The rhythmic sound echoed through the silent hallway, and Huan Tian's heart instantly leapt to his throat.
The sound source lay directly along the path to the small conference room!
He had already come this far—there was no turning back now. With his strength nearly depleted, he couldn't afford any detours. The Desert Eagle was firmly gripped in his hands. He would have to fire if danger arose, even if the gunshot gave away his position.
Pressing tightly against the wall, he held the pistol low before him, both hands steady, every muscle relaxed yet ready to spring. Step by step, he crept forward.
The closer he got to the sound, the tighter his nerves stretched. He could now clearly tell—the sound was coming from the elevator lobby ahead.
Carefully inching toward the doorway, Huan Tian drew a deep breath, then stepped out in one swift motion. At the same time, he spun, raised the gun, and aimed—all in one fluid movement.
Fortunately, the scene inside the elevator brought a wave of relief.
The elevator doors were wide open. Inside, over a dozen corpses lay crumpled, all dressed in fine suits—executives from this floor.
But now, they had been mutilated beyond recognition.
One body's right foot protruded from the elevator, keeping the doors from closing. Each time the elevator tried to shut, the foot blocked it, causing the repeated thump-thump-thump-thump that filled the corridor.
There was no need to guess—these people had likely tried to take the elevator down, only for a zombie to charge in just as the doors were closing.
The elevator's safety sensor detected someone at the door and reopened it. What followed was a massacre—a terrifying slaughter with no suspense.
But something about the scene didn't sit right with Huan Tian.
Only a few bodies lay scattered on the floor. The majority were huddled in one corner of the elevator, piled on top of each other in a cluster of frozen terror.
His gaze slowly drifted upward, toward the emergency hatch above the elevator.
There, the panel had shifted slightly, leaving a narrow gap.
Through that gap, he spotted a glint of cold steel—
A faint reflection—
And it was trembling.
"Hey, up there. I know you're watching me. There are no more wandering zombies nearby."Huan Tian spoke in a low voice, but it echoed eerily through the elevator shaft, like he was talking to a ghost.
He knew someone was peeking at him from behind the hatch because that faint, trembling glint of cold light had been the reflection in a human eye.
Sure enough, the hatch on top of the elevator shifted. A blond man lifted it open, revealing his face—three parts disbelief, seven parts fear.
It was none other than Philly, the building's chief of security—the same man who had tried to kill Huan Tian alongside Jiang Hao.
Huan Tian frowned. He had seen Philly and Jiang Hao charge into the fire escape, followed by desperate screams. This guy survived?
"When that zombie rushed in, I thought I was dead for sure. Luckily, I climbed onto the elevator just in time. Don't worry—I wasn't bitten. Not even a scratch," Philly explained, his voice pleading.
"Huan Tian, I know I've wronged you. But right now, let's put personal grudges aside, okay? It's just the two of us left on this floor. We need to work together if we're going to survive."
His voice was full of desperation, almost begging for forgiveness.
But Huan Tian's eyes were icy cold.
Because he knew Philly wasn't telling a single word of the truth.
Philly might've been skilled in the past, but after years of luxury and excess, he was bloated and soft. There was no way he could have jumped two meters and pulled himself up to the emergency hatch on his own.
From the scuff marks inside the elevator, Huan Tian could tell: Philly had made a deal with the others. He would go up first, then pull the others up one by one.
But this was the top floor.
There was barely room for one person on top of the elevator.
Once Philly climbed up, he must have kicked the next person back down. Then he simply watched—watched as the rest of them, trapped below, were torn apart by zombies.
That's why the corpses were piled beneath him.
That's why their faces were frozen in terror, forming a mountain of death.
Because they had all wanted to climb up too.
Just then, Philly spoke again, his tone disturbingly casual:
"Give me a hand—help me down. I don't want to touch them."
Philly gave a sheepish smile as he pleaded for help, cautiously lowering himself onto the top of the elevator, preparing to jump down.
But Huan Tian didn't move forward. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the pile of corpses below, his expression growing increasingly grim.
Because he saw it—
The bulging veins on the bodies were pulsing, and the muscles beneath their not-yet-dried skin were twitching—subtle at first, but accelerating rapidly.
Suddenly, one of the corpses moved.
An arm twitched inexplicably, like it had been jolted by electricity—its muscles spasmed violently, causing the forearm to jerk upward before falling limp again.
Philly flinched in terror. His leg, which had just been lowered, shot back up onto the elevator roof in a flash. He stared down in horror, praying he had imagined it.
But two seconds later, the corpse moved again.
This time, the hand stretching out from the pile convulsed as if it had been hit by a surge of high voltage. The five fingers twisted grotesquely like braided rope, and the joints cracked with sickening snap-snap sounds—
The muscle contractions were so intense, the bones dislocated and fractured under their force.
No normal human could make such a twisted motion.
And that was only the beginning.
A second body twitched. Then a third. A fourth...
One after another, every corpse in the elevator began convulsing violently, as if infected by some invisible, spreading force.
At that moment, Huan Tian's eyes sharpened with deadly seriousness.
That uncontrollable, electric spasm running through the whole body—
It was the clearest and most terrifying sign of full-blown Nightmare Virus activation.
In less than two minutes,
These people would become zombies.
"No… no! I can't stay here!"
Philly's last shred of hope was instantly swallowed by terror.
Desperation overtook him as he threw his leg down again, ignoring everything else, and jumped off the elevator without hesitation.
Rip!
The back of Philly's suit jacket snagged on a screw protruding from the edge of the elevator's emergency hatch.
The sharp metal pierced the fabric, and with the force of his descent, the jacket stretched taut in an instant.
That exquisite, high-end suit—
Now become the scythe of death itself.
The stitching at the shoulders and underarms cinched like ropes, suspending him mid-air. He couldn't slip out of it. Couldn't break free.
All that remained were his legs, flailing helplessly in the air.
At the same time, a zombie buried deep beneath the pile of corpses let out a low, hoarse growl.
It began to shove aside the others, struggling to crawl free.
"No! Let me down! I need to get down!"
"Huan Tian! Save me! Save me and I'll give you anything—money, whatever you want!"
Philly screamed in desperation, his voice cracking into hysteria, drawing even more excitement from the zombies below.
But they didn't leap up.
Instead, they collapsed to the ground, violently vomiting blood.
At that very moment, Huan Tian suddenly turned and sprinted toward the elevator doors.
The vomiting—
It meant the virus had triggered full-body muscle contractions, crushing their internal organs from the inside out.
This was the zombies' final dormant phase—
From the moment the bleeding began, full transformation would occur within ten to fifteen seconds.
"Faster! Come on, faster!"
"You're going to save me, you have to!"
Philly shouted ecstatically, his bloated face flushed red, his hands stretching toward Huan Tian like salvation was already in reach.
But halfway there, Huan Tian suddenly dropped into a tactical slide, kicking hard at the corpse whose leg still stuck out of the elevator.
At that moment, the elevator's doors began their open-close cycle once again.
"What are you doing?! You're supposed to save me!"
"Damn you! You're trying to kill me!"
"I won't let you get away with this—AAAHHHHH!!"
Philly's face twisted into something demonic, grotesque with rage and terror.He thrashed violently—
Because he knew: once those doors closed, the elevator would descend.
And when it did,
He would be trapped inside with the very monsters.
He had sacrificed others to escape—
And they would tear him to pieces.
"Huan Tian, if I'm going to die, you won't live either!"
"Come down to hell with me."