Chapter 157
Chapter 157
Ji Feifan stood at the edge of the rooftop, clutching a drone controller. The glow of its screen flickered across his face as the feed shifted.
Ruins. Dead trees. An abandoned car overturned on its side.
The camera swept across the snow. Suddenly, several shadows in the feed moved.
They weren’t swaying aimlessly like Madmen. They were human–they were warily dodging and quickly searching for cover.
Ji Feifan’s heart skipped a beat. He immediately zoomed in.
There were seven people in the snow.
Three men and four women, bundled in ragged camouflage netting and padded coats. They scanned their surroundings with every step.
But… they were in terrible shape. Once he zoomed in, he could clearly see them stop every few steps to scoop up handfuls of snow and stuff it into their mouths.
They… were probably almost out of food and ammunition too.
Ji Feifan stared at the screen, rapidly weighing whether he should capture them.
No. He couldn’t bring people in this often.
“Hey.”
A hoarse voice shattered the deathly silence behind him.
At some point, the brawny Madman had come to stand less than two meters behind him. It held a walkie-talkie in one hand, its scarlet eyes fixed unblinkingly on him.
“Cat says,” it slurred, baring its teeth, “they’ve surrounded a group of survivors. He wants you to bring them out.”
Ji Feifan’s fingers clenched, his nails digging into the controller’s plastic casing.
Not again.
He had to play this disgusting game again.
The Madmen could have swarmed those people and torn them apart with their bare hands. But they wouldn’t. They liked watching the show. They insisted on sending him-a human-to act out a little performance of “rescue.”
They wanted the survivors to believe their savior had arrived. They wanted them to climb into his vehicle and think they had finally been saved.
Then, at the moment they were most relaxed and overwhelmed with gratitude, he would deliver them straight into hell.
The Madmen loved watching that. They loved seeing the hope on human faces turn to despair, their laughter dissolve into tears, and the look in their eyes at the very end.
Ji Feifan had played this role many times. Every time he did, he felt himself becoming a Madman too.
“How many?” he asked without looking back.
“Five.”
The tension in Ji Feifan’s heart abruptly eased. It wasn’t the seven people he had just seen. He stared at the screen and swallowed. “Got it.”
Then he packed away the drone and switched off the screen, his face devoid of emotion.
Ji Feifan turned and walked past the brawny Madman. The stench of blood clinging to it made his stomach churn.
A battered jeep was parked downstairs.
The Madmen had provided it for his “work.” Its body was covered in scratches, dried blood, and dust. It looked authentic.
Ji Feifan climbed into the driver’s seat, while the Madman took the passenger side. He glanced at its completely covered face, started the engine, and drove in the direction Cat had given him.
Ji Feifan spotted the ring of Madmen from afar.
Twenty or thirty Madmen had formed a circle around five people, trapping them in an open patch of ground. They didn’t charge in to rip and bite. They simply surrounded their prey, laughing and jumping like cats toying with a few mice.
Their heavy winter clothing made them look like bloated balls of cotton. Their movements were clumsy and stiff, and whenever they jumped, their bodies swayed and their feet stumbled, like leaden puppets lurching wildly across the snow. The sight was grotesque and almost comical.
But… no one could laugh.
The five people were huddled together back-to-back, their faces filled with despair. Those with guns fired, while those without swung knives and axes, desperately hacking at the Madmen. But their ammunition was already gone. Their movements grew slower and slower, and their faces were ashen with hopelessness.
Ji Feifan stared at the Madmen and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
As he watched the trapped humans, he thought of himself.
That was his future.
He couldn’t keep finding humans for the Madmen forever. Sooner or later, there would be no humans left to find.
And the day that happened would be the day he died.
He narrowed his eyes, his gaze instantly turning vicious.
Then let’s begin.
He floored the accelerator and sent the car hurtling straight at the group of Madmen!
Bang!
The first Madman was sent flying, crashing into the snow like a tattered sack.
Bang!
The second was dragged beneath the car.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As if he had gone mad, he plowed through the group of Madmen, sending them flying one after another. The car bucked violently, and blood spattered across the windshield. He didn’t slow down. Instead, he accelerated, as though determined to smash this hell to pieces.
In the passenger seat, the burly Madman was utterly dumbfounded.
Its crimson eyes widened as it turned to stare at Ji Feifan-at the “Hound” who had always been as obedient as a dog, yet had suddenly gone berserk.
Ji Feifan gave it no chance to speak. He slammed on the brakes, and the tires carved an arc through the snow. Turning his head, he fixed the Madman with a vicious glare and said in a low, hoarse voice,
“It’s an act. If we don’t sacrifice a few, how will the people inside believe us?”
The burly Madman froze. It looked at its fellow Madmen who had been sent flying outside, then at the survivors whose shocked faces lit up with hope at their unexpected rescue.
Its twisted brain seemed to decide… that made sense.
So it nodded and spread its lips in an approving grin. “Makes sense.”
Then it flung open the door and jumped out. Drawing a massive cleaver from its waist, it strode toward the Madmen still surrounding the survivors.
Squelch.
Squelch.
Squelch.
It cut down seven or eight Madmen as easily as chopping cabbages. As it hacked away, its shoulders shook with silent, manic laughter beneath its mask, as if it were savoring the climax of this “act.”
Ji Feifan sat behind the wheel and watched it slaughter them.
He tightened his grip on the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. His hands were trembling, fear, excitement, and dread tangling together inside him.
It would be best if it killed them all.
His gaze was as cold as a blade. One day, I’ll butcher every last one of you bastards too.
He took a deep breath, pulled down his mask, and shouted at the survivors who had been scared senseless, “Get in! Come with me!”
The survivors finally moved. Without the slightest hesitation, they stumbled into the car and crammed themselves into the back seat.
Ji Feifan started the engine and floored the accelerator. The car shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow!
Behind them, the remaining Madmen gave chase, but he quickly left them far behind.
In the back seat, one woman clutched another’s hand as tears streamed uncontrollably down her face. Heaven has finally shown us mercy.
Ji Feifan watched them through the rearview mirror, the corner of his mouth curving into a smile no one could understand.
Had they… survived?
The car sped across the snow. At the fork ahead, another ring of Madmen stood waiting, smiling and waving at the approaching car.
Then the car suddenly stopped.
The women could only watch as the Madmen closed in from every direction.
“Don’t stop!!”
The woman in the back seat finally screamed, her shrill voice cracking. Another survivor lunged forward and tried to grab the steering wheel, only to be pinned down by the “person” in the passenger seat.
Ji Feifan didn’t look back. His hands rested on the steering wheel, his gaze calmly fixed ahead. He knew what was about to happen.
The survivor struggled. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw the “person” in the passenger seat slowly turning its face toward her.
She saw a pair of half-hidden, crimson eyes.
The burly Madman in the passenger seat could no longer restrain itself. It turned to look at the terrified faces in the back seat, opened its mouth, and let out a scalp-prickling laugh from deep in its throat.
Outside the car, the Madmen surrounding them saw what was happening inside and joined in the laughter.
“Kekekekekeke…”