If fear had merely taken root in the hearts of the students before, then the sight of the blazing red beetles surging up the stairwell shattered their very souls. Their teeth chattered uncontrollably, their courage utterly dissolved.
Within five seconds, a series of deafening thuds erupted from the first floor—each impact like a hammer striking directly against their hearts.
"They... they must be battering the doors!"
"The students on the first floor must have locked themselves inside... but—"
"But with those monsters' sheer strength, how could any door possibly hold them back?"
"It's over! My girlfriend's classroom is on the first floor—she's having a class meeting right now! Someone, please—someone save her!"
Several students, even some of the boys, collapsed weakly to the floor, trembling as if every ounce of strength had been drained from their bodies.
"We need to lock our doors too! It might buy us some time... use the desks—pile them against the entrance! And we're on the sixth floor; the bugs might not reach us so easily!"
As class monitor, Sun Weiwei hurriedly shouted orders, but the others hesitated. Instead, they all turned instinctively toward Li Jiayu—for in such a moment, he was the only one who seemed truly reliable.
"No need to lock the doors," Li Jiayu said calmly. "Just form a barricade of tables in a fan shape—enough to slow them down. Every one that comes in... I'll kill."
He stood motionless as a mountain, the cold wind outside the window stirring strands of his dark hair. There was something mesmerizing about him in that instant—his black eyes sharp and glacial, a blade wrapped in quiet calm.
Sun Weiwei stared at him, feeling as though she were seeing a stranger. The Li Jiayu she had known was gentle, almost delicate—kind to a fault, soft-spoken, perhaps even effeminate. But now, all that fragility had been burned away, replaced by a terrifying decisiveness and an aura that compelled respect.
"What? Are you insane? That's suicide!"
Chen Zhongliang, who had never gotten along with Li Jiayu, leapt to his feet and roared,
"You think you're some kind of war god? There are a hundred of those beasts down there! Two main buildings—so at least fifty will be heading our way! Fifty! That's like fifty miniature tanks! Even if we all fought with everything we've got, we'd be lucky to handle one. And you—kill one after another until all fifty are dead? Even if you were made of steel, you'd die of exhaustion first!"
The class wavered. Li Jiayu's earlier "apocalypse prophecy" had shocked them into belief, but after all, he was still just a student—the same frail boy who had never stood out before. Could he really fight?
Then came a crash! so loud it made their blood run cold.
The first-floor door had been smashed open.
Moments later, the building was filled with bloodcurdling screams—the shrill, throat-tearing cries of girls in mortal terror, echoing through every corridor, scraping against their nerves.
"Don't eat me! Please don't eat me!""This isn't real—it can't be real—ahhh!""Yang Zhisheng, you b*st*rd! You pushed me—my leg!""Help us! I don't want to die—I'm too young—"
From the first floor to the thirteenth, terror swept through the entire building. They didn't need to see the slaughter to imagine the horror below; the screams painted it vividly enough.
And worst of all... there was no escape. The bugs had them trapped like prey in a sealed jar.
On the lower floors, several girls, mad with fear, jumped from the windows—but none escaped unscathed. Every one of them hit the ground with a sickening crunch, their limbs twisted and broken, moaning in agony.
Those who saw it no longer dared to leap. Yet their hesitation sealed their doom. Two crimson beetles crawled back from the stairwell and descended upon the fallen girls—gnawing through flesh and bone with sickening, crackling bites.
The situation worsened with terrifying speed. The first floor was overrun, every student there mercilessly slaughtered.
Even on the sixth floor, far removed from the carnage, Li Jiayu could already smell the heavy stench of blood wafting upward.
"I'm no god of war," he said coolly, "but my combat instinct is far sharper than yours. I know how these creatures fight—their patterns, their weaknesses. With the right strategy, we can win."
He spoke with quiet confidence. And indeed, he had reason to be sure—his past life had been spent battling these creatures time and again, until their very forms had become etched into his soul. Though he no longer wielded the vast power he once had, his battle instincts alone rivaled those of elite soldiers.
"That's enough, Chen Zhongliang," Sun Weiwei cut in. "I believe in Li Jiayu."
"Believe him? He's just showing off! He can't even run a kilometer without gasping for breath! You should believe in me! I'm the class sports monitor—I'm stronger than anyone here! That axe should be mine. Hand it over!" Chen Zhongliang barked.
Sun Weiwei stepped in front of Li Jiayu, glaring fiercely. "Chen Zhongliang, watch your mouth!"
"You—huh! Sl*t! I've had enough of you! No wonder you'll end up selling yourself someday—you're already acting like it! All because Li Jiayu's a bit better-looking, huh? You want him to protect you? Or maybe you just want his bed?"
"Shut up, Chen Zhongliang! Don't you dare insult me! You're just jealous—jealous because someone finally stands above you! You call yourself a man? Bickering like a child when we're about to die?"
Li Jiayu raised a hand lazily. "Enough. Be glad I'm in a decent mood today—otherwise, my first swing would've been at you."
He cast a single cold glance at Chen Zhongliang. It was enough. The murderous aura in that look pierced straight through him like a blade of ice, making his scalp prickle and his limbs go rigid.
That gaze—it was the gaze of a predator. Chen Zhongliang didn't doubt for a second that if he said another word, his skull would be split open.
"Fine! I'm done with this! Who's coming with me?"
No one moved. Every face turned toward Li Jiayu instead. Chen Zhongliang's face twisted with fury.
"Fine! You're all insane! I'm going to hide in the storeroom on the thirteenth floor. You can all stay here and die!"
He stormed off, muttering curses under his breath.
The moment he disappeared, Li Jiayu's expression changed. His ears twitched—he turned sharply toward the window.
"What is it?" Zhou Jiamin asked nervously.
"Scythe Beetles," he said grimly. "They're here."
Her face went pale. "The ones you mentioned before—the ones that... severed my head in your last life?"
"Yes," Li Jiayu whispered, his lips curling into a dark, predatory smile. "But this time... it will be my first offering."
He licked his dry, cracked lips, tightening his grip around the fire axe.
"And my first talisman... in this apocalypse."
A sharp droning filled the air—whirrrrrr!—and from the horizon emerged a swarm of black shapes, slicing through the sky like arrows. Within seconds, they were upon them.
Each beetle was the size of an office chair, its body covered in razor-edged black blades. But the most terrifying of all were their mandibles—two scythe-like jaws nearly a meter long, glinting with bloodthirst.
Scythe beetles — the harvest begins!