Chapter 22: The second wave of virus attack

19 June, Night, after 18:00

“Where is the food? Where is the free food that you’ve promised us?”

Feng Zhen Gang lifted his hand and glanced at his watch- 18:03. He brought up the loudspeaker and shouted, “Everyone, please calm down! The food is on the way. It will arrive fifteen minutes later!”

This was the timing that the first batch of backup and sleeping gas would arrive.

“Why must we wait? We are about to be starved to death!”

“Open the supermarket! Let us in!”

“Yeah, open the supermarket and bring out the leftover stock!”

“Bring out the food from the supermarket and let us eat!”

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Mlyx zlyela Hbydt alvalyvle nzspla vsoyaep Wydt Hbld Qydt, “Mbl pkvwyvksd zssjp cye.”

“Ebyv jkde sq olyrsdp es ol byhl aktbv dso?”

“El eked’v lmrlnv vbkp pkvwyvksd yv yzz yde vbswtbv vbyv ol sdzu dllele vs nyrvwal y qlo bwdtau tbspvp.”

“Pked’v cakdt yduvbkdt?”

“Xdzu y pkdtzl nyavsd sq vlya typ, cwv R vbkdj vbl pkvwyvksd kpd’v pwkvyczl qsa kv. Mblal yal oyu vss xydu sq vblx yde ol yal nwaaldvzu pbsavbydele. Rq ol wple wr vbl vlya typ, vbld ol oswze cl kd hlau cye pbyrl.”

“Nlv wp bsze sd qsa y zkvvzl obkzl zsdtla, vbl cynjwr kp yzalyeu sd kvp oyu yde okzz cl yaakhkdt kd 15 xkdwvlp. Rq vbl pkvwyvksd vwadp alyzzu cye yde ol yald’v yczl vs bsze sd, fwpv vbaso vbl vlya typ sd xu nsxxyde.”

“Gzaktbv, cwv alxlxcla, ol sdzu byhl byzhl y nyavsd sq vlya typ zlqv. R pryale byzq sq kv vs swa nszzlytwlp yv Ylk Psw pwrlaxyajlv, yde vbl pju kp tlvvkdt eyaj pssd.”

Wydt Hbld Qydt dseele kd ynjdsozletlxldv.

Today is a bad day, he thought.

He had plans today even. The girl that he went on a date thrice with and had good feelings had agreed to meet up with him to celebrate her birthday. He had already planned to bring her to a romantic buffet restaurant for a nice dinner. After that, he would ask if he was interested in spending the night with him, but looking at the situation right now, his plan would only remain as plans.

Who said that working in a quarantine zone isn’t dangerous at all, and the situation is well under control??

The moment he goes back, he would look for that person in charge of scoping and surveying the situation. He would report it, have a good chat with him, and if needed, implement some remedial training so that he would be more serious about the job.

Back at that side, when Xue Li Hong and Ding Qiao saw Xiao Mo coming back safely, the both of them heaved a sigh of relief.

The kid signaled to Xiao Mo with his eyes, “All settled?”

Xiao Mo nodded his head helplessly. He double-checked again with the system, “The Mother of Gluttony has been recycled, so the people that had been sucking blood will recover right?”

“Yes, but you will have to wait till 18:15 for it to lose effect.”

Xiao Mo frowned, “What will happen at 18:15?”

“Non-mission related.”

“You can shut up now.” Xiao Mo glanced at his watch- 18:10. HE wanted to go home.

Xue Li Hong suddenly opened the car window.

“What happened? Don’t open the window, be careful of those insane people.” Xiao Mo kept looking for an opportunity to turn towards his shop, but the crowd in front of the square kept getting bigger and bigger. The square was soon unable to hold them and a lot of people were standing on the road.

He had almost broken through the crowd, but was soon being blocked again by a new crowd. This made him feel that as long as they were alive, all the living person around the neighborhood were crowded right here right now. 

Luckily, he had changed lanes and was at the leftmost lane, thus successfully proceeding fifty meters.

Right now, his position was right in front of the supermarket’s square.

“The wind.” Xue Li Hong stretched his hand out of the window.

“Wind? What’s wrong with the wind?” Xiao Mo turned his head and asked, puzzled.

Xue Li Hong opened the door and swiftly jumped out of the car, before lifting his head to look up towards the sky.

Xiao Mo was worried for the child, so he hurriedly got out of the car too.

“What are you both looking at?” Ding Qiao didn’t stayed on the car, but he opened the window and looked up towards the sky too.

Xiao Mo walked towards the kid and saw that the he was extremely focused, so he also turned to look upwards towards the sky.

The sky was coated with a very thin layer of golden glitter.

It was only a very thin layer; if one did not look carefully, they would not notice it.

“Normally, summers would have longer days and the sun would only set at around 19:30. The sky shouldn’t be this color right now, so what exactly is that?” Xiao Mo asked.

“I don’t know, but it definitely isn’t the reflection from the sun.” the kid shook his head and dug out a ball with a little rod from his backpack.

“What is that?”

“An air element capturing and analysis apparatus.”

“It looks like a toy.”

“But it’s function is powerful.” The kid stressed.

Xiao Mo laughed and continued looking at the sky, “The color of the sky seemed to turn darker. Also, is that a plane?”

“Where? The plane has also been coated with a golden dusting. It looks pretty.” The kid took a glance before looking down and continue to fiddle with his device. He proceeded to press some buttons and the ball immediately started to inflate.

“Yes, it looks pretty, but it’s abnormal. Also, what is this smell, it smells so sweet!” Xiao Mo glanced at the time- 18:15. What was going to happen?

Fang Zhen Gang also smelled something. He asked Cheng Bing, who was next to him, “Did you smell something sweet?”

“Yes, there is, but it’s not too obvious. Leader Fang, you have a good sense of smell.”

“Fang Zhen Gang glanced at his watch- 18:16.

“The backup will arrive soon; we only need to hold on for a little while longer.”

 Fang Zhen Gang glanced at the sky again. It looked a little too bright and colorful.

Is this a kind of weather phenomenon?

“Smells so good!”

“What is this smell?”

“It smells so sweet, almost like bread. No, like something else- I’m so hungry!!”

“Food! Where is the food that was promised?”

“That group of policemen are bluffing us! They are not giving us free food! Let’s not wait anymore, the food is inside the supermarket behind them. Let’s charge in, they won’t dare to hurt us!”

“Charge! Rather than death from hunger, we rather fight our way!”

“Give us food!”

“Let us eat!”

The sweet smell of temptation that permeated triggered the group of hungry people immediately into insanity. They started losing control and mindlessly charged towards the police.

The police that lined together holding their shields were forced to retreat step after step.

Team Leader Zhang turned back and shouted, “Inspector Zhang, we are unable to hold on anymore!”

Fang Zheng Gang bit his lips. Throwing tear gas was the last resort, and with such a dense crowd, once it got thrown out, it would surely cause a stampede.

Hold on!

I must hold on!

The police had already retreated right to the entrance of the supermarket. There was no more space left for retreat.

“Inspector Fang!”

“Throw, wait, no! I see the fleet! They’re coming!”

Xiao Mo also saw the fleet.

The fleet approached nearer and nearer.

The group of hungry ghosts in front of the square suddenly halted.

Fang Zhen Gang took the opportunity to speak, “Fresh and free food is on the way! Please wait for a moment. Please stay—”

The loudspeaker produced a weird screeching sound before it dropped on the floor.

Xiao Mo saw the large fleet of vehicles moving close and his heart felt relief. Back up was finally here and the situation would soon be under control.

Something is wrong!

The first truck was moving way too fast.

Why was it so fast? It was about to crash into the crowd!

What is happening??

Xiao Mo hurriedly grabbed the kid and hauled him to the backseat before swiftly jumping in the car and starting the engine. He forced the car towards the left and honked hard. “Ding Qiao, stop looking and put your head back in! Close the window, we are leaving this place!”

Ding Qiao did not respond. His head hanged limply out of the window.

“Ding Qiao??”

Xiao Mo jammed down on the brakes.

From both the front and side windows, people who were either talking or walking, as if puppets with strings cut, suddenly dropped and fell onto the floor.

Right in front of his car, a group of people collapsed onto the ground.

Xue Li Hong was more prepared this time and prevented himself from banging his head onto the back of Xiao Mo’s seat.

Xiao Mo stopped the car and pulled the brake. He reached out behind to push at Ding Qiao.

“Ding Qiao? Hey!”

There was no response from Ding Qiao.

Xiao Mo leaned his body towards the back seat and dragged Ding Qiao’s head from the window before shifting him back to the car seat.

Ding Qiao eyes were tightly shut, and he looked unconscious.

Xiao Mo called his name and slapped his cheek a few times to no avail.

A car charged forward from the left side of their car, and the charging car crashed into a truck head on.

“Old Xiao! Look in front!” Xue Li Hong pointed to the window and shouted.

Xiao Mo turned his head and glanced to the front.

Crash! Bang!

The truck plunged into a flower bed at the side of the road and flipped over, before sliding to somewhere far away.

The group of hungry ghosts gathered at the square scattered quickly.

The car that crashed head on with the truck flew out of the road, somersaulted a few times before smashing straight onto the drain next to the road.

Crash!

Xiao Mo witnessed a row of trucks lost control and slam onto each other. Some of them crashed into the tress, while some ran through the flower bed dividing the lanes, while some just ran straight through the square. There were even some then dived straight into the river.

And a truck was racing towards them!

Xiao Mo widened his eyes. He didn’t have any time to start the engine or jump out of the car to escape. He did not have any time to do anything!

Don’t tell me my life is going to end right here?

“System! What is happening??” Xiao Mo shouted in his mind.

The system did not answer him. Its job was to train the recycler, not to solve any emerging problems of the recycler.

At that instant, Xue Li Hong whipped out a device from his backpack. He pointed it at the truck and pressed a button.

Immediately!

A blindingly white ray emitted from the car and hit the truck that was about to crash into them.

The truck flew away!!

Xiao Mo’s mouth was gaping so wide, that if one shoved a goose egg, it would fit in snuggly.

Xue Li Hong wiped his forehead that had no sweat while gripping the device in his hands tightly.

After a few explosions, the world soon became quiet.

No, that was psychological effect.

At the square, a huge part of the crowd was down and had fainted, but there were still plenty of people that were still awake. There was collective shock at first, before screaming and desperate running simultaneously burst out. They hurriedly escaped from the square at first, but nevertheless, still slowly gathered back.

Xiao Mo pushed open the door.

Along side the road, there were several people who had fainted.

Looking behind, it was a bloody scene on the road.

There were a few cars that collided together from afar, there were also those cars that went out of control and squashed the pedestrians. The worst though, were the people walking halfway and fainting, they had been squashed into a bloody flattened pile on the road without even a chance to scream.

Ning Gu Avenue and Lian Gou Le Square had transformed to hell in an instant.

Xiao Mo took two steps forward before noticing a human head rolling on the floor in front of him. It was a head that was squashed by a tired and detached from its body before flying out.

The face of the person was full of blood. From his short hair, one could identify it as a head of a male.

Xiao Mo forced himself not to vomit before avoiding the human head and trudging on.

“What the hell is happening, system? System?? Damn it, answer me!! The Mother of Gluttony has been recycled, why is this still happening?”

The system remained silent.

Xiao Mo was anxious and furious; his both eyes bloody red.