"The cry of a child?"

Li Chenzhou was stunned. He hadn't paid attention to that, but since Duan Lei mentioned it, it must be there.

After hesitating, Li Chenzhou looked around.

Because of the previous slaughter, their surroundings were quite quiet. They couldn't see any zombies, and since it was the edge of the city, there wasn't any real cause for concern.

So, Li Chenzhou looked at Duan Lei, then at the alley, and nodded.

"Let's go take a look!"

With that, Li Chenzhou took the lead and stepped into the alley. The moment he entered, he indeed heard the crying of a baby...

Li Chenzhou couldn't help but look back at Duan Lei. They both had 40 points of mental strength, so why could he hear things from further away?

Of course, he couldn't ask that, so Li Chenzhou just glanced back before continuing forward. Duan Lei and Gray Bear followed closely behind. As for Duan Xue, she didn't even get out of the car, but moved to the driver's seat, still holding Xiao Ya tightly in her arms.

"Yes! It's this one!"

After reaching a fork in the alley, Li Chenzhou looked up at the two-story building on the left and said. Due to the closer distance, the baby's cries were now even louder.

The buildings in the urban village were all self-built. To put it bluntly, it was originally a rural area that had been incorporated into the city due to urban expansion. However, the houses were still the kind that people had haphazardly built on their homesteads.

These houses were originally just one story, but after being incorporated into the city, everyone automatically added a second story. Because if there was a demolition, the added area would be counted, provided it met certain age requirements.

As a result, the second floors were mostly used for renting, and they seemed somewhat out of place compared to the ground floor. The one Li Chenzhou was looking at was like that.

The walls of the second floor were only the thickness of a single brick, and the roof was just asbestos tiles. The rooms had no soundproofing whatsoever. Fortunately, the courtyard gate of this house was closed, otherwise the baby's cries would have summoned the nearby zombies long ago.

"Bang!"

Reaching out and pushing hard, Li Chenzhou was surprised to find that the iron gate was bolted from the inside. But that was no problem for him. He looked up at the courtyard wall next to the gate, walked over, and leaped onto the wall.

"Boss! What's wrong?"

Once on the wall, Li Chenzhou could see what was inside. Even with his strong will, he frowned at what he saw. Duan Lei noticed the change and quickly asked.

"It's nothing, come in and see for yourselves!"

Li Chenzhou shook his head and jumped down.

Seeing Li Chenzhou's actions, Duan Lei breathed a sigh of relief. At least Li Chenzhou was able to jump down, which meant there was no danger, and it had nothing to do with his earlier guess.

"Click! Creak..."

With a series of sounds, the iron gate in front of Duan Lei and Gray Bear opened, and the courtyard next to the alley crossroads was finally revealed to them.

"This..."

After seeing the scene in the courtyard, Duan Lei finally understood why Li Chenzhou had been stunned when he jumped onto the wall.

The courtyard was extremely bloody, practically covered in human corpses—or perhaps they could be called zombies.

Most importantly, the bodies were all in pieces and incomplete. Arms, calves, thighs, heads, even internal organs and torsos were scattered everywhere, and in a very irregular manner, as if they hadn't been deliberately placed.

Even Gray Bear, a battle-hardened special operative, frowned at the bloody scene. But Duan Lei focused his gaze on a severed arm at his feet and said,

"This... was it sawed off?"

"Huh?"

Hearing Duan Lei's words, Gray Bear abruptly turned his head to look at him, then followed his gaze down to his feet. Sure enough, the wound on the severed arm was quite irregular...

Generally speaking, cutting off limbs requires sharp tools and great force. Because even if humans or zombies are fragile, their bodies still have some defensive capabilities.

But the break in the arm on the ground was very irregular. Even if Gray Bear himself wasn't a special operative with some investigative skills, anyone could tell that the limb had not been cleanly cut off.

Gray Bear instinctively looked at the other limbs. Because the courtyard was almost filled with human remains, he could see human or zombie body parts no matter where he looked.

After a quick scan, Gray Bear's expression changed drastically. Because... all the broken limbs in the courtyard had irregular cuts. In other words, as Duan Lei had said, they had all been sawed off...

A maniac!!!

The words immediately flashed through Gray Bear's mind. Looking at the scene, perhaps that was the only explanation.

"Wah~ wah~ wah~ wah~!"

At that moment, the baby's crying became even clearer. Without anyone needing to say anything, everyone knew that the crying baby was on the second floor directly above the courtyard.

"Boss! What... could have caused this?"

Duan Lei looked at the second floor, then turned to Li Chenzhou and asked.

"I don't know!"

Li Chenzhou shook his head. Actually, there were many things that could cause these kinds of wounds, such as mutated mantises. But if such a creature had really been here, there wouldn't still be a baby crying upstairs. It would have been eaten long ago.

"Da Shixiong! Why don't we go up and take a look?"

Gray Bear said from the side.

"Da Shixiong?"

Duan Lei and Li Chenzhou both looked at Gray Bear.

"No... I misspoke... I meant to say that maybe the master's brother upstairs killed them."

Gray Bear was startled and quickly explained.

"Forget it! Let's go up and take a look!"

Li Chenzhou glanced at Gray Bear but didn't ask further. Since he had Duan Lei, anyone with hostility towards him couldn't hide, so he didn't pay any more attention and walked into the two-story building in front of him...

The first floor of the building was nothing special—if you ignored the corpses that were similar to those in the courtyard. So Li Chenzhou didn't pay much attention and went straight up the stairs.

"Haaah~~~"

Just as he reached the halfway point of the second floor, Li Chenzhou suddenly heard a slightly different roar. Along with the roar, a figure rushed towards him, waving its arms and smashing down...