Chapter 7: Crisis

Su Li was startled, almost dropping the clothes drying rod. The corpse’s raised face was swollen and purplish. A fine layer of white fuzz was growing on its surface, and its wide-open eyes had no pupils, only white. Its mouth was agape, as if gasping for air.

The corpse’s arms twitched, seeming to struggle to rise from the water, but then it suddenly plunged down. It was as if a massive force had unexpectedly emerged in the water, dragging the corpse downward. With a “gurgling” sound, the corpse sank into the water and vanished, only leaving a splash on the surface.

The entire change happened in just one or two seconds. Su Li’s eyes were wide as he watched the corpse suddenly sink into the water, become a black shadow, and then disappear completely. He felt ice-cold from head to toe, staggering backward before quickly and tightly closing the window, his face pale.

“There’s something… in the water… Besides that corpse, there’s something else. Just now… something dragged the corpse down and into the water…”

Su Li’s lips trembled slightly as he mumbled. He retreated to the coffee table, clutching the cleaver and hammer, which offered him a slight sense of security.

He recalled the female corpse he had seen earlier, whose chest, abdomen, and legs showed signs of being gnawed on, a messy field of blood and flesh. At the time, he had wondered if there were large, carnivorous fish or some other aquatic creature in the water eating the corpse. Combining this with the scene that just unfolded, Su Li formed a terrifying hypothesis.

A very dangerous creature was lurking in the water outside, one that preyed on corpses. Judging by the speed at which the corpse was dragged down, this mysterious aquatic creature was extremely formidable. To be able to rapidly pull a floating corpse under the water and make it disappear, it must possess great strength and certainly a large size.

“It can’t possibly be a crocodile or a shark, can it…”

Su Li looked at the boundless water outside, a sense of despair quietly creeping in. This terrifying thought surfaced in his mind.

With an entire city submerged, Su Li wouldn’t be surprised if vicious animals like sharks or crocodiles appeared in the water, but for him, it would be a fatal development.

He had worked hard to build a raft, planning to leave tomorrow morning to look for other survivors and seek rescue. But if such a terrifying creature truly lived in the water, he was in trouble. Trying to escape on a raft would be no different from a death wish.

“Am I just forced to stay here? But my food is limited; I can only last for four more days at most.”

Su Li pondered for a long time but couldn’t come up with a better solution. He could only lock all the windows along the balcony and then checked the other windows, closing and locking each one securely.

However, he knew in his heart that he was on the 30th floor without security bars outside. If any corpses transformed like the one he saw during the day, they could easily break the window glass and climb in. As for the creature lurking in the water, he had no clue what it was despite his guesses. His only hope was that this mysterious creature could only live in the water and wouldn’t be able to come ashore like the transformed corpses.

Su Li confirmed the doors and windows were locked. As the night grew darker, he took out the instant noodles, bread, and biscuits he had stored in the refrigerator. He then found a travel backpack and packed all the food inside, preparing for an emergency where he might need to evacuate quickly and couldn’t leave the food behind.

The room grew darker and darker. Su Li lay down on the sofa, clutching the cleaver and hammer. In the darkness, he kept his eyes open, gripped by a powerful sense of foreboding that something terrible was going to happen tonight.

As if to confirm his premonition, footsteps suddenly echoed in the corridor outside the door.

The footsteps weren’t loud, but they sounded exceptionally clear in the dead of the night.

Su Li instantly tensed up. Grabbing the cleaver and hammer, he rose from the sofa.

He hadn’t seen a single living person on this 30th floor, so why were there footsteps in the corridor? Could it be…

The footsteps came one after the other, and judging by the sound, they were heading straight toward his apartment.

Su Li finally couldn’t stand it. He quietly crept toward the security door in the dark, wanting to use the peephole to see what was making the noise outside.

In just a few short steps, Su Li’s palms were covered in cold sweat. He gripped the cleaver and hammer tightly, constantly reassuring and bolstering himself internally.

“Even a transformed corpse is nothing to fear. Aside from looking terrifying, its movements aren’t quick, and its actions are very stiff. It’s no match for me…”

He repeated this silently, hypnotizing himself over and over. He reached the door and looked through the peephole.

Just then, the footsteps outside stopped. The person walking seemed to have paused.

Su Li looked through the peephole, but the corridor outside was completely dark, and he couldn’t see anything clearly.

It was then he remembered that the corridor was in darkness, just like his room, with no light, so the peephole couldn’t reveal the outside situation.

Suddenly, a “crack” sound came from the balcony side. It was the sound of window glass shattering.

In the complete silence, the noise was exceptionally jarring. Su Li jolted, shuddered all over, and violently turned his head. He saw that a pane of window glass on the balcony had been shattered. Two arms reached in from outside, gripping the window, and a swollen, purplish large face popped out.

Most of this face had been gnawed away, leaving a bloody, mangled mess. One eyeball protruded from its socket, connected by a sinew, dangling on its cheek. The half of the face that hadn’t been gnawed on was covered in a layer of fine white fuzz. The other eye, which had no pupil, stared intensely at Su Li in the darkness. Its mouth gaped and closed unconsciously, like a fish out of water, making it look incredibly bizarre.

Even though most of its face was gone, Su Li recognized it immediately. It was the corpse he had seen floating in the water outside the balcony earlier. At that time, its face was intact. It had been dragged underwater and vanished, only to now emerge, smash a window, and try to climb inside.

Having had the experience of facing the first female corpse, Su Li, though still full of fear, rushed forward. He needed to strike first while the corpse hadn’t fully climbed in.

He had already noticed that the monster created by the corpse, despite being terrifying, had an obvious flaw: stiff joints and movements that weren’t as agile as a normal person’s.

As Su Li charged, the corpse had just managed to get its head inside. He gripped the hammer with his right hand and slammed it down onto the corpse’s head.

The corpse raised its hands to protect its head and face. The hammer blow landed on one of its arms.

(End of Chapter)