*Whoosh…*

  At the brink of life and death, a gust of wind swept past Ah Xue’s face. A red blur smmed into the shadowy creature, pinning it to the ground. A massive mouth, nearly as rge as the monster’s head, cmped down mercilessly on its neck. A grating, bone-chilling sound followed as the creature’s scales were finally pierced, and bck blood gushed from its neck. But the red figure wasn’t done yet. The monster, now resembling a discarded ragdoll, was shaken violently in the air, gripped tightly by the fanged jaws.

  It was the big dog—the red dog named Michael!

  Ah Xue felt strength return to her body as she struggled to her feet, her eyes wide with gratitude as she looked at Michael, who had just saved her life. The dog, still holding the Hell Ripper’s corpse in its jaws, gave her a smug look, its terrifying maw dripping with disgusting bck blood. Though its appearance was gruesome, at that moment, Ah Xue found it utterly endearing. All those nights of being forced to cuddle with it suddenly felt worth it.

  “Michael, watch out!”

  Lin Tao’s shout came from nearby, followed by the crack of his gun. The fur on Michael’s neck stood on end as the supposedly dead Hell Ripper suddenly shed out with its razor-sharp cw, aiming straight for the dog’s head. If it connected, Michael wouldn’t have a second head to spare.

  In a split second, Michael couldn’t spit the creature out fast enough, nor could it counterattack in time. Just as panic set in, Lin Tao’s bullet struck the Hell Ripper’s cw, deflecting it. The cw grazed Michael’s forehead, leaving a long, bloody gash.

  “Grrr…”

  Enraged, Michael pnted all four paws on the Hell Ripper’s body and, with a powerful jerk of its head, tore the creature’s head clean off, along with a section of its spine.

  “You think you can scare me, huh? Pying dead? You think pying dead is cooler than showing off?!” Michael’s eyes burned with fury as it cursed the lifeless body. Still unsatisfied, it spewed a burst of fmes from its mouth, reducing the Hell Ripper’s corpse to a bzing fireball.

  “Y-you… you can talk?!” Ah Xue, still sitting on the ground, stared at Michael in shock, her expression even more stunned than when she had witnessed the Hell Ripper’s carnage.

  “Heh, I can do a lot more than talk. Want me to sing you a tune?” Michael smirked at her, its tone dripping with arrogance. Fortunately, most of the crowd had fled, leaving only a few unfortunate souls trampled and half-dead.

  “Enough chatter. This pce isn’t safe anymore. We need to move, now!” Lin Tao helped Ah Xue to her feet and led her toward the surface.

  Above ground, the situation was far worse than Lin Tao had anticipated. Though it was the middle of the night and the surroundings were pitch bck, the eerie growls of the undead echoed clearly from every direction, concentrated just beyond the walls.

  “Boss Hu, what’s going on?”

  Lin Tao spotted Boss Hu at the front gate, directing his men to reinforce the iron doors. The once-imposing leader now looked disheveled, his slicked-back hair a tangled mess, damp with sweat and pstered to his forehead. He looked like a man who had just discovered his wife’s infidelity.

  “Brother, you made it out? Did you deal with that thing?”

  Seeing Lin Tao nod, Boss Hu let out a sigh of relief and cursed, “Damn it! It wasn’t Qiang and the others who turned. That thing must’ve followed them back. And not only did it come, but it brought a whole horde of undead with it! I climbed up to take a look earlier, and holy hell, there are thousands of them out there—maybe even tens of thousands!”

  “Hell Rippers are cunning. Luring prey into a trap is their usual tactic. Otherwise, Qiang and his men would never have made it back. But there’s no time to expin. Reinforce the gates and the walls. Pile anything you can find to block them!” Lin Tao frowned, realizing the situation was far more dire than he had imagined. With so many undead, even he and Michael would struggle to escape if they got surrounded.

  “Got it!” Boss Hu nodded immediately. Having witnessed Lin Tao’s skills, he wasn’t about to argue. Besides, he was completely out of ideas.

  But just as Boss Hu had a tractor dragged over to barricade the gate, the inevitable yet unexpected happened. A section of the western wall colpsed under the weight of the frenzied undead. The flimsy wall, a shoddy construction without even a proper foundation, crumbled as hundreds of zombies pressed against it. A ten-meter section came crashing down, burying several unlucky souls beneath the rubble.

  With the wall breached, chaos erupted. Waves of zombies poured in, their grotesque mouths gaping as they lunged at anyone in sight. The panicked crowd scattered in all directions—some fled into the factory, others into the office building, and a few even tried to jump into the courtyard’s sewer.

  Boss Hu, ever the leader, managed to rally a few of his men to cut down several zombies and carve a path through the chaos. Realizing the situation was beyond salvage, he raised his machete and shouted, “Follow me! We’re climbing the east wall!”

  At his command, his remaining men dropped their weapons and sprinted toward the wall. With agility slightly superior to the zombies, they scaled the wall without needing dders. But the outside world was far worse than they had imagined.

  While most of the undead were drawn to the commotion at the western wall, plenty still lingered below, mindlessly cwing at the concrete in hopes of breaking through. As soon as the men nded on the other side, they were swarmed by the ravenous horde, torn apart in moments, leaving not even a recognizable corpse behind.

  Boss Hu, not particurly agile and more reliant on cunning and ruthlessness to maintain his position, barely made it to the top of the wall. A tall zombie nearly grabbed his ankle, forcing him to halt. Now stranded on the wall, he was caught between the undead inside and the even greater horde outside.

  Standing at the factory entrance, Lin Tao smashed a zombie’s skull with the butt of his gun, his brow furrowed as he surveyed the chaos. There was no way to fight off so many undead. Survival was now the only priority.

  “Brother Tao, what do we do?” Ah Xue stood behind Lin Tao, her face pale. Beside her was Ling Ling, who had just managed to find them. Both girls, dressed in thin clothing, shivered in the cold night air. Just three minutes earlier, the English teacher who had been running with Ling Ling had been torn apart and devoured by the zombies.

  “Michael, cover the rear. You two, stay close to me!” Lin Tao picked up a decent-looking machete from the ground and led the way toward the office building. In times like these, a bde was far more practical than a gun.