Chapter Thirty-One: I Am No Different

"Greiru, why have you been so quiet?" Reno, the chatterbox, seemed to have set his sights on Zhong Shenxiu, who was sitting silently in the corner. After glancing over a few times, he couldn't help but ask.

"Headache," Zhong Shenxiu offered a casual excuse.

Judging by the way the others treated him, he could more or less grasp Greiru’s character—likely the sort of person whose surliness surprised no one.

Sure enough, though Reno was met with a cold shoulder, he seemed used to it, continuing on as if nothing had happened. "A headache? You seemed fine just now."

Suddenly, a mischievous grin appeared on his face. "Did you slip off to that little storeroom for some mischief, is that it?"

"What?" Zhong Shenxiu was momentarily at a loss.

"Oh, come on. We’re all men here, we understand. I have to say, you’re bold—even daring to do it on the street. If it were me, I’d at least drag her inside first."

At this, the captain threw Reno a glance—part exasperation, part indulgence.

Witnessing this, Zhong Shenxiu instinctively edged a little farther away.

But Reno seemed not to notice at all, still grinning wickedly. "Honestly, I feel like it’s a shame to miss such a golden opportunity. Next time, when the mission’s over, why don’t we go out together?"

"Heh, count me in!" the driver suddenly chimed in.

This time, the captain didn’t stop them as he had earlier—after all, Reno had said 'after the mission.' He was strict during a mission, but outside of it, he couldn’t be bothered to interfere. He even found himself thinking, count me in too! But, preserving the steady image of a temporary squad captain, he ultimately chose to keep quiet.

"But seriously, what’s with everyone lately? I remember when I was out just two days ago, things were perfectly normal."

"I have no idea," the captain replied, shaking his head.

"Could it be they really sprayed some sort of concentrated leaf from the sky? Everyone’s high, and since we were underground, we just happened to miss the whole party," Reno mused carelessly.

Underground?

On hearing this, Zhong Shenxiu instantly perked up, eavesdropping with his full attention.

"I don’t think that’s it… After all, plenty of people back at our base have ended up like this too," the captain said.

At that moment, the usually quiet driver piped up again. "Maybe it’s some kind of virus, like in Resident Evil—what did they call it… right, the T-virus. Maybe we’re the chosen ones, immune, destined to save the world!"

The more the driver spoke, the more excited he became, swerving left and right as though they were truly fleeing through an apocalypse, humanity’s last hope in a sea of the dead.

"Oh, by the way, did any of you have a weird dream last night? I dreamt I’d turned into a little brat, with a chubby face, snot bubbling out of my nose, crying for milk," Reno suddenly changed the topic.

Hearing this, the driver snapped out of his hero fantasy and replied eagerly, "Me too! I had a similar dream last night—what stuck with me most was the sharp little canine tooth when I smiled."

"I have a canine tooth too!" Reno exclaimed, looking as if he'd seen a ghost. "No way, could we all have had the same dream? This morning, I asked Teddy and he said he’d had one like that as well."

Reno’s gaze landed on the captain, who, under the scrutiny, felt a shiver down his spine. He answered, "I dreamed it too." After a pause, he added, "With the canine tooth."

Before Reno could look his way, Zhong Shenxiu quickly chimed in, "Me too."

With everyone else saying so, he couldn’t very well claim otherwise—drawing attention would not help him keep his identity hidden. Besides, he really had experienced the same thing this morning. Perhaps his mental strength was stronger, but Zhong Shenxiu knew he hadn’t been dreaming—it had all happened for real.

"When did you all wake up?" Reno asked.

"Five twelve in the morning," the captain answered first.

"No way, me too..." the driver smacked his forehead in disbelief.

All eyes turned to Zhong Shenxiu—he could even see the driver watching him in the rearview mirror.

"Same here," Zhong Shenxiu replied, feeling that today he’d become a broken record, echoing, "Me too," like some comic figure.

A cold shiver ran through Reno after hearing Zhong Shenxiu’s answer. He sensed something was off.

But everything was so vague and surreal, and he simply couldn’t make sense of it.

So, as even the most talkative among them fell into silent contemplation, the atmosphere in the van shifted from lively debate to utter stillness.

This quiet didn’t last long.

The black van slowly rolled up to the sealed gates of Happy Factory. The driver honked twice. The camera at the gate rotated, clearly scanning and verifying them.

Seeing the gate wouldn’t open right away, Reno couldn’t hold his tongue any longer. "It’s almost dark out," he remarked after a brief silence.

Zhong Shenxiu peered out the window. The glass was coated with a dark one-way film, making it hard to tell the time, but from the half-sunken sun on the western horizon, he could guess it was dusk.

"This day passed so quickly… We went house to house gathering supplies. I think Taylor’s team went straight to the supermarket—they’re probably back already," Reno muttered to himself, receiving no response from the others.

Talking about time, Reno habitually glanced at the watch on his left wrist.

His eyes went wide with surprise. "Is my watch broken? It says it’s 10:41! No wonder the day felt so short."

At his words, the driver and the captain almost simultaneously checked their own watches.

Seeing the same time, both couldn’t help but stare in shock.

"Me too… 10:41!" the driver’s voice trembled.

In that instant, they truly felt as if they’d stepped into some absurd, bizarre world.

Zhong Shenxiu rolled up his sleeve as if to check the time—only to remember, amused, that he didn’t even have a watch. As for the early sunset, he knew the cause: Wanda had messed with things today.

From his observations, these people were just ordinary mercenaries—likely aware of even less than he was. If he’d hoped to glean some clue about Wanda from their conversations, that plan had failed.

Click, click, click—

With the grinding of mechanical gears, the gates of Happy Factory finally opened.

Zhong Shenxiu took a deep breath. Though he hadn’t gleaned any explosive information from this squad's chatter, one thing was clear: there was something decidedly odd about this factory.

Next, it was up to him to investigate further…