After Marking the Omega Officer Who Was Pretending to Be an Alpha - Chapter 4

Blood and brain matter continuously flowed from the temple of the vanguard who had been shot dead, soaking the stone platform. The vanguard lying on the platform stared with wide eyes. Crystal-clear tears slipped from the corners of his eyes, dripping to the ground and merging with the blood on the stone platform.

The other vanguard lowered his head, making it impossible to see what expression he had now. There was a sense of desperate loneliness about him.

Standing among the crowd, Shao Enzhuo saw this scene and widened her eyes in shock, covering her mouth. Her ink-black pupils trembled uncontrollably. A chill shot up from the soles of her feet, raising goosebumps all over her body. Every pore on her body seemed to be shuddering.

That vanguard who had been crying and begging to be spared… had actually just… been shot dead by the adjudicator…

How could this happen…

Witnessing murder with her own eyes for the first time, Shao Enzhuo felt a deep chill and fear. Covering her mouth, she slowly raised her eyes, and her gaze landed on the tall adjudicator.

She saw the tall adjudicator curl his lips, calmly playing with the pistol in his hand. It seemed that when it came to killing people, he had long since grown used to it and no longer cared.

The entire Punishment Grounds was silent.

Shao Enzhuo slightly moved her eyes, wanting to see how the people around her would react to the adjudicator killing the vanguard. However, the people around her had almost no reaction. They all looked as if it had nothing to do with them.

Regarding the adjudicator killing the vanguard,

they seemed to have no objections.

“The Capital of Hope has never needed weak and useless trash.” The tall adjudicator looked at the pistol in his hand with great regret. His tone was strange and mocking. “What a pity. Another bullet wasted.”

Shao Enzhuo stared blankly at the tall adjudicator.

She only felt that he was terrifying.

Why could the adjudicator kill someone at will? Why could he still say such things after killing a person? Why…

Why exactly…

“I was merciful enough to give him a chance. Not knowing how to cherish it really is failing to appreciate kindness,” the tall adjudicator said, lowering his head to look at the other vanguard kneeling on the ground. His expression was smug and arrogant. “Your companion is already dead. What choice will you make?”

The dead companion’s figure was reflected in the vanguard’s tear-soaked eyes. Tears kept falling from his eyes into the pool of blood. He gritted his teeth tightly and did not speak for a long time.

“Ah Zong! Don’t! Ah Zong!”

A woman’s shout suddenly rang out from the crowd.

Everyone looked toward the sound.

They saw a woman wearing a plain, old long robe, her hair at the temples streaked with gray, rush out from the crowd. She wanted to rush onto the stone platform, but she was stopped by the adjudicators around it.

“Ah Zong! Ah Zong! Listen to your mother and stay in the Hope Organization, Ah Zong!” the woman shouted hoarsely. “Ah Zong!”

Hearing that long-lost yet familiar voice, the vanguard slowly raised his head and looked toward the woman. Tears continuously slid down his cheeks.

He wanted to stay in the Hope Organization and serve humanity. He wanted to survive in this apocalypse together with his mother. He wanted to fulfill the wish his father had failed to complete.

But the fear brought by the walking corpses had completely destroyed his will and determination.

He would not pass the vanguard assessment.

Even if he passed the assessment, he would certainly die in the mouths of the walking corpses. But he had no chance to choose.

In this world, he had no choice at all.

The vanguard looked at his aging mother and swallowed the bitterness lodged in his throat. The corners of his lips pulled into a desperate and helpless smile.

“Mother, rather than being painfully bitten to death alive by walking corpses, it’s better to be shot. At least that would be quick.”

“No! Ah Zong! Don’t!” the woman cried and shook her head, her voice torn from her throat. “Don’t! Ah Zong! Don’t!”

“So, what you mean is that you still want to leave the Hope Organization, right?” The tall adjudicator sneered. His mocking gaze swept toward the tearful woman in front of him. “Then I’ll give you a proper chance to leave your last words.”

“Mother…” The vanguard knelt on the ground and looked deeply at his mother. His eyes were red as he smiled through his tears. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t…” the woman cried. “Ah Zong…”

She tried to struggle free from the adjudicators’ restraint.

But it was useless.

“If only I weren’t an Alpha… If only I had never come into this world… Fear is a human instinct. Escaping for survival is a human instinct. Wanting to live is a human instinct. We only wanted to live…” The vanguard raised his head and looked toward the magnificent sunset in the distance, as if wanting to look one more time at this world he hated and despised, yet still could not bear to leave behind. “We only wanted to live. We are not guilty. We did nothing wrong. Nothing wrong…”

Every word was filled with blood and tears.

Hearing these words, Shao Enzhuo’s eyes reddened unconsciously.

She wanted to stop it.

But having just arrived here, she was powerless.

The woman shook her head in despair. “Ah Zong, don’t…”

“Cut the fucking nonsense.” The tall adjudicator suddenly pointed the gun at the vanguard’s head, his attitude vile and his tone extremely impatient. “If every vanguard were as greedy for life and afraid of death as you, this world would be finished sooner or later!”

Hearing this, the vanguard suddenly laughed loudly.

What laughable words…

The tall adjudicator only felt that the vanguard’s laughter was especially grating. He gnashed his teeth and asked, “What are you laughing at?”

“Adjudicator, I have no last words.”

The Alpha vanguard withdrew his smile and looked at the tall adjudicator standing beside him, who was pointing a gun at him. “I want to ask you a few final questions. Is that all right?”

The tall adjudicator’s tone was displeased. “Ask.”

“Vanguards clear out walking corpses outside the city, and the slightest carelessness will cost them their lives. But you adjudicators stay safe and sound inside the city, pointing guns at companions who are also human, who are also Alphas. What right do you adjudicators have to judge vanguards?” The vanguard’s gaze became fierce. The more he spoke, the more agitated he became. Every word carried deep unwillingness and anger. “Do you adjudicators dare to take part in the vanguard assessment? Do you dare leave the Capital of Hope and clear out walking corpses? Do you—”

“Bang—”

Another gunshot rang out.

The vanguard collapsed heavily into the pool of blood.

“No—”

The woman’s heart-wrenching scream pierced the sky.

“So much nonsense.” The tall adjudicator put the pistol into the holster strapped to his leg and snorted coldly. “This is the fate of vanguards. Cowards among vanguards are criminals of this world. This world is just this cruel.”

After speaking, he turned away indifferently.

“Carry the bodies away and throw them into the corpse-burning pit outside the city.”

“No! Don’t! Adjudicators, please, give my son back to me. Let me take my son home, all right…” The woman dropped to her knees with a thud and begged bitterly. “Adjudicators, please…”

The tall adjudicator did not turn back. “Leave her son’s body. Take the other corpse away and burn it.”

After saying that, he left.

Two adjudicators carrying a stretcher walked forward and lifted one of the vanguards’ bodies onto it. Then they covered the body with a white cloth and carried the stretcher away together.

The other adjudicators left with them.

The woman rushed forward, knelt on the stone platform, hugged the vanguard’s corpse, and broke down sobbing. Every cry was filled with tearing grief.

The wind blew past.

Shao Enzhuo stood there with reddened eyes, staring fixedly at the scene.

She only felt very, very cold.

A cold that pierced her heart and bones.

The woman’s cries echoed above the Punishment Grounds.

Not a single person among the onlookers went forward to comfort the grief-stricken woman. Nor did a single person object to the judgment. As bystanders, they seemed to have grown used to the adjudicators’ actions, or perhaps silently accepted them. Their calm and indifferent emotions filled Shao Enzhuo with deep fear.

It was tragic, truly tragic.

Oppressive, far too oppressive.

On what grounds could adjudicators kill vanguards?

Who gave them that right?

The crowd at the Punishment Grounds gradually dispersed. Only Shao Enzhuo remained standing in place. She gazed at the woman holding the vanguard’s corpse, her entire body motionless, as if frozen in ice.

Who knew how long had passed.

The heartbroken woman bent her back and carefully, with great difficulty, carried the vanguard’s corpse on her back. Then, dragging steps as heavy as a thousand pounds, she slowly disappeared from Shao Enzhuo’s sight, step by step.

The blood on the corpse that had not yet dried dripped onto the bluestone road.

A horrifying sight.

Without her noticing, the sky had darkened.

In the vast Punishment Grounds, only Shao Enzhuo’s lonely, slender figure remained. When she finally returned to her senses from the terror, Shao Enzhuo only felt that this place was so terrifying it was suffocating.

They clearly wanted to save the world and rebuild their homeland, but they were killing people…