Qi Wu and Xie Xishu stopped in their tracks simultaneously. They exchanged a glance, then both turned their heads, accurately pinpointing the direction the voice was coming from.
It wasn’t until that moment that they noticed an “invisible door,” a very popular design feature at the time, in a section of the hallway. In the poor lighting, it was indeed hard to spot the door, especially now that it was tightly blocked by a toppled display shelf.
Both of them had passed through this hallway earlier, but in the chaos brought by the monster infestation, the once-luxurious mansion was now so wrecked that neither had paid much attention to that corner.
But now, a voice was coming from there… Was it really the voice of a human?
Qi Wu frowned slightly, and a faint trace of irritation flickered in his cold eyes.
He could smell something.
A slight draft was leaking through the cracks of the hidden door, flowing into his nostrils. He caught a faint scent of rot, similar to that of a monster, though it could have been from the earlier creature. Besides that, there was the smell of blood, the pungent scent of rust, and the musky odor of human skin oils decaying.
It was the scent of a human.
Qi Wu quietly ground his sharp teeth together.
For a few seconds, he regretted keeping Xie Xishu by his side. Even without his intense possessiveness, he had to do it for safety. But if he had been alone in the villa, he would have left without a second thought.
Even if the person behind the door was truly alive and begging him for help.
But unfortunately, Xie Xishu was right next to him. This little crybaby, who was also his prospective romantic partner, still clung to some almost laughable sense of morality, even in the apocalypse…
“Xishu?”
With that thought in mind, Qi Wu gently bumped the boy next to him with his shoulder.
“What do you think?”
Xie Xishu turned to look at him, shocked and uncertain, as if he wasn’t used to Qi Wu giving him the power to make the decision.
“I-I don’t know.”
If it had been early in the outbreak, like when they had first escaped into that supermarket, Xie Xishu would have rushed to help anyone he found without hesitation. But after facing monsters over and over, he had grown more timid.
Especially now, when the person asking for help seemed too sudden and out of place. The apocalypse had been going on for a long time, and they had been in and out of the villa gathering supplies for days—how had they never noticed that there was still a living person inside?
It was almost as if the voice behind the door sensed their hesitation. Suddenly, the voice became more frantic and agitated.
“I-I’m not infected! I’m human, really!”
“Believe me, I’m not a monster! I’m still alive! My name is Xiao Tianming, I’m a big influencer on Douyin. If you don’t believe me, check my account! I’m really human!”
“But the door is stuck, I can’t get out!! Bro, dude… Dad… Please, save me! I have money, lots of money, just get me out of here, please, please…”
The man’s voice, clearly tearful, was followed by weak banging sounds. But the noise was so faint that even the large display shelf blocking the door only wobbled slightly.
Hearing this, Xie Xishu glanced at Qi Wu again.
“I think… he might be human?”
Qi Wu sneered and let out a cold laugh.
“Sounds like it.”
“So, should I…”
“Go ahead and let him out.” Qi Wu said indifferently. “If the sky falls, I’ll handle it. Besides, that guy reeks. Even if I did go berserk, I wouldn’t eat someone like him, so don’t worry.”
“…That’s not what I’m worried about.”
After a brief exchange, Xie Xishu cautiously approached the hidden door. Upon closer inspection, it became clear that the real thing preventing the person from opening the door wasn’t the solid wood display shelf but the deformed lock. It seemed like something had once tried to claw its way through the door, as evidenced by the bloodstains and deep nail marks along the doorframe.
The doorframe had even warped slightly under the force.
That was probably why the man had gotten stuck behind the hidden door.
Qi Wu easily moved the display shelf out of the way and then kicked the door open. A man, his face covered in tears and snot, rolled out from behind the door along with a wave of stench.
“Thank you, thank you, my saviors!”
“Benefactors—”
Xiao Tianming’s expression of gratitude was so shrill that it sounded more like a wail, causing Xie Xishu to tense up for a moment, almost thinking they had fallen into another monster’s trap.
After all, the monsters they faced in this apocalypse were far trickier than the zombies from horror movies or novels. Not only did these creatures share the same bloodthirsty instincts, but many of them had evolved the ability to mimic human voices or appearances to lure in survivors.
Fortunately, it seemed that this former influencer and rich kid, Xiao Tianming, was indeed just a lucky—or perhaps unlucky—survivor.
Behind the hidden door that nearly trapped Xiao Tianming was a basement, which the family had renovated into a fully enclosed home theater. But now, it had turned into a hellhole of stench and heat.
The thick carpet was covered with Xiao Tianming’s forced excretions and rotten food. Without a ventilation system, the air in the sealed room was thin and foul, making it hard for Xie Xishu to believe someone could survive in there for so many days.
“…Well, don’t even mention it. Remember those foreign movies you talked about? You said to hide in the cellar when there’s danger, so I figured my room was pretty sturdy too…”
About half an hour later, after a bit of rest, Xiao Tianming sat cross-legged on the ground, scarfing down the food Xie Xishu had given him. Between bites, he took the opportunity to recount his experience to the two of them.
“I actually had everything planned out. I stocked up on food, got military rations, compressed biscuits, and all that. I figured when things went bad, I’d just hole up in my basement with supplies and wait it out. But at the time, I didn’t think this stuff would actually happen. I was making out with my online girlfriend, and then guess what? Out of nowhere, she shoved her tongue down my throat so deep it almost reached my stomach! I was so freaked out that I kicked her away, and then I saw her…”
“Stick to the point.”
Qi Wu, leaning against the wall with a cold gaze, interrupted Xiao Tianming without mercy.
“Oh, right, right. Anyway, I saw my girlfriend turn into some kind of freak, and I panicked. I rushed into the basement and locked the door just in time. She started clawing at the door like crazy, and after a while, she finally stopped. Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, I realized I’d forgotten to bring in any of the supplies I’d prepared…”
“And at that point, there was no way I could go back out. If it weren’t for the snacks and drinks I’d left in there, I would’ve died already. Ugh, don’t even remind me. You know how my mini fridge was full of deli meats? My nanny made those braised duck wings—they were so good. But then the power went out, and by the time I was eating them, maggots were jumping out of my mouth.”
“I figured, hey, protein’s protein, maybe it’d save my life, so I tried to swallow it down. But guess what? I ended up spewing it all out through my nose—”
Xiao Tianming, having long been accustomed to non-stop talking while livestreaming, couldn’t stop once he started. And he was annoyingly detailed.
Originally, Xie Xishu had been watching him cautiously, his expression grim and guarded. But as he listened, his attention gradually wavered, and his face started turning pale.
Thankfully, Qi Wu quickly cut him off with an irritated look.
“Shut up. That’s not what we asked.”
Xiao Tianming immediately fell silent, as though sensing something off about Qi Wu. He looked up at the two of them with a cautious glance. Anyone could see that these two weren’t much older than him, likely several years younger.
But the tall guy clearly wasn’t someone to mess with, his presence exuding danger.
Xiao Tianming had even heard about him before. His unreliable father once warned him to never provoke a certain family in the neighborhood—specifically the Qi family. At the time, Xiao Tianming had brushed it off, though he’d occasionally crossed paths with Qi Wu without ever daring to interact.
Now, seeing him again, Qi Wu seemed even more menacing than the version he remembered.
As for the scholarly-looking boy next to him, he seemed easy to fool. But whenever Xiao Tianming met his gaze, his mind would fog up, and he’d feel the urge to spill every detail, as if his thoughts were being coaxed out of him.
Then he’d receive a sharp, cold glare from Qi Wu, so piercing it felt like a death stare.
After realizing this, Xiao Tianming thought to himself that something seemed off about both of these guys.
Meanwhile, Xie Xishu finally snapped out of his thoughts. After some careful reflection, he quickly pinpointed what had been bothering him about Xiao Tianming’s story.
“Wait, you said you were prepared with supplies and had planned to hide in the basement, right?”
Xie Xishu stared intently at Xiao Tianming.
“You knew something was going to happen? Who told you? What else do you know?”
The boy’s voice became sharp.
Hearing his urgent and demanding tone, Xiao Tianming’s movements noticeably stiffened.
“Ah, well… yeah, but I swear, I thought the guy who warned me was just some lunatic…”
By now, he had already devoured the simple meal in front of him.
He hesitated for a moment, stammering as if reluctant to share more.
Finally, he opened the bottle of precious mineral water next to him, hesitated, and cautiously poured a small amount into his filthy palm, wiping the dirt from his face.
With that gesture, he tried to organize his thoughts.
“That day, I was at a bar drinking when I ran into some idiot causing trouble. I couldn’t hold back and ended up smashing a bottle over his head. I was just trying to calm him down, but when I sobered up, I found myself in the police station…”
*
Xiao Tianming said that he had been arrested for fighting in the bar.
And it was there that he encountered a “lunatic” who had also been brought in for causing a disturbance in the city.
The two ended up sitting together. Xiao Tianming, groggy from his hangover, was trying to sleep off his pounding headache, while the other man, who was in an extremely excited state, wouldn’t stop talking. He ignored the fact that Xiao Tianming was a complete stranger, continuously rambling without pause.
“I can hardly remember what that guy was saying anymore. I just recall him going on and on about the old world ending and a new one coming…”
*
[Hey, did you know? This old world is about to collapse under the gaze of a new god, and a brand new world is coming.]
[Those who are chosen will receive unparalleled power and perfect bodies. They will bear the responsibility of rebuilding the new world, becoming its rulers, standing at the pinnacle of evolution. They will no longer be bound by the frailty of mortals, no longer fear disease or aging. They are the favored children of the creator of the new world, the enforcers of the new order.]
[But… sob… those poor souls who aren’t blessed, their fate is sealed… Sigh, the failures of evolution will be mercilessly devoured. In the face of this absolute judgment, there will be no mercy, no escape.]
[The world as we know it is about to be destroyed. Mortals… all mortals are doomed to die.]
