At that moment, Huan Tian hadn't noticed anything unusual, but his instincts told him—something was wrong with the zombies trapped above them in the ventilation ducts. At the same time, the howls of the undead outside the door grew restless and agitated, as if provoked by some invisible force.
"What's going on?"
Lin Qingqing tightened her grip on the bone knife, heart pounding wildly. But before she could react, heavy thudding suddenly erupted from overhead.
Thud.
Thud-thud!
Thud-thud-thud!
What started as a few isolated bangs quickly turned into a relentless, thunderous barrage, echoing like explosions above their heads. It was as if something was hammering the ceiling with wild fury.
The plastic panels of the ceiling trembled violently, then crashed down with a clatter, revealing the grid of welded ventilation ducts. Inside, the zombies had gone completely berserk. Their rabid pounding dented the smooth metal from within, one grotesque bulge after another forming in rapid succession.
Thud! Thud!
CLANG!
A deafening crash rang out as a welded joint at a corner gave way, ripped apart by brute force. The moment the breach opened, a chorus of savage roars erupted from within. Blood-slicked hands—some stripped to bare bone—pushed frantically through the gap, tearing at the metal to widen the rupture.
Through the widening fissure, Huan Tian saw them—pairs of ravenous eyes locked onto him and Lin Qingqing with murderous hunger. That raw, unfiltered desire to devour sent a chill racing down even Huan Tian's battle-hardened spine.
"Get back!"
He yanked Lin Qingqing behind him just as a shriek of rending metal burst from overhead.
CLANG!
Crack-crack—Screeeeech!
The cracked ventilation duct could no longer withstand the weight of the zombies piling in from above. With a thunderous crash, the lower support panel gave way—and in the next instant, more than a dozen zombies came pouring down like a dam burst, crashing into the room all at once.
"Kill them!"
The moment Huan Tian gave the order, his bone blade swept down like a pale waterfall. The first zombie that had just risen was split clean in half, its skull cleaved open—blood and brain matter sprayed everywhere in a grotesque arc.
Behind it, another zombie lunged mid-climb. Huan Tian sidestepped with fluid precision, dodging the attack, and in the same motion, drove the white bone blade straight into the creature's eye socket with cold efficiency.
By the time he yanked the blade free and looked up, Lin Qingqing saw that every zombie in the room had already been cut down.
The last two were sliced clean in half at the waist by Huan Tian's sweeping strike. Black-red entrails spilled out across the floor, but their arms still clawed at the carpet, dragging their twitching torsos toward the pair, leaving long, glistening trails of guts behind them.
Schlenk!
Lin Qingqing stepped forward and pinned both to the ground with swift, merciless stabs. Yet the bone-chilling noise in the room didn't fade—instead, it grew louder. From within the broken ventilation duct came a new wave of guttural howls and screeches, even more terrifying than before—and rapidly approaching.
They didn't need to look.
The moment they heard it, a vivid image flashed in both Huan Tian and Lin Qingqing's minds:
Countless zombies, crawling through the ducts like a pack of rabid hyenas, swarmed closer by the second.
"How many of them are coming?!"
Lin Qingqing's heart pounded violently. Sweat beaded in her palm as she clutched the bone knife tightly. Huan Tian's brows furrowed deeply, his gaze drifting toward the mangled corpse of the six-legged Black Widow not far away.
Suddenly, the exposed ventilation duct above began to shake violently. The U-shaped brackets holding it to the ceiling groaned under the strain. One by one, the screws started to rip loose from the concrete wall, torn out by the sheer force of the onslaught.
BOOM!
The front section of the ventilation duct finally gave out under the crushing weight inside, slamming hard onto the floor. It collapsed at an angle, forming a steep slide straight to the ground. Under the violent impact, the duct twisted and buckled, and the welded joints split apart like a web of fractures.
A deafening chorus of enraged howls erupted from within, accompanied by a spray of black-red pus spewing through the ruptures, splattering across the floor.
Huan Tian's eyes narrowed sharply into slits. "Grab your gear. We're leaving!"
The two of them lunged for their backpacks, shoving in tools as fast as they could. Behind them, dozens of zombie arms burst from every crack in the ventilation system, squeezing through the jagged metal, then clawing at it with frenzied strength to widen the gaps.
The torn edges were razor-sharp, ripping their decayed limbs into blood-slicked shreds, yet the undead showed no sign of pain or hesitation. Coated in black gore, the duct writhed like a giant, deranged centipede thrashing across the floor.
Groooan…
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
The metal walls, already thin, tore apart under the relentless assault. Blood-drenched heads and torsos began to spill out of the ruptures, crashing to the ground, only to scramble back to their feet and lunge toward the two humans with crazed, animalistic hunger.
One zombie, drenched in gore, shrieked and dove at Lin Qingqing just as she finished slinging her pack. She instinctively reached for the bone knife at her waist—
But in that instant, a powerful arm yanked her backward.
"Move! Don't stop to fight!"
ROAR!
The zombie missed and smashed headfirst into a desk. Its right eye struck the sharp corner—POP! —bursting like a rotten grape. Blood sprayed from the socket in a gruesome jet, yet it rose again almost instantly, snarling as it charged Lin Qingqing once more.
The madness in its gaze made her knife hand tremble ever so slightly.
Huan Tian grabbed her pale wrist and bolted toward the door. But just as he yanked it open—
A claw, soaked in blood and riddled with bite marks, shot through the gap, aiming straight for his face.
In a flash, Huan Tian dropped his shoulder and slammed forward like a battering ram—
Boom!
A devastating iron-shoulder blow crushed straight into the chest of the zombie outside the door.
Crack—crack—CRACK!
The creature was launched like a cannonball, its bones shattering under the impact. It flew backward and crashed into three more zombies behind it, knocking them all to the ground in a tangled heap.
Only then did Huan Tian realize—four zombies had already surrounded the doorway, and more were rapidly closing in from the end of the corridor.
That brief moment of distraction cost him.
Behind him, the first zombie had already wriggled its way out of the ventilation duct and was lunging straight at Lin Qingqing!
"Hold them off!"
With no hesitation, Huan Tian grabbed Lin Qingqing with his left arm and hurled her out the door. At the same time, he dashed through the doorway himself and slammed the door shut with a heavy bang.
Thud!
A dull, violent thump echoed behind the door—the blood-covered zombie had crashed headfirst into the other side.
Roars of rage followed, dozens of snarling, clawing sounds slamming against the door with a relentless frenzy, as if the monsters inside wouldn't rest until they devoured both of them alive.
But days of brutal training had forged Lin Qingqing's instincts. The moment Huan Tian gave an order, it cut through her fear like a blade through fog—her panic was immediately replaced by sharp focus.
Thrown through the air, she hit the ground hard, rolled, and came up with both hands gripping her bone blade. She slashed upward the instant she regained balance.
Slash!
Her strike landed on the chest of the nearest zombie, carving a massive gash across its torso. It wasn't enough to kill, but it gave Huan Tian the time he needed to charge out of the room.
He followed through with a clean, brutal sweep of his blade.
With a strength stat of 14, Huan Tian sliced through the remaining four zombies like they were paper dolls. Blood sprayed as limbs and heads flew—none of them survived the first blow.
"That way—move!"
Before Lin Qingqing could even get her footing, Huan Tian grabbed her arm and broke into a sprint, dragging her along the corridor.
BOOM!
Behind them, the office door was blasted off its hinges and slammed onto the floor.
Zombies poured out like a flood bursting from a shattered dam. The ones at the front didn't even have time to react—they crashed straight into the far wall with bone-snapping impact. But they didn't stop.
Snarling and howling, they scrambled upright and came after the two of them like a pack of rabid dogs, launching a frenzied chase through the corridor.
The scene was so terrifying that neither Huan Tian nor Lin Qingqing even dared to look back or think about fighting.
They ran with all their might. Fortunately, no matter how fast the zombies sprinted, they couldn't keep up with human speed. Gradually, the distance between them and the horde widened.
"Did these zombies get some kind of stimulant? They're acting like they're crazy!" Huan Tian cursed silently, but at this moment, he had no choice but to focus entirely on running forward, unable to spare any thought for anything else.
"Qingqing, help me figure out what's going on!"
"I'm trying!" Lin Qingqing panted heavily, occasionally glancing back in horror at the terrifying black mass behind them.
Her mind raced through every piece of information gathered since entering this place:
"The strange female zombie… six-legged black widow… parasitic… control…"
Something kept flickering in her mind, but it felt like a veil was blocking the truth—no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't grasp it.