"Riding on my beloved little motorbike, it never gets stuck in traffic..."
Humming a little tune, Lin Bai rode the yellow bike on the familiar road from yesterday.
Lin Bai, who hadn't been able to eat all day, felt waves of hunger. Just then, he smelled a faint aroma—so fragrant, it seemed delicious...
Until he drove to a small wooden cabin identical to the one he had been in before, which appeared before his eyes. Lin Bai parked the yellow bike and snuck over quietly.
Outside the cabin was a concrete mixer. A man wearing work clothes and a hat was continuously carrying corpses, cutting them with an electric saw, and throwing them into the concrete mixer. A pool of blood-red liquid was being poured into molds, turning into blood-red bricks...
Lin Bai felt waves of nausea.
Just as Lin Bai was about to take out his phone to notify Chi Xiaoyu, his body suddenly felt a wave of heat.
He collapsed weakly on the ground as an intense feeling of hunger came over him. His body began to slowly shrink, his chest slightly swelled, and his hair grew continuously, turning into the appearance of a white-haired girl.
Lin Bai touched his now thinner face and asked in confusion.
"What's going on? What's happening to me?"
Lin Bai opened his phone camera and looked at his delicate features—white hair flowing in the wind, red eyes especially conspicuous in the night.
This girl was actually himself? So yesterday wasn't a dream after all.
Just then, the man noticed the movement and walked over with a saw. The sound of the electric saw starting up rang out as the man made heavy footsteps. Lin Bai had no time to worry about his bodily changes and quietly hid in the nearby bushes.
As the man got closer, Lin Bai's hunger grew more and more severe. Once this feeling started, it seemed impossible to stop. Until Lin Bai could no longer bear it, he suddenly rushed out from the bushes.
The girl threw a punch that looked weak but landed on the man's face.
The man, holding the electric saw, staggered backward. The area where Lin Bai attacked began to peel off. Threads and stitches broke apart, and the skin fell off like sand, floating in the wind. Under one piece of facial skin was another different piece...
The man steadied himself and swung the electric saw toward Lin Bai.
After dodging to the side, Lin Bai somewhat awkwardly summoned a blood-red light in his hand. With a flash of red light, the man's head was instantly pierced, turning into a D-grade infection crystal. Lin Bai picked up the core and examined it.
It smelled so good—did he actually want to eat this?
Waves of hunger came over him. Lin Bai closed his eyes, pinched his nose, and slowly put the core in his mouth. Instantly, he felt a satisfaction that ordinary food could never bring.
Lin Bai savored it, licking his lips.
"The taste is really good."
○
Meanwhile, on the other side.
"Captain Chi, the instrument shows the source of contamination is this house," said an officer holding a device.
Before them was a detached house built halfway with red bricks. In this suburban area, such houses were common, but strangely, half of this house's walls hadn't been completed, and the room inside seemed to have had a fire...
Chi Xiaoyu instructed the officers:
"Five of us will go in. You three stay outside and keep watch!"
Entering the room, it was completely dark, and they could only vaguely see where the flashlight illuminated. Chi Xiaoyu pinched her nose and sniffed.
"Do you smell the scent of blood?"
An officer nodded and confirmed.
"Yes, there's a faint smell of blood."
Chi Xiaoyu used her flashlight to check the items in the house.
It was an empty house with two small rooms. The floor was burnt wooden boards. The entire house was burned beyond recognition. A few red bricks lay lonely on the ground.
There were many construction materials in the room. It seemed the house was still under construction recently. But why would a burnt house still be under construction?
Chi Xiaoyu picked up a brick and sniffed it.
"The brick smells of blood?"
Just then, a male voice urgently came through the walkie-talkie:
"You need to leave that house immediately. The instruments show the contamination level has increased by 30 percent. If this continues, it might turn into a C-level contamination!"
Everyone left the house in an orderly manner. Chi Xiaoyu counted the people.
"Is everyone out?"
Chi Xiaoyu saw that six people had walked out of the room and raised her gun vigilantly.
"Sound off!"
Although the officers were confused, they started counting off as instructed. Just as the sixth person was about to speak, Chi Xiaoyu pulled the trigger without hesitation.
After being shot, the man suddenly split his mouth open, then slowly took off his police hat. His head was shockingly a face without eyeballs, with countless stitches sewing up his face, and his body was covered with burn marks.
The man tilted his head to look at Chi Xiaoyu, then smiled eerily.
Chi Xiaoyu thought to herself:
'I couldn't see clearly in the dark just now. When did this ghostly thing mix in?'
After being shot several times, the man ran back to the house. Chi Xiaoyu took out her walkie-talkie and seriously called:
"Found the source of contamination. Request instructions from headquarters."
The man on the other end of the walkie-talkie said seriously:
"Permission to eliminate."
Chi Xiaoyu took out a black box from the car. She placed the box on the ground and stepped into the middle of it. An exoskeleton armor covered her body. She drew a sharp white sword from her back.
Her entire aura was enhanced. Chi Xiaoyu walked in fearlessly.
○
After checking the wooden cabin, Lin Bai didn't find anything valuable. He didn't know if his good friend Li Mingzhe was still alive. Calling Chi Xiaoyu yielded no answer.
The girl sat on the ground, looking at the moon while resting her face on her palm.
'I can't go back to the dorm like this. Chi Xiaoyu doesn't check messages, doesn't answer calls either. I'm so hungry.'
Just as the girl was idly admiring her new body, a man in work clothes was running at 60 miles per hour not far away, pushing a cart of red bricks, continuously running and making eerie laughing sounds. Lin Bai quickly followed.
"Hey, wait for me, buddy! Are you going to build a house? Just let me have a bite, don't run!"
I'm so hungry~
○
Entering the house again, Chi Xiaoyu inserted her sword into the wall and swept across. The bricks on the wall continuously fell off. She used a flashlight to illuminate various parts of the room.
Just as the man was about to be illuminated, he pounced toward Chi Xiaoyu. Dodging with a slide, she slashed at the man's back.
In the sharp blade light, the man's back developed a series of ridges. Chi Xiaoyu felt that she had hit hard bone and was deflected.
After failing to land a hit, the man ran back into the shadows, making strange noises...
Chi Xiaoyu took out a glow stick and threw it. The room was immediately illuminated.
With this faint light, Chi Xiaoyu quickly moved to the man's side, and shouted.
"Thunder Blade!"
The blade was instantly enveloped with blue lightning. With this slash, lightning flashed, and the man's arm was cut off. He let out an angry roar, then ran into the adjacent dark room and hid. The severed arm on the ground grew feet and quickly crawled into the shadows.
At this time, Chi Xiaoyu's walkie-talkie transmitted a male voice:
"Finish quickly, the contamination level in the room is continuously rising."
The longer she stayed in the room, Chi Xiaoyu felt an increasingly strong sense of dizziness, as if she was anemic. Chi Xiaoyu thought to herself.
'Not good, it seems staying in the room will have my blood absorbed, increasing his contamination level.'
○
Following the man with the cart, Lin Bai arrived not far from the house where Chi Xiaoyu was, observing the police around.
The man pushing the cart hurriedly took bricks and began building the unfinished wall. Other police officers who saw the man with the cart quickly said into their walkie-talkies:
"Another infected has arrived, but he's not going in. He's building a wall outside!"
An urgent voice came through the walkie-talkie:
"Kill him quickly, I'll send people to support. This might not just be a D-level anomalous event. If it reaches C-level, it might form an anomalous domain. Go notify Chi Xiaoyu to retreat. I can't contact her!"
Seven police officers took out their guns and continuously shot at the man, but he acted as if the people around him didn't exist. He kept laughing strangely and building the wall without care.
As time passed, more men in work clothes continuously arrived with carts. Those men quickly built most of the house...
Seeing these infected, Lin Bai's hunger grew more and more intense. As the wall was gradually built, he instinctively felt a sense of threat. If they completed this wall, something serious would happen.
And Chi Xiaoyu was still inside, possibly needing his help. So Lin Bai, taking advantage of the police's attention being elsewhere, rushed into the house.
A police officer holding a device shakily said into the walkie-talkie:
"Not good, the instrument shows another anomaly has gone inside!"