Chapter 38: 38: The Nest in the Storage Room
Su Han gave the order, and Cheng Zhenyong, Gan Xinglei, Zhu Xiong, and Yan Meiyu immediately began arranging people. Each of them led a small team as the head, and with First-level Intermediate strength, they could handle many things.
Then, they allocated some of the meat corpses and Tentacle-mouthed Spiders to each team, ensuring the balanced distribution of power. The Tentacle-mouthed Spiders might be weaker than the meat corpses, but they were more agile and could serve as scouts.
They divided into four teams, each with five people, and began to search the supermarket. Using the supermarket's trolleys, they transported goods at the fastest speed.
The supermarket was eerily quiet; although the fog hadn't seeped in, it was still very dim. It seemed as though after they had killed those monsters, the entire supermarket had been pillaged.
But Su Han didn't dare to let his guard down, since such a large supermarket couldn't possibly have no staff in the morning. So, where had they all gone now?
While dragging the Spider Monster from the second floor to the first, and then out the main entrance, Su Han stuffed it into Zhu Xiong's truck. He chose a van, jammed the Spider Monster inside, and then used climbing ropes to secure it firmly in the corner.
Even if the truck were to overturn, the Spider Monster had to stay closely together with the truck cabin, eliminating any chance of escape.
After all this was done, Su Han's people were already quickly loading the truck, as goods one after another were moved out and loaded onto the vehicles.
Zhang Da's group was doing the same, desperately moving goods. However, unlike Su Han's people, they didn't dare choose goods in a way that would provoke conflict, fearing a confrontation.
As they transported the goods, growls came from the fog on the streets, and they saw figures of the Four-armed Corpses running quickly towards them, attracted by the noise.
However, just a few Four-armed Corpses posed no real threat.
Before Su Han could act, Gan Xinglei and Zhu Xiong had already taken the initiative, using their superior strength to kill them directly.
"Su Han, our noise is not small. We need to have someone on guard here; otherwise, more monsters will come," said Gan Xinglei after killing the Four-armed Corpse, approaching Su Han. At the moment, the truck was only loaded with a small portion of the goods. To fully load it, they needed at least an hour.
This time was enough for more Four-armed Corpses to notice the activity here and pose a threat to those loading the vehicle.
"Your group stays here to defend and load the truck, and everyone else continues moving things."
Hearing Su Han's command, Gan Xinglei replied, "Okay, but we might not be able to load much on the side with the Spider Monster; it's not convenient."
With the van occupied by the Spider Monster, even though it was bound, the situation remained inconvenient, and he was worried about potential accidents.
"We can load a little less there, focusing on tools primarily."
Speaking of tools, Su Han asked, "Old Zhu, where is the generator you mentioned?"
Zhu Xiong came over when Su Han called him and guessed, "That thing is not small, a few hundred pounds. It's likely in the storeroom, and it'll take your Angel Envoy to move it."
"Where is the storeroom?"
Zhu Xiong shook his head, "I reckon it's on the first floor; we'll have to look for it."
While he knew the owner of the Lihua Supermarket, he wasn't an employee. Upon hearing this, Su Han said, "Come with me, let's find it. We need to load up quickly; this place is not safe."
Even though there was no noise at the moment, the fog had never really dispersed. Who knew what could suddenly emerge? It was always right to hurry.
Su Han took Zhu Xiong to start searching on the first floor. Many shelves had collapsed onto the ground, and the place was in disarray. The two searched for the storeroom location while faintly smelling the odor of rot.
In a community supermarket like this, most of the first floor was usually filled with fresh food, fruits, and vegetables. As many days had passed, the products had already rotted and spoiled, emitting a strong stench.
Zhu Xiong, covering his nose and mouth, fiddled with a shelf for a while and pulled out a bag of masks, causing other items to move and make a clattering noise.
"Put one on; this smell is too disgusting."
Zhu Xiong handed a mask to Su Han. They both put on the masks, and their voices became a bit muffled. Zhu Xiong said, "It should be up ahead, near the staff area."
Su Han nodded, and the two continued to navigate around the cluttered counters, moving forward with an Angel Envoy leading and one following, protecting them both.
The supermarket was quite large; the further they went inside the first floor, the quieter it became, exuding a chilling silence. The dim, yellowish light from the Lamp Tree crystals and the sound of footsteps contrasted with each other, creating an especially eerie atmosphere.
"Old Zhu, what time do the supermarket staff start their shift?"
"Shifts rotate, they start at seven in the morning, but there will definitely be someone on the night shift..."
Zhu Xiong's words stopped abruptly, his face subtly changed, and he became serious: "We haven't seen any living people or corpses in the supermarket."
Whether they turned into survivors or corpses, if there were people in the supermarket, there should be traces of them, but now, apart from the Spider Monsters and those Tentacle-mouthed Spiders, they hadn't seen anything else.
"Shasha shasha"
Suddenly, at this moment, a fine scraping sound arose, as if some multi-legged creature was crawling by—both of their expressions tensed, and they got serious immediately.
"Those spiders."
Zhu Xiong lowered his voice, indicating the source of the noise. Su Han saw his expression and nodded, making a forward gesture and whispering, "Let's go have a look."
The two tread lightly, gripping their crowbars firmly, then rounded a wall and arrived inside an area of the supermarket, where a large rolling door loomed before them, emblazoned with the words "Warehouse" above it.
The noise was coming from inside, not faintly, as many Tentacle-mouthed Spiders were in there.
"Four-armed Corpse"
Su Han thought quickly, and the Four-armed Corpse stepped forward, grabbing the slightly ajar rolling door and pulling it upwards, producing a loud rattling sound that almost startled the entire area. The noisy echoes were somewhat piercing.
The chaotic warehouse was immediately exposed to the two of them, with goods scattered on the floor and large paper-packaged products completely torn apart. In the corner, half-meter-high growths like mushrooms clung to the walls, some of which had burst, their viscous tissue scattered on the floor, and others were still slowly swelling, undulating as if breathing.
"Click-clack click-clack"
Seven or eight shadows moved swiftly, the Tentacle-mouthed Spiders discovering the door wide open and charging toward them with incredible speed.
They moved quickly, the Four-armed Corpse at the doorway stopping only three of them, while the other four dashed towards Zhu Xiong and Su Han.
The two of them were unfazed, with Angel Envoy Zhu tackling one, then, wielding crowbars, they charged forward, swinging forcefully, and with a dull thud, they smashed the bodies of the Tentacle-mouthed Spiders.
Yellow-green viscous blood spattered out, and Su Han, with sharp movements, killed one without a pause, immediately using the curved tip of the crowbar to crush, with a squish, and impale the second Tentacle-mouthed Spider.
"Roar"
From inside the warehouse, amidst the stacks of cardboard boxes, a low growl suddenly arose, and the boxes tumbled.
Su Han's expression became stern as he immediately commanded, "Four-armed Corpse, go see."
The Four-armed Corpse crushed the remaining Tentacle-mouthed Spiders and marched toward the noise emanating from the heap of cardboard boxes, suddenly making a loud rustling sound, and a monster's visage was revealed.
Atop a spider's body was a segment of flesh as soft as meat paste, wearing the employee uniform of Lihua Supermarket on the human torso.
It let out a low growl, exuding a dangerous aura, but upon closer inspection, this monster's spider legs were limp as rotten meat, unable to move—analogous to a shrimp or crab that has just shed its shell.
Upon seeing this scene, Zhu Xiong's pupils shrank sharply, and he inhaled sharply: "Is this how Spider Monsters come into being?"
Below the monstrosity, obvious signs of tissue connection could be seen where the spider body met the flaccid human form—on its back.
The human torso had not yet taken control; the Tentacle-mouthed Spider below was still in charge, but the bizarre appearance made it hard for Su Han to discern whether it was an Evolution or a parasitic Fusion.
"Thud thud thud"
And just then, the other 'growths' in the warehouse also began to pulsate, cracks appearing, revealing Tentacle-mouthed Spiders inside.
"Old Zhu, take action. We can't take these things with us."
Su Han made a quick decision. One or two could be controlled, but hatching so many at once, it was impossible to capture them all.