Chapter 47

“Is it another swarm?”

Having experienced so much wind and rain over these days, Su Xing’s first reaction was more irritation than fear.

Wen Ruyao glanced at the heavily clouded sky and said in a low voice, “It’s about to rain.”

Ever since that strange, dense fog had dispersed, it hadn’t rained again in S City. Today’s damp weather was the first instance of this humidity in many days.

Su Xing tugged at her clothes, which were sticking to her skin. The moisture level in the surrounding air indeed carried the signs of an imminent downpour.

Wen Ruyao pondered. “Mosquitoes typically lay their eggs in water, and female mosquitoes need to suck blood to produce their eggs. Sensing the moisture in the air, before the rain comes, they might engage in a frenzy of blood-sucking.”

“…So, what’s flying towards us right now is a swarm of mutated mosquitoes?”

The image of the giant mutated mosquito she’d seen up close before surfaced in Su Xing’s mind, and she couldn’t help but gasp. That needle-sharp, long, slender proboscis… and the insect body expanded countless times after mutation… just imagining it made her scalp tingle.

Wen Ruyao nodded. “Remember the one we saw in the residential complex? Once its mouthpart pierces you, the neuroparalytic toxin will rapidly spread through your entire body until all your blood is drained.”

Su Xing shuddered. Just one was hard enough. A swarm of mosquitoes, even more aggressive during this special period, was unthinkable. Staying here was undoubtedly extremely dangerous. The best course of action was to immediately move to a secure building and take shelter for a while.

The buzzing sound in the air grew increasingly distinct. Gazing at the dense “black dots” relentlessly closing in from the horizon, Su Xing instantly rose and quickly scanned her surroundings.

The two groups in the distance were still locked in fierce combat, perhaps too preoccupied to notice the anomaly in the sky. Looking again at the dilapidated buildings lining both sides of the road, she saw not a single intact door or window. There was no hiding place to be found anywhere in the immediate vicinity.

“Should we go back to the bunker for a while?” Su Xing turned to look back, quickly gauging the distance. If they were fast enough, they might make it.

“The bunker’s air system has been destroyed. We can’t stay inside there for too long. Let’s head back to the mall.”

Having made their decision, they didn’t hesitate any further. While they still had time, they turned and sprinted back towards the mall under the piercing, buzzing din from the sky above.

“Open the door, quickly!”

The two stood on the broad stone steps in front of the mall’s main entrance. The tall, sturdy glass doors opened only a tiny crack after a long, long wait. Su Xing slammed her body heavily against the door, pulling Wen Ruyao along as she squeezed inside.

The man behind the door who had hesitantly, cautiously let them in was knocked onto his backside by her force. He ignored the pain, scrambling to his feet and frantically chaining the door shut again.

Only after walking through the door and quickly reaching the center of the mall did Su Xing release her tight grip on Wen Ruyao’s hand, letting out a breath of relief. At the same time, she noticed several pairs of eyes staring intently at them.

Zheng Xingjun’s men were all out. The people remaining in the mall now were ordinary survivors, and a few others who, like them, had just fled back from outside—the lucky bait who had survived. The toy charms were still attached to the collars around their necks.

“Is Zheng Xingjun dead?” a man beside them asked coldly.

Most of the people left here probably wished Zheng Xingjun would die out there. Their hatred even extended, somewhat, to Su Xing and Wen Ruyao, who had driven off in the same car with him.

Seeing the resentful looks around her, Su Xing raised an eyebrow slightly and told them the truth. “Unfortunately, not yet.”

“But…”

“Wh-what are those?!”

A shrill, panicked scream suddenly rang out from the crowd, cutting her off.

The woman who cried out had her eyes opened impossibly wide. Her arm trembled violently as she raised it, pointing towards the tightly shut mall entrance in the distance.

Something had landed on the outer glass doors.

Something that, at just a rough glance, was clearly disgusting, and both repellent and terrifying.

A few more flew over and landed on the transparent doors. The only two glass doors left unobstructed, used for entry and exit, were soon completely covered by these winged giant insects, blocking any view of the outside world.

“What the hell are these things?! Mutated mosquitoes?”

Panic instantly erupted among the people inside the mall.

The things fluttered their wings, crawling back and forth across the doors. Their huge compound eyes pressed against the glass, swiveling restlessly. Their black, slender legs scrabbled against the pane with a constant tap-tap-tap sound. As more and more insects piled onto the doors, the noise grew louder and louder, accompanied by the sound of the glass vibrating, setting everyone’s nerves on edge.

“Why are so many suddenly swarming? Can this door hold?!”

By now, these gargantuan mosquitoes had completely blanketed the entire glass door surface. It was easy to guess that the exterior walls of the building outside were also crawling with these creatures.

Screams and sobs began to spread inside the mall. Anxious, restless emotion rapidly propagated through the crowd.

Right at that moment, the tightly shut glass doors shuddered violently twice, as if something huge was ramming against them from outside. The loud crashes intensified the panic within.

“Hurry up and open the damn door for me!” Zheng Xingjun’s furious roar came from outside.

A few of the giant mosquitoes on the door were dislodged. Through the gaps, the silhouette of a person could be vaguely seen.

The man who had been guarding the door earlier—the one who had opened it for Su Xing and the others—had already retreated far away in fright. As the person closest to the door, responsible for watching it, he had clearly seen Zheng Xingjun’s face outside. But with the outside now swarming with mutated bugs, opening the door would inevitably let those things pour in. So he didn’t dare open it.

“Motherfucker, when I get in there, I’ll make sure to kill you first!” Zheng Xingjun glared murderously at the man through the door.

The main entrance of the mall had two sets of glass doors. The one blocking Zheng Xingjun was the outermost set. Bang! With one punch, he smashed his fist against the glass, and the door shattered.

Plain-Face retracted the bone wings that had been shielding them. Following behind Zheng Xingjun, he stepped inside over the broken shards.

After the two entered, they quickly closed the inner set of doors. But the moment the glass shattered, it was unavoidable that a few massive mosquitoes burst into the mall interior.

The buzzing hum of their high-frequency wingbeats echoed through the enclosed space like the voices of demons. The people standing near the entrance immediately scattered in terror, screams filling the air!

The first mosquito, seizing the initiative, flashed towards the man closest to the door. This man, already terrified out of his wits by Zheng Xingjun’s glare, had simply collapsed paralyzed after the door shattered, unable to get up. In his sheer panic, he didn’t even have a chance to escape the mutated giant insect. The mosquito’s long, needle-sharp proboscis instantly pierced through his chest.

With a terrible scream, he lost consciousness. The giant mosquito, half his size, landed motionlessly on him, its long mouthpart embedded deep in his flesh, beginning to greedily suck his blood and tissue. His skin began to visibly shrivel at a visible rate.

“Disgusting piece of crap!”

Zheng Xingjun kicked the giant mosquito flying with one foot, then stomped its huge body hard onto the ground and ground it under his heel until the insect stopped moving. Only then did he lift his foot and glance at the unconscious man on the floor.

“Idiot.” He spat, then lifted his foot and stomped down on the man’s face, crushing his skull with a sickening crunch.

“Ah—”

Screams continued to erupt throughout the mall.

Not many giant mosquitoes had gotten in—about six—but to the weak humans inside, it was a catastrophic disaster.

Another mosquito, with its massive wings blurring, flew straight at Su Xing’s face. She swung the baseball bat she’d snatched from a nearby sports equipment store, striking with precision and force at the diving mosquito’s head. Crack! A crisp snap as its head separated from its body.

That was the second one she’d taken down. Two more were attacking other people in the distance. That left two more…

Su Xing’s expression changed slightly. She spun around abruptly, searching for Wen Ruyao, who she’d been separated from in the chaos. Turning, she saw Wen Ruyao standing weaponless not far away. Right in front of her eyes, a buzzing giant mosquito was hovering in mid-air! Its needle-sharp proboscis was mere inches from her face, about to strike. Su Xing’s heart seized. She lunged toward Wen Ruyao, but stopped after a few steps.

The mutated insect hung motionless in the air. It hadn’t attacked Wen Ruyao. A few seconds later, its fluttering wings suddenly halted, and its entire body stiffened and dropped to the floor, never to move again.

Dead.

“…”

Su Xing stood still, staring at the expressionless Wen Ruyao beside her, a slight frown creasing her brow.

Even now, she still hadn’t figured out what Wen Ruyao’s special ability was after her mutation.

The remaining few bugs were quickly finished off by Plain-Face and Zheng Xingjun. Four people died during the process, but no one really cared much about them.

Peace returned to the mall interior, provided one ignored the outer set of doors now completely covered in mosquitoes.

“Just now… did I hear someone asking if I was dead?”

Zheng Xingjun had reverted to his normal human appearance. He stood in the center of the mall’s first floor, hands clasped behind his back, his sinister gaze sweeping over the crowd. “Who said it? Step forward yourselves.”

A deathly silence hung over the crowd below. No one dared to breathe loudly, let alone make a sound.

“A bunch of useless trash! Maggots barely surviving!” Zheng Xingjun kicked a nearby chair flying in a manic rage. His head swiveled, and he snatched a woman from the crowd—one who still had a collar around her neck. His scarlet eyes gleamed with manic cruelty as he sneered. “I just lost a brother outside and had my car wrecked, yet you worthless pieces of crap managed to run back here, haha—”

He laughed coldly, hurling the trembling woman viciously to the ground, and squinted at the crowd. “Just now, you all wanted me dead out there, didn’t you? Wonderful! Since I’ve suffered so many losses today, I’ll just cook and eat every last one of you.”

His icy stare and that twisted, inhuman expression made his words sound far from just rhetoric. A dark, oppressing aura surged, and the people below instantly dropped to their knees in a wave.

Su Xing and Wen Ruyao stood behind the crowd. Watching this scene, they couldn’t help but frown in disgust.

It seemed the battle outside had unhinged Zheng Xingjun; his actions were especially crazed. He impatiently grabbed a young man kneeling at his feet, his hand, veins bulging, clamping around the man’s neck.

Just as he was about to strangle the man to death, Su Xing’s heart seized. She couldn’t stand by and watch.

“Rather than venting your anger, shouldn’t Mr. Zheng be more concerned about the insect swarm outside? This door won’t hold for much longer.”

Su Xing’s lips parted in slight surprise as she looked toward Wen Ruyao, who had spoken up first beside her.

The hand around the young man’s neck loosened, and the youth collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. Zheng Xingjun raised an eyebrow and turned to Wen Ruyao, letting out a cold laugh. “Almost forgot about you two. Speaking of which, if it weren’t for you, my men and my car wouldn’t have been lost.”

With that, he fixed his scarlet eyes on them and advanced step by step.

Su Xing instinctively moved to stand protectively in front of Wen Ruyao.