Avian mutation

"What's the captain grinning about? He hasn't stopped smiling all morning."

Yu Jingjing linked arms with Ye Ruan and whispered, "Has... has the captain gone crazy?"

Ye Ruan held back a laugh and shook his head, saying he didn't know.

Earlier, Big Gray Wolf had gotten so excited that he turned back into a wolf and tipped his head back to howl, but Ye Ruan had grabbed his muzzle to stop him.

Gu Cheng was practically buzzing the whole way. Only when they reached the building where the noise had come from last night did he stop.

"Come here, baby." Gu Cheng held out his hand.

Ye Ruan was happy too, jogging over with a spring in his step to take Gu Cheng's hand.

Yu Jingjing: "..."

Li Rang: "..."

Guess the two of us were dead.

Yu Jingjing huffed. "Little Ye Ruan, I want to hold hands too."

Not to be outdone, Li Rang said, "Me toooo~"

Gu Cheng said, "Get lost."

Just as they entered the lobby of the office building, Hu Fu came toward them.

"Captain Gu? What brings you here?"

Gu Cheng smiled. "Nothing much. What floor did you sleep on last night, Director?"

Hu Fu looked worried. "The first floor."

Yu Jingjing asked, "Does anyone live on the third floor?"

"Yes, a few of the ladies who do the cooking." Hu Fu asked tentatively, "Is something wrong?"

Gu Cheng said, "Nothing major. Some noise upstairs woke us up in the middle of the night. We were worried something had happened, so we came to check."

Hu Fu gasped and panicked. "Please don't tell me some monster got in!"

Gu Cheng patted Hu Fu's shoulder. "Don't worry, sir. If there's anything here, we'll take care of it. Head outside for now, just to be safe."

Hu Fu nodded hastily. "Of course, of course!"

They made their way up to the third floor. The corridor ran down the middle, with rooms on either side. It was morning, when everyone should have been getting up, yet the place was unusually quiet.

Without speaking, Gu Cheng made a few hand signals.

Yu Jingjing and Li Rang went to check one side.

Gu Cheng took Ye Ruan's hand and headed down the opposite side of the corridor.

Some of the rooms had their doors wide open and were empty.

Other doors were shut, but they could look inside through the windows.

Yu Jingjing and Li Rang soon returned and shook their heads at Gu Cheng.

Only the room at the far end, next to the shared bathroom, remained. From where Ye Ruan stood, he could see that its door was closed.

Before they could do anything, a strange sound suddenly came from that room.

Listening closely, it sounded like a bird flapping its wings.

A suspicion formed in Ye Ruan's mind almost instantly.

City H had all kinds of hybrid monsters and zombies, but no flying birds. That had been the one piece of good news.

Avian monsters would mean they could fly out of City H and spread the virus farther afield.

Then it really would be the end of the world.

Ye Ruan drew the gun tucked into the back of his waistband.

If it was an avian monster, they had to kill it.

Gu Cheng had reached the same conclusion as his bunny. He soothingly ruffled Ye Ruan's white hair and went over first.

Ye Ruan followed close behind.

They instinctively slowed their breathing, watching the door warily.

Gu Cheng put his hand on the handle and opened the door without hesitation.

The instant the door opened, the heavy stench of blood hit them, followed by a shrill bird cry!

Ye Ruan darted into the doorway, the dark muzzle of his gun aimed into the room.

Sure enough, it was a Level Three Monster.

It had a human head and a bird's body, with a wingspan of nearly two meters. Its two talons resembled a vulture's, planted in the blood-soaked room.

The blood covering the floor had already dried and turned black. Red strands of flesh still dangled from the monster's mouth.

Its bulging, gray-white eyes abruptly locked onto the little bunny. Beating its wings, it lunged at Ye Ruan in the doorway!

Ye Ruan narrowed his eyes, aimed at the monster's forehead, and pulled the trigger!

The avian monster collapsed before it could even make it through the doorway.

A nauseating mixture of red and white oozed from the bullet hole in its forehead.

Gu Cheng praised him. "You didn't even need to aim. You fired the moment you saw it. Amazing, baby!"

Ye Ruan accepted Gu Cheng's awkward flattery.

Shooting had been the most important part of his training. He had started handling guns as a child.

After more than a decade, even a pig could have learned.

There was no one left alive in the room, but Gu Cheng spotted a birdcage hanging on the balcony.

The cage door was wide open, and the room's window hadn't been closed either.

Gu Cheng reasoned, "The pet bird probably went hungry because no one was looking after it, flew outside, and came into contact with a zombie."

"Then it flew back before mutating and bit one of the kitchen ladies?"

Yu Jingjing couldn't be bothered to think. "Yep, yep. That must be it."

"Whatever happened, let's put another couple of rounds into it."

Ye Ruan fired two more shots into the monster's head.

The thoroughly dead monster smelled foul and looked disgusting.

Ye Ruan was about to step inside to check the room again when Yu Jingjing stopped him. "It's filthy in there. That pile is guts, right? Don't go in."

Gu Cheng had a good idea of what Ye Ruan was worried about. "Don't worry. Mutated monsters can't reproduce. That was the research institute's conclusion before we came here."

Yu Jingjing reached out and pulled the door shut. "Let's leave it at that. We're leaving in a couple of days anyway, so there's no need to clean up. It's so disgusting in there I'm about to throw up my breakfast."

No one could blame her for feeling sick. Who knew how many people the monster had eaten last night? Entrails and blood covered the floor, and even the bedding was soaked through with blood.

What looked like a mangled head had been discarded in the corner.

"Yes, exactly! Let's go." With no work to do, Li Rang ran off faster than a dog.

Gu Cheng brushed his fingers over Ye Ruan's soft, fair cheek. Knowing what was on his mind, he said gently:

"How about this? You should have a poison gas grenade. They're highly corrosive. Toss one in."

The military's specially made poison gas grenades were powerful, but the gas would dissipate within two hours. It was perfect for this situation.

Ye Ruan took one out of his Storage Wristband. Gu Cheng took it, pulled the safety pin, and quickly tossed it inside. Then he shut the door and strode away with his bunny.

Behind the tightly closed door, the avian zombie's blood flowed across the room, soaking into the quilt that had fallen to the floor.

Thick white mist from the poison gas grenade spread through the room. The weeds in a flowerpot on the balcony instantly withered and turned yellow the moment the fumes touched them.

A strange sound came from the tangled quilt on the floor. Nestled inside it was a bird's egg the size of a fist!

They left the dormitory building.

Hu Fu said miserably, "Captain Gu, three of the kitchen ladies are missing. They never showed up at the cafeteria this morning."

Gu Cheng nodded. "They're dead, but we've dealt with the zombie. Tell everyone to stay calm. What we need to do now is get used to sudden incidents like this as quickly as possible."

Hu Fu wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes. "If only I'd let them quit a few months ago. Maybe this wouldn't have..."

Gu Cheng wasn't very good at comforting people, so he stepped back and let Yu Jingjing take over.

Yu Jingjing sighed. "Sir, you can't look at it that way. Staying here actually kept them alive longer. You have no idea what it's like outside now. It's not your fault those ladies died. It's all fate."

"Today it was them. Tomorrow it might be you, right? Try to take it in stride..."

Ye Ruan listened with a complicated expression. Sensing that Hu Fu was on the verge of a breakdown, he hurried away from the group.

The Printing Factory had decent landscaping, including a pond and a wooden bridge.

Lotus season was long over. Withered yellow leaves now drifted across the pond's murky surface.

Li Tuantuan, the ringleader of the children, was running back and forth across the bridge with Ren Fei'er and several other surviving children.

As soon as Ye Ruan approached, all the children crowded around him.

His legs immediately acquired several little cling-ons.

Ye Ruan gently stroked each child's head with his soft, pale hand.

"What are you playing?"

When he spoke to children, Ye Ruan's voice became even softer, with a hint of babyish sweetness.

Ren Fei'er beamed. "Red light, green light! Will you play with us?"

"No!" Li Tuantuan rubbed her chubby cheek against Ye Ruan's leg.

"I want a hug! Ye Ruan, pick me up!"

"I want a hug too!"

"Give me a kiss!"