Patient Zero

The wheels of the three slot machines stopped turning simultaneously. Xu Xiaoyou didn't have time to check the skill cards she had obtained; seeing her ranged skill card slots filled, she decisively leaned out. A 【Position Shield】 expanded in front of her, blocking all the incoming energy cannon fire.

In the distance, Yun Yao saw her strike fail and quickly retreated back into cover, sprinting behind walls to shift her position. Intense explosions roared from below; Bai Zhou had already reached the floor beneath her and had triggered the 【Explosive Energy Trap】 she had set in advance. The entire first-floor lobby was filled with such traps, and any slight lapse in caution would trigger a chain reaction sufficient to stall Bai Zhou for some time.

Calculating her moves, Xu Xiaoyou activated 【It's High Noon】. Her vision filled with grayscale tones as her senses sharpened. She could clearly see the trajectory of the raindrops falling in the air, and the concrete walls became transparent. She spotted a petite heat source sprinting: a silhouette outlined in orange-red lines.

Aiming, she fired.

Yun Yao, moving at high speed along the corridor, quickly performed a cat-footed retreat. The bullet grazed her cheek, and the searing heat left her with a lingering fear. From a distance of several hundred meters, could that person lock onto her position through a wall?

But she wasn't easy prey either!

The heavy cannon in Yun Yao's hands transformed and was braced beneath her. Azure particles gathered at the muzzle as she aimed by feeling toward the direction the bullet had come from. Concentrated Energy Beam!

A stream of azure particles sliced through the air instantly, shattering the frozen curtain of rain. The raindrops were evaporated into white mist. The hundred-meter gap was rapidly compressed as the beam exploded around Xu Xiaoyou. An elliptical halo contracted inward, drawing in and swallowing both dust and light.

Xu Xiaoyou decisively abandoned the anti-materiel heavy sniper rifle on the ground and leaped toward the stairs below. Flying gravel and metal fragments, like horizontal rain, riddled the corridor behind her with holes.

Flames burned fiercely. Xu Xiaoyou's thigh was grazed, and several mangled bloody holes soaked her black tactical leggings. Another explosion sounded from below, this time slightly closer to her current location.

Xu Xiaoyou leaned against the wall, her tied-up golden ponytail spilling over her shoulder. Dust covered her small face, and she looked slightly exhausted. The wound on her leg made the girl's brow furrow. She reached out to dig out the metal fragments from the wound, then used the gunpowder from a bullet to heat a projectile until it was glowing red, pressing it firmly against the bleeding wound.

The metal bullet, heated to several hundred degrees, instantly cauterized the skin upon contact, stopping the bleeding. Xu Xiaoyou tilted her head back slightly, treating the wound without expression as she internally calculated the time it would take for Bai Zhou to reach her position.

After a brief rest, she pulled a brand new Armor Breaker M82 from her tool cards. The anti-materiel heavy sniper rifle, with its rugged, beast-like appearance, stood in sharp contrast to the petite blonde girl. But this world was no fairy tale; the story of the girl and the beast was written in steel and fire.

Chihong finally realized something was wrong after advancing several kilometers into the depths. Ten minutes ago, she had left a message for her companions. Normally, her teammates from Section 6 would arrive within five minutes. She was the war flag, the pointer of the battlefield; following her footsteps and advancing would inspire one's fighting spirit.

"You actually have accomplices," Chihong judged, drawing on her long combat experience.

Angelina stopped and glanced indifferently at the person behind her. "This is a life-and-death struggle between you and me. What does it have to do with anyone else?"

"Is it Dark Gold Rose?" Chihong tapped the flagpole with her fingertips. "What is your relationship with her?"

She hadn't expected that the luminous prism grade fixer the Association had just certified would actually join forces with Abyssal White Flower to launch a surprise attack on their squad. What Chihong couldn't understand was whether that luminous prism grade fixer really needed to go to such lengths.

To deal with Section 6, did they really need to deliberately separate their team members?

One had to know that even Deep White Midnight, who wasn't known for combat ability, once had a combat record of going single-handedly to the Association headquarters, intimidating thirteen prism grade fixers, and confronting the entire armed forces of Sections 1 through 4.

Unless Dark Gold Rose and Abyssal White Flower had reached some sort of agreement specifically to create a one-on-one situation for her and Abyssal White Flower, she couldn't think of any other reason for them to do this.

If that were the case, she actually wasn't worried about her companions' safety. It meant the opponent had their own bottom line and wouldn't actually kill her companions or completely break ties with the Association.

"Don't mention that person in front of me!" Angelina said viciously.

"It seems there is some kind of bond between you. For a luminous prism grade fixer to have a bond with a world-class urban legend..." Chihong's words were loaded.

Angelina was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on; her face was gloomy and terrifying. Even though she knew this woman was fishing for information, she couldn't restrain the hatred erupting within her at the mention of the word 'bond'.

Angelina shook her head, her silver spear point aimed at Chihong. "I cannot understand you. Why are you so obsessed with me?"

Chihong replied, "On the contrary, I understand you quite well. A newborn urban legend who can resist being controlled by distorted traits, possesses the ability for rational and independent thought, and can restrain her own behavior—I've never heard of someone like you in history."

Chihong reversed the war flag, tucking the flagpole between her wrist and elbow, her posture heroic and upright. "But as long as there is still a possibility of you losing control and potentially harming innocent people, I cannot convince myself to let you leave."

Angelina didn't want to waste any more words. "Let's just end everything quickly."

Chihong flipped the war flag in her hand. "My thoughts exactly."

A moment of silence, then both rushed at each other simultaneously. Boots stepped into the mud, and the splashing mire was scattered by the collision of their weapons. Red and black figures circled under the gray canopy. The silver spear hissed as it lunged upward, drawing blood, while the scarlet war flag swept out large swathes of red light, leaving splashes of crimson.

Angelina held Abyssal White Flower above her head, as a spiral of sharp winds, like swords, spun at the spear tip, thrusting straight down at Chihong. The latter didn't change her expression; her wrist flipped, the force traveling along her arm to the flagpole. The flag tip spun rapidly as red fish moved around the white flower, combining strength and softness to drag the sharp spear point into the soft flow of the flag's fabric.

This wasn't the first time Angelina had seen this technique. She twisted her waist, trying to forcefully sweep her spear out, but the ink-like fluttering flag fabric followed closely. After several attempts, she couldn't break free from the soft offensive; instead, it allowed the other woman to get close to her body.

A pure white spider lily grew spirally from the palm of Angelina's hand. Chihong was quick, pressing down her hand and lifting it. She froze for a moment upon seeing the eerily beautiful white flower. A slight smirk tugged at the corner of Angelina's lips.

"Is it beautiful?"

"I'll place it on your grave."

The white flower petals interwove spirally, transforming into a sharp dagger held by Angelina. With a gentle breath, she sent it shooting toward Chihong's eyes.

Chihong leaped back rapidly, the war flag in her hand spinning fast around her waist. The scarlet flag fabric flowed around her, forming a ripple-like barrier that deflected all the incoming white blades.

Chihong exhaled, and after a series of crackling sounds echoed through her body, her bone plates began to close. The gaps between the bone seams disappeared, and the thousands of bones in her body formed a solid suit of bone armor. Her ultra-high body temperature caused the raindrops falling on her to evaporate instantly; it was the result of the frantic secretion of various hormones within her body.

Angelina's expression quickly turned wary. She had never seen Chihong in this state. She stepped forward to stop her, but was easily struck in the face by Chihong's flagpole and knocked to the ground.

The girl's metabolic rate surged several times over. Her skin's stratum corneum secreted rapidly, forming a thick, dense cocoon over her body like scales. Her knee joints reversed into the form of a large feline, and her muscles tightened like steel cables. In this state, her ligaments could be fully stretched during movement, and her impact resistance was greatly enhanced.

The reddish-brown war robes were layered over the girl's body, her aura pushing away the raindrops. Her back arched downward. Compared to the previously beautiful girl with a well-defined figure, she now looked like a crouching beast, devoid of any aesthetic appeal, existing only as the ultimate humanoid weapon.

This transformation was completed in an instant. The white flower Angelina thrust at the girl couldn't even penetrate her defense, getting stuck in the thick, scale-like cocoon.

Chihong snatched the white flower and snapped it, exhaling a searing breath. Her dark red pupils were cold and devoid of any emotion, sending shivers down one's spine.

She had simultaneously activated her combat stance and liberated her divine endowment, applying every buff to herself. If the previous Angelina could still trade a few blows with Chihong, the only thing she could do now was find every possible way to stall for time.

To put it bluntly, run.

Without a second thought, Angelina turned and sprinted in one direction. The figure behind her was covered in a massive amount of white steam, the surrounding air twisting. A soaring killing intent rippled with a heatwave, and Chihong shot like a cannonball straight toward Angelina.

Two streaks of light chased each other across the open countryside, crashing into a palm forest. Large swathes of trees were snapped by the sonic boom. Looking down from above, red and black lightning traversed the forest, carving a terrifying scar into nature itself.

This chase didn't last long. Angelina's speed was nowhere near that of Chihong in this state. She turned to thrust her spear, but couldn't even touch the girl's shadow. A red light flashed in front of her, and then her body was sent flying backward, out of control.

In mid-air, Angelina tried to regain control of her body. Looking up, Chihong had already appeared before her, her cold eyes like a gaze from the abyss.

The girl's iron-grip-like hand nearly crushed her throat. The two fell straight from the sky to the ground, plowing a hundred-meter-long trench before finally stopping in front of a giant rock.

A lake was right beside them. Angelina gasped in exhaustion, her fingers propping up the front of her neck to squeeze out a bit of breathing space. Her manifested divine endowment had been forcibly shattered by Chihong. Her long silver hair was scattered on the ground, and she was wearing blue-and-white striped hospital robes, clean and spotless.

She turned her head to look at the mirror-like lake, seeing her somewhat disheveled appearance. These clothes triggered her memories.

Long ago, at a time she could no longer remember clearly, a young girl had left her. Perhaps because the girl was a high-ranking employee of Universal Heavy Industries, the psychiatric hospital specifically designated for settling the relatives of company staff had found her and taken her in on the grounds of mental instability.

Until the day the blood-red apocalypse arrived, most of her life had been spent in killing. People killing each other, dismantlers swinging their scythes—there wasn't even time to stop and rest; she had to rush to the next battle just to survive.

The hospital gown, originally several sizes too large, had become well-fitting over the long years of slaughter, growing together with her flesh and organs. Because of these clothes, her name—stained with blood—had spread by word of mouth among those struggling in the same hell, earning her a name that made people pale with fear: Patient Zero.

Eventually, this hospital gown transformed into her divine endowment, the "Raven Kill Blazing Garment," becoming the only thing from that hellish memory to accompany her into eternity, carrying all the girl's blood and tears.

With her divine endowment shattered, she had temporarily lost her combat capability. The weakness in her body made her unable to break free from Chihong's restraint. The gap in rank between them was like a natural chasm.

Angelina chuckled a few times, then suddenly began to laugh uncontrollably. Chihong, pinning her down, frowned slightly and said coldly, "What are you laughing at?"

Angelina's body shook uncontrollably with laughter. Her face, washed by the rain, lost its color and turned pale, as if she were mocking her own constant wretchedness, mocking the absurdity of fate, and laughing at how she could still be swayed by emotions.

The wails of countless people, the sorrow of those who had left her, the numbness brought by her sins, and the endless pain and despair reached out from the past like chains, piercing her body. Even though she had escaped that hell, these chains still dragged heavily behind her, and as she moved forward, more and more shackles bound and pierced her.

Everything was no different from that hell. Nothing had changed. Every moment, she had to endure this ultimate punishment; the pain had never left her.

Chihong didn't want to waste any more words and planned to finish Angelina off directly. In this state, she also had flaws; a cold-blooded, animalistic rationality dictated her actions, making her an absolute killing machine.

That Dark Gold Rose had made one miscalculation. When she had companions nearby, she would instead be constrained, hesitating whether to liberate her divine endowment and enter this state.

"I'm laughing because the famous Red Rose of the Battlefield could also be this careless," Angelina said.

Chihong's pupils shrank violently. From the depths of the lake came the roar of a monster. A sickly, elongated hand closed around her body, lifting her high into the air.

Lightning illuminated the monster's terrifying silhouette, revealing the countless distorted, changing faces on the creature's massive, pale, greasy body. Its lower half was submerged in the lake, and as water poured off it, countless human and mermaid faces merged into the monster's chest—crying, terrifying, laughing, or angry. It was a living, writhing purgatory.

The Siren King!?

The woman's face at the very center of this living purgatory shed blood-red tears. The petal-like arms around her neck trembled amidst sharp shrieks. Hundreds and thousands of mermaids emerged from the surrounding forest, crawling up the Siren King's mountain-like body.

They reached out their withered-branch arms toward Chihong.

From a distance, it looked as if countless evil spirits were crawling out of a mountain of corpses to drag the girl into a scarlet sea of blood.

How was this possible? The Siren King had gotten so close to her, yet she hadn't sensed a thing. Glimpsing Angelina dragging her injured body away in the distance, Chihong shouted:

"Angelina!!"

Angelina looked back coldly. "Find a way to survive this monster's hands first."

With that, she disappeared into the shadows of the forest, leaving Chihong alone with the Siren King.