Chapter 35 - Knight

Wen Han-yuan only felt a chill in his body. He desperately opened his eyes and stared at the approaching crowd of corpses. Despite countless commands from his brain urging his body to move quickly, his knees and legs felt as heavy as lead, unable to muster any strength.

Hearing is never as good as seeing the truth. The descriptions of the terrible virus in the data and files are far from the reality.

"Faster, there's no time left--"

The roar like thunder completely awakened the deputy foreign minister from his fear-filled dream. Looking at the fierce and ferocious zombies opposite him, he spat fiercely, and quickly rushed westward towards the road.

Lin Xiang ran intentionally at the end, but his black eyes were always watching Hogan at the other end of the team.

He felt keenly that the German colonel seemed to know something.

Fang Yu-jie's breathing became heavier and heavier, and the rapidly consumed oxygen could no longer maintain her body's intense movement. Despite her efforts to keep moving with mechanical steps, the bloodstains in her eyes began to spread. The pressure from her lungs made her heart beat at a terrifying rate, and the rapidly circulating fluid in her blood vessels made her feel that she was burning invisibly and losing her final consciousness.

"Come on, don't give up--"

Lin Xiang caught up from behind, stretching out his strong arm into her elbow and dragging her tired body quickly forward. At that moment, Fang Yujie felt a rock-like solidity.

She realized for the first time that there was a man she could rely on, and that was great.

Countless zombies roamed the square, capturing all lives that could be prey. Tourists and pedestrians who could not escape were dragged into the crowd of corpses, tearing pieces of fresh meat from their intact bodies. The screams and moans of the dying became the only sounds here.

On the road, several blue and white painted police cars were lined up. More than ten police officers in black uniforms aimlessly aimed their guns at the approaching zombies, unconsciously making various threats and intimidation.

"Everyone stand still for me--"

"Do not approach, or I will shoot--"

"Hands behind your back, stand there and don't move--"

The dense corpses swarmed from all directions, their mouths wide open, exuding nauseating yellowish-green fluid. Their only consciousness was the desire for flesh. The crowd approached the road, and perhaps unwilling to let their prey escape, the slow-moving zombies suddenly erupted with surprising mobility. They clawed and crawled over the obstacle of police cars, grabbing and biting the panicked police. The vibrations caused by bullets piercing their bodies had no effect on them. In this unequal slaughter, humans were always food.

"Ah-" the noise and female screams from behind, Lin Xiang instinctively leaned over to look - a zombie fell on top of Fang Yujie, its virus-covered teeth already biting into a palm-sized piece of flesh on her snow-white shoulder. Lin Xiang leaned back, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger. The thick bullet roared and crashed into the zombie's head, violently tearing its soft contents, the narrow skull compressed the bullet, releasing all its energy in the explosion, and exploding into countless fragments under the dull noise.

"Hold onto my shoulder-"

Lin Xiang's face changed, he held Fang Yujie's shoulder, mobilized every muscle fiber in his body, and, like a fierce panther, jumped out of the zombie's encirclement.

The unique sound of the mechanical device echoed within the Parliament building, and with the teeth-aching friction of gears, the walls of the building's rooftop corners began to retract, revealing dozens of electronic machine guns manipulated by mechanical arms. Under the guidance of infrared beams and optical sights, the powerful 35mm caliber shells began to sweep towards the dense mutated creatures.

Experience from two World Wars has given German military designers a special understanding of war. Concepts of solidity, strengthening, ferocity, and accuracy are fully reflected in all their works. The Parliament building, serving as an emergency shelter, has also become a temporary fortification.

The armored protection panels on the ground floor have been raised, and even close-range attacks using armor-piercing heads will not have much effect on the overall defense system. Moreover, the dead's greatest dependence is only their teeth and bodies.

The building's basement warehouse stores a large amount of food, enough for over a thousand people to sustain for more than two months. The clean water system connected to the underground canal ensures that people are not thirsty. Although the building's security personnel are only over fifty, they have hundreds of guns of all types and ample ammunition. As long as they defend themselves, the besiegers outside cannot enter.

All members of the delegation are lying on the floor in the southeast corner of the hall, panting heavily. Completely relaxed nerves and muscles greatly reduce the consumption of oxygen. The fatigue of the body is gradually disappearing, but the fear in the heart is slowly occupying the entire thinking space.

Fang Yujie leaned against the wall with a blank expression, her silky hair cascading down her face, hiding her white complexion like paper.

Lin Xiang half squatted behind her, carefully raising her shoulder, where the military uniform had already been torn apart by blood, and cutting off the entire sleeve with a sharp surgical scissors. The sofa next to it was filled with various medical instruments and medicines from the emergency room in the skyscraper.

"Don't waste time. Give me a bullet, it's better than anything." Feeling the pain and coldness transmitted from her back skin, Fang Yujie's clear face showed a despair like death.

Lin Xiang silently picked up a bottle of acid electrolyte solution and used tweezers to clean the torn wound with medicine cotton. The light yellowish red dirt flowed down from the snow-white skin and was soon absorbed by the nearby cloth, leaving only a dark wet mark.

The white bandages were quickly swapped between the chest and back. Occasionally, Lin Xiang's fingers would touch the tall chest, although there was no obscene or obscene component, it still made Fang Yujie's face blush and her breathing become rapid.

"Don't let me become that horrible monster. Kill me--" she would rather endure physical pain than become a host controlled by the virus.

She shuddered thinking about the humans who had been infected by R12.

Lin Xiang walked over to her, slowly crouched down, and poked her left hand with a blood collection needle, squeezing out a drop of dark red blood from the round finger tip, slowly bringing it to her mouth and commanding in an unquestionable tone, "Swallow it."

The slightly salty taste spread quickly on her tongue, and the saliva secreted in her mouth quickly diluted this strange substance. Fang Yujie was a little dazed, she who always thought highly of herself would never do something as morally reprehensible as licking someone else's blood. But for some reason, when that crystal-like droplet of blood flowed into her mouth, she followed the young officer's words unconsciously and swallowed it into her throat.

Hogne sat emotionlessly on the wall pillar opposite, with blood-red eyes like a hawk. The finger of his left hand held tightly to his knee was wearing a delicate silver ring, with a bright white circular base, engraved with a fierce black skull.

"Are you from the Skull Knights?" Lin Xiang walked over and sat next to him, calmly asking.

The middle school colonel hesitated, then coldly replied, "Aren't you? You can deceive others, but not me. I can sense that special closeness in you. You and I are both parasites, just like each other."

"That's right! But I'm not a Skull Knight." Lin Xiang stretched out his palm without any jewelry: "Can you tell me the secret in your heart?"

Upon hearing this, the colonel's face immediately showed a look of extreme pain.

...

Hogen was a pure soldier.

If viewed through the eyes of Emperor fetter during the feudal era, he could have become a brave knight. In fact, as someone who inherited noble bloodlines, he has always demanded himself with strict and rigid standards. In his own words: "Although there is no king in this era, it does not prevent me from using my whole life to defend this country."

The first time he heard the word "parasite" was two years ago, during a joint military exercise by NATO.

Along with more than five thousand German soldiers, Hogen also underwent cell transplantation. In the end, only he and two other officers survived.

The unknown virus completely changed his body. His fragile skin was as hard as steel, his muscles swelling instantly to produce great strength, he became more agile and his mind reacted more quickly. In the words of the testers at the time, "A common one-star parasite has a comprehensive strength of over twenty times that of a normal human."

Hogen clearly remembers the time when he fought against a "Leopard III" C-type tank in the testing field, and his fist easily broke through the armor of several tens of centimeters thick steel. It was at that time that he received a silver ring engraved with a black skull.

"The Skull Knights" is a mysterious organization. All members are measured by rank to determine each other's strength. With Hogen's strength as a two-star parasite, he only received the rank of ensign. This made him feel both awe and surprise. According to this calculation, how terrifying must the strength of a general be?

To be honest, Hogen does not like this hidden organization in the dark. But he cannot abandon the ring on his hand. According to the high-level of the Knights, any country guarded by the Skull Knights will not be punished by the "Wrath of the Fire."

Hogen always didn't understand the meaning of this phrase. It was not until the widespread virus transmission from Argentina that he suddenly realized it.