Flora Bloom watched as the soldiers bustled in and out, carrying sacks of flour and grain. They were so engrossed in their work that they seemed to have forgotten the constant danger surrounding their expedition.

She walked into a flour processing room, where large bags of flour sat at the end of each milling machine. The smaller ones weighed fifty pounds, and the larger ones a full hundred.

The flour here looked scattered about, but if gathered together, it would be enough to fill an entire truck.

And there were five more processing rooms just like this one. Their two trucks wouldn’t be able to hold it all.

Flora Bloom glanced at Neal Wallace and Ethan Monroe, signaling for them to stay here. They were to help the soldiers load the trucks and stay vigilant for any sudden developments.

She, on the other hand, headed deeper into the factory by herself.

’A factory this big must have a warehouse. This flour out here is just the scraps.’

Sure enough, after she passed two more processing rooms and went through a doorway, she found a large, tightly shut door at the end of a corridor.

Flora Bloom saw that no one was around and cautiously approached the door. She didn’t rush to open it, instead pressing her ear against it to listen for any sounds from within.

But after listening for a long time, she heard nothing. Not the footsteps of zombies, not even that faint, mysterious sound from before.

’Strange. I could hear something at the entrance, but now that I’m inside, it’s gone?’

Anything this unusual meant trouble. But the door looked for all the world like a warehouse entrance, and there were probably tons of food reserves inside.

Flora Bloom tightened her grip on her axe, brought it down to shatter the old-fashioned lock, then grasped the handle and slowly pulled the door open.

The smell of flour that rushed out to meet her confirmed that this was indeed where the flour was stored.

The door creaked open inch by inch, revealing endless darkness in the gap.

Flora Bloom didn’t let her guard down, widening the opening little by little.

The light from the corridor was completely blocked, unable to penetrate the depths of the room. The darkness was like a substance that could swallow anything. Flora Bloom had to stare into it for a long while before her eyes adjusted to seeing in the dim light. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

She waited at the doorway for a while longer, and only after confirming there was no movement inside did she slip in.

It was so dark that Flora Bloom couldn’t tell the size of the storeroom. Not far from her, where she could see, were ten bags each of hundred-pound and fifty-pound high- and low-gluten flour. In a nearby corner lay a dozen or so fifty-pound bags of rice.

Seeing so much rice and flour just sitting on the floor, Flora Bloom quickly walked over. With a sweep of her will, she stored it all in her space.

Her space was already getting crowded, but as long as it wasn’t a living thing, she could still squeeze it in.

Looking across the room, in the corner opposite the rice, was a pile of wheat stacked taller than a person. The people here probably hadn’t had time to process and bag it, leaving it piled in the warehouse.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Flora Bloom went over and stored the wheat in her space as well, stacking it in the courtyard of the small farmhouse.

Once the massive pile of wheat, taller than she was, disappeared, the spot where it had been was suddenly empty.

SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK.

Suddenly, a series of faint footsteps sounded from behind Flora Bloom. Combined with the "SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK," she concluded it was a rat.

She didn’t pay it much mind at first. But after she continued collecting dozens more bags of rice and flour and two more piles of wheat, a pair of scarlet eyes met hers in the darkness, and Flora Bloom let out a terrified scream.

"Ah!"

Hearing Flora Bloom’s scream, everyone collecting flour in the front processing rooms stopped what they were doing. Neal Wallace and Ethan Monroe, in particular, tensely sprinted toward the source of the sound.

They crossed the courtyard and saw Flora Bloom running out from the corridor, shouting as she ran.

"Old Monroe, earth wall!"

Flora Bloom saw Neal Wallace, Ethan Monroe, and the thirty-one soldiers arrive at the edge of the courtyard. Only after Ethan Monroe erected a thick earth wall to block the massive figure behind her did she finally stop, gripping her axe and turning to face it.

It wasn’t that she was afraid of the creature. It was just that the giant rat’s sudden appearance had startled her. Plus, the storeroom had been too small and dark for her to use her full strength.

The courtyard was an open-air enclosure, and direct sunlight streamed in, allowing everyone present to get a clear look at the full form of the giant figure blocked by the earth wall.

It was a creature covered in grayish-black, healthy-looking fur, with white, steel-like quills as long as a person’s forearm covering its body like spikes. If you ignored its head, it looked like a giant hedgehog—an absolutely enormous one, roughly the same size as every person there.

But one look at its head revealed the truth. Its blood-red eyes glowed with a bloodthirsty light, and a pair of steel-like teeth were exposed at the tip of its pointed snout. It was clearly a zombie rat, infected by the virus.

Rats are rodents, and their front paws are typically small, only able to grasp pebbles or food for chewing.

But this giant zombie rat’s front claws had evolved. They were both sharp and massive. If caught by them, you would surely be torn to shreds by their sharp tips.

Flora Bloom casually channeled her superpower into Ethan Monroe’s earth wall, reinforcing it.

The earth wall was about ten meters long, six or seven meters wide, and five or six centimeters thick. Infused with Flora Bloom’s Water Ability, its strength and resilience were now extremely high.

SCRITCH SCRITCH.

SCRITCH SCRITCH.

The earth wall blocked the only entrance to the corridor, preventing everyone from seeing what was happening inside.

But the dense, overlapping "SCRITCH SCRITCH" sounds made Flora Bloom’s and everyone else’s skin crawl. A bad feeling welled up inside them.

"This is bad! Old Monroe, keep reinforcing the wall! Don’t let them get over it!"

"Them? What ’them’?"

Ethan Monroe had just asked when small, red-eyed rats began to squeeze their bodies through the gaps between the earth wall and the corridor, struggling to crawl out.

They were called "small" rats, but they were much larger than normal ones. Seeing their blood-red eyes, Flora Bloom knew without a doubt that this was a swarm of virus-infected zombie rats, with the leader being a mutated zombie creature. If they fought them head-on, her entire group wouldn’t even be enough to get caught in the rats’ teeth.

"Flora Bloom, what do we do? These rats will break through Old Monroe’s wall soon! Can we even fight them?"

Cynthia Grant, who had been quietly helping the soldiers move supplies, had come over to see what was happening. Seeing the huge, mutated rat, she asked anxiously. In her eyes, Flora Bloom was a miraculous person who could resolve any crisis.

Flora Bloom glanced at the excited, expectant Cynthia Grant next to her, then smacked her on the head and yelled.

"Are you an idiot? Just listen to how many rats are gnawing on that wall! The big one alone is more than all of us can handle!"

Cynthia Grant was dumbfounded. "Huh? That big rat is that strong? Then what do we do?"

There was no telling how many rats were pouring out of the corridor. Ethan Monroe and Flora Bloom could only feel the power they had infused into the wall being constantly drained and destroyed. The "SCRITCH SCRITCH" sounds grew louder and more frantic.

Flora Bloom spared a glance for the soldiers behind her, who were holding their guns but didn’t know where to start. "What are you looking at?" she shouted. "Get back to moving the grain! Fill the trucks and get them started! We can’t hold on for much longer!"