Is it really that big?

Jim and his apprentices, having scrambled back to their feet, still dared not linger and fled the storage room while screaming.

Li Wei hauled Norman up from the floor and shoved him toward David and Ollie, then immediately began swinging the fire axe, hacking off tentacle after tentacle. After the fourth one was severed, the remaining tentacles all retracted back into the white mist.

These severed tentacles were not much different from normal biological organs, just a bit strange; they lacked the grotesque nature of the Cthulhu-style monsters that were stuffed full of human remains.

He shook the slime off the fire axe and waited until no more monsters entered the storage room before closing the rolling shutter door.

Seeing the battlefield settle down, David began to feel fortunate that he hadn't clashed with Li Wei. The floor where the fire axe had struck was already cracked, and he couldn't imagine how much strength it took to cause such an effect.

Was the gap between people really greater than the gap between a human and a dog?

This question began to plague David...

After reflecting on the brief but exceptionally intense battle, Ollie stood up and went to Norman's side, prying off the tentacles wrapped around him. When the barbs embedded in his flesh were pulled out, it caused Norman to let out screams of agony.

"I told you all that there were monsters outside. Why did you have to go and court death?" Li Wei said with an indifferent tone as he watched the screaming Norman, taking the opportunity to return the fire axe to the fire cabinet.

Hearing this, Norman, who had survived the ordeal, burst into tears. He kicked his legs while crying out in pain, trying to get as far away from the rolling shutter door that had turned into a gateway to hell as possible, looking exactly like a frightened rabbit.

A strange odor permeated the air, causing David, who had been preparing to help, to recoil with a look of disgust.

Li Wei retreated several steps, temporarily shutting off his olfactory system with a look of slight revulsion. "You've got to be kidding me, man!"

Back in the day, he wouldn't have even frowned at having blood drawn or flesh cut, and even when he was pushed into experiments with a survival rate of barely over fifty percent, he had never shown a sign of weakness. Compared to him, this Norman was just pathetic!

Ollie, catching the foul stench in the air, couldn't stand it either. After unwrapping the tentacles, he tossed Norman, whose injuries didn't look too severe, to the side.

Bang!

The storage room door was pushed open again, and a crowd led by Brent, the Black lawyer, and the supermarket manager surged in, armed with various makeshift weapons.

Upon seeing the several giant tentacles still writhing under the lights, everyone wore an expression of horror, as if they had woken up at home to use the bathroom only to find a tiger drinking water in the toilet.

A string of profanities and exclamations erupted from their mouths. Jim, who had brought the people back, saw the severed tentacles still struggling on the ground, and a series of cold beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.

Suddenly, someone rushed toward Jim, dragged him aside, and without a word, swung a fist into his face.

The fist collided with his cheek, sending Jim's head tilting to the side. His body stumbled sideways, his legs tripped over the debris scattered by the tentacles, and he fell into the pile.

"Oh!" The crowd, armed with their makeshift weapons, was shocked by this sudden punch and let out a gasp. The assailant was none other than David.

After recovering from the crisis and seeing Jim again, his first instinct was to beat the man—the king of bickering and master of incompetence—to a pulp to vent the fear in his heart.

Thinking about how Jim had almost gotten someone killed, and even insisted on urging the other two to open the rolling shutter door despite knowing monsters might be outside, the anger in David's chest was like cola mixed with a mint candy: explosive and surging.

Not satisfied with just one punch, he grabbed the man again, wanting to land another heavy blow on Jim's face, but he was stopped by the supermarket manager who had finally reacted.

"You almost got Norman killed! You coward who only knows how to hide! Fuck!" Even while being restrained, David continued to curse at Jim. "If Li Wei hadn't arrived in time, Norman would have been dragged away by that monster! And you! You just stood there and watched!"

The rage-filled words, combined with the incessant wailing and screaming of Norman, instantly labeled Jim as unreliable and a danger to his teammates. Almost everyone looked at him with contempt.

"I... I'm sorry..."

The beaten Jim didn't show a hint of defiance. His old face revealed a look of shame as he apologized, and along with his equally useless apprentice, he took the initiative to take on the task of caring for Norman.

"Are these the monsters... Motherfucker, how could something like this appear? Shit!" Brent bypassed the farcical scene. Compared to the petty drama between David and Jim, he was more concerned about the monster that had appeared before them.

He poked the tentacles on the ground with a broom, but after a violent twitch, the tentacles dissolved into a pool of transparent, corrosive liquid.

Upon touching the floor, the liquid emitted the pungent odor of sulfuric acid eating through stone, scaring Brent and the other curious onlookers into backing away, terrified of getting any of the liquid on them.

Li Wei also stepped back two paces, clapped his hands, and prepared to leave.

The supermarket manager had already begun directing others to clean up the mess, so he could go back to eating his curry.

But David didn't want to let Li Wei leave so quickly. He stepped across, blocking Li Wei's path, and said, driven by a sense of crisis: "We need to know more about these monsters! You definitely know something, right? How many more of these monsters are in the mist? We all need to know!"

As his voice fell, the people gathered in the storage room all turned their gazes toward Li Wei.

After Norman, who had been wailing non-stop, was carried away, the storage room quieted down.

With his path blocked by David, Li Wei waved his hand helplessly. "I'll handle things tomorrow. Right now, I want to go back and eat my curry. Could you please move out of the way?"

David and the others were not satisfied with this answer and wanted to speak again, but they heard a voice that sounded abrupt and annoying at this moment.

"The blindest people are not the blind, but those who refuse to see!" Carmody squeezed out from the crowd, her hands clasped together in a pious and holy manner.

When she saw the tentacles on the ground that hadn't fully liquefied, a flash of fear crossed her face, but she quickly completed a mental shift. She looked around at the crowd and pointed at the tentacles on the ground. "Open your eyes! Cast aside all rules; these things were already written in the Book."

Having said that, Carmody pulled her Old Testament from her bag, but the people around her had already scattered, having no interest in listening to the ramblings of a madwoman.

Li Wei also returned to his small cooking station, followed by no fewer than eight people. These were individuals with a strong sense of crisis who were unwilling to sit and wait for death.

David, Ollie, Brent, Dan, and a few other passersby.

They followed Li Wei all the way to his makeshift kitchen.

"Even if you follow me, I don't know the specific situation regarding those monsters. However, I do know that they were created by the U.S. military base in the mountains. I saw it with my own eyes yesterday."

Li Wei picked up the tray next to the grill, served himself a full plate of curry, and then sat on a crate behind him. While eating, he lectured the people standing in front of him who were hesitating to speak. "It's not that I'm picking on you, but there is food and water here. Dozens of people can eat for half a month. Why are you in such a rush to go out and die? Even with guns, the monsters outside aren't easy to deal with. Chomp..."

"If anyone goes out, there is no possibility other than death!"

Upon hearing this, the group was very unconvinced!

Brent tilted his head back, glared at Li Wei with his large, coarse nostrils, and put his hands on his hips to show off his much larger physique compared to Li Wei. "Oh~ is that so! And what makes you think you can solve it? I don't like putting my life in someone else's hands. Maybe you can, but at least you don't have that qualification yet!"

Uh...

David, standing to the side, recalled the scene in the storage room where Li Wei had battled the tentacles with a fire axe. He rubbed his nose, stayed silent, and gave Brent a look of pity.

Because his strength was being doubted, Li Wei shifted his gaze, spotted a metal baking tray, reached out, picked it up, and crushed it into a ball of scorching hot scrap metal right in front of them.

Brent: ...