What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH78

Chapter 78: It’s Like a Heavy Rain

“In early March of the fourth winter after the outbreak, I was commanding a field deployment out in the dead zones,” Gu He continued smoothly, his voice laced with a rehearsed warmth. “The weather matrix was entirely compromised—foggy, gray, and raining heavily. My unit’s scanning arrays were lagging, and our column became pinned inside a dense forest. Just as the tactical models predicted a total deadlock, she ran headfirst into my perimeter, seeking shelter like a terrified, lost deer.”

“A horde of frontier zombies was actively tracking her baseline, and her clothes were heavily torn from the retreat. But looking back at the archival logs, that exact microsecond marks the initialization of love at first sight. No matter how much grime covered her features, my eyes isolated her beauty instantly.”

“My line successfully liquidated her pursuers and escorted her frame out of the hot zone. From that milestone forward, her registry remained strictly anchored to my side.”

Gu He paused, a fond, distant smile playing on his lips as if his mind were drifting through a pleasant memory file.

“After that, I escorted her across multiple high-command sectors. Every single time my assets cleared a new villa for her quarters, her lips would vocalize immense joy—”

“Cease the transmission.” Ling Lang’s white brows knit into an aggressive line, his level voice ruthlessly cutting him off.

A wave of intense, heavily suppressed fury radiated from his frame, causing the ambient temperature to plummet. “What precise point is your mouth trying to establish?”

Gu He lowered his chin, letting out a smooth, quiet chuckle. He reached down with his gloved fingers, calmly adjusting the tactical watch on his left wrist. “My apologies. My processing units drifted off the core topic.”

It is mathematically verified, Gu He calculated. Captain Ling Lang’s database maintains a direct, high-priority link to Pei Xiqing.

Shifting his focus, he ran a sharp audit across the face of the silent figure anchoring the apex of the table. From the initial syllable of his speech until this exact millisecond, the Chief Judge’s expression had remained perfectly static. His green eyes were completely calm, simply evaluating the audio stream with absolute composure.

Observing that unyielding wall of ice, Gu He finalized a preliminary hypothesis.

“Let us execute a re-route back to the core data,” he noted smoothly. “Captain Ling Lang, does your unit registry confirm an alignment with her? Ever since her timeline dropped off my radar, my division has driven an exhaustive search to locate her coordinates, terrified her cells had sustained lethal damage. A few shifts ago, my scouts successfully intercepted the files of several mercenary teams her line had previously embedded with.”

Gu He paused, a microscopic trace of unvarnished cruelty flashing across his eyes before he released the next data stream. “According to the verbal logs extracted from the S1 vanguard, she successfully crossed the gates of Base Three—but the diagnostic sheets indicate her biology had sustained an active zombie bite prior to entry.”

“Of course, the S1 units likely logged a corrupt reading,” he added, his gaze locking directly onto Duan Xiaolin’s silver-wire glasses. “If an active mutant had successfully breached the internal security grids, the stronghold wouldn’t project this level of structural stability. Your Honor, your desk commands the supreme authority regarding zombie containment. The archives indicate the vast majority of historical purge campaigns were engineered under your direct overwatch. Naturally, your office would never tolerate an asset carrying an active infection profile to navigate our residential sectors, correct?”

Ling Lang’s jaw clenched. The internal anger metrics inside his core spiked toward a critical red line.

He pressed the tip of his tongue against the roof of his mouth, his voice a dangerous growl. “That variable falls entirely outside your jurisdiction. If your board harbors suspicions regarding the base’s containment compliance, go file a formal petition with the auditing bureau.”

“Captain, your system is misinterpreting my trajectory,” Gu He countered, his smile perfectly smooth. “I preserve absolute confidence that her biology successfully rejected the virus. My line simply harbors immense concern for her welfare. After all, our respective timelines ran in a highly intimate, prolonged loop. I comprehend her behavioral algorithms perfectly—her system lacks the capacity to function without my resources shielding her frame. If an external variable hadn’t compromised her controls, my models predict she never would have initiated a departure on her own accord.”

Ling Lang let out a loud, mocking laugh that completely stripped Gu He of his dignity.

He stood up to full height, towering over the table. “And then? Do your sensors calculate that my badge cares about your romantic history? You should run a geographic audit on these coordinates, Major General. Are your cognitive units malfunctioning? How dare your mouth dump trash gossip regarding your private life inside a high-command briefing chamber?”

Gu He suppressed his smile, his expression turning thoroughly businesslike as he stood up and gathered his defense files from the mahogany wood. “Then my line shall accept the data discrepancy. It appears neither of your databases maintains a record for my permanent girlfriend—specifically Captain Ling Lang. In that case, I shall refrain from plundering more of your office hours. My own squads will track her coordinates down, and my vocal processors will personally interrogate her regarding where her boots have been wandering during this calendar block.”

He intentionally applied heavy vocal emphasis to the final sentence, delivering it like a quiet promise of retribution.

Offering a crisp, polite nod to both Ling Lang and Duan Xiaolin, he pivoted his torso toward the double doors. But before his boots could clear two paces, the silent figure anchoring the high seat finally released a syllable.

“Halt.”

Gu He’s boots froze. He turned his torso back around, his eyes narrowing. “Chief Judge? What specific file does your desk require my station to open?”

Concurrently, back at the high-command villa, Pei Xiqing was just shaking off the remnants of sleep. Despite the hot pot meal from the previous night being exceptionally clean, a lingering sense of physical irritation plagued her system, compounded by the sluggish ache of her cycle. It wasn’t until the pre-dawn hours that the laboratory sedatives had finally stabilized her vitals, letting her fall into a heavy slumber.

The digital clock read nearly eleven in the morning—far too early to initialize the lunch prep. She sat listlessly on a low stool under the courtyard overhang, idly tossing kibble into Xiaobai’s dish.

She leaned her head back, hoping to harvest a few rays of sunlight to soothe her nerves.

But within minutes, the atmospheric pressure shifted violently. Heavy, dark clouds rapidly converged over the residential block, a dense, choking fog rolling through the alleys like a precursor to a massive storm.

She quickly pulled her chair back beneath the deep eaves of the porch, whistling the hound to her flank. Xiaobai trotted over obediently, dropping his head into her lap. Although his reanimated biology remained fundamentally stiff and his system suffered intermittent spikes of wild, feral madness, he was remarkably docile during his baseline intervals. The exact second her fingers stroked his ears, his tail would beat a quiet rhythm against the concrete as he drifted off to sleep.

The thick fog continued to pool across the upper courtyard. The gray haze turned so dense it completely obscured the horizon line, blanking out the adjacent villas. Still, the rain withheld its impact for the moment.

It was the exact definition of a grim, heavily clouded day that discouraged any civilian transit. Post-apocalyptic weather matrices were notoriously brutal; while the frontier beyond the concrete walls was hit by choking sandstorms almost every rotation, the internal automated control systems of Base Three generally preserved pristine air metrics. Running into a heavy fog of this magnitude inside the inner ring was a rare anomaly.

Pei Xiqing lazily ran her fingers through the hound’s coat, the heavy atmosphere making her eyelids droop with renewed drowsiness.

But before her consciousness could slip below the surface, a sharp electronic ring cut through the quiet. She flinched, her eyes snapping open as she scrambled off the stool to retrieve her communicator from the interior counter.

“Hello? Sister Long Yan?”

“What’s your current system status, Xiqing?”

“My line just cleared its sleep cycle. I’m currently monitoring Xiaobai in the yard. Did your lab sensors flag an anomaly?”

“Gu He. Does your database hold a file on that name?”

Pei Xiqing’s processing units delayed for a fraction of a second. “My registry confirms the connection.”

“Humph. I figured as much,” Long Yan snorted through the speaker. “My office was analyzing why his division was driving a clandestine surveillance web across the sectors. Care to guess what high-tier targets his scouts successfully unmasked?”

“Which entities did his sensors lock onto?”

“Ling Lang and Brother Duan.”

Pei Xiqing’s fingers tightened over the device, her internal logic rapidly validating the data. There were very few high-clearance assets inside this fortress whose timelines intersected with her own.

Still, the sheer velocity of Gu He’s reconnaissance sweep caught her entirely off guard. She had calculated it would occupy at least five to six rotations for an external officer to map the network. Ling Lang and Duan Xiaolin maintained heavily encrypted security perimeters; she hadn’t anticipated Gu He possessing enough political leverage to bypass their firewalls this rapidly. He truly earned his reputation as one of the most calculating, powerful antagonists of the base factions.

“What protocol has his board initiated?” she asked, her voice dropping.

On the other end of the line, the rustle of archival folders mixed with the glass chimes of chemical vials; Long Yan was actively compounding a stabilizer serum for Xiao Yue’s recovery track. Leaning her hips against her lab terminal, the doctor noted, “Nothing concrete yet. But my analytical models suggest there is a fifty-percent probability his execution squads are charting a trajectory toward your coordinates. Furthermore, my logs indicate his uniform integrated into the supreme base assembly an hour ago.”

“My division lacks an audio feed for the internal arguments, but the security logs confirm the general session terminated ten minutes ago. Yet his signature remains anchored inside the penthouse briefing room—and Brother Duan and Ling Lang haven’t cleared the double doors either.”

Pei Xiqing’s breathing caught, her heart hammering against her ribs. “The three of them are occupying the exact same sector?”

“Highly probable. The metrics suggest a total deadlock,” Long Yan said. “I dispatched a lab assistant to run a physical audit on the penthouse corridor. He should deliver a live data stream momentarily.”

A second later, a muffled voice filtered through Long Yan’s background audio. “Sister Long Yan, I executed the sweep on the briefing room. The targets haven’t broken alignment. The Chief Judge and Captain Ling Lang are firmly anchored inside the suite, alongside that Major General from headquarters.”

Long Yan directed her voice back to the microphone. “Detail their vocal interaction.”

“Bypassing the acoustic shields is impossible from the hallway, sister! But the security guards note the young general’s aura is incredibly aggressive. He actually possessed the audacity to launch a direct verbal challenge straight at Captain Ling Lang’s station.”

Long Yan brought the communicator back to her ear. “The underlying agenda remains completely unverified. You can run a query against Ling Lang or Brother Duan once their columns return to the villa. I am simply auditing the nature of your past alignment with that young general. If his division truly marched into this base with a pre-programmed trap, what specific file do you calculate he plans to barter over with Ling Lang and Duan Xiaolin?”

He intends to use the original host’s theft to destroy my standing, Pei Xiqing deduced instantly.

But a strategist like Gu He wouldn’t be dense enough to hurl personal blackmail openly during a formal military assembly; otherwise, his political career would hit an immediate shutdown. Furthermore, Duan Xiaolin’s cognitive units strictly separated state governance from domestic variables.

Before her lips could structure a response, the assistant’s frantic voice erupted across the channel again.

“Update! Captain Ling Lang just violently dragged the young general out of the penthouse, routing their columns straight toward the central training grounds!”

“Good gods, the kinetic signatures are spiking! They are initializing an active combat sequence! They’re clearing their elemental cores to use superpowers!”

“…”

“The data suggests Major General Gu vocalized a demand to reclaim a permanent girlfriend asset, and the input completely detonated Captain Ling Lang’s compliance bars! Hey, accelerate your boots, let’s clear the lab and monitor the brawl!”

Having processed the live data, Long Yan rapidly spoke into the receiver. “Ling Lang’s behavioral overrides completely failed; his impulsivity is off the charts. Driving a high-tier asset to the training grounds guarantees an elemental discharge. Brother Duan is apparently trailing their vector to monitor the perimeter, but Brother Duan commands zero elemental countermeasures. The strategic files indicate that Major General is a top-tier combat graduate from the supreme capital academy…”

Pei Xiqing felt a severe wave of panic compromise her internal systems.

She paced across the hardwood floor of the living area, her breath turning shallow as her anxiety scaled a critical ridge. After a brief interval of intense hesitation, she reached down, snatched her heavy windbreaker and a black umbrella from the rack, and violently pushed through the blast door, charting an immediate trajectory toward the central command tower.