The Little Merman in the Apocalypse 22 (End)
The cold wind brushed against the boy’s cheeks.
Suddenly, he felt a terrifying and secretive gaze upon him, causing his nose to itch and making him sneeze.
Chu Weilin’s face turned a shade of blue with displeasure, but he quickly rolled up the car window.
Inside the car, it was just the three of them.
Qiao Han and Chu Weilin, for some reason, silently agreed not to question the strange phenomenon of Su Luo growing legs.
Perhaps it was some special ability of the merman race.
The boy in the backseat clutched a small blanket, deep in thought. He didn’t want to return to the Base, recalling An Lan’s cold demeanor as she locked him and another female merman together. The memory sent a shiver down his spine.
A system notification appeared.
[Complete the side quest to leave the instance early.]
This message made Su Luo even more anxious. Once back at the Base, completing the quest would be difficult.
He racked his brain for a way to slip away, needing to return to find Sister Zhao and Qi Yu.
The boy’s long eyelashes trembled slightly, casting a beautiful shadow beneath his eyes.
“Um, I… I need to use the restroom, can I?”
His voice was small, but the two in front heard him.
Chu Weilin bent down, grabbed a bottle of mineral water, finished it, and tossed it to him without turning back.
“Here, catch.”
He had no intention of stopping the car, continuing to drive at the same speed.
Already feeling guilty for lying, Su Luo saw the man’s sharp eyes in the rearview mirror, as if all his little schemes were laid bare.
He stiffened and refused, “I can’t use that, just let me out for a moment, please.”
Qiao Han patiently tried to reason with him like he was a stubborn child.
“Luoluo, it’s not safe outside, just hold on a bit longer.”
The boy had no way to explain to them.
Suddenly, Chu Weilin’s expression changed, and he slammed on the brakes. The car wheels seemed to be caught by something, nearly sending them over the edge.
“What the hell?!”
The man angrily pounded the steering wheel, grabbed his gun, and got out.
In the distance, a giant spider perched on a tree.
Near its mouth, fine silk flowed like a waterfall, gently swaying in the breeze.
This was its weapon, its tool for hunting.
The giant spider had woven a massive web among the treetops, an invisible trap.
Vehicles on the move were unknowingly caught by this layer of silk.
The tires struggled within the soft and sticky spider nest.
Qiao Han also got out of the car.
The mutated spider’s legs were covered in bristles, and beneath its pair of green compound eyes were two sharp fangs.
Even the hardest metal could be easily pierced.
Venom dripped from the fangs, and just a drop could cause an adult to die in agony.
It regarded anything that moved as prey, launching fierce attacks.
Its speed was incredible, and once it locked onto a target, escape was nearly impossible.
So Qiao Han ordered all vehicles to stop.
Amid gunfire, the mutated spider agilely leaped, dodging the attacks.
Then suddenly.
A swarm of zombies inexplicably appeared, converging on Su Luo’s location, completely unfazed by the powerful weapons.
In the backseat, Wu Shan cursed under his breath. Having learned from past mistakes, he didn’t dare rush out to his death, only providing cover for Chu Weilin to keep the zombies away from Su Luo.
Amid the zombie horde, Pei Yue reappeared, his left arm severed, the sleeve of his shirt hanging empty.
It must have been A307’s doing.
Pei Yue no longer hid his inhuman identity, strange blue and purple patterns clearly visible on his skin, covering his entire body.
In the chaos.
Qi Yu signaled to the players hiding in the shadows.
They planned to take this opportunity to steal the medical kit Qiao Han carried, hoping it contained a potion to cure the zombie virus.
Unexpectedly, as he circled to the back of the car, before he could open the trunk, a one-eyed zombie suddenly lunged from the snow and bit Qi Yu’s arm.
Shocked, the man shot the zombie dead, but his heart sank.
He couldn’t stop his blood from turning cold, even his nails were growing longer.
He fell to the ground, clutching his head in agony, as if bugs were biting him, though it was the virus infecting his brain.
Qi Yu screamed hoarsely at Sister Zhao, “Go grab it! Hurry!”
He was in too much pain to think clearly, it was too late.
The man turned his gaze to Su Luo in the backseat, knowing this was the only way. He gambled that Qiao Han wouldn’t ignore Su Luo.
So.
Qi Yu frantically opened the car door and lunged at the unarmed boy.
Su Luo saw him mutating, guessing he had been bitten by a zombie.
He planned to get out from the other side, but his hand was grabbed.
He picked up an iron rod and struck the man’s head, but even bleeding, Qi Yu didn’t let go.
Chu Weilin, overwhelmed, turned to see this scene.
He fired a shot that hit Qi Yu, but the man’s sense of pain was diminishing.
“Sorry.”
Then he bit the boy’s hand, transmitting the virus.
Sister Zhao tried to drag Qi Yu out, screaming in anguish.
“You bastard! How could you…”
Now, both Su Luo and Qi Yu were infected.
The boy sat weakly on the snow, clutching his neck, tears blurring his vision. His voice trembled with fear, sobbing softly.
“Oh no… I can’t complete the quest.”
In contrast.
Qi Yu was unexpectedly calm, staring intently at Qiao Han.
Sure enough, the man quickly opened the medical kit, retrieving a precious blue potion from the bottom.
This was an experimental potion, not guaranteed to work.
But at this moment, Qiao Han couldn’t care about that, injecting it into Su Luo.
No one interrupted the process.
The NPCs couldn’t feel it, but the players knew, without a system notification of quest completion, the boy showed no reaction.
Indicating failure.
Qi Yu was stunned, looking at his zombie-bitten arm, his eyes filled with pain and fear.
He could feel the virus slowly eroding his body, crawling through his flesh like maggots.
Qi Yu snatched the remaining potion from Qiao Han, injecting it into his vein, but it was equally useless.
His body began to heat up, pain spreading from the wound throughout his body, as if thousands of ants were gnawing at his bones.
Qi Yu let out a hoarse scream of despair.
“No, I can’t become a zombie…”
Su Luo’s transformation was quiet, he curled up obediently in the small blanket, not making a sound.
Unlike Qi Yu’s agonizing screams, only the whites of his eyes showed signs of spreading.
Even his teeth became sharp, two small ones, without any lethality.
Pei Yue grew a new arm, halting his fight with Chu Weilin.
Everyone silently stayed by the boy’s side, unable to stop the transformation.
Pei Yue didn’t mind Su Luo becoming a silly little zombie, even feeling a bit of anticipation.
No one would compete for the boy’s ownership anymore.
Qiao Han sighed.
He bent down, cradling Su Luo, and brought him to the water’s edge, the deep blue water unfathomable.
“A307, aren’t you going to save him?”
The zombie virus gradually caused the boy’s body to convulse uncontrollably, his whimpers of pain continuous.
“It hurts.”
Qiao Han gently placed him into the water.
After a few seconds.
As A307 emerged from the lake, ripples spread behind him in layers.
The man’s dark hair floated in the water like seaweed, adding an eerie and mysterious aura.
His voice was low and hoarse, like a demon whispering from the depths of the sea, sending chills down one’s spine.
“…Partner…share life…are you willing…”
Su Luo was enveloped in the shadow of the male merman.
He couldn’t discern who the person was, his consciousness muddled and unclear. He was just a player, unable to understand A307’s murmurs.
The water was cold.
So cold his lips turned pale.
A307 watched the unresponsive boy, then without hesitation, plunged his hand into his own heart.
Breaking through the scales, the blood dripped onto the boy’s lips, and simultaneously.
The system notification echoed in every player’s mind.
[Congratulations to player Su Luo for completing the side quest, earning 500 personal points, plus 80 mainline points.]
[Other players will receive points based on the side quest unlock level, with a maximum of 200. Check your personal inbox for details.]
[Side quest completed, instance closing early. Please prepare accordingly.]
The boy’s transformation halted, his eerie eye color returning to normal, a translucent light blue tail swaying in the water.
However.
Qi Yu couldn’t hear the system’s voice.
He had completely turned into a zombie, his fingers twisted, roaring as he lunged at Chu Weilin, only to be shot in the head.
Sister Zhao didn’t even have time to say a final word to the boy before the system forcibly extracted her.
Apart from looking a bit pale, A307 showed no other changes.
Su Luo’s tail was much smaller than his, swimming away to keep a distance, still wary of this troublesome figure.
The boy blinked, wondering why all the other players had left, yet he remained?
He urgently called out to the system in his mind.
[Due to an unknown error, you cannot leave temporarily, please wait.]
A minute later.
[System repair in progress, a separate backup channel has been opened for you.]
A white barrier appeared out of nowhere in front of Su Luo, matching his height.
No one else could see it.
He swam to the shore, his porcelain-like fingers touching the white membrane, able to pass through. Was this the channel?
The boy happily transformed into human form, already halfway through, too tired to look back, he softly said, “Goodbye.”
He thought he could pass through smoothly.
But the resistance at his right ankle prevented him from taking another step. Looking down, it was A307’s webbed fingers.
Su Luo was anxious, “Let me go!”
Although Qiao Han and the others couldn’t see the system’s channel, they could sense that if the boy continued forward, he would completely disappear from their world.
Just as Su Luo was about to leave, he fell back into the water.
“Let go, I’m leaving!”
With Pei Yue’s signal, the zombie horde retreated.
Wu Shan and his group, bewildered, holstered their guns and got back in the car.
“Why are we heading back to the Base first? What secrets are those two keeping from me?”
In the blink of an eye.
In the vast snowy landscape, only the lonely and helpless boy and the menacing figures remained…
The first instance is complete.