Chapter 70: Reunion |
Yes, Bai Mu recognized this face.
She wore the same black uniform described in the Script's introduction. Her hair was efficiently pinned up behind her head, a blue lanyard with a photo ID hung around her neck, and even her makeup was exactly as Bai Mu remembered.
The difference was that her eyes, just like those of the Infected downstairs, were completely bloodshot. The foundation and lipstick around her mouth were smeared by the uncontrollable drool spilling past her lips.
Before the elevator doors had even opened wide enough for a person to pass through, she was already desperately trying to squeeze inside.
She was not welcoming her daughter. She would have shown the same enthusiasm to anyone who rode the elevator up to the 23rd floor. Her mind was entirely gone; what stood before them was nothing more than a vessel controlled by a virus, blindly following its primal instinct to hunt down noise.
Lucy did not see this. The moment Bai Mu raised his gun, she had buried her face in his chest. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut as she likely braced herself for the inevitable gunshot.
Lucy had no idea that the pitch-black muzzle of the gun was aimed directly at her mother's head.
The distance between that face and the muzzle was less than half a meter, practically pressed right up against the barrel. One could easily picture the gruesome scene of a bullet piercing her skull and blood splattering everywhere.
This sight did not surprise Bai Mu too much. He knew from the beginning that the chances of Lucy's mother surviving were extremely low. The same held true for every single person in this city.
In fact, without the arrangements made by Paradise, not a single so-called "survivor" would even exist.
Lucy and her mother, those people who never even got to host their parties... the fate of every person in this city was sealed. They would either turn into walking corpses, rotting and dying in some dark, sunless corner, or they would be mauled to death in the shadows before that could even happen.
Looking on the bright side, at least this was not the worst possible outcome. In the absolute worst-case scenario, Bai Mu might have been forced to search for scattered, mangled pieces just to try and stitch Lucy's mother back together.
'But does this mean the Main Quest is considered a failure?' Bai Mu wondered.
He hesitated for a moment before finally shifting his aim. Right before the elevator doors opened completely, he systematically popped the heads of the several Infected standing directly behind Lucy's mother.
Several corpses collapsed in the hallway. After ensuring there were no more Infected nearby, Bai Mu holstered his pistol and set Lucy down on the floor, freeing up both of his hands.
The moment the elevator doors parted, he lunged forward with a swift step, smoothly dodging Lucy's mother as she pounced, and circled right behind her.
Bai Mu delivered a sweeping kick to the back of her knees, instantly throwing her off balance. Then, much like a riot police officer subduing a criminal, he pinned her wrists firmly behind her back and pressed her body flat against the ground, rendering her completely immobile.
Lucy opened her eyes, watching the scene unfold in absolute shock. "Mom!" she screamed in horror.
She rushed over in a panic, desperately trying to pry Bai Mu's hands away. But she was far too weak. Even using all her strength, she could not budge a single one of his fingers.
...
A few minutes later, Bai Mu and Lucy arrived at a private office.
With a sharp click, the office door locked shut.
A frantic rattling echoed through the room. It was Lucy's mother, who was now securely bound to an office chair. Two neckties anchored her wrists to the armrests, while a suit jacket, twisted tightly into a makeshift rope, lashed her ankles and the chair legs firmly to the corner of a heavy desk.
Her mouth was gagged with a strip of cloth, yet she continued to thrash wildly, never settling down for even a single second.
Lucy clung tightly to her mother, refusing to let go, even though her mother glared back with vicious eyes, looking fully prepared to devour her alive.
Bai Mu leaned against the door for a moment before walking over to Lucy's mother.
Seeing him approach, Lucy immediately stepped forward. She spread her arms wide to shield her mother, looking up at him with a stubborn expression on her face.
It was obvious she desperately wanted to keep Bai Mu away from her mother. She was terrified that he would shoot her mother dead, or brutally slam her to the floor again like he had just done.
Naturally, a nine-year-old girl could never stop Bai Mu. She was weak, pitiful, and completely helpless. Bai Mu could lift her with just one hand; there was absolutely no room for her to resist his will.
She was keenly aware of this fact, too, which was why her tiny body was trembling slightly.
However, Bai Mu did not grab her by the scruff of the neck and toss her aside like a little chick.
"We are friends, right?" Bai Mu asked calmly.
Lucy met his gaze. She pressed her lips tightly together and, finally, lowered her outstretched arms, stepping aside to let him pass.
"This isn't a festival at all, is it?" Lucy asked, her voice filled with dejection.
Bai Mu did not reply. Sometimes, silence was the clearest answer.
He stepped up to the chair and untied the cloth gagging Lucy's mother. The very next second, she let out a furious, guttural roar. Her teeth snapped together violently, sending specks of saliva flying through the air, completely driven by an overwhelming urge to tear his throat out.
It seemed that even the Infected could feel rage when they were beaten.
Bai Mu ignored the frenzied woman. He simply pressed a firm hand against her forehead and popped an unwrapped fruit candy into her snapping mouth.
A few seconds later, the rabid woman began to quiet down. She stared blankly at her surroundings. Though her eyes were still heavily bloodshot, a faint trace of clarity had returned to them.
'As expected, early-stage Infected are still classified as human, which is why the candy from the Candy Box can restore her sanity.'
When he was pinning the woman down earlier, Bai Mu had noticed that she still had body heat and a beating heart.
The virus in question was a mutated strain of rabies. This meant that the frenzied Infected rampaging through the city right now were closer in state to heavily psychotic patients experiencing an episode.
After all, barely a few hours had passed since the viral outbreak began. Just this morning, the city had been perfectly orderly; it wasn't until the afternoon that society finally began to collapse.
The internal organs of the Infected were still functioning normally. Biologically speaking, they were still fundamentally human. It would take quite some time—until their organs began to rot or mutate from a lack of proper sustenance—for them to truly transform into something else entirely.
This distinction was also evident in the information provided to Players; in these early stages, this classification of enemies was not yet called Zombies, but simply Virus Infected.
An early-stage Infected was essentially just a normal person afflicted with a Berserk buff. Meanwhile, the treats inside the Candy Box, in addition to slowly restoring Health, possessed another vital attribute: they could "clear the mind."
Therefore, this candy had successfully pulled Lucy's mother out of her frenzied state, temporarily restoring her human cognition.
Following about a dozen seconds of utter blankness and confusion, she stared dumbly at the daughter hugging her chest.
"Lucy, what are you doing here?"
Lucy said nothing. She only held her mother tighter. Her mother remained dazed for a moment longer before slowly lowering her head, gently rubbing her chin against her daughter's forehead.
The gesture was tender, yet incredibly careful.