Chapter Thirty-Four: Long Time No See, Miss Jiang

Jiang Qiyu expertly steered the battlefield electric vehicle toward the massive freighter. Lu Yao sat in the passenger seat, glancing back every now and then like a vigilant puppy. Shi Chao, seated in the back, played with his fingers in boredom, occasionally looking up at the looming ship with a flicker of indiscernible excitement in his eyes.

The journey back to the docking site was unobstructed. The colossal freighter sat silently against the shore like a sleeping beast. The few zombies wandering nearby posed no threat to them.

The trio quickly boarded. The air was thick with the briny scent of seawater, laced with a faint, putrid odor of decay. Jiang Qiyu took a deep breath; fortunately, the stench was much milder than it had been during their last visit.

"Lu Yao, come with me to the weapon cache we found before. Shi Chao, you go scout other areas. Stay safe," Jiang Qiyu commanded, her tone decisive and crisp.

"You got it!" Lu Yao replied obediently, trailing behind Jiang Qiyu like a large dog.

Shi Chao nodded, his figure flickering and vanishing around the corner of the corridor. His "Thousand Faces" ability allowed him to blend perfectly into any environment, making him the ideal scout.

Jiang Qiyu and Lu Yao arrived at the familiar warehouse. The heavy doors were tightly shut, secured by a rusted iron padlock. Lu Yao stepped forward, gripped the chain, and gave it a light tug; the lock snapped open instantly.

"Let's go." Jiang Qiyu pushed the door open, and a wave of damp, musty air rushed out to meet them. The warehouse was packed with an arsenal: handguns, rifles, submachine guns, and sniper rifles—everything one could desire. Jiang Qiyu shook her head helplessly at Lu Yao’s childlike excitement. She walked toward a corner and spotted a locked iron chest.

"Lu Yao, come help me."

Lu Yao trotted over and easily snapped the lock. Jiang Qiyu opened the chest, which was filled with various calibers of ammunition, along with grenades and explosives. She swept the munitions into her spatial storage and began a thorough inspection of the remaining weaponry.

Meanwhile, using his "Thousand Faces" ability, Shi Chao silently infiltrated every corner of the ship. He discovered a hidden laboratory filled with various instruments and equipment, as well as test tubes containing unidentified liquids. He carefully approached a console where a computer screen displayed complex data and charts. He attempted to operate it and found that the system was still functional.

Browsing through the files, he uncovered research data on the zombie virus and records of human experimentation. His heart skipped a beat; it seemed this freighter was far from ordinary. He ventured deeper and found a cold storage room containing frozen corpses. Upon closer inspection, he noted that they all wore identical uniforms, with small metal tags pinned to their chests, each engraved with a strange symbol. An unsettling premonition gripped him—what dark secrets were hidden on this ship?

Back in the armory, Jiang Qiyu and Lu Yao continued their sweep. Jiang Qiyu unceremoniously gathered the remaining weapons into her space, while Lu Yao watched with curious eyes.

"Where do all these things go?" he asked, blinking innocently.

Jiang Qiyu glanced at him. "System storage."

Lu Yao pursed his lips but didn't press for further details. Just as Jiang Qiyu was finishing, Shi Chao came rushing back, his face grave and his forehead glistening with fine beads of sweat. He seemed deeply disturbed by his reconnaissance; he panted, his eyes betraying a nervous tension as if he had urgent, harrowing information to impart.

"Boss, I think I found something incredible," Shi Chao said, his voice hurried. He looked like a trapped beast, desperate to share what he had discovered yet fearful of the unpredictable dangers that might follow from knowing too much.

Jiang Qiyu raised an eyebrow. She could sense his agitation; he was usually composed, and his uncharacteristic panic signaled that his discovery was extraordinary.

"What is it?" she pressed, her voice calm and authoritative, intended to soothe his anxiety.

"Follow me, and you'll see." Shi Chao didn't elaborate, gesturing for her to follow.

The trio moved upward, navigating dark corridors where sporadic zombies lunged from the shadows to block their path. Lu Yao reacted instantly, grabbing a handgun from their recent haul. He aimed steadily, and with a crisp crack, the bullet struck a zombie’s head. Blood sprayed, and the creature collapsed. Another zombie lunged, and Lu Yao dispatched it without hesitation, while Jiang Qiyu and Shi Chao followed closely, ready to provide support.

They arrived before a sealed metal door. The air was thick with a pungent stench of blood and formaldehyde—a cloying, rotten odor that hit them with such intensity it was nauseating.

"It's in there," Shi Chao said, pointing to the metal door.

Jiang Qiyu took a deep breath and threw the door open. The room was dim, and the smell of formaldehyde was so sharp it nearly made her retch. The space was filled with glass culture dishes containing not ordinary liquid, but a formaldehyde solution with a faint greenish hue, as if guarding the severed human tissues within.

Every dish was starkly visible, containing hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and kidneys, all preserved with chilling precision. In a larger dish lay a complete human head, its features twisted, eyes tightly shut, and lips slightly parted as if whispering the fear and helplessness of its final moments.

"What the hell is this place?" Jiang Qiyu couldn't help but curse.

She noticed one of the dishes had cracked, its fluid pooling on the floor. A label was attached to it, but before she could read the text, two gunshots rang out from behind her.

*Bang! Bang!*

Jiang Qiyu spun around to see two men in red uniforms standing at the corridor's turn. One of them was the man in red who had shoved her into a horde of zombies in her past life!

The man in red curled his lips into a cold sneer, raising his gun to aim at Jiang Qiyu. "Long time no see, Miss Jiang."

A chill surged from the soles of Jiang Qiyu’s feet to the crown of her head.