CHAPTER 642: UNFORTUNATELY, YOU CAN’T EAT MEAT

Only images from heat sources were transmitted through the snake’s eyes, allowing Jing Shu to see many red energy bodies running about. However, the snake’s vision wasn’t very sensitive to the invasion of the Dark Creatures. Jing Shu surmised that these Dark Creatures either had no body temperature or a very low one.

The insect’s vision was even simpler: enormous creatures were rampaging throughout the building!

Jing Shu surveyed the building’s exterior. It was very quiet, with nothing unusual. Even the patrols were currently rushing into the building, torches and weapons in hand. A few days ago, Dark Creatures had invaded; because they feared light and fire, the area around the building had consistently been kept lit.

Jing Shu quickly got up, grabbed two machetes, and carefully opened her villa door. At that moment, people from the other two villas in the exhibition hall also cautiously cracked open their doors to observe what was happening outside.

Li Yuetian’s men told Jing Shu to hide well and call him if anything happened, then hurried off, as the lobby was currently safe.

The first-floor lobby of the New World Building was very quiet. However, since the building’s center was an open atrium, Jing Shu could see someone on the fourth floor desperately fleeing. They were apparently so desperate they had chosen to jump.

But just as they leaped into mid-air, an enormous, blood-red maw lunged and swallowed half their body in a single bite.

Immediately after, the ugly, crawling Dark Creature and the remaining half of the body plummeted from the fourth floor, landing with a tremendous BOOM.

"AAAH!" The people in the neighboring villa screamed, having glimpsed a Shadow in the torchlight from outside.

"Shut up," Jing Shu hissed, but the screaming didn’t stop.

The crawling creature landed near the exhibition hall. It was incredible that such a huge being, after falling from such a height and practically splattering into a muddy heap on the ground, began to crawl again in just a few seconds.

It was as if their bodies weren’t made of flesh but of something like rotten mud.

Jing Shu frowned. This was the first time she had seen such a grotesque creature. The corpses she had encountered before were mere skeletons, but this thing looked like a pile of sludge. It had a fish-like head almost as large as its body and vaguely resembled a Mermaid...

I’ll call it a rotten mermaid for now,

she thought.

She watched as this rotten mermaid continuously chewed the flesh in its mouth, then slowly crawled toward the other half of the recently fallen corpse.

Jing Shu, holding her machetes, strode quickly toward it.

"Miss, what are you doing? Run, quickly! Hide in the villa and wait for rescue!" a man from another villa shouted, leaning out to warn her.

If no one else were around, I’d really like to pull out the boulders from my Magic Cube Space and smash these rotten mermaids to a pulp, Jing Shu thought. There’s no way they’d survive that.

Too bad there are people around, she continued to muse. Since there’s only one rotten mermaid right now, I have to quickly figure out its biggest weakness. In this apocalypse, despite the Township Government’s protection, you can ultimately only rely on your own abilities. Ordinary people die so easily.

That was why these people couldn’t understand Jing Shu. Why not wait for rescue? they would wonder.

But Jing Shu wasn’t foolish enough to charge in with just her machetes. After all, she possessed the special ability of her Magic Cube Space: she could control living creatures. As long as a creature was conscious, Jing Shu could manipulate its thoughts or induce illusions, anything to achieve her goals.

This ability was unlocked when she reached the seventh order of the Magic Cube. Initially, she could only control a single organism—or just one human. However, after helping her elder aunt’s daughter-in-law give birth, Jing Shu trained relentlessly and could now control a significant number of creatures simultaneously.

The rotten mermaid noticed Jing Shu as well. It merely emitted a low growl and continued eating. Perhaps, in its eyes, she posed no fear or threat.

Jing Shu moved faster and faster, her eyes fixed on the rotten mermaid. Seizing the moment it bared its teeth, she swung her machete down. The Mermaid’s head was huge; even the largest machete she had bought before the apocalypse failed to sever it in one strike.

Jing Shu’s strength was now tremendous, reaching a frightening level. As she brought the machete down, she felt resistance and a viscous stickiness. She had to exert considerable force to finally cleave through, but it only lopped off half of the rotten mermaid’s head.

There was no blood or fluid. The rotten mermaid seemed to be made of playdough; the separation of flesh from bone didn’t affect its ability to move in the slightest.

Now I understand why they’re not afraid of bullets, Jing Shu thought. With a structure like this, being riddled with holes would hardly affect them. Many Dark Creatures in the apocalypse have this trait. To survive, they evolved down dark paths, eating anything, and eventually turned into beings that are neither human nor ghost.

It seemed to feel pain, however. It began to roar furiously, dropped the flesh from its mouth, and charged straight at Jing Shu.

Jing Shu activated her Magic Cube Space ability, exerting control over conscious life forms within its range.

The rotten mermaid stiffened for a moment.

Seizing the opportunity, Jing Shu chopped off the other half of its head, completely severing it from the body. The rotten mermaid twitched a few more times, then fell still.

Jing Shu nodded. It seems this level of Dark Creature hasn’t reached the invincibility of those from the fifth or sixth year of the apocalypse, she thought. It died once its head was gone. Not too troublesome.

Upon death, the rotten mermaid’s body quickly dissolved into a pool of mud, revealing the white bones within.

The screams from the person behind Jing Shu abruptly stopped. That woman stared in astonishment, as did the man from the other villa, both gaping at the scene. This... this is unbelievable, isn’t it? That woman, with just a machete, split such a huge monster in two with a couple of strikes? That’s way too badass!

The screams from upstairs hadn’t stopped, which puzzled Jing Shu. Logically, these things should have crawled in from outside and passed through the first-floor exhibition hall first. Shouldn’t we here have been the first to be attacked? Why isn’t there a single Mermaid on the first floor, yet there are so many upstairs?

Fortunately, each floor had management instructors who began to organize an orderly response. The patrols from outside, along with Li Yuetian’s armed forces, were also heading upstairs.

Jing Shu squatted down, touched the huge bones, and said, "What a pity."

The man from the villa cautiously walked out, looked at Jing Shu, and said, "A pity about what? Let’s get out of here quickly. If a few more of them show up, we’ll be helpless. It’s better to hide quietly inside the villa; they probably won’t figure out how to open the doors."

"It’s a pity that such a huge creature has no meat. It can’t be used as rations. Such a waste." Jing Shu shook her head. If these things were edible, this place would be a treasure trove, and these people wouldn’t have to worry about food. Never mind that, when I get back from this, I’ll probably have to hire specialists to capture these rotten mermaids, she thought.