What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH40

Chapter 40: The Abyss

Pei Xiqing forcibly suppressed the sheer awe triggered by the titanic structure towering before her, desperately trying to steady her breathing. “I’m fine.”

Infrastructure of this scale didn’t look like a product of the twenty-first century at all; it completely eclipsed the technological zenith of the world she had left behind. Furthermore, even though the initial outbreak had fractured global society only five years prior, humanity had somehow managed to construct an absolute fortress of this caliber. It was glaringly obvious that the technological evolution of this universe had been decades ahead of her own before the collapse.

Ling Lang offered a sharp, mocking smirk. “Good. Because you’re slated for a comprehensive biological screening the second we clear the secondary checkpoint.”

Pei Xiqing stiffened. “Why run a screening on me?”

“Because if even a microscopic, single strand of the active zombie virus is lingering in your circulatory system, the scanners will instantly trigger a lockdown. Care to bet on your cellular parameters?”

“Aren’t you worried the entire biometric array will violently implode the moment I step into the corridor?”

“…”

Pei Xiqing tapped his shoulder firmly. “Put me down.”

“You were frantically clinging to my spine a mile back, and now that we’ve breached the outer wall, you’re immediately executing a disposal protocol on your transport?”

“Who uses that kind of terminology to describe themselves?”

Long Yan caught up with their stride, a deeply amused smile on her face. “Ling Lang simply enjoys running an aggressive provocation routine on you, kid. When the column was scaling the rocky mountain pass earlier, your consciousness completely crashed on a boulder from exhaustion. My initial calculation was to handle your extraction myself, but I was entirely occupied with anchoring Xiao Yue’s biometric monitors. So, Brother Duan carried you across the ridge on his own back. His cellular regeneration had already stabilized the flesh wounds, so hauling your weight didn’t strain his system. However, when we breached the automated defensive line just now, he had to manually negotiate our clearance codes with the high command, so currently…”

She raised her chin, gesturing toward a sleek armored transport departing down an adjacent transit lane. “He was summoned to the supreme administrative hub of Franlun for an immediate emergency council, so he had to break rank. Ling Lang eagerly took the initiative to assume the transport role.”

Pei Xiqing’s cheeks burned hot. She knew with absolute certainty that her subconscious mind would never have ordered Ling Lang to act as her personal slave.

Thank God Long Yan had clarified the data transcripts; otherwise, she genuinely would have started analyzing her own sanity.

Ling Lang let out a soft, defensive hum. “My brother holds a massive administrative load. I am simply executing the directive to transfer your frame to the North Courtyard sector. Form up on my flank.”

Long Yan gave a brief nod. “Accompany him to the sector, Xiqing. I have a backlog of operational intelligence to log with the logistics division, so I cannot anchor your perimeter for now. I’ll locate your quarters before nightfall.”

Pei Xiqing’s face flushed a deeper crimson. “I have no cognitive memory of passing out on the mountain pass. I apologize for introducing an erratic variable to the squad’s pace.”

“Bury the remorse,” Long Yan replied smoothly. “The atmospheric data showed a dense concentration of weaponized neurotoxins lingering in that canyon fog. Your system crash was a direct biological reaction to the environment; no operative is penalizing your parameters. Do not run a guilt loop.”

Pei Xiqing watched her and the remaining vanguard operatives march toward the primary military hubs.

Ling Lang was waiting a few paces ahead, his arms crossed. She walked past his shoulder, her voice dropping to a sharp whisper. “Refrain from running those types of psychological pranks on my system again.”

“I simply ran a basic amusement routine. Why are your emotional metrics so incredibly fragile?”

Pei Xiqing shook her head, her expression deadly serious. “No. I refuse to let your banter introduce a single misunderstanding between myself and Brother Duan, and I refuse to let this squad categorize my character under that specific stereotype.”

Ling Lang cut her off, his eyes narrowing. “Categorize you? You think I don’t possess a comprehensive diagnostic layout of exactly who you are?”

Pei Xiqing raised her eyes, staring straight into his. “Perhaps your database will experience a severe error when the camp rumors and localized gossip inevitably breach your grid. At the end of the day, my baseline is entirely devoid of goodness.”

“Do you honestly calculate that my cognitive processing is that easily corrupted by third-party data?” he scoffed, stepping closer. “Do you categorize my brain as entirely non-functional?”

“Negative. I am simply stating that your current understanding of my operational history lacks total parameters.”

“Does my brother hold a more complete file on your cells?” he demanded, his gaze turning burning and intense. “He willingly carried your frame across a military defense line. Does he possess a deeper clearance to your data, or is his board running an entirely separate emotional interest regarding your asset line?”

Pei Xiqing blinked, her breath hitching. “What if his board is?”

“Then it’s fully verified. My brother has never retained a single domestic attachment within the base corridors, despite a massive demographic of elite women aggressively trying to anchor his timeline. Though, to be mathematically precise, those entities are simply lusting after the supreme infrastructure and administrative power he wields,” Ling Lang stated with complete nonchalance. “What is your point? If your system genuinely holds an emotional preference for him, execute the alignment. It represents a zero-net crisis to my grid. Just like my own physical attraction to your person—I have never categorized it as a significant complication.”

Pei Xiqing’s eyes practically bulged out of her skull, her voice cracking. “What exactly did your vocal receptors just broadcast?!”

Witnessing her total psychological short-circuit, Ling Lang suddenly burst into a loud, boisterous laugh. “Hahahaha! I explicitly specified that your intellect was entirely non-existent, and you flawlessly verified the metric! I simply deployed a random piece of verbal banter, and your system accepted it as absolute ground truth?”

He deliberately lowered his head, his face mere inches from hers as he stared directly into the watery, hyper-reactive depths of her beautiful eyes. “Unbelievable. Did your brain genuinely log that data? Or does your internal system actually harbor a hidden preference for me?”

“…Your lack of basic shame is genuinely staggering,” she gasped, her face melting with heat. “Your capacity to manufacture absolute garbage is unmatched.”

“You are simply so slow that you fail to decode a basic psychological bluff.”

Pei Xiqing was left entirely speechless, her jaw locked in sheer irritation.

Ling Lang finally averted his gaze, a subtle hint of analytical depression clouding his features as he recalled the chilling, lethal warning his brother had shot him before breaking rank. “Alright, clear the data. I issue an administrative apology for running that prank. We need to accelerate our transit. The entire command structure goes into high-intensity overdrive the second a vanguard column breaches the perimeter. Settle your frame into the quarters early and execute a full rest cycle so you don’t compromise my operational timeline.”

With that sharp directive, he spun around and marched down the paved corridor at a aggressive pace.

An asset like Ling Lang possessed an intensely rigid internal doctrine, backed by an unyielding sense of personal sovereignty. He was arrogant, entirely unconstrained, and fiercely autonomous.

Perhaps his calculation was entirely accurate: he processed every variable in this apocalypse through the exact same clinical lens, viewing emotional complications as utterly redundant data.

Pei Xiqing let out a long sigh, picking up her pace to remain within his shadow.

They had officially crossed the threshold into the inner ring of the fortress.

Directly ahead lay a hyper-fortified military checkpoint. The sentries standing guard radiated an incredibly dense, crushing aura of elemental energy; even a casual glance confirmed they were high-tier combat elites chosen from the base’s premier divisions. The defensive architecture was absolute, reinforced alloy walls enclosing the sector in a seamless ring. The active personnel in this corridor numbered at least a thousand. It was statistically impossible for a single rogue biological drone to breach this grid undetected—and this was merely the third line of structural defense.

She cast a wary glance over her shoulder, tracking the endless sequence of biometric security corridors they had already cleared.

The transit lanes were choked with civilian columns and merchant convoys who had traveled from the frontier zones, desperately seeking entry into the fortress. Massive flatbed trucks loaded with raw salvaged materials lined the blacktop. Without exception, every single driver was forced to dismount, their physical bodies and cargo subjected to a hyper-precise infrared grid scan tracking through the inspection corridors.

If a scavenger had so much as touched a rotting mutant’s pocket or rummaged through a compromised trench to salvage a resource, the chemical sensors would instantly log the bio-hazard footprint, triggering an immediate military detention and an aggressive cavity search.

Standing a mere single step away from the absolute heart of the human empire, Pei Xiqing felt as though her consciousness was navigating a surreal, terrifying dream.

Ling Lang barked from the front of the line, “Why are your motor functions stalling again? If your frame doesn’t clear this corridor in ten seconds, I am abandoning your coordinates.”

“Coming.”

The primary inspection bay ahead was heavily monitored by a military clearing officer. Ling Lang stepped forward, whispering a highly classified clearance code to the automated desk. The officer didn’t even order her to step into the infrared grid; he simply logged her name and approximate age into the database and flagged her file as cleared.

Yet, a violent, icy wave of psychological tension refused to leave Pei Xiqing’s chest.

She was drowning in an absolute quagmire of guilt and paranoia.

A human empire of this scale, guarded by hyper-precise technology—yet she had successfully infiltrated its nervous system while functioning as an active zombie.

However, her internal moral crisis was violently pulverized the exact millisecond her eyes landed on the containment pens lining the inner streets of the city.

Staring at the entities locked behind the heavy, electrified bars, a suffocating wave of pure despair and existential horror seized her throat.

There was absolutely zero rationality remaining in their milky, bloodshot eyes. Every single structural juncture of their anatomy—their joints, their spine, their jawbones—was violently pierced by thick, specialized alloy chains that anchored their rotting bodies directly to the reinforced iron cages. The moment a human citizen navigated past their bars, the mutants reflexively unhinged their jaws to bite, only for the mechanized chains running through their flesh to instantly violently retract. The steel links tore through the festering skin of their faces, physically crushing their muscles until they were forced back into a state of absolute, bloody submission.

Pei Xiqing froze dead in her tracks.

Her motor functions completely paralyzed.

Perhaps because her veins carried a mutation of the exact same pathogen, a freezing, phantom agony violently rippled through her own skin, as if her nervous system was mirroring their physical torture. Her face drained of all color, her muscles tightening until she felt the phantom sensation of hooks tearing at her own jaw.

Ling Lang’s brow pulled together in a sharp frown. Stepping back into her grid, he firmly clutched her shoulder, forcefully dragging her away from the containment block.

“Avert your visual sensors,” he commanded in a low, tense whisper. “Those biological masses can no longer be classified under the human demographic. They don’t even qualify as standard zombies anymore.”

“Why run a protocol like that on them?” she whispered, her voice shaking.

“Initially, those assets were clean human test subjects operating inside the research sectors—freshly infected hosts utilized by the bio-divisions to test vaccine serums and experimental suppression drugs. But as the infection metrics scaled across the frontier, a severe psychological sickness corrupted the high-ranking officers of the base command.”

Ling Lang let out a harsh, venomous sneer as they bypassed the pens. “The majority of these elite assets possess high-tier elemental ranks, and their hands are stained with an immense volume of blood. Some of them utilize their leverage to hoard desperate women in their private quarters, while others—completely incapable of processing the immense neurological pressure of the apocalypse—personally excavate the rotting remains of their closest family members from the frontier mass graves.”

“On the administrative logs, they euphemistically classify the protocol as ‘post-mortem remembrance and structural mourning.’ But the exact second they realize their human will cannot control a mutant’s evolutionary aggression, they clamp those specialized alloy chains through their bone matrices, locking them behind iron bars for the remainder of their biological lifespans. At this stage of the trade, it’s no exaggeration to state they have systematically reduced them to the status of domesticated livestock or exotic pets.”

Pei Xiqing’s eyes were wide with unadulterated horror. “If they are classified as private assets… why exactly is the high command permitting them to be displayed on a public transit corridor?”

What difference was there between this sickening display and marketing cheap, butchered meat on a commercial street? There was zero privacy, zero sanctity, and absolute degradation.

“The market demands the visibility,” Ling Lang replied coldly. “Displaying the merchandise along this corridor proves the alpha variants can be systematically tamed by human tech. The second those alloy chains lock into the bone, the asset’s evolutionary fate is permanently sealed.”

He offered zero additional commentary, but Pei Xiqing’s sharp intellect could easily calculate the underlying infrastructure running beneath the horror. A highly lucrative, institutionalized trading syndicate had forged its links within the dark economy of the base a long time ago. Every military sector was interconnected; layers of high-level bureaucratic corruption and command connivance had directly birthed this black market.

Ling Lang forcefully accelerated their pace, tearing her away from the market square before her presence could draw attention.

She stole a final, hollow look over her shoulder.

The traditional commercial stalls were virtually non-existent along this paved boulevard; the entire street was lined exclusively with reinforced iron cages pushed flush against the curbs. Hundreds of containment blocks choked the sidewalk, every single cell packed with whimpering, chained mutants trapped in a living death.

No wonder the high command enforces an absolute ban on wild zombies breaching the perimeter, she realized with a shudder. Because the second an infected entity enters these walls, even their status as a monster is violently stripped away to be monetized.

She had foolishly categorized the human strongholds as the ultimate salvation of the species. Reality dictates that wherever human architecture rises, the currency of desire and greed will inevitably manufacture unspeakable horrors.

Pei Xiqing followed Ling Lang toward the North Courtyard sector, her cognitive framework drowning in a quagmire of conflicting data.

The “North Courtyard” appeared to be a broad administrative designation covering the entire residential and military quadrant situated north of the inner city limits. The architectural topography shifted dramatically the moment they cleared the market boulevard.

The streets here were meticulously organized, encircling the massive, metallic hull of the central command dreadnought that anchored the base.

If the southwest sector they had bypassed looked like a compressed labyrinth of concrete bunk blocks, this quadrant was a hyper-advanced metropolis composed entirely of shimmering, high-rise titanium towers surrounding the central military hub.

Unsure if this structural design was standardized across the empire, she asked, “Which specific sector designation is this?”

Ling Lang raised his wrist gauntlet, broadcasting an encrypted command sequence to unlock a massive, automated blast door anchoring a high-rise complex. As the heavy steel slid open, he guided her through the climate-controlled lobby. “Base Three. My operational manifest rarely routes me to this coordinate. My vanguard unit is typically stationed at Base One for frontier sweeps, or deployed to Base Five to oversee structural infrastructure builds. This is strictly my second time clearing the Base Three registry.”

“So the defensive infrastructure here is considered standard?”

“You could calculate it that way. Honestly, the structural aesthetics yield a zero-impact parameter on my focus. The geographic designation of the base is irrelevant to my unit, provided the logistics desk continues to route high-yield combat missions to my table,” Ling Lang stated broadly, stepping into a private elevator capsule. “But I haven’t run a full analysis on the local amenities yet. Once your schedule clears, you can authorize a transit pass to explore the alternative strongholds and map the structural differences yourself.”

“Mhm.”

In truth, her analytical interest in exploring the human bases had hit absolute zero.

She could easily deduce that the larger the structural scale of a base, the more agonizingly dense the network of caged “monsters” lining its corridors would be.

The global collapse had seared profound, permanent psychological trauma directly into the human collective consciousness—but deploying that trauma as a legal justification to systematically desecrate life was a logic she fundamentally refused to accept.

For the first time, she felt a sudden surge of gratitude that the novel’s original plot hadn’t tethered her character’s timeline to a permanent position inside a human fortress. Getting tangled up with a dangerous administrator like Duan Xiaolin was a volatile variable, but it was infinitely preferable to being dropped into this cannibalistic meat grinder. If her viral signature had been logged by the bio-divisions in a place like this, she would have been chained inside a titanium cage for the remainder of her biological existence, dissected daily until her mind fractured. She couldn’t even guarantee that the powerful men the original owner had manipulated wouldn’t buy her asset sheet from the black market, passing her body through a dozen corrupt hands as a trophy.

Pei Xiqing shivered violently, her skin turning ashen.

There are absolutely no cards left for me to play in this fortress unless I maintain my alignment with a high-tier protector.

She vigorously rubbed the sudden breakout of goosebumps tracking across her bare arms, discreetly scanning the clean, metallic elevator lobby. The immediate corridor was completely desolate of personnel. Every single uniform she had passed since clearing the outer gates bore completely unfamiliar division patches. Furthermore, her tactical face mask was securely locked over her features, and her heavy windbreaker was pulled up to her jawline; it was mathematically improbable for a random baseline citizen to recognize her identity.

The exact millisecond her nervous system released the tension and she let out a quiet sigh of relief, a sharp, piercing voice echoed from the corridor behind her shoulder, dripping with malicious surprise.

“Well, well… if it isn’t the illustrious Miss Pei?!”

“Good god, are my optical sensors functioning correctly? Tsk, tsk… what tactical desperation drove a traitor like you to crawl back into our grid?”

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