a sudden searing gaze on his skin, Wu Zhi looked up to find that strangely-attired woman at the door. Even when shielded by her goggles, he could sense her guardedness.

“Hello,” Misha started prudently, her right hand in her pocket. “I’m Misha Crick, an A-ranked mercenary.”

Wu Zhi met Misha’s gaze in silence, truly incapable of giving her a smile. “…I’m Wu Zhi.”

“Mr. Wu.” Misha went straight to the point. “May I ask if these supplies are yours?”

…I guess you can say that.”

The red-dressed woman expressed her doubt through her actions, eyeing pointedly at Wu Zhi’s crippled leg.

“…You guys can take as many things you want from here.” As though Wu Zhi did not notice Misha’s doubtful gaze, he straightened up. “In exchange, I only want to ask something.”

Misha gestured to show she was all ears.

“Tell me how… the outside is like now.” Wu Zhi did not look at Misha’s rather surprised face. He calmly stated, “I’ve always been here, since that day.”

Now, Misha was completely dumbfounded. Her gaze on Wu Zhi was full of disbelief. She did not reject his request, and gave a brief, comprehensive overview. And so, Wu Zhi found out that countries and cities no longer existed in this world. There were only factions of military cliques formed from the lucky survivors that abided by the law of the jungle. He found out that in this apocalyptic world, due to the destruction of infrastructure and the deaths of scientists, human civilization’s technology had gone back by 100 years. In contrast, humanity’s medical field had progressed a whole century’s worth — right now, the greatest power in the world was called the Doctors’ Syndicate.

The surviving scientists had frantically studied the virus, and had created the corresponding vaccine. Humanity no longer had to worry about being infected; they launched enhancers — humans now had the ability to resist those infected ones; he even found out that if the victims of the apocalypse were to stand in front of the survivors right now, those predecessors mutated by the virus would display a terrifying tendency for evolution. What caused greater unease was that the very first generation of infected people only looked like normal rotted zombies. But the later their generations, the stronger their evolutions, and more human-like they were. It was practically a mockery. A mockery that they had regained their first “unpolished” forms.

“…Yezhi City is a ruin with a danger level of A. (PS: In the apocalypse, a ruin refers to an ex-city that was occupied by the infected. While it’s dangerous, it had a great amount of battle supplies too. Mercenaries can head into the ruins to search for supplies or to catch mutants.) No one knew the situation inside Yezhi City, because no one has ever returned alive from Yezhi City — Yezhi City is a very odd place. In other cities, the infected are usually distributed such that they grow stronger the closer they are to the center. But when Qiangzi and I broke in earlier, we found all of the infected ones concentrated on the outside, while the center was empty…?”

Misha continued with a very odd tone, “It’s been a long time since I last saw such a well-maintained place. This area is practically brand-new! The only damage is likely just the first four floors of this hotel… Everything is done by you guys? How did you do it? To live in the center of this city?” To be able to chase all of the infected population to the outskirts of the city, this was such a fearsome power.

Wu Zhi intentionally ignored Misha’s meaningful “you guys”. He neither admitted nor denied anything, and just smiled, “That’s why the first four floors were destroyed. To stop the infected ones from infiltrating.”

Misha’s expression made Wu Zhi stop speaking. Because the woman’s expression looked as if she was looking at a moron.

“Wu Zhi, Wu Zhi, you’re truly ‘ignorant’[3]…” Misha mumbled, tone purely rueful. Although there was no mockery in her tone, it still made Wu Zhi despondent. The red-dressed woman looked at Wu Zhi and simply stated the truth: “Forget about any A-ranked zombies. Even with C-ranked zombies’ jumping and climbing power, they can break in. Much less those zombies who had evolved climbing skills.”

Wu Zhi was completely dumbfounded now.

If the first four floors were not destroyed to block off the zombies, then what were they destroyed for?

Wasn’t the answer apparent by now? —The ones locked away were not the zombies outside, but the person in the hotel.

So, it seemed the tower was never an instrument to obstruct the witch, but shackles to bind the princess.

Ye Qingling had said, “Wu Zhi, stay here. They cannot come in.”

Misha said, “This place can’t even stop them at all!”

Ye Qingling had said, “Wu Zhi, what do you want? I’ll get them for you.”

Misha said, “This is Heaven! The supplies here can make the people all around go mad!”

Never had Wu Zhi so deeply understood the reality that he was kept in captivity by Ye Qingling than this very moment.

Misha did not speak again. She silently studied Wu Zhi’s pale face, studying which of her words had made the face of the man in front of her change.

“Are you two…” Wu Zhi opened his mouth, voice carrying a trembling fragility. “Very strong?”

“What do you think?” Misha gave a charming smile.

That black-clothed brawny man had enhanced physical capabilities, and the red-dressed woman had strengthened five senses — Misha was responsible for searching, and Qiangzi was responsible for destruction. This combination was not quite out of this world, but they had at least obtained proof of being an A-ranked mercenary while staying alive.

“Are you certain you can leave this place?”

“…Who can say for sure.” Misha was not confident. When they had barged in, luck certainly did play a part in their success. If they had to go through it again, they might die halfway here.

“I can tell you everything.” Wu Zhi’s expression was very calm, so calm that it seemed empty. “My only condition is to take me away from this place.”

“I will tell you the reason behind the abnormality of Yezhi City. This place has everything, except the most important battle supplies (Referring to guns and armor, etc.), am I right? I know where the battle supplies are in this city. I can guide you guys there, as long as you bring me away.”

Wu Zhi turned to look outside the window. It was clean and empty.

“I have to leave this place.”

A/N:

Mm, this chapter is just the intermission. The worldbuilding took up quite a bit = =0 Student Zhizhi finally became aware that he’s been kept in captivity, hey~

Trust me, Zhizhi is definitely not trying to invite trouble[4] right now.Zhizhi, just try and run as much as you want. If Yezi[5] found his way to you, it’ll be very scary~

Translator Note:

[1] For some reason, this dialogue doesn’t match the one in Chapter 3 completely. It could be an error on Tui’s part, or it could be just Wu Zhi remembering what she said incorrectly since it’s been years.

[2] The team will have to apologize, for we have no idea which gun this is.

[3] 无知 wú zhī (lit. ignorant) is a homonym of Wu Zhi’s name.

[4] 犯贱: describes someone who knows that what they’re doing is wrong or dishonorable, but they insist on doing it

[5] 叶子 yèzi (lit. leaf) is a nickname for Ye Qingling, 叶清灵, whose surname is the character for leaf.

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