The Creatures that We Are

The man had an average build and a pronounced forehead. His bloodshot, triangular eyes were filled with fear, and his garlic-shaped nose twitched slightly.

He was entirely drenched in sweat, and his thinning hair stuck to his skin in a few pitiful strands, doing nothing to conceal the bald top of his head.

Nine Frost recognized the man immediately: Dai Xiaojun, the director of academic affairs.

“Mr. Dai…” Nine Frost went up to him.

“Stay away! Or I’m going to shoot!” Dai Xiaojun had lost his calm entirely, and he took two steps backward, his hip hitting the desk.

Seizing the moment of distraction, Nine Frost made a sudden kick to disarm the man. Then Gao Yang took a big step to catch the handgun midair.

He examined it for a moment before smiling wryly. “It’s fake.”

It was merely a well-crafted plastic replica. Gao Yang had hoped they could acquire a much needed firearm, but this was only to be expected. It didn’t make sense for a teacher to own a gun. Of course it would be a fake.

“Don’t, don’t kill me! I have parents to take care of and a young one to raise. I don’t wanna die…” Dai Xiaojun held onto his kicked wrist and attempted to dive under the office desk.

Nine Frost grabbed him by the collars in the back and dragged him out. He said irritatedly, “We won’t kill you. The ones you’re worried about are the rune corpses.”

“Rune, rune corpses?” Someone at Dai Xiaojun’s age in that period of time probably had never watched a zombie movie.

Gao Yang explained in a way that he would understand, “They are possessed by evil and bite people. Then the bitten ones go mad and bite even more people.”

“Ah, so that’s what happened!” Dai Xiaojun came to the realization.

“You haven’t been bitten, have you?” Gao Yang asked cautiously.

“No, definitely not!” Dai Xiaojun said vehemently.

“Fine,” said Nine Frost. “Give us the key to the broadcast room.”

“The key? Right, the key…” Dai Xiaojun paused and quickly turned to run to the side, taking off a ring of keys from the wall.

Nine Frost took it from him. “Which is the one?”

“It should be this one…no, this one…” Dai Xiaojun pointed at the two smaller keys. “It must be one of the two.”

“Alright.” Nine Frost memorized what they looked like and put the keys away.

Gao Yang pressed his ear to the door. “There are noises outside. The rune corpses are still around.”

“We’ll wait for the school bell,” said Nine Frost.

“Wait! Young man, aren’t, aren’t you the journalist’s assistant?” Dai Xiaojun finally recognized Nine Frost now that he had calmed down.

“I am,” Nine Frost said coolly.

“What’s going on? Why are people becoming possessed and biting other people?” Dai Xiaojun was hoping that Nine Frost would be able to give him an answer.

“I don’t know.” Nine Frost didn’t bother humoring the man. “Just stay here.”

“No, no! I can’t stay here!” Dai Xiaojun got worked up again.

“Quiet,” Gao Yang warned him.

“Yes, I will. Quiet…” Dai Xiaojun quickly lowered his voice. “I, I’m going with you.”

“That’s fine,” said Nine Frost. “But you better pull your own weight. We won’t take care of you.”

“Of course, of course. I, I won’t drag you down.” Dai Xiaojun lowered his pride before them.

Gao Yang asked, “Do you have anything we can use to defend ourselves?”

“Defend ourselves? Let me think…” Dai Xiaojun thought for a few seconds. “Oh, yes, there is.”

He walked up to a tall cabinet and took out a golf bag, pulling out four golf clubs.

Gao Yang, Nine Frost, and Black Sparrow each picked one.

“I didn’t expect you to be a golfer,” said Gao Yang.

“And I’m not. The superintendent is. I bought a set from a friend on discount to give him as a birthday gift.”

“Listen well.” Nine Frost held a club in one hand and placed his other hand on the door handle. “When the bell rings, we run to the infirmary on the third floor.”

“Yes, I understand!” Dai Xiaojun nodded while nervously repeating, “Infirmary, infirmary.”

“Stay as quiet as possible and avoid the walking corpses to the best of your ability. Got it?”

“Yes, I got it…”

“Turn off the light.”

Dai Xiaojun did.

For the next few minutes, the four of them stayed quietly in the dark office. Gao Yang could hear everyone breathing.

Then the school bell rang.

The rune corpses outside were immediately drawn, and their growls and groans could be heard.

Nine Frost quickly opened the door. “Let’s go!”

The four of them rushed out of the office. A couple rune corpses were already gathering below the speaker nearby. Without hesitation, Nine Frost knocked one out with his golf club, while Gao Yang kicked another away. Then Black Sparrow grabbed the last rune corpse and hurled it to the side.

Now that they had made a path, the three of them rushed forward.

Dai Xiaojun had been hiding in the back, and he only hurriedly followed them after he made sure that the threats had been eliminated.

The three of them quickly made it to the stairway. As soon as they reached the corner, however, a shadow flew over their head.

Gao Yang rushed back to avoid it. The rune corpse had fallen off from the stairway above them.

“Come on!” Gao Yang whisper-shouted while leaping the rest of the way by stepping on the rune corpse’s back.

Nine Frost and Black Sparrow did the same easily.

Dai Xiaojun paused before following suit with clenched teeth. Unfortunately, the rune corpse suddenly flipped over, and Dai Xiaojun slipped, falling on the stairs.

The rune corpse grabbed onto his calf with both hands.

“Ahhh! Help, help!” Dai Xiaojun struggled to free his leg with an intense drive to survive, but he couldn’t break free.

Gao Yang raised his golf club and slammed into the rune corpse’s head, resulting in it loosening its grip.

Dai Xiaojun immediately picked himself up and rushed after the three with a limp, forgetting his golf club and a shoe.

“Open the door!” Nine Frost was the first to rush to the infirmary. He slammed on the door.

Looking back, he noticed that about a dozen rune corpses were already dashing toward them.

Click. The door opened quickly. Then the four of them dove in.

“One, two, three, four…”

Gray Bear held the door open as he counted. Once he counted four, he slammed the door closed. Then Xiran and Ronnie, who had been waiting, pushed the cabinet over to block off the door.

Bam, bam! Bam, bam, bam!

The rune corpses outside slammed into the door.

“You got the key?” asked Gray Bear.

“We did,” answered Nine Frost.

“Haha, it works!” Gray Bear’s smile barely reached his eyes before his expression darkened, noticing the stranger among them.

“Who the hell are you?” Gray Bear said in shock and turned to Gao Yang. “Where’s Lithe Snake?!”

Gao Yang said guilty, “We were blocked off by rune corpses. Lithe Snake volunteered to draw them away. He headed to the first floor.”

“Fuck!” Gray Bear spat out and pounded on the metal cabinet.

That resulted in a few more rune corpses throwing themselves at the door.

“Vice-Captain, Lithe Snake will be alright,” Xiran assured him. “Even without his Talent, he’s still a parkour expert. The rune corpses won’t get him.”

Gray Bear fumed silently with no target to direct his anger at. Then he turned to Dai Xiaojun. “And who the fuck are you?”

“The director of academic affairs,” Black Sparrow answered.

“Nice, nice to meet you…” Dai Xiaojun smiled pleadingly, face pale and forehead covered in sweat.

“Mr. Dai!” Li Huafeng shot to her feet.

“Miss Li!” Dai Xiaojun was excited to see a colleague survive as well. “Thank god you’re still alive. I thought, I thought you were all dead.”

“You took the words out of my mouth.” Li Huafeng grabbed his hands and teared up. “Mr. Liu, Mr. Tan, Miss Zhu, and many students have been bitten…”

Dai Xiaojun sighed. “How did this happen? Even now, it still feels like a nightmare…”

“Ah!” Can suddenly screamed. Then she covered her mouth when she realized her mistake, and she took a few steps back to hide behind Gao Yang.

“Would you stop jumping at everything?” Gray Bear snapped, still feeling irritable.

Can didn’t dare say anything. Instead, she pointed at Dai Xiaojun.

The others followed her finger and looked over at Dai Xiaojun’s foot. One of his dress shoes had fallen off while he struggled to break free from the rune corpse’s hold, revealing a foot covered in gray nylon sock. And on the sock was a dark red stain of blood.

Houseau3's Thoughts

Uh-oh

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!