Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 55

Tang Yu hung the camping lamp directly on the tool pouch at her waist without taking it off, which conveniently freed up her hands.

She walked a circle around the small cave. Aside from a pool of water in the center, both sides were dry rock. The ceiling was quite high, with several massive stalactites hanging down. When illuminated by the light, they revealed a milky-white, jade-like texture.

Beneath the snakeskin on the right side, the white bones of some unknown creature were wedged. Other than that, she saw no snake eggs on the ground or any other evidence to corroborate their theory about a mother snake.

But this didn’t mean their guess was wrong. After all, these red earthworms resembled aquatic snakes, so they could be an ovoviviparous species, incubating the eggs inside their bodies before giving birth.

Still, to give birth to such a large swarm of small snakes would require an incredible amount of power.

And why did this swarm of snakes attack them? The Old Blind Man had said that red earthworms only appeared in damp, dark tombs. Could it be that Chen Deming’s group had truly done something, causing them, the latecomers, to suffer the consequences?

Tang Yu circled the cave again. It was only about the size of half a basketball court, and as far as she could see, there were no other exits.

It wasn’t a damp, dark tomb, either. Based on her sense of direction, Tang Yu determined the cave was directly beneath the stream. Rather than a snake’s nest, this place seemed more like a spot the mother snake used for shedding its skin.

While she was wandering around aimlessly, Song Lengzhu was using her slender fingers to trace the rough rock wall, pressing inch by inch on the irregular protrusions and depressions.

Tang Yu withdrew her gaze, not understanding what Song Lengzhu was doing.

This cave was clearly natural. How could there be any ingenious mechanisms?

Tang Yu opened the camp group chat and heard Jin Ye talking with Zhou Zhou, telling her to be careful of the moss underfoot. In the background, the faint sound of wolves howling could be heard.

“Jin Ye, where are you? Are you still safe?”

Jin Ye was overjoyed to hear Tang Yu’s voice. She had assumed Tang Yu had met with misfortune after falling into the water. With Xiao Li still missing and Tang Yu having disappeared, Jin Ye had become extremely anxious, frustrated that she couldn’t get in touch with her.

Jin Ye replied, “We’re safe for now, just some minor injuries. How are you? We’re heading downstream along the stream to find you.”

Tang Yu thought for a moment. In this situation, even if Jin Ye knew where she was, she couldn’t rendezvous with her. Their supplies didn’t include things like dynamite or detonators to blast open the mountain. Song Lengzhu’s teammates had grenades, but those weren’t suitable for directional blasting. What if the cave collapsed even further from an explosion?

Tang Yu said thoughtfully, “Don’t come for now. The one surnamed Song and I are trapped in a cave, looking for a way out. You should focus on finding Xiao Li’s whereabouts first. Keep in touch. If we really can’t find a way out, I’ll ask for your help. By the way, didn’t those red earthworms attack you? How did you get rid of them?”

“It’s strange. After you two fell into the water, there was a loud explosion from beneath the stream, and all those little snakes vanished in an instant. Li Chengjian said the sound was like a detonator. The area under the stream might be hollow. It’s possible it was Chen Deming’s group.”

“A large tomb? Did you find the entrance?”

“No, we haven’t seen an entrance anywhere. But the Old Blind Man has already summoned four wolves.”

“What do Song Lengzhu’s teammates plan to do?”

“Zhou Zhou said they don’t plan to rescue Song Lengzhu. They’re going to look for the large tomb directly,” Jin Ye replied.

Tang Yu guessed this was probably an order Song Lengzhu had just given, so she said, “You guys go with them. If that sound was really made by Chen Deming, they might have already entered the tomb.”

After a long pause, Jin Ye finally managed a difficult, “Okay. Be careful, and stay far away from Song Lengzhu.”

“Don’t worry.” Tang Yu turned to glance at Song Lengzhu, who was using a dagger to pry off the off-white snakeskin.

The snakeskin was a full four meters long. It had been shed for some time and felt like kraft paper, but it was very light.

Tang Yu watched as Song Lengzhu folded the snakeskin into a roll and placed it in the tool pouch at her waist, right next to the poison fang.

After doing all this, Song Lengzhu stood up. Without a word to Tang Yu, she walked along the rock wall to the other side of the pool, pressed two fingers against the cold rock, and pried backward with force.

Tang Yu was surprised. What? Had she really found some strange mechanism?

She walked to a spot an arm’s length from Song Lengzhu and leaned forward curiously.

“What are you standing there for? Lend a hand,” Song Lengzhu said in a low voice.

Only then did Tang Yu see clearly that it wasn’t a mechanism, but a fist-sized crack seeping water. A trickle of water emerged from it, flowing down the rock wall into the pool in the cave.

Song Lengzhu moved aside. Tang Yu reluctantly shuffled forward. When her fingers touched the rock wall, she discovered that the rock around the crack had been eroded by flowing water for years and wasn’t very hard. It felt like limestone; with a little force, she could break off a piece.

The flow of water meant the inside of the rock wasn’t sealed off. If they widened the entrance, they might find a fissure inside.

Tang Yu pulled back her hand and drew the Startling Dragon from her waist. Using her hands was too tiring; it was better to just use the knife.

The moment she drew the knife, she noticed in her peripheral vision that Song Lengzhu had quickly taken half a step back.

It was a defensive action, a conditioned reflex. This person was on guard against her.

Tang Yu’s mood lifted greatly. Ha! Someone as formidable as Song Lengzhu was also afraid of her. This gave her a slight psychological advantage.

Tang Yu deliberately twirled the Startling Dragon in her hand a few times, performing a very cool-looking flourish, before raising her hand and striking the limestone. With a forceful flick of the knife’s tip, she dislodged a large chunk of the stone.

Watching from the side, Song Lengzhu found the sight painful. Such a fine, treasured blade was being so recklessly misused by Tang Yu. She would never, ever use her own golden dagger to dig at rocks.

If she knew that Tang Yu had once used the Startling Dragon to chop firewood and cut grass, Song Lengzhu’s brows would have furrowed into a deep frown.

Besides, how had she never noticed before that this little zombie was so smug?

Tang Yu didn’t know what Song Lengzhu was thinking. She caught a glimpse of Song Lengzhu’s slight frown in her peripheral vision and immediately attributed it to the woman surnamed Song fearing the Startling Dragon in her hand.

Fear, and the desire to possess.

Song Lengzhu had a “prior record” of trying to snatch the Startling Dragon, so Tang Yu gripped the hilt tightly, giving the other woman no chance to take it.

As for using the Startling Dragon to pry at rocks, Tang Yu felt no guilt.

Tools were meant to be used.

A treasured blade didn’t exist only for killing people.

The two of them had winding, complicated thoughts, but they just weren’t on the same wavelength.

The Startling Dragon was incredibly sharp. Before long, the fist-sized crack was widened enough for a person to crawl through, yet not a single scratch was left on the blade.

Tang Yu took down the camping lamp and shone it into the pitch-black crevice. Just as they had guessed, the inside was hollow. The lower rock wall was soaked, but the water flow was small and didn’t fill the entire space. The crevice appeared to slope upwards and showed signs of gradually widening.

She just didn’t know where this fissure led.

Tang Yu put the lamp down, looked up, pointed at the crevice, and made an “after you” gesture at Song Lengzhu.

The meaning was obvious: she wanted Song Lengzhu to go first.

Song Lengzhu didn’t move.

Everyone knew that the person in front was vulnerable to a sneak attack. In such a narrow crevice, even turning around was difficult, let alone mounting a timely defense in a moment of crisis.

They no longer had a common enemy, so it was hard to say that one of them wouldn’t harbor malicious intentions.

Song Lengzhu said, “You first.”

Her voice was devoid of emotional fluctuation; it sounded ice-cold and carried an undeniable pressure.

Tang Yu, holding her knife, glared at Song Lengzhu, clearly disagreeing with the suggestion.

The two remained at a stalemate for half a minute, neither intending to give way.

This couldn’t go on. It wouldn’t be good if they started fighting over such a small matter. She had to think of a mature solution that both sides could accept.

Tang Yu’s brow furrowed. She extended her empty left hand and made a fist.

“What?” Song Lengzhu was confused.

Tang Yu opened her fist, simultaneously extending her index and middle fingers in a clear “scissors” gesture.

A moment later, she opened all five fingers, changing it to “paper.”

Song Lengzhu understood. “Rock… paper… scissors?”

She was both exasperated and amused. For a moment, she didn’t know what kind of expression to put on her calm face.

“Then what do you suggest we do?” Tang Yu muttered.

Song Lengzhu’s right hand, resting by her side, twitched slightly, but she didn’t extend it.

No, this is too childish.

Tang Yu was very patient. While keeping an eye on the activity in the camp chat from Jin Ye’s side, she looked directly into Song Lengzhu’s eyes.

Song Lengzhu’s gaze normally carried a murderous aura, a presence honed from constantly walking the edge of danger. This was the third time Tang Yu had looked directly into these eyes, and she had never seen them soften.

At this moment, the owner of these eyes was pondering a difficult problem: to play, or not to play?

Song Lengzhu had several ways to force Tang Yu to submit. Her abilities were superior to Tang Yu’s. She could threaten her, or just knock her unconscious and go first. There were several solutions, they just weren’t as peaceful.

But after meeting Tang Yu’s clear eyes, Song Lengzhu became hesitant again. Subconsciously, she didn’t want to so quickly destroy the balance the two had worked hard to maintain. On a larger scale, she needed a helper. She didn’t know what dangers they would face after leaving this crevice, and she might not be able to handle it alone.

On a smaller scale, she felt that Tang Yu had some attractive skills. From their first encounter when the other was just a small zombie fleeing in panic, to now having gathered a group of sincere teammates, even Professor Zhou was willing to side with her.

She admitted that the more they interacted, the stronger her interest in Tang Yu grew. Putting aside their respective positions, deep down, she didn’t dislike Tang Yu.

It was just that they probably couldn’t become friends.

Song Lengzhu’s facial expression didn’t change, but her eyes flickered indecisively for a good while. She finally sighed and extended her right hand.

She had compromised.

Fortunately, there were only the two of them here. Tang Yu couldn’t speak human language and wouldn’t go around shouting about this to her teammates. Otherwise, Xiao Qi’s jaw would surely drop.

A flash of delight appeared on Tang Yu’s face. She hadn’t expected Song Lengzhu to actually play rock-paper-scissors with her. In this psychological game, she had actually gained the upper hand.

Tang Yu was eager to try, pulling her left hand back to her waist.

This wasn’t a simple game of rock-paper-scissors. She was testing whether Song Lengzhu had guessed that she had the ability of precognition. Along the way, she had dodged too many crises and had no opportunity to hide her skills. If Song Lengzhu were suspicious enough, she would have discovered her abnormality.

Furthermore, Song Lengzhu knew Lan Lin, and Tang Yu had also demonstrated Xiao Qi’s invisibility ability. If the woman surnamed Song thought about it carefully, she would realize that Tang Yu’s abilities were related to the people she had fought.

If Song Lengzhu had been alert to this, she would absolutely not have agreed to play rock-paper-scissors with her, and would very likely have killed her immediately to prevent her ability from being copied, creating a powerful enemy.

However, at this moment, Tang Yu was relieved. Song Lengzhu hadn’t thought of this aspect yet.

In this game of rock-paper-scissors, as long as Tang Yu wanted to, she could have a 100% guaranteed win. But she didn’t plan to activate her precognition. The reason was simple: she couldn’t rush to be the one who sticks her neck out.

Let’s just leave it all to fate.

Seeing Tang Yu was ready, her eyes darting around, Song Lengzhu just assumed the zombie was up to some strange mischief. She softly counted to three, and as her voice fell, both of them extended their hands.

A moment later, Tang Yu let out a crisp, high cheer. She had won!

Unbelievable. Her paper had beaten Song Lengzhu’s rock.

Tang Yu jumped in a circle on the spot, excitement written all over her face and in her eyes. She had won without relying on precognition. This joy was a hundred times greater than a victory gained by cheating.

Tang Yu quickly relayed this news to her good sister, “Jin Ye! Song Lengzhu played rock-paper-scissors with me, and she lost!”

“What?” Jin Ye, not knowing the context, didn’t react for a moment.

On the other end, however, Zhou Zhou repeated Tang Yu’s words and then laughed, “How could Miss Song be so childish.”

Humans couldn’t understand Jin Ye’s words, but Zhou Zhou’s words were heard clearly by Xiao Qi and the twins who were beside her. Their sounds of amazement reached Tang Yu’s ears only as indistinct background noise.

Tang Yu came back to her senses and composed herself a little. She put one hand behind her back, made a circle in the air with the other, and bowed slightly, actually performing a courteous “after you” gesture.

Looking at the unstoppable smile on the other’s face, Song Lengzhu turned her head away, afraid of being dazzled. Accepting her loss, she crawled into the crevice. Before that, she turned back to instruct, “Keep your distance. Stay three meters away from me.”

In a good mood, Tang Yu nodded. A small request, no problem.