"Zombies"?

"Urgh... urgh..."

On the streets of Luojia at this moment, many people were wandering about with blood flowing from their mouths and noses, their eyes vacant, emitting low, guttural growls.

When ordinary people passed by, they would uncontrollably crowd toward them.

But that was as far as it went.

Ordinary people only needed to quicken their pace to get away. Even if some were surrounded, "they" would not perform any extreme actions; they would simply...

Just surround the normal people, and a little bit of effort was enough to push "them" aside and break free.

?

Seeing this situation, Leon felt puzzled, but his first reaction was to reach for his waist, unzip the tool pouch hanging on his left side, take out a filter that looked like a black mask, and put it on.

Due to mosquitoes, climate, and other ecological factors, as well as close contact with wild animals, infectious diseases in Africa were countless.

Back when he was in school, Leon had heard about this through textbooks, and after being transferred to the Kenya base, Krauser had strictly ordered them not to visit local villages or cities in Africa during their leave, forcing them to find entertainment within the base.

While not disturbing the normal lives of the local residents was one aspect, the most crucial point was that Krauser did not want them to die from some unknown virus.

Therefore, facing the situation in Luojia, Leon first had to ensure his own health and guard against diseases that might be transmitted through the air; those strangely behaving "people" were also temporarily categorized by Leon as "patients."

He then came to a small alley and drew a pistol from his holster—a model originally designated as the HK 40, which had been tuned and fitted with an RMR red dot sight.

The moment he drew it, he performed a one-handed chamber check.

The RMR red dot Leon used, which stood for "Ruggedized Miniature Reflex," was supposed to be a product developed by Wing Optics and released in 2009, but because of Atlas, it had been introduced nearly 30 years early.

Just as Sui Yang had established the company's development policy early on, the focus was placed on the research of individual equipment. Moreover, Sui Yang had relayed design concepts from before his transmigration to the R&D Department, making Atlas's products in this area quite "diverse."

Departments like "Atlas Tactical Innovations (ATI)" under Atlas would even release competitive, combat, and stealth versions of popular firearms along with related modifications. While reducing weight and improving performance, they also indirectly enhanced the aesthetics of the firearms and provided customized services for clients.

Beyond that, Atlas frequently sponsored action and crime films shot in Hollywood, having the leads or supporting characters use firearms from Atlas Tactical Innovations.

This maximized the "star effect" and, in turn, maximized Atlas's profits.

However, Leon did not choose the flashy products from his own company, and even the ARS squads rarely used them.

Because advantages like weight reduction and ultra-light triggers were suitable for civilian competitive venues like IPSC, but in the eyes of soldiers, they were symbols of reduced reliability and accidental discharges—not to mention that the investigation department and the ARS squads had dedicated gunsmiths.

At this moment.

Confirming that a round was chambered, Leon engaged the safety, leaving the pistol in a state where it could be fired at any moment, before returning it to his holster.

Although those patients did not seem to pose any threat, his intuition told him that something was very wrong here, especially since the symptoms of the patients were close to the imaginary enemies and hypothetical creatures—"zombies"—they had learned about during training.

Pulling up his left sleeve to reveal the individual computer strapped to his forearm, Leon immediately reported the situation in Luojia.

Following that, he used the computer to pull up a satellite view, tapped his right index finger on the screen to navigate, and finally confirmed his location and the route to a certain destination.

When leaving the alley, Leon did not forget to pull up the hood of his windbreaker to conceal his skin tone as much as possible.

While rushing to his destination, he noticed that some patients would suddenly roll their eyes back and collapse to the ground, twitching for a while.

During this time, the local residents finally had a reaction.

But it was not to provide first aid; they simply stood at a distance and watched.

Once the patient became completely rigid and stopped moving, the onlookers would simply carry them away and throw them into the grass or corners far from the road.

""

Witnessing this scene, even with his preparation, Leon found it difficult to understand the behavior of casually discarding corpses...

But thinking about it carefully, the people here simply had no conditions to master any level of epidemic prevention knowledge.

He had the determination to uphold justice, true, but improving or solving the root of the problem was beyond the scope of what he needed to consider.

He only felt a sense of lament.

Furthermore, the fact that the residents of Luojia were accustomed to this made Leon realize that this phenomenon must have been going on for some time.

Next, he continued along a more secluded road for more than ten minutes, arriving in front of a three-story building made of concrete and steel, one of the few in Luojia.

The ground-floor shops here had signs written in both English and French, including a supermarket, a barbershop, and a "club" marked by a red high-heeled shoe sign with flashing pink lights.

Leon's target was that very club, which was also open 24 hours a day.

But he hadn't gone far.

"Hey! Kid, what are you doing here?" A burly man with a crew cut, over 1.9 meters tall and with arms at least 50 centimeters in circumference, stood in front of the door, blocking Leon.

Seeing this, Leon pulled down his hood and said, "I'm here looking for work; I'm a bit short on cash lately."

Hearing this, the burly man eyed Leon suspiciously before moving aside and reaching out to help open the door: "Go in, don't cause trouble, or I won't mind cracking your head open."

"Thanks."

Thump... thump...!

As soon as he stepped into the club, the deafening effect of the electronic music immediately "assaulted" him, and he saw a heavily made-up female receptionist sitting behind a partition equipped with security bars, and on the window, a warning sign that read "Hand Over Firearms" was posted.

He hesitated for a moment.

He still drew his sidearm, engaged the safety, and handed it over through the slot in the security window.

After all, Leon had spent an extra ten dollars to learn about this gathering place for freelance mercenaries from the bartender, and only by going inside could he hope to obtain high-value intelligence.

He passed through the dim corridor.

Arriving at the open dance floor and bar area, the first things to catch his eye were the graceful figures of the women on stage, outlined in neon, which imbued the place with an atmosphere of "pink" and "restlessness."

"Yeah! Shake it! Shake it!"

"Hahaha! Take one off for the crowd!"

The mercenaries surrounding the dance floor cheered wildly, squandering cash recklessly to vent their long-pent-up emotions.

However, what instantly caught Leon's attention was a group of people sitting in a corner booth; their attire and demeanor were completely out of place in this environment.

Teacher and students?

There was an old man with white hair and glasses, while the other three men and one woman all looked like they had just stepped out of a campus.