Mr. Yu has been infected.

I searched through Han Bo's two pockets and found a bunch of odds and ends; surprisingly, he didn't have his cigarettes with him, something he never did without. I sat down on the steps, dejected, my mind filled with nothing but swearing.

I've quit smoking, but in this extremely eerie environment, I really want to light up a cigarette to calm myself down and think about how to safely lead six grown men out of this haunted building.

That's right, six. Just a few minutes ago, Lai Yunfei joined the group of fallen members. He was talking to me when he suddenly stopped, his eyes went blank, and his flashlight fell to the ground with a thud. The moment I bent down to pick it up, he collapsed.

I checked each of them, and their breathing, pulse, and heartbeat were all normal. However, no matter how I patted them, they wouldn't wake up, as if they had fallen into a deep sleep.

My right hand was already weak, and my left hand, which was holding the flashlight, was trembling uncontrollably. If even one person were conscious, I wouldn't be so panicked as to have my hands shaking. There were sixteen floors below and eighteen floors above, and I was stuck in the awkward middle of the seventeenth floor. I couldn't carry it on my back or drag it away; I was completely trapped here.

There used to be a ventilation window at the stairwell connection, but someone had sealed it off with a steel plate, preventing any light from getting in. I tried to open the stairwell door, but it was locked. I listened closely, but there was no sound. The entire floor was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, making my breathing sound particularly loud.

There's definitely something strange about this building. It's either human interference or ghostly activity; everyone who enters is brought down by some mysterious force. Yu Zhongjian and his soldiers must have met the same fate. How can someone so effortlessly control dozens of lives? What is the controller's purpose? It's baffling.

I shuddered and forced myself to calm down. Of the seven-person team, I was the only one still alive and well. Apart from a dry throat, I felt fine, my mind was clear, and I had the strength. Whatever the reason that I hadn't been affected by the mysterious force for the time being, I couldn't just sit here and wait to die. Even if this building was a den of dragons and tigers, I had to venture in and at least find out who was behind it all.

I put down the flashlight, retied the triangular bandage, held the knife in my left hand, and with my right hand not moving very freely, I hung it on the submachine gun's chest strap and pulled the trigger. In case of a sudden crisis, I didn't plan to aim anymore; whoever I hit would be unlucky.

I glanced at the group of grown men again, feeling utterly helpless. I figured I'd just let them lie there; if a ghost really was haunting them, there was nothing I could do. I'd just take whoever was the most handsome. I stood up, ready to leave, when I suddenly heard an unusual noise.

"Squeak, patter, patter."

It sounded like someone opening and closing a door, followed by the sound of footsteps walking up the stairs. I froze for a second. Had the enemy arrived already? I couldn't get into the stairwell, going upstairs would make noise, and going downstairs to confront them head-on would leave me wondering about their strength. Most importantly, my brothers were still fast asleep on the ground. If the enemy outnumbered me, I couldn't protect six of them by myself.

The footsteps grew closer, and I quietly tucked the knife into my sleeve, squatted down silently, and leaned down onto Li Tonggu's chest.

"Pat, pat."

The person approaching didn't seem to be in a hurry; they walked at a leisurely pace. The closer they got, the more unusual the noises became. Besides the footsteps, there was also a strange "ha-ha" sound, which sounded just like the sound my grandmother made when her emphysema flared up.

The flashlight was still shining brightly on the steps beside us. We paused at the corner of the stairs for a while before continuing upwards, and soon we reached the stairwell on the seventeenth floor.

As the dark figure grew taller inch by inch on the opposite wall, from head to shoulder, I closed my eyes and suppressed my breathing.

What followed was quite a commotion, with panting and slurping sounds mixed in with the hiccups, followed by thuds. Curious, I couldn't resist prying my eyelids open a crack, only to see Han Bo's head disappear from the stairwell. He slammed his head against the steps with a series of thuds, being dragged down the stairs by the shadowy figure in an extremely brutal manner.

The ruthless shadowy figure made someone drop their head off the building!

When the next floor creaked again, I prayed for Han Bo with a heavy heart. He had gone down a whole floor, at least twenty steps. How could he possibly lose his head?

Is this thing a person or a monster? Where is it dragging Han Bo to? I think I need to go down and check it out.

I had just gotten up when the downstairs door opened again, and footsteps pattered up the stairs once more. I felt that Han Bo wouldn't have been killed so quickly; he was probably being dragged somewhere and locked up. I thought, should I keep one person in check? When it drags Zhou Yi downstairs, I'll follow behind and see if I can get a chance to launch a sneak attack.

My right hand injury hasn't fully healed, and my left hand is slightly weak. I have no chance of winning if we fight head-on!

Who would have thought that the shadowy figure would take a roundabout route when coming upstairs for the second time, ignoring Zhou Yi who was unconscious in the same spot as Han Bo, grabbing my legs and pulling me off Li Tonggu with a sudden force, dragging me backwards towards the stairwell.

Me: ......I used too much force and the submachine gun hit my face.

This position makes it impossible to launch a sneak attack unless I have the kind of blow needle that Lai Yunfei mentioned, which I would have to hide in my mouth and be confident that I could shoot the monster through its throat with one shot. Otherwise, given the way it drags me face to face, my hands are powerless and my feet are restrained, leaving me helpless.

I don't want to recall the process of going down the stairs, and I can't remember it anyway; my head was buzzing from hitting the steps. Maintaining the "unconscious" pose was already a testament to the exhaustion of my already limited acting skills and stamina, as I let the monster drag me to the sixteenth floor.

The stench on the sixteenth floor was even stronger, and the layers were chaotic and mixed with other components. There was the familiar smell of zombies, the fermenting smell of composted excrement, the rotting smell of expired raw meat, and a strange smell that was incongruous, sweet with a hint of sourness. All of these mixed together made it pungent and foul.

Not long after entering the floor, the monster took my sword and gun and emptied my pockets. When it approached me, I couldn't sense its presence; its panting sound was like being trapped in a tin can. Then it opened a door and threw me inside. I figured more brothers would be dragged in soon, so after it left, I didn't rush to get up. I just opened my eyes to look around—it was pitch black, so it didn't matter whether I opened them or not.

He reached out a hand and cautiously explored the surroundings. He hadn't gone more than ten centimeters when he touched something. He pinched it; it felt like fabric. He pressed it further; it was neither too soft nor too hard, but rather elastic—it was a person!

I abruptly withdrew my finger, held my breath for a while, and waited until the dark figure opened the door and threw another person in. I tilted my head, squinted, and quickly scanned the area using the little natural light from outside. The angle wasn't good, so I couldn't see the dark figure's appearance, but I could clearly see the scene within a meter in front of me.

The person I touched was Han Bo, who had been dragged down a few minutes earlier than me. It seemed that this was the room where the "spoils of war" were kept, and Yu Zhongjian might also be here.

I stopped making any rash moves and obediently closed my eyes, waiting for my brothers to arrive. The shadowy figure didn't seem to mind the effort, dragging the door back and forth, and after dragging the last one, his panting was noticeably louder than before. I waited for a long time, until I could hear no sound for ten minutes, before opening my eyes and finding the door confidently ajar.

The windows of this room were also sealed off, blocking out natural light, and the pungent smell was even stronger than in the corridor. I quickly got up, carefully avoiding the people at my feet, and moved to the door. I used my finger to pry the door open wider and peered out through one eye.

The outside light was dim, but it was still visible from the darker areas. Opposite this room was the bathroom, and to the right of the bathroom was the stairwell, which appeared to be at the end of the corridor. I peeked halfway down the corridor; the shadowy figure was gone, and there were offices on both sides, their doors tightly shut. Judging from the location, the room where the survivors were calling for help should be in the middle, but I hadn't heard anyone speak. He claimed that half of the dozens of survivors had starved to death—where were the other half?

So I opened the door to let in the light, and when I looked back, there were six men lying haphazardly on the ground, all of them from our team.

The room wasn't big; there wasn't enough room for more people to lie down. I concluded that Yu Zhongjian had been imprisoned elsewhere by the shadowy figures or their kind. Before finding a way to break his unconsciousness, it wasn't advisable to confront the shadowy figures head-on. Firstly, my combat strength was insufficient, and secondly, I had to be wary of their potential suicide attacks. With zombies besieging the city and building, being rescued was the only way out. Not only did they refuse to help, but they also wiped out all the rescuers—this wasn't something a normal person would do.

The shadowy figure wasn't a monster. The hand that searched me was warm, and when it pulled the submachine gun off my neck, its fingers even touched my face. It was definitely a person.

As for the panting, that wasn't the sound of a monster breathing. If you connect the dots, it makes sense. The smell here is unusual; anyone who enters the building will faint. Why isn't he fainting? He must be wearing a gas mask!

Of course, I didn't get dizzy. Being exposed to the mysterious gas for so long with my bare head exposed only made my throat feel parched; I didn't feel dizzy at all. It couldn't be that the shadowy figure took pity on me and let me go; it must be some extraordinary talent of mine!

I walked through the poisonous gas unscathed. With great power comes great responsibility. Facing a room full of weak, pitiful, and helpless unconscious men, the burden on my shoulders was heavy. My time to be tested had come. Destroying the dark organization and rescuing my teammates as hostages depended entirely on me.

He crouched down and patted each of them down, finding a dagger, a high-powered flashlight, and several signal flares. He slipped out, closed the door behind him, and peered along the wall towards the other end of the corridor.

After searching the entire floor twice, I was a bit dumbfounded. The other rooms were empty, all the visible windows were sealed shut, only the room with the SOS sign was open, and there were drag marks inside, that was all.

I ran to the window and took a few breaths of normal air. So the sixteenth floor wasn't the Dark Organization's base. Then it must be the fifteenth floor.

So I went down to the fifteenth floor and cautiously and furtively looked around, but no one was there. Then I went down to the fourteenth floor, still no one. The thirteenth floor, still no one. The twelfth floor, still no one.

What on earth is going on? I was initially excited by the fact that the "shadow was a person," but suddenly I started to panic again. Standing in the corridor on the twelfth floor, I could hear the howls of the zombie horde below and the sound of artillery shells exploding in the distance, but the building was eerily quiet. The shadow was gone, and Yu Zhongjian and the other twenty-odd soldiers were nowhere to be found. I had no choice but to continue exploring downwards.

Eleventh floor, tenth floor, ninth floor, eighth floor... I was panting heavily. Checking each floor had exhausted me, but I found nothing. There was no one, no ghosts, only a mysterious gas that I could smell for a long time without getting tired of it.

Later, I relaxed a bit, no longer dodging or tense, casually twirling the dagger in my hand as I checked the floors, just as relaxed and carefree as when I was on duty at the veterans' barracks. It wasn't until I finished checking everything and went down to the lobby on the first floor that I finally felt a sense of tension again—piles of zombies swarmed outside the electric gates at the building entrance, the tempered glass smeared with blood, and ghostly claws frantically scratching downwards, making a crunching sound.

As if they had discovered living people here, the horde of zombies became agitated, relentlessly scratching at the glass and trying to break through the door. I felt that the door was wobbly and not very sturdy; once the zombies broke through, the building would be completely finished.

But where are the hostages? Where is Yu Zhongjian? Where is the shadowy figure? Where did they all go?

I quickly searched both sides of the lobby, but the windows were either sealed or the doors were locked. One of the rooms had a sign that said "Monitoring Room." I stared at those words for a while. Monitoring Room? What kind of monitoring room can you have without electricity!

There are still floors 18 to 30 left to check, but I don't have the energy to run up there anymore. I figured the building should have a basement or parking garage, so I went back down to the fire escape to the lower level.

The second basement level is the garage, and the first basement level is probably where the garbage transfer station, the generator room, and various pipes are located. A large door blocked the fire escape. I found the keyhole, turned off my flashlight, and tried to poke it open with the tip of a knife in the dark for a long time, but I couldn't.

I had to go in because I could hear zombie noises coming from inside. There were barely enthusiastic shouts of "Hungry!" and the rattling of chains dragging on the concrete floor. Chains, zombies—it was hard not to think of something.

Unable to pry open the lock, I instead wedged the tip of the knife into the door crack and pried. After prying twice, I listened carefully for any unusual activity. Since the dark figure didn't appear for a long time, I went all out to deal with the door.

The zombie sensed my presence but seemed unable to get close, swinging its chains and roaring helplessly for a while. I struggled with the lock for ten minutes, trying to pry it open, but I couldn't. The dagger was digging painfully into my palm.

Searching the building, picking locks—everything was incredibly frustrating. I thought to myself, "If it doesn't work, I'll just kick it down." Searching like this wasn't going to work. Besides the shadowy figure, I hadn't seen any other members of the Dark Organization yet. But whether it was one person or a group, I was alone. Sooner or later, I'd have to face them head-on. The worst that could happen was I'd fight to the death!

"Damn it!" I cursed, took two steps back, took a deep breath, and lifted my foot to push off, when a hand suddenly covered my mouth.

"Waaah!"

Before I could even express my terror, that hand fell limply to my side, resting on my right shoulder. Then another hand landed on my left shoulder, a heavy weight pressing down on me, and a soft, weak voice whispered in my ear, "Why are you here?"

I hurriedly turned around and grabbed her swaying body, my fear turning into surprise: "Shouldn't I be asking you that? How did you get here? Why didn't you faint? Where were you locked up? How did you escape?"

The stairwell was dark, especially the basement level. I couldn't see his face, but my senses told me he was in very bad shape. He could barely stand; it was as if he would collapse if I let go.

"Go...go down and talk."

I turned on the flashlight, bit down, turned around, picked him up, and, enduring the pain in my right arm, used all my strength to carry him down the stairs to the second basement level.

The small door here wasn't locked and led directly to the garage. I put him down by the stairs and ran out to take a look. The garage was huge, with many cars parked inside, and dozens of people were lying haphazardly on the ground between the vehicles.

They were carelessly tossed on the ground like trash, oblivious to everything. I counted them by head; they were all here: thirty soldiers, and a few others in civilian clothes who appeared to be survivors.

Back in the stairwell, I helped the man who was leaning against the railing to sit up straight: "Are you alright?"

He didn't look well at all, so he didn't answer my nonsense, but instead asked, "Why did you come?"

"I'm here to save you."

He said weakly, "How...how can Gao Chen do things like this? He's just being ridiculous."

I sighed, "You're already in this state, so stop trying to act like an official. Tell me what's going on here and find a way out quickly."

“It must be a new type of anesthetic, not easily detected when mixed with other odors,” he said, then tried to show off again, “You shouldn’t have come. Give me... another day to recover, and I can handle it.”

Yu Zhongjian was infected, something he never expected. He brought all his equipment except a gas mask. Of course, we can't blame him; he had already assumed the worst of his opponents, only to be taken down before even seeing them, just like us. The entire building was filled with this gas; it was impossible to defend against.

He brought ten soldiers, who, after bombing to clear a path, entered through the back door of the building. They searched from the first floor to about the tenth floor, but found no survivors or former rescue team members. The soldiers all fainted for no apparent reason. Yu Zhongjian was slightly stronger than the others and managed to survive for two more floors. When he woke up, he was already lying in the underground parking garage.

He was awake, but weak, barely able to stay conscious, unable to fight back against the dark organization. It took him an unknown amount of time to go from being completely immobile to being able to climb a few meters. Before I arrived, he was still trying to recover his strength, attempting to climb from basement level two to basement level one, and heard me on the stairs.

Because it was so dark, no one could see anyone else. He quietly lurked at the bottom of the stairs, listening to me try to pry open the door, until I swore...

"So, you haven't even seen who the other person is?"

The way Yu Zhongjian covered my mouth was a burst of energy, using all his strength. He was swaying and weak, and after a couple of wobbles, his head tilted to the side and leaned on my shoulder. "I've seen him. He wears a gas mask and drags people upstairs from downstairs. I've calculated the time; he drags people upstairs on average every six hours, and he only picks ordinary survivors, probably those who were tricked into coming here before."

Seeing how weak he was, I felt bad about pushing him away, so I raised my right shoulder to make him more comfortable: "What is he doing dragging people around? I found zombies locked up on the basement level. Is he feeding them to the zombies?"

Yu Zhongjian confirmed my guess: "Besides, there is no reason for him to do such a thing. He is hunting and feeding the zombies."

"Holy crap," I felt a chill run down my spine, "This guy is insane. I don't know if it's one person or several. If it's just one, I can handle him. I'm unaffected by the gas, I'm perfectly fine."

He struggled to raise his hand and placed it on my right hand: "You're going to deal with this? Your right hand isn't fully healed, how are you going to deal with this? And who told you to remove the cast?"

I awkwardly pulled my hand away, unsure of what to say next. We're already in a drug den, can't we stop pretending to be a domineering CEO?

Just then, a loud rumbling sound came from somewhere, and a buzzing vibration was right next to me. I listened alertly, not daring to make a sound. Yu Zhongjian didn't seem to care much: "It's the motor restarting, releasing toxic gas, for turning on the elevator and the surveillance cameras."

I exclaimed in surprise, "There are surveillance cameras here too?"

“It’s in all areas,” he said, shifting his head closer to my neck, “except the stairwell.”

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

The white moonlight shines on both ends of the world... If there are only two ends, there's no drama left, so the white moonlight isn't the male lead.