Chapter 39

When she reached the loose bread section, many of the loaves were still sitting safely in their bins, since the shelving there did not topple easily.

But Su Cheng also noticed slippery mucus on the floor, like snot.

"What a huge rat nest."

Mu Ling's voice suddenly rang out in her mind, making her heart skip a beat. With her nerves stretched taut, any sudden disturbance was enough to give her a fright.

Fortunately, Su Cheng kept her composure. She clearly remembered that only she could hear Mu Ling's voice and made no sound.

She slowly backed away and crouched beside a shelf.

Concentrating, she looked through Mu Ling's eyes.

The mutant rat monsters had chosen the dimly lit movie theater as their nest.

Within a large ring of piled human tissue sat another of their kind with a swollen abdomen. It tore into its food, making satisfied cooing noises.

Five larger monsters stood guard around it. Even inside their nest, they kept looking around with exceptional vigilance.

No wonder the monsters brought food back to their nest. It was for the pregnant female.

Su Cheng looked at the female monster's especially swollen belly. There was definitely more than one baby inside.

If it kept giving birth to litter after litter of little monsters in the near future, this mall would become a paradise for monsters.

Wasn't reproductive prowess a powerful ability in its own right?

Mu Ling said, "These rat monsters are the only ones on the fourth floor. The second and third floors have those white-cocoon spiders like the ones across from your hotel."

"These monsters seem to have separate territories and leave each other alone. When the rat monster went upstairs earlier, it gave the white cocoons a wide berth."

"...All right, come back for a bit. I have an idea I need your help with."

"Okay."

After cutting off Mu Ling's view, Su Cheng skirted the mucus on the floor and collected various supplies with even lighter footsteps, keeping an eye on her surroundings.

After circling around the furniture section, she continued collecting things along the way: clothes, hats, shoes... She took at least a few of all kinds of miscellaneous items.

There was more and more mucus on the floor.

Su Cheng had already covered more than half the mall.

She suddenly remembered the girl who had just arrived at the mall and was also an apartment resident.

Su Cheng remembered that she had been in the snack section. Thinking of the mucus on the floor, she wondered whether the girl was still alive...

Just as Su Cheng was thinking this, she spotted the girl around the corner of a shelf.

The girl's eyes lit up when she saw her, and she pointed upward.

Su Cheng looked up and saw seven or eight brown spiral shells stuck to the ceiling.

The instant she saw them, Su Cheng ducked back behind the shelf.

These monsters looked like mutated snails. Their bodies were tucked inside their shells, but two feelers protruded from beneath each shell, extending and retracting.

The monsters clustered above the girl's head, having chosen this patch of ceiling as their habitat.

The girl had been unlucky enough to be right in this area. Pale-faced, she huddled in a corner, not daring to move, terrified of making any noise that would attract the monsters' attention.

The monsters had not noticed the girl's presence, which showed that they had no vision and sensed external objects through their feelers instead.

Mu Ling returned just then.

She floated back to Su Cheng's side, followed her gaze upward, and could not help saying, "What disgusting snails."

This was not the first time Mu Ling had called something disgusting. It seemed she really loathed the creatures in this instance.

"Now we have a chance to burn these disgusting monsters to death."

Su Cheng pointed to the left and spoke in her mind. There's plenty of alcohol and cooking oil over there. Load them into a cart and pour them around the mall...

Aside from Su Cheng and the girl who had arrived in the instance just yesterday, there were no other living people in this mall.

The monsters were already breeding here. Since she was here anyway, wouldn't burning them count as doing a good deed?

Mu Ling understood without needing Su Cheng to explain and immediately nodded in agreement.

Su Cheng looked at Mu Ling's thinning form again. "You'll have to hurry. Your body doesn't seem able to keep you out here much longer. You might be forcibly recalled into the bracelet when the time comes..."

"Sigh. I'll try to be quick."

Mu Ling headed in the direction Su Cheng had indicated to find the oil.

Su Cheng thought about how both ordinary instances in a row had lacked the "qi" Mu Ling could absorb.

It seemed she would have to try a special instance next. If Mu Ling could grow stronger sooner, she would be a tremendous help.

Author's note:

None.

Chapter 39

The cart clattered as Mu Ling pushed it around collecting things. The snail monsters, which had only extended their feelers to sense their surroundings, instantly poked their bodies out.

Snails should have moved slowly, but these monsters slithered unusually fast with their shells on their backs. Apart from leaving mucus behind, they made little noise.

As soon as they left, Su Cheng hurried over to the girl in the corner.

She lowered her voice. "Grab some things and get out!"

Hao Ruoxue nodded quickly, but when she tried to stand, she stumbled and fell back down. Meeting Su Cheng's puzzled gaze, she explained quietly with a miserable look, "I crouched for too long. My legs went numb..."

Su Cheng simply helped her up.

"The mall is crawling with monsters. I'm planning to burn it down. Get some food and come with me."

Hao Ruoxue nodded repeatedly. "Thank you."

They were in the food section, so gathering food was very convenient.

The cart's noise stood out in the underground mall. Snail monsters kept crawling across the ceiling, all heading toward the "unusual sound."

With Mu Ling drawing their attention, the pressure on Su Cheng and Hao Ruoxue eased considerably. They no longer had to worry about every tiny noise they made.

After filling her last smart bag, Su Cheng looked at Hao Ruoxue, who was trailing right behind her with a bulging backpack.

Seeing her raise a hand and put away the supplies had already made Hao Ruoxue realize that she was a fellow apartment resident.

When Su Cheng turned around, Hao Ruoxue scratched her cheek and thought for a moment before greeting her. "H-hello, senior."

Senior?

"Just call me Su Cheng."

Hao Ruoxue nodded. "Okay, Sister Su Cheng. My name is Hao Ruoxue."

Both Hao Ruoxue's appearance and her inexperienced manner made her look like a student who had seen little of the world.

Now that they had finished gathering supplies, they could leave.

By now, Mu Ling had poured oil and alcohol over the walls on every floor, leaving several opened containers to drain onto the ground...

The snail monsters had followed her to the first floor. They could clearly hear the noise yet could not hit their food, and crawled restlessly over the floor...

The white cocoons on the first floor were also drawn by the noise and hissed warnings at the snail monsters.

Su Cheng told Mu Ling, "We'll go outside first. Wait for my signal before lighting the fire."

Mu Ling said, "Understood."

Su Cheng led Hao Ruoxue away with light footsteps. Although most of the snail monsters had been lured away, there was no guarantee that some slow-reacting ones had not stayed behind.

When she climbed the stairs and reached the stairway entrance, Su Cheng said silently, Light it!

"Okay."

Mu Ling had already stopped on the fourth floor. The moment she tossed the lighter onto the ground, flames whooshed up. Fueled by the alcohol and oil, they became a sea of fire in the blink of an eye.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."

The rats inside the movie theater seemed to sense the change in temperature and scurried out anxiously...

Mu Ling passed straight through the floor to the level below and dropped another lighter...

Flames instantly spread through the mall.

"Hiss, hiss..."

"Squeak, squeak..."

The monsters cried out, finally bringing sound to the silent mall.

Su Cheng and Hao Ruoxue had just stepped through the mall's main entrance. Looking back, they could see thick black smoke billowing from the third and fourth floors...

Su Cheng gave the astonished Hao Ruoxue a look, signaling her to hurry.

The two entered the fog one after the other.

Just as Su Cheng had said, Mu Ling was forcibly recalled into the bracelet when Su Cheng had barely taken a few steps away from the mall.

Sounding tired, Mu Ling said, "I need to rest for a while to solidify my form..."

"Mm. Get some rest."

Su Cheng glanced at the bewildered Hao Ruoxue following close behind and gestured for silence.

Hao Ruoxue nervously covered her mouth. She had never left the mall before and had not known that it was all fog outside...

This was her first instance. Faced with Su Cheng, who was clearly an experienced player, she instinctively came to rely on her somewhat.

[Ding-dong~ Monster collection mission completed (1/5)]

[Monster name: Long-Tailed Red Rat

Traits: Prefers darkness, breeds prolifically, has a venomous stinger on its long tail, is extremely sensitive to sound, has rough skin, fears fire.]

[Ding-dong~ Monster collection mission completed (2/5)]

[Monster name: Eight-Eyed White Spider

Traits: Skilled at disguising itself in white-cocoon form, has keen eyesight and hearing, sprays corrosive venom, shoots webs containing hallucinogenic substances.]

[Ding-dong~ Monster collection mission completed (3/5)]

[Monster name: Stinging Snail

Traits: Sleepy, feelers enter sentry mode while asleep, has a violent temper, prefers living in groups and at high elevations. The mucus it sprays can numb nerves.]

Su Cheng had now confirmed that she had to injure a monster to complete its collection mission.

Before she could think back over the monster traits announced by the system, dark clouds suddenly filled the sky. With a rumble of thunder, rain came pouring down!

The icy rain struck Su Cheng's face, chilling her heart along with it.

The rain had come suddenly, but it was fierce.

Su Cheng wiped her face and looked back at the fire burning in the fog.

Rain, right after I started a fire?

Does that make sense...?

Su Cheng had no words for the heavens. She took a raincoat out of her smart bag and put it on, then handed another to Hao Ruoxue. The two quickened their pace as they left.

The burning mall was making quite a commotion and would likely attract plenty of monsters. With the mall ablaze, any monsters that approached might have set themselves on fire.

But now that this downpour had arrived, never mind burning the monsters drawn here-even the ones inside the mall might not all burn to death...

The rain thinned the fog somewhat, making it much easier to see.

Su Cheng walked briskly and vigilantly, paying particular attention to whether any monsters lurked around them in the rain.

Yet after walking a short distance, she still had not seen a single monster appear.