"Th-There's... something to say!"
The fat man's breath grew increasingly labored, writhing in pain, his corpulent body twisting like a dying worm.
Xu Mo grunted, casually tossing the nearly 200-pound fat man two to three meters away. He turned around and coldly said, "I've killed dozens of lawbreakers. A few more like you won't make a difference. Don't try to test my patience… all of you, get out!"
"Y-Yes, yes! We'll distribute the food right away!" Minister Wang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, meekly complying. He quickly bent down to help the fat man.
Xu Mo found their hypocritical faces utterly revolting. He angrily turned and walked away, but suddenly felt his ankle tighten. Before he could react, he lost his balance and began to fall forward.
Instinctively, Xu Mo reached out to catch himself, but from the corner of his eye, he saw that two black, mist-covered hands had emerged from the ground, tightly gripping his ankles!
Damn it! A trap!
Before he could process where the attack had come from, Minister Wang's voice shouted from behind, "Now! Attack!"
Two members of the leadership group suddenly revealed pistols, their yellow-glowing barrels aimed directly at Xu Mo. Without hesitation, they repeatedly pulled the trigger.
What the hell? Where did these people get apocalypse weapons?!
Bound by the black hands, Xu Mo had no space to dodge. He barely managed to pull out his USP pistol and shoot one of them, but before he could react, over a dozen bullets pierced his body, creating a multitude of blood holes. He collapsed to the ground, his body sprawled, a pool of red blood spreading beneath him.
If it weren't for the silver mask and Kevlar vest protecting his head and body, Xu Mo might have already died at their hands. Even so, with only a few breaths left, his limbs were completely useless, save for his right arm, which was still shielded by the "Demon's Hand."
"You bastards!" Xu Mo struggled to reach for the apocalyptic shard hidden close to him, but the black hands reappeared, seizing his right wrist tightly.
Minister Wang clearly hadn't expected such an easy ambush. After a brief moment of shock, he suddenly burst into triumphant laughter, pulling out a small, exquisite axe and slowly approaching Xu Mo with a vicious look on his face. "We didn't want to have a conflict with you, but you left us no choice. Don't blame us for protecting ourselves! This is all your doing!"
"To hell with you! You disregard the lives of thousands of citizens, only caring about saving yourselves. How can people like you call yourselves public servants?!" Xu Mo spat fiercely, but the spit fell just short, barely a foot from his feet.
"Public servants? You're too naive. That's just something we tell the ignorant masses… the era of unselfish sacrifice is long gone. If there's no benefit, who would bother being a public official, dealing with all this hassle?" Minister Wang chuckled coldly, shaking his head. "Why am I telling you this? In this hellhole, there's no longer any distinction between officials and civilians. If people don't look out for themselves, they're doomed."
Xu Mo's enhancements were many, but none could help him escape his current predicament. A sense of regret washed over him—if only he hadn't acted alone. If he had a companion, perhaps this wouldn't have ended this way.
Was he really going to die at the hands of such petty people today?
Just as Minister Wang, with the axe in hand, was closing in on Xu Mo, a massive crash suddenly echoed from the cinema's main doors. Along with the sound of shattering glass and twisted steel, the reinforced doors—once nearly indestructible—exploded open, leaving a several-meter-wide gap. A horde of zombies surged through, their bodies crashing against the opening, using their flesh to widen the breach.
"This is bad! The front door's been breached! Run!"
The voices of the security team rang out in terror, followed by blood-curdling screams.
"How is this possible?" Minister Wang instinctively took a half step back, his expression panic-stricken. "We were told the door could never be breached by zombies! What do we do now?"
"Minister Wang, we need to leave! We can't stop this many zombies!"
Despite their enhancements from apocalyptic shards, the leadership members had no courage to face such a massive zombie horde. They hastily grabbed boxes of food and fled up the stairs in panic.
"Damn it! Why now..." Minister Wang looked pale, staring at the advancing zombie tide. He couldn't care less about Xu Mo on the ground, turning and running as fast as he could.
The black hands gripping Xu Mo's right wrist vanished with their escape, leaving Xu Mo to finally breathe. Without hesitation, he pulled out an orange shard from his chest pocket and activated the "Zero Eruption" enhancement. His body healed rapidly, and his wounds began to close just as the zombie swarm would have overwhelmed him.
The first floor corridor was almost entirely covered by zombies, at least a thousand of them. Xu Mo dared not stay in the midst of the unending horde. After cutting down a few zombies that had lunged at him, he quickly ascended to the second floor, where he met up with Du Zhizhang and Chang Zitong.
As he reached the second-floor staircase, the two of them were already there, having clearly heard the huge noise from below. After learning about the situation, Chang Zitong said urgently, "If it was just the windows, it wouldn't matter, but the front door has been breached, meaning the zombie tide can rush in uncontested. With our current strength, we can't hold them off. What should we do now?"
"We'll probably have to hole up in the break room…" Du Zhizhang said, looking troubled.
"No way! The break room may have reinforced doors, but it has no windows. If it's breached, it'll be a concrete tomb!" Chang Zitong immediately disagreed.
Xu Mo thought for a moment before seriously pointing upwards.
"Our only escape route is the rooftop… It has a one-meter-wide iron door, and zombies will have a hard time gathering in large numbers there. We might be able to hold out for a while with the terrain advantage."
"Good idea! Let's go to the rooftop!" Du Zhizhang and Chang Zitong's eyes lit up.
Though the entrance to the rooftop had been blocked by the security team earlier with debris, Xu Mo and Chang Zitong—now both much stronger—had no trouble clearing it. In no time, they opened up the path to the rooftop.
Rushing up to the rooftop and locking the small iron door behind them, the three of them finally breathed a sigh of relief, having temporarily escaped danger.
Du Zhizhang, unlike Xu Mo and Chang Zitong, was not as physically fit. After the sprint, he collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily and drenched in sweat. With a smile, he said, "I used to think life was too boring, but now I realize how good a simple life is. If we make it out of here alive, I'll probably have enough shards to sell for a million or so. I'll buy a house, a car, get married... definitely not staying in this circle anymore."
"Let's cross that bridge when we come to it…" Du Zhizhang's words seemed to have struck a chord with Chang Zitong, who gazed absentmindedly at the blue sky that looked no different from the real world. He suddenly pulled out the apocalyptic shards he had collected over time and waved them at Xu Mo with a grin. "Come on, Xu Mo. The zombies won't reach us for a while, let's divvy up the loot!"
"Divvy up? That sounds so unpleasant…" Xu Mo chuckled as he sat beside the two of them, counting the shards. Suddenly, he remembered the oddity of Minister Wang and the others using apocalyptic weapons and abilities, and he asked, "Did you guys miss any shards when collecting them? How did Wang Minister and his group suddenly have apocalypse shards?"
Chang Zitong shook his head. "We were all involved in clearing the zombie corpses, and looking at the shards we've collected, there's almost no chance of missing any."
"Maybe they killed zombies and got them?" Du Zhizhang joked.
"Did they bite the zombies?" Chang Zitong slapped Du Zhizhang on the head in annoyance.
"No… Actually, there might be a possibility."