Chapter 79: Incident in the shop

Chu Cheng opened the box and was shocked.

How could they even suggest that this squirming, slimy thing could be eaten? It looked more like a creepy toy than food!

The waitress acted like nothing was wrong. She calmly went back behind the counter and started making the two milk teas that Chu Cheng had ordered.

As she placed a shaker under the spout of the thermos, Chu Cheng noticed something strange. What came out wasn't tea or water, but a thick, gooey liquid that looked like a mix of blood and ink.

The gooey substance fell into the shaker and formed a thick paste. Chu Cheng could smell the metallic, bloody odor even from where he stood. But the waitress kept shaking the container like it was just another day.

Chu Cheng quickly turned away.

He had a pretty good idea of what was going on. This was probably a sign of an infection.

He wasn't 100% sure, though. If there was one thing he had learned from traveling through time and joining Secret Service Nine, it was that you couldn't always trust your eyes.

But the odds of this being a hallucination were low. Chu Cheng was special, and the source of infection shouldn't affect him.

Either way, he knew he needed to get out of there. But that didn't seem easy.

As soon as he took a few steps, a smiling waitress blocked his path. She wore a standard, kind smile that should've been comforting, but now just made his skin crawl.

Despite the uneasy feeling in the air, Chu Cheng wasn't easily rattled.

He was no longer the weak and aimless guy he used to be. After days of intense gaming, his physical fitness had skyrocketed, and he had picked up fighting skills and superpowers. He was now almost as strong as Captain America.

With his new abilities, regular infected people didn't scare him. He could definitely hold his own.

"Excuse me, your milk tea is ready," the waitress said.

"I need to grab something else real quick," Chu Cheng replied. "I'll be right back."

He preferred to leave quietly and come back later to deal with the situation when he was better prepared.

But as he spoke, everyone else in the shop suddenly stood up in unison, like they had rehearsed it.

They all stared blankly at him, their eyes empty yet strangely filled with something eerie.

A chill ran down Chu Cheng's spine. He recalled seeing something like this in "Doctor Who," but it was far more terrifying to experience it in real life.

Thanks to his experience with his game missions and real combat, Chu Cheng quickly planned his escape.

With the strength and skills of Captain America, he was confident he could take down everyone in the room if needed. But since there might be witnesses and security cameras, he decided it was smarter to escape.

If he was quick, he could knock out two targets and smash through the window to make a fast getaway. With any luck, he could avoid a full confrontation, and the Secret Service Nine wouldn't have much to question him about later.

But just then, the lights went out.

Chu Cheng was caught off guard by the sudden darkness. He was used to being the one who turned out other people's lights, so this reversal threw him off.

The lights flickered for a split second, and in that brief moment, Chu Cheng noticed a figure standing at the door.

From what little he could see, it looked like a woman.

She had pale skin, with long, dark hair covering half of her face, giving her a creepy and eerie look. She wore a red coat, the color so dark it seemed like it was stained with blood.

Chu Cheng noticed that all the infected people around him were staring at the door.

In the blink of an eye, the lights went out again. The next time they flickered back on, the doorway was empty.

But then, even in the brief flash, Chu Cheng realized with shock that the woman had somehow moved right in front of him.

No one could explain how she crossed the room so quickly. It was as if she had teleported in the short moments when the lights blinked off and on again.

Chu Cheng instinctively stepped back and clenched his fists, but something felt off. This wasn't following the usual horror movie script.

In those films, when a ghost suddenly appears up close, it's usually face-to-face. But this ghostly figure was different—she had her back to him.

Yes, she was facing away from Chu Cheng and instead looking at the waiter who had been standing between them.

The lights went out. There was a loud thud, like something heavy hitting a wall.

When the lights came back on, the waiter's body was flying through the air, smashing into a dining table and shattering it.

The woman in red was still in front of Chu Cheng, as if she hadn't moved at all.

Strangely, Chu Cheng didn't feel scared anymore. In fact, he felt a weird sense of security coming from her presence, even though her back was still facing him.

The other infected people started moving too.

They still had those blank, emotionless expressions, but they were closing in.

The woman in red moved again, but it wasn't like normal walking—it was more like she was gliding. Her clothes flowed with her movements, and her steps were so light it seemed like she had no weight. Her actions were graceful, almost like she was performing a dance—a deadly dance. With each motion, she sent infected people flying.

Her movements didn't look like fighting; they looked more like a haunting dance. Her long black hair swayed as she moved, covering her pale, ghostly face.

And here's the strangest part: Chu Cheng felt like she was protecting him.

It sounded ridiculous even to him, but that's what it seemed like. She deliberately stayed close to him, only attacking infected people who got too near and posed a threat to him.

What was going on?

Could it be that this eerie woman in red was protecting him?

The fight didn't last long. After a short while, the infected people in the room were all lying on the ground. The woman, now stained with blood, glanced at Chu Cheng and then started to back away.

That's when Chu Cheng noticed another figure at the door.

A small, delicate-looking girl stood there, tilting her head and staring at him.