Cloud Piercing Palm consumed internal energy, after all. Once Li Wei had knocked down a zombie, he realized as much. To conserve his strength, he took True Nuwa's Rapier from the Guardian's storage space.
The blade was two meters long, giving it a range that ordinary swords couldn't match. Two female zombies were the first to be cut in half at the waist. They had once been beautiful, but now they were hideous living corpses. Perhaps, for them, this was a kind of release.
Li Wei swung the sword backhanded at a large group of more than seven zombies. The blade cleaved one of them in two, but the Rock Earth Spike skill attached to True Nuwa's Rapier activated as well.
Within a three-meter radius, several stone spikes suddenly thrust up from the ground. The rotting zombies had no way to withstand the attack. They were pierced from below, and with a single swing, Li Wei killed all seven.
Before long, Li Wei had cleared out the zombies nearby. He checked the map and headed for the nearest police station.
Raccoon City's 5th Police Precinct.
Officer Nina was hiding inside a locked office, futilely trying to contact her colleagues over the radio. But the static crackling through it had driven the beautiful policewoman to despair.
"John, Hank... how are things on your end? Over!" No matter how many times she called, it was useless.
"Damn it, those living corpses... Damn Hanmore! If it weren't for him, we would have evacuated ages ago!" It seemed the pain from her arm wound had made Officer Nina's beautiful brows twitch.
There was a wound several inches long on her arm. Under normal circumstances, an injury like this would have been nothing to worry about, but now things were far more serious.
A few minutes ago, one of Nina's colleagues had done the deed. Of course, that unlucky guy had already become a zombie by then. He was unlucky because after scratching Nina with his fingernails, he had been shot in the head by the iron-fisted policewoman who had struck fear into every street gang in the district.
Only a few minutes had passed, but Nina could already feel the unusual pain in the wound. The surrounding tissue was beginning to discolor, which had her on edge.
Nina had seen unlucky people turn into zombies after being bitten. According to information from the police chief, it was an "unknown" virus that could destroy healthy tissue in the body in a very short time and speed up metabolism. That might not sound like a big deal, except that the virus targeted the most vital parts of the body: the brain and central nervous system. This had led to one result.
Within twenty hours, all of Raccoon City had become a playground for zombies.
Nina didn't want to become one of them. Even if she died, she didn't want to turn into one of those disgusting man-eating monsters.
Besides Nina, John and Hank were the only other survivors inside the police station. They had gone out to look for reinforcements and supplies half an hour ago, and Nina had lost contact with them ten minutes ago.
Another unanswered call plunged Nina into utter despair. There were only six bullets left in her pistol, not enough to hold off an attack by the zombies. Worse still was the wound on her arm. Nina looked out the window at the hideous zombies wandering around and thought about killing herself.
But Nina clearly didn't have the courage to calmly put a bullet through her own head. Just then, the zombies wandering outside spotted her. The living corpses moaned and shuffled over, their battered bodies twisting as they came.
"Damn it!"
Almost instinctively, Nina raised her pistol. A bullet passed straight through a zombie's head. She knew the man: he had been a senior detective at the police station. Now, his handsome face was a bloody mess.
The gunshot rang through the police station, immediately drawing the attention of the surrounding zombies. Soon, a large horde of living corpses was heading her way.
It was over!
The five bullets she had left wouldn't do any good. At least there were several sturdy alloy bars across the office window, so it would take the zombies some time to break in.
Just then, Nina saw something that seemed almost impossible.
Several rotting heads appeared above the zombies in the rear of the crowd, followed by a number of sharp pillars that she had never seen before, thrusting up through the ground. Seven or eight zombies were torn apart in an instant, their flesh scattered across the floor.
A disabled man, holding an absurdly long sword in one hand, cut his way into the horde. Like a cook chopping vegetables, he sent the more than fifty zombies straight to hell.
Only after the last zombie had been sliced into three pieces by the long sword did Nina get a clear look at the man.
"An Asian?" Nina, who often watched action movies, immediately thought of mysterious Chinese kung fu. She forgot that she had just thought of him as a "disabled man."
When she saw the Asian man, emanating murderous intent, walk toward her, Nina instinctively raised her pistol.
Police Glock Pistol, Attack 2–5, no threat!
Human, Strength 3, Agility 5, Mental Strength 4, Stamina 4, plot character, Occupation: Police Officer, infected with T-Virus, will mutate into a zombie in 23 minutes... no threat!
Eye of Perception instantly assessed the man's combat strength. With the Earth Fiend Set, Li Wei could stand still and let her attack him without suffering any harm.
He glanced at the wound on the woman's arm and chose to ignore her. She looked beautiful, but she would soon become a living corpse. Besides, she was just an unimportant plot character, not worth wasting time on.
His sword flashed, cutting the alloy bars blocking the window into several pieces. Li Wei climbed through the window into the room.
"Y-you, stop right there! I'm Detective Nina. If you come any closer, I'll shoot!" Seeing the Asian man barge into the office, Nina felt a little panic for the first time.
It wasn't the same as facing those zombies. They didn't radiate such a powerful killing intent. This Asian man was definitely no ordinary person.
And he could even use some kind of mysterious "magic."
Li Wei ignored her and kept walking. He needed to find the police station's data archive computer as quickly as possible and look up Dr. William's address.
"One last warning. Stop right there!" Nina fired a shot into the floor in front of Li Wei. A bullet hole appeared in the fine wooden floorboards.
This woman was interesting.
Li Wei stopped and looked at the white woman. She wasn't as sturdy as the typical Western woman. Instead, she was petite and delicately built, with well-proportioned features that suggested years of training. Her fair face, in particular, reminded him of a Greek goddess.
She was scared out of her mind but still putting on a brave front. Maybe he could help her avoid becoming a zombie.
Li Wei took out a bottle of medicine. It was a T-Virus Antidote, a reward Zheng Yutong had received after leading four newcomers out of Raccoon City. There had been three bottles in total, and Li Wei had asked for one. Now it would come in handy.
"You've been infected. If you don't want to die, drink this!" Li Wei didn't give her a chance to refuse. He simply put the medicine in her hand.
But his action had undoubtedly made the policewoman wary.
"Who are you? What's in this bottle? And how do you know I've been infected?" Nina fired off three questions in a row.
Fine, don't drink it!
Li Wei didn't want to waste any time, but after taking two steps, he turned around and walked back.
He had seen a new mission appear on his Guardian.
"Mission: Protect the survivor Nina, ensure her survival, and escort her out of Raccoon City. If Nina dies, 5,000 points will be deducted. Upon completion, receive one key to the Raccoon City Police Department armory. Plot character Nina will unlock 5% of the hidden 'Vampire' bloodline!"
Vampire bloodline? What was that about?
According to the explanation on the Yellow Paper, one of Nina's ancestors had been a powerful member of the blood clan. But after several generations, the bloodline had become dormant. If Li Wei completed the mission to rescue Nina, her bloodline would recover by 5%.
That sounded pretty good!
Besides, this was a mandatory mission. Li Wei had no choice but to accept it. Although 5,000 points weren't much to the now-wealthy Li Wei, he still understood that little things added up.
"A few days ago, I was a martial arts instructor at a Chinese martial arts school in Raccoon City's Chinatown. Now I'm just a survivor, like you. That's T-Virus Serum. If you don't want to turn into one of those disgusting monsters, drink it, then... come with me," Li Wei said.
Nina looked at Li Wei's missing left arm, then at the medicine in her hand. Seeming to make a connection, she immediately exclaimed, "Oh, I get it! You know those mysterious martial arts, right? And you somehow got your hands on this antitoxin. You were injured too, so you used it. Otherwise, you'd have become a zombie by now! Ha ha! That's great! I knew our U.S. government would have a way to deal with this crisis!"
Nina was cheerful and had a vivid imagination. Thanks to her own "deduction," she had managed to solve a problem for Li Wei. He stared at the pretty policewoman in amazement, then nodded.
"That's right. I just ran into government agents. They're already investigating the cause of this disaster. That's why I'm here, too. I'm Li Wei. Nice to meet you!"
"Nina. It's nice to meet you!"
They shook hands and formally introduced themselves. Li Wei thought that the policewoman might be able to help him.
"By the way, you're a police officer here. You must know where the computer that stores the citizens' records is, right?" Li Wei asked tentatively.
"Of course! Just tell me what you need to look up, and I'll help. Follow me!" After learning that the government had started dealing with the crisis, Nina had brightened up. And after drinking the antitoxin, she could feel that the wound had stopped rotting, which made her trust Li Wei completely.
The two of them walked down the police station corridor and into the computer room. The servers here stored the records of all the city's residents, including everything from birth certificates and health insurance accounts to purchase histories.
"Li Wei, just tell me who you're looking for!" Nina pulled out a chair and sat down. The petite woman flexed her nimble fingers and spoke with confidence.
Her pure, beautiful face made Li Wei stare for a moment. He thought that the bottle of antitoxin hadn't gone to waste. It would have been a shame if such a lovely young woman had turned into a zombie!
After Li Wei gave her Dr. William's name, Nina began typing away at the keyboard. Before long, a list of names appeared on the monitor.
"These are all the people who match the details you gave me. Take a look. There are thirty-two in total, but if we rule out anyone under twenty or over sixty, only sixteen meet the criteria. See which one it is!" Nina hopped out of her chair and gestured for him to take a look with a cheerful "After you."
It was only because the good news had reached her in the midst of despair that she was so happy. It was like a ship lost at sea suddenly spotting a lighthouse in the distance.
Looking at the names on the monitor, Li Wei began checking them one by one.
"Famous author? Published more than ten bestselling novels? Not him..."
"Professional baseball player, won the national championship three times? Not him either..."
"Fashion magazine editor-in-chief... a woman?" Li Wei turned to look at Nina. She lowered her head in embarrassment, probably realizing that she had been so excited she forgot to filter by gender.
"Sorry, I got too excited just now!"
Li Wei said nothing. He entered a few commands on the keyboard and immediately removed the female candidates from the list. Watching him, Nina covered her mouth in astonishment.
What Li Wei had just done was something only a computer expert could manage. Most police officers in the United States received professional computer training on the job, covering how to use different systems and search databases. It involved a large number of commands, and wasn't something a person could learn overnight.
But Li Wei had just flawlessly entered a whole series of complicated commands. He was only a martial arts instructor; he couldn't have received professional training from the federal government. That left only one possibility.
He had memorized every single thing he had just done. Nina was certain because the coding style Li Wei had used was the same as hers. As far as she knew, she was the only person in the entire United States who used that particular style.
What kind of person was he? In a few minutes, he had memorized those complicated commands and repeated them flawlessly.
Even the most skilled computer experts couldn't do that. Nina was sure that Li Wei had simply unconsciously memorized everything he saw. That was the only possible explanation.
"Now there's only one person who fits the criteria... He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's biology department, joined Umbrella Corporation five years ago, has a daughter, and his address in Raccoon City is..."
Li Wei memorized the address. Just then, Nina exclaimed beside him, "Mr. Li Wei, look! Look! More survivors are coming this way!"
(I've read all your comments. Thank you very much to everyone who shared their opinions and suggestions. An Hei will take your thoughts into consideration. The second update today is a 4,000-word chapter—generous, right? Please vote, bookmark, and tip!)
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