“I’m the owner of Unit 0306 in Building 2. I was the first person to post on the owners’ forum. I’m probably also the first person in our complex to have encountered a mutant,” Jiang Cheng said. “I have a bit more experience.”
Honestly, it was only a little more. After that major battle just now, everyone had faced many mutants. When it came to hands-on experience, they had mostly caught up—there wasn’t really much of a gap anymore.
But most people were willing to cooperate with the group and follow instructions, yet they couldn’t be the ones to make plans or give orders themselves.
It was like how the owners’ committee usually only had a few people taking the lead and doing the work, while everyone else just needed to sign their names on the consent forms.
When a large group of people gathered, everyone wanted someone to step up and tell them what to do next.
“My suggestion,” Jiang Cheng said, “is that the injured people bear with us for a while as we restrict their freedom. I think the property management’s meeting room would be suitable. We can put them there first and assign people to keep watch.”
The crowd buzzed with discussion again.
One person who had been bitten on the arm stepped up first. “Fine, I don’t mind. If I do turn, I don’t want to hurt anyone anyway. You can just kill me on the spot.”
This person was one of the advocates organizing the operation on the owners’ forum and the leader of his building’s group. He had already earned some credibility in the battle just now. With him agreeing first, anyone else who objected wouldn’t have much persuasive power.
So many eyes were watching. Everyone had weapons in hand.
The principle of majority rule had very real significance at this moment.
Someone could only ask, “So how long are we going to be locked up?”
Jiang Cheng said, “Let’s start with 24 hours. If nothing happens by this time tomorrow, you’ll be released.”
Li Jiangbing voiced his agreement. “Sounds good. I think that works.”
Many others chimed in with approval. The injured people looked grim, but they were sensible enough not to cause a fuss.
Jiang Cheng said, “Given the situation, we need to get organized. We can’t stay so chaotic. There are six buildings total. Let’s have each building pick a few liaisons—people who’ll do the work and communicate. We can’t have everyone in a mess.”
She volunteered first. “Building 2 has me, Jiang Cheng. This is my neighbor Li Jiangbing. Anyone else from our building want to step up?”
Li Jiangbing, directly named and pulled in, had no objections and simply stood behind her. Two more people from Building 2 stepped forward voluntarily. The four of them formed a team with Jiang Cheng at its core.
Each building’s residents gathered together, and soon each had its own representatives.
Everyone else stepped back, while those who had volunteered stood at the center.
Jiang Cheng nodded. “We won’t bother exchanging phone numbers one by one for now. When we get back, we’ll start a post on the forum and share contact info there.”
“Right now, let’s have each building send one person to escort the injured to the property management office and keep watch over them there. Let’s handle this first—it’s the most urgent.”
Most of those willing to stand at the center were people who didn’t shy away from responsibility. Each building arranged for one person—six people in total—to “escort” the dozen or so injured to the property management office.
Jiang Cheng reminded them, “The property management office has computers. You can log into the owners’ forum. Keep an eye on the forum. We’ll post our contact information there later, and we can communicate in time if something comes up.”
She also had each of these people report their unit numbers to their building’s representatives before letting them head to the property management office.
The crowd parted to let them through. Once they had left, the crowd closed back up.
The dozen or so representatives at the center discussed, “What now? What do we do with all these bodies? We can’t just leave them here, can we?”
But Jiang Cheng said, “There’s something more important than the bodies right now.”
Everyone looked at her.
Jiang Cheng said, “Earlier, from upstairs, I saw injured people running back into the buildings.”
Li Jiangbing swore under his breath. “Shit.”
Everyone’s expression turned grim.
“They should be fairly easy to find,” Jiang Cheng said. “At that time, there weren’t that many people out yet—just the ones who signed up on the forum. I remember you all filled in your unit numbers when you registered. Seven or eight, nine or ten people—it shouldn’t be too hard to narrow down.”
She emphasized, “We have to find them and get them to the property management office.”
This was the most urgent matter. The fear was that those who had run back inside would turn, then bite others, leading to more mutations—an endless chain of trouble.
After a quick check on-site, only Buildings 2 and 5 had injured people who had run back inside. They cross-referenced the unit numbers of the earliest participants. Then Li Jiangbing led a team from Building 2, and someone from Building 5 led another. With a raised fist and a shout, each took five or six people and headed back into the buildings.
They would first compare the unit numbers on the forum to confirm which owners they were, then go and apprehend them.
That wave had also left. Someone asked Jiang Cheng, “Should we deal with the bodies?”
In just a short time, everyone had naturally grown accustomed to Jiang Cheng making the arrangements. They sought her opinion first.
Jiang Cheng said, “Let’s stack them all in the central plaza for now. It’s the farthest from every building, and the area is open. If we end up having to burn them later, it’ll be safer.”
Someone hesitated. “Burn them?”
“I started hearing police cars and ambulances around midnight last night,” Jiang Cheng said. “But by now, we all know this isn’t just our complex or our city—it’s basically nationwide. Even if government departments get back up and running, they won’t be able to handle this many bodies in a short time. The crematorium could run 24 hours a day and still not keep up.”
“With the current temperature, if we leave them for a few days, there’ll be a plague.”
“My suggestion is to pile them here first, then try to contact the police and see what they say. It’d be best if the police can handle it. But if they can’t, we’ll burn them ourselves. We can’t just let the bodies rot and cause an epidemic.”
“Does anyone have a phone on them? Call the police right now.”
Everyone patted their pockets. Someone pulled out a phone, flipped it open, and dialed the police in front of everyone.
It wouldn’t go through.
“No good,” the person said, closing the phone. “All busy signals. Constantly busy.”
Jiang Cheng nodded. “Then let’s start cleaning up.”
Led by Jiang Cheng and the other representatives, the residents began clearing the battlefield.
Almost no one slacked off. This was their own garden. If they didn’t deal with the bodies, they’d be the ones to suffer.
In the end, all the bodies were piled up in the central plaza. While killing them, it hadn’t felt like much. But now, looking at the pile, everyone felt shocked and shaken.
“They look really different from humans.”
“Yeah, look at the skin color. A living person couldn’t have that color.”
“Look at that one—that’s an infected mutant. See how his skin tone is different from the others?”
“God, that one’s terrifying. I almost didn’t dodge in time.”
“That one was my neighbor in the building. Sigh…”
People stood over the bodies, lamenting and emphasizing how “non-human” these mutants were.
Just then, someone upstairs opened a window and shouted toward the garden, “There’s news—! Check the news broadcast—!”
Several people ran near the buildings, craning their necks to ask, “What’d it say? Did the government issue a notice? What did they say?”
Several people upstairs leaned out, talking over each other: “Said there’s a large-scale virus.”
“Told everyone to stay safe and use force to fight back if necessary.”
“Told everyone to stay home as much as possible and not run around.”
“Called on police, doctors, and firefighters to stay at their posts.”
Someone downstairs put their hands on their hips and asked, “Did they say anything about going to work tomorrow?”
The answer came back: “No—.”
Jiang Cheng exchanged glances with a few of the other leaders.
She said to the person with the phone, “Try calling again.”
The person pulled out their phone, flipped it open, and dialed once more. On the fifth try, luckily, the call went through.
“You can’t come?” the person said to the operator. “Then what do we do here? There are so many bodies.”
“Huh? Oh… I see.”
“Alright then.”
He hung up the phone and told everyone, “They said unless there’s a fire or explosion or some other hazard that needs to be cleared, don’t call about mutants. Handle it ourselves. They said they don’t have enough police resources.”
“Of course,” Jiang Cheng said. “How many residents are there in a city? And how many police officers? Besides, if this is a virus, the police aren’t immune either. They’ve probably lost people too.”
She continued, “Given how widespread this virus is, at least in the short term, we can’t count on the government.”
Someone murmured, “Doesn’t that mean total chaos?”
Jiang Cheng didn’t respond. She just glanced at the pile of bodies, which was taller than a person, then looked back at the man.
The sun was blazing, but everyone felt a chill.
Jiang Cheng said, “Let’s burn them now. There’s no point waiting until they start stinking.”
She asked everyone, “Does anyone have anything flammable? Gasoline? Alcohol?”
Someone in a property management uniform said, “The supply closet has alcohol for disinfection, some gasoline, and some diesel—just a bit. We use it for the lawnmowers.”
So several people went to fetch the fuel.
Jiang Cheng discussed shift changes for those guarding the property management office with the other building leaders. “Let’s have lunch first, then send replacements. We’ll do another rotation in the evening.”
“Oh, by the way, my name is Jiang Cheng.”
Everyone exchanged names.
There were many people, and not everyone could remember every name, but everyone remembered Jiang Cheng.
“You’re really strong,” someone said.
They had all seen her swinging the baseball bat, smashing mutant skulls. A few swings, and the mutant stopped moving. They had realized at the time just how strong she was.
Because when they themselves used blunt weapons to beat a mutant to death, they generally needed more swings and more time.
No one had actually counted at the moment, but they could intuitively feel the difference in kill speed.
After a morning of observation, Jiang Cheng had basically confirmed that no one else had experienced the same “strength increase” she had.
She remained composed. “I’ve always been strong since I was a kid. Guys can’t beat me.”
This self-portrayal was immediately accepted.
In fact, this was one of the reasons why these people were willing to listen to her when she stepped up to take charge.
Just then, a commotion came from the direction of Building 2.
Li Jiangbing returned with his team, his face grim.
Jiang Cheng knew something had gone wrong the moment she saw him. “Already turned?”
“Yeah,” Li Jiangbing said, his expression especially dark. “Killed it. But we lost two people in the process.”
He turned to gesture behind him.
Everyone saw that among the people who had gone with him to apprehend the injured person, two were visibly wounded.
Everyone’s expressions turned sour.
Someone asked, “It turned that quickly?”
Li Jiangbing nodded. “We matched the unit numbers from the forum sign-ups and found him. When we went to knock on the door, the sound startled him. He burst right out. We weren’t prepared, and two of our people got injured and were bleeding.”
Infected mutants had agile, coordinated limbs. Opening a door was difficult for a primary mutant but was no problem at all for an infected mutant.
That was where Li Jiangbing’s group had been at a disadvantage. They had never dealt with an infected mutant before and hadn’t expected the person to turn so fast.
Jiang Cheng’s gaze lingered on the two behind Li Jiangbing. “Send them to the property management office too.”
The two men’s faces turned ashen.
It was almost certain now that anyone injured and bleeding from a mutant would turn one hundred percent. Going there likely meant death—just like the mutant they had just killed.
Both of them were still gripping their weapons. One had a kitchen knife, the other a hammer.
The one holding the kitchen knife tightened his grip, veins bulging on the back of his hand.
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