QT: Grace To Grass Counterattack System

He Yuan opened his eyes to find a snarling figure with dried, rotting, flesh and hungry eyes baring its yellow fangs on top of him.

"AAHH!" He Yuan felt his adrenaline level pump and he knocked the weird thing away from him with a terrified scream.

"Argh, Ack, Ack." The monstrous thing rushed back at him with long black claws and misshaped mouth full of thick drool. It looked absolutely horrific with bits and pieces of its stinky flesh falling to the ground.

He Yuan froze.

[HE YUAN!]

888's shout snapped He Yuan back into focus and he scrambled around until he laid his hands on a baseball bat. He held it with both hands and swung it with all his might at the incoming monster.

CRACK!

The thing flew into a shelf and its head split open. He Yuan was about to collapse on the ground when he noticed the thing was trying to get up.

"NO!" He exclaimed out of fear and rushed over to smash the head of the thing repeatedly with the baseball bat until it stopped moving. After that;

"BLEURGH!" He Yuan turned to the side and started throwing up. There was blood, brain matter and fleshy bits everywhere. He had been an army physician in his last life and had seen his fair share of gore. But this...

This was on a whole other level. This was horror galore.

He Yuan soon ran out of substantial vomit but he couldn't stop heaving. The horrible smell of rotten flesh and blood that hung in the surroundings wasn't helping.

He was feeling drained after using up all his adrenaline so he supported himself on the wall and shakily stood up, walking towards what he felt was the entrance to this place that seemed like a storage room.

When he got close enough,

BANG! BANG! BANG!

He Yuan was horrified. A lot of those things were right outside the door, trying to get in. There was already a small mangled hole on the metal door and when the monsters caught sight of him through the hole, their banging became even more frenzied.

He shakily turned back the same way he came, looking about for another exist. There was none. He was trapped and the only thing keeping him safe from those monsters was the metal door that was becoming weaker by the second from all the banging.

He Yuan's legs weakened and he fell to the ground. He tried getting up severally but had been paralyzed due to fear.

888 immediately materialized and began looking for a way to get his host out of this situation. If He Yuan should die in the body of a leaser. Then all hope was gone for him too.

He Yuan slowly crawled back to where he dropped the baseball bat. When he saw the mangled corpse of the monster, he dry heaved and when he thought of the other monsters right outside the metal door, his eyes became unfocused, reentering panic mode.

This time, he didn't have the high level of adrenaline to drive him. He was going to die.

"He Yuan?" 888 called but his host was frozen stiff and staring at nothing in particular. "He Yuan snap out of it!"

He Yuan's eyes slowly came into focus again and he looked at the system.

"Come over here and help me move the shelves." 888 said and He Yuan shakily stood up from the ground and walked over with unsteady steps.

They managed to block the door with two heavy metal shelves. The intensity of the banging increased even more and He Yuan flinched with each hit. 888 looked around one more time and realized there was an air duct in the room.

He didn't find it earlier because it was located at a lower position and the shelves were huge and in the way. Just a little jump would get his host into the air duct. He Yuan also noticed the air duct and took deep breaths to calm himself.

Now was not the time to give in to hysteria. He had to save himself. If he died, 888 died too but as much as he tried, he couldn't move.

He looked back to the metal door and he immediately felt regret. One of the monster managed to squeeze its head and arm in. He Yuan choked on a sob and his eyes glazed over.

888 took in his host's state before his eyes widened. He Yuan had entered full panic mode, his reaction speed as a result would be five beats behind the average person. Putting a person like that in a tight space would just increase their hysteria.

Fuck.

888 rushed over and tapped his host's cheek repeatedly. "He Yuan listen to me." It wasn't working so he increased his strength a little and slapped him.

He Yuan's eyes came into focus again when he felt the burn on his cheek. He was about to look back to the door again but 888 held his face steady.

"I want you to count to a thousand. If you miss a number, I would slap you so you better focus" When He Yuan nodded, 888 led him to the air duct. He wanted to block the air duct with something but there was nothing.

The only two shelves in the room were currently at the door and the zombies were already crawling all over it. The air duct was also wide open with no cover.

He hoped that He Yuan would be able to get far enough before the monsters reached the air duct and then he dematerialized into He Yuan's mind space.

One.

He Yuan moved slowly and entered the tight air duct with the baseball bat clenched tightly in his hand. There was no space to maneuver it in the duct but he didn't care.

Two.

He Yuan's breathing became heavy but he began moving along.

Three.

"Argh, Ack, Ack!" One of the monsters had gotten into the storage room and was currently clawing at the entrance of the air duct.

Six. He Yuan counted as he shivered in fear.

SLAP!

[Focus. Don't think that because I've dematerialized, I won't be able to slap you. I can still use my energy!]

He Yuan nodded repeatedly and resumed counting properly.

Four.

He Yuan could hear the monsters trip over themselves at the entrance of the air duct but he didn't look back.

Five.

He Yuan reached an intersection in the air duct and chose right.

Six.

He Yuan ran into a monster settled in the middle of mangled human flesh and body parts, munching away and making snarling sounds.

Nine. He Yuan counted as the monster locked eyes with him.

SLAP!

[He Yuan please don't panic. Quickly turn back] When He Yuan performed on auto pilot and turned around, 888 let out a shaky breath. [Don't look back alright? You're doing so good.]

Seven.

He Yuan counted desperately as he tried to get away from the monster behind him. The monster was trying to maneuver its way past the loads of human flesh so it bought him time.

Eight.

He Yuan reached the intersection again and realized that five monsters were squeezing their way through the place he'd come from. He let out a sob.

888 tried to release his energy to soothe He Yuan but it wasn't working. [He Yuan, you have to focus alright? Follow the left route this time. Hurry, don't look at them. You're doing great.]

Nine

He Yuan nodded and resumed counting to keep himself sane. The smell in the duct was making him lightheaded and the sounds of the monsters behind him was terrifying him beyond measure. They sounded so close.

Ten.

He Yuan finally saw the end of the duct that led outside. He almost broke down in relief. He hurriedly got close and leaped out.

And then he paused. Why was he still in the air? He looked back to see one of the monsters had grabbed his left foot. No. He swung the baseball bat but his hand wasn't steady and it fell off.

"NOO!!!"

He Yuan screamed before he was dragged back into the duct. He didn't get past the number ten.