Chapter 174 - 173: Origin

Chapter 174: Chapter 173: Origin

"Then I’ll go too,"

Ye Qingzhou spoke up.

"Hu Chen, you drive another vehicle..."

It just so happened that she also wanted to personally observe the movements of the zombie horde.

With this, one car wouldn’t be enough, but two cars would leave a few empty seats.

Lin Fan thought for a moment and decided to bring Su Qing along as well. There were plenty of zombies over there; while he went in to scout, they could stay on the perimeter and get some practice.

Leaving Chu Zhaotian, Liu Bin, and the others to continue familiarizing themselves with the weapons and equipment with the veteran soldiers and to take a headcount, Lin Fan’s group took two vehicles, left the gas station, and drove south.

Originally, Lin Fan had planned to wait until the dust settled and everything was properly arranged before heading to the park alone.

After all, a whole night had passed. If the monster was dead, it was dead for good. If it hadn’t died, it would have already escaped last night. A little more waiting wouldn’t make a difference.

But he hadn’t expected to take over this team so smoothly—so smoothly that aside from throwing a single ball, he hadn’t even had to fight.

Based on the attitude of the group that arrived in the morning, he had estimated that he might have to have Chu Zhaozhao execute a batch of them, then kill a few more to make an example, and finally release the female officer and her people who, according to the soldiers, were under house arrest.

Siding with one faction to crush another, gathering the remaining soldiers, and taking inventory of supplies—it all would have taken a whole morning at least.

After all, from what he’d heard from the surviving soldiers, Ye Qingzhou was just a researcher with a few soldiers by her side. They said she was a frail intellectual who handed over military authority the moment Zhao Chengyi intimidated her.

He never expected this group to be so strong—strong in every sense of the word.

Before Lin Fan even arrived, they had already cleaned out everyone who needed to be killed and had even gathered those who didn’t. When he got there, he didn’t even encounter a sentry and walked straight up to the main group.

The only problem with more people was the endless meetings. But now that the team was integrated, the rest was up to Liu Bin’s people and Tan Wei’s people to work together and train.

So, Lin Fan decided to head to the zombie horde first. After confirming the situation, he would then decide whether his group should proceed with urgency or take their time.

Besides, Ye Qingzhou had come along as well. So, Lin Fan didn’t ride in the same car as Chu Zhaozhao and the others, instead taking a seat beside her.

"That monster—what do you know about it?"

Ignoring the deliberate glares from Ye Qingniao, Lin Fan asked Ye Qingzhou.

He could sense that Ye Qingzhou’s purpose for this trip certainly wasn’t just to tag along for fun. Simple observation of zombie movements didn’t require her personal attention. Thinking it over, only that monster could hold such an attraction for her.

The assault vehicle’s suspension was stiff, making the ride feel incredibly bumpy even on city roads.

Ye Qingzhou wasn’t surprised by Lin Fan’s question. After all, Ye Qingniao had mentioned yesterday that he was also near the explosion.

"Tree."

"Tree?"

"Yes. The monster in the park—we just call it ’Tree.’ Or, you could call it the Corrupted Giant Tree."

"Corrupted Giant Tree..."

’If she meant those two tentacles that reached for the sky, then the "giant" part was certainly fitting. But as for the "tree" itself...’ Lin Fan recalled the fleshy mire at the bottom of the crater and the sacs covering its walls.

’The word "giant" didn’t seem quite so appropriate.’

"The name comes from the fact that the first ’Tree’ we discovered was, in fact, a tree."

As if sensing Lin Fan’s doubt, Ye Qingzhou quietly explained,

"It happened on July 24th, the morning before the chaos erupted, in a park near our research institute..."

"The day before!?"

Lin Fan’s eyes widened in an instant, his voice rising several pitches, which earned him another sharp glance from Ye Qingniao in the passenger seat.

The 24th. If he remembered correctly, the night he treated those sick dogs was the night of the 24th!

But according to what Ye Qingzhou was saying, the world had already started to change that morning.

While he was at his clinic eating a takeout lunch, those monsters were already starting to appear in certain corners of the world.

A disorienting sense of displacement sent a chill down his spine.

"Why..."

"Our research institute has many classified projects, covering all sorts of fields. When we received a report that a large willow tree in a nearby park ’could move,’ our people immediately sealed off the entire area..."

Ye Qingzhou said flatly,

"Because the incident occurred very close to our institute, and the people living nearby were mostly family members of the staff, the higher-ups’ first reaction was that one of our projects had gone wrong. Those were all classified projects, so they didn’t let a single shred of information leak out..."

"Heh. A classic move."

Lin Fan said with a smirk.

"It was a willow tree. We checked the surveillance footage; it had always been a perfectly normal willow tree. Until that morning, when a dog was urinating at its base, the tree moved..."

Ye Qingzhou paid no mind to the sarcasm in Lin Fan’s words and continued in her calm, unruffled tone,

"Through our tests, we found that the ’Tree’ reacted to all contact. Slender branches would dodge away, and the thick trunk would twist. It displayed animal-like characteristics completely different from a plant, even defying the physical properties of its own wood structure to some extent.

After taking samples, we discovered that the sample’s cellular structure was completely different from any classification we had ever seen. They were disordered and chaotic, yet possessed a kind of unified ’primordial chaos’."

As she spoke, her pupils trembled slightly. It was hard to tell if it was from the memory of her shock at first seeing that cell structure under a microscope, or simply from the bumpy ride.

"But even when we carefully clipped off a branch and a piece of its bark, it only twisted away and showed no signs of aggression.

But on the second day, it suddenly ’went crazy’."

At this, her expression grew solemn, and her brow furrowed slightly.

It was only then that Lin Fan discovered she wasn’t expressionless; the muscles in her face could actually move.

"Overnight, it grew several thick branches, destroyed all the surveillance equipment we had set up nearby, and even killed the first group of researchers sent to observe it.

But when the second group of researchers and the guard battalion arrived on the scene, the dead researchers had already gotten back up and started attacking all the living..."

She exhaled sharply through her nose, which crinkled a bit, then turned her head to look at Lin Fan beside her.

"What followed was chaos. The living people in the institute also began to indiscriminately turn into those living corpses. I didn’t see that tree again until the people from the Jishan garrison rescued us that night..."

Listening to her account, Lin Fan felt it did sound similar to the monster in the park, but he wasn’t completely sure. After all, aside from the branch-like tentacles, the one in the park really didn’t look like a tree.

So he asked doubtfully:

"Then how do you know the monster in the park is the same type as the one you’re talking about?"

"After we reached the Jishan garrison, which became the Jishan Quarantine Zone, that very night, soldiers and researchers who had survived the first round of mutation began to inexplicably develop fevers and then turn into zombies.

At that time, we all tried to lock ourselves in separate rooms to prevent ourselves from harming others in case we turned.

If any soldiers developed a fever, they were immediately locked up. If they turned, they had to be ’dealt with’ personally by Chao Xian and his men.

The situation gradually stabilized under this high-pressure state. During the day, the internet and communications were still up. We had drones, we could still contact other quarantine zones, and we even had the spare capacity to send out a few scout teams...

That afternoon, when we took some people back to the institute to retrieve necessary equipment and supplies, we deliberately chose a route that passed closer to that park, hoping to observe any changes in the ’Tree.’

But before we even got close, from several kilometers away, we saw those two branches reaching for the sky.

It was also that night that the internet and all communications began to experience interference, eventually becoming completely scrambled."

"So you guys, did you see what the ’Tree’ looked like?"

Lin Fan, captivated by her account of what happened while he was unconscious, asked seriously.

"No, we couldn’t get close..."

Ye Qingzhou shook her head and said quietly,

"There weren’t many people in the residential compounds, school, and park near the institute, but there were still a few thousand. With over a thousand zombies surrounding the park, we stayed away to avoid trouble.

But later, survivors from other scout teams returned and reported that they had observed another ’Tree’ from a cliff...

Many zombies were gathered around that ’Tree.’ There were also some larger, stronger Mutated Zombies that were enveloped in a secretion from the ’Tree’s’ branches, forming pulsating, translucent, viscous flesh-cocoons. They hung from the treetops like countless deformed fruits."

This description erased any lingering doubt from Lin Fan’s mind.

Even if their forms were different, they were essentially the same type of thing.

Those "cocoons," those branches—he had seen them all...

And even... felt them...