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墨書 Inktalez
The area of the resort wasn't very large, and it didn't take long for at least twelve teams to search separately.
Fifteen minutes later, the group returned to the square where they had started, empty-handed.
Here, the twisted corpse of the Tang soldier was temporarily placed on a flower bed by the warriors, waiting to be taken away when they left.
After all, searching while carrying such a heavy body was too exhausting; there was no need to add extra burdens for themselves.
"Captain, we didn't find anything."
"We didn't find anything either."
"I didn't see anyone in the east."
"I didn't see anyone in the west either."
"I... Li Ming, did he leave early? Didn't he keep saying he wanted to get back to see his girlfriend? Could it be that he couldn't wait for us and left first?"
"How is that possible? He's not an idiot. If he did that, he'd be asking for punishment from the boss. That fellow isn't a child; there's no way he'd do something so foolish."
"Then where did he go? A living person can't just disappear into thin air, right?"
The group began to discuss animatedly, then turned their gazes toward Captain Wu, waiting for his final decision.
"Captain, what should we do now? Are we really going to ignore Li Ming?"
"Do you want to stay here and spend the night in this cursed place? It's filled with eerie vibes; who knows what kind of evil spirit might be lurking in some corner, just waiting for you to get close enough to swallow you whole?"
"But ignoring him doesn't seem right..."
"Right or wrong doesn't matter. That guy wandered off and got lost; it's none of our business. The fact that we haven't pursued him for wasting our time is already quite generous. Who has the time to stick around and waste more time with him?"
Amidst the clamor of arguments, Wu shook his head and waved his hand to signal everyone to quiet down.
"Alright, enough noise. Let's head back to the base first."
He glanced at the watch on his wrist and shook his head. "It's already six-thirty. If we don't leave now, we'll have to take a longer route around the city when it gets dark."
Taking a longer route meant they would have to avoid the active High-Level Zombies roaming the city.
However, even the longer route might not be safe.
In those desolate wilderness areas, there were still numerous Dodo animals infected by the virus, turning them into Zombies.
If any of these Animal-Type Zombies successfully evolved to the Second Stage, it would spell disaster for any living beings within its active range.
Daylight was universally recognized as human activity time, but once night fell, it became the stage for Zombies.
This had become an unbreakable rule in this post-apocalyptic world; no one could defy it.
Just as everyone was preparing to lift Datang's body from the flowerbed and leave, someone let out a scream.
"His head! Datang's head!"
"Datang's head is missing!"
The person responsible for lifting Datang's corpse shouted in shock, drawing everyone's attention.
They turned to look and indeed found that the body lying quietly in the flowerbed was missing its head, now a headless corpse lying there silently.
Then they noticed more strange things.
"Where are the wounds? Where did the wounds go?"
"Isn't the body of Tang covered in wounds? Why can't we see any?"
Wu rushed over, only to find that the body was indeed as everyone had seen. It was missing its head.
What was even more astonishing was that the numerous horrific scars that had crisscrossed the surface of the corpse had now vanished. The flawless skin seemed as if it had never been injured at all.
Wu used a knife to cut open the clothing of the corpse, revealing its abdomen.
However, the abdomen, which should have been empty, was now intact. Not only were the internal organs still present, but even the skin showed no signs of injury whatsoever.
If it weren't for the flatness of the abdominal cavity indicating its identity as a corpse, one might have thought this was a living body.
Furrowing his brow, Wu examined the headless corpse and found no wounds except for the neck.
At the neck, the smooth severance appeared to have been cut cleanly by some sharp blade, leaving no traces of torn flesh behind.
Within that smooth cross-section, with blood having drained away, one could only see the severed trachea and other muscle tissues, along with a half-segment of white vertebrae.
Wu's brow tightened further as he stood up and made his final judgment.
"This is not Tang's body."
He pointed to the tattoo on the right wrist of the corpse. "Tang's wrist has no markings."
After a pause, he scanned everyone's faces, his expression turning somber. "In fact, among those I know, there is only one person with this tattoo on his wrist... and that is Li Ming."
Everyone was stunned.
"Li Ming? Is this Li Ming's body? How did he die?"
"But if this is Li Ming's body, then where is Tang's body? I clearly placed Tang's body right here; how can it be missing?"
Wu's gaze swept across the faces of the crowd, and he slowly exhaled a breath of frustration.
"I don't know what's going on, but I can be certain that something unpleasant has indeed occurred within this manor. I don't care where the missing Survivors have gone; all I know is that there are some hostile individuals lurking in the corners, watching us."
With that, Wu's cold gaze scanned the surroundings of the manor as he continued, "Right now, the best course of action for us is to leave immediately. Once it’s bright outside, we can bring a larger team back here to investigate. Whatever is hidden in this manor, I believe it cannot continue to remain concealed under the search of hundreds or even thousands."
He pulled back the gun's bolt and took a deep breath.
"Everyone, disengage your safeties and prepare for combat. Then… we leave this place!"
However, just then, a terrified scream suddenly echoed from within the ranks.
"Chen Shu! Captain, Chen Shu is missing!"
Wu was taken aback and instinctively looked at all his remaining companions.
His gaze swept over everyone, and indeed, the companion named Chen Shu was absent from their group.
"Damn! Where's Chen Shu? How could that fellow just disappear?"
"Who was Chen Shu paired with earlier? Does anyone remember?"
"Wang Feng, wasn't Chen Shu with your group? Where is he?"
"Group? Nonsense! My partners were Chen Xiao and Zhou Rui; I clearly remember that Chen Shu was with Zhao Bo's group."
"That's nonsense! Chen Shu wasn't with me; I was with Zhou Jun and Liu Zhenhan!"
The crowd became agitated, but Wu silently began counting the number of people in their team.
One, two, three, four, five…
When he finished counting all the people, he was stunned.
At that moment, there were already thirty-five individuals present in the square.
Including himself, there were thirty-six.
The number matched exactly with his previous count; it seemed that no one had disappeared.
Yet, Chen Shu had clearly vanished. The team should have been one person short, so why were there still thirty-six?
He counted again.
To avoid making a mistake, he took his time this time, carefully counting each person without missing anyone.
In the end, the number of people before him was still thirty-five.
Neither more nor less.
Wu's heart suddenly turned cold. (To be continued...)
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