My physics masters couldn't possibly be grand mages.

Three kilometers outside the Tieshan base.

Su Ming raised his head and glanced at the sky.

In the leaden-gray clouds, a faint dark red dot flashed by, like a shooting star, or something else entirely.

Before he could think it through, the monster's roar was already right next to him.

"I have seven rounds left in my magazine."

Su Ming leaned against the wall of the narrow alley, his face pale. He carefully observed the monsters walking on the street, using the trash cans as cover.

The fog is thicker than it was half an hour ago.

There are still four people huddled in this alley.

Old Zhou was lying at the very back, his right foot bitten off by something.

The tourniquet was tied below the knee, and dark red blood had already soaked through half of the trouser leg.

His lips were pale, his eyes were sunken, and his chest was rising and falling weakly; he was on the verge of death.

Zhao Lina squatted down next to him, one hand pressing on the tourniquet, the other hand trembling.

She was a doctor, but even a doctor couldn't possibly heal such an injury without any medical assistance.

Lin Guodong leaned against the wall on the other side, holding a hunting bow in his arms. He was a wilderness survival enthusiast and considered one of the most experienced in the group.

But now his face only showed a kind of ashen look, a mixture of exhaustion and despair.

The youngest one is named Fangtang, he is 21 years old, and was a junior in college three months ago.

"They just left like that!?" Fang Tang's voice was muffled, filled with suppressed anger.

"These are the rules," Su Ming's voice was hoarse. "If you're useful, we'll take you along; if you're useless, we'll abandon you. In this world, just living is a luxury. And this luxury comes at a price."

Last night, the convoy encountered a large horde of monsters while passing through this area.

In the chaos, Lao Zhou was dragged off the car. Su Ming, along with Lin Guodong and Zhao Lina, jumped out to rescue him. By the time they pulled Lao Zhou out of the creatures' mouths, the convoy's taillights had already disappeared into the fog.

"Brother Su." Fang Tang's voice continued, carrying a hint of fear that Su Ming didn't want to hear, "Something's coming."

Su Ming turned the gun around.

As darkness fell and the fog grew thicker, he squinted for about two seconds before finally spotting it.

It appeared to be some kind of humanoid monster, seven or eight of them, which emerged from behind a half-collapsed charging station.

The distance is approximately two hundred meters.

"Fang Tang, go and look after Old Zhou." Su Ming's voice was steady. "Uncle Lin, you guard the gap on the left. Lina, take my gun, but don't fire it easily."

"And you?" Zhao Lina took his gun and put her finger on the safety.

Su Ming did not answer. He lowered his head and drew the revolver from his waist.

There's one more magazine.

Enough to kill one, or two if you're lucky.

All that's left is Lin Guodong's hunting bow and melee combat.

He raised his revolver, aimed the muzzle at the approaching grayish-white tide, and put his finger on the trigger.

At the alley entrance, the first monster rushed in.

Its grayish-white skin resembled rotten leather, and its cataract-like eyes were unfocused, yet its head turned precisely toward them.

It must have been the smell of blood emanating from Lao Zhou that attracted these things.

"Bang!"

Su Ming fired his gun.

The recoil of the revolver made his wrist go numb, and the bullet struck the monster in the chest.

The thing staggered, but didn't fall. Instead, it opened its mouth and let out a piercing screech, continuing to charge forward.

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"

Su Ming fired three shots in quick succession, the last one piercing its eye socket. The monster collapsed less than ten paces away from them, its limbs twitching twice before going still.

But more were already surging up, their grayish-white shadows swaying in the mist, their screeching voices rising and falling.

Zhao Lina gritted her teeth, picked up the gun Su Ming had given her, and fired a follow-up shot.

Lin Guodong's bowstring trembled as he fired several arrows, some of which accurately pierced the monster's throat.

But after a round of fire, he reached behind him and found nothing.

"I'm out of arrows." His voice was dry.

click -

The gun in Zhao Lina's hand emitted a despairing, empty-bore sound.

In the blink of an eye, a wounded monster pounced in front of her, its claws gleaming pale against the leaden sky.

Zhao Lina instinctively leaned back and fell to the ground.

"Bang!"

Su Ming rushed over and kicked the monster in the shoulder, knocking it to the ground. He pulled out his tactical knife and plunged it into its eye socket. The blade twisted, and the monster twitched twice before going still.

But Su Ming's revolver had already missed. He tucked the gun back into his waistband, gripped his tactical knife, and stood in front of Zhao Lina.

There are six more around, and I don't know if there are any more in the shadows.

They have nothing left.

The bullets were all used up, the arrows were all gone, and all that was left was a tactical knife in Su Ming's hand, a hunting knife at Lin Guodong's waist, and a spiked club made from a baseball bat on Zhao Lina's back.

Su Ming knew what this meant. But he didn't back down, or rather, they had no way out.

"Uncle Lin, you're on the left. Lina, you're on the right."

Lin Guodong drew his hunting knife and stood on the left.

Zhao Lina took out the baseball bat from behind her back.

Her hands were trembling.

The first one rushed towards Su Ming.

He dodged the monster's attack and plunged his knife into its ribs. The knife got stuck in its ribs, and he couldn't pull it out, so he let go and stepped back. The monster fell to the ground, but it wasn't dead yet; it was still struggling.

Su Ming was out of weapons.

The second one bypassed him and pounced on Zhao Lina.

Zhao Lina could see its face covered in ulcers, its yellowed teeth, and the saliva that trailed in shiny threads at the corners of its mouth.

It was too fast; Zhao Lina's body couldn't keep up.

Lin Guodong was fighting two monsters when he saw this and roared loudly.

"Get out of the way!"

The monster's hand was already in front of Zhao Lina. Its nails were sharp, with a dark yellow luster, like rotting bone.

She didn't have time to dodge.

In that instant, a sound brushed past Fang Tang's head!

"call out--"

Like the croaking of a falcon, carrying a hint of a burnt ozone smell.

Zhao Lina felt her right eardrum vibrate for a moment, and her earlobe was brushed by the airflow.

next moment.

"Pfft!"

A hole the size of a peanut suddenly appeared on the monster's forehead. Fragments of bone and flesh from the back of its head, along with its brain matter, exploded. Dark red blood mixed with grayish-white tissue splattered on her face and body, and even flew into her mouth, which was slightly open due to her scream.

The claw, still in mid-air, stopped three inches in front of her nose, and then, like a mechanical arm that had lost power, it fell straight forward along with her entire body.

The alley was quiet for a while.

Fang Tang's pupils suddenly contracted. She mechanically turned her head to look in the direction from which the voice came.

A gentle breeze blew by, and the misty fog spread outwards, gradually revealing a figure.

The deep blue robe, out of step with the times, fluttered gently in the night breeze.

His right hand remained outstretched forward, two pale blue bands of light, like the afterimages of the aurora borealis, slowly fading from his fingertips. Between the bands of light, the last arc of electricity crackled, reflecting on his face.