Ye Shu eyed the blue blood staining her clothes with distaste, frowning as she immediately changed outfits. She carefully wiped herself down with water, spritzed her skin with alcohol for good measure, and tossed the bloodied garments in the trash. She couldn’t be sure if this blood was infectious.

Elsewhere on the cruise ship, similar horrors unfolded.

A father, eyes dark with worry, gently cleaned the sticky white mucus from his unconscious daughter’s body, his actions tender, oblivious to the scales creeping up the back of her neck. By the time he noticed, it was already too late.

"Xiaoman, you’re finally awake... I’m your father, what are you doing?"

Hearing commotion from his daughter’s room, the father rejoiced, assuming his ailing girl had simply woken. He burst in, elation slowly draining into terror.

Standing before him was a nightmarish creature, body wreathed in slick black scales, jaws lined with razor-sharp fangs, a sinuous tail dragging behind. If not for the shipboard clothes she herself had chosen, he never would have believed that this monster was once his gentle, obedient daughter.

"Ah!! No!!"

The monster sprang with lightning speed. The father, caught off guard, had his throat ripped out in one quick, predatory strike. Blood sprayed across the floor, crimson and vivid.

"Mon... Monster!"

Lin Baozhu stood frozen in abject terror as the black-scaled abomination sniffed the air hungrily. Suddenly, its ashen, slit-pupiled eyes widened with malicious delight.

"Uncle... help me, Uncle," she whimpered, voice shuddering. She couldn’t make sense of how such a nightmare had manifested here, cowering and hardly daring to breathe.

Not far away, Lin Tian’s face was grim. Ignoring his niece’s plea, he bolted toward the exit with swift, practiced movements, not casting a single glance back—his concern for his niece utterly eclipsed by his own fear.

"Uncle..." Lin Baozhu’s tears flowed in silent, desperate streams, though she dared not raise her voice.

Step by step, the monster crept closer, its greedy gray gaze locked on her. Abandoned by family, teetering at the brink of death, a boundless despair overtook Lin Baozhu—and with it, fear evaporated. In a desperate burst, she seized a stick from the ground and swung with all her might at the monster’s skull.

Alas, the creature moved with uncanny speed, dodging her attack without effort. A guttural, sibilant screech ripped from its throat, a sound both angry and strangely plaintive.

Lin Baozhu seized the moment to dash into the nearest room, locking the door and bracing it with a desk. She moved with a strength she never knew she possessed—an heiress unaccustomed to hardship, driven by abject terror. From outside, razor-sharp claws raked the door, the screech of keratin on wood jangling her nerves.

The door wouldn’t last long... Worse, she now realized there were more than just a single monster. The thing that first attacked her wore the uniform of her personal bodyguard, the one her father had arranged before boarding. The monsters were people, transformed!

Pressed against the desk, Lin Baozhu smothered her cries, tears streaming down her cheeks, her limbs half-paralyzed by fright.

Suddenly, a thought struck her. She fled to the bathroom, rummaged frantically, and found a tiny bottle of perfume. Dousing herself liberally, the sickly-sweet scent quickly filled the small space—and, sure enough, the monsters ceased their assault on the door.

Those who fell unconscious had completed their mutation in mere moments—especially in the makeshift shelter, where thousands had gathered. When all those monsters awakened, the 90th floor would be nothing short of a disaster zone.

…

Only after she had scrubbed her room spotless, ridding it of that viscous, metallic stench, did Ye Shu finally feel at ease. She plucked an apple from the fruit basket and bit in; the juicy, sweet flesh driving away her lingering fear.

This round’s game—mutated monsters!

So far, it was considerably easier than the last scenario. The infected were swift, yes, but nowhere near as strong—Ye Shu had no trouble at all dispatching the last pair with a simple stroke to the neck.

But who’s to say these monsters won’t evolve as the game continues?

She’d read hundreds—if not thousands—of zombie novels. Zombies always evolved, sometimes even growing mysterious crystalline cores in their skulls. Curious, she’d even dug into the mutants’ brains with a watermelon knife, but found nothing but black, putrid rot.

Still, these infected had a lot in common with zombies: no sense of pain, and a single fatal weakness—the head.

Ye Shu jotted down in her diary: Infected—keen sense of smell, dull hearing, fast. Potentially infectious? She added a question mark.

As long as you could shoot them in the head, hold the defensive line, you stood a chance.

What she didn’t realize was that most survivors from the previous round relied on hiding or tools to escape the monsters, barely scraping by. Very few had ever encountered something as terrifying as the Subway Ghost.

Ye Shu glanced at the flood of new messages—a constant stream of alerts lighting up her screen. She randomly opened a message from Pang Pangzi:

[Coastline888: Heroine Ye, what are these monsters? Are they really those people who passed out? Damn, my roommate fainted yesterday too—this is bad!]

[Coastline888: Heroine, thank god you uploaded those pics. My roommate turned into one too! Almost tore my head off, but I managed to lock him out for now.]

[IAmYourDad: Be careful. The infected are blisteringly fast. Their weakness is the head.]

Long moments passed with no further reply from Pang Pangzi. Ye Shu slurped some beef noodles, splashed a bit of spicy Lao Gan Die sauce, and stirred. No doubt he’d run into trouble.

On day one, he had tried to team up with her—too bad they weren’t on the same ship.

The cruise’s group chat was overflowing with pleas for help.

[59c1203 Xiaotiantian: Help! I’ll pay anything for medicine! My dad turned into a cannibal monster. Mom helped me hide in a room, but she got bitten. I’ll give a million Longguo dollars—bring medicine to 59th floor, room 1203!]

[68c9809: I’ve got some! What do these monsters look like? Do they have fish scales, black-purple skin, and a long lizard tail?]

[33c1101: This is a Royal liner. No monsters on board. Stop scaremongering, Xiaotiantian from the 59th—spreading rumors is illegal!]

[59c1203: I’m not lying! The shelter is full, so we left my unconscious dad in the living room. I never thought this would happen—he’s wearing the same beach shorts as before; I’m sure it’s him.]

[78c2009: I can vouch for her—the 59th floor isn’t lying. My daughter just turned as well. I locked her in a room for now. What is this disease? Can it be cured?]

Sticky posts multiplied—monsters were awakening on every floor.

[80c9906: The ones who passed out turn into monsters. Their weakness is the head—attack while they’re still waking up!]

Ye Shu didn’t plan on getting involved, but in a fleeting moment of conscience, she posted a warning to the group.

The chat instantly boiled over with fury, messages bursting forth in a torrent—most of them angry accusations.

[23c5544: Are you even human? These are our families, and you want us to kill them? You’re a murderer! There’s a dock ahead, Big Eagle Country has the world’s best hospitals—have some faith!]

[90c0111: I work at the shelter—those patients are fine, just resting in their beds, no mutation. Trust me!]

[76c5509: We don’t want violent types like you in our group!]

[77c4081: If my son wasn’t bedridden right now, I’d teach you a lesson myself!]

At the shelter, staff scoffed at the messages. The 80th floor again—always these neurotics. He’d just checked; the people in question lay quietly in their beds, motionless except for some odd white slime. Perfectly safe.

Ye Shu regarded the chat’s scorn with a cool, unsurprised expression. She’d expected nothing less, but couldn’t help a moment of disappointment.

She stared at the ever-dwindling count of surviving players. Without a word, she swallowed another bite of noodles.

In just half a day, of a million players, thirty to forty thousand had already perished—a brutal culling, but merciful compared to the last time the horrors descended.