Chapter 68: The Wraith

Su Yi stood up, crossed the vast, chaotic expanse, and entered a glass-walled office. This had once been the private room of one of the company’s managers. The large desk bore the same dark red stains as elsewhere.

He walked to the window, seized a length of curtain, and gave it a sharp tug. With a forceful shake, he ripped the fabric in two and tied one half around his waist. At last, he was spared the discomfort of wandering about unclothed.

Leaving the office, Su Yi surveyed the entire floor once more, but found not a trace of human presence. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t spot a single so-called revenant, either.

After a thorough search yielded nothing, Su Yi approached a desk, wrenched off a metal leg, and took it up as a makeshift weapon. He had no idea whether the creatures’ bodily fluids or tissues were dangerous; avoiding direct contact seemed wise.

With nothing to discover on this level, it was time to check the others.

Su Yi returned to the stairwell and headed upward. He made his way to the door at the very top, leading to the rooftop. He pressed against the unlocked door, only to find it immovable. This could mean only two things: either something heavy was blocking it from the other side, or it was bolted shut.

Either way, the solution was simple.

Su Yi raised his foot and kicked. With a dull bang, the entire doorframe trembled, and the door shot outward. There was nothing piled up behind it—it must have been locked.

Stepping out onto the rooftop, Su Yi scanned his surroundings. Then he saw a corpse.

It was a man in his forties, his condition so ghastly that few would dare look. He wore a shirt, with a suit jacket discarded nearby. His feet were bare, though the remains of leather shoes lay at his side.

Su Yi surmised the man had starved to death. Even in his final moments, he’d tried to swallow anything—his shoes included.

Clearly, after the disaster, the man had fled here, locked the rooftop door behind him, but his terror kept him from descending again, and so he died of hunger.

Su Yi stood in silence for a moment, then turned away.

Back inside, he began to search each floor in turn. Every level was much the same as the first: chaos, blood, not a soul in sight.

After scouring more than a dozen floors, Su Yi finally encountered something different.

On a broad, open-plan office floor, just as he entered, he noticed two humanoid figures moving in a distant corner.

These creatures possessed acute senses. It took only a moment for them to notice Su Yi and turn their gaze his way.

Though several dozen meters separated them, Su Yi could see their forms clearly. The monsters were gaunt, their skin a hideous, wrinkled grayish-white. Their mouths, once human, had widened to cover nearly a third of their faces, exposing jagged teeth.

Their clothing was bunched and filthy, colorless with age and grime. Each extended a pair of arms, finger bones sharp as blades, and with guttural howls, they charged at Su Yi, shoving aside debris in their path.

So these were revenants.

They looked every bit as repulsive as he’d imagined.

The two creatures barreled toward him with surprising speed—much like fit humans on a sprint, and that was with obstacles in their way.

Su Yi sighed inwardly. If these monsters represented what survivors faced, it was no wonder so few people had made it. Surviving such encounters would be almost impossible for an ordinary person.

As the creatures closed to within ten meters, Su Yi halted and sprang forward, meeting their charge head-on.

He launched himself like an arrow, flicking to one side, and in a blink was upon them.

To test their strength, Su Yi deliberately brought the iron table leg to clash with the revenant’s outstretched hand.

Metal screeched against the monster’s sharp bones, a grating sound. But as expected, the creature’s finger bones snapped under the force, and with a swift maneuver, Su Yi sent both monsters flying through the air.

He had a rough measure of their strength now: revenants possessed power far beyond their former human selves. Against such overwhelming force, any office worker would despair.

No wonder the man on the rooftop chose to starve rather than descend.

If both speed and strength were so formidable, what of their resilience?

Su Yi had barely used any force, yet the revenants quickly scrambled up and came at him again, undeterred, claws bared.

Fearless, oblivious to harm or advantage.

Su Yi assessed them coolly. Even wild animals would retreat from an invincible foe, but these two monsters ignored every instinct of self-preservation. Just like the monsters in countless stories.

He watched coldly as the pair lunged again. With a sidestep, Su Yi slipped behind one and drove the iron table leg through its chest.

Though the leg was blunt, infused with his inner strength, it pierced the creature clean through.

He gauged the monster’s toughness—its flesh was as resilient as that of a large beast. Ordinary blades would do little.

Withdrawing the table leg, Su Yi saw a spurt of inky blood shoot from the revenant’s back. The blood droplets never touched him, repelled by the protective energy about his body.

He leapt aside, observing the state of the impaled creature.

Though a gaping hole marred its chest, the revenant suffered no fatal wound, only slowing as it continued to lunge doggedly.

Is the heart still a vital point? Or is it the head?

Su Yi mused, and with a casual step, he swept the iron leg across the wounded creature’s neck.

A dull crack. The monster’s head, along with its neck, was severed from its body.

This time, the creature was finally mortally wounded. Its body toppled and remained still.

The other revenant, unperturbed by its companion’s death, charged with the same suicidal ferocity.

Su Yi repeated his maneuver, lopping off its head as well.

But to his surprise, the headless revenant, even after collapsing, staggered upright once more.

A shadow crossed Su Yi’s face. He paused, watching.

Headless, the creature still moved toward him—this time walking, not running. Perhaps the loss of its brain robbed it of coordination.

Su Yi stamped loudly as he shifted to one side. The monster adjusted its direction—astonishing. Deprived of a central nervous system, it could still track him by sensing vibrations. A terrifying ability.

He lightened his steps and slipped several meters away. Sure enough, the creature shambled toward where he’d been, arms flailing.

Su Yi wondered if it was simply acting out the final instincts of a dying predator, but he watched as it walked nearly a hundred meters, right up to the floor-to-ceiling windows, never once losing its vitality.

As the headless monster scratched furiously at the glass with its sharp bones, Su Yi was overcome with disgust—and a silent mourning for humanity’s fate in this world.

He stepped up behind the creature and drove the iron table leg into its chest.

At last, the thing froze, motionless as a statue, hands still pressed to the glass.

So to kill one, both heart and head must be destroyed. What formidable creatures.

Su Yi sighed, pulled his makeshift weapon free, then gave the corpse a push.

With a crash, the headless revenant’s body slammed into the window. An entire wall of glass shattered and rained down, the monster’s remains vanishing into the depths below.