They made their way down through the emergency stairwell. Along the way, Huan Tian and Lin Qingqing encountered little danger—the zombies they ran into were nothing more than target practice for Lin Qingqing, each one quickly dispatched without effort.
Huan Tian glanced out through a window as they descended. Rain was still pouring down outside, but it no longer carried the infectious threat it once did. The Nightmare Crystals that had previously fallen with the rain had already dissolved, seeping into every corner of the city.
Not just the plants in roadside greenbelts and lawns—every bit of greenery was now growing at an unnatural, feral rate. In less than two days, thick vines had surged into a towering green wall, forming barriers across streets and alleys. They crept out from flowerbeds, spreading like a contagion, swallowing every part of the city in their wake.
Streets, buildings, gardens—nothing was spared. All lay buried under a blanket of encroaching green.
The city had become a dead zone. Cars sat abandoned in chaos, crashed into one another, alarms wailing ceaselessly. Zombies wandered aimlessly in the streets, staggering through the rain with no purpose, like husks robbed of all thought.
Occasionally, a faint beam of light would flicker from a supermarket window or the upper floors of an office building—someone flashing a phone light, desperately trying to signal for help. But in the suffocating gloom, those flashes seemed all too fragile.
Suddenly, a loud explosion echoed in the distance.
Every zombie froze on the spot, then simultaneously turned toward the sound. The next instant, as if summoned, they surged forward in a wave, stampeding in that direction.
Huan Tian's gaze sharpened. In the distance, a small car had suddenly roared to life and was desperately swerving north like a rabid animal trying to flee. But within seconds, three zombies had leapt onto the windshield, blocking the driver's view. The car careened off-course and crashed into a patch of overgrown vegetation. Then, the swarm descended, burying the vehicle beneath a tide of rot and fury. Not even the screams from inside could be heard.
The entire city felt like it was suffocating in despair.
"Huan Tian… how did everything fall apart in just two days? The city out there… it feels even more terrifying than inside the building," Lin Qingqing whispered, her voice trembling.
"It's not just a feeling," Huan Tian replied calmly, glancing back at her. "Outside is far more dangerous than inside. So if you want to keep following me, make the most of every moment in these buildings—use them to grow stronger."
Lin Qingqing bit her lip and nodded firmly. Without realizing it, Huan Tian had already become a god-like figure in her heart. And in her bright, expressive eyes, every time they fell upon him, a flicker of infatuation and deep admiration shone through.
Huan Tian smirked inwardly, choosing not to respond to the look in Lin Qingqing's eyes. But a flicker of doubt passed through his gaze.
He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but earlier, he had constantly felt as if a pair of eyes were watching him from behind. Yet after passing the 40th floor, that unsettling sensation vanished without a trace. At the same time, he noticed something else—around this level, the number of zombies was significantly lower than on the floors above.
"Qingqing," he said in a low voice, "do you feel like something's off since we hit the 40th floor?"
Lin Qingqing wiped the blood from her bone blade and replied casually, "I didn't notice much. If I had to say, it's just that there seem to be way fewer zombies on these floors. Up there, we could always hear them snarling nonstop. But from the 40th floor on, the whole stairwell's been dead silent."
A dangerous glint flashed through Huan Tian's eyes like a knife drawn in the dark.
He'd been too focused on tracking that invisible gaze and had completely overlooked this crucial detail!
He paused, ears straining to listen. Sure enough, the silence was absolute. Not a single growl or snarl echoed from the nearby corridors.
"Could it be that all the zombies got drawn to the 36th floor by traces left by some survivors?" Lin Qingqing suggested quietly.
Huan Tian nodded. That was the only plausible explanation.
"Stay close behind me," he ordered. "Be ready for anything behind the emergency exit door. We're heading straight to the 36th floor—fast."
They moved quickly, descending the stairwell with heightened vigilance. As they neared the 36th floor, the silence broke—faint, guttural growls echoed up from below.
They cautiously crept forward and peered down over the edge.
Lin Qingqing's face instantly drained of color at the sight below.
Dozens of zombies were crammed in front of the 36th-floor emergency exit, packed so tightly they filled the entire corridor and spilled up the stairs. They were jammed together in a frenzied mob, slamming their bodies and fists against the reinforced door. Blood-slick handprints smeared across the surface like grotesque symbols of madness.
Many of the zombies had been trampled underfoot by their kind, crushed into a pulp of mangled limbs and exposed bone. At least several dozen corpses lay piled across the floor, soaked in a thick sludge of black-red blood. Severed limbs, broken spines, and dismembered fingers floated in the gore, creating a scene too grotesque to describe.
Suddenly, a dull thud echoed from within the swarm.
A long, whip-like arm shot upward from the heart of the horde—unnaturally flexible and vicious. With a sharp crack, it lashed forward and struck the emergency door with bone-snapping force.
The metal groaned under the impact, shuddering violently as rust and blood sprayed into the air.
This was no ordinary zombie.
It was a mutant.
Thud!
With a deep, muffled crash, the emergency exit door trembled violently. The heavy metal surface caved in slightly from the impact.
Before the echo faded, another long, whip-like arm swung high into the air and came crashing down on the door again. The relentless barrage continued without pause, each strike like a war drum pounding through the stairwell. Within moments, the once-solid door had become dented and deformed beyond recognition.
Yet, despite the onslaught, the emergency exit held firm.
Through the small glass window in the door, they could see that the interior was tightly barricaded with a jumble of desks and chairs, piled high and packed solid.
"Roar!"
As if enraged by the lower-tier zombies crowding its path, a furious growl erupted from within the horde. The creature at the center snapped, flailing its massive arms in wild fury. Zombies toppled like dominoes. Some were struck so violently they flew over the railings, tumbling down the stairwell like ragdolls.
At last, the source of the whip-like arms revealed itself.
It was a female zombie, towering over the rest, her limbs grotesquely elongated and unnaturally flexible. She bared her teeth in a feral snarl at the lesser zombies around her. They responded with nothing but submissive, feeble growls, recoiling slightly under her glare.
Without hesitation, she resumed her assault, arms lashing out like thunderbolts, slamming into the door over and over. The sounds echoed like distant thunder on a stormy spring night.
Yet somehow, Huan Tian sensed something off.
There was a frantic urgency in the creature's movements—a kind of impatience.
"This way won't work. We're heading back up," Huan Tian said coldly.
He gestured, and the two of them silently retreated to the 37th floor. Once the pounding noises grew faint behind them, Lin Qingqing finally let out a long breath, her body visibly relaxing.
"If the survivors below have turned the 36th floor into a secure zone," she analyzed quickly, "then they must have sealed off all major access points—probably leaving only one controlled entrance. If we want to get down there, we'll have to find a way in from within the 37th floor."
"How many access points are there?" Huan Tian asked.
"There are four stairwells, one in each direction—north, south, east, and west. But if they're serious about defense, those will all be blocked. That leaves the fire escape and the emergency stairwell... Wait—there's one more place!"
Suddenly struck by inspiration, Lin Qingqing knelt down and quickly sketched out a rough floor plan of the 37th floor on the ground. Her finger pointed to a specific corner of the blueprint.
"Here. There's another way in."
"It's here," Lin Qingqing pointed to a seemingly insignificant corner on the sketched floor plan. "There's a dedicated maintenance passage for electricians. Hardly anyone ever goes there. If the survivors wanted to maintain a link between floors without drawing attention, this would be the perfect spot."
Huan Tian glanced at her, genuinely surprised.
It was true that the Engineering Department kept the full building schematics archived in the Secretariat. But this was a 47-story skyscraper. Who could memorize the structural layout of every floor after merely glancing through it?
Yet Lin Qingqing not only remembered—it was precise enough to sketch from memory!
This was the power of a brain with 15 points in Mentality. It was like having a built-in database. Without her, he might have wasted hours fumbling around in the dark.
"But…" Lin Qingqing bit her lower lip, a touch of worry surfacing. "That passage is on the opposite side of the building. To get there, we'll have to cross the entire 37th floor."
That meant—
They'd likely have to face a terrifying number of zombies.
The hordes from the four floors above could very well have all gathered here.
"Follow me. We'll move slowly," Huan Tian said, his tone calm but resolute.
Without another word, he slung on his backpack, reversed his grip on the bone blade, and silently pushed open the emergency stairwell door on the 37th floor with the knife tip.
Standing just beyond it were three wandering zombies.
Huan Tian struck without hesitation. Two swift slashes decapitated the first pair before they could react.
The third had barely begun to turn when Lin Qingqing stepped forward, driving her blade straight into its eye socket.
Only one blood-soaked corpse remained lying motionless ahead of them.
But as Huan Tian stepped past, the "corpse" suddenly lunged upward, grabbing at his ankle!
Splurt!
His bone knife had already pierced its skull, right through the eye.
Black blood spattered across the floor.
"Post-apocalyptic survival rule number six," Huan Tian said coldly, "Never trust a corpse. If it's not a zombie, it's someone playing dead to ambush you."
Lin Qingqing nodded, her face hardening.
Above them, dim corridor lights flickered erratically. Lin Qingqing kept her ears sharp, footsteps light, staying close behind Huan Tian. Faint, eerie howls echoed from far down the hall.
Just as they were about to step into the next corridor, Lin Qingqing's body stiffened. Her eyes widened slightly, and a chill ran down her spine.
"Huan Tian… There's something ahead."
"Don't speak."
They pressed flat against the wall and crept forward, inch by inch.
The closer they got to the corner, the louder the sound became.
From a distance, it was a vague, rustling murmur. But as they approached—
Their blood ran cold.
It wasn't footsteps. It wasn't breathing. It was—
Chewing.
Wet, persistent, unrelenting chewing.
Something or some things were eating. And they weren't finished.