Military Headquarters, New Federation of China.
Early in the morning, the sun hadn't risen yet. But the people inside seemed busy passing by like working ants.
The holographic projection in the middle of the hall kept showing scenes of some humans attacking, biting and devouring each other, bloodied, and screaming as if it was a cheap horror movie. Only it wasn't a movie. It was a reality.
Five hours ago, at 9:00 p.m., the scenes were coming from Wenham City.
Warnings of a virus leak had spread throughout the New Federation of China. The military departments throughout the country were getting busy.
"What the hell are these?!" A young man, probably in his mid-twenties, stood in the middle of the hall. Examining the footage within the holographic projection, his falcon-sharp eyes flickered dangerously.
"Ever seen a movie called Resident Evil? The plot of this movie seems to be unfolding in this city, Major Su Lei. But those creatures look interesting, how about you go and catch a few for me to study?" A brash comment came from the middle-aged man dressed in a scientist white lab coat beside the young man. His long gray hair covered most of his face, white light reflected on his glasses.
"Professor Hakein! Please watch your language."
The young major, known as Su Lei, stared at the scientist who slowly walked up to him. His unbelievable comment echoed through the hall.
"Are you angry? Well, you're an A-rank Esper with flame control ability. It's normal for you to have such a fiery temper. But Major Su Lei, I'm serious." The scientist' dull grayish-black pupils behind his glasses reflected some hidden emotions. "They reported this disaster is tentatively determined to be a chain infection caused by a virus contaminating the city's water supply. Once infected, the person will become extremely violent and starving, and the food they… ah, no, I should say their food is the flesh of a living person."
At this point, the scientist called Hakein pushed his glasses up closer to his eyes. And spat out a terrible fact after a moment of silence. "If we don't blockade the city as soon as possible, the whole world would suffer the same fate."
"Where did these viruses come from?" Su Lei's sharp eyes looked like they were about to pierce the scientist.
"Hey, I wouldn't dare to do something that made me the enemy of mankind. Although I did rely on your ministry's help to get a few prisoners and did some similar experiments. All of which have failed, of course." With a bit of lust in his voice, Hakein pointed to the screen of a zombie ripping man to shreds. "There is no way to save the inhabitants of this city. How about leaving the city to me? Maybe I'll be able to tame these fascinating creatures."
Evolving them into powerful, bloodlust, murderous creatures. A race made as a killing machine.
"Professor! Shift your research interest away from humans!" Su Lei put on his military cap on top of his head and turned to leave the hall, "I'll save this city myself! I will quell in this disaster!" "Ah… the promise of one of the six A-rank Espers in the New Federation of China sounds sweet. But Major Su Lei…" Hakein pointed to the screen that kept projecting the scenes that happened all over the city. "If we can't deal with this matter as soon as possible, it looks like the New Federation of China's going to have a few more A-rank Espers… I mean monsters!"
Those zombies, they're evolving.
Su Lei said nothing and silently walked away out of the military headquarters.
..............
"Tch!"
Afternoon, in a residential neighborhood.
Lucius sat in one of the rooms, biting his thumb and saw the scene displayed on the computer screen. He had drawn all the curtains in this room. As a vampire, the sun would burn him.
"They reacted too quickly. Those New Federation losers still got some power."
The Internet was still available. And the information regarding the disaster in Wenhan City spread all over the country just overnight. The authorities couldn't even hide it even if they wanted to. It became the major headline of every newspaper.
'Virus leak', 'Real-life Resident Evil?', 'Armageddon', 'God's punishment for mankind'. These headlines were all about what was happening in the middle of this city.
"Ah, humans… This is only the beginning."
What Lucius was more concerned about was the country's treatment of the city. They regulated a blockade policy. In just one night, high walls were built on all major passageways and exits in and out of the city. They were guarded by heavily equipped soldiers. If someone wanted to leave the city, they had to be tested to see if they were the virus carrier or not. And the infected ones would be shot to death.
Last night, Lucius had dumped the virus into the water supply channel, and the first batch of infected people appeared about ten minutes later. He didn't get despair points from the first batch since they were infected through the contaminated water. Who would despair if they choked to death on water? But once the second batch of infected people appeared, a large number of despair points flooded him. Watching a family member, lover, or friend who once had been close to them turned into a monster that attacked them mercilessly, which would definitely make everyone die in despair.
"System."
Lucius called out the World Extermination system in his mind.
[The host has chosen the Black Light Virus extermination method. The current number of Level 1 infected life forms is 73.462, Level 2 infected life forms is 1, and Level 3 infected life forms are not detected. Overall, Extermination progress has reached 32%.]
Humans were stubborn. Just one infected city wouldn't affect anything. Just one is not enough, it seemed like he needed to put more efforts to infect the whole world.
His primary goal now was to break through the walls surrounding the city guarded by the army and let the virus spread. The Level 2 Infected was probably the evolved infected life form. If Lucius wasn't wrong, it was probably the hunter that he had injected the virus directly from last night. Where was that creature now, Lucius had no idea. Now that he had accumulated some despair points, Lucius couldn't care about the one evolved infected lifeform.
[Despair points: 50,789.]
A whole 50,000 worth of desperation! That means more than 50,000 humans had already fallen into despair and died, and then turned into Lucius's army of the dead.
"Good, now I can redeem something good." Lucius couldn't help but smile at the thought. O high and mighty humans, soon enough, you will have what you deserve.
Lucius wasn't in a hurry to strengthen his abilities. Vampires were a race that could evolve. This was his main focus. He must carefully plan his direction of evolution. True, the despair points he had accumulated by now was plenty, but it won't be enough.
It was just… right now, Lucius craved for something. He was thirsty, Lucius touched his stomach. Indeed, he had sucked blood last night. But as it wasn't a virgin's blood, the taste was bland, and Lucius couldn't drink much. Ah, he needed to hunt for a meal.
Although he could just exchange for fresh blood in the system, Lucius prefers sucking fresh blood straight from a warm human body. Right now, he was craving for it. Thirst was among his reasons, but the other reason was that this room was filled with the scent of fresh blood.
This was an ordinary resident house. But last night a terrible tragedy had taken place in this ordinary-looking house. The people living here were a family of three. Lucius stood up from the computer desk, following the blood scent from the living room, and stopped at the kitchen door. He looked at the blood scent source.
"Grrr…."
The sounds of bones and meat being chewed and swallowed were especially loud in this silent room. Lucius half crouched down to inspect the scene closer. Two adult corpses were lying in the kitchen. The corpses were in a horrible state. Pools of blood surrounded the corpses, both of the corpses' bones and internal organs were visible. In this state, it was impossible to tell which one's female or male. And among the corpses, a petite body was having…
Having dinner today…
Lucius watched as the figure kept eating. Its pale arms grasped the flesh bits and gobbled it into its own mouth. It was a young girl around 7 or 8 years old, with long black and shiny hair. Her white dress stained with blood and dirt. Looking at her appearance, she seemed like she was a good child before her transformation just now.
Ah, transformation…
"You're still a good girl." Lucius' hand stroked her hair. The young girl's pupil had turned milky white. Blood splattered across her petite face, flesh bits were dangling from her mouth.
"Is your mom and dad delicious?"
Lucius had found this scene when he arrived here. He estimated that the daughter drank the infected water and turned into a zombie, killing her unguarded parents. They would never have thought that their once sweet child would suddenly go crazy and bite them, right? But now, she had eaten most of her parents.
The young girl didn't answer Lucius. She had lost every fragment of her sanity and turned into a mindless monster who only knew how to devour human flesh.
"I'm a vampire, I'm dead, so you're not interested in me?" Lucius sniffed the strong smell of blood and really couldn't help but want to dine with this young girl.
Although it would be nice to dine with the cute young girl, Lucius was a vampire, not a ghoul. He don't consume corpses. Eating corpses was something Lucius still couldn't do.
"Huh?" Lucius's keen sense of hearing suddenly sensed that there seemed to be footsteps in this residential area's corridors. They weren't zombies... but living humans.
Lucius stood up and slowly walked to the door, using his cat-like eyes to see the movement in the corridor.
There were three people in total, two men and a young girl. The girl was dressed in a high school uniform, maybe around 17 years old. But most importantly, she's a virgin.
Lucius covered his mouth, his bloodthirst rose sharply.
The tall man leading the team was holding an assault rifle. He got a vicious look. It's obvious that he had shot and killed people before.
Lucius was defenseless against a bullet, let alone rifle shot bullets.. but he was thirsty! Lust spread within his eyes as he looked at the frightened young girl.
After some time, there was silence, only the sound of the little girl's chewing sound. Suddenly, he realized something.
"Do you like young girls?" Lucius smiled wryly.