TVHCM 11

Chapter 11 — The Second Floor

By the time the rescue team entered the city, Mo Chu was in the middle of peeling a sausage for Xiao Jin.

The dog sat obediently on the floor, tail swishing lightly as it waited for its treat.

At first, Mo Chu heard the distant thrum of helicopter blades approaching from far away. Then the sound grew louder and louder until it felt as though the aircraft were directly overhead. A moment later came the synchronized, heavy footsteps of soldiers marching into the city streets, shattering the silence of dawn.

Mo Chu’s eyes lit up.

Without even finishing peeling the sausage, she tossed it toward Xiao Jin. The dog leaped into the air and caught it perfectly mid-flight.

Thinking it was some kind of game, Xiao Jin proudly turned around with the sausage in its mouth—only to find Mo Chu already unfolding the ladder and climbing upward at full speed.

The dog tilted its head in confusion.

Mo Chu climbed to the top of the ladder, pushed open the small window near the warehouse ceiling, and looked outside.

A line of soldiers was advancing from the far end of the street in perfect formation. Leading them was a heavy tank, followed by roughly a platoon of troops.

She knew this platoon was responsible for their district alone. Countless other soldiers had already dispersed into other neighborhoods throughout the city.

Today, none of the survivors in this city would ever forget the sight of them.

When disaster struck, the military hadn’t escaped unscathed either. Even in her previous life, Mo Chu never learned how many soldiers had died in the catastrophe before they managed to reach the survivors.

And yet—

After enduring such devastation, the first hands extended toward the people were still theirs.

Every soldier she could see was fully armed, weapons raised and ready. In the future, firearms like those would become treasures worth fortunes, impossible for ordinary people to obtain.

Mo Chu wasn’t the only one staring at them with burning hope.

The instant the soldiers stepped into the neighborhood, the entire street seemed to come alive. Behind every window that still held survivors, there were eyes watching them—eager, trembling, some already brimming with tears.

They were looking at hope itself.

The soldiers’ first task after entering the district wasn’t searching buildings for survivors.

It was clearing the zombies from the streets.

Only after securing the area could they safely escort people out.

Against first-stage zombies, an entire platoon of heavily armed soldiers was overwhelmingly powerful. At this point, firearms still possessed tremendous suppressive force, and with a tank leading the way, the soldiers advanced almost unhindered. Wherever they passed, only mangled zombie corpses remained beneath the tank treads.

Though first-stage zombies possessed little intelligence, they still retained animal instincts. Once they realized they couldn’t overpower a group, they would retreat together, driven by pure survival instinct.

The moment the soldiers displayed their strength, the zombies that had been wandering the streets moments earlier began scattering in groups, fleeing to who knew where.

The soldiers didn’t pursue them.

Instead, they systematically entered the buildings lining both sides of the street and escorted the trapped survivors outside.

Under Mo Chu’s gaze, more and more people emerged from the buildings.

Some followed the instructions broadcast days ago, carrying only a single backpack and traveling light. Others acted as if they were moving house, dragging huge bags stuffed with as many possessions as possible. One man even hauled down four suitcases by himself.

Mo Chu almost laughed from sheer disbelief.

Naturally, the soldiers refused to allow such burdensome luggage.

Not only would it slow them down, it would become fatal deadweight the moment danger appeared.

Under the soldiers’ orders, some people obediently abandoned their excess baggage. Others grumbled unwillingly but were frightened enough to comply in the end.

And then there were those who still acted as though the apocalypse had never happened, immediately starting arguments and causing scenes.

Before the end of the world, the soldiers might have patiently reasoned with them.

Now?

With death looming over everyone’s heads, nobody had the patience for that anymore.

Mo Chu watched as one soldier forcefully took away an elderly woman’s cloth sack filled with miscellaneous junk. The old woman instantly grabbed onto him and wailed loudly.

“Oh heavens! The soldiers are robbing people now! They’re beating us and stealing our things!”

Her daughter desperately tried to restrain her while apologizing repeatedly to the soldier.

The scene quickly descended into chaos.

Then suddenly—

The platoon leader raised his gun and fired toward a nearby building.

A zombie hanging outside a second-floor window dropped to the ground with a thud.

The crowd instantly fell silent.

The old woman’s face turned deathly pale.

In the sudden stillness, the platoon leader calmly repeated himself.

“If you want to travel with the main group, no excessive luggage. No more than two backpacks per person. Those who comply can come with us. Those who don’t are free to leave on their own.”

That single gunshot proved more effective than all the earlier persuasion combined.

The people who had stubbornly refused to abandon their luggage gritted their teeth and finally threw their belongings aside.

Sometimes, intimidation worked far better than reason.

Mo Chu let out a quiet sigh and climbed back down the ladder.

Only after reaching the bottom did she realize Li Chen had been standing there the whole time, silently holding the ladder steady for her.

He hadn’t said a word, and she hadn’t noticed at all.

A trace of guilt stirred in her chest.

In her previous life, she had grown used to surviving alone. Even after being reborn, she still instinctively forgot there was someone beside her.

Li Chen, however, acted as though nothing was unusual.

When she climbed down, he casually steadied her with one hand before withdrawing it almost immediately.

The moment her feet touched the ground, Xiao Jin began circling around her excitedly.

Mo Chu rubbed the dog’s head thoughtfully before turning to Li Chen.

“Let’s go outside and take a look.”

Li Chen didn’t ask why.

He simply picked up his own bag, slung Mo Chu’s bag over his shoulder as well, and nodded.

“Okay.”

Mo Chu reached for another pack, but Xiao Jin darted forward faster than she could react, snatched it up in its mouth, and tossed it onto its own back.

Mo Chu ended up completely empty-handed.

She looked at Li Chen, then at Xiao Jin, confusion flickering across her face.

…Was Li Chen this easygoing in her previous life too?

Not questioning her at all. Just saying “okay” to everything.

She thought about it for a moment, only to realize she barely had any personal memories of him from her past life.

Everything she knew about Li Chen had come from other people.

Ruthless.

Bloodstained.

A man who killed without hesitation.

But she had never truly known him.

Mo Chu fell silent for a moment before stepping forward and opening the sealed warehouse door.

She had no intention of traveling with the military, but there were things she still wanted to find an opportunity to tell them. Knowledge shared among many people was far more useful than knowledge held by one person alone.

And besides—

She wanted to find the old man named Xie Jinyuan.

The more she thought about it after returning earlier, the more familiar that name sounded.

Their appearance drew some attention when they stepped outside, but no one paid them much mind.

Under the soldiers’ direction, the survivors rested where they were. Armed troops formed a perimeter around the crowd while medics moved among the survivors, checking each person for injuries or bites.

Mo Chu and Li Chen found a corner and sat down quietly.

Not long after, another group of soldiers returned from searching one of the nearby buildings.

Mo Chu overheard one young soldier frown and mutter to his companion beside him,

“Old Li, something feels off. Squad Leader Jin’s been inside that office building for a while now. We’ve already escorted out two groups of survivors—why hasn’t there been any movement from their side?”

The moment the words left his mouth, a scream suddenly erupted from a distant skyscraper.

Gunfire exploded immediately afterward.

Every soldier present instantly recognized that something had gone wrong and raised their weapons at once.

The two soldiers who had been speaking exchanged a glance and shouted in unison—

“It’s Squad Leader Jin’s team!”

Something really had happened.

The crowd immediately descended into panic. Everyone began retreating away from the building as fast as possible.

Mo Chu exchanged a glance with Li Chen.

Li Chen gave her a slight nod.

Together, they moved against the flow of the fleeing crowd.

Ahead of them, the sounds of gunfire from the building still hadn’t stopped.

The platoon leader stared through binoculars toward the skyscraper while ordering some soldiers to stabilize the terrified civilians. At the same time, he dispatched another fully armed squad toward the building to bring Squad Leader Jin’s team out.

But before they could reach it, someone burst out from the entrance.

His body was drenched in blood, so mangled he barely looked human anymore.

The moment the platoon leader saw him, he blurted out in shock—

“Squad Leader Jin!”

The soldiers immediately rushed forward to rescue him.

But before they could move far, a bluish-black figure shot out of the building behind him.

It looked like a zombie—

Yet far more agile than any they had encountered before.

In an instant, the creature lunged behind Squad Leader Jin and drove one claw clean through his abdomen.

Before collapsing, Squad Leader Jin roared at them with the last of his strength—

“RUN!”

“Squad Leader Jin!”

“Fuck this damn zombie! I’ll kill it!”

The soldiers opened fire immediately, concentrating all their bullets on the creature.

But the zombie was unbelievably fast.

It completely overturned everything they thought they knew about zombies being slow and clumsy.

It even used Squad Leader Jin’s corpse as a shield.

Faced with their comrade’s body, every soldier hesitated for a split second.

But Mo Chu knew—

This was the worst possible moment to stop firing.

Because what they were facing now…

…was a second-stage zombie.

The shock she felt upon seeing it was no less than the soldiers’.

The apocalypse hadn’t even lasted ten days, yet a second-stage zombie had already appeared.

Its speed had evolved dramatically. It even possessed rudimentary intelligence.

If humans continued treating it like an ordinary first-stage zombie, the consequences would be catastrophic.

For it to evolve this quickly, it must have devoured enormous amounts of flesh—perhaps even consumed other zombies.

As for whether there were still any living people inside that building…

No one could say.

If the soldiers stopped firing now and let it get close, one swipe of its claws would be fatal.

At this stage, there were no healing-type abilities capable of curing the zombie virus.

Mo Chu stopped hesitating.

She snatched the unused handgun from a soldier’s waist, chambered a round, and fired.

The bullet slammed directly into the zombie’s shoulder.

That sudden shot snapped the soldiers back to their senses.

The platoon leader shot Mo Chu a quick glance and immediately barked—

“Open fire!”

Orders were absolute.

Eyes red with grief, the soldiers clenched their teeth and resumed firing at the zombie despite their fallen comrade’s body being in the way.

As they fired, the platoon leader found himself glancing again at the young woman holding the gun.

She looked like an ordinary student.

Yet her expression remained calm, her posture flawless, her aim steady—no worse than any trained soldier under his command.

She handled the weapon like a veteran.

Meanwhile, seeing that the soldiers had resumed firing without hesitation, the zombie abruptly discarded Squad Leader Jin’s corpse and sprang onto the wall of a nearby building.

Its jumping power was terrifying, and its agility even more so.

Just as the soldiers redirected their fire toward the wall, the zombie leapt down from over three meters high, claws aimed directly at the nearest young soldier.

Mo Chu instantly swung her gun toward it, but she knew she was already too late—

And then—

A crimson streak of fire suddenly materialized out of thin air, binding the second-stage zombie in midair.

The flaming whip moved as though alive, blazing rapidly across the creature’s body before violently slamming it into the ground.

Mo Chu whipped her head toward Li Chen.

His expression remained calm and unreadable.

But he was only first-stage for now. The zombie struggled frantically and soon tore itself free from the flaming restraints.

Even so—

Though it escaped the bindings, it couldn’t shake off the flames clinging to its body like a curse.

And at the same moment—

A storm of bullets arrived.