Chapter 3: A Bizarre and Vicious Midnight Encounter

Returning to his residence, Lin Xian took a bottle of disinfectant mixed with bleach from behind the door and carefully sprayed it at the entrance and in the hallway. After finishing, he entered the room, closed the security door, and fastened the iron chain.

The first thing Lin Xian did was take out his phone, open the map, and search for Chen Sixuan’s location.

First rule of the apocalypse: Beware the night.

Second rule of the apocalypse: Never act recklessly.

Lin Xian never fought a battle unprepared. Jiang City was now completely fallen. The remaining people were either survivors cowering in shelters or thugs plundering the streets, along with a sea of zombies.

And nightfall was even more terrifying, because people still didn’t know how many bizarre existences lurked in the darkness.

From the accounts of survivors on various radio frequencies, they were indescribable, beyond description. Very few people survived an encounter with these strange things.

“7.2 kilometers, not exactly close…”

Before the apocalypse, this distance would have been a mere ten-minute taxi ride. But now, with traffic paralyzed and roads and bridges damaged, Lin Xian estimated it would take him at least half an hour even on a motorcycle.

Moreover, the situation over there was unclear. It could be said that in the apocalypse, daring to go and save someone like this was something you’d only do for your own mother.

Lin Xian’s eyes flickered, and he sighed inwardly.

Professor Chen, I hope you’re worth the risk I’m about to take for you.

6:45 PM, night gradually fell.

Lin Xian pulled the iron gate over the window and began to prepare dinner.

He hadn’t gone out to search for supplies today. The people who had fled Jiang City and the remaining survivors had already looted the supermarkets and convenience stores countless times. It was hard to even find a packet of ketchup.

Fortunately, when he scavenged, besides food and drink, all sorts of mechanical items that other survivors never cared about were also his prey.

2:42 AM

A faint sound woke the lightly sleeping Lin Xian. He sat up, his gaze fixed on the door in the darkness.

The sound seemed to be coming from the hallway outside.

He picked up his short knife for self-defense and silently moved behind the door.

He had reinforced this door with steel plates several times, making it much sturdier than a typical security door. However, against those things, Lin Xian wasn’t entirely confident. Being in a high-rise, his only escape route was the stairs in the hallway.

Lin Xian moved closer to the peephole to look outside. The hallway was pitch black. Only the faint green glow of the emergency lights allowed him to see the outlines of some walls and the floor.

He observed for a while, but there was nothing. He turned to go back to sleep.

But he had only taken two steps when a strange knock suddenly came from the iron door behind him!

Thump~ Thump!

The two slow, deliberate knocks instantly made Lin Xian’s scalp tingle!

Is someone really there? Or have those things discovered my hiding place?

His face grim, he turned back to the door. After a moment’s hesitation, he tightened his grip on the short knife, held his breath, and looked through the peephole again.

Hiss!

The scene in the peephole made Lin Xian suck in a cold breath!

In the dimly lit green hallway, an old man in black burial clothes had appeared at some point and was standing motionless in front of his door. His face was gaunt and deathly pale, his eyes on the verge of rotting… they were a deathly gray-black, exuding a terrifying aura.

The most horrifying part was that the corpse-like old man’s eyes seemed to be staring right at him through the peephole!

Lin Xian was so frightened he stumbled back two steps, his face a mask of shock.

Isn’t that Old Man Li from downstairs?

But he’s already dead…

Lin Xian took half a step back, his expression grave. He didn’t need to think to know that this thing that looked like ‘Old Man Li’ was definitely not human anymore.

Is it a zombie?

But how could a zombie knock on a door?

Lin Xian’s expression was ugly. If it was one of the strange things from the night, he was in for trouble tonight.

“Old Man Li, why aren’t you enjoying a peaceful rest in your coffin? Why come back to suffer like this…” Lin Xian cursed inwardly.

Time ticked by. Lin Xian had completely lost any sleepiness, standing behind the door with his back against the wall, tightly gripping his short knife.

But the knocking sound never came again.

Then, something even stranger happened. The wall Lin Xian was leaning against began to emit a faint scratching sound, as if from fingernails. The sound wasn’t loud, but it was enough to make one’s scalp crawl, as if something was just on the other side of the wall, constantly scratching…

“Holy shit!” He jumped back, staring at the wall. “This thing isn’t trying to dig its way in, is it!”

Lin Xian was a little stunned.

The thing outside seemed to have sensed his presence, separated from him by only a wall.

Lin Xian’s best choice now was to hold his breath and not make any noise. As long as the door to this room wasn’t breached, he was temporarily safe.

But at the same time, he had also prepared an escape route. He had already moved most of his supplies to the Infinity. All that was left in the room was a few days’ worth of food and water, as well as the generator and storage battery.

The minutes ticked by, and the strange scratching sound was like a demon in his mind, constantly ringing in Lin Xian’s ears.

After a while, the sound finally disappeared. Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief and got up to look through the peephole again.

However, this time, the scene before him made the hair on his body stand on end.

In the hallway outside, a girl had appeared at some point, covered in blood and leaning against the ground. She was constantly struggling to get up, reaching her hand towards the door, and weakly calling out, “Help me… help me…”

Lin Xian’s eyes narrowed slightly. The girl looked to be only fifteen or sixteen years old. Her attire was completely out of place in this apocalyptic world: hot pants, a low-cut tube top, and a brightly colored baseball jacket. She even had a wireless headset around her neck. She looked youthful and fashionable. If it weren’t for the bloodstains on her face, Lin Xian would have thought this wasn’t the apocalypse, but the girl next door paying a late-night visit.

Faced with the girl’s plea for help, Lin Xian, behind the door, remained silent.

He had just seen a dead body standing strangely outside, and now it had suddenly turned into a young girl. Anyone would find this extremely abnormal.

These things in the night were bizarre and unpredictable. Besides, he had no connection to this girl. Wouldn’t opening the door now be harming himself?

The time gradually approached 5 AM. There were at least nine hours until dawn.

Through the peephole, Lin Xian noticed that the girl’s face was now pale, and she had slumped to the ground, unconscious.

“Damn it, is it some kind of monster? Is it setting a trap to trick me into opening the door?” Lin Xian had a headache. This situation was much stranger than any zombie.

Lin Xian couldn’t help his curiosity and looked again.

This time, he was shocked to see ‘Old Man Li’s’ figure suddenly standing next to the young girl, his head bowed, as if sniffing her.

Then, ‘Old Man Li’ moved his stiff legs, stood in front of the girl, and slowly bent down.

Instantly, Lin Xian’s pupils shrank, because he now saw that on the back of Old Man Li’s corpse, a monstrous insect resembling a black centipede, covered in long, slender legs, was clinging to him. It was so large it covered almost his entire back!

What the hell is that thing!

Lin Xian sucked in a cold breath.

He saw the monstrous insect’s legs slowly scratch, causing Old Man Li’s hands to lift. Then, it lunged fiercely at the young girl.