Tapping her toes lightly against the ground, Huang Xiu lowered her head and cursed under her breath.
“Damn it, what a troublesome guy!”
She detested people like that, as they always made her feel utterly useless in comparison.
“Alright then, I’ll go with you!” The young woman lifted her head, shrugging her shoulders. “My roommates and classmates are still in the dorms; they’re all my ‘good big sons’ (TL Note: A playful, often humorous, term used to refer to friends or juniors, implying a protective, almost parental affection).”
She feigned nonchalance, adding with a half-joking tone, “As their good ‘dad,’ how could I possibly abandon them?”
“Huang, there’s really no need,” Yun Ning said with a wry smile, scratching his face with his uninjured left hand. “I’m not going to my death, you know.”
“What do you mean?” Huang Xiu felt insulted; she puffed out her cheeks, about to retort, when the Captain of the Garrison Guard approached from behind her, stating coldly, “No need to argue. We’ll all go together.”
“Together,” the remaining four echoed in unison.
Huang Xiu stared, dumbfounded, at the five members of the Garrison Guard. Though their stature wasn’t imposing, they stood as straight as pines.
Their faces, smeared with dark green camouflage paint, were devoid of expression, as if they weren’t the ones marching toward certain death.
“The duty of the Garrison Guard is to protect the people within the Touchpoint,” the Captain declared, drawing his weapon. “As long as there are still people inside the Touchpoint, our mission remains unfinished.”
“Five, continue escorting the girls to safety. The rest of you, prepare for combat!” the Captain commanded, his icy gaze swiftly sweeping over the forest path ahead to his left.
Long before entering the Touchpoint, he had already committed the campus’s topography to memory.
This secluded forest path cut directly through the school’s green belt.
It was the quickest route from the school gate to the dormitories.
The Captain retracted his gaze, and seeing that Five had not yet moved to escort, he stated gravely, “Five, execute the order.”
Five remained silent for a moment before finally nodding.
As he brushed past the Captain, he suddenly extended his right hand, delivering a heavy slap to the latter’s shoulder.
Then, without a backward glance, he headed straight for the entrance.
The Captain paid no mind to the blow; he quickly formed a three-by-three combat formation with the remaining three soldiers.
Huang Xiu and Yun Ning were protected in the very center of their formation.
The six individuals stepped onto the path, advancing with extreme speed.
Time was precious, and unforeseen accidents could strike at any moment; in such circumstances, no one dared to waste a second.
The forest path was paved with uniform gray flagstones, and to fill the gaps between them, the school had scattered a layer of smooth pebbles.
Huang Xiu ran, her blood splattering with each stride.
From time to time, mutated plants erupted from the ground, joining the vast sea of vegetation moving through the trees on either side.
The continuous loss of blood caused the young woman’s face to pale, but with the critical moment fast approaching, she could spare no thought for it.
Without incident, the six successfully reached the base of the male dormitory building.
The ground outside the main entrance was riddled with craters and bloodstains, alongside several large trees that had been snapped and toppled.
These were the remnants of Yun Ning’s battle with the tiger.
The sight sent a shiver down Huang Xiu’s spine; she could vividly imagine the ferocity of that confrontation.
“I told all the boys to hide inside the dormitories,” Yun Ning said, looking up at the six-story building, his eyes slightly narrowed.
“As long as they don’t violate school rules within the campus, the monsters here cannot harm them.”
Huang Xiu had already discovered this rule, and in agreement, she nodded. “That’s right.”
“It’s night now, so staying obediently in the dorms won’t pose any danger,” he explained.
“Before I retreated, I specifically instructed them to stay inside and not venture out. It seems they are smart enough to have listened.”
“Without further ado, we should…” Huang Xiu was about to tell Yun Ning and the Garrison Guard to call the boys down.
Suddenly, from a great distance, Huang Xiu heard a piercing roar that seemed to emanate from the direction of the gymnasium.
“That’s the tiger’s roar,” she stated emphatically, a terrible premonition instantly seizing her.
“It seems it doesn’t want us to easily evacuate the students,” Yun Ning remarked, scanning his surroundings, his muscles taut.
“Why is it so insistent on keeping these students here?” Huang Xiu felt puzzled.
‘Are these monsters sustained by devouring humans?’ she wondered.
Before an answer could be given, a thunderous rumble, like an earthquake, echoed from afar.
At the same moment, One suddenly roared, “Monster surge at two o’clock! Prepare to engage!”
Immediately, he slammed his finger on the trigger.
The weapon in his hands began to roar, flashes of gunfire flickering in the dark night like fireflies.
Bang, bang, bang…
The strikingly loud gunshots pierced through the walls, illuminating the sound-activated lights in the hallway one by one, also drawing the attention of the male students.
“It’s the army! The army is here, we’re saved!” a thin student exclaimed, his face alight with surprise.
He had returned to his dorm early today, narrowly escaping the initial chaos.
Just as he was about to go to bed, he was abruptly awakened by the earth-shaking commotion downstairs.
When he curiously ventured into the corridor, he happened to witness the scene of the man and the tiger fighting for their lives.
The terrifying intensity of it had left him frozen with fear.
Even after the tiger vanished from downstairs, he only dared to remain obediently in his dorm, following the male student’s shouts before his retreat.
“The guy from before is there, and there’s a really beautiful girl too!” a male student wearing glasses shouted from the thin student’s upper bunk, as if he had discovered a new continent. “Holy crap, she’s seriously beautiful, Camel, quick, look! I think I’m in love!”
Although he had witnessed everything, he hadn’t seen any casualties or encountered monsters up close.
Now, he felt as though everything tonight was merely an amusing film.
His mindset was relaxed, his attention entirely focused on Huang Xiu.
The student named Camel, also a notorious ‘pervert’ (TL Note: A slang term for someone who is lustful or excessively interested in sexual matters), leaped down from his bed. “Where? Where? Let me see!”
He shoved his roommate aside from the window, leaning out to look, and instantly froze.
Below the window, behind four soldiers, stood a young woman.
Though she wore no makeup and was simply dressed in a plain blue and white short-sleeved school uniform with long pants,
All of it could not dim the absolute truth of her youthful, unbeatable charm.
Her skin was so fair and delicate it seemed to glow, her features so exquisite, as if sculpted by Nuwa herself.
But what captivated Camel most was her aura.
Resilient, spirited, dashing—a quality he had never before seen in a girl her age.
The young woman’s dark hair flew in the wind, her gaze resolute, as she abruptly waved her hand.
From both sides, countless grotesque creatures surged like a tide towards the end of the path on the left.
In that moment, Camel felt himself deeply submerged, murmuring to himself, “Ooh, I think I’m in love…”
“Stop messing around,” the thin student said, pushing Camel away and squeezing to the window, all while grumbling dismissively, “You call everyone your ‘wife’ every day; how can you have so much love at such a young age?”
After speaking, he turned to look downstairs, then gasped in horror, “Holy crap, so many monsters!”
At that moment, the other students in the dorm finally noticed the terrifying monsters surging like a tide.
These creatures all possessed human bodies and beast heads, their faces hideous and terrifying, as if they had crawled out of hell.
“Wh-what… what do we do?” The glasses student swallowed hard, realizing the gravity of the situation.
If the army retreated, they, hiding in the dormitory building, would be the first to fall.