Meanwhile, on the first floor, the two corpses in the living room lay motionless. After Quan Xiaoyu left with Li Nan, Yellow Hair collapsed onto the floor, too frightened to move.
The door of the apartment where the girl lived slowly opened at this moment. The girl poked her head out, then immediately let out a scream.
The old woman who had been hiding in the kitchen also tremblingly made her way out. When she saw Weiguang lying on the floor with half his face caved in and already dead, she was so frightened that she collapsed onto the floor.
Inside the apartment, another door that had remained tightly shut all this time slowly opened as well.
A girl walked out.
She staggered forward, completely naked. Her body and face were covered in bruises from beatings. A foul-smelling liquid mixed with blood slid down between her legs, leaving a trail beneath her bare feet.
She, too, saw Weiguang’s corpse.
When she saw the body, a strange expression appeared on her numb face. Then she suddenly burst into laughter.
Her laughter was mixed with exhilaration and misery.
Soon, two more women emerged behind her, their faces filled with panic. They were likewise naked. The only difference was that there were not many injuries on their bodies.
The girl who had come out first stopped laughing and coldly glanced back at the two women following her.
The two women were so frightened that they took a step back and clung to each other.
The girl ignored them.
She saw Yellow Hair collapsed in terror in the living room.
She walked over, then slowly crouched down and rummaged through the pile of metal on the floor, pulling out a fruit knife.
She stared fixedly at Yellow Hair, her eyes cold and cruel.
Yellow Hair, who had only just recovered his senses, was terrified once again.
Not long ago, he had been on top of this girl, wantonly violating her and using vile methods to torment her for his own amusement.
Yet in less than half an hour, his backers had all died.
The girl who had once been weak and easy to bully now stood before him like a female Asura.
“N-no… That’s not it… Yuning, you… listen to me… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… It was all them… It was them…” Yellow Hair cried in terror, tears and mucus streaming down his face.
“Sorry?”
The girl laughed.
He was saying sorry.
Only after the harm had already been done, only when she was holding a knife, was he saying sorry.
Almost every household in this building had lived here for more than twenty years. They saw each other every day, and although there had been conflicts and arguments, after all, a distant relative was less useful than a close neighbor. Everyone had generally lived together harmoniously.
Just a few days ago, that was what she had believed.
The young man before her, although she had not interacted with him much, had grown up alongside everyone else.
Whenever she encountered him outside, she would at least smile, nod, and call him “Big Brother.”
And him?
What had he done?
That day.
That January 4th that had been like a nightmare!
From that day onward, everything had changed.
Her originally beautiful life had been twisted by the very people standing before her.
That day, a strange disaster occurred.
A phenomenon appeared in the sky. Her perfectly healthy grandmother suddenly fell unconscious and would not wake up. When she finally did, she suddenly turned into a monster that ate people, biting through the throat of her mother, who had been taking care of her.
Then her mother became a monster too.
She and her father had fought with all their strength before finally driving her mother and grandmother out of the apartment.
Through the window, she watched her relatives become monsters, her heart filled with indescribable emotions.
There were more and more monsters on the streets. Accidents continued happening outside, and sounds of fighting came from the neighbors’ apartments.
But neither she nor her father dared open the door to see what was happening.
There were also more and more monsters in the corridor.
She saw that the monster next door was Aunt Xu, and the one across from the staircase was Uncle Zhang.
Aunt Xu was holding some object in her hands and gnawing on it.
When she finally saw clearly what Aunt Xu was holding, she immediately collapsed against the window and vomited violently.
Aunt Xu was eating her son, who had just turned two years old!
She did not know how she had managed to survive that long, terrifying day.
At noon the next day, sounds came from the corridor.
An unfamiliar man manipulated strange metal weapons and killed all the monsters in the corridor, including her mother and grandmother.
Behind the man was another unfamiliar burly man, along with Brother Yellow Hair from downstairs.
Originally, she and her father thought they had been saved.
They never expected that this was only the beginning of the disaster.
The unfamiliar man and Yellow Hair went floor by floor, killing all the monsters.
They threw the corpses outside and locked the main entrance downstairs.
Only then did the survivors in the building have the courage to open their doors and come out to look around.
At first, the unfamiliar man acted extremely friendly.
He called on everyone to clean the corridors and clear out some apartments whose occupants had all died.
He said that the apocalypse had arrived.
The outside world was in chaos. There were monsters that ate people everywhere, and everyone needed to unite and get through the crisis together.
The survivors, who were in a state of panic, seemed to suddenly have someone to rely on and actively followed his orders.
Until Old Man Zhao from the fifth floor got into an argument with the man over some matter.
The stubborn old man had never known what it meant to back down his entire life. His face and neck turned red as he raised his cane, intending to teach the man a lesson as though he were disciplining a younger generation.
Then Old Man Zhao’s head flew into the air.
Blood sprayed all over the floor.
When he collapsed, he was still holding his cane in the same raised position.
The people working immediately fell completely silent.
The man’s smile had never changed from beginning to end.
After Old Man Zhao fell, he smiled and said to everyone, “Everyone, keep going. Let’s try to finish cleaning everything up today, okay?”
That day, the entire building was cleaned until it was spotless, as though the apocalypse had never arrived.
Later, Fourth Floor Sister Qian was dragged out of her apartment by them and taken downstairs.
After that, there was commotion on the second floor as well.
Downstairs, the surviving Zhou couple lost the wife, while the husband had his throat cut and was left lying in the living room of his own home.
Then someone knocked on her door.
She and her father tried to find something to block the door, but it was useless.
The lock suddenly melted into muddy water, and the strong man directly smashed through the door.
Yellow Hair grinned as he came over to pull her away, saying, “Little Sister Yuning, come over to Big Brother’s place and play.”
She struggled and resisted, but the strong man slapped her so hard that she became dazed.
In her blurred vision, she saw that the man was still smiling gently.
And her father was curled up in a corner, not even daring to raise his head.
That was the father who had always loved her dearly!
When faced with danger, he chose to protect himself.
He did not even have the courage to rush forward and save her.
He could not even kneel down and beg them to spare her.
This was her father!
At that moment, she thought:
Why hadn’t Grandma bitten through Dad’s throat instead?
When they passed the Li family’s apartment, the door opened.
Uncle Li brandished a small knife and angrily ordered them to let her go.
How laughable.
When she needed someone to help her most, the first person to rush out had not been her father, but the neighbor she had interacted with the least.
Uncle Li was, of course, no match for the man.
Very soon, the small knife Uncle Li had brought out was plunged into his own abdomen.
And the man who always wore that faint, seemingly smiling expression had his eyes light up the instant he saw Li Nan.
Then they abandoned Uncle Li and took Li Nan away as well.
What happened afterward was even more terrifying than a nightmare.
She was locked inside that tiny room.
They humiliated her.
Whenever she resisted, they beat her.
That strong man and Yellow Hair used every vile method they could think of to torment her.
She had also begged others for help.
But the old woman she called Grandma Xu every day had taken the man’s side, currying favor with them and helping them come up with ideas.
The old woman’s granddaughter even cheered them on from the side as though it were entertainment.
The two older sisters locked in the room with her had only needed to be threatened a few times before they came over and helped hold her down.
Was this hell on earth?
Those twisted, cold, malicious faces.
Beneath those familiar faces, what color were their hearts?
She had constantly thought about that question afterward.
Until—
Sounds of fighting came from outside the door.
She heard Yellow Hair begging for mercy.
The person who had grinned viciously while tormenting her the most was now begging someone else for mercy.
She struggled to get up, opened the door, and walked step by step toward Yellow Hair.
The man who had once tormented her was now sprawled at her feet, begging for mercy.
He was crying his eyes out.
He was saying he was sorry.
At this moment, he looked so small and helpless.
As long as she swung the dagger, she could immediately cut open his throat and end his despicable life.
She looked again at the people who were still alive inside the apartment.
Every one of them looked at her with fear and terror.
Whenever her gaze swept over them, they shrank back and avoided her eyes.
So that was how it was.
All she had to do was become stronger than them.
As long as she was just a little stronger, they would willingly let her control them.
So this was all it took!
This was the so-called apocalypse!
Fine!
Welcome, everyone, to the apocalypse!
Hell mode has begun!
The girl laughed.
Her smile was dazzlingly bright.
She thought for a moment, then walked to the door of her “cousin’s” room.
She was the granddaughter of Old Lady Xu. That mysterious man named Weiguang seemed to be some distant cousin of hers.
Before the apocalypse, Weiguang had brought the strong man to visit his relatives, and they happened to encounter that mutation.
The girl did not know whether the tragedies of these past few days would have happened if Weiguang had not come, or if the Xu family had never had such relatives in the first place.
The girl’s approach terrified her “cousin.”
She screamed and backed away.
The girl grabbed her by the collar, pressed her head against the wall, and slammed it against it once.
Then she said, “Shut up. Don’t let me hear your voice again. Otherwise, I’ll shove this knife into your mouth and stab it straight through your throat.”
Her “cousin’s” eyes went blank for an instant.
Then she immediately shut her mouth, her body going limp as she slid down against the wall.
The girl nodded in satisfaction.
Without even turning her head, she said, “No one is allowed to leave!”
After she finished showering and came out wearing her “cousin’s” clothes, she discovered that everyone was still there.
Not a single person had left.
She was actually surprised.
She had only said it casually.
Apart from Yellow Hair, whose hands and feet were still intact, the others could have easily escaped while she was showering and hidden back inside their own homes.
Oh.
This was Old Lady Xu and her “cousin’s” home.
A mocking smile appeared at the corner of the girl’s lips.
Actually, she had already thought of a way to deal with them. It would not matter even if they escaped.
She simply had not expected that they would all remain there.
The girl once again approached Yellow Hair.
Yellow Hair screamed in terror, “Ah, ah!” but he could no longer form any words.
The girl grabbed him by the hair and dragged him toward the doorway.
The main door had long since been destroyed, its cracked panels lying on the floor.
She did not know where she got the strength from, but she actually managed to drag Yellow Hair along.
The metal embedded in Yellow Hair’s body was driven even deeper into his flesh.
His agonized screams echoed throughout the corridor.