The male supporting character was actually myself.

Jiang Chen manipulated the Soul Weapon to wreak havoc in the distance, wielding guns in both hands to take down nearby zombies one by one with each shot;

Mark, along with Hansa and Julia, moved the huge decorative object at the entrance and smashed it against the glass door.

Half a minute ago, I finally made it through the leisure area to the path leading to the dock, only to find that the iron gate, which was never closed, was locked!

Before Jiang Chen could even demonstrate his superb "lock-picking skills" with his Soul Weapon, the handsome uncle on guard discovered a horde of zombies swarming out of the sewers.

The two sides were too close to each other to chop with axes, so they had to use machine guns to buy time for their teammates to escape.

The portly old man, who had narrowly escaped the zombies' clutches, praised Mark's quick thinking. While firing away nearby zombies, he asked, "If we fire a shot here, the zombie horde will definitely come after us. Mark, are you sure we can get to the dock through the back door of this building?"

"Clang! Crash..."

Mark spent three seconds saving a bullet to smash the glass door, wiped the sweat from his brow, and nodded, "Don't worry, it'll be fine! Come on in, I know there's a kitchen here with a back door, we can lock it to keep the zombie horde out!"

As the number of zombies in the vicinity dwindled, the group quickly cleared them out and followed Mark into the first floor of the building.

The flashlight beam illuminated the empty hall, and the hurried footsteps, coupled with the roars of the approaching horde of zombies, sent chills down the spine.

Julia still couldn't get used to the intensely oppressive darkness and clung to Jiang Chen in fear.

Chapter Thirty: Unraveling the Mystery

"Are you afraid of the dark?" Jiang Chen noticed that she was very sensitive to dark areas that felt oppressive, and asked softly while holding her hand.

Julia's frail body trembled slightly as chaotic images flashed through her mind.

The dark basement reeked of dampness, the musty smell of rotting wood mingling with the foul air that made one want to vomit.

All she could hear were the harsh, sarcastic insults from the adoptive family's old woman, who complained that she wasn't doing enough, wouldn't let her eat, and when necessary, would use a whip to force her to mop the floor, do laundry, cook, shine shoes, and do handicrafts...

When not needed, they are stuffed into a dark and gloomy basement and given a piece of bread so they won't starve.

Although the foster family she was assigned to lived in a big city, Julia never felt a trace of urban life. Staying in that "home," she could only stand on tiptoe and peek out from the dirty, dilapidated glass window of the basement, watching the legs of men and women walking past the fence two meters away and their shiny leather shoes.

Julia lived in darkness most of the time, the suffocating darkness making it hard for her to breathe, as if a monster was lurking in the thick darkness, ready to pounce and devour her at any moment!

But I clearly had a happy and fulfilling life before.

Although we didn't have parents back then, my older brother was my biggest support, just like...

Julia looked up and met Jiang Chen's concerned gaze. Feeling a warmth in her heart, she whispered, "After my brother sacrificed himself, I was sent to a foster family. They always treated me like a slave and abused me. At night, they would lock me in the basement without any light... I'm terrified of the dark. I'm afraid of being swallowed by the darkness..."

"Hmm, I see." Jiang Chen thought about it seriously for a moment. "Then when we build a small house in the countryside, we won't have a basement. We'll decorate the whole place to be bright and airy, and there won't be any more suffocating, oppressive darkness."

Julia's nose tingled and her eyes welled up with tears. She nodded vigorously, "Okay! It's a deal!"

The group quickly followed Mark into the hallway, pushed open a door, walked a short distance, and then pushed open another door.

"I'm Cio!"

When he opened the second door, he was suddenly startled and cursed. At the same time, he immediately aimed his gun and was about to pull the trigger.

"What's wrong?" Han Sha asked, trembling. "Is something wrong?"

Mark shone his flashlight and saw a zombie standing less than a meter away from him.

It was still wearing a chef's white coat, its face was pale green and shriveled, and it remained motionless in a menacing pose.

"Dead? Dead?" The fat old man also leaned over for a glance.

The chef zombie's head had obviously been severed, but it was probably done so quickly that it remained in its original position without falling down. There was only a black line of blood oozing from its neck, and it was hard to tell anything unusual without close inspection.

The handsome older man stepped forward and poked it with his axe.

"Thump!" The chef zombie fell to the ground, its head rolling to the side.

Evelyn glanced at the cross-section and gasped, "Hiss... It's here again! It's that weird weapon again!"

Han Sha hurriedly swept her flashlight across the depths of the hall, where several zombie remains, also dressed in chef uniforms, lay on the ground, their cross-sections as smooth as tofu.

"How did they turn into zombies? Didn't they have time to move them?"

"Strange, what exactly is this bizarre weapon?"

"It was with us in the Zeus Building basement before, so we didn't get to see its true face; now it's killed these zombies first. Could it be that the guy carrying the weird weapon left before us?"

"How did he get in through the gate? We had to break the glass to get in!"

"Remember to lock the door this time, okay? Let's not get surrounded again."

"Pah! Pah! Pah! You jinx..."

…………

The group cautiously moved forward, whispering among themselves. Julia looked at Jiang Chen, whose face was grave, and asked in a low voice, "Do you think we might run into someone who can cut up zombies? What if he kills us?"

"Probably not, he only killed zombies." As the "culprit," Jiang Chen was more curious about the kitchen. Why would several chefs turn into zombies in such a far place?

Logically, the staff on the island should have been evacuated immediately. I just observed that the outer perimeter was indeed locked tightly, which means that these zombies were locked inside the kitchen.

How did they get infected?

With questions in mind, he walked along while using his gun to flip over the pots and pans on the worktable.

Almost everything was washed clean, so it was clear that the incident did not occur during the chefs' working hours.

“It looks like something’s cooking in the pot.” Julia saw him looking for clues and helped him look around, pointing out, “It’s in that row of black stew pots, the one on the far right has some overflow marks.”

Jiang Chen went over and saw that there was indeed a spoon with some cooled soup on it next to the pot.

He opened the pot lid and found a pot of cold soup inside, which vaguely looked like stewed chicken.

"Hmm, it's probably a seagull." The handsome uncle leaned over for a glance, then casually poked at it with his spoon. "Look, it's much bigger than a pigeon and looks completely different from a chicken. This is a seagull."

When we were stranded on the island and had nowhere to go, we survived the hardest days by catching seagulls and roasting them to eat.

Seagull meat isn't very tasty, but it's said to make a good soup.

I don't know if it's true or not, but I've never tried it. This stuff is quite expensive; a lot of rich people like to eat weird and unusual things. I've heard that some people even eat live insects..."

Seagulls?!

Upon being reminded, Jiang Chen instantly understood what was happening. He stirred the pot with a spoon and, sure enough, the seagull meat in the pot was not fully cooked.

“Seagulls are carnivorous.” He put down his spoon, his voice heavy. “When you were trapped here, you caught seagulls to eat, didn’t you? If there was a lack of drinking water, it’s very possible that some people even drank seagull blood.”

The handsome middle-aged man was clearly taken aback, looking completely bewildered. "Well, that's very possible. I didn't know I hadn't drunk anything..."

"That's why the second zombie outbreak occurred!"

Mark suddenly realized something and became somewhat excited, "When my brother was trapped on the island, some seagulls ate the zombie flesh scattered on the island (which was bad) and got infected with the virus. They were then captured by others to eat, so..."

"To be precise, they weren't fully cooked when they were captured and brought here to be eaten," Jiang Chen added. "Based on the clues we have so far, the zombie virus is afraid of high temperatures and has a certain survival and transmission time, so the virus on the island didn't spread at all after the fireworks project was launched."

The handsome uncle suddenly realized, "No wonder they fenced off the entire sea area back then, not even sparing a bird! They were worried that seagulls might eat zombie flesh and carry the virus, which would then spread!"

"That's right. Even if a seagull infected with the virus falls into the sea, if the body is disposed of and disinfected within a certain period of time, the virus will naturally die and will not infect marine life, so it will not spread."

Chapter Thirty-One: Hopeless

"Then I know why they turned into zombies here."

Mark looked back at the several staff members who had been killed with a heavy heart and sighed, "I heard that many people on the island go deep-sea fishing or catch seagulls to pass the time."

The island's upscale restaurants also serve seagull soup. It's highly likely that these few people caught the seagulls themselves and wanted to have a late-night snack before leaving after get off work, which explains why they were the only ones left in the already cleaned kitchen.

"These two seagulls probably ate zombie flesh, but it wasn't cooked properly? Or maybe they got infected while being handled?" The handsome uncle hurriedly stepped back, feeling incredibly fortunate that he had cooked it thoroughly before eating it!

No wonder, back then they were all professional soldiers who buried the zombies nearby after they were dealt with. Logically, everyone was very careful and there shouldn't have been a secondary infection.

Probably no one expected it to be seagulls; they could easily have been contaminated while scavenging leftover scraps of meat...

The doubts that had weighed on his mind for years were finally resolved, and Rossoff didn't know whether he felt relieved or even heavier. So many elite soldiers, who hadn't died on the brutal battlefield, but instead died mysteriously on the resort island.

"If our hypothesis is true, it means that the zombie virus can easily parasitize animals. And judging from the cases of these employees, animals carrying the virus will not quickly become infected and turn into zombie seagulls, but humans who come into contact with the virus will be quickly transformed into zombies."

It is highly likely that... it was specifically designed to target human DNA.

In other words, the zombie virus is definitely a laboratory biochemical product.

Jiang Chen recalled the ending from the previous script updates—the mission world would be completely destroyed three months later!

The fat old man looked astonished. "Specifically targeting humans? Are those scientists all crazy? Why would they create a virus that would destroy themselves?"

No one could answer his question. Society is complex and people are treacherous. Human nature cannot withstand the test of enough self-interest.

Perhaps the initial intention was simply to develop a virus targeting certain groups of people, but the research went awry and was used for profit in the wrong places, leading to a cataclysmic disaster in which no human being could escape...

The atmosphere was somewhat heavy, and for a moment no one said anything.

The island is shrouded in mystery and unknowns tonight, casting a shadow over everyone. No one knows what will happen next or whether they will be able to escape alive.

Amidst the intertwining of despair and hope, everyone cherished their teammates who had risked their lives for them.

Family ties and romantic love become all the more genuine and precious after enduring the hardships of life-or-death crises.

Julia held Jiang Chen's hand tightly, feeling that with him by her side, the darkness wasn't so scary anymore;

Hansa and Mark stood close together, encouraging each other.

"Shh!" The handsome older man spotted a shadow moving outside the back door and window. He immediately pulled Evelyn, who was walking in front, behind him and whispered, "Don't be reckless, young lady. Go back and follow your old man. Watch how I take down the guys outside!"

Evelyn glanced at him and couldn't help but smile slightly. "Look at you, showing off with that axe. Go on, just don't be a show-off. If it's time to shoot, just shoot. I'll keep an eye on things and be ready to strike at any moment."

The handsome older man opened the door and led the way out. Han Sha was momentarily stunned as another blurry image flashed before her eyes—Duruer was running wildly alone, and he seemed to be limping with one leg.

The gun in his hand was stuck, and he couldn't fire a bullet no matter how hard he pulled the trigger. Frustrated, Duru slammed the gun on the ground, grabbed a bamboo fence from the roadside to make do with a "weapon", and turned around to stab the shriveled head of the relentlessly pursuing zombie!

"Fuck your mother!" Durul cursed viciously. After panting and knocking down a zombie, he turned to continue running, only to be tackled by a zombie that suddenly rushed out from the bushes nearby!

The stench of decay assaulted his nostrils, and he could only do his utmost to resist the zombie's mutated maw as it bit into his throat...

"Oh my god!" The scene in Han Sha's eyes changed, and a clear close-up showed that a zombie had scratched a wound more than ten centimeters long on Durul's chest!

The bleeding wasn't much, but after being scratched by the zombie and then stained with black, foul blood...

Durul is beyond saving!

After experiencing it a few times, Hansa had basically accepted her "special ability" and was no longer startled or frightened. She took a deep breath and followed Mark out through the back door.

"Damn! Who is this? Is this design meant to scare people in the middle of the night?"

The handsome middle-aged man, holding an axe, stared at the saplings that had been pruned into the shape of dancing human figures and swaying in the wind, his face dark. He had peeked out the window earlier and thought they looked like zombies, which had made him tense. In the end, they were just a few trees!