Still hoarding supplies in the apocalypse? I'll just go on a killing spree and looting!

The four people quickly emerged from the bushes and rushed into the laboratory building in an instant.

The first floor was quiet and seemed safe.

The absence of sounds from those strange beasts put the four of them at ease.

Compared to the beasts, humans are indeed much easier to deal with.

Ahui was the first to walk up to the corner on the second floor.

He carried the shotgun and moved forward stealthily.

Everything seemed so normal.

Ahui made a gesture to cover me and continued forward.

Soon, Ahui noticed the wooden board hanging on the stair railing and his gaze fell on the chalk writing on it.

"There are people on the fourth floor. Don't come up. We'll shoot." He read it aloud, then chuckled and gestured with his chin to his companion behind him. "Did you hear that? They have guns. I'm so scared."

Alin, holding a hunting rifle, came closer and squinted at the words on the wooden board.

Then I looked at the smaller line of text below—"We have food. We can share it. But don't come up."

"What's this called? A slap followed by a treat?"

Alin tapped the edge of the wooden board with the barrel of his gun, chalk dust falling in a flurry. "First he said he'd shoot, then he said there was food to share. He's schizophrenic."

Old Ma was the last one to come up.

He didn't laugh; he just stared at the two lines of text for a while.

Then he reached out and touched the chalk dust on the wooden board, rubbing his fingers together.

My fingers felt sticky and wet, not dry at all.

This wooden board has been hanging here for some time, probably since the period of the gray fog.

"The handwriting suggests two different people. The first was a threat, the second was an attempt to make amends." He brushed the chalk dust off his fingers, his tone as indifferent as if he were doing something that had nothing to do with him.

"The one making threats is a paper tiger. If they really had guns and bullets, they wouldn't have written it on a board; they'd definitely be plotting against us. The one showing goodwill is a spineless coward, afraid of dying, trying to buy peace with food."

He paused, then curled his lip slightly. "Neither type of person is worth wasting bullets on."

Sister Zhou came up from behind.

She glanced at the words on the wooden board, neither laughing nor analyzing them like Old Ma.

She simply pulled the wooden board off the handrail and turned it over to look at the back.

The back is blank.

She casually tossed the plank on the ground and stepped on it, leaving a footprint on the plank, right on the words "We will shoot".

"The people who wrote these things are no longer on this floor. If they were still here, they wouldn't leave messages, they would shoot. Leaving messages shows they wanted to stop everyone coming up this way, saving bullets and trouble. Do these people even deserve to live in the wasteland?"

She looked up and glanced at the stairwell on the fourth floor.

The place was filled with all sorts of clutter, making it not an easy place to get through.

Wang Tao peeked out from the stairwell and looked down.

Below, tables and chairs were haphazardly stacked, blocking the way upstairs. Of course, it was impossible to see the four people walking up; only blurry shadows could be seen.

Although they verbally criticized the people upstairs for being cowardly and weak, they were not idiots.

Perhaps the people still inside the building are easy to deal with.

But... strange beasts are not so easy to deal with; they are very dangerous.

Wang Tao withdrew his gaze. Although he could not see the four people who had entered very clearly, he could hear their indistinct conversation.

There was also the faint crunching sound of boots stepping on broken glass.

The four of them went up to the third floor, because only on the third floor were there broken glass pieces—flasks and measuring cups that had slid out and broken when they threw tables to block the way.

The footsteps had stopped; they seemed to be listening to what was happening upstairs.

Wang Tao took a deep breath and retreated to the fourth-floor stairwell.

He was clutching a mop handle that had been taken from the lab, with a strip of cloth torn from his lab coat wrapped around the end of the handle.

He squatted down, extended the mop handle to the outside of the stair railing, and tapped it twice forcefully.

The metal handrail emitted a dull echo.

Wang Tao rhythmically tapped the handrail with a mop handle, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly, simulating the sound of several people running on the stairs.

At the corner on the second floor, Ahui raised his hand, signaling the people behind him to stop.

He listened intently for a few seconds. "Upstairs. Fourth floor. More than one person. Running around."

Sister Zhou quickly peeked up the stairs and then quickly looked back. Although it was just a fleeting glance, Sister Zhou was certain that she hadn't noticed anything.

But the knocking continued, mixed with a faint dragging sound.

That was Wang Tao using his other hand to drag a broken wooden plank that had been placed at the bottom of the stairs.

"They're moving things. They might be reinforcing the stairwell on the fourth floor," Ah Lin said in a low voice, offering his assessment.

The other three agreed with Ah Lin, since they knew from outside the building that these people were planning to spend the night there.

Strengthening defensive fortifications is a logical step.

Wang Tao upstairs continued knocking, while observing the changes in the shadows cast on the ground below.

He glanced back at the other side of the corridor, where Qin Ying was squatting in the middle of the fourth-floor corridor, with two upside-down mineral water bottles in front of her.

The water in the bottle swayed slightly with the rhythm of Wang Tao tapping the armrest, but it wasn't very noticeable.

Wang Tao increased the frequency of his tapping as they began to move again.

He switched the mop handle to his left hand, grabbed a handful of pebbles that he had placed at his feet with his right hand, and threw them into the stairwell.

Pebbles hit the metal handrail, making a crackling sound, like a group of people kicking over something in a panic.

Charlene crouched in front of the window.

She was holding a red...like underwear-like thing in her hand, and she stuck her hand out of the window.

Hearing the change in the frequency of Wang Tao's tapping on the armrest, she began to shake the red bra in her hand.

This was the signal that Lin You had agreed upon beforehand: the four people had taken the bait.

Because Lin You was no longer in the room, but outside the laboratory building.

Wang Tao stopped.

He placed the mop handle at his feet and quietly retreated to the depths of the corridor, standing next to Qin Ying.

Qin Ying remained in the same position, her fingers lightly tapping in the air.

The frequency is exactly the same as the ripples created in a mineral water bottle.

He was trying to determine whether the ripples were caused by the monster's movements.

In the stairwell, the sound of four people's footsteps rang out hurriedly.

They passed the third-floor stairwell on the other side.

They did not spot the slowly changing gray-white outline deep in the corridor, nor did they hear the faint gurgling sound of the throat sac inflating.

The hunting frogs, however, sensed their presence.

Its right eye turned toward the stairwell, and its throat sac began to inflate for the first time, very slowly—it was judging the distance and speed of its prey.

Mu Xue crouched on the other side of the third floor, her back against the corridor wall, a shotgun resting on her shoulder.

On the ground in front of her lay an upside-down water bottle that Qin Ying had placed there earlier. The water in the bottle closest to the stairwell was sloshing violently, ripples spreading out in concentric circles.

The footsteps were approaching.

The original plan was for Mu Xue to fire a shot to attract the chameleon frogs, but she didn't.

Lin You had told her to fire the gun to "lure the hunting frogs out." But now it seemed she didn't need to do it herself, because she was watching the water in the bottle and saw a change in its surface.

The ripples grew larger and larger, and the four of them had reached the corner on the other side of the third floor.

The hunting frog's throat pouch is filled with air.

Ah Hui, holding a shotgun, saw a dark figure flash by across the stairs.