Su Han returned to his room, ate something simple, and the time gradually approached evening.
At night, the entire building quieted down, especially the hallway inside, which was pitch black and saw nothing.
Su Han opened his door and quietly stepped into the corridor, holding a lamp that barely covered its light, and followed the wall to the room at the end.
Outside the door, the corridor was blocked by two large sofas placed crisscross from each other, forming a cross that blocked the way.
Su Han approached to inspect and found that the two sofas were not completely blocking the passage; a slight move could allow someone to pass through, and the lock on the room's door behind the sofas was also broken, merely kept ajar.
He pondered in his mind, but it was not surprising since it was a place for handling corpses and no one would specifically come here to 'explore'.
He quietly manipulated the Four-armed Corpse to move the sofas aside, trying not to alert anyone else, and Su Han reached the door, quietly pushing it open.
The room was pitch dark, and as he entered, he immediately smelled a blend of blood and rotten stench infiltrating his nose, which was extremely unpleasant.
He frowned, then closed the door, and removed the cloth covering the lamp, illuminating the room with the lamp light.
The room was messy, all useful items had already been moved, and large furniture was pushed to one side, emptying the living room, with traces of bloodstains remaining on the floor, dragging toward the direction of the balcony.
The balcony was the place where the corpses were thrown out, and Su Han controlled the Four-armed Corpse to walk there, with thick fog outside the tightly closed balcony window.
The anti-theft windows in the mist were faintly visible, mostly dismantled, and the remaining parts were also stained with blood.
"Go out and look," he commanded.
Su Han gave the order, then the Four-armed Corpse opened the sliding window to the floor, the fog swirling outside, showing no signs of entering, sending out a strange air.
The Four-armed Corpse flipped out, landing with a thump, and suddenly Su Han's expression changed.
Where was the body?
There wasn't a single corpse where the Four-armed Corpse had landed, let alone the remains of a corpse.
All it discovered in the mist was large patches of scattered flesh and remains of limbs.
Su Han felt a chill at his back, his heart tightened, "There is something in the fog consuming the bodies."
Within the deep of the night, the fog in his eyes became particularly terrifying.
"Come back," he immediately called the Four-armed Corpse back, directed it to return to the Book of Blood Spirit through the window, and he too hastily left the house to return to his own room.
In his room, Su Han cast the lamp aside, and the light subtly brightened the room.
The voice belonged to a member of the security team, and Su Han responded, "We'll be there soon."
The four of them quickly got ready, secured the door, and then went down to the lobby on the first floor.
This was the first time Su Han and his group got a good look at the other survivors in the building. In the not-so-spacious lobby, about thirty people of various ages stood in a circle, each with an uneasy and worried expression.
Three days had already made it clear to them the direness of their situation: monsters and mist had abruptly disrupted their lives, signaling dangers lurking close by.
"Yesterday, we came across seven survivors; you all can get to know each other a bit, see if you can help each other with anything," Captain Cheng, upon seeing Su Han and his group arrive, announced to the crowd, "We have now cleared up to the 10th floor of the seven buildings; only 10 more floors to go.
According to our rule, who's joining the cleaning today, and then forming a Contract with the Angel Envoy?"
"Captain Cheng, I'll sign up, I still have seven bags of instant noodles." A fair arm shot up, contrasting with the brooding, furrowed-brow crowd next to her.
The speaker was a young woman with short hair, a little over twenty. As she raised her hand, her gaze met Captain Cheng's, a mix of determination and unmistakable fear.
Capitan Cheng merely glanced at her and nodded, "Alright, you're in. Anyone else?"
"Me, count me in; I have a few dried rations left."
...
With one taking the lead, a few more people gradually stepped forward—one a dark-skinned, round-faced middle-aged man with an honest look; another, a tall, thin young man in his twenties with slightly sunken cheeks and a gloomy gaze, although agreeing to join the squad, was clearly disgruntled about the cost; the last two were a middle-aged couple in their early forties, appearing somewhat calmer.
The short-haired woman was named Xia Ning, the round-faced man was Guo Gang, the young man was Wang Qian, and the couple were Yang Zhi and Xie Hua.
Five people were set to join the exploration team. After counting the numbers, Captain Cheng sent his subordinates to collect food from them. For those who had no food, they would register and receive an extra day's rations—of course, deducted from their gains through exploration or labor.
"Brother, what's going on here?" Beside Su Han, Zhu Xiong quietly handed a cigarette to security guard Zhang Fu, hugging his shoulder and whispering.
Zhang Fu appeared surprised, smiled, and said, "It's a rule set by Captain Cheng; it's also like everyone's watching out for each other."
"What do you mean?"
Zhang Fu tucked the cigarette behind his ear, not a good time to smoke among many people, but he'd take a drag when things calmed down.
"That day the eyeball monster appeared, actually not many people took action to kill the monsters. Captain Cheng, I, and Xiao Li, by chance, formed a Contract with the Angel Envoy, as well as He Fang and a few others. Later, when we started clearing the floors, there were too many monsters and not enough people.
Captain Cheng then let us, who had formed a Contract, help those wanting to form one by subduing the Four-armed Corpse; they would kill it themselves and then form a Contract in exchange for giving three days' food to the helpers," Zhang Fu explained.
Su Han and Zhu Xiong understood immediately—it was just like when he had helped Zhu Xiong kill the Four-armed Corpse.
As they talked, Captain Cheng approached Su Han, "I have something I'd like to discuss with you."