Bengtie: My death fueled their madness.

puff!

The sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh and trachea is especially clear in a quiet environment.

The round-faced man's ecstasy froze on his face, his eyes bulged, and he clutched his neck tightly, but he couldn't stop the blood from gushing out.

Warm blood spurted from between his fingers and splashed onto the rusty door frame.

He stared incredulously at the woman in front of him, his body falling straight backward.

"What are you doing?!"

The tall, thin man was splattered with blood, which terrified him so much that his legs went weak and he staggered backward, screaming as he pointed at Isabella.

Isabella drew her dagger and coldly flicked away the droplets of blood from it.

"Get in here if you want to live! The blood will soon attract all the zombies for miles around!"

The tall, thin man looked at his companion, who was still convulsing on the ground, and then at Isabella, whose demeanor was even more devilish than that of the magician. He froze on the spot.

He dared not gamble on whether Isabella would also stab him in the back.

But when they heard the roars of zombies in the distance, they dared not hesitate for a moment and rushed into the door as if their lives depended on it.

Isabella slammed her hand on the lock button next to the door.

The explosion-proof door closed again, completely isolating the darkness and the smell of blood from the outside.

The passageway fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the heavy breathing of the two men.

Isabella took a handkerchief from her pocket and slowly wiped the bloodstains from the knife handle, her voice devoid of warmth.

"Don't look at me like that. Do you think I want to kill people? Blame the system if you want to."

"I forgot to mention something earlier. In the novel, when the rescue mission was assigned, the military already knew that the protagonist's wife was infected with the virus."

Upon hearing this, the tall, thin man's pupils constricted.

"you mean……"

"That's right, there are actually only two evacuation slots, there have always been only two."

Isabella put away the cleaned dagger.

"If we don't deal with him, the system will still flag us as overloaded once all three of us step onto the evacuation point at the same time."

"Instead of everyone dying together, let him make the final contribution. Use his death to simulate the protagonist dying outside the door. After all, if no one dies outside, it might be judged as the evacuation conditions not being met."

The tall, thin man felt a chill run through him; he felt that the woman before him was a thousand times more terrifying than those mindless monsters outside.

Everything was meticulously planned.

Use the monsters to kill the two strongest ones, and personally deal with the least prepared one.

In the end, they safely evacuated with him, the helpful driver.

so perfect.

But just as Isabella was about to turn around and walk deeper into the passage—

A voice so familiar it sent chills down your spine suddenly broke through the narrow passage, carrying a hint of lazy mockery.

"I admire you."

These four simple words were like a bombshell detonating in this space.

Isabella's body stiffened instantly, as if she had been nailed to the spot by an invisible steel nail.

She could even hear the sound of her cervical spine turning, trembling uncontrollably, as she slowly, bit by bit, turned to the left.

In the shadows on one side of the passage, a familiar-looking man leaned against the wall, arms crossed, smiling at him.

Beside him, the girl named Black Tower remained expressionless, with not a single water stain visible on her clothes.

"you……"

Isabella's lips trembled violently, and she could barely speak.

"How could you...?"

Before she could finish her question, a bone-chilling cold instantly enveloped her.

In the blink of an eye, the ice rapidly spread upwards from her legs, freezing her waist, abdomen, chest, and arms.

Finally, the ice stopped climbing at the neck.

Isabella was frozen into an ice sculpture; apart from her head, she was completely unable to move her body.

The severe cold penetrated her internal organs, making even her breath feel like it was filled with icy shards.

Qi Zhimu straightened up, his smile growing wider. He strode up to Isabella and looked down at her, admiring the extreme terror in her eyes.

"Excellent, truly excellent commentary."

Qi Zhimu even raised his hand and clapped twice lightly.

"I must commend you for your keen understanding of human nature."

He extended a finger and gently tapped the hard ice on Isabella's body.

"To thank you for your dutiful guidance and for sharing everything without reservation, I've decided to give you a big gift."

"How about I reward you with a meal for standing guard outside? You'll definitely love it, won't you?"

Isabella's eyes widened, a deep fear welling up in the depths of her pupils.

...There was a bleeding corpse lying outside the door!

Before long, the outside will be surrounded by hordes of zombies!

"No! Sir! Please—"

Before she could finish speaking, a visible, violent gust of air rose from the ground, lifting the immobile Isabella high into the sky and tossing her out the door like trash.

The ice sculpture crashed heavily to the ground, and through the gap, Isabella could clearly see the scene inside the door.

She screamed in horror, no different from a madwoman.

"Why! Why aren't you dead! That octopus clearly dragged you down! That's a mutated sea monster that even the military couldn't handle! Why!!!"

Qi Zhimu was not angry; his eyes only revealed a hint of pure mockery.

All that remains is cold indifference.

He opened his mouth and, with clear lip movements, slowly uttered a few words to Isabella outside the door.

"Magic, isn't it amazing?"

"What kind of magic?! Let me die knowing why!"

"I just hypnotized you all. You already obediently told me everything you were supposed to do today last night."

Qi Zhimu snapped his fingers lightly.

In an instant, Isabella was enlightened, her mind became clear, and she recalled some fragments of the story.

All the questions were answered.

Last night's question-and-answer session, which lasted less than ten minutes, made her feel as if her heart had fallen into an ice cellar.

Under hypnosis, she revealed a plan in far greater detail than she could have when she was fully conscious.

Zombies began to appear, rushing towards the coordinates that reeked of blood.

They haven't tasted food in a long time.

At that moment, Isabella knew she was doomed. She glared at the Black Tower and uttered her final, venomous curse.

"Black Tower! The reason Azure Star has become like this, and we have become like this, is all because of your great-grandfather!"

"You cannot leave. You are destined to pay the price and die here. The ethereal beings beside you will not trust anyone and will kill you after receiving the promised benefits!"

No need to worry.

Black Tower returned Isabella's look of utter disbelief and finished her off with true damage.

"The benefit I promised him was simple: to be eaten by him. As food, it would be infinitely better than you becoming zombie fodder."