Chapter 45

Chapter 45: The Door to Rebirth in the Apocalypse – Full Novel Website

Chapter 45

Gu Ning didn’t specifically inform White Wolf because he didn’t drink the meat soup at night, which indicated he must have noticed something was off. Given his past as a gang leader, he should have some level of vigilance.

The night grew deeper.

The rain outside the window was like a lullaby in the late hours.

After a long time, those people still hadn’t made a move.

Gu Ning glanced at the time; it was already 11 PM.

Jia Daozhang couldn’t hold on any longer and dozed off against the corner, letting out soft snores.

Xiang Xu was about to wake him when Gu Ning grabbed her hand in the dark and shook her head.

Gu Ning leaned against the wall, her eyes closed. She could hear the breathing of those lying on the ground, their eyes shut as if they had fallen into a deep sleep. It was quiet, too quiet.

Sleeping people aren’t dead; even in deep sleep, they would move, and movement naturally makes noise.

But there was none.

No sound of bodies shifting, no rustling of clothes.

Only the disordered breathing of intense excitement and agitation, faint but clear, reached Gu Ning’s ears. She could almost imagine the tense muscles beneath the clothes of those pretending to sleep, ready to spring into action at any moment.

In this room, the only ones truly asleep, aside from Jia Daozhang, were those from Pei Jing’s side who had drunk the meat soup during the day.

Everyone else was awake.

Everyone was waiting.

Waiting for a signal.

Finally, a very faint rustling of clothes was heard.

Someone cautiously stood up from among those lying down.

Then, one by one, people carefully stood up from the ground, silently… This cautious movement was something they had trained for countless times after their first taste of human flesh, to avoid waking their “prey” in their sleep. After countless training sessions and “practical experiences,” they had mastered the art of standing up without making a sound, ready to slaughter those in their sleep.

This was actually a very difficult decision. The guns and the murderous aura emanating from Gu Ning and her group proved they were not to be trifled with. If it weren’t for the fact that no one had broken in for a month, if winter wasn’t approaching, and if their stock of dried meat wasn’t running low, they might not have taken such a risk.

But now, they had no choice.

Imagining cutting the meat from their bodies into chunks or strips, boiling it, and drying it to become their reserve food, the bones could be used to make delicious broth. There were over twenty of them, and unlike the skinny people they had slaughtered before, this much meat would be enough to help them survive the long winter ahead.

Thinking this, their worries eased slightly.

The Dimpled Girl’s face showed no smile now, holding a sharp knife in her hand, feeling a bit of regret. She really liked that blonde woman, but unfortunately, she had rejected her “kindness,” or else she might not have wanted to kill her.

If someone could see in the dark, this would be a terrifying scene. So many people silently standing up in the dark, like demons crawling out of hell, tearing off their human masks, revealing their monstrous, hideous faces without any disguise.

At this moment, Xiang Xu even felt these people were more terrifying than the zombies outside.

In this horrifying, silent atmosphere.

A loud “Bang!” echoed in the dark!

The “demons” slowly advancing towards them all stopped in their tracks, overwhelmed by immense fear. The man at the front only felt the sharp pain in his chest after a while. He looked down in confusion but saw nothing. He reached out to touch the painful spot, feeling something sticky and warm, a hole—

He let out a disbelieving, agonizing scream, then suddenly collapsed.

Even those who were truly asleep were awakened by the gunshot and the piercing scream.

A beam of light suddenly lit up in the dark, shining on their faces. They hadn’t even had time to hide their expressions of excitement and hunger, their monstrous, hideous faces exposed under the light—

Everyone except Gu Ning and Xiang Xu gasped.

Huang Mengyao couldn’t help but scream.

No one blamed her.

The scene was just too horrifying. Some didn’t scream only because they were too shocked, even forgetting to scream.

Gu Ning wasn’t shocked. She held a knife, her gaze piercing through the dark towards White Wolf, who was holding a gun.

White Wolf glanced at her; clearly, he could see her in the dark too.

The silent standoff lasted only about ten seconds.

Then chaos erupted.

Gu Ning quickly gathered her people around her, forming a circle with Xiang Xu in the center, directing them to attack under her command. She, however, charged straight into the crowd. The darkness couldn’t obscure her vision. She ducked under two wildly swinging knives, her small knife spinning deftly in her hand, then slashed two bright arcs in the dark, piercing the chests of two people beside her. As she pulled the knife out, she used one man’s shoulder to leap up and kick another man charging at her, sending him sprawling. Her left hand shot out a small knife, embedding it in the man’s throat! The knife in her right hand flashed, cutting a woman’s throat.

The crowd was dense, but Gu Ning moved like a nimble fish, swiftly navigating through the people, her knife flashing, and one by one, people screamed and fell in the dark.

But Gu Ning wasn’t fighting alone.

Even in the dark, Yin Sang, without Gu Ning’s night vision, still displayed her formidable strength. At this moment, the difference between Yin Sang, who had combat skills, and Gu Ning, who killed based on instinct, became apparent. Although Gu Ning had killed many, she was feeling the strain. Yin Sang, on the other hand, was more at ease, lightly wielding a large knife, each strike accurately hitting the most vulnerable spots, wasting no extra effort.

Gu Ning was like someone with night vision killing a group of blind people.

Yin Sang, now effectively blind, killed no fewer than Gu Ning.

The difference was clear.

Gu Ning watched as Yin Sang instinctively bent to dodge an attack, then accurately swung her knife to cut another person’s throat, her lips tightening further.

Yan Yu, who had been hiding behind Pei Jing and couldn’t see anything, paled and launched two fireballs. Before anyone could react or stop her, she threw the fireballs into the crowd. The people who had been staying here clearly didn’t know what special abilities were, so they were stunned by the sudden appearance of the fireballs. But fear made them instinctively choose to flee. The two fireballs didn’t hit anyone but landed on the ground, igniting everything flammable!

The fire spread rapidly, lighting up the dark room in an instant! Everyone’s shock lasted only a moment before they were stunned by the rapidly spreading flames.

“Let’s go!” Gu Ning was the first to react, retreating from the crowd far from the flames, then shouting to Cheng Ming, Jia Daozhang, and the others. She casually cut down two people blocking the way who were still staring at the fire in shock, then led the charge towards the door!

Then everyone reacted, rushing towards the door in a frenzy!

The room was almost entirely covered with clothes or newspapers and other flammable materials. The fire spread extremely fast, engulfing half the room in no time and rapidly advancing towards the door. Some who were slower were licked by the flames and instantly turned into human torches. They instinctively screamed and charged towards the crowd squeezing towards the door. More and more people caught fire, collapsing to the ground trying to extinguish the flames, but the ground was covered in fire—how could they put it out? People covered in flames ran wildly around the room, their screams growing louder, the fire burning fiercer. In just a few minutes, the room turned into a living hell!

The agonizing screams echoed through the city’s silent night sky.

Zhang Xiaobai was pushed around by the crowd, ending up on the outer edge. Suddenly, a hand grabbed his ankle. He looked down to see a woman, her lower body on fire, desperately clutching his ankle, screaming in pain, “Save me! Save me!”

Zhang Xiaobai, unable to bear it, didn’t know what to do.

At that moment, a foot descended from above, forcefully stepping on the hand, grinding it down. Zhang Xiaobai looked up in horror to see a beautiful but cold face—it was the young woman often seen with White Wolf. Yin Sang didn’t even glance at Zhang Xiaobai, stepping over the hand and pulling out a knife, stabbing it into the back of a man squeezing forward. She carved a bloody path with her knife!

Zhang Xiaobai, terrified, no longer looked at the woman rolling and screaming on the ground, quickly following Yin Sang to squeeze out.

Jia Daozhang rushed out the door, a long trail of fire behind him, screaming and rolling on the ground—his robe had caught fire. Cheng Ming and a few others quickly helped beat out the flames. Finally, Jia Daozhang looked at his robe, now reduced to a shirt, on the verge of tears.

In the light seeping through the door crack, everyone’s faces showed lingering fear.

“My son burned to death inside! You owe me my son’s life!” A woman in her fifties shouted, viciously raising a knife and charging at them.

Gu Ning pushed Jia Daozhang aside, dodged the descending knife, and stabbed it into the woman’s chest.

The woman stared at Gu Ning in disbelief, her eyes filled with malice, clutching her chest as she collapsed, blood flowing down the steps.

The fire in the room grew so intense that even the door caught fire, flames licking through the cracks.

Gu Ning scanned the crowd, seeing familiar faces, and felt reassured. She led the way, stepping over the blood on the ground, running downstairs.

Cheng Ming, Jia Daozhang, and the others quickly followed Gu Ning down.

Then everyone rushed downstairs.

Just as they reached the next floor, a loud explosion was heard above! The closed door was blown open by the shockwave, slamming against the wall, and a massive wave of heat rushed down—those who were slower were directly hit by the shockwave, flung into the air, then crashing down, a scene of wailing.

Gu Ning didn’t stop, running all the way to the fourth floor before halting.

Soon, everyone had run down.

But Gu Ning quickly noticed that aside from them and White Wolf’s group, the Dimpled Girl and her people had disappeared in the chaos.

Zhang Xiaobai turned on a flashlight, quickly scanning the crowd, exclaiming, “Where did those people go?”

Only then did the others realize those people had vanished.

After all, they had lived here for so long, enough time to familiarize themselves with the building’s layout.

“Gu Ning, what do those people want? We didn’t offend them,” Jia Daozhang asked.

“They eat people,” Gu Ning paused, then added with some malice, “Tonight’s meat soup was made from human flesh.”

The room fell silent, then someone started retching.

Jia Daozhang, trembling, asked, “E-eat people?”

Gu Ning’s voice echoed in the dark, “That thing covered with a tarp in their corner was a corpse. To be precise, a skeleton, with all the flesh scraped off. If I’m not mistaken, after they kill someone, they cut the meat off, boil it, and dry it…”

“Then that jerky I took a bite of—ugh—” Jia Daozhang didn’t finish his sentence before retching, bending over.

Those who had just calmed down started retching again upon hearing Jia Daozhang.

Yan Yu retched until tears streamed down her face. Hearing Gu Ning’s words, she became furious, her eyes red with anger, shouting, “You knew all along! Why didn’t you tell us? How could you be so cruel?!”

Gu Ning coldly looked at her, “I just believe there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Even if there is, it’s poisoned. Don’t blame others for your own stupidity.” Gu Ning was still angry about the fire Yan Yu had started and wasn’t about to give her any face, directly slapping her down.

“You!” Yan Yu, in her rage, started forming fireballs again.

Then she saw several gun barrels pointed at her in the firelight.

“Think your special ability makes you special?” Gu Ning sneered, “Want to test if your fireball is faster than my bullet?”

“I’ll kill you! I swear I’ll kill you!” Yan Yu glared at Gu Ning with venomous hatred. Looking at her malicious eyes, Gu Ning had no doubt that if she weren’t on guard, Yan Yu would indeed kill her.

Gu Ning’s eyes narrowed slightly, a flash of killing intent, gripping her knife tighter.

“Yan Yu!” Pei Jing, who had been silent, suddenly barked, pulling Yan Yu behind him, addressing Gu Ning, “I apologize on her behalf.”

“If apologies worked, what’s the point of knives?” A voice interjected. White Wolf, leaning against the wall with a smile, seemed to enjoy stirring the pot.