STB Chapter 42: Warehouse

This is machine translated and all copyrights belong to the author. Please note that the translator might take creative liberties for better readability. Thank you for reading.

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Jian Hua wanted to know if there was any other food in the abandoned world.

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Jian Hua felt that the shouting voice sounded a bit familiar.

The people in the warehouse quickly got up, holding crude weapons, looking very terrified.

The door was not sturdy, Jian Hua had noticed it when he came in, it had many claw marks on it and probably wouldn’t hold for long.

“Guan Ling! Others may be afraid of you, but I don’t care. You think I still don’t know how capable you are!” The guy outside shouted again and kicked the iron door, “Always putting on a show, just because you’ve learned a few moves, pfft!”

Laughter echoed from outside.

Jian Hua’s ability could only scan living things, he knew there was no awakened ability user here, but whether they held watermelon knives or homemade shotguns was unclear.

He quietly placed his hand on the wall, the warehouse was dimly lit, and no one noticed the thin white threads extending along the wall, becoming transparent quickly and blending with the wall.

A white-collar woman strode to the corner, grabbed a shovel, and rushed to the warehouse door without saying a word.

“Smack.” The person outside happened to kick the door again, losing balance and falling headfirst to the ground.

The white-collar woman didn’t hold back, smashing the shovel on the guy’s calf. If it weren’t for her limited strength, she might have lifted him like a sandbag and thrown him into the group of troublemakers.

A brawl started inexplicably.

The warehouse door was large, seemingly to allow forklifts to enter, which meant the white-collar woman couldn’t guard the entrance alone.

In the small group of about ten people, only a few followed her charge, while the rest hesitated and cowered.

The troublemakers were fierce with everyone carrying a kitchen knife, and they meant business. They were cunning too, avoiding the few brave fighters in the group, targeting the weaker ones who dodged faster than anyone.

They quickly reached the long-armed monkey carcass that hadn’t been discarded yet.
Peeling back the fur, they found the best meat missing, and instantly flew into a rage, cursing loudly.

Originally, Jian Hua didn’t want to get involved in this mess, but the ruffians, not getting any food, swung their knives at the dodging people. Their twisted faces turned from anger to excited bloodlust.

The abandoned world had no laws.

It was a place filled with monsters and constant death.

When death became familiar, and tragedies surrounded people all the time, the moral baseline in their hearts gradually disappeared. Things they wouldn’t have dared to think of before, they now did without blinking.

The warehouse was filled with screams and the smell of blood.

The white-collar woman, angrily smashing someone away, shouted at the ruffians, “Are you crazy? The smell of blood will attract those monsters!”

“Forget it, the creatures around here have been eaten by the mushrooms!”

“Stupid! The mushrooms haven’t grown this far yet!” The white-collar woman ran out of the warehouse without looking back, “Run!”

Jian Hua tilted his head to avoid a knife swung at him, but the attacker wouldn’t relent.

Hearing the continuous screams around him, Jian Hua frowned, punched the attacker’s elbow, causing the knife to fly out. He kicked the attacker’s knee, dodged as the attacker fell, and chopped the back of the guy’s neck with his hand.

“Thud.”

Jian Hua’s force was precise, the guy fainted without a sound.

When the knife fell, Jian Hua raised his hand and caught it steadily.

—This wasn’t a movie, it wasn’t a coincidence. He caught it because of his telekinesis.

But in the eyes of those who hadn’t fully awakened their abilities, it seemed incredible, and they instinctively avoided Jian Hua.

“Ow! You cowards, you bastards!”

The guy who was hit by the shovel first barely got up, with a few wounds on his arm that hadn’t fully healed. Jian Hua recognized him immediately; he was the unlucky one locked in the dungeon by the mushrooms in the studio.

Seeing his current actions, one could imagine the fate of the person who died in the real world.

He must have pulled a companion to use as a shield when encountering monsters, resulting in one person with wounds on the head and chest, and another with only arm injuries.

Jian Hua suddenly turned his head, punching out the teeth of a guy trying to ambush him from behind.

As he spun, a few monkey pelts thrown at him were effortlessly deflected by the kitchen knife in his left hand, accurately smearing a few troublemakers’ faces.

—Telekinesis should be used at times like this.

Unfortunately, no one in the warehouse realized this was an ability. Instead, they angrily tore off the smelly pelts, yelling furiously, “Kid, are you into Guan Ling?”

“With such skills, you can go anywhere. Don’t tell me you were tricked by that woman!”

Guan Ling might be the white-collar woman.

Initially, Jian Hua thought she was the leader of the small group, the kind with a lot of charisma. Now he felt a bit disappointed and puzzled. Guan Ling seemed to know that the people in the group had their own agendas. She didn’t expect them to charge forward. After shouting that the smell of blood was dangerous and telling everyone to run, she didn’t care about their lives.

If that’s the case, why did everyone obey Guan Ling’s orders without question?

“Haha, don’t tell me you also believe those idiots’ nonsense, that Guan Ling will become some kind of superpower user in the future! It’s hilarious! Superpowers, huh? Let her guess how big my XX is… mmph mmph mmph!”

The foul-mouthed guy’s taunts were abruptly silenced by a dirty rag flying into his mouth, stuffing it tightly.

The people trapped in the warehouse seized the opportunity to swing their weapons.

Jian Hua stepped on the guy who had kicked the door first, preventing him from sneaking away. He looked down, his tone icy, “Ability holders, it seems you know a lot. For instance, what is this place?”

“This is just a temporary base found by that woman Guan Ling, a lousy shelter… oh, you mean outside!” The guy forced a strange expression, almost fanatical, “God’s joke, the apocalypse! Have you heard of it? A rich playboy like you, dressed in fancy clothes, hanging out with top-notch women, smoking and drinking, wouldn’t understand. There are too many heartless scumbags, this world needs a reshuffle! Your properties, stocks, all turned into waste paper, understand? Waste paper!”

“…It seems you really like this world.” Jian Hua withdrew his foot, not bothering to look at him again.

Suddenly, the white threads on the wall twitched, and Jian Hua immediately looked up, sensing that there were moving living creatures approaching the warehouse from afar.

Monsters were coming.

Just as Jian Hua was about to leave the warehouse, he felt something strange underfoot. Many small creatures were digging their way up.

The transparent white threads immediately wrapped around his feet and calves, and ten seconds later, noticeable bulges appeared on the solid concrete floor of the warehouse.

Although it was unclear what this was, in the abandoned world, anything abnormal posed a threat to life. People screamed, forgetting the fight and running for their lives.

The attackers from underground revealed themselves as large gray rats.

They had long, thin bodies, developed forelimbs, and sharp teeth protruding from their lips, like moles.

After springing from the ground, some began tearing at the long-armed monkey’s carcass, while others greedily lunged at the people.

“Help!” The guy with the injured leg was the first to be caught. The weight of a dozen large rats pinned him down, preventing him from even crawling. He struggled for help, but the savage biting people feared did not occur. These rats were vicious, aiming for the throat in their first attack.

In the blink of an eye, the man was beyond saving.

As the corpse still twitched, the rats jumped off, rushing towards their next target—whether it was their bad luck or Jian Hua’s, the lead rat was struck by the knife Jian Hua had thrown. Transparent threads immediately pierced the rat’s body, each spore expanding into a web in a short time, first binding the rat’s claws, then its teeth.

“Plop, plop.” The dozen rats fell to the ground. Since the threads were transparent, it looked as if they had failed in their attack, collapsing after missing their targets.

The threads spread rapidly from Jian Hua’s footprints in all directions.

In an instant, the warehouse was filled with the sound of rats falling.

The spores would soon grow into mushrooms, and these bound rats were their stored prey.

As Jian Hua left the warehouse, he saw the faster runners encountering long-armed monkeys. These monsters, with their poor sense of smell, specifically targeted those whose faces had been smeared by the monkey pelts earlier, leaving those who ate the monkey meat untouched.

The white-collar woman, Guan Ling, swung her shovel, quickly carving out a bloody path.

Jian Hua’s palm opened, and several layers of transparent soft threads stirred. An unlucky monkey charged straight at him, only to be kicked away by Jian Hua, slamming hard into a utility pole.

The monkey fell down, curled up into a ball, and stopped moving.

No one noticed it had died.

—Though the ability devoured monsters for sustenance, monkeys were preferable to the rats in the warehouse.

Jian Hua immediately regretted it. One rainforest squid was enough to be filling, but a long-armed monkey wasn’t substantial. Anyone who had experienced hunger knew that while a bite of food could save your life, it didn’t alleviate the discomfort, making the craving for food even stronger.

Emotions affected abilities.

The white threads in the warehouse hadn’t rushed to set up camp; they surged out like a tide.

Jian Hua had figured out that only the white threads that returned to his hand to be reabsorbed would transmit the nutritional effects to him. He wasn’t interested in the mushroom happily rushing over from the warehouse.

Yes, this was discrimination against rats…

Jian Hua, who didn’t want to eat monkeys or rats, particularly wanted to know if there was any other food in the abandoned world.

Sensing danger, the long-armed monkeys squeaked and scattered, not caring about anything else.

Guan Ling found it strange, and at this moment, the people running out of the warehouse finally had a chance to shout: “It’s burrowing rats! They’ve hollowed out the entire ground under the warehouse; we can’t go back!”

The troublemakers ran even faster than rabbits, having witnessed a companion being bitten to death by the rats.

“Quick, run! Those rats like to attack long-armed monkeys. If they catch up, we’re done for.” Guan Ling made a swift decision and led the group towards the highway, “We’ll take shelter near the mushrooms; there won’t be any monsters there!”

Everyone had a miserable look on their face, but no one complained. Life was the most important thing, even the injured gritted their teeth and followed.

The danger of the mushrooms was ignored for now; at least they wouldn’t actively attack humans.

Guan Ling gave Jian Hua a deep look, not for any particular reason, but because he stood out among the people, who were all bedraggled and injured.

He must be someone with real skills, Guan Ling didn’t think much more about it, as she had enough of her own troubles.

Seeing the mushroom forest in the distance, everyone collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

Some silently wrapped their wounds, others broke down in tears, and even the perpetually cheerful young man had lost his smile. He peeked around for a bit, then shuffled over to Jian Hua: “Ahem, hello.”

Jian Hua didn’t even lift his eyes.

“I think you’re more capable than Sister Guan Ling, may I know your name?”

“And yours?” Jian Hua replied indifferently.

“I’m Huo Wei, a student from Beidu University!” The young man eagerly extended his hand, but seeing Jian Hua had no intention of cooperating, he wasn’t embarrassed. He raised his hand to scratch his head and asked frankly, “It’s like this, among our group, some people fell into the abandoned world without knowing anything, while others knew what was happening from the start. Which one are you?”

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This is machine translated and all copyrights belong to the author. Please note that the translator might take creative liberties for better readability. Thank you for reading.

Last Edit: May 15,2024  6:04am