Chapter 105: A Startling Sight

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“I probably started eating around... five to five-thirty. Not long after, I heard someone shout that the protective shield was down. What’s going on, sir?”

“Nothing much, you all keep resting.”

Ji Cheng returned to his room and sat alone in deep thought.

Yesterday afternoon, at 5:56, while he and the others were inside the hive, they discovered a fresh mass of internal organs and blood.

Also yesterday afternoon, shortly after 5:30, the protective shield over the South Harbor was shut down.

Pang Weiwei, who lacked a special ID card, managed to sneak into the central district ahead of schedule.

The city’s protective shield, which required extremely high clearance, had been deactivated.

Two seemingly unrelated events suddenly connected in Ji Cheng’s mind.

The common link was that mysterious and peculiar chairman, Zhang Sheng.

“I think I’m beginning to understand…”

……

Second floor of the conference room.

Ji Cheng didn’t even have to turn around or look around; smoke columns were visible everywhere within his line of sight. The densest plumes came from the north and west—areas crowded with mutated beasts.

To the south, many places were also engulfed in towering black smoke. That was exactly the direction they intended to head.

“Let’s discuss two things now.”

“First, the promotion of first-tier ability holders.”

“Second, the plan for the next operation.”

Ji Cheng turned around and brought up these two topics.

“I don’t have any thoughts for now.” After a moment, Huang Long looked at Ji Cheng and said, “But I want to know what your plans are. What do you intend to do?”

“My plan remains unchanged: enter the Silver District first, then move southwest.”

“That direction is eerily quiet,” Centipede frowned. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I suspect it’s going to be dangerous.”

Zhou Ze said gravely, “It’s fine to check out the Silver District, but what then?”

“Then we head to the council building.”

Fu Ting asked a key question: “When will we get promoted?”

Ji Cheng answered, “Injecting the second-tier gene template takes a long time. Apart from Centipede, who has a high assimilation rate, the others would need at least two days. Right now, we don’t have the conditions or the time.”

“That’s true.”

“What about the ordinary people?”

“I think we should leave them behind; bringing them along is too much of a burden.”

After discussion, they decided to follow Ji Cheng’s plan overall but split into two groups.

First-tier ability holders and ordinary people would stay in the operations meeting room temporarily, while the four council-level elites would travel light and continue forward.

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If the council building came under attack by mutated beasts above the gate level, it was crucial for the four council members to arrive swiftly and join the fight—after all, a whole day had already been lost.

Silver District, Third Avenue.

At dawn, the sounds of artillery from the west had faded away, and gray smoke hung thick in the air.

The streets were still empty, with no organized military resistance. Only occasional sharp screams pierced the silence, showing this was not yet a city of the dead.

“The Silver District has been abandoned too…”

Zhou Ze said this with difficulty, as if the words were stuck in his throat.

“How could such a critical place be abandoned!” Suddenly, his anger flared strangely and uncontrollably.

“I understand you, Brother Zhou, but right now, we should focus on getting to the council building first.”

It had taken them nearly a full day to fight their way from the Gray District to the Silver District.

Each person was covered in blood, especially Ji Cheng; his pure black combat suit was nearly stained red and black. Scraping with a dagger could peel off two millimeters of congealed beast blood.

As the most active fighter, he had slain no fewer than a hundred mutated beasts with his own hands.

Swoosh.

Ji Cheng was about to comfort Zhou Ze further when his wrist twitched, and his steel dagger shot out like lightning, piercing through a black shadow and embedding itself in the concrete.

It was a sight-level flying iron rat, but it was killed instantly upon contact.

Another step forward. The potential and talent of this body were truly terrifying.

Feeling his body gradually transformed and strengthened gave Ji Cheng a deep satisfaction in his growing power.

After the gene template injection, the core gene is impacted first. Once the core gene assimilates the template, transcription and expression strengthen the entire body’s cells.

For someone like Ji Cheng, whose assimilation speed was very fast, the body’s physical improvement temporarily lagged behind the core gene’s enhancement.

Only after reaching a certain assimilation threshold would the body cells’ transformation catch up.

“At full exertion now, my explosive power should exceed 32,000 kilograms.”

Though the current increase in strength was slight, it was still in the rapid growth phase shortly after injection. It was expected that in a few days, the overall strength of his body would leap significantly.

Of course, it still couldn’t compare to the noble youths who enjoyed abundant resources—the fastest record in the empire was complete assimilation of a second-tier template in seven days.

“There’s a convenience store nearby. How about we rest a bit and eat something?” Huang Long’s voice came from behind.

“Alright.” Ji Cheng nodded.

The four quickly turned into a small roadside shop, searched and tidied up briefly, then barred the door and sat down.

Ji Cheng found some relatively clean bottled water on the shelves, along with candy and chips. Huang Long dug out a box of instant noodles from a corner.

“Let’s rest here briefly, then push straight to the council building,” Ji Cheng said, munching on a packet of noodles. “The situation probably isn’t looking good.”

“Yeah, there are too many mutated beasts. South Harbor New City has never had so many monsters break in before,” Huang Long sighed.

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