Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 31

At that moment, the black cat running at the very front let out a meow. It wasn’t the cute, clingy sound of a pet, but the low growl of an animal facing danger.

This was a warning to the people behind it.

Just as Tang Yu’s foot landed on the corner of the second-floor landing, she heard the warning and quickly pulled back.

They heard a woman’s voice from the room on the right of the third floor, asking, “Did you get a clear look at what that black shadow was?”

Someone answered, “Sis, it’s a black cat. Nothing to worry about.”

“Kill it. It might belong to some player.” The woman’s tone was calm, as if taking a life was a routine matter for her.

Hearing this, Tang Yu frowned, but she resisted the impulse to reveal herself and reached out to hold back Huang Qianqian, who was worried about the black cat.

The black cat sensed the threat and let out another low growl. It leaped onto the railing, turned, and agilely scrambled upstairs, disappearing in a flash.

The subordinate standing guard at the door had already fired at the black cat, but the stairwell was narrow, and bullets couldn’t turn corners, so they all hit the railing. The subordinate cursed as he chased after it, not forgetting to close the rental unit’s iron gate on his way.

Tang Yu made a hand signal, and the group followed closely, running toward where the black cat had gone.

Tang Yu didn’t know how many players were in the team inside the room. But judging by how they made no effort to hide their presence and dared to fire their guns in this environment, this team was not weak. Furthermore, this building probably had no other teams besides them; otherwise, they wouldn’t have made noise by shooting at a cat.

When the woman first spoke, Tang Yu thought it was Song Lengzhu inside. But then she realized the subordinate who answered was a man, so it couldn’t be Song. Song Lengzhu’s current team, like Tang Yu’s, was all-female.

Tang Yu couldn’t tell if she was relieved or disappointed not to have run into her nemesis right away.

As she passed the room, Tang Yu glanced inside. This type of room had two doors. The outermost was a hollow iron gate, allowing one to see inside through the gaps. Inside that was a wooden door, which was currently ajar, not fully closed.

Through the gap, Tang Yu saw a woman sitting sideways inside. She looked to be in her thirties and was fiddling with a hemp rope, but from this angle, Tang Yu couldn’t see her face or clothes clearly.

Tang Yu glanced once more and then hurried upstairs, treading lightly. For now, saving the black cat was the priority.

They soon reached the top floor. The door to the rooftop was already open, and the male subordinate had his back to the stairs, searching for the black cat among the concrete pillars.

He bent down to check the water pipes on the rooftop, then straightened up and cursed, “Damn it, making me come out to chase a cat.” After speaking, he pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, clearly intending to slack off during his mission.

Just as he lit the cigarette, the black cat appeared from somewhere, provocatively wagging its tail at the man. Seeing this, the man’s anger flared, and he fired two shots at the cat.

In the stairwell, Tang Yu gripped her Startling Dragon. With a thought, she vanished from her spot. The next moment, she reappeared behind the man, swinging her blade.

The man’s attention was entirely on the black cat, and he didn’t notice the sound of the wind behind his neck. By the time he felt the sharp pain of his heart being pierced, Tang Yu had already pulled out the Startling Dragon that had run him through, completing a stealth kill.

The rescued black cat wagged its tail, walked over to Tang Yu, and rubbed against her leg in a friendly gesture. Then it meowed again and leaped into Huang Qianqian’s arms.

The group surveyed the rooftop and found that more than one fierce battle had already taken place here. Dozens of players’ bodies lay scattered about, their bl00d congealed and blackened, indicating they had been dead for over a day.

Tang Yu thought for a moment, then arranged for Jin Ye to stay on the rooftop with the others while she herself vanished in a flash.

The door to the room on the right of the third floor creaked open. The ajar wooden door had been pushed open by something. A large man in the room stood up suspiciously, raising his gun as he approached the door.

He leaned against the door and looked out for a while. The stairwell was completely silent, with no one in sight.

Still uneasy, he opened the outer iron gate, paced around the doorway, and peered around the corner of the stairwell.

Still no one.

The large man rubbed his bald head and retreated into the room. “Lan Jie, I’m seeing things. The door just opened by itself.”

The woman called Lan Jie glanced at him. “Stay alert.”

Tang Yu had already slipped into the room while invisible. She stood by the wall, taking in the entire situation. To her surprise, besides the subordinate she had just eliminated, there were only four people in the room.

This was not a large team.

Then how did they kill ten people on the rooftop?

Tang Yu studied Lan Jie again. Her attire was very unique. She wasn’t the sharp, imposing type of leader; on the contrary, her features were very gentle. While not exactly beautiful, she had a graceful charm.

Even more exaggerated, she was wearing a pale gold qipao.

Tang Yu was full of questions. This was the apocalypse, not a beauty pageant. Could she fight and escape in clothes like that?

Tang Yu averted her gaze and looked at the other subordinates. Compared to Lan Jie, her subordinates were rather rough-looking. They were all men, but they looked at Lan Jie with respect, which was quite rare in the apocalypse.

Tang Yu noticed that Lan Jie was holding a hemp rope. The other end of the rope was coiled on the floor, stained with bl00d.

At the moment, they were all gathered in the living room. Besides that, there was a room with a closed door. It seemed someone was moving inside; there were faint, scraping sounds of something heavy being dragged across the floor.

Tang Yu moved from the corner to the outside of the room’s door and pressed her ear against it to listen. She heard someone coughing weakly.

How strange.

Tang Yu placed her hand on the doorknob, hesitating whether to open it.

Repeated strange occurrences might attract attention. After all, many people in the game probably knew about abilities. Once was a coincidence, but two or three times would definitely arouse suspicion.

Just as Tang Yu was assessing the risk, the man standing guard by the window suddenly spoke up. “Lan Jie, someone else is by the old well.”

The people in the room gathered at the window. Lan Jie let out a sound of surprise. “What a coincidence. An old acquaintance. Give me the sniper rifle.”

Tang Yu didn’t dare get too close, but from Lan Jie’s reaction, the person downstairs was no small fry.

Lan Jie set up the sniper rifle directly on the windowsill. The long gun paired with the qipao was a sight that made Tang Yu click her tongue in wonder.

Lan Jie’s breathing was steady, and her technique was skilled. She aimed with one eye, her muzzle tracking the person by the old well twice before she pulled the trigger.

The moment the gun fired, Tang Yu suddenly received a notification from the camp group chat. She opened it and saw a message from Jin Ye.

“Tang Yu, Song Lengzhu has appeared. She’s by the old well.”

Hiss. Tang Yu shot her gaze toward the window. She was standing far away and couldn’t see the well from her angle, but her heart began to pound wildly.

This is great! What a perfect opportunity!

Did she hit her?

She was even more anxious than Lan Jie, almost wanting to push the others aside and peer out the window herself.

But Lan Jie didn’t let go. She was still moving the muzzle, which clearly meant she hadn’t hit the person below.

“Tsk,” Tang Yu judged internally. “Your aim is terrible.”

Lan Jie fired again, but for some reason, she still missed. Lan Jie suddenly froze for a moment, then said with a serious expression, “They’re coming up. This team isn’t suitable for a direct confrontation. Let’s retreat first.”

The group quickly packed up their guns and left the window.

As the others left, Tang Yu took the opportunity to step to the window and look down. She saw that Song Lengzhu was still by the old well and hadn’t come upstairs as Lan Jie had said.

Just then, Song Lengzhu happened to look up at the building, and her gaze met Tang Yu’s. Tang Yu sheepishly pulled her head back and rubbed her arms. That one glance had given her goosebumps.

Lan Jie’s team packed their things with practiced efficiency. Finally, the bald man opened the locked room and dragged a woman out from inside.

After getting a clear look at the person, Tang Yu’s pupils contracted, and she sucked in a sharp breath.

The thin woman being dragged out was wearing black clothes, and a brown clip was tangled in her messy hair. She had clearly been brutally beaten and was now coughing faintly with each breath, her deep blue eyes filled with restrained pain.

These features were identical to Huang Qianqian’s mother.

Tang Yu’s eyes widened. So the outsiders Granny Mei had mentioned weren’t Song Lengzhu. The player team led by a woman was Lan Jie’s team.

The bald man hoisted Qianqian’s mother onto his shoulder and prepared to open the door to retreat.

No, I can’t let them get away. Tang Yu quickly darted into the room and pushed over a cabinet.

The heavy object made a loud crash as it fell. The group, who had been about to leave, was clearly startled. Someone came back to check the situation.

Lan Jie’s gentle expression vanished, replaced by a more serious one. “Don’t look, there’s no time.” As she spoke, she pushed open the iron gate.

At that moment, Tang Yu was notifying Jin Ye and Xiao Li in the camp group chat while following Lan Jie’s group out of the room. She couldn’t make a move yet; she had to at least gather her teammates to have a chance of winning.

Lan Jie’s group was heading downstairs, which Tang Yu found strange. If Song Lengzhu was really coming up as Lan Jie had said, wouldn’t the two teams run right into each other in the stairwell?

Taking advantage of her invisibility, Tang Yu followed behind Lan Jie. But even as the team left the building and was about to duck into a small alley, Song Lengzhu still hadn’t appeared.

Tang Yu couldn’t help but think Lan Jie’s judgment was flawed.

But just as their figures disappeared into the alley, Song Lengzhu truly appeared. She was just about to lead her team up into the rental building.

No. Tang Yu quickly realized she couldn’t let Song Lengzhu go upstairs, or she would likely run into Jin Ye and the others.

She used the hilt of her knife to tap on the walls of the alley, creating a dull, rhythmic thump, thump sound.

Hearing the sound, Song Lengzhu paused and looked in Tang Yu’s direction, just in time to see the back of the bald man disappearing into the alley.

“Over there. After them,” Song Lengzhu commanded in a cold voice. The group of four quickly left the rental building and ducked into the alley.

Tang Yu turned and ran. This was great. Now she didn’t even know who she was setting up.

The alley twisted and turned with many corners. In some narrow spots, only one person could pass at a time. The three factions scurried through it, playing out a game of cat and mouse.

Suddenly, Lan Jie stopped. She turned around in the narrow alley and ordered everyone to run back. The others were stunned for a moment but followed her command without question.

Tang Yu had been at the back of the team. Now that everyone had turned around, she was suddenly at the very front. Although she was invisible, her body could still collide with physical objects, so Tang Yu had no choice but to quickly run ahead of everyone.

The sound of pursuit came from the alley behind them. It seemed Song Lengzhu had chosen another route to try and block them off. But Lan Jie, with some unknown skill, had managed to turn back in time to avoid the encirclement.

Before long, the distance between the two teams shrank. With the enemy right in front of them, the ruthless Song Lengzhu fired her gun directly. The bullet grazed Lan Jie’s sleeve and lodged itself in a crack in the wall.

Lan Jie gritted her teeth. Bold and highly skilled, she actually stopped, preparing for a direct confrontation with Song Lengzhu.

Tang Yu, at the very front, couldn’t stop her momentum and ran a couple more steps. When she looked back, the two teams behind her had already started fighting in the narrow alley.

Bullets flew everywhere. Tang Yu made a snap decision. She braced her hands on the walls on either side, kicked her feet up, and wedged herself in a spread-eagle position diagonally above the crowd.

When being a spectator, one had to find a safe spot.

It was said that two teams were fighting, but in reality, the only ones actually engaged were Song Lengzhu at the front and Lan Jie who had fallen behind. Both were using firearms, but the distance was too close, so they had to resort to close-quarters combat. However, the alley was too narrow to maneuver, leaving their teammates to just watch, unable to intervene for the time being.

Qianqian’s mother was slung over the bald man’s shoulder, and the two of them stood at the very back of the alley.

Tang Yu noticed that no matter how Song Lengzhu fired, Lan Jie could precisely dodge her bullets, as if she could predict the trajectory of the shots. She would make a defensive move even before the gun fired.

But that was the extent of it. Her own bullets didn’t even graze Song Lengzhu.

Tang Yu couldn’t help but curse inwardly. These two are having an ability showdown here.

If she could just touch either one of them and copy their ability, it would be a huge gain. Unfortunately, they were fighting too fiercely. Tang Yu didn’t dare get close; she might get killed by a stray bullet before she could even touch anyone.

Tang Yu watched carefully for a while and discovered that Song Lengzhu’s ability was different from Lan Jie’s. Lan Jie could defend against everything, both bullets and fists, but Song Lengzhu could only dodge bullets. She took the non-lethal punches squarely.

Looking at it this way, it was actually Song Lengzhu who was at a disadvantage in this fight.

Tang Yu cheered silently, finally venting some of her pent-up frustration.

Her eyes darted around and spotted a window jutting out directly above the two of them. The glass was shattered, and on it sat two or three weed-filled clay pots.

Tang Yu painstakingly maneuvered her way over the heads of the crowd and climbed onto the window. Then, with a sweep of her hand, she knocked all the broken glass and clay pots down.

Since my invisibility ability can’t be used for direct attacks, making a little mischief should be fine, right?

Tang Yu silently chanted in her mind: I’m not attacking anyone, I’m just cleaning the windowsill.

As the clay pots and broken glass rained down, the two below seemed to sense the danger and both leaped back, avoiding a direct hit. However, the loose soil from the pots and the glass shards still showered them both.

Lan Jie’s clean qipao was soiled with dirt, and Song Lengzhu’s hand was even cut by a piece of broken glass, drawing a trace of bl00d.

For a moment, everyone looked up.

Tang Yu hung from the windowsill like a monkey, in high spirits. She used the broken window to flip into the room on the right side of the second floor.

Jin Ye and the others had already heard the gunshots and were rushing over. Tang Yu sent them a message, telling them to go directly to the second floor. Once she gathered her teammates, she would figure out a way to save Qianqian’s mother.

Thanks to Tang Yu’s disruption, the battle in the alley unexpectedly subsided for a moment.

Song Lengzhu’s gaze went past Lan Jie to the woman slung over the bald man’s shoulder. She asked calmly, “You found the medicinal catalyst?”