TWP 17: Mobius

“So, what’s going on here?” Kay stared at Lin You and Cole with a strange look in her eyes. “What exactly is their relationship? Isn’t Cole supposed to be a dangerous experimental subject? Why do they seem to be flirting?”

Recalling Cole’s earlier words to her, Kay found the interaction between these two men increasingly bizarre.

“You’ll see even stranger things in Reid,” Vian remarked calmly, glancing at them. “Mr. Lin You claimed he could control Cole—it seems that wasn’t just a rumor. But I think you should focus on more pressing matters right now.”

“Perhaps you should first try contacting the military,” Vian suggested, holding up her radio. “My comms are down.”

“We need to figure out what caused that explosion or find a way to call for help. In our current state, forget about approaching that High-level Assimilator—we can’t even get into Gowei City.”

Xia Zuo also raised his nonfunctional radio. “My comms are dead too. Your turn, Major Kay.”

Kay clicked her tongue, too preoccupied to question how they’d hidden functional radios during the search. She attempted to contact the base but found her radio equally useless.

Remembering the massive explosion and the Zombie horde they’d just survived, she kicked the stone wall in frustration. “Damn it.”

Vian, a Reid guard by nature, had always distrusted Kay as a government officer. She watched Kay’s agitation with thinly veiled impatience before grabbing her shoulder.

“Pull yourself together,” Vian said coldly, gazing into the distance. “Major, we need to secure reinforcements. But first, answer me this—isn’t the camp we just left only two hours away by vehicle?”

“Yes,” Kay took a deep breath, frowning. “About twenty minutes by helicopter.”

“If it’s that close… have you seen any soldiers coming to rescue civilians?”

Kay froze. As she followed Vian’s gaze, she noticed the Zombie horde had receded, leaving behind scattered corpses and the thick metallic stench of blood in eerie silence.

No movement whatsoever—

“…How?” Kay steadied herself, realizing the abnormality of the situation.

“Where are the soldiers?” She scanned the surroundings before standing rooted to the spot.

The chaos had prevented her from noticing earlier—the ground wasn’t just littered with civilian remains but also the mutilated bodies of soldiers.

She pressed a hand to her forehead as if unable to process the scene. Then she remembered—before the bridge explosion, countless soldiers had been conducting rescue operations there too. They’d all been obliterated…

If the nearby base hadn’t dispatched rescue teams despite the proximity… did that mean neighboring bases might also be under attack?

And who could be behind all this?

“It’s Reid,” Lin You broke the silence with a grave voice.

“This explosion destroyed the main artery connecting Gowei City to Nework City. If government bases were also attacked, Reid is likely involved.” Lin You signaled to Xia Zuo with his eyes. “This is based on evidence—Reid is currently exterminating Gowei City’s citizens.”

“On the surface, they cooperate with government soldiers to evacuate survivors from Gowei City, but in reality, Reid doesn’t want to take responsibility for it.”

“They don’t want the existence of the Virus to be discovered, so silencing witnesses is the best approach.”

Kay looked shocked, while Xia Zuo remained silent, nodding. Even Vian agreed with Lin You’s reasoning.

“Yes, we’ve been receiving orders from Reid to eliminate Gowei City’s survivors,” Vian said, brushing her hair aside. “Even those who escaped the city—we’ve been tracking them down and dispatching assassins…”

“This time, I was assigned to guard Mr. Lin You, but I also received orders to kill Gowei City’s citizens on sight—no exceptions.”

“Oh, and one more thing.” Vian shrugged, flashing a charming smile. “If I successfully encounter an Assimilator from Gowei City, I must assist Reid in retrieving them. Afterward, I’m to oversee and kill Mr. Lin You.”

Lin You turned to look at Vian, who waved her hand dismissively. “Mr. Lin You, we both understand Reid’s higher-ups’ intentions. I follow assigned missions, but I won’t throw my life away for them.”

“Oh? I wasn’t aware Cole and I were disposable to Reid.” Lin You raised an eyebrow with a faint smile. “If what you’re saying is true, why would you switch sides so quickly? What do you mean by ‘throwing your life away’?”

Vian returned the smile, about to respond, when Kay interrupted—

“If… Reid wants to kill Gowei City’s citizens…” Kay glared at the four from Reid, but quickly composed herself. It wasn’t just because she couldn’t take on four alone—more importantly, they needed to cooperate to escape their current predicament.

She needed to extract Reid’s true motives from them first.

“If Reid wants to silence everyone, then why send you into Gowei City and detonate the main artery along with our vehicles?” Kay asked, her voice low.

Vian took a step forward, scanning the group before chuckling. “Isn’t it obvious? To retrieve the High-level Infected. Can’t you tell? Reid doesn’t care about the other citizens—they want the more successful Virus Assimilators. Once they’re recovered, Gowei City will be abandoned. I already knew the main artery would be blown up, but I didn’t expect it to happen while we were passing through.”

“When I received the escort mission, I was also informed that after retrieving the High-level Assimilator, Xia Zuo and I would personally confirm the detonation of the bombs implanted in Mr. Lin You and Cole’s necks before returning to Reid. Only then would the main artery explode.”

“The reason I’m kept alive for now is to use me as bait to capture that High-level Assimilator, right?” Lin You calmly glanced at Vian, then at Xia Zuo.

“Exactly,” Vian nodded. “And we’ve already planted bombs at the government military camp. Any one of the three guards left behind—whether it was me or the others—would’ve detonated them to destroy the base. So if no reinforcements are coming, that means the other guard, Gary, must have succeeded in his mission.”

“What did you say?” Kay could no longer maintain her composure upon hearing Vian’s words. Furious, she grabbed Vian by the collar. “You destroyed the base?”

“Yes. And we’ll frame it as the government’s own explosives meant to wipe out Gowei City—only they accidentally blew themselves up instead.” Vian smirked coldly. “In other words, Reid will pin everything on the government. Even if the authorities reveal that Reid created the Virus, no one will believe them. It’ll only fuel public outrage.”

“Because the government also invested resources into Reid’s Virus,” Lin You’s icy voice came from above Kay. “Reid plans to drag the government down with him—and through slander, no less.”

Kay’s eyes widened in disbelief. She then turned her head sharply to glare at Lin You as if he were a deranged murderer. No—these people treated lives as worthless. They were killers to begin with.

“Don’t look at me like that. Do you think we enjoyed this?” Lin You coldly pushed Kay’s hand away and set Vian back on the ground.

“So why did you defect? You said your life was also in danger, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t know the car would explode,” Vian murmured, lowering her gaze. “And originally, all three of us guards were supposed to return to Reid in that vehicle. So why was there a bomb planted underneath it?”

“Whichever guard completed the mission would’ve been blown up anyway,” Xia Zuo replied calmly. “Even though we can’t reach Gary, I suspect he’s probably already dead.”

“How could there be a bomb in a government military vehicle?” Kay snapped.

“How could there not be? Didn’t it just detonate?” Vian sneered. “Reid has people inside the government forces—that’s hardly surprising. Of course Reid had a way to plant the bomb. Or are you suggesting the government put it there?”

“Then it must’ve been Reid.” Vian clutched her head, her face suddenly turning deathly pale. “No matter what we do, we were always meant to be silenced together.”

“I agree with Vian,” Xia Zuo stepped forward, positioning himself between the two. “But both of you need to calm down first.”

“My guess is the bridge was supposed to detonate first, followed by the car. The bomb system must’ve malfunctioned.” Xia Zuo exhaled slowly. “When Gary triggered the explosives at the nearby base, it accidentally set off the bombs in this area too.”

“Hahaha—” Vian burst into laughter. “So we should be grateful for this system error? It made us realize Reid was planning to abandon us.”

Kay’s face darkened as she glared at the ground. After a long silence, she finally spoke in a measured tone. “We need to find a way to contact the military first and expose Reid’s scheme.”

“On top of that, we have to locate that Summoner,” Lin You added. “If I don’t report back within three days, the surrounding cities will be overrun by the Zombies he summons.”

“There’s a Chinese saying that goes, ‘He who commits many injustices will inevitably bring about his own downfall.'” Lin You’s face broke into an eerie smile. “I’ve been waiting for this day—the day Reid meets their demise.”