Three bullets in quick succession struck the Red-Armored Beetle.
The Lv. 2 pistol dealt four points of Damage. One of the shots hit the Red-Armored Beetle's head, scoring eight points of Critical Strike Damage and blowing out the other half of its brain.
The other two bullets hit its forelimb and the chelicera holding its prey near its mouth, dealing a total of eight points of Damage.
This completely depleted the Red-Armored Beetle's Life Value.
Thankfully, Lin Feng had been swift and decisive. That second shot in the three-round burst had hit the Red-Armored Beetle's head. If he had only fired once, it very likely would have escaped.
He ran an Identification. The Red-Armored Beetle was dead.
Lin Feng raised his shield and slowly approached.
The residential complex had grown quiet, lacking the initial chaotic uproar from when the darkness first fell. The three gunshots seemed especially loud, their echoes reverberating endlessly...
Reaching the door of Apartment 201, Lin Feng peeked inside. Just as he'd thought, the family's window was open. And not far ahead, another Red-Armored Beetle was scurrying toward the sound!
Lin Feng quickly raised his shield to block its pounce. A pair of hook-like chelicerae, like spring-loaded arms, slammed into the shield, instantly tearing through the sheet metal surface and denting the compressed wood beneath.
The beetle was thrown back by the force of the impact. Lin Feng was about to seize the opportunity to shoot, but then he saw several long, thick antennae poke through the open window. More Red-Armored Beetles were coming, drawn by the noise.
'I'm outnumbered. I have to retreat!'
With no time to think, Lin Feng bent down, dragged the dead Red-Armored Beetle's corpse into the hallway, and slammed the door shut with a BANG just before the other beetle could pounce again.
After it was all done, Lin Feng gasped for breath, realizing his hands were shaking. He had been lucky to react so quickly. If he'd been half a beat slower, a whole swarm of Red-Armored Beetles would have poured in.
The consequences were unthinkable.
After catching his breath, Lin Feng picked up his battered shield and led the two women down to the first floor. The recent gunshots had attracted several Red-Armored Beetles, which were now squatting by the main entrance.
Going out now would be suicide. They had to wait for the creatures to leave.
Lin Feng sighed. His shield was damaged and he needed to make more preparations. He decided to first sweep the entire building to make sure it was secure.
Returning upstairs, Lin Feng went door to door, telling everyone to lock their doors, close their windows, and draw their curtains. He told them he had already dealt with the Red-Armored Beetle in the hallway.
Each building in the old complex had six floors. Besides their own floor, there were ten other households. Only four of them responded to Lin Feng. The other six families had either left for work in the morning or their apartments were vacant. As for the residents of 201, they had met a tragic end in the corridor.
It was a Tuesday, a regular workday, so the four households that responded consisted entirely of women and the elderly. He couldn't expect any help from them; he just hoped they wouldn't bring disaster upon themselves like the family in 201.
However, after Lin Feng's warning, they also realized the stairwell was safer than their own apartments.
The giant insects could climb walls and shatter glass windows, and the wooden doors of their apartments offered little protection. In the hallway, however, the metal apartment doors were too strong for the creatures to break through, and the windows in the corridor were reinforced with iron bars, which was reassuring.
By the time Lin Feng had confirmed the building was secure, all the survivors of Building 6 had gathered in the stairwell: two middle-aged women, a young woman, and three elderly people.
They brought food and supplies from their homes into the hallway, setting up a few makeshift beds on the landing between the fourth and fifth floors.
A middle-aged woman, following behind Lin Feng's group of three, saw the gruesome scene outside Apartment 201 and couldn't help but scream.
Chen Yanyan, holding her dagger, hissed at her:
"What are you screaming for! Do you want to attract all the insects?!"
"So many people have already died outside. Haven't you seen enough?"
In truth, just moments before at the landing, she herself had been so frightened by the sight that she'd almost dropped her dagger. Thankfully, Lin Feng had reacted quickly and resolved the situation.
Now, seeing someone else fare even worse than she had, combined with the anxiety of being trapped in the building, made the middle-aged woman's scream all the more irritating to the three of them.
Faced with a woman threatening her with a knife, the woman quickly shut her mouth. Although the stairwell fell silent, it had attracted the attention of the people upstairs. About ten seconds later, they started coming down one by one.
By this point, the woman who had been attacked by the Red-Armored Beetle had died from excessive blood loss and internal injuries. The smell of blood filled the entire building's stairwell.
The woman who had just arrived, as well as the younger woman, retched and covered their mouths upon seeing such a gory scene up close, unable to look directly at it.
Fortunately, everyone had already witnessed the carnage outside through their windows, so they had some mental preparation. No one else screamed hysterically like the first woman had.
But leaving a mangled corpse in the hallway was simply not right.
After being warned by Chen Yanyan, the woman, who hadn't dared to make a fuss, saw the others arrive. Now that there were six of them on her side, she felt emboldened and spoke up:
"So what do we do now? Why don't you guys deal with it?"
"Throw her outside!"
Chen Yanyan's brow furrowed and she retorted:
"Why don't you do it? It's crawling with those insects out there. Opening a window is suicide, isn't it? Or maybe we should put her in your apartment? She can be your good luck charm."
The woman's face turned ugly. She exchanged glances with the people behind her, then stood on the landing between the second and third floors, looking down at Lin Feng's group with her hands on her hips:
"Don't you have a gun? You just shot and killed that insect, so why can't you go?"
"Young man, are you a peace officer? We can't get through on the phone. We're all citizens of the Federation, taxpayers! You have to protect us!"
"That's right! That's right!"
"We're all Federation citizens!"
The woman's words resonated with the others behind her.
The Federation has strict gun control laws. Usually, only law enforcement officers are allowed to carry them.
But Lin Feng had lost his patience. He had no desire to argue with these people, so he simply turned his gun on them.
"Don't bother me. First of all, I'm not a peace officer. Second, I have no obligation to take care of you. Warning you not to open your windows was generous enough. Don't push your luck."
"As for right now, all of you, get back upstairs!"
With that said, he walked over and grabbed the Red-Armored Beetle by its hind legs.
The one that had been shot off earlier had grown back.
Lin Feng tested its weight. The two-meter-long insect was surprisingly light, only a little over 165 pounds—about the same as a grown man.
After two enhancements, he could lift it with ease.
He then had the two women beside him lift the Red-Armored Beetle's mangled corpse and head back upstairs.
Zhang Yurou was hesitant. After all, the giant insect looked a lot like a cockroach, and the dead woman's entrails were still clinging to its mouth, making for an extremely gruesome sight.
And she had a natural fear of these many-legged arthropods.
Chen Yanyan, on the other hand, walked forward without hesitation. She lifted the giant insect by its head, leaving the relatively cleaner tail end for Zhang Yurou.
Seeing this, Zhang Yurou suppressed her discomfort, grabbed the giant insect's two pairs of hind legs, and followed behind Lin Feng.
Lin Feng walked in front, holding his shield and gun.
It wasn't that he didn't want to help. For one, as the main fighting force, he shouldn't be distracted by such trivial tasks; having the two women handle logistics was a reasonable division of labor. At the same time, it would also train them to overcome their fear of the giant insects.
The eyes of the men and women in front of him were glued to the gun in his hand, and Lin Feng didn't want any accidents.
'It's always right to be cautious.'
With Lin Feng leading the way with a stern expression, the crowd quickly backed away, clearing a path. The three of them successfully carried the Red-Armored Beetle's corpse back into Apartment 302.
After closing the door, the two women put down the heavy corpse and let out a long sigh of relief.
Zhang Yurou ran straight to the bathroom to wipe the foul-smelling slime from her hands with a towel and wet wipes.
Chen Yanyan, however, just gave her hands a quick wipe and came over to watch as Lin Feng picked up the Bone-Chopping Saber from the table and began to cut open and dissect the Red-Armored Beetle.
Lin Feng glanced over, saw Chen Yanyan's curious gaze, and asked:
"What, not scared anymore?"
Chen Yanyan took out her dagger, eager to try.
"I'm only afraid of dying. The insect is already dead, so what's there to be afraid of? If we know their weak points, it might be easier to kill them."
Lin Feng nodded and asked as he continued to cut:
"Are you from the countryside? It's rare to see a girl who isn't afraid of bugs. Did you catch them when you were little?"
At the mention of her past, Chen Yanyan's eyes grew a little misty:
"I came here from the Northwest for school. In the countryside, there was nothing to do but work in the fields. My family was poor when I was a kid, so I used to go with my dad to catch centipedes and scorpions and dig for earthworms. We'd dry them and sell them to make ends meet..."
Lin Feng nodded and offered a word of comfort:
"Don't worry. This giant insect attack is currently only happening in the coastal cities. The Northwest provinces are still over a thousand miles away."
"Once we escape Hai City, we'll be safe."
Chen Yanyan hummed in agreement and wiped her eyes.
"Brother Feng, are you a Hai City local? Then your family..."
Lin Feng used the Bone-Chopping Saber to sever the ligaments connecting the Back Armor, peeling the entire plate off in one piece.
"My parents passed away a few years ago. Or to be more precise, they disappeared..."
As he spoke, he lifted the oval Crimson Back Armor, which was about 1.5 meters long and over a meter wide at its widest point.
Lin Feng silently chanted, 'Identification...'
'I hope this works!'