Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 3

After a moment of consideration, Tang Yu decided to leave the city for the suburbs. The density of zombies in the city was too high, which could easily attract players looking to kill zombies for points. The suburbs were relatively safer, and she might even find a small stream to wash in.

Tang Yu scavenged the remaining medicine and limped out of the pharmacy. She dragged her injured leg and walked intermittently for half an hour, encountering many wandering zombies.

Being able to walk among them unharmed, Tang Yu once again felt that being a zombie wasn’t all bad.

After walking for some time more, she should have covered a considerable distance, but judging by the height of the surrounding buildings, Tang Yu was still in the city center. She sighed; walking was too inefficient and tiring.

She saw a relatively intact small yellow car parked by the road. Although the door was missing, the key was still in the ignition. There were also some daily necessities like tissues and a lighter, and even a hammer in the trunk.

She opened the car door and tried to start it. The result was a pleasant surprise—the car could still run.

Tang Yu had been worried that she wouldn’t know how to drive, but when she touched the steering wheel, the vehicle’s operating instructions popped up on her wristband. These ancient Earth transportation tools were completely different from interstellar vehicles, and the game had thoughtfully provided an operation guide.

So, she drove off in the small yellow car.

As Tang Yu drove, she observed the city. Besides the overgrown vegetation and dilapidated buildings, it seemed a fierce war had taken place here. The upper parts of some buildings had been violently blown off. The weapons capable of causing such damage were probably not meant for zombies.

It was obvious that there was conflict among human players as well.

With the expression of someone enjoying a good show, Tang Yu hummed a little tune in high spirits. Although only “woo-woo” sounds came out, it didn’t stop her from entertaining herself. If human players were also competing with each other, then her pressure was much less, and she might even be able to use this to her advantage in the future.

Tang Yu didn’t remember her original personality, so she was not only observing the city but also her own instinctive reactions to things. She found that she could adapt to her environment rather quickly, had a sufficiently optimistic mindset, and wasn’t the type to be overly sentimental or compassionate.

She was satisfied with herself; she had quite a few good qualities, aside from being a bit ugly and smelling a bit foul.

The car drove onto an overpass. The entrance was blocked by a pile of wrecked cars, and there were still wet gasoline stains on the ground, as if a great battle had once occurred here.

Amidst the pile of cars, someone had cleared a path wide enough for a vehicle to pass.

Tang Yu drove onto the overpass.

The weather was fine, the sun shining brightly. There were no living creatures around, and everything was eerily quiet.

But this eerie silence was soon broken. A semi-enclosed truck came straight at her. Seeing this, Tang Yu cried out inwardly, Not good, I’ve run into humans again, and it looks like there are quite a few of them.

The other party was clearly surprised as well. The young man in the driver’s seat let out a strange cry, then slammed on the accelerator and charged toward Tang Yu.

Tang Yu floored the gas, trying to ram her way through, but the truck driver was obviously more experienced than her. He precisely blocked her path. The size difference between the two vehicles was too great; if they collided, the small, battered car would be scrapped on the spot, taking Tang Yu with it.

Having no choice, Tang Yu quickly swerved the car around and headed back the way she came.

A loud shout came from the truck: “Boss, the one driving… looks like a zombie, am I seeing things?!”

Hearing the person in the front say this, four or five heads poked out from the semi-open cargo bed of the truck, curiously observing the small yellow car. “What is it? Let me see.”

The sturdy man in the passenger seat held a large cannon-like weapon, aiming at Tang Yu’s car through the shattered windshield. He said, “I don’t care if it’s a person or a zombie, just shoot it.”

With that, he released the safety. Tang Yu steeled herself, slammed on the accelerator, and drove off the overpass. Just as she left, a shell exploded behind her with a boom. The powerful shockwave swept past the already shattered window and grazed the back of Tang Yu’s head. A burning, stinging pain slowly spread.

Fortunately, she wasn’t hit directly. Tang Yu was secretly astonished: What kind of weapon is this? It’s insane.

But luckily, the weapon had a long cooldown, and the second round of attack was slow to come.

Tang Yu’s small car was nimble, weaving through the wrecked vehicles that blocked the way, while the truck was not nearly as agile and was quickly left far behind.

Tang Yu got off the overpass but didn’t head into the city. She led the truck in a circle. Although the truck’s speed couldn’t match hers, it still clung to her tail.

The man reloaded his ammunition, and a second cannon shot came. The air current nearly flipped Tang Yu’s car. The other people on the truck were also on the roof, shooting at Tang Yu. She estimated there were seven people in total.

The feeling of being chased and unable to fight back angered Tang Yu. Her gaze turned cold. She quickly formulated a plan, drove a lap around the city to create some distance from the truck, and used the opportunity to return to the overpass.

Tang Yu parked the car steadily amidst the pile of wrecked vehicles, blocking the entrance to the overpass. Then, before the truck caught up, she took the hammer and broke the fuel tank.

After quickly finishing this, Tang Yu hurried a safe distance away, tying the lighter and hammer together with a strip of cloth as she went. She heard a noise from behind and looked back to see the truck had reached the entrance of the overpass.

The young man in the driver’s seat saw that she was alone and didn’t take her seriously, so he shouted, “Hey, are you human?” But the man in the passenger seat was in no mood for small talk. He had already loaded a new shell and was aiming at Tang Yu.

Tang Yu didn’t answer. In reality, they wouldn’t understand her even if she did. She quickly used a strip of cloth to secure the lighter’s switch, keeping it lit. Then, she swung the hammer with the lighter attached and threw it with all her might. The hammer landed in front of the yellow car.

The man in the passenger seat didn’t pay much attention to her action and placed his finger on the trigger.

With a “boom,” flames erupted from thin air. The lighter ignited the spilled fuel, detonating the yellow car. The fire then spread along the residual gasoline on the ground, igniting the adjacent wrecked vehicles. A series of explosions sent flames soaring into the sky, quickly engulfing the figures on the truck.

Ding. Seven elimination announcements sounded from her wrist. Tang Yu pulled up the screen to take a look; her points had skyrocketed from 10 to 80.

Not bad. Another 20 points and she could unlock a basic skill.

After killing seven people, Tang Yu felt no emotional fluctuation. Besides knowing full well that this was a game, Tang Yu also felt a certain indescribable coldness.

After the explosion, she didn’t leave quickly. Instead, she searched along the overpass for another vehicle that could still run. After all, it was still some distance from the city limits, and she had no desire to walk.

But after searching for a while, she couldn’t find any working cars. She lingered for a bit. The flames from the explosion had gradually subsided. Tang Yu thought for a moment and walked back toward where the truck had been.

The people in the truck were charred dry, some no longer in recognizable shapes. At this level of damage, they probably wouldn’t turn into zombies. She looked inside the truck; the man’s insane weapon in the passenger cabin had been blown to pieces. “What a pity,” Tang Yu shook her head. If it hadn’t been destroyed, she could have picked up some equipment.

She circled around to the cargo bed and took a look. There were still some embers burning inside, and the surroundings were scorched black. She was about to turn and leave.

But then, her peripheral vision caught something in the corner of the cargo bed reflecting a line of sunlight. Tang Yu’s footsteps halted. She turned back and brushed away the debris on the ground. A military knife, gleaming with a silver light, was revealed before her. It seemed to be a relic left by one of the people from the truck.

The knife was entirely silver, its hilt seemingly made of some kind of black stone. The blade was about 30 centimeters long. The explosion hadn’t caused it any damage; even the scorched debris on it wiped away with a single swipe.

This was an unexpected delight. Tang Yu took the military knife in her hand and unconsciously performed a flourish, as if from some muscle memory that gave her a familiar feeling when holding a cold weapon.

Tang Yu searched around again and finally found the scabbard next to a charred corpse. It was made of the same jade-like stone material as the hilt, which was how it had survived the explosion’s devastation. Tang Yu sheathed the knife, found a piece of cloth, and tied it to her waist.

“Ding.” A soft sound came from her wrist. Tang Yu opened the electronic screen and found a new line of description in the weapon section.

“Weapon: Acquired military knife ‘Startling Dragon’. This blade is incomparably sharp and can cut through anything. Level 1, Attack Power +5%.”

Oh? Tang Yu raised an eyebrow. She liked the somewhat chuunibyou name, Startling Dragon.

Unable to find a working car, Tang Yu had no choice but to walk. Although the injury on her leg looked severe, after half a day of recovery, there wasn’t much pain. Tang Yu did her best to avoid putting pressure on her left foot. After finally crossing the overpass, the surrounding buildings became visibly more dilapidated. It seemed she was starting to get far from the city center.

After walking for a while, Tang Yu found a small electric scooter in the warehouse of a convenience store. Although it was long out of power, it could still be pedaled like a bicycle. She gathered some supplies, also snagged some shampoo and shower gel, and happily hopped onto the little scooter. Following the operating instructions, she chose a small path and slowly rode toward the outskirts of the city.

Song Lengzhu and her group heard the explosion from afar, but they were dealing with a troublesome group of zombies. By the time they finished with their immediate problem and rushed to the overpass, only a few scattered embers remained.

A pretty girl behind Song Lengzhu stepped forward, inspected the scene, and said, “Captain Song, it looks like Cheng Er’s team. We saw this truck during our last firefight.”

“Oh?” Song Lengzhu raised an eyebrow. “Cheng Er’s team wasn’t weak, and they had high-level weapons. Who took them out?”

Everyone shook their heads, looking bewildered. Their team had also clashed with Cheng Er’s team before. Although it wasn’t a direct confrontation and no one was hurt, the other side had more people, and Song Lengzhu’s team had indeed been at a slight disadvantage when competing for supplies.

“This direction… they must have left the city. Let’s go, take a look.” Song Lengzhu gave the order. She was worried that a formidable team had entered the game. If they knew nothing about their opponents, their own survival would be threatened.

By the time Tang Yu wobbled her way to the suburbs, it was already evening. She had encountered many zombies along the way and had even cheekily snatched a lighter from a zombie’s pocket. As a result, that zombie had followed her little scooter all the way.

Tang Yu then discovered that if she made contact with a zombie, she could make it follow her. To verify this, she casually slapped a few more zombies. Soon, a group of lurching zombies was following her little scooter.

The scene was so ridiculous that Tang Yu couldn’t help but chuckle. But these zombies could protect her, which wasn’t bad. Tang Yu slapped a few more zombies.

The road under her feet changed from concrete to dirt. Besides a few farm fields and dilapidated brick houses, there were no longer any signs of human habitation. Tang Yu ditched the little scooter and walked into a forest. She needed to find a water source.

Unlike the instinct of other zombies to eat people, Tang Yu could suppress that instinct and choose her own food. With her consciousness, she was like a zombie that hadn’t been fully infected—she would get hungry and thirsty, tired and feel pain. This was a good thing for her; she couldn’t imagine herself eating people. It was too disgusting.

After entering the forest, what little light remained was blocked by the leaves. It was pitch black all around, making it hard to see clearly. Tang Yu was considering whether to wait until the next day to enter the mountain, but then she noticed that the zombies behind her seemed even more energetic than they had been during the day.

She slapped her forehead. Oh, right, the night is my home turf. What am I afraid of? It’s the human players who should be treading carefully at night.

So, she limped into the depths of the forest, leading a group of zombies. After circling the hillside a few times, she finally heard the sound of a stream.

Several small streams flowed down from the mountain, converging into a clear pool in a relatively flat area before flowing downward with the terrain. Tang Yu used her lighter to check; the water quality was quite clean. Although the small pool wasn’t large, only reaching her knees, it was more than enough to wash up.

Tang Yu first went upstream and used an empty bottle from her backpack to collect some water to drink. Then she returned to the pool and, still in her clothes, washed her hair, arms, and legs. The other zombies wandered nearby, occasionally glancing at Tang Yu. Even though she was a zombie herself, Tang Yu still found it a bit creepy.

Soon, the strange slime on her body was washed away, revealing her original skin color. Not that it looked much better—it was still purplish-blue skin. Her clothes were also washed clean in the process. With that, the rotten smell on her body faded significantly, covered by the scent of the shower gel, unnoticeable unless one sniffed carefully.

Just as Tang Yu was happy about finally not smelling bad, before she could even set one foot on the bank, the zombie closest to her suddenly launched an attack. She retreated back into the pool, only then realizing that her once-friendly zombie companions had, without her noticing, surrounded the small pool. They were baring their teeth at her, drooling disgusting saliva.

Could it be related to the smell?

Tang Yu drew Startling Dragon and quickly analyzed the situation. Her own scent was gone, and her behavior was different from other zombies. She must have been identified by the zombies as a non-kin.

This was bad. She had wanted to recruit a group of bodyguards, but the bodyguards had turned into enemies.

Now she had no way to restore her scent. She could only stand in the pool and assess the current situation.

She probably couldn’t win a fight. There were over twenty zombies here, her own leg was injured, and she couldn’t outrun them.

Tang Yu cursed herself for being so handsy. Why couldn’t she have slapped a few less of them?