Cooperation and Competition

Information scrolled rapidly across the display, and all six hurriedly looked down.

Unlike the scant information in the first exam, this exam's instructions were far more detailed.

This round's exam:

[Newborn]

New ideas are born from the corpses of the old era. Biological evolution is no different. Blue-green algae and the Black Death, war and the starry sky.

We are the breeding ground, we are the corpses, we are the nourishment. We become one.

Free Mode is currently active. You may freely choose to cooperate with or oppose other teams.

Team D38127 entered the exam 24 hours early. Rewards for this exam will be divided equally among survivors, with individual performance determining ratings (D-A).

First round exam type: Choice

1: ??? (Selected)

2: Find the scientist ???. Selecting this option will immediately earn you his trust.

Warning: Difficulty will be determined by the number of infections. Stop the virus from spreading as soon as possible.

Warning: The viral outbreak will begin after 36 hours. Time remaining: 12:59.

"Free Mode? There's another team!?"

He Zheng didn't even finish reading. His expression changed drastically when he saw there was another team.

He had assumed this exam's difficulty was scaled for seven people, but another team had entered too. They had even chosen their answer before his team arrived.

Not only that, there were no zombies in sight. They had arrived before the viral outbreak.

"An Ke, why did they get to enter early?"

Ye Lin asked, holding the communicator the system had given him upon entering.

According to the system's instructions, this device could contact the other team, but it could only be used twice.

An Ke hadn't expected this situation either. She froze briefly, then hurriedly explained:

"They entered early because they're weaker than us."

"Free Mode allows teams to attack each other, so to keep things fair, the system lets the weaker team enter first. The earlier they enter, the greater the gap between the teams. Conversely, the later a team enters, the stronger they are."

"So we should be a lot stronger than them."

Ye Lin frowned at her explanation. He tried using one of their chances to contact the other team, but the system informed him that they had rejected the call.

Rejected the call?

Looking at the red light glowing on the communicator, Ye Lin's eyes suddenly turned cold.

It looked like the other team had chosen to be their enemy.

Staying here would likely put them in danger.

Ye Lin looked up at the security cameras along the street. If he had entered first, he would have monitored every camera in the city, then launched an attack the moment the other team arrived.

Before he could warn everyone to be careful, something happened.

Several angry shouts, tinged with nervousness, suddenly came from nearby.

With the protective barrier gone, two police officers approached warily, raising their guns and aiming at them.

"Hands up! Hands up!"

The middle-aged officer leading them looked furious and alarmed. His nervous gaze darted between the corpse and the group, clearly taking them for the killers.

Ye Lin's expression chilled, and he instantly shot forward.

Moving like a blur, he kicked the sedan in front of him.

Boom!

With a deafening crash, the door crumpled. Under the tremendous impact, the Chevrolet sedan weighing several tons flipped into the air like a cannonball, then slammed down before the officers' horrified eyes.

Ignoring the pedestrians' screams, Ye Lin turned and rushed toward the sports car beside him. With a piercing screech of twisting metal, he tore its door clean off.

The sight left the white man inside gaping in terror, crying out to God as though he had seen a ghost.

Without a word, Ye Lin grabbed him and tossed him out of the car, then shouted to everyone:

"Get in and drive!"

Everyone was stunned. Leaving now was fine, but judging by Ye Lin's reaction, was staying here dangerous?

"Ye Lin, why don't we kill them and grab a few guns first? It's not like-"

He Zheng wanted to kill the officers for their guns. Before he could finish, Ye Lin drew his own gun and blasted the roadside camera apart.

"There's no time! Someone's watching!"

"If they find us, we'll be in danger!"

An Ke reacted fastest, jumping straight into the other seat.

"Watching? Who's watching us?"

Startled, He Zheng blurted out the question.

Seeing that Ye Lin had no time to answer, he stopped thinking and rushed toward a truck by the roadside, smashing its door apart with a swing of his axe.

Bang!

Noticing Hu Jia still standing there in bewilderment, he couldn't help cursing at him:

"What the fuck are you standing there for? Get in!"

As He Zheng kicked the driver out and sent him scrambling away, a flicker of pity crossed Huang Liang's eyes just as he was about to climb aboard.

He pulled a wad of cash from his combat uniform. Without stopping to consider whether it would be useful, he tossed it to the driver and climbed into the passenger seat.

"Everyone hold the fuck on!"

Once everyone was aboard, He Zheng shouted and floored the accelerator!

With a violent turn, the heavy truck weighing dozens of tons rammed straight into the sedan ahead.

Crash!

Its front end crumpled, and the sedan was brutally flipped onto its side.

After smashing a path clear, the two groups tore away amid blaring sirens like robbers fleeing a bank heist.

Fifteen minutes later.

Screech!

Crash!

The sports car skidded sideways. Ye Lin jumped out and frowned slightly at the truck that had plowed straight into the Manor's gates.

White smoke rose as He Zheng clambered awkwardly out of the cab, followed by Hu Jia, who kept dry-heaving.

"Haha, sorry, sorry. I'm not much of a driver."

Brushing dust from his clothes, He Zheng grinned at the three people who had nearly been jolted into vomiting.

To lose the cops, they had raced all the way here and driven straight into a neighborhood of villas.

But after laughing, he couldn't help looking at Ye Lin. He still didn't understand why they had to run.

"Ye Lin, who did you say was watching us?"

"We left in such a hurry we didn't even get any guns! If the zombie outbreak starts soon, we're in serious trouble!"

Ye Lin glanced at everyone's puzzled faces and got straight to the point:

"The other team was watching us."

"They rejected our call, and they haven't contacted us once since we arrived. That means they're up to no good."

"Entering 24 hours early gave them plenty of time to set up a plan against us."

"If we'd stayed where we were, they could have found us through the surveillance cameras at any moment and launched an attack."

"Attack us?"

"Why would they do that?"

He Zheng instinctively questioned him, even more confused after hearing his explanation.

"Ye Lin, aren't they weaker than us? Judging by how early they entered, those little shits are C-rank at most."

"They should be grateful we're not going after them. Would they really have the guts to come after us?"

"That's exactly the problem."

Ye Lin shook his head, his eyes shifting thoughtfully.

"They're weaker than us, yet they dared to reject cooperation. That means they must have gotten their hands on something that makes them confident they can kill us."

"Since option two earns us the professor's trust, option one most likely earns the trust of the military or high-ranking government officials. My guess is the military. Otherwise, they have no reason to be so confident."

"With military cooperation, they could easily blow us up with missiles."

"After all, the rewards are split equally among survivors. If it were me, I'd strike first too."

Everyone's expressions changed. If that was true, hadn't they nearly died back there?

And now they would not only have to find a way to stop the viral outbreak, but also face attacks from the military and the other team?

"Ye Lin, if that's really the case, we can contact the military too."

"We have special abilities. Demonstrating them could earn the military's trust. We can also tell them that both teams have the same mission: stopping the viral outbreak."

"That way, we can use the military's strength to lower the difficulty and avoid being hunted down."

Ye Lin fell silent. Looking at the somewhat naive Huang Liang, he sighed.

It worked in theory, but not in practice.

"Huang Liang."

"If I were them, I'd tell the military that we were spreading the virus. The moment we showed ourselves, they'd attack and make sure not even our bodies remained. With the system helping them, the military would obey them unconditionally."

"So contacting the military would only get us killed faster."

After saying that, Ye Lin ignored the stunned expression on the young man with the crew cut.

The other team might not control every military unit, but he wasn't going to gamble on that possibility.

If anything went wrong, they would all die.

"Then aren't we screwed? Never mind their military support-what if they picked the right answer? What do we do then?"

He Zheng's expression darkened as he recalled the previous exam.

If Ye Lin hadn't chosen the other answer, they would have almost been wiped out.

"You don't need to worry about that."

An Ke gave a bitter smile and offered a brief explanation.

"Whether an answer is right or wrong also depends on our strength. They might survive an option that would kill us, and vice versa."

"But this exam is a survival type. If they really can command the military to eliminate the zombies, that benefits us too."

"I'm just worried about whether we can withstand attacks from both the military and the zombies once the outbreak begins..."

An Ke sighed after finishing. Everyone felt the pressure mounting. None of them had expected this exam to turn out this way. They had thought they only needed to deal with zombies, not humans too.

"No, that's not what we really need to worry about."

Disagreeing with An Ke's assessment, Ye Lin frowned slightly and spoke before the others could turn to him in surprise:

"The gap in difficulty between the two teams is too large."

"We don't just have to face zombies. We also have to evade attacks from a third party."

"But they have it easy. With an army at their disposal, they can eliminate us with ease. They can also use that army to stop the zombies from spreading. But the difficulty is scaled for fourteen people, not just us."

"The system is fair. It wouldn't let them clear the exam so easily."

"So."

Ye Lin's expression grew grave as he enunciated each word:

"This exam very likely contains a trap."

"And that trap is connected to the military."

"They most likely chose the wrong answer."

"Who are you? Get out! This is my Manor!"

"You damn yellow monkeys! How dare you smash my gates!"

Suddenly, furious, alarmed shouts rang out from inside the Manor. A middle-aged man in a bathrobe was raising a double-barreled shotgun and cursing at them.

Behind him, several staff members who looked like security guards hurriedly grabbed stun batons and surrounded them.

Annoyed at having his thoughts interrupted, Ye Lin frowned and looked straight at He Zheng.

"Just leave one alive."

"You got it!"

Already irritated, He Zheng grinned at the men who had no idea what they were getting into, then charged straight at them.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Gunfire erupted, mixed with screams.

Ye Lin paid no attention to how the fight would turn out.

A few seconds later, after repeatedly reviewing the exam information, he carefully tapped option two.

Beep. E99067 has selected option two.

The information on his wristwatch instantly refreshed.

The previously obscured name slowly appeared:

Find the scientist Carlton.

"Carlton?"

Ye Lin repeated his name thoughtfully.

He looked up at the blood-soaked He Zheng approaching with the wealthy businessman in his grip, then raised his wristwatch.

"He's our target now."

"Carlton, the anthropologist."

"Barring any surprises, he should know how to stop the viral outbreak."

"Mmph...!!"

On a sofa in the Manor's main hall.

Looking at the wealthy businessman trussed up before him, Ye Lin motioned for He Zheng to remove the rag from the man's mouth.

He turned the laptop around and pointed at the densely packed information on its screen.

"Now I'm giving you two choices. One, use every connection you have to find him for us within two hours, and find out whether there's been any unusual military activity in the past twenty-four hours."

"Two, your children are adorable. I wouldn't mind sending all of you to hell together."

"Who the hell are you!? Don't kill me! Whatever money you want, I can give it to you! If you kill me, you'll definitely go to prison!"

The businessman stared at him in utter terror, trembling all over. When he looked at He Zheng, it was as though he were staring at the devil himself.

He had watched this man take two bullets head-on. Yet those bullets, powerful enough to kill a wild deer, had been pushed out of the monster's body within seconds, drawing only a few drops of blood.

Then the man had turned around and cleaved his bodyguard in half with a single swing of his axe!

"Prison?"

"He Zheng, break his hand."

Ye Lin shook his head. Apparently, the man still wasn't thinking clearly.

After casually giving He Zheng that instruction, he began examining the businessman's business card.

Only after a piercing scream did he raise his head and point his dagger at the businessman's eye.

"I know who you are. A member of the MZ Group's board of directors, and a legislator, too. You certainly have plenty of influence, but you won't get the chance to see me go to prison."

"I'll count to three. Either die or make the calls. Don't try to contact anyone for help, and don't even think about lying to me. Otherwise, I'll gouge out your eyes and stuff them into your mouth."

Behind him, Huang Liang silently walked out of the hall. He knew desperate times called for desperate measures, but he still couldn't accept this kind of behavior.

Ye Lin glanced at the young man with the buzz cut as he left, unconcerned.

There were only eleven hours left until the world's "destruction." If it would make things easier, he wouldn't even mind dropping a few nuclear bombs.

"Three..."

"Two..."

"I'll call! I'll call!!"

"Ten million! I said I'd pay ten million to find him! I don't care who he is. Get everyone looking for him! No, whoever finds him gets a hundred million!!"

"Go! All of you, get out there and find him! You goddamn pigs! Useless trash!"

Ten minutes later, on the Manor's balcony.

"Ye Lin, what are you thinking about?"

"Are you thinking about how we should get rid of the other team?"

Leaning against the edge of the balcony, An Ke looked at Ye Lin's back in confusion.

She could sense that Ye Lin seemed even more wary this time than he had been last time.

"No."

"They don't really matter. The scenario is what matters most."

Ye Lin said softly,

"I'm wondering where the zombies are."

"So far, I haven't found any information about suspected infected individuals."

"So, ten hours from now, how exactly will the zombies appear?"