Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 143: Last Line

Chapter 143: Last Line

March 20th, 8:44 AM — Longwan Mall, Lower Atrium Level

John Wang POV

——

Crawlers streamed in from every direction, angle and hole in the wall.

Not shambling. Not screaming. Just movement — pure velocity. Arms and legs pumped like blades as they dropped from the rafters, skittered up walls, and launched across the ruined tiles. The ground shook beneath them.

Shen Yifei fired first.

The bark of the Type-9K cut through the noise, three-round bursts slamming into the front line of bodies. Crawlers flipped mid-sprint, black blood spitting from the air where their chests used to be — but the tide didn’t stop.

Out of shells, Tang Wei caught the rifle I tossed and dropped to one knee near the overturned bench.

Her aim was sharp, military clean, each burst precise. Spent shells pinged off the floor around her feet, bouncing and spinning in glinting arcs. Her magazine clicked dry and reloaded in less than a breath.

I pressed Jiang Roulan down behind the steel cargo box. Her side was soaked red, but she gripped her tonfa tight in her left hand, the other braced against the edge.

"Don’t move," I said, then stood between her and the tide.

Dozens of crawlers hit the perimeter at once.

My gauntlet blades extended with a screech of metal — twelve inches of tempered Qi-lined steel snapped outward from both forearms. The Earth Qi swelled through my veins like pressure from below, pulling from the broken tiles beneath me.

I punched the first one mid-leap — its skull caved in with a wet crunch as the impact folded its neck backwards. Another dived from the side — I spun and cut it in half, clean through the ribcage. Viscera hit the wall and stuck.

Still, they came.

Shell casings rained around me. Dozens. Then hundreds. Type-9Ks screamed beside me as Yifei and Tang Wei both fired full-auto now, the recoil shaking through their arms as muzzle flashes lit their faces. Empty brass bounced and piled near our boots.

"John—!" Tang Wei shouted. "Rear corner!"

I turned too late.

A crawler lunged from the far end, claws extended.

Jiang Roulan moved first, weak but not broken. She braced on her good arm and threw her tonfa like a hammer. It struck the crawler’s jaw, breaking its momentum just enough for me to catch it and drive it headfirst into the marble column behind us.

Its skull popped like overripe fruit.

Yifei pulled another mag, slammed it home. Her face was flushed, her hair sticking to her cheek, and blood streaked down her left arm.

"They don’t stop!"

"They’re not meant to," I growled.

The corridor behind them lit up — not from fire.

From movement.

Shadows crawled just above the flood of monsters.

Silent.

Unmoving.

Three shapes. Too still to be ferals.

Faceless.

Watching.

Ghouls.

One stood perfectly upright. Pale skin gleaming like bone, limbs long and even, head tilted slightly — not in curiosity, but calculation.

I felt its presence before I saw it move.

Yifei stopped firing for just a breath. Tang Wei caught herself staring.

The crawlers didn’t touch the Ghouls.

They ran around them.

And we were being crushed beneath them.

"W-What the hell is that?!"

Shen Yifei’s voice cracked across the hallway, not from panic, but something just under it. Her breath hitched at the sight of the towering figure at the edge of the crawl tide.

It stood still. Unmoving. Unbothered by the gunfire, the corpses, or the screams.

A white monster — smooth flesh, skin stretched tight across an almost-human frame. No face. No eyes. Just pale, glistening skin like wet marble and a head that tilted... too far, as if curious.

Seven feet tall. Maybe more.

And yet, it didn’t crouch. It didn’t flinch.

The system in my head flashed once.

[Ghoul]

[Evolved - Half-Human]

[Devoured Human Meat]

[Cannibal]

My pulse thudded in my ears.

The only thing worse than a monster is a human who chose to become one.

Tang Wei’s jaw clenched. "Is that even infected? It’s not... It’s not moving like them."

Yifei was still frozen, gun braced. "I-it’s not attacking..."

"It’s watching."

Crawlers poured forward, screeching and scratching over broken tile, slipping in gore, dragging what was left of their own dead aside as they charged in renewed waves.

"Focus!" I shouted.

The three of us moved in rhythm, while Roulan tried to help.

Yifei stepped on a crate, her lips curled into a smirk, showing her fangs. It seemed she was starting to like shooting zombies. Her SMG barked with a short burst. TAT-TAT-TAT! — Three crawlers exploded mid-sprint. Limbs flew like torn rags.

Tang Wei switched to full-auto, spraying across the right flank. "Suppressing!"

Shell casings bounced around her boots like golden rain.

I fired point-blank into a pack — DA-KENG! DA-KENG! — The gauntlets bucked as both barrels launched heated buckshot into the horde. Two crawlers lost their torsos, a third flipped backwards mid-pounce, legs twitching.

Roulan propped herself against the cargo box, breath short. "I really hope someone’s recording this."

"I am," I growled. "For your funeral."

She smirked — blood-stained teeth. "I’ll haunt you."

Then came the click.

No one spoke.

No one moved.

The sound of the empty mag wasn’t loud — just a soft metallic snap in the blood-slicked silence.

But the Ghoul moved the instant it echoed.

As if it had been waiting for it.

No warning. No signal.

Just the blur of a pale shape, crossing the floor without a single footstep. It didn’t lunge — it cut space like it knew the distance. The way it moved wasn’t instinct. It was a memory. Deliberate.

My eyes tracked the motion half a second too late.

"Shit—!"

It glided forward, clearing five meters in a heartbeat — no sound, no build-up. Like it had decided to be closer, and the world simply obeyed.

"Contact—!" Tang Wei shouted.

It twisted as it moved — limbs bending at wrong angles, joints popping as it ducked low and skimmed across the floor in an unnatural crouch. Its body seemed to ripple, spine snapping in and out of alignment as it sidestepped the muzzle flash from Shen Yifei’s Type-9K just as the weapon hissed with fresh heat.

I barely got my gauntlets up.

Metal met flesh — or something close to it. My left blade caught its forearm. Sparks flared. Qi hissed. But instead of pulling away, it bent its arm twisting backwards, too far, too smooth, like it had no ligaments. One long limb coiled behind my back like a scythe.

Shen Yifei’s spear drove forward. The tip scraped across its ribs, scoring deep — but the Ghoul didn’t react. It dropped flat to the ground mid-motion, in a sprawl that no human body could replicate, then twisted under her and vanished into the wall of crawlers at our flank.

Gone.

No roar. No snarl.

Just gone.

"What the fuck—" Tang Wei’s voice dropped, low and dry.

"It’s not dodging," I said, eyes scanning the movement. "It’s slithering."

The crawler wave shifted — not retreating, not pausing.

Just enough to make space.

Somewhere behind it... the Ghoul was repositioning.

And it would strike again.

Soon.

The crawlers didn’t rush us again.

Not yet.

They shifted in slow ripples — a living tide that parted in waves. I tracked the gaps. Watched the unnatural rhythm. Something wasn’t right.

And then I saw it.

A flicker of white between their spines. A too-long limb sweeping across the ground without touching it. A ripple of motion where none of the infected dared to tread.

"There—!"

I turned—

The Ghoul emerged sideways, not walking, not charging, skimming across the floor with its limbs bent and dragging. Its body folded low, torso bent backwards as if its spine had snapped, then reformed just to wrong-foot me.

It leapt — an explosion of motion from silence.

I braced.

It struck me in the ribs with both feet. Not like a kick — like a collapsing insect flinging its weight in reverse. My back hit the column behind me. Hard. Air left my lungs.

I dropped to one knee.

It was already gone again.

Yifei fired into the opening, rounds tearing into the retreating crawlers, trying to catch that pale figure.

"No blood—! I hit it, but nothing—!"

Tang Wei flanked left. "It’s not retreating. It’s cycling."

It was testing us.

One of the crawlers lunged. I took it in the jaw with a rising elbow, then caught a glimpse — just a flicker — of the Ghoul crawling upside-down along the ceiling support like a spider, limbs hooked across the pipes, head tilted downward.

It dropped—

Straight at Jiang Roulan.

"No—!"

I moved without thinking. Drove forward.

Roulan rolled aside a second too late. The Ghoul’s claws scraped the edge of the cargo box, tearing steel like foil. I slammed into its side mid-lunge, and we crashed into a shattered bench, metal buckling beneath us.

I mounted it — blades drawn back, gauntlets screaming with Qi.

Boom — my fist cracked across its collar.

Boom — another to its chest.

Boom — third to the jaw, and I felt the bone cave.

But the thing didn’t cry out.

It didn’t thrash.

It snapped.

Its arm shot up, then whipped sideways. Not a punch. A lash. Its forearm bent mid-swing, doubled backwards, and struck me across the face with a force that sent my ears ringing.

Another hit — the opposite arm. It whipped across my side like a wet steel cable, knocking the air from my lungs.

The third blow caught my shoulder and twisted me off its chest.

We both skidded across the tile, blood and ash trailing behind us.

The Ghoul flipped backwards unnaturally — spine bending the wrong way, then realigning as it landed in a low crouch.

No sound.

No breath.

Its body sagged like it was made of tendons and cords.

My gauntlets reset with a sharp hiss.

Shen Yifei rushed to my side, spear drawn, planting herself between me and the recovering mass of white flesh.

Tang Wei took position across from us, her rifle steady but not firing yet.

Jiang Roulan crouched low behind the cargo box, teeth clenched, hand over her wound — but watching. Focused.

The Ghoul didn’t charge again.

It watched.

"Why isn’t it attacking?" Yifei muttered.

"Because it doesn’t have to," I said, rising again.

And deep inside, I felt it.

This wasn’t a berserker.

It was thinking.

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