Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 152

On the sand dune, the students hesitated for a moment before almost unanimously turning to look at Yu Xi. She was holding a pair of binoculars, examining the city ahead.
Although they found it curious that she even had binoculars in her backpack, they couldn’t deny how useful they were in this situation. Hearing their questions, Yu Xi directly handed the binoculars over.
With her exceptional eyesight, she didn’t actually need the binoculars to observe the city, but she had brought them out specifically for her companions to use, allowing them to see the commotion in the city with their own eyes before deciding on their next step.
Her world mission clue had already hinted that this mutation marked the beginning of an apocalypse. So, upon seeing the chaos in the city, her first instinct was that the infection had spread.
However, during her observation, she noted that the explosions and fires in various parts of the city didn’t show any sign of blood people. She thought she might have missed something, so she meticulously scanned the chaotic streets and alleyways again, only to confirm that there were indeed no conspicuous bloodied figures among the turmoil.
Instead, she noticed numerous armed police surrounding a building, some fighting fires while others threw tear gas inside. Armed officers were even entering the building. This puzzled Yu Xi.
What was going on? Even if infected individuals had an incubation period before showing symptoms, there should still be visible evidence of mutation. Why wasn’t there a single infected person in sight?
The entire city’s fleet of police cars and fire trucks seemed mobilized, and several helicopters hovered overhead. Could this be why rescue teams hadn’t reached their plane’s crash site yet?
After the students took turns using the binoculars, they were still baffled. “So… would calling for help even work? Do you think anyone will go to the crash site to rescue people?”
“We should at least try,” Min Min said, pulling out her phone and finding that it now had a signal. Before their trip, they had all activated global roaming services, so as long as there was coverage, their phones would work. “Does anyone know the emergency number in this country?”
“Dial 999,” someone responded. “That’s for emergencies and accident rescue.”
Min Min tried calling for a while, then shook her head. “It’s always busy. I can’t get through.”
Xiao Nan frowned. “That’s strange. Even if there’s chaos and accidents in the city, emergency lines shouldn’t be completely unreachable.”
Kong Lin, staring at the city, added, “Unless something big has happened in the city—big enough to crash the emergency lines.”
He opened his phone screen and showed a video to the group. “When I realized I had a signal earlier, I checked for updates on L City. The blood people incident couldn’t be kept under wraps. Shortly after we left, similar incidents occurred all over L City. The whole city is now under lockdown, with half of it sealed off by armed police…”
The other students gathered around, and even the young people from this country leaned in, intrigued by what was happening in their own nation.
The video depicted blood-covered individuals rampaging through the streets, attacking anyone they saw. They screamed and roared, biting friends and family, using blunt weapons to assault others, and setting fires. They were like beasts devoid of reason.
There were also clips of armed police responding. Initially, they used non-lethal weapons like tasers, batons, and extendable clubs, but these only seemed to enrage the mutants. In the end, the police resorted to tear gas to barely manage the situation.
While the students were grim and silent, the local young people were visibly shaken. Having never encountered the Blood People directly, they were horrified to see such monsters in their own homeland. They quickly pulled out their phones to call family and friends, desperately checking on their safety.
“Now people in L City are calling these monsters ‘Blood Ghouls.’” Kong Lin pocketed his phone and pointed toward the city ahead. “Don’t you think the chaos we saw in L City looks eerily similar to what’s happening in this city?”
Xiao Nan nodded initially but hesitated. “Yes, but we’ve all looked through the binoculars, and there are no signs of ‘Blood Ghouls’ here. It’s possible the chaos here has nothing to do with the mutations. We’ve walked for four hours to get here—we can’t just stop because of a guess.”
At this moment, Min Min, who had been silent, finally spoke up: “No, the chaos in the two cities isn’t exactly the same.”
Yu Xi turned to Min Min, noting her perceptiveness. This roommate of hers was indeed very sharp.
“All the videos from L City were taken at night!” Min Min pointed out the critical detail. “It’s almost noon now, yet all the videos showing ‘Blood Ghouls’ attacking people happened at night. With infections now widespread in L City, these mindless ‘Blood Ghouls’ wouldn’t be selectively appearing based on time. That leaves only one possibility—”
The students, eager to hear the conclusion, couldn’t help but interrupt her dramatic pause.
“Just spit it out already!”
“Yeah, Min Min, stop teasing us and just say it!”
“Get on with it!”
Yu Xi stepped forward and finished the thought for her: “‘Blood Ghouls’ likely have a characteristic—or weakness—of being nocturnal. In other words, they’re afraid of light or sunlight. So just because you didn’t see any mutants through the binoculars doesn’t mean the city isn’t infected.”
With that, she placed her backpack on the ground, pulled out a brand-new protective suit, and began putting it on. “I’m going into the city. Who’s coming with me?”
If possible, she would have preferred to avoid the city altogether. But as Xiao Nan had pointed out, they had already spent four hours getting here. Turning back now could mean countless more hours wandering the desert with no guarantee the next city would be any safer.
Moreover, the apocalypse had already begun, and clinging to wishful thinking was not an option. They were stuck in this country, far from home, with no realistic way to drive or sail back to C Country. The priority now was to reach the nearest airport—or find an aircraft.
Radek was an ordinary businessman in Bay City, running a small shop that sold rain gear on the outskirts of town. Although the country was mostly desert, rain wasn’t unheard of, and tourists often needed parasols to shield themselves from the intense sunlight. Business was modest but steady.
The trouble in the city had begun around midnight. At first, the sound of police sirens echoed through the streets, followed by ambulance wails. Then came distant fires, the glow flickering in the dark, as well as faint cries for help and strange, beast-like growls.
What was happening? Had wild animals gotten loose in the city? Or maybe some rich family’s exotic “pets” had escaped again?
Ordinary people like Radek and his neighbors valued their lives far less than those of the wealthy. The last time a crocodile escaped, it injured several people, broke into a home, and killed a child. The outcome? A payout to the victim’s family, and the matter was swept under the rug.
Fearing a similar disaster, Radek and his wife couldn’t bear the thought of their own children being attacked. They hurriedly checked every corner of their small building.
Their neighborhood, known as the “commoners’ district,” was on the outskirts of the city and filled with low-rise buildings. Radek’s shop had a sturdy iron gate, protective grates over the second-floor windows, and decent overall security.
After ensuring everything was secure, they shut the windows, drew the curtains, and locked the doors. His wife stayed on the bed with their two children, coaxing them to sleep, while Radek kept watch at the window, peeking out through the gaps in the curtains.
Then he saw something that made his blood run cold.
Three or four grotesque figures, their bodies bloodied and raw, appeared at the far end of the street. They were chasing five or six wounded individuals, kicking and beating them mercilessly. Some used whatever objects they could grab as weapons, hurling them at their victims. Two of the mutants suddenly pounced, biting into their prey.
The scene was terrifyingly primal. The monsters tore into flesh with their bloodied teeth, ripping large chunks of skin and muscle off arms and faces. Blood poured from the victims’ wounds as their agonized screams pierced the night. Yet the attackers didn’t spit out the flesh. They chewed and swallowed it whole.
Radek’s legs buckled, and he collapsed by the window, nearly vomiting from the horror.
Hearing the commotion outside, his children stirred and called out for him. “Daddy? What’s going on?”
Their voices jolted Radek. Summoning strength from deep within, he scrambled to the bed, moving as quietly as possible. Kneeling beside his son and daughter, he gently but firmly clamped his hands over their mouths, ensuring they made no further sound.
“Don’t make a sound…” Radek whispered, his voice barely audible, his serious gaze instantly silencing the children.
Radek didn’t know exactly what those things out on the street were, but he understood the nature of predators. They had sharp senses—keen hearing and a heightened ability to detect smells. At this moment, his family, hidden in the bedroom, were their prey.
His instincts screamed at him: no light, no noise, and complete stillness. That was their only chance to survive this nightmare.
He was right. Compared to their small building, other houses that had turned on lights or couldn’t stifle screams were the ones targeted by those grotesque creatures.
The monsters were terrifyingly strong, grabbing garbage bins from the streets and smashing them against doors. In homes without protective window bars, they shattered glass and easily broke in, continuing their frenzied rampage—ripping, tearing, and killing indiscriminately.
Radek clutched his family tightly, the four of them huddled on the bed, not daring to move an inch.
The chaos outside gradually subsided as dawn broke. With extreme caution, Radek slipped out of bed and peeked through the curtains. The bloodied creatures were gone, leaving behind streets littered with injured people lying in pools of blood.
Most of them were still alive, but missing arms or legs. Some had faces gnawed down to bloody craters and lay motionless, unable to move.
He noticed his neighbor’s house with its front door wide open, blood still seeping out onto the street.
Radek dialed for emergency services, but the police and ambulances took an agonizingly long time to arrive. Explosions continued to erupt across the city, helicopters circled above, and grim announcements dominated the news. Online, horrifying posts proliferated.
Many were saying this was divine retribution, the end of the world.
By midday, Radek and his family still didn’t dare open the curtains. The blood on the streets remained unwashed, and they huddled inside, eating sparingly while glued to the television, waiting for the disaster to end.
Then, out of nowhere, a loud banging echoed from their shop downstairs. Someone was hitting the iron gate with something heavy, producing a metallic clang.
Fortunately, the knocking stopped after two hits, only to resume moments later with another pair of knocks.
Radek cautiously peeked out the window. A figure in a white jumpsuit and mask stood outside his shop. As he looked down, the figure also looked up at him, then continued to strike the gate with what seemed to be an object in hand.
Fearing the noise might attract those monsters, Radek hurried downstairs, intending to ask the person to leave.
But as he reached the iron gate, a small golden ingot was pushed through the gap beneath it. A young girl’s voice, fluent in the local language, came through clearly:
“I’m a tourist. I want to buy raincoats. I’ll pay ten times the amount in gold for what I just gave you. Please open the door, or I’ll keep knocking.”
Radek didn’t respond. The figure outside began knocking again, louder and more persistent this time, enough to stir his family upstairs, who gathered anxiously at the staircase, their faces filled with fear.
Gritting his teeth, Radek grabbed an old hunting rifle from the storeroom. He loaded it and cautiously opened the small peephole in the gate.
The person outside raised both hands to show no harm and stepped inside the shop slowly, keeping a reasonable distance. Sure enough, a rectangular piece of gold glinted between her fingers.
But as soon as she stepped in, Radek regretted his decision. Ten more masked and gloved young people emerged from the shadows outside, carefully avoiding the bloodstains on the ground as they quickly entered his shop.
The last one even casually closed the small door behind him and looked up to wave at Radek.
In the now-cramped shop, the girl in the white jumpsuit lowered her mask slightly, revealing a pale, delicate face. She spoke again, this time in an international language:
“Don’t be afraid. We’re really here to buy raincoats. We want all of them.”