The Choking Nest

The phenomenon of the dead coming back to life was something Xiao Xiao could neither accept nor understand from the bottom of his heart.

It was completely unscientific.

But when he saw the nerves and flesh connecting to the corpse, he suddenly remembered that this city itself was also a gigantic, writhing monster.

That made it acceptable.

It was merely some kind of city-like monster and will controlling these corpses that had suffocated to death.

Clack, clack, clack, clack...

As he pondered the logic behind this phenomenon, the grating sound of bones shifting rang out around him. More corpses twisted, struggling to crawl up from the ground in bizarre poses.

Their bodies convulsed in agony, their chests rising and falling incessantly as if under tremendous air pressure.

Their spasming fingers desperately clawed at their own necks, as though trying to tear holes in them so fresh air could pour in.

At their feet or on their backs, without exception, was a bizarre, mad-looking mass of flesh. It twisted and writhed, spreading out from inside the warehouse like a spiderweb and growing beneath them. The entire warehouse looked like a gigantic web—dim and oppressive. Along with the dead arms waving around them, its desperate suffocating atmosphere turned the warehouse into a gloomy hell where corpses danced.

"This is the Choking Nest!"

Ruan Ruan, who had been following far behind them, had her small face taut. She also looked distinctly nervous. "The Suffocation Puppet has upgraded the environment around it, turning this warehouse into a Choking Nest."

"So that means... a Class C mission?"

Xiao Xiao instantly understood. He cursed inwardly. Who handled the intelligence for this place?

They even got the rank wrong. Do they have brains or not?

But even as he cursed, Ruan Ruan had already rushed forward with a wrench over her shoulder. She looked at Xiao Xiao with her delicate face and said seriously:

"You can withdraw from the mission now. I'll take over."

"The Choking Nest's upgrade was our mistake. We only detected it two hours ago..."

"Unfortunately, we're very weak right now, and our monitoring of the city has also declined..."

"..."

"It's not just that..."

Listening to Ruan Ruan's explanation, Xiao Xiao stood surrounded by countless twisted corpses and had already thought of many problems.

"We still don't know how the Outsiders' organization monitors and discovers the Aberrant Creatures scattered throughout the city, or how it gathers intelligence..."

"But judging from the city's attitude toward the old urban district, it's clear that the city's own operating logic has already developed serious flaws."

"The Guard Hall normally doesn't even dare come here to patrol casually. So even though a Man-Eating Warehouse has appeared here and so many people have already been 'drowned,' no one else has discovered it..."

"Even the city's own operating logic is malfunctioning. In that case, it seems perfectly normal for the Outsiders to make some mistakes during monitoring."

"But are we really giving up the mission just like that?"

"..."

Judging from Ruan Ruan's reaction, even if he gave up, he wouldn't lose face...

But the points would still fly away...

His points were already dangerously low, and they were even about to hit zero...

In an extremely short time, Xiao Xiao realized that he still had to continue this mission.

Besides, the corpses writhing all around him looked dangerous, but wasn't this precisely the key clue to solving the problem?

If the warehouse had now become a gigantic web of flesh and blood, then the Suffocation Puppet was the source of that web.

Following the writhing flesh, he would definitely be able to find it!

He immediately shook his head and said to Ruan Ruan, "There's no need to give up yet. Keep an eye on me. If I really can't hold out, then step in and help..."

"Huh?"

Ruan Ruan looked at Xiao Xiao's serious face, her expression somewhat dazed. "Xiao-gege's profile is so handsome..."

"...No, did he overestimate his own strength? Even after confirming that the danger level has risen, he still wants to solve it himself?"

"Are all newcomers starting to act like domineering CEOs now?"

"..."

The two of them had no time to say much more. The writhing corpses had already surged toward them.

They were in unbearable agony, their chests constantly compressing as if they were pressure pumps with no outlet. Their bodies tore at themselves unconsciously, yet they stumbled toward the pair from all directions.

As they drew nearer, they brought more than just a horrifying visual impact. The suffocating feeling also rushed toward them, growing increasingly intense.

Because of the lack of air, everything around them was shrouded in a hazy, distorted quality. The staggering figures approached like suffering souls stumbling out of an oil painting.

"We have to find the Suffocation Puppet as quickly as possible..."

Xiao Xiao made his decision at once. He hurried toward the depths of the warehouse while calculating the most crucial factor in his mind.

Breathing...

He had not even found the Suffocation Puppet yet, and his life was already counting down.

A normal person could probably hold their breath for one or two minutes. If they had undergone training, they might even last ten or twenty minutes.

But under the influence of the Choking Nest, this was more than simply being unable to breathe.

This suffocation seemed capable of continuously increasing in intensity, making his body feel heavier and heavier, as if a mountain were pressing down on him.

Only breathing could alleviate this feeling. Yet not only were they no longer able to breathe, even the small amount of air inside their bodies was being forcibly extracted, compelling them to suffocate.

Under these circumstances, how long could he live?

Forty seconds, or thirty?

"Bang!"

Ruan Ruan clearly had not thought things through as carefully as Xiao Xiao, but she knew how dangerous the situation was.

She swung the wrench casually, knocking a Suffocating Corpse that had approached Xiao Xiao flying. The tremendous force shattered the corpse's head and half its chest, sending chunks of rotten flesh tumbling down.

She watched Xiao Xiao rush toward the depths of the warehouse, anxious as well. She wanted to persuade him, but found it difficult to do so.

Although the mission had initially been assigned to Xiao Xiao partly to observe his potential, the current situation was obviously unsuitable.

The mission's difficulty had exceeded a newcomer's limit. Xiao Xiao should escape before he passed out from suffocation. Otherwise, even she would be unable to help him.

It's not like I can give him oxygen mouth-to-mouth, can I?

But she had not expected Xiao Xiao to move so quickly. He had completely ignored her explanation and charged ahead.

Is he really planning to make me give him artificial respiration?

"Time is tight. I can only assume I have forty seconds of activity left..."

"That's only because my body has already been strengthened. Otherwise, I might not even last twenty seconds..."

"..."

Under extreme tension, Xiao Xiao's thoughts raced through his mind like a pack of unleashed Demolition Hounds, bringing him all kinds of judgments and ideas, along with a few uncontrolled stray thoughts.

As he thought, the twisted corpses around him surged toward him one after another.

One of them suddenly raised its head and looked at Xiao Xiao. Its neck bulged like a frog's, and its dim eyes seemed affected by the pressure inside its body, blood constantly flooding into its retinas until they turned completely red.

Another painfully raised its spasming arms, as if the agony of suffocation had driven it to vent its pain on the other living beings nearby.

His path was blocked, and Xiao Xiao was about to be submerged.

At that moment, Xiao Xiao realized his predicament. He felt a dull oppression weighing on him as tension and the small amount of panic he had suppressed rose uncontrollably from the depths of his heart, about to fill his entire body.

He was certain the Suffocation Puppet was inside, but these corpses were difficult to deal with.

The Mind Burst ability allowed Xiao Xiao to accomplish many things others could not in a short time, such as analyzing, planning, and looking for opportunities.

But there were also things it could not do.

For example, mathematics.

If he didn't know how to solve it, then he didn't know how to solve it. Even if his thoughts burst a hundred times more powerfully, he still couldn't work it out.

The same was true of the scene before him.

The corpses surging in front of him had almost sealed off every route. Although his body had been strengthened, he still struggled against the hands reaching toward him from all directions.

Of course, deep down, Xiao Xiao was also unwilling to engage these corpses in close combat.

It's too disrespectful to the dead...

But was he really out of options?

Apart from turning around and calling for Ruan Ruan to save him, how else could he solve this problem?

As the tension in his heart grew, Xiao Xiao's Mind Burst ability was pushed to its limit. Everything around him seemed to have stopped, including the desperate hands waving and reaching toward him.

He observed every detail with all his might, trying to find a solution.

The air in his chest was rapidly diminishing. He could probably only support a few dozen more seconds of action.

Was there a chance to solve the problem in such a short time?

There had to be.

Every piece of information around him reflected into Xiao Xiao's mind at that moment. He continued planning, attempting, deducing, and testing until finally...

...a bold idea appeared in his mind.

"Summon—Demolition Hounds!"

Once he had settled on his plan, Xiao Xiao unhesitatingly recited the words silently in his heart.

"Whimper, whimper..."

Seeing Xiao Xiao blocked by black shadows as he charged forward, Ruan Ruan clenched her fists behind him. But since Xiao Xiao had chosen to continue, all she could do was frown tightly and watch him charge straight ahead.

Although his body had been strengthened, his movements were clearly clumsy due to his lack of experience.

However, just as several corpses blocked Xiao Xiao's path and reached out with spasming hands to drag him away, a fierce growl suddenly rang out.

As Xiao Xiao ran forward, the flashlight clenched between Ruan Ruan's teeth illuminated several scattered shadows behind him.

Three of those shadows were growing darker and deeper, as if solidifying into substance and spreading out on either side of his body like cloaks.

A fierce, low growl rang out from within his shadows. Then, three strong and swift hounds suddenly leaped out of them, running forward alongside Xiao Xiao.