Chapter 124: Chapter 38.6
"I refuse!" One of the injured who were injured by the zombie before quickly objected to the suggestion. "Why should we be at the end of the line just because we got injured? Because you said so? You think that everything will go as your movie goes?!"
"Brother Chen… don't say anymore…" another one from the injured tried to calm Brother Chen. But this gesture was not appreciated as he continued to confront Li Xinwen.
"Teacher Li, just because you are a famous person, doesn't mean that you can order us around like this. Being right at the end of the line is more dangerous. I want to be placed in the middle!"
Li Xinwen narrowed his eyes at the man who was showing his anger. With Moyan activated, he could see that the demonic qi had already enveloped his whole body and the wound has already started to worsen. He knew that this Brother Chen's time is numbered.
The reason why Li Xinwen wanted to put the three injured person behind the group was to avoid accident. If they end up turning into a zombie while they are still on the stairs, they could just run and leave them, not wasting time in dealing with them. Which is why, Li Xinwen can never agree to Brother Chen's request of putting them in the middle.
If he does agree, and they changed when they were in the middle of the group, then their group would end up being divided. Worse, some may end up being attacked, injured and then infected. It was a risk that Li Xinwen is unwilling to take.
"Brother Chen," Li Xinwen finally spoke. "You either follow my arrangement or I will leave you here. Maybe things wouldn't be the same as the movie, yes. But what if the virus does work the same way? If I place you in the middle of the group now, what will happen if you do end up being a zombie? Let me ask everyone, do you want to put Brother Chen amongst yourself?"
As he asks the last question, Li Xinwen eyed each person in his group. Though they didn't verbally answer, he could see that they were unwilling. When he looked over at An Yunxu, the man also looked away, not wanting to answer.
"Since no one is willing, then, we'll do as I say. You three will still be tasked to guard behind us," Li Xinwen said before he turned to the camera director, Wei Qiu who was holding his dagger. "Brother Wei, you will take the front. Then…" Li Xinwen trailed off when he looked over to the next person. Only now did he realize that he has yet to know everyone's name in the group.
When the one whose Li Xinwen's gaze had fallen onto notices the hesitation in the actor's eyes, they quickly introduced themselves. "Teacher Li, I am called Kang Jun. I am one of the cameraman in the crew."
"I see. Then Brother Kang, you will help Brother Wei at the front. The two of you are our vanguard, make sure that you don't ever get injured by the zombies. Even a small scratch is not allowed," Li Xinwen told the two of them.
Once the two men nods their head, Li Xinwen turned to two other person. "This two sister here… do you still have a lot of throw able items?" Li Xinwen asked.
"Not a lot… there are about six left but they are all small items. I don't think it can make a lot of sounds if they were thrown," one of the two replied.
"I still have three water bottle left," the other added.
"It can't be helped then. Try to be careful when you decide to throw them to distract the zombie. If Brother Wei and Brother Kang is able to kill the zombie, then keep them. But if there are more than three zombies, distract them," Li Xinwen advised them. "Don't worry about a smaller items not being able to make a lot of sounds. When we enter the emergency staircase later, these things won't be a problem," Li Xinwen said.
Walking over to the door of the emergency exit, Li Xinwen spreads out his spiritual sense to count the number of zombies within the buildings. But a familiar spiritual signature suddenly made him frown. It came from the upper floor where the high level employee usually had their office at.
"I… will go upstairs first," Li Xinwen said to the rest of the group.
"What?! Why? With the current situation right now, isn't it better to evacuate as soon as possible?!"
"You guys can go first. I will catch up later," Li Xinwen replied as he opened the door to the emergency staircase and head upstairs.
Suddenly, An Yunxu rushed into the emergency staircase and spoke to Li Xinwen. "Xiao Wen, how about we wait for you here first then once you finish whatever it is, you can meet us here again?" he suggested. He felt that the risk without Li Xinwen in the group is very high. Behind him, several people of the group also voiced out their agreement with An Yunxu's suggestions. Unfortunately, Li Xinwen's reply was not optimistic for them.
"At the moment, the zombies are still at the initial stage, you can say, its their baby stage," Li Xinwen said out loud. "But think of it like this, if babies need eight months to learn how to walk, Zombies only need six to eight minutes to get used to walking. In few hours, some of the zombies in the building will be able to walk faster than the one we encountered."
"…"
The group went silent after hearing what Li Xinwen said. Seeing their grim expression, Li Xinwen sighed heavily. "As long as you did what you have done these past half an hour, your chance to survive is very high. But if you want for me, the more than thirty zombies in this floor will gather and attack you since there is a lot of 'meals' gathered."
Listening to Li Xinwen's reminder of the number of zombies, everyone's face went pale. "Just go, ba! I will catch up to you all. If I see that you guys haven't reached the first floor by the time I'm done with my task, see if I don't beat you up," Li Xinwen said jokingly, hoping to lift the group's spirit.
After saying that, he didn't wait for them to speak again and he directly walked upstairs. As soon as he is beyond earshot, Brother Chen from before finally voiced out his dissatisfaction again.
"Tsk! Look at him sauntering like that! I hope he dies upstairs!" he grumbled.
"Enough! Let's just follow Teacher Li's arrangement. It won't hurt trying to survive. Plus… the earlier we escape, the faster we can have some professional look at you three's injury," Wei Qiu said to the three people who were still feeling dissatisfied from what Li Xinwen said about them earlier.
"Heh, look at you! Teacher Li only praised you once or twice and you already turned into his obedient dog!" Brother Chen retorted.
"Chen Zhu that is enough!" the director roared angrily, forgetting that their situation doesn't allow for loud noises.
Sure enough, not long after a low, groaning sound could be heard coming from below the staircase and the group immediately got ready to engage. Luckily, there was only a single zombie so it was dealt with ease.
Li Xinwen was on the 65th floor when he heard the roar and he couldn't help but shake his head. "I hope you guys can survive well," Li Xinwen said with a sigh. "And that Chen Zhu… if you haven't turned into a zombie when I meet you next, I will definitely serve you some 'sobering tea' so you can wake up and face reality!"
Chapter 125: Chapter 39.1
Reaching the 24th floor, Li Xinwen noticed the air seems different. Compared to the lower floor, the floor here doesn't reek of too much blood. Opening the building, he stepped into the floor area and saw that the hallway, though the floor was stained with blood, looks much better than the sixteenth floor.
"Maybe they managed to deal with the situation calmly?" he wondered as he made his way through the hallway. He followed the path leading to that familiar spiritual signature and not long after, he finally saw the first zombie on the floor. Taking out another dagger from his spatial storage, he quickly dealt with the zombie in one blow.
Since he was alone, Li Xinwen's movement is more free as he didn't need to worry about hiding his strength. Of course, he still made sure that what he did is still within the realm of what mortal could do.
After dealing with three more zombies, Li Xinwen reached the place where several zombies were huddled against a big door, which seems to be barred from the inside. They continued to bang against the door while letting out a low growl.
'One… two… three…' Li Xinwen counted the head of the zombies and saw that there were six of them. He could deal with them in an instant if he were to use spiritual energy. 'Acting as a normal person is really troublesome. Just this once… Just once wouldn't hurt,' Li Xinwen thought to himself as he gathered the spiritual energy onto the palm of his hand.
He could see the energy swirl over his palm, forming a cold, crystal dust and soon, he threw them over to the six non-suspecting zombies. The moment the crystal dust touched the zombies, their body started to frost over at a quick rate. Before long the six zombies were completely frozen and Li Xinwen waved his hand, sending a gust of wind towards them.
Their frozen body toppled over and then, it dropped to the ground before shattering to icy dusts. Li Xinwen felt that if left alone, it would cause suspicion as to why there were ice on the floor so he quickly evaporate them with heat generated by his spiritual energy.
Now that his path is no longer blocked, Li Xinwen approached the door and knocked it slowly. The people inside probably thought that he's a zombie as there were no movement from within. So in the end, he had to call out for the person he came to pick up.
"Manager Su, it's me, Xinwen," he said out loud.
Finally, there was a rustle inside followed by several whispered voices. With his heightened hearing, Li Xinwen could clearly hear the conversation behind the door.
"That… person spoke. Then does that mean they're not zombies?"
"He said that he's Xinwen, is he the artist of Manager Su? That Li Xinwen?"
"Wait, what if its a trap? It wasn't long since the zombies had stopped banging on the door! What if once we opened the door, those monster came crawling in?"
"But… if we stay here, Manager Su might be in danger. Maybe that Li Xinwen is coming to pick her up. Let's just leave her to him. Look at her, don't you think she needs medical treatment?"
Hearing the conversation inside, Li Xinwen couldn't help but frown. He spread out his spiritual awareness to check on Manager Su's condition and found that she was unconscious but luckily, he noticed the demonic qi didn't gather around her which means that she wasn't injured.
"Is Manager Su alright? Please open the door. There are no zombies here," Li Xinwen said but the people inside was still reluctant to open the door. But not long after, a voice came from inside addressed to him.
"That… are you Li Xinwen?" the voice asked. From the voice alone, Li Xinwen knew that it was a male and this person was very nervous.
"Yes. I am Li Xinwen, an artist under Manager Su. Can you please open the door?"
"Before that, please answer this few questions honestly. If we find that you're lying, we won't open the door!"
Li Xinwen only have a helpless smile on his face but their paranoia is understandable. Compared to the group of people who were with him on the sixteenth floor, these people would have a higher chance of survival. "Alright," Li Xinwen replied. "You can ask away."
"Then… are you alone?"
"Yes."
"Are you injured?"
"No."
"How many of those things are outside now?"
"There are none nearby."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"How did you deal with the monsters that had been banging the door?"
"…" Li Xinwen didn't expect that they would ask this question so he was caught unprepared. It took him a few seconds to come up with a sound lie. "I merely lured them away from the door. They are very sensitive to sounds so once I threw a can of soda into a far away direction, they all went after it."
After that, there was a short moment of silence. Not long after, there was a sound of something solid scraping the ground, though it was being muffled by the carpet inside. After a good three minutes, Li Xinwen finally heard the door being unlocked and finally, the twin door was opened.
"Don't come in yet! Mr. Mu will go out and inspect you," the man who had been talking with Li Xinwen said.
Li Xinwen who was about to take a step forward, stopped and waited for this Mr. Mu to come out. The person who stepped out was actually someone that Li Xinwen is familiar with. It was Mu Bai, his co-actor in his recent movie. 'So he's also here. No wonder they are able to survive.'
Mu Bai's physique is actually large, standing at 197cm, Li Xinwen actually had to look up in order to face him. Coupled with his muscular build, he looks extremely menacing as an opponent but as an ally, he is very dependable. In all honesty, if it wasn't for this physique of his, Li Xinwen would've already forgotten that he had such a giant as a co-actor before.
"It's actually Da Bai. It's actually no wonder that the people inside would ask such question," Lin Xinwen said with a smile on his face.
"Senior Li, please allow me to inspect you for injury," Mu Bai said to him and Li Xinwen cooperated. Once Mu Bai saw that Li Xinwen didn't even have the smallest scratch, he turned to the people inside and nods his head. "You can come in with me, Senior Li. Please forgive my rudeness earlier. I had to make sure that you are not infected… I'm sure you understand."
"Don't worry. I understand," Li Xinwen replied. Anyway, is Manager Su alright?" he asked the big man.
"Manager Su… she fainted. But don't worry, she didn't suffer any external injuries," Mu Bai informed him.
When they got into the room, Li Xinwen saw that it was actually a conference room. 'That explains the twin door,' he thought to himself. The people inside were about to bar the door again and Li Xinwen stopped them.
"Wait, don't close the door yet. I will be leaving soon after I pick up my manager," Li Xinwen told them.
"Leave? Isn't it better to just stay here and wait for rescue?!" someone voiced out.
"If you want to wait for rescue, you're free to do so. According to my estimation, they will arrive in another ten minutes," Li Xinwen informed them.
"Oh, did you already inform the authority? Thank goodness! Then, its fine if we just wait for ten minutes more. Why the rush?"
Li Xinwen didn't answer immediately. Though rescue will arrive in ten minutes, it might take another hour for them to reach this floor while clearing the zombies on each floor below this.
"Where is Manager Su?" he asked.
"Over there," Mu Bai pointed at the long sofa in the room. On it, lay a woman in her middle age. Her face was slightly pale and the usual strict expression was absent. There was a round bulge on her stomach, indicating that she was pregnant.
Walking over to the sofa, Li Xinwen reached out and touched her head, gently massaging them while sending a small strand of spiritual energy to soothe her mind. "Manager Su," he called out gently.
With the help of the calming effect of Li Xinwen's spiritual energy, Manager Su slowly regain her consciousness.
"Xin…wen?" she called out.
"It's me. Manager Su, why are you here? Didn't you say that you have a hospital appointment?" Li Xinwen asked.
"I… was at the hospital. But the check up didn't take long and there was also something I need to confirm with the studio about your next shooting," Manager Su mumbled in a soft voice. "I was in a meeting with the director when Mu Bai and the rest entered, telling us that there was a dangerous situation… and then…"
Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain on her stomach and she winced in pain as she placed her hand on the bump.
"Manager Su, calm down. Don't be too stressed… it's fine now," Li Xinwen said to her. "Luckily you did come here. This way, I can protect you," Li Xinwen told her. His hand reached out to touch Manager Su's stomach and gently rubbed the area while sending his spiritual energy inside to calm the agitated baby within the womb.
As the pain subsided, Manager Su's expression became more relaxed. Seeing this, Li Xinwen gave her a gentle smile. "Manager Su, I plan to evacuate this place. It might be dangerous, but would you join me? If you stay here, it might be detrimental for you and the baby. If you join me, I promise I'll protect the both of you," Li Xinwen informed her.
"You already said that its dangerous. We should just stay in place and wait for rescue," Manager Su replied.
"But Manager Su… aren't you worried for your baby? You just experienced something frightful and if we don't bring you for a check-up…" Li Xinwen didn't finish for he knew that Manager Su understand what he was about to say.
"Alright, but… with just us?"
"No. I think Da Bai would join us. I will go ask him first."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
22 Power
stone 
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