“Waaah… honey, where are you? Don’t scare me like this…” Zhao Yuhui cried, on the verge of breaking down.
The six members of the team gathered around. Everyone who should be there was present except Chen Teng. However, Zhang Qichuan’s expression was no longer as gentle and refined as usual—it looked rather grim.
“I’ve been in my room the whole time and didn’t see him. Let’s split up and search the supermarket. Be careful,” Zhang Qichuan said. Everyone then dispersed to look for the missing person.
“Boss, did you get it?” After splitting up, the six regrouped, and Xu Zimo finally asked.
“Mm. The things upstairs weren’t easy to deal with. We’ll leave after tonight,” Zhou Nuocheng replied.
Tang Yao frowned. “The supermarket is this small, and we were guarding the entrance for you. How did Li Quan just disappear into thin air?”
“Upstairs, we found that the zombies here are different from the ones outside. They can climb, and their hair doesn’t look human—there are whiskers and tails. More like…” Shi Ran said, trying to recall how the girl had lunged at her.
Gu Ming remembered how the girl’s body had suddenly shrunk. “Like rats. When humans crawl, they might resemble reptiles, but their features don’t lie. And they like hiding in dark places.”
“If that’s the case, were they mutated from being bitten by rats? Then could there also be rats on the first floor? Could Li Quan have been bitten by one?” Ye Shuyao felt a chill run down her spine, wondering who might disappear next.
“That’s likely. Do you remember the day we arrived? He said he got bitten by a mosquito. Maybe it wasn’t a mosquito—it was a rat,” Shi Ran carefully pieced together the details of their arrival.
“From now on, we stick together. Stay alert and be ready to act at any moment. Something’s going to happen tonight,” Zhou Nuocheng said seriously, keeping a constant watch on their surroundings.
“Th-that… is that Li Quan?” Huang Likai pointed toward a corner of the supermarket. A figure was staggering toward them beside a shelf.
Everyone approached, shining flashlights directly at him to see clearly.
Li Quan seemed agitated, frantically covering his head with his hands. “Don’t… don’t…”
“What are you saying? What are you doing over there alone? You made everyone look for you,” Huang Likai said impatiently. He was already planning to properly deal with him tomorrow.
“Something’s wrong with him. He already has the aura of a zombie,” Gu Ming said, pulling Ye Shuyao back from the front.
Standing closest, Ye Shuyao could see clearly. “There’s blood on him, and… by his feet, it looks like a dead rat. He must have been hungry just now and went looking for something to eat.”
Everyone knew that when rats were hungry, they would eat the corpses of their own kind.
“You’re talking nonsense! We kindly took you in, and now you’re stirring up trouble. My husband is standing there just fine!” Zhao Yuhui had just arrived and, hearing this, flew into a rage. She was about to go over to Li Quan.
“Hey, I suggest you don’t go,” Shi Ran warned. Although Zhao Yuhui was overly obsessed with love, she was pregnant and not a bad person. It would be hard to watch her get bitten to death by her husband. If she could be persuaded even for a moment, it was worth trying.
Zhao Yuhui didn’t appreciate it at all. “Don’t think I don’t know—shameless seductress. You came here just to seduce my husband. If it weren’t for the baby, I would’ve slapped your face to pieces!”
Hearing that, Shi Ran’s originally expressionless face showed a faint smile, her lips curling slightly—clearly angered to the point of laughing.
“Then go ahead. Hurry up. Don’t walk—run. He’s exactly in need of you right now.”
Shi Ran was no saint. She must’ve been out of her mind to think Zhao Yuhui wasn’t a bad person. Truly, the quiet ones bite the hardest. She decided to stay aloof for two minutes and mentally isolate herself from the world.
Chen Yi, standing nearby, couldn’t help but laugh. He glanced at Shi Ran’s friends—each of them calm and composed, not finding anything wrong with what she said.
Zhao Yuhui shot Shi Ran a glare before walking toward Li Quan. Seeing him trembling and clutching his head, she immediately supported him. “Honey, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Sensing someone approaching, Li Quan could no longer hold back. He lifted his face toward Zhao Yuhui. His eyes were dark red, bits of flesh and blood still clinging to his mouth from the rat he had eaten. His skin was an unnatural bluish-purple. Though his eyeballs were cloudy, they seemed disturbingly bright.
Zhao Yuhui only had time to let out a scream before he pounced on her, knocking her to the ground. He began gnawing at the flesh on her face bit by bit, until she was completely unrecognizable.
Li Quan had fully turned into a zombie.
Standing nearby, Huang Likai was so frightened that he dropped his flashlight. “Ah! A zombie! There’s a zombie! Boss, save me!” he shouted while running backward, trying to hide behind Zhang Qichuan.
“Heh, idiot.”
Chen Yi sneered. Neither he nor the Jingyun Squad made a move. Meanwhile, at the staircase on the second floor—unnoticed by anyone—a thin vine quietly opened the door…
“Why are you still standing there? Get to the back. We’ll handle this,” Xu Zimo said, apparently forgetting their earlier speculation that Chen Yi was an ability user. He pulled him toward the back.
Mainly because he himself wasn’t that strong.
Chen Yi was momentarily stunned. He hadn’t expected… to be dragged to the second-floor staircase like this. He glanced at the slowly opening door, then at Xu Zimo, who thought he was protecting him.
Is this guy… missing a screw?
Li Quan, drawn by Huang Likai’s shouting, ignored Zhao Yuhui’s body and began crawling toward them. By now, he was completely unable to stand.
Shi Ran released a bolt of lightning, striking Li Quan on the ground. After the battle upstairs, her attack speed had noticeably improved.
Li Quan was shocked to the ground. Ye Shuyao reacted quickly, sending a wind blade that left a deep gash on his neck—though it still wasn’t enough to sever his head.
Finally, an ice spike pierced through Li Quan’s brain, and he stopped moving completely.
Just as everyone let out a sigh of relief, the iron door on the second floor burst open with a loud bang. A zombie leapt straight down the stairs, lunging toward the ground floor.
The closest were Chen Yi and Xu Zimo, yet Chen Yi stood there as if he didn’t feel anything.
They were simply too close to the staircase. With the zombie diving straight at them, no matter how fast they were, there was no way to dodge in time.
In 0.1 seconds, Xu Zimo had no time to react. Instinctively, he shoved Chen Yi away. Since he himself couldn’t escape, at least one of them should survive.
“Xu Zimo!” The Jingyun Squad saw this and felt their hearts clench. Even Shi Ran and Ye Shuyao, who had thought of themselves as mere fellow travelers rather than true teammates, felt their pupils tremble with tension.
Even Zhou Nuocheng, caught off guard at such a distance, couldn’t reach him in time.
Chen Yi staggered from the push, nearly falling. If earlier he thought Xu Zimo was missing a screw for pulling him away, then now—pushing him away—he was an outright fool.
Who would give up their chance to live for someone else at a moment like this?
Utterly stupid.
That’s what Chen Yi thought—but the reddening of this 17-year-old boy’s eyes had already betrayed his emotions.
Xu Zimo couldn’t control his metal blade fast enough. Everything happened too quickly.
In less than a second, Xu Zimo was knocked to the ground by the lunging zombie…