Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 151: Encirclement

Chapter 151: Encirclement

March 20th, 1:25 PM — Longwan Mall, Rear Loading Corridor

John Wang POV

—

Liang Mei’s hands worked fast, clumsy but careful, pressing gauze and wrapping bandages across Mu Qinglan’s side.

The salve I’d given her was already melting into the cuts, white cream bleeding into red. Qinglan didn’t flinch. Just sat there quietly, eyes half-lidded, lips pressed into a thin line.

"She’ll be fine," Liang Mei said, not quite meeting my eyes.

I gave a short nod. "Good."

But my attention was already elsewhere.

Five red dots. No labels. No signs of retreat.

They weren’t Crawlers.

They were closing in — each one from a different side of the map. Slow at first, now accelerating. Angled. Coordinated.

The Ghouls had learned how we moved, or reaction, and now they were tracking us.

What made them the most dangerous was how they didn’t act like normal zombies, able to control their desires and hunger just a little, which gave them an edge. Unpredictable attacks and a body that could keep up with them.

Tang Wei caught my look. "What is it?"

I didn’t answer.

Not directly.

Because there wasn’t enough time to explain everything and convince her and the others, before the Ghouls tried to take our lives.

Instead, I checked the system map again, tracking their location.

One was moving faster — the far south corridor.

Another had just changed direction, sweeping around to the north.

They were going to box us off completely soon, and with our current group, fighting one of them was probably our limit.

"We need to move."

"W-What? Why, John?" Jiang Roulan asked, while Shen Yifei looked at me with a strange expression before she picked up her things and gripped her Type-9k tight.

"Those white things will soon completely encircle us, six of them."

My words brought a sense of doom to the group, knowing the strength of one, and the throbbing of my nose and ribs reminded me how dangerous and deadly they were.

Zhou Xue tensed immediately. "Ghouls?"

I nodded once.

Tang Wei stood and slammed the breach shut on her shotgun. "Direction?"

"Everywhere."

No one laughed.

No one spoke again.

I turned to Mu Qinglan and dropped to one knee. She opened her eyes as I touched her cheek.

"You stay here, you die," I said quietly. "So don’t move without me."

"...Understood," she said, breath thin. "But I can walk."

"Not now."

I stood again, and the smell hit me first — the same chemical stench, that mix of scorched rubber and decaying resin. Not strong. Not close.

But rising.

"Yifei," I said.

She nodded, already pulling her spear from its holster. Her jaw set tight. "I’ll hold the front."

"Zhou Xue, Deng Hua, cover the flanks. Arrows only. Don’t waste shots."

"Understood."

"Chen Xun," I turned toward him. He flinched slightly but met my eyes. "Stay close to Liang Mei. Shield her if anything breaks through."

He nodded stiffly.

Liang Qiu didn’t wait for instructions. She was already by the door, checking the crates we’d passed for a fallback route.

"We can pull back along the western ramp. It’s narrow, but easier to defend."

"Good." I looked at Tang Wei. "You’ll take point if we move."

"I was going to anyway."

Despite her tough and confident words, I noticed the momentary shake of her voice and body; the Ghouls were something beyond human reason. Zombies remained in the humanoid category, something that could be explained with a lot of pseudo-science... but Ghouls?

Roulan stood beside me now, silent, her fear obvious for anyone to see, a pale face, her legs trembling, but I needed her... so the only way I could get her attention and to focus on me, not the situation, was simple.

I reached out and grabbed her ass.

She jolted.

Roulan spun around, her breath catching as my hand lingered a second longer than necessary. Her ass was firm, warm even through the fabric. Soft in a way that didn’t match the panic in the air. Her eyes locked with mine—wide, confused, a little embarrassed, but not angry.

"You—" she started.

I stepped closer, just enough that our bodies almost touched. Her back hit the wall behind her, and I leaned in, voice low and rough.

"Stay with me. You zone out again, you’re dead."

Her lips parted, but this time nothing came out. Her gaze dropped once to my chest, then lower. Her cheeks flushed a deeper red.

"I’m not some helpless girl," she whispered.

"Good," I murmured, dragging my hand away slowly. "Then don’t act like one."

Tang Wei gave me a look from the side — a twitch of the eyebrow that said, Really? Now? — But she didn’t argue. The Ghouls were closing in, faster now, one on the upper level. Another flank is near the service stairwell.

I pointed. "Two minutes. Then we shift. If we wait longer, we’ll be in danger."

But I stepped back anyway. The mood cracked instantly, reality slamming back in. The map flickered on my display—five red dots, moving faster. One was near the upper level. Another sweeping wide, approaching the loading corridor from the west.

"They’re adjusting. Trying to force us back," I said.

Tang Wei didn’t need a cue. "We shift in two minutes?"

"Less, if they keep this pace."

Deng Hua fumbled with his shotgun. "Do we even have two?"

"Not if we keep standing here."

Something scraped above us—metal on metal, slow and deliberate. I looked up.

Ceiling tiles.

Then silence again.

But we all knew it wouldn’t last.

Tang Wei moved first, sweeping the corridor ahead with her shotgun. I followed right behind her, crouched beside Mu Qinglan as she gritted her teeth and tried to stand.

"Don’t overdo it," I said, slipping her arm over my shoulder.

"I’m fine," she lied, her breath warm against my ear. Her skin was clammy, her ribs too sharp beneath the bandages, but her steps didn’t falter.

Chen Xun and Deng Hua flanked us, nervous, eyes flicking at every corner like the walls might peel open. Roulan was behind me, quiet, but she hadn’t spaced out again. Her fingers gripped her pistol too tight, knuckles white.

We turned onto the narrow west ramp. Concrete walls. Flickering lights. A bottleneck.

Tang Wei didn’t speak, but I saw her nod to herself. Defensible. That was all we needed.

We kept moving, each step echoing too loud. Qinglan stumbled once, but didn’t fall. I adjusted my grip on her and squeezed her side, just a little.

"You feel light," I murmured.

"Are you flirting with me while I’m bleeding?"

"I multitask."

A ghost of a smile crossed her lips, but then she stopped, and everyone stopped because there was a sound ahead. Not the scrape of claws. Not the wet thud of meat.

A voice.

Low. Gurgling. Like someone trying to remember how to speak.

"...Lan... Lan’er..."

Mu Qinglan stiffened. Her mouth opened wide as she gripped my shirt.

"That’s your voice," she whispered, eyes wide. "John... that’s you."

I froze. My name in her mouth sounded like disbelief.

Then came the sound again, closer this time. A wet cough buried under a mockery of human tone.

"...Lan’er..."

It wasn’t my voice. Not really. It was wrong—twisted, like I’d been dragged across glass, slowed down, distorted. But the cadence was right. The way I said it when we were alone.

Tang Wei raised her shotgun, her voice low. "What the fuck is that?"

"It would seem to be a Ghoul..."

Even I couldn’t control the cold, tickling jolt down my spine. The voice calling Qinglan affectionately, just like I did earlier...

"But why your voice?" Roulan asked, her hands shaking now.

Because it had heard me. From before. During the last fight. When I called out to her.

It remembered.

It chose her.

And now it was using me.

Or... another theory was that it knew I was the centre of the group, most trusted and using my voice could cause the team to fall apart faster.

Either choice was terrifying.

The corridor ahead glowed faintly under flickering light. Just around the bend, something moved. Slow. Deliberate. We couldn’t see it, but I could feel it watching. Not charging. Not howling. Just... waiting.

"Hold," I said. "No sudden noise. We backtrack to the side path, regroup there."

But then the light above us died.

And the voice came again, right behind us this time.

"...Rou...lan..."

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