QT: Grace To Grass Counterattack System

"HELP!" The woman running in front called out to them but no one in the vehicle moved an inch. Lu Ming was indeed the leader of the team and they had to follow orders at all times.

"PLEASE!" She added when she locked eyes with He Yuan. Suddenly, more zombies arrived at the scene. The previous zombies were a bunch of low level zombies without ability so the family could manage to outrun them.

Now, a couple of zombies with abilities had joined the mix. He Yuan locked eyes with Lu Ming but the man only stared back with a raised chin. What did he hope to achieve by doing this?

"AAHH!" The woman screamed as a zombie erected a wall around the running family, effectively trapping them.

He Yuan kicked the door of the truck open and hopped down. The distance was enough to delay the zombies without abilities but for the ones with abilities, he needed to reduce the range.

The team had spent hours in the warehouse, fighting off zombies so he was feeling a little weak.

[He Yuan I don't think this is a good idea.]

"So what do you want me to do? Leave them to die?" He Yuan asked 888 as he ran closer to the family with Xiao Yu right behind him.

[You can't save everyone. I have a bad feeling about this.] 888 pressed on.

He Yuan was already feeling paranoid so 888's words only annoyed him further. "Just because you have little regards for the lives of the inhabitants of the realms doesn't mean I should too!" He snapped at the system and 888 went quiet, he could tell the man had returned to the system space in anger.

Once he got close enough, He Yuan started shooting at the low level zombies whilst sending bouts of energy at the ones with abilities.

The earth wall shattered and the man and woman resumed running with the child, Xiao Yu covering them as they did.

The truck had been parked at the side but no one still made a move to help, even He Yuan's former teammates. He was more than disappointed by this fact but he didn't let it distract him.

He Yuan and Xiao Yu finished off the rest of the zombies and followed after the family of three to the truck.

When they got close enough to the truck, the man and woman fell to the ground and passed out. He Yuan lifted the man off the squirming little girl and carried her since she was too weak to walk.

Two other team members couldn't take it any more and hopped down from the truck to lift the unconscious man and woman into the truck.

He Yuan was about to get into the truck after Xiao Yu when he suddenly locked eyes with Lu Ming. The man was smiling in satisfaction.

This caused alarm bells to go off in He Yuan's head. Something was wrong. Before he could dwell on that thought, he felt a stinging pain in his neck.

He looked at his side to see the little girl clutching a zombie claw, wrapped with a cloth, tightly in her fists and staring at him with wide, unfocused eyes. He Yuan's heart dropped as he raised a hand to his bleeding neck, letting the little girl drop the ground in the process.

The girl fell unconscious immediately and the team members all looked to He Yuan to find out why he'd dropped the child.

When they saw the scratch on He Yuan's neck they furrowed their brows in confusion. Where did the sudden injury come from? When they caught sight of the claw that rolled out of the hand of the unconscious girl, their eyes widened.

For the zombie claws that had been cut off, being gray meant that it had been removed for a long time and the toxins contained in the claw had dried out, making it impossible for it to infect another person.

Being black, on the other hand, meant that the claw was still newly removed hence it still contained toxins that could infect a human. The claw that had rolled out of the little girl's hand was black. Very, very black.

"NO!" Xiao Yu screamed as his hands flew to his mouth.

He Yuan quickly sent a wave of energy to knock Xiao Yu unconscious before backing away from the truck and sprinting off. The boy might have hopped down the truck to follow him otherwise.

"He's been infected!" Lu Ming said quickly, snapping the team members out of their shock. "We can't let him turn completely. The best we could do for him is make sure he dies with his consciousness as a human still intact."

The team members began to give a chase. It was a rule to put out an infected teammate before they completely turned. Making sure they died human was the least they could do for their comrades.

He Yuan was very aware of the rule so he ran with all his might. His nails were turning black and his gum was itchy as his canines extended but he continued. He had no idea how to get out of this situation but he absolutely could not die in a leaser's body. That would be the end.

Just five of the team members had been sent after He Yuan. This was because the rest still had to guard the weapons so He Yuan was able to escape from them after some time.

He Yuan ended up in an abandoned building. There were zombies around but they paid him no attention, his blood had already been contaminated. He felt foolish.

This was the cause of his uneasiness all these while. Lu Ming and Du Jian had planned this. The family of three were most likely hypnotized. Du Jian and Lu Ming were well aware that He Yuan was on guard against them so they used a method that he least expected.

Their plan worked perfectly because He Yuan had relaxed his guard a bit when nothing happened at the weapon warehouse and when they got close to the base, he relaxed completely.

"888?" He Yuan called out as he supported himself with the wall, moving into one of the empty rooms and letting out shaky breaths. The system ignored him. "888, please."

888 materialized. "What do you wa-" His eyes widened when he took in their surroundings. Where was this? When he noticed He Yuan's state, his eyes widened even further and he rushed over. "What happened?!"

He Yuan tilted his head to the side and 888 cursed under his breath. His host was shaking terrible and both his soul energy and Du Ling's soul thread seemed to be fluctuating horribly. "Something's happening to the soul thread."

He Yuan nodded weakly as he pressed a palm to his forehead. He could feel Du Ling's soul thread weakening. The energy from the zombie toxin was gradually erasing the soul thread.

For a normal human, the energy secreted by zombies was able to awaken an ability but for a human that had been infected, that same energy at the time of infection was responsible for erasing the human consciousness.

This body did not really belong to He Yuan and all that was left of Du Ling was his soul thread. If the energy wiped out the soul thread, He Yuan was going to be stuck in this realm till his own soul dissipated.

888 bit his lips. "I have an idea. Since the only way a tasker can get into a realm is by attaching their soul to the leaser's soul thread, it could be possible for me to attach Du Ling's soul thread to myself.

-I would be in your own mind space so even if the toxin infects this entire body, I would still be able to protect the soul thread with my energy."

He Yuan rasped. His mind felt clogged and his body was heating up, he could feel the infection pumping through his veins. "So Du Ling is going to return to a zombified body once I finish this task?"

888 tapped He Yuan's cheeks to keep him awake. "We'll think of that later for now we have to protect the soul thread."

He Yuan slowly nodded and 888 turned his arm into pure energy before digging it into Du Ling's chest, slowly extracting the thread.

Blinding pain.

That was what He Yuan felt. Blinding, maddening pain but he only groaned and endured. "Fuck!" he rasped weakly.

888 was not much better. He had no idea if he would be punished for this. Hopefully, making contact with the leaser's soul thread did not count as interfering with the task realm.

888 highly doubted that but he chose to hope.

The pressure on his soul body increased with the more of Du Ling's soul thread that was extracted but he ignored the pain.

Two agonizing hours later, they succeeded and both lost consciousness at the same time.