Everyone has awakened, but I am the only mortal!

This happened so fast that everyone's eyes were filled with terror.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Everyone froze in place, forgetting even to breathe.

Fear, like icy ice, seeped straight from the soles of my feet to the top of my head.

The two men protecting the old man's expression changed drastically.

The tall, thin man hissed, "Not good!"

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly jumped up from the spot, his body instantly soaring more than half a meter into the air. This was a move that no ordinary person could do.

At the same time, as he landed, he drew a black leather whip from his waist and lashed it out with a crisp "whoosh" in the air. The first lash struck the ground and cleaved a gap the width of a palm in the ground, demonstrating the whip's power.

The second whip was raised, pointing directly at the monster!

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Su Bai would never have believed that such a bizarre thing existed in the world.

But he watched it from beginning to end without moving an inch.

So when the monster fully revealed its true form, aside from the initial moment of shock, he was able to watch everything unfold before him with remarkable calm.

The two men who had initially tried to protect and mediate the fight were now locked in combat with the monster.

The monster was incredibly agile; no matter how tricky the angle of the whip, it could easily dodge it and instead approach the crowd step by step.

The crowd went from screaming to scattering in chaos.

The three people at the front didn't even have time to scream before the monster's claws pierced their chests, and they instantly died.

With the road ahead clear, everyone's eyes turned to Su Bai and Lao Zhou.

Old Zhou grabbed Su Bai, his voice trembling: "Holy crap, they're trying to use us as shields!"

The two had barely understood what was happening and hadn't even had a chance to move when those people rushed up behind them like madmen, forcefully drawing the monster's attention to them.

Old Zhou was so angry that he shouted "Damn it!" three times.

Seeing the monster dodge the whip's shadow and charge straight at them, he suddenly ripped off his backpack and swung it around as fast as a windmill.

His bag was stuffed full, yet he swung it around with a whooshing sound.

Su Bai dodged the bag that was being flung around and reached out to pull Lao Zhou away.

A human body can be pierced by a single claw from a monster, so Lao Zhou's backpack was no different from a mantis trying to stop a chariot in front of the monster.

But just as Su Bai's fingertips were about to touch Lao Zhou's clothes, Lao Zhou would often take two steps forward instead.

"Sizzle—"

The backpack was instantly ripped open by the claws, and its contents scattered everywhere. Unfortunately, a piece of clothing ended up covering the monster's eyes.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lao Zhou rolled on the spot, grabbed Su Bai with his backhand, and scrambled back several meters.

Everything happened too fast.

By the time Su Bai realized what was happening, Old Zhou had already dragged him to the right side of the monster's line of sight.

The two men seized the opportunity to attack from behind.

The whip lashed hard across the monster, and in an instant, a sharp, piercing cry of a baby exploded out, almost shattering eardrums.

The monster's movements gradually froze, and its aggression quickly dissipated.

"Slap, slap, slap—"

The whip fell again and again.

The monster's bestial features slowly faded away, and its bizarre body—naked, with a human face and horse hooves—gradually shrank and deformed, eventually transforming back into a frail, over forty-something-year-old man, curled up on the ground, trembling.

The man wielding the whip then stopped.

Everyone witnessed this illogical scene and was so frightened that they forgot to scream and just stood there dumbfounded.

The scene was deathly silent.

"Waaaaah... You scared me to death..."

Old Zhou's voice, trembling with tears, abruptly broke the silence.

Su Bai looked at Old Zhou, who was clinging to his shoulder and crying pitifully, and for a moment he didn't know what to say.

He recalled the fierce man who had swung his backpack like an electric fan earlier, and then looked at himself in this state.

I racked my brains but couldn't find a single word of comfort.

At this moment, Ma Jun stepped out from behind the crowd, stared at the two men, and said in a deep voice, "What exactly is going on? And who are you people?"

Judging from the two men's actions, they clearly knew a lot about the monster.

The two did not answer, their gazes slowly sweeping over everyone.

Su Bai could see clearly that after they scanned the area, their brows furrowed noticeably. They looked around again, exchanged glances, and then simply watched everyone silently without uttering a word.

The already shaken crowd felt a chill run down their spines from that gaze and panicked instantly.

Su Bai felt his sleeve being tugged and turned his head down.

Old Zhou shrank his neck and muttered in a low voice, "At a time like this, is he still going to pretend to be cool?"

Su Bai: "..."

It's unclear how good their hearing was, but the shorter man suddenly glared at them, his eyes fierce.

Old Zhou shrank back under Su Bai's glare, then clung to her with a pitiful expression, saying, "Can't I even tell the truth...?"

Su Bai took a deep breath: "...Shut up."

Su Bai believed that if Old Zhou said another word, the whip would fall on him without hesitation.

Ma Jun was already looking grumpy from being ignored in public, but Lao Zhou's interruption actually calmed him down a bit.

Thankfully, the tall, thin man wielding the whip finally spoke: "After the meteorite fell, human civilization was destroyed, and some people were affected by the meteorite and mutated into monsters."

"Mutated into a monster?" Ma Jun repeated in a low voice, pointing at the man who had been forced back into his original form, his eyes fixed on him. "He's a monster. And what about you?"

Ordinary people couldn't possibly defeat that kind of monster.

unless……

Only after he reminded them did everyone belatedly realize what was happening.

The man wielding the whip clearly didn't want to talk much, and simply said, "It's getting dark, let's rest first."

Ma Jun was filled with resentment, but there was nothing he could do.

We were just attacked by monsters, and three of us died instantly. Now we only have sixteen people left.

The group regrouped.

The man who had transformed back from the monster was still curled up in the same spot.

The cloth bag he had been holding in his arms was blown open by the wind, revealing its contents, which were not a baby.

Instead, it was a large clump of jet-black hair.

It looked indescribably eerie.

Old Zhou stared at the clump of hair, then at the huddled man, and leaned close to Su Bai's ear, saying seriously, "He wouldn't be thinking of... getting a hair transplant, would he?"

Su Bai said in a calm tone, "You can go and ask."

Old Zhou immediately shrank back, hugging his arm and whimpering, "You scared me—"

His expression seemed to accuse Su Bai of being a heartless man.

Everyone: "..."

Su Bai: "..."

A grown man whimpering—Su Bai was speechless.

Normally, it would be completely dark by this time.

But today, the sky is slow to darken, as if it's stuck in the twilight, motionless.

This unusual scene made people increasingly uneasy.

As the leader, Ma Jun could only step forward to appease the crowd: "We already have monsters, what's so strange about it not being dark?"

As soon as he spoke, the chaotic discussion immediately quieted down.

Su Bai gazed at the distant horizon where the yellow sand stretched out, his mind still replaying what had just happened.

If a meteorite can mutate a person into a monster, then why did these two people who specialize in hunting monsters stop everyone from exposing the old man in the first place?

Why did you act decisively after the monster was exposed?

And what exactly did the way they looked at everyone mean?

Unable to come up with a solution, Su Bai stopped thinking about it.

Step by step.

As Ma Jun said, the end of the world has come, and monsters have been seen, so even the strangest things are no longer strange.

My stomach rumbled at an inopportune moment.

Su Bai took out a cookie, broke off only half of it, and carefully put the rest back in his pocket.

The biscuits were so dry and hard to swallow that I could only soften them little by little with my saliva and swallow them slowly.

The sandstorm that was so fierce during the day that it was hard to open one's eyes had stopped at some point.

The strong winds that could blow people away on ordinary days are gone just like that.

The endless yellow sand and ruins, the whole world was deathly silent, so quiet that it made one's heart uneasy.

In the midst of the deathly silence, a faint chewing sound drifted over.

It felt like it was right next to my ear.