Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 45

When Tang Yu crawled out of the cave, Fu Mengqing was frantic. Her already weak appearance now seemed even more helpless. Without bothering to explain the situation to Jin Ye and the others, she turned and walked into the surrounding woods, calling out her sister’s name as she went.

Tang Yu reminded them, “The two sisters should be allies. Have her try contacting her sister through the game panel.”

“She already tried. She said there was no response,” Xiao Li answered. After a two-second silence, Xiao Li murmured, “She couldn’t have met with some misfortune, could she?”

The expressions on their faces all became a little unnatural.

It would have been one thing if Fu Mengqing was lying, but if she was telling the truth, then her sister’s fate was truly pitiful. Blind and in such a vast forest, where could she possibly have gone?

Xiao Li suggested in a low voice, “Why don’t we help Fu Mengqing look?”

Tang Yu pursed her lips and said nothing. After the lesson from Huang Village, she had become much more cautious.

But Xiao Li was very compassionate. “Let’s help her look. Since she wasn’t lying, we can recruit her, and we’ll be teammates from now on. The main thing is… her sister is all alone and can’t see. It would be too tragic if she died just like that.”

As she spoke, Xiao Li’s voice began to tremble.

Jin Ye, standing behind Xiao Li, gently tugged on her sleeve. She looked up at Tang Yu and said, “Let’s look. If we really can’t find her, we’ll just go back.”

“Okay.” Since Jin Ye had also spoken, Tang Yu agreed.

So the five of them, using the cave as the center, searched the entire nearby forest.

But there was no sign of Fu Xingyue.

Fu Mengqing’s eyes were red-rimmed, and her voice had become exceptionally hoarse from shouting. After a long, fruitless search, she finally collapsed to her knees from exhaustion.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Your big sister shouldn’t have left you alone.” Fu Mengqing muttered incoherently, and by the end, she was burying her head in her arms on the ground, sobbing quietly.

Suppressed sobs escaped from time to time. It would have been better if she had cried her heart out; this kind of restrained weeping was all the more heart-wrenching.

Tang Yu hadn’t expected things to develop this way. She had previously suspected Fu Mengqing of fabricating a sister, but now she was certain that this kind of sorrow couldn’t be faked.

Actors often overdo their reactions, afraid that others won’t notice. But the reality was the exact opposite; true grief was silent and restrained.

For a moment, the group didn’t know whether to go comfort her or just stand there.

Tang Yu looked up and scanned the forest again. The half-human-height grass and bushes were lush and overgrown. Where could they possibly find a missing girl?

Just then, the sky began to darken again. Whether it was because of impending rain or something else, a cold wind swept through the forest.

Xiao Li reached out to help Fu Mengqing up. “The weather’s changing. Why don’t you come back to the village with us for now? We can come back and look again tomorrow.”

Fu Mengqing shook her head. The gasps for air made it impossible for her to speak, and she could only manage brokenly, “Thank you… you guys go back. I’ll keep looking.”

Xiao Li’s hand, meant to help her up, froze in mid-air.

It was true. Who could possibly go back with peace of mind?

“There are no signs of the vines at the cave entrance being disturbed. It’s unlikely an animal broke in and took her sister. It’s very possible she came out on her own,” Jin Ye analyzed, then added, “Let’s check the vicinity for any signs of trampled vegetation.”

Her words served as a reminder to everyone. They returned to the cave entrance and crouched down to examine the base of the grass.

The layer of dead leaves on the ground was thick, and it hadn’t rained in the past few days, so there were no footprints to be found. However, the marks of bent and broken grass stems were still discernible. Soon, Tang Yu discovered some ferns that showed signs of being stepped on.

The grass was deep and lush, making the tracks indistinct; one had to observe carefully to see them. The narrow scope of the broken stems suggested no one else had been there. Fu Mengqing’s sister had very likely left on her own.

Hope rekindled in Fu Mengqing. The group bent over, following the trail of broken grass stems.

They lost track of how long it had been when the trail came to an abrupt stop at the edge of a cliff. The group straightened up, staring silently at the precipice.

It was a gorge, as if a great axe had split the mountain in two. There was no end in sight to the left or right. Perhaps because of the high altitude, mist had formed in the gorge, and they could vaguely see the canopy of trees at the bottom.

Where the trail disappeared, there was a patch of overturned turf, a mark likely left when someone lost their footing and instinctively grabbed at the grass as they fell.

Without a doubt, the sister who had lost her sight had been here, and she had fallen off the cliff.

The newly risen hope was shattered once more. Fu Mengqing was stunned. She unconsciously took half a step forward, her foot landing on the very edge of the cliff.

At that moment, a clap of thunder roared across the sky. The rain that had been brewing for half the day finally began to fall, hammering against the leaves with a loud, dull thud.

Tang Yu covered her head and looked around. There were no caves or rock walls here. They were standing under the dense forest, with nowhere to hide.

“Back to the village, quickly!” Tang Yu gestured. Jin Ye and Zhou Zhou grabbed Fu Mengqing’s arms, pulling back the soul-shattered woman who didn’t know what she was thinking.

They had come out this time thinking it was just a trip up the mountain and hadn’t brought any supplies. Other than flashlights and weapons, they hadn’t even brought food.

Let alone anything for shelter from the rain.

This was the first rainy day Tang Yu had encountered since entering the game. The rain, which had been accumulating for nearly two months, came down with immense force. The group stumbled down the mountain, their feet sinking into the quickly turning muddy leaves. They walked briskly for twenty minutes, but the rain showed no sign of stopping.

The rain was one thing, but the thunder was what they feared most.

Lightning periodically flashed across the dark sky, followed by a deafening crack that could pierce their eardrums. Their minds rang from the sound, and they couldn’t help but worry that the lightning would strike them.

They were under the trees, after all.

What you fear is what you get. A bolt of lightning flashed, and in the distance, a thick plume of smoke instantly rose from the dense forest.

The group froze. Holy sh1t, a tree had been struck.

The flames sparked by the lightning were instantly extinguished by the curtain of rain. The group breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, the rain was heavy enough. If the lightning had started a forest fire, they would have gone from being zombies to charred corpses.

But they had only taken two steps when the extinguished flames flared up again. Perhaps embers had ignited the damp dead leaves underneath, sending up a thick cloud of smoke. The surrounding grass, dried by the high temperature, quickly caught fire and began to burn more and more intensely.

And just then, the rain began to let up.

Damn it! Tang Yu yelled, grabbing her companions and bolting down the mountain.

Once a forest fire started, it wouldn’t matter if it was them or some high-point expert; there would be nothing anyone could do.

But how could their legs outrun the fire? Before they had even passed the fallen tree that was struck, the blaze had already stretched for dozens of meters, showing signs of burning its way uphill.

Tang Yu and the others had no choice but to stop, turn around, and sprint back up the mountain.

The rain grew lighter and lighter. In an instant, the large raindrops turned into a fine drizzle. Blocked by the leaves, very few drops reached the ground.

This was not a good thing at all.

Tang Yu didn’t know whether to be sad or relieved. The fire was spreading uphill, which at least meant it wouldn’t burn down their village.

The group ran at full tilt, the tongues of fire leaping higher and higher behind them. Like a venomous snake flicking its red tongue, the fire licked at their backs from time to time, sending waves of scorching heat.

Just as the fire grew larger and larger, they suddenly stopped in their tracks.

There was no path ahead. The cliff edge lay before them.

Without a second thought, Tang Yu grabbed onto a crevice in the rock and hung half her body over the cliff face.

The remaining women all did the same. Fortunately, the cliff face had been weathered by the wind for a long time, leaving some small cracks. They dug their fingers into the fissures, clinging on tightly. They were like rootless weeds on a wall, in an extremely precarious position.

The tongues of fire soon swept over the spot where they had been standing. The scorching heat transferred through the rock to their bodies, but the flames showed no sign of dying down.

No, we can’t hold on. We’re going to be cooked.

Tang Yu braced her feet on a protrusion on the cliff face and craned her head to look around.

“Over there!” Fu Mengqing lifted her chin, pointing to Tang Yu’s lower right. The others looked and saw a triangular platform on the rock face. An ancient pine tree grew precariously from it, offering a temporary foothold.

The platform was about three meters below them. Tang Yu could make the jump, but the others were farther away.

Tang Yu arched her body, concentrating all her strength in her core. She pushed off forcefully, releasing her grip on the rock face at the same time. Spreading her arms, she twisted in mid-air and lunged for the platform.

Perhaps because she had jumped off so many buildings, she was already familiar with this feeling of weightlessness. Her jump toward the platform was both steady and precise.

However, her push-off dislodged many surrounding rocks, sending them tumbling down.

After landing safely on the platform, Tang Yu reached out to help her next teammate.

Fu Mengqing clearly couldn’t hold on any longer. She didn’t even consider whether she could make the jump and simply threw herself toward the ancient pine, but she fell short by a hand’s breadth. Just as Fu Mengqing was plummeting downward, Tang Yu reached out and grabbed her.

Next were Zhou Zhou and Jin Ye. Jin Ye’s physical abilities were comparable to Tang Yu’s, and they both made it to the platform without incident. The four of them, crowded onto the small protrusion, had already filled it to capacity.

The most critical problem was that Xiao Li hadn’t come over yet, and her position was the farthest away.

The tongues of fire still showed no sign of receding, and the rock face was getting hotter and hotter. With each jump, more rocks had been dislodged from the cliff, leaving almost no handholds.

Jin Ye’s eyes were filled with worry. She leaned out, trying to reach Xiao Li, but there was still a gap of more than two meters.

“Jump. I’ll catch you,” Jin Ye said softly.

Her voice, translated by the game system, gently entered Xiao Li’s ears.

“Jin Ye…” Xiao Li sniffled. “If I fall off the cliff, will I not be able to resurrect if my body is smashed to pieces?”

“Don’t say things like that.” Jin Ye cut off Xiao Li’s wild thoughts. “Jump. I will catch you.”

They deeply regretted not bringing their backpacks when they left. If they had a rope, they wouldn’t be in such a passive situation.

Lu Lu’s voice sounded in the group channel: “What’s going on with you guys? What’s this about falling off a cliff?” She had stayed behind in the village and hadn’t gone up the mountain, but since everyone usually kept the camp communication channel open, she had heard everything.

But right now, no one was in the mood to answer her.

Tang Yu grabbed one of Jin Ye’s arms. Jin Ye leaned out a little further, her entire body almost suspended in the air.

The scorching heat of the rock had already burned Xiao Li’s fingers red. Steeling herself, Xiao Li leaped from the cliff face.

The distance was reachable, Jin Ye calculated in her mind as her fingers touched Xiao Li’s skin.

It should have been reachable.