While Chen Pingsheng was leisurely heading west, chewing on a chicken leg, things were very different inside a certain commercial building not far ahead.
Inside, the building had been turned into a base by a local gang. Tough-looking men were patrolling each floor, armed with makeshift weapons, steel pipes, machetes, and a few rusted rifles. Ten men guarded the first and second floors, keeping watch for zombies or outsiders. Most of the gang members, along with women they'd taken in, were living on the third to fifth floors.
There were around sixty people inside in the building.
On the fifth floor, in one of the rooms, things were… little messy. A man and two women were tangled up on the bed, the kind of scene nobody would describe in detail. The man, mid-thrust, suddenly stopped.
His brows furrowed, The two women looked confused.
"What's wrong?" one of them asked.
The man didn't reply right away. He just stared at the wall with a blank look.
He had this feeling again, he felt very uneasy.
That same damn feeling from yesterday. Yes, it wasn't the first time he had this feeling. Yesterday, he already had this weird feeling like something was off in the building. But now, that feeling was stronger. A pressure he couldn't explain and now it was stronger!His instincts told him, Leave now, or you'll die.
He wasn't the kind of guy to panic easily, but his instincts were screaming at him. Real danger not the usual zombie horde, nor gang fights. This was something worse something he couldn't even describe.
But he pushed that thought aside. He was the gang leader Tiger Gang. He had over sixty people under his command. They had weapons, manpower, backup. Even if something did show up, what could possibly break through all of that?
He exhaled slowly.
"…Tch, probably just stress." he muttered, trying to brush it off, but his hand was still shaking.
He looked down at it for a second, then clenched it into a fist, trying to calm himself.
He wasn't the only one feeling this way.
All across the building, a few others with sharp instincts had the same uneasy feeling. They couldn't explain it, but something in the air felt heavy, like a storm was about to hit.
Some of them glanced out the windows more often than usual. Others gripped their weapons tighter without even realizing it. A few even went down to the lower floors to check around.
In the room next to the gang leader, there were nine bags of rice, some canned meat, noodles, and other stored food. It was one of the main storage rooms. The door was locked, and no one had gone in since yesterday.
Inside, the temperature dropped slightly. Something black and sticky started leaking from the corner of the wall. At first, it looked like mold, but it spread too fast. The concrete cracked. A low, wet breathing sound echoed inside the room.
Then, something moved from behind the rice bags, a huge figure slowly pulled itself out of the darkness. Its limbs were long and thin, bent the opposite way, like a spider that never learned how to crawl properly.
Its belly was swollen, its body skin-tight over bone. The head twitched, and then its jaw cracked open, stretching wider than any known animals. Rows of sharp, needle-like teeth glistened under the faint light.
Thick, black drool poured from its mouth, dripping onto a rat that had been hiding behind the sacks. The rat screamed once, then melted into a pile of bones and blood.
Leaving small holes as it melted through the concrete.
"…Hungry…"
The voice was low and cracked, like someone mumbling in their sleep.
"…Give it back…"
Its eyes were empty at first, but when it sensed the food nearby, they lit up in a glowing red.
Cans began to swell and burst. The rice gave off a rotten smell. Everything in the room started to spoil.
The curse spirit turned toward the wall separating it from the next room the one where the gang leader was still sitting with his cigarette.
The curse spirit stepped forward, slowly moving through the wall, it didn't break it. Its body simply passed through like mist.
In the next room, the gang leader was still sitting on the bed, smoking. The two women were lying beside him.
He suddenly froze.
The cigarette fell from his fingers.
His body started to feel cold, like something was pulling the heat out of him. He looked around, confused. He couldn't see anything but every part of him said something was inside the room.
The women sat up too. One of them grabbed his arm.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"…I don't know!!" he said, but his voice was hoarse.
Then, before any of them could react, something lifted the woman off the bed. Her legs kicked in the air, but there was nothing holding her. The second woman screamed. The gang leader tried to stand up, but his body felt weak, like he hadn't eaten for days.
Then he saw it was blurry at first. Just a shadow but the closer he got to death, the clearer it became.
A long, thin arm with claws wrapped around the woman's neck. The bloated belly. The wide mouth dripping black liquid. The eyes glowing red.
The second woman was grabbed next. She was screaming, both legs in the air, flailing.
"HELP! SOMEONE! HELP US!" The gang leader and two women shouted weakly their voice echoed through the floor.
A few men from the hallway kicked the door open and rushed in. There were four of them, weapons in hand.
But they stopped in their tracks.
"What the fuck…?"
All they saw was the leader and two women floating in the air screaming, choking, like some invisible force was lifting them.
Four of his men were in the room, he was shouting, panicking, but four men were unable to understand what was happening.
"There's nothing there!"
"Boss! What's going on?!"
But the ones being attacked knew exactly what was happening and none of them could do anything to stop it.
The leader could see it, so could the two women. The monster tilted its head slowly, almost like it was smiling.
It opened its mouth wide just as the sharp teeth started moving...
'Crack!'
The entire rooftop split down the middle.
A clean diagonal line appeared across the ceiling, then a section of it slid off slowly, like a lid coming off a box. Concrete, beams, and metal supports all fell in one massive piece, crashing to the back of the building.
'BOOOM'
A full section of the rooftop collapsed off the side, crashing to the ground outside. Dust shot upward like smoke from an explosion.
The sunlight from the sky poured inside the room people in the room didn't move. They just stared, frozen.
Then a shadow dropped down, when the dust cleared, Chen Pingsheng landed in the middle of the room.
He didn't speak or glance at anyone, he just chew the last bite of his fried chicken.
His eyes looked at the curse spirit like it was nothing more than a pile of trash.
He stretched his neck lazily and tossed the chicken bone aside.
"Tch...Making too much noise from birth." He complained in a low voice.
Curse spirit turned its head, it didn't make a sound. Its eyes flickered, the red glow dimming slightly. It wasn't smart enough to understand what just happened, but its body reacted on instinct.
It step back from Chen Pingsheng.
Its hands twitched, claws lowering slightly. The presence it felt from this person wasn't normal not something it could play with.
Chen Pingsheng looked down at the bag in his hand, the roting smell hit him first. The chicken had gone soft and sour. The burger was turning black. The fries were already half-rotted. The Pepsi bottle was leaking from the bottom.
He opened the bag, checked inside, then let out a quiet sigh.
"...Should've eaten faster." He said, not looking up dropped the bag to the floor.
The people around him were frozen, no one said anything.
They couldn't see the curse spirit, but they saw the two women still floating in the air, gasping. They saw the gang leader shaking, pale, staring at something they couldn't see.
They saw the ceiling, cut clean open like it was paper.
And they saw Chen Pingsheng standing there like none of it was a big deal.
One of the men stepped back toward the door without realizing it. Another glanced at the others, confused, unsure if they should speak or stay quiet.
The gang leader coughed, barely holding himself up.
He looked at Chen Pingsheng with wide eyes, then looked at the monster, its limbs twitching like it didn't know whether to fight or run.
It almost killed him. Now, it looked terrified of this man.
"Not bad," Chen Pingsheng muttered, hand resting under his chin as he observed the creature. "First curse spirit, and already second maybe even first grade. This world might have some potential."
He glanced at the trembling spirit but didn't pay it any real attention.
"Shame, really with the right conditions, this one could've become a natural disaster. But with only thousand people left in this city? Without enough negative energy. No way it's reaching Special Grade."
His eyes flicked to the spoiled rations. "Interesting technique, though. Rots food on contact… Must've been born from resentment over food maybe?" He let out a dry chuckle. "In a apocalyptic world, that's practically a calamity."
Chen Pingsheng stood up straight, his tone shifting as his amusement faded.
"But still… you ruined my food." His voice grew cold, eyes narrowing. "Even if it wasn't on purpose you're still going to die."
He took a step forward, the air around him subtly shifting. "Congratulations on being the first curse spirit of this world. Too bad you won't be around long enough to see any more than this."
Chen Pingsheng gave a lazy wave, like he was saying goodbye to an old friend.
Before anyone could react, the curse spirit's body was sliced into countless tiny pieces. Purple blood sprayed across the leader and his two women.
The pieces didn't last long. They burned into ashes on the floor a clear sign it had been exorcised.
Only the leader and the two women saw what happened. The others had already run far away, not daring to look back, but even if they were here they can't see anything anyway.