Who knew that as soon as he walked out the door, James ran into an old acquaintance—his past life's Dragon Flame Goddess, Emma.
"Why is she looking for me?" James was taken aback, but seeing Emma in uniform and with a serious expression, he couldn't help but speculate, "Could she be here to investigate me?"
"James, we suspect you are involved in a murder case. We hope you can come with us," Emma said expressionlessly and coldly. However, she was somewhat puzzled inside, thinking, "He's just an ordinary person. There's no way he could be Steelman, nor could he have the ability to kill Liam."
James quickly raised his hands, deliberately showing a flustered look, and said with a bitter smile, "Please don't wrong an innocent person. I haven't gone anywhere these past few days."
This made Emma even more puzzled, but she still said coldly, "Whether you are innocent or not, we will investigate thoroughly."
So, James went to the security office again and was questioned thoroughly. Fortunately, James had strong mental fortitude and insisted that he was at home sleeping that night, even showing the video surveillance from his villa's living room.
The security team had no evidence and could only release James.
Before leaving, Emma escorted James to the security office entrance. Her expression softened considerably, and she said, "Mr. James, thank you for cooperating with our investigation. You may leave now."
James quickly nodded and was about to turn around when suddenly a shout came from behind. James felt a gust of wind coming from behind and almost instinctively wanted to retaliate, but he stopped himself.
He saw Emma maintaining a kicking posture, her slender foot silently stopping three or four inches from the back of James's head. Her long legs were captivating, perfectly outlining her stunning figure.
"You...what are you doing?" James pretended to look back inadvertently and was suddenly "shocked," dodging to the side and exclaiming, "Captain Emma, what is this?"
As he spoke, James's gaze followed Emma's foot up her calf, thigh, and hips, finally landing on her face. He couldn't help but praise in his heart, "So beautiful."
Emma could easily see the path of James's gaze and immediately became colder, shouting, "Leave now!"
"Alright, leaving, right away." James ran off in a flash.
Behind him, Emma watched James's back and thought to herself, "He seems to be just an ordinary person. Steelman shouldn't be him. But then, who could it be?"
Meanwhile, after returning home, James drove his pickup truck to Arnold's place.
James drove through the eastern part of the city, noticing that there were almost no security officers on the streets, but he did see several instances of vandalism and arson.
"The security team is also starting to struggle," James thought heavily. Everything was just like his past life. The security of society would continue to deteriorate, and the darker side of human nature would gradually be unleashed. At the same time, some international countries would start wars, and humanity would face its first major decline.
While James was driving to Arnold's place, Arnold had just settled his daughter and then went to his wife's workplace—Carol Pharmaceuticals Group.
Unfortunately, he was stopped by security at the entrance.
"Selene left work normally yesterday but didn't come to the office today," the security personnel, now two armed middle-aged guards instead of the old man, told him.
"Left work normally yesterday?" Arnold's heart sank. Leaving work normally but not returning home overnight in this world filled with mutant beasts—any fool could guess what happened.
"Selene..." Arnold felt as if a heavy stone was pressing on his chest. Memories of happy times with his wife flooded his mind, and even this iron-willed man had wet eyes as he squatted at the company gate and cried.
After crying for a while, Arnold stood up slowly. He didn't believe his wife was gone and still wanted to search for her. But just as he turned around, through the thick fog, he suddenly saw a group of people flashing by in the distance, then disappearing into the fog. Among them, a figure in a red dress caught his eye.
His wife had been wearing a red dress when she went to work yesterday!
"Selene, Selene!" Arnold called out, and a cry for help came from the fog, followed by silence.
This cry was like a spark, instantly igniting Arnold's entire life force.
"Selene is not dead, Selene is not dead!" Arnold was about to rush into the building, but the two armed guards immediately pointed their guns at his head and shouted, "Get lost!"
"You..." Arnold calmed down instantly and shouted, "My wife is in there! What have you done to her? Let me in!"
The two guards looked at each other, and one even prepared to pull the trigger. Seeing this, Arnold quickly said, "No, I made a mistake, I made a mistake."
"Get lost!" the guard shouted.
Arnold retreated, but his face gradually became serious.
James's car had been parked downstairs at Arnold's building for a while. He had knocked on the door but received no response, so he decided to wait.
After waiting for more than half an hour, James saw a figure emerging from the fog and smiled, "Here he comes!"
Arnold saw James walking towards him with a smile and immediately became vigilant. He had just had a gun pointed at his head, and his nerves were still tense.
"Arnold!" James greeted.
Arnold took a step back cautiously, his hands slightly lowered, his legs bent a little, ready to spring into action at any moment.
James noticed Arnold's posture and felt even more satisfied, thinking, "Arnold hasn't let his skills go to waste."
"Who are you? Do we know each other?" Arnold said coldly.
James shook his head with a smile and repeated what he had said when he first met Henry, "We will know each other in the future."
Arnold frowned. His wife had been taken by Carol Pharmaceuticals, and he was worried. He had no time to chat with a stranger.
"Arnold, let me be honest with you. The world has changed, and I need partners. You are the first one," James got straight to the point.
"You might think I'm joking, but I can prove to you that I'm not an ordinary person," James said, glancing around and spotting a row of round stones not far away. Each stone, about half a meter high, was used to block electric scooters from entering the pedestrian pathway and weighed about a hundred pounds each.
Under Arnold's puzzled gaze, James walked to the stone and suddenly kicked it hard. The impact sound was so loud that it startled Arnold, who instinctively prepared to attack James.
But he saw the hundred-pound stone fly up and land seven or eight meters away, shattering into four pieces.
"This..." Arnold was dumbfounded. Kicking a hundred-pound stone like that—is that humanly possible?
Arnold's eyes lit up instantly. He needed to save his wife, and with James's help, he might even be able to storm Carol Pharmaceuticals.
"Now you believe me, right?" James clapped his hands and looked at Arnold.
Arnold said nothing, still contemplating whether to ask James for help.
James saw Arnold's hesitant expression and said, "Arnold, if you have anything to say, just say it."
Arnold's eyes lit up at these words, and he explained the situation at Carol Pharmaceuticals, highly suspecting that the company had some unspeakable secrets.
James knew exactly what Helicopter Pharmaceuticals was planning. Henry had just taken a potion from James and was likely analyzing its components to develop a generic drug. In peacetime, Helicopter Pharmaceuticals had risen by making generic drugs.
However, the zombie virus and mutant beast X virus were different. They only worked on humans, so during their experiments, Helicopter Pharmaceuticals used humans for live testing.
"Helicopter Pharmaceuticals is probably planning to conduct live virus experiments," James said. Arnold was shocked and became even more anxious.
James thought for a moment, took out his phone, hesitated for a moment, and for the first time called the number Tremp had given him.
Only Tremp could handle this; even Henry might not be able to.
"Hello," Tremp's secretary answered the phone.
James was surprised that Tremp hadn't answered himself. He quickly explained the situation to the secretary, requesting Tremp's help in rescuing Arnold's wife from Helicopter Pharmaceuticals and providing her name.
Arnold watched James make the call, feeling like he was dealing with a fraud. But rationally, he knew Helicopter Pharmaceuticals wouldn't cooperate with James to deceive him, and he had nothing worth deceiving for.
On the other end, the secretary politely hung up and quickly knocked on Tremp's office door.
Two minutes later, the secretary called back, telling James to pick up the person at the Helicopter Pharmaceuticals entrance.
James nodded, feeling that the world was indeed dark. Perhaps it had always been this dark, and the apocalypse only brought it to the surface.
Did Tremp know about Helicopter Pharmaceuticals? As a core figure in Lakeview City's power structure, if he didn't know about such a vicious incident happening under his nose, he might as well pack up and leave.
So, did other top officials in Lakeview City know?
But had anyone come forward to stop it?
James suddenly felt that only ordinary people like Arnold didn't know about these things.
"Let's go, pick her up at Helicopter Pharmaceuticals. Today's events, keep them to yourself, understand?" James felt a bit disheartened and gave Arnold a rare stern look.
Arnold's heart skipped a beat, startled by James's imposing gaze. But thinking of his wife being safe, he was thrilled and quickly nodded in agreement.
"I'll go upstairs and get my child." With everything resolved, Arnold