The Little Merman in the Apocalypse 16
The heavy clouds obscured the sky, blocking the faint sunlight from reaching the ground.
The bridge had collapsed, exposing broken steel bars that lay desolately across the barren snowfield.
The floating ice on the lake drifted with the wind and snow, colliding, breaking, and then reassembling.
The convergence of three different forces turned the scene into chaos.
Ice and snow splattered, and a murderous aura filled the air.
A heavy and tense atmosphere lingered in Su Luo’s heart as he covered his eyes, unable to bear the bloody scene.
The young boy pitifully hid under the bridge, where the wind and snow couldn’t reach.
The tear stains on his porcelain-white face hadn’t dried, and his slightly red eyes were filled with shimmering moisture.
His pale fingers tightly clutched the black coat Pei Yue had draped over him, covering him from head to toe.
Su Luo’s voice was hoarse from crying for so long, unable to form complete sentences.
“They’re all… bad guys…”
Whether it was Pei Yue, A307, or the Mutated Octopus that won,
he knew his fate would be the same, with no difference, unable to escape the inevitable…
He could only hope that the monsters would kill each other, ideally perishing together.
But even this small wish couldn’t come true.
A307 emitted a bizarre sound from its throat sac, like the amplified sound of a cello string being pulled,
and as it reached the eardrum, it felt like the thunder before a storm, causing dizziness.
The frequency of the merman’s sound waves was enough to cause extraordinary damage, even harming the brain nerves of those attacked.
The first to fall was the giant octopus.
Its tentacles were severed in several places, and green blood stained the snow with patches of mottled color.
It let out a terrified roar, then collapsed heavily less than ten meters from Su Luo, never to move again.
A307 approached the boy like a victor.
His damp webbed claws brushed across Su Luo’s flushed cheek, leaving a cold, lingering water mark.
The man’s dark lashes lowered with his eyelids, casting a deep shadow under his eyes.
“Wait here for me.”
He moved like a dark flash of lightning, too fast to catch.
The battle between Pei Yue and A307 had no flashy moves, no complex tactics, just the most direct and pure clash of strength.
The boy stared in amazement at the severed tentacle in front of him.
It moved silently like a gecko’s tail, inching toward the water’s edge.
Taking advantage of the moment when the other two were locked in combat, it slipped into the water and disappeared.
So.
It had just been playing dead to escape.
The merman’s tail flicked, sending a massive column of water toward Pei Yue.
The water column spread in the air, forming a huge water curtain that completely enveloped Pei Yue.
Immediately after, A307 dragged him into the lake.
At a glance, they were nowhere to be seen.
The boy’s breath was warm and moist as he pressed his palm to his lips for warmth, tentatively calling out.
“Mr. Pei?”
“Merman… A307?”
Great, they were both gone.
Su Luo clutched the oversized black coat, stumbling along the faint tire tracks left by the players.
But he was too slow, unsure how long it would take to reach them.
A tentacle lifted him into the air.
“Why are you back again?”
The Mutated Octopus couldn’t stay out of the water for long, and it warily glanced around.
Several zombies, drawn by the scent of food, approached, looking terrifying and grotesque.
The Mutated Octopus slapped the encroaching zombies flat, then quickly delivered the boy to the hospital’s exterior before disappearing into the snow.
Leaving Su Luo utterly bewildered.
Qingzhou Hospital was nestled in an inconspicuous hillside on the outskirts of the city.
After the apocalypse broke out, it was deserted.
The hospital’s outer walls, eroded by harsh cold weather, revealed mottled cement beneath.
The paint had peeled off, with fragments scattering in the cold wind, and the lawn was covered with thick snow.
“Sister Zhao…”
Su Luo called softly.
He passed through a rusty iron gate forcibly pried open by Qi Yu and the others, seeing the hospital sign stained with dried blood, swaying precariously.
He couldn’t find where the players were, always feeling that unseen monsters were watching him.
The more he thought about it, the more frightened he became.
The boy’s snow-white face was buried in the thick coat’s collar, looking a bit pitiful yet also adorably vulnerable.
Several familiar modified pickup trucks were parked outside the hospital, belonging to the players.
Su Luo had no shoes, stepping barefoot on the icy snow, his pink-white toes tinged with a faint red, his slender ankles delicate and beautiful.
The argument between Zhao Zilin and Qi Yu could be heard from afar.
The man didn’t argue much, his disheveled black hair framing a slightly indifferent face.
He wore a leather jacket, leaning against the wall, exuding a deep, gloomy aura that instinctively instilled fear.
“You should think about it, saving an NPC isn’t worth it at all.”
The woman explained, “Su Luo is also a player, just with a different initial identity from ours.”
Qi Yu paused in his smoking at Zhao Zilin’s explanation.
No wonder that pretty face seemed familiar, he must have seen him somewhere before.
The man gritted his teeth, his eyes narrowing, a murderous intent rising, chilling the air a few degrees.
“So he was the little merman that toyed with me at the research institute.”
Zhao Zilin was taken aback, earnestly explaining for the boy.
“He’s so well-behaved, he couldn’t have any bad intentions, it must have been a misunderstanding.”
Qi Yu wasn’t that petty, his tone slightly regretful.
“No matter who that pretty vase is, he’s already become the Mutated Octopus’s meal.”
Zhao Zilin’s wounds were bandaged, her hands hanging weakly at her sides, her hair swaying gently in the breeze, unable to hide her sadness.
“If you hadn’t stopped me… maybe.”
Qi Yu raised an eyebrow sarcastically, “Oh, then I should have let you die with him.”
Wang Wu, who was gathering information nearby, spoke up anxiously, “Are you talking about Su Luo?”
Qi Yu gave him an annoyed glance, “Who else?”
Wang Wu, barely in his twenties and severely nearsighted, adjusted his heavy, old-fashioned glasses slipping down his nose, puzzled.
“But he’s standing right there.”
Qi Yu and Zhao Zilin incredulously looked down from the second floor, seeing a bundled-up boy walking through the snow toward the hospital.
The sadness on Zhao Zilin’s face vanished instantly, and she ran down to meet Su Luo with a smile.
Wang Wu scratched the back of his head.
“He’s really lucky to survive all that.”
Qi Yu frowned in confusion, wondering how the boy escaped a certain death. Did he have some hidden weapon capable of defeating the Mutated Octopus?
The man’s scrutinizing gaze swept over Su Luo from head to toe, finding no injuries, just a change of clothes.
And,
his lips looked rather red…
leaving everyone utterly baffled.