"Swish!"
After receiving the order,
Walker's arms trembled as he extended his hands.
Two bone blades, shaped like long sabers, violently snapped out from the armored cavities beneath his wrists.
These were exclusive weapons evolved for him by the Main Hive. Normally, they were retracted inside his arms, but in combat, they could be deployed instantly.
"Damn it!"
"What are you trying to do?!"
"Stop! Stop right now—!"
John screamed in terror, his body shaking uncontrollably.
But Walker remained utterly unmoved, without the slightest trace of mercy. He swiftly crouched down and drove both bone blades toward John's eyes.
He possessed a humanoid body, yet lacked the rich emotions of humans.
At the end of the day, he was merely a high-level insect—one that followed the Dominator's orders with absolute precision.
"Puchi!"
The bone blades pierced the edges of the eye sockets.
Amid John's hysterical screams of agony, the blade tips flicked outward, and both eyeballs were instantly gouged free, torrents of glaring blood spilling forth.
From the driver's seat,
Chu Fan watched the brutal scene coldly.
Ordering Walker to dig out the man's eyes wasn't merely an act of revenge for his sister's death.
He stepped out of the vehicle,
walked over to John, and picked up the eyeballs from the ground, placing them in his palm and gently touching their surfaces.
Earlier, under the illumination of the headlamp on John's helmet, he had noticed what seemed like a faint crystalline glint reflecting from the retinas.
Sure enough,
before long, Chu Fan extracted two thin, contact-lens-sized discs from the eyeballs.
But these were obviously not contact lenses.
Under the beam of the searchlight, dense crystalline circuitry patterns could clearly be seen on their surfaces.
In other words, this was very likely some kind of miniature technological device.
"Bang!"
A soft explosive sound suddenly rang out.
John, who had been writhing on the ground and wailing in agony, instantly went completely still.
Thin streams of blood slowly seeped from his ears.
Chu Fan frowned and immediately crouched down to check.
He was dead.
There was likely some kind of nano-bomb implanted in his ears.
The explosive power wasn't large, but it was enough to kill him instantly once triggered.
"Silenced?" Walker asked as he walked over.
"Yes."
Chu Fan stood up and nodded. A trace of worry surfaced between his brows as he said in a low voice, "Walker, we're in trouble."
"The Dominator means…?"
"This is probably a technological device with communication and remote visual transmission functions."
Chu Fan gestured at the 'contact lenses' in his hand.
"The military likely already knows what happened here through this device. They probably saw you and the swarm of Zerglings as well. That special forces captain must have spoken those words earlier under military instruction—his purpose was likely to convey their intent to eliminate me. Once the message was delivered, to prevent me from extracting more information through torture, and since the eye-mounted device had already been discovered, they activated the implanted nano-bomb to silence him…"
Chu Fan suddenly paused.
"However, what that captain mentioned wasn't the military—but a company…"
After a moment's thought,
Chu Fan bent down and removed the tactical helmet from John's head.
Using the helmet's searchlight, he carefully examined the uniform from top to bottom.
There were no military ranks on the shoulders,
nor any identifying insignia on the collar.
But when the beam reached the chest area, it stopped.
On the protective vest over the chest was printed a red-and-white umbrella-shaped emblem.
Standing up,
Chu Fan glanced at the few Zerglings nearby.
At the command transmitted through his will, the Zerglings immediately turned and scurried rapidly into the distance.
Moments later,
the corpses of the other four special forces members were dragged over.
Chu Fan inspected them one by one with the searchlight.
Without exception, every single one had the same umbrella emblem on their chest.
"An umbrella symbol?"
"Umbrella Corporation?"
"This world actually has a company like that?"
"What a coincidence…"
"So the soldiers outside aren't from the military, but mercenaries belonging to Umbrella Corporation?"
"And this City of Doom… is it a replica of Raccoon City?"
"But in this world, Umbrella Corporation isn't researching zombie viruses?"
"Instead, they're studying monsters, which then went out of control and caused the destruction of the entire city?"
"And to prevent the monsters from spreading outward, they built quarantine walls around the city?"
"Then, on one hand, they station private armed forces outside for defense, while on the other, they continue researching the monsters inside the city?"
Chu Fan frowned as he speculated.
The original owner of this body was a shut-in—introverted, obedient, a textbook good kid who had never left this city his entire life.
In the memories Chu Fan inherited, there was nothing but growing up in this city, working in this city, and some vague, general information about this world.
For example, its level of technology.
Although this world had been unified into a single regime called the Blue Star Federation, its technological level was roughly equivalent to Earth's.
It was very likely a parallel Earth—just without the concept of individual nations.
Beyond that, Chu Fan knew almost nothing about this world.
Before he even had time to familiarize himself with it, the monster invasion began. He struggled to survive among the monsters and had no opportunity to learn anything else.
Perhaps Umbrella Corporation did exist in this world, and the original owner simply didn't know about it.
But regardless, if the speculation was correct—that Umbrella Corporation created this monster disaster and sealed off the entire city to conduct research…
Then if they believed he was infected with an unknown biological virus, why not capture him for study?
After seeing that he could control these Zerglings, and that he had a humanoid monster covered entirely in carapace at his side, they should have been even more eager to capture him alive for research.
After all, this was extremely rare research material.
Yet they didn't do that.
Instead, they deliberately had John convey the message that they intended to kill him.
"Right—Dominator, those humans said something very strange before they came in."
Walker, standing beside him, suddenly spoke as if recalling something.
"What did they say?"
"My auditory organs have been greatly enhanced by the Main Hive. I vaguely heard those humans talking outside the entrance. They planned to capture the target first. Before the capture, they were not allowed to shoot or injure or kill him—he had to be completely intact. Only after that would they execute him."
"Oh?"
Chu Fan's brows knitted even tighter.
Everything about the other side's actions reeked of strangeness and irrationality.
They didn't kill him outside the wall.
Afterward, they unnecessarily sent in a small squad.
Fine—if that could be explained as a spur-of-the-moment decision, then why plan to capture him intact first, only to execute him afterward?
It was still pointless!
But regardless of their ultimate goal,
one thing was absolutely clear…
"The Main Hive is in danger."
Chu Fan glanced toward the depths of the underground parking lot.
This time, the enemy didn't know there were dozens of Zerglings here, so they only sent a five-man combat squad.
But next time?
"Dominator, what should we do?" Walker asked.
The crimson glow in his eyes flickered rapidly—he clearly understood the crisis they were about to face.
The swarm had only just begun to develop. There were currently only 80 Zerglings, and the Main Hive couldn't move.
If humans launched a large-scale assault, this level of strength would be completely insufficient. They would be wiped out with ease.
"It's fine. There's trouble, but it's not big."
Chu Fan's expression hardened as he thought for a moment, then glanced at the five corpses before him.
"This five-man special forces squad came at this time, which means they definitely entered through the crack in the northern wall, slipping in while the Giant Armored Beetle was out hunting for food."
"But the Giant Armored Beetle's hunting cycle lasts only two hours. That time is almost up."
"Unless they're willing to risk the monsters spreading outward by blowing a hole in the wall with tanks and then killing that Giant Armored Beetle, they absolutely won't be able to get in today."
"So at the earliest, they'll send people again at this same time tomorrow."
"In other words, we have 24 hours to develop."
"If we hunt enough energy, we can hatch over a hundred Zerglings in 24 hours. Added to the existing 80, if losses are minimal, we could have over 200 in total."
"And the human forces outside won't be able to send a large number of soldiers, nor will they bring heavy weapons."
"There are two reasons."
"First, the crack in the northern wall is too small. Heavy weapons can't be brought in, and soldiers can only enter one by one. During the two hours when the Giant Armored Beetle is out hunting, how many can they really get in?"
"Second, if there are too many people, the commotion will be too great. It will attract more and more monsters from within the city, and they won't even be able to reach this place."
"By my estimate, at most one or two hundred elite special forces soldiers."
"Our numbers will be comparable,"
"but Zerglings are ferocious, fearless, and completely unafraid of death."
"On top of that, I'm extremely familiar with the city's environment. We can set ambushes, and if necessary, lure and make use of other monsters' strength."
"In short—"
"The advantage is mine."
"They will surely be annihilated!"