Chapter Sixty-Four: You Call That a Bad Grade?

The female friend panicked, intending to flee through the door, but she had locked it herself earlier to prevent any interruptions.

As she pressed the lock and tried to open the door just a crack, a hand pushed the opening firmly shut again.

"I want to ask you a few questions. I hope you'll cooperate," came the voice.

Hearing this, the woman didn’t even try to speak—she simply lashed out, clawing at Zhou Shu.

Ordinary people, pinned so close to the door, would surely be caught off guard by such a sudden attack. But Zhou Shu was no ordinary person.

As the woman’s hands transformed into claws, not only did his system alert him to a spike in monster pheromones, but his "Alertness" ability was triggered as well.

He dodged easily, then slammed his fist into the woman's head.

Bang!

Since they were irreconcilable enemies, there was nothing more to say.

All of his strength—1.05 in attribute—crashed down on her skull. Though it didn’t kill her beast-form with a single blow, it caused severe concussion.

Seizing the opportunity, Zhou Shu employed the combat techniques he'd learned from the Valkyrie of Tomorrow’s exoskeleton fighting style—even barehanded, it worked just as well. After all, donning the exoskeleton didn’t make him much larger; he simply omitted the moves that required direct resistance against sharp weapons.

His fists weren’t armored now, but he could use the walls for leverage. So he pinned the beast-woman’s head and slammed it repeatedly against the wall.

There is no elegance in hand-to-hand combat, only honest, lethal moves.

Bang, bang, bang—crack!

He exhaled deeply as he sensed the head beneath his hand no longer resisted.

Glancing at the mangled corpse, Zhou Shu felt his own violence keenly—this was not good. The persona of a scientist suited him better.

Of course, he still needed to search the body; the primordial energy was in these monsters.

He extracted the easiest energy first, to prevent sudden incidents that might rob him of even that, then considered how to perform his first full energy extraction.

Before that, he pulled a small rectangular object from the first person’s pocket—a little metal box.

Opening it, he found five white pills inside, and as soon as the box opened, the Hunter provided an alert.

These pills contained monster pheromones.

The concentration was quite low, so the energy fluctuations were faint. The box itself contained lead, easily blocking those fluctuations and detection.

Zhou Shu already guessed what this was—a trick he didn’t expect monsters to use.

It was likely the two monsters he’d killed earlier had been "manufactured" in just this way.

Their abilities weren’t particularly strong—even the monster encountered in the abandoned factory could be taken down by a four-person squad, and that one was the toughest of the four he’d dealt with so far.

These two today didn’t have any attributes breaking the threshold of one, but their bodies had undergone irreversible transformation, and they died in beast form.

Zhou Shu knew exactly how badly they wanted to kill him—his Alertness had triggered several times. When they talked about "eating him," they meant it literally.

These monsters were weak against him, and against the Demon Suppression Bureau, but not for ordinary people. Especially before transformation, they looked just like regular humans—and even untransformed, they could use some monster abilities.

If they suddenly erupted, ordinary people would have no way to resist.

The thought that these so-called "Evolution" pills could spread across the world like recreational drugs made Zhou Shu frown.

And judging by the behavior of those two just now, perhaps the Evolution pills really were being distributed under the guise of a new form of narcotic.

If enough people took them, then the Demon Suppression Bureau and similar organizations would always be understaffed, and might not be able to halt the "evolutionary" encroachment on humanity.

He was pondering this when several red markers suddenly appeared on his minimap. The previous yellow marker turned red as well, and outside the room, terrified screams rang out.

"Ah!"

"Help!"

"Run! Someone’s killing!"

Bang, bang—

Gunshots!

"This isn’t good," Zhou Shu said, hearing the gunfire. He left the final energy extraction for later and rushed out the door.

Outside, chaos reigned. As people fled in panic, he saw no attackers among them—rather, all the red markers on his minimap converged on a single location.

He frowned, scanning the fleeing crowds, helping up one person who had fallen, then shouted, "Don’t panic! Evacuate in an orderly fashion toward the exit!"

He called out a few times, but no one listened. Even those who heard him and glanced his way were quickly pushed forward by the surge behind them.

Unable to control the chaotic crowd, Zhou Shu decided to deal directly with the source.

He guessed the sudden red markers were "transformed" monsters, gathering for some purpose.

Whatever their goal, taking them all out would be for the best.

He surveyed the scene, recalling the parkour techniques Zhang Peng had mentioned in the park. Spotting several tall counters, shelves, and partition walls, he powered his legs, sprinted and leaped onto a sofa, then sprang from the sofa’s back, vaulting over the crowd to land on a counter.

His Dexterity attribute, slightly higher than his Strength, coordinated his movements perfectly. Though it was his first time using such parkour skills, it felt surprisingly natural—he landed exactly where he intended.

A few nimble jumps carried him from one side of the hall to the other, and as he landed, a person was thrown from a room.

The scene had a strange familiarity.

But this time, it was a girl.

The girl held a gun, and Zhou Shu landed right beside her. Though she’d just been thrown out, her awareness of her surroundings remained sharp.

As Zhou Shu touched down, she immediately raised her gun at him. Zhou Shu, quicker than her, grabbed her wrist and pushed it aside while ducking his head.

Bang!

Goodness. Though her nerves were taut, she fired without hesitation—wasn’t she afraid of hitting a teammate?

Before she could fire again, Zhou Shu twisted her wrist, making her cry out and drop the gun, which he promptly snatched away.

Now he saw the red smart watch on her wrist—different in color, but otherwise identical to his own. He quickly checked a few details and confirmed it was the Demon Suppression Bureau’s smart watch.

So she really was a teammate!

Her despair and anger were plain as he took her gun.

"You—"

Zhou Shu had no time for talk. He flashed his own watch and said, "Teammate—Zhou Shu. Reinforcements are on the way. Protect yourself."

With that, he ran toward the room, gun in hand.

Behind him, the girl stood stunned: "Zhou Shu, teammate?"

"That name sounds familiar… Right, Ren Guang said his scores weren’t good enough, so he wasn’t selected. But how does he have a smart watch, and how can he call for backup?"

While she was recalling all this, Zhou Shu reached the doorway. The door had been forced open, and someone was charging out.

Without even looking, Zhou Shu raised the gun and fired at the intruder’s forehead.

On his minimap, the target was marked red, with monster pheromone levels off the charts.

After dispatching the monster, Zhou Shu didn’t enter the room. He activated "slow-motion vision" at the threshold.

The scene now resembled a gunfight game: when the door burst open, time slowed, and the player could instantly eliminate all enemies in the room.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—

Behind him, the girl was utterly stunned, watching Zhou Shu take down each mutant with a single shot, remembering what Ren Guang had said.

"His scores were too low…"

"He won’t join the national team…"

"Maybe he’s just here for fun…"

You call that 'poor scores'?!