Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 147 Responsibilities
The senior staff who remained at the hotel looked at one corner of the room, their expressions somewhat grim.

They weren't blind; they were simply hearing unusual noises.

Zheng Zha had already had Gao Hongliang inside his power armor and activated the cloaking device. While it wouldn't take much effort for the veterans of the Central Continent Team to detect this cloaking, it might not be so difficult for ordinary people.

Zheng Zha kept Gao Hongliang inside his power armor, supposedly to prepare for possible attacks. After all, Gao Hongliang had been equipped with numerous hidden devices; if Gao Hongliang went mad or mutated, would his very existence be compromised? Would the hidden devices also cause problems?
This is Zheng Zha's reason.

But even Zheng Zha wasn't entirely sure what he was thinking when he activated the third-stage gene lock. Perhaps locking Gao Hongliang in the power armor was a kind of control experiment?

Long Taobing tried to release holy light into the power armor, but after a moment he withdrew the little holy light left in his body and shook his head wearily: "It's no use... I'll contact Zheng Zha." With that, he walked to the side.

Zhang Jie sighed and patted Long Taobing on the shoulder.

Hearing the conversation between Long Taobing and Zheng Zha, Zhang Jie whispered to the others, "I feel that Long Taobing is the most like a veteran."

Even the Overlord couldn't help but sigh. After the initial period of leisure, this bold northern man had lost all interest in joking. For him, the decision to protect or abandon the newcomers was not up to him; but watching the newcomers go mad one by one and even turn into monsters made him feel extremely frustrated.

Zero and Zhao Yingkong remained silent, each on guard. Neither of them knew if the power armor would be suddenly destroyed, or what kind of monster would emerge from within.

The Gauss sniper rifle is not easy to use in a room, but in an emergency, Zero can simply pull it out of his backpack and have Overlord act as a gun stand for him.

Zhao Yingkong held a blurry shadow in her hand, which could be vaguely identified as a short sword. Although Zhao Yingkong remained silent, her movements suggested that if anything unusual happened, she would launch a terrifying attack in an instant.

This is the C-grade legendary magic weapon, Xiaolian, that Zhao Yingkong redeemed. Judging solely from its power, this weapon isn't particularly outstanding among C-grade weapons. However, its extraordinary characteristics are the reason Zhao Yingkong chose it.

The Xiaolian series has its own exchange sequence, with each tier requiring the previous tier as a prerequisite. The C-tier Xiaolian is the first weapon in this series, followed by the B-tier Chengying and the A-tier Hanguang. After exchanging for an advanced weapon, the original weapon does not disappear; it can be used separately or combined into one.

The C-rank Xiaolian sword is considered one of the inferior of the Three Swords. During the day, only its shadow is visible, devoid of light; at night, its light is visible, but its form remains unseen. This sword is extremely sharp, but if wielded by someone other than its master, even a single strike will only cause pain; it can be easily drawn and withdrawn without injury. Only a master who has infused their life essence with its power can unleash its full potential.

Zhao Yingkong tried it herself, and the sword was indeed sharp, possessing considerable lethality even against magical legendary defenses. Although the descriptions of the next two swords were becoming increasingly mystical—such as mid-grade swords being audible yet painless, and high-grade swords being invisible and imperceptible—judging from their C-grade assassination effectiveness, the later ones wouldn't be any worse.

Most importantly, this weapon can be perfectly combined with an ability involving light and shadow that she wants to exchange for later.

Unlike the other veterans, Zhang Heng, though also armed, showed no signs of wariness. The veterans couldn't tell if he genuinely possessed a special skill or was just joking...

Zhang Heng was holding a crossbow, but it wasn't the one Zheng Zha had found on his phone.

Zhang Heng had been clamoring for a weapon he could use, but when Zheng Zha showed him the surveillance footage from a weapon shop, Zhang Heng was completely dumbfounded... The footage showed that Zhang Heng had actually bought a crossbow, but he had no recollection of it.

So after Zhang Heng pleaded and begged, Zheng Zha finally got him another one. Although it didn't look as good as the one in the surveillance footage, Zhang Heng didn't dare to complain because of Zheng Zha's indifferent expression at the time.

Long Taobing returned and looked at the others: "We finally got in touch with Zheng Zha... He said to get rid of all the infected newcomers." He struggled to say the last three words.

The veterans were speechless, then looked at the invisible power armor.

Zhang Heng suddenly spoke up: "Hey, can you guys open this power armor? Are you going to just demolish it?" Long Taobing glanced at Zhang Heng, then gritted his teeth and said, "Let's wait for Zheng Zha to come back before dealing with this. Let's go get the rest of the new recruits first..."

Zhao Yingkong silently walked towards the door, but she had already touched the doorknob after taking only one step.

"Wait!" Long Taobing roared.

Zhao Yingkong looked coldly at Long Taobing, only to find that the young man had his back to her, his fists clenched, and his whole body trembling slightly.

"Let's wait until Zheng Zha comes back before deciding... After all, we can't be sure if we'll lose a thousand reward points." Zhang Jie sighed and put his hand on Long Taobing's shoulder. "You can keep us from being corrupted, right?"

Long Taobing nodded.

Zhao Yingkong silently walked out of the room, but not to kill the other new recruits. Instead, she went to another room. She would leave this room for Gao Hongliang—although she didn't know what he had become inside the power armor.

The others also left one after another, but Long Taobing remained silently staring at the floor, lost in thought.

With each person who went mad, Long Taobing, declaring himself a failure, grew more disheartened. Although his positive mindset remained intact, everyone could see that he was becoming increasingly tense.

Zhang Jie hadn't left yet either. He silently lit a cigarette and then handed one to Long Taobing.

Long Taobing did not refuse, and after lighting a cigarette, he immediately took a deep drag.

“Kid, don’t take on too much responsibility… You’ve done a great job.” Zhang Jie said in a low voice, then chuckled dryly, “The Samsara World isn’t an amusement park, nor is it a place for family fun.”

Long Taobing remained silent, smoke billowing from his nostrils. After a long pause, he murmured, "I just hope everyone can survive... This is my wish, and my duty..."

"Wow, it's this difficult."

Meanwhile, the entire Rikers Island was engulfed in a dark inferno. The earth was burned through, and the island shrank visibly. The waters of the East River rushed toward the utterly destroyed island, but upon encountering the dark flames, they instantly turned into billowing steam.

Zheng Zha flapped his wings and flew in another direction.

But before he could land on the shore, a terrifying presence appeared in the sky above him.

Zheng Zha looked up and saw a pure darkness emerging from the crack in the sky, its body mostly exposed... It was indeed a dark entity, its body composed of pure darkness, yet coiled into a long, thin shape.

Gazing into the pure darkness, Zheng Zha's eyes suddenly felt uncomfortable... What he didn't know was that if an ordinary person saw this darkness, they probably wouldn't even have a chance to form a cognition before involuntarily gouging out their own eyes.

Before Zheng Zha could react, a figure radiating golden light appeared from behind the crack, grabbed him around the waist, and dragged the darkness back into the crack.

In the final moments before the rift closed, the figure roared, "Zheng Zha! Go get Zhan Lan and the others!"

(End of this chapter)