Chapter 003 Detonation!

Crack!

With a single stroke, the terrifying scarlet tongue was sliced in two, one segment dropping to the floor with a wet slap, writhing like a decapitated viper. The grotesque sight sent chills down the spine.

The long-tongued zombie shrieked, drawing back her severed tongue, foul, putrid blood oozing incessantly from her mouth and dripping onto the kitchen floor.

“Kill, kill, kill!”

The zombies in the kitchen let out crazed, hoarse screeches, as if wholly enraged by the human before them. One wielded a bloodstained cleaver, charging at Su Cheng and bringing it down viciously toward his forehead.

The ramen shop’s proprietress looked as thin as a matchstick, but her strength was formidable—she was in charge of chopping bones and making broth in the back kitchen. After her zombification, her power had multiplied several times over. One swing could easily split open Su Cheng’s skull.

However, her legs appeared to have been injured, and she moved with a limp, her charge lacking speed, giving Su Cheng ample time to react. Yet the ramen shop’s kitchen was so cramped that it was hard to turn around with more than one person inside. With no other choice, Su Cheng had to grit his teeth and face the zombies head-on.

Clang!

At the critical moment, Su Cheng parried with his sharp carving knife, but the force that struck him was overwhelming, numbing his grip. The knife slipped from his hand and clattered to the floor.

The long-tongued zombie lunged, her pallid face—bloated as if boiled—almost touching Su Cheng’s. Her lips stretched to her ears, opening a blood-red maw like a ravenous beast, aiming for Su Cheng’s throat.

At this distance, Su Cheng could see the ghastly fangs growing in her mouth, with shreds of human flesh still caught between them.

A wave of stench assaulted him, and the zombie’s breath nearly made him faint.

“Get away!” he roared.

Summoning all his strength, Su Cheng kicked out, sending the zombie stumbling back several steps until she crashed into the large pot of bone broth.

With a bang, the lid was knocked off by the head of the shop owner’s daughter, whose severed head glared at Su Cheng, emitting an angry howl.

By chance, the long-tongued zombie had stepped on a rolling pin as she retreated, causing her to lose balance and tumble into the pot of boiling broth.

The scalding water cooked the zombie instantly, yet even as she was boiled, she struggled desperately, trying to claw her way out and tear a piece of flesh from Su Cheng.

Though Su Cheng was a seasoned veteran of horror games, this gruesome sight still made his blood run cold.

“Less than three minutes left. If this is truly a game, there must be a way to clear it.” Su Cheng calmed himself, thinking for a few seconds. No matter how difficult, horror games never design truly dead-end stages for the player—there has to be a way to escape this zombie cafeteria.

He bent to retrieve the cleaver dropped by the zombie and stepped out of the ramen kitchen, returning to the cafeteria.

The zombies inside, smelling fresh human scent, swarmed him with slavering mouths. Their combat ability wasn’t much greater than ordinary people—equally weak—but if surrounded, escape would be nearly impossible. If the countdown ended, it would be game over.

Su Cheng gripped the cleaver, kicking one zombie aside, weaving nimbly through the horde to the cafeteria entrance.

But now, all four walls and the entrance had transformed into a thick wall of flesh and blood, sprouting tentacle-like growths that made the scene deeply disturbing.

Bracing himself at the cafeteria entrance, Su Cheng clenched his teeth and swung the cleaver with all his might, hacking at the wall of flesh.

Sticky blood splattered everywhere, soaking Su Cheng from head to toe. Painted red, he looked like a vengeful demon risen from hell.

“There’s hope!” His eyes lit up as he saw that the cleaver had cut a deep gash in the wall of flesh. A few more strikes might open a way out.

But just as he readied another blow, the zombies lunged at him again.

The ramen shop zombies, though not strong, were troublesome in the extreme. Worst of all, they weren’t like the zombies from Resident Evil—even decapitation didn’t kill them. The shop owner’s daughter, for example, was still lively with nothing but her head left.

Dodging attacks while hacking at the door, Su Cheng suddenly felt a surge of foreboding—he’d overlooked something vital.

“Wait, where did the ramen shop owner go?”

Only now did he realize the owner hadn’t appeared since the chaos began. In such a small shop, someone of that size couldn’t possibly hide.

Based on his experience with horror games, the ramen shop owner had to be the final boss of this zombie cafeteria. So, where was the boss?

He brought the cleaver down on the wall again, but this time, it seemed to catch on something deep inside, refusing to come free.

His unease grew as the gash he had made in the wall suddenly healed itself. On the wall of blood and flesh before him, a strange human face began to emerge.

The abrupt turn of events startled Su Cheng. Then, a flash of insight—the face bore an uncanny resemblance to the ramen shop owner.

“Damn, this game really knows how to play tricks,” Su Cheng muttered as he realized: the owner had become the wall of flesh itself, trapping him inside the cafeteria.

Two dead-fish eyes stared fixedly at him. The face on the wall twisted its lips, uttering a deep, terrifying voice, “You cannot escape. Be a good boy and become my meal.”

The moment the voice sounded, thousands of tentacles surged from the wall, wrapping around Su Cheng and dragging him toward the monstrous face.

Death loomed. Su Cheng struggled desperately, tearing free from the revolting tentacles, then turned and sprinted toward the kitchen.

“There’s only one way left.”

He glanced at the countdown on his phone—56 seconds remained. If it reached zero, he’d be trapped here forever. Now, there was no choice but to fight.

Charging into the kitchen, Su Cheng kicked aside the still-twitching long-tongued zombie and soon emerged, clutching a gas cylinder with flames licking at its valve.

If he weren’t utterly out of options, he’d never choose to blow up the entire cafeteria—there was a real risk of getting himself killed in the blast.

As the face on the wall saw Su Cheng with the flaming gas cylinder, it seemed to realize the threat, unleashing a terrified roar. “What are you doing?! Stop!”

Su Cheng ignored the zombie owner’s cries, hurled the flaming cylinder at the twisted face, and darted back into the kitchen to take cover.

“It ends now!”

In the boss’s desperate, terrified gaze, the gas cylinder exploded with a thunderous boom.

The blast ripped the zombies to shreds in an instant. Flames roared through the cafeteria, transforming the place into a vision of hell, with charred flesh and corpses everywhere.

At the entrance, the wall of flesh was blasted open, the monstrous face obliterated.

“Cough, cough… did I survive?”

Racked by coughs, Su Cheng crawled out of the ramen shop’s ruins. Though he’d hidden as fast as he could, the explosion had still left him battered and bloodied.

But at least he was alive.

“Ten seconds left—I need to get out of here.”

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Su Cheng limped toward the cafeteria entrance.

Just as he crossed the threshold, the world spun violently, as if struck from behind. When he regained his senses, he was back at the ramen shop’s bar, his injuries gone, as if nothing had happened.

“What is going on?”

Looking around, Su Cheng saw the other customers and the owner had returned to normal. The tension in his chest loosened.

Had he simply fallen asleep waiting for his noodles, and dreamed it all?

After a moment’s thought, Su Cheng dismissed the idea. Everything he’d experienced had been too vivid to be a dream.

Then, a new thought struck him. He unlocked his phone and tapped the icon for that eerie horror mobile game.

“Instance ‘Zombie Cafeteria’ has concluded. The system is now settling results. Please wait patiently.”

So it hadn’t been a dream!

A chill ran through Su Cheng. Everything he’d just endured had been caused by this bizarre horror game—the scenes and monsters had become reality.

“Could this mobile game be some kind of alien technology?” Remembering the horrors of the zombie cafeteria, Su Cheng was filled with unease. If he’d failed the task and died in the game, what would have happened to him in the real world?

“Settlement complete. Please draw your rewards from the instance.”

At that moment, the game displayed a record of his battles and his final rating for clearing the level.