Shen Feng felt every hair on his body stand on end. Despite the roasting heat of the fire beside him, it was as if he'd been plunged into an icy abyss.
'What the fuck is that thing?!'
'It looks just like a skinned person!'
'How is it still moving?!'
"AHHHHH—"
Suddenly, the skinned humanoid creature below threw its head back and let out a bloodcurdling scream!
Its crimson facial muscles stretched to the sides, forming a horrifying grin. With a single bound, it leaped up to the windowsill outside the second floor and began crawling toward Shen Feng's window!
"Human? Back off! Stop!" Shen Feng shouted.
The Skinner's eyes suddenly darted, and it hissed again, "Burn... burn you!"
'This thing... can talk?!'
Shen Feng had no time to think. The Skinner had already leaped toward his window!
Shen Feng swung the muzzle around and pulled the trigger.
"BOOM!"
With a tremendous bang, the Shotgun instantly blasted a bowl-sized hole in the Skinner's body, sending it plummeting from mid-air to the ground.
A flash of clarity flickered in the Skinner's eyes, followed by a faint smile of relief before it went completely still.
Shen Feng had just breathed a sigh of relief when a series of roars, followed by the sound of frantic footsteps, echoed from the dark street outside.
Illuminated by the starlight and the faint glow of the fire, one ghostly figure after another was heading toward the police station.
'They're all those monsters!'
'What in the world are they?!'
Shen Feng took out his phone and opened the "True Apocalypse Game." A notification immediately appeared:
"Mutated creature from the Stone Statue Apocalypse discovered: Skinner. Side Quest notification: Find the cause of the Skinner mutation. Collect ten Skinner brain tissue samples. Does the player accept?"
"Completing the mission will grant a generous reward. If the player refuses to accept the mission, they will receive an unknown punishment."
'This is a fucking mandatory quest, and you have the nerve to ask if I accept?!'
"Accept!" Shen Feng roared, slamming the button. He tossed the phone aside, grabbed the various weapons from the floor, threw them into a corner, and started frantically dragging the tables and chairs in the lobby.
'The Skinners are right outside. It's too late to run. It's even too late to find a new defensive position and take all the weapons with me.'
'I have to fight here!'
Shen Feng forcefully dragged a heavy, solid wood table over, tipping it on its side in front of him. He then set up several chairs to block the way forward.
The tables, chairs, and the corner walls formed a simple fortification.
Shen Feng clicked the safeties off the submachine gun and two handguns, laying them all out in front of him. He also placed all the ammunition and grenades within easy reach.
'And the fire!'
Shen Feng took a few steps forward, about to add more wood to the fire, when a loud CRASH echoed from the floor-to-ceiling window. A Skinner had shattered the glass and leaped inside.
Sharp shards of glass sliced through the Skinner's body tissue, especially its exposed blood vessels, and blood gushed out. But the Skinner seemed to feel nothing, charging madly toward Shen Feng!
Shen Feng braced the Shotgun's stock against his shoulder, aimed at the Skinner, and pulled the trigger!
"BOOM!"
The gunshot echoed through the empty building. The Skinner's head was instantly hit by a spray of steel pellets and burst open!
"CRASH! CLANG!"
Another cacophony of noise, mixed with chaotic footsteps. Three Skinners appeared before Shen Feng from two different directions, pouncing at him simultaneously.
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" Shen Feng fired three consecutive shots. The three Skinners fell, but the distance was too short. The last one had been less than a meter away from him.
The sound of running footsteps came again. This time, a full five Skinners appeared from the direction of the hallway, roaring as they charged.
The Skinners' bodies seemed to be sticky; two of them were actually crawling horizontally along the wall.
Their speed was incredible. They were in front of him almost as soon as they appeared!
At that moment, Shen Feng had just raised the submachine gun. His eyes widened, and he immediately pulled the trigger on the skinless monsters!
"DAKA-DAKA-DAKA-DAKA-DAKA..." Muzzle flashes flickered. The powerful recoil made Shen Feng's hands go numb, the muzzle jumping wildly. Thirty rounds were fired in less than three seconds!
Luckily, the range was point-blank. All five Skinners were hit and fell to the ground, wailing.
Shen Feng immediately slapped in a new magazine, sprayed another burst toward the window to knock down three more Skinners that had just climbed in, then dropped the submachine gun and picked up a handgun.
Though wounded, the three Skinners weren't dead. As if they couldn't feel pain, they got up and charged at Shen Feng again, but the tables and chairs slowed them down.
Shen Feng immediately squeezed the trigger, firing repeatedly to put the three Skinners down for good.
He had now discovered that although these Skinners looked terrifying, their defenses weren't very strong, aside from being much faster than ordinary people.
'When they're injured, they bleed and fall just the same!'
'A hit to a vital spot will kill them quickly.'
With a grim expression, Shen Feng reloaded the Shotgun, stepped over the large desk blocking his path, walked up to a Skinner that was still roaring and struggling, and pulled the trigger without a change in expression.
A series of gunshots followed, and the remaining few Skinners that were still breathing were all finished off.
The fire, having run out of fuel, died out completely, and the entire lobby was plunged into darkness.
Shen Feng held his breath, standing by the window with the Shotgun at the ready. He carefully scanned the dark lobby, listening for any faint sound, on guard for new enemies.
He stood motionless, as if he too had turned into a stone statue.
Faint starlight trickled in from the window, illuminating the guns and blood, like an oil painting created by the Grim Reaper himself.
After about ten minutes, he could no longer hear any sounds from the Skinners. Confirming there were no more threats in the vicinity, Shen Feng finally began to move slowly in the darkness, stooping down to fish a plastic card out of a pool of blood.
He tucked the two handguns back into his waistband, picked up his backpack, packed the grenades, and held the Shotgun. Then, Shen Feng lit a makeshift torch—made from a table leg and canned oil—and quickly returned to the building's armory.
He shut and bolted the door, then piled a stack of heavy shields and bulletproof vests against the iron door to block it. Only then did Shen Feng start a small fire, make a makeshift bed out of a shield, his backpack, and a vest, and slowly sit down.
His heart was still pounding like a drum. His hands and shoulders were numb and aching from the recoil, but he didn't dare let go of his gun.
'This world... it's different from what I imagined.'
'It's not just wild beasts and viruses—there are also these monsters called Skinners!'
'How did these monsters come to be?'
'Why can they still talk?'
'And why did every Skinner seem to have a look of relief in its eyes when it died? What's going on?'
He had been in this world for a full day, yet the mysteries only continued to multiply. Shen Feng felt as if he were lost in a thick fog.
'Also, what were those lights I saw on that distant building earlier?'
'Could there be other people alive?!'
He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a yellowed, tattered plastic card attached to a lanyard. It was the one he had just picked up from one of the Skinners.
'The monster was so frenzied, yet it still had this on it. It must be important.'
Shen Feng moved closer to the fire to get a better look. Faint, blurry words slowly became visible:
Qi City Epidemic Prevention Center, Level 1 Incinerator Technician, Li Chao