Human Skin

By the time Bu Xiangyang went up to the rooftop to tell them Zhang Wei had awakened, Chen Lian had already recovered emotionally.

In Lin Yan's eyes, perhaps because of his experiences, Chen Lian was the kind of person who liked to bottle things up, unwilling to let his emotions cause trouble for others.

He was a young man who took his responsibilities seriously and lived earnestly.

They returned to the thirty-second floor. At that moment, Liu Mingxuan was introducing himself to Zhang Wei.

"We are the Star Special Operations Team of the Northern Military Region. I am Captain Liu Mingxuan. We received a mission from the military region to head to City 032 and rescue you. However, we have run into trouble and may still be unable to leave this Wilderness Area."

Liu Mingxuan bowed to Zhang Wei in apology. "I'm sorry, Comrade Zhang Wei. This is due to our own lack of ability."

Zhang Wei's hands trembled as tears immediately fell. He climbed up from the makeshift hospital bed and held Liu Mingxuan's arms. "Commander, please don't say that. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have..."

"...you wouldn't have ended up in danger!"

He had waited for so many days and was already close to despair. Now that he saw the rescue team sent by the military, it felt as though the sky had lit up. As for everything else—whether he could make it back alive—that had become secondary.

The feeling of being acknowledged and cared for warmed his heart.

After Zhang Wei had calmed down.

Liu Mingxuan said, "The military region received your incomplete distress message. Regarding this matter, we hope you can tell us what you know about the beast tide, as well as what role Yang Bin played in it."

Zhang Wei nodded. He had been holding this matter inside for days, and now he was eager to tell someone about what he had discovered. He recalled, "Yang Bin and I had been squadmates ever since we enlisted. Everyone knew each other well, and we got along well too. But about two days before the beast tide, after Yang Bin returned from a patrol mission, I felt that something was off about him."

"He had always been a rather steady person, but that day, his movements and expressions were completely different from usual. His personality also seemed strange. Sometimes he was restless and impulsive. The squad leader even criticized him then, saying he didn't look like a soldier at all and had lost the basic qualities of a scout. He was punished and made to stand at attention on the training field for an entire afternoon."

"At the time, I only found it a little strange and didn't think much of it. I thought he might just be in a bad mood lately and would be fine in a few days. But before I could see him return to normal, something major happened at Defense Line 021."

"The beast tide began!"

"That afternoon, we were eating in the cafeteria. One platoon from our company had been wiped out right at the start of the beast tide. We usually trained together, so we all knew each other to some extent. They had suddenly died, and everyone was feeling low and grieving."

"But he was smiling. I saw it clearly. It was a very strange smile—or rather... an eerie one. I was angry at the time, wondering how he could act like that, but I was also terrified. His behavior over the past two days flashed through my mind, and a shocking thought occurred to me."

"That person wasn't Yang Bin."

At those words, Liu Mingxuan and the others exchanged glances.

That person truly had not been Yang Bin. The real Yang Bin had died before the beast tide even began.

"Then I wanted to report my suspicions to the company commander. Although I had no evidence, there was clearly something wrong with this, so I didn't care about anything else."

"But the battle had just begun, and neither the company commander nor the political instructor was in the company, so I had no choice but to look for the squad leader."

"But when I arrived at the squad leader's barracks, I witnessed something shocking. Yang Bin, he..." Zhang Wei's voice trembled with fear. "He killed the squad leader and skinned him!"

The words were chilling, and the listeners' expressions turned solemn.

"He draped that human skin over himself, and then he became the squad leader!"

By wearing human skin, he could impersonate someone else!

No wonder Yang Bin had vanished before Zhang Wei went missing, and there was no record of him leaving the military region. At that point, he had already changed identities and become Zhang Wei's squad leader.

"I was terrified then and wanted to scream, but at that instant, I saw a pair of eyes in the darkness, and then I immediately lost consciousness."

Liu Mingxuan pressed, "What kind of eyes? Do you remember?"

Zhang Wei recalled, "Golden and glittering, like gemstones."

No one had any clues.

"When you woke up, what happened? Why did you appear in City 032? Do you know anything about that?"

Zhang Wei lowered his head. "Actually, when I first woke up, I wasn't here."

"Hmm?"

Lin Yan gave a light exclamation. This matter was truly becoming more and more baffling.

"When I first woke up, I was in a place like a prison. I wasn't the only one inside. I saw other people in the other cells, but they were all barely alive."

"I was stolen out by this Gray Gorilla."

Zhang Wei pointed at the Gray Gorilla downstairs and said, "It seemed to have taken me for a toy. It opened the cell and grabbed me, sneaking me out. After we left that prison, I saw an Iron Armored Dragon sleeping outside it."

He was a scout and knew some things about monsters, enough to recognize their species.

"An Iron Armored Dragon?" Chu Wei pondered for a moment before saying, "There really is a Lord-level Iron Armored Dragon at the Yuan City prison!"

Lord level!

Seeing that everyone was still looking at him, Zhang Wei continued, "After that, this gorilla treated me like a toy. It put a collar on me, held a whip in its hand, and forced me to obey its commands, making me gnaw wood, jump through rings of fire, and do things like that."

"Partway through, I discovered that my communications device hadn't been damaged. While it wasn't paying attention, I tried to call the military region for help. But after only saying two sentences, the Gray Gorilla snatched the device away and crushed it."

"It was furious, and then it threw me into this building. There were monsters everywhere outside. I'm not a martial artist, and I had no other choice but to stay in this building."

Lin Yan frowned. "What this Gray Gorilla did gives me the feeling that..."

He pondered it, sensing a strong feeling of déjà vu in its actions.

"Do you think that before the Great Nirvana period, it might also have been an animal made to wear a collar and trained to perform tricks like jumping through rings of fire? That's why, after becoming a monster, it developed this kind of vengeful mindset—putting collars on people and training them to do the same things. And throwing them into a building was like locking them in a little dark room, punishment for disobedience!"

"That's very possible."

Everyone felt that the speculation made a great deal of sense.

Li Tao spoke up. "If things are as Zhang Wei says, we must make preparations early. Whether that Lord-level Iron Armored Dragon will come here after it wakes up is still unknown. If it really does come, we won't even have a chance to resist."

Lord level.

The words weighed heavily on their hearts. And it was an Iron Armored Dragon, such a powerful monster—a foe even War God-level experts would struggle to handle.

Compared to it, they were far too weak.

"If we have to escape the monsters' encirclement as soon as possible, I have an idea."

Just as everyone was at a loss, Lin Yan spoke.

A bright light flickered in his eyes—passion, and madness.