Chapter 11
The low-level zombies behind Xing Nuo, still trembling in fear under the lingering mental pressure of the incapacitated zombie teacher, remained huddled on the ground.
The two toddlers, shorter than a human’s thigh, ran unimpeded through the ruined city.
Xing Nuo walked steadily, his curls bouncing with each step, revealing his smooth, fair forehead.
His small face was slightly pale, with an unnatural flush on his cheeks.
The little zombie beside him wasn’t as fortunate. He stumbled even while walking, let alone running.
Every few steps, he would trip over his own feet, falling to his knees with a thud.
His knees were scraped and bleeding.
His face was covered in bruises, his chin a mangled mess, smeared with dirt like a pitiful, dusty little dog.
Seeing the little zombie fall again, his clothes torn and tattered, Xing Nuo stopped, panting softly.
“Little zombie…okay?”
Xing Nuo reached out to help the little zombie up, but he wasn’t strong enough. He pulled and pulled, but the little zombie remained on the ground.
Exhausted, Xing Nuo stepped back and sat down.
His small face was streaked with dirt, his curls dusted with grime, and his fluffy rabbit slippers were filthy.
Xing Nuo wiped the sweat from his face and looked up at the ruined buildings in the distance.
The sky was gradually darkening, a gloomy gray, the air thick with the smell of decay and ruin.
Xing Nuo missed his dad and brother again.
The little zombie also got up and sat beside Xing Nuo, tilting his head to look at him.
“Xing Nuo.”
Xing Nuo’s curls swayed in the wind, his small chest rising and falling as he panted. He gave a soft hum in response.
In the next moment, Xing Nuo collapsed without warning.
The little zombie’s vacant, dark eyes narrowed sharply. He held Xing Nuo’s small body, his face a mask of panic.
“Xing Nuo!”
He shook Xing Nuo, whose entire body was burning hot, his stiff face showing a rare expression of anxiety.
Mimicking a human gesture, the little zombie reached out and touched Xing Nuo’s forehead.
The heat radiating from Xing Nuo’s forehead startled him, and he quickly withdrew his hand.
Xing Nuo had developed a high fever.
Having spent a day in the zombie lair, a simple fever was already a testament to Xing Nuo’s resilience.
The little zombie anxiously chewed on his finger, repeatedly touching Xing Nuo’s forehead, his mind racing for a solution.
The moment he sensed his younger brother’s aura disappear, Shen Baizhou, who was copying his homework, abruptly looked up.
He quickly rushed out, only to find an empty living room and the image of a bloody, ruined city on the television screen.
His brother had been taken.
Shen Baizhou’s eyes narrowed into vertical slits like a beast’s. His limbs transformed into slippery, thick tentacles, flailing behind him, smashing against the coffee table and cabinets.
His ferocious instincts surged, but he remembered he was in the human world and restrained himself.
With his incredibly sensitive sense of smell, Shen Baizhou quickly locked onto his brother’s location.
A ruined city where humans and zombies were locked in a standoff.
Shen Baizhou followed without hesitation, making no attempt to conceal his terrifying presence. His arrival made the city’s zombies tremble, cowering in corners.
Every living creature in the city instinctively hid.
The zombie boss patrolling the city, sensing the threatening aura of a monster as powerful as Shen Baizhou, immediately turned to flee.
But before he could take two steps, a venomous tentacle wrapped around him and dragged him before Shen Baizhou.
The zombie dangled upside down, his eyes bulging, barely able to groan.
Shen Baizhou’s true form, larger than a ten-story building, loomed over the insignificant zombie.
The sky above the city was blotted out. Shen Baizhou held the zombie like an ant in his tentacle, looking down at the tiny city.
“Where’s my brother?”
His voice was hoarse and grating, like a siren from the abyss, a few words enough to induce a splitting headache.
Black blood oozed from the small boss zombie. His mouth agape, he stammered:
“I…don’t…know!”
How would he know where his brother was?!
Shen Baizhou didn’t care. His mental power instantly enveloped the city, meticulously searching for his brother’s scent.
In the blink of an eye, he found his target.
Shen Baizhou flung the zombie aside, a tentacle shooting towards his target.
The little zombie, who had been hurriedly dragging Xing Nuo into a building for cover the moment Shen Baizhou arrived, was sent flying by the tentacle.
The little zombie crashed to the ground, the sound of cracking bones echoing.
But he still stood up, running to shield Xing Nuo, baring his teeth at the monstrous tentacle.
In Shen Baizhou’s eyes, this small creature, neither human nor zombie, wasn’t worth his time.
His gaze softened as he focused on Xing Nuo lying on the ground.
He found his brother!
In an instant, the monstrous figure vanished, replaced by the teenage, silver-haired Shen Baizhou.
Afraid of frightening his brother, Shen Baizhou approached in his human form.
Kicking aside the little zombie who had lunged at him, Shen Baizhou didn’t even spare him a glance as he gently picked up the feverish human cub.
Shen Baizhou touched Xing Nuo’s head, feeling the intense heat, and his eyes widened in panic.
His brother was burning up, like a small furnace.
Humans were so fragile; could he withstand such a high fever?
Shen Baizhou anxiously turned and left, carrying his brother back to the castle.
He kicked away the little zombie who was still trying to attack him, then, in a flash, disappeared from the instance world.
The little zombie, his body almost falling apart from the kick, lay on the ground, unable to get up for a long time.
After Shen Baizhou’s departure, the terrifying pressure that had enveloped the instance slowly dissipated.
In an underground human base.
Several players huddled together, cautiously listening to the sounds outside, exchanging glances.
Lowering their voices, they began to discuss:
“What’s going on? Why did the system suddenly announce that this instance has been upgraded?”
“An S+ level instance? I’ve participated in so many instances, but I’ve never dared to challenge one of those!”
A veteran player wiped the sweat from his forehead, his hand trembling. He suddenly realized something and whispered:
“There’s only one possibility. An S+ level boss just came to this instance! That’s why it was suddenly upgraded!”
Instance levels weren’t fixed; they could increase due to unexpected or special circumstances.
But an upgrade to S+ level? This was a first for the veteran player!
A newcomer’s face paled, sweat dripping down his face, his body trembling uncontrollably.
“What kind of monster could exert such terrifying pressure?”
This was just a D-level survival instance; what would a monster of that level be doing here?
The players couldn’t understand, nor did they dare to go outside and investigate.
Fortunately, after the monster’s departure, the low-level zombies in the city trembled in fear, hiding in the shadows.
Even the highest-level zombie had been nearly killed by Shen Baizhou, let alone the others.
Thanks to this, the players safely survived the three days.
As soon as the time was up, they quickly submitted their mission and fled the instance.
In the dimly lit basement of the ancient castle.
A blood-red pool bubbled ominously, and the curly-haired little cub lay in the center.
Changing the color of the pool slightly affected its potency, but with Xing Nuo unconscious with a high fever, there was no need to worry about the frightening crimson color.
Xing Nuo’s small face was pale, his little hands limply floating on the surface of the water, his curls plastered to his forehead.
He lay unconscious in the pool.
The surrounding blood-red liquid seemed to have a life of its own, swirling around Xing Nuo, its vibrant color filling one’s vision, accentuating his pallor.
Shen Wen’s face was dark, his gaze fixed on the bubbling water, his expression sinister.
“I just went out to buy a nightlight, and he ends up like this.”
Shen Baizhou, standing beside him, shook his head, sneaking a glance at the furious Shen Wen, not daring to speak.
Although Shen Baizhou had quickly found his brother, the flow of time in the instance world was different from the real world. By the time he arrived, a whole day had passed there.
“Who dared to drag Xing Nuo into an instance?”
Shen Wen had left the scent of a terrifying monster and various unique monster markings on Xing Nuo.
Although the horror bosses in the infinite flow instances generally kept to themselves and weren’t on good terms with each other,
no monster would be foolish enough to pull a human cub with Shen Wen’s scent into an instance!
Offending Shen Wen, with his vengeful nature, was equivalent to offending Shen Baizhou and Shen Yan as well.
These two top-tier horror monsters he had created were naturally on his side, fiercely protective of their family.
“Tell Shen Yan to investigate this thoroughly. He has many monsters under his command. Find out which idiot did this.”
Shen Baizhou was filled with self-reproach, his silver-white hair falling over his eyes, hiding his remorseful gaze.
Nodding, he immediately turned and left to find Shen Yan.
He also made a trip back to the zombie instance.
Finding the zombies who carried his brother’s scent, Shen Baizhou unleashed his fury, beating them to a pulp.
However, despite searching the entire instance, he couldn’t find the black-haired little zombie he had kicked earlier.
