Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 36

Seeing Song Lengzhu and Zhou Zhou’s inaction, Lan Lin urged impatiently, “Hurry up and finish the mission so we can leave this dump. If you won’t do it, I will.”

She raised her hand, and the bald man immediately understood. He pulled Mrs. Li in front of a rotting corpse, used a small knife to carve out a piece of putrid flesh, and extended it toward Mrs. Li’s wound.

“Stop!” Tang Yu and her companions shouted, trying to break free from their iron chains. Contact with the rotting corpse could very well lead to an infectious disease. They weren’t sure how this illness originated, but they certainly couldn’t let Mrs. Li touch these bodies.

Some of the villagers also couldn’t bear to watch. “There’s no need to use a living person, right? This method might not even work.”

But a louder voice, from an old villager, urged them on. “Hurry up! Don’t you know? Mrs. Li was the first one to get sick. She must have brought the strange illness to Huang Village!”

A flicker of something passed through Zhou Zhou’s eyes, and she withdrew the hand she had extended to stop them.

The piece of rotten flesh was pressed tightly against Mrs. Li’s wound. The middle-aged woman, her face etched with the hardships of life, no longer resisted. She seemed to understand that she had no way out, only glancing at Tang Yu with a hint of apology. Because of her, these three kind-hearted people had been captured.

Even more pitiful was her own daughter, who had to suffer such a thing for no reason at all.

With Mrs. Li’s fate sealed, everyone’s attention turned to Huang Qianqian.

Tang Yu was furious. She roared at Zhou Zhou, threatening her not to hand over Huang Qianqian.

But for some reason, Zhou Zhou suddenly changed her stance again, handing Huang Qianqian to Song Lengzhu.

Song Lengzhu was clearly taken aback and hesitated slightly, but Zhou Zhou wore a nonchalant expression. After some consideration, Song Lengzhu carried the child over to the bald man.

The small knife cut the little girl’s fingertip. Amidst Huang Qianqian’s wails, the wound made contact with the rotten flesh.

Xiao Li and Jin Ye stared at Zhou Zhou in disbelief, cursing her for being heartless and disloyal. But Zhou Zhou maintained her gentle smile, making it impossible for anyone to understand her actions.

The one-hour wait felt agonizingly long. During that time, Tang Yu tried to turn invisible and escape, but Xiao Qi kept a firm grip on the chain binding her. Even invisible, she couldn’t get away.

No further conflicts erupted among the players. After all, with how things had developed, they had been reduced to mere spectators.

Unexpectedly, however, a fierce argument broke out among the villagers during the wait.

Granny Huang’s followers and the other villagers split into two factions. Some accused the followers of being murderers in disguise, using outsiders to kill two innocent females.

The followers, in turn, cursed them for their foolish kindness, for believing the outsiders’ nonsense and wanting to doom the entire village. For a time, the two sides argued heatedly.

And so, an hour passed.

Zhou Zhou first checked on Huang Qianqian and her mother, finding that they had no fever or cough, and their limbs showed no signs of swelling.

Relieved, she took a step back, tacitly allowing Lan Lin and the others to proceed.

Next, the bl00d of Mrs. Li and her daughter needed to be poured into the well.

Lan Lin snatched the small knife from the bald man and held it to Mrs. Li’s carotid artery. She asked Song Lengzhu, “Time’s up. Do we do it now?”

Song Lengzhu reached out and moved Lan Lin’s knife away slightly. She said slowly, “The mission prompt doesn’t say how much bl00d is needed. A few drops of bl00d is still bl00d. Why is there a need to kill?”

Lan Lin was stunned.

That… she hadn’t thought of that.

She opened her game panel to check. Indeed, it didn’t specify the amount of bl00d. But the system had written “pour,” so it couldn’t be just a single drop, right? Otherwise, why not write “drip”?

Song Lengzhu took the small knife from Lan Lin, made a small cut on Huang Qianqian’s hand, and pulled a small drinking cup from her backpack. She collected about ten drops of bright red bl00d, then lifted her hand and poured it into the ancient well.

“This counts as pouring, right?” Song Lengzhu said, casually tossing the cup into the ancient well as well.

This time, it wasn’t just Lan Lin; everyone present was stunned.

An old villager muttered, “This isn’t right, this isn’t right. Aren’t we supposed to kill Mrs. Li and her daughter? Granny Huang spoke of revenge, doesn’t that mean Mrs. Li and her daughter must pay with their lives?” He then grew uncertain, because Granny Huang hadn’t specified how much bl00d was needed either.

Lan Lin accepted the situation quickly. If there was no killing, so be it. She hadn’t lost anything. So, she followed suit, collecting a bit of Mrs. Li’s bl00d and pouring it into the ancient well.

If it didn’t work, they could just kill them next time.

A ceremony that was supposed to end in a bloodbath was suddenly defused into a minor affair. Mrs. Li and her daughter had not died, leaving everyone present with very complicated feelings.

Tang Yu’s anger subsided somewhat. She was in disbelief, finding Song Lengzhu all the more inscrutable.

According to the system prompt, the antidote would take seventy-two hours to be ready. The onlookers began to disperse in twos and threes, while the players set up camp right by the ancient well. Since the fighting was over and there was no longer a conflict of interest, the players could coexist peacefully for the time being.

But Song Lengzhu clearly had no intention of letting Tang Yu go. After pouring the bl00d, she led the badly frightened Huang Qianqian over to Tang Yu.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not some heinous, murderous maniac”, Song Lengzhu glanced at Tang Yu, returning Huang Qianqian to Zhou Zhou.

Tang Yu let out a cold snort, not agreeing with Song Lengzhu’s self-assessment.

Song Lengzhu walked around to stand before Tang Yu, sizing her up carefully. Her face was devoid of emotion, but a palpable killing aura emanated from her.

Tang Yu looked up, glaring back fiercely. There wasn’t much of a height difference between them; Tang Yu was about half a head shorter. As they stared at each other now, the confrontational atmosphere was intense.

To an outsider, they might have looked like teammates having a heart-to-heart talk. But in the eyes of Jin Ye and Xiao Li, they were two bombs ready to explode at any moment.

Song Lengzhu couldn’t deny that her handling of Huang Qianqian had been influenced by Tang Yu and her friends. She had no standing or reason to spare Huang Qianqian’s life, but Tang Yu’s act of protecting an NPC had reminded her that she also had no standing to kill.

This had somewhat altered her impression of Tang Yu. She was a fearsome zombie, yet her actions were always so unexpected. What was she like outside the game? Was this ordinary face her own?

Tang Yu’s eyes were clear, but her appearance was far from outstanding. She had the ordinary face of a girl-next-door and shoulder-length black hair, which was currently tied in a ponytail. This body, which belonged to who-knows-who, was vastly different from Tang Yu’s original self. Aside from their identical height, their looks were completely mismatched.

Tang Yu was also sizing up Song Lengzhu. This woman with a gaunt face and severe eyes was displeasing to look at in every way. Tang Yu felt Song Lengzhu was too thin and should put on some weight to look more human. Right now, tall and skinny, she resembled a bamboo pole, and her killing aura made her completely unapproachable.

The two of them had a staring contest, their minds racing through a hundred and eighty different turns of thought, judging each other from head to toe, from looks to character.

The difference was that Song Lengzhu’s thoughts were relatively objective, while Tang Yu’s assessment of Song Lengzhu consisted of nothing but negative reviews.

After all, she had been hunted several times, and even now, she was still tied up.

After a moment, Tang Yu’s nose twitched. Her expression remained fierce, but an untimely thought popped into her head.

Damn it, she smells so good.

That was probably Song Lengzhu’s only good quality.

Song Lengzhu, however, frowned. Help me, she stinks.

She took a step back.

Tang Yu was stunned for a moment, then her expression turned hurt. She roared at Song Lengzhu, “How dare you find me disgusting! I’ll fight you to the death!”

Song Lengzhu turned and walked away, leaving behind a piece of advice: “Stop howling. You’re not a dog.”

Zhou Zhou ignored the drama unfolding nearby. She took a glass jar from her leather case, which contained a light blue liquid.

From a short distance away, Xiao Li questioned her, “Why did you hand Qianqian over to that woman surnamed Song?!”

Without looking up, Zhou Zhou replied, “Qianqian has antibodies. Contact with the rotten flesh won’t harm her. Besides, I’ve interacted with Miss Song a few times; she knows how to be measured. And anyway, we can’t just run away. If this ritual isn’t completed, it would be very difficult for us to lead people out of Huang Village, right?”

Xiao Li was momentarily speechless, then asked doubtfully, “Why does Qianqian have antibodies?”

Zhou Zhou took out several small test tubes and used a dropper to portion out the liquid from the glass jar. She answered, “Remember when we first found Qianqian, I drew her bl00d? It was just a casual act at the time, wanting to help check her body for any other illnesses besides malnutrition. But I didn’t expect to find an anomaly in her bl00d.”

The experiment had been conducted on hospital equipment while she was gathering materials. At the time, Zhou Zhou didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t until she returned to Huang Village, saw the rotting corpses on the streets, and heard the villagers and players mention the strange disease that she connected the two.

“This strange disease isn’t some mystical thing. It’s a virus that developed from the long-piled corpses, similar to a plague. The people who fled back to Huang Village didn’t thoroughly disinfect the place before living here, allowing the virus to find a host, which is how this disease emerged.”

Before Lan Lin had made her move, she had heard a villager shout that Mrs. Li was the first person to get sick. But Mrs. Li was still alive. Zhou Zhou guessed that Mrs. Li had unfortunately contracted the disease in its early, less potent stages, and her body had developed antibodies after she recovered. Huang Qianqian’s antibodies came from Mrs. Li.

Judging from the villagers’ reactions, it seemed not many knew that Mrs. Li had been sick before. After all, in the early stages, the virus was likely mistaken for a common cold.

Granny Huang might have known about this and used it to her advantage, declaring Mrs. Li an ominous sign, which led to this whole farce.

Zhou Zhou put away the twenty-odd test tubes just as Song Lengzhu walked over. Song Lengzhu asked, “What’s this? Is it for your mission?”

“Something newly developed. Let’s call it a disinfectant for now.”

“Disinfectant? Not an antidote?”

Zhou Zhou smiled. “The fact that you’re asking me this shows you know the water in this well isn’t an antidote.”

Song Lengzhu said, “How could such an antidote exist?”

Zhou Zhou handed a tube of the disinfectant to Song Lengzhu and said, “Quite a few villagers have died from the disease by now. The number of corpses piled up in Huang Village is increasing, and the virus has probably mutated several generations. Even for me, it’s impossible to develop a specific cure in such a short time.”

“It’s only now that I understand. My mission isn’t to find some life-saving medicine, but to clean up the source of the disease.”

Zhou Zhou looked up, thought for a moment, and said, “You might not believe me, but this mission has a side quest that requires cooperation.”

At this, everyone nearby was somewhat surprised. “What side quest?”

“To dispose of the corpses in Huang Village centrally and disinfect the area. The streets and houses all need to be sprayed with this disinfectant. If it’s not dealt with, this virus will eventually spread outside the city and become something as terrifying as zombies. I can’t handle this alone, can I?”

“Are you sure? Our systems didn’t give us that prompt,” Xiao Qi interjected from the side.

“You’ll trigger it if you try.” Zhou Zhou handed another tube of the solution to Xiao Qi. “Use the test tube to put one drop on that rotting corpse.”

Xiao Qi did as she was told with a puzzled expression. A moment later, she returned with a strange look on her face. “It triggered the mission. We do need to disinfect Huang Village. Participants will share 200 points based on the area they disinfect.”

“This disinfectant is highly toxic. Dilute it with water at a 1:5000 ratio before spraying. Be careful not to get it on any open wounds during use.”

Xiao Qi looked at Song Lengzhu, then at the test tube in her hand, completely bewildered. “Your mission is to eliminate the source of the virus, so what’s the deal with the well and Mrs. Li and her daughter?”

Zhou Zhou was silent for a moment before saying, “I don’t know either. I guess the ‘life-saving medicine’ mentioned in the mission isn’t medicine, but something else.”

Listening from the side, Tang Yu felt a sense of foreboding. She had originally thought Zhou Zhou’s mission was to develop an antidote, but now it seemed she had developed a disinfectant. So where was the antidote?

The next day, Song Lengzhu informed the players still guarding the well about the group mission. By now, only about twenty or so idle players remained to watch the spectacle. After a brief discussion, they went off to spray the village.

The players who had been fighting to the death just the day before were suddenly working together on a group mission. They looked at each other, but the atmosphere was surprisingly pleasant.

This was how it was among human players. They would fight fiercely over interests, and they would also unite for the sake of interests.

The water for spraying was taken from a river on the outskirts; the water from the well was absolutely not to be touched. Out of concern, Zhou Zhou also refrained from dropping any disinfectant into the well. The disinfectant could kill the virus, but it was also toxic. She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to stop the followers if they insisted on drinking the water three days later.

Tang Yu was still tied up, with Xiao Qi following her every step. At first, Tang Yu would struggle a bit, but eventually, she couldn’t be bothered to move.

Perhaps out of consideration for Zhou Zhou, it seemed Song Lengzhu didn’t intend to harm them this time. She even shared some food with the three of them during meals.

Jin Ye teased Tang Yu, “Before coming to Huang Village, you were talking about scheming against others. Look at you now, who’s scheming against whom?”

Tang Yu retorted stubbornly, “A gentleman’s revenge is never too late.”

None of Song Lengzhu’s people participated in the disinfection mission. It was unclear whether they weren’t interested in the small number of points or if they needed to guard Tang Yu and her friends and couldn’t move around. In any case, they remained by the ancient well until three days later.

On that day, the ancient well was once again surrounded by villagers, even more than last time.

Villagers who had been hiding in the corners of Huang Village had received the news and all flocked to the well to watch the spectacle. Tang Yu gave a rough estimate—there were at least seventy or eighty people.

Tang Yu averted her gaze and looked toward the ancient well.

The bald man drew a bucket of water from the well. The wooden bucket hung from the well frame, its contents somewhat murky, but otherwise unremarkable.

Granny Huang’s followers were ecstatic, pushing toward the well and reaching for the hanging bucket.

“It’s the life-saving medicine!”

Zhou Zhou stepped forward to block the surging crowd. “Wait a minute.”

No one listened to her. The old man who had been shouting the loudest before reached out to push Zhou Zhou, forcing her to step aside.

The crowd was in an uproar until Song Lengzhu fired a shot.

The deterrent effect of a gunshot was far greater than Zhou Zhou’s words. The followers froze, looking at Song Lengzhu with fear in their eyes.

Zhou Zhou’s expression was grave. She said, “I’m telling you clearly, your village’s strange disease comes from the rotting corpses. It has nothing to do with any medicine catalyst or bl00d. This well water contains pathogens. If you drink it, you’ll get sick within a day. You can’t drink this water.”

The followers didn’t believe her. One of them, seeing that Zhou Zhou wasn’t holding a gun, mustered the courage to spit at her. “What are you trying to achieve by spouting nonsense time and again? Granny Huang said we can drink it, so we can drink it! Do you want everyone in our village to get sick and die?”

Zhou Zhou frowned. She had already gone beyond her own bottom line and meddled in matters beyond points. These people’s lives were none of her business, but she patiently explained once more, “You’ll get sick if you drink it. If you don’t believe me, you can have someone try it first. If there are no symptoms after an hour, you can all drink. Anyway, you’re all healthy now, so there’s no rush to drink this.”

It was a good suggestion, but unfortunately, the leading old man refuted her. “Everything has a time limit! What if it doesn’t work if we drink it later?!”

“You…” Zhou Zhou was dumbfounded.

Song Lengzhu rarely chimed in to support Zhou Zhou. “Oh, I forgot to mention, this well was contaminated five days ago. Someone threw an infected corpse into it. Even without the bl00d contamination, this water is really undrinkable.”

Her words stunned everyone present.

Some villagers grew timid and took a few steps back.

But someone muttered, “Didn’t we just finish the ritual? The evil spirits have been driven away by the catalyst. This water is the life-saving medicine now!”

“Right, Granny Huang wouldn’t lie to us.”

Song Lengzhu threw up her hands and retreated to the back, no longer bothering with these ignorant villagers.

Lan Lin stood to the side with her arms crossed, chuckling. “Aiya, why are you stopping them? Let them drink. If they die, it’s their own business. The sooner they drink, the sooner our mission can be settled.”

Ignoring Zhou Zhou’s obstruction, someone cupped the water from the bucket with their hands and brought it to their mouth, drinking with the reverence of consuming holy water.

With the first person taking the plunge, the followers swarmed to the bucket.

Zhou Zhou let out a rare sigh and retreated to Tang Yu’s side. “I tried to stop them,” she said, though it was unclear if she was speaking to Tang Yu or to herself.

Behind the crowd, Tang Yu had remained silent. She looked up at the fanatical followers, her feelings extremely complicated.

The villagers before her would undoubtedly get sick. Even if Song Lengzhu and Lan Lin hadn’t completed the mission, these villagers would have eventually captured Mrs. Li and her daughter and followed Granny Huang’s instructions.

Who was to blame?

Blame the system for giving out strange missions? Blame the villagers for their ignorance? Blame the players for standing by and doing nothing?

Tang Yu couldn’t figure it out for a moment, but one thing was certain: the person who deserved to die a thousand deaths was Granny Huang, who had spread heretical fallacies.

Granny Huang was already dead, but her influence lived on, striking down these villagers with an intangible blade.

Seeing that no amount of persuasion would work, the players stopped trying to intervene, simply standing by with their arms crossed, watching.

There were over thirty of Granny Huang’s followers, making up the majority of the villagers. About ten had been persuaded, or rather, scared off by Zhou Zhou and Song Lengzhu. The remaining twenty all drank the well water.

The non-followers standing at the back had originally come with the intention of drinking the water as well, but upon hearing Zhou Zhou’s warning, they completely abandoned the idea. Their minds were clear enough to distinguish who was making sense.

During this time, a few rational villagers tried to intervene once or twice, but they were pushed to the ground by the followers and nearly trampled.

Watching this scene unfold, Tang Yu suddenly understood what Zhou Zhou had meant.

The “life-saving medicine” mentioned in the mission didn’t refer to any physical substance, but to whether these people still possessed reason. What was poisoning them wasn’t a plague, but heresy.

Tang Yu and Zhou Zhou couldn’t save these villagers; only they could save themselves.

It was also through this experience that Tang Yu realized the missions given by the system were not always positive. It could guide players to do evil based on existing events in the game.

Amidst a mixture of cheers and sighs, the bizarre ritual finally came to a close.

Out of a final sense of pity, Zhou Zhou advised the remaining rational villagers, “Huang Village is not suitable for living. Although we’ve disinfected the corpses and streets these past two days, we couldn’t get to every nook and cranny of the houses. If you don’t want to get sick, you should leave here as soon as possible.”

She glanced at the followers who had just drunk the water and added, “It’s best to leave before they get sick.”

Her advice was effective. Seeing that the matter was concluded, the onlookers dispersed in groups of two and three, leaving only Song Lengzhu’s and Lan Lin’s teams.

Lan Lin put away the gun she had pressed against Mrs. Li’s back. Her mission was settled, and Mrs. Li was of no value to her anymore, so she let her go.

Lan Lin left with her subordinates, calling out to Song Lengzhu as she went, “It was a pleasure working with you. See you next time.”

Finally free, Mrs. Li stumbled toward Huang Qianqian, hugging the little girl tightly in her arms. For the past two days, although they had been able to see each other, they had been held hostage by the two separate teams and were only now reunited.

Tang Yu looked away, toward Jin Ye and Xiao Li. For some reason, they had also received a system notification. Logically, their mission should have failed long ago.

But the three of them were still tied up, unable to free their hands to check their game panels.

Xiao Li spoke up, “Hey, woman surnamed Song, what are you going to do with us?”