Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 125

“Who are you?” Tang Yu was horrified. The strange line of text filled her with a strong sense of unease.

The cursor on the floating screen blinked for several seconds. For a long time, no new text appeared, as if the sentence was just a pre-recorded message—like a prank, or a way to intimidate intruders.

It had to be that guy Lin Zhongqi playing tricks, Tang Yu huffed, her grip on her knife loosening slightly.

But just as Tang Yu began to relax, the cursor automatically moved to a new line, and a new row of text appeared on the screen.

“Who am I? You should have known long ago. Relax, you’re very tense right now_”

Tang Yu’s chest heaved. She composed herself, hiding her emotions, but her heart was pounding with shock.

This line of text revealed three things: this was a real-time conversation, the other party understood her language, and her current state was being monitored.

Tang Yu finally understood where the feeling of being watched, which she’d sensed upon entering the room, came from. Someone was truly observing her every move.

At first, Tang Yu thought it was Lin Zhongqi. But the sound of Song Lengzhu talking with him was still in her ear. Lin Zhongqi couldn’t possibly spare the mental energy to scare her with such a petty trick. If he knew she had broken into his residence, he would have sent people after her long ago.

Lin Zhongqi indeed had no mind for other matters, as his full attention was on Song Lengzhu. When Song Lengzhu uttered the words “Anchor Point,” Lin Zhongqi fell into a long silence. He finally looked at Song Lengzhu properly, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

Several times, he looked at Song Lengzhu, gesturing for her to say something more, but she remained silent, merely looking back at him with an all-knowing expression.

The two were locked in a silent battle of wills, each afraid that saying even one more word would leak extra information.

A few minutes passed. Lin Zhongqi finally couldn’t sit still any longer. He sighed, “It seems I’ve underestimated you.”

Song Lengzhu couldn’t guess what Lin Zhongqi was pondering. He looked as if his thoughts had already taken several major turns, perhaps completely misinterpreting her original intention.

So, Song Lengzhu remained seated quietly, only nodding slightly in response to Lin Zhongqi’s words.

Silence, at times, can carry the weight of a thousand pounds.

Lin Zhongqi hadn’t expected this young woman to have such composure. He felt that if he didn’t speak soon, the pent-up tension would remain stuck in his chest. He took a deep breath and spoke again, “So, you’ve found that thing too?”

What thing? Song Lengzhu didn’t know, but she nodded calmly.

Lin Zhongqi’s expression relaxed a little, but he probed cautiously, “Do you have it with you?”

For a moment, panic flared in Song Lengzhu’s heart—not because of Lin Zhongqi’s probing, but because she heard Tang Yu’s voice suddenly come through her earpiece.

Tang Yu hadn’t tapped her earpiece to send an alert, nor did she seem to be talking to her. She had muttered something, her voice filled with vigilance, as if she were conversing with someone.

Had the little zombie encountered an enemy? A flicker of worry appeared in Song Lengzhu’s mind, but in this situation, she couldn’t speak up to ask, nor could she show too much emotion.

Song Lengzhu’s silence made vigilance reappear on Lin Zhongqi’s face. He pressed, “You don’t have it?”

Song Lengzhu had to force herself to calm down, pull her thoughts back to the present, and take a gamble. She took the glass eyeball out of her pocket, cupping it in her hand so that only a part of the intact area was visible. “It’s not convenient to show more,” she said calmly.

“Ah, it certainly doesn’t look like an in-game item.” Lin Zhongqi leaned over to take a closer look and believed Song Lengzhu’s words. “Then Chaos lied. It seems it’s not serving only me.”

“Chaos.” Song Lengzhu repeated the name, her tone flat and emotionless, as if she simply found the name catchy and couldn’t help but say it aloud.

Tang Yu froze on the spot. She couldn’t hear Lin Zhongqi’s words, but Song Lengzhu’s voice was crystal clear, transmitted into her mind through the earpiece.

The name she had once seen on a sticky note had appeared here.

“Chaos?” Tang Yu lowered her head, repeating the name doubtfully.

To her surprise, the floating screen reacted. The cursor flashed rapidly, the screen glitched for a moment, and then, white characters appeared one by one against the black background:

“Have you recovered your memory?_”

Tang Yu’s heart pounded like a drum. The entity’s counter-question was very problematic.

The past conversation remained on the floating screen. The three lines of dialogue were stacked like lines of code. Tang Yu glanced up at the previous sentence, “You should have known who I am,” and a thought flashed through her mind like lightning: it was highly likely that this so-called Chaos was the one talking to her.

Tang Yu hadn’t expected to stumble upon this information by chance, but she couldn’t show any emotion. Her every move was under the other’s surveillance.

Before Tang Yu could respond, more text appeared on the floating screen: “No… you haven’t recovered your memory_”

Tang Yu’s mind raced again. The one sending her messages was so certain; it must have a way to check her status. This person couldn’t be a player. It was very likely someone from outside the game.

Could Chaos be a staff member? A developer who happened to share a name with an ancient god?

Tang Yu wanted to ask if the other party was from the game company, but she swallowed the words before they left her throat. She couldn’t make assumptions. If she was wrong, she would immediately expose the limited information she had and be at a disadvantage from then on.

Tang Yu decided to handle things the way Song Lengzhu would. She suddenly sheathed her knife, a smile playing on her lips. She reached out a hand toward the floating screen, her fingers passing through it without obstruction. “I haven’t recovered my memory, but that doesn’t stop me from getting information about you.”

The cursor on the floating screen blinked for a long while before a line of text popped up: “You’re stubborn. I’m not sure if you left some clues for yourself before, but it doesn’t matter. You’ll be dead soon_”

Tang Yu tilted her head and said, “Oh? Are you going to kill me?”

“Yes, I will be the one to kill you_” The white characters appeared sequentially on the black background. After the last character materialized, the light overhead suddenly went out.

Darkness enveloped the entire room, leaving only the faint blue glow of the floating screen to illuminate Tang Yu’s face.

Tang Yu’s hand on her knife tightened. In the darkness, her heartbeat could be faintly heard—one beat, two beats, strong and powerful.

Other than that, the only sound in her ears was Song Lengzhu’s calm, unwavering voice.

“It seems the information Mr. Lin has isn’t complete either.” Song Lengzhu easily caught the loophole in Lin Zhongqi’s words. He was suspecting Chaos had deceived him. Song Lengzhu spoke softly, “In that case, we can exchange information. This time, I believe I have the capital to trade.”

Lin Zhongqi’s mind spun with possibilities. He really couldn’t tell how much of Song Lengzhu’s words were true and how much was false. Acting on instinct, he neither refused nor immediately agreed. “You can show some sincerity first.”

Song Lengzhu was decisive. “First piece of information: there are seven Anchor Points.”

Lin Zhongqi’s expression jolted, then he relaxed. “Guaranteed to be true?”

“Guaranteed.” Song Lengzhu took out the map she had copied earlier and showed the sticky note to Lin Zhongqi. She pointed to an area west of Xinzhou. “This area is Songming City’s Anchor Point. The one I discovered is this one to the east.”

Song Lengzhu generously gave him real information. A mix of truth and lies was the hardest to discern.

“Good, good.” Lin Zhongqi was eighty to ninety percent convinced. When he tried to take a closer look, Song Lengzhu pulled her hand back.

Lin Zhongqi didn’t mind. He laughed heartily, showing such a large emotional fluctuation for the first time. “Seven of them. So there are seven Chaos entities. If you gathered them all, you could rule the game.”

“Your turn,” Song Lengzhu said, her tone neutral.

Lin Zhongqi stopped smiling, but his expression had relaxed considerably. The information from Song Lengzhu convinced him that this deal was profitable. He decided to give her some information in return. As a businessman, he understood better than anyone that you had to give something real to get more in return.

Once he had extracted all the information, he would consider whether to kill her or let her go.

“Hmm… as for the information I have… Chaos is still very weak right now. There isn’t much it can manipulate.” Lin Zhongqi paused, intending to leave it at that.

“Mr. Lin, I’m also aware that Chaos’s abilities are limited. After all, I’ve found an Anchor Point myself. The information you’ve given is hardly equivalent.” Song Lengzhu put the note and the eyeball back in her pocket, a hint of displeasure in her voice.

“You really are sharp. I’d believe you if you told me you were a merchant.” Lin Zhongqi’s attempt to bluff had failed. He continued, “Following up on what I just said, it’s true that it’s very weak. Right now, it can only modify minor values or perform additional functions like accessing system surveillance. But it learns very quickly. Before long, it will be able to control this game at will.”

“Chaos can modify values?” Song Lengzhu’s brow furrowed slightly. The words “learns very quickly” concerned her greatly. Suppressing her surprise, she retorted, “Doesn’t that break the game’s balance?”

“Only some very minor values. It’s nothing significant.” Lin Zhongqi leaned back in his chair, enjoying Song Lengzhu’s perplexed expression.

“Then does it have the ability to directly eliminate a person?” A sense of worry rose in Song Lengzhu’s heart.

“Why do you ask? Do you have an enemy? That’s a shame, then. Of course it can’t. It can’t act directly.”

“It can’t? That’s good.” Song Lengzhu’s fist, hidden in her pocket, clenched. She had already guessed Tang Yu’s situation. Calculating the time, Tang Yu should have reached the Anchor Point by now. Her sudden conversation with someone else meant she must have encountered the so-called Chaos.

Tang Yu slowed her breathing and waited for a long time. After Chaos turned off the lights, she secretly activated her precognition, guarding against its next move. But in the darkness, aside from the gushing sound of the faucet, there was no other movement.

She didn’t move or speak, and no new text appeared on the floating screen. The two sides were at a stalemate.

It wasn’t until Tang Yu heard Song Lengzhu repeating one key piece of information after another that her tense heart began to settle. She evened out her breathing and looked directly at the screen. “You can’t hurt me. You don’t have that ability right now.”

The floating screen was silent for a few seconds before a line of text flashed into view: “I don’t know where you got your information, but soon, I will have that ability_”

Looking at the text, Tang Yu suddenly laughed. The entity was indeed very weak. It couldn’t even intercept her radio communication with Song Lengzhu, nor could it send a warning to Lin Zhongqi.

Tang Yu asked aloud, “Why do you want to kill me? Is it because I’m destroying the Anchor Points?”

“Yes_” The cursor began to blink again.

“You’re quite honest,” Tang Yu snorted. “You can modify values, so was the accident I had in the restricted zone your doing, or one of your companions’?”

“It was me. Don’t find it hard to understand. You want to kill me, so I’ll kill you. It’s perfectly reasonable_”

Tang Yu tilted her head. She was only destroying the Anchor Points, breaking the illusions. She hadn’t actually killed anyone. Could Chaos be the Anchor Point itself? Or was it something that resided within the Anchor Point?

A parasite. Then it couldn’t be a developer. Tang Yu was gradually forming a guess about Chaos’s identity.

She didn’t know why she had destroyed Anchor Points in the past, but if they contained something that could interfere with people’s lives, then it was indeed a threat.

Tang Yu spoke again: “I’m a living person. You know I only have one life, right? So is a human life worthless to you?”

“You’re a criminal. Even if I don’t kill you, you can’t leave the game_”

“In that case, I’d like to ask, what crime did I commit?”

“Murder_”

The white characters on the black background were exceptionally glaring. The glow cast a large shadow over Tang Yu’s face. She stood frozen, her mouth open, but she didn’t know how to make a sound.

She was no longer as calm as before. “Who… who did I kill?”

“Who did you kill? An outstanding and innocent woman. Atone for your sins, Tang Yu_”

The white text seared into Tang Yu’s pupils. Her breathing grew rapid. Fearing she had misread it, Tang Yu scanned the words again and again before finally taking a step back in disbelief. Innocent… she had killed an innocent person?

So what Jin Ye had said about the chaotic laws was just to comfort her. She really was a serious felon.

Click. Tang Yu suddenly reached out, pressed the power button on the old computer, and slammed the lid shut. The floating screen vanished in an instant. The room’s lights abruptly turned on, the stark white light illuminating Tang Yu, who was bent over, leaning on the desk.

The feeling of being watched still hadn’t dissipated. Tang Yu knew Chaos was still there, still watching her.