What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH52

Chapter 52: Family Members

Duan Xiaolin’s eyes remained fixed on the tactical photograph pinned to his desk, his pen smoothly marking a sequence of microscopic structural anomalies within the crime file. Without looking up, he scrawled a brief, sharp directive across the margin of the official confession form and transferred the document back across the counter. “Deliver this directly to base Executive Officer Zhang. Command his unit to report to my secure office in precisely thirty minutes.”

Ling Lang accepted the folder, casually balancing the high-priority file between his long fingertips. He paused at the threshold, his posture coiling tight as he allowed a prolonged calculation to run through his brain before vocalizing his thoughts. “Brother… your cells recovered my frame from the hot zones at the absolute dawn of the global outbreak. If your overwatch hadn’t anchored my timeline five years ago, my current elemental tier would have hit absolute zero.”

His internal database held an immense, unshakeable index of reverence for Duan Xiaolin. Across the consecutive calendar shifts of the collapse, the High Representative had systematically isolated his private life, permitting zero external assets to anchor their timelines near his perimeter.

Even when high-tier female elites deployed every conceivable metric to infiltrate his space, his emotional receptors returned a flatline response.

Over the past few winters, a massive demographic of military personnel inside the walls had gradually begun to stabilize their private lives—authorizing marriage contracts, establishing domestic lineages, and actively migrating toward a quiet, family-friendly routine. Ling Lang’s baseline ran a zero-interest parameter regarding those domestic scripts for himself, yet his analytical units had continuously flagged an immense wave of concern regarding his brother’s absolute isolation.

Pei Xiqing’s sudden intrusion into their convoy had completely shattered every single predictive model.

She operated as a violent, uncalibrated anomaly—an organic accident that the high command’s supercomputers could never have calculated, continuously overriding their parameters.

To his own tracking system, her presence represented a profound, erratic shock.

He lacked the vocabulary to decode the exact neurological friction seizing his chest the moment his biological brother had unmasked his private possessiveness over her line.

The data was entirely unverified.

Ling Lang’s grip tightened around the edges of the judicial folder, his knuckles turning white. He executed a sharp pivot, his hand forcing the heavy reinforced door of the sanctuary open to break rank.

The exact millisecond his broad palm compressed the steel door handle, the glacial voice of the man behind his shoulder sliced through the quiet room. “Ling Lang.”

His boots stalled against the floorboards.

“Brother.”

Duan Xiaolin spoke with slow, measured gravity.

“Your sole directive on this board is to monitor the execution of my calculations. You lack the clearance to interrogate the metrics.”

“…Understood,” Ling Lang muttered after a heavy pause, his White lashes casting shadows over his eyes. He forced his posture rigid, adding a quiet, testing query. “Brother… does your system categorize my constant behavioral interventions as an annoyance?”

A low, self-deprecating laugh escaped his throat before his brother could formulate a diagnostic check. “Prior to the global outbreak, my lineage was classified as an unwanted extra—a disposable child whom zero family assets tolerated. Even after the virus tore through the cities, my cell was reduced to a frantic, bloody struggle for survival across the ruins. There isn’t a single division head inside this stronghold who doesn’t harbor a deep system hatred for my tactical choices. Compared to your sovereign trajectory, my timeline runs remarkably close to a… pathetic failure.”

The Sovereign Chief Judge maintained an absolute, suffocating silence for several heavy seconds, before his green eyes narrowed behind his gold-rimmed lenses to issue a precise, clinical counter-analysis. “Are your cognitive units running a valid calculation?”

“If every single tier of the military command inside these walls actively detests your unit, your own behavior deliberately engineered that specific parameter, correct?”

Ling Lang’s frame stiffened by a microscopic fraction.

A lazy, unvarnished smile broke across his sharp features.

“Brother, your tracking system has always held the ultimate clearance to my code.”

Duan Xiaolin returned his gaze to his terminal, his voice a level purr. “At this stage of the apocalypse, acknowledging the raw parameters of your own heart represents a zero-risk protocol; it is entirely devoid of shame.”

On the public charts, Ling Lang projected the persona of an unconstrained, reckless vanguard captain who ran a zero-interest index regarding base politics—yet beneath the arrogant exterior, his internal processor was meticulously detailed, operating with terrifying precision. His psychological baseline was a volatile mixture of calculated bluffs and hidden ground truths, rendering his temperament highly unstable to external assets.

He continuously deployed an aggressive, simplified mask specifically to deceive the high command into assuming his intellect was elementary.

Ling Lang offered a loose, careless shrug of his shoulders.

That was simply the structural baseline of his biology.

What precise data governed the concept of true love?

The metric yielded a zero-value return on his board.

The sudden wave of existential self-pity and defensive rebellion that had shadowed his posture vanished instantly. The pliant, aggrieved puppy standing before Duan Xiaolin’s desk transformed within a millisecond, the apex leader of the vanguard pack locking back into place.

“The processing loop is closed, Judge.”

He pushed the heavy steel door open, planting his broad palm against the reinforced frame as he executed a final fluid pivot, a completely carefree, mocking lilt infusing his vocal receptors. “But run this parallel simulation, brother: I calculate that particular idiot lacks the internal capacity to fall in love with any human asset easily. Why don’t we leave both of our tracking channels open? Let’s monitor the timeline and analyze the drift.”

Duan Xiaolin’s pen paused over the confession sheet as an ancient, deeply amused chuckle escaped his lips. “Perhaps… your diagnostic models have intercepted a valid truth.”

The captain broke rank, his heavy boots echoing down the titanium hallway.

The High Representative slowly raised his head, his piercing green eyes tracking the empty threshold where his younger brother’s shadow had just dissolved.

His fingers idly twirled the expensive executive pen.

Ling Lang’s autonomous, unconstrained sovereignty was a metric infinitely more enviable than the heavy chains governing his own sovereign throne.

Pei Xiqing and Xiaobai spent the remainder of the afternoon shift lounging across the open private courtyard of the villa, the gentle kinetic rock of the outdoor lounge chairs under the warm solar glare yielding an exceptionally high comfort index.

The forward perimeter of the estate was remarkably expansive, entirely cleared of high-density military transport parking. Driven by a sudden burst of energy, she retrieved a high-velocity plastic disc, initializing a standard fetch routine to calibrate the reanimated Husky’s motor compliance.

Once her physical stamina tracking flagged a minor dip, she collapsed back onto the cushions, absorbing a brief, unburdened nap under the sun.

The high-frequency chime of her terminal alarm violently reset her consciousness, a soft yawn escaping her lips as she sat upright.

She allocated a fresh portion of high-grade protein to Xiaobai’s bowl, before organizing her utility gear and prepping her windbreaker to execute the transit toward the titanic dreadnought anchoring the base center, intending to synchronize her coordinates with Duan Xiaolin.

The reanimated canine demonstrated a remarkably disciplined compliance threshold ninety percent of the time. Aside from the anomaly during the previous night shift—where his viral paranoia had driven him to whimper pitifully at her bedroom door to escape the Chief Judge’s lethal pressure—his vocal apparatus remained entirely locked, his frame tracking silently at her heel.

Yet, the exact second she reached for the master blast door override, the animal’s motor functions stalled completely. He dropped his heavy, armored torso flat against the stone, his skull drooping in absolute, autistic isolation. The reanimated hound appeared deeply hostile toward the concept of clearing the threshold, his cells harboring an intense psychological terror of the blinding solar glare bouncing off the high-rise towers.

Pei Xiqing dropped into a crouch, analyzing his pinned ears. Pulling her smartphone from her utility pocket, she rapidly broadcasted an encrypted text transmission to Duan Xiaolin’s secure line.

Her analytical models suggested his schedule was currently entirely locked within a high-level executive assembly—he had explicitly specified that his office would be driving meetings for the consecutive shifts—consequently, she strictly restricted her communication to a low-impact text file.

[Ping——]

Is it permissible if I recalibrate my arrival timestamp by thirty minutes? I need to execute a brief localized walk around the residential sector with the hound; his internal metrics are currently indicating a severe wave of psychological depression.

She had calculated that his response loop would require a prolonged delay to clear his administrative duties, yet the terminal interface violently flashed an incoming confirmation within seconds.

Transfer the asset’s coordinates directly to the central command hub alongside your line.

Pei Xiqing’s fingers rapidly flew across the digital interface, inputting a secondary query. Are you entirely certain the protocol runs zero risk? Even though his fur matrix has cleared the decontamination wash bay, his coat remains exceptionally dense. Won’t the biometric scanners at the primary military gates instantly flag his anomaly, triggering a baseline execution?

The encryption line hung in sudden, dead silence.

Pei Xiqing’s pulse spiked with immediate paranoia.

The reanimated canine huddled tighter against her boots, letting out a pitiful, low-frequency whimper.

A purebred Husky was biologically engineered to demand immense physical expenditure. Back in the wild frontier zones, his reanimated cells had been cleared to run unconstrained across the wasteland; but since breaching the inner ring, his geography had been ruthlessly compressed into a sterile concrete suite, leaving him entirely co-opted and unable to flex his kinetic power.

Suddenly, the hardware in her palm violently vibrated, the sensory shock causing her to blink. Tracking the caller ID flashing across the digital interface, her processors confirmed that Duan Xiaolin had bypassed the text utility to launch a real-time voice patch.

The exact second she authorized the connection, the line remained perfectly quiet, the hyper-acute audio receivers capturing nothing but the deep, steady rhythm of the administrator’s respiration. “Aren’t your processing units currently locked within a supreme council meeting?” she whispered. “Why did your overwatch suddenly authorize a direct patch?”

“The medical division has already routed a customized K9 apparel matrix to your quarters,” his deep voice purred across the encryption, smooth and completely unbothered. “Secure the tactical gear over his bone structure and advance your coordinates straight to the main gates. Not a single sentry in this fortress commands the authority to halt your transit.”

“Will his biological signature be subjected to the infrared screening array?”

“Affirmative.”

“Understood. My navigation line is initializing the transit across the sector immediately.”

“Mhm.”

Severing the voice patch, Pei Xiqing excitedly sprinted back into the utility alcove, isolating the specialized military canine apparel package that had been delivered via the automated chutes.

The exact millisecond the heavy ballistic straps locked over his chest rigging, the Husky’s internal metrics reset instantly; his primitive brain clearly decoded the data that he was being cleared to clear the threshold. He executed an enthusiastic leap, planting his massive paws against her windbreaker.

Pei Xiqing firmly clutched his harness, patting his armored skull. “Deactivate the kinetic burst, boy. Form up on my flank, and we shall execute a brief march to clear the stagnancy from your cells.”

Once the premium K9 tactical visor and reinforced service hat were securely pinned over his skull, a third-party audit of his profile yielded a completely flawless illusion.

During his initial recovery from the wild valley, his coat had been heavily matted with dried clotted gore and environmental toxins, rendering his silhouette indistinguishable from a rabid zombie hound that had been rotting in a mass grave for decades. But now that the decontamination bay had optimized his fur, wrapped beneath a hyper-tailored military tracking vest and high-tech utility gear, he looked like an incredibly pristine, elite service asset.

Initially, an intense wave of concern had plagued her internal calculations, assuming the civilian laborers navigating the paved lanes would instantly flag their alignment as non-compliant. Yet, after tracking down the primary boulevard for ten minutes, she noted that the passing pedestrian demographics completely ignored their coordinates, their eyes tracking past their line with absolute indifference.

Pei Xiqing let out a long, silent breath of relief.

The data was clear: a significant demographic of high-status military officers inside the inner ring maintained premium service canines; Xiaobai’s armored profile was by no means an isolated anomaly in the fortress.

The exact second the reanimated hound crossed into the open air, his primal hunting instincts re-ignited like a tiger returning to its ancestral mountain peaks. He aggressively deployed his olfactory sensors, sniffing every structural column along the blacktop before executing a high-velocity sprint. If her right hand hadn’t been anchored securely to the high-tensile nylon lead, her civilian baseline would have completely failed to restrain his kinetic weight.

“Lock down the pace, Xiaobai,” she commanded, her voice dropping an octave to trigger his compliance code. The animal stabilized instantly, dropping back into a steady march. As their coordinates approached the primary checkpoint of the central command dreadnought, his behavioral meters optimized completely; he pulled his ears back and fell into a highly disciplined, silent heel right beside her boots.

Long before her frame could even breach the shadow of the metallic titan, her visual sensors intercepted a sequence of hyper-fortified security bays branching across the plaza—the defensive parameters running exponentially more rigid than the scanners guarding the stronghold’s outer walls.

At every single steel automated gate, a double row of elite ability soldiers stood anchored in rigid formations, their chests packed with high-tier medals, their elemental fields projecting an extraordinary aura of military dominance.

Towering directly behind their helmets was the supreme core dreadnought, its titanium hull rising straight from the bedrock like a colossal, cybernetic city forged from dark chrome.

The apex of the superstructure was completely invisible, swallowed by the low clouds. The interior engineering was undeniably a monument to humanity’s highest scientific zenith, and the personnel cleared to clear its thresholds were strictly restricted to supreme base directors, sovereign black-division administrators, and ancestral financial elites.

A fleet of sleek, armored hover-transports sat idling near the main entry port.

The high-ranking assets stepping down from the cabins were universally wrapped in pristine, hyper-tailored officer dress uniforms or draped in exceptionally intricate, high-yield luxury textiles.

A lone civilian girl draped in loose casual gear, trailing a heavily armored tracking hound, stood out like a flashing bio-hazard sign against the elite demographic, drawing a massive wave of scanning gazes from the plaza.

Pei Xiqing’s hand instinctively tightened over the fabric of the casual jacket she had procured the previous shift. Recalling the absolute administrative guarantee Duan Xiaolin had broadcasted into her comms, she forced a deep, stabilizing breath into her lungs, squared her bare shoulders, and bravely advanced her boots toward the primary security archway with the hound at her heel.

However, the exact second her boots brushed the validation line, an elite officer commanding an adjacent sector smoothly stepped ahead of her coordinates, presenting his clearance chips to the automated sentry bay to clear the audit.

Having finalized his verification loop, the officer executed a slow, calculated pivot. His visual sensors ran a long, deeply probing audit across Pei Xiqing’s casual windbreaker, before lowering his gaze to scrutinize the high-tech ballistic visor masking the skeletal structure of the canine at her feet.

“Navigating a biological service asset directly into the sovereign central hub of the high tribunal?” the officer murmured, his tone dropping to a level, intensely sharp inquiry as he adjusted his sidearm sling. “Identify your command code, miss. Is your timeline registered as the domestic family member of a High Representative?”

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