Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 157: Chapter 154: Bombing Hualai City

Chen Xing: "..."

’Go fuck yourself!’ was all she wanted to say.

’Who the hell did he think he was? As if she’d hesitate to kill him.’

’A pervert like him deserved a quick death.’

"Well then, take care!" With that, Chen Xing didn’t hesitate to thrust the knife.

She pressed the knife hard against his jaw, but it just wouldn’t pierce his skin.

In fact, the tip of the blade bent slightly.

’This skin... Is it made of steel or something?’

In the moment Chen Xing’s focus wavered, the masked man suddenly vanished from under her blade.

"If you kill me, you’ll never find out about your past!" the masked man’s voice called out from behind the hollow-looking wall.

Chen Xing knew it wasn’t that he was incredibly skilled; he had simply escaped by taking advantage of a secret passage behind the wall.

She didn’t want to admit that she hadn’t really used her full strength.

By the time she took a moment to recover and chased him into the secret passage, it was already empty.

After just a few steps, she felt a sense of weightlessness as her body plummeted downward.

She reacted instantly, ramming her knife hard into the wall.

Although it didn’t catch, it slowed her descent.

She landed, unharmed.

It wasn’t completely dark. In the dim yellow light, she could see that the narrow corridor was packed with zombie dogs.

’Where did they even find so many dogs for their research?’

Chen Xing flicked her hand, killing two zombie dogs, but she didn’t rush to kill the rest.

She moved deliberately, giving the zombie dogs no opportunity to harm her.

Just two minutes later, Meng Hu crashed through the door to where she was and began helping its master hunt the zombie dogs.

Chen Xing quickly broke away and began searching the corridor.

She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she had a feeling she would find something here.

When she reached a large, white iron door at the end of the corridor, the strange feeling became particularly intense.

Without hesitation, her hand gripped the handle.

In that instant, another surge of electricity flowed directly into her body.

There was none of the piercing pain from last time; this time, she perfectly absorbed the current into her body.

It was as if a storage chamber existed somewhere in her body, taking in all the electricity.

Immediately after, the dim lights vanished, and the surroundings were plunged into complete darkness.

’I think I stole the power supply for this place into my body, causing a blackout.’

To test if she could control the electricity at will, she backhanded a bolt of it toward a zombie dog’s head.

Before she even touched it, something like a flash of lightning struck the zombie dog’s brain, felling it instantly.

’As long as I can control it!’

Just then, Xiao Nan emerged, leading the others behind Meng Hu, and found himself in the middle of the zombie dog pack. "Fuck... Why are there so many monsters here too?"

If they hadn’t been using their phones for light, they could have easily run right into a zombie dog’s face.

Hao Wenli’s expression was grim.

’I knew it! Nothing good ever happens when we follow Chen Xing!’

Chen Xing ignored them, twisted the handle, and pushed the large iron door open.

It was also pitch-black on the other side of the large iron door.

As far as she could see, there were rooms separated by glass walls.

On a bed in each room lay a person, both men and women.

They all looked to be in their teens or twenties.

And without exception, every single one of them was beginning to stir.

Some started with their hands, others with their feet, and some with their heads.

However, their eyes were all vacant, as if devoid of thought.

They looked at their surroundings with panic and helplessness, just as helpless as she had been when she woke up in her past life.

Their movements were incredibly slow; most of them were like rusty machines, unable to get up even after a long while.

Chen Xing saw a red button on the wall at the far end and pressed it.

One by one, the doors to the rooms slid open.

Just as she was about to check the rooms one by one, her phone suddenly rang.

She paused, took out her phone, and saw it was a call from Song Yiguo.

’...’ ’Why is he calling at a time like this?’

Right now, she was in no mood to answer the phone.

Looking at all those helpless eyes, it was like seeing herself. She just wanted to figure out what was going on.

Just as she was about to go in and investigate, a text message arrived.

[Hualai City will be destroyed in five minutes!]

Since Chen Xing didn’t answer his call, Song Yiguo had sent a text as quickly as he could.

Chen Xing: "..." ’Destroy Hualai City? Why?’

She didn’t think Song Yiguo was the type of person to make that kind of joke.

’Five minutes...’

Forget escaping Hualai City; at most, she could only make it to Song Yiguo’s house. In other words, there was no way she could get out of Hualai City in time.

Chen Xing immediately ran back outside, charged through the pack of zombie dogs, and headed for the stairwell.

Whether the people inside who had just woken up would survive was up to them.

Meng Hu caught up to her almost instantly.

The moment it turned into the stairwell, Chen Xing recalled it into her space.

Seeing Chen Xing run, Hao Wenli was the first to follow.

Reaching the stairwell, Chen Xing saw a sign for the 7th floor and started running down at top speed.

Xiao Nan and the others all chased after her, and seeing her run downstairs, they followed.

Chen Xing called Song Yiguo as she ran. When he picked up, she asked, "Do you have an exact time?"

About thirty seconds later, Song Yiguo got the precise data. "Three minutes and 28 seconds left."

After that, he began to tirelessly count down the seconds.

She passed the first floor and kept going down.

Now, she could only take a gamble.

There was a body disposal system on the lowest level of the Research Institute.

The structure below it could withstand ultra-high temperatures.

Her only hope now was that the thick iron walls could withstand the bomb.

After all, it was underground, and the structure above was reinforced concrete.

The blast’s force should be weaker by the time it reached that far down. Surviving wasn’t impossible.

As for how to climb out of the rubble, that would be up to fate.

Of course, it also depended on whether Song Yiguo would come through and dig her out of the Research Institute’s ruins.

The only thing worrying her now was the automatic disposal system.

If she mistimed it, she’d be turned to ash.

With that in mind, she reached the area above the disposal system just as Song Yiguo’s countdown reached one minute.

On the other end of the line, Song Yiguo was even more nervous than Chen Xing.

He didn’t know how she was going to survive this catastrophe in Hualai City; all he knew was that she was currently in the Research Institute.

Although his building had an excellent security system that could withstand a Level Eight earthquake, it offered no defense against bombs.

The basement wasn’t built very deep, so survival there was unlikely.

He didn’t dare say much more, worried it would distract Chen Xing.

The only thing he could do to help her was provide an accurate countdown.

Chen Xing looked down. The disposal system only operated for about five seconds at a time.

But its after-effects were intense.

What she needed to do now was avoid touching the system below for as long as possible, then jump in during the final seconds before the explosion.

She had to let the explosion finish, then climb out before the disposal system reactivated.

’Although, that wouldn’t be easy...’

It seemed like even fate wanted to make things harder for her.

Just as she was focusing her full attention below, Xiao Nan and the others arrived.

A pack of zombie dogs followed close behind them.

The zombie dogs began to attack.

And just by sheer coincidence, one of the zombie dogs was knocked into the area below.

’Fuck!’

Chen Xing cursed under her breath.

The disposal system below was about to activate, and she was running out of time.

With eight seconds left, the disposal system below activated.

The zombie dog that had fallen in was reduced to a skeleton in an instant.

"Seven seconds... six seconds..." Song Yiguo had no idea what was happening on her end.