This time I chose Paladin

He had witnessed firsthand how a powerful partner he had collaborated with gradually degenerated into the person the other initially despised. Their first encounter, they fought side by side. Their last encounter, he had sold his limbs and himself for a piece of "medicine," hanging like an ornament among a wall of others who had suffered the same fate.

The man weakly recalled the past to him, recalled the times when he was full of vigor and vitality, and finally... asked him to help end his painful life.

The petite girl in the distance shuddered, feeling a little hairy all over. Nie Weiyang withdrew his gaze and walked in another direction.

As long as there is enough firepower, the people of Langcheng can handle the second wave on their own, and there is no need for the "Second Administrator" to intervene.

I just didn't expect this person to actually be colluding with Zhen Jiankang this time... Logically, Zhen Jiankang wouldn't have the guts to actively seek out a 'supply source' in the current world. Does this also prove that there's some sort of connection behind this?

……

Not long after, Nie Weiyang changed back into his original identity and came back riding a tattered motorcycle.

This original mount, which had been with him for three months, now seemed to be falling apart with every movement. Every time it crossed a bump, its entire steel frame groaned.

At this moment, the city of Lang was already illuminated by fire. Forty thousand people were outside the city, some of whom had set up temporary camps, while others were scattered around hunting the enemy.

Nie Weiyang rode his bike to the campsite and walked in quickly. Everyone who saw him on the road nodded and greeted him, and he nodded back. He opened the tent that had obviously just been pitched and asked Xiang Feng knowingly, "What happened? Why did your house burn down?"

Xiang Feng rubbed his brows. "There are parasites in there. 'New World' has directly placed a nest of parasites in the city. Shit." He paused, looked around, and added, "Administrator No. 2 just came again. It was led here by a spy... that Zhen Jiankang."

"I was just wondering," Nie Weiyang frowned behind his sunglasses, trying to let the changes in his skin and muscles reveal his 'doubt': "He's not an important character, so why is he still alive?"

"This situation is quite complicated." Xiang Feng lowered his head and whispered to Nie Weiyang, "At first I thought this guy was just an ordinary spy, but about two weeks ago, someone said he was always avoiding people and had a foul odor about him. The odor was very penetrating and you couldn't forget it. I sent someone to check it out, and they found that he was smoking marijuana.

"You know, we've all been transformed, with varying degrees of physical fitness. Most people are at best mildly sub-healthy, but this guy... is too thin, utterly frail. Combined with the smell, we suspect he's obtained some illegal drugs through other means. This proves he's connected to other criminal networks or individuals, and even in the New World, these connections persist."

Although this connection only appeared in the New World, there's nothing wrong with this conclusion...

Nie Weiyang suddenly realized that the foul smell he had smelled during the battle outside the city was probably also from Zhen Jiankang. That smell was completely masked by the smell of the battlefield.

He looked solemn, truly solemn. After all, neither cults nor drugs were trivial matters. "Are you following the clues?"

"Yes." Xiang Feng said solemnly, "Those who contact him can sell the goods... no, if they exchange them with him, they can exchange them with others. Now is a period of time. If a few high-lethality combat professions take drugs, the few people in Langcheng will not have to wait for natural disasters, but man-made disasters will be enough to deal with them."

Nie Weiyang nodded slightly.

"Did you feel it?" he asked.

"No." Xiang Feng frowned, "The other party seems to have some degree of camouflage ability. Every time our people see him, they see a different appearance, but after a closer look, they find that the person is actually in another part of the city.

"We've been closely monitoring Zhen Jiankang to avoid alerting the enemy, but now he's dead, and many others have died too. There are probably fewer than 41,000 people left in Langcheng now. It's incredibly difficult to verify the identities of the living and the dead."

This is indeed difficult.

When a combat professional lives solely for destruction and harm, he will cause enormous harm, because doing evil is always easier, much easier, than being a good person—otherwise people wouldn't praise virtue.

But now, Nie Weiyang can clearly feel the direction of his spiritual mark. This most basic hunting mark can be deceived or erased in many ways in the middle and late stages of the apocalypse, but now, he is the only one who can do it.

"I will investigate this matter." Nie Weiyang said solemnly.

In fact, he had already thought about how that guy would die.

Xiang Feng knew nothing about this and just nodded: "I have information that I will pass on to you...if we can contact you."

Nie Weiyang runs around all day long and ordinary people can't see him at all. This has long been a consensus among the people of Langcheng.

"By the way, about that Administrator No. 2..." Xiang Feng suddenly remembered, "Did you encounter it before?"

"Yes." Nie Weiyang said. Even if he denied it, no one would believe him. Whether the two were in the same location or the way the monsters he led away died, it made sense that he met Administrator No. 2.

"How did you escape? We could see the explosion from the top of the city wall." Xiang Feng asked.

He couldn't help but ask, because the world boss, Administrator No. 2, was a strange and formidable enemy in the eyes of all mankind. Although his aggressiveness was not high, but... who could say that it would not always be high?

When Nie Weiyang heard this question, he just smiled helplessly and spread his hands to indicate that he couldn't say it.

Of course, he knew very well that he would ask Fenghui.

"Can't you reveal anything at all?" Xiang Feng asked, a pleading look on his face. "Just a hint? If it goes back and forth in the city a few more times like this, everyone will have a heart attack."

Nie Weiyang's face smoothly revealed a complicated expression: "Let me think..."

He was indeed thinking, but he was thinking about another question:

The BOSSes in the new world have no real intelligence or self. Everything they show is just mimicry at best. This is the experience humans have gained from challenging various BOSSes over the years.

Now, only Nie Weiyang knows about this.

And now, if 'Administrator No. 2' displays a state somewhere between having thoughts and not having thoughts, appearing to be following the rules, yet also appearing to simply not care about anyone...

Nie Weiyang pondered.

He would become the sole exception among the "leader-level hostile targets," an ambiguous outsider. This would make him the focus and target of the world for a long time.

but……

Is there a possibility that he can use this identity to help others avoid detours to a greater extent?

This might be a good choice. But before Nie Weiyang could say anything, a loud noise suddenly erupted from outside, interspersed with sharp screams.

Nie Weiyang turned around and rushed out of the tent without hesitation.

P.S.: Zhen Jiankang is not a real Chinese painter. He is doing this just for, uh, his master's mission? ()

Chapter 57 See you later

At this moment, the fighting and migration were still going on. Different sounds such as explosions, burning, cutting, and heavy objects hitting were heard from the direction of the city, but the sounds came from the edge of the camp, where a circle of people were gathered in the distance.

Nie Weiyang approached quickly, stepped onto a huge rock next to him, and flew into the air over the crowd, landing on the ground with a muffled sound, splashing a cloud of dust.

"What's going on?" he asked casually, his eyes attracted by the scene in the central open space.

It was a man, lying on the ground, his body twitching from time to time, and he made involuntary stiff and squeezed breathing sounds.

Nie Weiyang knew what had happened at a glance. He sighed, drew his sword, and approached the man on the ground.

"Be careful, Mr. Nie!" Someone suddenly shouted in the crowd, "He lied about the situation! He was infected but didn't say it!" Then there were reminders one after another, and voices came from all directions, asking him to be careful and alert. Mixed among them were some voices blaming the man on the ground - if he was not exposed, but turned into a zombie in the temporary camp, it would be a complete disaster for others.

Nie Weiyang gave the crowd a gentle smile and nodded to reassure them.

“Everyone, go away,” he said. “Remember to be mindful of who else might be infected.”

“If we find someone infected, can we handle it ourselves?” someone in the crowd asked.

Nie Weiyang shook his head slightly. "No. If you find anything, tell the military and police and let them handle it." He said bluntly, "Do you want to be treated like a zombie by someone you've offended?"

This is a very normal logic: if people can handle the infected on their own, there will definitely be people who will be "treated" as infected. In fact, even if people cannot handle it on their own, there will definitely be people who try to make those they dislike "become" infected.

In this world, maintaining a well-organized basic order is to maintain the interests of the vast majority of people.

This wasn't a difficult truth to grasp. No one in the crowd objected, and they dispersed—everyone had their own things to do. Nie Weiyang approached the man on the ground, half-crouching beside him.

The man has begun to twitch continuously.

Even if Nie Weiyang could perform a mild cure, he was helpless against this kind of thing: Yes, these parasites are dark in nature, so zombies are also dark in nature. But from the moment the parasites enter a person's body, they are already being killed, and the development of convulsions is a sign that the person's nervous system has been destroyed and replaced.

At this moment, people from all directions were walking through the heavy rain. Most of them carried small lanterns. Those lanterns were made by the logistics craftsmen of Langcheng. They were judged to be lighting props with no attribute bonuses, but if they were used to release some fire-related skills, there would be some bonuses.

Amidst the icy rain, the flowing firelight illuminated the two of them. Nie Weiyang stared down at the man, whose stiff face twitched and occasionally twisted. Countless brilliant and bizarre colors collided in his mind. His eyes, unable to control the direction of his vision, stared blankly at the sky, at the blood-red full moon and the crimson that permeated the sky.

Like blood vessels, like veins, like parasites.

"Do you have any last words?" Nie Weiyang asked. He remained calm, even if the other party concealed the truth - under the premise of 'things have come to this point', anger would be of no use in solving the problem.

Moreover, he also wanted to know why this was happening.

"Ah... Ho, ho..." The man opened his mouth and let the rain fall into his mouth: "I..."

Nie Weiyang could hear what he was saying without having to get close.

What he said was: "My mother... Zhang Xiuying... is in... the hospital..."

"..." Nie Weiyang was silent for a moment, then sighed softly, "Your mother's name is Zhang Xiuying. Is she in the hospital now? In the infirmary?"

"Yes... yes..." The man's voice was already murky. He began to breathe out but not in, but the frequency of his convulsions had slowed, and his eyes were vacant. This was a sign that his lungs had been completely eroded and his blood oxygen level had dropped sharply. He struggled to raise his hand, trying to grasp Nie Weiyang's. "She... has dementia... and... heart..."

"Your mother has Alzheimer's disease and heart disease?" Nie Weiyang asked gently, holding the other's hand.

"Yes..." The man shoved something into his hand. "Brother... Big... Brother..." Hot tears welled up in his cloudy eyes, mixing with the heavy rain. He was much older than Nie Weiyang, but at this moment, "Please..."

Nie Weiyang still looked calm and composed on the surface, and he shook hands.

In his hand was a small gourd-shaped bottle.

Quick-acting heart-saving pills.

Alzheimer's is irreversible brain damage, and the enhancements in "New World" won't fix it. Such a person certainly wouldn't know how to use a backpack or take medicine.

So, her son carried the medicine for her until he died.

"I'll take it there," Nie Weiyang said solemnly. He took the man's hand and patted it gently, "Go to sleep."

"Okay..." the man murmured. He seemed relieved, and his calloused hand slowly slid down, plunging into the muddy water.

Just a moment later, the hand suddenly twitched and arched into a sharp claw -

"Crack!"

Nie Weiyang, who had already stood up, pierced his head with a sword. The burning light on the sword just touched the emerging parasites, causing them to twist and quickly turn into a black mist and dissipate.

The young man brushed the blackened blood off his sword and clenched the quick-acting heart pills in his hand, careful not to damage the delicate porcelain bottle. He hurried toward the makeshift hospital. Someone naturally came up behind him and carried the body away. The heavy rain washed away any traces of a person's struggle. Not long after, a single footprint sank into the mud. Several people, clutching living specimens, hurried through, followed by more people, and more. New traces covered the old, just like every passing era.

The hospital was still located in the heart of the camp. With the help of several medical staff, Nie Weiyang found an elderly woman named Zhang Xiuying. She sat blankly in a corner, sheltered from the rain, staring at the mud before her, mumbling something. Every now and then, someone carrying a stretcher would run past her. Every time she heard the running, she would look up, seemingly unsure why, staring blankly at the pouring rain, her face expressionless.

"Zhang Xiuying is the only one left, suffering from Alzheimer's and heart disease," said a young nurse with dark circles under her eyes. "You said her son asked you to deliver something?"

Nie Weiyang looked at the old man from afar, and after a moment, he sighed softly.

"This is the medicine her son gave her." He took out the bottle of fast-acting heart pills and handed it to the head nurse next to him.

The head nurse took it silently. She seemed to know a lot of things, but she just pursed her lips and said nothing.

"Let's go." Nie Weiyang nodded to them, and his appearance looked normal.

"See you later," said the head nurse.

When Nie Weiyang walked away, he could still hear their voices:

"Teacher, don't we say this to people during working hours?"

"...At a time like this, it's a good thing to be able to see you again." said the head nurse.

When leaving the hospital, Nie Weiyang saw Xiang Feng from a distance. Xiang Feng was dealing with some of the other people who concealed the truth. He did not greet him, but turned and headed straight for the front line.

The heavy rain continued, and some areas even showed signs of flash floods. When people looked out into the distance, they saw only a haze of chaos and an indistinct field.