The man’s outstretched hand went limp and fell, his body frozen in place for several seconds, then, all of a sudden, a force flung him aside. He immediately collapsed to the ground as if he’d lost all support.
In the midst of everyone’s horrified screams, the thing that had torn his face apart appeared out of the thick fog. It was a slender, blood-red object, about half a meter long. After tossing the man aside, it flicked once in midair, then snapped back with a wet smack.
The place it retracted to was a bloodstained, ferocious mouth, smeared with bits of red and white. As it opened and closed, the upper and lower jaws writhed twice, as if savoring something.
That was a mouth—a human mouth, if this thing could still be called human.
It had a human skeleton. Tattered scraps of clothing still clung to it. The exposed skin was shriveled and yellow, the twisted joints beneath clearly visible, and most of its hair had already fallen out. Its eyes bulged from their sockets, blood-red, lifeless, and cold.
The torn, bloody mouth opened wide, splitting all the way to its ears. The blood-red, slender thing was surely its tongue. At this moment, it flicked in and out of that ugly, hideous maw, like a snake’s forked tongue—cold, terrifying, ready to kill at any moment.
That was not a human. Nor was it a beast.
It was—a Creature.
In an instant, only these two words remained in everyone’s minds.
The two people nearest to it recognized the red and white fluids for what they were, and a wave of nausea hit them. The sharp stench of blood filled the air. Unable to hold back, they doubled over and vomited.
The noise attracted other things in the fog. Soon, a second, a third… figure appeared in the thick mist, several pairs of bulging, cold eyes turning mechanically, fixing on the people vomiting inside the Mall.
“Run—!” A woman’s voice, nearly breaking, called out from behind them. Though the distance made her shout not too loud, it was enough.
Those few who seemed rooted to the spot suddenly snapped awake.
But in the face of overwhelming terror, not everyone could control their bodies.
Some turned and started running—stumbling and staggering, but at least escaping the danger zone. Some only managed a few steps before their legs gave out, collapsing to the side, then scrambling and crawling toward the inside of the Mall.
Others, after falling, wept and wailed in despair, but the more they tried to get up, the weaker their limbs became. In their ears came the heavy, beast-like panting. They dared not look back, but the stench of blood and rot was unmistakable in the air, along with the sound of a red tongue slicing through the air…
By the railing near the second-floor elevator, Tang Siqing shouted “Run!” and quickly pulled her mask back on. At the same time, she aimed her phone’s camera through the chaotic crowd, recording the Creature below. Without slowing, she sprinted along the curved railing toward the elevator to the third floor, steady hands never letting the camera waver.
Most of the Second Floor was open-plan shops. The storefronts were wide and spacious, but aside from display tables, racks, and shelves, there was nowhere to hide. Even small spaces like Changing Rooms or Warehouses were mostly sealed, with only one door. If you hid inside and got surrounded, there’d be no way out.
She had to find a place that could offer temporary safety but also left herself an escape route.
At this moment, she couldn’t help but imagine—if only she could enter that strange space of hers. She’d even give up the slowed time that preserved food longer; if she could enter, then as long as she was somewhere with no people and no surveillance cameras, she could instantly hide in a completely safe space during such a terrifying emergency.
But it was too late for wishful thinking. Tang Siqing never stopped moving, quickly circling the curved railing on the Second Floor, dashing up the moving Elevator while it was running, accelerating herself to the Third Floor.
During this, people on the Second Floor had already been drawn by the commotion downstairs. Shoppers and shop staff alike, not knowing what was happening, went to the nearest railing to look down.
Tang Siqing couldn’t warn the entire Mall, so she could only shout a few quick warnings as she passed by. Those nearby heard her, but most just frowned impatiently, pulled out their phones to film downstairs, and speculated whether it was a prank from a TV crew or a movie shoot happening nearby…
Tang Siqing didn’t waste time talking. Once she reached the Third Floor, she quickly checked the nearby shops and restaurants while also looking at the floor plan she’d just snapped on her phone.
She quickly picked a temporary hiding spot—a SPA Parlor located on the side of the shopping complex facing the Parking Lot. The entrance was small, but because it was a beauty spa, the internal layout was winding, with corridors and partitions. From the enlarged floor plan, she could see several rooms built along the Mall’s windowed side. If those windows weren’t sealed, that could be an escape route.
Clearly, she wasn’t the only one with this idea.
When Tang Siqing rushed to the SPA Parlor’s entrance, she found several people gathered in the small lobby. A few young people in matching Beauty Therapist uniforms were trying to stop a man inside, who was frantically tugging at the Crystal Rolling Shutter Door above the glass entrance. Their movements were frantic, and the pink uniforms stood out sharply.
Off to the side stood a Young Girl, her face full of panic.
Both of them looked disheveled, their clothes rumpled and caught with a few leaves. The girl’s long hair was especially messy, and a large bloodstain marked her sleeve.
Tang Siqing’s expression tightened. These two must have just come through the greenbelt and Parking Lot—not the first group, who knew nothing, nor the third, who had a Wounded Person and had already hidden in the shops on the first floor.
Their appearance clearly marked them as the second group, the ones in the know.
Tang Siqing didn’t waste words. She walked up and grabbed the girl’s sleeve, turning it over to check her arm.
The man who’d been pulling at the shutter door saw this and immediately let go, rushing to the girl’s side and grabbing Tang Siqing’s wrist, demanding loudly, “What are you doing?”
“I need to make sure she wasn’t hurt by a Creature.” Tang Siqing moved quickly—before he could grab her wrist, she’d already checked the girl’s arm. There were no wounds, just bloodstains on her outer clothes. The inner layers were clean; the blood must have splattered from someone else.
“My sister isn’t hurt! What are you implying!”
Tang Siqing ignored his anger. Taking advantage of his grip on her wrist, she reversed it and checked him up and down as well. His clothes were messy and covered with leaves, but there were no tears or bloodstains.
The man instinctively tried to break free, but found he couldn’t, unsure how she’d managed to restrain him. He was about to speak when a sharp, terrified scream cut him off.
Outside the glass doors of the SPA Parlor, a Beauty Therapist who’d somehow run out quickly retreated from the railing, collapsing to the ground in panic and scrambling backward on hands and feet.
The Elevator’s exit on the upper floor was across from the railing, with a hollow, circular open space in between about the size of the first floor’s rotunda. To get from there to here, you’d have to go around the circular railing, but the straight-line distance was only about twenty meters—close enough for people here to see what was happening there.
On the open space near the Elevator, several people ran away quickly, but one person had fallen, howling in agony. His leg was pinned by a blood-red thing—the other end of which was a ragged, grotesque figure.
Perhaps startled by the Beauty Therapist’s drawn-out scream, the blood-red thing quickly retracted. The figure turned its head, revealing a nightmarish, monstrous face.
At that instant, the Beauty Therapist felt cold all over, even forgetting to scramble back. She watched as the monster flicked out its red tongue again, stabbing it precisely into the fallen man, then turned, tongue lashing, and began circling the hollow railing toward them.
It wasn’t fast, but it wasn’t slow either—a bit quicker than a normal walking pace.
“Ahhhhhh—!” The Beauty Therapist couldn’t stop screaming, tears and snot streaming down her face.
At the same time, a strong force gripped her by the collar. Tang Siqing and the man both reached out, one left and one right, and dragged her back into the SPA Parlor’s lobby.
“Make her quiet!” As soon as Tang Siqing had dragged the woman back, she rushed to the door, quickly shutting the double glass doors, holding her breath and steadying her raised arms to lock the top latch in place.
Behind her, the Beauty Therapist’s screams were muffled as the Young Girl clamped a hand over her mouth. The man, his hands now free, went back to pulling at the Crystal Rolling Shutter Door inside. He’d been too panicked earlier and, without time to explain, had been stopped by two Beauty Therapists inside, causing the shutter to jam.
After locking the glass doors, Tang Siqing helped him pull the shutter. They didn’t know how strong the Creatures’ attacks might be, but clearly, a single layer of glass was too little protection. They had to get the shutter down—or else, if the lobby fell, they’d have to retreat to the back rooms.
But the partitions in beauty salons usually didn’t have locks. You could pile up heavy objects to block the way, but if you were forced back there, you’d be totally on the defensive, so both wanted to hold the lobby if possible.
However, the Rolling Shutter seemed stuck, no matter how hard they tried.
At the Elevator entrance, two more Creatures appeared, chasing people who were crawling and screaming. The first Blood-Tongue Monster, drawn by the noise, had circled the railing and, perhaps drawn by the SPA Parlor’s commotion, ignored the other shops and came straight for them. Its withered, twisted limbs swung as it moved, icy red eyes staring through the glass at the two people inside.
A trembling female voice came from the side—frightened, but every word clear: “Push it up—push it back!”
Tang Siqing understood immediately and reversed her force. The man did the same. After two or three more tries, the stuck shutter finally gave with a clatter and slid back into place.
“Let go!” the woman’s voice called again.
The moment they let go, the Creature lunged at the glass doors, its red tongue shooting out like an arrow and slapping the glass with a wet smack. Tang Siqing and the man instinctively dodged to either side.
At the same time, the Rolling Shutter above them was activated, rattling down. Nowadays, shutters were usually both manual and electric. Though the electric was slow, as long as it could be started, it would come down smoothly. The person who pressed the button was another short-haired Beauty Therapist, one hand covering her mouth to stifle any sound, the other pressing the switch with precision.
Whether it was the sound of the shutter dropping or the prey inside the lobby, the Creature’s withered fingers scraped at the glass, its huge mouth opening, the blood-red tongue snapping again and again at the glass, leaving streaks of sticky red and white fluid.
Tang Siqing resisted the urge to run, staring at the glass doors. After seven or eight strikes from the tongue, cracks finally appeared in the thick glass, but by then, the inside Rolling Shutter had completely come down.
It was a Crystal Rolling Shutter Door. The slats in this kind of shutter were made with PC bulletproof gel—semi-transparent crystal panels. Not only stylish, but also highly impact-resistant.
The crystal panels reduced visibility on both sides, making the hideous Creature’s features blur.
The tongue’s assault on the outer glass door didn’t stop, but the people inside dared not make a sound. Quietly, they all stepped back, to the sides or rear, making sure they were out of range of a tongue strike.
After a while, the commotion outside stopped. The Creature seemed distracted by something else, uttered a harsh, hoarse sound, and then left with a bizarre, swaying gait.
Inside the lobby, everyone who’d been tense finally breathed a little easier.
The Young Girl released her hand from the Beauty Therapist’s mouth, only to realize the woman on the ground had already fainted from fright.
The other short-haired Beauty Therapist, who’d pressed the shutter button, also slid weakly to the floor, her fingers shaking violently as she whispered, “What… what was that?”
No one answered her.
Outside, a sudden, piercing sound rang out—growing louder and clearer, until even through the thick walls, it thundered like a storm in their ears, dragging out a familiar, rhythmic wail full of urgency and oppression, as if enveloping the entire city, filling everyone with dread.
It was—
“A War-Time Air Raid Alarm…” someone muttered behind her. The Young Girl squatted there, staring blankly at the blood on her sleeve. It came from when she and her Brother crossed the traffic lane and a Wounded Person lunged at them from another direction.
That person had a hole torn in his throat, hot blood spraying through his fingers as he clutched his neck. He reached out for help, eyes full of terror, but died before he could utter a word—right in front of her.
All of this—it was all real.
Someone really had been killed. The Creatures were real. Being trapped here was real…
The girl clung tightly to her Brother, trying to control her trembling, and glanced at the short-haired Beauty Therapist who had asked the question. “Those… are the killing Creatures that came out of the Gray Fog…”