Sun Ya immediately opened his mouth to speak.
Su Jin raised a hand to cut him off, looking at Cheng Du. "That little girl is definitely dead, right?"
Fu Hu interjected, "I saw her die. She took seven shots."
A flicker of curiosity crossed Su Jin's mind, but he shoved it down. "We'll table that for now. I've made a major discovery!"
"Old Sun, remember when I told you about spotting four people on a rooftop who I suspected were Disguised Infected?"
Sun Ya nodded slowly.
"I got the woman to talk," Su Jin stated. "She was one of them, and that little girl was another. We’ve been marked. There are still two unaccounted for."
"How the hell did you interrogate her?" Sun Ya asked, his eyes wide.
Su Jin suppressed a bone-deep sigh of exhaustion.
How else? By taking a scrubbing towel and scrubbing her flesh off, layer by agonizing layer, until she couldn't take the pain anymore and spilled everything.
"I tortured her until she confessed," Su Jin said clinically. "I examined her corpse. Her muscles were exceptionally strong, and she seemed to have some special ability." As he spoke, he fished a plastic bag out of his pocket.
He opened it to show several severed fingers.
He pinched one between his thumb and index finger, holding it up for the room to see.
He pressed down gently on the fingertip. A little skin-like cap at the tip pressed inward to reveal a hollow structure.
"Her fingers were mutated. Notice the tubular structure? I suspect she could use these to fire off air or launch some kind of bodily fluid as a ranged attack."
"Furthermore, I found a shriveled Fleshy Orb in her heart. Perhaps the Disguised Infected develop their mutations or abilities by absorbing the Fleshy Orbs in their own bodies."
Su Jin didn't miss a beat. "There were four of them watching us. If they came together, the remaining two likely have unusual abilities of their own."
"They did not seem especially united. The two women went hunting on their own. That tells me they were extremely wary of their partners. The remaining two are likely much stronger than the ones we just killed."
"Did she tell you what abilities the other two have?" Sun Ya asked.
Su Jin shook his head in annoyance. "She died right after confessing. I did not get to ask."
"Director, wait, did you already know she was a Disguised Infected from the start?" Cheng Du suddenly blurted out, joining in.
He thought back to that blood-soaked scrubbing towel, and realized what he had misunderstood.
Dry scrubbing would not do much. Now the horrific truth dawned on him; the towel was not for cleaning dirt. He had used it to scrape off flesh during the interrogation!
"Correct," Su Jin nodded matter-of-factly. "Back when we were eating those noodles, I was already fairly certain this woman was a Disguised Infected."
"How the hell did you spot that? I didn't see jack!" Cheng Du gaped. "Did you strip them down and realize the grime on their bodies was just painted on or something?"
"Hardly," Su Jin said, shaking his head. "The woman was thin. Even with her clothes off, she was covered in genuine filth and reeked of body odor. If it was just a disguise, it was flawless."
"But they overlooked one critical, biological flaw. They claimed to have gone five days with almost no food and little water while fleeing. When we ate, they perfectly mimicked the ravenous hunger of starving survivors... However, after five days without food or water, a normal woman's breasts would sag. The women at our activity center show it to varying degrees. Unless they are very small, breasts would not stay as firm as hers."
"That alone made me suspect she was a monster! Stripping her down later was just the final verification. After that, I was one hundred percent certain."
"But... what if she just had fake tits?" Cheng Du pressed, still thoroughly confused. "You know, those rich girls getting high-end plastic surgery. They use that stuff... what's it called, silicone?"
"I could not rule that out," Su Jin replied with deadpan seriousness. "Which is precisely why I took the personal risk of checking repeatedly by touch. I assure you, it was absolutely not silicone."
"......." The four men fell silent.
Cheng Du chewed on this for a second, his expression twisting into a bizarre grimace. "Okay, I get it now. You already knew what she was. Then why did you still do it? How do you explain that? Unless you were just that damn desperate for a woman, I can't think of any other excuse!"
"You were eavesdropping on me?" Su Jin's brow furrowed in genuine irritation. "What exactly did I do?"
Cheng Du stammered and choked on his words for a good moment before giving up. He raised two fingers and crooked them in the air.
"Kobe."
Fu Hu and the others stared in utter disbelief, violently side-eyeing Cheng Du.
"I was probing..." Su Jin gave an exasperated laugh before his face hardened, turning his intense gaze to Sun Ya and Wei De. "Listen to me, this was another major discovery. I provoked her on purpose. I discovered that the Disguised Infected still possess sexual desire, which presents us with a problem... they might be capable of reproducing through sexual mating."
"Here are the infected bodily fluids I collected during the procedure. Old Sun, take them for your research."
Watching Su Jin casually produce a bag of cloudy, sticky fluid, Sun Ya took a sharp intake of breath and frantically swatted it away.
Groping for silicone, 'Kobe-ing' the enemy, collecting fluid, flaying them alive, dismembering them, dissecting them... the whole sequence seemed beyond what an ordinary person could do.
"Little Li, your intelligence gathering is undeniably crucial, I give you that," Sun Ya stammered. "But right now I am more worried about you. You may have gone too far... Is this some kind of side effect of your evolution?! You'll just shove your fingers into anything? Aren't you terrified of getting infected?! An ordinary STD would be bad enough!"
Bearing the brunt of their horrified, questioning stares, a wave of profound bitterness washed over Su Jin.
He found it disgusting too.
But he had no other choice. Only by completely understanding the enemy could they ever hope to survive.
Their enemies were vicious. To beat it, he had to be infinitely more vicious, more ruthless, and far stronger than the monsters at their door. It was the only way to help the others survive.
Faced with an extinction-level threat, no matter how nauseating or morally bankrupt the methods, he would adapt and overcome... even if he had to strip away his own humanity to do it!
"Relax," Su Jin said, his voice flat. "I only take action when I am completely prepared, both mentally and with proper supplies." To prove his point, Su Jin pulled a packet of little balloons out of his pocket. "I wore one while probing her."
The four men were collectively stunned into silence, trading shell-shocked glances.
When no one spoke, Su Jin cleared his throat and declared with absolute, deadpan sincerity, "A minor personal sacrifice is nothing. I went deep into enemy territory, probing for all of you—for humanity itself."
"Truly magnificent, Director Li," Wei De said, clapping with a completely blank, traumatized expression.
"It is my solemn duty."
"No, no, no, hold the phone," Cheng Du muttered, vigorously shaking his head as he squinted suspiciously at Su Jin. "Then how the hell do you explain stripping completely naked?!"
"Simple. Once I confirmed the target's identity, I had to prepare for the interrogation and dissection. That process guarantees blood spray," Su Jin shrugged like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I don't exactly have an endless supply of clean laundry. I stashed my clothes in the wardrobe beforehand so they wouldn't get soaked in gore."
"Besides, I haven't showered in days... I figured I might as well take a bath while I was at it."
A bath...?
Dark, horrified shadows instantly fell over the faces of Cheng Du and the other three men.
He really has snapped and turned into a complete pervert... does he honestly not realize it himself?!
"Alright, you're all caught up on my end. What exactly went down with you guys?" Su Jin demanded, steering the conversation back to reality. "What flaw did that little girl expose that forced you to put her down?"
Fu Hu immediately perked up, his eyes practically shining as he looked at Su Jin. "Director, I figured out my daughter's special Ability! She can sense malice in others!"
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