Beside the newsstand, the air twisted and rippled violently like water. A purple-black vortex about twenty meters in diameter suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and a chaotic, bloodthirsty aura immediately spread through the area!
"Awoooo!!!"
With a low, hoarse roar, a shadow shot out of the vortex like an arrow loosed from a bow.
It was a ferocious monster that looked somewhat like a wolf, but was twice its size. Dark green scales covered its body, and a bare tail of bone trailed behind it.
The moment it appeared, its murky, dark red eyes fixed on several passersby nearest the newsstand, who had also been stunned by the pressure just moments before.
Without pausing, it kicked off the ground with its powerful hind legs, becoming a dark green blur of death as it lunged at a young woman who had just come out of the convenience store beside Hongfu Restaurant, a drink still in her hand.
"Ah!!"
Her desperate, piercing scream cut off halfway.
Splurt! Crack!
Its claws tore through flesh, its gaping jaws snapped bone, and blood gushed out like a fountain.
The girl's body was ripped apart like a rag doll, and the thick stench of blood instantly burst across the street.
"Ah!! What is that thing?"
"A monster! There's a monster!"
"Run!"
Screams and sobs, along with the frantic blaring of car horns, shattered the brief calm. The street descended into chaos in an instant.
A second monster had now emerged from the Nest. As soon as it hit the ground, it pounced on a middle-aged man who had collapsed in terror. Its sharp claws, dripping with green slime, swept through the air with a foul stench as they slashed toward his neck.
The people near the windows in the banquet hall stared blankly at the scene. Only now did they react, letting out terrified screams.
"Monsters! There are monsters outside!"
"They're eating people!"
"Call the police! Hurry!"
Panic spread like a plague, and the once-festive banquet hall erupted into chaos!
"Roar!"
"Awoooo!"
More terrifying monsters poured endlessly from the black-purple opening like floodwaters bursting through a dam, lunging at pedestrians and vehicles in the street.
Screams and sobs rang through the sky. From the first-floor lobby of Hongfu Restaurant came the unnerving crash of breaking glass and cries of utter chaos.
It was obvious that a monster had smashed through the entrance and rushed inside.
Lin Yi stared fixedly at the hellish scene outside the window.
He knew what those monsters were.
Corrosive Abyssal Wolves.
A type of low-level Abyss Beast, they were the most basic units found in a Micro Nest. In the future, they would be no more than insignificant cannon fodder, but in the early days of the apocalypse, they would be responsible for the most deaths.
Of the relatives and friends he had deliberately gathered here, nearly half had been killed by Abyss Wolves in his previous life.
Lin Yi whipped around and looked at his parents and relatives, who were in complete disarray. At last, his gaze locked onto the banquet hall entrance.
From there came the faint roars of Abyss Wolves and the dying screams of people downstairs. The sounds were growing closer.
"Xiaomeng! Xiaomeng is still outside!"
A tearful cry suddenly cut through the chaos in the banquet hall.
Lin Yi spun around. His aunt-in-law was as pale as a sheet, pointing with a trembling finger at the closed banquet hall doors. "S-she said she was going to the restroom. She hasn't come back!"
Xiaomeng!
Lin Yi's heart sank.
He remembered. Just before the staff performance had begun, he'd caught a glimpse of his cousin Zhou Mengmeng quietly slipping out the door.
But he'd been about to go onstage to speak, so he couldn't stop her.
He'd assumed that, given Xiaomeng's age, his aunt-in-law would only let her go out alone to use the restroom. It was at the end of the hallway, so she would have had plenty of time.
But she still hadn't returned.
Only now did Lin Yi realize he'd fallen into a blind spot in his thinking, forgetting the differences between men and women. Women already had less convenience in this regard, and he'd also forgotten that during the lunchtime rush at a hotel like this, the women's restroom could easily have a line.
In his previous life, Xiaomeng had gone back to the countryside for vacation and was lucky enough to escape the slaughterhouse that marked the beginning of the apocalypse. But today... Could his "graduation banquet," thrown in hopes of protecting everyone, have pushed her into the abyss instead?
No!
He had to act immediately!
Lin Yi forced down his churning emotions. He knew this wasn't the time for regret.
His original plan had been to pretend to be a hot-blooded young man and go out to rescue people. Going to save his own little sister now would be all the more reasonable.
But before he could do anything, he saw his uncle grab a chair and charge toward the door, eyes bloodshot.
"Uncle!!!"
Lin Yi shouted at once. He leaped off the stage and rushed in front of his uncle, Zhou Jianjun, stopping him with all his might.
"Uncle, I'll go!"
Lin Yi didn't give his uncle a chance to speak. He hurried on:
"Those aren't wild animals. They're monsters! You don't have a weapon or any protection. If you rush out, you'll be throwing your life away!"
Zhou Jianjun paused, but his fists clenched with a crackle, and he still struggled to push forward.
"I've got armor! And a staff!"
"We don't have time to waste!"
Lin Yi practically growled the words. The increasingly clear roars and dying screams from downstairs gave each of them the most immediate explanation.
"Keep this place safe, Uncle!"
"Block the main doors—block them completely! Leave only the side entrance open. Wait for me to come back."
Lin Yi put heavy emphasis on the words "keep this place safe."
"Keep this place safe."
Zhou Jianjun repeated the words unconsciously. His bloodshot eyes remained fixed on the doors that separated them from hell. The veins stood out on the hand gripping the chair, but some of the strength had already drained from it.
He drew several heavy breaths, as if he had finally accepted the brutal reality. Then he gave Lin Yi a strained nod and forced a single word from his throat: "All right!"
This wasn't cowardice. With his experience as a veteran, Zhou Jianjun knew perfectly well that an armed and protected person was, for all practical purposes, a different species from one who had neither.
Given the power those monsters had shown, rushing out without protection would mean certain death—even if he managed to reach his daughter. If they encountered a monster on the way back, neither of them would survive.
Staying here, preparing a safe way out, and letting someone stronger rescue his daughter was a cold choice, but it was the better one.
He held his uncle back for less than half a minute, but to Lin Yi, it felt unbearably long.
His gaze swept over the room like lightning. His parents stood pressed together, faces deathly pale. His mother clutched his father's arm, her lips moving as if she wanted to stop her son from taking such a risk, but his father firmly held her by the shoulder.
His aunt-in-law had collapsed into a nearby chair, watching him through her tears and mumbling something he couldn't make out.
Chen Yu and several classmates who were still relatively calm were futilely shouting into their phones. "There are monsters killing people! Help! We're at Hongfu Restaurant. Hurry!"
Most of the other relatives and guests had already lost their heads, frantically dialing their phones.
Calling the police was now their only way to call for outside help.
Lin Yi took a deep breath. The air was so saturated with the stench of blood that he could almost taste it. It did nothing to calm him; instead, it burned his lungs.
Then he turned sharply. His brand-new metal combat boots thudded heavily against the smooth floor as he resolutely flung open the doors to Fujin Hall and rushed out.
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