Battle Royale

"quick!"

Xu Cheng directed the police and doctors to methodically carry the injured Li Juan onto a stretcher and then into the ambulance.

Afterwards, he walked outside and waved to the crowd of people surrounding him, saying with a serious face, "Go away."

Luo Tan's voice and the grand fireworks show not only brought the police, but also attracted a large group of onlookers.

It was already very late at night. Some people yawned and walked back with their families, but some were reluctant to leave. They still stared at the police's actions, looking unsatisfied and obviously wanting to continue watching.

"Make way, make way!"

A policeman came out with his back to the crowd. He and another policeman were carrying a stretcher on which lay the corpse of a monster, covered with a layer of white cloth.

One of the policemen suddenly stumbled, and he stood firm the next second, but the monster's body was exposed under the white cloth.

The upper half of the monster had completely turned into a fish shape, with a damp and sticky skin, staring with dead fish eyes, and a bloody mouth. The snow-white teeth were densely arranged, almost extending out of the mouth. Below the waist were still the legs of the human Wang Li. The upper and lower parts were combined together in an extremely uncoordinated manner, giving off a strange and terrifying feeling.

The people who remained at the scene almost stopped breathing, staring at the monster on the stretcher without blinking.

The atmosphere was extremely quiet, but there was also a sense of unnatural weirdness spreading.

Luo Chen was standing with other police officers, watching the piranha's body being transported and disposed of, when she suddenly received an alarm from the system - a new red dot appeared.

She clicked on the red dot of the warning and found that the location of the new natural disaster was still nearby.

[Hey, what's going on? A new natural disaster?]

At the same time she saw the red dot, she suddenly felt that the policeman beside her was breathing heavily and glanced at her vaguely.

[Why is he looking at me?] Puzzled, Luo Tan cast her eyes towards the policeman who was spying on her, but she discovered that the policeman named Xu Cheng had already retracted his gaze and was looking straight ahead with his lips straight, as if nothing had happened.

[Maybe I saw it wrong.] Luo Tan thought.

【I need to quickly see what natural disaster will happen next.】

Out of her sight, countless ears stood up, chasing new information like sunflowers chasing the sun.

Xu Cheng thought, how come there is still a natural disaster? It seems to be very close to here?

Other police officers: ...When will this ever end in the middle of the night? There is no overtime pay. Natural disasters cannot occur during the day again. Let me get some sleep.

The crowd watching is rubbing their hands in anticipation: Modo Modo, it’s time to eat melons again!

Luo Tan looked intently at the animated graphics displayed by the system.

Without exception, everyone else present was looking at her expectantly with their remaining eyes.

[Eh? What is that in the picture? People are running away on this street, the police are firing bullets randomly, and there is something chasing them from behind. Oh my god, what is that?]

Police:?

They looked towards the calm crowd, and the calm crowd looked back at them with confusion and innocence, with the expression on their faces: they didn't want to run away, they just wanted to eat melons.

"..."The police silently prepared their guns and bullets.

Xu Cheng stood on tiptoe, looking over the heads of countless colleagues and the crowd, wanting to see what terrible monster would appear behind.

Before they knew it, the atmosphere had become tense and anxious. The previous whispers were almost inaudible, and everyone was on high alert.

[Ahhhhhhh! So many piranhas are chasing after us! So that's how it is. The piranha virus in Li Juan's husband didn't appear out of nowhere. It was transmitted by other people! He then infected others! In short, some of the onlookers have been infected with the piranha virus, but have not yet entered the final mutation stage. However, seeing Wang Li's deteriorating condition with their own eyes has accelerated their mutation!]

Xu Cheng's face froze, and he glanced at the crowd. He keenly saw a man in the crowd opening his mouth to bite his side. Without thinking, he raised his wrist and fired a shot, which just pierced the man's neck. He stepped forward and saw a new fish fin under the mark of the bullet.

"Ah? Husband?" The woman who was holding his arm glared at Xu Cheng and slapped him in the face: "Can police do whatever they want?" Before the palm strike ended, the woman saw the open bloody mouth of the victim and the densely packed fangs in it. She was stunned for a moment and withdrew her hand.

The crowd gradually realized what was happening, and someone started shouting, "Run! The monster is coming! Run for your life!"

In a blink of an eye, four or five people rushed out first. They were like a drop of boiling water falling into the originally calm hot oil, causing more people who did not know the truth to panic and flee in all directions.

"You can't run!" Xu Cheng pointed the gun towards the sky and pulled the trigger.

"Bang, bang, bang!" After a few gunshots, some people woke up and stopped their panicked steps, but more people still desperately tore open a gap in the crowd and rushed out.

[The mutants have already mixed into the ranks of the general population. If we let them get out, it will be bad! They will spread the mutant virus to the entire city! ]

Can’t run?

A woman suddenly reacted and stopped dead in her tracks.

When she paused, the person behind her didn't have time to brake and stumbled. He immediately yelled in anger: "What are you doing!"

The woman refused to give in: "Why are you running? Did you hear me? You are not allowed to run! You, the grandson of a turtle, are responsible for letting the monster out?"

…

Similar curses and shoves occurred in countless corners, but in the end, most people calmed down and stopped rushing out regardless of everything.

Only the last few who continued to run were caught by the police. In just a few minutes, they turned into piranhas just like Wang Li.

The survivors patted their chests to calm their pounding hearts:

Fortunately, I listened to the voice's instructions at the critical moment, otherwise if I really "escaped" with the monsters, it would have turned into a battle royale event with zombies besieging the city.

Throughout the chaos, Luo Tan remained motionless, leaning against the outer wall of Li Juan's house, standing with her arms folded. At this moment, she felt a dark shadow cast in front of her side.

She raised her head and saw the policeman who had fallen flat on his face in front of her not long ago.

A smile flashed in her eyes, and then it spread to her cheeks and lips without her noticing.

[Although it was not very polite, it is still very funny when I think back on it.]

Xu Cheng: "..."

He tried to calm down, then said sincerely: "I want to ask, how long do you think it will take for all the potential infected people to be exposed?"

Luo Tan answered briskly, "How should I know?"

But in her heart:

[This person is really strange, why did he ask me this all of a sudden? But this is a really smart and good question, let me look up the monster information. ]

Xu Cheng's eyes lit up, and he racked his brains to come up with a line. Without arousing her suspicion, he insisted, "You are... heroic, and the move you just made is... worthy of being called a martial arts master, so I want to ask for your guess."

“Hahahahahahahahaha!” Luo Tan almost laughed herself to death. She reached out and patted Xu Cheng’s police hat, stared at his slightly red face, and couldn’t help laughing and said, “Young man, take a look at your brain!”

The next second, she said what she thought: "I think, about two hours."

For the next two hours, Xu Cheng asked all the people to stay where they were, with a distance of one meter between each person. The police stood outside with guns in hand, ready to shoot anyone who made any unusual movement.

In the first half hour, ten humanoids turned into piranhas, but just as the monsters lost their minds and pounced on the people around them, they were hit by a bullet through the vitals and fell down.

As time goes by, fewer and fewer new monsters are discovered.

With only ten minutes left before the two-hour deadline, Xu Cheng said to a young policeman on patrol: "You don't look well. Go home and have a good rest today."

The police said nothing.

Xu Cheng felt something was a little strange. When he was about to turn around and warn him again, he suddenly felt a strong gust of wind behind him.

Years of hard training and practical experience saved him. Without thinking, Xu Cheng bent down and somersaulted forward, barely avoiding the fatal blow that was heading straight for his heart.

When he turned around, there was no young policeman there. Instead, there was a fish-faced monster in uniform!

The piranha quickly opened its bloody mouth and bit his neck.

"Bang!"

A bullet pierced the piranha's heart.

Xu Cheng gritted his teeth, his fingers trembled, and he could hardly hold the gun that was steaming with gunpowder.

"Are you okay? Captain Xu!"

"Are you not hurt?"

“…”

Words filled with worry and concern rang in Xu Cheng's ears. After a while, he squeezed out a sentence: "How did he get infected?"

The police found a shallow tooth mark on the back of their dead colleague's hand.

"Ah!" A policeman suddenly realized, "He and I were carrying the carcass of a piranha just now. When he was walking out, he staggered a bit. I asked him what happened, and he said he felt like the piranha's teeth had touched him."

As he spoke, his voice became quieter and quieter until he burst into tears: "If I had questioned him earlier and discovered the wound on his hand, would he not have changed?"

Xu Cheng shook his head and said nothing more.

He was also in a heavy mood, but he could not show his sadness in public, otherwise it would cause his colleagues to feel even more guilty.

He took a deep breath, calmed himself, and said, "Except for those sent to the capital planet for research, all piranha carcasses must be destroyed. Even if they are dead, their teeth still carry toxins. Everyone must be careful when handling them."

“Ding ding ding——”

The alarm rang, and the long two-hour countdown finally came to an end.