Thanh Xà leaned his hands on the broken railing, looking down. His gaze was like that of a venomous snake, measuring whether the prey before him could be swallowed whole.
"You walk a very straight path—no looting, no senseless killing, even leaving food for the children."
"You are military men, aren't you?"
The statement caused the group to tense up instantly.
He let out a thin laugh. "In this dead city, being a 'good person' is a luxury."
Van Binh tilted his head and shrugged. "We aren't in the habit of touching kids."
"Oh?" Thanh Xà raised an eyebrow, a cold spark flickering in his eyes. "And yet you dared to beat my boys until their abilities were crippled?"
The atmosphere plummeted.
Van Thieu took half a step forward, his voice deepening. "Your men initiated the provocation. We only acted in self-defense."
Thanh Xà watched him in silence for a few seconds, then shifted his gaze toward the figure wearing the dark, spiked armor—Thuong Sinh. He wasn't looking at the armor or the sword at his hip; he was looking directly into Thuong Sinh's eyes.
"And what about you?" Thanh Xà asked bluntly. "You haven't said a word from the start... but you make me feel the most uncomfortable. You remind me of someone I used to hate very much."
Thuong Sinh looked up, his voice calm. "You're standing too high."
The wind blew harder through the narrow alley, fluttering Thanh Xà's dark green coat.
"Oh?"
"When talking, one should stand on the same ground," Thuong Sinh continued.
A moment of silence followed, then Thanh Xà burst into loud laughter that echoed through the alley and into the surrounding darkness.
"How interesting."
He let go of the railing and stepped back into the shadows of the roof.
"I won't fight you today. I only wanted to see the faces of those who dared to step on my tail."
Before vanishing into the darkness, his voice drifted down, cold as a snake slithering over stone: "But next time... if you continue to head southwest..."
"You must follow my laws, or become food."
The figure faded into the dark mist, and the warehouse fell back into silence.
Van Binh let out a breath, narrowing his eyes. "This is going to be troublesome."
Thuong Sinh didn't answer. He only stared at the spot where Thanh Xà had disappeared, his hand tightening slightly on the hilt of his sword. He knew the snake before him was no simple opponent; this serpent would return.
Van Thieu pulled out his radio, his expression grim. "The signal in this area is heavily jammed. It's not natural."
Van Binh frowned. "You mean someone's doing it on purpose?"
Van Thieu nodded slightly, eyes fixed on the screen filled with static. "It's not interference from terrain or weather. The frequency is being suppressed, likely by low-power transmitters placed around this area."
Thanh Dao lowered her voice. "If that's the case, the scouting team's loss of contact wasn't just an accident."
So Sinh leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "Tracked, driven away, and then cornered into danger."
Lam Thanh Moc looked toward the southwest ruins. "If they were chased and eventually met a monster..."
The air grew heavy. Everyone understood their likely fate.
Van Binh snorted, his usual smile completely gone. "The armored vehicle didn't flip because a monster attacked out of nowhere. They were likely fighting while fleeing, dodging something. When the formation broke and they hit a monster, it was over."
Van Thieu understood the implication, his face darkening. "Thanh Xà didn't strike; he came here to warn us that the southwest belongs to a master."
The wind whistled through the empty building ahead. Van Thieu didn't answer immediately. He looked southwest toward the stacked ruins before speaking slowly: "It's too late to turn back now."
He tapped the radio. "Even if we move to a spot with signal, a report would just be suspicion. And suspicion isn't enough for the higher-ups to mobilize forces."
Van Binh's eyes flashed with a cold light. "But if we keep going, we're walking straight into that snake's territory."
"Exactly," Van Thieu nodded. "And that is also how we confirm it."
Thanh Dao spoke after a few seconds of silence. "If the scouts were truly pursued, there must be traces. They couldn't vanish completely."
So Sinh chuckled, though his voice lacked any mirth. "Sounds like the prey is walking itself into the snake's den."
Finally, Van Thieu opened his eyes, having made a decision. "Continue the mission. Maintain formation. We won't pursue deeply if combat occurs. Priority is finding traces of the scouting team. Do not provoke the enemy... unless forced."
He looked at each person, his gaze lingering on Thuong Sinh a bit longer. "Let's go."
No one objected. They left the warehouse, heading deeper southwest. Broken tire tracks began to appear—some deep, some dragged. On the walls of some buildings, there were unusual scrapes, unlike those left by zombies.
As they went deeper, they discovered several buildings spray-painted with the image of a green snake, its body coiled and its mouth agape in a terrifying hiss.
Suddenly, Thuong Sinh stopped. He wasn't looking at the tire tracks but at a narrow alley beside them where light barely reached. On the cracked wall, there was a long black scrape where metal had ground against concrete, leaving a faint scorch mark.
He reached out and touched it. "Not a zombie."
"This mark was made by a vehicle chassis scraping past," Thuong Sinh said slowly. "Forced into a sharp turn."
Thanh Dao stepped close, her eyes brightening. "Oil."
Beneath the dust and dried blood, there was a small oil stain, nearly hardened and stepped on by footprints, but the faint scent remained. "An armored vehicle," she confirmed.
Van Thieu looked into the dark alley, his face grim. "They didn't take the main road. The scouts were cornered into here."
Van Binh smirked, his eyes turning cold. "Thanh Xà herded them. And the monsters were waiting."
The wind howled through the narrow passage like a moan. Van Thieu raised his hand. "Change direction. Ignore their tire tracks. Follow the real trail."
The group stepped into the shadows of the alley where the scouting team had fled in despair. After a few blocks, Van Thieu signaled a halt.
"Wait."
He knelt and brushed away the gray dust on the road. Beneath it were not the tire marks of Thanh Xà's group, but heavy, deep tread marks. Only the armored scouting vehicle they had seen flipped yesterday could leave such marks.
Thanh Dao knelt beside him. "Two layers of tracks overlapped," she said quickly. "The tread marks are older but were intentionally driven over by different tires to hide them."
She stood up. "No need to go further. If we keep following these tire tracks, we'll just be led in a circle back to the intersection where the vehicle flipped."
Van Thieu nodded, unsurprised. "Exactly."
Van Binh stepped forward confidently. "So here's the script: they were scouting, ran into Thanh Xà's crew, got harassed, couldn't win, fled, and unfortunately hit a monster."
The air went still for a beat.
"Basically. Not a sophisticated trap, just forced flight."
Van Thieu stood straight. "We have enough clues. The scouts' disappearance wasn't an isolated accident. There was human intervention—likely driven by Thanh Xà's group until they hit a monster during retreat."
"The southwest is indeed controlled by a power; we don't need further confirmation," So Sinh added.
"So that's it?" Van Binh asked with a hint of regret.
"Not 'it,' but 'enough'," Van Thieu replied. He pointed back toward the intersection. "Return. Get out of the jamming zone and report everything to headquarters. This is no longer within the scope of a small mobile team."
No one disagreed. Thuong Sinh remained silent, but as he glanced at the green snake symbols on the walls, he committed Thanh Xà's face to memory—not out of fear, but for future reference.
Headquarters, Duong Nam Safe Zone
Electronic maps of the city's southwest were projected in the command room, flickering with interference data.
A communications officer set down his radio. "Received a report from Thuong Sinh's forward team. Signal is unstable, but the content is clear."
He pressed a button, and a recording of Van Thieu's concise report played, detailing the signal jamming, the power known as Thanh Xà, the pursued armored vehicle, and the high probability of the scouts' disappearance being linked to them.
Silence filled the room. Ly Hong Quan slowly looked up. Over fifty, with salt-and-pepper hair and a neutral expression, he carried the authority of the Supreme Commander of the Duong Nam region.
"Thanh Xà..." He repeated the name softly.
A staff officer beside him opened a file. "A paramilitary force formed early after the apocalypse. Complicated composition: former mercenaries, organized crime, and Ability users. They currently operate primarily in the southwest."
Images of the green snake symbols appeared on the screen. "We once considered it a gray zone since they didn't directly provoke the safe zone," the officer continued.
Ly Hong Quan tapped his fingers on the table. Tap. Tap.
"And now?" he asked.
"A scouting team is missing. An armored vehicle flipped. Organized herding. Intentional jamming."
Ly Hong Quan leaned back, staring at the digital map. "The serpent isn't stupid; he didn't touch our scouts for no reason. He's testing the military's reaction."
"If we mobilize a large force immediately, it could trigger a widespread conflict," someone cautioned. "The southwest terrain is complex, with many mid-tier zombie hordes yet to be cleared."
"Which is why I won't mobilize an army," Ly Hong Quan said slowly. "I'll let him think he's still in the gray zone."
He turned to the comms officer. "Where is Thuong Sinh's team?"
"Withdrawing from the jamming zone. Estimated to be back in stable range in two hours."
Ly Hong Quan stood up. "Prepare a special rapid response unit. No flags, no military markings. Under the name of an independent mobile team."
He paused, emphasizing every word. "Put Thuong Sinh at the spearhead."
No one objected; the name alone carried enough weight.
"No need to strike Thanh Xà immediately," Ly Hong Quan said. "I want to know how many men he has, how many vehicles, how many Ability users, and what he's 'raising' in the southwest."
He turned back to the map, his voice dropping. "This snake has grown too large."