Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Feng Chen’s immobilization lasted less than half a second before he regained his senses and caught Yan Bubu just before she hit the ground.

Bedrock's group, engaged in the fight, also froze simultaneously, like a paused scene in a movie, creating an eerie tableau.

At that moment, Lin Fen landed a powerful punch on the chest of one assailant.

The assailant flew back like a kite with a broken string, crashing into the tunnel wall, spitting blood before sliding down and gasping for air before managing to get up.

Bedrock and his men had recovered from their frozen state and stumbled a few steps backwards.

"Minister, Yu Yuan is here too," said the assailant with the ferret, his voice tinged with fear.

"He doesn’t have enough psychic energy to spare. Adai, intercept him. The rest, deal with Lin Fen," Bedrock barked. "Finish them off within ten minutes, go!"

Feng Chen, holding Yan Bubu, watched from the darkness as Adai, dagger in hand, rushed towards Colonel Yu, and the two immediately engaged in combat. Bedrock and his seven or eight men surrounded Major General Lin, while the white crane and the vulture fought against the other animals.

Lin Fen's vulture repeatedly dived from the ceiling, attacking the wolf with its sharp beak and talons, causing black smoke to rise from the wolf's body with each strike.

The wolf, ferocious and baring its sharp white teeth, also leapt into the air to counterattack, causing black smoke to rise from the vulture's black feathers as well.

Fists and feet flew amid the animal cries, creating an exceptionally chaotic scene.

Yu Yuan, physically weaker than Adai, struggled in close combat, but Adai's movements would always hesitate slightly before striking, inadvertently allowing Yu Yuan to land hits.

Though outnumbered, Lin Fen managed to turn the tide, as his assailants would inexplicably pause in unison for half a second, giving him narrow escapes and the upper hand.

An assailant picked up an iron rod and swung it at Lin Fen, who, undeterred, struck it with his fist. On impact, the rod fell to the ground, bent into an arc by the force of his punch.

From a distance, Feng Chen watched in awe, estimating Lin Fen's explosive power to be over 600SJ, with a quick-force around 140KS.

These were numbers beyond the reach of an ordinary person.

Yan Bubu, too, was tense. Although he didn't like Major General Lin, he preferred Lin over Bedrock, who had attempted to kill him, a living child.

After all, eating a deceased child—perhaps what Lin had done—seemed less horrifying than killing a living one.

Compared to consuming a dead child, the act of killing a living child was undeniably more terrifying.

A few minutes earlier.

When gunfire erupted at the tunnel entrance, the people inside halted, looking back in confusion and uncertainty, asking each other what was happening.

"What's going on? That was gunfire, wasn't it? I didn't hear wrong, did I?"

"Yes, why are there gunshots? What's happening at the entrance?"

"I heard that during the flooding of Nest A, there was shooting too. It could be those people chasing in again."

……

Soldiers quickly drew their weapons, ready for action. A low-ranking officer commanded, "Teams four and five, follow me to check the back. Everyone else, keep moving forward, don't stop."

"Yes, sir."

Over twenty soldiers who received the orders immediately turned and ran towards the tunnel entrance. However, at that moment, a woman's scream pierced the crowd from the front.

The scream, abrupt and shrill, overshadowed the gunfire outside, and soon other panicked shouts followed: "Zombies, there are zombies biting people!"

The crowd scattered in all directions, revealing a small clearing in the middle. There, a man crouched over a woman on the ground, her legs twitching, as a pool of dark blood slowly spread beneath her.

The man slowly raised his head, his eyes now a pitch-black abyss, with a strand of torn flesh hanging from his mouth.

The orderly crowd instantly descended into chaos, screams and cries filling the air.

The man lunged at the nearest person, savagely biting like a wild beast. The woman he bit, lying on the ground, stood up with a croaking sound in her throat, half her face gone, the remaining half rapidly turning a pale blue.

"Open fire, shoot to kill!" shouted a junior officer, firing at the man and yelling, no longer concerned about the exit.

As the man opened his mouth to attack an elderly woman, a bullet pierced his temple, and he fell dead instantly.

However, screams continued to emanate from ahead.

One moment a person was running, and the next, they opened their mouth, revealing fierce fangs, and viciously bit the person next to them. Others, covered in blood, staggered to their feet pleading, "Save me..." only to turn into growling beasts and pounce on others within seconds.

The emergency tunnel was a sealed passage with no way to evacuate. The only chance for survival was to keep running forward. Despairingly, often just after narrowly escaping one zombie, screams would erupt from ahead, signaling more danger.

The heavy stench of blood permeated the enclosed space, filled with screams and wails, interspersed with the pitiful crying of children.

This emergency tunnel, meant for escape, had now become a passage to a nightmarish hell.

"Keep shooting, and kill those who've been bitten too!" The junior officer, jostled by the running crowd, stumbled with his gun, then continued shouting, "Everyone run along the sides of the tunnel, don't go through the middle—"

The officer suddenly shivered, his speech abruptly stopping. He reached his left hand behind his waist, then slowly brought it to his eyes.

—His palm was already smeared with blood.

"Lieutenant Liu, what do we do now? The zombies are increasing," asked a soldier anxiously next to him. "We kill one, and another appears. We can't finish off those who've been bitten."

The junior officer didn't respond, his arm slowly dropping, the gun in his right hand falling to the ground. But in the next moment, he suddenly turned around, his eyes glaring furiously as he bit the soldier behind him.

……

Despite the chaos, a squad of soldiers remained composed in the crisis, killing the transformed zombies while directing others to safety.

They possessed strength beyond ordinary people, calm and collected amidst the blood and fear in the enclosed space, carving a path of survival for others.

Under their command, the frantically running people no longer acted like headless flies, their near-collapse emotions somewhat stabilizing.

Unseen by anyone, each soldier in this squad was accompanied by an ion beast.

Lin Fen and Yu Yuan were still engaged in combat with Chu Shi. Although they had the upper hand, Chu Shi's numerical advantage meant the battle couldn’t be concluded quickly.

As the floodwaters threatened to inundate the tunnel, and continuous gunfire echoed from the front, Lin Fen remained composed, striking methodically. In contrast, Yu Yuan appeared increasingly agitated, his focus occasionally shifting to the tunnel, nearly getting wounded by Adai's dagger in several exchanges.

Feng Chen, holding Yan Bubu at a distance, watched the scene unfold with worry about the impending flood and speculation about the cause of the gunfire ahead.

The relentless gunfire suggested either the invasion of mutants from the other end of the tunnel or, more worryingly, a sudden transformation of people into zombies.

Feng Chen hoped it wasn't the latter.

Dealing with mutants was manageable; eliminating them one by one, although with casualties, wouldn't lead to a catastrophic scene. But if people had turned into zombies in this enclosed tunnel, the consequences were too dreadful to contemplate...

Yan Bubu, less concerned with the broader implications, was fixated on the ongoing battle.

He sighed in relief every time Bedrock was hit, but gasped each time Lin Fen took a blow.

Suddenly, Feng Chen noticed something flicker at the edge of his vision. Turning, he saw Adai's snake.

Instead of continuing its fight with the white crane, the snake was stealthily slithering along the unlit base of the tunnel wall, moving towards Yu Yuan's back.

Yan Bubu began to quietly chant a spell.

His magic had seemed ineffective when trying to open doors at the medical point, but he still hoped it might work again, repeating the spell several times.

The effectiveness of his magic was inconsistent, but overall, it seemed to work in their favor, as Bedrock was hit more often than Lin Fen.

"Stay here and don't move; I'll be right back," Feng Chen said as he set Yan Bubu down.

Yan Bubu stood still in the darkness, anxiously watching Feng Chen crouch and run towards the left front of the tunnel, clutching the dagger he had bought for him.

Yan Bubu didn’t know what Feng Chen planned to do. As he watched him approach the fighting group, his heart raced with apprehension.

But then Yan Bubu quickly realized what Feng Chen was doing.

Feng Chen suddenly quickened his pace, rushing behind Colonel Yu, and with a raised dagger, he viciously stabbed towards the stone floor behind him.

Yan Bubu: ???

Yan Bubu was confused for a moment, but then he understood.

His brother was always right; stabbing the stone floor must be the correct action, just like how he used to stab at utility poles during fights. It was all part of his plan.

As Adai's snake raised its head to strike at Yu Yuan's back, Feng Chen grabbed it by the neck and plunged his dagger into it.

Black smoke billowed from where the dagger pierced the snake, which hissed and writhed in pain. Feng Chen gave it no chance to escape, striking it again with his dagger.

Adai, still engaged in combat with Yu Yuan, suddenly screamed, staggering back while clutching his head. The uncovered half of his face turned deathly pale, his lips losing all color.

Yu Yuan seized this opportunity, forcefully invading Adai's mental domain with his psychic tendrils.

When Feng Chen looked up, he saw Adai, who had been screaming in agony, now silent, staring blankly ahead, her knife clattering to the ground.

After Yu Yuan invaded Adai's mental domain, he quickly created an illusory scene within it, trapping her temporarily and then thrust his dagger forward.

Bedrock, who had just dodged a strike from Lin Fen, sensed something amiss, looked over, and shouted, "Adai!"

Adai, still lost in the illusion created by Yu Yuan, stood motionless, her expression shifting from blank to fear and grief, oblivious to Bedrock's cries.

Just as Yu Yuan was about to stab Adai, Bedrock had to dive in, using his metallic arm to block the strike. His sudden departure, however, left an opening for Lin Fen, who landed a punch on one of the assailants, shattering his nasal bone into fragments, with teeth flying out of his mouth, flattening his face like a pancake.

Bedrock rolled on the ground with Adai, and after getting up, shouted, "Let's go."

Several of his men had fallen, and the wolf, scorpion, and ferret were all being pecked by the two large birds, black smoke rising from their bodies.

Bedrock realized that continuing the fight would not only fail to eliminate the opposition but also risk his own men's lives. Since the emergency tunnel door could not be closed and something had happened at the front, he concluded that these people were destined to die inside. There was no need to waste energy here.

Hearing Bedrock's command, the psychic entities suddenly lunged at Lin Fen. As Lin Fen retaliated, the remaining assailants dashed towards the tunnel entrance.

Bedrock hadn't noticed Feng Chen behind Yu Yuan, but as his men rushed towards the tunnel exit, he caught a glimpse of a young boy standing nearby.

The boy was pressed against the tunnel wall, motionless. Even though he was in the shadow, Bedrock could clearly see the boy's face from such a close distance.

A sense of serendipity surged in Bedrock's heart as he quickly turned to look back, confirming his sighting of Feng Chen standing behind Yu Yuan.

"Catch him." Bedrock tossed Adai into the arms of the nearest assailant and turned to grab Yan Bubu.

Yan Bubu, already highly tense the moment Bedrock looked at him, bolted towards Feng Chen when he saw Bedrock throw the person in his hands and charge towards him.

Feng Chen knew Bedrock intended to capture Yan Bubu to coerce him into handing over the password box. Aware that Yan Bubu couldn't outrun Bedrock and that he himself wouldn't reach them in time, Feng Chen made a quick decision.

He removed his backpack, containing only a blanket and a lunch box, and threw it at Bedrock just as his fingers were about to touch Yan Bubu's back.

"Here's your stuff."

Bedrock, seeing the backpack thrown by Feng Chen, immediately abandoned Yan Bubu to catch the flying backpack. As Yu Yuan started to chase him, Bedrock, with his men, fled towards the tunnel entrance without looking back.

The psychic entities entangling Lin Fen also vanished from the air.

"Leave them, there's trouble inside the tunnel," Lin Fen called out to Yu Yuan.

Yu Yuan halted and quickly instructed Feng Chen, "Run fast, the flood is coming. No matter what happens ahead, don’t stop." He then sprinted deeper into the tunnel.

"Brother!"

Yan Bubu rushed towards Feng Chen, his legs churning as he ran and reached out his hands. In the next moment, his world turned upside down as Feng Chen scooped him up in a familiar move by his vest.

Holding onto the straps of Yan Bubu's dungarees, Feng Chen dashed into the depths of the tunnel. He knew they had barely ten minutes before the flood would engulf the area, and they needed to escape the tunnel within this remaining time.

Continuous gunfire echoed ahead. Feng Chen sprinted at his fastest pace ever, like a whirlwind surging forward, soon spotting two figures also running ahead.

"Is that Colonel Yu?" Yan Bubu pointed excitedly ahead, "Look, there are people there."

"I see them."

The two figures were also running ahead, but not as fast as Feng Chen. As the distance closed, their silhouettes became clearer, and Feng Chen's heart sank.

It wasn't Colonel Yu and Major General Lin.

The emaciated old man on the left, from his clothing and appearance, had already lost an arm from the shoulder down, revealing a pale, bluish skin and a jagged piece of bone. Despite this, he seemed oblivious to the pain, moving swiftly forward.

To the right was an old woman, her head oddly twisted as if her neck was broken, leaning on her shoulder as she ran. As they drew closer, it was evident that her neck was fractured, causing her head to droop heavily to the left.

It was clear these were not living people, but zombies!

Yan Bubu also saw their strange condition, nearly screaming in fear but managing to hold back. Even though Feng Chen was carrying him, he instinctively curled up his limbs.

Feng Chen knew that Lin Fen and Colonel Yu had just passed by here; these two zombies were probably pursuing them.

Corpses were now appearing in the tunnel.

Some bodies were so mutilated they were barely recognizable as human, victims who hadn’t had time to transform before being devoured. Others, clearly transformed into zombies, bore ghastly expressions with bullet holes in their heads, still oozing black blood, evidently just killed by Lin Fen and Yu Yuan.

The two zombies ahead were ones that had been missed.

These elderly zombies weren’t very fast or responsive. Feng Chen wasn’t being quiet, but they kept relentlessly following the trail ahead, indicating that even as zombies, their aggression and strength seemed linked to their physical condition in life.

The number of corpses ahead was increasing, leaving barely any space to step. The sheer brutality of what had unfolded here was unimaginable.

Feng Chen ran over the bodies without dwelling on what he was stepping on, desperately pushing forward.

The uneven ground forced him to concentrate on maintaining his balance to avoid stumbling.

However, for Yan Bubu, being held face down, he was confronted with the dead faces up close.

His vision filled with faces torn open and eyes bulging in rage, he quickly closed his eyes, teeth chattering in fear.

Even though the dead were some distance away, he strained his neck upwards, terrified of touching them.

Approaching the two zombies, both sides of the tunnel were piled with bodies. To continue forward meant either climbing over the corpses or passing directly between the two zombies.

They couldn’t afford to slow down, trailing behind the zombies. Taking a deep breath, Feng Chen said softly, "I’m going to make a run for it; be careful not to let them grab you."

"They can still grab people?" Yan Bubu opened his eyes, staring down at a corpse glaring up at him.

"Not those lying on the ground, they're gone. It's the two up ahead."

"Alright, got it."

No sooner had Yan Bubu finished speaking than Feng Chen broke into a sprint.

His footsteps drew the attention of the two zombies. They stopped their forward charge and turned around.

The zombie with the broken neck wobbled its head precariously as it turned, the head nearly falling off, dangling over its shoulder.

Feng Chen, suppressing his fear, hugged Yan Bubu to his chest and yelled, "Be careful, I'm charging in."

"Okay—"

At Yan Bubu's loud response, Feng Chen charged forward like a cannonball.

Just as the two zombies opened their mouths to pounce, he burst through them with a bang, continuing to barrel forward.

By the time the zombies steadied themselves and resumed the chase, he had already put a significant distance between them.