At death's door-Hajime had lost!

"Fuck, are you kidding me?!"

Fan Shang cursed at the sight, but how could he afford to hesitate?

He stomped on the pedals and shot forward.

Wang Xiaoxue, slowed for a moment by her landing, was left behind.

But Wang Xiaoxue wasn't discouraged, and she certainly wouldn't give up. They said a woman pursuing a man had only a thin veil between them, and now she was just one step away from killing Fan Shang!

As long as she caught up, Wang Xiaoxue believed she would definitely set his heart racing!

"Fan Shang, Fan Shang, Fan Shang... I want you dead, I want you dead, heehee..."

The survivors behind Fan Shang were the ones who suffered.

As the fleshy tendrils behind Wang Xiaoxue writhed rapidly, every survivor she caught behind Fan Shang had all their flesh and blood sucked dry within seconds.

Then vehicles overturned and corpses tumbled out, throwing the survivors farther back into disarray.

The Compound-Eyed Sunflower clearly wouldn't let this opportunity slip away. As it watched the distant survivors, every head in its central flower disk let out a gleeful giggle.

Then more than a dozen heads shot out, hit the ground, and chased after them.

At the sight, the survivors scattered in terror.

Some headed into the fog on either side of the road, while others drove forward like mad, completely ignoring their formation. The resulting chaos left the survivors behind them unable to keep driving.

Of those who drove into the fog, the clever ones made a turn once inside and rushed ahead of the convoy.

But those who weren't clever enough, or reacted too slowly, lost their bearings as soon as they entered. No matter how they drove, they couldn't get out. Moments later, screams even rang out.

It was as though some terrifying monster lurked in that fog.

But Fan Shang had no time to spare for any of this.

He just wanted to shake off these damn things as quickly as possible!

At the same time, he was bitterly regretting everything.

He hadn't expected things to go wrong even after being so cautious.

When he had killed Wang Xiaoxue and the other person, he had specifically cut off their heads too, fearing some bullshit like, "You died because you didn't cut off my head."

And the result? He had been that cautious, and what had happened?

You died because you didn't smash my head?

*???*

But regrets were clearly meaningless now.

Fan Shang pedaled his bicycle furiously.

When he looked back, he saw a scene of utter carnage.

At the same time, Fan Shang gained another profound understanding of just how terrifying these horrors were.

Ordinary people really were far too fragile in the face of them.

He had to-he had to become a Sequence Transcendent as soon as possible!

"What... what are you trying to do?!"

Just then, a voice ahead caught Fan Shang's attention. He looked up to see a fat man confronting two others.

The fat man was driving, while the two behind him clearly had bad intentions.

They were the very same lackeys Fan Shang had seen with the fat man earlier.

"What are we doing, you fat bastard? Asking you to get off, of course! If it weren't for all that damn fat on you, we'd have shaken off those fucking things ages ago! If you're our brother, you'd better get off yourself. Otherwise, don't blame us for getting rough!"

One of the lackeys behind him said this, then exchanged a look with the other, and they moved forward together.

"You... you two..."

"Shunzi, be careful in a minute. The fatty's driving right now. You keep the steering steady, and I'll throw him off!"

As the two drew closer, the fat man panicked. But just as they were about to reach him, a vicious look flashed across his face.

He reached into the bag in front of him, pulled out a fire axe, and swung it fiercely at the two behind him.

Caught completely off guard, one had his throat sliced open, blood gushing out. The other reacted and tried to dodge, but he was still a moment too late.

The fire axe struck his arm, its blade catching in his flesh. He cried out in pain and tried to pull free, but how could the fat man let such a perfect opportunity slip away?

With a hard yank, the fat man leaned forward and kicked him straight off the vehicle, abandoning the fire axe as well.

"Ptooey! I treated you as brothers, and you tried to sell me out when it mattered? Good thing I kept something in reserve!"

With that, the tricycle suddenly sped up.

Sure enough, with one less person aboard, the tricycle really did move faster.

Fan Shang, who had witnessed everything, showed no reaction. He merely made a mental note to watch the fat man. This was a ruthless bastard.

For now, he was busy constantly dodging the dangers coming at him from behind.

"Meow!!"

At another cat's cry, Fan Shang abruptly changed direction.

Then came the thud of something heavy hitting the ground.

It was a human head fired from the distance.

Yes, the Compound-Eyed Sunflower was still chasing them.

But if that were all, it would have been manageable. With Little Black there, Fan Shang could turn immediately to dodge these horrors. By the time they got back up, he would already be far away.

But... a terrifying horror was one thing; a persistent horror was another.

Fan Shang glanced behind him and saw that Wang Xiaoxue's head was still following him.

His face instantly darkened.

"Damn it!"

He could feel the horror behind him drawing closer and closer.

And just as he had said before, a bicycle had its limits.

Yes, Fan Shang had already reached his maximum speed.

He couldn't go any faster.

His turn just now had only narrowed the distance further.

"Fan Shang, Fan Shang, Fan Shang, I want you dead, I want you dead... heehee..."

That familiar female voice rang out again, making the hairs on Fan Shang's back stand on end.

And just then, the cat cried out again.

"Hss!!"

Fan Shang's first reaction was that Wang Xiaoxue had attacked him. After all, they had already escaped the Compound-Eyed Sunflower's firing range.

So Fan Shang turned, planning to seize the opportunity to shake off this damn horror once he dodged her attack.

Sure enough, another head shot toward him from behind. Its pointed mouth plunged into the ground, and it began struggling.

Seeing this, Fan Shang immediately tried to use the opening to lose Wang Xiaotou.

But in the next instant, a bone-chilling voice rang out.

"Heehee... you fell for it..."

At those words, Fan Shang felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.

He whipped his head around and saw several heads held in the fleshy tendrils behind Wang Xiaoxue.

Clearly, she had thrown that last head at him.

Seeing Fan Shang look over, Wang Xiaoxue curled her lips into an eerie smile.

Then the fleshy tendrils at her neck writhed, and her entire head shot toward Fan Shang.

Her mouth puckered into a beak, making her look like a mosquito or fly from a distance.

And her target was Fan Shang's head.

She wanted to suck his brains dry.

"Heehee... heehee..."

"Hss!!!"

At the sight, Fan Shang was scared out of his wits. With no time to dodge, all he could do was twist sideways.

Then came the sound of flesh being pierced.

The tremendous force knocked Fan Shang off balance, sending him crashing to the ground and sliding a long way.

Little Black went tumbling too.

"Fuck, damn it!"

He had scraped his skin, but Fan Shang had no time to worry about that.

A sharp mouth had pierced his right shoulder, and blood poured from the wound.

Fan Shang's 11 points of constitution were no better than paper before this horror.

He could even see the mouth opening and closing, clearly sucking his blood.

Without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed Wang Xiaoxue's head and tried to pull her off.

But it was useless. The fleshy tendrils beneath her neck had already wrapped around Fan Shang's body. He couldn't pull her free.

He could even see the mockery in Wang Xiaoxue's eyes.

Unable to yank her off, Fan Shang drew his knife and hacked at the head behind him.

One slash, two slashes, three...

But the fact remained: only Sequence Transcendents could deal with these horrors.

Without becoming a Sequence Transcendent, he was ultimately nothing but an ant in this apocalyptic world of horrors.

Even though Fan Shang hacked away like a madman, until the edge of his bone cleaver curled.

But Wang Xiaotou still suffered nothing more than a few cuts to her skin.

Then a layer of black mist seeped out, and the damaged skin returned to normal.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!"

For the first time-no, once again-Fan Shang experienced just how helpless an ordinary person was when faced with a horror.

Fan Shang wanted to keep hacking, but suddenly... an indescribable weakness flooded his entire body.

It came with a sucking noise, like someone slurping a drink.

Fan Shang felt his strength rapidly draining away.

Looking down, he saw the mouth below his right shoulder opening and closing nonstop. Just like the survivors struck by those heads, his arm was visibly shriveling.

Fan Shang knew this horror was sucking his blood.

He could even tell that if his constitution hadn't surpassed the human limit, he would probably have collapsed the instant she started feeding.

There was no way he would have had the chance to get a couple of slashes in, as he had now.

But it was useless.

Even with those few slashes, Fan Shang could still feel his body rapidly shriveling and weakening.

At this rate, he reckoned he would be sucked into a dried corpse in another half a minute.

His situation was barely any better than an ordinary survivor's.

In fact, after just these few moments, Fan Shang felt his wrist buckle, and he fell straight to the ground.

His hand... had no strength left.

Staring at his hand, which looked like a dried corpse's, Fan Shang's eyes instantly filled with bloodshot veins.

He tried to get up.

But the moment he pushed himself up with one hand, he staggered and fell to the ground again.

His legs... had no strength left either.

By now, Fan Shang's entire body was visibly shriveling.

His vision began to blur.

Even his mind started to grow hazy.

But that made sense. An ordinary person could only last a few seconds while one of these horrific heads fed on them.

Yet he could hold on for nearly a minute. That was already the advantage his increased constitution had given him.

But... an ordinary person was still an ordinary person.

He simply couldn't fight a horror.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!"

Feeling his vision continue to blur, even Fan Shang couldn't help cursing aloud.

After all, he was human too. No one faced death without fear or anger.

Especially when they were about to die.

And Fan Shang was certainly furious.

He had finally escaped that damn school, finally survived a whole week, finally learned there was still hope that his sister was alive.

And this was it? This was how it ended?

Just like that, because of a horror passing by, he was going to die?

Fan Shang found it absurd, impossible to accept.

But... this was the apocalypse.

A horror wouldn't stop feeding just because he refused to accept it, much less spare him for that reason.

Fan Shang felt his eyelids growing heavier and heavier. He even felt a little sleepy.

"Heehee... Fan Shang, Fan Shang, Fan Shang, I want you dead, I want you dead..."

That sinister, eerie voice rang out again.

Then came a cat's cry.

"Hss!!!"

He looked up to see a black cat growling as he lunged toward Fan Shang-no, toward the human head on his shoulder.

It was Little Black. Bloody scrapes marked his legs, and his steps were unsteady. Clearly, the earlier fall had caught him off guard too.

Even so, he still hissed at the human head on Fan Shang's shoulder, even pouncing forward to claw at it.

"Get lost!"

But Hajime was still far too weak. Not only did the swipe miss, but Wang Xiaoxue's whip of barbed, fleshy tendrils sent Hajime flying in a spray of blood. Hajime rolled several times before finally coming to a stop.

"Meow~~"

When that voice came again, it was already struggling for breath.

Blood slowly seeped from Little Black's belly, and a deathly haze clouded those once-bright, mismatched eyes. Even so, Little Black kept staring toward Fan Shang and meowing softly.

In other words...

Hajime had lost!