At the dock waterfront district, inside the infection containment line.
Jin Yulu, fully armed and wearing a hazmat suit, led her team to the building ruins. Broken bricks and tiles met their eyes everywhere, with concrete blocks and twisted, fractured steel reinforcement bars scattered throughout. Unlike the scene after controlled demolition, this place displayed the ravages of unreasonable force at every turn.
They hadn't walked far before witnessing the distinctive foul-smelling blood of Disaster Beasts, but all life signs had vanished—that thing was dead beyond dead, confirmed without doubt.
"...Reporting to headquarters, contamination levels are controllable, expert team can enter, reduce alert status."
Jin Yulu continued deeper into a hollow structure where the rooftop had collapsed. Sunlight illuminated a massive, broken black cat corpse of enormous size. Even without a trace of life, it still gave off an overwhelming sense of oppression—one couldn't imagine how terrifying it must have been alive.
Going deeper, she witnessed pit after pit in the ground, some created by impacts, others by tremendous force collisions.
"Captain, the Disaster Beast corpse is buried."
"Call the excavator."
It took deploying heavy machinery to barely clear the debris and reveal the target's full appearance—a lone front torso lying there, covered in wounds and incomplete. Careful observation revealed scattered legs around the area, and glancing at the walls showed sticky blood and flesh splattered here and there, making it hard not to think of internal organs. A Vanguard Disaster Beast capable of threatening an entire city single-handedly, one that even heavy firepower could barely destroy, had died like this? And died so miserably at that.
Jin Yulu bent down to gently touch the Disaster Beast's skin—rock hard, with obvious muscle definition. Combined with such an enormous body size, it must have been incredibly formidable when alive, simply devastating.
She had struggled enough just fighting infected entities and had never personally experienced Disaster Beast combat. Originally regretful about missing out, now she only felt she'd been too arrogant. If she encountered this thing, ten lives probably wouldn't be enough—it would kill her in one blow without hesitation. So who possessed the mighty power to defeat a Disaster Beast?
"...Captain, examination results are in. What killed the Vanguard Disaster Beast was some kind of humanoid life form, everything else unknown."
"That's a strange way to put it."
"Anything that can pin a ten-meter-class monster to the ground and beat it to death can hardly be called human." A team member's comment gained unanimous agreement—indeed, the world had long prepared for the fact that human bodies couldn't contend with such things.
A figure in black clothes flashed through Jin Yulu's mind, and she subconsciously wiped her face—the ink had already faded.
Was there a possibility that she had killed a Vanguard Disaster Beast?
The Special Attack Forces didn't make judgments, so the girl didn't voice her speculation. Years of training had taught her to simply follow orders. The work wasn't finished yet—excavation needed to be thorough.
Clatter!
The excavator carefully swept the surrounding area, then they conducted further cleanup. Sure enough, blood and flesh fragments filled the broken bricks and tiles, as if one could imagine how terrifying that scene must have been—a "person" using fists and feet to beat a Disaster Beast to death by brute force. Simply inconceivable.
As monitoring progressed, the expert team regretfully reported that a considerable portion of the traces were beyond investigation. The storm, fierce winds, heavy snow, and combat made it impossible to determine details about either side.
"Both entities had very high mobility, leaping and fighting between buildings. Some evidence suggests a third party existed, but traces are insufficient."
The investigation had to be left inconclusive.
The expert team used the most advanced infrared detection, genetic testing, scent marking and other methods, but for some reason the clues were always disconnected, constantly getting stuck and eliminating large areas. Scientific logic focused on summarization was useless against it. The result was that the "victorious second party" and "third party who left midway" became lingering mysteries, and ultimately they gained nothing.
The Special Attack Forces members had long grown impatient, killing infected entities out of boredom as time ticked by second by second.
Even so, the expert team remained tremendously excited, calling out "unprecedented major discovery, the Ningfeng Harbor Disaster Beast incident is destined to be recorded in history" with fanatical enthusiasm.
They continued researching until dusk before finally giving up.
On-site testing concluded—it was time to return to headquarters. Command from the rear also ordered withdrawal, as encountering infected entities at night would be disadvantageous.
Jin Yulu received orders to begin batch transportation of the Disaster Beast corpse. This process required extreme care, but fortunately she could handle the most heavily contaminated internal organ parts, making it relatively convenient. Though extremely rare, cases existed among humans of actively fusing with Disaster Beast infection, achieving comprehensive physical enhancement while becoming immune to contamination. For instance, she could move around Disaster Beast corpse vicinity without any protective equipment.
After a few light leaps to wrap the corpse with ropes and secure it, she made a hand signal—transportation officially began.
Creak!
The crane made teeth-grinding sounds, showing that the Disaster Beast remains weighed far more than appeared on the surface. The amazing bone density and strength meant they were formidable enough through flesh alone, not to mention their strange shockwaves.
Jin Yulu froze slightly, feeling like she could see some kind of flowing energy hazily in the air, dreamlike, more like...magic power?
She shook her head and her vision cleared completely.
Just as the girl was surprised, the transport team encountered a research group bearing Changfeng Financial Group logos—as an Anti-Disaster Beast Organization closely cooperating with authorities, they naturally rushed to the scene immediately.
However, the free-spirited corporate personnel always annoyed Jin Yulu, especially today, since Jin Changfeng personally showing up with that arrogant attitude was particularly irritating. She'd heard this guy had also obstructed investigation progress into the Storm Gang incident. After both sides glanced at each other from afar, there was no further interaction as the suited man began chatting with the expert team leader.
He'd even brought a girl to the infection source—according to his introduction, named Jin Ruochu.
Jin Yulu wasn't surprised, having long heard that wealthy people liked bringing children to actively encounter various situations. This one was no exception, already striking up conversation with the official research group.
"Chairman is also well-informed—what's your opinion?"
"You all trust common sense too much and are overly cautious. I believe whoever defeated the Disaster Beast is a great hero—a human, yet not quite human."
"If they could accomplish that, they've already transcended humanity."
"Exactly. As long as they're powerful enough, sooner or later they should be the ones defining whether we skinny, sickly types count as normal humans. Disaster Beasts have given us enough shocks over the years—a couple of superhumans appearing isn't surprising, right?" Jin Changfeng wore a meaningful expression.
"You're absolutely right."
The two exchanged glances and laughed heartily, their eerie understanding making Jin Yulu frown with even more disgust. She felt like they were secretly conducting some shady business...well, actually even official organizations had some degree of remains leakage phenomena, so she had to turn a blind eye. For instance, her home dock frequently traded various contaminated contraband—over time this probably produced resistant constitution, right?
The group finished their on-site investigation with pleasant conversation as the massive Disaster Beast corpse slowly transported forward under the setting sun and sky full of rosy clouds.
Jin Yulu looked back once at the battle ruins and took a deep breath. Though everyone acted relaxed, she felt things would be different starting today.
For instance, her own body was undergoing some kind of special change, perhaps closely related to the recent strange incidents.