Eh? You want to try the humanoid girl's iron fist too?

The lights swept across the elevator shaft; the elevator car had long since slid to the bottom, its interior mostly submerged in floodwater. The elevator was broken, which wasn't surprising.

Between the third and fourth floors, Raphael smelled a fresh scent of blood, likely the traces left by the person who had attacked her earlier.

There was blood on the floor and a bloody handprint on the wall. It seems that although the 6.8mm bullet didn't kill him instantly, it still severely injured him.

No, Raphael immediately dismissed his earlier guess after seeing more bloodstains.

The earlier strange noises came from the fourth floor. Raphael saw the scattered supplies and broken backpacks on the ground and realized that they had come here to scavenge.

However, someone alerted an ELID infected person who was hiding inside the building, waiting for their prey to come to them. He was attacked by the infected, stumbled downstairs, and then saw a squad on guard in the alley outside, only to fall.

The infected were the ones rushing down behind him, and they were killed by Doug and Raphael together.

That knife was proof that the third person was still alive, and it still ached slightly. Raphael shifted uncomfortably in his injured leg.

The only open door on the fourth floor was on the left, slightly ajar. Pale green IR light shone through the crack, barely allowing those outside to see the interior.

The furnishings inside the house are very tasteful. The previous residents must have been very tasteful, not poor, and satisfied with their lives.

Doug and Cecilia stood back and forth against the wall, while Tony stood in the stairwell, wary of the stairwell leading to the fifth floor.

Raphael placed his left hand on the handle and gently pushed it open. "Squeak—" The door was indeed not locked; it was just slightly ajar.

Seeing the door open, she quickly stepped inside, followed closely by the two people already seated by the door.

Raphael stood on the sofa in the corner, Doug stood on the TV cabinet, Cecilia pointed her gun towards the kitchen and dining area, and she herself was completely covered by the corner.

Upon entering, all three of them were struck by an unpleasant odor. To be more precise, it was a stench.

However, Raphael preferred to inspect the area despite the stench rather than leave any potential blind spots unexplored.

Although she was skeptical that anyone would be hiding in such a stench-filled place, Raphael raised her gun and headed toward the room with the strongest stench, just in case.

She entered one room, nothing; she entered the next, no one was there. Just as she stepped out and slowly opened the toilet door, Raphael discovered the homeowner's body, right next to the toilet.

The charred bodies curled up together enthusiastically explained the source of that unpleasant smell.

He was burned to death, and after a long period of fermentation and decay, the homeowner finally decomposed in the dead of winter. The Purifier burned him to death with flames.

Out of the corner of his eye, Raphael saw the bathroom door open, also blackened by flames. Therefore, the charred corpse in the bathtub must be the woman who owned the apartment.

The apartment was cluttered with items that suggested it had been hastily ransacked. That's why they had to deal with the homeowner this way—they wanted to know where the homeowner's treasures were hidden.

However, it's not that important now.

Where exactly is the third party? Raphael thought to himself, there is indeed a motionless corpse outside, but he is completely dead and could not possibly stand up again.

Moreover, one cannot remain in that almost folded position for too long, or the slightest movement will be dealt with by the vigilant Tony.

So, this guy heard the gunshots outside and knew that they had killed his comrades and the undead chasing after him—the ELID infected.

In a moment of quick thinking, he sprinkled his blood on the apartment door to lure the cleaning team into the apartment, and then took the opportunity to leave.

You have to admire people who can come up with quick thinking even when they are seriously injured, but what good is that?

Raphael had no right to judge the moral character of these scavengers, but even so, she felt she should be qualified to say that those who could survive in the City That Never Sleeps were not delicate flowers that grew in an ivory tower.

She wasn't sure if she would use a corpse in a similar way, but it seemed that the corpse lying on the stairwell platform had never thought about being used even after death.

Raphael could only see that the cold-blooded calculation was simply too much.

Therefore, she assumed that all the apartments on the fourth floor except this one were blocked off—because the Purifiers had come here and burned a couple to death.

Since they didn't open the other apartments, it proves her assumption was correct.

The entrance to the rooftop is at the end of the stairs leading upwards. Once it's confirmed that there are no blind spots on the fourth floor, it means the attacker is hiding on the rooftop.

Raphael carefully checked each apartment door; they were all locked and wouldn't budge.

After checking her XM5 assault rifle, she stood in front of the rooftop door.

"Are you ready?" she asked the other two.

Doug didn't answer, but instead put his hand on Raphael's shoulder and gently squeezed it to let him know that he was in position.

At this moment, behind the entrance to the rooftop, a man sat on the ground, too weak to stand up. With each breath, blood foam oozed from the corner of his mouth.

At that moment, he leaned against the wall, knowing that it was all over.

He lost sensation in his body below the waist, as if it didn't belong to him; the injury to his right chest left him without the strength to even crawl.

Slowly, he collapsed to the ground, coughing up large amounts of blood, his eyes gazing at the sky.

The person lying on the ground has never been afraid of death.

Throughout his short life, he thought more than once without fear about when he would be shot or burned to death, just as he had many times grabbed and killed others.

Clang!

A loud crash came from the other side, and he realized that the group downstairs had rushed onto the roof. It was the one leading them—yes, it was her!

It was so powerful that it filled him with fear, and his broken body trembled uncontrollably. This wasn't due to the cold temperature, but rather a manifestation of his extreme terror.

In just a split second, she managed to fire several bullets, and they all hit him.

She's practically inhuman, and her looks are excessively beautiful. It wouldn't be so bad to die at her hands.

Volume 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 72 Exposure?

Now, facing death, he no longer needed to lie to anyone. He lay on the ground, half-dead, like a cripple, unable to move an inch.

He was blinded by greed, recklessly plundering upwards down the ladder of greed. Now, for the first time, he realized how pathetic everything that had happened to him was, and how heavy the mistake he had made unintentionally was.

He recalled how he had been careless in the face of gunfire that was so close at hand; and how he had made new mistakes after the conflict broke out.

Why provoke them?

He saw the woman at the front of the line stride forward, kicking away the knife beside her. He couldn't help but feel resentful. He had become like this; how could he possibly fight back?

After Raphael kicked the missile blade, he knelt down and took out the Geiger counter to check the frequency again.

Half a minute later, she transmitted the building's data to the SHD terminal device equipped with artificial intelligence. ISAC had no idea that its owner had already...

Despite the changes, they remain diligent and conscientious.

"..."

After the man lying on his side on the ground made his last sound, his breathing became more and more rapid, and his head bobbed up and down in sync with his breathing.

He felt no fear of impending death, only regret—his skills were simply inferior to hers. Raphael stood up, ignoring the man who had caused her trouble with his throwing knives.

Some say that on their deathbed, people reflect on their lives. Perhaps that's true, but all he could think about was how inferior he was to others!

Back on the third floor, Raphael, while clutching his calf soaked in red liquid, took the items from the enemy's backpack from Doug.

It was a wallet. When you opened the clasp, a photograph popped out. It was a picture of a beautiful woman with a round face, big lips, and a happy smile on her slightly plump face.

Below the photo is a bunch of useless bank cards, with the driver's license at the very back.

"How did you get hurt?" Doug asked, seeing Raphael sitting there, pressing his hand against his blood-soaked trouser leg. "Is it serious?"

"That kid up there is a master at throwing knives... you know, those small blades made of stainless steel, he hits the mark every time."

“Where’s your IFAK pack? I’ll bandage you up,” Doug said.

Raphael brushed aside the hand that reached for his waist, stood up with his gun in his hand, and said, "It's just a small cut. We'll deal with bandaging it later. It's not safe here right now."

“That’s true,” Doug said, no longer insisting. “We don’t have enough manpower. After three hours, we’ve only checked half a street.”

"If the JTF joint operations force hadn't betrayed us, we wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble."

"Why?" Cecilia came downstairs and was also puzzled when she heard Raphael talk about JTF's betrayal.

"The surviving troops you mentioned are actually a part of the 75th Regiment Rangers. They were deployed to the central city to assist in the recovery mission, but the situation has changed."

"JTF abandoned the plan to build the Dark Zone wall, and also gave up control of the city, right?" Doug said.

“Yes, this was the trigger.” Raphael pulled out a magazine, took out a new one, and loaded it. “After that, the agents and Rangers operating in the Dark Zone lost their support, and the tripartite alliance broke down.”

"But what does this have to do with our recovery mission?"

“They have more accurate maps of the collapse radiation, while we don’t.”

“The surviving troops have them,” Cecilia said.

Will Lieutenant Colonel Bliss give it to us?

Doug then said to Raphael, "So, the situation at that time was that the JTF Joint Operations Commander knew the inside story and immediately issued the retreat order."

“But I didn’t tell you,” Raphael added.

Doug didn't want to talk anymore. He grabbed Raphael's trouser leg and, with his short, stubby fingers, tore at the tear, widening it despite her protests.

“The cut isn’t deep,” Doug said, looking up at Raphael in surprise as he saw the metallic bone beneath the skin. “What is this…”

"A prosthetic limb, made of titanium alloy, how about that?"

"The cut is alright," Doug said deftly as he treated her injured leg, bandaging the wound with sterile bandages. He added knowledgeably, "I've heard that mechanical prostheses are quite advanced, but I never thought I'd actually see a finished product. Here, it's all done. Let me sew up your trouser leg."

He then took out his needle case and roughly sewed up the torn trouser leg.

“The other leg too? Then how did they manage to…” Doug said in a guilty tone. He glanced at the XM250 squad machine gun behind her, then looked at Raphael.

“It’s a good opportunity to test the performance, killing two birds with one stone,” Raphael replied, going along with the flow.

After the bandaging was finished, Cecilia moved Doug to a corner and whispered a reminder to him not to get so close next time, especially since forcibly tearing open his trouser leg was a taboo and it was best not to do it a second time.

Have you reached an agreement?

Raphael overheard what they were saying, and feigning ignorance, asked:

"Are we continuing according to the original plan, working day and night to measure the collapse radiation map bit by bit, or do we have some other ideas or suggestions?"

“No, that’s taking too long…” Cecilia continued, shaking her head. “Besides the surviving army, what other forces can give us the map?”

“The Purifiers, they might have them,” Tony suddenly said, then took SHD’s personal terminal computer out of his bag. “Look, these are all data from the Dark Zone construction areas, data from our First Wave agents’ battles with the enemy…”

Once the "Purifiers" and the limitations on the combat range are confirmed, the map is immediately updated.

“Indeed, judging from their activity range and routes, they likely knew what was happening here,” Cecilia said.

“So now there are three paths,” Raphael said. “First is the original plan, second is to make contact with the surviving army in the north and obtain it from their commander; and finally, to withdraw from the Dark Zone and launch a raid on the Purifier gang.”

“If you ask me, heading north directly to engage the survivor army is the best option,” Tony explained. Although the survivor army had reduced its forces, they had not completely abandoned the Dark Zone, so making contact with them first was the best choice.

Furthermore, Raphael was an active-duty naval officer, and even if the surviving military disliked the government's power, they wouldn't go so far as to kill her.

Although it is quite dangerous.