The undead have descended upon the world? I possess a sword that can cleave the heavens once more!

Inside the A-11-4 assembly point, in a separate cubicle of a resettlement room, Qin Tian looked somewhat bewildered at the bespectacled man next to him who had been chatting with him just moments before.

Just a moment ago, they were having a normal chat.

Then, in the very next second.

A nauseating, sticky smell suddenly erupted from the bespectacled man.

It permeated the cramped space of the cubicle in a nauseating way, carrying an odor that instinctively evoked fear and disgust.

If I'm not mistaken, that's the aura of a Corpse Species, right?

Although Qin Tian was a complete slacker, he had seen corpses and knew their aura.

He would never mistake that aura.

However, he had never seen a perfectly healthy person suddenly turn into a zombie.

Looking into the bespectacled man's cloudy, sticky eyes, it was no longer the bookish gaze he used to have, but an inhuman look.

Qin Tian was absolutely certain: that was a corpse seed!

Qin Tian immediately took a step back, his body instinctively springing backward. He took a deep breath and then shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Officers of the Investigation Bureau, help me!"

"Someone has turned into a zombie!"

"Help! Someone come quick!"

"Help!"

His voice echoed in the cubicle, penetrating the thin wooden door and reaching the hallway outside.

A moment later, still no one came over.

There were no hurried footsteps, no figure in a black trench coat pushing open the door.

Qin Tian immediately realized what was happening.

Something might have happened!

He looked at the bespectacled man in front of him, who was constantly emanating the aura of a zombie species. The man had already stood up from his chair.

Its movements became unnatural, as if someone were manipulating an ill-fitting puppet with strings; its neck was slightly tilted, and its fingers were bent at an angle that no human could possibly do.

Qin Tian gritted his teeth, activated his ability, and covered his entire body with a layer of water.

Then, the race begins.

He used the fastest speed he had ever experienced, a speed so fast that even he himself could hardly believe it.

He rushed towards the cubicle door, turned the doorknob with his right hand, and slipped out sideways. The whole process was smooth and seamless.

Qin Tian pushed open the door to the resettlement room, looked outside, and then his pupils suddenly contracted.

Fighting was taking place everywhere—in the corridors, the halls, and the square where the assembly point was located.

Several squads in black trench coats were forming a defensive line to fight against a large group of "people" exuding the aura of zombies.

Although he was only at the second rank and couldn't determine the rank of these corpses, he did see the badges pinned to the chests of those black trench coats.

Some were bronze, and some were silver.

The Silver-Badged Torchbearer is at least a fifth-tier ability user! Any corpse species that can contend with a Torchbearer wearing the Silver Badged Torchbearer must also be at least a fifth-tier user!

Meanwhile, people in the crowd kept suddenly unleashing their corpse-like aura and joining the battle.

Among the crowd, some individuals with special abilities realized the gravity of the situation. A man in his late twenties, wearing a gray hoodie, shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice urgent and loud, piercing through the chaos: "Don't just stand there! Go help the torchbearers! If they fall, we'll all die!"

His shouts quickly attracted the attention of those around him who were not infected by the parasite.

"Together!" Someone shouted, and the first person stepped forward, followed by the second, the third... More and more wild ability users joined the defensive line.

However, due to the chaos just now, the Lustful Corpse Seed has already absorbed some of the negative emotions.

Especially in terms of advanced combat power, the human side has fewer zombies than the zombie side.

The Torchbearer squads at A-11-4, number three, are only at the fifth rank, with a total of four members. On the other hand, the Corpse Seeds have more than ten fifth-rank Lustful Corpse Seeds!

Moreover, as they continue to absorb negative emotions, two of them even show a faint tendency to break through to the sixth rank!

If it weren't for the fact that the torchbearers themselves were quite strong in combat, and that these silver-badge torchbearers didn't coordinate so well, they wouldn't have been able to hold on long ago.

Even so, the defense line is already on the verge of collapse.

Upon seeing this chaotic battle, Qin Tian instinctively wanted to run away and get as far away from the battlefield as possible.

As a salted fish, self-preservation has always been his forte.

But he had just lifted his foot.

He saw the torchbearers, each one gritting their teeth and standing at the forefront of the defense line.

Their black trench coats were covered in dust and blood, but they stood there, unmoved.

Several of the torchbearers had blood seeping from the corners of their mouths and were as pale as paper, clearly suffering serious injuries, but none of them retreated even a single step!

They held the large horde of lustful corpses firmly within this gathering point.

At that moment, a torchbearer wearing a bronze badge also saw Qin Tian, ​​who was in a daze.

Qin Tian looked at him.

The torchbearer with the bronze emblem was probably in his early thirties, with a square face, thick eyebrows, and a faint scar on his lip.

He shouted loudly at Qin Tian, ​​"Hey you over there! Stop spacing out! Watch out behind you!!!"

Upon hearing this, Qin Tian immediately snapped out of his daze.

He turned around abruptly, and his heart skipped a beat.

He only saw that the bespectacled man exuding the aura of a zombie was less than a few dozen centimeters away from him.

He could even see every trace of cruelty and evil in the other person's eyes. That gaze didn't seem to be looking at a living person, but rather at a piece of meat that had already been placed on the table.

The bespectacled man had a strange smile on his lips, a smile devoid of any human emotion, only a cold, sticky feeling.

That's too late!

At such close range, he had no chance to resist or run away.

Is this where I, a salted fish, am destined to die after a lifetime of salting?

Qin Tian thought to himself.

Just as he was about to start the slideshow.

The next moment, a bright yellow energy grazed Qin Tian's clothes, leaving a warm sensation on his side.

The energy blast sent the bespectacled male corpse flying nearly three meters away, slamming him heavily against the corridor wall and leaving a human-shaped dent in the surface.

The expected pain did not come.

Qin Tian was stunned for a moment, looking in the direction from which the bright yellow energy had come.

It was the torchbearer with the bronze emblem who had just reminded him.

The man with the square face and the scar on his lip managed to spare a moment of energy amidst his busy schedule, unleashing a wave of energy with a punch that sent the corpse that had pounced on Qin Tian flying.

However, Qin Tian also saw that the defensive line formed by the torchbearers was already under great pressure, and the bronze-badged torchbearer had withstood two attacks from the zombies in order to save him.

In the instant he was distracted and threw a punch, two fourth-tier Lustful Corpse Species seized the opportunity and slashed two deep gashes in his abdomen. Blood gushed out instantly, staining his black trench coat a dark brown.

Even so, he still did not fall.

He imbued his fists with bright yellow energy, gritted his teeth, and kept punching, one punch after another, repelling the attacking zombies.

His face was deathly pale, and each punch was accompanied by the tearing of his abdominal wound and the gushing of more blood, but his fists never slowed down.

For a moment, something in Qin Tian's heart was touched.

It was something he thought he had never had, or something that had long been worn away by the life of a salted fish.

Is he protecting me?

But what is there to protect about a salted fish like me?

But he did just that.

But, as a mere second-tier ability user, going there would only be suicide or cause trouble. What help could I possibly offer?

But. . .

The next moment, Qin Tian clenched his fist tightly. For the first time, he violated his principle of self-preservation that he had upheld for nearly thirty years, stopping his attempt to escape. He roared:

"But—I'm just a salted fish, not a coward!"

When those words burst from his throat, the sound was so loud that even he was startled.

His body moved faster than his brain. He stretched out his hands, palms down, and small puddles appeared out of thin air at the feet of the corpses.

The puddles were shallow, barely covering the soles of shoes, but they still caused some of the zombies to slip occasionally, slowing down their attacks.

His abilities are not very powerful when used for attacks and cannot effectively harm those zombies. He can only help the torchbearers in this way.

At this moment, the silver-badged torchbearers on each side of the defensive line exchanged glances, their eyes filled with solemnity.

"Their strength is still growing!" a Silver-Badged Torchbearer said through gritted teeth. His voice was mostly drowned out by the noise of the battle, but his companions next to him could still hear him clearly.

"No, if this continues, we'll be broken through sooner or later!" another Silver-Badged Torchbearer shouted back while parrying attacks from the zombies in front of him.

"We can't let them break through!" The third silver-badged torchbearer's voice was the loudest and most urgent. "There's a residential area next door! If they break through, those people are doomed! And they'll only get stronger!"

"Hold on!" Hearing this, the fourth silver-badge torchbearer shouted, "I've sent out a distress signal! Support should be arriving soon!"

Just as those words were spoken.

A white-haired figure wearing a golden emblem suddenly appeared in mid-air above the gathering point.

Upon seeing the figure in mid-air, all the torchbearers relaxed.

Reinforcements have arrived! Even Tier 8 Gold Badges!

next moment.

Wu You slightly opened his right hand, and a jet-black longsword materialized in his hand.

The sword was formed from some kind of profound energy, with faint black patterns flowing across its blade, as if someone had sealed an abyss within it.

Then, his figure blurred for a moment.

Then, nine identical figures appeared simultaneously from where he had been standing, arranged in nine different directions, each wielding the same jet-black longsword.

Nine figures simultaneously transformed into afterimages, rushing into the horde of corpses at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye.

There were no explosions, no flames, only streaks of black shadows moving among the corpses, so fast they seemed to exist everywhere at the same time.

Wherever the afterimage passed, black smoke flashed, corpses fell, and then decomposed into particles invisible to the naked eye.

Experience points +500

Experience points +1000

Experience points +2000

. . .

Less than two seconds.

At the A-11-4 assembly point, all the parasitic organisms of the corpse species have disappeared.

Immediately afterwards, the nine afterimages merged back into one figure at the same moment. Wu You landed steadily on the ground, and the black longsword in his hand silently disappeared.

Quiet.

The entire assembly point suddenly fell silent.

Some wild ability users even raised their hands, ready to unleash their abilities, but their target had already become thin air.

Qin Tian, ​​who was standing to the side, was also stunned.

His mouth was slightly open, and he stood motionless like a stone statue.

His mind raced: those nine figures, those corpses that vanished one after another in black smoke...

What's going on?

When he saw the gold emblem on Wu You's chest, his posture unconsciously straightened slightly.

"Goodness, Jin Hui..."

He watched as that dashing figure cleared out such a large number of zombie species in a few seconds; watched as those fifth-tier zombie species, which he dared not even approach, were wiped out without any resistance; watched as the zombie species that had been piled up in front of the Torchbearer's defensive line for nearly half an hour turned into air in two seconds.

He felt that his worldview had undergone a subtle shift at that moment.

For the first time in his life, this salted fish had the idea of ​​joining the Bureau of Anomalies.

He wanted to be the one who "came," not the one who "waited for someone else to come and save him."

Qin Tian looked at that retreating figure and let out a long breath.