Chapter 27 : Haunting Shadows!

Lying on the hospital bed, just as Li Yiming was about to rest—

He immediately sat up alertly when he heard the sound of dripping water.

Was that just condensation from the air conditioner?

Li Yiming jumped out of bed and walked to the central air conditioning unit, inspecting the dark red stains on the floor.

He dipped his fingers into it and brought them to his nose for a sniff.

An overwhelming stench instantly invaded his nostrils.

This smell…

It didn’t resemble the metallic tang of rusted water from a ventilation system.

No—it was far more like the scent of blood.

Li Yiming frowned deeply.

He stood up and looked up at the ceiling’s central air conditioning unit.

Just as he tilted his head—

Another bead of dark red liquid, the size of a soybean, was forming at the vent outlet.

Strange… why would the air conditioner be leaking blood?

Confused, Li Yiming found the air conditioner switch on the wall and turned off the unit for his section of the ward.

The moment the air conditioner shut down—

With the constant hum of the machine silenced, the strange noises in the ventilation ducts suddenly became eerily clear to Li Yiming’s ears.

After hearing them clearly, Li Yiming’s expression turned grim.

Not wasting time to consider whether Christine had finished changing, he rushed into the room next door.

“Forget changing! We’ve got an intruder—”

Li Yiming pushed open the door mid-sentence—

Only to be slapped in the face by a flying black stocking.

“You perv!! Didn’t I say I was changing?!”

Christine, flustered, grabbed the nearby protective suit and held it in front of her chest.

Though the lab suit didn’t need to be completely removed, she had only taken off her stockings and was fixing her hair.

But Li Yiming’s sudden intrusion still made her feel thoroughly violated.

Just as she was about to yell at him—

A deafening BOOM echoed from the air vent above her!

Dust and debris rained down as Christine looked up in shock.

The central air conditioner unit, once firmly mounted in the ceiling—

Was now crashing down straight toward her!

“Watch out!”

With lightning reflexes, Li Yiming lunged forward, pulling Christine into his arms—Just in time to save her from being crushed under the dozens-of-kilos-heavy unit.

CRASH!

The air conditioner hit the ground and shattered into pieces instantly!

A cloud of white dust instantly filled the entire lab.

“Cough! Cough!… Damn it, what’s going on?!”

Christine, curled up in Li Yiming’s arms, shielded her mouth and nose with her hand, coughing as she spoke.

“Something broke in through the vents.”

Li Yiming narrowed his eyes, his long lashes shielding them from the swirling dust.

He kept his gaze locked on the collapsed air vent, bracing for an imminent attack.

“ROAR!!”

A familiar roar came from deep within the ventilation duct!

A crimson-skinned Licker burst out from the fallen air duct!

Seeing the beast stare them down with murderous intent, Li Yiming spat out the dust in his mouth.

“Damn thing… haunting me like a ghost.”

It was the smallest of the Lickers—the one they hadn’t seen during their last outing.

Turns out, this one had found another way in!

Li Yiming slowly stood up, shielding Christine behind him.

“Got any melee weapons in this lab?” he asked.

Christine’s expression was far from optimistic.

“Do dissection scalpels count?”

“It’ll do. Hurry, give it to me!”

At Li Yiming’s urging, Christine quickly rummaged through the nearby tool cabinet and handed him a set of surgical scalpels.

Li Yiming looked at the tiny scalpel—its short handle and pitiful blade—and let out a helpless sigh.

A short dagger was already barely enough to decapitate a Licker…

Now comparing that dagger to this scalpel… the scalpel was no longer “short”—it was downright miniature!

Still, it was better than nothing.

Gripping the scalpel, Li Yiming entered a tense standoff with the Licker in front of him.

Just as he prepared to strike first—

BOOM!

The air conditioning unit in the neighboring ward area also collapsed with a thunderous crash!

Two more Lickers crawled out through the new opening!

“Tch… that complicates things.”

Before Li Yiming could finish his sentence, the Licker before him lunged forward with an attack!

Its terrifyingly large claw swiped straight at Li Yiming’s face!

His pupils contracted to thin slits in an instant!

If that blow landed, he had no doubt his head would be cleaved into several bloody pieces!

However—

Where previously he could barely follow a Licker’s movements—

Thanks to the continuous strengthening of his body through the T-virus.

The giant claw now appeared no faster than an ordinary human’s strike in his eyes.

He could clearly trace the arc of the Licker’s attack.

Li Yiming instinctively ducked his head slightly, easily dodging the claw without harm.

At the same time, he slashed the scalpel across the Licker’s neck.

Squelch!

The scalpel cleanly cut through the flesh of the Licker’s throat!

With a pained screech, the Licker leapt back, creating distance between itself and Li Yiming.

But Li Yiming had no intention of letting it escape.

Pushing off the ground, he lunged forward to chase it down!

He wasn’t going to give this monster even a second to catch its breath.

Not until he beat it to death!

However—

Just as Li Yiming closed in to finish off the injured Licker—

The other two Lickers roared and leapt into the fray!

With two more Lickers joining the battle, the situation turned chaotic.

Li Yiming was already faster than a single Licker.

But now, with two Lickers attacking him in perfect coordination, he was forced onto the defensive, spending all his energy dodging, leaving few chances to counterattack.

And once the wounded Licker recovered and rejoined the fight—

The situation turned dire.

While facing two, Li Yiming could still manage to occasionally land cuts on them—

But under the coordinated assault of three Lickers, he could barely keep up!

Watching Li Yiming struggle desperately against the trio of monstrous creatures, Christine’s heart leapt into her throat.

Damn it, hurry up!

She kept pushing her internal abilities to the limit, trying to activate her freezing powers.

But no matter how hard she tried—

The casting time of her freezing ability just couldn’t speed up any further!

At that moment—

She had never felt so frustrated and regretful about the weakness of her abilities!

As Christine frantically gathered her energy—

In the middle of the battle, Li Yiming suddenly turned to look straight at her!