I Am Extraordinary Alone
Chapter 225 - 223 Suspicion

Chapter 225: Chapter 223 Suspicion

The few vagrants didn’t speak but looked at Wei Tianyang with hostile eyes before leaving.

"Alright then." Wei Tianyang pocketed his cellphone and watched as the group slowly moved away.

He slung the rifle across his chest, his left hand over the grip, and in the air, he smelled a hint of roasting meat.

Following the aroma, he walked forward, maneuvered around a blocked pickup truck, and saw a 24-hour diner at the intersection on the street corner.

It was the kind of cheap diner that was very common in the West Soil Region, with only one floor and not a very large footprint, topped with a huge glowing sign.

Because there was no power outage in the city, light shone out from the restaurant, accompanied by the sound of meat sizzling on the grill, from which the aroma was emanating.

Wei Tianyang thought for a moment, then stepped forward and took a glance inside through the window, seeing a few diners eating and a waitress frying steaks with her back to the bar.

He pushed the door open, and the bell over the porch jingled, drawing the gaze of the diners toward him.

Clad in quasi-military gear with a rifle hanging on his chest, Wei Tianyang stood out in stark contrast to the surroundings, but diners didn’t show much surprise, merely whispering suspiciously with occasional scornful glances stolen in his direction.

"Welcome, officer, would you like coffee, cola, meat pies, or tacos?" the waitress turned around, a tall woman in her early thirties with a brown complexion and long black hair.

"Not a lot of choices on the menu," Wei Tianyang said.

He couldn’t hear the woman’s voice but could decipher what she said through subtitles displayed on his glasses’ HUD.

"You’re quite picky, considering these are special times. Everybody has to buy on a quota. You’re lucky there’s still 420 grams of coffee," the waitress said.

"Quit pretending, where are you?" Wei Tianyang looked at the waitress and asked with a smile.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about," the waitress shook her head, turned, and shoveled the steak off the grill onto a ceramic plate, then squeezed it between two pieces of dry bread with tongs.

At that moment, a diner walked up to the bar, took the plate the waitress was offering, and tapped his phone on the POS machine.

"You know you can’t hold out much longer," Wei Tianyang said to the diner.

The diner looked at him as if he were an idiot, both angry and amused, and said sternly, "Our taxes go to support a bunch of people like you, and I don’t understand why you have to do this!"

"There are at least several hundred thousand people in this city; you can’t play them all yourself," Wei Tianyang said.

"Hey!"

Suddenly, a burly man sitting at the end of the diner yelled at him.

Wei Tianyang turned to look, and the burly man cursed again, "Fuck you!"

"Fuck your mother! Shitty! Pretending to be a good guy!"

"Get out of here!"

"Get the hell out of this city!"

The diner suddenly grew noisy as the customers all shouted at him.

In the upper right corner of his glasses HUD, Giovanni’s image appeared, and he said, "Wei, don’t let them scare you."

Wei Tianyang had no choice but to leave the diner for now and found himself back on the street.

He shook his head and said, "Giovanni, is this disease... too realistic?"

"Don’t be fooled by it. Our people who went in felt the same way in the beginning. But, when they let their guard down, they were assimilated," Giovanni said.

"How am I supposed to tell who’s infected and who’s not?" Wei Tianyang asked.

Xue Bi broke into the channel, "There’s a standard language test that can determine who has not been infected."

"Is it accurate?" Wei Tianyang asked.

"100% accurate. Have them read the syllables ’la, li, lu, le, lo.’ If they pronounce them as ’ra, ri, ru, re, ro,’ then they are infected," Xue Bi replied.

"How does it work?" Wei Tianyang was puzzled.

"Third-stage patients can’t pronounce these syllables," Xue Bi replied.

"They don’t seem to be too keen on becoming soldiers; I need to find a way to make them follow my lead," Wei Tianyang shook his head.

"Don’t rush; start with those who are alone. There will be some people isolating themselves in the apartment blocks," Giovanni said.

"This is going to be deadly. What if there are too many people? How can I ensure their safety?" Wei Tianyang asked.

"That’s your problem. President Fogen didn’t send you here for no reason," Giovanni said.

The communication ended, and Wei Tianyang stood dejectedly on the street corner. He tried to read the five syllables, not too difficult to pronounce.

He turned to look deeper down the street, at the blocky layout of the apartment buildings, then glanced at the restaurant before him, thinking to himself that if so many people were brazenly eating together, they must have all been infected; he decided to start from the closest apartment block.

Wei Tianyang walked up to the base of the apartment building, pushed open the dark and foreboding little iron gate at the door, and the motion-sensor lights lit up with his footsteps, illuminating the yellowed concrete corridor stretching out some ten or so meters, all the way to the turn where the concrete stairs began.

There were no residents on the first floor, so he lightly stepped up to the second floor, where he heard the crying of a baby. He paused for a moment, only to hear a woman cursing her husband in anxiety.

"Damn it, we’re out of formula again, and the airdrop supplies are just too far from us!" the woman said.

"I’ll go tomorrow morning... no, at dawn when there should be nobody around. Maybe there will still be some cans and compressed biscuits in the airdrop crate," the man said, somewhat troubled.

"Go now. Put on your earplugs, make it quick, and ignore those cynical people on the street. It should be fine," the woman said.

"It’s too dangerous... Didn’t you see the government’s news? Just hearing them talk can get you infected," the man said.

"Then why are there still so many people on the streets?! Why haven’t they gone to the northern woods? I’m starting to doubt what the government says more and more," the woman said.

"It’s better to be safe than sorry... I don’t want to take the risk," the man said.

"Are you even a man?! In the middle of the night, what’s there to fear if you wear earplugs? Like the news said, the city should be empty by now," the woman persisted.

"What if it’s real?! Those puppets are just left in the city to lure us," the man worriedly said.

"Our daughter is already starving! She won’t make it through the night," the woman said angrily.

"I... I don’t know if I can make it. What if I’m seduced by those things outside... and come back and harm you both?" the man said, sounding disheartened.

"It’s a risk worth taking... If you won’t go, I will," the woman said.

"You are not going anywhere! It’s too dangerous!" the man said.

"Fuck it, I’m taking your baseball bat. If anyone dares to come close, I’ll make sure they lay down!" the woman said.

"Quit it... That airdrop crate is past four blocks to the west, right next to the lake in the park. I promise I’ll only check it out if I see it. Let’s wait a little longer...," the man said.

Hearing this, Wei Tianyang turned and left the apartment building, following the man’s words westward.

After crossing four blocks, he indeed found a small park by an artificial lake, where a few people were gathered, opening the airdrop crate.

Wei Tianyang approached and greeted them.

But he saw several people turn around, brandishing knives and clubs, looking menacing.

"I only want formula; I don’t want anything else. If you don’t give it to me, you’ll die here tonight," he said.