Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Radiance of Communism

“Why am I always the one to do these things?” Xihong Chen complained irritably, grabbing the water in his hand and drinking it all at once. He looked down at the patrol guards below, waiting for the signal before causing a commotion.

“Stop complaining, I’m off to arrange the escape route,” Qiu Xiaoyan replied, taking a few brisk steps away.

“Hurry up or neither of us will get out!” Xihong Chen shouted after her.

Since both spoke Mandarin and there were no other nationals from Huaguo nearby, naturally no one understood a word.

Their location was the rooftop of a thirteen-story building outside Base Three.

An hour earlier

The clue had been quickly laid out by Watermelon, about a newly discovered laboratory. The lab was north of the city’s base, an area requiring high-level clearance. People like Qi Xi and his group, with low-level access, had no right to enter, so they had to plan and force their way in.

Qi Xi, skilled in both strategy and warfare, soon drew up the plan. But since he was the mastermind, he wasn’t about to take the distracting role himself; that responsibility fell to Watermelon. Qiu Xiaoyan was tasked with preparing the escape route, making it easier for both to disappear after causing chaos.

The plan had barely been issued for five seconds when Qi Xi said, “Let’s get moving!”

Everyone was stunned.

So fast?

Seeing their shock, Qi Xi frowned and said, “If we don’t move quickly, the world will be destroyed in a few days. We have no time.”

And so, the current scene unfolded.

Qi Xi, Xiao Fengyu, and Li Feidao were at that moment advancing along an underground tunnel.

The tunnel’s sanitation was poor; rats everywhere, bits of corpses floating about, remnants left by zombies after the apocalypse, washed down by rain.

With the heat, the stench was already unbearable…

Luckily, all three were genetically modified humans, and Qi Xi himself was a gene commander. The odor and disgust were tolerable, and they didn’t fear infection.

Still, they couldn’t use their abilities to clear the mess for fear of being detected, making the experience even more miserable.

“This is truly disgusting. Acting so hastily was reckless; we should have prepared better,” Qi Xi muttered, furrowing his brow. A few isolation suits and disinfectant masks would have spared them the revulsion.

So you do realize it was rushed!

Xiao Fengyu and Li Feidao thought simultaneously. If not for your deadly serious warnings—move or the world ends, no time, no time—they wouldn’t have set out in such haste!

“Enough. This isn’t the time for complaints,” Qi Xi said again.

What is this? Talking to yourself? We didn’t even speak to you, and now you’re muttering aloud! With the corpse fragments everywhere, this scene is more than a little creepy! Don’t scare people like that! The two silently griped.

“Brother Qi, we haven’t taken the wrong path, have we?” Xiao Fengyu asked quietly, as if afraid to anger Qi Xi.

Qi Xi raised a brow. “Impossible.”

---

Xiao Fengyu nodded meekly. “Right…” Her tone almost matched the shy gesture of poking her index fingers together with her head lowered and cheeks blushing.

“But we’ve been walking for half an hour! If we move at full speed, it should only take ten minutes from our living quarters to the northern lab!” Li Feidao, straightforward as always, couldn’t help but interject.

“Keep your voice down,” Qi Xi said, rubbing his temples.

The two fell silent, alert and tense as if facing a great enemy.

“There’s nothing moving; I just find your voices too loud. It’s giving me a headache,” Qi Xi said, unable to resist commenting on their demeanor.

Both were speechless at his remark, unsure how to respond.

“The underground paths are always more complicated. It’s normal to take longer,” Qi Xi explained seriously.

“You’re just lost, admit it,” Li Feidao muttered.

“Impossible…” Qi Xi touched the wall with one hand, sensing his location. He quickly withdrew his hand, lest someone detect him. The moment he sensed their position, he was stunned.

“This doesn’t make sense.”

“What’s wrong?” both asked in unison.

“We’ve walked out.”

“Walked out?”

“Yes, we’ve exited the base. This area above isn’t the base. We took the wrong path. No wonder this sewer is longer than I remember.”

No wonder, my foot! That’s not what we were asking! Li Feidao rolled his eyes.

“Then let’s hurry back,” Xiao Fengyu, ever the considerate girl, stepped in to smooth things over.

Half an hour later.

“This time it’s right,” Qi Xi said, looking at the row of sewer pipes. “Give the signal.”

---

Watermelon was nearly asleep waiting.

Why so slow?

It wasn’t April Fool’s Day. Were those four playing a trick, was the whole plan made up?

“No way… they wouldn’t be that boring…” Watermelon muttered, dark lines clouding his forehead. He doubted his teammates.

“They shouldn’t be that unreliable…”

Beep-beep! Beep-beep! Beep-beep!

---

At that moment, his signal device beeped three times and then stopped.

“Did it just beep?… I didn’t mishear, did I?” Watermelon paused, then realized, “No mistake!”

How could he, a gene commander, possibly mishear?

What a joke!

“I’ve been waiting too long! My abilities are desperate for action!” Watermelon stepped onto the edge of the roof and shouted down, “Look over here, all of you!”

“You bunch of losers!”

With that, he smashed what remained of the rooftop, then leaped, kicking hard at the opposite building—an eighteen-story tower. The top five floors were sent flying toward the base, crashing with a thunderous boom! Dust billowed everywhere, blocking out the sky. Who knew how many facilities were destroyed or how many people killed.

Watermelon felt no guilt for the casualties. The world was already insane; how else could he achieve his goals but through madness?

One of the classic traits of a transmigrator: ruthless decisiveness!

In this, Watermelon was even more textbook than Qi Xi. Just like the day Qi Xi saved Xiao Fengyu, while Xihong Chen, though capable, did not—being scared silly was part of the reason.

Alarms blared, patrol squads rushed in, armored vehicles rolled out, gene teams and evolution warriors appeared.

“Enemy spotted on the rooftop at nine o’clock, south side of the base city. Repeat: enemy on the rooftop at nine o’clock, south side. Gather quickly! Rocket strike! Bullet strike! Gene teams attack!”

Within a minute, the base city launched its counterattack!

In the apocalypse, nothing mattered more than reaction speed.

Bullets and shells rained down, but Watermelon was unfazed. He unleashed part of an ability he’d acquired from Qi Xi’s blood—though it had degraded to a common power and lost its allure, it was still useful.

“Weak!” Watermelon waved his hand dismissively, reversing a dozen rocket missiles and sending them back, killing countless attackers.

Then a gene warrior charged forward, his body covered with sheets of paper—his special ability seemed to be manipulating paper. With a shout, he hurled a thousand paper darts.

Watermelon, however, was utterly unafraid. He was a gene commander!

He kicked the attacker away, rendering the darts useless. The man was hurled through three streets before crashing down.

“I can take on ten at once!” Watermelon laughed heartily, disdainfully flashing a thumbs-down.

Yet despite this, none of the other gene warriors dared to attack; they now knew Watermelon’s true strength—a gene commander!

Seeing their reluctance, Watermelon shouted, “I will shatter your imperialist schemes! The glory of communism will shine across the world!”