CHAPTER 41

The girls desperately tore the posters, throwing fragments of Li Haohao on the ground. They were enchanting and seductive, pure and innocent, lost in their own world. Nails scratched the paper, fluttering like a heavy snowfall. He Ran and the young Miss stood in the snow, watching the girls hopelessly scratching at the never-ending posters.

The young Miss briefly withdrew from her state of escape and had a conversation with He Ran about Li Haohao. Now she was fully focused on her role again, tears in her eyes as she glanced at He Ran, then closed her eyes in profound pain, unable to accept the truth.

He Ran now believed that none of the girls who resembled Li Haohao were actually her. Li Haohao had spoken to her, and the ruler of this polluted area had already decreed that it would soon end. This chaotic scene was the result of becoming "normal," and the result was good. The supply officer was still alive, well protected behind He Ran or in her embrace.

The girls cried and tore at the posters, their nails worn down, until they finally gave up in despair and turned away.

Someone suggested going back the same way they came, believing they could find a new route afterwards. So, they turned their hopeful gazes to the young Miss. After a brief silence, the young Miss sought He Ran's opinion, "What do you think?"

"I'll follow your lead. I'll walk ahead of you."

They decided to go back the same way they came. The train was still waiting at the platform, as if it had been waiting for a long time. He Ran walked at the forefront, reaching the door of the last carriage, holding onto the handrail. The train shook, and everyone remained silent.

At the halfway point where they were supposed to jump off the train, they lifted their legs, intending to jump out of the window, but hesitated. Going back the same way was also difficult, but they managed to return to the breeding center.

When the train reached the recycling station, they saw a person wearing a chef's uniform at the entrance.

The train door opened, and He Ran raised her gun.

She blew off the person's head, then got off the train and picked up their identification card.

It was 0922.

The young Miss poked her head out of the front of the train, asking, "The recycling station... what is this place?"

"The escape route went smoothly because of the recycling station. They set up the route and waited here to k!ll all of you in despair." He Ran explained. She held her throbbing head against the train door, looking at the elevator. There must be a handcart inside.

She felt consumed and assimilated by the despair in this area, unable to summon any spirit.

"Answer my question."

"This leads to the kitchen. They will be waiting here to transport the food supplies."

He Ran opened the elevator and pointed at the button for the 13th floor, showing it to everyone. After contemplating for a moment, she turned back and looked at the railway tracks. "We can also walk back along the railroad."

"No," the young Miss kicked the handcart out with her toe and stood inside the elevator. "Let's go to the kitchen."

"I remember you said it several times, that you like to eat raw... why?" He Ran didn't stop her, realizing at this moment that the polluted area was like flowing water. Li Haohao didn't intentionally attack her, so she followed the flow of the water, wanting to see how things would unfold. She also entered the elevator, and the other Li Haohao girls wanted to come in too, but the elevator was too small, only fitting six people.

"Because with raw, you can eat less," the mistress smiled. "We've already been eating people, so why worry about parasites..."

"Is it an excuse?"

"It's the only way."

The other girls seemed to know that the young Miss had eaten their flesh, but there was no anger on their faces, as if it was a very normal thing.

"If you just ignore it and focus on yourself, wouldn't that be fine?"

"They are me." the young Miss suddenly said a vague sentence. He Ran didn't know if it was symbolic or literal, but she didn't inquire further.

They reached the 13th floor, a total of eight people. They were originally waiting for the other girls to come up and gather, but for some reason, they didn't come up.

He Ran opened the cold storage room, and the hungry girls quickly devoured the cold dishes. In the corridor, they encountered two more people in uniforms. He Ran stabbed them from behind and dragged them into the cold storage room, freezing them.

"Should we go to the kitchen next? The route is like this, and you'll have to take me... no, the ID card of 0922..."

As He Ran explained the route to the kitchen that the young Miss was concerned about, she threw the bodies into a corner of the cold storage room. The young Miss looked around, while the other girls continued eating and observing. Suddenly, He Ran stood up and ran outside, then turned back and closed the cold storage room.

"He Ran... are you going to k!ll me?" It was the young Miss's shouting, and He Ran closed her eyes slightly.

Perhaps her sanity had completely reached its limit. The last time she froze someone in the cold storage room, it was the bodies of Zhao Xinyan and Lin Buxiu. At that time, she was no different from being insane.

This time was the same, but the difference was that it was Li Haohao's polluted area.

Just these eight girls going to the kitchen?

No, she would never allow Li Haohao to easily walk towards her fate.

Even if everything had already happened in another form, even if it was a feeble resistance like d3ath, she would make things different.

But her thoughts had already been eroded a lot. She had actually started making excuses for c*nnibalism. In a breeding center, humans are raised like livestock, and isn't the slaughter of livestock just to satisfy human needs?

But what about that poster? Do they have to m*lest, play with, and indulge before devouring the livestock? This is not normal. No matter what, she couldn't convince herself. She had sensed a twisted hedonism in the establishment of the recycling station.

She didn't want to be eaten by Li Haohao. She absolutely did not endorse this bizarre normalcy. What is Li Haohao thinking? Does she really think of herself as food so naturally?

But among pollutants, apart from assimilating each other, the only other option is being assimilated by the other. She was so weak. In this vast city of Daomiao, what was she? She only had two bullets left in her gun and a military bayonet.

She can disrupt this abnormality.

She turned and went to the recycling station. As expected, there was no one inside the carriage.

Sitting on the train, a translucent person pushed her, and she grabbed the handrail and stood. It took a long time, and the train finally departed.

Arriving at the initial corridor, everything seemed to have been reset. She pried open the gate again and walked out. This time, she decided to dismantle the gate and dragged it along, standing in front of the poster.

 Grand Opening, Night of Wild Dance. Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy to your heart's content.

Turning back, the semi-transparent glass revealed the scenery outside. She swung the gate like an iron fan and fiercely struck it.

Crash! The glass shattered, and He Ran sprinted and jumped out.

In the instant she jumped out, the tall building distorted, and the surroundings became viscous, as if being enveloped in chewed bubblegum. He Ran forcefully pulled out the knife and wildly swung it around.

But she quickly lost consciousness.

When she woke up again, she was lying in the corridor, her limbs aching. The supply officer was on her back, still unconscious.

She wanted to stand up and search again but was drawn to the attention of a poster on the wall.

It was Li Haohao, naked and with closed eyes, drenched in red wine from head to toe. Jewels were scattered on her body, like wounds. She tore off the poster and rolled it up. Underneath was another picture, showing Li Haohao in a sailor uniform tied to a desk, with marks of being slapped on her face.

He Ran didn't tear it anymore and looked down at the emergency exit. The emergency exit had been kicked in. She went to see that dead end.

It was a wall, and on the wall, it was written with bl*od and bits of flesh:

Where are you going?

Gradually, a line of bl*od characters emerged below: I am looking for you.

In the corridor, footsteps started to appear.

It was the sound of hard-soled shoes hitting the ground. He Ran turned around but found no one there.

However, her military reflexes made her immediately crouch down. Whoosh! A gust of wind swept over her head and slammed fiercely into the wall.

It was a bone cleaver.

The bone cleaver was embedded in the wall, and a man wearing a chef's hat appeared. He pulled the bone cleaver out of the wall with one hand and swung it horizontally towards He Ran, creating a whooshing sound.

He Ran drew her gun and fired at the man's head, but the man's head was like a master chef's, catching the bullet. The bullet dropped from his forehead with a clang.

He Ran quickly pulled out her military knife, realizing that she couldn't confront this man head-on. She dodged left and right, searching for an opportunity.

The man swung the large bone cleaver back and forth, aiming for her head without any hesitation.

But He Ran still k!lled him. When she pierced the man's throat with the knife, she realized that something was not quite right. She touched her back and felt the still-open wound from the torn chain. Her fatigue and injuries became more severe.

She checked her gun and saw that only one bullet was left. The military knife was also damaged, with many nicks, right on the verge of collapse.

In this state, she couldn't confront the head chef directly, or anyone for that matter.

She walked towards the iron gate, intending to dismantle it directly. But this time, she realized that the iron gate was welded to the concrete. The previous time it seemed so easy, but perhaps it was just due to the rusty face of the iron gate.

But she still managed to pry open a gap and squeezed through.

The train arrived, old and dilapidated, with shattered windows. The door opened, and a man wearing a uniform similar to Xiang Chenxi's lay face-down in the driver's seat. His face was completely shattered, and brain matter splattered on the windshield.

She stood at the door and looked inside, seeing seats piled with corpses, their intestines flowing on the ground.

These were the bodies of some young girls. She gently lifted the closest face and saw Li Haohao's twisted face, bl*od flowing from the back of her head, filling He Ran's palm, still warm.

She put it back in place and looked at another face leaning on the front seat, also Li Haohao.

The bodies in the carriage made it difficult for her to determine the cause of d3ath—whether it was stabbing, explosion, or gunshot wounds. She looked at them carefully, and suddenly the train started moving.

Silently, she walked among the corpses, grabbing onto a handle. When the train was halfway through, she jumped out of the window.

Feeling along the wall in the darkness, she finally found a door. It was easily pushed open, and inside, she indeed found Li Haohao's body scattered about.

Following this path would lead her back to the breeding center.

However, there was a slight deviation, and she almost took the wrong path.

Returning to the breeding center, all the doors were open, but there was no one inside.

She took the elevator from the breeding center to the rooftop.

Before reaching the rooftop, she smelled the aroma of grilled meat. Even though He Ran had lost her appetite for a long time, smelling this scent unexpectedly triggered an impulse to pounce and find food to eat.

The rooftop lawn was filled with guests' corpses, flowers, dining chairs, and tablecloths scattered everywhere like trash.

On the grill, the Governor lay there, his skin sizzling with oil.

He Ran didn't want to look at the pool closest to her.

The pool was overflowing with bl*od, and fish with sharp teeth were gnawing on a person's arm.

Next to the pool, a girl calmly used a dining knife to dissect a person's head. The one eating and the one being eaten had the same face.

Long hair soaked in bl*od became disheveled and messy.

She quietly chewed, and after a while, finished eating. She casually picked up a guest lying by the pool, opened her mouth wide, and split it open to an incomprehensible extent, stuffing a man's head into her mouth all at once.

Crunch, crunch.

Teeth crushed bones, and the girl's eyes stared at the intruder with a sinister gaze.

"Li Haohao."

"I'm so hungry." The voices coming from her throat were the collective cries of many people.

"If you're hungry, then eat."

The girl glared at her, but her hands were randomly grabbing something. When she opened her mouth, her tongue had already split in half.

Even so, she still grabbed a bottle of expensive-looking wine.

She opened her mouth and chewed the glass bottle.

Bl*od and wine overflowed from the corners of her lips.

He Ran held her chin and stuck her fingers into that horrifying mouth.

The glass fragment she extracted cut her finger. Li Haohao lifted her head to look at He Ran, who ran her fingers through her hair and slowly smoothed it out.

Li Haohao's eyes flickered, and she hugged He Ran's waist. "Are you going to eat?"

She pointed to the person on the grill. The grill automatically rolled, and the sauce soared into the air, smearing the Governor with it. He Ran noticed that the Governor wasn't as distorted as before; he had a handsome and distinct face, very similar to Li Haohao.

"Your father?"

"No."

Hunger seemed to have seized Li Haohao. After answering with just a sentence, she hurriedly stood up, picking up a person from the ground. Her mouth opened wider and wider, directly engulfing the person's shoulder, chewing as bl*od and flesh flew.

At that moment, He Ran realized that Li Haohao's body seemed to have grown larger.

"Are you... a bred girl?"

"I don't know. They ate me, and I ate too much of myself."

Li Haohao stuffed one person after another into her mouth. She turned her head, and there was little humanity left in her gaze. "I'm so hungry, I can never eat enough... I'm so hungry, He Ran..."

Unable to hold back any longer, Li Haohao transformed into a gigantic figure resembling a mountain. She grabbed the Governor from the grill as if grabbing a cricket and picked up people from the lawn as if grabbing a handful of popcorn.

They entered her stomach, and fragments of flesh and bl*od fell around He Ran.

Calm down, He Ran told herself.

But as Li Haohao's appetite continued to expand, He Ran's emotions were inexplicably stirred. It was as if she had become both the one being eaten and the one eating.

With each bite Li Haohao took, she grew a bit more. The arms she consumed became her own, the eyes she consumed became her own. It was as if she had indigestion, as the chewed food sprouted densely around her.

Her weight grew heavier and heavier. Every move she made caused the entire building to tremble.

Then, the building collapsed with a loud crash, but He Ran did not fall to the ground because Li Haohao had replaced the building, becoming that enormous monster.

He Ran remembered how the city of Daomiao was once like a dragon coiled on the earth. Now she stood high above, standing on Li Haohao's body, looking down and realizing that the raised dragon head had been replaced by Li Haohao, who was wriggling, searching for other food.

Were the pedestrians on the street innocent... or not? He Ran didn't dare to draw conclusions. Numbness spread through her limbs as she watched a strange, massive creature emerging from the collapsed building, extending its feeding apparatus and devouring—

Devouring, devouring...

He Ran closed her eyes, and the people on Li Haohao's body reached out their arms towards her, grabbing her. Each mouth howled in hunger, their voices different but converging in her ears, becoming Li Haohao's voice.

"He Ran, I'm hungry." Li Haohao looked at the cereal and threw a tantrum at He Ran. In the end, she cooked the cereal into porridge and ate it, still enjoying the taste.

The fried rice that wasn't delicious enough, the precious roasted chicken—Li Haohao sat by the small table, completely intoxicated by the aroma, stuffing everything into her mouth.

But even so, Li Haohao would still pick and search in her own bowl to share a bit of canned luncheon meat, although she later took it back. But how could that be Li Haohao's fault? It was He Ran herself who refused to eat.

How many people in this vast Daomiao City were truly innocent in Li Haohao's actions? But pollution cannot be fought with vengeance. Pollution is an abnormality that spreads, to the point where even another pollutant cannot face the present monster.

What did that monster become? Just a single glance would send a chill down your spine and cloud your mind.

Trapped in a forest of arms, He Ran had no choice but to watch as this city was being consumed by its own flesh and bl*od, devouring itself.

Closing her eyes, but it seemed that some arms reached out, pulling at her eyelids, forcing her to witness everything. She had nowhere to go, so she could only gouge out her own eyes, hold the eyeballs in her pocket, as she stumbled along.

Because she couldn't see, there were always things under her feet that she couldn't think about. She ran slowly, but still kept running. She heard people screaming, the sound of cars, loading guns, and the sounds of gunfire and explosions.

She even heard the sound of someone making a call. She followed the sound and found a headset, but couldn't find the person transmitting the message.

Don't transmit the message—just thinking that was already a futile hope. She felt another person wearing headphones, but immediately after, she felt a hand and a foot on top of their head.

Only a radio floating in a sea of flesh and meat remained, using this pollution to transmit a distress signal.

He Ran futilely rushed around on Li Haohao's body, feeling more and more things merging with Li Haohao. The things they ate were too diverse and abundant. He Ran, who hadn't been consumed, struggled to take a step, with nowhere to place her foot, yet she forced herself not to lie down.

"Li Haohao..."

She didn't know how long this consumption had been going on. In the moment before complete collapse, she raised her gun, aimed at her own head, and left the last bullet for herself.

Bang—

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