Chapter 595 – The Missing “Essential Component”

Ling Mo and his group continued to move through the Mall, and Xu Shuhan, who was following close behind, suddenly heard a faint sound.

“Clang!”

“What was that?!”

Xu Shuhan quickly turned around with her gun raised, her eyes wide as she scanned the area in front of her.

The Mall was filled with dark, shadowy shapes at this hour, and the chaotic state of the construction materials scattered around seemed to exude an eerie, terrifying atmosphere.

“Did you hear something?” Xu Shuhan asked in a low voice, noticing that she was the only one reacting.

“No…” Ling Mo shook his head, looking puzzled.

The other three girls didn’t even break their stride; it was clear they hadn’t heard anything either.

Xu Shuhan couldn’t help but swallow hard and forced a smile. “Really…?”

Could it be a hallucination?

It’s possible… Overstressed nerves can cause hallucinations, right?

Hehehe…

Xu Shuhan tried to comfort herself with a smile, but just as she turned her head, the sound came again!

And this time, it was right at her heels!

“Ahhhhh!”

Xu Shuhan felt a chill run up from her feet. She jumped up and turned around in panic, quickly asking, “Did you hear it this time? Did any of you hear it?”

She was sure it wasn’t a hallucination this time, even though she was particularly sensitive and fearful of such strange occurrences. Her mental fortitude wasn’t that weak…

Honestly, if a horde of Zombies were to swarm them, putting them on the edge of life and death, she could face it calmly.

But this kind of unseen fear, she just couldn’t handle!

It’s her weakness, a flaw in her personality!

“Say something!”

Xu Shuhan didn’t dare blink but also couldn’t keep her eyes fixed on one spot, causing her gaze to waver.

It felt as though she both hoped and feared seeing something at the same time.

The quieter it got around her, the stronger her fear grew.

“Hey… Where are Mu Chen and Xia Zhi?”

Xu Shuhan’s gaze darted around, and she suddenly realized something even more terrifying.

How could they disappear in just a few seconds?

Here, there… they’re nowhere to be found…

The two who were supposed to be searching nearby seemed to have vanished into the shadows without a sound.

“Did you see them…”

Xu Shuhan was instantly tense, asking as she turned her head.

But the moment she turned around, the last two words caught in her throat and came out completely altered: “No… no?”

Blank space…

Ling Mo and the other three, who should have been behind her, had suddenly vanished as if they had evaporated into thin air.

Yet Xu Shuhan, who had been no more than five meters away, hadn’t heard a thing.

Ling Mo and his group, as well as Mu Chen and Xia Zhi, were all gone…

In the vast Mall, Xu Shuhan was now completely alone.

The surroundings fell into a deathly silence.

No sound, no living thing in her line of sight.

In this eerie quiet, Xu Shuhan, standing there alone, suddenly shuddered.

“Help… help me!”

…

The oppressive and trembling scream echoed through the elevator entrance, reverberating faintly into the basement.

In the darkness, a pair of blood-red eyes suddenly flickered, followed by a rough, heavy breath.

“Hehehe… timid human…” A sinister female voice accompanied the breathing, suddenly emerging.

In the vast emptiness of the dark, the voice sounded ethereal, sending chills down one’s spine.

“Cowardly and pathetic…” But then, the female voice quickly turned into a cry, almost pitifully complaining, “Hey, why did you hit my butt?”

“Who told you to taunt everyone all the time? I’m a human too, you know? Can’t you be a bit more considerate of my feelings?” a male voice responded, clearly exasperated.

“Hmph, now you remember you’re a human? When you were scaring that human woman just now, I couldn’t tell at all…” The female voice became cunning again.

The male voice was momentarily choked, then coughed twice to cover it up: “How was I supposed to know she was that scared…”

“You clearly found her weakness and deliberately targeted her,” the female voice pressed on.

“Which side are you on? Can we even sleep peacefully like this?” the male voice retorted angrily.

“Your hand is on me!” the female voice snapped back.

“I can’t see the road!”

As they argued, a pair of slightly amber-tinged, blood-red eyes suddenly flashed in front of the man.

This sudden appearance caused the man to exclaim, “What the hell!”

Then, in the darkness, there was a series of chaotic sounds, as if something had been knocked over and someone had fallen.

“Damn it…”

In the midst of the chaos, the male voice groaned in pain.

But the commotion was far from over…

“Ah! I stepped on… something…” a timid female voice suddenly cried out.

“That’s me…”

“Look! I found food!” The amber eyes moved, descending from a high point to a lower one.

However, as a “pop” sound echoed, the male voice screamed again, “Don’t move, don’t move, that’s not a sausage from the supermarket, that’s my essential component! I said don’t pull it, don’t yank it!”

Suddenly, all the sounds in the darkness fell silent, returning to an eerie stillness.

A few seconds later, the timid female voice hesitantly whispered, “It seems… it got… pulled off…”

“…”

Silence returned, but shortly after, two female voices started speaking in unison.

“Ling-Ge, it’s okay…”

“We can consider finding a new part to attach…”

“Will it grow back again?”

“It shouldn’t come off so easily… Who did it?”

Click-

The sound of a flashlight switch being pushed echoed, and then a blinding light illuminated the area.

Among a messy pile of debris, a figure holding a flashlight shakily got up.

In the beam of light, three girls stood silently.

The flashlight’s beam made the three girls look a bit frightening.

Their pale skin faintly revealed veins underneath, and their crimson eyes glowed eerily.

Their slightly parted lips showed glimpses of red tongues, as if they had just licked fresh blood…

But only a moment later, the three girls returned to normal, looking almost indistinguishable from regular people.

The girl standing in the middle held a stick-like object in her hands and stared innocently at the figure who had just gotten up.

“Gulu!”

The other two girls simultaneously swallowed, the sound clear in the silence.

“Ling-Ge…”

“Um… Ling Mo…”

“Enough, can you wipe your drool?”

The figure stood up straight, twisted his neck, and grabbed the stick-like object from the girl’s hands, then quickly stuffed it into the mouth of the approaching “hybrid” girl.

“Mmm!” The “hybrid” girl bit down eagerly.

The long-haired girl covered her mouth in surprise, but her eyes betrayed a hint of desire for a share…

Ling Mo, however, remained calm. He brushed the dust off himself and said smugly, “Good thing I used a sausage for the switcheroo, the real part is still intact.”

“Huh?” Li Yalin continued to gnaw on the sausage absent-mindedly, instinctively wanting to throw it away but clearly reluctant to part with it.

After all, it’s still meat…

Xia Na quickly regained her composure and put down her hands, grumbling, “Tch…”

“Tch what?!”

Ling Mo snapped, “Every time there’s a fight, you guys go wild, don’t you? How many times have I said this? I don’t mind you biting me, since I apparently smell enticing to you. But can you bite somewhere else? Even if you won’t actually bite it off, what if you accidentally break the skin and cause a mutation?”

“Do you even want kids or not!”

“And you! And…”

When he got to Ye Lian, Ling Mo met her watery, innocent eyes and immediately lost his temper.

“Just this once,” Ling Mo sighed resignedly.