Chapter 111: Delirious Ramblings
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A dozen or more zombies sat around him.
From their vague outlines, one could still make out traces of what they had once been. Some had been rugged, some delicate, some handsome and radiant, while others had been petite and charming.
But now, they were no longer students at the dawn of their lives. They had become bloodthirsty demons.
A zombie capable of controlling Ellie clearly did not possess the power of an aberrant. Without a doubt, this was a monster with a will of its own.
It stood above the aberrants, on the same level as the Titans and Nightmares.
The monster did not live alone like Button. As a teacher, it was accustomed to having a classroom full of students before it. The pressure of its presence had driven most of the zombies from the school, but a few fortunate ones had been left behind, fixed in place within this classroom.
Curiosity had killed the cat.
The scene Fan Li had witnessed outside the school might well have been the monster preparing its lesson for the zombies.
“In…”
After filling the blackboard with strings of indecipherable writing, the female zombie turned around and uttered a single note.
Whoosh—
A gust of autumn wind blew in through the window. The zombies seated in different places all turned at once, their rotting cheeks and bulging eyes converging upon Fan Li.
Fan Li drew in a sharp breath. His lips moved, then clamped tightly shut.
At that moment, the mouths of all the zombies opened as though controlled by an unseen force. Then they began to utter a babbling sound:
“In…”
“In…”
“In…”
The voices echoed and overlapped, merging into one before burrowing into Fan Li’s ears. His entire body began to tremble as though struck by an electric current.
In that instant, not only did Fan Li’s scalp prickle—his whole body shuddered.
A body stripped of its outer covering appeared before his eyes.
It lay there, impossible to identify by gender. The only certainty was that it was human. Fan Li could not describe the sensation that seized him. His eyes grew sharp, as though they could see through the other person’s flesh and perceive the red fluid flowing within.
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White, muscle-like strands ran through the flesh, making Fan Li’s stomach spasm uncontrollably. It was not disgust that caused it, but hunger. Everything before him seemed to exude an irresistible aroma, provoking an urge to devour it in great mouthfuls.
How could he possibly think such things?
Fan Li suddenly awoke, as though emerging from a nightmare.
His vision cleared once more, but fear still lingered in his pupils.
He knew exactly what had happened. In the span of a few brief seconds, he had become a zombie, viewing the world from a zombie’s perspective.
As his memories returned, the appearance of that body slowly surfaced in his mind. It had not belonged to a stranger. It had possessed his own face.
Perhaps that was his humanity. And the presence standing to one side, surveying the body with the eyes of a bloodthirsty predator, was something akin to a zombie’s bestial nature.
He had come within a hair’s breadth of having his humanity consumed by that beast, of becoming one of the zombies seated in the classroom.
Fan Li felt only an instinctive terror. Even his resistance could not withstand it. Besides controlling movement with invisible threads, the female zombie could also emit a babbling that affected the minds of others.
It was trying to turn him into a zombie—to make him its true student.
“In…”
“In…”
The murmuring beside his ears did not fade. Layer upon layer of voices surged toward Fan Li’s consciousness like a tsunami. The zombies were attempting to use this method to drag him into their depths, to turn him into another member of this classroom of the dead.
“Terrifying!”
Fan Li’s consciousness gradually began to close itself off. While he still possessed a sliver of reason, he opened the only mouth he could move, revealing an inverted crucifix beneath his tongue.
Before entering the school building, Fan Li had already sensed something strange. There were far too few zombies here; it did not fit the nature of zombies to gather in groups.
Moreover, after seeing the classroom crowded with human silhouettes from outside, he could not shake the unease in his heart. That was why he had removed the cross and placed it inside his mouth.
Everything was unfolding toward the situation he feared most. At a time like this, the only one who could save him was the Butcher dwelling within the cross.
Fan Li opened his mouth, caught the tip of his tongue between his teeth, and bit down hard.
Blood spread through his mouth, flowing slowly along his tongue before dripping onto the inverted cross.
The shrill murmuring continued to echo. Fan Li’s consciousness sank deeper and deeper. He was like a corpse lowered into a coffin, drowning beneath layer after layer of seawater. His human memories were being sealed away. Before long, he would forget everything.
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“In…”
“In…”
Boom!
Just as everything was moving toward an inevitable end, a tremendous crash rang out, like a pair of enormous hands reaching down and hauling Fan Li straight out of the coffin.
Fan Li opened his eyes, dazed for several seconds. Then he saw the collapsed classroom door—and, behind it, a heavy broad-bladed sword. His pupils widened abruptly. He realized that his movements were no longer being restrained. He immediately rolled aside and ran toward the back of the classroom.
The Butcher’s appearance disrupted the female zombie’s murmuring. The commotion was too great; several fallen doors struck the female zombie, causing its control to end as well.
“In…”
Sensing that its control had been affected, the female zombie opened its mouth and attempted to intensify the shrill chant.
But before it could scream for more than a few seconds, a broad-shouldered, powerful Butcher covered in scars approached. It raised its wide blade and swung horizontally.
The female zombie dodged, and the blade cleaved the blackboard behind it in two.
Fan Li was not the only one to regain his freedom. The zombies nearby were released as well. Catching the scent of a human, they turned around, and the eyes of more than a dozen zombies seemed to fill with a layer of green light.
Their faces twisted. Without hesitation, they lunged at Fan Li.
During the period of control, Fan Li’s weapon had fallen to the floor. No matter how strong he was, dealing with more than a dozen zombies without a weapon would still be difficult.
Just as Fan Li gritted his teeth and tried to hold them back, a small figure suddenly darted through the gap and stepped in front of him.
Ellie opened her mouth. Her spiral teeth began to turn, and with a series of forceful shoves, she prevented the ordinary zombies from advancing even half a step.
“Break through the door. We’re getting out first!”
The classroom was too cramped, and he had no convenient weapon at hand. Fan Li immediately issued Ellie a new command.
Hearing it, Ellie did not hesitate for even a moment. She charged straight toward the rear door of the classroom.
Bang!
A human-shaped dent appeared in the sturdy rear door. Then it crashed heavily to the ground, revealing an escape route before Fan Li’s eyes.
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