Apocalypse Survival Guide for a Beta [GB] - Chapter 2

Qian Hao returned to the convenience store, his face dark and his clothes dripping wet, only to find that Zhang Dong was nowhere to be seen.

The sallow man instantly panicked. “Brother Qian Hao, where’s Brother Zhang Dong?”

Qian Hao kicked over the chair Zhang Dong had been sitting on and snapped, “How the hell should I know?!”

“Did he… leave on his own? What should we do now?”

Hearing yet another question, Qian Hao’s pent-up frustration found an outlet. He swung a fist and punched the sallow man hard in the chest. “Aren’t you supposed to be so damn capable?! Didn’t you survive an encounter with a second-tier zombie?! Then you tell me, what the hell do we do?!”

The sallow man collapsed to the ground and stayed silent, not daring to make another sound.

The punch had vented some of Qian Hao’s anger and cleared his head a little. He didn’t believe Zhang Dong would just sneak off alone.

There was no reason for it!

Then where did he go?

Qian Hao scanned the room, his gaze settling on the convenience store’s shelves. He called out to the sallow man, “Hey!”

The sallow man flinched. “B-Brother Qian…”

“Did this shelf get moved?” Qian Hao’s eyes were locked onto it.

The sallow man had no memory of such details and could only answer hesitantly, “I… I think so?”

Qian Hao was certain it had been moved, judging by the disturbed dust patterns on the floor.

His eyes swept over the shelf, then suddenly stopped at the poster behind it. It was an ordinary beverage advertisement, but…

“Zhang Dong?” he called.

No response.

“Zhang Dong?” He raised his voice and, without drawing attention to it, started shifting the shelf aside.

The sallow man, confused, watched from the side. But once the shelf was moved, he too noticed the small door hidden behind the poster, as well as the damp footprints on it.

Qian Hao’s eyes narrowed at the still-wet water stains. As he pushed the door open, he said, “Zhang Dong, stop messing around. I know you’re in there! The rain’s stopped and we can’t afford to delay Boss Qiu Tu’s business!”

He intentionally mentioned Qiu Tu’s name, hoping to make Zhang Dong realize the urgency.

As soon as the door opened, the scent of cigarette smoke hit him. Sure enough, Zhang Dong was huddled by the table in the storeroom with a half-burnt cigarette between his fingers.

Qian Hao’s anger flared instantly. Striding in, he shoved Zhang Dong hard. “Zhang Dong, don’t think that just because you have an ability, you can—”

Zhang Dong toppled over.

Only then did Qian Hao notice the scent of blood beneath the smoke.

A shriek rang behind him from the sallow man.

Qian Hao suddenly felt a chill at his throat. His eyes blinked, his hand instinctively reaching for his neck, but before he could touch it, he collapsed beside Zhang Dong lifelessly.

The sallow man’s legs gave out and he sank to the floor, trembling as he watched a woman emerge from the room like a specter of death. His entire body shook as he scrambled backward, but he didn’t dare run because the darkness ahead was staring him down through the barrel of a gun.

Slender, pale fingers contrasted sharply against the cold, silver metal of the grip.

For once, the sallow man’s mind was completely blank.

“Where’s the third-tier zombie?” The woman’s voice was calm.

“In… in Tianxiang Mall, Western District Five,” he stammered.

The moment he answered, he saw her tuck the gun away at her lower back. Relief flooded him as he thought he had escaped death.

But the next second, his pupils shrank as he saw a short blade slicing through the air toward him.

With a flash of cold steel, the blade embedded itself in his forehead.

A single, lethal strike.

Lin Bai pulled out the blade, retrieved a black cloth, and methodically wiped the blood away. Then, as if sensing something, she glanced to the side.

A small figure stood in the storeroom doorway, clutching a doll with a broken leg.

Xi Ya had woken up at some point.

Lin Bai withdrew her gaze and continued wiping her blade. The cold light reflected off the slender black knife and sent a chill through the air.

Xi Ya clutched her doll under her arm, her small hands pressed together as she hesitated before stepping forward.

Lin Bai lifted her eyelids and glanced at her.

Xi Ya’s fingers trembled violently. She extended her palm forward and revealed a tiny flame barely larger than her hand. In a childish voice, she asked, “Are… are you still cold?”

Lin Bai let out a soft chuckle.

Xi Ya stood on her toes, trying her best to bring the flame closer to Lin Bai.

“Aren’t you afraid?” Lin Bai asked.

Xi Ya shook her head. “N-no, I’m not!”

Lin Bai slid the short blade back into the sheath strapped to her thigh and said in a low voice, “Go.”

Xi Ya froze for a moment, unsure if Lin Bai meant she should leave or if she was telling her to come along.

She cautiously took two steps toward Lin Bai as she watched for a reaction. When she saw none, she realized that Lin Bai wasn’t rejecting her! Her eyes lit up and she quickly followed.

As they ran some distance away, Xi Ya couldn’t help but glance back at the convenience store toward the sallow man’s lifeless body.

She actually knew him.

Five days ago, he had pushed her down.

Because he hadn’t been as fast as her.

She quickly turned her head away and stopped looking, following Lin Bai farther into the distance. Behind them, faint roars and snarls echoed through the air.

The scent of blood would attract nearby zombies. There was no need to guess what would happen to those three corpses.

***

Meanwhile, on the second floor of Tianxiang Mall in Western District Five…

Gunfire and explosions filled the air.

Severed limbs and mangled bodies were strewn across the floor, both zombie and human alike.

Screams rang out from all directions.

Sun Yuan, a B-rank ability user, gasped for breath as he took cover behind one of the mall’s columns. Pressing the special intercom at his ear, he shouted, “Brother Chang, when is backup arriving? I can’t hold out much longer! There are too many zombies in this mall!”

“Useless! Hold on for two more minutes!” Chang Qi’s voice snapped through the earpiece.

“Brother Sun, is Brother Chang’s team here yet?!” a teammate called out.

“Just two more minutes!” Sun Yuan shouted back.

A voice wailed in despair, “How the hell are we supposed to hold out?! Most of our people are dead! There’s only a handful of us left and I’m completely out of energy! We haven’t even seen the third-tier zombie!”

“We’re working for Boss Qiu Tu! We’re not here to die for him!”

One of the Blood Bone ability users yanked a random survivor from the group of mall survivors and hurled them into the distance, using the fresh body as bait to lure the zombies away. A bloodcurdling scream rang out, but he barely spared it a glance. Scanning the remaining survivors, he growled, “Not many left! The zombies’ number is increasing! What now?!”

As they spoke, more and more zombies caught their scent and rushed toward them.

They scrambled to evade, firing their weapons while occasionally throwing ordinary humans toward the zombies to buy time. But the undead were far more drawn to the scent of ability users.

The air reeked of gunpowder, blood, and rotting flesh…

As they worried, three zombies let out guttural growls and lunged at them.

Sun Yuan condensed three metal spheres and hurled them at the zombies’ heads.

Two spheres hit but one missed.

Before the zombie could regain its footing, a vine wrapped around its ankle and slammed it to the ground. Sun Yuan immediately finished it off with another metal sphere.

Knowing that a direct confrontation would be disastrous, Sun Yuan shouted, “Take cover and wait for Chang Qi and his team—sh*t!” He barely dodged a zombie’s attack.

The mall survivors, seeing that the Blood Bone members were too occupied to stop them, screamed and ran deeper into the building. No one wanted to be the next person thrown into the zombie horde.

“Damn it, they still dare to run?!” someone cursed.

Sun Yuan casually flung a few more metal spheres and wounded some of the fleeing humans to lure zombies toward them. Then he refocused on the undead around them. “Forget them, just worry about yourselves.”

Chang Qi had said two minutes. Five had passed and still, no backup had arrived.

“Damn it! That bastard Chang Qi is selling us out! If I turn into a zombie, I swear I’ll hunt him down!” spat a wood-type ability user.

At that moment, a second-tier zombie somehow made its way above them and pounced.

“Ahhh!!!” The same wood-type ability user was caught off guard and was slashed across the arm. His wound immediately began to fester and rot. He turned to Sun Yuan, panicked. “Brother Sun, help—”

Before he could finish, someone behind him snapped his neck. His final expression was one of utter disbelief.

The remaining survivors didn’t say a word. The zombie virus was highly infectious and some victims turned in as little as ten seconds, while others lasted up to twenty-four hours before becoming ravenous monsters.

And if an ability user turned, they started off as a second-tier zombie. The situation was already dire; no one wanted to deal with another high-level undead.

Sun Yuan grabbed the still-transforming ability user’s corpse and hurled it into the horde, buying them a few moments to breathe.

“Well, well, the trash is still alive.”

Chang Qi’s voice rang out from the second-floor window before he swung inside using a vine.

Sun Yuan no longer had the energy to argue with him. “The third-tier zombie is in the clothing store downstairs. There are too many zombies outside. We can’t break through.”

“Why are there so many zombies in the first place?” Chang Qi frowned, surprised as he glanced down at the dense horde below.

“How the f*ck would I know?!” Sun Yuan snapped.

More ability users from Chang Qi’s team slid in through the window after him. Among them stood a particularly noticeable young man with a missing right ear, wielding a thorned whip. He was Chang Qi’s younger brother, Chang Ping, a B-rank wood-type ability user.

“You guys deal with these first-tier zombies. I’ll take care of the third-tier zombie. Chang Ping, watch my movements. Hurry up! Black Flame’s people are on their way here!” Chang Qi ordered. As an A-rank ability user, he had yet to encounter a zombie that could harm him.

“Got it,” Chang Ping responded.

With the Blood Bone ability users joining the fight, the battle inside Tianxiang Mall erupted once more.

Chang Qi launched two streams of fire to carve a path through the zombies before him. Without hesitation, he charged straight into the clothing store where the third-tier zombie was hiding.

The moment he stepped inside, the temperature dropped by at least five or six degrees, sending a chill down his spine.

“Hoo—hoo—” A sound came from the side.

Chang Qi reacted instantly and threw two fireballs while retreating a few steps to create distance.

In the next moment, the raspy breathing was right next to him again.

A speed-type third-tier zombie!

Chang Qi hurled two more fireballs toward the sound.

He could form fireballs incredibly fast and they took shape as soon as he raised his hand. With a flick, they were launched.

“Hoo!” A zombie’s shriek rang out.

He hit it!

Before he could feel any relief, the scene before him made his heart sink.

Two zombies stood there.

One was about 1.5 meters tall, with black hair and red eyes. The other was a towering 2-meter giant, with yellow hair and the same eerie red eyes.

Two of them?! Chang Qi was stunned.

“Somebody get—!” He had just started shouting when the 1.5-meter-tall black-haired zombie suddenly leaped at him.

Acting on instinct, Chang Qi quickly cleared the path behind him in preparation to retreat.

But the two zombies had no intention of letting him escape. The scent of an ability user sent them into a frenzy.

“Hoaaah!” A loud zombie howl echoed through the mall, drawing more undead toward the clothing store.

Chang Qi aimed his palm downward, conjuring a fireball and launching it at the larger zombie’s head. It dodged, but the fireball grazed its shoulder and sent sparks flying.

The stench of burning rotten flesh was nauseating.

The yellow-haired zombie howled even louder and lunged at him.

Fire attacks worked but…

He suddenly leaped to the side, barely dodging a sneak attack from the agile black-haired zombie.

Fighting one zombie was manageable, but two third-tier zombies, plus the growing horde surrounding him, made the situation overwhelming.

“Damn! Where the f*ck are you guys?!” Chang Qi roared in frustration.