Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Vanished into Thin Air [1]

Seeing the two people standing outside the door, the zombie hound began slamming its head wildly against the apartment door in an attempt to break out.

However, because the door opened inward, its frantic lunges instead kept the door jammed shut against itself.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

The repeated, violent impacts echoed loudly throughout the stairwell.

Qin Xi tightened her grip on the Standard Machete, stepping right in front of the door.

Taking a deep breath, she took one step back, then raised her leg and kicked the door with all her strength!

BANG!

With a sharp crash, the door frame slammed violently backward into the shoe cabinet inside, sending the zombie hound jammed behind the door flying inward at the exact same instant!

Qin Xi charged into the apartment at top speed. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

,

The zombie hound crashed into the living room four or five meters deep inside the door.

On the living room floor lay two human corpses.

Scarlet blood covered the ground in a pool, and the zombie hound happened to land directly in that viscous mess; the thick blood coating its paws ended up acting as a slippery lubricant instead.

It struggled for a long moment before finally stabilizing its posture on the slick surface.

By then, however, Qin Xi had already rushed right up to it. Raising the machete high overhead, she aimed squarely at its head and swung down with all her might!

Crack!

The crisp sound of splintering bone echoed as the blade embedded deep into the zombie hound’s skull. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Planting her foot onto the zombie hound’s neck, Qin Xi yanked the machete free.

[Ding—Random Task completed: Kill Zombie Hound ×1. Reward: Energy Potion ×1.]

The system prompt rang out suddenly. At the exact same time, another series of heavy thuds against the door erupted from behind her.

Except this time, the noise came from outside the apartment door.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Qin Xi turned around to see Qin Song standing near the doorway, looking over at her calmly as he spoke:

“It’s the zombies from upstairs, drawn down by the commotion.”

Holding her blade, Qin Xi walked back to the doorway, peering outside through the peephole to spot several zombies crammed right at the entrance. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Placing her hand on the doorknob, she nodded toward Qin Song:

“That works out perfectly. We can handle them along the way—they’ll count as task points for me.”

With that, she yanked the door open wide!

“Gurgle—“

A thick, pungent stench of blood rushed straight at her face.

A zombie covered in blood was shoved inside through the doorway. At a single glance, there were at least four newly mutated zombies jammed right behind it.

What’s more, almost all of them were familiar faces—former neighbors.

Having survived several years in the post-apocalyptic world in her past life, Qin Xi had thought her heart was already hardened against scenes like this. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Yet at this moment, she still felt a fleeting pang of sorrow.

After all, these neighbors had once been people she knew fairly well.

Sighing silently in her heart, her hands did not slow down in the slightest. Delivering one lethal slash per target right at the doorway, she stood her ground like an unyielding fortress!

[Ding—Successfully killed Zombie ×1…]

[Ding—Successfully killed Zombie ×2…]

…

[Ding—Successfully killed Zombie ×5…]

A small pile of zombie corpses quickly accumulated at the doorway, even blocking the exit path. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Qin Xi flicked her machete, shaking off the blood clinging to the blade.

She was thinking of taking Qin Song and teleporting straight out from inside the room to save the trouble of hauling the corpses out of the way.

Before she could speak, however, Qin Song’s voice came from behind first:

“Let’s go out through the window—we can head straight outside, and Zhao Yuhao’s car is parked right down there.”

Qin Xi froze for a second, then remembered that Zhao Yuhao had indeed parked his off-road vehicle right near the entrance of the building below.

She turned around, walked toward Qin Song, and reached out to grasp his extended hand.

The two walked over to the window together.

This unit was located on the second floor; this distance was just right for a spatial teleportation down to the ground. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Qin Xi activated her supernatural ability, holding Qin Song’s hand tightly. The moment her body shifted position, she felt the man beside her tighten his grip in response.

,

The chaos outside the building had yet to subside.

After teleporting, Qin Xi and Qin Song materialized right against the wall outside the first-floor window.

It was already past 2:00 AM.

Yet the residential complex, which should have been shrouded in dead silence, was in utter disarray.

Screams and curses echoed continuously, while car alarms triggered by collisions blared one after another!

The two got into the car. Qin Song started the engine, threw the vehicle into a rapid reverse, and whipped the steering wheel to swing the head of the car around. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

After plowing through two zombies lunging at the front hood and narrowly dodging a car speeding in from an intersecting path, their vehicle finally cleared the residential complex smoothly!

To their surprise, however, the main road outside was in even greater chaos.

Late-night traffic fleeing for safety, crowds scattering in all directions to evade danger, and zombies chasing close behind clogged the main thoroughfare so tightly that not a drop of water could trickle through!

The off-road SUV was quickly trapped in the middle of the road, unable to nudge forward a single inch.

Qin Xi pulled out her phone to check the time.

It was currently 2:30 AM.

Her plan with Qin Song was to head to that large gas station near the outer ring highway to scavenge the gasoline stored inside.

Because gasoline could not be bought or sold in large quantities, they hadn’t hoarded it beforehand; this moment was the ideal window for a zero-yuan shopping spree [2]. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

Furthermore, torrential rain would begin tomorrow. Within one hour after the rain started, water would begin pooling across the city, reaching half a meter deep within two hours.

She and Qin Song had to finish collecting the gasoline and return to the mountain factory before 8:00 AM tomorrow morning.

Faced with the completely gridlocked road ahead, Qin Xi exchanged a glance with Qin Song.

Time to get out.

Stepping out of the vehicle, Qin Xi absorbed the off-road SUV into her spatial dimension with a flick of her hand!

The spot previously occupied by the bulky SUV instantly opened up into a blank space.

The two quickly threaded through the gaps between the lineup of vehicles ahead.

They failed to notice that inside the three cars behind them, the occupants were stunned into absolute immobility for a long, frozen moment! Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

“Wait… are… my eyes playing tricks on me?”

“Did that car of theirs just vanish into thin air [1]?”

“Even immortal cultivators are showing up now! Is this world really coming to an end?!”

,

Qin Xi had no idea what the people in the cars behind them were thinking.

She and Qin Song forged ahead rapidly through the gridlocked stream of vehicles, but before they could get very far, their path was blocked once again.

Frightened screams erupted ahead:

“AAAAAHHH! HELP! HELP! IT’S EATING PEOPLE! AAAAAHHH!” Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

A zombie had suddenly appeared amidst the fleeing crowd, tackling a man to the ground. Seeing this, the surrounding people scattered in a frantic panic.

Hemmed in by the crowd surging backward, Qin Xi and Qin Song were nearly dragged backward several times.

It took a considerable effort to reach the center of the incident, where they saw a single zombie tearing into and devouring a person lying on the ground.

The person on the ground who had been bitten was no longer breathing.

A few braver onlookers stood watching from a distance, and some were even recording videos with their smartphones.

Seeing the people recording, Qin Xi creased her brows.

Sending her consciousness into her space, she rummaged out two black face masks from within.

After a moment’s thought, she pulled out two pairs of windproof goggles as well, passing one set to Qin Song and keeping one for herself. Original translation by Lhaozi, read at lhaozitranslation.com

This blocked their faces from being recognized while preventing zombie blood from splashing into their eyes, nose, or mouth.

With their protective gear on, Qin Xi looked at the somewhat cleared intersection ahead. Raising her machete, she walked toward the zombie kneeling on the ground to feed.

Qin Song followed behind step by step.

Reaching the zombie, under the watchful eyes of over a hundred people hidden inside the stalled traffic, Qin Xi raised the machete in her grip and swung it down at the humanoid monster in the middle of the road without a shred of hesitation!

Crack!