Chapter 40 - Night of Catastrophe
Upon closer inspection, the figure was a person dressed in tattered cloth, emaciated and with skin covered in dark scabs. The person slowly released their grip, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth smeared with blood, with a few drops still dripping to the ground. Then, the ugly face lifted, eyes red and unfocused, staring intently at them.
Many children and social workers who had rushed out upon hearing the commotion were so frightened by this scene that they scattered in all directions.
“Someone’s been killed.”
Shen Qiu stared at the creature, his heart racing. He immediately turned to look at the surroundings and found that the corridor was still the familiar one.
His face tightened, and he thought to himself,
“This is bad!”
What he feared most was that the entire welfare home had been overlapped with another reality. If that were the case, they would be doomed. Of course, if it was just some monster from another world that had been overlapped, there might still be a chance of survival! After all, if they could be overlapped here, there was no reason the monsters from that other world couldn’t come over as well, but he couldn’t clarify the situation right now.
“What is that?”
Cao Kun asked nervously.
“I don’t know. It could be a human, or it could be a monster. Be careful; this thing definitely isn’t from our world.”
Shen Qiu warned the other two cautiously.
“It doesn’t look human or ghostly; could it be some kind of corpse creature?”
Huang Gan was sweating in the palms of his hands.
“Maybe.”
Shen Qiu also wasn’t sure what to call this creature.
At that moment, the corpse creature released its dead prey and grinned, slowly advancing towards Shen Qiu and the other two.
“You guys go find something to use as a weapon; I’ll deal with this thing,” Shen Qiu said, stepping forward.
“No need, leave the fighting to me; my fists are bigger!”
Huang Gan took a deep breath, mustered his courage, and charged forward, delivering a heavy punch to the creature’s head.
The creature’s head instantly tilted to the side.
“Haha! My punches are strong, right?”
Huang Gan shouted excitedly, seeing that the creature’s head had tilted to one side.
However, the corpse creature raised its hand and punched Huang Gan right in the eye, causing him to stagger backward with his entire left eye swelling up.
Shen Qiu narrowed his eyes at this scene; the creature’s strength was still within normal limits.
Seeing Huang Gan getting hit, Cao Kun bent down slightly and charged forward, delivering a kick to the corpse creature.
The creature only took a small step back and then forcefully rammed into Cao Kun, knocking him down to the ground. It opened its mouth wide, emitting a distorted sound, its ferocity increasing as it prepared to pounce on Cao Kun.
“Be careful!”
Huang Gan had just recovered when he saw this, shouting anxiously.
Shen Qiu rushed forward and kicked the corpse creature hard in the chest, pushing it back.
Before the creature could steady itself, Shen Qiu stepped up beside it, grabbed its left arm with one hand while the other locked onto the joint, and forcefully twisted it, dislocating the entire arm.
The creature didn’t even feel the pain; it angrily turned its head to bite Shen Qiu.
In an instant, Shen Qiu raised his right arm and pushed against the creature’s lower jaw, forcing its mouth shut. Then, he hooked his right foot around the creature’s leg, applying sudden force to slam the entire creature down to the ground.
Seizing the opportunity, Shen Qiu quickly grabbed the creature’s head and twisted it 180 degrees, then grabbed one of its legs and forcefully twisted it as well.
After doing all this, Shen Qiu immediately released his grip and stepped back. He saw that the corpse creature was still alive, but due to its head and limbs being dislocated, it could only struggle helplessly on the ground.
Huang Gan stared at this scene in disbelief and exclaimed, “Damn, Shen Qiu, how are you so strong?”
“It’s alright; I’ve dabbled in it as a hobby,” Shen Qiu replied calmly.
“This isn’t just some average fighting skill; even regular soldiers probably aren’t as strong as you! What have you been doing all these years? You’re not telling me you went off to become a mercenary, are you?”
Cao Kun also looked incredulous.
“Forget it, let’s not talk about that anymore. We need to find some weapons and save people; I estimate there’s more than one of those things.”
Shen Qiu said solemnly as he listened to the screams echoing around them.
Huang Gan and Cao Kun immediately rushed into the house.
Before long, Cao Kun emerged holding a broom and a mop.
“Catch!”
He threw the broom directly to Shen Qiu.
After catching the wooden broom, Shen Qiu couldn’t help but twitch his mouth slightly.
What good is a broom? He felt a pang of regret; if only that mechanical knife could have been brought along.
But he only lamented for a moment; after all, it was unrealistic to carry weapons around.
The Red Alliance has strict controls over weapons; even now, with the situation unstable, they had no intention of loosening their grip.
The reason was simple: once weapons leak out, the situation could easily become chaotic, even uncontrollable!
“Ah, I’ve got my weapon too!”
At that moment, Huang Gan rushed out holding a wooden stool, shouting with full momentum.
“Let’s go!”
Shen Qiu didn’t waste any words and led them toward the loud commotion coming from upstairs.
At that moment, on the safe stairwell, children and social workers from the welfare home were running down in terror, continuously shouting,
“Run! There’s a monster!”
Shen Qiu stopped a panicked male caregiver and asked, “Where’s the monster?”
“*It’s on the third floor!*”
The male caregiver replied fearfully, then scrambled down the stairs in a panic.
Shen Qiu immediately dashed toward the third floor. As soon as he reached it, he saw a corpse creature squatting in the corridor, gnawing on an eleven- or twelve-year-old child, with intestines and blood flowing all over the floor.
Seeing this bloody scene, Huang Gan turned his head and vomited the dinner he had eaten that night.
Cao Kun felt awful as well, his legs going weak.
“Waa waa…”
Suddenly, a crying voice rang out.
A seven-year-old child ran out of a room, and upon seeing the scene before him, he was frightened and began to wail loudly.
Hearing the cry, the corpse creature turned its head to look at the little boy, immediately abandoning the child it had been gnawing on and charging madly towards him.
Shen Qiu grabbed the wooden stool from Huang Gan’s hands and threw it directly at the corpse creature.
*Bang!*
The entire stool shattered into pieces.
However, this attack didn’t inflict any substantial damage. Fortunately, it drew the creature’s attention. The corpse creature instantly turned and charged toward Shen Qiu.
Shen Qiu quickly raised the broom to block the creature’s chest.
Snap!
The broom broke in response.
But the creature’s movements slowed down. Shen Qiu’s muscles tensed as he unleashed his strength, rapidly rushing forward. He locked the creature’s throat with his inner elbow, forcefully bringing it down.
Cao Kun quickly discarded the mop in his hand and rushed over, picking up the sobbing boy to comfort him.
“Don’t cry, don’t cry, it’s okay now.”
At that moment, the downed corpse creature struggled to rise.
Shen Qiu let it get up, moving around to its back, grabbing its neck with both hands.
Snap!
He forcibly twisted the creature’s head around.
The corpse creature immediately flailed its arms wildly. Shen Qiu sidestepped and grabbed one of its arms, using brute force to twist it off.
It wasn’t that Shen Qiu didn’t want to kill the creature, but its vitality was too strong, and he didn’t have any proper weapons at hand.
When Huang Gan finished vomiting and raised his head, he saw that Shen Qiu had already dealt with the creature, and couldn’t help but give a thumbs up.
“That was amazing!”
Shen Qiu didn’t respond to Huang Gan’s words; instead, his expression suddenly changed, and he shouted sternly,
“Be careful!”