Chương 32: Giant Stupid Pigeons
After confirming that there was nothing else in the dining hall and the other adjacent downstairs rooms, they returned to the dining hall and headed towards the staff only area at the back, where the fire staircase was located. It was usually left unused and reserved for emergencies.
"Why are we taking this stair set and not the main one?" Miu couldn't help but ask. After all, there was the main stair case that led directly into the lobby, though despite that, nobody had descended in the past couple of hours.
"Because that freaky bat-bird came through here, it'll be easier to find where it broke into the building if we retrace its path. We can take the other stair case when we come back down." Zhan explained concisely.
"So we're going to head directly towards wherever the bird broke in?" Shia asked.
"Mm, since the bird entered through here, it definitely broke in through an upstairs window. We can't leave something like that unfixed…though maybe there are multiple broken windows. Anyway, we should start by finding the known security breach."
Everyone nodded in agreement and silently followed behind Zhan up the stairs. Their goal this time was to explore the upstairs situation, but searching all 20 floors was a bit unrealistic, so having a specific goal like this was as good a plan as any right now.
However, unexpectedly, Hanlo actually interjected with gritted teeth.
"Emperor!" He suddenly called out loud and stopped walking.
"Hmm, what is it?" Zhan paused and turned towards him questioningly, though kept his gaze forwards incase something rushed down the stairs.
"Can we go to the 4th floor first? Please, my sister is there right now, I'm really worried about her!"
"Oh?" Zhan raised an eyebrow. "How old is your sister, is she your legal guardian?"
"No, she's my twin, she's 11 just like me."
"Then your parents…?" Miu chipped in, her expression becoming soft as she anticipated the worst.
"Mum and dad, they…they died to the beasts before emperor arrived earlier…" Hanlo bit his lip and forced himself to keep a strong expression. Everyone's gaze towards him became softer and they glanced at Zhan expectantly.
"Fine, we'll go find your sister first, let's be fast and not waste time." Zhan nodded and smiled at Hanlo. The boy's expression lit up and he actually bowed, before yelling:
"Thank you emperor!"
Zhan chuckled and shook his head, then once again took the lead in ascending upstairs, but his pace was noticeably faster than before. The others struggled slightly to keep up with him, especially Nui with her poor athleticism, but nobody was left behind. Everybody was touched by Hanlo's plight, so they held in their complaints and did their best to go fast.
In this situation, every second counted. The situation on the higher floors was a complete unknown after all.
As Zhan more or less expected, they didn't find any beasts on this staircase. The doors leading from the stair case to each floor were heavy duty fire doors, it was safe to assume that only the freaky bird managed to break through it so easily.
"Hah…hah…" Nui panted as they stopped before the 4th floor fire door. Zhan glanced at her and smiled. When he remembered how terrible this girl's athletic ability was one month ago, he was impressed that she was managing to keep up with everyone.
"I'm fine, we need to find Hanlo's sister quickly!" She looked up and quickly said this as she saw everyone waiting. Truthfully, aside from Zhan and the security chief, they were all slightly out of breath, since they practically jogged up 4 flights of stairs.
"Right." Zhan nodded and spoke fast. "I'll take the lead, Shia and chief take the back, everyone else stay in the centre and keep a look out."
"Emperor, I can fight too!" Hanlo protested, thinking that Zhan was still looking down on him. Zhan laughed and shook his head.
"Your ability is ranged, it's best for you to stay back and attack from a distance."
"Oh, right…" The young boy had gotten a bit over anxious as he thought about his sister and forgot this basic fact.
"Let's go." Zhan said firmly.
Bang!
He smashed the door inwards and jumped into the corridor, intending to quickly surprise attack any potential enemies. After rapidly darting his eyes around though, he found that the hall was empty. However, he quickly narrowed his eyes.
"So much damage!" Shia's expression changed as she was the last to step onto the floor. She didn't stop though, Zhan had already set off under Hanlo's directions towards his apartment, where he hoped to find his sister.
Seeing the broken doors and shards of glass across the floor, Hanlo's heart started beating wildly. He was visibly nervous, but nobody could blame him. He said that everything was perfectly in order just a couple of hours ago when he went downstairs with his parents, meaning that all of this was recent...a beast had definitely broken in!
"Kerry!" Seeing his apartment door hanging wide open, Hanlo couldn't control himself and dashed past Zhan into the room. However, Zhan reached out and grabbed his shoulder, stopping the panicking boy in his tracks.
"Keep to formation!" Zhan looked down at him sharply, his voice was firm and commanding, leaving no room for negotiation. Hanlo grit his teeth and nodded, then dropped back and followed Zhan into the room.
It may sound harsh, yelling at a distressed child like this, but it was for his own good. Nothing good would come of breaking formation and rushing in like that.
"There's nobody in the room, nor is there any damage or blood. She must have left on her own." Zhan quickly assessed after checking every room. After Hanlo called out a few times and checked every cupboard and small space, they could be sure that Kerry, his sister, wasn't just hiding in fear.
"Where else could she be? Do you know anyone on this floor?"
"No." Hanlo quickly shook his head. "We only knew our neighbour, but he died one month ago. Since then my family kept to ourselves…ah, maybe she's in the communal lounge!" Hanlo suddenly exclaimed.
"Let's go." Zhan nodded and didn't waste anymore time.
Whilst walking through the red carpeted corridor, he noticed that it wasn't just Hanlo's apartment, but multiple doors were left hanging open.
Zhan frowned, something was definitely strange about this. The interior of most of these apartments was undamaged and he was yet to see a single drop of blood, yet everyone appeared to have left their apartments with the doors wide open. Clearly they were in a hurry, but why?
His thoughts were cut off as they turned the final corridor. He stopped and narrowed his eyes, then stepped back and held out an arm towards everyone behind him. The group stopped nervously, waiting for Zhan to explain.
ChiChick…Squar! Chickachi!
"Wh-what's that?" Nui asked Zhan nervously.
"Birds…three of them." Zhan squinted, trying to see past the translucent glass door. It was obvious that the birds were looking at something inside, but they seemed to be staying back, as if afraid to break through the glass and enter.
The glass here was reinforced, as were many things in this building, but these birds were nothing ordinary. They were probably once pigeons, but now they stood at 6 feet tall and barely fit in this corridor.
Mutated beasts could easily break through the windows in this building, Zhan had already experienced this first hand in the first wave. Since then, he had improved the reinforcement of many of the windows throughout the complex, hopefully they would stand strong for some time.
After he calmly assessed the situation, Zhan smiled. Seeing three giant birds had surprised him slightly because they were so quiet and couldn't be heard until reaching this point. However…
"Too weak. You all wait here, I'll finish this quickly."
With that, he didn't hang around and directly charged forwards.
Swoosh…
His footsteps were agile, the giant black and grey pigeons didn't hear him coming, nor did they see him. All three appeared to be distracted by the glass, or perhaps by something beyond the glass. It was translucent and tinted with colours so Zhan couldn't see what was on the other side, but it was safe to assume that the surviving floor residents had all gathered in the communal lounge.
Zhan pulled back his arms and twisted his body as he took his final step. As his weight shifted forwards, his body uncoiled and the spear was thrust straight through the pigeon's throat. If it were a few hours ago, he might not have been able to stab with enough force to penetrate its neck, but now, his strength stat was 5.7, easily powerful enough to achieve this.
CHING!
A loud sound echoed out and blood splashed forwards onto the glass door and wall. The other two pigeons were startled, instinctively flapping their wings and flying directly into the ceiling above.
BANG! BANG!
They collided with the ceiling and rebounded downwards. Zhan wasn't exactly expecting this level of stupidity, but he could adapt quite quickly. As one pigeon stumbled slightly and turned towards him, he saw the fierce yet also confused look in its blood red eyes.
CHIIIII!
He stabbed into its eye and pierced its brain. The final pigeon let out a loud angry squark and tried to stab through him with its metallic beak. Zhan calmly stepped to the side, then slashed across its feathered throat, slitting half its neck apart and killing the final foe.
Silence.
The previous bird noises vanished, informing the others that Zhan was finished. When they turned the corner and saw these three massive corpses, everyone paled, but they were beginning to adjust and managed to make their way to Zhan's side.
"That was so fast, you're getting stronger so quickly Zhan!" Nui excitedly exclaimed as she examined him and confirmed that he wasn't injured.
"These birds were weak, they may be big but they were really stupid. Size isn't everything when it comes to the beast's power." Zhan smiled and patted Nui's head gently. Ah, he was really bad at restraining himself when it came to this girl…whatever, who cares. Eh, why was Miu looking at him like that?
Hanlo's eyes gleamed in reverence. He was shocked that Zhan finished them all off in under 10 seconds, but his expression quickly changed and he rushed past Zhan and the corpses, arriving at the door.
CLINK.
"It's locked." Hanlo frowned after trying the handle.
BANG BANG BANG!
"Hey, open the door! Emperor killed the birds, it's safe to open up!" Hanlo hammered on the glass and yelled. Zhan didn't stop him and waited silently by the side. His eyes narrowed as he stared forwards. There was clearly someone standing by the door, but for whatever reason, he was remaining silent.
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