Doomsday Innkeeper

Doomsday Innkeeper CH.2

The nylon strap tore completely as Li Min ripped the backpack away, immediately dumping its contents onto the blood-stained counter.

"Look at this!" she shrieked, holding up the anti-inflammatory pills like a trophy. "Three bottles of water! Medicine! Qing Weng, look! The greedy bastard was hiding a private stash while our people are suffering!"

Qing Weng stepped forward, his buttoned collar pristine, a look of profound, theatrical disappointment washing over his thin face. "Jiang Rong... we trusted you. In these extraordinary times, hoarding life-saving resources is a crime against the collective. This will be requisitioned for the survival base. It's 'everyone's decision.'"

"Do you remember what this is?" Jiang Rong’s voice cracked with raw anguish. He grabbed the black ledger from the table and slammed it violently at Qing Weng's feet.

The book hit the floorboards, flipping open to show page after page of meticulously recorded debts.

"Twenty-eight boxes of water! Twelve bags of rice and flour! Eight boxes of food! You swore on your life you'd return them the second the rescue team arrived!"

Qing Weng looked down at the sprawling handwriting, a mocking sneer touching his thin lips. "The rescue team isn't here," he stated flatly.

"So what?" Jiang Rong spat, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth.

"So now is not the time to let your personal grievances get in the way of survival," Qing Weng replied with terrifying calmness. "There are over a hundred living souls in the property management hall right now. The water and medicine you are selfishly hiding could keep someone's child alive. Don't be petty."

"So, are you saying my life isn't considered a life?" Jiang Rong grew completely calm, asking each word with freezing precision.

Qing Weng didn't blink. He merely slid the stamped requisition form further toward the center of the counter.

"You're still young, Boss Jiang. You can handle it."

Jiang Rong stared at him, and then, he suddenly burst out laughing. Every ragged laugh that tore from his throat brought an immense wave of agony, racking his chest as if he might die right then and there.

"I'm still young, so I should just give up my last drop of water?"

"I opened my doors to save your lives, so now I'm obligated to keep saving you?"

"And if I don't give it to you willingly, you'll smash my doors, beat me half to death, and steal my things anyway?"

Li Min immediately retorted, "What do you mean by 'robbery'? This is a unified distribution for the good of everyone! You are the only one guarding such a massive hotel—missing a couple of meals won't kill you."

"Did you eat any less from my stock?" Jiang Rong countered, his voice dripping with freezing contempt.

Li Min immediately slammed the backpack down and marched up to him, her face twisting into a grim mask. "What exactly do you mean by that?" she asked, seething with anger.

"Your personal thermos hasn't been empty for three days," Jiang Rong said, staring right through her. "And yesterday, when they were distributing the canned food, your son took extra rations for himself."

The two security guards standing at the entrance instantly turned their eyes toward Mao Dong.

Mao Dong's expression darkened. He let out a cold sneer, picking up the empty backpack and tossing it aggressively onto Jiang Rong’s head. Mao Dong stepped forward and drove his boot directly into Jiang Rong’s side. The rib snapped cleanly, leaving Jiang Rong gasping like a fish out of water, his blood dripping onto the dirty floorboards.

Xiao Mi stood near the exit, her hand resting on her son Lele's shoulder, observing the cruelty in absolute silence. Her neighborhood philosophy had always been a gentle reminder that 'everyone has their own difficulties, so we should help out as much as we can.' She was always happy to vote for charity, as long as it wasn't her own.

"Stop the beating,"

Xiao Mi whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "We should leave a single bottle of water for Boss Jiang. Look at him."

Mao Dong turned, his jaw clenched as he fixed a lethal glare on her. "You want to hand over your boy's rations to this piece of trash? No? Then stop pretending to be a saint, you hypocrite!"

"I did not say we shouldn't take anything," Xiao Mi quickly explained, her gaze falling on the medicine box in her backpack. "We can leave him a bottle of water, but let's take the anti-inflammatory medicine back for everyone to use together. Lele has also been coughing a bit these past few days."

Upon hearing her words, Jiang turned his gaze towards her. Xiao Mi avoided his gaze and pressed Lele's face into her arms.

Qing Weng picked up the requisition order from the ground and placed it on the counter. "Boss Jiang, everything has been registered. The property management will compensate you once order is restored."

"Take it away." Jiang Rong spat.

"What?"

Jiang Rong leaned against the counter, his eyes devoid of any warmth.

"Take your papers and get out, all of you"

Qing Weng looked at him for a while, then put away the requisition order.

"Let's go." he commanded.

Li Min carried a backpack, with Mao Dong and the two security guards following behind. Jiang Rong heard the wheels of the flatbed truck rolling over the fire lane. The last case of water was also taken away. When Mao Dong reached the back door, he suddenly stopped. He glanced back at Jiang Rong, then looked towards the hotel's main entrance.

"Keeping this shop around is also a potential problem."

Qing Weng frowned upon his words, asking: "What's that supposed to mean?"

"The outside of the front door is swarm with zoombies. So let's open the front door and then seal the back door; this will be just enough to keep people out."

"Boss Jiang is still inside." Xiao Mi took half a step forward. Mao Dong scoffed at her words and actions.

"Didn't he say he didn't need anyone to care about him?"

Xiao Mi glanced at Jiang Rong, then at the backpack in Li Mi's arms, and finally retreated into the fire escape with Lele in her arms. Under her arm was a bag of compressed biscuits she had received from the hotel. Qing Weng said nothing, and nobody opposed Mao Dong's suggestions.

The heavy, mocking footsteps of the three security guards and the corrupt committee members faded down the hall. They closed off the back door after leaving and the front gate wide opened, inviting the scent of fresh blood to drift straight toward the zombie hordes roaming the borders of Maple Village.

Slumped behind the desk, his vision blurring from the swelling in his eye, Jiang Rong clutched his broken ribs.

His lungs burned. His savings were gone, his hotel was gutted, and the humanity he had spent fifteen days trying to preserve had just signed his death warrant. He let out a ragged, b****y laugh.

What a fool I was. He thought bitterly. I quit a toxic corporate ladder just to die in a provincial rat trap.

He battled between consciousness and unconsciousness while trying to grab the crowbar Mao Dong had left behind to protect himself against the approaching zombies, guttural groans of approaching zombies echoed down the path, a cold, mechanical chime suddenly resonated directly inside his mind and everything went still.

[DING! Detection of host life signs dropping below 15%. Conditions met.]

[Activating: Doomsday Hotel Management System...]

[Binding Host: Jiang Rong (Level 1 Innkeeper)]

[Current Property: 5-Room Standard Hotel (Damaged/Looted)]

Jiang Rong’s mind froze, and his eyes almost bulging. A holographic interface, glowing with a sharp, golden light, materialized in his field of vision.

[System Warning: Sector security compromised. Hotel Front Door Opened. Zombies Swarming In.]

[First-Time Binding Reward Initiated: Activating Temporary 'Absolute Domain' (Duration: 24 Hours).]

[Notice: Within the Absolute Domain, the Host is immune to all physical, elemental, and viral damage.]

A strange, numbing warmth flooded through his chest. The sharp, stabbing pain in his fractured ribs lessening and not as unbearable as a minute ago, although he could feel his body still remained battered. The blood trickling down his collar stopped, looking around the hotel which was once again cleaned and the swarming zombies were blocked outside the now closed front door. Only a crippled zombie which had managed to get into the hotel before the system arrived remained, still trying to make its way towards him. He slowly brought himself up, leaning against the front desk with the crowbar in hand. Watching the crippled zombie reaching him, he raised his hand and smashed it's head open with a single swing which surprised him greatly.

[Detected a level 1 Crystal Core, Extract? (Y/N)]

Jiang Rong looked down at the writhing monster, then toward the path leading to Maple Village. The villagers wanted his food, his water, and his life for free. Claiming it was for the benefit for the surviving people. Looking down at the dead zombie, "they couldn't kill me" he whispered. "You can't either." His expression turning cold, devoid of any warmth.