Chapter 39: The Red-Eyed Reality

As Qiao Xia cast his gaze down towards the street below the teaching building, he found not only their high school in utter disarray.

Even the streets outside the campus were plunged into chaos.

Uncontrolled vehicles crashed into one another, sending plumes of thick black smoke billowing skyward. Orange flames erupted, ceaselessly climbing higher and higher, casting an eerie glow upon the terrified faces of people frantically fleeing for their lives along both sides of the street.

Windows of houses lining the street had been shattered, and amidst the widespread devastation, the Red-Eyed afflicted savagely attacked passersby.

Whether armed with weapons or relying on bare hands, the Red-Eyed unfailingly apprehended their screaming, panicked victims. After a brutal flurry of blows, they would tear at the corpses, stuffing chunks of flesh directly into their mouths.

Blood and mangled flesh quickly stained the entire street, transforming the once pristine white pavement into a horrifying crimson.

Beyond the growing piles of corpses, injured individuals rapidly emerged. In less than ten minutes, these wounded too succumbed to the Red-Eyed affliction, their faces growing vacant, their movements rigid, as they began to hunt for their next victims.

‘Alas, the very thing he had dreaded most had ultimately come to pass.’

‘Qiao Xia sighed in resignation, realizing that given the current situation, safely escaping U City was nothing short of a pipe dream.’

‘He would likely not even make it a few blocks before being surrounded and cornered by countless Red-Eyed, his life forfeit on the streets.’

‘Yet, if he didn’t leave, waiting for a missile to inevitably strike U City would be equally unbearable!’

‘For now, he would observe the situation and decide later.’

‘Once the number of Red-Eyed within the school dwindled, he would then consider descending from the rooftop and formulating a plan to evacuate U City.’

‘As for whether Duan Yulan would come looking for him, Qiao Xia simply didn’t believe it in his heart.’

‘He had heard before that Duan Yulan came from a powerful family background. She had likely already left U City by now; how could she possibly still be here?’

‘Huh?’

‘Wait. When he had spoken with Duan Yulan on the phone earlier, the sudden appearance of a premonition had caused Qiao Xia to pay little attention to her words.’

‘Thinking back now, Duan Yulan had referred to the Red-Eyed affliction as “Sanguine Sickness” during their call. Unless she had witnessed the Red-Eyed’s frenzied state firsthand, she couldn’t have known about their bloodthirsty nature.’

‘Could it be that Duan Yulan, like him, had encountered people with the same illness beforehand?’

‘Sanguine Sickness—that name certainly fit the symptoms of the Red-Eyed quite well.’

‘Moreover, it sounded a bit more refined.’

‘Nevertheless, Qiao Xia still preferred the term “Red-Eyed,” as it was a more straightforward and brutal description.’

“My God, is this the end of the world?”

“W-w-w, I want to go home.”

“Damn it, good thing I came along. Just now, I saw a lot of crazed people running towards the teaching building. They all came in through the side door.”

“Crazed people? I think these guys have turned into zombies! Otherwise, they wouldn’t be eating people. It’s truly terrifying.”

Even as Qiao Xia inwardly held onto the term ‘Red-Eyed,’ the others standing on the rooftop couldn’t help but erupt into anxious chatter.

Gazing at the horrific scene below the teaching building, they finally realized that danger had truly arrived. This was no mere rehearsal; it was a real, live threat!

One misstep could lead to a tragic, gruesome end.

Much like the frantic escapees on the street, only a minority managed to get away. Most were caught.

To be eaten or tortured afterward… The mere thought of it filled these students with unbearable anguish.

Among them, Li Lin Guan was also utterly astonished, having never imagined the situation could have escalated to such a severe degree.

He had remained inside the school until now, thus hadn’t perceived the danger directly. However, seeing the blood-stained streets and recalling the Red-Eyed afflicted swinging an axe outside the glass doors earlier, an involuntary shiver ran down Li Lin Guan’s spine.

If he were to truly encounter these Red-Eyed on the street, even he wouldn’t be able to hold them off for long.

“Brother Li,” Damao questioned, “just who is Brother Qiao? How is it that everything he says comes true?”

While Li Lin Guan was secretly trembling with fear, his strategist, Damao, sidled closer. After asking his question in a hushed tone, Damao’s gaze involuntarily drifted towards Qiao Xia.

Qiao Xia’s appearance could, at best, be described as fair. While he wasn’t so ordinary as to be lost in a crowd, he still looked like nothing more than a regular student.

Yet, it was this very Qiao Xia who possessed the uncanny ability to foresee and avoid danger.

One moment, he was saving Brother Li from the perilous falling rebar. The next, without even needing to look, he confidently asserted that the Red-Eyed would enter the teaching building and that they needed to reach the rooftop quickly for safety.

Now, with every prediction proving true, Damao couldn’t help but wonder if Qiao Xia’s words were blessed with some divine power!

‘How could he be so consistently accurate?’

“How would I know that?” Li Lin Guan retorted. “But don’t let Qiao Xia’s slender appearance fool you; his strength is considerable. The punch he landed on me yesterday still aches even now!”

“That powerful?”

Upon hearing Li Lin Guan’s words, Damao’s face clearly registered disbelief.

‘He couldn’t fathom how a man as formidable as their boss could possibly be taken down by a ‘weakling’.’

‘Brother Li must be joking with him.’

‘Or perhaps, he was trying to save Qiao Xia’s face.’

‘After all, Qiao Xia was Brother Li’s savior, and it wasn’t surprising that the sentimental Brother Li would act this way.’

“Of course!” Li Lin Guan exclaimed. “Don’t think I’m messing with you, kid. See for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

Noticing Damao’s dismissive expression, Li Lin Guan knew that words alone wouldn’t convince him. At that moment, he promptly lifted his shirt, revealing a dark purple, fist-shaped bruise on his abdomen.

Earlier, during their ‘arranged fight’ behind the teaching building, a sudden rebar fall had led Qiao Xia to rescue Li Lin Guan at the last possible second. But before Qiao Xia could ‘princess carry’ him to safety, perhaps to prevent any resistance, he had delivered a direct punch to Li Lin Guan’s abdomen.

In that instant, Li Lin Guan felt an excruciating pain that made him wish he could simply pass out on the spot.

However, after the rebar crashed dangerously close to his face, the pain was miraculously blocked out.

All that remained was the sheer joy of having narrowly escaped death.

Yet, upon returning home, the pain in Li Lin Guan’s abdomen resurfaced. It was then that he discovered the fist mark.

‘He remembered how casually Qiao Xia had thrown that punch, yet it had left such a severe mark.’

‘If Qiao Xia had truly used his full strength, wouldn’t he have been killed on the spot?’ With this terrifying realization, Li Lin Guan had eagerly waited at the school gate the next day, intending to acknowledge Qiao Xia as his ‘big brother’ and try to establish a connection.

‘In the future, if they encountered tough opponents they couldn’t handle, they could call upon Qiao Xia for backup.’

After seeing the distinct mark on Li Lin Guan’s abdomen, Damao couldn’t help but gasp. He found it impossible to imagine that Qiao Xia, with his seemingly frail ‘weakling’ appearance, possessed such explosive power.

‘No wonder their boss treated Qiao Xia with such deference, never contradicting his words.’

‘If it were Damao, he wouldn’t dare provoke such a formidable individual either.’

“Ahhh, let us in! The madmen are coming!”

“Open the door quickly… Don’t bite me… Please, don’t come closer…”

“It hurts so much! Please, open the door!”

Just as everyone was panicking over the hellish scene below, the iron door to the rooftop suddenly rattled with frantic banging. Piteous cries for help echoed, filling the ears of everyone on the rooftop.