Vol 14: Chapter 15-2.
Zheng continued along the hall. As he walked pass an intersection, a muscular middle age man came out from one of the rooms. He was over 6 feet 2, Caucasian, seemed like from northern Europe. Some resemblance to Kampa.
Zheng walked past him quietly. His uniform denoted his military rank, a major. As they crossed each other, Zheng couldn’t help but felt a thin layer of goosebumps over his body. He turned his head around a few seconds later but that man had turned around the corner.
Zheng recalled the man’s face and stored it in his memory before continuing his way. Several more turns later, the dissecting room’s door was in front of him.
Sweat soaked the middle age man’s head after he cross Zheng. He quickly walked along the hall and made several turns before he lay against the wall. His shaking hand pulled out a pack of cigarette from his pocket. Then he lit a cigarette with an equally shaking lighter.
“Is Hawfor retarded? How could he even dare to provoke someone so strong? His power is immense. It felt like walking along an axe’s edge when I merely walked past him. It was as though he could kill me with just one punch.” He finished the cigarette in a few puffs then gripped his fist.
He turned around toward the shuttles’ location. He was with Neos but when they learned Zheng was heading to the starship Rose was in, Neos sent their strongest man, Richard Tobias, to meet Zheng in this starship.
The strong tend to sense a link with people equally strong. Despite the strength Zheng showed in the fight, Neos induced it as an attempt to give a high impact by using his full power, and that Zheng wasn’t as strong in actuality. What Richard had to do was prove this. Neos and the others trusted Richard’s strength. So this was their display of strength against team China.
However, life was often more absurd and unpredictable than imagination. The effect Neos hoped for didn’t happen and instead, their strongest member got shocked.
This dissecting room could be renamed to Arachnid dissecting room. That was what happened in 99% of the cases here ever since the war started. The remaining 1% was on troopers killed by strange bugs. The first things Zheng saw upon entering were bug corpses lined up by the wall. He even saw a complete head of a blaster bug, which surprised him.
A young man and woman were chatting in this room. They looked at each other, then the man walked up to Zheng with a smile. “Hello, what are you looking for?”
Zheng scratched his head. He was confused at why Xuan sent him here to begin with, especially when the target was critical to Xuan’s plan. He thought about it for a moment then just followed his instincts. He looked at the woman and said. “Hello, I am Zheng Zha, the leader of team China. Are you Rose of team Africa (Southern Flame)?”
Rose was a half black beauty, healthy dark brown skin and silky long hair. Beautiful facial features also. Though she seemed a little indifferent. When Zheng said the words team Africa, their expressions changed and looked like they were going to pull out their weapons.
Zheng immediately said. “I have no plan to fight you right now. Don’t do anything hostile or I will kill you before you can attack. I am just here to see you.”
He felt that was wrong. What did it mean to see them when they were still enemies? A fight might break out at any moment. It was not like they could sit down and talk it through.
The man stared at Zheng. “The two of us don’t wish to become part of the team battle. You can fight however you want. We won’t do anything against team China as long as you don’t drag us in.”
Rose pulled his shirt sleeve and said in a smile. “This is Marni, my boyfriend. Hoho, just like he said. We don’t wish to join the team battle but don’t you think you can bully us that easily. We aren’t scared of any ambushes or challenges. Our combat techniques are special. We might not be strong in combat but we can drag some powerful people along to death. You wouldn’t think I am joking right?”
Zheng stared at her then nodded. “No. I think you have seen the video of the fight. You didn’t panic when you saw me so what you said should be true. I am just curious are you not worried about being erased by God? Each member that died is minus one point in score and 2000 points. Even if you saved up a lot of points, how can you guarantee that your points don’t go negative in a team battle?”
The young man laughed. He seemed like a half blood also, though closer to Caucasian. He pulled out three chairs then sat down with Rose. “This is an information we obtained from movies. Even though our teams are still in opposition, but the three of us have no intention to fight. Why don’t we exchange information?”
Zheng had favorable impression of them. He didn’t sense any killing intent. Secondly, their honesty was welcoming. And thirdly, he was cautious to the abilities they were hiding. He sat down and looked at them.
Marnie said. “We are very early members of team Africa. I have unlocked the first stage. But I did it two movies after we got our first team leader. Uh, our leader abandoned us when he was given the position by the Guide and went to team Celestial. So there was a second round of selection by the Guide. However, since the previous leader haven’t died, the second leader only have the power to search God. There was no inquiry about transferring to team Celestial since he didn’t reach the second stage. Team Africa’s strength remained very low since then.”
Rose brought them three cups of coffee. He handed a cup to Zheng and said. “There are no poison in the coffee. You don’t have to drink it.” She took a sip from her cup.
Marnie patted her hand and continued. “But we were lucky. We went through several low difficulty movies. One of them was Lord of the Rings. That was our first team battle. Fortunately, the other team was in the same situation as us where their leader went to team Celestial. Their strength was reduced by a lot. We came in contact and decided to complete that movie together peacefully. We obtained a lot of points and rewards but what was more fortunate was that we entered the Dwarves tunnel with Gandalf. We killed Balrog with a plan. Gandalf gave each us a Rune Word stone, which is a quest item. It was said that this stone saved Gandalf the Gray from the fall and turned him into Gandalf the White. The effect is to allow the bearer to survive three times from a negative score. This will be our first time using it.”
Zheng was surprised. This information was so important. An item with such effect could save the whole team at times. He also told him which movie it was from and how to get it. Zheng took a few deep breaths then said. “Don’t you feel unfair telling me such an important info? Its value is immense.”
Marnie waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter much. This information is useless no matter how important it is if we die. I can see that your team must have experience movies much more dangerous than we did. You should be way stronger than us. So we don’t plan to fight you and use this information to exchange for our freedom.”
Zheng nodded. “We won’t enter a fight. I can make this decision. However, I still want to give you an information of equal value for the exchange. You know about The Mummy? Have you gone through that world?”