Chapter 18
by LhaoziChapter 18: No Longer Human [1]
The commotion outside seemed to come to a halt on the fifth floor below.
Yet their hearing, enhanced by supernatural awakening, still allowed them to faintly overhear a crowd of people panicking:
“Dad!! My dad is still downstairs! What do we do, sob-sob…”
“What do we do?! Why did this happen! How could perfectly healthy people turn out like this! What on earth is going to happen?!”
“My mom’s gone! I don’t have a mom anymore! I don’t have a mom…”
“This won’t work—the top floor is a dead end! What if they catch up to us?!”
There were quite a few voices speaking; Qin Xi estimated there were at least a dozen people.
Chasing close behind this crowd was a flurry of chaotic, heavy footsteps.
Accompanied by the all-too-familiar growls of “gurgle-gurgle…“
It appeared this group of people was being pursued by zombies, fleeing up the building in a blind panic!
What’s more, the number of pursuing zombies was hardly small!
Qin Song stood by the door listening for a moment, then spoke in a low voice:
“Thirteen or fourteen people, over twenty zombies!”
Hearing this, Qin Xi’s brow twitched slightly. A sudden realization struck her, and she turned her gaze toward Qin Song:
“Big Brother, this system upgrade requires killing 30 zombies. We’re still short by 16, so the ones outside should be more than enough!”
Qin Song understood her meaning instantly and nodded.
In the next second, the Standard Machete materialized in Qin Xi’s hand.
The two put on their face masks and windproof goggles, covering their faces thoroughly.
The footsteps outside had already reached this floor, accompanied by someone shouting in absolute terror:
“It’s a dead end! Up ahead is a dead end! What do we do?! There’s no way out!”
Immediately after, someone else yelled out:
“What else can we do? Fight them! Are we supposed to just wait here to die?!”
The hallway outside was in total disarray.
It was at this exact moment that Qin Xi yanked the apartment door open!
The person closest to the doorway was already panicked out of his wits.
When he felt the door right beside him suddenly open from the inside, his heart skipped a beat!
For a second, he almost didn’t dare to turn his head to look.
Until a girl next to him shrieked:
“AAAAAHHH!! A GHOST!!”
His heart squeezed tightly, and he fainted flat onto the floor right on the spot!
Qin Xi’s steps came to a sudden halt.
She looked down at the middle-aged man lying across her feet, letting out a soft sigh.
Then, she stepped toward the lead zombies shuffling toward her one step at a time.
Passing by the girl who had just shrieked, Qin Xi turned her head to look at her:
“Right now, these things are far scarier than ghosts. Hide inside the room!”
The girl froze upon hearing her words.
After taking a moment to process, she stumbled up to her feet, grabbed a middle-aged woman, and bolted into the room:
“Mom, quick, get inside!”
Qin Xi had already walked up to the lead zombie.
The zombie was lunging atop a young man who was about 1.8 meters tall [2], trying to sink its teeth into him while he blocked it with a piece of wood.
The wooden stick in the young man’s hand was already snapped in half, yet he kept desperately stabbing it into the zombie’s head.
Because he couldn’t exert proper leverage, it was having virtually no effect!
Just as his strength was nearly depleted and thoughts of giving up began to take root in his heart, a machete suddenly swung out from behind, chopping straight into the head of the monster before him!
He felt the heavy weight on his body lift immediately; in the next instant, the monster collapsed to the ground!
The young man stood frozen in place until another monster collapsed right at his feet.
He raised his head blankly.
Out of nowhere, a man and a woman had appeared like cold, unfeeling slaying machines, suddenly charging out to launch a ruthless slaughter against these monsters that used to be his family members, neighbors, and friends!
Right at that moment, a woman’s shriek suddenly erupted behind him:
“AAAAAAHHHH!!!! Murderers! You killed my second brother! I’ll fight you with my life!!”
As she spoke, she lunged toward Qin Song, only to be held back firmly by the people behind her:
“Guilan! Don’t! Calm down!”
“Guilan, they’re saving us—don’t be like this!”
Everyone stood in place, frightened and at a complete loss.
The light in the hallway was dim.
Yet at that moment, the lean girl suddenly turned her head to look over, her voice cool and crisp:
“My apologies, no offense intended. However, they are no longer human [1]. They must be cleared out, or none of us will survive!”
The crowd fell dead silent in an instant!
As the final zombie collapsed, Qin Xi listened to the system prompt announcing the task completion and exhaled a long breath.
This time, the reward was once again 30 Points, with no extra items.
Withdrawing her thoughts, she exchanged a glance with Qin Song, then turned around to walk slowly toward the group of people behind them.
Seeing the two figures who had just carried out a fierce slaughter approach them, the group felt a surge of fear.
Some even shrank back inside the office.
Only the young man who had been holding off the zombie at the very front, along with a girl whose clothes were visibly stained with large patches of blood, remained standing outside the door, watching Qin Xi and Qin Song walk closer.
As the distance closed, however, a look of confusion suddenly appeared on the young man’s face.
Until he suddenly raised his hand to point at the two, his voice filled with excitement:
“You guys! You’re the two people from that video! Yesterday at the Songshan intersection, you killed a zombie!”
Qin Xi’s steps paused, a hint of astonishment crossing her face!
She hadn’t expected to be recognized so easily!
The young man continued speaking, though his mood quickly sank:
“Do… do you two know something? Have all these people really turned into zombies?”
As his words fell, Qin Xi felt the atmosphere in the air turn still.
In the next instant, sheer panic began to spread among the crowd.
After thinking it over, she answered:
“I’m not entirely certain. However, these creatures are quite similar to zombies—they devour humans, transmit infection through bites, and can only be killed by destroying their brains.”
She noticed that as she spoke, the faces of the crowd grew increasingly pale.
Someone in the crowd burst into tears:
“Oh God! How are we supposed to survive this?!”
“Chen’an, my Chen’an, sob-sob-sob… Oh God, why is this happening?!”
As grief rippled through the group, Qin Xi felt a pang of sorrow looking at them.
Before today, everyone had been ordinary people living everyday lives; who could have known the world would turn upside down overnight?
The zombies she had just killed might very well have been their loved ones.
Yet she had no time to indulge in grief.
Remembering her objective, she looked at the young man:
“How did you all get here? With such heavy rain, why did you run out?”
The young man wiped away his tears:
“We didn’t run out from the city; we came down from the mountain village up above. Many people in the village turned into zombies.”
Qin Xi froze for a second—there was actually a village up on the mountain?
She turned her head to look at Qin Song; seeing him nod, she felt somewhat surprised that her big brother actually knew about it too!
Right at that moment, a sudden idea flashed through her mind.
The other objective for the system upgrade—collecting 1,000 Natural Element points—had yet to be done.
With the torrential rain pouring down outside right now, she had been worrying about where to go to find those 1,000 element points.
If there was a village up on the mountain, wouldn’t that make things infinitely easier?!
With that thought, she raised her hand to pull Qin Song a few steps to the side, standing on tiptoe to whisper in his ear:
“Big Brother, let’s head up to that mountain village!”
No one noticed that as her words fell, the girl standing near the doorway turned her head sharply, locking a piercing gaze right onto them!
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