March 20th, 12:37 PM — Longwan Mall, Unknown Room
The first thing I noticed was the smell.
Cheap antiseptic. Damp cloth. Something bitter beneath it — blood and burnt powder.
I opened my eyes slowly.
There was a cracked ceiling above me, yellowed stains from the water, and several dead flies trapped in the light cover. My head throbbed with a dull pulsing ache the moment I tried to sit up, and the world tilted sideways.
Shen Yifei’s voice drifted in from nearby. It wasn’t a harsh sound, but it wasn’t steady either. I blinked a few times, turned my head and noticed that we weren’t in the atrium anymore.
My throat hurt... dry, sore and a little swollen.
It looked like the back of an old nail salon — torn chairs, mirrors without glass, and a thick, dusty curtain draped across what used to be the entrance. Someone had dragged a pair of old couches together to make a makeshift bed. My back stuck to a folded towel soaked with sweat and blood.
Yifei sat nearby on an overturned stool and looked tired.
The kind of tired that meant everything hurt, but she couldn’t afford to stop moving.
"An hour. Maybe more." She passed me a plastic bottle with the label half-scratched off. "You blacked out after the Ghoul left."
The word sat in my mouth.
I remembered that horrific monster, its strength not in pure force, but how it could move, twist and bend its joints using all its strength.
The moment its arms hammered down. The sharp pop of my nose breaking, and bones cracking under the force. The weight of its body when it pinned me, like steel cables wrapped in skin.
I sat up slowly, ignoring the rush of heat in my face and the crackle of pain in my ribs. Yifei didn’t stop me this time.
Roulan was asleep on a folded blanket a few metres away, her side still bandaged. Tang Wei leaned against the far wall, cleaning her shotgun in silence, her shirt torn across one arm. No one spoke, but it was clear that we barely survived.
The girls had blocked the doors with cloth and heavy shelves... so I couldn’t see outside, but the lingering anxiety of that ghoul remained.
"You didn’t carry me here."
"No." Yifei’s tone sharpened slightly. "Tang Wei did."
I glanced at the old mirror behind her. My face looked like hell. Dried blood under my nose. Red along my jaw. A dark bruise blooming near my left eye.
"I look like I lost."
Yifei didn’t smile. "We didn’t win either."
I leaned forward, grabbed my gauntlets from where they rested on the floor. They were scratched, scorched, but still intact. A smear of white had dried along the edge of one blade.
Or whatever passed for it.
"I think it could’ve killed me."
Yifei’s body shuddered at my words, her hand clasping around mine as she shook her head.
Her fingers clenched me tightly as she rubbed my fingers.
She didn’t add anything more.
I tapped the comm device in my ear twice while trying to contact Qingaln and brought up the interface.
The screen flickered for a second before stabilising. Static lines scratched across the corner, but the local systems were fine.
[Status: Minor trauma.]
No warnings about internal bleeding, no critical damage.
Still... the pain behind my eyes hadn’t faded.
I rubbed my forehead slowly.
That thing didn’t fight like a zombie. It didn’t flail or pounce blindly. It moved — with intention, with awareness. It studied us. Ignored the others and came straight for me. And even when we surrounded it, it didn’t lash out in panic.
And it tried to kill me, not because I was closest... but because I was a threat.
I pulled the system overlay up again, navigating toward the recent enemy registry.
[Evolved - Half-Human]
[Devoured Human Meat]
[Current Threat Level: S-Tier]
I’d seen that before... right before it vanished into the walls.
I didn’t say anything aloud.
The others didn’t need more to panic over.
Because I didn’t have time to check the system while fighting, the amount of ZKP and experience I gained made me realise just how intense the battle was. Even with me killing a large amount... I’d gained over three thousand of each.
For the first time in a long while, I checked my status and made a decision.
Title: Harbinger of the Lunar Beast
Titan Marrow Sutra—Stage 2: 27% [Steel Frame]
[Soul Bond (Yin): 28%]
Rank: Outpost Commander [38/60]
∟ S-Tier: Mu Qinglan [499/500]
∟ S-Tier: Wang Yin [500/500]
∟ S-Tier: Jiang Roulan [345/500]
∟ A-Tier: Liang Mei [187/500]
∟ B-Tier: Shen Yifei [385/500]
Leadership: [Level 5]
Self-Defence: [Level 5]
Danger Sense [Level 3]
Spear Mastery [Level 2]
Unbreaking Will [Level 4]
Point-Blank Discipline [Level 2]
SMG Mastery [Level 3]
Steady Hands [Level 3]
Urban Predator Instinct [Level 1]
Area: Moonlit Terrace
Safe Zone: 48,000 sq ft total space
Current Battery Levels: 14% (44 Hours)
The moment I slipped open the shop tab, Tang Wei called out to me. "Your nose might need setting later." She hadn’t looked up from her shotgun. "Couldn’t do anything about that with what we had. I focused on your ribs and internal bruising."
There was dried blood on her sleeve. She hadn’t cleaned herself, only her weapon.
"You saw it move," I said.
Tang Wei paused, then nodded once. "I did."
"Honestly... it felt more human than beast or zombie." She looked up at me, her eyes were swollen, and a big bruise was swelling her right eye.
Tang Wei didn’t answer.
Shen Yifei seemed happy to hum to herself while brushing the healing cream I bought before coming here onto my wounds. It stung, but thanks to the Titan’s marrow, I no longer flinched or moved when feeling slight pain.
The first thing I did was buy elixirs for all the women and myself, enough to boost our current combat abilities significantly.
Tang Wei still didn’t trust me enough to join, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t buy her these items. It wasn’t the time to bother about being stingy or protecting my secret.
The ghoul was too dangerous.
But there wasn’t enough time to give her the top-grade marrow washing potion... since that could take hours to process.
After I bought the elixirs, the glass clanged as I handed them in a small box to Yifei.
"Take one of each colour, then pass them on to the others."
She looked confused, but still nodded and took them.
Meanwhile, I adjusted my seating and reached for the comms again. Maybe the signal was still blocked... but something had changed when the Ghoul left.
Static buzzed for a moment.
I wanted to hear Qinglan’s voice...
The voice cracked through faintly, but the sound of the Type-9k firing and the strange, eerie sounds that the ghoul made while flinging itself echoed with the clang of steel.
She sounded distant. Clipped by interference.
"...Qinglan. Get out of there."
But the connection wasn’t dead anymore.
The pressure in my head hadn’t gone away, but I ignored it.
If Qinglan was close to whatever I just fought... then she was in danger.