Crack, crack!
Crunch, crunch.
Gulp, gulp.
The sounds of flesh being torn apart, of mangled meat and blood being chewed, and of bones snapping under powerful, jagged teeth blended into a hellish symphony—enough to make anyone's skin crawl.
Lin Qingqing's face turned pale with tension, her breath catching in her throat. Huan Tian, calm as ever, quietly pulled out a shard of a rearview mirror and lowered it to the ground, slowly angling it around the corner.
Up ahead lay a dim, spacious hall. In the center, eight zombies crouched like hyenas, tearing savagely into a single corpse. But the one being devoured wasn't human—it was another zombie.
Its skull had been nearly cleaved in half by some unknown force, with only a few strips of flesh still holding it together. It lay sprawled on the floor like a discarded carcass, and naturally, had become a feast for its kind.
"So… disgusting… ugh!"
Despite all the training she'd received from Huan Tian, Lin Qingqing still couldn't stop the wave of nausea that hit when one of the zombies yanked a long, slick organ from the corpse's belly and shoved it into its mouth.
Huan Tian remained silent, eyes locked on one particular figure among them—the last zombie, a female.
She looked disturbingly emaciated, skin stretched taut over bones, her whole frame like it might collapse at any moment. Yet her lower abdomen was grotesquely swollen, bulging as if something was growing inside. Strangely, among all eight, she was the most ravenous, devouring flesh with a frenzy like a starving ghost cursed with endless hunger.
"Quick and clean," Huan Tian muttered. "We finish them fast, then find a place to hide."
"But that female one… something's wrong with her. Don't get close."
Lin Qingqing nodded firmly.
Huan Tian raised his hand and gave the signal—
Three.
Two.
One!
The two of them charged out at the same time!
The three zombies with their backs turned didn't even have time to react before Huan Tian's bone blade swept through the air, beheading them one by one in a flash of steel and blood. Their heads rolled across the floor. Lin Qingqing followed up swiftly, driving her spear through another zombie's chest, pinning it firmly to the ground.
Only then did the remaining four zombies register what was happening—but by that point, they no longer posed any threat.
Yet the female zombie reacted differently. She slowly rose to her feet, trembling all over. Instead of lunging at them, she stared straight at the pair—her dead gray pupils filled with an indescribable… excitement.
Suddenly, the grotesquely swollen bulge in her abdomen began to twitch violently, as if something inside her was struggling to break free. Sickening "gurgle-gurgle" sounds echoed from her belly. She dropped to her knees and convulsed, retching uncontrollably, both hands clutching her head as she let out shrill, broken screams of agony.
"Ah…"
"Ahh!!"
"AAAHHH—!!!"
The screams grew louder, sharper, more desperate—until suddenly, with a sickening crack—
Her mouth tore open at the corners, and the upper half of her skull flipped backward like the lid of a teapot. A surge of thick, black blood burst out like a geyser, spraying the walls and floor in all directions. The female zombie's shrieking ceased instantly as her body collapsed with a wet thud, motionless.
From the gaping hole in her neck, something rolled out—a gore-slick flesh orb.
The orb hit the floor, tumbled, then slowly unfolded itself.
It revealed a six-legged creature, roughly the size of a human face, its body shaped like a spider but armored in crab-like plates, drenched in black-red gore. It let out a shrill "screeeee" toward Huan Tian and Lin Qingqing, and even without being the same species, the overwhelming greed and hunger in its cry was unmistakable.
"Get behind me!" Huan Tian roared.
The moment he saw the creature, his Desert Eagle materialized in his hand. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
But the six-legged crawler moved with terrifying speed, darting in a zigzag pattern that allowed it to dodge all of the nightmare bullets. It circled the two of them in a frenzy, screeching its piercing "screeeee" as it searched for an opening, the sound drilling into their ears like a predator whispering death.
At the same time, the three zombies lunged at them with furious snarls.
"You handle the zombies—whatever you do, don't go near that thing!"
Lin Qingqing nodded, scalp tingling. She didn't know why, but she could feel the creature's eyes locked onto her, as if it were staring directly into her soul. She'd rather face a dozen zombies than that terrifying little thing.
Screee! Screee! Screee!
As if her retreat had thoroughly enraged it, the six-legged crawler moved even faster. In the blink of an eye, it darted sideways across the floor in a sharp curve—then suddenly leapt!
Its massive insectoid body sprang into the air, six razor-sharp legs spread wide like claws, diving straight for Lin Qingqing's unguarded back.
"Back off!"
A flash of cold light swept across the air—Huan Tian's bone blade slashed outward.
The crawler let out a shriek of pain. In that instant, a strand of silk shot out from its back—web-like, sticky, anchoring it mid-air and yanking it hard back toward the ground. But it was still too slow—
Slice!
The bone blade cut through two of its legs on the right side, sending them flying in a spray of black ichor.
The crawler landed awkwardly, tumbling backward. It raised its head and let out another sharp "screee!", eyes locked with Huan Tian, the sound filled with both pain and fury.
Click!
The Desert Eagle appeared in Huan Tian's hand like magic.
"Screee!!"
The creature shrieked in panic the moment it saw the gun.
Before Huan Tian could pull the trigger, it bolted—scurrying across the floor at lightning speed and vanishing into a nearby ventilation shaft.
[Ding. Killed Tier-1 Zombie: 7. Demon Hunt Points gained: 7. Total: 61]
He had enough points to upgrade, but now wasn't the time.
Lin Qingqing had just finished off the last of the zombies. Her forehead was drenched in cold sweat, and her eyes still flickered with lingering panic.
"That horrible little thing… what the hell was that?"
Huan Tian picked up the two severed limbs lying on the floor.
"It's a parasitic mutant."
The limbs resembled those of a cockroach or some other arthropod—long, segmented, with forked claw-tips. The outer surface was covered in tiny, backward-facing barbs embedded in a tough carapace. If that thing managed to latch on—
You'd be lucky to escape without leaving a layer of skin behind.
Lin Qingqing's heart skipped a beat.
During the past few days of training, Huan Tian had taught her about the different categories and characteristics of mutants, and parasites were among the most terrifying of them all.
These creatures were originally parasitic worms or organisms that, after being infected by the Nightmare Virus, mutated into conscious entities within the human body. After transformation, they could burrow into zombie hosts, controlling them to hunt and kill, then absorbing all the nutrients to feed their grotesque growth.
The longer they remain inside a host, the more emaciated the zombie becomes, until it's of no use. At that point, the parasite rips its way out and seeks a stronger host to infest.
Huan Tian's eyes remained fixed on the two severed legs of the six-legged crawler, his brow gradually tightening with unease.
"Groooar... graaah..."
A chorus of zombie snarls echoed from nearby. Without hesitation, Huan Tian grabbed the female zombie's corpse and dragged it forward.
"Clear a room—now!"
Lin Qingqing rushed to the nearest office door. A zombie inside had just begun to growl when she kicked it over and drove her blade clean through its throat, killing it instantly.
The two of them dragged the female zombie's corpse into the room, slammed the door shut, and locked it, muffling the furious roars closing in from outside.
"Qingqing—give me a hand."
Huan Tian set down the corpse and his backpack, pulling out a set of sharp tools he'd taken from the warehouse. After slipping on a pair of black rubber gloves, he went to work without hesitation.
His first cut sliced directly through the zombie's lower abdomen.
Lin Qingqing, though still unnerved, had begun adjusting to such grisly scenes. She stood by, assisting him in separating and removing the abdominal organs.
She remembered what Huan Tian had told her: freshly turned zombies still had bright red blood. But as the Nightmare Virus took hold, the blood would quickly turn black, and under light, shimmer with a sinister blue sheen.
As the virus progressed further, that blue hue would seep into every tissue, gradually dyeing the entire corpse a deep, nightmare blue.
Bit by bit, they peeled back the layers and cleared the inner cavity.
Finally, at the intersection of the stomach and intestines, Huan Tian found what he was looking for.
It was a mangled, torn mass of ruptured organs, shredded as if something had violently forced its way out from within, bursting through the flesh in a brutal escape.
Among the twisted remains, Huan Tian spotted a bloodstained fragment of a chitinous shell—smaller than the one on the six-legged crawler earlier, but unmistakably of the same species.
It was younger, maybe newly molted, but the structure and pattern were identical.
Staring at it in his gloved palm, Huan Tian's expression hardened.
Now there was no doubt.
He had identified the creature.