As the dark gate slowly rose, a thick stench of decay accompanied by the low panting of a beast flooded into the laboratory. Su Qing's mental defenses completely collapsed at this moment; she rushed to the glass wall regardless of everything, pounding hard on the reinforced bulletproof glass, her nails scratching out a piercing sound.
"Lin Xuan! Lin Xuan, I know you still care about me, right?!" Su Qing cried out, her once exquisite face now a mess of tears and snot. "I was wrong! I was really wrong! Xu Boda forced me! I love you! Let's get back together, okay? I can do anything for you! As long as you let me out, I'll be your dog! Please!"
She desperately squeezed her breasts, which had once left Lin Xuan infatuated, trying to evoke even a flicker of old affection. However, Lin Xuan on the high platform merely looked at her coldly, his gaze as if he were looking at a mass of rotting organic matter.
"Too noisy," Lin Xuan said faintly into the microphone. "Begin."
In the shadows, the Hunter suddenly lunged out. Its speed was like a bolt of red lightning, pouncing in front of Xu Boda in an instant.
"Aaaaah—Help! Stay back! Stay back!" Xu Boda let out a pig-slaughtering scream, crawling backward with hands and feet, leaving a long trail of yellow liquid from his crotch on the floor.
The Hunter did not bite his throat directly; instead, like a cat playing with a mouse, it extended its massive bony claws and gave a light swipe.
"Rip—!"
A chunk of flesh from one of Xu Boda's thighs was torn off completely, blood gushing out like a fountain, revealing the grim white bone.
"Ah!!!"
The intense pain made Xu Boda roll frantically on the ground, his shrill wails echoing in the enclosed space, making Su Qing's eardrums ache. She covered her mouth in horror, watching helplessly as the monster lowered its head, stuck out its barbed tongue to greedily lick the blood on the floor, and then bit down on Xu Boda's still-twitching calf. With a crisp "crack," the sound of bone breaking was clearly audible.
Standing on the high platform, Lin Xuan's face turned slightly pale. Although he had given the order, witnessing such a bloody and cruel slaughter firsthand still caused strong physical discomfort. He turned away, no longer looking at the hellish scene, only hearing the sound of chewing and the increasingly faint screams behind him.
A few minutes later, the laboratory fell silent. Except for the Hunter's heavy breathing, there was no longer any human movement.
When Lin Xuan looked back again, only a large, shocking pool of dark red blood remained on the ground, without even a single intact bone fragment left. Xu Boda and Su Qing seemed as if they had never existed, completely merging into the nutrients for this monster's evolution.
The Hunter raised its head then, its terrifying face without features facing the Super Soldier standing next to Lin Xuan. It seemed to sense the aura of an arch-enemy and a peer, letting out a provocative low growl from its throat, its front claws scratching the ground restlessly, leaving deep gouges in the special alloy floor.
"Hmph, vermin."
The Super Soldier crossed his arms and snorted coldly. The voice came through the heavy faceplate, carrying the disdain of the strong. Within the faction or on the virus's evolutionary tree, Super Soldiers and Hunters were inherently in competition, hunting one another.
Lin Xuan raised an eyebrow with interest: "code d, who is stronger between you and this monster?"
The Super Soldier turned his head, a flicker appearing under his faceplate, his tone full of absolute confidence: "Sir, for this kind of primary Hunter that hasn't grown up yet, I can take on three of them in hand-to-hand combat alone. Although its muscle density and reaction speed are decent, it lacks tactical thinking. In front of me, it's just a pile of moving rotten meat."
Lin Xuan nodded, gaining a clearer understanding of their current combat power.
"Very well, the house is considered cleaned." Lin Xuan straightened his collar, took one last look at the blood-stained laboratory, and turned to walk out.
Ling Jianqing and the Super Soldier followed closely behind. Ling Jianqing's electronic tablet recorded various data; she looked up, her cold and elegant face still maintaining professional calmness: "Sir, should Hope City be incorporated? According to intelligence, although the city has lost its main armed forces, there are still a large number of survivors, material reserves, and relatively complete defensive fortifications. If left alone, it will soon be swallowed by the zombie tide."
Lin Xuan stopped and thought for a moment. Although Hope City was a mess, its geographical location was good, and it had a large labor force, making it a perfect outer buffer zone and resource production base for F University.
"Have Chu Wenhai take two reinforced platoons of the Marine Corps to take over Hope City." Lin Xuan's tone was unquestionable. "Tell him that it will be under his management once it's taken. I don't want to see any resistance; anyone who tries to cause trouble is to be executed on the spot. What I want is an obedient base, not a trouble-making factory."
"Understood, sir." Ling Jianqing quickly issued the orders through the communication channel.
...
Half an hour later, on the outskirts of Hope City.
Several pitch-black infantry fighting vehicles and troop transport trucks full of soldiers roared into the territory that had just lost its master. The bright red Black Watch emblem on the vehicle bodies looked particularly eye-catching in the sunlight.
Chu Wenhai sat in the lead command vehicle, chewing gum, his sharp eyes scanning the surroundings. Beside him, Peregrine Falcon, who had just performed a great service, was wiping his rifle.
Peregrine Falcon reported to Chu Wenhai, "Although that idiot Xu Zhen took the main force away, there are definitely some guys in the city who want to fish in troubled waters."
Chu Wenhai nodded, spat out his gum, and spoke into the walkie-talkie.
"Listen up, everyone, enter combat status! Any target holding a weapon and refusing to surrender is to be killed without exception! If anyone hesitates out of soft-heartedness, I will personally blow his head off!"
"Yes, sir!"
The convoy broke through the decorative gates of Hope City as if entering an uninhabited land. The few remaining guards on the city walls, seeing this fully armed and murderous regular army, had long since thrown away their crude guns, kneeling on the ground with their hands raised, trembling.
"We surrender! Don't kill us! We're just trying to make a living!"
Almost without firing a single shot, Hope City was taken by Chu Wenhai.
Some survivors inside the city hid fearfully behind curtains, watching the fully armed soldiers in camouflage quickly take control of the streets, warehouses, and the City Lord's mansion. Originally, several small gang leaders who had been restless due to Xu Zhen's defeat immediately swallowed their little schemes upon seeing the dark muzzles of the armored vehicles, obediently lining up for registration.
Chu Wenhai strode into the luxurious office that once belonged to Xu Zhen, kicked aside the leather boss chair stained with red wine, and sat on the desk.
"From today on, this place is under the management of Black Watch," Chu Wenhai said to his subordinate officers. "Inventory the supplies, tally the population, and organize all available labor. Also, scrap all of Xu Zhen's foul rules; this place will implement military management from now on. Who dares to slack off will be sent to feed the zombies outside."
"Understood!"
Meanwhile, in the F University command center, Lin Xuan watched the screen showing Hope City being rapidly taken over and nodded with satisfaction.
[Hunter Setting Introduction: Hunters are products of the blacklight virus's modification, where the virus reassembles and repurposes organisms to become biological killing machines. Some Hunters can take on human (or humanoid) forms, while others are entirely non-humanoid.
Their intelligence ranges from animalistic to near-genius.
They are inferior to Prototypes and most notably lack the ability to assimilate and disguise themselves as human targets.
Except when directly ordered to cooperate by Greene, Hunters hunt flesh for themselves.
They will kill and devour each other if possible to increase their power and abilities. However, their primary purpose is to defend Greene and assimilate Prototypes.
Hunters are agile and ferocious; they complete their missions. They are biological mercenaries capable of any atrocity to get the job done.
They do not think in human terms and find it difficult to "relate" to a human perspective, even when with humans in moments of necessity.
Those with understanding may be cunning or even intelligent, but their weakness in understanding human reactions often causes difficulties for them.
They only worry about the Prototype "Alex Mercer" and the threat from "Black Watch," while humans and conventional military are considered irrelevant and non-threatening by Hunters.
Hunters all view the Prototype as a competitor for the "ultimate" position—a position second only to Elizabeth Greene herself—and they will do everything possible to destroy it. Hunters can infect targets with the blacklight virus, changing their form (in limited ways), and can assimilate and integrate the abilities of other Hunters into their own. — Data sourced from the Prototype 1 official manual settings]