There was no time to dwell on the past. Luffy felt a profound sense of regret. He regretted letting his pride get the better of him and allowing them to guilt-trip him. Even if he was being targeted, he should have just kept a low profile. Weren’t all those cowards still perfectly alive in the private room right now?
If he could do it all over again, he would definitely keep his head down, even if it meant walking with his tail between his legs.
A deep hatred for his tormentors surged within him. "If I had the chance, I’d send you all to hell!"
"Li Yufeng, isn’t it just because I come from a better family and have more money than you? Your childhood sweetheart was the one making eyes at me. She couldn’t resist the temptation of wealth and material goods, so she cuckolded you with me. You son of a bitch, you took the lead in singling me out and even got me bitten by a zombie today!
"And Zhang Fangfang, why don’t you take a look at your own face? I want to throw up just looking at you. Is it a crime to reject you?
"Mi Xiaoxiao, you’re the campus belle, sure. I liked your looks and your body, but I paid a heavy price for them, didn’t I? With materialistic people, I only talk about money. Is that wrong? You just had to force romance on me. Bullshit!"
At this moment, if it were possible, he truly wanted all his tormentors dead. However, he knew the apocalypse had arrived. His former wealth and status could no longer help him in the slightest. He was no match for Li Yufeng and the others. If he went back for revenge now, only death awaited him; he would just be finished off by their hands.
The thought of death made Luffy let out another agonizing roar of despair. "I really don’t want to die!"
After half a month of surviving the apocalypse, he knew that being scratched or bitten by a zombie resulted in only one fate: turning into a bloodthirsty monster. There seemed to be no second option. No, there was a second option—committing suicide or being killed by someone else before the mutation completed.
Suicide? Luffy glanced at the wall beside him. Maybe if he smashed his head against it with all his might, he would die.
But after a moment of thought, he couldn’t muster the courage to do it.
"Then I’ll just let nature take its course and become a zombie!" he thought. "I wonder what death actually feels like. Turning into a zombie must be incredibly painful, right?"
"No," Luffy suddenly resolved. "Even if I become a zombie, I refuse to die by their hands!" The thought of turning into a monster only to be killed again by Li Yufeng and his crew left a bitter taste in his mouth. "I have to leave! Even if I die out there, I must get out of here!"
With that in mind, Luffy ignored the pain shooting up his leg and bolted.
The zombies in the hallway had already been cleared out by the group, so Luffy took a different emergency stairwell down to the lobby. He peered through the window of the iron door. The lobby was completely empty; the undead had likely all been drawn to the other stairwell earlier. Pushing the door open, Luffy began sprinting wildly once again.
The main doors leading outside were wide open, with zombies roaming beyond them. But Luffy couldn’t care less at this point. He just wanted to flee, to run as far away as possible so that when he finally turned, he wouldn’t wander back here and let them kill him a second time.
Without worrying whether he would attract the horde’s attention, he pushed his legs to their limits and dashed out into the street.
Startled by Luffy’s sudden appearance, the zombies froze for a brief moment before giving chase.
Although the zombies possessed enhanced strength, their speed and agility were far lower than a normal person’s. Using his superior speed and reflexes, Luffy darted through the chaotic maze of abandoned vehicles on the street. Whenever a zombie blocked his path, he simply ignored it and dodged out of the way.
The continuous throbbing pain from his ankle urged him to stop, but Luffy gritted his teeth. Compared to death, this superficial pain was nothing.
By now, he had run about seven or eight hundred meters from the hotel. Suddenly, he spotted a roadside clinic with its doors wide open.
A bizarre thought popped into his head. "Can medicine kill the virus?"
Once the idea surfaced, it became impossible to shake off.
"Might as well try."
His pace quickened. Reaching into his pants pocket with his right hand, he pulled out his weapon—a thirty-centimeter-long Phillips-head screwdriver. He swerved, darted straight into the clinic, and slammed the front doors shut behind him.
A moment later, Luffy stood panting heavily, staring at the two zombies in white coats behind the medicine counter. They were separated from him by the medicine cabinets and a pane of tempered glass positioned fifteen centimeters away. Upon seeing Luffy, the two zombies desperately tried to squeeze out, but they ended up getting stuck on the counter. He was safe for now.
Turning around to check his rear, he saw more zombies constantly pounding on the clinic’s exterior doors. Because the doors opened outward, they couldn’t push their way in. He was safe on that front too.
Through the semi-transparent frosted tempered glass wall inside the clinic, he could see more zombies trapped in an adjacent room, blocked by a door that was designed to open inward. Driven solely by their bloodthirsty instincts and devoid of any intelligence, the zombies just kept pushing against the door trying to get out, leaving them securely isolated.
Taking advantage of the counter as a natural barrier, Luffy effortlessly dispatched the two stuck zombies with his screwdriver.
Through the door on the left side, he entered the counter area.
The counter was filled with medicine, and the cabinets behind it were fully stocked as well. But looking at the dazzling array of drugs, Luffy found himself in a dilemma. "Damn it, which one do I choose?"
He wasn’t a doctor. He had no idea which drugs could kill a virus or even suppress one. But time was running out. The virus in his leg was already spreading upward. Looking closely, the black, web-like veins had crept all the way up to his thigh. Though faint, they were unmistakably there.
"Maybe once it reaches my heart or brain, I’ll turn into a zombie," he reasoned.
The infected thigh throbbed with excruciating pain. Trembling, Luffy stared at the medicine in despair. He considered taking some painkillers first before looking for antiviral drugs, but reality proved harsh. The only medicines he recognized were common treatments for colds and infections—things like cephalosporin, norfloxacin, and 999 Cold Remedy. As for the unfamiliar ones, he had absolutely no clue what they treated. He couldn’t even find a basic painkiller.
After reading the instruction leaflets for several consecutive drugs, Luffy felt that none of them were suitable.
"Fuck!" The virus had already reached his waist.
Time was up. Luffy took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
"I’m out of time. To hell with it!" Steeling his resolve, Luffy grabbed a massive armful of random drugs from the antibiotic and specialized medication sections, tore open their packaging, and dumped them onto the counter.
Antibiotics were meant to inhibit infections, though Luffy didn’t know if they could actually kill a virus. Specialized medications were targeted, although he had no clue if they would target this specific virus.
But he couldn’t afford to care anymore. The worst-case scenario was death, and there was likely no other outcome anyway.
There was medical glucose behind the counter. He grabbed a bottle. Without bothering to read the instructions, he poured out a handful of every pill he saw, shoved them into his mouth, and washed them down with a huge gulp of the glucose solution. He took a bit of every medication from the massive pile in front of him, only stopping when he physically couldn’t swallow another thing.
Right now, he was truly grasping at straws in a desperate bid for survival.
"Ugh!"
His entire body ached. His stomach churned as if being pricked by countless needles, and his head throbbed, feeling as muddled as the time he had run a 39-degree Celsius fever.
Trembling, Luffy sat down and leaned against the cabinet behind him. He lifted his shirt. The dark veins of the virus had already reached his chest and were still spreading at a visible rate.
His eyes gradually grew hollow.
"Am I going to die?"
Luffy let out a heavy sigh. He had done all he could.