Whether in the corners of the city or in the tall crop fields of the countryside, there were still scattered zombies lurking undetected for various reasons.
The military had already withdrawn, and S City had established its own urban crisis rapid response teams, distributed across each district.
If a missed zombie was discovered, they had to dispatch immediately. Not only did they have to eliminate the zombie, but they also had to screen nearby personnel to ensure no infected individuals were hiding and failing to report.
The welder had never been to the Tech New District before and hadn’t realized it was so far from the city center, so he hadn’t planned his travel time well. By the time he arrived, the sky was already dark.
The property manager complained that he was holding him up from clocking out, and the welder complained that it was too far and demanded more money.
The two bickered and haggled for a while, and by the time they finally reached a compromise, it was fully dark.
The welder: “Are you sure there are no zombies inside?”
The property manager slapped the door. “Hey, hey! Zombie! Say something if you’re in there!”
But no sound came from the conference room.
The property manager spread his hands.
The welder: “Alright, then.”
But Master Luo was still uneasy. He called over two security guards, and all three of them put on their armor. They made a token effort of wearing arm guards but didn’t bother with leg guards. Their weapons were still around, so they grabbed those too.
The property manager said, “No need, there’s no sound in there,”
but he stepped back behind them anyway.
The welder figured that with several people around, they could take down a zombie if there really was one.
After going through that month-and-a-half-long zombie crisis, people weren’t nearly as afraid of zombies anymore. They were getting used to them.
Some people even figured encountering a zombie was no different from running into an oversized stray dog.
So the welder boldly began cutting.
With the harsh screeching of the grinder, the weld seam was slowly sliced open.
But even with all that noise, there was still no movement from inside the conference room. Everyone grew even more at ease.
Both security guards were relaxed in their stance.
Only Master Luo couldn’t relax.
Could it really be that the last human had been left inside and starved to death?
The very thought made him feel it was a terrible sin.
The middle weld seam was completely cut through.
The welder tugged the cord and stepped back, jerking his chin toward the door. “Go ahead, try it. Can you open it?”
One of the security guards stepped forward, grabbed the two handles of the double doors, and shook them. “Seems a little stuck.”
The welder: “Put some muscle into it!”
The guard grumbled and shook it harder. The metal door rattled loudly.
“Hey, seems like…” The guard felt it was working.
But before he could finish, a massive force slammed into the door!
The door burst open! A wave of stench hit them in the face!
The welder instinctively raised his angle grinder and flipped the switch!
Something crashed into him. The angle grinder flew out of his hand, and both he and it were sent slamming into the wall, sending sparks flying everywhere!
Jiang Cheng was still away on her business trip, leaving Mo Li home alone.
He lived a very regular life. When day broke, he would go out the window to the courtyard and bask in the sun. When night fell, he would go home, where the whole place was filled with Jiang Cheng’s scent.
Today was no different.
Night had fallen. Mo Li had just finished patrolling his territory and was about to head home when he suddenly turned his head toward Building 1.
A pair of green eyes, pupils huge and round in the darkness.
Humans would find it cute.
But those familiar with cat behavior knew that this kind of wide, round “cute” pupils were actually the posture of a hunter!
Mo Li let out a sharp, short “meow” and his form vanished into a black streak in an instant!
The welder sat on the ground, his back pressed flat against the wall, gasping for air, staring at the thing between his feet.
Half a human palm.
The skin was cyan, the nails pitch black.
The blood oozing from the cut was a thick, dark brown. Like porridge.
That stench was all too familiar—definitely a zombie.
The welder looked up.
One security guard had been knocked aside by the burst-open door and was unconscious.
The other guard and Master Luo were both on the ground, sitting up in terror just like him, staring blankly.
The property manager was sitting behind them, trembling.
The welder took a deep breath, jumped to his feet, and cursed: “And you said there were no zombies!”
As he cursed, he snatched up the fallen security guard’s weapon and looked around warily: “Where’s that zombie?”
Compared to the white-collar office workers in the city, throughout the past month of the zombie crisis, these manual laborers had displayed relatively stronger physical fitness and combat ability.
Master Luo and the other security guard also got up and went to check on the guard who had been knocked unconscious by the door. After confirming he was fine, everyone picked up their weapons.
When they had come in earlier, the main door of the property management center had been left open.
They chased outside, where there was a stairwell.
One floor up was the lobby of Building 1, and one floor down led to the parking garage.
They ran up to the first floor, but there was no security guard there.
The guard who had been on duty on the first floor today was the one who had just been knocked out. Just then, a resident came through the entrance, and Master Luo asked urgently, “Did you see a zombie?”
The resident was shocked: “There’s a zombie?”
Master Luo and the others exchanged glances. “Could it have gone down to the garage?”
Master Luo said anxiously, “We need to notify everyone!”
The property manager quickly pulled out his phone. “I’ll call the police!”
He made the emergency call and explained the situation.
The operator asked, “How many?”
The manager: “Should be just one. It was incredibly fast—we didn’t even get a clear look, and it ran away?”
The operator’s tone changed, rising with urgency: “You’re saying it ran away?”
The manager froze, suddenly realizing something was wrong.
How could a zombie run away? They had never heard of zombies fleeing. Didn’t they always charge at the scent of flesh and blood?
They would smash through glass doors to get at you.
Sweat beaded on the manager’s forehead. “Yes, it ran. And… and…”
And he had knocked on that door and called out more than once, yet the zombie inside had made absolutely no sound.
It was as if it had been pretending not to exist to trick them.
Master Luo turned and headed straight down to the equipment room.
The manager had just finished his call when he heard Master Luo’s accented, not-quite-standard Mandarin blare from overhead: [Attention, everyone, attention! There is a zombie in the neighborhood! There is a zombie in the neighborhood! Everyone, be careful!]
[This zombie is extremely fast! It’s different! It even knows how to run away!]
[Everyone, stay alert!]
Residents who had already come home from work opened their doors one after another to hear more clearly.
After listening, they exchanged bewildered looks.
Someone yelled “Holy shit!” and spun around, bolting back inside.
When they reappeared, they were clad in full armor and wielding weapons.
There was no tension or fear on their faces—only excitement.
The property manager craned his neck stupidly, staring at the speaker on the lobby ceiling. “What’s this?”
The security guard: “A PA system.”
“No kidding. I know it’s a PA. Wait, isn’t this the fire alarm system?” The manager was incredulous. “You can use it like this?”
No one had ever told him.
The city crisis rapid response team arrived quickly.
They drove straight through the main gate into the neighborhood courtyard.
The entire yard was filled with residents in white armor, carrying weapons. They were grouped in teams of three or five, poking through the bushes with sticks, shining flashlights into the shadows behind buildings.
“Find anything?”
“No.”
“Nothing over here either.”
The rapid response team: “…”
One of them couldn’t help asking, “How does your neighborhood have so many people in armor?”
A resident overheard, turned to look at him. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“Huh? I just got transferred to the Tech New District. How did you know?”
The resident chuckled. “Everyone in the Tech New District knows about our Youth Apartments. We’re the main fighting force.”
The rapid response team members were also wearing armor.
They went down to the property management center and first checked the conference room.
The room reeked—that unmistakable zombie stench. But it wasn’t as strong as they had expected.
Not the stench that over a dozen bodies should have produced.
Because the bodies were all gone. Only clothes, scattered bones, and hair remained on the floor.
The clothes were already horrifying enough; the hair was even more chilling.
Everyone who stepped in and saw it had their hair stand on end.
The response team members confirmed repeatedly: “You’re saying there were over a dozen people in here before?”
Master Luo thought for a moment and said, “More than that. The first wave that went in had over a dozen, and another group went in later. Then the door was sealed.”
Master Luo showed them the surveillance footage from back then, confirming that that many people had indeed entered.
The tapes cycled on a 45-day loop. The footage from the first day should have been overwritten by now.
They had deliberately saved these recordings, just in case they might need them someday. And sure enough, they came in handy.
When they saw the person destroy the conference room surveillance camera, the response team members fell silent.
They thought of the bones in the conference room, picked clean.
It might not have been that person.
But it still made their hair stand on end.
The residents were searching the courtyard. They looked very experienced.
The rapid response team went down to the underground garage to search.
The property manager had been down to the garage once after coming back, but he had never walked that large an area.
This time, he finally saw the area cordoned off by the blast-proof civil defense door.
“What’s this now?” he asked. “Why is this door closed?”
He hadn’t worked for over a month, and everywhere he looked there were changes he didn’t know about.
Master Luo said, “That’s where the government supplies were stored—the stuff the neighborhood grabbed and stockpiled. The idea was to distribute it if people were starving.”
But it never came to that. Under the leadership and organization of the temporary committee, the residents of Youth Apartments had always fared well.
“Supplies?” The manager’s eyes lit up. “What kind?”
Master Luo: “Just compressed biscuits, canned goods, that sort of thing…”
The manager couldn’t even stand hearing those two things—they made him nauseous.
“Don’t, don’t.” He waved his hand and quickly lost interest. “Stop talking.”
Who would buy canned goods these days? Everyone felt like throwing up at the sight of them.
Compressed biscuits were even worse.
In the end, even after an extensive search, they couldn’t find that zombie.
The rapid response team had someone take photos of the conference room scene with a camera. Another person packed the bones, hair, and clothes into black body bags.
There was no surveillance in that hallway—the camera at the front desk pointed outward.
When they checked the footage, they only saw a dark figure flash past the service counter.
Even slowed down, it was too blurry. The community’s surveillance system wasn’t that high-definition or advanced. They could barely make out a human shape.
After confirming that none of the people at the scene had any wounds, the rapid response team took both videotapes away.
They instructed: “Call anytime if anything comes up.”
At the same time, they had to notify the nearby streets, neighborhood committees, and property management offices so everyone would be aware of the zombie in the area and stay cautious.
Li Jiangbing’s job was different from regular office hours.
He often had no work in the mornings and only went in at noon. His clock-out time depended on whether any clients had booked training sessions.
He had a class today and didn’t get back to the neighborhood until nearly ten, by which time the rapid response team had already left.
But as soon as he entered the neighborhood, he saw scattered residents in armor still roaming around.
Li Jiangbing: “…”
He ran over. “What’s going on?”
Everyone knew him and told him: “The zombie from the conference room got out.”
Li Jiangbing paused, then swore, “Shit. I completely forgot about the conference room!”
He asked, “No one dealt with it after that?”
Everyone said, “We all forgot too. Jiang Cheng probably forgot as well.”
“Definitely,” Li Jiangbing said. “She was the busiest of all.”
Back then, Jiang Cheng had been the one worrying about everything.
Good times.
Li Jiangbing started to head upstairs to put on his armor, but someone stopped him: “Forget it. We’ve been searching for three or four hours. Most people have already gone back. We’re heading in too. It’s probably not going to be found.”
Li Jiangbing suddenly realized: “How can a zombie not be found?”
That was exactly why everyone had kept searching so persistently.
Someone said, “Maybe… it evolved?”
Li Jiangbing’s mouth fell open in shock.
In the end, everyone went home empty-handed.
The group chats, which had been cooling down these past few days, suddenly became lively again. Everyone was talking about today’s zombie.
Li Jiangbing went to bed very late, his mind stuck on the question of where a single zombie could have run off to.
He couldn’t sleep.
In August, a cool breeze began to blow.
The night was dark and the wind was high.
The courtyard was still.
Clouds drifted, and the moon peeked out, illuminating the tall rooftop.
A torn zombie body lay there.
Beside the dismembered remains, the shadow of a beast sat crouched.
If Jiang Cheng had been there, she would have noticed that the beast’s form was far larger than the transformed shape she had seen before.
Moonlight was actually sunlight reflected off the moon.
The beast absorbed it for a while to recover the energy expended during its transformation.
Absorbing with such a massive body was actually more effective.
But the beast knew it couldn’t do this during the day.
Unfortunately, moonlight couldn’t compare to sunlight—the absorption efficiency was too low. Better to go home and sleep, then sunbathe tomorrow.
The beast suddenly shrank, transforming into a small cat, and nimbly leaped down from the rooftop.
Time to go home.
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