Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 120

“Wait a little longer,” Tang Yu responded with some delight. “Jin Ye, are you okay now?”

“My hands and feet are still a bit numb, but the medicine Shadow brought was really effective.” Jin Ye checked the camp group’s chat history. Sensation was finally returning to her limbs. Ever since she was injected with the inhibitor, her body from the neck down had been paralyzed, unable to move. She had been forced to lie like that for several hours.

During those few hours, she could hear the voices from the camp group in her head but couldn’t respond. That was until Shadow appeared by her bedside, shook three pills out of a piece of paper, and tossed them into her mouth.

This was a medication suggestion from Zhou Zhou. She had told Tang Yu to try the modified piracetam from the emergency medical kit. This drug stimulated the central nervous system and was also used to awaken patients from comas after neurosurgery. It was originally kept as a backup for Tang Yu in case any problems arose while she was controlling zombies. Now, it just so happened that Shadow could deliver it to Jin Ye to try, and unexpectedly, it actually worked.

It was also on this trip that Tang Yu discovered a new function for Shadow: it could transport lightweight items.

Tang Yu handed Shadow the piece of paper with the pills wrapped inside. The gelatinous Shadow enveloped the paper within its body, melted into the shadows in the corner of the room, and then reappeared in Jin Ye’s room with the paper.

After confirming that Jin Ye had woken up, Tang Yu began to scheme.

Outside the window, it was already late. The fog hadn’t dissipated all day, and as dusk fell, it seemed even gloomier. There were no lights in the hospital ward, making it dark and dim, so the sliver of light seeping through the crack under the door was particularly conspicuous.

This sliver of light confirmed for Tang Yu that there were lights in the hallway. And where there were lights, there would be shadows.

She recalled Shadow and quietly approached the door.

Outside, two armed guards were leaning shoulder to shoulder, chatting idly with cigarettes dangling from their mouths, spouting vulgarities. The incandescent light above their heads was somewhat dirty, casting a dim light. The long hallway stretched out of sight, and with the zombies in the wards being so quiet, the atmosphere was a bit eerie.

One of the guards cursed under his breath and complained with a grin, “One floor, twelve wards, and they only send two guards to stand watch. If something really happened, we wouldn’t even be enough for those zombies to pick their teeth with.”

His companion laughed and retorted, “Nothing’s happened for three months. What could possibly happen? Having more people here would just be a waste of manpower. We get two Credit Coins for just standing here shooting the breeze for a few hours. You should be content.”

Neither of them noticed something emerging from their shadows on the wall behind them.

Two Shadows quietly materialized. Their arms transformed into sharp blades and pressed against the backs of the guards’ necks. In the instant the guards were about to cry out in terror, the blades thrust forward, simultaneously piercing both their throats.

The still-lit cigarette butts fell to the ground, making only a very faint sound.

Unsuspecting enemies were the easiest to kill. After Shadow’s clean success, Tang Yu sent a message to Jin Ye: “We can move now.”

Tang Yu’s Startling Dragon would make a piercing noise if she used it on the door, so she didn’t try to break it down by force. She just sat on the edge of the bed and waited for a moment before she saw Jin Ye use a bobby pin to easily open her door.

Jin Ye first glanced at the other zombies in the ward, then approached Tang Yu and said in a low voice, “Before I came in, I saw a room with the lights on nearby. There might be people next door. We need to be quiet.”

“A ward?”

“No, it looks like an office.”

“Okay.” Tang Yu stood up, lifted her jacket, and drew the Startling Dragon from her waist. She leaned against the wall and peeked outside. The two bodies in the hallway were slumped together, long silent.

An idea struck Tang Yu. She directed Shadow to move the two bodies back into the wards. She swapped them with two relatively clean-clothed female zombies, moving one body to Jin Ye’s bed across the hall and the other to her own former bed. Then, she used their jackets to cover their faces as a disguise.

It was a trick that could be easily seen through, but in an emergency, it might buy Tang Yu and Jin Ye some extra time.

Tang Yu looked at the zombie serum she had on her and said in a low voice, “Let’s not rush to leave. We’ll convert the zombies in the other wards first.”

So, one opened the doors while the other administered the injections. The two of them went through the rooms on the inner side of the hallway, using up more than half of the zombie serum they had hidden on them and successfully converting twenty-eight living corpses.

Tang Yu didn’t call them away. These living corpses all lay there obediently, waiting for her next command.

“Now, let’s take care of the trouble in the office first.” Tang Yu crouched and crept toward the office at the far end of the hallway.

One wall of the office was transparent glass with an inquiry window, likely serving as this floor’s information desk.

Tang Yu had Jin Ye wait nearby, then used her invisibility ability and poked her head through the glass window.

Under the incandescent light were three people. Two of them were the “nurses” who had given Tang Yu the injection during the day. The other was a young man in a white coat. He was taking off his coat, tossing it casually onto a nearby stool, and picking up a weapon from the table.

“You two keep watch. Give the zombies on this floor another dose of inhibitor later. It’s dark now, I’m going to exchange for food first.” After speaking, he got up and left the office.

The office door was on the other side of a corner, right next to the stairwell.

The young man couldn’t be bothered to check for any abnormalities in the corner hallway. He took out the Credit Coins in his hand, counted them—it was a good amount—and put them into his pocket with satisfaction.

But just as he pushed open the fire door to the stairs, the young man felt a chill on his neck as a pair of ice-cold hands pressed against his throat.

Before the young man could turn his gun around, a glaring bloody gash had already appeared on his neck. He used all his strength to turn his head, his eyes reflecting the face of a short-haired zombie.

It’s the Zombie King that was delivered today! Something’s happened at the camp!

The young man’s body swayed. Just as zombie characteristics began to appear, his pupils returned to normal.

Jin Ye frowned. She didn’t have her sword, and using a gun was inconvenient, so she could only scratch him with her hands. But this was the kind of trouble that came with scratching people. For some reason, the young man had chosen to remain in the game, and now he was opening his mouth to shout.

A strange cry escaped his throat. Jin Ye couldn’t be bothered to deal with him any longer. Her hand, still on his neck, suddenly exerted all its strength. Her nails dug into his flesh, and she brutally snapped the young man’s throat.

But that strange cry had already been heard. The two nurses in the office were startled. The older woman immediately drew her gun and rushed toward the door, while the younger woman was at a loss, seemingly unsure how to react.

By this time, Tang Yu had already slipped into the office. She gave the doorknob a light twist to lock it, blocking the older woman’s path, and then revealed herself before their terrified eyes.

“One player, one NPC.” Tang Yu tilted her head and glanced at the younger woman, who was on the verge of tears. The young woman had no weapon and was almost completely helpless against a zombie. Her reaction was even worse than a game novice like Lu Lu. She had to be an NPC.

The other woman with the gun, however, was a genuine player.

Seeing Tang Yu appear, the older woman immediately ordered, “Xiao Peng, press the controller, quickly!”

Xiao Peng finally regained her senses and hurried over the desk to press a button on the wall. Before her hand could reach it, a materialized Shadow blocked the wall.

The older woman’s brow twitched violently. A zombie with an ability was most likely C-class or higher. When did a C-class Zombie King appear here!

She looked up and saw the camera was no longer lit. No wonder the control room hadn’t notified the guards on the entire floor. She judged that she probably couldn’t defeat a zombie with an ability and immediately double-tapped her wrist, intending to send a warning.

Tang Yu extended her left hand, grabbing the older woman’s wrist. She curled her fingers, digging her nails into the flesh and stopping the woman’s attempt to send a message. The woman was terrified. She kicked at Tang Yu while simultaneously twisting her body, trying to break free from Tang Yu’s grip.

Tang Yu shifted her lower body back, deftly avoiding the attack, then yanked hard on the older woman’s arm, preventing her from breaking free.

She had questions to ask, which was why she hadn’t been ruthless from the start.

But Xiao Li wasn’t around. The woman couldn’t understand her when she spoke, so she just let out a couple of guttural sounds.

The older woman couldn’t afford to care about Tang Yu holding back. She twisted her hand to fire the gun, thrusting the muzzle forward against Tang Yu’s abdomen while starting to shout, “Help!”

Tang Yu swung her right hand. The Startling Dragon sliced upward, cutting the woman’s gun in half. At the same time, she tightened her left hand’s grip, mercilessly digging her nails into the woman’s skin, and quickly followed up with another strike.

The notification of a player being eliminated reached Tang Yu’s ears. She sighed. It seemed this family couldn’t function without Xiao Li.

The woman’s shouts had no effect. Besides this room, there were no living people left on this floor.

In the corner, Xiao Peng’s face was ashen with fear. She wanted to scream for help, but she saw Tang Yu put a finger to her lips in a shushing motion. The words that had just reached her throat were forcefully swallowed back down. She turned her head and saw another zombie standing outside the glass window. The pale light hitting their faces made them look just like underworld emissaries.

Tang Yu unlocked the door and let Jin Ye into the room. She also grabbed a chair and offered it to Xiao Peng.

The young woman’s legs were so unsteady she looked like she was about to collapse.

“Sit.” Tang Yu gestured with her hand.

Xiao Peng tremblingly straightened the chair and sat down. Only then did she realize that they didn’t seem to intend to harm her.

Taking a closer look, wasn’t this the zombie she had called cute during the day!

And standing behind her, wasn’t that the Zombie King who had been escorted in during the day!

Xiao Peng’s mind went blank, like a short-circuited wire. She had called the other one silly. Could these two zombies be here for revenge?

Tang Yu grabbed a new medical record book from the table, picked up a pen, and scribbled on it.

“Is the device on the wall a zombie controller?” She pushed the book toward Xiao Peng, her expression serious.

Xiao Peng breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed she wasn’t the target. Her mind raced. She figured the citizens in the city knew this information anyway, so there was no need to hide it. She gave a slight nod.

The Shadow at her side pried the controller off the wall. Tang Yu saw it had three buttons with labels stuck underneath: “Strong,” “Weak,” and “Block.” At the very bottom was the character for “Ten.”

“What does this mean?” Tang Yu asked on the paper.

“Strong… is strong stimulation, it makes the zombies go berserk. Weak is a lower level of stimulation. Block is the button to make them quiet. This controller can summon ten zombies.”

Tang Yu nodded in satisfaction. It seemed that even though the other person was an NPC, she worked in the lab and knew some information. She handed the controller to Jin Ye, who looked at it for a moment before putting it in her jacket pocket.

Tang Yu took back the book and continued writing: “Where is the main controller?”

“I… I don’t know anything about a main controller.” Xiao Peng’s gaze shifted, staring only at her colleague’s body on the floor. She was alarmed, wondering how a zombie could know about the main controller, and worried she might say something she shouldn’t. This was already beyond the scope of ordinary information.

Seeing Xiao Peng being evasive, Tang Yu sighed. This woman, about her own age, had clearly never faced any real hardships; she couldn’t even lie properly. Tang Yu guessed she was probably a native of Songming City who hadn’t wandered outside for long and had likely survived until now through sheer luck.

People like her were the easiest to scare.

Tang Yu slowly lifted the woman’s chin with the tip of her blade, forcing Xiao Peng to look directly at her. Then, with her free hands, she slowly made a throat-slitting gesture.

Tang Yu had almond-shaped eyes and an oval face; her features weren’t sharp, which usually lessened her intimidating presence. But she lived by hunting, had walked through seas of bl00d and blades for hundreds of rounds, and the killing intent in her eyes was something her delicate face couldn’t hide.

Especially when she was serious.

Sure enough, meeting such a gaze, Xiao Peng shivered involuntarily. She wanted to look away but didn’t dare move an inch. The chill from the blade’s tip seemed to bore right into her bones.

“Betraying the camp means death.” Tears were already welling up in the corners of Xiao Peng’s eyes, making her look pitiful. “Please, let me go.”

Tang Yu snatched the book back, an impatient look on her face. “You’ll die if you don’t talk, too.”

Terrified, Xiao Peng held back her tears. She stammered for a few moments before finally speaking: “The main… controller… Mr.… Mr. Lin carries it with him.”