Chapter 611 – The Fire in the Underground Layer

“Ugh!”

A piercing alarm suddenly echoed through the entire street.

All the Zombies wandering around immediately froze in place, twisting their necks to direct their gaze in unison toward a single direction.

Their originally vacant, blood-red eyes seemed to light up all at once. Their previously stiff bodies began to emit an eerie “click” as bones shifted slightly.

It was as if Monsters awakening from the grave had caught the scent of the living, gradually coming to life.

“Whoosh!”

The first Zombie dashed forward, breaking away from the horde.

Following that, the entire horde began to move.

These Zombies either sprinted along the road, leaped over abandoned cars, or swung themselves out by hanging onto utility poles…

This street, which had been silent for so long, suddenly came alive.

With the Monsters’ frenzied running, those heavy, hurried footsteps, and the occasional crashes mingled with the noise…

An eerie silence began to form amidst the chaos.

It was as if hell was approaching…

“That’s quite a commotion.”

At this moment, Ling Mo had already run back into the Underground Mall, hiding in a small corner not far from the exit.

From his vantage point, he could clearly see how the Zombies were passing by.

Those pairs of feet, stained with dried blood, dirty and grisly, swiftly moved past less than twenty meters away.

“How did you do it?” Xia Na asked out of curiosity. The alarm was still blaring at this point.

With a Zombie’s acute hearing, she could pinpoint where exactly the sound was coming from.

It wasn’t here, nor at the entrance, but somewhere nearby.

What puzzled Xia Na the most was that she believed the sound was likely coming from mid-air.

“Hehe, actually, I just used a small gadget called a personal Alarm. This thing is really well-made; it still works after all this time. So, I used my psychic power to lift it onto the power line and set it off. Now we have this effect,” Ling Mo explained, plugging one ear with his finger and smiling. “I have to say, the volume is really top-notch in the industry…”

Xia Na stared at him for a moment and nodded, “I see… But honestly, I’m more curious about why you would collect personal safety items in the first place…”

“Hehe…”

“But this noise is definitely gonna attract those people,” Xia Na said, folding her arms and glancing outward.

“Of course.” Ling Mo nodded eagerly, staring at the gap.

…

“Be careful, guys.”

Inside the underground computer mall, Xu Shuhan and the other two cautiously moved forward, holding their Flashlights.

Xu Shuhan, walking last, nervously swung her gun around while peering into the pitch-black surroundings.

Glancing back at the faint light from the elevator entrance, she felt the encroaching darkness even more oppressive.

In the shadows, it seemed like something was constantly shifting.

“Wait!”

A man’s voice suddenly called from ahead.

“Ah!” Startled, Xu Shuhan instinctively screamed, her gun barrel wobbling nervously.

“Hey, calm down…” Mu Chen quickly raised his hands, equally startled. “Why are you so jumpy today?”

Xu Shuhan let out a long breath before responding angrily, “Then why did you suddenly yell? Don’t you know a place like this easily gets people thinking of the worst?”

“Well, can you control your wild imagination?” Mu Chen retorted, rolling his eyes. “I was just wondering if Ling Mo and the others would really come to a place like this. I mean, what’s here for them? Just some junk and nothing else.”

“But we’ve searched everywhere else, upstairs and downstairs. Unless they’ve already left,” Xu Shuhan replied, frowning.

At that moment, Xia Zhi suddenly signaled for silence.

“Ugh…”

“Did any of you…” Xu Shuhan glanced around nervously. “Hear that…”

“It seems to be coming from above…” Mu Chen listened for a moment, then said with surprise, “Looks like your ‘unless’ was spot on.”

The three of them exchanged glances and quickly turned, running upstairs.

The closer they got to the elevator entrance, the more distinct the sound became.

By the time they climbed to the Mobile Phone Mall, Mu Chen’s expression had shifted from shock to bewilderment. “Are you kidding me? An alarm?”

“This… it seems to be coming from that direction… and all the Zombies outside are gone,” Xu Shuhan said, having rushed to the floor-to-ceiling window. She glanced out and then turned back. “It has to be Ling Mo and the others; the F Team wouldn’t do something like this.”

“Great!” Mu Chen forced a grin, then growled through clenched teeth, “But how the hell are we supposed to get over there?!”

Thinking about the countless Zombies converging on that direction, Xu Shuhan and Xia Zhi’s expressions turned equally grim.

That is a problem…

However, unbeknownst to them, as they dashed out of the mall, a pair of red eyes quietly appeared in the underground computer mall.

Along with a fleeting Red Glimmer, a faint red blaze started in the mall and quickly grew stronger…

“MeGu?”

Xiao Bai suddenly lifted its head, sniffed the air, then looked behind.

Seeing this, Yu Shiran also turned to look behind and then said, “It seems like there’s smoke…”

“Oh, it’s Yalin.” Ling Mo smiled and said.

Xia Na gave Ling Mo a thoughtful look, then suddenly realized, “Ling-Ge, did you ask Yalin to… set a fire?”

“Yeah, I asked her to burn that place down. Considering the timing, they should be heading down soon. I’m creating a distraction here to draw their attention. Meanwhile, Yalin will ignite the final blaze over there. It’s not too hard to find something flammable in the Parking Lot,” Ling Mo nodded.

Ling Mo and his group were currently in a relatively safe location. It would still take a significant amount of time for the fire and smoke to reach them. Moreover, before making the decision, Ling Mo had already calculated that even if the fire were to destroy all the buildings without any hindrance, it wouldn’t affect the TV Station.

However, in the coming days, they might face more Zombies and worsening weather…

“So that’s it… but why?” Xia Na still didn’t quite understand.

Ling Mo reached into his bag and pulled out a package wrapped in cling film. Upon closer inspection, it was the mucus. “This stuff is a nightmare for anyone with mental abilities. I can’t let Niepan get their hands on it. What if they have the capability to replicate it?”

“That makes sense… but you have the mucus and the special organs from that little monster now. Maybe we can study and find something useful,” Xia Na said with anticipation.

“Let’s hope so. Unfortunately, it smells way too strong to carry much of it, and carrying too little isn’t very effective either.” Ling Mo shook his head regretfully.

“But… right now…” Ye Lian suddenly spoke up, looking even more bewildered than Xia Na. If Xia Na only understood part of it, Ye Lian hadn’t grasped any of it.

“Well… human relationships can be quite complex. Right now, we’re more like forced allies rather than partners. I want to follow them to find Niepan, and they might be thinking of using me for their own ends. Often things are like this—risk and reward go hand in hand. You won’t know the final outcome until the very last step.” Ling Mo tried to simplify his explanation.

Ye Lian stared at him with wide eyes for a moment, then pondered for a few seconds before shaking her head silently.

“Alright, let me think of another way to explain it…” Ling Mo sighed, resigning himself.

“You never know what a baby looks like until it’s born,” Xia Na quickly interjected.

“Oh…” Ye Lian understood this time and nodded heavily. “So, Ling-Ge, you and they are in that kind of relationship…”

“There’s no relationship like that at all!” Ling Mo exclaimed.

By his calculations, both Mu Chen’s group and Yalin should have arrived by now.

The Alarm was still blaring incessantly, although it was only a matter of time before the Zombies crushed it.

But the problem was…

“Where’s Yalin?”