Chapter 639 – I Can’t Even Begin to Understand This Kind of Thinking!

Tricked…

The member’s heart skipped a beat. As he was about to turn his head, he suddenly felt a chill on his neck, and his whole body tensed up instantly.

A slightly urgent voice came from behind him, “Don’t move, drop what you have in your hand.”

The member strained to glance back, slowly tightening his grip on the steel rod, but the slight sting on his neck silently urged him.

“Let go, quickly,” the voice urged.

“Clang!”

The steel rod fell from his hand, landing at his feet.

“Step back.” The person behind him immediately pulled him backward.

“Stop thinking about playing tricks, Zhang Laoer, don’t you recognize my voice?” the voice continued.

The disappointment in Zhang Laoer’s eyes was instantly replaced by astonishment. He paused for a moment and exclaimed, “You are… Captain Mu?!”

“Surprised you still remember to call me Captain Mu.” Mu Chen remained closely pressed against Zhang Laoer’s back, not relaxing his grip in the slightest. “But you should have known you might run into me, right? Don’t tell me Ai Feng didn’t warn you about this possibility. Normal survivors wouldn’t wander into Dongming out of boredom. If you analyze it a bit, narrowing down the possibilities isn’t hard, right?”

“No, we thought you were all dead…” Zhang Laoer’s forehead was now sweating, glistening faintly in the dim light.

“Oh, trying to fool me? Damn, you all really take me for an idiot, huh? Let me tell you something, that guy was right. If you truly cared about my life or death, at least you would have tried to initiate a conversation or negotiation to confirm our identities and whether we were alive or dead, right?” Mu Chen growled quietly.

Zhang Laoer, drenched in sweat, could only respond weakly, “I was just following orders; I didn’t know any of this…”

Mu Chen freed one hand to rummage through Zhang Laoer’s pockets. “Now, I’m starting to think Xia Zhi was quite foresighted. What he did really saved his life and earned him some credit… But ironically, he ended up being the first among us to die.”

“What do you mean?” Zhang Laoer didn’t dare struggle and could only watch as Mu Chen confiscated each of his weapons and tossed them into the corner.

“Nothing much. There were so many variables in this situation that we ended up here. Zhang Laoer, I know if that knife had been real and it was me in front of you, you wouldn’t have hesitated to strike, so don’t expect me to go easy on you.”

Biting his lip, Mu Chen pulled a pocket knife from Zhang Laoer’s waistband and asked coldly, “Speak. What are the orders? How many people did Ai Feng bring, and what’s the deployment?”

Zhang Laoer’s face turned grim as he said, “If I tell you, it won’t end well for me, Captain Mu…”

“Not talking? Then you die now.” Mu Chen applied a bit more pressure.

Feeling the sharp blade pressing against his skin, threatening to sever his carotid artery at any moment, Zhang Laoer closed his eyes tightly in nervousness.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk…” He lowered his voice and said quickly, “Besides the group that just came in with us, any living thing in here is a target. Capturing live targets is preferred, but if that’s not possible… kill them all.”

“That’s the order? What about the rest of the information?” Mu Chen pressed further.

“We didn’t bring many people, just a dozen or so. As for the deployment, all the entrances and exits are blocked. I suspect more might be on the way. Captain Mu, if you help us capture the others, it’ll count as meritorious service! Even though the headquarters guy is dead, as long as you didn’t kill him…” Zhang Laoer said anxiously.

“I’d love to kill…” Mu Chen sneered, suddenly kicking Zhang Laoer’s knee.

Zhang Laoer let out a muffled groan, involuntarily falling to his knees.

“Captain Mu! Don’t be rash! This is Dongming, it’s not worth it… Ah!” Zhang Laoer received another blow to his back, his voice lowering immediately. “Captain Mu, don’t do this. Going against Niepan won’t end well for you. Help me, and all the credit will be yours! What wouldn’t you get? Alcohol, cigarettes, women! As long as you contribute to Niepan, who would kill you? Don’t throw your life away out of momentary anger!”

“Meritorious service and all, that does sound tempting.” Mu Chen’s actions hesitated for a moment.

Zhang Laoer immediately sensed a glimmer of hope and continued to persuade, “Exactly! Those troubles can be blamed on others, and it has nothing to do with you. Now is a great opportunity! Captain Mu!”

“It is indeed a good opportunity,” Mu Chen’s voice suddenly got closer to Zhang Laoer’s ear, “but… I find people like that disgusting. I can’t let myself become that repulsive.”

“Captain Mu, don’t be foolish…”

“Let me tell you something, some things shouldn’t be done, and some people just can’t do them. I, Mu Chen, am the kind of fool who simply can’t do them no matter what. Satisfied?” With that, Mu Chen grabbed a handful of Zhang Laoer’s hair, completely exposing his throat.

“No, don’t kill me… Captain Mu…” Zhang Laoer’s voice began to tremble.

His body also started to shake uncontrollably. The blade was pressed against his Adam’s apple, which bobbed up and down, seemingly ready to slice into him at any moment, turning him into a lifeless corpse.

Mu Chen half-squatted behind him, gritting his teeth and gripping his hair.

Suddenly, he raised the knife and swung it down hard.

“Thud.”

Zhang Laoer fell to the ground with his eyes closed, but there was no blood on Mu Chen’s knife…

“You’d better stay unconscious for a while. Otherwise, next time…”

Mu Chen stared at Zhang Laoer for a moment, then looked helplessly at his knife in the water. After glancing around, he turned and ran off to one side.

A few seconds later, he entered a small warehouse.

“It’s me,” he whispered as soon as he saw the glint of cold light before him.

The cold light flashed away as a girl’s silhouette emerged from behind the door, looking behind him, “Come in.”

“Just close the door already,” Mu Chen suggested casually.

Another female voice came from the darkness, “Closing it would draw more attention, wouldn’t it?”

“This way, it looks like a mouse trap…” Mu Chen said as he navigated past several shelves, moving deeper into the warehouse.

In the corner, Ling Mo was helping Xu Shuhan sit on a pile of boxes.

Xu Shuhan was still gasping for breath, and in the darkness, her eyes appeared eerily red.

As soon as Xu Shuhan saw Mu Chen, she lifted her head and emitted a teeth-grinding sound that made one’s skin crawl.

However, Ling Mo grabbed her by the back of her collar and dragged her back.

Xu Shuhan struggled a bit, but ultimately gave up.

“Is she really not fully turned into a zombie?” Mu Chen’s expression looked quite shocked.

“If she had really turned, I wouldn’t be able to hold her back. Besides, once she gets used to it, she won’t try to bite you anymore, at least for now,” Ling Mo explained.

Mu Chen paused, then said, “That ‘for now’ sounds very precarious!”

“Did you get any information?” Ling Mo quickly changed the subject.

“I found an old acquaintance who told me some things. It doesn’t sound good. Shen Le and the experimental subjects are dead, and Ai Feng won’t stop until the end. Moreover, they don’t care whether we live or die. Luckily, Xia Zhi has been dealt with; otherwise, if he had sold your intelligence, it would have been disastrous. But they are very familiar with me… so…” Mu Chen sighed.

“And what about that acquaintance?” Ling Mo nodded thoughtfully and suddenly asked.

Mu Chen froze for a moment, then shook his head, “I… I didn’t do anything to him…”

“Seems like we can’t count on you to be our double agent,” Ling Mo said regretfully.

“I already refused their offer!” Mu Chen shouted, then added, “Even if I agreed, if they deployed No.0, I’d be exposed immediately.”

“No.0 must be very formidable.” A look of anticipation flashed in Ling Mo’s eyes.

Such psychic monitoring, even for him, he couldn’t cover many people at once. In fact, he still had to focus on one individual and observe for a while to detect any abnormalities.

From what Mu Chen had said, it seemed that No.0 specialized in monitoring and information transmission.

And Ling Mo… his psychic light cluster was feeling quite hungry…

Although the guy from Niepan headquarters was a mental ability user, to avoid leaving any traces, Ling Mo hadn’t dared to devour his psychic power.

Using the devour ability in that situation wouldn’t have completely escaped Mu Chen’s notice.

Even if Mu Chen didn’t figure it out, there was still a psychic seed from No.0 in his mind…

Although Mu Chen was now on the same side as Ling Mo, the psychic seed from No.0 felt like a ticking time bomb, always keeping Ling Mo on high alert.

That thing was like a “spy” that could wake up at any time…

However, seeing Mu Chen return at this moment at least proved that he himself wasn’t an immediate problem. They just needed to find a way to remove the psychic seed from his mind later.

But now was clearly not the right time to bring this up. Ling Mo thought for a moment and said, “Given this situation, there’s no need for us to keep running. Outside, they’re more familiar with the terrain, and No.0 can keep tracking you… Let’s stay here and take these people out first!”

“Just the few of us?” Mu Chen’s eyes widened in shock. What kind of thought process was this?

He had just mentioned how the enemy was well-prepared, and now this guy was already thinking of taking them all out…

“Yes, if we eliminate some of them, we’ll have less pressure,” Ling Mo nodded seriously, looking very determined.

“Wait a minute…” Mu Chen suddenly realized something. “You wouldn’t… No, you never intended to escape Dongming, did you? Hey, don’t turn your head away!”

“Heh heh.” Ling Mo chuckled thoughtfully.

“Hey, I don’t have a death wish! Are you even listening to me?” Mu Chen exclaimed in frustration.

At that moment, figures were slowly moving throughout different areas of the mall.

On a staircase near the entrance, a person was leading a small group, pressing close to the wall and moving upward cautiously.