Chapter 123: Smooth Infiltration

「Inside a dilapidated building.」

Dylan Quinn was stretching his sore arms.

"That’s enough, Dylan Quinn. He’s bled so much,

you’ll attract zombies if you’re not careful."

A woman said from the side, pinching her nose.

The man on the ground was covered in blood.

His wrists and ankles had been pierced by Stone Spikes, pinning him firmly to the ground.

"Yes, Mr. Quinn,"

"I don’t think he’s right in the head. He can’t even talk.

We should take him back to the Alliance for a proper interrogation. If he dies here, we’ll really have no leads."

The male assistant beside him added.

"Stay out of this. I won’t let him die that easily."

Dylan Quinn sneered as he walked over to the bloody man on the ground. He pressed his foot onto the man’s head and looked down at him, saying:

"Wayne Warner, even if you really can’t talk,"

"I have my ways of making you."

"You’d better start confessing."

"Who killed my brother? What the hell happened that day?"

However, Wayne Warner, beneath his foot, only glanced up at him.

If not for the faint glimmer of light remaining in his pupils, he would have been no different from a dead man.

"Still not talking?"

Dylan Quinn’s mouth twitched.

He refused to believe that Wayne Warner knew nothing.

A stone, heated until it glowed red, was pressed hard against Wayne Warner’s body.

A piercing sizzle filled the air as white smoke billowed up.

The other two couldn’t bear to watch any longer.

Not out of sympathy.

It just looked too painful.

But the man on the ground remained completely silent.

Even as the muscles around the wound began to spasm.

"Dylan Quinn."

The door opened, and Dylan Quinn finally looked up at the sound of the voice.

"Bring him back for interrogation. Don’t cause any more trouble."

"Understood, Mr. Hughes."

Dylan Quinn nodded and handed a barbed metal whip to his assistant. "Don’t let him die."

The assistant nodded.

The woman yawned languidly, linking her arm through Dylan Quinn’s as she walked out.

"We should have gone to bed. I’ve already run your bath..."

After they left, the assistant looked at the man on the ground and shook his head.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

"Wouldn’t it be better to just talk and end your suffering?"

...

「Early the next morning.」

A white van was driving down the road. Felix Flynn opened his window and couldn’t help but curse at the men behind him:

"Can you all stop fucking smoking?"

"Give us a break, Flynn. The supervisor just gave us this half-cigarette as a reward."

"It’d be a shame to waste it."

One of the men in the back took a deep drag, and before he could finish, another man snatched the cigarette, now only a third of its original size, from his hand.

"Look at you pathetic losers."

"Recruit a few more Superpower Users, find some more supplies, and you’ll have all the points you need, won’t you?"

Felix Flynn sneered.

He was the supervisor of today’s team.

They had just set out from the Alliance, preparing to head to more distant areas to see if there were any supplies they could scavenge.

Or any Superpower Users.

"What Superpower Users are left to find at this point?"

"Whoever was going to die is probably dead already," the driver said.

"Not necessarily. Seven or eight new Superpower Users registered just yesterday."

"I heard they all escaped from City J."

"I wonder when Mr. Hughes and his group will be back."

"You don’t think they got held up by the shelter, do you?"

"No way."

"Mr. Hughes has powerful people watching his back."

"Besides, with his skills, do you really think that crew at the shelter could detain him?"

After Felix Flynn spoke, the other men in the van all voiced their agreement.

Just then, they heard an explosion in the distance.

The men in the van were instantly on alert.

"A mutated zombie?"

"Abbott, drive over there. Let’s check it out,"

Felix Flynn said.

The driver, Abbott, nodded.

They hadn’t driven far before they saw a wrecked van stopped in the middle of the road.

The van was surrounded by a handful of zombies.

The zombies were desperately trying to pry open the van’s doors.

"There’s someone in the van!"

Abbott could clearly see a figure sitting inside.

"Could it be a Superpower User?"

The eyes of the other men in the back lit up.

"There aren’t many zombies. Let’s go take a look," Felix Flynn said.

They knew that if they could just bring back one Superpower User, their mission for the day would be complete.

No one objected. They each grabbed their weapons and started hacking at the zombies.

They finally finished off the dozen or so zombies.

The van door finally opened.

A disheveled woman wearing a face mask staggered out of the van.

"Where did you come from?"

Felix Flynn and his men asked eagerly.

"Yeah, are you a Superpower User?"

"I... I escaped from City J,"

"I’m a Superpower User, but I’ve exhausted my Superpower."

"Thank you for saving me."

As she spoke, an extremely faint flame flickered to life in her palm.

"A Fire Element Superpower User! This is great!"

Felix Flynn and his men were overjoyed.

"Don’t mention it,"

"We can take you somewhere safe."

Clay Howard immediately offered.

"A shelter?"

"Are you from a shelter? That would be wonderful."

The mask couldn’t hide the woman’s joyful expression.

The men looked a bit awkward, and Felix Flynn replied:

"We’re from the Superpower User Alliance. Our place is much better than any shelter."

"As long as you’re a Superpower User, you’ll get food, housing, and protection."

"It’s very safe."

"A place like that really exists?"

Seeing that the woman was tempted, the men pressed their case.

"Then I’ll have to trouble you to take me."

"I’m not feeling very well. Could we go as soon as possible?"

The woman said, lowering her head bashfully.

"No problem. We’ll take you back to get registered right now," Clay Howard said.

"By the way, what’s your name?"

"You can fill out the forms in our van on the way,"

Felix Flynn said.

"My name?"

"I’m Summer Warner."

...

Nina Jacobs hadn’t expected to get into the Quinn Group so smoothly.

To be more precise, this was the headquarters of the Superpower User Alliance.

It was different from the campus that Cole Dempsey was in charge of.

The headquarters consisted of several mid-to-high-rise buildings and a cluster of surrounding factories.

Presumably because it had been a pharmaceutical factory with its own employee dormitories before the apocalypse.

The Superpower Users here all seemed to live in the ten-story dormitory building.

"We have single and shared dorm rooms."

"It just depends on which you’d prefer."

After Nina Jacobs finished filling out all her information, a middle-aged woman led her to the dorm assignments.

The woman’s name was Julia Spencer. She carried a key ring with what looked like a hundred keys, and her face was a mask of impatience.

"Ms. Spencer, I’d like a single room."

Nina Jacobs pulled Julia Spencer aside as they reached a corner.

She took a small package out of her backpack and pressed it into the other woman’s hand.

Julia Spencer’s eyes lit up.

She glanced around before opening the package.

Inside were several packs of compressed biscuits and a can of luncheon meat!

These things sold for a fortune in the Alliance!

"Well, you certainly know how to get on someone’s good side."

"Don’t you worry. The room I pick for you, I guarantee you’ll be happy with it."

All of Julia Spencer’s previous impatience had vanished.

"Thank you, Ms. Spencer. I’m a light sleeper, and I have a bit of a fear of heights."

"I was hoping for a room that’s relatively quiet..."

Nina Jacobs followed Julia Spencer upstairs.

’A single room would be much more convenient for me, too.’

Julia Spencer led Nina Jacobs to a room with a window on the second floor.

It was at the end of the hallway.

Nina Jacobs glanced down and saw a very narrow flower bed below.

The flower bed itself, however, had long been neglected.

"Don’t worry. Hardly anyone ever comes by this window."

"It’ll definitely be quiet,"

Julia Spencer said with a smile.