Prelude to Disaster

Ye Lin looked toward the distant road, doubt flickering in his eyes.

"Suppose they've earned the trust of the higher-ups. Then all they need to do is stamp out the source of infection immediately, and the virus will have a hard time spreading."

"How would that even count as a zombie crisis?"

"And..."

As he spoke, Ye Lin raised his wrist and scrolled down to the fifth line of information.

"What kind of difficulty would warrant a Grade A reward?"

An Ke froze. A powerful sense of unease suddenly welled up inside her.

"Maybe, maybe it just means the difficulty could reach Grade A? The rewards range from Grade D to Grade A. We might not get that far."

Ye Lin said nothing. He merely looked up at the sun.

The sunlight was dazzling, blazing bright.

But perhaps soon.

A downpour would come.

Thames Tower.

Dense tangles of barbed wire covered its pale green exterior.

Behind the barricades, soldiers gathered in groups, parking armored vehicles beneath the building in rows that formed a wall of steel.

On the tower's top floor.

A young man with sunken eyes and Western features stared coldly at the officer before him.

"Didn't I tell you to launch a missile strike the moment you spotted those seven people in unusual outfits?"

"How did you still let them escape!"

"I'm sorry, Lord Frank. They appeared right on Central Street, and there were too many civilians at the time..."

Before the pale-faced officer could finish explaining, flames sprang to life in Frank's hand, and he viciously pressed it against the man's face.

"Aaaaaah!!"

An agonized scream instantly rang out through the spacious office. Ignoring the man's desperate struggles, Frank kept burning him until his skull cracked apart, then extinguished the flames without expression.

Looking at the government officials kneeling all over the floor, Frank felt his irritation reach its limit.

"A bunch of useless trash! You can't even find a few people. Your world deserves to be destroyed!"

Before Frank could stride toward them, the office door suddenly swung open.

"Frank, enough!"

"If we can't find them, then we can't find them. If we fail, we won't be able to withstand their retaliation! They're much stronger than us!"

"I keep thinking we should be trying to cooperate with them!"

Looking at the bodies scattered across the floor, tortured to death and even "folded" into grotesque shapes for amusement, Roger clenched his fists, anger flashing in his eyes.

Frank was the only "veteran" on their team who had survived four exams, so he had become their captain.

Perhaps something had driven him over the edge. Whenever he encountered NPCs in an exam, Frank would torture and kill them without restraint.

After entering this exam, he had gone even further, using the privileges granted by the system to order the entire country to serve him. In just twenty-four hours, the number of officials and women who had died at his hands had already reached double digits.

"Cooperate?"

Frank looked at Roger as though he were an idiot.

"What do you think makes this exam difficult? The system gave us the chance to choose first, then gave us all this time to prepare."

"If it wasn't so we could deal with them, do you really think we'd get such a good deal?"

Pointing out the window, Frank's eyes filled with derision.

"Look downstairs. We can command an entire army now. Even if zombies break out, they won't pose any threat to us. Even in the worst case, if they can't stop the zombies, we can hide in the basement."

"That place can withstand artillery fire. Who else do you think our enemies could be?"

Unlike when he dealt with the other team members, Frank's mocking words carried a trace of wariness in his eyes.

Roger was their most outstanding newcomer. After surviving two exams and receiving enhancements, he was only slightly weaker than Frank.

Roger fell silent. Only after a long while did he speak in a low voice.

"But that doesn't mean we have to kill them! We're all the same kind of people!"

"With a fourteen-person difficulty, we shouldn't be slaughtering each other!"

"Idiot!"

Frank laughed in fury and raised his watch.

"Slaughtering each other? If we don't kill them, they'll definitely kill us! Don't forget, the rewards for this exam are split equally! The more people die, the higher the rewards!"

"As soon as we find them, we can have the army blow those idiots to pieces! Do you have any idea how much we stand to gain?"

Frank's eyes brimmed with brutality. It felt as though a fire had ignited inside him, burning him into restless agitation.

They had entered early and even been given the "privilege" of commanding the entire army. If he didn't make good use of that, he deserved to die! As long as he killed those people, he could get a wealth of resources and survive a few more exams!

"But didn't you say that unless it's a team battle, killing people doesn't give you rewards?"

"Even if..."

"Weapons! Equipment! We can steal all of that! Once they're badly injured, we can capture them! Hold them until the exam ends, and we can force them to hand over their points!"

He couldn't be bothered to waste any more words. Looking at Roger's "cowardly" behavior, he could only think that these newcomers were far too naive.

"Enough. Don't bother thinking about contacting them. Take a look at their IDs."

"An ID starting with E means they've been through no more than three exams! How do you think he got so much stronger than us?"

"Even if he earned every bonus point in each exam, that would only be twenty or thirty per exam."

Frank snorted and held up three fingers.

"At most, I make you hand over a few points. But that guy must have killed his teammates in at least three consecutive exams! Otherwise, there's no way he could be stronger than a Grade C like me."

"I understand..."

Roger fell silent. After wrestling with himself for a while, he still went along with Frank's wishes.

He loathed the man before him, but Frank had extensive experience. He had no choice but to listen.

Looking at the communicator in his hand, Roger could only give up. The zombies still hadn't appeared. Just as Frank had said, the only possible source of difficulty was the other team.

"I'll go get things ready. Since we need to contact a lot of countries, the conference we requested will take another three hours to arrange."

"The video has been made to your specifications too."

As he walked out the door, Roger looked at the bodies littering the floor, all tortured to death. A flicker of pity crossed his eyes.

"Frank, I hope you'll restrain yourself a little. They're people too... If you keep doing this, there'll be problems no matter how much authority the system gave me."

"Heh."

"We're saviors! Gods! They're just a bunch of NPCs, and you're actually treating them like people?"

"Once the zombies break out, they'll be even more obedient!"

Ignoring Roger's advice, Frank walked over to the trembling Government Official and grabbed her by the head.

She wasn't beautiful, but he relished the pleasure of trampling on those in power.

He liked the Death Exam. He liked this world where he could do whatever he pleased.

He narrowed his eyes and looked out the window.

The blazing sun hung overhead, its light dazzling.

Everything... was so wonderful.

The Manor, 2:21 p.m.

"Ye Lin! We found him! We found that whatever-ton guy!"

He Zheng rushed upstairs, his face alight with excitement. An Ke followed behind him, seemingly wanting to say something.

Standing before the world map, Ye Lin turned and corrected him helplessly.

"It's Carlton."

"How far is he from here?"

"A fair distance. A little over a hundred kilometers, at a university. But maybe we could steal a plane and fly there? Or have that rich guy arrange a helicopter?"

He Zheng was excited. He had never flown a plane before.

But a moment later, Ye Lin flatly rejected his idea.

"It's too dangerous. We can confirm that the other team already controls the military."

"If they spot us, we won't even be able to escape aboard a plane."

Looking at the computer on the table, Ye Lin's eyes grew grave.

Just as they had previously surmised, although there had been no official announcements, the road restrictions indicated that large numbers of troops were stationed around Thames Tower.

Barring any surprises, that was where the other team was.

"Ye Lin, should we deal with them first, then?"

An Ke stepped forward and pointed at the tower on the map.

"As long as we can get inside, with our strength, killing them all would take a few seconds at most."

"If that doesn't work, we could use poison. I found a supply route that serves this tower exclusively."

A ruthless glint flashed through An Ke's eyes. He Zheng couldn't help turning to look at her.

An Ke looked like an ordinary young girl. Though years of dance training had made her slightly more mature than others her age, the ruthlessness in her words surpassed even his own.

Ye Lin shook his head. He had also considered dealing with the other team first.

But judging by the information he had found, they had very likely split up. Troops had been deployed to two locations.

Thames Tower was very likely bait.

"The virus is about to break out. If they've split up, even forcing our way in and killing one group won't help."

"Our priority is to find Professor Carlton. Once we have the key information, we can look for a chance to kill them."

An Ke fell silent, then sighed.

"Then we'll have to drive there, and in separate groups."

"I'm just worried that once the zombies break out, they'll be safe under military protection and still have the resources to attack us."

"Yeah, Ye Lin. What the hell do we do if they get a few missiles and bomb us? I was thinking we could claim a place for ourselves, but now we're stuck hiding like rats, afraid to even poke our heads out."

After speaking, He Zheng glanced downstairs, where crates of ammunition and rifles were piled into a small mountain.

They had "bought" plenty of weapons from the wealthy businessman, but most were small arms. The heavy firepower He Zheng had been dreaming of was nowhere to be found.

According to their plan, they should have seized a military base, but under the current circumstances, doing so would make them sitting ducks.

To their surprise, Ye Lin shook his head and turned to head downstairs.

"I'm not worried about that. If they turn out to be our biggest threat, that would actually be the best outcome for us."

Following behind him, He Zheng froze, completely unable to understand what Ye Lin meant.

"The best outcome?"

"Yes."

Ye Lin nodded.

"I've been thinking about one question."

"Why did the system give us the option to cooperate? Why give them such a huge advantage?"

"They have an army at their disposal, so they don't need to worry about zombies at all. Once they kill us, they can farm points without restraint. The difficulty would be extremely low."

"But a fourteen-person difficulty would never be that simple."

"So letting them control the army is very likely a trap designed to make them abandon cooperation."

"I suspect the problem lies in the information each side received. If we don't cooperate, neither side can get the complete exam information. That would lead to mistaken decisions and cause the difficulty to skyrocket!"

Ye Lin let out a soft breath, his heart weighed down.

Following that logic, there was only one possible answer.

With the army's "help," the other team would make an irreversible mistake. In that case, even if they killed Ye Lin's team, the remaining difficulty would soar to Grade A!

He tightened his grip on the communicator.

He had already tried contacting the other team more than a hundred times, but not one call had connected.

He had also considered contacting the military to find them, but the moment he made the call, the other team could trace the signal and pinpoint their location.

What could they do that would make the difficulty skyrocket? What is the real danger in this exam?

Newborn. Why Newborn...?

On the Manor's ground floor.

"Ye Lin, what do we do with this guy?"

With two rifles on his back and grenades hanging all around his waist, He Zheng pointed at the wealthy businessman tied up on the floor and asked Ye Lin.

The man had been reasonably cooperative. To save his own life, he had actually found Carlton within two hours, saving them a great deal of time.

"Don't kill me... Don't kill me! I've done everything you asked!"

"A hundred million, no! A billion! Give me some time, and I can raise the money...! I'll pay you whatever you want!"

Nothing mattered more than his own life.

Ye Lin glanced at the desperately pleading businessman and simply waved a hand, signaling for He Zheng to knock him unconscious.

"Knock him out and lock him up. Oh, right, give him the medicine first."

As soon as he finished speaking, Huang Liang suddenly jumped out of the vehicle, unable to hold himself back.

"Ye Lin! We've already gone too far! The zombies are about to break out. Doing this is as good as killing him!"

"So you know the zombies are about to break out too?"

Ye Lin turned to look at the furious Huang Liang and couldn't help chuckling.

"This whole world is about to perish. Wouldn't he die even faster if he went outside?"

Shaking his head, Ye Lin climbed into the truck bed. After a moment's thought, he casually tossed a handgun in front of the businessman.

"Behave yourself, and you'll live a little longer."

"Let's go."

"You got it!"

He Zheng grinned at Huang Liang, who opened his mouth, wanting to say something but not knowing what. He walked over and patted him on the shoulder:

"Listen, Little Crewcut, you're way too much of a bleeding heart. Sure, that makes you a decent teammate, but why can't you get your head around this?"

"Some things are better accepted sooner rather than later."

"Ye Lin might seem ruthless, but he's actually pretty easygoing. You haven't seen the other teams. Those people will do all kinds of deranged shit just to blow off steam."

"Cannibalism, murder, **, and the really twisted ones even grab a severed head and keep going until they * the brains right out."

He Zheng exaggerated his expression, but even he felt a little sick after saying it.

An Ke said nothing, only nodding at Huang Liang.

That was right.

Under the pressure of the Death Exam, many people could no longer stay sane. To vent their fear, some had become things that could no longer even be called human. And the further they went, the worse it would get.

The carriage swayed. In the darkness, An Ke curled up in a corner.

She often wondered whether, if they ever escaped this hell, they would still count as human-or as "gods."

Would the real world

become the next hell...?