Chapter 15

On the open space in the middle of the work area, Old Jack gestured with his hand. Immediately, the chattering crowd quietened down.

Old Jack cleared his throat and pointed to Hans.

Just last night, Hans, this bitch, assaulted this poor girl! "

Even though everyone had vaguely guessed what was going on, when Old Jack spoke the truth, it still caused a huge ruckus.

Many men cursed at Hans. However, it was unknown whether it was out of sympathy for Rita, or because they were angry that Hans had lured everyone away.

Lingcun clenched his fist. Rita's misfortune was caused by him indirectly.

If he hadn't pushed Rita out of the door last night, it might have been another outcome.

But it was a foregone conclusion, and even if it was zero, it could not change the fate that was about to befall Rita.

Old Jack waved his hand again, calming everyone down. He pointed furiously at Hans and said, "This despicable dog is ignoring the rules set by me, Old Jack. How do you think we should punish him?"

After a short period of silence, someone first shouted "Toss it into the wilderness to feed the wolves", and then voices of agreement rose one after another.

Hans, who was kneeling on the ground, swept his gaze across these people with a venomous gaze.

He opened his mouth and let out a deep growl, like a vicious dog that was about to swallow someone whole.

Finally, his eyes fell on Old Jack.

Old Jack looked at him without pity, like a dead wolf in the wilderness. "Did you hear that?"

"It's you who broke the rules first. I won't kill you, but I will make you feel worse than death."

"I will kill you!"

"And you, one day, I will come back and kill you all!"

Hans roared like a madman and tried to rush forward to bite Old Jack.

Zoug, who was standing beside him, kicked him to the ground. He then used the rifle butt to viciously hit the mad dog a few times, causing blood to trickle down its head. Hans could only helplessly kick on the ground while breathing heavily.

Old Jack waved his hand, and Zek called two soldiers over. They picked up Hans and carried him out of the work area.

Hans's fate was predictable. He would be thrown out of the wilderness by the base, and the man's records would be made public through a computer link within the Parkland plutocracy. Hans would never be able to enter the various branches and bases opened by the Parkland plutocrat.

As Hans was being carried away, he mumbled curses at the base.

Naturally, many men gave him two punches as he passed, but the soldiers did not stop him.

He who breaks the rules is never forgiven or pitied.

After Hans left, there was only Rita left.

Old Jack looked at her and sighed. "Rita, the prettiest woman in our base bar."

The poor woman, according to the rules, was supposed to have received a large sum of money to ease the damage done to her.

However …

Old Jack started to say something, then stopped, as if the following words made it difficult for him to say anything.

Everyone saw Old Jack, who usually acted decisively, hesitate. They all knew that this would not be a good thing.

As expected, Old Jack said something that shocked everyone.

"But unfortunately.

"We don't know where that bitch Hans contracted the virus from. Rita, who had a relationship with him, we detected a grade 3 virus warning signal from her."

The clamor sounded once again.

For the ubiquitous virus, it is strictly divided by the standards of the major companies in the world.

Just like the danger level of monsters and the safety of food, the damage of the virus to the human body was also divided into ten grades.

Level 3 and above virus infection, it not only indicated that the infected person was dead, but also infected with infectious virus, so it was already within the range of significant harm.

People with a third grade and above virus usually only have two options.

One was to be shot on the spot and burn the bodies of the infected people with a high temperature of fire. The second was to be rescued in isolation, but the z7 base did not have the ability or the skill to cure the infected people. As for sending them to the Parkland headquarters, neither the base nor Rita had the right to do so.

The Parkland plutocrat is not likely to spend a lot of money and medicine to cure a barmaid at a fringe base.

Old Jack's heavy gaze fell on Rita. He sighed and said, "Child, I hope you can understand how I feel right now."

I don't want to leave you if I can.

But now, for the sake of the safety of the other people in the base, I can only ask you to leave the base! "

Leaving the base meant facing the endless danger of the wilderness alone.

As for the third-grade virus, Rita would not be taken in by any base or company. It was no different from dying.

Rita swayed, but she was strong enough not to fall.

She nodded slightly, gravely, with tears in her eyes.

Old Jack sighed again, turned around, and waved his hand.

He walked up, shook his head, and led her toward the exit.

The crowd automatically parted to form a path.

However, at the passageway, Zero straightened his body.

When she reached him, her body trembled slightly.

He led her to Zero.

She squeezed out a few words from her mouth and said, "What I owe you, I will pay you back!"

Rita laughed.

She bumped into him, pulled the pistol from his waist, and pointed it at zero.

Everyone's face changed drastically, except for Zero.

Zero stood still like a stone statue, silently watching the black muzzle pointed at him.

"You're wrong, Zero."

"Some debts will not be repaid, for I want you to owe me forever!"

The gun turned and pointed at his temple.

Finally, Zero turned and lunged forward.

The trigger was pulled.

He was still too late.

Just as he was about to catch Rita's pistol, the poor woman shot herself.

Rita's head jerked to one side, the bullet's momentum lifting her legs off the floor and sending her tumbling to the side.

Her body lightly fell onto a pair of hands.

It was the palm of Zek's hand, and he caught the corpse from behind, so that she would not touch the filth of the world again.

Zero's hands were in the air, and he caught nothing.

After a long time, he withdrew his hand and said softly to Zuo Ge, "Thank you."

Zoug nodded, then shook his head with a complicated expression.

Rita was dead, her body burned, the ashes of her remains in a box and buried in the common cemetery behind the living quarters of the base.

An unpretty tombstone bears witness to the presence of this beautiful woman. The photo on the tombstone shows Rita smiling faintly.

A wisp of goose-yellow flowers was placed in front of Rita's grave, and she rose to her feet, then made three bows to the tombstone.

It took him a whole day to gather this bunch of flowers. Under the intense ultraviolet light, he had to walk nearly a hundred kilometers outside of the base's wasteland. He had to shoot a few Zombie Wolves before he could collect these flowers.

It meant a little something, even if it was something she would never receive again.

He looked at the woman in the photo and read the name "Rita" back and forth three times.

He knew that he would never forget this woman, that she would occupy a corner of his heart.

No matter how small that location was, it would never be destroyed.

As Rita had said, it was a debt he owed her.

A debt that will never be repaid.

In the following days, the base regained its calm.

In addition to being with Leah every day, he had two hours of practice.

In the past two hours, Zero had been constantly familiarizing himself with his abilities in the base's training grounds.

The strength of a rank 1 Strength buff allowed a punch to hit 700 pounds of force, while the kick force reached up to 3000 pounds. This meant that the kick could easily bend a piece of steel plate, while at the same time distinguishing him from ordinary people.

As for the first stage of defense, Zero only did a simple test.

He used his dagger to stab his thigh, but the instant the dagger entered his body, the muscles in his thigh would naturally rebound force, causing the dagger to not even enter his body by a centimeter.

The strength of 0% was enough to pierce the dagger into the human body.

Zero even thought of shooting himself, but decided against it.

These data were naturally secretly collected by him, but he did not dare to publicly carry them out in front of the second person.

In the meantime, Old Jack went back to Parkland headquarters to make a regular report. He ordered fifty rounds of M500 special bullets along the way.

Having a first-stage physical constitution, he was confident that he could control the ferocious recoil of the large-caliber revolver.

In the blink of an eye, two years had passed.

It was another spring.

For the old days, spring symbolized the awakening of all things, and it was a season of good wishes.

In a turbulent new era, spring has the same symbol, but what awakes is not so good for humanity.

When spring comes back, the fire in the stomachs of mutants who have fallen into a deep slumber as a result of winter makes them even more violent.

In the vicinity of the Z7 base, the most common life form was the Corpse Wolves.

This scavenging animal, which feeds on corpses, has been mutated by exposure to corpse poison or other viruses.

They were much larger than the wolves of the old era. After generations of genetic inheritance and transformation, they belonged to the third generation Corpse Wolves. The adult male wolves weighed up to 40 kilograms.

They become stronger and more resistant to radiation.

It is a rather ironic fact that, in turbulent times, wild animals were far more suited to changes in the surface environment than humans.

It was spring, and the wolves woke up in their hibernation, searching the mountains for food.

In previous records at the base, when the wolves couldn't find enough food, they would often swarm to attack human settlements, causing no small amount of trouble.

Therefore, this morning, Zero appeared on a hill a kilometer away from the base and began his third hunt for the Corpse Wolves.

This was the newest mission of the base, each of the ten Corpse Wolves was worth one yuan.

Not much, but zero believes in a tower of sand.