After My Death, the Protagonist Broke Character - Chapter 8

Zhai Zi’an frowned, while Wei Xingchang on the side looked incredulous: “It’s a zombie! How can it talk?!”

He Qiao immediately prepared to attack, shouting to Zhai Zi’an: “It’s a mutated zombie! Xingchang and I noticed something was wrong just now; it was hiding here all along.”

“Mutated zombie! Eliminate it immediately!” Zhai Zi’an grasped the situation and widened the distance between them.

All three of them activated their abilities simultaneously, determined to slay this speaking zombie! Regardless of the reason behind its intelligence, such a mutated creature could not be allowed to live!

Huaisi was subjected to a barrage of intense attacks. He felt the agony tearing through his body as several holes were punched into his flesh. He tilted his head, narrowly avoiding a strike to his temple—the finishing move meant to crush a zombie’s brain and brain stem.

It hurts! It hurts!

Gold flashed in his vertical pupils, and he completely regressed into a feral state, consumed solely by the desire for blood and flesh.

The scent of human blood filled the air, and the injuries he sustained only heightened his “hunger.” He needed strength! He needed blood! Fresh human blood! The people before him were the ultimate source of nourishment; the blood flowing through the veins of these ability users was a hundred times more intoxicating than anything else around him.

No… it mustn’t happen…

But his reason, like a tensioned wire, suddenly snapped.

…

“How… how is it still moving…” Wei Xingchang’s face twisted in terror.

“Is it completely ineffective? Impossible! Even if we didn’t hit the head, it should have restricted its movement!”

“Run! Hurry and run, Xingchang!! Attacks don’t work on this thing!!”

“This thing is a devil!!! Ahhh!! My arm…”

…

Wei Xingchang screamed. His arm had been effortlessly torn away, ripped clean off by the creature’s jaws. Blood erupted instantly. The scarf he had worn was torn aside, revealing the horizontal blood scar on his throat and the sharp, jagged fangs now gnawing on the flesh of his own arm. Those golden vertical pupils locked onto the remaining ability users.

They had always prided themselves on being top-tier ability users within the base’s investigation team, never knowing what it felt like to be pushed into a corner. Now, they were seized by a primal fear of death; that gaze alone was enough to make them tremble.

Wei Xingchang clutched his severed limb, rolling on the ground in agony, but he had no time to spare. Driven by the instinct to survive, he scrambled to his feet and sprinted away, clutching his bleeding stump.

I have to run! If I don’t, I’ll die! Definitely!

However, in the next instant, his neck was snapped, his carotid artery bursting. His expression of terror froze in the very moment of his death.

More zombies poured over the walls. They gorged themselves, and the humans became trapped in a cage of slaughter. Several zombies moved with eerie agility, converging toward Huaisi. Huaisi, completely immersed in the feast of flesh and blood, his vertical pupils devoid of reason, slaughtered any creature that came near him. His sharp nails pierced zombie throats and severed heads with effortless precision. Yet, the zombies seemed drawn to him; one after another, they approached, and soon, a mountain of zombie corpses piled up around him.

They were endless. The zombies knew no fear, lapping at the blood leaking from his own wounds before being struck down by him in the next second.

With the temporary replenishment of flesh, the hunger receded slightly, and a glimmer of clarity returned to his pupils. Huaisi looked at the head he was holding it was Wei Xingchang’s. The terror of his final moments was still frozen in his eyes, staring directly at Huaisi. He threw it away in a panic, but all he could feel was the delicious taste of flesh in his mouth, with no sense of nausea.

“Retch…”

He reached his fingers into his throat, trying to claw it out, but it was futile.

How did it come to this… How did I become like this… Save me… Why did it become like this…

“…Wah… wuu-wuu… Mommy…”

“Someone, save us…”

…

Huaisi lifted his head sluggishly. The shelter was a living hell; zombies were pouring in without end, and even the ones inside were mutating, tearing into familiar faces. Even the hunting squad was caught in a desperate struggle for survival. Pools of blood that refused to clot covered the ground.

He had no time to mourn for himself. If he didn’t find a way, every human here would die.

“Does little Huai want to be a hero?”

“Of course I do! I want everyone to live.” The young boy rested his chin on his knees and asked, “Then what should I do?”

“You are still small and have no power. When you grow up, you must remember: with great power comes great responsibility.”

He lunged toward the nearest zombie. As it opened its jaws to bite a woman, he reached out and punched through its skull. When he pulled his hand out, it was slick with dark, foul-smelling blood. The woman stared blankly at the collapsing zombie, the fear in her eyes not yet fading.

But Huaisi was frantic. As he attacked one zombie, someone else was bitten on the other side. He couldn’t attack them all at once; there were just too many. No matter how quickly he moved, he couldn’t protect everyone; people were dying regardless.

As he moved and attacked, blood leaked steadily from the wounds inflicted by the ability users earlier. His mouth grew increasingly parched, and he stared transfixed at the blood coating the ground.

If only blood could become a weapon. He could feel his own blood flowing out through his wounds, but he was powerless to stop it. It was his own blood, his own possession why couldn’t he control it as easily as his limbs? If every drop of blood was imbued with his own consciousness, if he could command it to follow his will, he could save so many more people.

As if responding to his plea, he reached out. The blood dripping from his fingertips suddenly changed direction, floating in the air before darting out like bullets, piercing through the zombies’ bodies!

He twitched his fingers, his vertical pupils trembling. He had suddenly grasped the skill. He could sense every drop of his blood, controlling its direction and speed. It zipped through zombie after zombie, but the power was limited; unless he struck the head or crushed the brain, he couldn’t kill them completely.

He licked his parched lips, his pale skin now glistening with moisture. Watching the blood, he wondered if he could shape it into something else like a sharp blade.

The thought had barely surfaced when more blood pulled away from his body, forming blades of “blood.” Instantly, they flew toward the zombies, decapitating them in a single sweep! Thousands of blood blades manifested, slashing at the surrounding horde.

But as more blood left his body, without fresh flesh and blood to replenish it, he felt even more parched and hungry. The scent of human blood filled the air, and the sight of injured humans the smell of their blood and the aura of the ability users slowly chipped away at his remaining sanity.

He Qiao clutched the wound on his body where a mutated zombie had bitten him; his face was deathly pale. He knew he was finished. An ability user’s blood was even more maddening to zombies, who swarmed him, surrounding him. He was filled with despair, yet he struggled to resist, driven by the urge to live.

Why, why, I still want to live!!

Suddenly, the zombie before him was torn apart by hand; its shriveled head was tossed aside like a ball, its spine still attached. More mutated zombies swarmed toward him. Huaisi’s golden vertical pupils emerged, blood surging within them.

Blood! I need blood!

These things are in the way! But he couldn’t generate more blood. He could feel that his wounds were no longer bleeding; his body was in a state of extreme anemia, and his reason had been burned away by thirst and hunger.

He tore off his scarf and threw it to the ground, his hood slipping down to reveal his full face—pale, bloodless, with glowing golden vertical pupils. He opened his mouth, revealing his long, sharp fangs, and spoke with an invisible, resonating power.

“GET——OUT——!”

The moment the words left his lips, the surrounding zombies were violently flung away, tumbling across the ground!

He Qiao looked at Huaisi in horror. When he had been surrounded, he felt the helplessness of death, but now he was like a rat cornered in a hole. Looking into those vertical pupils, he realized with a shock: This mutated zombie might still have consciousness!

He Qiao immediately used his ability to snatch a woman, holding her hostage, and screamed threats: “If you take one more step, this woman is dead!” He had slipped into a state of madness. “If anything happens to us, everyone here will die! We are the investigation team from the base!”

The woman in his arms cried in terror. He Qiao pulled her hair ruthlessly, snarling, “Stop crying!” The woman could only sob into her chest, not even daring to call for help, looking at Huaisi with eyes full of impending death.

“AHHHHHHHH!!!! How dare you!!!!” Huaisi suddenly began to struggle, pounding his own head. Thump-thump, blood seeped from his ears, but he didn’t stop. When he looked up again, a crimson light suffused his eyes, the gold and red swirling together. The thirst for blood and the fury had utterly extinguished his sanity!

He Qiao saw a glimmer of hope and tightened his grip on the woman’s neck until she turned blue. “Get out! Or this woman dies!”

Huaisi’s vertical pupils narrowed. He was completely unhinged. He opened his mouth, and a wave of energy rippled out.

“THEN——LET’S——ALL——DIE——!!!”

A burst of blood mist, shattered limbs scattering, formed a beautiful, gruesome rainbow.

Huaisi’s pale face was spattered with tiny specks of blood. He looked up, watching the mist vanish. When he looked again, He Qiao and the woman were gone. He felt a moment of confusion, then looked around at the tattered limbs and flesh, he couldn’t distinguish between human and zombie meat. In the distance, the people of the shelter were staring at him in sheer terror.

Huaisi looked at his own hands. I didn’t do anything… He touched the wound on his throat, feeling the cartilage beneath the skin, then touched his lips.

What happened? I only said one sentence…

Suddenly, he felt something hit his head, followed by stones flying from all directions. The people of the shelter, hiding behind the buildings, were throwing stones at him. They had realized that this zombie was more dangerous than any other; a single word from it could destroy them all!

Huaisi just stood there, letting the stones pelt him. Compared to the ability users’ attacks, this was nothing. The stones left no blood, no pain. Only bleeding brings pain, and without pain, what value is there?

He stared at the spot where the woman had just vanished, stunned for a long time. His blood-spattered face was lost in a haze. A stone struck his brow bone hard, but he didn’t even flinch.

He began to laugh. A silent laugh. He laughed until tears flowed, but the liquid had no temperature; even his skin was freezing—everything was cold. The tears were blood-red as they slid down his cheeks. He looked like a demon crawled out of hell, covered in blood.

“…Only through pain… can there be… value!”

Suddenly, as the words faded, he felt a sting on his skin. Every stone that struck him now brought a sharp, agonizing pain, as if it were smashing into his heart. He bowed his head, unable to hold back, his eyes streaming with tears. Blood-red tears dripped onto the blood-soaked ground. He looked at the blood-tears in his palm freezing cold. He could no longer hold himself up; he fell to his knees, trembling, covering his eyes.

I have even lost the ability to weep. Abandoned by the whole world, burying even myself into the dust.

What kind of monster have I become…

A pair of strong arms embraced him. A warm chest pressed tightly against him, circling him, pulling him into an embrace with the force of finding a lost treasure.

Xie Shoushan saw the wounds on Huaisi, the scattered stones, and the familiar faces from the past.

These people were hiding behind the buildings, and upon seeing him, their faces lit up thinking they had finally been saved. Someone shouted: “Shoushan, quick! Kill that mutated zombie!”

Xie Shoushan’s pitch-black eyes were stained with a touch of scarlet, his tone icy as a glacial cavern.

“Are you all tired of living?!!”