Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 10

Tang Yu suppressed the anxiety in her heart, her hand gripping the knife tighter and tighter.

Song Lengzhu must have discovered her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be tapping on the wall so rhythmically, as if sending the message, “I know you’re here.” For someone in hiding, this was simply a form of mental torture.

But Tang Yu still didn’t move. She wanted to see just what tricks this person was up to.

The two sides were in a stalemate. Finally, Song Lengzhu crossed the broken wall, stepped onto the rubble, and drew closer and closer.

To Tang Yu’s surprise, Song Lengzhu didn’t open fire immediately. This gave Tang Yu a bit of confidence.

This woman was definitely interested in the mutated zombie and didn’t want her to be captured by Shen Xu, so she hadn’t exposed her position.

That being the case, she still had a chance of winning. As long as she wasn’t surrounded, Tang Yu had some experience escaping from Song Lengzhu’s grasp. After all, it wasn’t the first time.

Tang Yu glanced at the crouching Jin Ye out of the corner of her eye. The other woman happened to be looking at her too, her gaze seeming to ask what to do next.

She retracted her gaze and peered out through a gap in the wooden shelves. Song Lengzhu had stopped about two meters away from her.

At this distance, a sudden swing of her knife wouldn’t necessarily connect.

“Stop hiding. Come out,” Song Lengzhu said, her voice low and flat.

Tang Yu rolled her eyes internally. Go out and get myself killed?

She didn’t move.

Seeing that the other party was still playing dead, Song Lengzhu felt a bit helpless. She had previously activated her heightened sense of smell ability and knew Tang Yu was hiding here. Tang Yu had the lemon scent of shower gel on her, but it still couldn’t mask the faint smell of rotten oranges.

What surprised her was how composed these two zombies were. Ordinary zombies would have pounced and started biting the moment they encountered a living person.

Even a living player would have launched a sudden surprise attack.

The more abnormal it was, the more it piqued Song Lengzhu’s curiosity. She took a step forward, approaching the pile of wooden shelves, so close that she could reach out and touch the dilapidated frames.

A good chance. Tang Yu’s heart leaped with joy. She sprang up, knocking away the wooden shelf in front of her, and swung her knife out at the same time.

But the other woman seemed to have anticipated it. She dodged to the side, grabbed Tang Yu’s knife-wielding wrist, twisted it behind her back, and simultaneously kicked at the back of Tang Yu’s knee.

What a grappling move. Tang Yu understood then that this person had been trying to lure her into attacking.

Tang Yu went with the momentum and dropped to one knee, avoiding the kick. Then, she spun around, righted her body, and opened her mouth to bite Song Lengzhu’s wrist.

In that instant, Jin Ye also lunged forward, baring a set of white teeth. The gun she had picked up was slung over her back; she didn’t use it, as it would attract the guards.

Getting bitten would be disastrous. Song Lengzhu had no choice but to let go and take a step back.

Tang Yu and Jin Ye exchanged a look and, taking advantage of the opening, turned and ran. Of the Thirty-Six Stratagems, fleeing is the best.

But just as Tang Yu lifted her foot, the back of her collar was seized. Tang Yu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Song Lengzhu was too fast. It seemed her body had been enhanced quite a bit with points.

She couldn’t outrun her, and she couldn’t beat her. The other woman didn’t seem to be in a hurry to kill her either. Watching Jin Ye’s retreating back, Tang Yu couldn’t help but turn her head and complain, “Hey, Jie, what on earth do you want!”

Song Lengzhu, still holding Tang Yu’s clothes, tilted her head and let out a “Hm?” What is this zombie mumbling about?

Although she couldn’t understand the words, Song Lengzhu understood Tang Yu’s expression.

Tang Yu stared with wide, watery eyes, turning her head to look at Song Lengzhu as if begging for mercy. The hard approach wasn’t working, so she’d try playing pitiful. The corners of her mouth turned down, and she put on an expression as if she were about to burst into tears.

Having showered, Tang Yu’s face was quite clean. Despite her bluish complexion and the visible black lines bulging on her neck, she wasn’t frightening overall. She had the appearance of an ordinary girl next door.

But Song Lengzhu couldn’t help but frown. “How strange.”

A zombie making human expressions looked strange to her no matter how she looked at it.

“You’re the strange one!” Tang Yu gritted her teeth in anger. “You’re the strangest person in the whole world!”

She dropped the weak act, unzipped her windbreaker, and performed a “golden cicada sheds its shell,” leaving her in just a black high-collared tank top. Then she turned and feinted with her knife.

She finally understood. This Song Lengzhu person responded to neither hard nor soft tactics.

Song Lengzhu tossed aside the clothes in her hand and retreated a few more steps. The reason she hadn’t opened fire yet was that she wanted to test what abilities this mutated zombie possessed. But after several probes, she found that other than its human-like behavior, it didn’t have any special abilities.

A zombie like this isn’t a major boss, probably has no faction behind it, and logically, the kill points wouldn’t be too high either, she thought. Losing interest, she simply pulled out her gun, preparing to eliminate this grunt who, in her eyes, had lost all exploratory value.

The first shot went straight for Tang Yu’s head.

Tang Yu broke out in a cold sweat and instinctively raised her knife to block in front of her.

The moment she raised the knife, Tang Yu thought, It’s over. At such a close distance, I can’t possibly dodge. I’m definitely going to be splattered on the spot. This woman is so vicious.

But to her surprise, the Startling Dragon in her hand blocked the bullet.

This time, both of them were stunned.

Song Lengzhu’s gun was no ordinary firearm. It was a rare weapon she had painstakingly selected. Its bullets had extremely high hardness and could penetrate iron armor without issue. It could fire a hundred rounds at once, yet it was small and easy to carry, with an automatic reload time of just three seconds—a heaven-defying weapon capable of sustained output.

In her hands, this gun had never needed more than twenty bullets to finish a job.

But now, the bullet couldn’t penetrate the body of the Startling Dragon’s blade.

They both instinctively looked at the blade. The bullet hadn’t left a crater, not even a mark.

At almost the same time, a glint of delighted surprise appeared in both their eyes.

Tang Yu sighed in her heart: So it’s this good. I’ve really found a treasure.

Song Lengzhu, on the other hand, thought: Something this good, I want it.

And so, the second wave of gunfire immediately followed.

Having learned from the first time, Tang Yu scrambled over the broken wall, narrowly avoiding the attack.

Someone shouted and ran in their direction. The gunshots had alerted the guards, and a large group of people was rushing over.

Tang Yu saw a familiar figure appear around the corner—it was Captain Liang, whom she had met before. She steeled herself and lunged straight for Captain Liang, planning to take a minor leader hostage to buy herself time to escape.

Captain Liang instinctively dodged to the side, but Tang Yu was extremely fast. Before he could launch an attack, her fingernails had already dug into his Adam’s apple. A fraction deeper, and he would have been dead.

“Nobody move!” After taking the hostage, Tang Yu snatched the gun from Captain Liang’s hand and roared.

The remaining people looked at each other in dismay. They couldn’t understand Tang Yu’s words, but they could see her threatening intent.

Song Lengzhu also lowered her gun. With her skills, she could kill Captain Liang first and then Tang Yu, but killing one of Shen Xu’s men in his own camp would mean tearing all face.

Making an enemy for Tang Yu’s sake isn’t worth it, Song Lengzhu thought.

Tang Yu backed away while holding Captain Liang, the other camp guards surrounding her completely. She knew in her heart that such a threat could only last for a moment. If this dragged on, she would eventually reveal a flaw.

Why did I have to act all righteous and come save someone? This is a real mess to get into, Tang Yu thought with some regret. And that girl Jin Ye just abandoned me and ran off.

Just as this thought arose, a guard in front of her fell to the ground with the sound of a gunshot.

Immediately after, bullets from a submachine gun took down seven or eight of the guards in front of Tang Yu, one after another.

These players, their lives taken, lost their game qualifications. Their bodies went limp and fell to the ground. Since they hadn’t had direct contact with a zombie, they now became just a few ordinary corpses.

A look of joy appeared on Tang Yu’s face. Needless to say, it was Jin Ye who had fired the gun.

She seized the opportunity, preparing to make a quick getaway with Captain Liang as her shield, but in the next second, the force in her hand met with nothing.

Captain Liang had vanished into thin air.

Before Tang Yu could react, Captain Liang’s figure appeared behind her, his arm wrapping around her neck in a single move.

“Open fire!” Captain Liang ordered his subordinates.

Tang Yu’s eyes went wide. With no time to figure out the reason, she twisted her body violently, causing Captain Liang to stumble off balance.

The guards opposite them hesitated, their fingers on the triggers, worried about hitting Captain Liang by mistake. In that brief moment, Tang Yu thrust her knife backward diagonally, plunging it into Captain Liang’s body.

The stab was extremely fast and deep. Tang Yu quickly pulled the knife out and, in the moment Captain Liang loosened his grip in pain, she broke free from his hold.

Jin Ye’s gunfire hadn’t stopped. With her teammate drawing fire, Tang Yu added two more stabs to Captain Liang’s body, then reached out and scratched his wound.

Seeing Captain Liang fall to the ground, Tang Yu didn’t have time to confirm his condition. After a glance at Song Lengzhu, she sprinted in Jin Ye’s direction.

Song Lengzhu also fired a few shots, but not as ruthlessly as before. She watched Tang Yu’s fleeing back, a look of inquiry in her eyes.

Just as Tang Yu reached the last one-story building, Jin Ye pulled her into a dark corridor. Jin Ye gestured for Tang Yu to be quiet and then pointed to a door in front of them.

Tang Yu carefully peeked out. Through the window, she saw four or five people locked inside, both men and women. A young girl with yellow hair was huddled in the farthest corner.

But it wasn’t just captives in there. Zhou Zhou and a guard were also present. She was holding a small knife and a strange chip, seemingly implanting them into the captives, completely ignoring the commotion outside.

Jin Ye’s expression grew urgent. The guards outside were already closing in. Logically, in their current situation, they had no time to pick the lock and save the people. They should leave the camp immediately and get as far away as possible.

But since they had already found their rescue target, there was no reason to give up now.

Tang Yu steeled herself, sliced through the iron chain hanging loosely on the door with one strike, and said, “You rescue them, I’ll clear a path.”

The guard and Zhou Zhou inside were startled. They had heard the commotion earlier, but the task at hand was also very important, so they couldn’t leave the room.

And now, the culprits who had caused the commotion had delivered themselves to their doorstep.

The experienced guard was about to contact his comrades when Tang Yu slit his throat with her knife. Tang Yu then scratched the corpse, leaving several long, dark bloody marks.

In an instant, blackness crept up the guard’s neck.

Zhou Zhou’s expression changed, but she remained relatively calm and said, “Don’t kill me, I’m just a worker.” After speaking, she ran to a corner, far away from Tang Yu.

Tang Yu noticed that this person ran extremely fast. Killing her would take some effort, and there was no time. Jin Ye had already hoisted the little girl from the corner onto her back and was signaling for Tang Yu to leave quickly.

Tang Yu glanced at Zhou Zhou and decisively gave up. They rushed out of the room. The guards outside had already found them. The one in the lead shouted, “They’re here!” and immediately raised his gun to shoot.

However, a dark figure suddenly tackled him. Tang Yu saw that the zombified Captain Liang was pouncing on the guard, mindlessly gnawing at him.

It seemed Captain Liang had chosen not to remain in the game. His body had turned into a zombie NPC.

The bitten guard also showed signs of turning into a zombie. He staggered to his feet and stumbled toward the others. Coupled with the fact that the guard standing by the captives had also been turned into a zombie by Tang Yu, the camp instantly descended into chaos.

This sudden turn of events, by a strange twist of fate, bought the two of them time to escape. They quickly left from the other end, circled around the one-story buildings, and then sprinted straight for the main gate.

As they passed the middle row of one-story buildings, Tang Yu saw the unconscious Brother Li. Just looking at him made her angry, so she unceremoniously scratched him before swaggering off.

The two guards at the camp gate were already on high alert. Jin Ye freed one hand, fired two shots, and took care of the trouble.

As she rushed out of the camp, Tang Yu glanced back. Shen Xu, who was hurrying after them, had a grim expression, while Song Lengzhu merely watched her from a distance.

Their eyes met.

Tang Yu hissed and broke out in goosebumps. To her, that gaze was the stare of a devil.

She pulled her hidden backpack from the bushes and followed Jin Ye at a brisk trot, traveling through the night to get far away from the camp.

The three of them practically crossed an entire mountain before they finally stopped when an unfamiliar village appeared before them.

Tang Yu was running out of stamina. She had only just entered the game, and this unenhanced body simply couldn’t withstand such an ordeal.

She gazed at the village before her, stopped in front of a camphor tree, and sat down on the ground.

The little girl looked at Tang Yu timidly. She hadn’t said a word the entire way and maintained a slight fear of Jin Ye, who had already become a zombie.

This was normal. Anyone would find it bizarre to be rescued by zombies!

But neither of them showed any aggression, which put the little girl at ease.

“Her name is Xiao Li. Just call her Xiao Li,” Jin Ye said, plopping down on the ground as she introduced her to Tang Yu.

Tang Yu could tell that Xiao Li was a shy and timid girl. Her stamina wasn’t high either, even lower than Tang Yu’s initial stats. It was strange that a player like her had managed to survive this long.

“You risked your life to save her, but she seems really scared of you. How about I help you turn her into a zombie too?” Tang Yu teased Jin Ye, baring her white teeth as if ready to strike.

“If you dare bite her, I’ll rip your mouth apart,” Jin Ye said calmly. “She probably wouldn’t choose to be a zombie, and besides, she can’t die.”

“Why?”

“Do you know about the innate abilities in the game?”

“No,” Tang Yu replied. Then, as if remembering something, she had a sudden realization. “So that’s how Captain Liang escaped my grasp. Was it teleportation?”

“Probably,” Jin Ye responded, patting the empty space beside her to signal for Xiao Li to sit down and rest.

Xiao Li obediently sat down next to Jin Ye. Only then did Jin Ye begin to speak slowly.

“Xiao Li’s ability is Resurrection.”