The second checkpoint was probably two or three kilometers from the first—perhaps even farther.
This one wasn’t a tollbooth that had been repurposed. It had been built from scratch, and looked far more serious.
“A military checkpoint?” Yang Zhanbai exclaimed. “Holy crap, why are there even missiles and machine gunners?”
“It’s all because of the [Hunter],” Captain Zheng said casually.
Once again, some players stopped their vehicle. Captain Zheng presented his credentials and waved for everyone to get out.
A few minutes later, when they had climbed back into the vehicle, Captain Zheng could no longer hold back and began rambling.
“Damn that [Hunter]. Is he really a student? The results of his psychological assessment came back, and his mental fortitude is practically that of a serial killer.”
Zhu Yan felt terribly wronged.
What a joke. He hadn’t even laid a finger on Captain Zheng, so why was the man still questioning whether he was a student?
“Both Captain Jin and Director Jin have said that the [Hunter] is definitely heading for the West Suburban Shelter.”
“Director Jin has ordered a thorough investigation. We have to find the [Hunter].”
Right.
Zhu Yan looked ahead and spotted the third checkpoint in the distance.
There was only one bracelet.
The three Walking Corpses would have to take turns using it.
How could he make the bracelet switch between them without anyone noticing?
Zhu Yan’s mind raced as he considered every item at his disposal.
If he split off a few wisps of consciousness and controlled the Walking Corpses like puppets, he could use his mind to place the bracelet into the same [Storage Silver Ring], then take it out again without anyone noticing.
The only problem was that the two Walking Corpses couldn’t be too far apart.
Although the [Storage Silver Ring] had no specific instructions regarding its use, it seemed to be an unspoken rule that items could not be stored from too great a distance away.
He might as well give it a try.
Zhu Yan split off a wisp of consciousness and gently sent it drifting toward the back of “Pot Lid’s” head in the passenger seat.
A bottle of [Aerosol] appeared in “Pot Lid’s” hand.
He raised the half-full bottle and sprayed it into his mouth. Afterward, he casually handed it to the military medic and Ma Dong in the second row.
“Mouth freshener,” Zhu Yan said through the Walking Corpse he was controlling. “Try it. This stuff is amazing.”
The excuse was just barely plausible, and the situation was so ordinary that neither Captain Zheng nor Yang Zhanbai noticed anything unusual.
“Well, aren’t you particular?” Captain Zheng teased. “You even use mouth freshener?”
The “military medic” took the [Aerosol]. “Pot Lid,” meanwhile, gave a lecherous little chuckle and began fixing his hair using the black screen of his phone as a mirror.
“Captain Zheng, I’m already this old and I’ve never even been in love.”
Hidden inside the Walking Corpse, Zhu Yan could sense the [Aerosol] taking effect.
“Pot Lid’s” voice became somewhat strained. His stomach…and even his other internal organs…seemed to have been coated in a layer of glue, leaving them sticky and suffocating.
“You know, if the person doing the inspection turns out to be a pretty young lady, I’ve got to pay a little attention to my appearance, right?”
Captain Zheng gave him an understanding smile and said nothing more.
By the time “Ma Dong” had finished spraying the [Aerosol], they could already see the third checkpoint.
Just then, Yang Zhanbai suddenly asked, “Captain Zheng, did the [Hunter] become a [Hunter] because his body underwent some kind of change too?”
Captain Zheng shook his head. “I don’t know. No one on our side has ever managed to capture a [Hunter].”
“But a friend of mine who works in research did say that even the [Hunter] wouldn’t be able to withstand this whole series of procedures.”
“I imagine Director Jin is sitting in his office right now, waiting for the arrest report.”
…
The third checkpoint was passed just as quickly.
This time, however, they didn’t need to drive much farther.
Beyond the checkpoint, there was still a highway, but a roughly ten-meter-wide opening had been cut into the fence beside it—wide enough for heavy trucks to pass through.
Outside the opening stretched a vast expanse of wasteland. The weeds had been deliberately cleared away, and the ground connected to the barren mountains in the distance, where exposed rock showed through the slopes.
A temporary gravel road ran straight to the foot of the mountain.
There stood a magnificent steel door, its surroundings reinforced with concrete to form a semicircular wall.
A yellow emergency lamp hung in front of the door. Since it was daytime, it wasn’t lit.
Several soldiers patrolled the entrance. When Zhu Yan looked up the mountain, he could faintly make out rifles and heavy weapons concealed beneath ghillie suits.
“Damn,” Yang Zhanbai breathed.
“That’s quite a setup… Did they hollow out the entire mountain?”
“The shelter is underground,” Captain Zheng said. “Maybe they did hollow it out. I don’t know.”
Someone waved a glow stick, signaling Captain Zheng to pull the vehicle over to one side.
“You get out first. Go straight in for the inspection.” Captain Zheng waved at them in farewell.
“The parking-garage passage is on the other side. Don’t worry about me for now.”
The several “people” jumped out of the vehicle once again. Led by a guiding soldier, they headed toward the heavy steel door.
This time, “Pot Lid” was at the front of the line.
Hidden inside the Walking Corpse, Zhu Yan moved his consciousness again and again. The bracelet that had originally been worn around his wrist silently appeared in “Pot Lid’s” palm.
Zhu Yan tried slipping it onto the corpse’s wrist. He immediately felt the Walking Corpse slow down considerably—as if a car had suddenly been drained of all its fuel and electricity.
“A power source?”
Zhu Yan murmured inwardly, then removed the bracelet from “Pot Lid’s” hand for the time being.
They followed their guide into a cylindrical passageway.
The corridor was likewise made of dingy gray concrete. Light strips along the ceiling cast a ghastly white glow, illuminating every speck of grime that Zhu Yan hadn’t had time to wash from his uniform.
The short boots of his uniform struck the somewhat damp floor, producing faint, sticky splashing sounds. After walking for a minute, they finally reached a second heavy metal door.
“Inspection room.”
The guiding soldier spoke for the first time that day. His voice came through the thick face covering and sounded somewhat muffled.
“Once inside, present both hands and follow the officer’s instructions.”
The red indicator light beside the metal door suddenly turned green, as if the people inside had already been informed of their arrival.
The door slowly retracted and slid to one side. A player wearing protective clothing waved at them, signaling for them to hurry inside.
Zhu Yan directed the first Walking Corpse forward, followed by the second and third.
He himself looked up curiously and surveyed the tall, spacious inspection room. Pipes crisscrossed the high ceiling, leading to places unknown.
So far, nothing had happened. Another player merely distributed heavy lead aprons to them.
“X-ray room,” the player said, pointing to the right. “After the scan, come back out for a memory check and an inspection of your storage equipment.”
Zhu Yan breathed a sigh of relief.
These two stages would be easy enough—
The Walking Corpses were constructed just like human bodies. More precisely, they had been made from modified human corpses.
As for the memory-storage chip, it was so tiny—barely the size of a speck—that an X-ray probably wouldn’t be able to detect it.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
nce】【Lighthearted Comedy】【Ultimate Gentleman's Novel】【Viewer Discretion Advised for Under 16】 The mightiest human hero, Sharen Morian, is resurrected after a thousand years by his wife—the Demon King. This is not your typical hero-vs-demon-king tale.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
