Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 42

Work in the village proceeded in an orderly fashion, with everyone contributing in their own capacity.

Tang Yu found Xiao Li and Zhou Zhou, who were holding two curved knives and preparing to head up the mountain with Aunty Zhu.

“You’re back just in time! We’re going to dig for wild vegetables and see if we can find any animals!” Xiao Li was full of excitement, bouncing around with a broken bamboo basket.

“Let’s go!” Tang Yu’s interest was instantly piqued, and she ran to the front with Xiao Li. Zhou Zhou and Aunty Zhu followed at a leisurely pace behind them.

The first time they had come to this dilapidated village, Tang Yu, Jin Ye, and Xiao Li had caught wild chickens on the back mountain. There was no shortage of meat here. However, there were too many of them this time, and they were so noisy that the animals in the forest heard them and vanished.

Tang Yu was left holding a knife with nothing to use it on.

She frowned, thinking that she needed to get the tool-making group to produce some hunting traps quickly. The entire village, young and old, needed to eat meat.

Xiao Li, however, didn’t mind. Her harvest was bountiful. Along the way, they had picked a lot of wild vegetables and even discovered many loquat and plum trees nearby, all of which were just beginning to bear fruit for the season.

Fruit! It was such a rarity in the apocalypse.

These fruit trees didn’t seem wild; rather, they looked as if the original villagers had planted them on the mountain. There weren’t many—three loquat trees and two plum trees, planted neatly, their branches and leaves growing lushly.

Zhou Zhou hadn’t said much along the way, but she kept putting things into Xiao Li’s bamboo basket.

At that moment, she was holding a large clump of a plant that resembled wild scallions. She knocked the dirt from its roots and casually tossed it into the basket.

Xiao Li picked it up and asked with a frown, “Can’t you tell the difference between scallions and grass? This is grass. It’s not edible.”

Zhou Zhou smiled. “This is water rush, a medicinal herb. It dispels dampness and stops coughs.”

After speaking, she pointed to a pile of plants and roots in the basket. “This is Huoxue Dan, this is Maidong, this is Sanqi…”

“Stop, stop. Are you reciting a list of medicines here?” Xiao Li interrupted her.

“I’m reminding you not to mix these with the wild vegetables.”

They currently had only one broken bamboo basket, which had been scavenged from an old villager’s house.

Tang Yu asked Zhou Zhou in the group chat, “I thought the medicines you researched were all things like ‘acetyl-something.’ You dabble in herbal medicine too?”

“I don’t make such a clear distinction; I learn a bit of everything.” Zhou Zhou squatted down and used a small curved knife to dig through the soil, carefully excavating the root of a plant. “Those formulated Western medicines have long been out of production. To redevelop them requires a very strict working environment and assistants. But herbal medicines are common and can provide me with research material for a long time.”

Tang Yu suddenly thought of something else and asked, “Are there many players involved in medical research?”

Zhou Zhou thought for a moment before replying, “Very few, almost none. During missions, I have encountered a few NPCs who were originally pharmacists.”

“Oh~” Tang Yu responded meaningfully.

“What is it?”

“Just thinking we’ve found a treasure,” Tang Yu replied with a grin, then turned to look for new ingredients with Xiao Li.

Zhou Zhou chuckled and shook her head, then went back to digging up the roots beside her.

Tang Yu glanced back at Zhou Zhou’s working figure, and a few concerns arose. With so few doctors in this world, Zhou Zhou must be in extremely high demand.

She had managed to invite her back, but could she keep her here for long?

Or rather, would she be willing to stay in the camp?

“Ah! Qianqian.” Xiao Li’s cry interrupted Tang Yu’s thoughts. They had arrived at the stream.

Li Xishi’s group, who had been searching for a water source, was also there, discussing how to divert the water. Huang Qianqian and the little black cat were playing by the stream, moving the small stones back and forth.

“What are you doing?” Xiao Li squatted down and asked Huang Qianqian.

“My mom said there are crabs under the rocks.”

“Really?!” Both Xiao Li’s and Tang Yu’s eyes lit up.

Li Xishi took a moment to reply, “It’s true. Egg-sized crabs, not much to eat, but they can be made into a snack. There are also some small fish and shrimp. Oh, perfect. Does your ingredients team want to catch some?”

“Yes!” Xiao Li answered and ran over to move rocks.

Tang Yu was also enthusiastic. Being strong, she focused on moving the larger rocks. However, as soon as a rock was moved, the water would turn murky, making it impossible to see if there were any creatures underneath.

The little black cat meowed anxiously by the stream, its back arched in an attack posture. It saw movement in the water, but it was afraid of water, so getting in was absolutely out of the question. It could only use its meows to alert these foolish humans.

It wasn’t until the cat had meowed four times that the group realized it was helping them. So, several of them began to coordinate with the cat. Whenever the cat meowed, Tang Yu would reach into the murky water to feel around.

At first, she didn’t catch a crab but a slippery little fish. Tang Yu took it without hesitation, wrapped it in a leaf, placed it in the bamboo basket, and reached back into the water.

Aunty Zhu, who had been chatting with Zhou Zhou on the side, was startled when she saw Tang Yu using her bare hands. “Aren’t you afraid of being pinched!”

The words had barely left her mouth when Tang Yu felt a sharp pain in her finger. She lifted her hand to see an egg-sized, iron-blue crab clamping down hard on her index finger.

It took a moment for Tang Yu to react.

Hiss, that hurt.

Bl00d slowly began to seep from the pinched finger. Startled, Tang Yu quickly got out of the stream and stood on the grass.

A drop of bl00d trickled down the pincer, over the crab’s eyes and mouthparts, and then fell onto the soil.

That was close. The bl00d hadn’t dripped into the stream. The stream water was intended for drinking in the future; who knew what would happen if it got contaminated with zombie bl00d.

The few people on the bank gathered around. The crab was still clamped onto Tang Yu’s hand. Li Xishi used her thumb and index finger to grip the crab’s back, unsure whether to pull or not.

It wasn’t until Xiao Li struck the crab’s shell hard with her knife handle that the fierce iron crab finally released its pincer in pain.

Tang Yu’s hand was still bleeding, but she herself acted as if nothing was wrong, curiously gesturing as she tried to learn Li Xishi’s technique for catching crabs. She bled from so many places all the time that this little wound was nothing to worry about.

The aunties, however, wore pained expressions, constantly asking Tang Yu if she was okay and if it hurt.

Tang Yu blinked, feeling a little touched.

Zhou Zhou frowned and broke off a nearby creeping fig vine. A milky white liquid oozed from the broken end, and Zhou Zhou pressed it onto Tang Yu’s index finger.

“It stops bleeding.” She gestured for Tang Yu to hold the vine herself, then hurried to check on the crab that had been dripped on by zombie bl00d.

Xiao Li said angrily, “We’ll fry it tonight and eat it.”

Zhou Zhou said, “No, let me keep this crab. I need to observe it for a while.”

“Observe what?” Xiao Li was a bit confused, and Tang Yu also tilted her head to look at her.

“If an ordinary zombie bites an animal, the animal will also mutate. Drinking zombie bl00d has the same effect. I’ve always been curious if your and Jin Ye’s bl00d would have the same effect.”

Tang Yu and Xiao Li exchanged a look of surprise. Xiao Li asked, “What happens if an animal mutates?”

“It will become extremely aggressive, unafraid of people, and will pounce on and devour any living thing it sees. Moreover, agile animals will retain their special abilities.”

The aunties were horrified. “Isn’t that just like a zombie?”

When they looked at Tang Yu again, that familiar fear returned to their eyes. This village leader was so kind that they had almost forgotten she was a zombie.

But this trace of fear was fleeting and well-hidden by the aunties.

Tang Yu moved the creeping fig vine away; the wound had stopped bleeding. She opened the game group chat and said to Xiao Li, “This reminds me. I, Jin Ye, and Lu Lu are zombies, after all. Remind everyone to be careful, to avoid our wounds. People with open wounds of their own should probably not get too close to us.”

They had been lucky so far. Although they were often injured, they had never encountered a situation where the virus was transmitted through a wound.

Xiao Li relayed Tang Yu’s words to Li Xishi and the others, and they all nodded silently.

Seeing that it was nothing serious, Xiao Li and Huang Qianqian resumed their grand undertaking of catching fish, while Tang Yu was forbidden from entering the water and could only be a spectator on the bank.

After all, her wound posed a risk of contaminating the stream.

Seeing Xiao Li work for a long time only to catch a single small fish, Tang Yu cried out in frustration.

It wasn’t until the sun began to set that everyone returned in high spirits, their harvest consisting of half a basket of wild vegetables, half a basket of medicinal herbs, and about ten small fish and crabs.

Zhou Zhou carried a blade of grass, from the other end of which dangled the trussed-up zombie crab. By the time they returned to the village, the crab had indeed mutated. Its two raised eyes had turned an eerie red.

“The mutation time for animals is longer than for humans,” Zhou Zhou said as she found a transparent plastic jar, cut the blade of grass, and dropped the crab inside.

The moment the crab touched the wall of the jar, it began to crawl anxiously in circles. Its eight legs scraped incessantly against the inside of the plastic, creating a grating noise that made one’s scalp tingle.

“That’s a bit scary.” The villagers all gathered around to look at the strange crab.

“If all the animals in the world mutated, it would be terrifying,” someone muttered. “Humans wouldn’t be able to survive, would they?”

“Don’t worry. Zombies don’t actively bite animals. Generally, bitten animals will die within three days and won’t cause large-scale chaos,” Zhou Zhou explained with a smile. What she didn’t say was that these conclusions were the results of her own experiments.

The crab remained frantic. Zhou Zhou put the lid on the jar, poked two air holes, and took it back to her residence, placing it by her bedside for constant observation.

With that, the crowd dispersed to help prepare dinner before the sun set.

Dinner was even more sumptuous. The few small fish and crabs were simmered into a thick, white soup, to which some water celery found by the stream was added. The green leaves in the rich soup were fragrant, and every member was served a bowl. Aunty Zhu then drained a full pot of white rice and stewed it with the stems of the wild vegetables, creating a fragrant vegetable-and-rice dish.

In the afternoon, the ingredients team had also found some raspberries on the mountain. They were tart with a hint of sweetness and were served in a small basin as a post-dinner dessert.

Everyone had worked hard all day, so the meal tasted exceptionally delicious.

After dinner, everyone returned to their lodgings. The village still had no electricity, so once it got dark, it was nearly impossible to do anything.

Tang Yu, Jin Ye, Xiao Li, and Lu Lu gathered a pile of firewood in the courtyard and sat around the fire, chatting idly. Three of them were zombies, brimming with energy at night, so they wouldn’t be able to fall asleep so early.

When they ran out of things to talk about, Xiao Li suddenly had the urge to browse the game forums.

Previously, they hadn’t bothered to read the server-wide information, since ninety percent of it was false news, and there were also some ignored pleas for help. Overall, it wasn’t very beneficial for players.

But you don’t know until you look. After scrolling a few times, she saw the post discussing the two conscious zombies that had appeared in Huang Village. In a playful mood, Xiao Li clicked on it with a grin, only to exit with a frown.

“What’s wrong?” Jin Ye noticed the change in Xiao Li’s expression and asked quickly.

Xiao Li took a screenshot of the forum information and sent it to the camp’s group chat.

After fermenting for a few days, the post had over three hundred replies. Nosy players kept speculating about Tang Yu and Jin Ye’s origins, with the guesses growing more and more outrageous. Terms like “A-Class Zombie King” and “the game’s hidden final boss” were thrown around. Some instigators even spread false news, claiming that killing Tang Yu and Jin Ye would award two thousand points, speaking as if they had already triggered the quest themselves.

Tang Yu flipped through two of the images, dumbfounded.

She looked at Jin Ye. “You’re that valuable? How about you let me take a swing at you?”

Jin Ye shot her a look. “Get lost.”

At the end of the post, someone claimed that they had already assembled two teams specifically to hunt Tang Yu and Jin Ye.

It was unclear whether this was just trash talk or if it was true.

The four of them closed their game panels, and the air fell silent for a moment.

“What do we do? It seems we’re being targeted,” Tang Yu howled.

Xiao Li hesitated. “Should I respond on the forum and say there are no points for killing you?”

“Don’t,” Jin Ye stopped her. “The information in there is a mix of truth and lies. If you come forward, no one will believe you. You’ll just get ganged up on, or targeted by someone with ulterior motives who will set a trap to get your information.”

Xiao Li sniffled. “Then what do we do? We still have to leave the village for supplies. We can’t let the NPCs go out, can we? They can’t protect themselves.”

“Don’t worry too much. Right now, only the people who took the Huang Village quest have seen us. Others don’t even know what we look like.”

Tang Yu thought of something, scrolled back through the screenshots, and asked, “In these conversations, someone mentioned Song Lengzhu, saying we’re on her team. Did she respond?”

“No,” Xiao Li said angrily. “Why is she playing dead too?”

Jin Ye added, “She has the same considerations as us. If she came forward and said we’re not on her team, would people believe her? They might even think she wants to monopolize the quest and is just putting out a smokescreen.”

Tang Yu clapped her hands and said brightly, “It’s fine. How cool is this? They’re out in the open, and we’re in the shadows. Besides, we’re lying low now. They won’t be able to find us here for a while.”

But her words had barely faded when a chilling howl echoed from outside the village.

The four of them immediately jumped to their feet, grabbed their weapons, and rushed toward the village entrance.