"Help! Help! Please come and rescue me!"
Child-like sobs echoed through the empty mansion and sent a shiver down the spines of everyone in the room.
The voice continued to plead desperately for help, and one could hear broken sobs in between every word.
"Help! Help! Please come and rescue me!"
Someone… or rather something was calling out to them…
"We need to leave… NOW!" Qin Lan urgently whispered as she got up from the ground and took one last glance at the seed growing inside the corpse's neck.
"But… someone needs our help…" Liu Tao hesitantly spoke.
Qin Lan knew that the young teenagers had not fully accepted their new reality yet but now was not the time for heroic actions.
"Look at the bodies. Why do you think the zombies didn't eat them?" Qin Lan asked coldly as her hand drifted to the pistol strapped to her hip.
Liu Tao followed her gaze and a confused expression flashed across her face as Qin Lan's question echoed through her mind.
It didn't make sense… there was a veritable feast of bodies inside the room and yet none of the zombies outside had wandered in.
"Why… why didn't they eat the bodies?" Qin Wei stammered nervously as he stepped away from a corpse that seemed to be staring directly at him.
"I don't know. That's precisely the reason why we need to get out of here as soon as possible," Qin Lan explained as she exchanged a glance with Eve.
The beautiful woman nodded in response and her eyes began to scan the nearby surroundings for any hidden threats.
However, it was impossible for her to notice that below the floorboards… something was moving.
Something that had been listening to their conversations… something that was feeling…
Hungry.
"Umm…. Where is the door?" Liu Yifei's voice broke the tense atmosphere that was beginning to form.
"What?! Fuck! Where is the fucking door?!" Qin Wei cursed in shock as he lost control of his emotions.
Qin Lan turned around and saw to her horror that the living room had somehow been transformed.
The walls had extended to cover the entire room and there was not a single exit or entrance in sight that led to the outside world.
The corpses on the ground had vanished and a pleasant scent of lilac flowers filled the air that made her feel extremely relaxed and at ease.
Qin Lan felt something touch her foot and then the sensation disappeared just as quickly as it emerged.
She opened her mouth to speak when she realised that the living room had gone completely silent.
Everyone except her had disappeared.
"Eve! Little bro! Liu Yifei! Gong Li! Chen Xiao! Liu Tao!" Qin Lan called out their names one by one but did not receive a response.
She should be panicking and yet…
As that pleasant scent got stronger and stronger, Qin Lan could not stop the happy smile from spreading across her face.
Everything was going to be alright.
Qin Lan began to laugh, and her giggles filled the silent room as she skipped and danced around the broken pieces of furniture.
All the thoughts about the apocalypse, fulfilling the wish of the original host and hunting down the villainess of this world seemed to fade away to the background.
Eventually Qin Lan felt a bit tired as she had been dancing for what seemed like hours.
Or was it days?
Time seemed to have no meaning in this strange place and the only thing that mattered was her happiness.
Qin Lan let out a heavy sigh of relief as a bed appeared mysteriously in the center of the room and there was a figure sitting down on it.
It was Eve.
The gorgeous woman with wheat coloured skin and a lean muscular physique beckoned slowly with her finger.
She pursed her lips together and blew a sweet kiss that made Qin Lan's heart start to race uncontrollably.
Eve lay down on the bed and brought her hands to the top of her jacket's zipper.
Qin Lan watched spellbound as she unzipped her jacket to reveal a breathtaking sight.
Two plump mountains with light pink peaks stared back at her. Qin Lan had to stop herself from drooling as Eve shook her chest back and forth.
"Come closer… come closer…" Eve mouthed silently as her body twisted almost like a snake with a seductive charm that was hard to ignore.
Qin Lan felt her body move automatically towards the bed as if her limbs were no longer in her control.
The pleasant scent got stronger as she approached the bed and by now Qin Lan was sure that this sweet scent belonged to the goddess in front of her.
"Lay down in my arms…" Eve whispered softly as she stretched out her arms to embrace the blushing woman.
Qin Lan stepped even closer and yet as she approached Eve's outstretched arms that promised a world of pleasure…
She hesitated.
Eve was just a few feet away and yet there was something about her that made Qin Lan freeze in place.
Her face… why did it seem…. fake…
It was hard to notice from a distance but as Qin Lan approached Eve, she observed that her skin was slightly blurry.
"What's wrong? Isn't this what you wanted? Am I not the one you love?" Eve whispered sweetly as she pouted with a sad expression.
The heartbreak shown on her face made Qin Lan instinctively want to rush over and comfort her and yet… something was holding her back.
"Eve… what is my ability?" Qin Lan suddenly asked.
It was a topic that came out of nowhere and seemed to be a bit strange considering the current situation.
The Eve on the bed furrowed her brows and the sweet scent surrounding her body got even stronger.
"Your gift is unknown, but you are afraid that it will be used to kill people… that's what the original Qin Lan asked you to do," Eve answered her question with a friendly grin.
Qin Lan seemed to be reassured by her answer and she stepped even closer before her following words broke the fake Eve's smile.
"I never told you that…" Qin Lan snarled viciously as something dark and feral surfaced in her eyes.
"You know that my gift is a mystery, but I never told you about the original Qin Lan... nor did I tell you about her request...
"Now… where is the real one? Where is she? Did you hurt her?"
Qin Lan felt rage begin to bubble up inside her chest as she stared at the monster who wore the appearance of Eve.
She was a fake.
An imposter. A fraud.
Qin Lan felt something in her mind shatter and the strange scene before her eyes disappeared.
She opened her eyes to find herself laying down on the ground with several bodies right next to her.
Something warm and sticky was crawling around her neck.
Qin Lan grabbed the mysterious object with her right hand and pulled it off using all of her strength.
It tore off easily and Qin Lan looked at the object in her hand. She discovered that it was a thick green vine with a needle-like end.
What the hell was that?
A memory flashed across Qin Lan's mind, and it was the scene of a plant-like behemoth roaming through an empty city.
The memory only lasted for a moment, but it was enough for Qin Lan to realise what was going on.
They had stepped into a trap.
This mansion had become the hunting ground of a mutated plant type monster.
Qin Lan got up from the floor and hurriedly ran over to the other members of the group who were still unconscious.
Vines were slithering over their motionless bodies and Qin Lan could only pray that she wasn't too late.
She reached Eve first who was the closest and tore the vine that was wandering around her neck.
She didn't have time to wake her up since she knew that her second counted.
Qin Lan didn't notice that as she moved on to the next body…
Eve's pitch-black eyes flicked open.