Honestly, Li Jiayu had almost forgotten the taste of snacks. Now, suddenly seeing the dazzling array of various foods in the supermarket – brightly colored packaging for chips, cookies, cakes, milk tea, roasted chicken, hamburgers, milkshakes, juices, fresh fruits, ice cream – despite the thick smell of blood lingering in the air, Li Jiayu still felt his mouth water, overcome by an urge to feast.
Downing a bottle of coffee in a few gulps, Li Jiayu unceremoniously grabbed a pack of marinated chicken legs from the counter, tore it open, and stuffed one into his mouth, ignoring the half-eaten corpse lying next to him. He chewed greedily, grease dripping from his mouth, and said slowly:
"Mmm... this is the taste. Haven't had it in so long. Although it's not as delicious and juicy as Red-Crested Beetle meat, nor as crisp and springy as 'Jumping Dragon'... But, I've wanted to relive this taste for a long time..."
Xiao Wanqing and Ran Hongxia looked at Li Jiayu with somewhat strange expressions, unsure what to say for a moment.
Having witnessed so many disgusting corpses and smelling such a thick stench of blood, this guy, this barbarian whose words and actions deviated so greatly from the norm, could actually eat nonchalantly?
Lan Xiaoyue, who had already vomited up all her bile, rolled her eyes, her face ashen. She looked at the minced meat and internal organs scattered across the floor, then back at the insect corpses near the supermarket entrance, and finally at Li Jiayu's chewing lips, hearing the "crack crack crack" sound of him biting chicken bones. Her throat soured, and she knelt on the ground, dry heaving again, while stammering:
"Li Jiayu... are you thick-skinned? Drinking coffee or whatever is one thing, but you can actually eat marinated chicken legs... It's so disgusting! Don't you think eating meat is inappropriate at a time like this? Don't you find the chicken meat as disgusting as those dismembered human bodies? Chunks of human flesh, still bloody..."
Chu Xiang, Feng Liaoyuan, Chen Kun, and several axemen had worked hard for so long and were quite tired. They were just about to grab some snacks, but hearing Lan Xiaoyue go on about "disgusting" and "human flesh," they immediately lost their appetites, even feeling a faint wave of nausea.
"It's just corpses, isn't it? They lie there dead, I eat my meat. Well water doesn't interfere with river water; we coexist peacefully. What's there to be nauseated about?"
In his past life, Li Jiayu had spent a long time mingling with undead creatures and had long since learned to ignore the smell of blood, becoming accustomed to it. His current behavior was already quite normal. During the famine periods of the apocalypse, many people, driven mad by hunger, resorted to killing and eating other humans. There were even some underground organizations that specialized in storing human flesh sausages for sale – but such heretical organizations were usually quickly and thoroughly destroyed. No major military city would tolerate their existence. Even when Li Jiayu went out for training, he encountered several human butchering groups, but they usually met a tragic end by being devoured by the magical beasts Li Jiayu summoned.
This was called giving them a taste of their own medicine, just desserts!
"Sigh... I won't say more. Lan Xiaoyue, you are simply too fragile, getting disgusted, nauseous, and vomiting at the drop of a hat. Your mental fortitude isn't up to par. It doesn't matter for others, but you are a Shapeshifter; one day you will have to go onto the battlefield."
"I... I'm a girl, isn't nausea a normal reaction? I understand everything you're saying... Give me some time to adapt slowly. Once I've vomited enough, I'll get used to it."
"Mm, that's why I haven't pushed you too hard."
Li Jiayu tossed aside the nearly gnawed-clean chicken bone, wiped his greasy lips with a tissue, and said methodically:
"You all know about the cosmic storm. This thing rendered all electrical equipment completely useless, paralyzed all factories, and even caused some factories to explode directly... Therefore, for a very long time in the future, the common foods found in supermarkets now will likely be difficult to produce again... Meaning, once these things are eaten, they're gone forever. You won't be able to buy them even if you want to. In the future, you can only eat tree roots, insect meat, coarse grains, mutated grass..."
"Ugh, we can never eat delicious things again..."
Lan Xiaoyue's face stiffened. She was someone who rather enjoyed comforts. Although she was mentally prepared, hearing Li Jiayu say it aloud made her realize the complete collapse of material enjoyment in human society. Never again would she eat the "famous chef's delicacies" in grand hotels, nor the fragrant and spicy taro dishes overflowing with oil from street stalls. Many delicious foods of the human world might be lost forever. Even the vibrant nightlife of many cities would vanish like smoke!
"Can't stroll through night markets, can't go on shopping sprees, can't dance wildly in discos, can't pick up guys in bars, can't go to beauty salons... wouldn't life be utterly boring?" Lan Xiaoyue said dejectedly.
"How could it be boring?"
Li Jiayu scoffed. He disliked people who complained all day but lacked the courage to commit suicide the most. He said sarcastically:
"Modern, high-tech life is gone, but a new supernatural civilization has been born. Many problems previously unsolvable by technology can be easily resolved with supernatural powers... Lan Xiaoyue, aren't your face full of acne and your looks ordinary? Once your shapeshifting reaches Tier 3, you can transform at will. Changing into the face of a popular movie star won't be difficult... If you get tired of being a woman, you can even shrink your breasts and grow a foot-long meat rod down there to screw women. If you like excitement, you can even find another man for your behind, become a double plug..."
"Who! Who wants to be a man! You're the double plug! You're such a pervert!" Lan Xiaoyue was furious, grabbing a nearby box and throwing it at Li Jiayu.
"Jiayu, stop messing around. Pay attention to team harmony," Xiao Wanqing reminded him.
"What's it got to do with me? I was just reminding her that there are still many novel, bizarre life experiences, lest she live a boring life..."
Li Jiayu casually caught the object thrown by Lan Xiaoyue. Taking a closer look, it was clearly a box of Durex condoms. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry:
"Classmate Lan Xiaoyue... are you hinting at something? Unfortunately, I don't fancy your looks, so I won't be your f*ck buddy... Oh, forgot to mention, in the days to come, no man will use Durex or anything similar anymore. The specific reason, you should know even if I don't say it. Saying it will just make you girls uncomfortable..."
Lan Xiaoyue and Ran Hongxia didn't react immediately, unable to figure out why men would stop using Durex. Only Xiao Wanqing understood instantly the kind of miserable treatment women would suffer in an apocalypse without legal protection, without guaranteed safety, where the strong preyed on the weak.
"Right, also, combat personnel generally have very good physical fitness. None of them are fragile three-second quick-shooters. So Lan Xiaoyue, you can find a Berserker, have revelry night after night, guaranteed to make you forget everything else in pleasure."
"Li Jiayu! Go die!" Lan Xiaoyue was so angry her black hair stood on end like steel needles. If she didn't know she couldn't beat Li Jiayu, she would have run over and bitten him long ago.
Only Xiao Wanqing sighed slightly. This child, Li Jiayu... really is a headache. Why does he always have to provoke other team members? Would he lose a piece of flesh by getting along well with others? Hasn't he ever thought about being a qualified leader?
Being straightforward and saying whatever comes to mind is childish behavior! Li Jiayu possesses formidable strength and has gained the trust of his classmates, just establishing considerable prestige. With just one call, he could temporarily gain leadership of Xijiang University – hasn't he ever planned to build his own faction?
"Wait, Li Jiayu, you mentioned mutated grass and insect meat earlier... Can that red beetle really be eaten? Isn't it poisonous..." Chu Xiang asked.
"Naturally, it's not poisonous. Insect meat also has its benefits, much tastier than ordinary pork. Think about it, one eats human flesh, the other eats pig feed; the meat quality naturally can't be compared."
For some reason, hearing Li Jiayu's words, everyone looked at each other, silent. They just couldn't understand why Li Jiayu could remain so calm when talking about "human flesh"...
"Yo, they're here. Took them long enough," Li Jiayu looked towards the student supermarket's main entrance and said faintly.
At this time, it was probably already 6:20 PM. But under the influence of the thick thunderclouds, the light grew dimmer, equivalent to 5 AM, that vast grayness before the sun rises.
In probably another half hour, it would plunge into complete, boundless darkness, making it impossible to do anything!
"Please forgive us, we were delayed for a long time on the way..."
A leading axeman, the basketball team captain named Fang Zizhou, led seventy to eighty people rushing into the student supermarket through the rain. Seeing Li Jiayu's impatient gaze, he quickly explained.
"Why are there so few people?" Li Jiayu asked.
"Uh, originally we organized two hundred male students... But, before they even got down to the third floor, more than twenty couldn't stand the smell of blood, their legs gave out, unable to walk. Later, reaching the first floor, another small half vomited all over the place, completely drained of strength..." Fang Zizhou's hair was soaked with rain, dripping down his bangs across his face, making him shiver from the cold.
"Alright, alright! What a bunch of cowards. Fang Zizhou, quickly organize them to move useful things to the academic building. Prioritize energy-rich foods. Forget puffed foods like potato chips; eating them is useless... Move all the sportswear from the counters back too. And those curtains, bring them back as well; they can be used as blankets tonight. It seems there are still some thermal underwear stored in the warehouse from the winter break, go look for them... Oh, right, you also need to assign thirty people to follow me to the female dormitory to move things!"
Li Jiayu casually gave several orders, simultaneously stuffing a Red-Crested Beetle Insect Crystal into Fang Zizhou's hand:
"Work hard, this is your reward. You lead them in transport for now. Try to move more, make four or five trips before the sky completely darkens. The food for two thousand people depends on you..."
Saying this, Li Jiayu turned back to Chu Xiang and Chen Kun:
"You two stay here, protect the transport team. If any insects pop out somewhere, you should be able to handle two or three Venomous Spiders. But if Red-Crested Beetles appear, don't fight them head-on. Immediately have them flee for their lives and notify me, let me deal with the Red-Crested Beetles. Understood!"
"Got it. You be careful on the road too."
Chu Xiang and Chen Kun obediently stayed behind to protect the transport team, while Li Jiayu called over the remaining teammates and thirty transport members, heading towards the nearby female dormitory to attack.
Along the way, the various miracles Li Jiayu displayed left the thirty transport members dumbfounded. Holy crap, those terrifying Red-Crested Beetles were stabbed to death by Li Jiayu in just a few moves like piglets! Such dominance, such might! They watched Li Jiayu's back with fervent admiration. If Li Jiayu hadn't been so cold towards them, they might have wanted to imitate Wuxia novels and kowtow to become his disciples.
The female dormitory building had seven floors. The lower three floors had long been ravaged by insects, not a single person left alive. The female dormitory, usually yearned for by male students, had become a living hell. Beautiful women's underwear was scattered everywhere by the insects, their beautiful heads chewed into mush like rotten persimmons. Vaguely, some glimpses of skin could still be seen on their half-naked, mutilated corpses, but it was unlikely anyone would want to see such "scenic beauty."
"Damn it... You deserve to die... Pretty sisters... killed by you..."
The Dark Octopus's eyes looked ready to split with rage. It anxiously waved its tentacles beside the half-naked female corpses, wanting to piece their bodies back together, but how could they be pieced back? More than half had already gone into the insects' stomachs. The angrier it got, the more its body swelled. It actually beat Li Jiayu to the punch, directly rushing into a room containing insects, picking up the TV, computer, air conditioner, and everything else inside, and smashing two Venomous Spiders into meat paste!
Still not satisfied, as if injected with chicken blood, it rushed into another room, instantly wrapped around a Scythe Beetle, and using all its strength, its originally soft octopus tissues tensed into hard muscles, strangling the Scythe Beetle to death!
Li Jiayu watched, dumbfounded. He really didn't know the Dark Octopus would become so powerful after entering a berserk state!
Strangling a Scythe Beetle with its hard shell using just one tentacle – wasn't that too terrifying?
"Kill... Kill... Kill! Avenge the tragically died... pretty sisters..."
Its eyes red, the Dark Octopus completely lost control, no longer obeying Li Jiayu's commands. Brandishing its tentacles, it targeted insects and went on a killing spree, fully unleashing the dark nature of a Dark Octopus. It was practically a killing machine. Sometimes, when fighting too fiercely, a flick of its tentacle would crack walls, and it even picked up several wooden beds and threw them off the balcony!
Under the ferocious attacks of Li Jiayu and the Dark Octopus, the insects on the lower three floors were quickly wiped out. The girls on the fourth floor had originally been attacked by insects, half of them dead. Seeing the remaining dozen or so dorm rooms about to suffer the same fate, Li Jiayu took the lead, killing his way onto the fourth floor. Like a meteor, he swung his sword, annihilating the five Venomous Spiders in the hallway. Then, coordinating with his team, he stabbed the remaining Amoeboid and Red-Crested Beetle, turning them into ice sculptures!
"Alright... ladies, you are safe now. The insects have been eliminated. You can open your doors."
Li Jiayu knocked on a door. After a long pause, a timid girl cautiously pulled back a corner of the curtain to peek out. When she saw the hideous and disgusting insects being trampled under the foot of a white-haired stranger, she froze, letting out a scream that was unclear whether from surprise or joy. She called to her roommates behind her, spoke a few incoherent sentences, then excitedly opened the door, rushed into Li Jiayu's arms, and burst into tears.
"Alright, it's okay now. The insects are all eliminated, don't cry." Li Jiayu patted the girl's back, shrinking back slightly to separate her from his embrace. Hmm, he didn't want to get involved with girls he didn't know.
"They're all dead! I heard the screams from the dorm next door just now, and their curses and cries for help! Xiaolu and Nuanfeng, and Xiyao, they were some of the few remaining good friends from my class! They're all dead! Why did this happen? Where did those insects come from?"
The girl cried uncontrollably, speaking too quickly and choking on her saliva, painfully patting her chest, tears streaming down her face. The girls behind her also looked devastated, venting their negative emotions.
"..."
Facing the broken girls, hearing their babbling cries, Li Jiayu knew that saying anything at this time was useless. He directly let Xiao Wanqing take over, letting her do some ideological work, offer a few words of guidance. Then he called over the girls from the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors, briefly told them about the apocalyptic crisis, and organized them to pack useful things like blankets, winter clothes, underwear, snacks, etc., from the dorms into boxes and transfer them quickly!
The girls on the fourth floor who had nearly been eaten by insects were broken, too scared and weak to listen, so the boys from the transport team had to help them pack. Fortunately, the girls on the fifth, sixth, and seventh floors hadn't been scared into wetting themselves yet and were slightly calmer, so they could be directed.
"Uh, Li Jiayu, you ordered them to bring all the underwear. What's the use of that?" Watching the busy girls, Feng Liaoyuan asked secretly.
"Nonsense, so many girls in the academic building wet themselves... Don't you think they need a change of underwear?"
"Makes sense. Wise insight, brother. Truly a friend of women..."
"Cut the crap! I'm really not interested in these women!"
"You're not interested, doesn't mean they're not interested in you. Since ancient times, women have liked heroes, and also pretty boys. You possess both qualities..."
"Are you done yet?! With so much time to gossip, you might as well visualize 'Volcanic Eruption' and 'Lava Flow'! Hurry up and condense your fire magic!"
"Oh..."
Finding his attempt at banter rebuffed, Feng Liaoyuan muttered and didn't dare gossip anymore.
Conversely, that fellow, the Dark Octopus, had tears welling up in its huge copper-bell eyes. It watched emotionally as the girls busily packed clothes, then looked at the various underwear still hanging on the balconies. It bravely puffed out its chest, wearing an expression of righteous sacrifice, and declared powerfully:
"What... what a beautiful sight... As long as pretty sisters... can live peacefully... I... am willing to do anything..."
It took about ten minutes or so for the surviving girls in the dormitory building to finally finish packing. Led by Feng Liaoyuan and several axemen, they hurried towards the academic building.
Liberating one female dormitory and occupying the largest student supermarket, tonight's objectives were achieved. Although there were still several other academic buildings and laboratory buildings uncleared, and the male dormitory building was also in imminent danger, Li Jiayu and the others couldn't do anything more. After all, it was already late, almost completely dark. Continuing the campaign would only increase the danger.
Moreover... the insects had been rampaging for so long, they should have eaten their fill. The deaths of several thousand people had somewhat satisfied their destructive urges. Full and tired of playing, they likely wouldn't be too aggressive for a while. They just needed to rest tonight and find time tomorrow to liberate the rest of the campus.
However, as Li Jiayu and the others passed by the gymnasium, faint moans, like weeping or longing, drifted from inside. It sounded like girls crying, or perhaps moaning, or even more like female ghosts giggling seductively!
"What's that sound?"
Li Jiayu abruptly looked towards a specific area of the gymnasium – the dance studio, specifically for students to practice dancing. However, the main door there was now tightly locked. Presumably, many girls were dancing there before, and the students only locked the door after the insect disaster broke out?
It was highly likely that many frightened people were inside. Alright, since it was on the way, might as well remind them to quickly run to the academic building.
Seeing Li Jiayu walk towards the dance studio, Xiao Wanqing and the others paused, then followed. But suddenly—
A mutation occurred abruptly!
A withered, yellow tree vine suddenly shot out from the crack in the iron-sheet door, its speed terrifyingly fast, aiming straight to coil around Li Jiayu!
"Hmm? Abyss Demon Vine? Low-level trash, die for me!"