Midnight Slaughter

Lin Dong continued using his Corpse Domain ability, attacking from within to keep blood from spilling out and its scent from alerting the other awakened ones.

Their noses were extremely sharp.

After taking care of those three people, Lin Dong went to the room next door.

A female awakened one slept there, just as deeply. Lin Dong repeated the process and removed her Brain Core.

Just like that.

Lin Dong killed five awakened ones in a row and absorbed their Brain Cores.

The feeling... suddenly reminded Lin Dong of his childhood. There had been a cherry tree in the orphanage backyard. Whenever the cherries ripened, he and Cheng Luoyi would lead a group of children there to pick and eat them.

Even after all these years, Lin Dong remembered it vividly, as if it had happened yesterday. That was his lost childhood...

He had not expected to recall that time under circumstances like these.

Carrying those beautiful memories with him.

Lin Dong planned to continue killing.

But when he passed through another wall and entered a huge warehouse, he found it packed with supplies: cooking oil, salt, firewood, rice, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, beverages, instant noodles, sausages, bread—everything a supermarket could have was here.

Lin Dong showed no courtesy. With a wave of his hand, he stored everything in his storage space.

He continued forward.

There was another huge warehouse.

This one held fresh meat, frozen shrimp, crabs, and more. Thanks to backup generators, everything remained perfectly frozen.

Lin Dong swept it all away with another wave of his hand.

He kept going, and there were still more warehouses.

There were four such massive warehouses in total, showing just how much they had stockpiled. Household appliances, brooms, mops, detergent—everything was there.

Only the warehouse storing vegetables had suffered widespread rot.

But Lin Dong did not care.

Because he was a carnivore.

At that moment, the two awakened ones standing night watch outside had already vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

"Brother Nan, it's already five past two. Why hasn't Dog Leftover come to relieve us?"

"I don't know!"

The middle-aged man also found it strange.

"Could he have worn himself out last night and turned into a limp noodle?"

"I'll go check on him. Maybe he's deliberately skipping his shift so he can loaf around longer."

The young man looked indignant.

He walked straight to the first room and hammered on the door. "Bang, bang, bang."

"Dog Leftover, get up and take over! Hurry up!"

"Hey, can you hear me? Stop playing dead!"

"..."

No matter how hard he knocked, there was not the slightest sound from inside.

The young man felt that something was increasingly wrong.

He immediately forced the door open with brute strength.

When he entered and looked at the bed, he found one man and two women lying there. Their skin was deathly pale, utterly bloodless.

They were completely dead!

"Fuck! Something happened! Get over here!"

The young man immediately cried out.

His trembling, panicked shout was like a clap of thunder exploding through the hall, completely shattering the silence of the night.

Countless people woke from their sleep, still groggy as they rubbed their eyes and walked over.

"What's going on?"

"What happened?"

"Don't tell me zombies got in?"

"..."

The survivors gathered around, discussing it in scattered remarks.

Yet no one noticed.

Among the crowd stood a tall, slender young man, expressionless as he watched everything with indifference.

Including Brother Nan, who had been on night watch earlier. His name was Li Nan, an awakened one who had condensed a Crystal Core and was considered the leader here.

"Xiao Liu, what happened?"

"Brother Nan, Dog Leftover... he's dead!"

The young man hurriedly replied.

"What?"

Li Nan looked into the room, and his brows instantly knitted together.

The survivors behind him also began chattering.

"How'd he die? Don't tell me he got too excited and messed up?"

"Can't be. Those two women are dead too."

"Could they... have some kind of contagious disease?"

"..."

Li Nan's brow furrowed deeper and deeper. With his sharp perception, he had already noticed that Dog Leftover's body contained no energy at all. His Brain Core had clearly been removed.

But... there was not a single wound on him!

"That's impossible. His head is intact, yet his Brain Core is gone. What about the people living next door? Bring them out and ask them."

"I don't know."

Xiao Liu looked utterly bewildered.

Li Nan looked ahead and saw that the doors to four consecutive rooms remained tightly shut. His heart immediately sank.

Awakened ones had keen senses. With such a huge commotion, there was no way they could not have heard it!

Unless...

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Li Nan forcibly opened all four doors in succession.

Inside, without exception, lay cold corpses.

"Hiss..."

Everyone sucked in a breath of cold air.

Dead!

They were all dead!

Just then, a girl ran over from the warehouse area, her pretty face filled with urgency.

"Brother Nan, the warehouses... all the supplies in the warehouses are gone too!"

"What?"

Li Nan's vision went dark, and he nearly fainted.

He hurried to the doors of the major warehouses.

The warehouses that had once been filled to the brim were now completely empty.

"An illusion! This has to be an illusion! I must have fallen under someone else's Mind Control!"

Li Nan repeatedly shook his head, unable to believe what was before his eyes.

After all, some awakened ones and mutated monsters truly possessed Mind Control abilities.

But no matter how hard he concentrated.

He discovered that this was reality, not an illusion of any kind.

"How... how is this possible?"

Li Nan's expression darkened to the extreme, as though water might drip from his face.

The others remained silent as well. More than a hundred people stood in complete quiet, not one of them speaking.

Of the original twelve awakened ones, five had died without explanation. Only seven remained.

Most importantly...

All the supplies in the warehouses were gone. How were they supposed to survive from now on???

"Something must have gotten in!"

Li Nan calmly analyzed the situation.

The woman beside him asked, "Brother Nan, what kind of ability could silently kill five awakened ones and steal supplies worth hundreds of millions?"

"I don't know either."

Li Nan frowned and swept his gaze around. "But... it might not have left yet. It could still be hiding somewhere in this building!"

"What?"

Fear filled everyone's hearts.

Dafa Supermarket had six floors in total. They did not dare turn on the lights for fear of attracting zombies or powerful mutated beasts. Only weak lighting was on, limiting visibility to less than twenty meters.

Everything around them was pitch-black.

Thinking of a monster that had killed five awakened ones lurking in that darkness, an intense sense of unease rose within them.

People looked around in every direction, terrified that some monster might suddenly leap out.

But Lin Dong.

Stood right among the crowd.

There were still seven awakened ones on the other side. Five of them had rather vigorous vitality, so they had likely condensed Crystal Cores. Their abilities were unknown...

There was still no need to attack head-on. He could play with them a little longer.

After something like this happened.

All the survivors looked miserable, their hearts overflowing with negative emotions. Compared to the deaths of five awakened ones, they cared more about food and the monster lurking in the darkness.

"There's no food left here. What are we supposed to do now?"

"Xiao Xue, I gave you a piece of chocolate yesterday, right? Give it back to me now."

"Brother Nan, take us back to Tech Company, will you? Or... maybe request some supply reinforcements?"

"..."

Everyone spoke at once.

Li Nan nodded.

"That... I'll consider it!"

Though he said that aloud, he was thinking to himself that he had lost supplies worth hundreds of millions and gotten five people killed, then wanted to request reinforcements from the company. That would definitely be a major offense.

If the company held him accountable, they might even turn him into a living test subject...

The best solution now was not to tell the company. He needed to keep it hidden for the moment, then use this time to find that "monster" and take the supplies back.