Chapter 30: The Spreading Red-Eye

Li Lin Guan’s overwhelming enthusiasm left Qiao Xia no choice but to finish an entire jianbing guozi, then carry a pile of snacks into the classroom.

Fortunately, Li Lin Guan only escorted him to the classroom door, not directly inside.

Even so, many students witnessing the scene in the hallway were left dumbfounded, wondering if Li Lin Guan had taken the wrong medicine today.

Students who knew about yesterday’s planned fight were even more bewildered. They couldn’t believe that in just one night, the school bully, who had been intent on beating Qiao Xia to a pulp, was now treating him with utmost respect, like a subordinate addressing their boss.

The world was changing too quickly!

It was truly unexpected.

Amidst the complex gazes of numerous students, Qiao Xia placed the snacks directly onto his desk. He then looked at the pile with a troubled expression, ultimately deciding to shove them all into his backpack.

Snacks like potato chips, once their packaging was opened and the air released, would quickly shrink in volume.

After Qiao Xia packed the snacks and drinks into his backpack, he gazed at his bulging bag with a sense of helplessness. He mused that despite Li Lin Guan’s eccentric attire and pretentious demeanor, he was actually a decent person.

‘At least he wasn’t an ungrateful wretch.’

Hanging his swollen backpack on the side of his desk, Qiao Xia ignored the stares directed his way. Instead, he seized the pre-class moments to quickly pull out his old phone, intending to check online if the red-eye disease had spread widely.

Due to Liu Ge’s recent abnormality, Qiao Xia hadn’t been exercising outdoors as usual. Instead, he’d been cooped up at home playing games every day, which also led to less time spent on his phone, causing him to miss the news over the past few days.

Had he known the situation was so severe, Qiao Xia would never have overlooked the recent headlines.

To find out the severity of the red-eye disease, Qiao Xia didn’t bother searching keywords in his browser. Instead, he directly opened Penguin News. The moment he saw a news alert pushed by the platform, he immediately confirmed that things had indeed become serious.

[A man is suspected of suffering from a strange illness, with red eyes and sluggish movements. The cause, upon investigation, is shockingly this!]

Qiao Xia looked at the headline, intending to click for more details, but it prompted him to download the Penguin News client app.

Seeing this, Qiao Xia let out a soft chuckle.

‘Penguin wants me to download their app? Impossible before, even more impossible now!’

‘Stubbornness.jpg.’

Immediately, Qiao Xia opened a certain video platform and searched for the Penguin News keywords. As expected, he found diligent news re-uploaders.

He quickly clicked on the red-eye disease news. Qiao Xia lowered his phone’s volume to a level only he could hear, then, while watching the video, he simultaneously skimmed through the comments below.

Penguin News stuck to its usual method of clickbait titles paired with bland content. Although the man in the news was strikingly similar to the afflicted Liu Ge, there was no clear explanation given, even at the end.

Only self-proclaimed experts offered vague statements, making Qiao Xia, who knew the truth, simply want to scoff.

‘For such a severe illness, they actually claimed it was caused by eating something bad.’

‘Another ‘expert’ suggested it was due to taking the wrong medicine.’

‘What the hell, why don’t they just fly to the heavens!’

However, while the news itself offered Qiao Xia no useful information, the netizens’ comments were plentiful.

[Zhou Maomao: Ah, someone in my area also has really red eyes, and their behavior has become super weird. Yesterday, they wouldn’t even respond when I spoke to them, and kept staring at me with strange eyes.]

[Beauty Like A Flower: Someone in my area was actually attacked by a red-eyed person! A huge chunk of flesh was bitten off their arm. It’s truly terrifying.]

[Scallion Tosser: How come everyone else has seen it, but I haven’t? Ah, I get it, it’s because I’m a total shut-in!]

[Cricket: What the person above said must be true, because I’ve encountered it too, and almost got bitten by a red-eyed person… but since it was just an elementary school student, I simply pushed them away and ran.]

[110: Aren’t there enough natural disasters lately? Now this terrifying red-eye disease has appeared. Is it really the end of the world?!]

There were hundreds of comments. After a quick scan, Qiao Xia realized that the red-eye disease outbreak had truly begun!

He hadn’t known how bad it was until he saw it.

The news report was from five days ago, and most of the comments were from the past two days. This meant that after several days of continuous development, the situation was far from optimistic.

After Qiao Xia put down his phone, his brows furrowed instinctively. A sense of unease suddenly spread through him, making him restless.

‘Why do I keep feeling like something major is about to happen?’

It was precisely then that Qiao Xia suddenly recalled what Duan Yulan had told him yesterday: that even if something unexpected happened today, he shouldn’t panic, but instead wait for her on the rooftop of the teaching building.

‘Wait, why am I thinking of her right now?’

Qiao Xia shook his head, but his gaze involuntarily drifted towards Duan Yulan’s seat. Seeing it still empty as always, his wandering thoughts finally settled.

“Hey, hey, come look! Someone’s fighting at the school gate!”

“Oh, wow, it’s true! There’s blood!”

“Wait, what’s wrong with that person? Stop it! An arm has been chopped off! That’s too brutal!”

“Is that a student from our school? Damn, not even Li Lin Guan is this brutal!”

Just as Qiao Xia retracted his gaze from Duan Yulan’s seat, a student by the window suddenly shrieked loudly. Their words immediately drew the attention of other students, who all turned to look towards the school gate.

Upon hearing the student’s exclamation, Qiao Xia instantly rose from his seat and swiftly jogged towards the window.

He forcefully pushed aside the students blocking his way, ignoring their complaints. Qiao Xia quickly glanced out the window, where he saw two students sprawled on the ground.

Nearby, several late students and teachers checking appearances stood, each retreating with faces contorted in terror.

The reason was simple: of the two students on the ground, one, with bloodshot eyes, wielded a knife and had just severed the arm of the struggling student.

Ignoring the injured person’s loud screams, they then, with a grotesque expression, brought the detached arm to their mouth and began gnawing on it ravenously.

The scene was nauseatingly bloody, leaving Qiao Xia feeling a wave of sickness.

The last time, in his vision, Qiao Xia had his neck bitten off by Liu Ge, an excruciating pain that quickly led to his demise without prolonged suffering.

However, this unfortunate soul, with a severed arm, was enduring continuous agony.

Furthermore, if they weren’t rushed to a hospital immediately, they would likely bleed to death.

[Danger detected. Future Sight function activated.]

Just as Qiao Xia was pondering this, a strange sound suddenly echoed, causing him to freeze. Immediately, an alarm blared in his mind!

‘Damn, there’s danger in ten minutes?’