Just as everyone was crowding around Master Gu and the old man in uniform, demanding an explanation, that sudden gunshot blew the head off one of the young bridesmaids.
I was the closest—blood splattered everywhere, instantly covering my entire face.
Mixed with brain matter and the warm, metallic stench of blood, it coated my skin.
When I finally reacted, the world spun, and the sickly sweet smell made me gag uncontrollably.
Master Gu yanked Tingting, who was beside me, behind him.
The remaining bridesmaids were nearly paralyzed with fear.
I bent over, retching, and in between gasps shouted at them, “Move away! Get out of here!”
The gunshot silenced the crowd for several seconds.
Only when someone else collapsed did people finally snap out of it.
Before entering, everyone’s weapons had been confiscated.
Even those who weren’t afraid of the shooter were helpless without weapons, reduced to glaring and shouting curses.
Gao and the others could no longer stay hidden.
Their people within the crowd all drew their guns, the sound of slides being pulled back echoing as they aimed at the entire crowd.
Suo Tian quickly scanned the surroundings, then suddenly raised his hand and made a signal.
The next second, the priest standing calmly on the stage bent down, pulled a sniper rifle from the lectern in front of him, loaded it, and raised it.
Following the direction Gao had indicated, he took aim—and before we could even react, he fired.
What the hell…
Seeing the solemn priest suddenly turn into a sniper left me completely stunned.
But in the next moment, Master Gu and the old man in uniform were hurriedly escorted toward the main hall by several people.
That left me and the bridesmaids standing on the stage, momentarily frozen…
During this, Master Gu noticed I’d been left behind and shouted, “Go get that girl over here!”
Before his words even finished—bang! Another shot rang out.
A uniformed man beside him dropped to the ground instantly.
I stopped in my tracks, unable to move toward them.
The priest cursed under his breath, frowned, and fired another shot in the same direction, but judging by his expression, he hadn’t hit the target.
He was aiming toward the rooftop.
The hidden shooter was incredibly precise.
Almost as if to intimidate them, another shot rang out—and yet another person beside Master Gu fell.
I took a few steps back and called out in a low voice to the three terrified bridesmaids, “Get behind me.”
Only one girl, her makeup smeared from crying, glanced at me before running over.
She clung to my arm like a lifeline.
The other two could do nothing but crouch in a corner, screaming, completely oblivious to everything else happening around them.
Several more people collapsed in the crowd.
With the doctor’s earlier diagnosis, whenever someone fell and began foaming at the mouth, the others immediately backed away.
The situation descended into utter chaos.
Suo Tian and Gao subdued two more people, but things had already changed.
At this point, the hidden infiltrators were no longer the greatest threat.
The real danger now came from the furious crowd—who had realized they’d been made scapegoats—and the sniper hidden on the rooftop.
He was well concealed.
It was clear the “priest” beside me was highly trained, but even after several serious attempts, he couldn’t hit the target.
The two were locked in a battle of attrition.
The sniper fired unpredictably, never missing—every time he pulled the trigger, someone near Master Gu would fall.
The crowd began to surge toward Master Gu and the others.
Some people even rushed toward the main gate, but it had already been sealed shut.
They started banging on it instead.
Others, choosing to stay cautious, stood in small groups at a distance, quietly observing the chaos unfolding.
Honestly, there was no way to estimate how many people had drunk the tainted alcohol.
Even the old man in uniform and the others were being worn down by the intermittent gunshots from the rooftop—there was no room to evade, and with the crowd pressing in from all sides, they couldn’t move quickly into the hall.
At that moment, the first two people who had collapsed suddenly opened their eyes in the middle of the crowd…
Most of the people present had experience dealing with walkers, so it wasn’t a problem.
The moment those two got back on their feet, they were knocked down again by people passing by.
But without weapons, all they could do was stomp on them repeatedly—stomping until their heads were completely crushed.
But soon, more people began collapsing.
No one knew who would fall next or where—it was impossible to tell who had been infected.
Perhaps due to differences in physical condition or other factors, the onset time varied from person to person.
The priest seemed to have lost his patience.
He kept firing shot after shot.
Even if he couldn’t hit the sniper on the rooftop, it was enough to keep him from showing himself for the moment.
This gave Master Gu and the others more space and time to retreat, easing the situation slightly.
The number of people collapsing wasn’t as dense as it had been in the valley before, but it was still nearly continuous.
In just a few minutes, at least twenty to thirty people had fallen to the ground, convulsing.
I glanced at the two bridesmaids crouched in the corner and stopped bothering with them.
Turning to the girl beside me, I said quietly, “Stay close to me. Don’t be afraid.”
She nodded shakily and followed me as we moved toward the main hall.
If things got worse, staying in the courtyard would only make us targets, with nowhere to hide.
But inside the building, with so many rooms, there might still be a chance to find cover.
The crowd was too scattered.
The armed personnel kept aiming here and there, unable to fire decisively.
They had to rely on Gao and Suo Tian to pull suspects out of the crowd and pin them down, while others rushed forward to bind and take them away.
Ever since the gunshots started, Suo Tian had been watching our side.
But instead of coming over to shield me, he chose to keep an eye on things from a distance.
Maybe it was because the crowd and the sniper were targeting Master Gu and the others, not me.
Just as I was pulling the girl behind me, trying to slip around the clustered crowd and get into the hall first, a dozen or so people in plain clothes suddenly rushed out from inside the hall.
Each of them was carrying a submachine gun.
With sharp metallic clicks, they loaded their weapons and, before anyone could react, opened fire on the crowd.
My heart jolted.
I grabbed the girl and ran toward a pillar in the courtyard for cover.
She wasn’t stupid—though her face looked like she was about to faint, she bit her lip hard and didn’t let out a single scream.
The gunfire behind us, mixed with the screams of the crowd, turned the entire courtyard into a boiling storm of chaos.
I didn’t even need to look back to know how horrific the scene must be.
“Fire! Fire!” someone shouted hoarsely from the crowd.
The next second, an even more intense barrage of gunfire erupted across the courtyard, deafening.
I pulled the girl behind the pillar.
The moment I regained my bearings, I saw two people not far from us, lying on the ground, convulsing violently.
Their eyes had already begun to turn white—they were on the verge of dying.
The girl beside me noticed the two people on the ground and immediately clamped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide as she stared at them.
Clenching her fists, I pressed myself against the thick pillar and quickly scanned the surroundings, searching for something I could use as a weapon.
Before I could find anything, the girl suddenly tugged hard at my clothes and pressed herself tightly against the pillar, pointing toward the corridor beside us.
I froze for a split second, then leaned out to look—
My blood ran cold instantly.
A man in plain clothes, holding a submachine gun, was standing in the corridor just to the left of the pillar, his back to us, firing continuously into the crowd ahead.
He only needed to take two steps back to discover us hiding behind the pillar.
My mind tightened in an instant, and a surge of uncontrollable ruthlessness took over—if he didn’t die, then we would.
For the first time in a situation like this, my mind was terrifyingly clear, without a trace of hesitation.
Leaning against the pillar, I moved as quickly and quietly as possible, pulling off the thin knitted jacket I had worn out that morning.
Gripping both ends, I twisted it into a thick rope.
I glanced once at the girl beside me, whose face had gone completely pale.
Without hesitation, I rushed forward and looped the twisted jacket around the man’s neck from behind, gritting my teeth as I pulled it tight with all my strength.
Die!
He clearly hadn’t expected to be attacked like this.
The crowd was concentrated on the other side of the courtyard and near the hall entrance.
Even Suo Tian and Gao were pinned down on the opposite side by heavy gunfire.
I went all out—my goal was to kill him.
Clenching my teeth, I pulled the ends of the jacket outward with every ounce of strength I had.
But this man wasn’t some weak person who would collapse at the first scare.
Once he reacted and realized I was trying to kill him, he began to struggle violently.
Our strength wasn’t on the same level.
I had the advantage of surprise, but now that he was fighting back, I could immediately feel the strain.
He was quick-witted.
With his neck trapped, he instantly threw the gun aside.
The moment his arms were free, he drove his right elbow hard backward into me.
The first blow landed on my stomach.
My vision blurred, and a surge of acid rushed up my throat.
I forced myself to recover, tightening every muscle as I poured every last bit of strength into pulling the jacket tighter.
He struck me two more times in quick succession.
But he was still just a human—being strangled like that for so long, even with all his strength, he could only gasp helplessly.
Within seconds, his arms went limp, and before long, his head slumped to the side as his body went slack.
— The end of the Chapter–
TL note : Join Patreon to support the translation and to read up to 50 chapters of the release :
https://www.patreon.com/DeCakraWnloverz
