Chapter 2728 - 1844: Something’s Wrong (Can’t Get Back Up by Rolling Over)

Chapter 2728: Chapter 1844: Something’s Wrong (Can’t Get Back Up by Rolling Over)

Although most of the world has become a zombie heaven, there are still some people who have survived due to luck or other reasons, just like these students, and have built their own shelters.

Duanmu Huai’s choice is simple — you stockpile food, I stockpile guns, and everyone has a bright future.

Instead of rescuing survivors everywhere, why not just take over the shelters directly?

Compared to a few stray ones like Xiao Mao, aren’t the survivors in the shelters more numerous?

As for whether the other side is willing or not? That’s not Duanmu Huai’s concern.

The Tribunal is not some sentimental charity organization.

That’s just how Duanmu Huai thought, and afterward, the Tribunal took in several waves of survivors. From them, Duanmu Huai learned that the city is indeed not completely overrun, and there are a few shelters, including one set up by the municipal government. So without saying a word, Duanmu Huai led a team to requisition them on the spot.

But the outcome was beyond Duanmu Huai’s expectation.

"This is the third one, right?"

Looking at the zombie corpses that littered the ground, Duanmu Huai frowned tightly, and beside him, Mary shook her head.

"Really strange..."

Indeed, as Mary said, it was truly strange. Today, they went to the western side of the city where they targeted three shelters, but each one was discovered to have been completely destroyed. Upon entering the shelters, they found not a single survivor, just zombies.

Of course, it might be completely normal given such an apocalyptic environment, where zombies get in everywhere, and many shelters might have accidentally let zombies inside for whatever reason, leading to total annihilation.

Yet, the situation at these three shelters was not like that.

First, when Duanmu Huai discovered these three shelters, they were all sealed off, showing no signs of zombie invasion. Yet, the people inside had all turned into zombies. Further inspection revealed these shelters had stockpiled a lot of supplies, which hadn’t been taken, so it didn’t seem like a conflict over resources.

Especially the third shelter, which was set up by the municipal government inside an underground air-raid shelter. Its main doors were tightly shut, showing no signs of being opened, yet when Duanmu Huai kicked open the doors and rushed inside, he found dozens of people had basically all turned into zombies.

"It’s just like a locked-room murder..."

Upon hearing Mary’s remark, Duanmu Huai rolled his eyes helplessly.

"Locked-room murder in the apocalypse? Are you nuts?"

So many people on the streets yet they play locked-room murder?

"So it’s likely someone among the survivors they took in carried the virus but went unnoticed until everyone got infected."

This was a very reasonable assumption, but Duanmu Huai felt it couldn’t be that simple. If it were only one shelter, perhaps, but three shelters due to the same reason? That’s not a coincidence.

"Any discoveries?"

"They have a registry here that I’m looking at... To be honest, there’s one suspicious point."

"What suspicious point?"

Duanmu Huai turned to look at Mary, who raised the notebook in her hand to him.

"According to the registry records, a few days ago, the shelter took in a little girl."

"A little girl?"

"Yes, she was inspected and showed no signs of being bitten, so she was taken in, probably... ten years old."

"A ten-year-old girl coming to the shelter alone?"

Duanmu Huai squinted his eyes.

"Are the zombies on the streets dumb or what?"

"Also, after inspecting the corpses, we didn’t find this little girl listed on the registry."

"..............."

Duanmu Huai rubbed his chin and frowned.

"So you mean that little girl is related to this incident?"

"It’s not impossible."

Mary’s response was calm, tinged with a bit of worry.

"Think carefully, a frail, pitiful girl seeks help at the shelter. Any adult with a shred of conscience would let her in. Even if there were concerns, as long as they find no bite marks during inspection, many would feel at ease. After all, most people wouldn’t see a girl under ten as a threat..."

"But this doesn’t seem like the work of Corrupted Foil; rather, it fits Cunning Deception and Obsessive Sin... huh?"

At this point, Duanmu Huai realized something.

"It might really be it!"

"Could it be?"

"You know, Corrupted Foil and Obsessive Sin didn’t get along for quite a while."

Duanmu Huai stared at Mary and spoke to her.

"Because Corrupted Foil invented a disease called the tattered crotch sickness, which made Obsessive Sin very unhappy."

"Tattered crotch sickness... Ah... I understand now."

Mary initially didn’t get it, but she caught on after a moment of thought.

"But if they teamed up instead, what then? Corrupted Foil creates a plague, Cunning Deception can penetrate human hearts’ desires, and Obsessive Sin can tempt human souls and desires..."

"So, Mr. Duanmu means..."

Mary furrowed her brows.

"These three evil gods joined forces to create a Demon that looks like a little girl, searching for survivors everywhere. Once they find survivors, it employs tactics to make them take it in, then destroys and wipes them out from the inside?"

"Indeed, Mad could very well be part of Cunning Deception’s plan."

Duanmu Huai pursed his lips in dissatisfaction. He didn’t particularly like attacking Brutal Wrath at first because, strictly speaking, it was half an ally, as many internal conflicts among the four evil gods were usually instigated by Brutal Wrath and its followers.

Yet now, with this half-ally gone, the remaining three gods might temporarily set aside their differences and join forces to cause trouble for him!

Also, that little girl may not actually be a little girl, after all, Duanmu Huai knows that under Cunning Deception, there are Demons that can change into any form, transforming into what you most want to see. They can even turn into people from your memory—hmm, if that’s the case, it does explain why those shelters were so easily overrun.

Imagine your most important person suddenly appearing outside the shelter, hungry, exhausted, pleading for help, who wouldn’t instinctively reach out to assist?

"But, don’t you need a massive sacrifice to summon a Demon?"

"There are enough people dead from the plague in this world, more than enough to summon the Great Demon."

Duanmu Huai shook his head.

"We need to speed things up, if these three actually tie together, it could be quite troublesome. But the only good fortune is that they enjoy playing, which gives us plenty of time."

Among the four Evil Gods, Brutal Wrath is the most straightforward, whereas Obsessive Sin and Cunning Deception prefer to toy with their prey rather than dispatch them promptly. As for Corrupted Foil, it never intended to kill. To it, transforming humans into those corrupt, malodorous forms is merely inviting them into its warm, reeking family.

Understanding this, Duanmu Huai immediately realized that these three bastards joining forces faced no obstacles.

Cunning Deception reveled in the pleasure of using intrigue to deceive human intelligence.

Obsessive Sin enjoyed playing with human emotions and desires.

Corrupted Foil could cheerfully wait for these tormented, agonized souls to become members of its warm family.

Without Brutal Wrath, this collaboration seems so harmonious... damn!

Friend, help out!

If Duanmu Huai had to choose an order, he’d prefer to tackle Cunning Deception first, and deal with Brutal Wrath last. Unfortunately, his luck wasn’t that great, and he dealt with Brutal Wrath first, causing the difficulty level to increase exponentially.

Luckily, he still had Mary by his side, and the God of Destruction’s Power was sufficient to dispel all illusions. Of course, given Duanmu Huai’s understanding of Cunning Deception, it would likely use its pawns to lure other survivors into conflict with him, while observing the drama from behind.

However, these issues are what Duanmu Huai needs to concern himself with, not others.

Duanmu Huai withdrew his gaze, no longer looking at the zombies littering the ground.

"Alright, let’s wrap up."

It was only after they returned to the stronghold that Duanmu Huai learned of the survivors joining them. Generally speaking, over such a long time, the Tribunal had gathered quite a few survivors, and Duanmu Huai wouldn’t personally inquire each one. However, after investigating three shelters, Duanmu Huai changed his approach and those survivors were brought before him early the next day.

Clearly, facing Duanmu Huai, these survivors were very terrified, especially the twin-tail girl, who hid behind a nearby boy, trembling. The others didn’t appear much better. But Duanmu Huai was used to such reactions and didn’t care much.

"I’ve read through your experiences."

Duanmu Huai placed the report aside. Every survivor who joined the Tribunal had to undergo a round of isolation questioning, mainly about their identity, previous experiences, and places they had visited. These individuals’ descriptions were quite ordinary, but one part caught Duanmu Huai’s attention.

"You mentioned you had originally gone to another shelter?"

"Yes, at the time Alice was sick, and we wanted them to provide some medication to help treat her, but..."

Another girl hesitated halfway through, but soon the twin-tail girl continued.

"They actually wanted us to strip naked outside for inspection, it was outrageous! Then we left!"

"So to you all, shame was more important than your companion’s life, hmm, I’ve noted that."

"..."

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s remark, the twin-tail girl gritted her teeth in anger, but Duanmu Huai didn’t care. The others felt awkward too, although they indeed felt indignant at the time, Duanmu Huai’s words weren’t wrong... this made these somewhat naïve students a bit embarrassed.

"When you went to that shelter, did you discover anything?"

"Discover?"

The twin-tail girl frowned slightly.

"They just spoke a few words through the door, wouldn’t let us approach, and their leader was holding... what was it called again?"

"Air rifle."

The chubby guy who looked like a nerd next to her answered promptly.

"It’s a modified version, effective range about 100 meters..."

"Alright, alright, I got it, anyway the leader holding a gun was dangerous. And they didn’t look like good people, so we left."

"Were there women among them?"

"Yes, one."

The twin-tail girl spoke with evident disdain on her face.

"A woman dressed provocatively, leaning on the leader’s chest, looking... quite improper."

"What did she specifically look like?"

"I don’t know..."

"Heh heh heh, I know."

The chubby nerd chortled.

"I saw her, that’s Chumi."

"...Who?"

"A famous actress, I once watched her... heh heh..."

The nerd glanced at the twin-tail girl glaring at him fiercely, leaving the rest unsaid.

"..."

Duanmu Huai narrowed his eyes; he questioned these survivors because that shelter was one of the three thoroughly destroyed shelters he had previously visited. But back then, Duanmu Huai was sure that there were only men, and he hadn’t seen any female corpses.

Alright, it seems the situation is indeed developing into the worst direction.

Duanmu Huai stood up, scrutinizing the survivors.

"Starting today, you’ll be assigned to the combat team for training, work hard."