The glass dome of the Dead Mall had long ago been shattered into a spiderweb of cracks by the Zombies.
The afternoon sun leaked through, casting mottled shadows on the luxury shopping bags scattered across the messy floor.
Lu Dongnuan leaned against a broken pillar, her fingertips twirling a leaf from a Venus flytrap she had pulled from her pocket.
It still held a hint of green.
Her cold, pale profile remained expressionless as she heard the distant sound of sobbing, her brow furrowing slightly.
She had climbed in through a window thirty minutes ago.
She had originally intended to scavenge more winter clothes, but she hadn’t expected to run into a nest of even more troublesome zombies.
The ceiling was covered in dense clusters of Red-eyed Spiders.
She didn’t know if these things were zombies or not; either way, she wasn’t afraid of anything in the world except these little bugs with too many legs.
Just moments ago, she had been chased through the jungle of clothing racks in the women’s department three times.
Her arrogant demeanor had long since crumbled to dust.
Now, the sound in her ears had been replaced by a woman’s crying.
Tsk, it was incredibly eerie.
It was the classic dilemma of being stuck in the middle.
‘If I knew the Apocalypse would involve fighting bugs until the end, I would have swiped the entomology professor’s notes back then,’ she grumbled under her breath.
Her vision had become excellent; she could see her surroundings clearly even in very dark environments.
She looked around.
‘Another Dead Mall empty of Zombies,’ she thought, scratching her head helplessly.
According to how things usually went, there would definitely be a boss to fight.
Therefore, Lu Dongnuan had her large group of henchmen surround the outside in advance, ready to save the day at any moment.
She looked up and then down.
Now was the time to choose between spiders or a female ghost.
She chose to face the ghost.
Consequently, groups of Zombies began to enter the lower floor, dutifully clearing a safe area for her.
Lu Dongnuan transformed directly into her Tattoo War God form.
This was the state where the virus emerged from dormancy and entered an activated phase.
Lin Mo had told her that only in this state would she possess the strength of a Duzi.
She was currently at Stage 1.
Although she was still relatively weak, her physique had already surpassed that of an ordinary Mutated Infected.
Taking down an elite zombie wouldn’t be a problem.
She jumped straight down from the upper floor, performing a superhero landing and hitting the ground steadily.
Sensing that their boss had arrived, the henchmen howled excitedly as if they had been injected with hormones.
At this howl, the female ghost’s crying grew louder, and the swarm of spiders seemed to be drawn toward them as well.
Lu Dongnuan sliced her finger, letting her blood drip onto the Zombie closest to her.
The moment her blood seeped into the Zombie’s skin, that ordinary little zombie began to swell like a leather bag being injected with high-pressure gas.
Its bones popped and cracked as its spine lengthened segment by segment.
Four deformed, sharp claws burst out from its shoulder blades and ribs, with bits of un-shed flesh still clinging to the pitch-black blades.
It let out a roar and threw its head back.
Its jawbone split open all the way to its ears, and the foul wind it exhaled sent the shopping bags on the floor rustling.
The strengthened Zombie let out a thick, low growl.
Its four giant claws flailed wildly, and after giving its teammates a few heavy blows, it took the lead and charged toward the luxury jewelry area.
Shattered glass counters splashed beneath its feet.
Those once priceless diamonds and gold items were now no different from dust and rubble.
Lu Dongnuan followed closely behind.
The lines of the activated virus spread from the side of her neck to half of her face, appearing as a sinister and cold pattern of red veins.
Lu Dongnuan gave this unexpectedly created new zombie the name “Claw Walker.”
She felt it was very fitting.
The Claw Walker was like a runaway destruction machine, frantically clearing the path ahead.
Its four giant claws swung in turns, easily tearing through the thick, tough spider silk hanging down.
It smashed through the shelves and decorative walls blocking the way, forcibly tearing a path through the first floor of the Dead Mall, which resembled a spider’s nest.
As the tide of Red-eyed Spiders poured down, the small ones were crushed into foul-smelling liquid by the sharp claws.
The slightly larger ones were violently torn apart and tossed aside, their shells shattering against walls and pillars.
However, there were simply too many spiders.
They poured out from every crack and shadow, as if the entire structure of the Dead Mall had become part of their nest.
Silver-bright spider silk began to shoot out and entwine in dense patterns, attempting to slow the Claw Walker’s movements.
Some silk stuck to its pitch-black claws and torso.
Although it couldn’t truly trap the frenzied zombie, it caused its movements to become slightly sluggish.
Lu Dongnuan followed from behind, the dark red markings glowing beneath her skin, granting her superhuman dynamic vision and reaction speed.
She no longer needed to make large dodges.
Often, just a slight tilt of her body or a misstep was enough to avoid the lunging little spiders or the sticky fluid splashing through the air.
Her gaze sharply scanned the surroundings, noting the primary directions from which the spiders emerged and the areas where the webs were densest.
In her mind, she quickly estimated the possible location of the nest’s core.
To put it bluntly, it wasn’t really an estimation; it was a pure guess.
***
Supermarket Warehouse.
Old Zhao, who was pressing firmly against the door, suddenly jerked his head up.
His cloudy but sharp eyes looked outside through the crack in the door.
“What was that sound?”
Xiao Li endured the sharp pain in his shoulder and listened intently.
His face turned a few shades paler.
“It sounds like Zombies, and there’s something else screaming out there in the Dead Mall!”
That sound was low and violent, filled with a non-human sense of power.
It definitely wasn’t something an ordinary Zombie could make.
Lin Sui, who was pressing down on the little girl sleeping on her lap, stiffened upon hearing this.
‘How will the people from The Company get in…’ she thought to herself.
The two youths trembled even more violently, almost unable to grip the Steel Pipes in their hands.
The vent grate above their heads groaned again under the unbearable weight.
A few new, thicker strands of silver-bright spider silk dangled down, and a viscous liquid slowly dripped from the strands, soaking into a small wet patch on the ground.
The sound of the spiders scratching at the door and walls outside also grew more urgent, as if they were being stimulated by the commotion on the floor above.
“No matter what’s coming,” Old Zhao bit his lip, the wrinkles on his face deep as if carved by a knife, “it’s better than being trapped here to die and used as food reserves for these spiders!”
He looked at Xiao Li and asked, “Can you still move?”
Xiao Li nodded, cold sweat pouring down his forehead, “I can!”
“Dr. Lin,” Old Zhao looked at Lin Sui again, “that pickup truck of yours, I remember it’s parked in the back door unloading area. Do you have the keys?”
Lin Sui pulled the keys from a pocket close to her body and said, “I have them, but the back door leads to an alley. It might not…”
“It might not be worse than here,” Old Zhao interrupted her, his gaze resolute.
“Get ready. They must be fighting. When the noise upstairs is at its peak, we’ll make a break for it. Xiao Li, you protect Dr. Lin and the child. Lao Zhou, you two boys follow me closely. Use your tools to clear the way!”
The air inside the warehouse instantly tightened to the limit.
Their fear hadn’t disappeared, but it was temporarily suppressed by a desperate determination to sink or swim.
Everyone checked their makeshift weapons and adjusted their breathing.
On the upper floor, Lu Dongnuan had created different zombies once again.
She had even replicated a specimen with the code name Gecko at a one-to-one scale, which gave her a start.
With her zombie guard squad, the little spiders were all beneath her notice — unless an Elise suddenly dropped from the sky to fight her.
Just as she intended to head deeper inside, the thunderous sound of an iron door being smashed open caught her attention.