Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 140

Jian Che’s other arm was still holding a laptop. She didn’t step into Song Lengzhu’s courtyard, even though the half-person-high gate was wide open.

Tang Yu shot up to her feet and was about to walk out the door. “Really?” Her face was filled with unstoppable joy, her smile so wide it crinkled her eyes. This was great!

On this trip, Xiao Li wasn’t here, and neither was Zhou Zhou. She had been worried about how to communicate with Jian Che and Song Lengzhu without a translator. She hadn’t expected Jian Che to solve the language problem so quickly.

Song Lengzhu also stood up. Seeing that Tang Yu was about to leave, she suggested, “Why don’t you come in and talk?”

Her tone was unhurried, just right.

Only then did Jian Che step into the small courtyard, holding the laptop.

Tang Yu immediately brought a small stool for Jian Che, as skillfully as if she were the owner of this courtyard.

“Tang Yu, record your voice data one more time.” Jian Che sat down, set the laptop down, and handed a wired headset connected to it to Tang Yu. “Just say anything.”

This wasn’t the first time she had recorded her information. Previously, Jian Che had scanned her and Jin Ye’s left wrists with the computer’s camera. Tang Yu put on the headset with practiced ease, ready. At the very bottom of the computer screen was still a black input box, with green code jumping on its own above it. The top layer was the audio recorder interface.

Both Song Lengzhu and Jian Che looked up at her.

Tang Yu blinked and casually called out a name: “Song Lengzhu.”

Song Lengzhu’s expression faltered for a moment, and she habitually responded, “Hm?”

Jian Che gave them a strange look. She had never heard Tang Yu utter those syllables before and had no idea what they meant, so naturally, she couldn’t understand why Song Lengzhu would react.

“Okay, that’s enough.” Jian Che turned the screen around and typed rapidly on the keyboard. Many windows popped up automatically on the screen, one layered on top of another, with code constantly scrolling. This prompted Tang Yu and Song Lengzhu to lean in from either side to watch.

Finally, Jian Che hit the enter key. “The voiceprint and your personal ID are fully matched. I’ve applied a disguise protocol. From now on, your words will bypass the system’s encryption and be directly received by others.”

Song Lengzhu was doubtful. “Won’t it be patched or detected and eliminated?”

“No. Even if people on the outside find out, they won’t be able to trace it or fix it, because they’ll find that nothing is wrong anywhere.” Jian Che was full of confidence. When it came to her area of expertise, she was expressive and self-assured.

“Amazing!” Tang Yu tore her eyes away from the screen and gave Jian Che a thumbs-up.

The moment she spoke, Jian Che and Song Lengzhu looked up at her at the same time, their eyes sparkling, filled with surprise.

Tang Yu’s voice sounded different from when she spoke the zombie language. It was probably the different pronunciation and tone, which made her voice sound clearer and more energetic, fitting her personality well.

“I understood.” Song Lengzhu’s features relaxed in a rare display, the corners of her lips turning up in an unprecedentedly bright smile.

This was wonderful. Tang Yu’s heart pounded fiercely. The joy reflected on her face was a brilliant, toothy grin. She couldn’t perceive any difference in the words she spoke, but Song Lengzhu’s expression told her they could now converse without barriers!

Tang Yu was so happy! Song Lengzhu must be too, because she was smiling.

Song Lengzhu herself probably didn’t even know that when she smiled, her eyes would curve into crescents. Her cold, distant aura dissolved in that instant, as if an entire season of ice and snow had melted in her eyes.

That heartfelt smile was fleeting, lasting only a moment, but it was enough to stir up a monstrous wave in Tang Yu’s heart. So Song Lengzhu could smile like that. On a whim, she praised, “You look so beautiful when you smile.”

It was a pure compliment, without a trace of ulterior motive, like stating a theorem or an objective fact.

Caught in the middle, Jian Che immediately turned to look at Song Lengzhu, only to see a stern face with a slightly displeased expression. “Let’s stick to business,” Song Lengzhu said.

Jian Che: Huh? What did I miss?

Tang Yu turned her head away dejectedly. It seemed Song Lengzhu didn’t like being complimented. Fine, she wouldn’t praise her anymore, she decided in her heart.

Time to talk business, then. Tang Yu looked at Jian Che and asked if she was willing to search for Chaos with them. After Jian Che agreed, Tang Yu explained the upcoming itinerary and precautions, detailing everything down to the supplies they needed to prepare.

During this time, Song Lengzhu sat quietly to the side, not saying a word.

Tang Yu’s voice was undoubtedly unfamiliar. It was as light and lively as a babbling spring. Unlike her own, Tang Yu’s voice was infused with emotion; every word and every tone was full, vibrant, and dynamic, easily drawing the attention of others.

Song Lengzhu lowered her gaze and sighed heavily in her heart. No wonder she was so likable.

But Jian Che didn’t feel the same way. She listened intently to Tang Yu’s chatter, feeling her own “battery” draining rapidly. As an introverted person, she couldn’t help but think, Doesn’t this big sister talk a little too much? She was a minor, but not a child. There was no need to explain things in such detail, even reminding her about things like sunscreen and lip balm.

“We can go by plane,” Tang Yu concluded. “We’ll just fleece another one from Li Luo’s inventory.”

Song Lengzhu agreed with her plan. “Okay.”

Tang Yu suddenly felt that Song Lengzhu had become less talkative.

She didn’t have time to dwell on it before another thought occurred to her. “Jian Che, you said before that Chaos is responsible for the interaction logic of this region. If we take the Chaos in this computer with us, will it affect Songming City?”

Jian Che: “It shouldn’t. The content it’s responsible for is already set. As long as the receiving terminal doesn’t change, it won’t be affected no matter where it is.”

“That’s good.” Tang Yu was relieved. “Then it’s settled. We’ll leave the morning after tomorrow, as originally planned.”

With the helicopter, Tang Yu’s mobility increased significantly. The next day, she not only prepared supplies for Jian Che but also took her back to the “A Close and Loving Family” camp to crack the language systems for several zombies, including Jin Ye, Lu Lu, Qi Jinyin, and Fu Mengqing. With Tang Yu as a template, the process was much more convenient for the others. After replacing the ID and voiceprint data, the decryption was completed in less than three hours.

All the camp members could now communicate. This wonderful news made even Xiao Li jump up and down while tugging on Jin Ye’s sleeve. But after realizing what she was doing, she turned her head away to sulk.

Qi Jinyin was very worried when she heard Jian Che was going to the desert plateau. Jian Che’s constitution wasn’t strong, and she was an NPC; even a small scrape or bruise could have serious consequences. She asked Jian Che worriedly, “Is it possible for you not to go?”

Jian Che comforted her, “Qi Jie, it’s okay. The thing I’m looking for is there, and only I can act as a check against it.” Her gaze was firm; she had to go. After getting a taste of confronting her own kind, even if Tang Yu hadn’t been looking for Chaos, she would have had the same idea sooner or later.

Unable to persuade her, Qi Jinyin turned to instruct Tang Yu instead: “Then you have to take good care of her.”

“I will.” Tang Yu’s eyes were bright and determined. From now on, Jian Che’s life was her own.

Two days later, a medium-sized helicopter departed from the skies above Songming City, heading straight north.

Tang Yu sat in the pilot’s seat, her gear completely replaced. She was fully equipped with a military vest, belt, arm guards, and gloves—all fleeced from Li Luo’s inventory. Song Lengzhu beside her and Jian Che in the back cabin were dressed the same way.

Besides the three of them, Tang Yu also brought five zombies. She had ordered them to bathe and change their clothes, ensuring they were free of bl00d and saliva before they took on the duty of transporting supplies.

The helicopter flew at a low altitude, only a few dozen meters above the tops of the pine forest. Although this mode of transport was convenient, emergencies could easily occur on the plateau, which they couldn’t handle with their half-baked skills and the game’s basic instructions. To be safe, they flew very low.

After flying for seven or eight hours, the natural landscape below had changed again and again. The green mountains and clear waters had disappeared, replaced by mountainsides that were bare from the halfway point up, an extremely low snow line, and a vast canyon of ravines and gullies beneath them.

Song Lengzhu put away her system panel and glanced out the window. “It’s red.”

“Yeah,” Tang Yu agreed. The canyon below, the desolate Gobi desert, and the wind-eroded rock pillars on the mountains were all an orange-red color. Paired with the white snow on the peaks and the coniferous forest at the base, it formed a world of red, white, and green.

“There’s a river below,” Tang Yu pointed out to Song Lengzhu. A turbulent river running through the canyon split the vast plateau in two. She flew the helicopter a little lower, and the roaring sound of the water mingled with the noise of the rotor blades.

Tang Yu’s supply search radar never went off. They had been flying over the plateau for a long time, even following a snow-capped mountain ridge for some distance, but with no results.

The desert plateau was boundless. The azure sky covered this silent, barren land, with no man-made structures in sight.

Is there really an Anchor Point in this place? If so, where should they even start looking?

Only after arriving here in person did Tang Yu truly feel that this was not going to be an easy task.

This place was too big, bigger than any of them had imagined.

Song Lengzhu pointed to the control panel. “We’re low on fuel. We need to land.”

They had been flying around aimlessly for a long time, and the jet fuel was consumed faster than expected. Tang Yu immediately landed the helicopter on a wide, flat area.

This was a stretch of Gobi desert, next to an extremely deep canyon. The roaring sound of water was deafening, like a bellowing beast. By stopping here, at least their current water supply wouldn’t be an issue.

The rotor blades kicked up the surrounding yellow sand into the air, where it lingered for a long time. The three of them pulled up the cloth masks around their necks and got out of the helicopter.

The moment they stepped onto the ground, a wave of rising heat enveloped them. The sun was already setting in the west, but the ground was still like a giant steamer. Their body temperatures rose rapidly, and the air they breathed in through their nostrils was hot.

“Whoa, it’s so hot.” Tang Yu ground the dust on the ground with her combat boots. The Gobi was covered in fine, broken stones, and the yellow earth beneath had turned to sand. Not far from here was a vast desert.

“Get your jacket on. It’ll get cold soon.” Song Lengzhu picked up her backpack and, enduring the heat, put on her cold-proof jacket. “The sun sets fast. It’s best to retain some body heat.”

Tang Yu obediently did as she was told and quickly helped Jian Che get ready as well.

The dust by the helicopter had settled. Standing on the ground, the three of them got a more direct sense of the vastness of this place. The land wasn’t flat. Farther to their left were endless stretches of wind-eroded hills, severely obstructing their view. The sound of the wind, like a wailing ghost, carried over from a great distance, making their hearts pound.

To their right, the view was boundless, but the Gobi they stood on was cut by canyons into fragmented, irregular shapes. As far as the eye could see, there was a canyon of unknown depth every three or four hundred meters. It would be truly difficult for an ordinary person to walk on such terrain. No wonder the area was uninhabited.

Straight ahead was the upper course of the river, which eventually converged at a range of continuous snowy mountains. The coniferous forest on the mountainside was the only patch of green in this area, but the white above the green was frightening. If the Anchor Point was on the snowy mountain, they would be in trouble.

Tang Yu looked up at the snowy mountain. The rock face of the highest peak looked like five fingers, inspiring awe and fear. The setting sun shone on the mountaintop, casting a warm yellow glow, which was, in its own way, dazzlingly beautiful.

“There aren’t any animals here,” Tang Yu said after walking a circle around the helicopter to get a clear sense of the terrain. “No zombies either.”

Song Lengzhu replied faintly, “Perhaps we just haven’t seen them yet.”

Tang Yu suggested, “We probably can’t move tonight. Let’s spend the night in the helicopter first.”

Song Lengzhu was right; it got cold very quickly. As soon as the sun set, a bone-chilling cold pressed down from above. Only a little residual warmth remained near the ground, and even that dissipated rapidly in the ten-odd minutes they spent observing the terrain. The wind began to pick up along the ground.

“Whoa, it’s so cold.” Tang Yu stepped on the loose stones and climbed into the helicopter. “Hurry up and get in.”

The helicopter’s rear cabin wasn’t big enough, so Tang Yu ordered three zombies to stand guard outside the door to make room for Song Lengzhu and Jian Che. The living dead had no sense of feeling, which was one way they were much better off than Tang Yu.

Once the cabin door was closed, the last of the residual warmth was sealed inside.

But their line of sight was also blocked, so no one saw something poke its head out from the distant canyon under the cover of night.