Chapter 145

The last thing Mo Li stepped on was Li Jiangbing’s head.

Using it as lightly as a dragonfly touching water, he launched himself into the air. In an instant, his body began to swell, growing enormous at incredible speed!

Mo Li rarely grew huge inside buildings.

When scouting alone, he took the form of a small cat, able to avoid the paths meant for humans and take all kinds of shortcuts, such as ventilation ducts.

When fighting inside a building, he usually appeared in a leopard-sized form—swift and agile.

He hardly ever grew huge indoors. This form was even larger than his elephant-sized body outdoors.

Everyone stopped retreating.

The Giant Zombie was no longer visible. Mo Li’s body filled the entire corridor, just like the wall of flesh the Giant Zombie had formed earlier.

This time, it was a gigantic feline shield on humanity’s side.

They couldn’t see what was happening. All they could hear were the sounds.

The cat was yowling. The zombie was roaring. The floor trembled, and the ceiling shook.

There was no way to imagine how two enormous creatures were trading blows face-to-face. All they could tell was that both sides were worked into a frenzy.

Everyone stopped retreating.

Su Yu lowered her shield as well. Hugging Li Jiangbing’s head, she stared at Mo Li’s enormous rear without daring to blink.

Even though she couldn’t see a thing.

Li Jiangbing’s mouth hung wide open, and he was tense with anxiety.

Suddenly, there was a tremendous crash!

It sounded as if something had collapsed.

Mo Li let out a loud cry. His massive body suddenly sprang upward and disappeared.

Dust billowed through the corridor.

Zhou Wang promptly controlled the airflow and blew the dust away. Only then could everyone see the huge hole in the ceiling, through which they could see the third floor!

The Giant Zombie had smashed through the ceiling to escape upstairs, and Mo Li had gone after him.

The floor above them trembled again and again.

Since he was running away, that meant we had the advantage! Everyone’s spirits rose.

“Let’s go up and take a look! Come on!”

With Mo Li on our side, what was there to fear? Everyone charged noisily up the stairs.

“Don’t push!”

“You stepped on my foot!”

“Put that shovel away! You nearly poked me in the face!”

“Hold your shovel up higher! Don’t scratch anyone!”

During breaks, the metal-element superpowered users would sharpen everyone’s blades again, keeping their weapons in the best possible condition.

The crescent shovels in particular had become increasingly popular, with more and more people abandoning other weapons in favor of them. They could be used either to shovel or to smash—two functions in one!

So everyone held their shovels above their heads to avoid accidentally injuring their own people.

As Li Jiangbing ran, Su Yu suddenly realized that she was still sitting on his shoulders!

No wonder her view had been so good.

“Put me down!”

“Oh!”

Su Yu climbed down and followed everyone upstairs.

Jiang Cheng and Li Jiangbing brought up the rear.

The moment they reached the third floor, everything felt different.

The entire structure was different. The corridor was especially wide and tall, almost as if it consisted of two floors with the dividing level removed.

The third floor was the broadcasting-studio level, which had special functional requirements. The corridors had to be tall enough for large sets, props, and equipment to be moved through.

No wonder the monster had come to this floor. It could finally stand upright here.

On the second floor, it had moved like a gorilla, using both fists to support itself because it couldn’t stretch out. Its entire body had been hunched over.

Here, it stood upright and looked even more like a giant.

Or rather, there was no need to say “like.” It was a giant.

No wonder Mo Li had grown so large. Only a body that size could withstand the Giant Zombie’s strength.

The giant cat and the giant crashed into each other and rolled across the floor, locked in a terrifying struggle.

Everyone could only stand far away at the opposite end of the corridor. Not a single person dared to approach.

Fortunately, this area was spacious, almost like a small plaza.

At the far end stood a large door, tightly shut. It looked like the entrance to a theater, which was probably the broadcasting studio.

That explained the open space in front of it. Back on the lower floors, everyone had glanced at the information posted on the walls. The broadcasting studio could accommodate 1,200 spectators, making it essentially the same as a theater.

With a thunderous crash, the black cat was hurled away. It smashed through a large hole in the outer wall beside the stairs, revealing the road and the overpass outside. Wind came rushing in with a howl.

The black cat swept its long tail, and the Giant Zombie crashed to the ground.

The giant cat pounced, bit down on the Giant Zombie’s shoulder, and twisted its neck! It tore one of the giant’s arms clean off!

This was a house-sized giant cat! Its bite and tearing force were terrifying beyond belief!

Many people suddenly realized that when Mo Li had transformed into a house-sized giant cat and bitten Cao Jiacai to death, it had truly been like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

This enormous form was meant to be used against a Giant Zombie.

“Go, Mo Li! Go!”

“Mo Li, you can do it!”

The Giant Zombie roared, the sound making everyone cover their ears.

The one-armed Giant Zombie fought back desperately, but when it came to speed, how could a human compare with a cat? Humans became stronger after turning into zombies, but mutated cats became stronger too.

Mo Li clamped his jaws around the giant’s throat, his sharp teeth piercing deep!

But the Giant Zombie was no Cao Jiacai. Piercing its throat was not enough to kill it.

The giant rolled, but the cat refused to let go! The two of them wrestled and rolled together.

They kept rolling until suddenly they came toward the crowd!

Oh no! Anyone crushed beneath them would be dead!

Everyone turned and ran for their lives.

After running a few steps, they looked back and saw that Mo Li and the monster had rolled away again.

So everyone ran back.

It was like the tide receding and then surging back in—bouncing back and forth with remarkable elasticity.

At last, accompanied by the teeth-grinding sound of bones cracking—crack, crack, crack—the giant cat suddenly exerted its strength and twisted the giant’s head into a grotesque angle.

The giant cat released its bite. The Giant Zombie crashed to the ground and lay motionless.

Its enormous, ugly head was still attached to its body, but it looked like a screw twisted crookedly out of place.

The brain could no longer command the body, and the body could no longer sustain the brain. It was thoroughly dead.

The giant cat turned around and stared at them.

Everyone held their breath, their eyes filled with awe.

Then the terrifying giant cat suddenly let out a squeaky little “Meow~,” completely mismatched with its enormous body.

Everyone: “...”

Mo Li and Li Jiangbing were close enough that Mo Li could lie on top of Li Jiangbing’s head while Li Jiangbing carried him around the neighborhood to bask in the sun. Li Jiangbing immediately began clapping his huge hands.

“Good job, good job, good job! Our Mo Li did such a good job!”

Giant cat: “Meow~”

Apparently, that still wasn’t enough.

Li Jiangbing gave a loud cough.

Everyone came back to their senses. They immediately understood and burst into applause.

“Good job, good job, good job!”

“Great job, great job, great job!”

“Mo Li is the best! What a good kitty!”

The giant cat was satisfied. It strutted toward them with a catlike sway, shrinking a little with every step. By the time it reached Jiang Cheng, it had transformed back into a little black cat.

It sat down in front of Jiang Cheng and raised one paw toward him.

“Meow.”

A packet of wet wipes appeared in Jiang Cheng’s hand. She pulled one out and wiped Mo Li’s paw, carefully cleaning between his toes as well. He had gotten far too much disgusting stuff on them. The wipe changed color completely.

Zhou Wang turned his head and asked Little Huang, “How is it?”

Little Huang relaxed all over. “There’s no danger anymore.”

The building was extremely quiet. Aside from the Giant Zombie, they had yet to see a single ordinary zombie anywhere from the first floor to the third.

Now that the Giant Zombie was dead, Little Huang could no longer sense any other danger.

Only after his paws had been cleaned did Mo Li jump onto Jiang Cheng’s shoulder.

Jiang Cheng gently scratched his little head. “You worked hard.”

But Mo Li only replied:

“Meow—”

“A survivor? A lot of them?” Jiang Cheng turned toward the doors of the studio. “They’re inside?”

“How many?”

“A whole lot?”

Chang Jiaxin leaned over and whispered to Wang Yunya, “Can she understand cat language?”

Wang Yunya was a cheerful, outgoing girl. After spending the past two days with the older boys and girls, she had already heard plenty of rumors about Jiang Cheng and her black cat. She whispered back, “I heard they have some kind of telepathic connection.”

“Wow...”

Jiang Cheng walked over and stored the Giant Zombie’s corpse in her storage space.

Zhao Yi and Gao Yuxuan exchanged a glance.

The two of them had been making all kinds of observations, records, and analyses. They also knew that Jiang Cheng’s storage space had a limit based not on volume, but on weight.

There were still plenty of other things inside it. Even the things they knew about included the cookware she took out to prepare hot meals for everyone. There might be many more things they knew nothing about.

The Giant Zombie was clearly not merely large in volume. To support such a massive body, its muscles and bones had to be far denser than normal. Its total weight was probably at least one ton.

If its bone density was comparable to that of a crocodile, it could easily weigh close to two tons.

How much had Jiang Cheng’s storage space expanded by now? She had just put the Giant Zombie away with ease.

In any case, it certainly wasn’t small.

And compared to the Giant Zombie, Mo Li was even more terrifying.

Fortunately, it was our cat.

Jiang Cheng led everyone to the doors of the studio.

A row of connected seats had been wedged diagonally across the doors.

There were rows of seats along both walls as well. This spacious, plaza-like area was where the audience could wait and rest before entering.

The row of seats had been jammed against the door handles, locking the doors shut. Clearly, neither the people nor the zombies inside had been able to get out.

Jiang Cheng stored the seats away.

Two tall, powerfully built boys pushed open the heavy double doors.

A wave of foul air rolled out!

The people at the entrance nearly gagged from the stench.

It was an indescribable mixture of odors.

The smell of feces and urine. The body odor of people who hadn’t bathed in days. The stench of zombies. The reek of decomposing corpses.

Everyone was already familiar with the latter two after enduring two zombie outbreaks, and they could identify them immediately. But when all those vile smells blended together, they struck the back of everyone’s skull like a physical blow.

Covering their mouths and noses, the group walked inside.

It was a vast, column-free space with an exceptionally high ceiling. Black electrical cables sprawled across the concrete floor. Overhead, countless lighting rigs and curtain tracks crisscrossed the ceiling, suspending dozens of enormous lamps. All kinds of expensive equipment lay scattered across the floor, some of it smashed beyond recognition.

The walls had been built as a room-within-a-room structure, with a seismic isolation layer hidden beneath the concrete floor. Even the doors they had just opened were thick, soundproof security doors.

The studio’s soundproofing requirements had been extraordinarily high. Once the doors were shut, the battle between the monster and the giant cat outside had been completely inaudible within.

In the foul-smelling space, the broadcast stage stood ahead of them, while opposite it were audience seats capable of holding twelve hundred people.

High above the seats at the back was a huge wall of glass—the control room overlooking the entire studio. Now, that enormous window had been stained a murky brown, turning it opaque.

The studio was full of people.

People lying down. People sprawled facedown. People leaning against the walls. People huddled in corners. People clinging to one another. People keeping their distance from the center.

All kinds of people lay among feces, urine, and corpses. Some appeared to be barely alive. Others looked as though they were already dead.

The floor was littered with empty mineral-water bottles and countless identical packages.

They appeared to contain bread, braised chicken legs, marinated eggs, pastries, and pickles.

The members of the High-Tech New District’s Zombie Cleanup Team were utterly stunned.

Not a single survivor at the district government offices.

Not a single survivor at city hall.

No one had imagined that there would be hundreds of living people inside the television station’s studio!

Seven days.

It had been seven days since the second zombie-virus outbreak.

How had they survived?

And how had they ended up trapped inside with the Giant Zombie?

Why had they been locked in there?

Where were the other zombies?

Among so many people, wasn’t there even one superpowered fighter capable of putting up a fight?

The middle school students began to vomit.

Because the stage lights illuminated everything far too clearly.

There were numerous severed limbs scattered across the stage. From the differences in skin color, it was possible to tell that some had belonged to zombies, while others had belonged to humans.

They lay strewn across the stage, like scraps of food consumed carelessly and left behind without a thought.

Zhao Yi slowly turned around and stared at the scene.

“This can’t be...”

Everyone looked at him.

Zhao Yi’s teeth chattered softly, clicking against one another as his mind reeled from the shock.

“It can’t be,” he forced out with difficulty. “This... this isn’t a granary, is it?”

In an instant, everyone was covered in gooseflesh.