As Zuo Feng patiently awaited Firefly's people to take over the Gourd Vine, in Dream City, H City, Mei Xue Ji sat in the Luo Xia Alliance's headquarters office, gently caressing her brow with a finger, her gaze fixed intently on the window, pondering whether to leave Dream City for Firefly.
Just today, a significant number of E City's scouts had flooded into Dream City, a fact that naturally couldn't escape Mei Xue Ji's notice.
These scouts came to investigate which power had annihilated Peerless Apocalypse and to gather detailed information about Firefly.
When Jun Wushuang led Peerless Apocalypse's army to attack Firefly, the scale of the operation was immense, and H City hadn't deliberately concealed the news, making it extremely easy for the scouts to obtain intelligence.
Mei Xue Ji wasn't overly concerned about this matter.
Even if these scouts found out, what of it? Mei Xue Ji had confidence in Firefly's strength.
She knew that even if E City's powers harbored ill will towards Firefly, they would find it difficult to shake its foundation.
However, what troubled and worried Mei Xue Ji was the frequent disappearances of people in Dream City recently.
In the past, such incidents were not uncommon in Dream City; with numerous large and small powers constantly vying for territory, a few disappearances were normal and rarely questioned.
But yesterday, within the Luo Xia Alliance's territory, dozens of desiccated corpses appeared in an abandoned factory, and their appearance sent shivers down Mei Xue Ji's spine.
Yesterday, Mei Xue Ji personally went to investigate.
Each of those desiccated corpses had four blood holes in their necks, as if they had been drained of blood by some creature.
Although zombies were rampant now, zombies didn't suck blood; this was clearly another unknown terrifying entity, either a special type of Mutant zombie or a new type of blood-sucking creature.
Mei Xue Ji quickly ruled out the possibility of Mutant zombies because the bodies were clearly dumped in the abandoned factory, and Mutant zombies lacked intelligence and wouldn't gather and dispose of bodies.
Therefore, she speculated it was the work of a newly emerged blood-sucking creature. Coupled with the threat of the new symbiotic zombie virus, Mei Xue Ji took this matter very seriously and personally staked out the area overnight.
Finally, in the early hours of this morning, Mei Xue Ji captured the body-dumper.
After verifying the identity of the body-dumper, Mei Xue Ji was so scared her heart almost stopped beating.
It turned out that the body-dumper was one of the Wild Wolf Gang's first batch of Mutants created with agents, meaning one of the first carriers of the new zombie virus.
Mei Xue Ji knew that this meant the new zombie virus was highly likely to have started spiraling out of control.
This was much earlier than the originally estimated six months.
It was only a little over two months since the Wild Wolf Gang's first batch of pathogens took the agent until now.
Now they had started exhibiting bloodthirsty behavior, meaning the virus's mutation speed far exceeded expectations, and the most terrifying thing was that these pathogens still retained a trace of human consciousness and could act with purpose.
Mei Xue Ji had deliberately observed the body-dumper and found that although he was bloodthirsty and violent, he had completely lost his humanity.
However, he instinctively exhibited patterns of lurking and evasion, seemingly following some command.
This discovery sent chills down Mei Xue Ji's spine; there were over 1,000 of the Wild Wolf Gang's first batch of pathogens, and if they all knew how to lurk and evade, that would be terrifying.
Previously, the Wild Wolf Gang's headquarters was forcibly destroyed by Firefly; apart from the leader and deputy leaders, the remaining Mutants were either divided among the Three Giants or disbanded. Now, reassembling these Mutants would be like searching for a needle in a haystack, extremely difficult.
Mei Xue Ji knew that if she didn't escape soon, it might truly be too late. Especially since even detection agents had not yet been successfully developed, and the first batch of pathogens was on the verge of outbreak and would soon be out of control, plunging the entire city into an unprecedented crisis.
Even more seriously, news from E City's scouts indicated the presence of seven-striped Xenomorph in the central area of H City, which undoubtedly added insult to injury for H City.
Once the virus erupted and large-scale battles occurred, it would be very easy to attract the seven-striped Xenomorph from the central area, and then, wherever the seven-striped Xenomorph went, no one would be able to stop them.
The first batch of pathogens was already on the verge of madness.
She dared not reveal this information to anyone; once the news spread, the entire H City would fall into panic and chaos.
Despair would drive everyone in H City into a frantic escape, and then the new symbiotic virus would spread completely.
Mei Xue Ji reluctantly glanced at the Luo Xia Alliance's headquarters, a base she had built with her own hands, into which she had poured countless efforts.
Although she wasn't greedy for power, having to abandon this place now still filled her with endless sorrow and reluctance.
But in this situation, she had no other choice but to escape and save herself.
Mei Xue Ji dared not delay any longer. She summoned the Luo Xia Alliance's high-ranking officials, fabricating an excuse that she needed to go to E City to discuss cooperation. After entrusting the headquarters' affairs to two deputy leaders, she packed her bags and quickly left the Luo Xia Alliance's headquarters.
Meanwhile, in a Brothers Alliance arena, Wan Youyu stood high up, his face filled with madness.
This arena was originally used for human-versus-zombie gladiatorial combat, serving as an entertainment venue for the Brothers Alliance's high-ranking officials with their perverse tastes. Now, it had become Wan Youyu's secret base for housing pathogens.
Mei Xue Ji wasn't the first to discover that the pathogens were about to spiral out of control; it was Wan Youyu.
Upon learning that the first batch of pathogens was about to become uncontrollable, Wan Youyu descended into complete madness.
He knew that once the pathogens erupted, the entire H City would turn into hell.
At that point, the Three Overlord Powers would no longer have time to develop an antidote.
With the pathogens already on the verge of losing control and no detection agents yet developed, Wan Youyu knew he was beyond saving.
Therefore, he went mad, deciding to accelerate the pathogens' loss of control in his final frenzy, while continuously creating more pathogens, attempting to find a morbid pleasure in destruction.
Inside the arena, hundreds of pathogens on the verge of losing control were confined.
These pathogens roared and struggled in their iron cages, their eyes glinting with bloodthirsty ferocity.
Wan Youyu sneered, ordering his subordinates to continuously throw live people as food for the pathogens, and screams echoed throughout the arena.
His eyes gleamed with a Crazy light, as if he had found some twisted satisfaction in despair.
As the pathogens continuously consumed the fresh blood of living people, their ferocity intensified.
Outside the iron cage, Wan Youyu's face bore a twisted smile, as if he was enjoying a feast of death.
He murmured in a low voice, "Destroy, let the entire H City be buried with it. Since I can't live, then let the entire H City be buried with me!"
Wan Youyu turned to the two confidants behind him and said, "This batch of pathogens is about to go out of control. Go, release them around the Three Overlord Powers. Send another batch of pathogens over; we'll continue feeding them."
These two confidants were, of course, the two who had previously been forced by Wan Youyu to become carriers of the new zombie virus.
