046 Delivery Service at Your Door (Princes and Princesses, Please Keep Reading)

Outside the security door, the look of pain and fawning on Chongzi's face vanished the instant the door closed, replaced by a vicious and ruthless expression. Enduring the agonizing pain of a fractured bone, he muttered to himself while looking at Brother Xiang lying on the ground.

"Brother Xiang, I've done my absolute best by bringing you this far. Since you're already dead, don't drag me down with you. Do your brother one last favor: use your blood to lure those monsters over and tear these scumbags to pieces. Consider it payback for avenging you. Thoughtful of your bro, right? Hehe..."

Muttering to himself, Chongzi made a grimace, reached down to rub his hand across Brother Xiang's face, and then smeared the blood thickly onto the eighth-floor security door. Looking at the blood-drenched door panel, he still felt it wasn't enough and contemplated smearing some on the walls as well.

"You bastards, keep acting arrogant! You broke my arm, and I'll take your lives!"

Chongzi smeared the blood with extreme excitement. He knew zombies had a hard time climbing stairs, but no matter how difficult, as long as they climbed slowly, they would eventually make it up. He could already picture the scene of zombies tearing Zhang Su and the others to pieces.

"Well, well. Are you planning to draw a talisman to curse us, or a magic barrier to protect us?"

Just as Chongzi stood at the landing between the seventh and eighth floors, he suddenly noticed that the tightly shut security door had somehow been pushed open. Zhang Su was leaning against the door frame, looking at him with a half-smile, and behind him stood two pairs of chilling eyes.

"I, I... I."

Chongzi was so frightened that he dropped straight to the floor on his backside.

He never expected that these people would turn back and ambush him!

Based on his experience, at a time like this, Zhang Su and his group should have been happily taking stock of their supplies. How could they possibly have time to come out and deal with him?

How bizarre...

"Did you two see that? This is human nature! The danger posed by zombies is clear as day, but the evil of human nature is what catches you off guard!"

Zhang Su slightly tilted his head and said to the two people behind him.

"Go to hell!"

Knowing that any explanation was futile at this point, Chongzi went completely mad. He grabbed a wooden board from beside him and hurled it at Zhang Su, then scrambled to his feet and bolted upstairs.

Clatter.

Zhang Su dodged the board with a swift movement, stopped Zheng Xinyu who was anxious to give chase, and listened to the sound of Chongzi's footsteps. He walked upstairs unhurriedly, whistling a melodious tune as he climbed.

As dusk fell, the whistle echoed through the blood-stained stairwell, appearing exceptionally eerie.

Chongzi fled frantically toward the upper floors. Hearing the cold whistling behind him made his bladder tense up; it sounded like a death knell, or perhaps the grim laughter of a netherworld judge.

"The rooftop, head to the rooftop! Once on the rooftop, I can cross over to Unit 2. Yes, exactly!"

Thinking this, he quickened his pace, but failing to lift his feet high enough, he tripped and fell. Ignoring the pain radiating from all over his body, he didn't even groan, pushing himself right back up to keep running.

When Chongzi, panting heavily, finally reached the heavy iron door leading to the rooftop and saw the sturdy padlock hanging on it, his heart instantly plummeted.

"Damn it! Fuck, fuck!"

Chongzi yanked on the heavy lock, but it didn't budge an inch. Angry and frantic, he slammed his body against the door, but his frail frame was entirely incapable of making any impact, and the solid door stood as immovable as a monolith.

"Calm down, calm down. There has to be a way, there must be a way. I can't just sit here and wait to die. I can't die, dammit, fuck!"

Chongzi muttered neurotically. But hearing the whistling getting closer and closer—through the gaps in the stairwell, he could even catch glimpses of figures heading upward—the overwhelming anxiety nearly swallowed him whole.

"Right, the elevator!"

Chongzi looked toward the twelfth-floor security door, his gaze sharpening as he suddenly remembered that the elevator for Unit 1 parked on the twelfth floor. Back when he and Brother Xiang had first arrived, they had even debated whether or not to take the elevator.

He had overlooked one crucial detail: the municipal power grid was already down, and while the residential compound's emergency generator had continued to supply power to the elevators, it had only lasted for less than an hour. By the time Brother Xiang was killed, the power to the elevators had long since been cut off.

"Haha! Heaven hasn't forsaken me! You scumbags, just wait!"

A fiercely venomous smile spread across Chongzi's face. Thinking this, he took five steps in one bound, leaped down to the twelfth floor, cast a chilling smirk toward the corner of the stairwell, twisted the doorknob, and barged inside.

However, the moment Chongzi burst into the twelfth-floor hallway, he instantly froze.

Whether the elevator was parked on the twelfth floor was invisible to him, because blocking his path was a pack of zombies!

Ash-gray skin, crimson pupils. Days had passed, and the zombies exuded a faint scent of decay, their jaws making a harsh clicking sound as they gnashed their teeth, accompanied by low growls rattling deep within their phlegm-choked throats...

Struck by a violent sensory assault of sight, sound, and smell, Chongzi stared blankly at the zombies standing mere inches away, pissing his pants on the spot as his trousers instantly soaked through.

Seven or eight zombies had been wandering aimlessly on the twelfth floor, never expecting takeout to deliver itself right to their doorstep. They immediately bared their ferocious instincts, baring fangs and brandishing claws as they lunged toward the security door.

"Ah..."

A scream of pure terror pierced the air, but before he could even turn around and push the door open, he was knocked to the ground by the surging zombies.

Thud.

His upper body slammed hard onto the floor, placing him in the exact position to see Zhang Su and the other two arriving at the landing between the tenth and eleventh floors.

"Save, save me!"

Chongzi reached his hand out toward Zhang Su's group as if salvation lay right ahead, but a tremendous force dragged him violently back into the dim hallway.

The security door slowly closed. The piercing screams did not last long; bright red blood seeped out from beneath the door crack, followed only by the faint, muffled sound of chewing.

Zhang Su walked up to the twelfth floor and re-secured the safety lock. His exceptional hearing allowed him to hear the zombies tearing open viscera, the wet sounds of chewing, and even the grotesque act of swallowing with chilling clarity, leaving a deeply nauseating taste in his mouth.

He gestured to the two women, and the trio began making their way back down.

Zheng Xinyu and Zhong Xiaoshan wore heavy expressions, their moods immensely complicated.

There are times when one knows intellectually what the correct choice is, but bringing oneself to execute it is another matter entirely. And even if one manages to carry it out, it doesn't mean the mind remains untouched by emotional turmoil...

That was precisely the situation both women found themselves in.

Having witnessed Brother Xiang's barbarism and Chongzi's deceit, they both understood that letting Chongzi go would be like releasing a tiger back into the wild. Yet, having driven him to his death, a lingering trace of guilt remained buried in their hearts.

"Eliminating evil means doing a thorough job. In this godforsaken world, human evil is amplified to the extreme. If the two of you keep using that old mindset to handle things, you'll end up getting yourselves killed!"

Standing on the landing between the seventh and eighth floors, Zhang Su looked at the blood-stained wall, his expression grim as he spoke.

"Lend, lend me your axe for a moment."

Looking aggrieved, Zheng Xinyu pointed at the axe in Zhang Su's hand.

"Scrape the wall clean, otherwise it really might attract more zombies. Clean up the doorframe, too. As for the body, throw it downstairs to pile up with the rest of the dead zombies!"

Zhang Su handed the axe over to Zheng Xinyu without the slightest intention of lending a hand.

"Sister Xinyu, don't blame Brother Su. I think his... his mindset is actually really well-suited for this world right now."

Seeing Zheng Xinyu working cautiously while keeping an ear out for any sounds from upstairs, Zhong Xiaoshan felt a pang of sympathy and stayed behind to help her scrape away the blood-soaked plaster.

Zheng Xinyu paused her movements for a fraction of a second, sighed, and said, "Sister Shanshan, I don't blame Brother Su. I'm just furious with myself for knowing what needed to be done yet failing to do it smoothly, almost bringing massive trouble down on everyone."

With that, the corners of her eyes grew red, tears welling up within them. She sped up her work, scraping away the blood-stained wall surface with a sharp, rhythmic *swish-swish-swish* as the plaster fell in a flurry.