Outside Linghui Academy, near the edge of the broken perimeter wall, three elite figures, like leopards melting into shadows, silently weaved through the ruins.
The leading ‘Razor’ team captain, codenamed ‘Scalpel’, was covered head-to-toe in matte black urban combat armor. His mask’s visor scanned the mottled teaching building ahead, its outline visible in the dim morning light.
The coordinates on his tactical computer screen were perfectly clear. He raised his right hand, making a standard halt gesture. The seven-man squad instantly fanned out into a defensive semicircle, taking cover behind advantageous positions, their movements as fluid as machinery.
Through the faint static in his earpiece, the ‘Hawkeye’ behind him gave a real-time report: “Razor, Hummingbird reports: abnormal stress readings detected on the external structure of the large pipe shaft on the west side of the fourth floor.
Falcon reports: abnormal peak in life signal readings at the entrance of the civil defense project at the base of the main teaching building’s south external wall. Non-ghoul spectrum signature! Repeat, non-ghoul spectrum!”
A cold curve formed at the corner of Scalpel’s mouth beneath his mask. “Received. Razor One is outside the engagement point. Target is the west classroom on the third floor of the senior high building. Survivor signal confirmed stable. Maintain surveillance. Scalpel preparing to breach. Over.”
His finger slid gently across the cold safety catch of his assault rifle. Non-ghoul… abnormal life readings… interesting.
“Eagle, clear ahead?” His low voice was transmitted directly through the internal comms to the helmet of a heavily armored soldier behind him, as burly as an upright black bear.
The soldier, codenamed ‘Eagle’, nodded slowly. The multi-spectral sensor on his fully enclosed helmet subtly shifted, scanning the open area leading to the main entrance of the teaching building—only collapsed stones and the remains of two headshotted ghouls. The muzzle of his shoulder-mounted shotgun, his primary weapon, was as deep as a black hole.
He made a ‘safe’ gesture.
Another figure, like a ghost, half-crouched atop a pile of rubble. This was ‘Peregrine’, the sniper, whose SR25 sniper rifle, covered in camouflage netting, was aimed at a window on the fourth floor of the main teaching building, blocked by thick wooden boards and debris. The muzzle was perfectly still.
In the magnified image of his night vision goggles, there was only dead silence and clutter.
“Clear,” Peregrine’s voice was as cold as a synthesized electronic tone.
Scalpel raised his wrist, glancing at the countdown screen glowing faintly green. Eighteen minutes and three seconds.
He made a standard cross-cover advance gesture, simultaneously pressing a small, cigarette-pack-sized silver metal canister on his waist. Blue light flowed across the canister’s surface.
“Razor! Razor One! Begin cutting!” The cold command echoed through the encrypted channel.
At the forefront, ‘Blade’, the assault soldier wielding a hydraulic battering ram, took a deep breath. The heavy ram smashed violently against the classroom door, covered in claw marks and dried blood!
Inside the Senior High Class 3-3 classroom, everyone heard the clear, heart-wrenching sound of the hydraulic device compressing! It felt as if it were right beside their ears!
“They… they’re breaking down the door! In the hallway outside!” Li Mingyu’s voice was filled with disbelieving ecstasy! The light of his Buli (Brute Force) ability uncontrollably surged across his body!
“It’s reinforcements! It’s them!” The ecstatic shouts completely overwhelmed their fear! The dozen or so remaining students were like dying fish seeing water, struggling to stand up and greet them!
Even the heavily wounded Wang Lei tightly gripped his military dagger! The light of hope had never been so blinding! Only a short dozen minutes remained! No, perhaps only a few minutes! Once that door was breached, outside would be the army, representing their path to survival!
Li Zhenguo’s taut nerves finally relaxed into a moment of ecstatic relief. He even felt the wound on his shoulder throb with joyful anticipation!
But the instincts forged by twenty years of military service immediately reasserted themselves, overriding his emotions! He suddenly raised his blood-stained arm and roared, “Suppressive fire! Target any ghouls that might be at close range outside the door! Open a path for the incoming unit…!”
The last word, “path,” was replaced by an extremely brief, almost instantly stifled gasp that erupted from deep within his throat!
“Brother?!” Li Mingyu was right beside him, keenly catching the abnormality in that sound. His ecstatic smile froze on his face. He suddenly followed Li Zhenguo’s abruptly frozen, utterly horrified gaze!
It wasn’t just Li Zhenguo! Zhou Xiaoyu! Zhao Hai! All the battle-hardened soldiers froze almost simultaneously! Their gazes were fixed on the deep darkness outside the teaching building, which was gradually being diluted by the dawn!
An indescribable, bone-chilling sense of dread, like extreme cold from the abyss, instantly froze the ecstasy that had just surged within everyone!
They saw it, and they heard it.
“Squeak squeak squeak squeak squeak—!!!”
Like a bursting dam! Like an erupting volcano!
A terrifying sound wave, skull-splitting and soul-shaking, mixed with countless sharp shrieks, swept upwards from deep within the teaching building’s lower levels, through ventilation ducts, stairwells, and even cracks in the walls!
That wasn’t the roar of ghouls! That was the high-pitched shriek of thousands upon thousands of bloodthirsty beasts, simultaneously emitting sounds filled with hunger and madness!
“Rats! It’s the rat swarm!” Wu Tao let out a desperate shriek!
As if to confirm his fear, deep in the corridor, a louvered vent blocked by debris suddenly burst inwards! Countless dark gray, lightning-fast shadows, like gushing black oil, poured out madly!
Each one was the size of a house cat! Their bodies were covered in glossy, short, grey-black fur, like metallic scales!
Their scarlet eyes gleamed with madness in the dim light!
Their limbs were short but unusually thick, ending in razor-sharp hooked claws that shimmered with a faint blue cold light!
The most terrifying thing was their mouths! Split open to their earlobes, revealing two rows of interlocking, saw-like, pale fangs, covered in viscous saliva!
Scale-claw Rats! Thousands upon thousands! Swarming out!
They didn’t rush towards the temporary fortress of Senior High Class 3-3! Instead, like sharks sensing a more tempting scent of blood, they ignored the scattered ghouls in the corridor and, with terrifying speed, converged into viscous black torrents, surging madly towards all the exits of the teaching building!
Their target was directly—the Razor team approaching outside!
“No!!” Li Zhenguo’s eyes were bloodshot! He lunged towards a crack in the window, roaring, trying to warn them through his communicator: “Razor! Razor! This is Nightingale! Retreat immediately! Rat swarm! The Scale-claw Rat swarm is out! Repeat! Retreat immediately…!”
Too late!
It was too late!
Just as the seven elite soldiers of the Razor team, like seven poisoned black daggers, silently infiltrated the edge of the relatively open abandoned flower garden in front of the main teaching building’s entrance, less than fifty meters in a straight line from the Senior High Class 3-3 classroom!
All the broken windows, blasted doorways, and even cracks in the walls on the ground floor of the teaching building were like floodgates of hell opening!
An endless, dark gray torrent of Scale-claw Rats, accompanied by suffocating “squeak” shrieks and a strong, foul stench, instantly engulfed the area like a black tide of death!
Fast! Too fast! The Razor team’s reaction was undeniably swift!
“Flashbang!” The captain, codenamed ‘Scalpel’, roared the moment the rat swarm poured out!
The cigarette-pack-sized silver metal canister on his waist suddenly erupted with a blindingly brilliant, scorching white light! Like a miniature sun exploding in the pre-dawn darkness!
Bright light! Rat swarms are afraid of light!
The Scale-claw Rats at the very front of the swarm, stimulated by this sudden intense light, let out painful, sharp shrieks! Their movements abruptly stalled! Their scarlet eyes instantly clamped shut! Their charging momentum slowed!
“Fire! Free fire!” Scalpel roared! The Razor team members instantly spread out, their assault rifles spitting deadly tongues of flame! Bullets swept towards the rat swarm like a Metal Storm!
Thump thump thump thump!
Bullets struck the scale-covered bodies of the Scale-claw Rats, making dull impacts! Scales shattered! Black blood splattered! Dozens of the giant rats at the very front were instantly riddled with holes!
But… it was useless!
Numbers! Absolute numerical superiority!
The effect of the flashbang lasted less than three seconds! The light rapidly dimmed! And those rats, temporarily delayed by the strong light, became even more ferocious after adapting to the change in illumination! They trampled over the bodies of their comrades, ignoring the hail of bullets, and instantly covered the firing positions the Razor team had just established, like a black carpet of death!
“Ahh—!” A team member’s scream was abruptly cut short! A Scale-claw Rat, like lightning, shot up his calf, its sharp claws instantly tearing through his combat uniform and flesh, embedding deeply into his shin bone! Its pale fangs savagely bit towards his throat! He struggled desperately, his rifle wildly spraying bullets, knocking away a few attacking giant rats, but more of the swarm instantly engulfed him! In the rolling black tide, only a desperate outstretched arm was seen, instantly torn to bloody shreds by countless sharp claws!
“Anvil! Suppressive fire!” Scalpel roared! The heavy weapons specialist, codenamed ‘Anvil’, roared, raising his shoulder-mounted grenade launcher!
Boom!!!
High-explosive grenades detonated within the rat swarm! Flames shot skyward! Blood and gore splattered everywhere! Instantly clearing a large area!
But before the smoke of the explosion could dissipate, even more Scale-claw Rats, like an endless black tide, instantly filled the void! They even trampled over the charred bodies of their comrades, rushing forward even faster!
“Captain! Too many! Retreat! Retreat now!” The sniper, codenamed ‘Peregrine’, shrieked, while accurately headshotting giant rats that tried to pounce on his teammates with precise single shots!
Retreat? Retreat where?
From all directions! It was a surging black tide of rats! They climbed down walls! They emerged from sewer openings! They poured out from behind collapsed statues! Like a black swamp of death, they instantly engulfed all possible retreat routes for the Razor team!
“Back to back! Circular defense!” Scalpel’s voice held a hint of desperate hoarseness! He drew his tactical knife, fiercely slashing at a giant rat that lunged at his face! Foul-smelling black blood splattered across his face!
The remaining six members of the Razor team instantly contracted, forming a tight defensive circle back-to-back! Assault rifles, pistols, daggers, even rifle butts! All weapons were wildly swung, fired, and slashed! The whistling of bullets, the clash of metal, the crunch of bones, the shrieks of the rat swarm, the roars and screams of the team members… intertwined into a desperate symphony of death!
A Scale-claw Rat, its abdomen pierced by a bullet, dragged its spilling intestines and still madly lunged at a team member’s ankle! He kicked it away with a powerful blow!
Another one leaped onto his shoulder from the side, its sharp claws reaching for his eyes! He smashed its head with his rifle butt! But a third, a fourth… instantly pounced on his back! Sharp claws ripped through his bulletproof vest! Pale fangs savagely bit at his neck!
“Ugh ahh—!” The scream was drowned out by the shrieks of the rat swarm!
A gap was instantly torn in the defensive circle!
The black tide of death surged in!
“No—!!” Scalpel watched helplessly as a team member was dragged down by the rat swarm, instantly engulfed by the black tide! He roared, his assault rifle wildly spraying bullets, trying to rescue him, but even more rats, like maggots clinging to bone, swarmed him!
Despair! Absolute despair!
Numbers! Endless numbers! Fearless of death! Madly bloodthirsty!
The brief suppression of the flashbangs, the Metal Storm of bullets, the explosive impact of grenades… in the face of absolute numbers, they were like pebbles thrown into the ocean, merely stirring up a few insignificant ripples before being completely swallowed by the boundless darkness!
In the comms channel, the Razor team members’ cries for help, roars, and screams… like snapped strings, disappeared one after another! Only the hiss of static remained, and… that skull-splitting, unceasing “squeak” shriek like a tide, and the teeth-grinding gnawing sounds!
Inside the Senior High Class 3-3 classroom, silence was like an ice-sealed tomb.
Li Zhenguo stood frozen before the crack in the window, his communicator slipping from his powerless hand and falling to the ground with a dull thud. He stared fixedly at the area completely engulfed by the black rat tide, his eyes bloodshot! His teeth gnashed, and blood dripped from the corner of his mouth down his chin, but he was oblivious.
Li Mingyu, as if all his strength had been drained, slumped against the cold wall, his steel rod clattering to the ground.
He watched the rolling black tide of death, watched the occasional glimpse of fragments of human combat uniforms flashing in the gaps of the rat swarm… immense pain and despair, like a tsunami, completely overwhelmed him. A hoarse sound, like an old bellows, emerged from his throat, but he couldn’t utter a single word.
Zhao Xiaowen sat slumped on the ground. On her tactical terminal screen, the life signals representing the seven members of the Razor team, like candles blown out, extinguished one by one, turning into glaring red X’s.
Seven red X’s, like seven red-hot branding irons, seared deeply into her retina, branded into the depths of her soul.
“Razor team… total annihilation signal…” Her voice was like a dream, hollow as if her soul had been drained.
Hope… was completely crushed. The path to survival… was completely swallowed by the black tide of death.
Just then.
That cold, pale hand gently pressed onto Li Zhenguo’s violently trembling hand again.
Ling Chen had opened his eyes at some point. He calmly looked at the black rat swarm that had swallowed the Razor team, then slowly turned towards the increasingly clear pale morning light on the horizon outside the window.
Li Zhenguo looked at Ling Chen, trying to find something strange about this young man, but Ling Chen only gave a bitter smile and said, “Sigh, instead of mourning them, let’s think about where we’re going to get supplies and food today.”