I'm Really Afraid

The stretch of road leading to the abandoned factory was making Xiao Xiao fairly nervous.

After all, he had already witnessed Rat-Man's twisted and terrifying nature. Now that he was facing another aberrant monster of the same level, who knew what frightening things might happen?

Man-Eating Warehouse...

Xiao Xiao did not know why the people nearby had given this warehouse such a name.

But having seen the true appearance of this city, he firmly believed that a gigantic man-eating monster disguised as a warehouse might truly be hiding inside this abandoned factory.

As he picked his way forward, who knew whether the road beneath his feet might suddenly start writhing?

Fortunately, Ruan Ruan, an experienced veteran, was following behind him, which gave him some courage. As a veteran among outsiders, she was also staring tensely at the screen the whole time, seemingly helping him analyze the surrounding environment...

...It was only when Xiao Xiao heard a short, familiar tune that he suddenly realized what was happening.

What kind of person was she...?

In such a gloomy, terrifying place, filled with tension, she still had the mood to play a fishing game?

Forget it. He could not count on her.

Xiao Xiao steeled himself and looked toward the huge warehouse between the factory buildings. It was as tall as a crouching monster, and the air around it was thick with darkness. Above the warehouse roof, a flock of crows circled and wheeled.

After taking a deep breath, Xiao Xiao pulled hard and opened the warehouse doors.

"Whoosh..."

The moment the doors opened, a wave of air carrying a faint stench of decay rushed toward him.

Like any warehouse that had been abandoned for a long time, it was desolate and dilapidated, filled with a dry yet lonely, despondent atmosphere.

But no one could have expected that as the stench of decay poured out, a pale and sinister face would also instantly press against his own.

He could see a pair of dull eyes and a tongue sticking halfway out.

"Huh?"

Even Ruan Ruan, who was behind Xiao Xiao, could not react in time to the sudden change. She abruptly raised the metal wrench in her hand.

Although she said she would not interfere, she had never relaxed her guard for even a moment. Observing Xiao Xiao's potential was important, but if anything happened to him, Jiajia-jie would certainly give her a vicious scolding.

But just as she raised the wrench, her gaze froze.

Xiao Xiao was standing at the warehouse entrance. He merely shifted to the side with slight distaste, allowing the pale face to brush past him.

When it was about to fall, he even reached out amiably to support it, letting her lean comfortably against the door.

"?"

Ruan Ruan's worldview showed signs of collapsing.

"Don't be afraid. It's a dead person."

Xiao Xiao's voice rang out. Perhaps worried that Ruan Ruan was frightened, he explained softly, "She was clinging to the door. When I pulled it open, she fell out."

"But..."

Ruan Ruan felt her scalp prickle. "You're not afraid because she's dead?"

"I am..."

As he answered, Xiao Xiao crouched down and looked at the corpse, saying oddly, "Who wouldn't be afraid when a corpse suddenly lunged into their face?"

"You call that being afraid?"

Ruan Ruan was momentarily speechless. You even supported her...

"I really was afraid..."

Xiao Xiao watched the corpse leaning against the door and explained in a low voice.

He truly had been afraid. The moment the door opened and he suddenly saw that face rush toward him, his heart had nearly leaped out of his throat.

However, in the midst of that slight panic, he had realized that it was only a corpse.

Moreover, it had not lunged out. Judging from its posture and the angle at which it had fallen, his action of opening the door had caused her body to lose its support. That was why she had fallen face-first...

As for supporting her—

Once he had confirmed that she was a corpse, and that he had caused her to fall, was it not perfectly normal to give her a hand?

Was there something wrong with respecting the dead?

But in such a tense environment, Xiao Xiao did not have enough time to explain all this to Ruan Ruan. After crouching down and examining the body carefully, he had already noticed several strange things.

This was the corpse of a dead woman, and she did not seem to have been dead for long.

Her tongue stretched far out of her mouth, making it look as though she had suffered tremendous pain before dying, yet there were no visible wounds on her body.

As he speculated, Ruan Ruan came over as well and said quietly, "She drowned."

"Drowned?"

Xiao Xiao was startled. He turned and glanced at Ruan Ruan.

"Life can drown people too..."

Ruan Ruan looked at him and said softly, "Don't forget, our target this time is a Suffocation Puppet. This is its ability."

"Then that means we found the right place?"

Xiao Xiao found this somewhat surprising. He rose and looked at the pitch-black warehouse, whose far end was almost impossible to see.

The space was enormous. Clutter of unknown purpose was piled everywhere, making the interior winding and deep. Discarded oil drums were stacked on both sides like mountains, creating a cramped, oppressive feeling.

Only in the middle was a faint flame burning inside an oil drum stuffed with trash.

After thinking briefly, Xiao Xiao walked inside.

Ruan Ruan followed behind him, already deeply suspicious. Does this guy really know what fear is?

She had not realized that Xiao Xiao was far too tense at that moment. He had already entered a state of Mind Burst, and as he walked forward, he took in everything around him.

Walking at his normal speed was already equivalent to an ordinary person taking one step and observing for a full minute.

Of course, in Ruan Ruan's eyes, it looked as though Xiao Xiao had entered such a bizarre place yet remained completely calm, strolling around as casually as if he were shopping.

"One... two... three..."

As Xiao Xiao walked, his heart silently pounded with alarm. He had barely taken a few steps into the warehouse, yet he had already seen several corpses scattered throughout it.

Some were curled up in corners piled with trash. Others lay quietly on the ground beneath the shadows.

Some knelt on both knees, facing the wall.

At first glance, seeing so many corpses made Xiao Xiao's heart beat slower and slower from shock, while the expression on his face grew increasingly indifferent.

The faster his thoughts moved, the less his body could keep up. Even his expression could no longer reflect what he felt.

He only sensed that something was strange, a feeling that refused to leave. Something seemed wrong, yet he could not immediately determine exactly what. All he could do was walk forward while secretly speculating.

"All the corpses drowned..."

Moving among the dead, Xiao Xiao made sufficient observations and analyses. "The cause of death for these corpses is the same as that of the woman at the warehouse entrance. Some seem to have been dead longer, while others seem more recent. He had only crossed half the warehouse, yet he had already seen seven or eight corpses, making this dark and deep warehouse look almost like a massive corpse-storage facility..."

"Is this the Man-Eating Warehouse those people mentioned?"

"If so, where is the source?"

"..."

As he continued forward, trying to catch every detail, he thought to himself, "Is the Suffocation Puppet still here?"

While these thoughts flashed through his mind, Xiao Xiao's legs, which had been moving nonstop, suddenly stopped. His heart gave a heavy thump, and he slowly turned to look at Ruan Ruan.

The silent warehouse was so quiet that even the sound of a needle falling could be heard.

Xiao Xiao looked at Ruan Ruan standing quietly in the dim light and slowly asked a strange question: "How long..."

"...has it been since we last breathed?"

"..."

"..."

His voice echoed through the dark warehouse. Between the rows of strangely expressionless dead faces, it sounded unnaturally monotonous, as though even the sound of breathing had vanished.

The strange feeling in his heart finally became clear.

Xiao Xiao realized that he had somehow forgotten to breathe.

Breathing had originally been an instinctive action carried out automatically by his body, yet at some point, he had forgotten to do it. It was only when his body began to feel faintly stifled that he realized what had happened. Once he became aware of the problem, he instinctively increased the force of his breathing, only to discover that the air around him seemed to have solidified. He could not draw even a trace of oxygen from it to ease the suffocation.

"You finally noticed..."

Ruan Ruan raised her head from within the shadows. The enormous metal wrench rested on her shoulder as she said quietly, "The Suffocation Puppet has already begun affecting us..."

"If you think it's too difficult, you can ask me for help right—"

"..."

Before she could say "help," her expression suddenly changed slightly, and she opened her mouth to warn Xiao Xiao.

"What is it?"

A sudden sense of danger abruptly appeared beside Xiao Xiao, making every hair on his body stand on end.

His heart pounded heavily, with the intervals between beats growing longer and longer. He felt as though time around him had almost stopped.

From Ruan Ruan's tense expression, he could tell that she had discovered some danger and was trying to warn him, but it was already too late.

Yet there were no living people here. What could the danger be?

In that instant, Xiao Xiao's tense mind underwent a Mind Burst, rapidly searching for clues among every detail around him.

Following Ruan Ruan's gaze, he realized that she was looking behind him, slightly to the left.

From her tense expression, he could also judge that whatever it was had appeared suddenly, but was not frightening enough to make even her afraid. So what could it be?

A corpse!

It was the corpse behind him.

The moment Xiao Xiao realized this, the corner of his eye already caught sight of a pale hand reaching toward his waist.

"Bang!"

Ruan Ruan was worried, but then she saw Xiao Xiao, who had merely been standing there blankly, suddenly dodge to the side with astonishing agility, as though he had eyes in the back of his head, avoiding the grasping pale hand.

He then turned around, shoved the muzzle of the gun he had been holding against the other party's head, and pulled the trigger before Ruan Ruan could even finish her warning.

With a loud gunshot, the corpse that had come back to life had part of its head blown apart, spraying brain matter everywhere.

Only after doing all this did Xiao Xiao retreat several steps. His scalp tingled with disbelief and nervousness.

"Dead people can move?"

"..."

But then he noticed that some flesh threaded with nerves and blood vessels extended from the reanimated corpse, spreading deep into the warehouse.

These fleshly tissues writhed like vines controlling a blooming flower, manipulating the corpse and making it slowly tremble.

"Oh..."

Xiao Xiao felt somewhat relieved. "That makes sense..."