Chapter 376 – Forced Memories

“It worked.”

Hidden behind a curtain, Ling Mo immediately revealed a satisfied smile.

With his Mental Power growing stronger, his tentacles had become more agile. The female soldier who had tried to fire her gun skyward to alert the others before entering was successfully interrupted by him at the crucial moment.

Now all he needed to do was knock her out and deal with that approaching guy, and he and Yu Shiran could leave.

Su Qianrou, though groggy, immediately pulled out her gun from her waist and raised her hand to shoot.

Even though she couldn’t see anything, she had already locked onto Yu Shiran in the air just by feeling.

Unfortunately for her, she thought she was in a 1v1 situation, but in reality, she was being double-teamed. It was an unfair fight.

Seeing the gun barrel through Yu Shiran’s perspective, Ling Mo once again disarmed her and executed another Mental Strangulation.

He had a vague feeling that this female soldier might be quite formidable, so he used his full strength this time, not giving her any chance to resist.

At the same time, Yu Shiran’s hand-chop landed on the back of Su Qianrou’s head, and with a fierce downward cut, Su Qianrou only had time to curse “bastard” before collapsing.

Ling Mo ran over to her side and searched her body.

Unfortunately, apart from the gun, all she had left was a dagger. Daring to run over here alone, this well-built female soldier must be quite skilled. But in this environment, coupled with a misjudgment of the enemy situation, she had been successfully tricked by Ling Mo.

In her semi-conscious state, Su Qianrou did feel hands groping over her body.

She let out a grunt from her mouth, seemingly still trying to struggle.

“She’s not out yet,” Ling Mo said without hesitation, applying Mental Strangulation again, and at the same time turned to glare at Yu Shiran, “Your stealth attack this time… gets a poor rating!”

“Hey! It was you who said not to kill her. Do you have any idea how hard that is for a zombie!” Yu Shiran muttered discontentedly.

Ling Mo wanted to say something more, but as Su Qianrou passed out, images began flashing in front of Ling Mo.

“Damn, not again! Does this count as forced memories…”

Ling Mo had no interest in the female soldier’s memories, but this situation was unavoidable.

The downside of Mental Strangulation was right here, even if Ling Mo didn’t actively read memories, it was very likely to happen. And what memories would come up was completely unpredictable.

However, just as he was feeling frustrated, a familiar voice suddenly rang in his mind.

“Mr. Ling, hello. I am Su Qianrou, the Chief of Staff at Falcon Camp.”

“Pfft! The one I just knocked out… is the Chief of Staff? Damn, what’s a Chief of Staff doing in a place like this?”

Ling Mo was initially shocked, then immediately became intrigued.

The memories in this Chief of Staff’s head might contain something very interesting.

Since it wasn’t a memory he read forcefully, it wouldn’t cause any harm to Su Qianrou. The downside was that the memories he could access were fragmented and not very complete.

…

“Collaborating with the Supernaturals is certainly a fresh change for us,” said Su Qianrou, seated in a dimly lit room across from a benign-looking old man.

His big, bald head shone like a light bulb, ironically making it the brightest thing in the room.

The old man chuckled and remarked, “These matters always have to be approached step by step. Right now, their military personnel are the backbone. Rashly killing the top brass would only lead to unnecessary complications. Besides, the high-ranking officers are not to be trifled with; it would be difficult for just a few of us to succeed.”

Perhaps because this memory was a more secretive part of Su Qianrou’s mind, the images Ling Mo saw were intermittent.

It was like a glitching disc; after a momentary blur, the scene jumped ahead by several minutes.

“Hmm…” Su Qianrou was now standing in front of a desk, noting, “Some Psychics do have ambitions, but they lack the courage to take on the military head-on…”

The image blurred again, and then her voice returned.

“The Psychics in the military represent a force for us as well. Anyway, I don’t want our camp to be severely weakened due to rash actions. It would be best to naturally reshuffle the deck. It’s not entirely conspiratorial, I just dislike how those officers tightly grip the main powers. If their collaboration with the Air Force Corps strengthens, it will be quite disadvantageous for us…”

“Your intelligence group is an organization jointly agreed upon by both the military and the Psychics. So it’s perfect for you to act as the agents of division…”

“…They’re still doing things the old way, setting up a supervisory team; such actions are unpopular. Even if you do nothing, the people below don’t have much affection for you.”

“So you’re making me the least welcome person in the camp…” The old man shook his head in resignation but then smiled slightly, “Su Qianrou, you’re an ambitious woman, and I admire that. But what’s curious to me is that… how should I say it, you seem to enjoy the process rather than pursuing power itself.”

“Power, well, it’s quite alluring when you don’t have it. But once it’s in your grasp, you realize, ah, it’s not all that special, right?” Su Qianrou chuckled.

The old man touched his shiny pate, curiously asking, “So what exactly do you want to achieve?”

Su Qianrou smiled faintly, placing her hand on the map on the desk: “My ambitions extend far beyond just City X…”

What could your goals possibly be? The stars and the sea? Ling Mo couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

…

The next scene abruptly transitioned to another room.

The walls were covered with various zombie images, resembling a serial killer’s photo wall—chilling to look at for too long.

The fact that the walls were decorated in this manner was unsettling enough, but even more so was that her bed was not far from there, which was downright creepy.

Su Qianrou, with great interest, examined the photos, identifying each according to a slip of paper: “This is a regular zombie, this is a mutated zombie, and this is an advanced zombie…”

Zombies are truly a fascinating breed; they seem to grow a little smarter every day, becoming like superhumans who have blocked out all their weaknesses. Pfft, some people still harbor the fantasy of wiping out the zombies when it’s already good enough that we haven’t been wiped out by them. In this evolutionary process, we humans are clearly the ones being phased out, just like the once-dominant dinosaurs.”

As she spoke, she dug out some interesting items.

The moment Ling Mo saw these items, he perked up immediately.

Anything labeled “Top Secret” on the bag is bound to be something good…

“The places the Air Force Corps has explored… lies, they’ve probably just picked some parts to tell us,” Su Qianrou scoffed disdainfully.

To think that it’s information from the Air Force Corps… Yuwen Xuan had mentioned that only the higher-ups were privy to this data; it seems that was true.

“Nuclear power plant, no survivors found, preliminary estimates suggest it has fallen.”

“City X military factory, no survivors found, confirmed to have fallen after a second aerial reconnaissance.”

“Dongchang Satellite Launch Center, no survivors found, preliminary estimates suggest it has fallen.”

After borrowing Su Qianrou’s perspective to review the information, Ling Mo realized that most of the places explored by the Air Force Corps were essential facilities or factory locations.

Unfortunately, places like these had mostly fallen, and some were even severely damaged; with current conditions, restoration was impossible.

For instance, a chemical plant exploded right at the onset of the Disaster Outbreak…

Besides these two memories, there were many fragmented ones, but most were about Falcon Camp, which didn’t particularly interest Ling Mo.

Among them were some important ones, like the situation in the surrounding provinces and cities.

According to the information provided by the Air Force Corps, within their explored territory, the only large camp in existence was Falcon Camp.

It makes sense; if not for City A’s unique geographical features, Falcon Camp wouldn’t have been established, let alone grown and expanded.

However, the explored range of the Air Force Corps was not extensive, so this information could only serve as a temporary reference.

“Thanks, kiddo.” Ling Mo patted Su Qianrou’s cheek and smiled.

By the time Ling Mo left the massage parlor, he had already put his mind at ease.

As long as no major upheaval occurred at Falcon Camp, Yuwen Xuan and Wu Pengfei would still be safe here.

This woman was keen on managing the camp but had no real desire for power herself, which was quite the rarity.

From her mind, Ling Mo was the first to extract memories related to himself, a rather subtle experience.

“There’s a lot of intelligence gathered, but it feels like there’s so much information in my head, it needs time to digest.”

Massaging his temples, Ling Mo, guided by his psychic sense, moved towards the second tracker. Yu Shiran was left behind to watch over the now unconscious Su Qianrou until he returned.

The second tracker puzzled him; the person kept circling a certain area or, after walking a distance, would mysteriously return to the starting point.

But overall, this person was slowly getting closer to him.

“Can’t rule out the possibility of another Psychic. Better knock him out first and talk later.”

Ling Mo quickened his pace, swiftly closing in on his target.

“Uh, Chief of Staff…”

Li Wei, clutching a glowing capsule, was nervously inching forward. Although the capsule shed light over a considerable distance, the ominous shadows of the surrounding buildings and the swaying trees made her shiver uncontrollably.

As Ling Mo approached her from the side, she felt a wave of dizziness and, almost reflexively, shut her eyes and tossed a small sphere from her hand.

Before the sphere could touch the ground, Ling Mo intercepted it with a tentacle, flicking it upward and then catching it in his hand.

“So it seems, a falling alarm that would explode on impact… And it turns out to be you…”

Ling Mo looked at Li Wei with a curious interest.