Chapter 236 - 233: Cellular Immunity Plan

Chapter 236: Chapter 233: Cellular Immunity Plan

Bustling streets and highways, streams of people rushing about, crowded buses and subways.

Lu Li’s work routine was no different than usual.

As a modern megacity, Kyoto’s abundant employment resources and opportunities attracted countless people who moved north in pursuit of their dreams. Lu Li was one of them.

Although Rixin Media had "Media" in its name, it didn’t actually have many skilled advertising technicians internally. However, the boss had some connections and could bring in a lot of work.

Many of these jobs were outsourced to other small firms, with Rixin taking a cut of the profit. For other jobs, they would temporarily hire technicians from these familiar firms, paying them a set fee.

To put it bluntly, Rixin was just a fairly successful shell company.

Despite being such a company, its internal procedures were surprisingly formal. Every department had a weekly morning meeting to report on their work and set new plans. Thanks to this rotation, a department was holding a meeting in the conference room every single morning.

Today was Tuesday, and it was Lu Li’s department’s turn. She was one of the main presenters, and her performance could affect her chances of promotion.

She was the first to arrive at the conference room—preparing her materials, copying the PowerPoint to the computer, and checking the projector’s angle. She did everything meticulously.

"Morning, Lily. So diligent, huh?"

A friendly female colleague praised her from the conference room doorway, holding up a packaged cake.

"Have you eaten breakfast? I’ve got something tasty here!"

The girl in the conference room put down her notes, subconsciously licked her lips, and then seemed to remember something.

Her expression grew troubled.

Seeing this, the woman at the door asked with concern.

"What’s wrong? Are you not fully prepared?"

"It’s not that, Sister Zhong. I think I might be pregnant..."

The woman from the doorway brought the cake inside, frowning in thought for a moment before smiling.

"That’s great news! Xiaoyan is a decent guy. If you tell him, he might even start thinking about marriage."

"Him..."

A trace of tenderness surfaced on Lu Li’s face.

"We’ll be together forever. But sigh, Sister Zhong, that’s not what’s bothering me. On my way to work this morning, I must have bumped into something. There’s a scar on my stomach, and it feels a little uncomfortable now."

"What?"

Sister Zhong immediately grew tense. Bumping one’s stomach during pregnancy was no small matter.

"Here, let me see."

"But this is the conference room, Sister Zhong. Let’s go to the restroom; it’s not convenient here."

The conference room was next to the restroom. Before work started at 9 a.m., the office was mostly empty, so no one noticed the two young women slipping into the restroom.

Inside a restroom stall, Sister Zhong looked worriedly at Lu Li, whose face was a little pale.

"Come on, let me see. Where is it uncomfortable? How does it feel?"

"Okay."

Seeing the woman crouching down, Lu Li slowly lifted her blouse, revealing her abdomen. A hideous horizontal wound stretched across her stomach, extending to both sides of her waist.

The sight made Sister Zhong’s scalp go numb.

"It’s just... I’m a little hungry..."

As soon as she spoke, her stomach began to bulge. Sister Zhong was terrified and tried to step back, only to find her head grabbed in an iron grip.

Lu Li’s strength was terrifying.

The "wound" on her abdomen instantly split open. The upper and lower edges of the flesh were lined with fangs, revealing a terrifying, blood-red maw within.

"Ah—" Her scream was cut short before it could even begin. Her entire head was clamped in the maw, countless fangs piercing her neck.

A torrent of blood gushed out, but none of it spilled. Instead, it was all sucked into Lu Li’s abdominal organ.

Clothes, shoes, and all, the woman weighing over a hundred pounds was devoured in less than five minutes—much, much faster than when Lu Li had eaten her boyfriend the day before.

Only a few drops of blood had spattered onto the nearby toilet lid.

Incidents like Lu Li devouring her boyfriend and colleague were playing out all across Kyoto City. Typically, the first to fall victim were those closest to the monsters.

In the initial stages, a Spirit Mother hosting a Soul-possessing Spirit would do everything possible to conceal the disappearances, to avoid panicking the "food supply." The city’s "source of meat" was so abundant that they didn’t need to expend any effort to find prey.

When a human becomes a Spirit Mother host, their memories and intelligence make the monster all the more terrifying. At the same time, their ingrained habits and desire for convenience and safety mean the Spirit Mother is unlikely to deliberately alter its daily routines.

This was one of the key premises upon which the Special Security Team and Dawn had formulated their joint plan.

...

At the toll plaza for Kyoto City’s Expressway No. 3 exit, lines of cars waited to leave the city.

Minor traffic jams were common here, but today, some of the passing drivers noticed a heavy presence of military and police vehicles in the area. Several Soldiers stood guard at every toll booth.

Out of the drivers’ sight, inside a fleet of vehicles parked at a nearby service area, even more Soldiers were deployed. With them were a Special Security Team tactical Commander, a military Officer, and two men dressed in grey robes.

No one could make out the two men’s faces, only their tall statures.

One of them closed his eyes, extending his Perception for a moment. He then nodded to a military Officer who was obviously serving as their translator, indicating that this was the most suitable location.

Far away, in the operations command center within the Special Security Group Headquarters, the calm, clear voice of the Officer in the field came over the console’s loudspeaker.

"Reporting to HQ. Bulwark 15 is in position."

Everyone in the command center felt their heart skip a beat. With the protective details for core government agencies and the blockades on key areas city-wide, all tactical forces were now fully deployed.

From the core defenses at the Huannan Sea to the entry and exit points of Kyoto, including the airport and high-speed rail stations.

The net was cast.

However, everyone, including Tao Xingzhi, knew it wasn’t time yet. They had to suppress their emotions and wait, even though they knew that at this very moment, some of their fellow countrymen were likely being devoured by the monsters.

He glanced toward the corner where the Crystal Ball Witch from Dawn sat quietly. Sensing his gaze, she looked up and met his eyes calmly for a moment before returning her attention to the Crystal Ball floating before her.

Beside her, a hazy, blue-purple wheel of light formed a square cage. Through it, one could see with the naked eye the more-than-half-rotted Soul-Host Spirit Mother Body.

It would occasionally ram the walls of light, but to no effect, apart from letting out a pained shriek.

...

The more observant city-dwellers might have noticed many more security checks in the subways and on public transit. The number of traffic stops for drunk driving had increased more than tenfold, and police cars were a far more common sight on the streets than usual.

Meanwhile, unmarked vans and commercial vehicles might be filled with elite Soldiers or Special Security Team agents, and perhaps even members of the Dawn Association.

Some families with pregnant members would receive "follow-up calls" from the hospital. On the other end of the line, in a Special Security Team technical center staffed by over a thousand operators, was the Red Demoness, using her power to sense any anomalies in the voices of the people who answered.

But to the average citizen, none of this was a big deal. The vast majority wouldn’t notice these changes, and those who did wouldn’t pay them any mind, assuming it all had nothing to do with them.

Beneath the bustling facade of Kyoto City, people continued their day-to-day routines of study, work, and life, completely unaware that a battle for their very safety—and the stability of society itself—was about to begin...

...

"Good evening, listeners, and welcome to Traffic Radio... Our city has recently launched a major nighttime traffic enforcement and drunk driving campaign. We remind you to never drink and drive, and to avoid driving while fatigued late at night... Please also be advised that Kyoto City will be restricting nighttime vehicle emissions. We urge all our friends behind the wheel to avoid driving at night if possible..."

Drivers had been hearing these kinds of messages on the traffic station frequently for the past two days.

...

"Good evening, viewers, and welcome to Kyoto News. A large number of an invasive species, the vampire bat, have recently been spotted at night in Kyoto City. We are reminding all citizens to avoid going out at night, especially alone... Relevant city departments will be carrying out control measures during the nighttime hours..."

This advisory had been mentioned repeatedly on the news for the past few days.

...

On the evening of November 9, just before midnight, all tactical units began to buzz with anticipation. In the vans parked outside residential complexes, the sounds of operators checking their gear, attaching suppressors, and chambering rounds could be heard.

In the vehicles carrying Dawn combat personnel, the regular soldiers could hear the bones of their mysterious companions popping and cracking, their muscles coiling like springs, and their steady breathing sounding like a whistling wind.

As elite combat units deployed across the city, they had already identified and locked onto a considerable number of targets over the past few days.

In just a little while, the monsters’ active nighttime hunting period would begin.

In the Special Security Team’s tactical operations command center, the virtual hand on the large screen clock ticked over to 12:00 sharp.

Tao Xingzhi leaned toward the microphone and gave the order.

"This is Tao Xingzhi. I declare Operation: Cellular Immunity... begin!"