“There really is a sound, Brother Hao…”
The young man who had first heard the noise spoke up again. This time, his tone was especially certain. The other young people wanted to tease him for being timid. But the next moment, before the words left their mouths, they all froze.
“Hey, hey, why’s no one talking? Xiao Liu is just a scaredy-cat. Honestly…”
“Brother Hao, Brother Hao…” Just as Brother Hao was grumbling, the other young people had already turned their heads toward the sound. Then, one by one, they pointed at the space above Brother Hao’s head. Their throats seemed to be blocked, unable to speak. Their fingers shook worse than someone with Parkinson’s disease.
Seeing this, Brother Hao grew even more impatient. He thought to himself that he might as well have stayed in the city instead of coming back to live in the village, hanging out with these losers.
Just then, Brother Hao felt an itch on his neck. He reached up and brushed it, finding something sticky.
“Dammit, what the hell…” He cursed as he turned his head.
Then came a scream: “Aaaaaah…”
“Run, run, run…” Brother Hao screamed in his mind, but his body was frozen, unable to move. He was paralyzed with fear.
The other young people, their legs trembling, backed away from Brother Hao.
Brother Hao reached out, but he was still holding a bag of struggling cockroaches. And his hand seemed stuck too.
He looked down. The white, thread-like substance had somehow wrapped itself around the mesh bag. He panicked and let go.
The next moment, the bag hit the ground. Cockroaches scattered in all directions. The white, thread-like substance began to branch.
Like a single strand of thread suddenly splitting into several, the silk began dividing into countless strands as the cockroaches scattered. Each strand precisely stuck to a cockroach. Then the palm-sized cockroaches were lifted up toward the ceiling.
Brother Hao finally found the strength to move. He stumbled a few steps toward the young people. Then he noticed that the silk and its owner hadn’t followed. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
He said to the young people, trembling, “Heh, it’s fine. It eats cockroaches.”
As he said this, Brother Hao’s eyes were wide open. His legs shook like sieves, but he stubbornly took a few more steps forward.
The other young people, supporting each other, also continued to run.
No kidding. Even if that thing only ate cockroaches, there was no way they were staying here.
That was a giant spider!
Judging by its size, just one of its legs was two meters long. A spider that big would scare anyone to death, even if it didn’t eat humans. Still, they felt a slight sense of relief. After all, the spider silk had only gone after the cockroaches. Brother Hao was just unlucky to be standing right under the spider, which was why he got some silk on him.
Now they understood why there were no cockroaches on the second underground level. The giant spider had eaten them all. They needed to run, get out, and report to the authorities that there was a spider demon in the complex.
“Brother Hao, run faster!”
The young man who had first heard the noise saw Brother Hao’s legs shaking like crazy and urged him to hurry up.
Brother Hao, bringing up the rear, wanted to go faster too. But he was truly terrified. And there had been no movement behind him. Brother Hao thought that maybe he was lucky enough to have encountered a spider demon that didn’t eat humans.
Thinking this, a slight smile appeared on his face. He even thought about posting about his encounter with the spider demon online to show off. He even considered taking out his phone and taking a selfie with the spider.
But the next second, his still-smiling head was severed cleanly by a spider leg, as easily as if it were a doll.
The spider leg moved incredibly fast. The head fell to the ground and rolled right up to the feet of the young people before the arteries in his neck even started spraying blood. The blood gushed out like a fountain, splattering halfway across the ceiling and dyeing it red.
His body, following the spray of blood, crashed to the ground with a thud.
The eyes of the young people were still fixed on the smiling head. They looked as if they had lost their minds.
The apocalypse had arrived less than ten days ago. The most terrifying thing they had seen so far was people being covered and gnawed on by cockroaches. To them, that was already the cruelest thing imaginable. They had never seen someone have their head ripped off like this.
Qin Sang had rushed as fast as she could. But she only had two legs, and the underground garage was vast. How could she possibly match the speed of a spider with eight legs?
So when she arrived, she witnessed the head rolling on the ground.
Without time to think, she immediately pulled a compound crossbow over a meter in length from her spatial space. This type of crossbow was meant for hunting large game and was prohibited in the country. Xu Lin had gotten these from somewhere—there were only five of them, but they came with a good number of bolts.
Qin Sang didn’t hesitate. She pulled out the crossbow, aimed at the giant spider, and fired.
The bolt hit its mark, but not really. The spider wasn’t stupid. The moment it was attacked, it immediately raised a leg to block.
The clang of the bolt striking the spider’s leg proved that the spider’s legs could definitely compare to metal—and might even be harder and sharper.
“Run!”
While firing a second bolt, Qin Sang shouted at the few stunned people. Then she ignored them and started firing bolts like they cost nothing.
The giant spider used six of its eight legs, swinging them so fast they were almost a blur. Those six legs blocked every bolt Qin Sang fired.
She bit her lip, grateful for her own quick thinking.
As for the young people, being yelled at by Qin Sang finally snapped them out of it. They wanted to run but also wanted to turn back and help. Catching this out of the corner of her eye, Qin Sang wanted to facepalm.
“Just run! Don’t hold me back here!”
While cursing, she continued shooting and retreating. She wasn’t there to fight to the death—she came to confirm what had been making her feel uneasy. Now that she had confirmed it and saved some people, it was time for her to run too.
But the giant spider didn’t want to let Qin Sang go. It took the opportunity to start spewing spider silk.
Qin Sang wasn’t stupid. She directly threw several buckets of pre-mixed insecticide at the giant spider. While the creature was slowed down by the insecticide, she quickened her pace and ran from the second underground level to the first, easily overtaking the few young people. Their screams of “Holy shit, holy shit!” rang in her ears.
But just as she had thought, once she reached the first underground level, the giant spider didn’t chase after her.
Clearly, there was something important to the giant spider on the second level.
Just then, the young people caught up to her. Since they were all from the same village and knew Qin Sang, they wanted to say something to her. But then, the sound of footsteps came from behind.
Seeing the newcomers, Qin Sang asked directly, “Do you have enough firepower?”
The leader nodded. Qin Sang said directly, “That giant spider appears to be a Heteropoda venatoria. It has a distinctive white area on its forehead. Before the apocalypse, this type of spider ate cockroaches. It still eats cockroaches now. I don’t know if it eats humans, but it is highly aggressive toward humans. Its legs are over two meters long, and its body is over a meter long. The silk it spews is extremely sticky. One person is dead. The survivors are all here.”
The leading soldier listened to Qin Sang’s report while comparing it to the video she had sent when she called it in. The video was taken by a drone and, thanks to modern technology, was very clear. Under the camera, the giant spider’s appearance was easy to see.
“Thank you, Miss Qin. Leave the rest to us. You all head to a safe place first.”
Qin Sang nodded and followed the staff’s instructions to leave. It was too dangerous here.
Seeing Qin Sang leave, the few young people anxiously followed her. No one’s word carried more weight than Qin Sang’s right now.
It wasn’t until she stepped outside the building that Qin Sang realized the area had been cordoned off. There were no bystanders—only teams of fully armed soldiers.
Qin Sang was taken aside and again recounted her experience in the underground parking garage. She also mentioned that the giant spider was very difficult to kill and that there seemed to be something on the second underground level keeping the spider there, unwilling to leave.
Afterward, Qin Sang didn’t leave either. She stayed on the sidelines, waiting for the outcome. She was also very curious about what the giant spider was guarding.
Even though she probably wouldn’t be allowed to know in the end.
Soon, the sounds of battle broke out. There were very few gunshots. Clearly, given the conditions of the underground parking garage, they didn’t dare to use heavy firepower.
But when official forces made a move, there was no such thing as a simple resolution.
After only half an hour, the rescue team that had just gone down came back up. Each of them exuded a fierce aura. The weapons on their shoulders still crackled with electricity.
Clearly, this weapon shaped like a rocket launcher wasn’t firing rockets—it was firing giant electric nets or metal nets?
Qin Sang had never seen such a weapon before and was very curious.
“This is a high-voltage grid gun newly developed by the authorities,” said a young military officer she didn’t know, standing nearby.
Qin Sang looked at him, wondering who he was to be telling her this.
Seeing her expression, the officer raised his hand and smiled. “Xu Lin is a good buddy of mine…”
Qin Sang thought: I grew up with Xu Lin. Since when does he have a buddy this old?
Just as they were talking, several people pulled a flatbed cart carrying the giant, charred corpse of the spider—its eight legs curled up and a burnt smell emanating from it.
The moment it appeared, a collective gasp rang through the crowd.
Hearing about it was one thing, but standing in front of the giant spider, people finally realized just how terrifying this thing was.
Especially the huge mouthparts—sharp enough to pierce straight through a human body.
“I think you’re going to get an earful from Da Linzi when you get back,” the unfamiliar young officer suddenly said.
Qin Sang shrugged. She had gone to deal with the giant spider because she had her spatial space as a backup. In the worst case, she could always hide in her space to save herself.
What Qin Sang didn’t know at this moment was that Grandfather Goose in her space was already hopping mad.
Anyway, having seen the giant spider and knowing there was nothing left for her to do, she turned and walked toward the bus.
Today had been truly thrilling. She wanted to go home and sleep.
As for the few young people, seeing Qin Sang leave, they immediately followed again, terrified of being left behind.
If Qin Sang knew she was being treated like a lifeline, she would have laughed scornfully.
The bus started up quickly. Because many of the people who had come for the mission had been evacuated onto the buses early due to the appearance of the giant spider.
The bus departed as soon as it was full.
Qin Sang didn’t wait for Second Aunt and the others. She just sent Second Aunt a message saying she was going home first. Then she put down her phone and rested with her eyes closed.
Meanwhile, her phone kept buzzing incessantly.
Xu Lin, staring at his phone as the call went unanswered, hung up and leaned back in his chair, looking at the image of the giant spider on his computer screen. He let out a long sigh.
“Boss, there are spider demons in Huashan City too?” Xiao Ma, bringing coffee to his team leader, looked at the spider demon on the screen and felt his scalp tingle.
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