The Villainous Female Side Character Pretends to Be an Omega in the Apocalypse and Raises a Cat - Chapter 21.3

But the trembling note at the end of her words betrayed her brave front.

The speedboat cut through the water, waves fanning out to either side.

The two humans and the cat carefully observed their surroundings.

Chi Yingdong’s gaze swept like radar over every half-submerged building.

Meng Qinghe’s ears twitched incessantly, capturing the faintest sounds around them.

Xu Chuyao stared intently at the water, as if she could see through all its secrets.

However, as they moved farther from the residential area, hope seemed to gradually fade.

Just as Chi Yingdong was about to change direction and search elsewhere, Xu Chuyao stared at a window and suddenly exclaimed, “Sister, that window just now, there was a huge shadow moving past it.”

Chi Yingdong followed the direction Xu Chuyao was pointing.

It was a gray-blue commercial building.

At the 35th floor, a massive black shadow was slowly moving in front of the window.

The shadow was enormous, Chi Yingdong was certain it was neither human nor a zombie.

As for what kind of creature it was, the sunlight was too glaring for them to see clearly.

Though the shadow was large, it moved with remarkable speed.

Moreover, it kept circling the same area, as if guarding its territory and driving away intruders.

Chi Yingdong immediately turned the boat around and headed toward the building.

The speedboat cut through the water, quickly approaching the building.

Even from a short distance, Chi Yingdong could see a large breach in the building’s window, the shattered glass curtain wall glinting sharply in the sunlight.

The speedboat came to a steady stop at the edge of the building. Chi Yingdong squinted at the breach and noticed fragments of glass hanging from it, along with a scrap of dark blue linen fabric.

The piece of dark blue cloth swayed gently in the breeze, like a signal flag calling for help.

The color of the fabric was still deep, not yet weathered by long exposure to the elements.

Clearly, someone had recently entered through this breach and had a piece of their clothing torn off by the broken glass.

“It’s a piece of Mother’s clothing.”

Xu Chuyao’s voice caught in her throat, her small hand clutching the fabric over her chest.

Prompted by Xu Chuyao’s words, Meng Qinghe also recalled something.

This garment was dark in color, made of durable cotton-linen blend, something Xu Luo often wore.

Carefully, Xu Chuyao peeled the torn fabric from the glass, her tiny fist tightly gripping the scrap of linen.

Meng Qinghe leaned closer, her pink nose twitching slightly as she sniffed.

The cloth indeed carried Xu Luo’s strong scent.

Meng Qinghe sniffed again more carefully, her cat whiskers trembling involuntarily, there was also a faint trace of blood.

The moment they stepped into the building, an indescribable stench, heavier than mildew, assaulted their senses.

Chi Yingdong instinctively pulled her collar higher, covering her nose and mouth.

The companies occupying this building were all well-known enterprises in Rong City, each occupying vast spaces.

Chi Yingdong suddenly remembered that Qiao Ying had a subsidiary located in this very building.

The Qiao family had investments in numerous industries, she couldn’t recall what this particular subsidiary specialized in.

The beam from the flashlight pierced through the darkness, illuminating dark, dried bloodstains on the floor that had clearly been there for some time.

They searched floor by floor, continuing upward.

Each level was eerily silent, devoid of even a single zombie’s growl, clearly, someone had deliberately cleared the building of the undead.

With no supermarkets, warehouses, or residential areas, systematically clearing such a building seemed pointless.

Thus, this unnatural cleanliness felt more unsettling than hordes of zombies.

Ascending felt like traversing a Möbius strip.

Identical office cubicles, repetitive corridor layouts, even the angles of toppled potted plants appeared similar.

Only the fading floor numbers in the stairwell confirmed their upward progress: “20…27…35.”

Chi Yingdong’s flashlight beam hit the stairwell wall, the reflective numbers bouncing light back.

35th floor.

They had climbed three-quarters of the building.

Suddenly, Chi Yingdong crouched down. Under the flashlight’s beam, the bloodstains on the steps glowed with an ominous dark red.

Unlike the blackened stains below, these appeared much fresher.

Several pools of not-yet-fully-congealed blood shimmered eerily in the light.

Meng Qinghe’s breathing abruptly quickened. She gripped Chi Yingdong’s shoulder, her fingertips piercing through the fabric to press into skin.

Meng Qinghe held her breath, listening intently.

A faint, almost imperceptible sound, like something skittering across walls.

“What’s wrong?”

Chi Yingdong scanned their surroundings but detected nothing unusual.

The cat-girl shook her head, hoping she was just being paranoid.

“Sis.”

Xu Chuyao suddenly tugged at Chi Yingdong’s sleeve.

The young girl had remained quiet throughout their journey, never causing trouble.

Chi Yingdong looked down at Xu Chuyao. The child’s pupils trembled, fine sweat beading on her nose.

Animals and children possessed the sharpest senses. While Meng Qinghe and Xu Chuyao sensed something amiss, Chi Yingdong initially felt nothing.

But soon, the unnaturalness washed over her, a chill crawling up her nape.

It felt as if countless eyes were watching them through the walls.

Goosebumps prickled along her spine, her breathing growing strained.

This discomfort hadn’t existed on the lower floors.

Chi Yingdong took Xu Chuyao’s hand. The girl’s palm was drenched in sweat, she’d been terrified all along.

The outward calm was all a forced facade.

Chi Yingdong made a decision immediately, lowering her voice as she said, “Let’s get out of here first.”

She wanted to send Xu Chuyao and the kitten back first, then go find someone on her own.

Although the child and the cat were both well-behaved and wouldn’t cause her any trouble, the dangers ahead were unknown.

There’s always someone better out there, Chi Yingdong never considered herself the strongest, and she feared she couldn’t protect both of them.

“No.”

Xu Chuyao gently shook her head, her eyes pleading.

Everything before her indicated that her mother was in danger. How could she possibly turn away knowing her mother was at risk?

If Sister Chi sent her back, the round trip would waste a lot of time.

Who could guarantee what might happen during that time?

Xu Chuyao looked seriously at Chi Yingdong, silently saying, “I won’t cause you any trouble. Let’s go up.”

Silence spread through the darkness.

In the distance, the echo of dripping water sounded like some kind of countdown.

Chi Yingdong looked back at Xu Chuyao.

The small figure’s eyes were filled with unwavering determination, unafraid of the danger.

Chi Yingdong: “Alright.”

She had conceded.

The two humans and one cat continued upward. After passing the 35th floor, the oppressive feeling immediately lessened considerably.

Meng Qinghe lay on Chi Yingdong’s shoulder.

As Chi Yingdong moved forward, Meng Qinghe guarded her back, ensuring they wouldn’t be attacked from behind.

Soon, she caught sight of a black thread crawling across the wall. It moved like a living creature, weaving through the cracks in the wall before disappearing into the concrete in the blink of an eye.

The black thread moved so quickly that Meng Qinghe almost thought she had imagined it.

She blinked rapidly, staring intently at the spot where the black thread had vanished.

If she remembered correctly, she had written an apocalyptic novel, not a supernatural one.

The two humans and one cat continued upward. When they reached the 40th floor, the sight before them made them hold their breath simultaneously.

The floor that should have separated the 40th and 41st floors now had a massive, wormhole-like gap.

The edges of the hole were jagged, glowing with an eerie fluorescence.

This was definitely not the result of violent destruction, it looked more like it had been slowly corroded by some kind of strong acidic substance.

Chi Yingdong aimed her flashlight at the hole.

Under the light, they could see the hole’s appearance more clearly.

The edges of the hole were coated with secretions from an unknown creature, the entire nest resembling the abdominal cavity of some gigantic being.

The translucent, sticky gelatinous substance stretched slowly with the airflow in the space, pulling into thin, elongated threads in the air until they snapped and fell, corroding small pits into the concrete floor.

Chi Yingdong raised her arm, directing the flashlight beam into the hole.

Inside the hole were countless tiny crystals that reflected a rainbow of colors under the flashlight’s beam.

Apart from these crystals, the hole led to a network of interconnected passages.

The walls of the passages were covered with a glaze formed by dried mucus, making the entire space resemble an ant nest magnified millions of times.

Meng Qinghe’s ears twitched as she turned to look at the right passage. She heard a series of faint, skittering sounds approaching from a distance.

Meng Qinghe hurriedly patted Chi Yingdong’s shoulder, “Meow, meow, meow.”

Before Chi Yingdong could ask what was wrong, Xu Chuyao translated first, “Sister, the kitty says something is coming this way.”

The environment was perfect for hiding. Chi Yingdong held the kitten tightly and led Xu Chuyao behind a wall pillar.

No sooner had the three hidden themselves than the ground began to tremble slightly.

Soon, a swarm of mutated ants, far larger than any before the apocalypse, crawled past their hiding spot. The soldier ants at the front were each the size of a human infant.

These ants had pitch-black exoskeletons and moved in flawless formation, like a well-trained army.

The front-row soldiers raised their sharp mandibles high, while worker ants in the middle carried unidentified objects. Even smaller ants at the rear maintained order.

Meng Qinghe’s hair stood on end as she buried her face in Chi Yingdong’s chest.

She had always been afraid of insects, and ones magnified many times over only intensified her fear.

What’s more, her heightened sense of smell proved more a curse than a blessing, she could detect the pungent odor of formic acid permeating the air, mixed with an unfamiliar pheromone.

The three held their breath until the last column of ants vanished down the tunnel before emerging from behind the wall.