The X Guide

"Is this the place?"

"Yes. Based on the reports, it’s the place," someone answered.

The others were silent but secretly observing the city. They were asked to investigate the incident thoroughly inside the city. This had even been labeled as the highest order, and they had to take it seriously.

However, once they arrived in the city, they could not help but feel bewildered. The city was quiet. The streets, which were based on reports, were crowded by citizens and were empty.

The four exchanged glances. They then nodded at each other and quickly jumped from the building towards the empty streets. Their eyes observed the city more closely.

The only woman in the group frowned. "This isn’t really a destruction caused by monsters."

Upon looking closely, the buildings and establishments had certain damage, but they were not severe enough. If it were monsters, the destruction would be far from this.

If anything, it was more like the people scrambled to escape something that likely caused it.

After a brief observation, the four decided to team up in two and scattered in different directions as they checked the other places. For a while, the four became busy.

They silently checked buildings, hoping they could encounter someone. Indeed, it was so. The four had found several corpses who had died before they were even infected by the unknown disease. Either from starvation or injuries brought on by their hasty escape.

While they found survivors, it was not even a hundred. The majority of them were even in a state of shock and heavily traumatized; only a few were decent enough to ask what happened.

"What happened? Can you tell us?" the woman asked a teenage boy, though in a daze, he could be questioned.

The boy blinked, too dehydrated to even cry at the moment.

"Everyone... turned out to be like those monsters. Like... like zombies!" The boy then shook his head. "No. It’s similar but different. They aren’t biting others, and they did not look terrifying. But... but... They are smiling and infecting everyone!"

The other espers frowned. It was not that they did not believe the boy, but they were also at a loss about this. If what he said was true... Then it was truly becoming troublesome.

The woman asked a few more questions before he could only console the boy. The three espers sighed at each other.

"Did that mean that almost all of the citizens turned to whatever kind of zombie it was?"

At this realization, they all sucked in a breath. This was a yellow zone... That meant millions of people were infected?

For a moment, a sense of crisis quickly overwhelmed them. The three soon realized another problem.

"Wait... Then where are they now?"

The three exchanged glances, fear mirrored on each other’s expressions.

"Damn! We have to hurry and report it!"

It seemed this whatever it was would soon be spread to another area. Although they had yet to grasp the full extent of the situation, just the surface alone was enough to grip them with terror.

Even as espers who had seen a lot, this made them unable to say anything for a while.

Just as the four were getting ready for the next stage of the mission, the arrival of a huge crowd outside of a red zone had created an uproar.

This yellow zone... was the seventh biggest yellow zone in the world, almost ready to transition to a green zone. Since that was the case, the espers stationed in this city were more than in the previous city.

Naturally, the population was also bigger. It boasted almost fifty million ordinary citizens. Suddenly, the government branch office was caught off guard by the crowd that gathered outside the walls.

"Can someone tell me what the heck is happening?"

The highest commander of this zone asked as he looked at the monitor, where the crowd could be seen outside the walls.

He narrowed his eyes and motioned for the camera to sweep the crowd. How in the hell? Migrating citizens were not new. They often come in batches sometimes. However, this was not normal.

This crowd should not be just ordinary migrating citizens at all. There were probably millions gathering outside the walls. He did not even know that at most a million were lost in the march to the monsters, but converted so many monsters as well.

"What should we do?" his second in command asked. Because of their arrival, the city gates were ordered to be closed for the time being.

If it were a thousand people, maybe the branch office would only be alerted, but millions of people arriving together? It was a strange sight and made the soldiers guarding the gates panic.

Strangely enough, the crowd had also stopped outside, as though not intending to force their way in.

The man massaged the space between his brows for a few seconds. He was unable to believe this was happening. When he looked up again, he sighed heavily.

He could not even see the end of the crowd. How many were they exactly, and where the heck did they come from?

"Don’t open the gates. Millions of people swarming in will cause unnecessary panic and will hurt the city’s security. For now, try to, uh..." He paused and looked at the monitor. He just noticed something amiss. "Can you zoom in?"

As his order fell, the view of the monitor zoomed in until they finally could see most of the faces of the crowd.

The moment that the monitor finally captured their faces, loud exclamations rang out in the whole room. The man’s eyes also widened in shock.

"Why..." He could not even finish his words. The others in the room rubbed their hands as goosebumps rose on their arms.

The faces of the crowd were fully displayed. Their blank gazes and calm expressions were something so eerie and looked so out of place.

There was something in their expression that gave everyone the chills, as though it automatically awakened their fear.

His second in command swallowed and asked. "What should we do now?"

If he were to be asked, he would not let the crowd enter the city at all. They looked like the embodiment of misfortune for some reason. However, he could not justify that reason to not grant entry at all.