Red White Double Flags, An Accident Occurs!

A carrot and a stick have always been tried-and-true methods.

Ke Er and He Er, the two brothers, didn't dare make a move and jogged to crouch beside La Mu.

Entering the isolation pod offered at least a chance of survival, but if Cheng Ye shot them dead as Infected right now, they'd truly have nowhere to turn.

"Sir."

"Shut up!"

As Xi Mo opened his mouth upon noticing Cheng Ye approaching, he was ruthlessly interrupted.

"Whatever I tell you to do next, you will endure it. Otherwise, you'll be kicked out to quarantine, understand?"

"Understood, understood!"

Realizing there was hope for survival, Xi Mo's tired eyes suddenly lit up, gaining a bit more life.

Unlike the Central Main Checkpoint, which only tested refugees' temperature, heart rate, and respiratory frequency, isolating or expelling them immediately if any data was abnormal.

The passersby at the Quick Checkpoint were basically residents of Xingfu City. To balance efficiency and accuracy, additional testing equipment was also provided.

Cheng Ye raised his hand and swiped his Identity Badge across the black box on the table.

Click.

The latch sprang open, revealing two brand-new instruments rarely used by Inspectors, along with a scalpel and a metal tray.

Vital Sign Dual-Mode Detector.

Rotten Light Metabolism Detector.

The former could be held by hand to project a rough image of the examined person's body in real-time on the screen behind the device.

The latter specialized in wound detection: under the irradiation of a specific wavelength light source, infected areas would emit visible fluorescence.

If it matched the internal Infection Source data, the fluorescence would appear as a dazzling red light; if it didn't match, it would show a normal green light.

It sounded useful, but why was it brand new?

The answer was actually simple: it was unnecessary.

Nearly three hundred people were confined in the isolation pods of Quarantine Zone A. While there were Infected among them, at least over ninety-five percent of the people were fine. Otherwise, who would dare risk running outside?

But few Inspectors were willing to take responsibility. When encountering abnormal data without a clear explanation, instead of investigating step by step, everyone preferred to directly classify it as high infection risk and throw them into the isolation pod for a period of time.

Whether they could survive and come out was never within their scope of consideration.

Even if an explanation was needed, there was a ready-made excuse:

We are thinking of the hundreds of thousands of people in the Buffer Zone. We can't let hundreds of thousands of people take risks for just you, can we?

"Can you still move?"

"Yes!"

"Follow my instructions and rotate your body."

The so-called dual-modality refers to the Micro-focus CT Module and the Photoacoustic Imaging Module.

Cheng Ye had never seen this in modern times; this was his first time using it.

However, judging by the displayed image, it was indeed quite clear, only slightly inferior to the X-rays taken at the hospital.

On the screen, a small gray 3D human model rotated back and forth, with its right leg emitting a faint red warning light.

After internal processing and magnification, the muscle fibers at the bite mark were shown to be torn radially, and the tissue at the wound's edge showed large areas of low-density shadows, like a sponge corroded by strong acid.

As for the other parts of the body, they were all circular or irregularly shaped high-density shadows, which was the characteristic morphology of bleeding sites due to the high density of hemoglobin.

"No problem. There's only this one bite wound; the rest are bruises and abrasions."

Cheng Ye breathed a slight sigh of relief.

The narrative logic was sound; the focus of detecting infection fell on the wound's presentation.

Now that there was only this one wound on his leg, the probability of infection was immediately much smaller.

After all, as Brother B said, the attacks of the Infected were unpredictable. Once they caught a target, they would pounce like rabid dogs, never fixating on just one spot.

"Use the Rotten Light Metabolism Detector!"

A faint green light shone on the leg wound, which quickly displayed green fluorescence, with no red light seen.

This meant that if the injury was caused by an Infected attack.

Then the Infected could only be like the Rotten Vine, not registered in Xingfu City's database.

The probability decreased by another fraction.

"There's one last step. I need to take a slice of your flesh. Can you handle it?"

"What?"

Xi Mo froze abruptly, then an uncontrollable look of ecstasy spread across his face.

What had he just heard? The last step?

Heavens, God, did this Inspector get sent by an angel?

"Sir, you can cut wherever you please. It's fine even if you cut off this leg, I can take it!"

"It's not that exaggerated, just a small piece is enough."

Cheng Ye forced a smile, not to ease Simo's emotions, but to ease his own nervousness.

He wasn't flustered when shooting Infected, because he knew in his heart that they were no longer human.

His subconscious treated them as monsters, no different from hitting a wooden stake.

But now he had to cut into a living person, which still made him inexplicably apprehensive.

Fortunately, the scalpel in the box was exceptionally sharp. Cheng Ye found the edge of a wound and lightly sliced, cutting off a piece of flesh the size of a pinky fingernail.

Unexpectedly, Simo showed no expression, which made Cheng Ye secretly gasp in his heart.

Awesome.

If this were the 'Tangguo Chaotian' boy group, their idols would probably be screaming three miles away by now.

"Raven, take this piece of flesh and test it for a match with the Infection Source, as soon as possible!"

"Understood, sir!"

While the four were being examined, Raven and Owl had already been waiting outside the isolation door.

Judging from the perspective of Observers, Cheng Ye's actions were somewhat incomprehensible. Why go to such trouble for a few ordinary people?

But from the perspective of ordinary people, they felt complicated, unsure of how to comment for a moment.

They could only quicken their pace and deliver it to the Laboratory Building at Checkpoint Zone E for matching.

Time ticked by.

More than ten minutes later, Raven returned and slid a piece of paper under the isolation door.

"Is there a problem?"

Cheng Ye frowned slightly. He took it and saw that it read "Normal."

He then realized that this Observer was truly clever. If he had announced it aloud for the three to hear, it would undoubtedly steal the Inspector's thunder. Having Cheng Ye announce it himself was a practice that deeply understood workplace rules.

"Alright, the three of you stop crouching there and peeking. Get dressed and come over."

Returning behind the desk, Cheng Ye said softly.

The next second, it was as if springs were installed under their feet, and the three of them sprang to Simo's side.

"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!"

The four people embracing and crying choked Cheng Ye up, leaving him momentarily speechless.

How absurd this world was.

He had merely done his duty as an Inspector, followed the standard inspection procedures outlined in the Inspector's Manual, and yet they were thanking him tearfully as if he were a god.

It's not that I'm too good, it's that this Checkpoint is rotten to the core.

Cheng Ye mused inwardly, then his thoughts shifted.

If the entire Xingfu City operated with such a prevailing atmosphere, what would happen if he encountered a similar situation one day, needing to grovel just to survive?

The sense of crisis is off the charts. I suspect everyone in the Buffer Zone is climbing the ladder precisely to avoid that day.

When the four people's crying gradually subsided, Cheng Ye withdrew his thoughts.

"You mentioned earlier that you had something else to give me?"

"Oh, oh, it's Meteorite Iron! It's Meteorite Iron we collected from Qingshi Gathering Place!"

Ke Er slapped his forehead and hurried to the back of the car, pulling out a black ore about the size of a fist.

"Sir, look. This thing is very hard. We don't know its composition. Would you like to keep it for fun?"

"Meteorite Iron?"

Cheng Ye took the ore and squeezed it. His fingertips immediately felt a cold, hard sensation.

Judging by its appearance alone, there was nothing special about it. It was nowhere near as remarkable as the Fire Hidden Iron he had seen earlier.

"I'll have Master Liu take a look when I pick up my weapon the day after tomorrow."

Cheng Ye nodded in satisfaction.

Without the enhancement of action functions, he couldn't utilize this raw ore at all.

But with actions, if he found a forging skill and managed to acquire forging equipment, he could forge all sorts of weapons at will.

"I'll keep this since it's somewhat useful to me, but you should take these Happiness Coins back."

As Cheng Ye spoke, he reached out and pushed the six coins on the table back.

Happiness Coins weren't very useful in the Buffer Zone. The things he wanted could only be bought with Contribution Points. Moreover, he didn't know how long it would take to spend the Happiness Coins left by Cheng Long.

"Sir."

"Fine, then I'll keep one, just to put your minds at ease."

Seeing the four men gazing at him expectantly, Cheng Ye sighed helplessly. "If you find this kind of ore again, bring it to me. My Defense Communicator ID is 96061."

"Yes, sir! You can rest assured, we'll definitely bring any ore to you first from now on!"

Ke Er's eyes suddenly lit up.

An opportunity to get close to an Inspector was rare. Let alone an Inspector like Dongren, even if a dog was sitting behind the desk, cough cough.

It could only be said that this was the nature of power.

But then again, Cheng Ye was indeed different from other Inspectors.

The four exchanged glances, surprise reflected in their eyes. The reward from the lithium ore deposit would provide them with considerable startup capital, and aligning with a reliable Inspector could save them a lot of trouble.

Having struggled in Xingfu City for nearly five years, if this opportunity panned out, they would truly be riding the wind and taking off!

"Hurry up and take him to get treatment. Move quickly. This leg should still be salvageable."

"Thank you, sir."

The four nodded repeatedly in agreement. Ke Er darted to the driver's seat and started the car, while He Er helped the other two back into the rear cabin.

Cheng Ye pressed a button, and the isolation gate at the exit slowly slid open to both sides.

However, just as Ke Er excitedly waved goodbye and was about to step on the gas to leave.

BOOM.

The isolation gate that had just opened slammed shut violently, the metallic clang deafening.

At the same time, a piercing alarm erupted throughout the entire Checkpoint. A pattern of two long and two short beeps echoed incessantly within the vast Checkpoint.

"What's going on?"

The four looked up in shock, only to see Cheng Ye and the Inspector from the adjacent Zone B also startled and rising to their feet.

As if a bomb had been dropped into the Checkpoint, amidst the beeping alarm, hundreds of armed Guards poured out of the four Quarantine Areas, as if facing a formidable enemy!

"Two long, two short. The highest level of alert at the Checkpoint. Either an Infected Tide is coming, or..."

Cheng Ye suddenly turned his head, and the four brothers followed his gaze.

They saw that two flags had been hung on the machine gun watchtower of the Checkpoint at some unknown time.

One was as crimson as blood, the other as pale as paper.

This represented...

"Red signifies danger, white signifies sacrifice. The Red White Double Flags appearing together..."

Cheng Ye's voice suddenly deepened. "A duty officer has been sacrificed!?"

ps: Happy weekend to my esteemed readers. Here's the first update of 3k words~

ps2: Please follow up with your reading and votes. The battle with the big shots on the charts has reached a fever pitch. We urgently need everyone's firepower support. I implore all readers not to hoard the book, but to click on the latest chapter every day and help the Inspector make a push!!!