Apocalypse: I Build A Doomsday Train-Chapter 187 - 182: The Cinema

Undeserved reputation? Strong on the outside but weak on the inside? All show no substance?

Lu Xingchen’s smile suddenly froze upon hearing this, his face turning paler and paler, as each word seemed to accurately hit his sore spot.

Sha Sha glanced at him with the corner of her eye and, noticing the effect she had, continued to fan the flames, "Can’t even protect a young girl, yet you dream of protecting all of humanity, sigh... If it were me, I’d probably find a crack in the ground to crawl into. Thankfully, your Fire Power can be used to warm a kang bed, keeping one’s bottom nice and toasty..."

"Shut up!"

Lu Xingchen abruptly stood up, clenching his teeth, his veins bursting with fury, pointing vehemently at the warehouse in front of them, "Say which warehouse we should check first, I won’t consider their hygiene standards good unless I’ve burned all those snakes, bugs, rats, and ants to a crisp!"

Sha Sha smiled triumphantly, lifted her sunglasses, and with a small flick of her hand towards the front said: "Let’s spill the beans then!"

...

The motorcycle drove on a quiet road, surrounded by lush greenery under the sunlight. Lin Xian sat on the back seat, looking at the outline of the small town streets ahead, not far from the town an industrial chemical plant with large reactors and distillation towers stood tall behind the town.

"Generally, large chemical plants are quite far from residential areas, but this one seems quite close," Lin Xian remarked.

KIKI chimed in, "Maybe it really is some pollutant from the chemical plant that leaked, which is why those Monsters can’t get in."

Lin Xian had a headache listening to this, "Monsters can’t come in, but we can; so who are the real Monsters?"

"That’s not necessarily true~" KIKI stubbornly replied, "There might be something that humans can withstand but Monsters cannot, haven’t you seen those alien invasion movies? A cold virus not fatal to humans can wipe out a whole army of aliens~"

Lin Xian was left speechless, her logic seemed to make some sense.

So, he sniffed the air, trying to detect any strange chemical odors.

As they approached the town streets, the motorcycle began to slow down.

Rows of houses appeared in their vision, the streets of the small town were lined with low-rise buildings and shops, many with closed doors, some half-open fluttering gently in the wind. The streets covered with leaves that had turned yellow and fallen prematurely due to the temperature, convenience store shelves lay bare, filled with dust and moldy items.

KIKI looking at the disarray on the streets, couldn’t help but frown, "This place is too strange, doesn’t look like anyone lives here."

Lin Xian constantly surveyed his surroundings, picked up the Soul Swinging Value Detector and began the detection.

Buzz~ A faint glow spread out and then retracted.

The needle on the detector slowly shifted from negative to zero, which left Lin Xian somewhat astonished; he wasn’t sure if this old model of the detector was acting up, or what, but he felt that the movement of the needle...

Seemed a bit slow.

Squeak~

The motorcycle turned into a crossroads, which appeared to be the center of town. Though calling it the center was a bit of a stretch, there was a supermarket facing the street and a bank, with a bigger cinema on the street corner across from them.

Both dismounted from the motorcycle, looking around, the few streets in sight under the sun all exuded a desolate and decaying air, quiet, run-down, with bodies of residents that had rotted and dried up on the roadside, their clothes now withered and sticking to the ground, flies buzzing around.

"Strange, I clearly saw these yesterday... and these too." KIKI looked up at the windows above the shops; they were empty. A clothing store display window still had several mannequins, their clothes long since stripped clean, standing askew behind the glass, as though gazing at Lin Xian and KIKI on the street below.

Lin Xian also found it very strange at the moment. They hadn’t seen anyone on the way in, but both he and KIKI had seen candles burning in the town last night, and not just in one household.

"Be careful." Lin Xian reminded her, his gaze shifting towards the direction of the movie theater. "Let’s check out the mall."

There were no zombies in the town, but also no living people to be seen, which truly puzzled Lin Xian. He also didn’t know whether Shu Qin and the others in the Building had made any discoveries.

KIKI nodded, "Let’s go. Maybe some people are hiding on purpose, refusing to come out."

Lin Xian stepped into the movie theater’s entrance and was immediately greeted by the smell of decay and dampness. He frowned and cautiously led the way, saying, "Logically, this place should block Abnormal Bodies from entering and would be an excellent location for survival. Building a shelter here would be much better than fleeing everywhere. But if there are no living people..."

"Does that mean there’s something here even scarier than Abnormal Bodies?" KIKI responded directly.

Lin Xian suppressed his feelings, only hoping his guess was wrong.

The movie theater lobby was pitch black. Lin Xian quickly created a bright flashlight in his hand, and with a snap, a dazzling white light instantly illuminated most of the hall.

The scene that met his eyes was a complete mess—ticket vending machines and popcorn machines were lined up against the wall; there were a few torn and tattered tents in the corner; and several decayed bodies lay sprawled here and there, appearing to be Rain Town residents who had sought refuge here shortly after Apocalypse Day.

"This doesn’t seem like there are any survivors..."

Lin Xian scanned around, ready to leave when KIKI suddenly said, "Lin Xian, there’s a sound inside!"

He immediately turned his head towards the direction KIKI was speaking of and shone his flashlight there, finding that it was the direction of the cinema hallways. The two exchanged glances, reaching an agreement, and carefully made their way inside.

Drip-drop, drip-drop~

From deep within the corridor came the intermittent sound of dripping water. Aside from that, the entire space was eerily quiet, which was somewhat unsettling.

KIKI floated up and flew to the entrance of one of the cinema halls, then stopped and pointed inside to Lin Xian, indicating that the sound she had heard came from there.

Lin Xian nodded, his palm gathering an Electric Surge, and at the same time, he slowly pushed open the door to the cinema hall.

Creak~yah~

A metallic rasping sound of rust filled the hall, and instantly a wave of intense fetid odor billowed out. KIKI’s face changed drastically, and she quickly flew backward, pinching her nose, appearing as if she was about to retch.

Lin Xian’s brow was deeply furrowed too; the stench almost made his vision go dark. Though he had seen his share of corpses and blood throughout his journey, this was the first time he had encountered such a strong, putrid scent!

Bearing the nausea, he pulled the door open completely, but apart from the stench, there was no other movement coming from inside the cinema hall.

Lin Xian shone his flashlight inside and saw that the aisle was empty. The screen at the front had rotted into strips of cloth. So the two of them walked down the aisle one after another, with KIKI following closely behind, still pinching her nose and fanning the air, "It stinks to death, stinks to death."

Shush.

Lin Xian’s expression turned serious as he signaled her to be silent. They walked out of the aisle, and only then did they see the inclined seating area at the back side which sloped upwards. Immediately, Lin Xian swept his flashlight up there, but as soon as the light touched the area, both of their pupils shrank in shock. KIKI was so frightened that she hissed coldly, immediately hiding behind Lin Xian.

Beneath the white light of the flashlight, all the rows of cinema seats were neatly filled with people.

But these ’people’ in front of them weren’t alive, nor were they zombies—they were a line of peeled, rotting, and moldy flesh and bone frames!