Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 74 Acquaintances, Pest Control, Information Overload!
Boom.

One thunderclap after another shook the entire apartment building, making the floors tremble.

The torrential rain formed a continuous line; without even looking, it was clear that the buffer zone would be flooded again.

The closer they got to the Starfish Stand's explosion, the more frequent the gunfire outside became, sometimes lasting for a minute or two before stopping. It was unclear which groups were exchanging fire.

But area B-7 was eerily calm, almost no different from usual.

Time slipped away second by second amidst the sound of rain.

Cheng Ye didn't even take off his armor. He lay straight on the bed, closed his eyes to rest, and tried his best to conserve his energy.

As the rain intensified, the hygrometer on the wall had already jumped to 95% without anyone noticing, just 3% away from triggering the Stand Starfish Outburst.

However, this only refers to the indoor humidity. As for the outdoor area, it has already been soaked by continuous rain, far exceeding the activation conditions of the Stand Starfish.

"Aren't you going to release an announcement yet?"

The alarm clock on the defense communication device went off, but Cheng Ye reached out and turned it off.

He breathed a sigh of relief, a little anxious. It was already 11:00 PM, and there were only forty minutes left before the outbreak, but the news of the third wave affecting all residents was still hidden.

Does this mean they're not planning to announce it to everyone this time?
However, just as this idea emerged, Defense News was shaken again, as news finally arrived.

"coming!"

Cheng Ye got up, and the first thing he did was not to check the messages, but to check his equipment again.

Once everything was confirmed to be in place, the security door was locked from the inside.

Only then did he pick up the defense communication device and click on the glaring red alert message.

[Warning: A-Level Infection Wave Approaching in Happiness City]

【Dear residents of Happiness City, hello, I am the city lord 'An Xingfu'.】

At this moment, I speak to you all with the heaviest yet most resolute heart.

As the city lord, I must be frank with all residents: despite the warning given to us by the station chief He Fei with his life, and despite the institute's best efforts, the infected source codenamed "Substitute Starfish" has still breached the city's defenses.

First of all, I would like to express my deepest apologies to all residents. The prevention and control measures have not fully responded to the surge in infections, and the drugs we have developed have not been able to perfectly eliminate the surrogate starfish.

[But secondly, I want to convey to all residents the belief that we will win. The wave of infection is not the end for Happy City, but the ultimate test of our community spirit. Today, the invasion of the substitute starfish may cost us dearly, but as long as we get through it, each of us will be one step closer to the door of ultimate happiness.]

Now, I need every resident to take immediate action; I will distribute all the information simultaneously.

You have 40 minutes to prepare. The choice is yours: fight, unite, or hide.

【.】

Contrary to expectations, the city lord An Xingfu spoke calmly, as if he were announcing something trivial.

It wasn't a matter of life or death for Happiness City, but rather a test that required the participation of everyone.

His response was a brief silence.

And then, more than ten minutes later, a sudden burst of ear-piercing gunfire erupted.

Unlike the previous sporadic skirmishes that only occurred in certain areas, this time the gunfire completely covered all inhabited areas in the buffer zone!

As if by unspoken agreement, everyone fired their guns, the explosions mingling with the thunder outside the window and even drowning out the sound of the rain.

Chaos is coming!
Dong...
咚咚
In the empty corridors of the tenement building, a series of hurried and chaotic footsteps could be heard.

This is strange, because those who are eligible to live here are at least from the second batch of people whose information has been released.

There were no problems when the restrictions were lifted before, so there's no reason for things to suddenly get out of control when all information is released.

"somebody is coming?"

Cheng Ye stood up and leaned slightly against the wall.

Several footsteps stopped abruptly outside the door, followed by a dull thud against the security door.

He never expected that the first door to be knocked on the fifth floor of this tenement building would be his own.

"Brother, open the door! The infection wave is about to break out outside, let the three of us in!"

A hurried voice slammed against the door, and before the words had even finished, another voice rang out:

"We can prove we're not infected! Open the door and see, we definitely don't have any starfish marks on our heads!"

“We’re all on the same side. Your security door is so sturdy. With many of us, we can make it safer to guard this place than anywhere else!”

They came after me first just because my door was more secure than others'?

Cheng Ye was slightly taken aback and did not respond.

Take a step back and use Defense Connect to access the disaster recovery module.

[Request drone control permission]

[Application in progress]

[Application successful. Your nearest drone is 273m away and is on its way.]

He couldn't go out at the moment, but he had the means to see what was happening inside the stairwell.

As the surveillance drone flew in, images began to appear on the screen of the defense communication device.

The rain fell like a curtain, and the footage transmitted by the drone was filled with noise due to signal interference.

But through the glass of the corridor, one could still see that the three men guarding his door were all holding pistols.

Two men stood close to the wall on either side of the door, while another man crouched slightly, his dark gun muzzle pointed directly at the firing port on the security door.

It's not hard to imagine what would happen if he opened that firing port and looked out.

After a pause of one or two seconds, the drone camera slightly turned to the side, cutting into the profile of the three people in the frame.

What made Cheng Ye's heart sink was that the three faces in front of the door were not unfamiliar to him.

The man crouching down to aim at the firing port was the boss who sold him the door a few days ago.

Standing on either side were two young men who were responsible for delivering the goods at the time.

"It's them?"

Cheng Ye seemed to realize something.

A series of images suddenly flashed through my mind.

Two young men, sweating profusely, were carrying a security door. He took out two 5-yuan "happiness coins" from his pocket and handed them over. The two men immediately grinned and kept expressing their gratitude. Their simple and honest appearance made them look like kind and honest people in the neighborhood.

But in the drone footage, the faces of these two men looked ferocious and insane no matter how you looked at them.

and many more.

Is that human being?

That sinister and ferocious expression seemed to have completely lost its humanity, leaving only the most primal greed and plunder, and a trace of the hunting instinct to treat others as prey.

"Brother, are you scared? To be honest, I have the key to your door."

The boss paused, then his tone suddenly hardened, "Don't force us. We just want to survive. You live in this tenement building with such a good security door. Look at the installation. You must have spent a lot of money hiring someone to install it."

"This place is so safe, it can clearly protect many people, what's wrong with letting us in?"

"Yeah, bro, you forgot about the door we carried for you?"

“We are good people, you know, we are good people, we will protect you.”

The two young men sang in harmony.

nice guy?

Cheng Ye put down his defense communication device, and suddenly felt a nameless anger rise from the bottom of his heart. What are pests?

This is the "pest" that Master Tian was talking about!
These are the "pests" that Old Qu mentioned, those who have no ambition and only know how to steal food from others!
"roll!"

A suppressed growl came from inside the security door.

"roll?"

Finally hearing a response, the boss grinned maliciously, "Brother, you're not dead after all! I thought no one was inside. You scared me to death! I was just kidding, I don't have the key to this door!"

“If there really is no one inside, the three brothers really wouldn’t be able to get in.”

"Look...no, listen, I have three homemade smoke bombs. If you don't open the door, you'd better open the window quickly, or you'll be suffocated by the smoke."

Bang! !

Before he could finish speaking, the security door was suddenly pushed open from the inside, leaving the boss stunned.

"what?"

He instinctively wanted to pull the trigger, but suddenly a strangely shaped gun appeared in his field of vision, its dark caliber seemingly several times larger than the defensive pistol in his hand.
这 是
boom!
It wasn't a gunshot.

The entire wall was shaking.

What would happen if a 12.7mm buckshot shell exploded at a distance of less than three meters?
A deafening roar erupted, and to the astonishment of the two young men, their boss's head vanished.

It turned into minced meat, into pieces, and scattered onto the walls of the tenement building.

The remaining half of the torso leaned against the corner of the wall, and red foam was gushing out from where the skull had disappeared, forming a crooked pool of blood on the cement floor.

"court death!"

A colossal object crashed out from inside the door.

It was at least twice the size of an average person and wore a black and silver protective helmet.

They had just raised their guns when the dark figure, with agility far beyond its size, swiftly reached out and grabbed their necks, lifting them overhead like chicks.

"what!"

The young man struggled frantically, his fists pounding wildly on the shadowy figure's arm, only to feel the cold, hard metallic texture.

The moment their eyes met, the frenzied glint in their eyes vanished, leaving only a chilling fear.

"What kind of monster are you?"

The words fell.

An unimaginable and irresistible force came.

Their heads collided violently and uncontrollably.

Before the excruciating pain could spread, the "monster" grabbed him and smashed him against the corridor glass. He vaguely heard two words:
Pests!

Pests?

Splash!
A body was falling from the fifth floor, encased in shards of glass, and screams were torn to shreds in the rain.

Several dark figures who were running wildly toward the electronics factory compound suddenly stopped and stared at the broken window.

In the empty space, a wide, dark outline was visible.

They weren't infected, but they were more oppressive than any infected they had ever seen!
"What the hell is that thing?!"

"Could it be a fusion?"

The figures stopped in their tracks, licked their lips with difficulty, and then scattered like birds and beasts in the next second.

With half an hour to go before the outbreak of infection, they just wanted to find a safe place to survive. No one wanted to run into this thing that was even more terrifying than the infected and die prematurely.

boom.

The security door slammed shut.

As Cheng Ye stepped inside, he knelt on one knee, his chest heaving violently as he gasped for breath.

It was as if all his unease and emotions had been shut out, allowing him to suddenly regain his sense of security, which had been disrupted.

As long as you don't look outside the door or dwell on it, those gruesome and bloody scenes will never have happened.

"I... killed someone?"

He stared at his hands, the warmth of the two young men's necks still lingering between his fingers.

But the next second, another voice exploded in his mind:
"No, I'm removing pests!"

There was no pity or fear in the surging emotions, only a burning rage raging in my chest.

At that moment, he suddenly understood what killing intent truly was.

That kind of instinct, arising from the heart and bursting forth from the marrow, cannot be controlled by reason; it can only be vented through killing.

dong dong dong.

There was another knock on the door.

Cheng Ye subconsciously turned his head and gripped the Thunderbolt 1 in his hand.

A chilling murderous intent seemed to penetrate the crack in the door, causing the middle-aged man standing by the door to shiver.

"Friend, I'm your next-door neighbor."

It's that middle-aged man who delivers water.

Cheng Ye was slightly taken aback, but then heard the other party continue, "I have no ill intentions. These three people deserved to die, but we have to... well, clean up before the infection wave arrives, otherwise this flesh and blood will attract the substitute starfish infected."

Finally, he hurriedly added, "I can do this dirty work. We can endure hardship and are used to it."

"You, you better not come out, or I'll shoot."

After speaking, more than ten seconds passed without any sound coming from inside. The middle-aged man breathed a sigh of relief and waved to the person behind him.

Immediately afterwards, two more footsteps sounded.

Compared to cleaning up the "battlefield," having a neighbor who's a killing machine is obviously good news.

Less than half a minute later, the sounds of splashing water and mopping the floor blended together.

The remaining three "half" bosses were difficult to deal with, so they simply followed suit and threw them out through the glass hole, where they landed heavily on the open ground of the community, causing the first-floor residents to curse loudly.

"friend?"

"The dead person seems to be infected. Hmm, I left the source of infection he revealed at your door. See if you want to pick it up."

After saying that, without waiting for Cheng Ye's reply, the three of them immediately turned and left, followed by the sound of the door closing.

Source of infection?
So the boss was already infected?
The drone footage showed that the stairwell had been cleaned spotlessly, except for some bloodstains on the walls that were difficult to remove in a short time.

Cheng Ye's gaze paused slightly as he zoomed in.

There, lying prominently at the doorway, was a small red starfish, no bigger than a fingertip, like a glass bead.

The source of infection for the substitute starfish actually looks like this?
Cheng Ye paused for a moment, then grabbed the containment box next to the door, opened the door a crack, and gently picked up the starfish with clips to prevent secondary infection.

However, the panel suddenly popped out the moment the clip touched the starfish.

[Dissipating biological consciousness detected. This could be used to replenish information. Absorb?]

[This absorption increases information content by 0.37]

　P.S.: Here's something scary. To celebrate the launch, I ordered roast duck noodles with two duck legs. As a result, I got food poisoning, vomited, had diarrhea, and a fever of 38 degrees Celsius. Luckily, I took some fever reducer and pulled through, but I'm still incredibly weak.

　　PS2: Updates may take two days to stabilize. I have over a thousand monthly votes this month, and I owe three chapters. I will add more chapters as soon as I recover!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)