“Where is that smell of blood coming from?”
Wen Xi frowned, her gaze piercing through the curtain of rain toward the adjacent residential complex.
A figure in a yellow raincoat was holding an umbrella, moving in and out of the entrance of Building 3.
The person was wrapped tightly from head to toe, and every time they came out, they were clutching cardboard boxes, their movements as agile as if they were moving their own belongings.
It was too abnormal.
Normal people wouldn’t dare touch the black rain, let alone act so brazenly.
Wen Xi narrowed her eyes, hid the body bags in the shrubbery of the landscaping, tightened her grip on her machete, and crept closer.
The smell of blood grew stronger.
At the entrance of Building 3, dark red liquid was seeping from the gaps in the steps, congealing into grotesque coral-like shapes on the ice.
Wen Xi hugged the wall as she approached; the crisp sound of her boot soles crushing the blood-ice made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.
“Hurry! Hurry! Get this done and get out! Don’t let anyone see!”
“Got it, got it.”
Two more people in yellow raincoats passed by. Wen Xi immediately climbed the stairs to the second floor, and stopped in her tracks.
“Creak—”
The security door on the second floor was wide open, with fresh axe marks on the door frame.
In the living room, a middle-aged man lay face up in a pool of blood, his frozen expression still fixed in shock.
Wen Xi held her breath and went upstairs.
The third to fifth floors were exactly the same.
Corpses lay across the floor, everything in disarray.
The entire building had been wiped out.
How unlucky was she? She just went out for a stroll and ended up running into this.
“…This batch of goods is enough for half a month.”
A hoarse male voice suddenly came from downstairs.
Wen Xi’s pupils shrank. She flashed into a half-open residential door on the first floor.
The room was filled with the smell of cheap air freshener, and half a cup of moldy milk tea still sat on the coffee table.
She curled up behind the entryway storage cabinet, her machete across her knees. Through the crack in the door, she could see the two people in yellow raincoats.
“The boss said we must empty three residential complexes tonight.” The younger one took off his mask, revealing a face covered in burns. “That brat from earlier hid under the bed; he made me get dust all over my hands.”
“Cut the crap.” The elder one kicked a tire. “Finish moving everything and get to that nearby complex; I heard there’s one in that building who hoarded hundreds of quilts.”
Wen Xi’s knuckles turned white.
They were talking about her!
“I say we should kill the fat sheep first.” The scarred-face man spat. “Didn’t our members lurking in other owners’ groups get her location? Let’s just go straight to…”
The storage cabinet suddenly gave a slight “creak.”
The elder one turned his head sharply, his turbid eyeballs staring straight at the entryway.
Cold sweat broke out on Wen Xi’s back—it was the noise of the aging cabinet door.
“I’ll go check,” the scarred-face man said, pulling out a boning knife.
The sound of footsteps grew closer.
Wen Xi leaned back slowly, gripped her machete, and prepared for the strike. As the yellow raincoat appeared at the edge of the door frame, she lunged forward with her blade!
“Slap!”
The blade was fast enough, but the man opening the door tilted his head sharply to the left.
“Damn!”
Before the scarred-face man could finish his curse, Wen Xi had already crashed out of the storage cabinet!
“It’s an ability user! Catch her alive!”
Wen Xi crashed through the kitchen window, leaped into the curtain of rain, and rushed out past the complex’s perimeter wall.
“Over there!”
“Don’t let her run!”
…
After confirming she had shaken off her pursuers and running for two more blocks just to be safe, Wen Xi braced her hands on her knees and caught her breath.
She wiped her face with lingering fear, only to find her palms covered in blood, so she put her hands down.
In the ringing of her ears after her desperate sprint, only the sound of her frantic heartbeat remained.
Who were those people?
What was going on?
How could someone be slaughtering entire buildings?
She leaned against a utility pole, exhausted to the point of collapse, and opened her phone panel to use the “Extreme Survival” APP to check for hostile targets nearby and assess any potential pursuers.
But the messages from the 007 group filled her notifications first.
Wen Xi: “…”
She should have muted the 007 group as well.
Wen Xi first confirmed that no hostile targets were approaching, and only then did she check the group messages.
The group was already in chaos, with countless people asking about the black rain epidemic.
“Is what the authorities said true? My neighbor suddenly has black patterns on his hands; what should I do?”
“Is there any medicine for it? Or a phone number for the epidemic prevention center? My husband is starting to run a fever! And, he seems to be acting strange [Picture][Picture]”
Wen Xi clicked on the pictures.
It showed a middle-aged man in pajamas, but his eyeballs were swollen and bulging, his skin was scaly and blotchy, and there were black dotted patterns.
Damn, that’s disgusting!
Even someone like her, who had experienced the apocalypse, thought so; the others, seeing it for the first time, were even more terrified.
The administrator immediately @-mentioned the woman who posted the message, offered some pacification, silenced her, and issued an announcement.
[007 Group Official Administrator – Bai Shi]: “Please stay calm. Citizens who exhibit symptoms, please private message me your address. We will arrange for dedicated personnel to visit and take you to the epidemic prevention center for treatment.”
[007 Group Official Administrator – Bai Shi]: “Treatment is free throughout the process, and we have begun working hard to develop effective drugs. Please do not worry!”
Wen Xi sneered and closed the group chat.
In her previous life, there were no “effective drugs.” This claim was just to stabilize public sentiment. As for the epidemic prevention center…
Anyway, she had never seen anyone cured, nor had she seen anyone come out alive; it could only be considered an ineffective “straw to grasp.”
You could grab onto it as psychological comfort.
But once contamination cases appeared, the authorities would quickly seal off the complexes to prevent infection, and it would be a hassle to get back out.
Although she wasn’t afraid of the restless survivors in her complex, there was still that gang of unidentified raincoat butchers!
The image of the entire building being slaughtered and left in misery surfaced again.
Wen Xi felt a chill down her spine. She forced herself to stand up; even if she was as tired as if she had run seven or eight 800-meter races, this “fragile college student” had to hang on and keep running.
She had to get home immediately, pack her things, and evacuate!
The rental house was no longer safe!
With her survival instinct kicked in, Wen Xi quickened her pace, the fluorescent green on her shoelaces flickering in the rainy night.
She bypassed the main roads, choosing to walk through small alleys, looking back from time to time to confirm if anyone was following.
Fifteen minutes later, Wen Xi finally saw the old residential building where she rented her apartment.
Pushing the door open, warm air rushed toward her.
The charcoal stove was still burning, and the three little soldiers heard the movement and immediately poked their heads out, making “ninini” sounds.
“Shh—”
Wen Xi made a gesture for silence, feeling a lingering fear. She quickly locked the door from the inside and began to pack the essentials.
She stuffed her most important supplies—the energy mattress, the little bear knight, the fertilizer machine, and her bow and arrows—into the tent, then stored the whole thing in her inventory space.
“What about this place that I just finished renovating a little…”
Wen Xi looked around, feeling a bit reluctant.
The charcoal stove, the stored food, the new furniture—these were all things she had put together bit by bit with her limited funds.
And the walls the three little ones had worked so hard to paint.
But she couldn’t take that much with her now; saving her life was the priority… Just as Wen Xi turned and was about to leave, a knock suddenly sounded at the door.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
Three light knocks, exceptionally clear in the silent night.
Wen Xi froze, her movements coming to an abrupt halt.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
The knocking sounded again, this time even more urgent!