Sorry, This Area Is Off-Limits

Class 3-2.

One minute earlier.

Yekaterina, resting with her eyes closed in a corner of the classroom, suddenly opened them.

Her golden slit pupils gleamed.

She stood and silently made her way to the window.

On the other side, Lu Shiyan, who was on night watch, was lying on the ground.

He was rummaging through a pile of scattered, worn-out backpacks and clothes, searching for something.

"Damn it... Why are they all empty..."

Lu Shiyan grumbled as he tossed aside a few empty cigarette packs, his expression growing anxious.

For a veteran chain-smoker, running out of smokes in this pressure-cooker of an apocalypse was as good as losing half his life.

"Lu."

Yekaterina's voice rang out.

She pulled a red, solid square from an inner pocket of her Combat Suit and held it out to him.

"I picked this up while clearing out Wandering Corpses earlier. It's still unopened."

"Take it easy, and stay alert."

Lu Shiyan took it. His eyes instantly lit up like light bulbs.

"Holy crap! Huazi?!"

"Thanks! This is the good stuff! Who knew those little cherry blossoms had our domestic brand stashed away!"

He hurriedly tore open the package, pulled out two cigarettes, tucked one behind his ear, and lit the other between his lips.

"Haaah~"

He took a deep drag. As the spicy smoke filled his lungs, Lu Shiyan felt his soul return to his body, and he practically floated on air.

"Now that's the stuff!"

With his spirits restored, Lu Shiyan was back to looking like that roguishly handsome middle-aged man. He picked up the night-vision goggles from the ground and asked:

"What's going on?"

"Someone's here again."

Yekaterina stared into the curtain of rain, her slit pupils narrowing slightly.

"It's the guy who ran away this afternoon, but... he brought someone with him."

"What? Back again?"

Lu Shiyan frowned, incredulous. "Does that kid have a death wish? He just got out alive, and now he's come back to die?"

He glanced around, then went over to Hoshino, who was sleeping in the corner.

"Too dark. The binoculars won't cut it. I need something else."

Lu Shiyan took the night-vision goggles off her helmet and put them on.

His vision was a little blurry, but on a pitch-black, rainy night like this, it was still better than seeing nothing at all.

In the green-tinted view,

two figures were making their way up the mountain road.

"Two people..."

Lu Shiyan adjusted the focus. "The one in the back, skulking along with his head down, is definitely that survivor with Danger Sense from this afternoon."

"Looks like he went back to get backup."

"As for the one in front..."

Lu Shiyan's gaze settled on the figure leading the way, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

"Damn... Where'd this 'Drag Brother' come from?"

The man wore a thin black shirt.

Amid the torrential rain and corpses strewn across the ground, he strolled along as casually as if he were taking a leisurely walk through a garden.

He carried no weapon and made no attempt to dodge tactically.

He even had both hands in his pockets.

His pose instantly brought an old saying to Lu Shiyan's mind:

With both hands in your pockets, you don't even know what an opponent is.

"The intel should be right."

Lu Shiyan blew out a ring of smoke, his gaze sharpening.

"Unless... those two have a grudge against each other."

"Or maybe... this Drag Brother isn't afraid of the Hungry Ghost at all."

But Lu Shiyan's hard-earned experience of the world's cruelty told him the second possibility was practically zero. He'd be dead meat.

"In this apocalypse, where people's hearts are treacherous, the first possibility is what most people would choose."

Lu Shiyan gave a cold laugh.

"Using someone else to kill, seizing power, stealing treasure, getting revenge..."

"Plenty of things people wouldn't dare do on Blue Star are everyday occurrences in the Barbaric Realm."

"Looks like that survivor lured this Drag Brother here to feed him to the monster, then rob and kill him."

At the thought, Lu Shiyan abruptly snuffed out the Huazi after only two puffs, anger flashing in his eyes.

"Fuck that!"

"You think you can use the Hungry Ghost to take care of your enemies? Did you ask me first?!"

Lu Shiyan turned and started for the stairs.

If the monster devoured another supernatural being and evolved again, then the rest of them trapped in the school might as well give up on living.

Even if only to protect himself, he had to stop this "feeding."

However,

just as his hand touched the doorknob, Yekaterina suddenly called out behind him:

"Don't bother, Lu."

"What's wrong?"

"It... it's already here."

"Fuck! It's nearly four in the morning! Doesn't this thing have class or something? Why's it here so soon?!"

Lu Shiyan cursed and hurried back to the window, raising the night-vision goggles again.

His voice was loud enough to wake all the students who had been lightly dozing in the classroom.

"What's going on?"

"What happened?"

The students scrambled up in alarm and crowded around the window to look outside.

Just then,

BOOM!!!

A bolt of lightning struck the already battered sign at the school gate again.

This time,

the "king" radical beside the character "rose" had been completely scorched off, leaving only the sinister character for "ghost."

Ghost Middle School...

By the flash of stark white lightning, everyone caught sight of the figure standing beside the off-road vehicle.

For that moment, time seemed to stand still.

What kind of man was he?

The rain poured like a waterfall, and the wind howled.

All around him lay scattered white bones, a wrecked vehicle, a hellish scene.

And he stood at the heart of it all.

The hem of his black shirt snapped in the gale, yet his tall, slender frame didn't move an inch.

He lifted his head slightly, revealing a pale yet handsome profile in the lightning.

That air of indifference.

That arrogance, as if nothing in the world was worthy of his notice.

Against the backdrop of blood and filth, it made him seem so out of place, and yet so dazzling.

It was as if he hadn't come to meet his death, but to... be crowned.

"Show-off... He's really going all out."

Even Lu Shiyan couldn't help grumbling to himself.

But that did nothing to stop the situation from getting worse.

"It's here!" Yekaterina said sharply.

Countless raindrops began refracting the light unnaturally.

The greedy Hungry Ghost was already concealed in the downpour, just a hair's breadth from that show-off of a man!

"Boss! Watch out!! It's on your left!! Thirteen meters away!!"

Behind him, Guo Shuai's Danger Sense blared its highest-level alarm.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, even trying to rush forward and shove Jiang Nan out of the way.

However,

Jiang Nan looked as if nothing was happening. He didn't even take his hands out of his pockets, let alone turn his head.

It's over.

Lu Shiyan's heart sank.

At that distance, even the gods couldn't save him.

The Drag Brother would be nothing but a bloodless skeleton in the next second.

Everyone instinctively held their breath, silently sweating for that man who didn't know what he was up against.

Was he... going to die?

However,

"ROAAAR!"

Just as the raindrop concealing the Hungry Ghost's hideous face whooshed within ten meters of Jiang Nan,

BOOM!!!

A deafeningly deep impact drowned out the thunder overhead!

The next second,

a sight that made everyone doubt their own eyes unfolded.

The rain stopped.

No.

More precisely,

within a circular area ten meters in radius, centered on that man, all the rain—even the splashing flecks of mud—

vanished in an instant!

And on that dry, spotless patch of ground, without a drop of rain,

something had appeared.

It was a... sheet of paper.

A sheet of paper that was writhing wildly!

Screaming!

Yet unable to peel itself off the ground!

A two-dimensional character, its features crushed out of place, its limbs flattened against the ground, like a specimen squashed beneath a hydraulic press!

It was... the Hungry Ghost!

The Hundred Ton King had forced it out of the raindrop with terrifying pressure!

Then, like a fly, it had been smashed firmly against the ground!

Above it,

Jiang Nan slowly lowered his head and looked at the paper figure struggling desperately by his feet.

At last, he took his hands out of his pockets and lightly brushed at the nonexistent dust on his shoulder.

"Sorry."

"This area is off-limits."