Chapter 21
Golden sunlight poured down from the azure sky, casting its glow upon the land of City A.
Once bustling and orderly streets now lay scattered with shards of glass, pools of blood, mangled remains unrecognizable as objects, and the charred wreckage of overturned cars still smoldering black. Amidst this ruin, monsters staggered aimlessly.
One could even see some “humans” who retained a basic human form, leisurely pacing the streets, wandering in front of empty shop windows, or resting contentedly inside a burned-out café.
Unlike their frenzied, bloodthirsty state during the night, the monsters by day appeared more like sleepwalkers.
In this never-ending dream from which they would never awaken, they moved by muscle memory, continuing the remnants of their former lives amid chaos.
Of course, if a weaker one happened to pass nearby, they did not hesitate to reveal their monstrous, greedy nature.
Bloody predation frequently played out on street corners and sidewalks throughout City A. Wild murmurs and inhuman whimpers interwove, accompanied by the wet tearing of muscle and the juicy sounds of chewing and swallowing...
This maddening symphony echoed through every corner of the city.
Until a gentle breeze brushed past a gray building at the crossroads... and then swept over the monsters in the city.
That building was the supermarket where Xie Xishu and Qi Wu were currently located.
At that moment, all the monsters suddenly halted without warning, as if someone had pressed an invisible button.
They straightened up, lifted their heads, and sniffed madly at the air.
“Hiss... fragrant...”
“So... so fragrant...”
“So fragrant, so delicious... so fragrant, so delicious...”
Mumbled, hoarse whimpers dripped from their saliva-drenched lips.
Their swollen, grotesque faces simultaneously turned in the same direction.
“There...”
“There it is, heeheehee, so tasty, so tasty right there—”
Though the closer they drew to the building, the more distinct the scent marker of another monster became—its aura fierce and domineering enough to have scared off many lower-level monsters in the past—
But this time was unlike any other.
The fragrance in the air was so sweet and intoxicating.
Though the scent was faint, it was enough to awaken the monsters’ deepest, most primal desires.
*
A few minutes earlier—
“Hiss—”
A faint gasp sounded in the supermarket’s break room.
Xie Xishu only belatedly felt a sharp sting when he saw the long wound on his palm.
“It hurts.”
He groaned softly but received no response from Qi Wu.
The flashlight flickered; the light was still dim. Yet when Xie Xishu raised his head, he noticed Qi Wu’s eyes flickering faintly like phosphorescent flames in the darkness.
“So... fragrant.”
In the next moment, Qi Wu suddenly bent down, pressing his face firmly against Xie Xishu’s palm.
On the still-stinging wound, something wet and warm latched tightly—Qi Wu was greedily sucking the fresh, flowing blood.
Xie Xishu’s heart skipped a beat.
He recalled the alleyway incident when Qi Wu first revealed his inhuman side. At that time, Qi Wu had fallen into a hideous frenzy after ingesting his blood.
*
Xie Xishu had already resigned himself to the fact that his companion had become a monster.
But he certainly did not think Qi Wu losing control now would be a good thing.
“Qi, Qi Wu?”
Xie Xishu called out anxiously.
“Are you still conscious?”
He murmured.
The flashlight had somehow fallen to the ground. Unable to see Qi Wu’s face, Xie Xishu could only hear his own rapid breathing and the wet sucking sounds.
It seemed to last a long time before he finally heard a garbled reply.
“Mm... I’m just... helping you wipe away the blood smell.”
“Is, is it better now?”
Xie Xishu stammered.
After a few seconds, the soft, warm sensation from the monster’s newly formed organ finally withdrew from Xie Xishu’s wound.
In the darkness, Qi Wu silently retrieved the flashlight and tugged Xie Xishu toward the break room’s exit.
“Don’t you realize your own hand is injured?”
Outside, the light brightened somewhat.
Xie Xishu quickly glanced at his hand—after Qi Wu licked away the blood, the wound now looked like a faint pink scar covered by a layer of sticky mucus. The mucus gave off a familiar metallic smell, but the covered area was completely numb, no longer aching.
Before Xie Xishu could inspect further, Qi Wu, his face cold, tore off the hem of his T-shirt and wrapped it tightly around Xie Xishu’s injured hand.
“Sorry. It’s my fault.”
Xie Xishu said softly.
Qi Wu, already fierce in appearance, now emitted an even more sinister and chilling aura. When his face darkened, the surrounding temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
Xie Xishu quickly glanced at Qi Wu and bit his lip involuntarily.
Though it wasn’t intentional, getting injured and bleeding so carelessly in this situation was undeniably foolish...
That thought made Xie Xishu feel worse.
Qi Wu glanced at him. Seeing the pale, emaciated youth grow more haggard and pitiful, his gaze flickered for a moment.
“...This time I’ll let it slide.”
He said coldly.
“You know you’re weak and attract monsters easily, so behave yourself from now on.”
With that, he reached out, gripping Xie Xishu’s hand and leading him toward the supermarket’s exit.
But after only a few steps, he suddenly stopped.
Without distractions, Qi Wu immediately noticed the large crowd of monsters pressing toward the supermarket.
The air was thick with the monsters’ characteristic stench of blood and decay.
Xie Xishu peeked from behind Qi Wu, squinting to see the hideous, frenzied creatures. His face instantly drained of color, turning deathly pale.
“How could this...”
Xie Xishu could hardly believe his eyes.
How were there so many monsters?
“Is it my blood?”
His throat dry, voice trembling fiercely.
*
“But before, I was injured too, even bled more than this, but it wasn’t this bad. Could those monsters have evolved like you?”
“Such a pain.”
Qi Wu suddenly interrupted Xie Xishu.
As a monster himself, he saw far more clearly and in detail than Xie Xishu. He could see the uneven sharp teeth inside their protruding mouthparts, their disgusting, slimy excretions coating their bodies. He could hear their parched, wheezing breaths, and the hissing screams of struggling “food” half-digested in their bellies.
The situation was indeed far graver than he had thought—
Xie Xishu’s blood seemed even more enticing now, driving the monsters into a frenzy.
From all directions came the sluggish footsteps unique to monsters, accompanied by the wet, squelching sounds of rotting flesh and slime rubbing together.
Qi Wu’s overly acute sense of smell, ironically, clouded his perception of the outside world. Surrounded by the stench of monsters and corpses, he hadn’t even realized that they were quietly being encircled.
There was no longer any way to escape like before—no path remained.
“Ah, damn it—”
Qi Wu wanted to curse, but seeing the youth’s pale cheeks, he swallowed the words.
“Are you really that scared?”
Qi Wu tugged Xie Xishu closer behind him.
He looked back calmly.
“There are just more of them. It’s disgusting to kill so many. With your tiny bit of courage, you’ll probably faint soon.”
He said coldly.
“The blood in that room was strong and concealed. Go hide in there for now. I grabbed some snacks for you earlier... wait a bit, when I’m done, I’ll come open the door for you.”
As he spoke, countless fine cracks blossomed across Qi Wu’s body, though he didn’t extend many tendrils.
For some reason, he didn’t want Xie Xishu to see his last moments before closing the door—a “monster” writhing with twitching, flailing tendrils.
“Enough, go.”
Seeing Xie Xishu still standing frozen, eyes moist and on the verge of tears, Qi Wu’s irritation grew strange and fierce.
He pushed him, but Xie Xishu didn’t budge.
“There must be another way, right?”
Xie Xishu instinctively grabbed Qi Wu’s wrist, his throat tightening as he spoke.
He realized he disliked Qi Wu’s tone and expression now... and certainly hated this inexplicable sense of despair.
“You can’t face so many monsters alone. You only just finished developing yesterday, didn’t you?”
The words had barely left his mouth when Qi Wu’s expression changed instantly.
“What, you think I can’t beat them?”
“No, no, I just think maybe there’s another way...”
At that moment, Xie Xishu glanced unintentionally at the clutter scattered at the break room’s entrance and spotted a blood-stained car key.
Startled, he quickly rushed over and snatched it up.
In that instant, he didn’t think much—his instinct was that if they could drive away, it would be far better than Qi Wu facing the hoard alone.
“Look, this! A car key! If there’s a car, we can drive right out without confronting those monsters directly.”
He paused, then turned to Qi Wu with a bright smile.
“You can drive, right?”
Among the many rumors about Qi Wu at school, Xie Xishu had heard plenty. It seemed natural that a “bad student” like him, always out and about, would know how to drive.