No Teaming Up

When Song Zhi woke again, she was inside a makeshift military tent. A glaring high-wattage incandescent bulb hung overhead, its light so bright she couldn't open her eyes. She instinctively tried to rub them, only to find her hands tied behind her back and her body secured to a battered wooden chair.

Once she finally adjusted to the harsh light, she saw five tall, fully armed masked mercenaries standing in front of her.

Call of Duty? The masked series?

As a seasoned otome-game pervert, she had once been tricked into playing a soldier. Unfortunately, she couldn't tell friend from foe and got 3D motion sickness, so she was terrible at the game.

"Don't try to escape. You've been captured! By convention, since we've captured you, we have the right to do whatever we want with you!" As a fellow countryman, Lu Yu was obliged to translate.

Captured? Being captured by five masked mercenaries can't be good.

"Fellow countryman, you know that in our country, the people's soldiers treat prisoners well... Besides, why did you capture me?" Song Zhi asked cautiously.

She tilted her head back to examine the five mountains before her one by one and couldn't help swallowing. They were all two meters tall, and even the sniper of East Asian descent had to be 1.88 meters. Every one of them was muscular, powerfully built, and armed to the teeth.

The man standing in the middle was probably the commanding officer here; judging by his insignia, he was a lieutenant. He wore a mask that exposed only a pair of azure eyes and half the bridge of his high nose. Blond and blue-eyed, he had the classic Germanic look and was of pure ancestry.

The soldier next to him was the one who had attacked her. He removed his tactical helmet, revealing dark brown hair and a deeply sculpted face with chiseled features. He was Italian.

Beside him was a Slav with blond hair and green eyes. His combat uniform was stretched taut over his well-developed muscles, and Song Zhi found her gaze drifting to his crotch, wanting to check something.

Hiss!

Having checked, she casually shifted her gaze to her East Asian countryman—or, more precisely, to his crotch...

Hiss!

My God!

The last was a Latino American soldier wearing an eye patch, a technical specialist. He never once looked up to examine Song Zhi, focusing instead on the screen of the instrument in his hands.

Song Zhi looked down at her own rather slender frame and could only pray silently.

"Whatever we want" was hardly reassuring. Song Zhi had seen too much... She was a captive, and a female captive at that. She knew what she would face...

But these five mercenaries were a little... She couldn't take it... They would fuck her to death!

Song Zhi was overwhelmed with regret! Why had she gone to collect that damned soil sample? And why had these mercenaries appeared in the deserted Zone C?

The American soldier said out of the blue, "The target's heart rate dropped noticeably when she looked at Lu. Her readings showed no fluctuation in response to him."

"Lu, stay and continue the interrogation. Everyone else, out," the lieutenant ordered coldly.

Lu Yu stayed in the interrogation room while the others filed out. Song Zhi knew they had to be standing guard outside.

"My name is Lu Yu. I was studying in Munich before the nuclear blast. What about you?" Lu Yu came over and sat in the chair opposite Song Zhi, keeping his tone as relaxed as possible.

"Song Zhi, a student at Southwest University of Medicine and Pharmacy. Before the nuclear blast, I was tied up in an underground hospital, waiting for someone to harvest my kidneys..."

Lu Yu: "..."

Song Zhi was good at killing a conversation. But she hadn't lied. A classmate really had tricked her into going to an underground hospital to have her kidneys removed.

"Why am I the target?" Song Zhi asked.

"Target is just a general term for objects and carbon-based life forms whose names are unknown. It doesn't mean anything else. I can call you Song now, or Song... Which zhi?"

"The zhi in gardenia."

"Mm, Song Zhi, how long have you survived here alone?"

"From the nuclear blast until you captured me."

"Were you alone the whole time?"

They had taken a sample of Song Zhi's blood while she was unconscious. Her genetic sequence didn't appear on any organization's roster, which meant Song Zhi was unaffiliated with all of them.

Before Song Zhi could answer, Lu Yu stared at his tactical tablet and read aloud, "First, don't be a saintess. Second, don't team up. Third, lie low whenever possible and run whenever you can. If all else fails, lie low while running!"

Song Zhi was startled. Those were the three rules of apocalypse survival she had written on the wall of her temporary shelter!

They had found her shelter!

Song Zhi's eyes dimmed. She had once considered joining an organization for protection, but a grown woman joining any organization had to offer the value she could provide as a woman. Their bodies were bargaining chips they used to trade for resources in the apocalypse.

But those chips would be appraised again and again! And then devalued!

"What were you doing in Zone c?" Lu Yu moved on to the next question.

"Collecting samples. Soil samples."

Lu Yu said nothing, gesturing for Song Zhi to continue.

"That used to be an experimental field for growing Chinese medicinal herbs. It was also my research project at university. A few days ago, I noticed the tips of green shoots there... You know, growing Chinese medicinal herbs isn't much different from growing food crops."

"You can't research that." Lu Yu closed the tablet in his hands, his tone firm.

"Maybe we could grow potatoes and sweet potatoes. They succeeded in the Ming dynasty..."

"There was no nuclear blast in the Ming dynasty, and that's not something you should be worrying about. You should be thinking about your present situation, fellow countrywoman!"

Lu Yu was giving her a well-meant reminder, because he had already received the organization's orders for dealing with Song Zhi on his tablet. Another squad had also finished searching her shelter, where they had found her small vegetable greenhouse.

Song Zhi was valuable, and the organization wanted to recruit her.

"You saw it. I don't team up." Song Zhi licked the corners of her chapped lips.

Lu Yu raised an eyebrow in disagreement. The orders didn't offer a second option.

"Unfortunately, you don't have the right to choose... Hiss!"

Just as Lu Yu was regretfully informing Song Zhi that she had no choice, she suddenly attacked, having behaved herself until then.

She had cut through the ropes behind her back at some point. She lunged at Lu Yu, crossed her legs around his waist, and scissored him to the ground while his guard was down. She slammed her forehead toward his nose, a blow guaranteed to break it.

"Hey! Calm down!"

Lying on the ground, Lu Yu pressed one hand against Song Zhi's forehead, trying to bring her to her senses.

Outside the tent, the American soldier holding the detector saw the readings on its screen climb rapidly. He sneered. "The target is in a rampage state. Her readings are extremely unstable, and she's good at disguising herself. Assessment value: minus twenty."

"Troublesome!"

Kelante spat out the word, pulled out a small remote, and elegantly pressed the green button.

"Ah!!!" A scream rang out from inside the tent.

An electric current shot from Song Zhi's neck, then coursed through her blood and struck her entire body. Enduring the pain, she reached for her neck and felt a collar. She didn't have to think to know it was a shock collar that restricted her range of movement.

"Fuck! A bunch of sneaky bastards!"

"Song, you should know that your second rule no longer applies..." Lu Yu seized Song Zhi and secured her to the chair again.

Song Zhi rolled her eyes weakly.

"I have to admit you're smart and strong, but our Group A isn't the only squad out there. There are eight special operations squads on this mission. Are you sure you can beat them all?"

Lu Yu's icy gaze bore down on Song Zhi. Cat-and-mouse games were for children, far too childish. The games adults played were fights to the death.

"What will happen to me if I end up in your organization?"

"It's relatively civilized, not as bad as you think... You're having a stress response. The sort of thing you're worried about is normal in such an extremely harsh survival environment..." Lu Yu abandoned his gentle approach and began a psychological offensive.

"It's relatively safe in K. We can offer other jobs, where you can work in exchange for resources to survive..."

"There are also plenty of women, from different places..."

The conditions Lu Yu described were admittedly tempting, but then his tone shifted, and he looked like a soldier-ruffian again.

"Of course, there are also some indescribable acts, but they all take place after two or more parties 'negotiate and agree of their own free will'..."

The last sentence was a threat.

"I was thinking, if it really comes to that, could I be a little picky? I should at least get quality and quantity." Song Zhi gave him an utterly contemptuous look, glanced at his crotch, and let out a loud wolf whistle.

Lu Yu: "..."

Outside the tent, the American soldier watched the target's readings gradually stabilize while Lu Yu's continued to climb. He furrowed his deep-set brows, then gave his verdict in the final assessment: target danger level-S-rank.