XG 40

In a dark room with only numerous lotus oil lamps lit the room, one of the oil lamps was suddenly extinguished without warning. The bald young monk seated cross-legged on a straw mat opened his eyes that immediately sought out the irregularity.

“Died? Oh no…” Much to the monk’s horror, another lamp extinguished just after he finished speaking. But it did not stop there. His heart became heavier the number of extinguished lamps increased.

His forehead started sweating as his eyes gazed at the lotus lamps on the tiered shelf, waiting for any more lamps to stop distinguished with a heavy heart. When there was no more movement after a long wait, he counted the number of died out lamps, again and again, not moving from his previous pose. His hands shook in alarm. “Six… Six died.”

It was a closed room, with no window, no fan, and no air-conditioning. There was no hint of wind, yet the lamps had extinguished by themselves. These lotus lamps were special, as they represented human lives and were unable to blow off by normal means. When its wick was extinguished, it meant the owner had met Death. Once it was blown out, it could never be lit again.

None of the lotus oil lamps was labelled, but the young monk knew the owners of each lamp because these lotus lamps were made by his ability. His legs shook as he stood up, and glanced at the inner room with dread climbing up like high blood pressure. This was important news that should be immediately reported, but his heavy legs refused to move.

After seemingly an hour passed, the young monk finally dragged his heavy legs and parted the curtain to enter the inner room.

He closed his mouth when he saw his senior was in his divination mode. The sight of his senior’s pupil and sclera, which were pure black as they remained wide open without blinking, had the young monk shivered with chilling fear.

Although he had seen this many times and knew the truth, those eyes truly resembled a symbol of demon possession.

Still as a statue, his senior was holding onto a brush dipped with red ink, his hand hovering above a piece of yellow paper with a long list of names. Most of them were crossed out with red ink, which was a piece of good news for them.

The young monk patiently waited after moving his gaze away from the terrifying eyes but his senior did not strike out any of the names even after a long while. Placing down the brush where there was not even a droplet of ink spilt from it, the black in Master Sheng's sclera retreated into his pupils and went back to usual.

"What is the urgency?" Master Sheng stood up, straightening his dark green Tang suit. His long braided hair resting on his back swings slightly at each step he took toward the young monk.

"Six… six lamps were extinguished. It's the team that's supposed to handle Wong Xue Guo. They died in the Wong’s house." The young monk was anxious, yet his senior looked unruffled from the bad news.

As expected, the senior was one of their lordship's trusted aides and had remained by his side for many years. He must have experienced many shocking events to be able to remain calm before this upsetting news.

"Wong… there will be extremely low chances for us to eliminate her after this."

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Eyes flickering uneasily, the young monk hesitantly probed, "Senior, will you be informing our Lordship…?"

"Continue guarding the lamps. I will request for a meeting with His Lordship."

The large knot in the young monk's heart loosened. His senior was truly kind to help him out, especially when this bad news would anger their lord very much. He could also see there were quite a number of names that had yet successfully been eliminated, which would further enrage their Lord.

Till now, the young monk does not understand why the Lord would make his life harder by revealing the death dates of those on the list. Knowing their death, their family members would do anything to change their fate.

“Is there anything else?” Master Sheng eyed the young monk that was staring at the name list dazedly.

“No.” The young monk hurried back to his post and scolded himself for daring to question the Lord’s decision.

He does not want to become one of those monsters, the outcome of the people that had angered the Lord.

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In one of the largest hospitals in Marigold city, something unusual was happening, yet would be a phenomenon that would be the new normal in future. It was early morning, and the sun had yet to set, but it was even more silent than usual.

The corridors were brightly lit and one could easily see the white floors and walls were dirty with blood. Corpses could be seen in each room, either permanently dead or ‘moving’. The moving corpses were busy eating the flesh of other corpses.

The hospital had now descended into Hell.

Hiding inside a storeroom, Kim Sung-Ho covered his mouth tightly to stop his crying from attracting the zombies to his hiding place. His eyes were full of despair as he stared at the bloody figure lying on the floor. He knew he had to do something but what?

How was he supposed to treat numerous bite wounds?

"That man is fucking lunatic." Hiding in the storeroom with Kim Sung-Ho was a guy with bleached light grey hair in his early twenties. His silver earrings glinted from the reflection of the light as he clicked his tongue angrily. "What's his intention of doing this?"

Kim Sung-Ho had followed Vihaan to the hospital to discharge his sister first before deciding where to hide. But before the checking out procedure was completed, they were unluckily involved in a second infection breakout.

It was fortunate that it was a graveyard shift, without many visitors other than those accompanying the patients to stay overnight. There were also less number of doctors and nurses working during this time. With their small number, the infected would have lesser targets to spread, but it also makes humans have a harder time running away without other survivors distracting the zombies.

Vihaan's sister was in a deep coma from a car accident, but why would she suddenly wake up as a zombie? They were pretty sure there was no bite wound on her!

If Kim Sung-Ho did not happen to look in her direction when her eyes suddenly sprang open, Vihaan would have already been bitten. The young boy had immediately grabbed the older man and ran out of the room and happened to encounter the grey-haired guy that was running past them.

The sudden zombification of his sister had taken Vihaan a great toll on his mental health, but he continued moving to safety for Kim Sung-Ho’s sake.

The grey-haired guy, Ash, said he saw a strange guy sneaking into a room and injecting something into the patient. The strange guy waited until the patient started stirring and twitching strangely before leaving. Ash listened to his instinct that screamed danger and quickly ran out without waiting to see what happened to the guy.

But his footsteps got the zombified patient's attention.

"You are also crazy to bring him in with us." With regret in his eyes, Ash lamented the loss of Vihaan who sacrificed himself just to save them.

But the kid refused to leave the man behind and smacked the zombies with a fire extinguisher, to stop them from continuing to bite Vihaan. Ash also thinks he was crazy to run back to help the boy to drag Vihaan away with them.

They have been hiding in the storage room with zombies banging on their door for nearly half an hour. Yet Vihaan, who was bitten by many zombies from his waist to legs, was still mostly human, much to Ash's amazement and terror. If it was only him and the kid, they could survive for a while as there was some food in the room, but how could they survive with a soon-to-be zombie inside the room with them?

Even knowing the danger, they were reluctant to kill him before he finished turning. Ash was not a murderer and does not have the heart to kill his saviour. As for Kim Sung-Ho, Vihaan was the only person that cared for him left in this world.

"Call…"

Kim Sung-Ho finally came into himself after understanding what Vihaan tried to say. Fighting back his tears with renewed hope, he grabbed the phone from Vihaan's pocket and dialled the newly saved number.

After a long series of beeps, the call was finally connected. “Hello, – speaking.”

[End of Arc 1 Diamond Shopping Mall]