Corpse Beasts

Realizing his phone could provide illumination, Simon checked it and found the battery was down to three percent, about to shut down.

"Not sure how you're doing right now," Simon sighed, looking at the phone screen displaying a cheerful and beautiful girl with shoulder-length hair and neat bangs. It was a photo of his girlfriend, Wang Lan, whom he had set as his wallpaper.

The city had suddenly been devastated by a catastrophic flood. Simon dared not dwell on what might have become of Wang Lan amidst such chaos—whether she was alive or dead. Just thinking about it brought a subtle sadness and a sense of despair.

"Today is the 16th, already Friday. Tomorrow is the weekend. We had plans to climb Longqiu Mountain together," Simon reminisced sadly.

Since waking up early yesterday morning to find the city submerged by the flood, barely two days had passed. Yet for Simon, it felt like his life had undergone a cataclysmic change akin to living through a century, experiencing what it truly meant for days to feel like years.

Simon, with a somewhat melancholy expression, gently set aside his phone. Unable to charge it, the device would soon shut down automatically. Although he still had a flashlight for illumination, Simon was reluctant to use it. In this era of scarce resources, even a flashlight became a precious commodity. He carefully stowed it away in his backpack, along with the remaining scant supply of food, unwilling to use them indiscriminately.

"Let it be for now. We'll see everything clearly at dawn," Simon muttered to himself.

He left the corpse of the one-eyed frog in the living room. As the ground grew increasingly damp, with signs of water seepage appearing in many places, Simon moved the sofa into the bedroom. Tonight, he planned to sleep on the sofa.

In the bedroom now crowded with furniture—cupboards bracing against windows, a makeshift raft he had crafted, two basins of collected rainwater, a container filled with cold water, a backpack containing food and essential tools—Simon squeezed in the sofa. Originally, he had considered bringing in the frog's carcass as well. However, due to its strong, pungent odor, he abandoned the idea. Sleeping next to it in the closed-off bedroom would surely be unbearable. Instead, he left it in the relatively ventilated living room and returned to the bedroom alone.

Apart from that, deep within Simon's heart, there was a faint hope that the carcass of the one-eyed frog would attract the low-level corpses he desired. He was currently in dire need of spiritual sources.

After closing the door, Simon hesitated and then opened it again. He fetched a kitchen knife and began to shave off a piece of the door's edge. Quickly, he shaved off a small piece, creating a gap about a centimeter wide when the door was closed, allowing him to observe the living room through it.

This was in case there were any situations outside. By hiding inside, he could conveniently observe the situation outside at any time. Since the door lock was already broken and could not be locked, Simon moved the sofa over and placed one end against the door.

Lying on the sofa, Simon's mind was in a rather excited state. Although his eyes were closed, sleep eluded him. His thoughts wandered incessantly—he thought of his parents one moment, then of Wang Lan, pondering his own predicament and what to do next in this city. He wondered how many survivors like himself remained in the city, and how many had evacuated before the flood.

The city has been submerged. What about other cities?

He has been trapped here for two days now. Initially, he harbored hopes of rescue, but now those hopes have slowly faded away.

The catastrophe triggered by this great flood may be even more dreadful than he had imagined.

Humans drowned in it could evolve into corpses devoid of reason, attacking other humans. Then there are creatures like the one-eyed frog, unseen before. With the spiritual sources he has gained, enhanced strength, and mastery of the "Eye Insight Mark," all these signs indicate that the world has undergone unprecedented changes. All previous rules and norms no longer exist.

He can no longer use his previous knowledge to speculate on current events.

Regarding the future, he feels utterly lost.

Lost in such wild thoughts, Simon eventually drifted off to sleep, though his mind burdened with too much, slept lightly. A strange sound startled him awake.

The sound, faint yet distinct, emanated from the living room. Startled awake, Simon abruptly sat up from the sofa, instinctively reaching for the kitchen knife and hammer kept close by.

Gripping the knife and hammer tightly, Simon's heart steadied. Holding his breath, he listened intently to the sound coming from the living room—a faint, gnawing noise.

Immediately, Simon's thoughts raced to the carcass of the one-eyed frog lying in the living room.

Silently, he crept towards the edge of the door, pressing close to the gap. Through the slit, aided by the faint moonlight streaming in through the balcony window, Simon discerned several dark figures huddled around the half-eaten carcass of the one-eyed frog on the floor.

By the time Simon laid eyes on it, the carcass had already been partially consumed.

With a single thought, Simon activated the "Eye Insight Mark." Between his brows, the vertical eye-shaped mark appeared, flooding his mind with streams of information.

"Corpse Beasts, the lowest-level spiritual creatures infected through mutual consumption, with a probability of evolving into higher-level Corpse Beasts. Other details: none."

"Corpse Beasts, the lowest-level spiritual creatures infected through human corpses..."

...

With each shadow Simon observed, his mind echoed with repeated messages, reminding him that these figures gnawing on the flesh of the one-eyed frog's corpse were all low-level Corpse Beasts formed from humans drowned and infected.

For Simon at this moment, these low-level Corpse Beasts posed no threat; rather, they were exactly what he most desired to encounter.

He needed just two more spiritual sources to complete his set of ten, and in his eyes, each of these Corpse Beasts in the living room was akin to a spiritual source.

Assured of their non-threat, Simon decisively moved the sofa aside, opened the door, and rushed out with knife and hammer in hand.

Simon burst out suddenly, startling the feeding Corpse Beasts. They looked up, and two of them immediately stood and lunged towards Simon.

Though it was night, illuminated by moonlight, Simon could clearly see their movements. To him, the Corpse Beasts' lunges seemed slow and predictable; he easily dodged or blocked them.

Launching a swift kick, much faster than the lunging Corpse Beast on his left, Simon kicked it aside. With his right arm, he swung the hammer accurately, striking the head of the Corpse Beast lunging from the right.