Salted Fish Zombie

Chapter 44.2: Manman (17)

June 16, 2023 by Wyrd

He lay weakly on the vigorous lily vines, beneath him were countless struggling monster children. The lily flower with three petals beside his cheek were blood-red, and there were small skull heads falling from the sky beside him.

His heart pounded as he closed his eyes, feeling the rhythm of the trembling lily vines beneath his back.

Ning Su closed his eyes with all his strength, as if returning to his hometown. (T/N: This idiom conveys the idea of feeling a sense of familiarity and comfort upon returning to one’s hometown. It implies a feeling of nostalgia and a sense of belonging, as if everything is just as it used to be. It is often used to describe the warm and familiar feeling one experiences when revisiting their place of origin.)

Upstairs, everyone watched this scene in shock.

It was known to all players that the lily vines could block the monster children, and as expected, the giant monster children, over ten meters tall, were tightly pinned down by the lily vine web. No matter how they struggled, it was futile.

Even amidst their raging roars and wails, the vines grew even more vigorous. The thick vines seemed to be spreading and pulsating under the moonlight, and the blood-red three-petal flowers bloomed one after another, opening into the darkness beyond the iron gate.

It was the deepest, darkest red in the darkness.

No matter how dark the night was, it couldn’t conceal it, and no matter how pale the moonlight was, it couldn’t suppress it. The gray mist dissipated as soon as it approached.

It was as if it was naturally suppressing the monster children. Once they were pinned down by the lily vines, there was no possibility of escape, no matter how much they struggled.

However, it was impossible to have every single monster child pinned down. Some slipped through the cracks.

Zhu Shuangshuang and Ji Mingrui held nets woven from lily vines, trapping these monster children in various places.

For individual monster children, they used small nets to catch and trap them, while for groups of them, they lifted large nets and swung them over.

“Set them on fire! Don’t let them escape from outside the gate!” Zhu Shuangshuang pounced on a monster child that was trying to climb out.

It was her first time reaching out to grab a monster child.

These monster children were essentially ghosts draped in the bodies of dead children. They emitted a foul smell and had a layer of greasy and slippery, unknown liquid. Zhu Shuangshuang didn’t grab it for the first time. Her hand slipped and caught onto something elongated behind the child.

The angrier the monster child became, the stronger its strength. Zhu Shuangshuang was dragged several meters on the lily vines, feeling afraid because of what he had just touched. “What did I grab?”

Ning Su, looking at Zhu Shuangshuang being dragged past him by the monster child, answered her with disdain, “It’s the umbilical cord.”

In that instant, he felt that Zhu Shuangshuang was about to cry.

But she still held onto that umbilical cord tightly, even as the monster child shook her up and down.

Because once the monster child rushed outside, they wouldn’t be able to control them anymore.

The fire on the vine outside wouldn’t last the whole night. It was possible for them to climb up from behind the castle and from the left and right sides. The fourth-floor windows were wide open, and they would be at a loss if the monster children managed to get in.

They had to keep them all contained in the garden.

Meng Jiang shook off one of the monster children that ran to the first-floor door. “Hang on, I’m coming!”

Apart from Ning Su, there were only three of them, and it was a struggle to defend against the monster children in every corner.

According to the plan, Meng Jiang would light a fire at the iron gate to block the monster children from escaping. Zhu Shuangshuang and Ji Mingrui would clear out any stragglers in the garden, while Gui Sheng and the four ghost friends would be on the fourth floor. If they spotted any monster children appearing from the left or right behind, they would alert them.

But the situation was even worse than they had imagined.

Ning Su controlled over 90% of the monster children. Nevertheless, because there were so many monster children, the remaining ones were difficult for them to handle.

“Light the fire first!”

Meng Jiang had no choice but to let go of the monster children at the door and rush to the iron gate, igniting several threads.

As the flames rose, the monster children, who were eager to charge outside, became even angrier. Over a hundred monster children in the garden roared and ran around chaotically.

Six-year-old Ji Mingrui took off his standard little suit and chased after the monster children running on the wall, wearing only a shirt. “Not only have they become stronger, but they’ve also become faster!”

He barely managed to trap the monster children with a net as they climbed up the wall, but two of them had already jumped to higher ground.

Ji Mingrui panicked for a moment, but then he saw a white silk flying over, wrapping around the two monster children and throwing them back into the garden.

Following the white silk, he turned around and saw the other end of it held by a boy lying on lily vines.

The boy had half-closed long eyelashes, a pale and delicate complexion, and had shallow breathing.

Ji Mingrui clenched his back teeth and chased after the white silk, using the lily vines net to trap the two monster children.

The garden was almost covered in lily vines, dripping with an unknown liquid from the bodies of the monster children. The stench filled the air, making it difficult to move.

Zhu Shuangshuang ran around the garden, wearing a pair of black sport pants belonging to a boy. Her clothes were stained with yellow and white fluids, and her hair and face as well.

She wiped the pungent liquid off her face while tears streamed down her cheeks as she pursued the monster children.

Her tears this time were not out of fear. Besides the burning sensation from the liquid scorching her eye corners, there was also a deep sense of powerlessness.

Having only eaten one meal for the entire day, they were on the verge of physical exhaustion, while the monster children’s strength and speed increased in their rage.

They couldn’t hold them back any longer.

They absolutely couldn’t let the monster children escape outside. Meng Jiang, who couldn’t spare the time to trap the monster children with nets, used both his hands and feet at the iron gate, kicking the monster children into the garden, throwing one with each hand.

Without trapping them with nets, it added to Zhu Shuangshuang’s burden. Monster children were scattered all over the garden, and Zhu Shuangshuang couldn’t catch up. The monster children crawled up the walls and to the first-floor entrance, rendering Ji Mingrui, who was guarding the last line of defense, powerless.

More and more monster children leaped onto the wall, and the white silk flew towards the wall again and again. Ning Su’s face grew paler and paler.

Zhu Shuangshuang saw his eyebrows furrowed for the first time, as if something black was oozing out from there.

Completely lifeless, like death itself.

He lay there, surrounded by white, skeletal skulls. His complexion became increasingly similar to the color of those skulls, devoid of any vitality.

Like a broken doll hanging on the lily vines.

During the planning, Ning Su had told them that he could only control 90% of the monster children before running out of energy.

His stamina was extremely low, almost half of what she, who could no longer lift her arms, had left.

After transforming into a child, he became so small and frail. After such a powerful burst, his stamina was completely depleted.

And yet, he had to use the Heaven-Piercing Silk again and again.

Frowning was probably a symbol of pain for him.

For the first time, the three of them hated themselves for being useless.

Zhu Shuangshuang shouted in frustration, “Ning Su, stop using the Heaven-Piercing Silk!”

Ning Su looked up at the dozen or so monster children on the wall.

What would they do if he didn’t use it?

Zhu Shuangshuang’s red hood was a defensive guarding weapon, Meng Jiang had strength, and Ji Mingrui, as a newcomer, didn’t have any skill weapons. Who could fly up to the wall and bring the monster children down?

All three of them could see the current situation clearly.

Zhu Shuangshuang still yelled at him, “Stop using it! Let’s just die. Let fate decide who lives and who dies!”

It was because they were too useless.

They couldn’t let him suffer so much because of their incompetence.

In the end, Gui Sheng would be there to protect him. It wouldn’t be the Blood Doll that got destroyed.

Originally, tonight was supposed to be the death of one of the three of them, unrelated to Ning Su.

Every night, one person would die, and the monster children would destroy the ghost friend. It was an invisible rule set by the system. It was extremely difficult to break this rule.

Perhaps players couldn’t resist the system’s rules.

That’s why those veteran players on the fifth and sixth floors never thought of actively counterattacking the monster children.

Ji Mingrui also stopped in his tracks.

Meng Jiang, with red eyes, looked towards the fourth floor.

On the thin white hand, black veins bulged, and when the white silk was about to fly towards the monster child on the third floor at an extremely fast speed, something was thrown from the fourth floor and hit the monster child head-on.

With a loud bang, the monster child was struck hard and fell down.

Then, the monster children on the other side of the third floor were also knocked down.

Followed by the second floor and the first floor.

All 12 monster children climbing the walls were smashed down.

The four of them paused for a moment and looked up at the fourth floor.

On the terrace of Room 405, Gui Sheng held something in his hand. With a serious expression on his pale face, he leaned over and looked down. His gaze fell upon the boy lying on the lily vines. “Protect!”

This was the first time they heard a hint of anger in Little Angel Gui Sheng’s words.

Whenever a monster child approached the wall, he would fiercely grab something and smash it down.

The things he pulled out from who knew where and smashed down kept increasing in the garden.

Their level of strangeness was no less than that of the monster children.

Dog-faced bodies, tiger-faced bodies, wolf-faced bodies, snake-faced bodies with human faces, fox-faced bodies with human faces...

Ning Su: “...”

Zhu Shuangshuang: “...”

They couldn’t help but wonder about the mood of Snowball, the ghost master who worked hard to create these bizarre and creepy things.

They were all combinations of human and animal features, with hollow gazes directed at the monster children below or across from them.

The animal-headed ones showed no trace of human emotions in their beastly pupils, and even those with human faces had a hint of savagery in their eyes.

For them, the monster children were anomalies, flesh, and the natural opposition and provocation from a different instance.

“What... what are they?” Players on the fifth and sixth floors were dumbfounded.

Ji Mingrui and Meng Jiang were also stunned. They had never seen anything so eerie before—part human, part animal, and without shadows, yet ghosts...

But no matter what they were, their appearance relieved them, and the two of them took the opportunity to quickly use their lily vine nets to capture the monster children.

The monster children who confronted the animal ghosts were immediately rushed by the other from the opposite side, biting and tearing with its fangs.

Gui Sheng on the fourth floor kept reaching out and throwing animal ghosts downwards. “Annoying!”

“Annoying!!!”

“Don’t hurt him!”

“Protect!”

More and more eerie animal ghosts appeared in the garden, almost reaching a number comparable to the uncontrollable monster children.

Soon, the three of them realized that they didn’t need to intervene anymore.

The animal ghosts and the monster child started fighting.

The monster children were strong and fast, but the animal ghosts were a combination of human and animal spirits, clever and fierce, with strong attack power, and it even ate “humans.”

In their world, “humans” were at the bottom, and anyone who dared to resist them would be taught a lesson just like the “groom.”

The animal ghosts tore apart and devoured the monster children’s head, arms, and legs.

The garden was filled with yellow-white fluid, gray-white limbs, and countless angry yet powerless roars from the monster children beneath the lily vines.

But no monster children climbed up the wall anymore.

Zhu Shuangshuang looked dazed and said, “Did we... succeed?”

Meng Jiang also found it hard to believe. “Did we really manage to hold back tens of thousands of monster children...”

Apart from Ning Su, the other three exhausted individuals collapsed on the lily vines, unable to muster any more strength.

Zhu Shuangshuang burst into tears again, mixed with laughter. “We... we actually succeeded.”

The other two boys were also crying and laughing, their throats producing hoarse, meaningless sounds.

They had risked everything and went all-in, but deep down, they hadn’t held much hope.

They truly never expected to withstand so many seemingly invincible monster children.

[My mother’s womb is so warm; I want to tear it apart and accompany you to hell.

When I died, it trembled. But was it a longing for me?]

Outside the castle in the amusement park, the carousel started spinning again.

It was filled with monster children once more.

As the carousel came to a stop, the monster children began to disembark one by one.

Monster children from all corners of the amusement park sang together as they made their way towards the castle.

The smiles on the faces of the four individuals froze.

Despair engulfed their hearts, evident through their innocent eyes.

The flames on the vines surrounding the castle still burned, but they had no strength left.

They watched as the monster children jumped down from the walls on both sides of the iron gate, just clearing the line of fire designed to prevent them from escaping.

At half-past nine in the night, the castle echoed with the angry roars of the first group of monster children and the cheerful singing of the second group of monster children.