It was Qi Suian's first time letting the Tai Sui Divine Armor assist his movements, and he still wasn't used to it. It felt like he had an extra limb that he couldn't fully control.
Fortunately, with the AI Brain's coordination, he wasn't clumsy. Awkward as it was, his movements were only a little worse than usual.
"Speaking of which, what do creatures like zombies even live on?"
"And how do they hunt their prey?"
Qi Suian watched the slow-moving zombies. 'If these were the zombies from movies or TV shows, I naturally wouldn't have to think about this so much.'
Qi Suian wasn't bothered by these regular zombies. After all, he was wearing the Tai Sui Divine Armor. Its SSS-rank Expedition-grade ecological circulation system completely isolated him from the outside world. So, without sufficiently advanced detection methods or powerful perception, he was just a walking hunk of metal.
"They're clearly dead, yet they still show signs of life. The Abyssal Virus is truly interesting," Qi Suian said softly.
He was currently at the Watchman Morning Dawn Headquarters. He had been here once when he first joined the company and was met by one of the company's directors.
After that, he went to the ruins of the Ancient Dian Kingdom to conduct archaeological research.
The reason he could get here so quickly was naturally because the Watchman Morning Dawn Headquarters and the ruins of the Ancient Dian Kingdom weren't far apart.
However, there were many zombies in between, so many that it was almost shoulder-to-shoulder. Qi Suian had lived for so many years and never knew the population density here was so high.
'I need to be careful. Besides regular zombies, there are also bioweapons and Mutated Zombies.' Qi Suian understood that with the Tai Sui God's low initial armor, it could take a hit or two from regular zombies, but against anything stronger, it was as good as paper.
In terms of armor, the Tai Sui God was truly a disgrace to its SSS-rank quality.
The bioweapons were military-grade products modified by the Watchman Morning Company. In his previous life, he had encountered one and barely escaped with his life.
Back then, he didn't know its origin and just treated it as an elite mob spawned by the apocalyptic game, not bothering to investigate its background.
Mutated Zombies, on the other hand, were the result of regular zombies undergoing mutation.
Compared to bioweapons, whose strength was mostly fixed from the moment of creation, Mutated Zombies could develop mutations similar to special abilities. After mutating to a certain degree, they could even develop something akin to intelligence.
Just like the Zombie Dominator he had become—a type of Mutated Zombie. He not only possessed immense power but also intelligence far surpassing that of an ordinary person, which was why he had been so strong.
A zombie with intelligence and a zombie without were two completely different breeds.
By now, Tier-2 Mutated Zombies had already appeared.
A regular zombie's physique attribute was around 0.5, only half that of a normal person.
But upon reaching Tier-1, their physique could reach 1.2 points. However, if it was a Spirit-type ability, it would boost the Spirit attribute instead, and the physique attribute wouldn't be as high, though it would be at least 1 point.
But this burst only happened once at Tier-1. Subsequent attribute growth wasn't nearly as terrifying; an increase of 0.1 or 0.2 was already considered good.
This meant that once a zombie leveled up, it was basically on par with a survivor.
As for the fact that survivors had higher Spirit attributes, that was true, but they couldn't utilize it.
'Once a zombie mutates, even a Tier-1, it no longer acts purely on instinct like a regular zombie. It develops a more advanced hunting logic and even a sense of territory.'
'Even though I'm encased in the Tai Sui Divine Armor, as a non-zombie, I'll still be attacked if I enter a Mutated Zombie's territory.'
Qi Suian knew that in his past life, during the early days of the apocalypse, a Spirit-mutated zombie had taken root in the Watchman Morning Dawn Headquarters. It was considered a top-tier elite mob.
Later, it wasn't defeated by survivors. Instead, when Qi Suian—the Zombie Dominator—emerged, he directly devoured this Spirit-mutated zombie.
This made him wonder. 'You're already fighting for your life, how do you have the spare energy to pay attention to these things on the chat channels?'
As Qi Suian stepped into the headquarters, he could clearly sense a difference between the zombies inside and the ones outside.
It was quiet, as if they were bound by some kind of rule.
But upon sensing Qi Suian's arrival, all the zombies let out a roar and began shuffling toward him with slow steps.
Their movement speed was about the same as Qi Suian's without the Tai Sui God's assistance. After all, his physique attribute, like a regular zombie's, was 0.5, so it was natural their speeds were more or less the same.
However, because there were so many zombies, he couldn't dodge them even if he wanted to. He could only brace himself and push his way through.
The Tai Sui God's armor was a bit low, but with the AI Brain in control, there was no need to worry.
In this situation, as long as survivors weren't scratched and infected, killing a single zombie one-on-one wasn't a big problem.
Unfortunately, zombies had no habit of fighting one-on-one.
'This Spirit-mutated zombie has some rudimentary intelligence.'
"AI Brain, what's the status of the headquarters' internal network infiltration?" Qi Suian asked.
[Infiltration complete. Downloading data...]
[Analysis of internal data reveals none of the relevant information you require. Preliminary conclusion: your current location is not the true headquarters of the Watchman Morning Company.]
[Searching for corresponding information...]
Reading the AI Brain's reply, Qi Suian couldn't help but stop in his tracks.
'On second thought, the answer is actually quite reasonable.'
'Who would be so blatant about their virus research? Of course they'd have to keep it hidden.'
'This so-called headquarters is most likely just an integrated center for administration, operations, management, and the like, not the actual research center.'
"While you're at it, check if there's anything of value left in the headquarters building. If not, plan an escape route for me." 'Since what I want isn't here, I might as well leave. What's the point of staying?'
[Processing request...]
Of course, Qi Suian knew why the AI Brain was running so slowly. The Tai Sui God hadn't evolved enough times, so the AI Brain's computing power and logic were limited, restricting its performance.
Otherwise, a true AI Brain of SSS-rank quality could probably dig up all of the Watchman Morning Company's secrets in an instant. After all, Qi Suian's own SSS-rank talent allowed him to resurrect, which showed just how valuable that rank was.
[Scan complete. A sample Plasma Intelligent Guided Cannon is stored in the third-floor weapon sample room. It can be connected to the Supernova Strong Nuclear Reactor for power.]
[The fifth-floor finance office contains...]
[The twelfth-floor records room...]
The AI Brain listed a long string of valuable items.
"I can understand the weapon in the sample room, and the records room makes sense, but what's the use of the finance office? Am I supposed to report them to the tax authorities?"
[If the true headquarters' location cannot be obtained directly, the financial data, combined with other records, can be used to help deduce its position.]
"Fine. In that case, tell me where that Mutated Zombie is. I'll go around it."