What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH54

Chapter 54: What She Is Looking For

Pei Xiqing navigated past one hermetically sealed laboratory after another, her boots finally halting before an exceptionally cold containment chamber.

The heavy reinforced doors and viewing ports were completely blacked out, preventing a single ray of illumination from breaching the interior. The ambient air was heavily saturated with a dense, clinical scent of chemical suppressants, growing so suffocatingly sharp that the exact millisecond the pneumatic seal broke, the draft forced a tight cough from her throat.

From her current vantage point, her visual sensors could map straight into the adjacent observation block, where dozens of mid-tier mutants were locked inside hyper-secure experimental containment cells, their decomposing bodies thrashing violently as a continuous stream of muffled, ravenous roars vibrated through the glass.

Her anomalous biology could subtly intercept the raw frequency of their neural transmissions—registering an absolute, pulsing wave of primitive despair and unvarnished fury locking their minds.

Xiaobai tracked closely behind her utility belt, executing a sequence of restless, clicking pivots on the metal floorboards, before flatly refusing to advance his boots a single millimeter past the threshold.

Ying slid the master security door open, a low, exhausted sigh escaping his chest as he strode toward the chief medical technician commanding the terminal array. “Modulate your kinetic parameters when running the diagnostic on this canine,” he commanded hoarsely. “Maintain absolute gentleness.”

The biological clearance check was an absolute directive from the high command, but the executioner strictly restricted his overwatch to Pei Xiqing’s cellular safety; as for the reanimated Husky, his processing units contained zero data on how to manage its temperament under restraint.

The research technician offered a faint, clinical nod, his eyes locking onto the armored hound for a prolonged moment. “This domestic predator is heavily saturated with the terminal strain of the pathogen; the internal degradation is entirely absolute and hopeless. Maintaining its file inside your personal living quarters introduces an astronomical security risk to the stronghold. My diagnostic advice is to immediately inject a high-concentration neuro-paralytic serum into its core and secure its bone structure inside a titanium research cage. Its unique neural retention metrics suggest it would function as a highly optimal test subject for our weaponized trials.”

Dropping into a low crouch beside the harness, a sharp, predatory glint flared behind his surgical mask. “The structural anomalies in its jawbone demand an immediate living dissection. Jesus Christ… I calculate the research bounty cleared by the high council for this data sheet would optimize my division’s funding for a year.”

Pei Xiqing’s expression turned instantly to absolute ice, her voice dropping to a freezing murmur. “If your division holds such a massive craving for a living dissection, why don’t you authorize a structural audit of my own anatomy first?”

Simultaneously, the reanimated canine at her heel intercepted the hostile intent targeting his line. His ears pinned back instantly, and he unleashed a violent, high-frequency sequence of guttural barks against Ying and the chief technician, his coiled muscles bracing to launch a lethal close-quarters assault.

Pei Xiqing rapidly dropped her hand, her fingers firmly locking over his ballistic harness to reset his compliance code. “Stand down, Xiaobai.” The Husky stabilized immediately, his jaws locking shut.

The chief medical technician froze, his hand stalling over his surgical kit. “Your vocal receptors…?”

He frantically snapped his head around, his eyes seeking validation from Ying’s mask.

A living dissection? against an asset under the Chief Judge’s personal shadow?

Had his cognitive processing completely failed to register the hierarchy? He possessed zero authority to execute an autopsy protocol tonight; his command manifest was strictly restricted to a routine physical clearance and a basic hematology sweep.

Ying let out a dry, warnings cough beneath his visor. “Bury the research greed, Doctor. This specific biological anomaly is excluded from your test subject inventory.”

The medical officer let out a tight, anxious chuckle, desperately recalibrating his posture. “Ah… apologies, Commander. My occupational instincts initialized an automated override, and my processors failed to restrain the impulse. But this specific infected canine definitively commands an extraordinary index of scientific value…”

Pei Xiqing dropped into a low crouch, her slim fingers gently reassuring the trembling form of the hound, her voice dropping to a sharp, dismissive purr. “If the baseline parameters of this laboratory demand a total liquidation of his comfort, we are officially terminating the screening.”

She stood up, her hand yanking the high-tensile nylon lead taut. “Am I cleared to withdraw the asset from your terminal?”

Ying gave a brief, compliant nod.

The Sovereign Chief Judge had never issued a mandate to lock her body within a cell; his directive strictly required her line to pass a diagnostic clearance to verify her cellular health.

“The exit vector is clear,” she stated, pivoting her torso toward the main corridor. “March, dog.”

Xiaobai followed her heeling line with absolute, fluid obedience.

Ying crossed his massive arms over his chest rigging, watching her loose casual windbreaker dissolve down the titanium lane, a slow shake of his head rippling through his shoulders.

“Miss Pei, stabilize your coordinates inside the central transit capsule,” he called out across the comms. “Representative Duan’s schedule indicates his line will intercept your position in precisely fifteen minutes. You can run your data synchronization directly with his station then.”

Turning his head back toward the laboratory terminal, his broad palm suddenly slammed hard against the chief technician’s chest plate, the kinetic shock forcing the doctor back a step.

“Your vocal apparatus is completely uncalibrated,” the executioner growled. “You should maximize your focus to replicate the tracking style of your master.”

The research doctor clutched his bruised armor, his face turning pale. “The Sovereign Director Qiu Chao is currently entrenched at global headquarters. My system desperately desires to synchronize with his station, but the clearance parameters are blocked. His operational trajectory is entirely unpredictable; half the time his office simply routes his cell into the active frontier to join the mutant purges for personal amusement.”

He leaned closer to the black mask, his voice a frantic whisper. “But Commander Ying, what specific biological classification governs that girl? Her skin structure shows zero signs of standard post-mortem necrosis. Why did the Sovereign Chief Judge issue a priority mandate ordering my personal station to oversee her diagnostic sheet? I have overseen thousands of living experiments inside these walls, yet my databases have never logged an active infected whose vocal processors could generate a coherent linguistic stream that flawless.”

Ying’s chest plate heaved as a harsh scoff left his mask. “Absolute idiot. Your timeline has tracked behind Director Qiu’s shadow for consecutive winters, yet your processing units still operate at a primitive baseline.”

The technician blinked. “Why are your vocal receptors suddenly deploying a verbal reprimand against my intellect, Commander?”

“Run the calculation yourself.”

The medical officer’s brain short-circuited for a heavy second before the ground truth violently shattered his composure. “It’s statistically impossible…! She commands a permanent alignment with his private quarters?!”

The Chief Judge had personally engineered her security parameters; a blind asset could deduce that her timeline was anchored directly to the center of his board.

Ying looked down at him as if analyzing a corrupted data file. “Your primitive threats managed to scare his primary asset out of the sector. The second the boss initiates an inquiry regarding her missing diagnostics, your division will absorb one hundred percent of the administrative fallout.”

“Negative, Commander Ying! I implore your station to inject a protective narrative into his ledger! My supreme master and the Chief Judge are ancient comrades from Franlun’s founding inner circle. Your judicial enforcement is too merciless. If your comms had synchronized her clearance metrics prior to the drop, my system would have never authorized that research script.”

“Hold the line, Ying! Bro! Execute a stay on the report!”

Ying’s direct command had instructed her to stabilize her coordinates inside the transit capsule.

Pei Xiqing spent several minutes meticulously analyzing the multi-layered cybernetic interface anchoring the elevator walls, attempting to replicate the precise command gestures she had watched the executioner execute to override the locks. Yet, the high-tech interface completely refused to validate her manual input, and the translucent blue capsule maintained its continuous, aggressive high-velocity ascent toward the upper tiers.

The advanced engineering of the dreadnought was entirely beyond her world’s physics. Her mind could comprehend the baseline function of the hardware, but her clearance metrics failed to wrest control of the navigation software.

The console was essentially a hyper-complex, integrated digital command matrix.

Firmly clutching the nylon lead to anchor the hound beside her boots, she monitored the climbing level display, a sudden spike of survival tension flaring in her chest.

Ensure the capsule doesn’t accidentally dump my coordinates into a restricted military war room, she thought. That would complicate the camouflage.

The automated pneumatic blast doors slid open with a soft hiss, and a dense column of base staff officers dressed in pristine, hyper-tailored command dress uniforms turned their heads in absolute astonishment.

“What variable…?”

“Identify your division code, miss.”

Their features were heavily clouded with intense, suspicious confusion.

Pei Xiqing smoothly yanked the Husky deeper into the rear flank of the elevator capsule. “The layout contains a sufficient allocation of space to buffer the density. Does your column desire to share the transit?”

Meeting the direct, unblinking glare of her clear eyes, several young officers felt a sudden flush of heat creep across their jaws. They reflexively raised their gloved hands, adjusting the crisp brims of their uniform caps to mask the reaction. “The space is sufficient. Cooperating with the alignment.”

A cell of seven or eight military prosecutors crowded into the capsule. Though the internal dimensions of the high-velocity capsule were vast enough to manage the weight, the sheer physical density inevitably forced her windbreaker flush into the rear corner.

Xiaobai’s ears pinned back, his throat vibrating as he prepared to launch a violent barking routine against the cluster of high-tier strangers. Pei Xiqing’s motor reflexes were lightning-fast; her hand clamped over his ballistic muzzle visor, ruthlessly suffocating the acoustic burst before it could trigger a security alert in front of the officers.

The reanimated canine’s nervous system was clearly experiencing an immense wave of localized panic, his primitive defenses frantic to stand as a physical shield in front of her torso to repel a perceived threat.

Back in the wild frontier, his interactions had been strictly restricted to the friendly, familiar alignment of Ling Lang’s vanguard cell; his processors had never calibrated the claustrophobic friction of a crowded human stronghold.

The elite prosecutors initialized a high-frequency tactical dialogue inside the capsule, completely ignoring her presence as their voices debated the shifting infrastructure of the fortress and a sequence of urgent administrative files pending at the high tribunal.

Ultimately, their vocal transmissions hit a familiar data string.

“Speaking of judicial timelines, the Sovereign Chief Judge is driving his desk at an unhinged, absolute capacity today. Biometric logs confirm he was systematically clearing high-clearance execution files hours before the council initialized, and he even broke rank midway through the assembly to launch an isolated voice communication. What specific entity commands enough leverage to force his shadow into a solo communication line? Could the tracking code trace straight to the Supreme Marshal at headquarters, or does it match the young Master Qiu?”

“Deactivate the simulation. Refrain from deploying blind guesses against his ledger. We have an unverified civilian asset sharing this capsule grid. Maintain strict operational boundaries regarding what data your vocal receptors broadcast.”

“Copy that.”

One of the senior prosecutors cast a cold, deeply probing glance across Pei Xiqing’s casual jacket as she crouched to reassure the hound. His eyes scanned her form for several consecutive seconds. “Your profile matches the traditional layout of an officer’s domestic family dependent, miss. But are your cognitive units unaware that this specific high-velocity capsule is strictly reserved for judicial oversight personnel? Every single data stream flowing through this shaft is highly classified. By what authority does a civilian woman casually override the security locks to breach a restricted zone?”

“The data is clear,” she replied flatly, not raising her head.

“Then explain your presence.”

“My navigation vector executed an incorrect turn.”

The prosecutor let out a harsh, freezing sneer. “An incorrect turn? Is your intellect implying that a blind asset can accidentally bypass three layers of bio-metric security gates to board a high-clearance judicial capsule? I run a high probability calculation that your timeline is operating as an espionage drone, explicitly deployed by an external syndicate to plunder our weapon schematics. My most efficient protocol is to execute an immediate military arrest and transfer your frame to the water dungeon vaults. After forty-eight hours of flooded isolation, your database will willingly release the true encryption keys.”

…

Pei Xiqing’s eyes turned instantly to liquid stone. Her voice dropped to a razor-thin, internal whisper directed straight into the canine’s ear. “Xiaobai… the exact millisecond his glove touches my windbreaker, you will violently sever his right hand from his arm matrix.”

The reanimated Husky’s tail executed a fast, frantic sequence of rigid clicks against the floorboards, his red eyes bulging as he locked his hunting radar straight onto the senior officer’s forearm.

The prosecutor’s brow pulled together in a furious frown, his elemental field subtly flaring. “You audacious little—”

An adjacent officer quickly stepped into the gap, shifting his weight to break the physical tension. “Drop the interrogation, Commander. Miss, my sub-unit is scheduled to clear the lower levels shortly; does your timeline require my station to escort your coordinates back to the civilian sector?”

“The assistance yields a zero-net utility to my board. Thank you,” Pei Xiqing countered coldly, shutting down the probe. Whether their intervention was driven by an unverified attraction or engineered to track her movements, she had absolutely zero use for their alignment.

“I genuinely fail to decode what primitive frontier zone spawned this wild creature,” the senior commander muttered under his breath.

“Cease the transmission, man. Your processing unit is actively launching an administrative assault against a defenseless girl. What tactical pride do you extract from scaring a civilian asset? Her presence inside a high-clearance oversight capsule confirms her lineage commands a hidden authorization. Why are you begging for a disciplinary file?”

“Let’s refocus our processing units onto the smuggling treason the Chief Judge mapped out during the afternoon shift. If our execution squads fail to extract the ground truth regarding those black-market links before the next shift initializes, our own names will be stamped onto the water dungeon registers.”

“That specific smuggling file is a massive, exhausting quagmire. On a separate track, our databases had intercepted absolutely zero historical data regarding this Chief Judge’s methodology prior to his deployment. The rumors drifting from headquarters merely stated that his judicial enforcement was uniquely merciless, and the elite directors operating under his shadow suffered immense cellular trauma. Less than forty-eight hours after breaching Base Three, he has already executed a total liquidation of the regional black-market cells, publicly bleeding their lines on the deck. I am terrified to calculate what precise disciplinary protocol he will unleash against our division if our efficiency metrics drop.”

“Bury the complaints. This entity commanding the name of Duan is a completely merciless, murderous devil. On the public broadcasts, his demeanor projects a flawless image of refined, polite diplomacy—yet beneath the glasses, his biology is governed by an absolute, cruel tyranny. Did your sensors verify the hematology sheets from the execution plaza? Those high-tier defensive ability users possessed enough cellular vitality to be salvaged for the labor pens, yet he chose to ruthlessly butcher their lines before the entire registry…”

“Ah, the timeline is hitting a bottleneck. The administrative load is suffocating, and our supreme director is a terrifying monster. My personal station finally crossed paths with his presence today during the brief; the sheer freezing weight of his gaze left my nervous system feeling as though my cells had already been locked behind the flooded bars of the dungeon.”

“The logs indicate the Chief Judge is currently anchoring his coordinates directly inside the subterranean water prison vaults. The optimization clock is ticking, and the task parameters are exceptionally heavy. Our cell needs to rapidly extract the high-value asset from the lower blocks. Let’s accelerate our marching vector to the flooded sector immediately. If our arrival timestamp misses the window, our timelines are completely finished.”

…

The high-velocity elevator capsule executed a sharp, smooth deceleration, snapping to a halt at a secondary command tier.

Within the narrow, metallic confines of the shaft, the prosecutors who had been loudly broadcasting their panic instantly locked down their vocal receptors, stepping out of the capsule in a disciplined, silent column.

The exact millisecond the automated blast doors initiated the closing sequence, Pei Xiqing’s fingers shot forward, firmly compressing the master manual override switch on the cybernetic control panel.

She poked her head out through the narrowing fracture, ensuring the titanium lane was entirely vacant of personnel.

Turning back to the console, her fingers executed a sequence of rapid, experimental inputs across the digital interface.

Her memory logs tracked the precise geometric patterns Ying’s hand had traced hours ago, and her own wrists duplicated the tracking gestures…

The adjacent corridors remained completely desolate of life.

She calculated that the automated security firewalls of this specific capsule were restricted exclusively to supreme high-clearance administrators.

Pei Xiqing maintained the diagnostic probe against the control panel for several minutes, until the cybernetic software suddenly registered her anomalous green energy input as an authorized override. A massive cascade of classified military dossiers, encrypted code streams, and structural manifests violently erupted into the air, scrolling past her eyes in a high-speed holographic projection.

A dense, blinding wave of shimmering blue and white light screens flashed continuously across the pupils of her clear eyes.

She methodically swiped through the scrolling windows, her jaw tight as her processing units scanned the data.

Not a single line of the projected data matched the underlying blueprint she was desperately searching to locate.

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