Where's the cute girl we were promised? She's completely wiped out S-rank dungeons!

Cui Xiaofei was quite frightened by Qiao Ran's description and quickly agreed to go back to sleep. When Qiao Ran returned to the living room, Xu Tai'an and An Xiaoyou had already gone back to their respective rooms. Only Song Yuan was still standing by the window, staring at the building directly opposite.

Qiao Ran blinked and asked, "Then I'll go back too? Call me when it's time for my shift."

"Um."

Song Yuan gave a casual reply, but her gaze never left the building across the street. Qiao Ran suddenly became curious about what she was looking at, so she walked behind Song Yuan and followed her gaze, only to find it was just a mouse:

However, this was the first time Qiao Ran had ever seen a rat that could scale walls and rooftops. The building was almost perpendicular to the ground, yet the rat could move freely across the walls. Its long nose sniffed around on the walls, seemingly searching for food.

Having grown up pampered by her family, Qiao Ran had very few opportunities to actually see a mouse; most of the time, she only saw them in movies. Looking at the dirty little creature opposite her, Qiao Ran stroked her chin thoughtfully.

"I wonder if the animals in this instance will also be infected with the zombie virus?"

Upon hearing this, Song Yuan turned to look at him: "Is there such a setting?"

Qiao Ran nodded, counting on her fingers: "Yeah, zombie movies these days do this for the sake of innovation. Things like rats, deer, and goats can all get infected with the zombie virus. It seems pretty common?"

After a moment's thought, Song Yuan suddenly changed her mind: "You and Cui Xiaofei can switch places with me. We'll shorten our rest time by three hours tonight. It's 9:40 now, so we'll set off in four hours, which is 2:00 AM."

Qiao Ran paused for a moment, then nodded obediently without even asking why: "Okay, I'll go wake him up in two hours. But why did he leave so hastily tonight? Isn't four hours a bit too short?"

Not to mention Qiao Ran and Cui Xiaofei, who were on night watch, only got two hours of sleep.

"If you're sleepy, you can continue sleeping when we're on our way." Song Yuan looked at the dilapidated city in the darkness, her expression grave. "In a small county like this, there's an animal that outnumbers people by several times—rats. This place is very unsafe; we must leave as soon as possible."

Qiao Ran suddenly realized: He understood what Song Yuan meant without her having to say anything more.

With so many rats in the county town, and after the outbreak of the crisis, so many unmanaged food and corpses inexplicably appeared, and in the end, they all became the rats' feast.

If these rats could also be infected with the zombie virus, how fast would the transmission speed be, and how huge would the rat population become? So those four hours were actually Song Yuan's sleep time alone—only she could fully recover her energy after a short rest.

"Okay, then go back to sleep. I'll wake everyone up if anything happens."

As Qiao Ran spoke, she watched Song Yuan walk back to her room, then sat on the sofa and looked at the night view outside the window.

Two and a half hours later:

Qi Lian and the others arrived in the city by car at this time.

"Sir, shall we rest here tonight?"

A sweet, cloying voice rang in his ears. Qi Lian opened his eyes and found Jiang Lili looking at him expectantly, her cheeks slightly flushed.

That's fantastic! Since Ye Yingming isn't here tonight, isn't she the only one who can repent?!

Qi Lian was in a good mood to see Jiang Lili like this. Although he was not short of women, because he had just been rejected by Ye Yingming, Jiang Lili's obedient behavior at this moment hit his sweet spot perfectly.

He mercifully reached out a hand and ruffled Jiang Lili's hair, saying gently, "Of course, right here. Before you rest, find out where the Justice Tribunal's car is parked; Xiao Ye should be nearby. Liu Hao, go and find a way to give her her dose of virus inhibitor."

After all, Ye Yingming would be staying with Song Yuan and the others for a long time. To successfully infiltrate their group, the first thing he needed to do was not to hold them back. Therefore, Ye Yingming couldn't use up the virus suppressants from Song Yuan's side.

Let Liu Hao give her the one that belongs to her, and then let Ye Yingming lie and say that it was made with her personal skills.

The freckled man—Liu Hao—responded, "Yes, Chairman. We...tsk, the car seems to be having problems again!"

Of all times, a problem has arisen at this critical juncture. Qi Lian was very displeased: "Then you and Zhiqiang go down and take a look. Fix it as quickly as possible."

The giant man—Xu Zhiqiang—also responded and got out of the car with Liu Hao. The two opened the hood and fiddled with the car for a while. When they finally figured out why the car had broken down, they almost vomited:

A rat had somehow gotten inside the center console. It died there, its skin covered in wounds, with very little hair, revealing the blood-red flesh beneath. Maggots wriggled within the flesh, and the stench was almost unbearable.

Suppressing his nausea, Liu Hao ran to the car and reported, "Sir, it's a rat! It somehow died in our car!"

Qi Lian thought Liu Hao was deliberately causing trouble, and gave him a cold look: "Why don't you just clean it up yourself? Why do you need to report to me?"

Liu Hao immediately broke out in a cold sweat, bowing deeply as he explained, "Sir, if it were a fresh rat carcass, it wouldn't be a problem. But when we saw the carcass, the rat was already infested with maggots... it must have been dead for at least ten days. How could a dead rat crawl into our car?! This is too eerie!"

Qi Lian found his words reasonable. Her anger subsided considerably, and she ordered, "Alright, I understand. Fix the car first, then find Xiao Ye and the others."

Liu Hao answered "Yes!" and was about to return to the front of the car when a strong tremor suddenly spread from the soles of his feet. The ground, including the car body Qi Lian was currently riding in, began to shake violently under the force of some enormous power.

"Ah—! What's happening now?!"