"Stay sharp. The second stage forces teams to hunt one another for scrolls. Someone might already have their sights on us!" Chieko Inada warned her two rowdy teammates.
"Chieko, you're overwrought! we just stepped into the Forest of Death. How could we run into another squad this fast?" Kazuhiro Moriya replied, resting his head on his arms with a look of pure indifference.
The Forest of Death was large, but it wasn't that large. How could a bunch of Genin move that quickly?
As Moriya indulged in his dismissive thoughts, he failed to notice the tiny black insects crawling over his clothes in increasing numbers. Suddenly, the trio felt their eyelids grow heavy. With a synchronized series of soft thuds, they collapsed onto the forest floor and drifted into a deep, peaceful slumber.
"Looks like we didn't even need to lift a finger." Ren Kurogane spoke with a hint of helplessness. He had expected to actually contribute during the scroll hunt, but Shibi's kikaichū were too efficient. A single 'sleep bug' had rendered the opposition defenseless without any of the other three needing to engage.
"Relax. In this exam, only two teams pose a real threat: Team 6 with Shikaku Nara and Inoichi Yamanaka, and Tsume Inuzuka's squad. The rest aren't in our league," Shibi stated flatly.
"We have the scrolls. Let's make a break for the Central Tower!" Minato commanded.
The four shadows blurred through the trees. In just half a day, they arrived at the Central Tower. The area was deserted; they were the first team to arrive.
"We have two and a half days left. Let's rest up," Ren suggested. "There's a combat round following this. If we don't perform well there, we won't make Chunin."
The second stage had been so easy it felt almost farcical.
"I need to load up on snacks!" Choza declared, tearing into a bag. "If I lose to Inoichi, he'll never let me hear the end of it. I need to store up energy for the fight!"
Ren pulled out a sealing scroll and returned to his study of the Four Symbols Seal. Minato, meanwhile, produced the notes for a new technique Ren had recommended: the Flying Raijin Jutsu.
The Flying Raijin wasn't a forbidden technique; it was simply notoriously difficult to learn. Through some subtle prodding of Lady Mito, Ren had obtained the training methods. Lacking the specific spatial talent himself, Ren had passed the notes to Minato.
As the man who would one day make the technique legendary, Minato had felt an immediate affinity for it. After only a week of study, he was already able to draft his own unique formula mark.
The Zombie Brother World
"Ren! Something's going wrong outside!"
After a long day of work, Mu Tiancai and Ren were sitting down for hotpot. Because Ren knew the approximate window for the virus outbreak, he had stopped using tap water six months ago. From cooking to bathing, they used bottled purified water. It was an expensive habit, but with Ren's current assets, it was a manageable cost.
Through the window, they saw chaos on the street below. People were lunging at each other, biting.
"Are they filming a Resident Evil reboot?" Mu Tiancai joked.
"The crisis has begun," Ren said, dropping his chopsticks with a grim expression. "Tiancai, get to the underground lab now! The world isn't going to be safe anymore. We need to empower ourselves as quickly as possible!"
"Huh? What's happening?" Mu Tiancai was still confused, baffled by his friend's sudden intensity.
"No time to explain. Just know that the core for our 'God Gene' is finally here!"
They hurried to the lab. Ren pulled out his phone and dialed his cousin, Bai Xiaofei.
Ring... Ring...
After a few rings, Bai Xiaofei picked up.
"Yo, Ren? What's up, bro?" Xiaofei's casual tone crackled through the speaker.
"Listen to me carefully: Do NOT drink the tap water! Pack your bags and bring your girlfriend to my lab immediately! Do it now! If you wait, it'll be too late!"
On the other end, hearing Ren's deadly serious tone, Bai Xiaofei dropped his playful smirk. He turned to Xiaowei, who was preparing dinner. "Honey! Pack the bags. We're going to Ren's place!"
Since realizing his cousin was the legendary Bai Xiaofei, Ren had kept in constant contact. Over the years, they had built a strong rapport. On Ren's advice, Xiaofei and Xiaowei had moved in together six months prior; though they still had separate rooms, it was better than being miles apart when the virus hit.
In the kitchen, Xiaowei frowned. "What's going on?"
"I don't know, but Ren is a genius scientist. If he's this serious, it's big!" Xiaofei grabbed a few changes of clothes and hurried his girlfriend out of the apartment.
For safety, Ren had ensured they rented a place close to his villa. As they reached the street, they saw the first "Corpse Brothers"—infected individuals tearing into pedestrians. The sight of blood spraying across the pavement made their skin crawl, and their pace quickened to a sprint.
They reached Ren's villa without further incident. Because the outbreak had just started, the density of infected wasn't high yet. If they had waited until morning, they would have faced the nightmare scenarios from the original story.
"Seriously, what is happening?!" Bai Xiaofei asked breathlessly as they entered the underground lab.
"As you can see, someone poisoned the water supply. H City has fallen," Ren replied, his eyes glued to a computer monitor.
He and Mu Tiancai had already begun extracting the unique substances from the tap water. In this project, Ren was effectively the lab assistant to Mu Tiancai's lead. While Ren had studied biology since high school, he couldn't hold a candle to Mu's innate genius. Mu Tiancai headed the God Gene research; Ren handled the grunt work.
Looking at the dizzying array of data on the screens, Bai Xiaofei frowned. "What are you guys doing?"
His mind raced toward a dark possibility. For a second, he looked at his younger cousin with a flash of dread.
"Researching the virus source," Ren answered casually. "We're trying to decode it and synthesize a serum."
Synthesizing a serum was indeed a step in their process—better to have it and not need it.
Hearing this, Xiaofei breathed a massive sigh of relief. He had truly feared his cousin was a mad scientist who had accidentally leaked the virus himself.
"Alright then. Your sister-in-law and I are going to rest and get some food. Call us when you're done. We rushed over here so fast we haven't even had dinner~"