Faced with the attack of three zombies, Ning Yu raised her Crimson War Blade.
She charged towards the left, slicing off the head of the faster zombie on that side with one stroke.
The blade carefully pierced through its brain.
As the other two barely reached her, she repeated the process, decapitating them and destroying their brains.
The zombie blood on the blade was slowly absorbed by the Crimson War Blade.
Ning Yu looked up to survey the dense distribution of zombies on the second floor of the mall.
Planning a route of action, Ning Yu decided to start here, beginning to test the limits of how "Blood's Ancient Wish" affected her.
The escalator leading up was in the center of the mall. She planned to follow a path with fewer zombies to reach one end of the second floor first.
Then she would clear from that end to the other, avoiding being caught in a pincer attack.
The entire second floor was quite long, with an open center area allowing a view of the first floor below.
It was a traditional mall layout.
The second floor housed a variety of shops.
Restaurants, toy stores, phone stores, clothing shops - naturally, the zombie crowd here was just as diverse.
White-haired elderly zombies, oddly-dressed otaku zombies, child zombies in elementary school uniforms, and even pregnant zombies with swollen bellies.
This mall must have been very popular before, probably bustling with activity before the zombie outbreak.
Now that thriving scene had transformed into a vision of hell on earth.
The silver-haired little girl had been slashing her way through, already clearing a considerable distance from the east side of the second floor.
Her originally indifferent eyes, now completely red, showed no trace of their amber color.
Even the deep blue butterfly bow on her sailor uniform was inevitably stained with blood, creating a kind of eerie beauty.
Ning Yu looked down at the Crimson War Blade in her hand.
Of everything on her body, only this blade remained free of blood stains, having absorbed it all.
She suddenly had a morbid thought - perhaps she could use this blade to clean up blood at murder scenes, simply absorbing it all.
The whispers in her ears grew increasingly grating and louder:
"More... more... need more..."
Her body became more and more excited, feeling adrenaline surging through her veins, her entire being restless and thrilled.
Another important point was that despite all this killing, she didn't feel like she had expended much energy.
On one hand, this was due to the increase in her physical attribute points.
On the other hand, it seemed the blood absorbed by the blade not only enhanced combat ability but also restored some of her stamina simultaneously.
It truly was a terrifying weapon, seemingly created solely for the purpose of slaughter.
But it wasn't without side effects.
Although her senses remained sharp, Ning Yu felt occasional moments of dizziness, lasting only fractions of a second.
When the dizziness passed, she would find that she had killed another zombie in that brief moment of disorientation.
The feeling was fleeting and hard to grasp.
Ning Yu realized this was probably the side effect, causing her to unconsciously repeat killing actions.
Sensing that she hadn't reached her limit yet, Ning Yu decided to continue.
Just then, that feeling of being watched returned!
Ning Yu whirled around.
But there was nothing there except zombie corpses.
Her gaze suddenly fell on the direction she had turned towards, where there was a restaurant - a braised chicken rice shop.
The store door was closed but not locked.
Ning Yu furrowed her brow.
This shop showed no signs of damage, and its yellow and black signboard was still lit up.
It seemed odd.
She turned back and walked towards the shop, when suddenly the door opened!
A man's head poked out, looking thin and sallow. He swiveled his head, looking left and right.
Confirming that the surrounding zombies had all been eliminated, he turned his head and said something to those inside.
In the meantime, he cast an uncertain glance at the silver-haired little girl not far away.
Then, several people rushed out from inside, men and women, young and old.
Some wore office attire and looked like white-collar workers, while others wore delivery uniforms.
They appeared to be a group of survivors trapped here.
They all looked quite disheveled, in poor mental state, and very thin.
The zombies must have been too numerous here, with very limited resources, keeping them trapped for a long time.
After coming out, they saw the situation outside:
Now half of the second floor was covered in zombie corpses, their heads chopped off and brains destroyed, clearly done by human hands.
They all looked at the silver-haired, red-eyed little girl in front of them, wearing a blood-soaked sailor uniform and holding a crimson Tang sword.
They wore expressions of disbelief.
This group had been trapped here for many days, unable to leave due to the sheer number of zombies outside.
Previously, a few brave adult males had charged out wielding kitchen utensils from the restaurants.
At first, they managed to kill a few zombies, but they quickly succumbed to the onslaught, being bitten to death and then torn apart and eaten.
Remembering this now sent chills down their spines.
But now, nearly half the floor of zombies were dead, and there was only this little girl around.
Could it be... that she had killed them all?!
This made them wonder if perhaps they had been too cowardly.
The Lean Man who had come out first seemed to be the temporary leader of this group.
He first double-checked that it was safe, then walked up to Ning Yu, putting on a friendly smile:
"Little sister... are you alone here? Did you kill all these zombies?"
He couldn't believe it either, considering whether it was possible that this little girl had gotten separated from her team.
Ning Yu nodded lightly to confirm.
She didn't really want to deal with this group of people, as she wanted to continue her experiment.
But these survivors who had appeared before her might trigger some kind of quest, allowing her to earn attribute points, right?
So she decided to interact with them briefly.
The Lean Man once again showed a shocked expression, clearly still struggling to believe it.
But with the facts right before his eyes, he had no choice but to accept it.
If this little girl was so powerful, wouldn't it be safest to just follow her?
With this thought, his expression took on a pleading look:
"Um... can we come with you? Look, there are quite a few of us, we could watch out for each other if we stick together..."
Ning Yu narrowed her eyes, still no quest had been triggered.
"No, you should leave quickly. The zombies downstairs have been cleared too."
Ning Yu firmly refused.
She had no interest in saving the weak. What did these people's lives have to do with her? She still needed to continue her experiment.
Talking about watching out for each other - it was as ridiculous as saying she and a billionaire were both millionaires on average. Just absurd.
She turned to continue on her way.
The Lean Man's expression froze, clearly not expecting the little girl to refuse so decisively.
But having finally found a glimmer of hope, he didn't want to let it go, and suddenly became anxious:
"Please... please... even if we run outside, we can hardly defend against the zombies out there!"