Get password here. Click me!(KO-FI)
The stench of blood.
It lingered in the air, sharp and nauseating, invading their senses.
Predators might have dragged all the corpses to the top floor, were they feeding there?
Chu Muge tightened her grip on her Tang dao with one hand and motioned for Gu Yao to step back. She casually addressed the siblings, "Stay a bit further away from me for now."
Once the trio behind her retreated a safe distance, Chu Muge took a deep breath and prepared to push open the door.
At that moment, the zombie dog padded up to her side, standing resolutely on the same front line.
Chu Muge glanced back at Gu Yao.
Gu Yao gave a slight nod.
Chu Muge smiled faintly, then pushed the door open.
Creak—
The rusty hinges emitted a sharp, grating sound that reverberated unnervingly in the silent atmosphere.
Chu Muge immediately raised her Tang dao, her eyes narrowing as a dense, bloody mist seemed to swirl within them, scanning the area beyond.
A minute passed... then two...
She squinted slightly.
"Come in."
The fourth floor was empty.
Where had the blood smell come from?
As expected, the speakers were there. Bai Caixie, with his knack for finding things, spotted them almost instantly. His eyes lit up as he exclaimed, "Over there! Over there!"
There were five or six speakers, plenty for their needs.
Though covered in dust, a few months’ disuse wasn’t enough to render them unusable. The group approached the speakers. Bai Caixie dusted them off with his good hand, remarking, "I know this model, it’s Bluetooth."
Bluetooth was perfect, they wouldn’t need a cable.
Chu Muge pondered for a moment, then pulled her phone from the pocket of her hoodie.
As she worked on connecting the Bluetooth, Gu Yao surveyed the surroundings. Her gaze suddenly froze.
The speakers were large, half the height of a person, and required two people to carry each. Bai Caixie, hindered by his injured arm, was essentially useless in this situation. Feeling out of place, he glanced toward Gu Yao.
She was staring fixedly in one direction.
"Uh, what’s up?" he asked tentatively.
Gu Yao shifted her gaze slightly to glance at him, then pointed toward the area she had been watching.
Bai Caixie squinted into the dim light, and his eyes widened as he cursed under his breath, "What the hell?!"
Though her exclamation was soft, it still drew everyone’s attention. Chu Muge frowned and followed Gu Yao’s still-outstretched hand to the spot on the wall.
A pitch-black mass covered the surface, a... dead flesh carpet?
Chu Muge instinctively looked at Gu Yao.
The latter seemed just as surprised, staring blankly at the carpet. But any emotion she might have felt was hidden behind her perpetually expressionless face.
A flesh carpet meant... a mutated zombie?
Impossible.
Chu Muge forced herself to remain calm.
There shouldn’t be a mutated zombie here.
But the presence of a flesh carpet was undeniable. What on earth was going on?
The dead flesh carpet seemed to have oozed from the ceiling.
And above the ceiling was the rooftop.
The rooftop door wasn’t locked. Chu Muge easily pushed it open. What she saw next was a sprawling expanse of dead flesh carpet.
Charred and pitch-black, it clung to the ground like soot. At its center were three fleshy masses.
Two of them had ruptured, their mutated occupants evidently hatched. But the third remained intact, bound within its casing.
It would never hatch now.
The flesh carpet beneath it was dull and lifeless, sapping the vitality from the fleshy mass as well.
Whatever mutant lay within was already dead.
Chu Muge deliberated briefly before raising her Tang dao. Under the siblings’ shocked gazes, she thrust her blade into the dead fleshy mass, cutting it open with swift, precise movements to extract the creature inside.
Sure enough, once the incision reached a sufficient width and depth, the humanoid mutant fell out with a lifeless thud. Its emaciated body lay limp and unmoving.
Its legs were bent unnaturally, its arms resembling bird wings, and even the bones of its face had sharp, avian contours.
It looked like a bird.
This could be a flying mutant.
Wait, flying?
Flying to where?
Chu Muge raised her gaze to the highest point of the electronics mall, looking out toward the opposite city, separated by a broken bridge.
The other side, shrouded in mist, resembled a paradise. But she knew it concealed unknown dangers.
The mutant had flown to the other side.
The withered corpse of the mutant revealed no traces of a crystal core.
That was expected. It hadn’t even hatched properly, how could it form a crystal core?
Ever since she realized that a flying mutant might have crossed to the other city, Chu Muge’s expression had grown heavier.
The group hauled down the speakers one by one, six in total, arranging them outside the electronics mall in preparation for their plan.
Watching the short-haired girl pant from exhaustion, Chu Muge smiled slightly. "Want to take a break?"
The short-haired girl bent over, gasping for air, and waved her hand dismissively. "No, no, it’s fine. The car’s just a little further. I—we’ll manage."
Chu Muge shrugged, casually lifting a speaker with both hands and placing it effortlessly into the car’s trunk.
This was the advantage of being a powered individual: immense strength and endurance.
The trunk filled up after just one speaker due to the other supplies already inside.
Chu Muge turned to the short-haired girl. "Can you drive?"
Bai Caiwei froze, then gave an awkward smile. "Sorry... I can’t."
At this point, the young man’s eyes lit up. "I can! I can!"
Chu Muge glanced at his injured hand. "I don’t want to end up in the river."
"Relax, that won’t happen!"
"How’s your driving?"
"Pretty good. Seriously, pretty good."
"Can you manage with one hand?"
"No problem."
Thus, the short-haired girl earned a brief break, staying outside the electronics mall with Gu Yao, while Chu Muge and Bai Caixie drove to the riverside to set up the speakers.
They repeated the process several times.
On the final trip, Bai Caixie sighed. "The way you’re setting these up, it’s like you’re arranging fireworks for a wedding."
It did resemble that, spacing them out one by one at regular intervals.
Finding the speakers and setting them up took most of their day. By the time they finished, it was already noon.
Aside from Gu Yao and the zombie dog, the other three were human, and humans got hungry.
Canned goods and bread were plentiful, and since they couldn’t take everything with them, they decided to eat their fill now. Bai Caixie, treating it like his last meal, devoured one portion after another without restraint.
Watching him tear into a loaf of bread like a starved man, the short-haired girl couldn’t help but comment, "Is that really necessary?"
"Of course it is, it’s the apocalypse!" Bai Caixie’s cheeks were stuffed with bread, his words muffled. "If we can’t take it all with us, why not eat more? Bulk up!"
The short-haired girl rolled her eyes. Looking at the canned food in her hand, she hesitated, then scooped out a spoonful and offered, "Want some? I’ll feed you."
"Ah—" The young man opened his mouth wide.
Chu Muge, sitting nearby, watched their feeding interaction with narrowed eyes.
She glanced at Gu Yao, who was seated beside her, silently chewing on beef jerky. Unable to resist, Chu Muge spoke up. "Senior... want me to feed you?"
Gu Yao: ?
She eyed the can in Chu Muge’s hand and shook her head.
That stuff was oily, she disliked it.
"Not this." Chu Muge shook her head, setting the can aside. Instead, she picked up Gu Yao’s bag of beef jerky. "I’ll feed you this."
Gu Yao: ?
She still had a piece in her mouth!
But seeing Chu Muge’s slightly expectant expression, Gu Yao hesitated before reluctantly nodding. She even took out the jerky from her mouth.
Apparently, Chu Muge had been inspired, or envious, of the sibling duo’s antics and wanted to try feeding someone too.
When Gu Yao opened her mouth, Chu Muge’s eyes gleamed with delight. She took a piece of jerky and placed it in Gu Yao’s mouth.
Gu Yao, with a deadpan expression, bit into it, intending to pull it free and eat it herself.
However... Chu Muge didn’t let go.
Gu Yao: ?
She tugged at it.
Tugged harder.
Pulled with all her might!
Chu Muge held the jerky firmly, while Gu Yao, biting down stubbornly, leaned back, trying to wrest it away.
The scene looked hilariously like a fish caught on a hook.