Chapter 104: The Overlooked Detail

Gray Zone Guard Station, Operations Conference Room.

The Operations Conference Room serves as the temporary command center for various districts during emergencies. Fully equipped and sturdily constructed, it could essentially be viewed as a safe house situated on the surface.

Despite the name "room," it is actually a three-story low-rise building located in the rear-center of the Gray Zone Guard Station, surrounded by walls and guarded by over a hundred robots retrofitted by the South Harbor Research Institute.

Ji Cheng and his party followed the map directly to this building. Here, they finally encountered the first group of survivors.

Leading them was a man over fifty, the new director appointed after the suicide of the previous Old Man Zhong. The rest were mostly guards of the Gray Zone Guard Station—though none were the ones Ji Cheng had previously known, as those guards had been implicated with the Black Island organization and dealt with by the South Harbor upper echelon.

Upon suddenly seeing such a large group of ability users, the director, who introduced himself as Hong Liyan, was both shocked and overjoyed. His face crinkled like a chrysanthemum as he scrambled to welcome them into the conference room.

"Are you still able to communicate with the Council Building?" Ji Cheng asked point-blank.

"In response to you, sir, ever since the mutated animals breached the city, the phones have been dead, and we haven't been able to reach the internal lines either. Perhaps it's because of the heavy interference from the smoke bombs, or for some other reason..." Hong Liyan kept his head lowered, yet he cast curious glances at Ji Cheng.

The young man, tall and well-proportioned, possessed an incredibly sharp aura. He wore a jet-black, high-end all-terrain combat suit. Its streamlined cut seemed tailored to his physique—compact and form-fitting—making him look like a nimble, cold-blooded leopard, radiating immense pressure.

Yet, while the ring-blade emblem on his chest was exquisite, it lacked any additional ornamentation. Meanwhile, at least three others in the group wore emblems with gold trim, signifying the status of councilors. There were three council-level figures in this group, so why was this young ability user the one asking the questions? And why did no one express any objection?

Hong Liyan was completely baffled.

"Do you know how the mutated animals broke into the city?"

"I'm not actually sure. Yesterday afternoon, I was in my office processing paperwork when I heard several strange, rumbling noises. I looked out the window and saw a massive number of smoke bombs being launched from the south."

"I guessed that more mutated animals might have infiltrated, so without thinking too much, I brought my men here to the operations room to hide. I never imagined the situation would become this dire. Sigh." Hong Liyan sighed after speaking. "At least eighty or ninety percent of the Gray Zone residents are likely dead by now."

Yesterday afternoon? Ji Cheng glanced at Zhou Ze.

*Brother Zhou, why didn't you make that clear over the headset?*

If South Harbor was breached by mutated animals as early as yesterday afternoon, it meant that the mutated animals attacking the West Wind Rampart today were actually the second wave. The situation might be even more severe than he had imagined.

"Sir ability user, I think I know what happened."

A trembling voice sounded from the corner. Looking toward the sound, he saw a man in his thirties or forties, dressed in rags. Ji Cheng immediately noticed calluses on the second knuckles of his middle fingers, likely worn down from long-term use of barbed tweezers—a tool favored by pickpockets.

"Someone living at the very bottom of the Gray Zone..."

The man stood with his back pressed against the wall, even though there was a chair right next to him. His cautious, timid demeanor was familiar to Ji Cheng. He had the rustic cowardice of the poor, yet his expression carried a hint of cunning. In a place like South Harbor, one could find his likeness in many of the Gray Zone's residents.

Ji Cheng asked, "You know the situation?"

"I was squatting on the side of Panfu Street eating dinner. You... you should know, people like me are lucky to get one full meal every few days, so even though the noise was loud and the 'sheep' around me were all running, I didn't drop my bowl..." He used the term "sheep," thieves' slang for people.

"Get to the point."

"Uh, yes. First, I heard some kid in glasses shout that the protective shield was gone. Before I could figure out what was happening, there was an explosion on the curb next to me. Several cars crashed together, their fuel tanks blew up, and all of a sudden I..."

"Get to the point," Ji Cheng reminded him again, his tone chilling.

Five minutes later, after the man finished describing the scene of the mutated animal invasion, everyone's expression darkened. Based on his description and what they had seen along the way, places like the Silver Zone and the Emerald Zone were likely not faring much better. Many stood there in silence; their families and friends were mostly in those core districts.

However, entering the deeper parts of the city tonight was impossible. In the pitch-black environment, the threat of mutated animals would increase exponentially. Furthermore, the entire city was now swarming with them. Even this group of ability users dared not rush inward at full speed; they would be too large a target, potentially drawing out entities above the Gate-level.

The only way forward was to proceed with extreme caution.

"We will rest here tonight and set out early tomorrow morning."

A group cannot function without a leader. Seeing that everyone looked as if they had lost all hope, Ji Cheng took charge and decisively began organizing the defenses.

He opened his wrist-mounted computer to assign quarters, activated the hundreds of robotic guards stored at the station, and deployed them to cover blind spots in the surveillance system to prevent smaller mutated animals from slipping in overnight. He then divided the ability users into several groups to take turns standing watch around the operations room.

The ability users not on duty rested in a rectangular hall of over a hundred square meters, while the ordinary people were settled in the first-floor lobby—with the exception of Luo Rao and Chen Qian, who had connections. Each of the councilors was assigned an individual room.

No one raised any objections to Ji Cheng's arrangements. Even Yao Lun merely gave him a cold look and said nothing.

This left Hong Liyan even more confused. Earlier, he could have excused this young ability user asking questions as a way to groom the youth, but now, having him manage the entire defense was simply mind-boggling. *What are these councilors thinking?*

In reality, the situation was not as strange as it seemed. On the way here, Zhou Ze had intended to take command, but he had barely begun when he realized that, except for Lu Shangbai, Qiu Ding, and Councilors Yao and Huang, all the other ability users were subconsciously looking to Ji Cheng.

Zhou Ze knew that all the Second-Order Gene Progenitors had been secured under Ji Cheng's leadership, but he hadn't expected this outcome. While it caught him off guard, he clearly realized that in a very short time, Ji Cheng had established high prestige among these ability users.

Upon reflection, Zhou Ze, who had climbed his way up from a First-Order ability user, quickly understood. If someone had helped him survive the depths of the Hive and secured a Second-Order Progenitor, he would likely feel the same way. Thus, Zhou Ze, who already held Ji Cheng in high regard, allowed him to take the lead.

...

Late at night.

The lights in the first-floor lobby suddenly flickered on. The crowd, previously deep in sleep, looked around in confusion, their gazes eventually settling on the figure walking in alone.

Ji Cheng walked quickly to a corner, his expression grave. Just a moment ago, he had recalled a detail he had previously overlooked.

"Tell me, at what time in the afternoon was it when someone shouted that the protective shield had been turned off?"

He stared intently at the ragged man.