Bai Jingxing was in the downtown block of Area C. He pushed his rimless glasses and carefully observed the surrounding scenes.
The lights above his head flickered on and off, and many broken wires poked out from the broken ceiling, like exposed meridians and blood vessels, and blue sparks burst out from time to time.
He was in a shopping mall—a deserted shopping mall.
He didn’t know the specific size of the place, nor did he know what Happy Dawson’s intention was to send him here. He just stood there, calmly and rationally watching as rows of shelves of goods stretched out in front of him. The tiles on the floor, which were supposed to be smooth and clean, were now shattered and scattered with various commodities.
The brilliance of the longbow and arrow manifested on Bai Jingxing’s back. His left hand held the small scaly shield enhanced by [Spring Fairy’s Honey Wine], his right hand quietly clasped the trigger of a crossbow, and then he moved forward.
He should be strolling through the food section at this point because the air is filled with the stench of rotten soybean paste and cheese. At his feet, glass bottles are smashed on the ground, and the contents inside are splashed everywhere. Perhaps due to time and dim lighting, these stains, which may have come from canned food or seasonings, have turned black and dried up, firmly sticking to the ground.
Bai Jing walked past one row of shelves and then another row; his steps were so silent that only the disturbed air knew that he had been there. He went to the puffed food and candy section, which used to be a kid’s paradise, but now its shelves were knocked to the east and west with the remnants of trampled biscuits and chocolate chips on the ground. Unwrapped colorful candies rolled everywhere and stubbornly became one with the floor.
“Cadbury snaps…” He muttered unconsciously as he looked down at the packaging through the obscure, flickering incandescent light.
“It turned out to be Cadbury chocolate chips…” Bai Jingxing thought amusedly in his heart, “If these snacks hadn’t been around for too long, I would really like to try what chocolate chips were like hundreds of years ago ……”
The old members of White Night In The Underworld all knew that their leader loved snacks, especially sweets. Back in the early days of the club’s establishment, he suffered from hypoglycemia due to long-term irregular eating habits. Although it has long since ceased, the habit of eating sweets has remained. According to his own words, eating sugar helps clear the mind.
Looking at this extremely wide shopping mall, even if Bai Jingxing closes his eyes, he can simulate a scene from it: a bustling town where leisurely shoppers come and go in a continuous stream, choosing their favorite products. Suddenly, something unexpected happened, and people seemed to be greatly frightened. They fled desperately to the exit, crowding, beating, and even trampling. They knocked over the shelves, the dazzling array of goods on them, and…
He looked up suddenly and saw a huge map taped to the glass of the window in front of him.
Bai Jingxing walked over quickly, and at that moment, he heard a ticking sound coming from the communicator.
He Qin’s deep and magnetic voice came from inside: “How is everyone doing?”
“It’s pretty safe for now.”
Xi Ling: “En.”
Chen Feiluan: “Safe for now.”
After a pause, Li Tianyu said, “Not too bad; I’m in the hospital.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Bai Jingxing continued, “I’m fine.”
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He wiped a handful of dust from it and suddenly found a small line of scrawled handwriting.
“By all means, remain quiet and calm, and do not disturb people’s pleasure.”
Bai Jingxing pushed his glasses again. What is this? A hint for the current scene?
He reported the city he was in according to the coordinates. Fortunately, there were three teammates in City C. Besides him, Du Zijun and Xi Ling were both here. While he was thinking, he casually listened to the whispers of his teammates. When he heard Li Tianyu cut off half of the conversation, he felt a slight thump in his heart.
She was the first to encounter those things.
The communication channel was silent at the same time. His fingers kept moving, and after waiting for a moment, he quietly asked, “… Li Tianyu?”
There was no answer; only intermittent rough breathing came from the other end, which was obviously different from others.
Bai Jingxing frowned. He, Du Zijun, and Xi Ling had already exchanged coordinates. If there were no accidents, the shopping center he was in should be the hub of the whole town. After the Du and Xi duo received it, they both sent a clear symbol, intending to rush towards him. Smart and capable teammates really save him from worry, but Li Tianyu is only good at actual combat. Li Rong seems to have protected her too well, so after taking her to the top 100 in Despair City, her current level is not as good as some cautious newcomers.
If she loses here…
Bai Jingxing’s eyes froze suddenly. He stared at the blurred reflection on the glass of the window, always feeling that something was wrong.
…The shelves behind him didn’t seem to be so close to him at first, did they?
Admittedly, Bai Jingxing’s special physique does allow him to sense something unknown, but he never really saw anything. For example, at the very beginning, he actually ignored Xie Yuanyuan completely, but Bai Jingxing’s always keen intuition reminded him: There seems to be a person there. That’s how he was able to discover Xie Yuanyuan’s presence.
What’s the situation now?
On the surface, his expression remained unchanged; he just pursed his lips calmly, but in fact, a layer of cold sweat was already breaking out on his back.
Because he clearly saw this time, in his thinking, within a few seconds, those shelves behind him moved several steps towards him unobtrusively, and they had already covered the position of the packaging he saw on the ground just now!
What are they trying to do?
Bai Jingxing knew that at such a time, he couldn’t panic. He used his small shield to tap his legs regularly. A regular rhythm is a very simple psychological cue that helps reduce anxiety and stress. This was also a common method he used on the competitive battlefield in the past.
He pretended to find a target and then walked there at a leisurely pace. From the corner of his eyes, he could feel that these shelves were restlessly coming to life, silently and firmly gathering around him, as if they were going to drown him in their shadows.
In the unreasonable dead silence, his forehead and temples were drenched with cold sweat, and the chill brushed his neck like an unknown hand, causing goose bumps to appear uncontrollably all over his body.
…Find the exit; even if you can’t find the exit, you can’t stay in this place for long.
He turned around a corner and then a pillar. Seeing that he always kept his distance from them, those unknown things in the darkness seemed to be a little anxious, so Bai Jingxing gradually began to see a shelf across the middle of the aisle, a display stand blocking his path… everything was silent, but he was sweating more and more, and the fingers holding the small shield were trembling slightly.
This is like a psychological siege war. As long as he shows the slightest break, he will face the fate of being fatally hunted down.
His heart began to beat wildly at the same time because just now he caught a glimpse of a white, blood-stained arm sticking out from under the long, thick, dark tablecloth, which propped up the display stand and rowed across the ground like a paddling oar. After leaving a dazzling blood stain, it retracted.
If Bai Jingxing turned his head at this time—if he dared to do so—he would definitely see that the route he walked was full of bloody handprints chasing him like this.
In order to pretend to avoid these moving shelves as if nothing had happened, Bai Jingxing had to temporarily change his direction of looking for the exit, but fortunately he was smart enough and had a good memory. He remembered that as long as he bypassed three more goods areas, he would be able to find the passage upstairs. Even if he couldn’t smash the door to get out, the next best thing was to avoid these damn things…
Suddenly, he froze.
He walked around another corner. The dim yellow light suddenly came into view, and immediately he smelled an extremely strong, pungent, bloody stench at the tip of his nose.
What appeared in front of Bai Jingxing seemed to be a fresh food area set up in the shopping mall. There were freezers and plates filled with meat chops everywhere, emitting a strong smell of decay, but no fly dared to visit here. In the center of all the stalls, under the dull yellow light, stood a long, dark, slender shadow.
Bai Jingxing’s heart beat wildly at that moment, and at the same time, he noticed that the ghosts hiding behind the shelves and booths also stopped chasing. They seemed to have sensed something, and they crowded together in place, refusing to move forward.
He looked back subconsciously, and his lips turned purple instantly. Countless unreconciled ghosts scrambled to reveal half of their pale and twisted bodies from under the shelves and display stands. Their bloody faces were filled with resentment, and they stared at him with dark eyes. In the dim light, this scene is more frightening than any horror movie.
Anyway, keep quiet and calm…
He turned his head stiffly and looked ahead. As long as he walked through this aisle, the opposite was the staircase that went straight up to the second floor.
“The surrounding area is already blocked by those shelves. It’s okay to break through, but it will consume too much… This is only the first night; until the last resort, it’s best not to clash with any swarm of things without being sure….”
He knew very well that he couldn’t give up here. Bai Jingxing’s face was as stiff as a clay sculpture when he took slow steps. The muscles all over his body tensed up. The only things he can feel now are the lead wire hooked lightly on his pinky finger, the smooth and cold handle of the shield, and the weight of the longbow and arrows.
He walked steadily forward without blinking or looking left or right. His heart was slowly pounding against his chest, and the excessive fear made him feel like his soul was out of his body, but he became extremely calm in an instant.
“Those things behind me are afraid to come over. Compared with the ghosts who can only hide and chase their prey by moving their camouflages, the one in front of me may not be simple…” Saliva accumulated in his mouth, but now he didn’t even have the courage to swallow it. Just walking—walking with all his attention—had already depleted the courage he had saved up in the first half of his life. “If I ignore the hint just now, whose authenticity has yet to be confirmed, how much chance of victory can I have by attacking that thing? And if I kill it, will other ghosts behind me attack me?”
The distance between Bai Jingxing and that figure gradually shortened, and with the help of his peripheral vision, he vaguely saw that it seemed to be a very pale creature dressed in black. Its face was thin, emaciated, and long, completely pale, without any facial features. Only two red dots with bloody handwriting were placed on the left and right of the eyes, and a blood-red arc curled at the position of the mouth. It stood motionless, facing straight ahead with this crude, stiff, horrifying smile.
At the moment Bai Jingxing approached it, it suddenly asked, “Guest, do you want meat?”
The flat and eerie voice suddenly sounded in an environment where you can even hear a needle drop; it makes people suffocate!
Bai Jingxing can’t think of anything. At this moment, his mind was blank; only his subconsciousness was desperately warning himself: Can’t answer, get out of here, can’t answer!
He continued to walk forward step by step; each step was as precise and uniform as a robot. Bai Jingxing gradually moved away from where the shadow was. The stairway, the stairway…he just wanted to go upstairs now…
“Guest, do you want meat?”
But that voice sounded not far behind him again—it was following him!
Bai Jingxing’s vision blacked out, and he almost jumped up and madly rushed out, or turned around and rushed over to smash its crude brain with the shield until blood spattered everywhere!
…..However, once again, he saved himself with his amazing self-control.
His intuition has never been missed. It has won him an advantage in countless battles and games, so this time, his intuition will definitely not be wrong—he cannot and must not provoke this thing!
He continued to walk slowly forward. This time, he didn’t hear the question again. As he kept walking, the goosebumps on his body gradually subsided. The door handle of the staircase was already within reach, and even the light reflected from the vertical glass inlaid on the door was clearly visible. Bai Jingxing raised his arm carefully, and the sweaty palm approached the door handle inch by inch…
Within ten seconds of holding his breath and concentrating, he suddenly felt a biting cold on his back!
Bai Jingxing raised his eyes, and a faint, almost deathly sound burst out of his throat.
The ghostly figure in black and white was clinging to his back, its elongated neck stretched forward, and on the thin and long face without any facial features, the blood-red smiling face was staring at him through the reflection on the glass!
“Guest, do you want meat?”
Hua: This chapter is stressing me out. 
😱
Thanks for the chapter
Book monsters can’t take away my appetite, so I want to eat meat…
Thank you for your translation 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍
All I want to say in this chapter is ….AAAAAHHHHHHHH 😭😭😭