Chapter 657 – Just a Little Scare

But seeing that Song Jinsen didn’t seem to be hiding anything intentionally, continuing to press him further would evidently yield no other results.

Everyone fell silent, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Song Jinsen’s head was covered in sweat, his arm trembling slightly, as if he had sensed something. He opened his mouth and said, “Don’t…”

Before he could finish his sentence, the expression on his face froze.

As a blood hole appeared in the center of his forehead, his entire body fell backward.

Thud!

Watching Song Jinsen’s body collapse at his feet, Mu Chen took a step back.

He looked at Ling Mo with some surprise and asked, “Why did it happen so suddenly…”

Ling Mo silently squatted down, grabbed Song Jinsen’s arm, and turned it outward, revealing his finger on the trigger: “He wasn’t completely honest.”

“Still had wicked intentions.” Mu Chen’s mouth twitched.

“He knew he couldn’t survive and didn’t want to wait for death. It’s a normal mindset,” Ling Mo said, while starting to search the body.

In his search, he found a bunch of trivial items.

The only useful things looked to be two packs of cigarettes and a postcard-like hard card.

“Still Dahua…”

Mu Chen’s eyes lit up as he stared at the cigarettes: “They used to be quite expensive, right? This guy managed to get his hands on these… What kind of luxury must those advanced members at headquarters be enjoying…”

For a moment, he seemed to understand Song Jinsen’s mindset. People are not easily satisfied, and in such an environment, even stronger desires continually emerge, driving people to go all out to fulfill them.

It might sound meaningless, but many people find joy in it.

“Catch.” Ling Mo tossed one of the cigarette packs over and pocketed the other.

Mu Chen caught it with an expression of delight: “You’re actually giving this to me?”

“I don’t have much to say about cigarettes. It’s nice if I have them, but it’s fine if I don’t,” Ling Mo responded casually. “Besides, smoking too much will smell, attracting zombies.”

“Well, besides staying alive, there has to be some pursuit in life,” Mu Chen said, eagerly pulling out a cigarette. He hesitated for a moment, then added, “Thanks, Boss.”

“Just call me Captain,” Ling Mo said, turning his attention to the card.

“Got it,” Mu Chen nodded.

When they flipped the card over, a line of text came into view.

Li Yalin, standing behind, read it out intermittently: “Mission level: S. Mission content: Help enhance Number 1 to its complete form without damaging its body. Note: Complete form criteria-body strength equal to the highest standard of common zombies, obeys commands fully, and can utilize superpowers. If the mission content is not achieved, no penalty will be imposed.”

“This sounds weird,” Xia Na asked curiously.

Ye Lian, holding Xu Shuhan’s hand, also leaned in closer.

“A mission issued by the Niepan headquarters,” Ling Mo said.

Just hearing Song Jinsen mention it earlier had given them an idea, but seeing it with their own eyes made it more concrete.

An efficient operational system driven by a robust competition mechanism, along with the active participation of its members triggered by mission assignments… Ling Mo grew even more intrigued by the mysterious boss behind Niepan. What kind of person could rapidly establish such a powerful force?

In terms of personnel composition, Niepan couldn’t compare with the Falcon Camp, which had a military background. But in terms of order and competitiveness, Niepan completely outclassed Falcon.

These two were the largest survivor camps Ling Mo had encountered so far, but in comparison, Niepan clearly had the upper hand.

At least with such mechanisms in place, Niepan’s future development seemed guaranteed.

“Now, no one will be able to tell what happened here,” Ling Mo said, standing up.

He turned his gaze towards Mu Chen: “And no one will expose you either.”

“The thing you want me to do…” Mu Chen’s expression grew complicated again, as if he had vaguely guessed it.

But what kind of madman would actually intend to carry out such a plan…

“Given your identity, if you escape to the headquarters, you should be able to blend in temporarily without any issues. Even if they have suspicions, verifying information will take a long time. During that period, they won’t do anything to you,” Ling Mo said.

Mu Chen scratched his head and said, “But not everyone in the branch is dead…”

“A little commotion to scare them should be enough to make most of them flee. Even if they just hide somewhere in this city, it’ll take time for the others to find them,” Ling Mo said calmly. “They don’t know where the headquarters is, and even if they want to go there, they won’t be able to.”

Mu Chen’s expression turned conflicted: “Just what do you mean by ‘a little’ commotion…?”

“In short, as long as you buy us some time, that’s enough. You don’t need to do much,” Ling Mo quickly said.

“Hey, don’t just brush that off like it’s nothing!” Mu Chen protested.

“Let’s rest tonight and set off tomorrow,” Ling Mo said, then turned his gaze to Xu Shuhan.

Right now, Xu Shuhan was in the process of mutation, at the crucial moment between mutating and not mutating.

Most of the time, she would be in a state of psychic disorder, occasionally regaining clarity.

When the virus within her body reaches a conclusion or merges together, Xu Shuhan will fully mutate.

What Ling Mo could do for her in the short term was to monitor her mental state and quickly administer more virus to disrupt the balance if any issues arose.

However, this method wasn’t guaranteed to work; Xu Shuhan could still mutate at any moment.

But with Ye Lian and the others watching over her, there was no need to worry about her harming anyone if she suddenly went berserk.

Seeing the nearby fire growing brighter and the air filled with an unbearable scorched odor, Ling Mo immediately urged the group to leave.

As they were leaving, Mu Chen, still confused, asked, “Aren’t you going to scare them?”

Ling Mo merely smiled slightly and said, “I already did.”

“Huh?” Mu Chen was bewildered. What did that even mean?

…

“Ahhh! Help!”

In a street near the back entrance of the building, two people were desperately running for their lives.

Both of them were pale, looking as if they had been severely frightened.

One of them kept glancing back while running, and the other asked in terror, “Is it still chasing us?”

“I… I don’t think so!”

The end of the street was empty, not a shadow in sight.

They both heaved a sigh of relief and gradually slowed to a stop.

“Let’s catch our breath; I almost passed out,” one of them said, bending over and bracing his knees, gasping for air.

The other scanned the surroundings nervously, asking, “What kind of monster was that?”

“How would I know? But we sure can’t mess with it…” The gasping man replied, “And by the sound of things, it’s not looking good on that side either. I bet they’re in trouble.”

“No kidding.” The one who had been scanning around just turned his head back and suddenly widened his eyes.

His mouth hung open in shock as he stared in horror behind his companion, his legs seeming to go weak.

The other guy instinctively held his breath, slowly turning his eyes to catch a glimpse of what was behind him.

A glimpse of white, along with a huge dark shadow, completely swallowed his own shadow.

The massive dark figure had countless long, swaying hairs, casting a terrifying sight.

“Gulu.”

Swallowing nervously, he slowly shifted his gaze forward again.

The two of them exchanged a glance and screamed, then bolted off without looking back.

They ran at an incredible speed and soon disappeared at the end of the street.

Back at the spot where they had just stood, the dark shadow remained motionless.

“Alright, Xiao Bai, that’s enough,” a girl’s voice came from the dark figure.

The shadow finally moved, with the silver thread on its head retracting immediately.

“Well done, Xiao Bai. You scared them off so quickly,” the girl praised.

“MeGu!” The dark figure, called Xiao Bai, responded with a low sound.

As the huge dark figure gradually stepped into the moonlight, its true form—a giant mutation panda carrying a little girl—was revealed.

But those two people had run completely out of sight, missing this extraordinary scene.