Chapter 655: Something Feels Off
“We’re doomed, we’re doomed, we’re doomed.” Zhao Ru sat up beside An Ran, her face pale as ash, counting nervously on her fingers. “An Ran, you use plants to kill—but now you’re cut off from them. They can’t help you kill that zombie outside. And worse, that zombie’s trying to control you!”
Even as she spoke, An Ran felt another stabbing pain pierce through her skull.
She let out a cold laugh, sitting on the floor with her back against the bedframe. “It’s trying to control me with wood-type energy. If it can do that to me, then why can’t I do the same to it?”
With that, An Ran stopped holding back. Her energy burst outward in waves, surging straight toward the high-tier wood-type zombie outside the door. She manipulated her power as though she were handling a mutated plant—sending an impulse, a lure, an order—to force the creature under her control.
For a brief moment, the zombie froze, blank and dazed. But it still possessed far more intelligence than a plant. A second later, it reacted violently. The branch-like appendages sprouting from its back writhed like the tentacles of an octopus, thrashing wildly as they struck at the hotel door with creaking, splintering force.
At the far end of the corridor, a figure in a black down jacket sprinted from the stairwell—Zhan Lian. He held two bloodstained knives, and though he was still some distance away from the zombie, he flung a series of throwing blades that slashed through the air with deadly precision, severing every one of the creature’s attacking branches.
Inside the room, An Ran didn’t relax even with Zhan Lian’s arrival. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she kept her focus locked, continuing to wrest control over the zombie.
At first, she’d only tried it out of anger—furious that the creature had dared to try controlling her. But to her surprise, her ability actually worked. The zombie that had been moving moments ago suddenly froze, its body stiff and rigid, as if rooted to the spot.
Only the branches on its back still writhed; the rest of it couldn’t move at all.
“An Ran, your husband’s incredible! He just dug the crystal core out of that wood-type zombie!” Liu Shasha crouched by the door, peeking through the peephole, narrating everything in real time.
An Ran, pale and drained, gave a weak smile. “So… that one’s real? And the one before was fake? No… we can’t be sure. Not until the very end.”
Zhan Lian’s combat skills were far superior to Chen Chaofa’s, and he was a metal-type ability user—capable of wielding flying knives. Chen Chaofa wasn’t. He couldn’t possibly replicate that.
But who could say for certain that Chen Chaofa’s ability to change faces didn’t also extend to mimicking other powers?
Outside, “Zhan Lian” had finished removing the zombie’s crystal core and came to knock on An Ran’s door.
“Wife, let’s go. Grab Anxin and move—fire’s spreading fast, we have to get out!”
Something about his tone didn’t feel right.
Still, his words were almost identical to what the earlier “Zhan Lian” at the elevator had said.
Before An Ran could fully process the unease rising in her chest, Liu Shasha quickly unlocked and opened the door. Seeing Zhan Lian standing there, she exhaled in relief.
“Thank God! You don’t know how scared we were—just a while ago, someone who looked exactly like you came knocking and went that way!”