Xie Shouchan had gone out not long ago, and besides, there was no way he would knock. Who could it be?
The knocking sounded like that of a polite visitor, showing that the person outside was extremely patient like a hunter lying in wait, having cast a wide net while waiting for the prey to fall into the trap.
However, Huaisi could not pick up on these nuances right now. Ever since he turned into a zombie, his mind had remained in a state of chaos. It was only after going through recent events that he had managed to regain some of his sanity, but his keen observation of details was still far inferior to when he was human.
Huaisi stared intently at the iron door. After the knocking stopped, there was no movement for a long time, but his instinctual craving for human flesh told him that someone was still outside.
An extremely sweet scent of flesh seeped in through the corners of the door gap, accompanied by the rapid flow of blood. Everything indicated that it was a young man, and an Esper at that.
Fortunately, Xie Shouchan had made him drink blood before leaving, so he was still able to think fairly normally despite facing the sweet scent of the Esper’s flesh.
A trace of bewilderment flickered in his eyes. At first, he thought Xie Shouchan had returned, but upon sniffing carefully, he realized it wasn’t Xie Shouchan’s scent.
Strange, it felt both familiar and inexplicably resonant almost like an instinctive perception deep within his bloodline.
The flesh and blood inside his body did not repel this person; the feeling it gave him carried a sense of familiarity, though he didn’t know where it came from.
“You’re inside, right?” A man’s voice came from outside, slow and low-paced, carrying a hint of laziness. It felt completely out of place in the urgency of this zombie apocalypse, making one picture a man speaking in a leisurely, unhurried manner.
Although phrased as a question, the tone was utterly certain.
Huaisi looked toward the door with vigilance, his vertical pupils instinctively narrowing as they radiated a beast-like defensive aura.
“You actually didn’t change your residence. It’s somewhat surprising to me; it seems you really have some confidence in your own combat skills,” the man continued. “However, since you had the guts to storm District 8 Refuge and cause a massive uproar, I suppose you wouldn’t just run away. My subordinates were killed in quite large numbers by you, which gives me a bit of a headache.”
Even while calling it a headache, the man’s tone remained light and devoid of emotion, as if those people’s deaths had merely caused a momentary inconvenience.
As expected! He was here to find the protagonist, Xie Shouchan!
Huaisi still remembered from the plot that Xie Shouchan’s abilities during the zombie horde had caught the attention of the general base, prompting them to try and find him repeatedly so his powers could join the Esper organization and become a combat force for the main base. Following that would be the protagonist Xie Shouchan’s journey of leveling up, fighting monsters, and eventually reaching the main base, where due to his background and base faction struggles he would be forced to make use of his identity as an aristocratic scion.
Yet, strangely enough, in Huaisi’s mind, the original novel had never described Xie Shouchan’s family background. He had simply appeared out of nowhere, without any warning or explanation.
“However, that doesn’t matter. I don’t want to fight you this time, nor am I here to settle scores. Actually, the first few times were just because I wanted to test your skills, but you seemed to have a misunderstanding about me and always started fighting before we could exchange a few words.”
“Anyway, let’s have a proper talk this time. I heard that after you entered District 8, you took away a high-level mutant zombie? As it happens,” the man’s tone shifted casually, carrying a trace of hard-to-detect probing, “Two days ago, I ran into a talking high-level mutant zombie on the street and fought with it… That zombie was quite formidable and managed to escape. Although it could speak and knew how to run away, it was still just a zombie, after all…”
“By the time I rushed over, there was a group of refugees there, and quite a few people had been eaten.” The man’s tone was flat, without any fluctuation. He was merely stating a fact, devoid of any sensationalism, yet it made Huaisi freeze.
Perhaps as a form of self-protection, Huaisi had subconsciously wanted to forget that the woman he devoured might have been the very same woman who protected her child earlier. Therefore, he had spent these past days pondering other matters to avoid thinking about it deeply. Now, without a doubt, this man had dragged him forcefully back to face the bloody reality.
That day, he had been half-dead with hunger and had truly lost his sanity, which was why he hadn’t recognized the man outside. But now, with the man recounting it this way, he felt that both the scent of the man’s flesh and his voice resembled the Esper he had encountered that day.
If the other party was indeed the Esper he met that day, then what he said about the death of that mother and child was true.
His heart plummeted to the bottom, feeling hollow, lost, and helpless.
Clearly, the man had no intention of stopping; he still had more to say.
“This mutant zombie has a very high danger coefficient and is bound to be of great research value. The main base has an experimental facility, and they will need this zombie. As for your previous intrusion into District 8 Refuge, in view of your abilities, the leaders above will no longer pursue it. Furthermore, if you return and rejoin District 8 Refuge, you will sooner or later become an Esper of the main base, and the authorities will reconsider incorporating the refuge under official protection.” The man’s voice carried no emotion, merely conveying orders, before his tone shifted abruptly: “However, according to the records, Xie Shouchan, you came from District 8 Refuge, didn’t you? The tragic sight you saw when you went back that day aren’t you going back to take a look? I heard you had a pretty good relationship with the people in the refuge; you were even a member of the refuge’s hunting squad, specializing in hunting zombie nuclei and supplies. Because of that last incident, quite a few people in the refuge died, and even more were bitten by zombies. Once bitten, it means turning into a zombie, and they will be eradicated.”
He paused for a moment, implying heavily: “Aren’t you going back to see if any of the people you know have turned into zombies? I heard you had quite a few acquaintances there.”
Hearing this, Huaisi was visibly shaken.
Although he knew the man outside definitely had ulterior motives for saying such a long speech, he had to admit that he had always been concerned about the people in the refuge. Prompted by the man’s words, he grew even more worried. During the last incident when the zombies broke into the refuge, the scene had been too chaotic, and he was later carried away by Xie Shouchan. He had no idea what happened afterward with so many inspection team members dead or injured, what would become of the people in the refuge?
Most importantly, what about Liao Muqing? Was he okay?
The refuge was far too chaotic at the time, leaving him no chance to pay attention to Liao Muqing. Hearing the man’s words now made it all rush back to him, causing a surge of guilt to well up inside him. He felt that forgetting Liao Muqing at such a critical moment was simply unforgivable.
Clearly, the people in the refuge were already struggling hard to survive without the protection of the main base. With both him and Xie Shouchan gone, he had no idea if they could even stay alive.
Outside the door, the man stopped speaking. In just that instant, Huaisi sensed an abnormality the zombie’s keen sensitivity to danger surpassed everything else.
He had witnessed the man’s combat skills; clearly, he would currently have to use all his strength just to put up a fight against him. Besides, aside from mastering the “Blood Thorn” ability, his other powers were still only half-understood, making it impossible for him to defeat the man in his current state.
What’s more, defeating this man held no major benefit for him.
He was far more concerned about the current state of the refuge. Without him, could those people survive? Even if they were just a group of valueless people in the apocalypse, he still wanted to save others.
He looked at the iron chain as thick as an arm. The other end was locked securely to a piece of exposed rebar in the wall, unshakeably firm. Following his previous two attempts to leave, Xie Shouchan had locked him up this time, claiming it was to prevent his zombie instincts from running amok again if he tried to escape.
Was that really the case? Not at all. But he felt that since he was human, he would naturally want to run. After millions of years of evolution that polished human limbs and transitioned them from amphibians to walking upright, humanity had endured pain and evolved legs for one sole purpose: to run.
Is it pain, or is it freedom?
Did he even have a choice now?
Why did he always have to choose?
His head seemed to start throbbing with pain again, his thoughts beginning to blur, when he suddenly gritted his teeth.
He might as well act on the zombie instinct’s perception of mortal danger so he wouldn’t have to think anymore!
The iron door was blown open, revealing the interior at a glance. However, the room Cheng Chui saw was completely empty, save for a pool of blood on the floor and an arm-thick iron chain broken in half. Pieces of flesh remained hanging inside the iron ring, showing that the person had been extremely decisive when breaking free almost tearing the iron ring straight off his foot, stripping away the skin and flesh until it scraped off the bone like a traumatic degloving injury.
The fresh blood indicated that the person had jumped out of the window only a short while ago.
Behind his glasses, Cheng Chui’s pupils deepened. His intuition hadn’t been wrong; there had indeed been someone inside. He just didn’t know whether it was a human or something else.
Based on his previous skirmishes with Xie Shouchan, he didn’t think Xie Shouchan’s personality would lead him to flee in such a disheveled manner.
He stared at the pool of blood, a pale, handsome face with brown hair and sharp vertical pupils flashing across his mind, stirring up that inexplicable sense of familiarity once again.
Normally calm, he rarely felt even a trace of irritation.
Yet this did not affect his judgment. If he jumped down now, the “person” probably hadn’t run far, and there was still a high probability of capturing him alive. Judging by his assessment, this zombie likely still retained its consciousness, and perhaps his words just now had yielded unexpected results. Just as he was about to walk toward the shattered window, he glanced toward the door. Suddenly, his figure vanished, and the wall where he had been standing a second before was violently smashed to pieces, the attack so fast it was impossible to discern what hit it.
However, Cheng Chui was already standing on the opposite side. Seeing the smashed-through wall, he realized that if he hadn’t activated his ability in time, that wall would have been his skull crushed on the spot. Still, his expression remained unchanged as he adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, which had been ruffled by the surging shockwave, and turned his head to look at the newcomer.
Dressed entirely in black, with a high collar hiding his neck and a black baseball cap casting half his face in shadow, those eyes black as an abyss dotted with specks of scarlet stood out with striking clarity within the gloom. They stared fixedly at him, radiating a dense, murderous aura as he stood there silently like an evil hound crawling out of hell, baring its fangs to tear the person before him to death.
When he first met Xie Shouchan, he had also been surprised by their facial similarity, which prompted him to ponder, as the authorities had never mentioned any relatives. Moreover, the other person gave him a very subtle feeling definitely not a positive emotion, in any case.
Even more obviously, Xie Shouchan clearly felt nothing but hatred toward him, striking out with killing intent without exchanging more than a couple of words.
This wasn’t hard to guess; it was nothing more than wanting to eliminate someone who looked like you, because after all, the person you hate the most is often yourself.
He didn’t mind anyway; he needed to test the other’s abilities either way.
Although it was a formidable ability, Xie Shouchan was merely an Esper who had just newly awakened and had yet to maximize its potential. To him, it wouldn’t be difficult.
Cheng Chui tapped his temple and said indifferently, “Anger makes you lose your reason though you don’t seem to have any left anyway.” His tone was as casual as discussing what to eat today.
The corners of Xie Shouchan’s mouth twitched into a tiny arc devoid of any meaning, his gaze growing even colder. Clearly, he hadn’t been provoked by the remark; what enraged him was that this bastard had pushed him too far.
He had already quietly activated his ability. With a slight twitch of his fingers, the opponent’s figure shifted locations in the blink of an eye, appearing right before him with a flash of blue light lunging straight at him. He dodged rapidly, and the two of them silently exchanged numerous moves in a matter of a split second. Their figures flashed across every corner of the room, instantly shattering countless objects and filling the entire space with flying wall dust that enveloped both of them.
Xie Shouchan’s instantly fatal ability attacks failed to inflict any damage on Cheng Chui, who switched positions with extreme speed. His expression grew increasingly gloomy as the scarlet in his eyes burned brighter.
He knew the other person had mastered these skills long ago; it was certainly not like his own newly awakened state where he had yet to bring the utility of his powers to their maximum. Through their previous clashes, he had long since guessed that the opponent’s ability wasn’t teleportation, but rather cutting down distance—shortening the distance between himself and his target, or cutting down a specific linear trajectory between opponents or objects. How he executed it precisely, however, remained unclear to him.
“After experiencing real combat in the refuge, your abilities have improved,” Cheng Chui evaluated sincerely, holding a blue-glowing blade in one hand while patting the dust off his shoulder with the other.
“However, it’s not yet time for you to kill me.” Cheng Chui glanced at the sky. With wall dust falling around them and both of their hair gray with debris, he casually took off his dust-covered gold-rimmed glasses. His cold gaze had no trouble seeing through the surroundings, and their similar faces placed side by side clearly projected the distinct impression of two entirely different individuals.
Holding up his gold-rimmed glasses slightly, he spoke in an official tone: “I’m in a hurry right now, let’s do this another day.” Looking toward Xie Shouchan with those matching eyes, he added, “In such a rush? That thing must be very important to you.” With that, he turned, propped a hand on the windowsill, leaped out cleanly, and vanished high into the air without a trace.
Xie Shouchan didn’t hesitate; his reaction was extremely fast. The words “that thing” had undoubtedly struck a raw nerve. Crimson surged violently from the depths of his eyes, and his form vanished out the window as swiftly as a leopard in hot pursuit.