What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH32

Chapter 32: Are You Really Going to Punish Me?

Pei Xiqing’s eyes went wide, her expression a little blank. In the dim light of the room, the sharp, stark contrast between the darkness and the piercing green of the man’s eyes felt dangerous, as if concealing a deep, unyielding desire.

She swallowed hard.

For a long moment, her vocal cords completely locked, unable to squeeze out a single word.

She hadn’t panicked like this even when she was forcefully dragging herself through the claustrophobic encirclement of the zombie horde at the city gates. She had even convinced herself that she could bravely stomach the absolute horror of surgically slicing away necrotic flesh with a combat knife. But now, pinned beneath Duan Xiaolin’s suffocating scrutiny, a cold, genuine fear seized her chest.

Pei Xiqing blinked rapidly, forcing two heavy, anxious tears over her lashes. “Are… are you really going to punish me?”

“Mhm. I haven’t quite decided on the exact parameters yet,” the man murmured, his grip on her chin remaining unyielding. “You always manage to deviate entirely from my expectations.”

The threat sent a fresh tear spilling down her pale cheek. “…Okay.”

Watching her descend into absolute dread, the man’s voice slowed to a dark, methodical cadence. “Though, after surviving your bite, I managed to isolate an exceptionally fascinating biochemical variable.”

“What is it?”

Duan Xiaolin didn’t answer. He simply stared down at her, his expression a wall of impenetrable stone.

She blinked through her tears, utterly bewildered. “Huh?”

“How exactly does your body feel right now?”

“Me?” Pei Xiqing had been so entirely consumed by panic over his bleeding neck that she hadn’t even checked her own vitals. Pausing to analyze her system, she blinked in surprise and shook her head. “Actually… the suffocating viral heat is gone. I don’t feel sick at all anymore. Did my cells permanently stabilize the mutation after I lost consciousness?”

She hesitated, a horrifying thought striking her. “Wait… did I attack you like a rabid, mindless monster?”

She could accept the reality of the infection, but only if she hadn’t acted like a feral beast—drooling, shrieking, and violently clawing at him on the dirt path.

Duan Xiaolin’s lips curved slightly. “You did… sort of.”

“Why say ‘sort of’?”

“Because your state could never truly appear terrifying to me.”

Pei Xiqing blinked, her throat tight. “But ordinary survivors will be absolutely horrified if they see my fangs.”

“They will.”

The tips of her ears burned a brilliant crimson. “Then… I’ll be much more cautious next time.”

The man let out a low chuckle. Reaching onto the metal table, he retrieved his gold-rimmed glasses and slid them back onto his face. The pristine lenses instantly masked the intense, dark emotion she had triggered in his eyes, and in a single heartbeat, his flawless, aristocratic facade returned.

Pei Xiqing waited patiently for him to finish his thought, desperate to understand the variable he had uncovered, but he remained silent. She could only stare up at him eagerly like a captive pet.

After a heavy silence, the masked handler standing in the shadows let out a dry, raspy cough. Idly spinning his heavy sidearm around his finger, he remarked casually, “The last rogue who dared to launch a physical assault against a High Representative of Franlun is currently drowning in our subterranean water prison. If you’re genuinely curious, I can arrange an immediate transport. You can even experience a lifetime allocation in the black site completely free of charge.”

Pei Xiqing countered stiffly, “Just based on the nomenclature alone, I can deduce it’s an absolute nightmare. I understand the rules now. If I ever bite another asset, I’ll be executed.”

“At least you retain a shred of survival instinct,” the handler scoffed.

Pei Xiqing quickly broke eye contact, scrambling up from the hard concrete floor. “I’m going to… go check the outer perimeter of the town to ensure no straggler hordes are tracking our position…”

She turned toward the door, desperate to flee the suffocating atmosphere, but Duan Xiaolin’s hand shot out, his fingers locking firmly around her wrist. “I will grant you a temporary reprieve tonight,” he whispered, his voice dangerously close. “But do not mistake it for amnesty. I will personally settle this ledger with you in a few days.”

Pei Xiqing nodded guiltily, ripped her wrist from his grip the second he relaxed his fingers, and bolted out the door.

Inside the room, the handler’s casual demeanor vanished instantly. He tore the high-tech black mask from his face, exposing a network of deep, jagged combat scars tracking across his features. He turned to Duan Xiaolin, his tone dead serious. “Are you seriously just going to let that anomaly walk out the door? Her neural restraint completely failed; she is actively attacking and consuming human tissue. Biologically speaking, she is no different from any other mindless mutant in the wasteland. Order me to secure her. She represents a priceless, unparalleled biological specimen for our laboratories.”

Duan Xiaolin leaned back against the steel chair, crossing his long legs. “My data suggests her cellular architecture deviates entirely from a standard mutant.”

The scarred handler froze. “Even if that’s true, her existence violates the absolute baseline of Franlun’s charter. The syndicate’s prime directive explicitly prohibits showing a microsecond of mercy toward the infected. Representative Duan, you are overstepping—”

Duan Xiaolin casually reached onto the table, retrieving the blood-slicked combat knife. He pulled a clean cloth from his pocket, methodically wiping the blade clean as he raised his eyes, locking his green gaze directly onto the handler. “Ying. You should understand my operational parameters by now.”

“Given the current geopolitical volatility, I have zero intention of operating within the boundaries of the charter,” he stated coldly.

The wasteland was overflowing with hypocritical politicians and corrupt faction leaders utilizing every horrific metric to hoard resources. He had never claimed to be a savior, and he felt absolutely zero obligation to respect imaginary moral boundaries. In a dying world, raw asset management was the only currency that mattered. Human nature was inherently malicious, especially now.

His doctrine had always been absolute: absolute evil must be utilized to prey upon evil, and supreme violence must be deployed to suppress violence.

“Understood. My loyalty remains absolute,” Ying replied, instantly bowing his head in total submission.

“Deliver this tonnage box directly to Marshal Bai.”

Ying accepted the reinforced, military-grade lockbox. “Yes, sir.”

Adjusting his black combat mask back over his scarred face, curiosity finally overrode his restraint. “Representative Duan… what you told the girl earlier about the variable… you weren’t simply utilizing psychological manipulation to break her compliance, were you?”

“No.”

“What exactly did your cells detect?”

Beneath the flickering, dim light of the halogen bulb, the man slowly raised his right hand. A concentrated, hyper-dense sphere of dark green elemental energy suddenly manifested, winding around his long fingers with a sinister hiss, resembling a viper flashing its tongue.

Ying’s eyes practically bulged out of his skull, his breath catching in his throat. “Representative Duan! Your power…?! But the labs said—”

The volatile energy structure held its form for two seconds before gradually destabilizing, dissolving back into his bloodstream.

Duan Xiaolin lowered his hand, his expression entirely unreadable. “The biological mechanism remains unverified. I cannot formulate a definitive conclusion yet. We will continue to monitor her parameters.”

Ying was practically vibrating with intense excitement. “Qiu Chao swore that your neural core was permanently incinerated during the ground-zero breach five days ago! We deployed every experimental stimulant in the central base’s inventory, and none of them could jump-start your cells. This is the first time since the disaster that your elemental form has actually manifested, Representative!”

Even though the dark green energy had only held its form for a fraction of a second, the crushing, unshakable density of the power had been terrifying. Ying couldn’t even fathom the true zenith of Duan Xiaolin’s absolute strength before the accident, back when he single-handedly slaughtered his way through the initial million-man metropolis outbreak.

Back then, his ability was universally recognized as the apex predator of the elemental system; not a single human asset had ever bypassed his rank, not even the military’s most celebrated dual-ability users.

If it hadn’t been for that specific, catastrophic betrayal during the extraction, he never would have been forced to retreat behind the administrative veil of Franlun, managing the empire from the shadows.

Forcibly suppressing his excitement, Ying took a respectful step back into the dark. “I am executing the transport immediately. The moment your core diagnostics shift, please broadcast the data so I can update Qiu Chao.”

“Move out.”

“Yes, sir.”

Pei Xiqing sat on a smooth concrete block near the entrance of the abandoned settlement, staring blankly out at the dark, vast expanse of the wasteland.

She rested her chin lazily in her palms, her mind spinning in a state of absolute, dizzying bewilderment.

When she had drifted into that feverish coma along the trail, she hadn’t been completely brain-dead. Faint, scattered fragments of memory still lingered in her subconscious. The more she analyzed the timeline, the more she suspected that Duan Xiaolin had deliberately engineered that entire scenario to manipulate her—but she lacked the physical evidence to prove it.

I didn’t actually lose my mind and go feral…

Furthermore, what exactly was the nature of the superpower he claimed she had awakened?

She hadn’t channeled any elemental fire or telekinetic shields. The only physical metric that had shifted was her primal perception: she felt an intoxicating, chemical draw toward high-tier ability users. The more concentrated their raw power, the more her mouth watered, and biting them felt like the ultimate cellular relief—almost as if…

She slowly raised her right hand, opening her palm beneath the moonlight.

A faint, smoky tendril of dark green energy was slowly rolling across her skin, pulsing with a terrifying aura of raw ambition and predatory desire.

The energy signature looked exactly like the one belonging to the man inside the concrete room.

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