Chapter 136

At five o'clock the next morning, the players got up early to wash up and grabbed some simple bread to fill their stomachs.

At the stroke of five, the flames shot upward instantly—faster than ever before. The players had already gone upstairs to shout a few warnings, and now, as the fire spread, they quickly charged up the stairs.

This time, the players were prepared; before they even reached the fifth floor, they had already drawn their weapons.

Lin Tu and Guan Suixing wielded their long blades, Yi Ying held a whip, and Kou Lin carried an electric baton that looked like a lightsaber. As for Hei Mawu...

Before Lin Tu could even glance at him, she was startled by the row of knives before her.

The employees on the fifth floor had all gathered in front of the emergency stairwell, every one of them clutching a blade. The knives came in all sizes, but all bore traces of dried blood, and many of the employees themselves were splattered with large patches of bloodstains.

"You..." Kou Lin started, but a chill ran down her spine.

"Watch out!" Guan Suixing shoved her aside just in time, but took the hit herself. The sleeve of her arm was torn open in an instant, and fresh blood welled up from her skin.

The group whirled around to see Hei Mawu—he had bared a set of ghastly white teeth, his face sickly pale, the area beneath his eyes dark and terrifying. His hands had grown claws nearly half a meter long, sharp as knives.

The wound on Guan Suixing's arm had been carved by those very claws.

"Holy shit! Are you okay?!" Kou Lin grabbed Guan Suixing's hand, on the verge of tears.

"I'm fine," Guan Suixing said, her arm instantly turning a bruised black—a precursor to her skill activation. "So you really are the problem. Good thing Sister Lin warned me last night; I've been on guard against you the whole time, or you might have gotten me."

Hei Mawu licked his claws, the flesh and blood on them sending him into a frenzy of excitement. "Players—what an interesting group. Too bad so many players have joined the company, and not a single one has ever made it out. You'll be no different."

"Maybe you lot are a bit smarter, trying to stop the fourth-floor people from eating meat to slow the nightmare's advance. But as I said, no one gets out. You might stop the fourth floor, but can you stop the fifth?"

"The nightmare has already descended! The real feast has begun!" He lunged at Guan Suixing. In the same instant, Guan Suixing fully activated her skill—she flung her blade to the ground and charged at Hei Mawu as well.

The two collided, their claws clashing with a piercing screech.

At the same time, the other employees on the fifth floor seemed spurred into action, charging at the players like a crashing wave.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Tu snatched up Guan Suixing's fallen blade. "Blade light! Sharp edge! Thousandfold shadows!"

A streak of sword light, layered with countless afterimages, shot toward Hei Mawu with blinding speed, slamming into his side and carving a horrifying gash from his shoulder down across his back to the opposite hip.

She had already used her own blade's [Blade Light] earlier when testing the transparent wall, so this time she wielded Guan Suixing's sword.

She had known what skills Guan Suixing had evolved, but this was her first time trying one out—she hadn't expected it to pack such a punch.

"Ah!" Hei Mawu let out a shriek of agony. Guan Suixing seized the opening, pouncing onto him. She drove a claw deep into his shoulder and bent down to suck his blood—activating her skill [Blood Eater: Tasting another's blood accelerates the healing of your wounds].

Seeing that, Lin Tu stopped worrying about that side and swung both blades at the nearest employees.

She was only skilled with her right hand, but thanks to her raw strength, even her left hand could hack and slash without much technique.

Yi Ying, who had long since mastered the whip, cracked it across the employees, leaving bloody welts on their bodies—even shattering one employee's fingers entirely.

Kou Lin, meanwhile, was an old hand at this. These employees weren't mutated monsters, so they posed little threat to her. She weaved through them like a fish in water, occasionally zapping one unconscious. But her nature was slippery—she conserved her energy and didn't go all out.

Even so, in just a few moments, over a dozen employees had fallen before the three players.

Another scream rang out. Having drunk her fill of blood, Guan Suixing slashed her claws across Hei Mawu's throat, severing it.

The fifth-floor employees seemed to snap back to their senses. Clutching their knives, they stared at the players and retreated step by step.

Meanwhile, the employees from the lower floors came rushing up.

To avoid being ambushed from behind, Lin Tu and the others pressed forward, forcing the fifth-floor employees back into the office and leaving ample space for the lower-floor employees—keeping them from getting too close.

The lower-floor employees surged up the stairs unimpeded. No one blocking the door was a pleasant surprise, but the pile of corpses in the corridor was another kind of "delight."

Were these corpses? No! In this starving company, these were premium food—rich in protein, juicy with moisture, and varying amounts of fat depending on the person!

The lower-floor employees realized what this meant, and the fifth-floor employees who had already tasted human flesh knew it even better.

The two groups faced off in tense stalemate, with Lin Tu and the others caught in the middle.

"What do we do, Sister Lin?" Guan Suixing asked, still maintaining her skill.

There were about a thousand people here. If the four of them were to fight them all, it wouldn't be exhausting, but it would waste quite a bit of resources. Besides, Guan Suixing had just been injured; she needed to recover.

"Ignore them. Not our business," Lin Tu said coolly.

She flicked her blade and shouted to the employees behind her, "We're heading back to the emergency stairwell. Clear a path through the middle and let us pass! See these corpses at my feet? They all died by our hands. If you even think about attacking us, this is what you'll get!"

As soon as she spoke, the employees behind her exchanged glances, then shuffled aside, opening a path wide enough for two to walk through.

The players stepped over the bodies, raised their weapons, and carefully made their way back into the familiar emergency stairwell.

Behind them, the two groups indeed clashed over the corpses.

The fifth-floor employees, being more "experienced," were ravenous beyond reason. The moment they saw Lin Tu and the others retreat into the stairwell, they burst out of the office like starving tigers, knives in hand, hacking at the bodies.

These corpses were still fresh—blood gushed out with every cut, and occasionally a slashed artery would spray a fountain of crimson.

But these people didn't care about the mess. They threw themselves onto the ground, lapping at the blood like parched travelers drinking dew. They shoved whatever meat they carved into their mouths—no matter the part, no matter the appearance—their faces twisted with satisfaction.

That sight seared into the lower-floor employees' eyes, stirring an uncontrollable urge within them.

Yesterday, thanks to Lin Tu's interference, they hadn't gotten to taste human flesh.

A person before crossing that line and after crossing it are two completely different beings. The lower-floor employees stepped forward eagerly, hesitantly picking up scraps from the floor and shoving them into their mouths.

The moment their taste buds—starved of flavor for days—touched the taste of meat, they too went mad, shoving into the crowd to desperately fight for food.

On the corridor near the emergency stairwell, there was almost no one left.

Lin Tu and the others watched silently. Seeing how deliciously everyone was eating, they felt a strange, unsettling urge stir within themselves.

They exchanged glances. "Did you feel that?"

"I felt it."

"Me too. I suddenly feel like human meat doesn't sound so bad."

That familiar sensation immediately told the players: the hallucinations were back.

They retreated into the emergency stairwell, shut the door tight, and immediately pulled out chips, cola, and other pungent snacks, stuffing them into their mouths.

The moment the spicy mala hotpot flavor of the chips exploded on their tongues, paired with the cola's sharp, sour fizz against their taste buds, the players felt their minds swept clean—rationality reclaiming its high ground.

Looking back at that scene now, their stomachs churned violently.

"Look less, err less," Lin Tu summarized the rule. Every time her brain short-circuited, it was because she'd seen something strange—like the product promos on the office computer, or accidentally glimpsing Lu Shishu's corpse when she returned to the Art Department...

"Exactly. If we lock ourselves in a dark room and don't see or hear anything, we won't be stimulated. It's like actively cutting ourselves off," Kou Lin replied.

"I feel like doing work would get weird too. We should be careful—might be best not to risk it," Yi Ying said, rubbing her forehead. "Otherwise, the snacks we've hoarded won't last at all."

"Speaking of Hei Mawu... what was his deal? Was he lured?" Guan Suixing frowned. In everyone's memory, Hei Mawu was her friend, so she felt somewhat responsible for his sudden betrayal.

Lin Tu shook her head. "I don't think he was ever our friend, nor a player of [Infinite Calamity]. He might be like Peng Yuanzhi—a monster spawned by the calamity itself."

"But he just talked about players."

That was chilling. It meant the monsters in the disaster knew about players—and were even deliberately targeting them.

While the players were discussing, a sudden "thump thump thump" came from the stairwell door—a knock.

Lin Tu opened it to find a man so thin he looked like a pole, lurking furtively at the entrance.

Lin Tu's hand moved toward her long blade. He quickly raised both hands in surrender, his face the picture of innocence. "Are you players too?"

"We are." Lin Tu eyed him impassively.

"Thank god!" The man grinned with relief. "Let me introduce myself—my name's Lu Haima, and I'm a player too! Damn this calamity, it's a long story. Can I come in and talk?"

Lin Tu didn't step aside. She studied Lu Haima and asked, "You can, but before that—tell me, do you think human meat tastes good?"