Apocalypse King: Recruiting S-Tier Beauties With My Ruler System
Chapter 152: Whispers in the Dark

Chapter 152: Whispers in the Dark

March 20th, 1:27 PM — Longwan Mall, Western Ramp (Lower Access)

John Wang POV

—

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

Her name, dragged out like a predator savouring the taste.

Everyone turned. Weapons raised. But the hallway behind us was empty—just the dim stretch of the western ramp, the flickering ceiling light that hadn’t gone out.

The voice hadn’t echoed. It had whispered right into our ears, like something standing just behind us, exhaling words into our necks.

Roulan’s Type-9k shook in her hand. I stepped in front of her and scanned the rear.

Nothing.

But I could feel it.

We were on a downward incline now. The western ramp sloped at a slight angle, about thirty meters ahead until it hit a steel loading dock door, half-shut with an old maintenance override box beside it.

The space was tight—three meters wide, just tall enough for the average truck to pass through.

Overhead piping ran along the ceiling in bundles, dripping water from some broken line. Trash bins, wheeled carts, and torn pallets lined the right-hand wall. The left was mostly bare, reinforced concrete with stains I didn’t want to think too hard about.

That was our space.

A straight corridor with only two exits: the dock ahead... and the ramp behind.

Which meant the moment something came from both sides, we were trapped.

"Fan out," I said quietly. "Zhou Xue, Deng Hua—take the left. Liang Mei, stay centre. Chen, keep close. If it’s behind us, don’t waste time shooting—just scream. Tang—"

"I know," she muttered, already sweeping her sightline along the far end.

Mu Qinglan hadn’t moved.

I looked at her. "You can stand?"

She nodded once. Her skin was pale, but her grip was steady. "I won’t be a burden."

"You’re not."

Her eyes flicked toward me. "Even now?"

"Especially now."

She exhaled, lips tight, then took her stance—weight on her back leg, knife in one hand, sidearm in the other. No sword this time. Too close. Too dangerous.

We waited.

Every drop from the pipe above sounded like a bullet.

Then came the sound.

No voice this time. Just a scrape.

Something long. Bone-like.

Dragged across the floor.

Not from behind.

In front.

The scrape echoed again.

Closer.

The scrape echoed again.

Closer.

It wasn’t dragging anymore—it was sliding. Something wet and heavy pulling itself forward, letting the sound stretch and smear across the silence like a taunt.

I stepped up beside Tang Wei at the front. She didn’t speak. Neither did I.

I flexed my fingers.

The gauntlets responded instantly—Crushing Moon humming with subtle, hungry tension. The inner blades hadn’t extended yet, but I could feel the weight shift inside the frame, cycling pressure toward the shotgun chambers. Buckshot loaded. Eight shells ready.

"Distance?" Tang Wei whispered.

"Eight meters. Single contact."

Then it stepped into view.

It crawled at first—elbows bowed out, shoulders unnaturally loose, like they’d been broken and never healed. Its skin was the wrong colour, white with a sickly film over it, bloodless and stretched thin. One leg dragged like it was boneless. The other twitched with every few steps, smearing something dark across the floor.

Then it rose.

No resistance. Just a long, steady push, spine clicking straight one vertebra at a time. The sound was soft, but it grated. Too slow. Too patient.

Its head turned.

Eyes black. Lips slack.

It saw us.

It smiled.

Then—

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

Roulan stiffened beside me, her tonfa already drawn, but her grip faltered. The terrifying voice was like a creature from hell.

What...

Why does this one have eyes?

Is it because we destroyed its white mask? Is this what lingers beneath them?

I took one step forward.

Tang Wei fired. Buckshot ripped through its chest, bursting meat and membrane against the wall.

It staggered, but the blast didn’t make it fall, and the bastard ignored her.

My gauntlets discharged a half-second later. Twin bursts from the wrists—one to the sternum, the other square into the throat.

It flinched, with chunks of white flesh torn, but it just shrugged off the damage.

The Ghoul didn’t stop and launched forward.

Not at Tang Wei but at Mu Qinglan.

My shoulder slammed into Qinglan, driving her out of the way. The Ghoul’s claw sliced through the space she’d stood in a second ago—too close. The edge caught my coat, but only sliced my ribs as I smashed the Ghoul’s head with my elbow.

I twisted with the impact, swung my left arm low. Crushing Moon’s blade extended mid-swing—earth Qi surging down my wrist, filling the blade’s edge with weight.

The force helped me plunge my blade into its thigh.

Roulan rushed in behind me, tonfa cracking hard against the Ghoul’s knee.

Still, it didn’t fall.

Deng Hua’s arrow struck a heartbeat later, straight through the side of the skull. The shaft quivered on impact, before Tang Wei jumped off the broken wall and spun with a brutal roundhouse kick to the back of the monster’s head.

The Ghoul collapsed.

Still twitching.

Still moving.

"Back!" I shouted. "Side corridor, now!"

Everyone shifted.

Then something hit the floor behind us with a wet crack.

Heavy.

Direct.

Right on top of Liang Mei. The second Ghoul dropped.

"I should have killed the Ghoul..."

It was right there.

Bleeding. Twitching. Down.

And I chose to retreat.

Chose to protect the group instead of finishing it off. Because the second one had dropped from above. Because my head was already tracking threat vectors, corners, fallback positions—thinking like a survivor, not a killer.

Now Liang Mei was paying for it.

She didn’t even scream. Just hit the ground hard—pinned by a pale blur of limbs and bone. The Ghoul’s claws tore through her coat like paper, raking across her back as it straddled her, teeth gnashing against the base of her neck.

"Move!" I roared.

I didn’t think.

I just grabbed the back of its skull and ripped.

The meat of its scalp came off in my grip—thin, rubbery skin sloughing back as it shrieked with no mouth. I slammed my knee into its ribs, once, twice—then plunged my left gauntlet into the space between its shoulders.

Bang—Bang.

The double burst of slug shells cracked through the meat like stone hitting water. The recoil shot up my arm, but the thing folded—bone crumpling inward, twitching, collapsing onto its side.

I dropped, grabbing Liang Mei by the waist and dragging her up into my arms.

Blood soaked through her uniform. Warm. Sticky.

Not arterial—but deep. I could see it in her eyes. Shock hadn’t hit yet. She was still processing what had happened.

"I’ve got you," I said. Quiet. Rough. "You’re fine."

She blinked slowly. "Am I...?"

"Yeah. You’re fine."

She wasn’t. But I needed her steady.

"Deng—rear!" Tang Wei barked.

A third Ghoul was crawling along the ceiling. Fast.

It skittered forward with limbs bent backwards, like a spider on wet glass. The lights above flickered again, casting long, warping shadows across the loading ramp walls.

Chen Xun drew and fired in one motion, the arrow flying clean.

Hit.

The Ghoul spun from the force, falling onto its back, legs kicking like a broken insect.

It screamed. High-pitched, raw, jagged.

"Now!" I barked. "All of you—clear the ramp!"

Tang Wei took point again, blasting forward with short, precise steps.

Roulan followed close behind, her tonfa dragging blood with each spin as she struck the twitching first Ghoul still moving near Qinglan’s feet.

Mu Qinglan didn’t wait to be told. She moved with them, slow but upright—her steps stable.

I held Liang Mei against me, breathing hard, blood coating my forearm.

"John!" Chen Xun shouted. "They’re regrouping!"

He was right.

The one I didn’t finish...

It was still moving.

Crawling now.

Pieces of its head were gone.

But it was smiling again.

"What are you smiling at, fucker?!"

I bought the most expensive grenades available to me right now—shrapnel and needle types. Four of them. No discounts. No hesitation.

Like the others, I rushed for the door. The ramp behind us echoed with wet footsteps and bone clicks. The warehouse ahead was our only safe zone.

"JUMP and close the shutter!"

Everyone leapt—Roulan rolled first, then Chen Xun, dragging Deng Hua with him. Mu Qinglan landed hard, stumbled, but didn’t fall. Tang Wei kept low and covered us as we crossed.

I slowed my pace.

Just enough to draw them in.

The three Ghouls were crawling forward—two shattered, one still half-standing, legs twitching, dragging broken claws across the concrete. Their flesh was torn, but not enough. Not dead.

Good.

I wanted them closer.

The metal shutter began to lower behind me, slow, grinding, the security system flickering as it engaged. A red bar blinked above the panel. Twenty seconds.

I unpinned the grenades and tossed them behind me. Two bounced—one rolled. One landed perfectly under the crawling Ghoul’s chest.

The smile didn’t fade.

It twitched wider.

"Get down!" I screamed, covering Liang Mei’s soft body with my arms as we hit the floor.

The shutter slammed down behind us.

And then—

BOOM—BOOMBOOM—KRKTCH

A high-pitched snap of needles and metal tore through the silence, followed by the shudder of the walls as the air shifted.

Dust and blood blew under the shutter’s edge, with huge holes in the shutter, it collapsed, and the scent of melting flesh filled my nose.

"Now! We have to kill them now!"