Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 144

When Song Lengzhu arrived in front of the helicopter, Tang Yu was just doing a backflip to dodge the giant spider’s attack. She supported herself with one hand, and upon landing, she kicked off with her back foot, once again charging rapidly toward the giant spider.

Behind Tang Yu, the helicopter’s side door was already coated with a thin layer of silk. Hundreds of strands, as fine as silver threads, were twisted into a single rope. The other end passed beneath the spider’s suspended body and was wrapped around its tail. From a distance, it looked as if the giant spider was pulling the helicopter.

Song Lengzhu quickly assessed the giant spider’s form and condition. As Tang Yu retreated again, she immediately moved to stand by her side.

“Are you alright?” Song Lengzhu asked in a low voice, her eyes not on Tang Yu but fixed on the enemy before them.

“I’m fine, but I can’t hurt it.” Tang Yu was somewhat annoyed. After several attacks, the biting cold wind of the Gobi no longer felt so sharp; instead, beads of sweat had formed on her temples, and the hair usually tied neatly behind her ears was now slightly disheveled. “Can’t get close. Its body is poisonous, it spits silk, and the silk is extremely tough.” Tang Yu summarized the intelligence for Song Lengzhu in a few words.

Song Lengzhu listened attentively, pondering a strategy. She asked Tang Yu, “Is this the only one?”

“If a few more show up, I don’t think the two of us will be enough to feed them,” Tang Yu replied.

The giant spider’s body was completely suspended in the air, its eight tough and powerful legs supporting it high off the ground. As it moved, the tips of its legs carved fine lines into the Gobi terrain. During the standoff with the two women, it continuously shifted its position, all the fine, hair-like bone spurs covering its body raised on end.

Song Lengzhu calmly raised her gun, the muzzle tracking the creature’s movements and constantly changing its aim.

“I’ll aim for the eyes. You cut its leg joints.” Song Lengzhu slowly uttered the words. The moment she finished speaking, Tang Yu shot forward. By the time she responded with “Okay,” she had already appeared before the giant spider’s first pair of legs.

Immediately after, dense gunfire echoed across the Gobi. Song Lengzhu used her weapon-enhancing ability, and the bullets from her muzzle shot straight toward the giant spider’s eyes. The spider dodged to the left, and the bullets that missed their mark struck its outer hide but failed to penetrate the flesh. Its defense was indeed as formidable as Tang Yu had described.

However, Tang Yu could clearly feel that the giant spider’s movements had slowed. It had judged Song Lengzhu’s attack to be more lethal and had consequently abandoned its defense against Tang Yu.

Tang Yu kicked off with her back foot, leaping into the air. Gripping her knife with both hands, she twisted at the waist and swept it horizontally toward the giant spider’s front-right leg.

The bone spurs on the spider’s leg instantly shot up, protecting the joint airtight. Tang Yu paid them no mind. The moment she swung her blade, flames erupted, burning Startling Dragon red-hot. With a few crackling sounds, Startling Dragon broke through the bone spurs and plunged into the joint.

But it didn’t sever the leg. The giant spider retreated rapidly, pulling Tang Yu forward with it. Song Lengzhu called out in a low voice, “Hold on.” Seizing the moment while Tang Yu was restricting the spider’s speed, she raised her gun and fired several shots, hitting one of the eyes on the bottom-left row.

Black bl00d splattered from the eyeball, sizzling and bubbling as it landed on the sand.

A look of joy crossed Tang Yu’s face; Song Lengzhu had succeeded. She didn’t let go. Instead, she tightened her grip on the hilt, planted her feet, and with a fierce slice, Startling Dragon broke through the joint, forcefully severing the first segment of the leg.

“Careful.” As Song Lengzhu’s voice rang out, a strand of silk shot swiftly toward Tang Yu’s face. Simultaneously, the giant spider stopped retreating and instead lunged forward, bending its legs in an attempt to crush Tang Yu beneath its body.

It was too late to escape on foot. Song Lengzhu immediately fired a few shots, forcing the giant spider to slow for a few seconds. Tang Yu flipped to dodge the silk, instantly retracted her flames, and switched to teleportation. But she didn’t move to another location; instead, she appeared in mid-air, gripping her knife’s hilt with both hands, tip pointing down, and stabbed fiercely at the giant spider’s large eye.

The attack was swift and reckless. Landing on the spider’s body, Tang Yu was bound to step on the bone spurs and get splashed by the corrosive bl00d. Song Lengzhu’s face darkened, and she pressed her lips together tightly.

Just as Song Lengzhu had anticipated, Tang Yu’s blade pierced the giant spider’s right eyeball. Her military combat boot landed on the spider’s chelicerae, and the hard bone spurs actually pierced through the thick sole. As Tang Yu lifted her foot, the spurs broke off from the spider’s body and became firmly embedded in her sole. Tang Yu only felt a numbness spread through her foot.

The instant the blade plunged in, it was like piercing a water balloon. A thick, foul stench accompanied by an inky liquid sprayed directly at Tang Yu’s face. She immediately teleported away, but when she landed on the ground, she nearly lost her footing as her sole was numb, itchy, and beginning to fester.

Song Lengzhu strode forward and reached out, supporting Tang Yu’s lower back through her clothes. She looked displeased. “Reckless.”

Tang Yu grinned, turning her head to check on the giant spider’s condition while lifting her left foot to pull out the bone spurs with her gloved hand.

Song Lengzhu supported Tang Yu’s elbow with one hand to keep her balanced, while her other hand held her gun, continuing to fire at the giant spider without a moment’s pause.

Having been wounded repeatedly, the giant spider was now enraged. It ignored its injured eyes and the missing section of its front leg, spread its chelicerae, and charged fiercely toward the two women.

Tang Yu was quick to pull them out. She grabbed the ends of the ten bone spurs and yanked them free. Her left foot, which had gone numb, quickly returned to normal thanks to her rapid healing ability.

Tang Yu flicked her hand, tossing the bone spurs far away. These things were stained with zombie bl00d; she absolutely couldn’t let Song Lengzhu or the giant spider come into contact with them.

Just as this thought surfaced, Tang Yu froze for a moment, as if she had realized something.

“It’s not infected,” Tang Yu suddenly shouted. While pulling Song Lengzhu to run away from the giant spider, she yelled, “The zombie from before was dismembered, but this spider isn’t infected!”

Song Lengzhu instantly understood her meaning. She turned her head to look; the giant spider was clearly in a normal state, and there was no bl00d on the spurs of its chelicerae. She said rapidly, “It didn’t kill the zombie. There’s something else here.”

The giant spider chased them for a couple of steps, forcing Tang Yu and Song Lengzhu away from the helicopter. But then, it suddenly changed direction. The spinnerets on its abdomen ejected more silk, rapidly encasing the front half of the helicopter.

The moment Tang Yu realized what was happening, she saw that the helicopter had broken into two pieces, starting from the previous gash.

A mass of dark, furry shadows swarmed behind the helicopter. The moment it broke apart, the severed opening was already sealed tight by a web of silk.

It was a large swarm of smaller spiders. Perhaps “small” wasn’t the right word; each spider was the size of an adult human. Although they were much smaller than the giant one, their numbers far exceeded Tang Yu’s expectations.

They had appeared here at some unknown point. While Tang Yu and Song Lengzhu were focused on fighting their enemy, the smaller spiders had used their sharp chelicerae to destroy the helicopter and crawl into the cabin.

“Jian Che!” Tang Yu’s heart skipped a beat. She immediately teleported to the severed section of the helicopter, intending to cut the silk. But before she could get her footing, the giant spider had joined the smaller ones, spread its legs, and begun dragging the front half of the helicopter toward a nearby canyon.

The helicopter’s fuselage began to move, pulled along by the giant spider. Tang Yu had no choice but to use her ability again, teleporting on top of it.

Tang Yu could no longer hear any response from Jian Che.

The swarm’s pulling caused the fuselage to tremble constantly, making it difficult to stand. While Tang Yu was trying to use her corrosion ability and Startling Dragon to cut the silk, a materialized Song Lengzhu appeared by her side. She didn’t help Tang Yu with the silk; instead, she slid toward the cockpit’s exterior window, crouched, and fired continuously at the windshield. It took thirty special bullets to finally create a crack in the tough glass. Tang Yu followed immediately, slicing the windshield open along the crack, and the two of them slipped into the fuselage one after the other.

Silk pouring in from the severed end had already cocooned Jian Che, leaving only half of one foot exposed. The two zombies were stuck to the floor by the silk, unable to move. Five or six of the smaller spiders had already swarmed into the cabin from the opening and were now crouched by Jian Che’s feet, continuously spinning silk from their abdomens.

Seeing the two of them enter, the small spiders abandoned their spinning and lunged at their faces. Song Lengzhu held her breath and focused, shooting them down one by one in mid-air.

These smaller spiders weren’t as tough as the giant one; the bone spurs on their bodies hadn’t even fully grown in, offering no resistance to Song Lengzhu’s bullets.

After dispatching the small spiders, the two didn’t dare to linger and quickly moved to rescue Jian Che. Tang Yu didn’t dare swing her blade with too much force to break the silk. Instead, she coated Startling Dragon in flames, first severing the strands still pouring in from the opening, then using the fire to burn away the outermost layer of the cocoon.

Song Lengzhu took out two golden daggers to help. The two of them quickly tore through the silk and found Jian Che, her face purple from lack of air, holding a dagger and trying to free herself.

Tang Yu breathed a sigh of relief, cupped the back of Jian Che’s head, and pulled her out.

Before Jian Che could even sit up properly, the fuselage suddenly tilted. The three of them were thrown to the right, slamming heavily against the cabin wall.

The sensation of being suspended immediately followed, along with the deafening sound of water. Tang Yu clung to a porthole and shone her flashlight outside. In the depths of the pitch-black canyon, she could see water splashing up. They had been dragged to the edge of the canyon by the giant spider.

Before they could react, their direction of fall suddenly changed. The three of them slid toward the helicopter’s severed opening, where the dense web of silk was like a sticky flytrap, waiting for them to fall into its grasp.

If they got stuck, their chances of escape would be slim. Without needing to be told, the three of them immediately grabbed onto the legs of the front seats, which were welded to the fuselage. But just as they got a firm grip, the falling fuselage suddenly recoiled before plummeting heavily once more.

At the same time, an impact with the canyon wall followed. The violent shock made their internal organs feel as if they had been churned. They were now hanging against the rock face of the canyon.

Tang Yu could feel the half-fuselage moving along the rock face, as if being pulled by a swarm of giant spiders in a specific direction.

Tang Yu quickly shot fireballs toward her feet, burning away the silk at the severed opening layer by layer. The dead smaller spiders soon fell away, plummeting into the unfathomable darkness below.

“Don’t let go. Falling into the water could also be fatal,” Tang Yu said, freeing a hand to grab Jian Che’s backpack strap, preventing her from losing her grip and falling.

Tang Yu could teleport and Song Lengzhu could escape in her mist form, but neither of them could take anyone along. So the three of them hung there, and before they could even devise a plan, the feeling of being suspended vanished. The half-fuselage was dragged, bumping and scraping, onto a flat surface.

By the light of her flashlight, Tang Yu looked up through the shattered windshield and saw red rock. Below their feet was the same type of stone.

It was a cave in the cliff face.