Before everything goes out

E27?

Is it calling me?

Li Fei stood there, his mind a jumbled mess.

Not far away, the man's voice was not clear.

Instead, the sound came through the bulletproof mask on his face, making it somewhat blurry.

Besides.

They were covered from head to toe, from their hair to their teeth, with all sorts of protective gear or weapons.

A bulletproof vest inlaid with ceramic plates, a tactical belt full of magazines...

A shotgun in hand, a pistol tucked into the side of the thigh, a short assault rifle slung across the back...

And that black nylon bodysuit worn underneath.

Li Fei recognized the clothes.

He was wearing this under his tattered cotton-padded coat, but it had been patched and mended so much that it was practically falling apart.

"Special elite forces".

The moment he saw the man, those four words popped into his mind.

so...

Is this guy a ring?

He didn't turn into a zombie?

Or is it that after turning into a zombie, one can still maintain the rationality of a normal human?

wrong.

Judging from Pockmarked face and melon head, zombies should have obvious changes in appearance; at least you should be able to tell at a glance that they are not normal humans.

So what exactly is going on?

Looking at the man not far away, Li Fei, holding a knife in one hand and a gun in the other, froze on the spot, his thoughts in disarray.

next to.

Liu Yongxiao's face turned ashen as the dog died, and his fists, which were behind his back, clenched tightly.

Niu San stood there, his eyes scanning the camp, his mind a complete mess.

"What? You haven't seen me for a few days, and you don't even recognize my voice anymore?"

The man took off his helmet as he spoke.

When his entire face was fully exposed and he met those murky eyes, Li Fei was terrified.

The faces of familiar people are like a switch that has been turned off, unlocking memories.

Once activated, memories surface like bubbles, only to shatter again.

Each time it breaks, a sound is heard.

Li Fei not only recognized the voice, but he was also quite familiar with it.

It was his own voice.

...

...

"Captain, we haven't had any meat or oil in two months since we started camping in this shabby place."

"I'm fucking hungry..."

"Eating compressed biscuits? Don't even mention it. I feel like throwing up just looking at the packaging now. And that canned beef, it doesn't taste like beef at all, it's awful."

"or..."

"How about we do what we did before, go to that shabby little village and bring back a few livestock so the brothers can have a treat?"

"Okay, I'll start the train right away."

...

"team leader!"

"Forget about pigs or cows for now, you might not believe it, but I think I've discovered something incredibly important..."

"These villagers are all corrupted beings, first-tier corrupted beings, but..."

"But they themselves are unaware of the mutations they have undergone."

"It's not just them; if we hadn't brought the testing backpack this time, we wouldn't have been able to tell with the naked eye."

"Did I make a mistake?"

"No, no, no, there's absolutely no mistake. All the detected indicators have exceeded the critical point. Logically speaking, these corrupted entities should have already shown physiological mutations. Even if they haven't, they should at least have developed psychological abnormalities..."

Do you know what I mean?

"They eat and farm every day, staying in this village as if nothing's wrong, which makes no sense at all."

"I have to say, this is fucking bizarre!"

"What principle? How would I know? Even if you get people from the research institute over here, they'd probably need at least half a year to study it."

"etc..."

"I understand, Captain. This might be a good opportunity to make a name for ourselves. If we can sneak a few hidden corrupted entities back to report, we might never have to come to this godforsaken place again..."

...

"Captain, I have a new idea."

"Village chief Liu Yongxiao is different from the other villagers; he's a genuine third-tier corrupted being. If we can kill him, wouldn't this village be completely at our disposal?"

"Think about it, the corruption of an entire village—that's the work of the entire village!"

"you say..."

"He's already agreed to let us take our people, so you don't want to completely break ties with him?"

"Indeed, I know he's not easy to deal with, but as long as we don't fight in this village..."

"As long as we don't fight on his home turf, and find an open area to ambush him without cover, he can't be our match."

...

"Captain, it seems like this won't work. This old man is very cunning; he won't leave the village no matter what."

"Let me think..."

"I do have a way to get him out of the village. If we're lucky, we might even be able to get most of those dogs to leave as well."

"Too risky?"

"No, no, you don't need to risk your lives with me. I can manage on my own."

"Here's what we'll do: wait for me at the camp in the north. Give me half a month, and I'll lure Liu Yongxiao out. Then we'll find a flat spot and deal with him."

...

...

The original owner's voice echoed in his mind.

The sound drilled into Li Fei's brain like a demon, causing a sharp pain in the back of his head, and he uncontrollably knelt down on the ground.

soon.

Amidst waves of pain, all the clues came together in his mind, piecing together an incomplete truth.

He is a member of the ring.

His number was E27, which was also his name.

"Ten days ago, the rings died in the woods to the south, and he was the only one who escaped back to the village."

All of this is pure fiction.

It was a bizarre story fabricated by the original owner, just to lure Liu Yongxiao out of the village.

Although it is unknown what the original owner's original plan was, in fact, after the original owner was killed by Niu San and possessed by him, he actually managed to lure Liu Yongxiao out by a series of coincidences.

It was a coincidence, or perhaps it was fate.

"In other words, we are now surrounded."

Li Fei shook his head violently twice, pulling himself out of the pain.

Look up.

Amidst the drizzling rain, other members of the ring emerged from the camp one after another.

They were all on the edge of the camp directly ahead, a total of four people, all fully armed like the team leader.

Even more outrageous.

Beside one of the burly men at the back, he saw a heavy machine gun lying on the ground, with its ammunition belt spread out, several meters long.

"E27, you deserve a big credit for this. I'll report this to the sergeant as soon as I get back, and you'll get at least two years off your sentence."

Not far away.

The captain's praise rang out, but Li Fei showed no pride on his face. He simply asked:

"So, when we approached before, you kept your distance just to avoid being exposed?"

"Of course, we won't reveal ourselves until we meet Liu Yongxiao."

The captain took a crumpled pack of cigarettes out of his shirt pocket.

He shielded his eyes from the rain, lit a cigarette, and let out a long sigh of relief.

"After working together for so long, we have some understanding. But I didn't expect you to be so bold as to not contact us for so many days. If I hadn't seen your location moving, I would have thought you were dead inside."

Li Fei weighed the submachine gun in his hand for a moment, then asked:

"So this gun..."

"We left this gun there for you to pick up. It's useless against this old monster, but it's better to have something than nothing, right?"

The captain laughed and patted the rifle slung across his shoulder.

Li Fei swallowed hard.

That makes sense now.

No wonder the rings that should have died in the south were located in the northern forest...

No wonder there was a gun lying there out of nowhere in that pile of rocks...

No wonder those rings ran away as soon as he got close...

"No, not Huanzi, they're actually my...teammates now?"

Realizing something, Li Fei turned to look.

Not far away.

After hearing everything, Niu San stood there stunned, looking at him with a complicated expression.

His face showed disappointment, confusion, and anger.

It is clear.

Even Niu San gradually realized what had happened and had a premonition of what was about to happen.

"It's a misunderstanding..."

As soon as Li Fei opened his mouth, he realized how weak his explanation was.

Without a doubt, Niu San believed that he was an undercover agent who had infiltrated Shuanghe Village.

"Hold..."

Li Fei cursed under his breath and looked further away.

Fortunately, Liu Yongxiao didn't look at him, but stared straight at the captain and slowly spoke:

"Why? If your original intention was to take them back for research, why kill them all on the way?"

"hehe."

A cold laugh came from further away.

It wasn't the captain, but a thin man with glasses.

His hair was messy and stuck to his face after being wet from the rain, looking like a mop.

"Old monster, how dare you ask us this? This is the question we should be asking you! Why did all the villagers change as soon as they left the village? Did you do something to them?"

Liu Yongxiao was stunned for a moment, looking completely bewildered:

"What did you say?"

"Don't you understand? I said, we originally intended to deal with those hidden corrupted entities first..."

So, your kind fellow villagers escorted them to the outpost, but unexpectedly, halfway there, they all mutated, turning from latent to overt, and almost bit off my hand...

What else could we do but kill you? Send you back to be raised by someone else?

As he spoke, Glasses rolled up his sleeves.

His forearm was wrapped tightly with several layers of bandages.

"I do not understand..."

Liu Yongxiao stood there, frozen in place.

What flashed before my eyes were the seven mutated villagers' corpses.

"What's there to not understand? You yourself must know perfectly well, right? In your village, the old and the young, men and women, the whole village is full of monsters. If it weren't for some reason that they haven't shown obvious mutations yet, we would have wiped them out long ago."

As he spoke, Glasses pushed up his glasses.

Seeing that Liu Yongxiao and Niu San still looked bewildered, he explained again:

"To put it simply, the process of decay is irreversible. The villagers of Shuanghe Village have been living in an environment lacking sunlight for many years, and they have all decayed many years ago."

However, due to some mysterious condition, you have not yet exhibited the characteristics of corrupted creatures, such as physiological or psychological mutations, or extreme tolerance for darkness...

In theory, your situation is called "latent corruption," like the incubation period of an epidemic—it appears normal, but could erupt at any time.

"By taking these hidden corrupt individuals away from Shuanghe Village, we inadvertently broke the 'conditions' that maintained the balance."

It could be temperature, humidity, a special magnetic field, or maybe it's something you, a third-order corruption, did. I'm not sure.

"In short, if you had just told us earlier, frankly, how all this works, and what the conditions are for maintaining this 'latent corruption,' they might not have died."

A moment of silence.

After figuring something out, Liu Yongxiao smiled bitterly.

When he smiled, the junction between his human and dog faces tore at each other, adding a touch of ferocity to his bitter smile.

"I understand now, so that's how it is, so that's how it is..."

He took off his straw hat.

He then took off the woolen hat under his straw hat, revealing a deformed head covered with half of curly dog ​​hair.

Look up at the sky.

The rain was even heavier than at noon.

Large raindrops pelted his face, wetting his dog fur and hair, which made him more alert and also made his messy fur look no different from the surrounding stray dogs.

"If I tell you the truth, will you obediently go back?"

Liu Yongxiao opened his mouth and drank a mouthful of rainwater.

Cold and sour.

"Of course not."

The answer didn't come from the glasses, but from the captain.

The cigarette in his hand was extinguished by the rain before he could finish smoking it, so he could no longer smoke it.

"The corrupt are no longer human beings. It is our duty and responsibility to eradicate them."