Human Beings

Su Chen couldn't believe it.

The underground supermarket was free of monsters.

He wondered just how it was possible, given the abundance of supplies and the likelihood that other survivors had already searched the area.

"Are you sure?" Su Chen asked the woman, his suspicion evident in his tone.

She nodded. "Yes," . "There is a monster in the underground shopping mall. So other monsters won't come close."

He was puzzled by this statement. "What does that mean?" he asked, feeling a bit dizzy from trying to make sense of the situation.

"I'm not entirely certain of the details," the figure responded. "Initially, us survivors wanted to come to the Shouyun City store because it had everything we needed. We were in the underground supermarket at the time, but later we had to flee outside due to the monster attacks. The monsters attracted more monsters, and the ones entrenched in the underground supermarket emerged. However, those elongated ghosts avoided it, and it did not take the initiative to attack humans. It only remained in the underground supermarket. We were forced by the monsters and didn't dare to stay with it, so we had to go up and hide. Finally, we ended up here. However, the monster's active aggressiveness wasn't strong, and you have weapons in your hands, so I believe it might be safe for us to stay there."

Su Chen was taken aback by the unusual behavior of the monsters that the woman described as being entrenched in the underground supermarket. He had never heard of monsters that didn't attack humans or other monsters, and instead had a fondness for supermarkets.

He and the woman were now in the same boat. He trusted the woman enough not to worry about her deceiving him, so he agreed to follow her plan. He needed to find a safe place quickly, or his condition would only worsen.

The safe passage led directly to the underground area of the Yuncheng store. The negative floor housed small commodity stalls, canteens, and shopping malls, while the second floor below was the underground parking lot. The Yuncheng store's supermarket covered an area of several hundred square meters.

Su Chen and the woman made their way to the negative floor, carrying a set of Iron Man suits they had found along the way.

As they made their way towards the hypermarket, she whispered to him that an elongated ghost approached their area.

It seemed the ghost hadn't spotted them yet, but with the large Iron Man suit they were carrying, they couldn't hide for long.

The woman then suggested, "Maybe we should put down this suit first."

However, Su Chen responded firmly, refusing the suggestion. He pulled out his gun and said, "No way. We move forward. If it does come up, we would have to fight it."

She was impressed by his decisiveness and ferocity in killing the four elongated ghosts earlier.

So she followed him, determined to help him, and they dragged the battle clothes towards the hypermarket.

Suddenly, the elongated ghost at the back spotted Su Chen and the woman. It let out a low howl and rushed towards them, knocking over a shopping cart in the process. Su Chen was about to shoot at it when the ghost suddenly stopped just outside the supermarket. Its cloudy eyes scanned the area before taking a deep look at the supermarket and ceasing its advance.

Su Chen was surprised that the ghost wouldn't enter the supermarket's scope.

He wondered what could be entrenched inside that would deter the monster from entering.

The Cloud City store's power system had long been damaged, leaving the supermarket in darkness. The woman didn't have a flashlight, so they had to rely on the little light that filtered in from outside. They could barely make out the rows of collapsed and stacked shelves and scattered items in front of them.

Su Chen placed the Mark 45 suit on the checkout counter and tightly gripped his magic pistol with one hand while pressing his wound with the other. He then walked confidently towards the interior of the dark supermarket. Despite the lack of light, he had no trouble seeing clearly.

The woman followed nervously, looking around as if she was afraid that the monster who occupied the supermarket would suddenly attack them. However, she was surprised by his courage and determination to explore the unknown territory.

"You've been bleeding…" she said, noticing his wound.

"Follow me," Su Chen said, not wasting any time on small talk. He had no energy to talk nonsense with the woman right now.

Su Chen had never been one to deceive himself, and he needed to personally confirm whether the monsters entrenched in the supermarket were dangerous. He didn't want to die in an accident that could have been avoided with caution.

The woman followed him closely, shining her flashlight to see through the darkness. However, the shelves blocked her view, and she couldn't see far ahead. To ease the tension and fear she felt at that moment, she then said, "My name is Xia Chuwei..." . "I still don't know your name though..."

"Su Chen...hush!" Su Chen suddenly interrupted her, raising a finger to signal her to be quiet.

They both listened carefully, and he heard some kind of chewing coming from deep within the shelves.

He held his pistol tightly in one hand and touched the gravity warhammer on his waist with the other, ready for any potential danger. They stopped talking and waited for any further sounds.

Xia Chuwei observed Su Chen's back and the wound on his waist, admiring his toughness and reliability. She thought he was much stronger than the men in their bow and arrow club, but also noticed his quirkiness.

However, she didn't have time to dwell on it as they reached the source of the sound.

They found a dark figure squatting in the corner, eating the meat taken out of a frozen meat cabinet with blood and gore.

The figure suddenly rushed towards them, revealing a right arm covered in extremely dark black skin. Its right hand was inhumanly sharp and hideous, connected to the shoulder with a huge black wing hanging low on the ground.

The creature blended with the darkness and the faint chewing sound made it seem like a man-eating ghost in a horror story.

The figure emanated an incredibly terrifying and heavy sense of oppression that overwhelmed him, like an unremovable darkness, even worse than the feeling he had experienced with the flesh and blood giant before.

"What!" Xia Chuwei couldn't help but exclaim and stepped back in the face of the slender ghost.

"What kind of monster is this?" Su Chen whispered to himself

In the darkness, the purely dark figure raised its head in response to the sound, revealing the face of a normal human man with clear-minded, black-and-white eyes.

Despite his terrifying appearance, he appeared entirely human.

However, it was only half a monster. Its right body was mutated, presenting a strange posture, while the left side of its body was indistinguishable from an ordinary person. Even the dark wings only grew on one side.

Su Chen, who was about to fire his weapon, hesitated when he saw the slender ghost. He recalled Qiao Zheng and the metal incarnation he had met before and tentatively asked, "Are you... a gifted person?"

"What is a gifted person?" The figure responded blankly, surprised by the question. "Aren't you afraid of me?" it asked.

"You are human, so... I'm not afraid of you," Su Chen replied.

Xia Chuwei looked at the conversation in surprise and considered leaving. She wondered what the difference was between this man and a monster since his body looked like those of monsters.

The half-human and half-monster figure looked at him, trying to discern whether his words were true or false. It then raised the smelly frozen beef in its hand, mocking itself, "I'm eating this kind of thing. Why do you say I am human?"

"I believe you are human because of your eyes. Monsters do not communicate with me like this, and I have observed them up close. Although they possess a certain degree of wisdom, they behave more like beasts and their thinking tends to be irrational. Your clear eyes indicate rationality." Su Chen explained to the figure.

He then put down his pistol and continued, "Furthermore, I have encountered people with special abilities before, and I believe you are also one of them. The military refers to individuals like you as gifted persons."

The figure was taken aback by his explanation and mocked, "Ching Ming... Reason... I have observed them up close... You are also a strange one... So that's it... a talented person... I am a monster, and I deserve to be called talented?"

"My name is Su Chen, and this is Xia Chuwei. We were told that monsters do not enter the supermarket where you are, so we came here to seek refuge."

"Yes, you can do that if you may... But I must warn you not to stay here for too long. It's not safe to be around me." He then stood up from the darkness, taking a step back as his depressed body contorted. His face was no longer visible in the dark shadows behind him.

Su Chen, having experienced social ostracism, quickly noticed the monster's decadence and low self-esteem beneath its astonishing appearance.

The figure's depression mirrored the darkness surrounding him.

After a moment of silence, Su Chen asked, "What is your name?"

The monster in the shadows was taken aback, not expecting to be asked a question, but it soon regained its composure. Two dull syllables echoed through the thick darkness.

"Lin Mo."