Chapter Forty-Eight: The Binding Monster

The sky was just beginning to lighten.

A lone figure slipped through the deserted streets. At this hour, in the past, breakfast stalls would be set up, bustling as people gathered energy for the day ahead. Elderly men out for morning exercises, taxi drivers starting their shifts, office workers hurrying to their jobs—each would be embarking on a brand new day.

But now, a heavy silence hung over everything. From time to time, the air was split by a wail of despair. There were no cars, no clamor of voices. The moment Fan Li stepped outside, he felt as though he had wandered into a realm of ghosts. The world he remembered was gone; this was a separate, isolated space.

He was not walking alone. Beside him moved a slender figure in ballet shoes.

Ellie still seemed upset about yesterday’s events. Though she obeyed his orders, she kept a distance between them. This uneasy tension only began to ease when Fan Li, abandoning any thought of hoarding his kill points, offered her two zombies to devour first.

With her goodwill increasing, Fan Li could now suppress her predatory urges—though next time, he would have to offer two lives as tribute. That was another rule, not to be ignored lightly.

Fan Li felt a persistent urgency within him. The appearance of the Titan loomed in his mind like a whip, driving him onward.

Ellie was strong, but Fan Li was not content with their current situation. He needed to fill the kill point meter as quickly as possible, to make the next summoning.

A short forage for food required teamwork, but this time, his aim was purely to accumulate kill points. Hu Huayao’s presence would have been a burden, so Fan Li pressed on alone, katana in hand, with Ellie at his side, stepping into the land of the dead.

There was another important matter as well: Fan Li could not allow himself to be trapped in one place. Besides gathering kill points, he needed to collect intelligence on the area, to form a basic judgment on the state of the county.

With repeated massacres and battles with mutants, the number of zombies at the city outskirts had thinned considerably. Only a few wandered through the open spaces.

Fan Li studied his surroundings with the sharpness of a predator, then sprang forward. His blade flashed, and a zombie fell, its head separated from its body.

The kill point meter ticked up to 52.

He did not linger. He knew his purpose, and when the other zombies began to call out, he slipped along the wall, moving away from them.

He was here to gather kill points and scout, not to clear out every zombie. There was no need to tangle with a horde. With Ellie, he advanced steadily, pausing only to dispatch the occasional straggler. It was safe enough, with no danger of being surrounded.

Their mutual goodwill rose to 60. With command authority over Ellie, Fan Li found collecting kill points much easier than before.

He had Ellie knock zombies to the ground, then stepped from the shadows to sever their necks, collecting the points himself. With each kill, the meter climbed—from 52 to 58—drawing ever closer to the next summoning.

A small, thin zombie wandered into view. It looked no older than twelve or thirteen. In another life, it would be sitting in a classroom. Now, infected, its learning was lost, its existence reduced to a cycle of devouring and slaughter.

Fan Li waited in ambush. In a burst of speed, he lunged, his blade rising and falling. The zombie's neck was shredded, its head rolling away like a basketball.

[Kill Points +1]

[59/100]

He was past the halfway mark. As expected, high risk brought high reward.

With Ellie standing guard, Fan Li felt safer, able to devote himself fully to battle.

He pressed on.

Just as he was about to slip around a wall, he heard the quick, faint sound of footsteps ahead.

They were close, just around the corner. Fan Li stopped and motioned for Ellie to fall back.

“Human?” he called, retreating as well.

The footsteps halted, vanishing into silence.

Fan Li narrowed his eyes, holding his katana at an angle, gripping the hilt with both hands.

A few seconds passed. The footsteps resumed, accompanied by muffled whimpering, as if someone’s mouth was covered, stifling their voice.

Fan Li edged back further. As he peered around the corner, a pale, ghastly figure appeared before him.

It looked as if a snake had shed its skin: the creature’s body was coated in a thick, glistening membrane. Its arms and legs were trapped inside, twisting and struggling in vain to break free. The membrane seemed to have fused with its flesh, completely encasing it. In its desperate thrashing, a gash had opened on its chest, leaking foul, black blood onto the ground.

“What is that?” Fan Li muttered in astonishment. He felt no great threat from the thing—it clearly wasn’t a mutant—but its appearance was unlike any ordinary zombie.

Ellie, however, was unfazed. The mouth on her cheek split open, revealing a ring of chilling white teeth.

The grotesque zombie seemed to notice Fan Li. Its muffled whimpers grew more frequent. Only now did Fan Li realize the reason for the muffled sound: the membrane had covered its entire face, smothering its cries.

The creature began to shuffle forward, its movements awkward and contorted like a child learning to walk. Its upper body twisted violently as it tried to free its arms and claw at Fan Li.

It moved faster now, the gash on its chest widening with every struggle. Blood no longer dripped—it sprayed forward in black, toxic bursts with each heave of its chest.

A hissing sound.

Nearby flowers and grass withered instantly where the blood splattered, clearly poisoned.

“Ellie,” Fan Li called.

He had never seen a creature like this before, so he decided to test it—and Ellie was his chosen instrument.

She was ready. The moment he spoke, she lowered her head and charged, ignoring the toxic blood. She crashed straight into the thing’s chest, sending it hurtling into the wall under the force of the blow.

“It doesn’t seem too formidable…” Fan Li murmured. But as Ellie prepared to finish it off, he quickly called out, “Wait, let me handle this!”