Su Han asked, "What's the matter?"
"About cleaning the hallway," Cheng Zhenyong said gravely, "including you guys, we now have 15 Contractors, and since your Angel Envoy is so powerful, I plan to clean up 10 floors today."
Su Han glanced at him and before he could speak, Cheng Zhenyong, with a worried look, said, "The fog hasn't cleared for three days, and the food inside the building will only decrease, the sooner we clean up, the safer it will be to go out looking for food."
Su Han nodded slightly, agreeing with Cheng Zhenyong, that no matter whether there were survivors on the higher floors or not, the longer the delay, the less the supplies.
If they were to be stuck in this building for a few days with scarce resources, who knows what kind of conflicts might arise.
"We will participate in the cleanup later, but"
Su Han's tone changed, presenting his own condition, which immediately made Cheng Zhenyong's face grow solemn.
"Apart from the monsters bound by Contracts, all other monster corpses belong to me."
"This..." Cheng Zhenyong fell silent for a while, as if he had made some decision, and asked in a deep voice, "Is it for your Angel Envoy?"
"Indeed,"
Su Han knew he couldn't hide the Fusion process, so he half-truthfully said, "My Angel Envoy's Talent is special; it requires these things."
Cheng Zhenyong's eyes flickered slightly as he said sternly, "I can arrange for everyone to cooperate with you, but some of these monsters... are loved ones of people here, try to... avoid those."
Su Han showed a smile and nodded, "I understand that, thank you."
Cheng Zhenyong sighed and spoke with a hint of bitterness, "Survival is of utmost importance. Your Angel Envoy's special Talent is actually a good thing for everyone."
He did not stay long with Su Han, as the five people who wanted to become Contractors needed careful instruction.
Becoming an Angel Envoy Contractor wasn't as simple as inviting someone to a meal; it required personally killing a monster.
Even though those already under Contract would help control the flesh corpses as much as possible, there were still many things to take care of when killing them.
Many people hadn't even killed a chicken, let alone a monster.
One careless move could result in injury to oneself at the very least, and worst case, it could endanger others. That was the most troublesome part.
Cheng Zhenyong could not rest easy and personally went to instruct them, while Su Han and his three companions temporarily returned to their own rooms.
"Su Han, what about us later?"
Upon entering the room, Zhu Xiong immediately asked about their upcoming plans.
Su Han said, "Meiyu and I will go clear the floors. Her Rot Skin Rat is quite agile and can react quickly to any situation. You two stay here to watch the stuff and keep an eye on everyone else's condition."
Zhu Xiong and Xinglei nodded and said, "We understand, take care."
They understood the subtext in Su Han's words; they had all sensed the uneasy atmosphere when they met earlier.
Although they were all gathered together for shelter, their minds were unsettled. Even with Captain Cheng holding things temporarily together, nobody knew what the outcome would be.
Therefore, they still needed to be cautious about certain things.
Coming out of the room, they saw Captain Cheng Zhenyong explaining precautions to the five followers.
"The people in charge of clearing the floors will help you control the flesh corpses as much as possible later, but you must take action yourselves. Those who dare not act or aren't careful in their work—if you encounter danger, don't blame them for leaving you behind,"
"Understood, Captain Cheng,"
They each held weapons in their hands—several batons and kitchen knives—whose origins were unknown.
Guo Gang and the Yang Zhi couple were relatively calm, as middle-aged adults, they were tense, but they knew the gravity of the situation and held their weapons tightly.
In contrast, the young Wang Qian grumbled something about "being given food" under his breath, but he didn't speak it out loud.
Cheng Zhenyong glanced at him but said nothing more. Seeing Su Han approach, he walked over, "Ready to set off? The security team has three people, and so does He Fang's side."
"Just the two of us,"
Su Han replied, his gaze sweeping over the five, not saying much else, just, "Let's start."
Although there were 15 Contractors, the hallway was only so large. Too many Contractors and Angel Envoys would completely block the hallway.
Now, eight Contractors and five would-be Contractors was already quite a crowd.
The group began to climb the stairs from the first floor, starting their cleanup operation from the tenth floor, a challenging task given the power outage.
Creeping up the staircase, there was almost no conversation, only Su Han feeling increasingly oppressive as he ascended, recalling yesterday's encounter with the injured survivor.
Upon reaching the sixth floor, Su Han suddenly said, "Wait a second."
Everyone was taken aback, halting their steps, and Cheng Zhenyong asked in surprise, "What's wrong?"
"I need to check on room 7603; there's another survivor there," Su Han said calmly, his gaze falling on the concealed door of room 7603: "The situation doesn't look good."
Cheng Zhenyong froze, his expression darkening. He had realized what those words implied—if the situation were manageable, Su Han would not leave the person behind on this floor.
"I'll come with you to take a look, everyone else can take a break here."
With Cheng Zhenyong suggesting so, naturally no one objected, and they sat down to rest nearby in the corridor.
Su Han and Cheng Zhenyong pushed open the door of room 7603, which Su Han had damaged before, so it was not locked.
Following Su Han into the house, Cheng Zhenyong saw the untidy room and bloodstains everywhere, knowing that monsters must have entered here.
"Is it a serious injury?"
Cheng Zhenyong's voice was low; he had roughly guessed the situation—the survivor had survived an attack by a flesh corpse, but had sustained serious injuries.
Su Han had only found the survivor as well but had no means to help.
Leading the way, Su Han replied, "There's a big gash in her abdomen, it's a serious wound. I managed to tend to it briefly yesterday, but she's still unconscious. I don't know if she'll make it."
As they spoke, they had arrived in the room and saw the woman covered with a blanket.
The rise and fall of the blanket was nearly imperceptible. Su Han approached the bedside, saw the woman's pallor, and, placing his hand on the side of her neck, felt no pulse.
"Is she dead?"
"Dead."
Their voices fell in the quiet room, followed by a prolonged silence.
Cheng Zhenyong sighed. Su Han's eyes flickered slightly, then he calmly pulled the blanket over the woman's head, covering her pale face.
He turned around and said, "Let's go."
He didn't know the woman personally— at most, they had occasionally crossed paths in the elevator in the morning, standing in opposite corners without ever speaking.
He had never really observed what she looked like. It just suddenly felt regrettable that she escaped the jaws of the monster, only to succumb to her wounds.
As he walked towards the door with Cheng Zhenyong, he couldn't help but think that life was sometimes so fragile; to survive, one had to become stronger.
"Captain, what happened?"
Returning to the group, someone asked curiously, and Cheng Zhenyong shook his head. Everyone then understood what that meant.
In an instant, a somber mood fell over the group as another death had occurred.
They continued climbing stairs in silence, reaching the landing to the tenth floor. The safety door was closed and blocked with objects, leftovers from the clean-up He Fang and others had done the day before.
"Captain Cheng, Brother Fang,"
Two people were guarding the corridor side, vigilant for flesh corpses that might rush down from the floors above.
"Was there any commotion upstairs last night?"
"A little, but they didn't hit the door."
The sudden descent of the eyeballs meant there were not too many flesh corpses in the corridors, so it wasn't unusual for there to be no massive door-bashing.
More often, flesh corpses were confined within rooms, and for this reason, many people, although not mutated, were bitten or eaten alive by friends or relatives in no small numbers.
Together, the group moved the objects aside, and then they opened the safety door. The corridor was pitch black, eerily quiet.
They shone their flashlights down the corridor, carefully moving forward.
The sound of their footsteps echoed in the staircase as they made their way to the eleventh floor, rounding the landing, and soon reached the safety door to the eleventh-floor stairs.
No sooner had they exited the safety door than a dark shadow rushed out from the corridor, pouncing right on the leading flesh corpse.
The strong impact immediately knocked it down, pinning it to the ground while emitting a hissing roar, ceaselessly attacking.
"Damn, there's a monster."