Happiness City was defended by three great legions.
Each performed a distinct function, interlocking to form three lines of defense for survival.
The first line of defense was the Blood Dragon Legion, primarily responsible for sweeping deterrence. Patrolling the surrounding wilderness year-round, they wove a dynamic defensive net to reduce the threat of infected entities through high-frequency operations, specializing in mobile and assault warfare.
The second line of defense was the Cross Legion, stationed primarily near the hydroelectric station to protect core infrastructure such as surrounding industrial plants, ensuring that the energy and production lifelines keeping the city running remained secure.
The third line of defense was the Happiness Legion, charged with guarding the Happiness High Wall. Equipped with elite armaments and a systematic defensive array, they formed the ultimate multi-layered defensive front.
*Did something happen over at the hydroelectric station?*
Cheng Ye felt a jolt in his chest.
To maximize energy efficiency, most of Happiness City's large factories were built alongside the hydroelectric station.
If trouble struck there, it either meant a surprise raid by an infection tide or an armed assault from another sanctuary city.
Given the combat strength of Happiness City's three legions, the latter hadn't occurred in nearly twenty years, making an encounter with an infection tide far more likely.
Of course, there was also a worst-case scenario he was loath to contemplate...
Opening the Collector's interface, Cheng Ye glanced at the charge level in the upper right corner, which had already reached 54%.
Feeling slightly more grounded, he issued calm instructions. "Raven, pass the word down. Have the guard squad delay their shift change and come over to assist with the inspection."
"Owl, follow me inside. If anything seems off..."
"Don't worry, sir. I understand." Owl felt a surge of tension, immediately realizing what the problem was.
If the Cross Legion was returning to the city on official business, they should have reported it remotely to the Inner City well in advance, which would have then notified the checkpoint.
Yet now, while approaching at high speed, they had only notified the checkpoint via vehicle radio.
Recalling the vicious incident that had just taken place at the Central Checkpoint, it wasn't hard to imagine what might be approaching.
A vehicle full of infected entities?
"A newborn calf doesn't fear a tiger. Kid, you've got guts!"
Matthew Lee had already packed his backpack. Turning around, he saw that Cheng Ye was sitting behind the alloy desk again. He let out a low sigh, quickening his pace.
By the time the vehicle rolled into the diversion lane, his figure had long vanished into the rain.
*Guts?*
Cheng Ye narrowed his eyes, his gaze piercing through the curtain of rain as he locked onto the slowly approaching vehicle.
It was not a common Jinbei van, but a vehicle he had never seen before.
In appearance, it resembled a compressed Hummer—elongated and flat, its hard lines sketching out a boxy silhouette with crisp corners, while its metallic body gleamed with a cold, sharp luster beneath the lights.
The vehicle came to a steady halt before the quarantine barrier. The passenger door swung open with a thud, and a burly man ducked as he climbed out.
He wore the gray-blue uniform of the Cross Legion, his shoulders broad and back thick enough to resemble an upright grizzly bear. Standing easily over two meters tall, he exuded an overwhelmingly intimidating presence.
Even though Cheng Ye had trained relentlessly lately and developed a fair bit of grit, watching this bear tread through the standing water still made his chest tighten slightly.
*Damn it. Even if wastelanders' genes are starting to undergo atavism, how the hell could they spawn a monster like this?*
Cheng Ye cursed inwardly, his hand instinctively dropping to the Bison combat pistol at his waist.
Even when created by the same infection source, infected entities varied wildly in strength.
The stronger the host, the more terrifying the mutated monstrosity became.
Those infected entities whose names were recorded in the reference books had mostly been powerhouses who once roamed the wilderness; no nobody had ever been known to mutate into a catastrophe.
*Wait... If he's this strong, doesn't that mean the skills I can search will be even more powerful?*
At the thought of searching for skills, the apprehension in Cheng Ye's heart dissipated, replaced by a surge of excitement.
There were no such powerhouses inside the isolation cells.
If he encountered someone like this in the wilderness, they wouldn't offer any cooperation rate.
Only right now, sitting before the inspection desk with the authority of an inspector, did he have the chance to use his weaker status to search someone stronger.
As long as the man wasn't infected, the odds of extracting a great skill were high.
Standing beside him, Owl clearly noticed the shift in Cheng Ye.
Seeing that the inspector was no longer afraid and was instead getting excited, Owl felt an inexplicable surge of courage as well.
Since he had become an observer, he intended to fight for his chance to rise.
Compared to an old slacker like Matthew Lee, following someone like Cheng Ye offered real opportunities to earn merits and climb the ladder!
In that case, what was there to fear?
"Halt!"
Cheng Ye picked up the loudspeaker, his voice cracking like a whip through the rain directly toward the grizzly.
"I am Cross Legion Rank 2 Squad Leader Wu Rui. I have already communicated with the checkpoint. My apologies for keeping you working overtime, Inspector."
The grizzly—Wu Rui—announced his name and rank, obediently stopping outside the cordon.
"Overtime is no issue; it's barely past eight o'clock. What I need to know is why you returned in such a rush, Squad Leader Wu, without reporting to the Inner City first."
"There was an accident. One of my squad members was injured by an infected entity and needs to be taken to the Inner City for treatment."
"What?"
Owl, holding his weapon at the ready, was shocked. Could something like that really be stated so plainly?
Listen to him—attacked by an infected entity, as casually as if the man had merely tripped on the road.
"I can vouch for him. He has not been parasitized by the infected entity. Please make an exception, Inspector, and give my brother a chance to live."
"You vouch for him?"
Cheng Ye tapped his finger on the tabletop and shook his head gently. "You should know the checkpoint's rules, Squad Leader Wu."
"I understand."
Wu Rui swallowed, his heart sinking.
As an Easterner, the reason he had chosen the North Station was precisely to avoid having Easterners make things difficult for him with regulations at the South Station.
Even if he had to let the inspectors here at the North Station fleece him for some kickbacks, he wouldn't have minded.
Yet no one could have anticipated that an Easterner would be on duty at North Station's Quarantine Gate A.
Moreover, this young inspector was far from the pushover he appeared to be. The steady, reserved composure he displayed belonged more to a veteran who had worked the checkpoint for years.
"Save my brother's life, and everyone in our Chishou Squad will owe you our lives, Inspector."
"Bring him in. Let me see him."
Since the man had put it that way, refusing to examine the wounded would be completely unjustified.
As Cheng Ye pressed the button for the isolation gate, he unholstered the Bison combat pistol at his waist and set it on the desk.
Just then, Raven arrived in a hurry with ten on-duty guards he had summoned. The air inside the checkpoint instantly grew taut.
"Understood!"
Wu Rui turned back toward the armored vehicle.
The fine rain fell continuously, spattering across his face in damp streaks.
The vehicle's side door swung open, and four soldiers in Cross Legion uniforms swiftly carried out a wounded man.
*Hiss.*
Almost everyone inhaled a sharp breath at the same time.
The casualty's left leg was entirely gone, severed clean from the hip and wrapped in blood-soaked bandages.
From his lower abdomen upward, a hideous laceration tore across his torso all the way to his shoulder. The flesh was turned inside out, like cloth shredded by sharp claws.
Could this man even be saved?
Seeming to sense Cheng Ye's doubt, Wu Rui explained, "The Inner City possesses specialized biological revival technology. Since these are only traumatic injuries, the survival rate is well over eighty percent."
"Revival technology?"
Cheng Ye clicked his tongue inwardly. This was yet another term that didn't exist in his memories.
Strangely enough, even after suffering such horrific injuries, the man on the stretcher managed to offer a faint smile in their direction.
"What's with him?"
"A special talent brought about by atavistic genes. His pain nerves have only a tenth of normal sensitivity."
The one who answered wasn't Wu Rui, but the wounded man on the stretcher, who should have been clinging to life by a thread.
This guy could actually speak for himself.
"Name?"
"Dai Zun."
"Age?"
"Twenty-nine."
"How were you injured? If you can't speak clearly, Squad Leader Wu can answer for you."
"It's fine. Right now, it just feels like a scrape on the hand to you guys. The worst of the pain passed long ago."
A thin smile tugged at Dai Zun's pale face. "An infected entity slipped into the battery factory. It parasitized a worker and hid inside the feed pipe. I crawled in and butchered it."
*He's that fierce?*
Cheng Ye's eyelid twitched. Even without knowing how wide the feed pipe was, it was undeniably a confined space.
Going in without backup was practically a suicide mission.
"The rest of you, step back outside. I need to inspect the wound."
"Fall back."
Wu Rui took a deep look at Cheng Ye and waved a hand to the others behind him. The seven of them retreated beyond the cordon.
The heavy isolation gate slammed shut with a boom. Almost simultaneously, the ten guards leveled their weapons at Dai Zun on the stretcher.
*Damn, this Inspector Cheng has serious guts.*
Noticing that Cheng Ye was pulling on rubber gloves, clearly intending to make close contact with a high-risk suspected infected entity, the bystanders drew in sharp breaths. They had never seen an inspector so daring.
Of course, Cheng Ye himself felt somewhat nervous. But the moment he heard the words "special talent," he immediately opened his interface. After hesitating for less than a second, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind:
*I'm doing it!*
At this very moment, Wu Rui's cooperation rate on the Collector's interface had stalled at 54%, unlikely to rise any higher, which was just enough to search for a Lv. 1 skill.
Dai Zun's cooperation rate, however, had surged ahead, reaching an unprecedented 94%!
This was the first time Cheng Ye had ever seen a cooperation rate this high.
*A Lv. 2 skill... If I can search out this pain-reduction talent, that would be insane.*
Permanently keeping pain sensitivity at a tenth of normal wasn't necessarily a good thing; it would severely dull one's perception of external danger, which might even weaken overall combat effectiveness.
However... skills were different!
Once acquired, Cheng Ye could equip or unequip it whenever he pleased. He could enjoy the damage-sponge advantage of reduced pain without having to bear the risk of sensory impairment.
"Brother, you'll need to cooperate with me fully from here on out. Otherwise, I can't guarantee..."
Cheng Ye crouched down, gesturing toward his back with a nod of his chin.
Truthfully, he didn't need to drop hints. More than a dozen trembling red dots were already aimed at the stretcher. If Dai Zun made a single out-of-line move, he would undoubtedly receive an immediate "physical exorcism."
"Tell me, you want to live too, don't you?"
"Of course. I don't want to die at the hands of some ordinary infected entity. That'd be too pathetic."
Fine beads of sweat broke out on Dai Zun's pale face, his Adam's apple bobbing violently. "Whatever you say, Inspector, I'll do it. Full cooperation."
"Good. I like your attitude."
The cooperation rate on the interface climbed once more, reaching 97%.
Cheng Ye felt a surge of quiet delight as he picked up the instruments on the desk and began taking measurements.
"Body temperature, 38.7."
"Heart rate, 144."
"Respiratory rate, 17."
With each set of readings called out, Wu Rui's expression outside the gate darkened another shade.
When approaching the checkpoint, he had already learned about what had transpired earlier today and knew things looked bad.
According to checkpoint regulations, if two or more data sets were anomalous, the subject had to be locked in an isolation cell.
Looking at Dai Zun's current data, his body temperature was definitely over the limit, while his heart rate hovered right on the edge of 140.
Although there was a 5% measurement tolerance, if Cheng Ye insisted on marking that reading as an anomaly, Dai Zun would face only one outcome.
"One anomalous set!"
*Phew.*
The moment the words left his mouth, a chorus of stifled sighs of relief came from outside the gate.
At the same time, the numbers on the Collector's interface jumped again, reaching 98.9%.
It was only a fraction away from a 100% cooperation rate.
"You're very tense. Even though you've blocked out the pain, I can sense your fear."
"Relax. I'm not like the other inspectors. As long as you aren't infected, I can guarantee you'll walk out of here alive!"
As Cheng Ye spoke, he opened the black case and retrieved the dual-modal vital signs detector and the rot-light metabolic detector.
Yet just as he was about to begin the scan, his hands paused abruptly, and a faint smile slowly curled across his lips.
[Dai Zun, 100% (Perfect), Retrievable Range: Intelligence, Items, Skills (Lv. 1, Lv. 2)]
...
Chapter 42