Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 57

Her upturned, overlapping palms clearly made contact with a hard shoe sole. Song Lengzhu stepped onto her hand without any hesitation. The force caused Tang Yu to slide down a few steps, sending a cascade of loose stones tumbling.

But contrary to what she expected, Song Lengzhu didn’t come crashing down on top of her. The moment she stepped on Tang Yu, Song Lengzhu promptly grabbed onto a protruding rock with her hand, then immediately removed her foot from Tang Yu’s palm and pushed off the adjacent rock wall, shedding most of her weight.

Such strong reflexes and core strength. Although being stepped on was infuriating, Tang Yu was still quietly amazed. She wasn’t confident she could have been that agile herself.

Fortunately, they had only fallen about four or five meters at this point, so the impact wasn’t too severe.

“Why not just jump straight down?” Song Lengzhu expressed her confusion, though she didn’t expect an answer from Tang Yu. She immediately changed the subject, “Hurry and jump down. They’re catching up.”

Tang Yu cursed internally. You have no idea how deep this is.

All in all, this shaft was about thirty meters deep. A fall like that would genuinely be fatal.

But stopping here also meant death. The crawling sounds from above grew closer. Through Song Lengzhu’s silhouette, Tang Yu could already see bugs appearing within the range of her light. Their slender legs clung firmly to the cliff face, completely unaffected by gravity, and their advance was accelerating. In another minute, the entire vertical shaft would be swarming with them.

Tang Yu glanced up once, then gritted her teeth, eased the pressure from her feet, and let herself slide down at a much faster pace.

The shaft wasn’t perfectly vertical; it curved slightly to the left. It was difficult to control her direction while accelerating downwards, and Tang Yu inevitably slammed into the rock wall. A dull ache erupted in her right shoulder; it was most likely bruised.

Song Lengzhu saw that Tang Yu was still unwilling to release all resistance and just jump. Her lips tightened with a hint of displeasure, but she didn’t urge her further. She had a feeling this zombie had a reason for doing so.

But this gave the bugs the upper hand.

Some of them had already fallen onto Song Lengzhu’s clothes. It was unclear how these bugs saw, but they crawled straight for her face.

While steadying herself, Song Lengzhu freed a hand and quickly used her dagger to flick off a few of the bugs. The severed limbs and living creatures tumbled down, a large portion of them landing on Tang Yu’s clothes.

“I…” Tang Yu forcefully swallowed her curses. A few live ones that had slipped through the net latched onto her clothes and began crawling toward her face.

Song Lengzhu offered a timely reminder: “Don’t let them get into your nose or ears.”

It would have been better if she hadn’t said anything. The reminder conjured a vivid image in Tang Yu’s mind, making her skin crawl and her throat tighten with the urge to gag.

Seeing that there were only about six or seven meters left to the bottom, Tang Yu decided to release all resistance and let herself plummet.

A seven-meter drop without water to cushion the fall meant injury was unavoidable. Tang Yu rolled upon landing to absorb the impact, but she still felt a violent surge of bl00d and qi in her organs. A dull pain shot through her palms and limbs, and the taste of bl00d filled her mouth.

Song Lengzhu landed a moment after her, tumbling to her side.

Neither of them had expected that below the crevice was another, slightly larger cave. Tang Yu used her light to survey the area. It was a sealed cavern, about the size of a truck’s cargo bed. The ceiling was low; she could touch the crevice above just by raising her hand.

Remembering the bugs still on her, Tang Yu immediately sat up despite the pain, took off her jacket, and began shaking it vigorously. These little things were the most troublesome. If it were zombies or pythons, at least the target would be clear and attacks could be aimed. But these tiny bugs were too small. Once they got into your clothes, they were incredibly hard to find, and they left you with the nagging suspicion that some might have crawled elsewhere.

After a few shakes, Tang Yu simply tossed the jacket aside. There was no way she was putting that wretched thing back on.

The throwing motion sent a sharp pain through her rear shoulder blade. She quickly rotated her arm to check; her arm was fine. She had probably broken a rib or two in her back, though she didn’t know how many.

After all this, Tang Yu noticed Song Lengzhu still hadn’t moved. Could she have died from the fall?

Tang Yu leaned over and saw Song Lengzhu biting her lower lip, a thin layer of sweat beading on her forehead. She had clearly been injured somewhere.

Are you okay?

Tang Yu let out a couple of whimpers. Song Lengzhu’s eyes shifted to glance at her but she didn’t reply.

Tang Yu looked away, raising her head to stare at the crevice above.

The strange bugs had already crawled out of the man-sized opening, resembling a dense swarm of cockroaches. They were about to crawl down the cave walls toward the two of them.

Under Tang Yu’s watch, Song Lengzhu took a deep breath, propped herself up with one hand on the floor, and struggled to her feet.

Tang Yu saw that the stone slab beneath her pant leg was stained with dark red bl00d. Looking closely, she noticed a ten-centimeter-long gash torn in the fabric of Song Lengzhu’s right calf. The skin beneath was already soaked in bl00d, the flesh turned inside out.

This was bad. The woman had injured her leg.

The wound was irregular, likely from scraping against a sharp rock on the wall during the fall, which had sliced her calf open.

Hiss. For someone with skin as delicate as Song Lengzhu’s, how much must that hurt?

In this regard, Tang Yu had a significant advantage over Song Lengzhu. Song Lengzhu had no precognitive ability. Jin Ye had said her danger sense could only detect fatal threats, and even then, it only told her there was danger, not what it was.

So Song Lengzhu had probably sensed the danger long ago but attributed it to the bugs. She didn’t know how high the drop from the crevice was, nor could she avoid the protrusions on the rock face.

But in the wild, danger didn’t just come from living creatures. A blade of grass or a single stone could take a person’s life.

Song Lengzhu met Tang Yu’s gaze. “It’s not a fatal wound. I’m fine.”

Tang Yu turned her head away. It’s not like she was concerned about her, so why the need to say that? But she was right. Neither of their injuries was fatal, and they could still move. They had to figure out how to deal with these bugs.

In just that short moment, the bugs had already crawled onto the floor, closing in from all directions. More of them were continuously pouring out from the crevice above; there was no telling how many there were.

Tang Yu’s expression darkened as she quickly switched into a combat state. She gripped her knife, her mind racing with a flurry of fragmented images.

If only they had fire. Insects should be afraid of fire.

But the backpack she had picked up was with Jin Ye. She only had her utility belt. She had never imagined she would be separated from her team.

Tang Yu looked at Song Lengzhu and mouthed the word for “fire.” The other woman seemed to be on the same page and quickly understood her meaning.

However, Song Lengzhu didn’t have anything to start a fire either. Her backpack had been left in the pool outside. The decisiveness with which she had thrown it away then was matched only by how pathetic their situation was now.

Song Lengzhu pulled a small, chalk-like object from her jacket pocket. With Tang Yu at the center, she endured the pain in her leg and drew a large circle around the two of them.

Tang Yu’s brow twitched. What the hell is that!

As she drew, Song Lengzhu spoke in a low voice, “These bugs are called Corpse Scutigers. The insect repellent can drive them away, but not for long. They’ll quickly get used to the smell and ignore it.”

The wilderness players who had assembled the team had told those of them from the cities about these bugs. They were everywhere underground, especially active in buried tombs. They would enter a person’s body through the five sensory organs, crawl into the brain, and first devour the brain matter. Then they would rapidly consume the rest of the body, leaving only bones behind. Like red earthworms, wherever they passed, only skeletons remained.

Whether living or dead, everything was on their menu.

The wilderness players had distributed some insect repellent to them, but she had tested it and found it to be quite useless. At first, it did emit a pungent odor that drove the bugs away, but once they got used to the smell, they would become even more frenzied.

For now, drawing a circle was just a stopgap measure.

Only then did Tang Yu realize that the object Song Lengzhu had taken out earlier was this piece of insect repellent.

But she had already used it once. Would it still be effective?

Tang Yu watched as the things called Corpse Scutigers drew closer. They probed the white line drawn by the repellent with their slender legs and did indeed retreat a couple of steps.

But soon, they began to crawl forward again.

“Bang.” Song Lengzhu acted first. As the Corpse Scutigers advanced again, she pulled out her gun, aimed at the foremost bugs, and opened fire without interruption.

Tang Yu moved at the same time. The tip of her knife swept through the swarm, sending a heap of severed limbs flying. The two stood back-to-back, each defending their own side.

The sound of Song Lengzhu’s gunshots was incessant, firing in almost continuous bursts. Only now did Tang Yu realize how formidable her weapon was. After a hundred shots, Song Lengzhu pulled another magazine from her utility belt. With only a three-second pause to reload, a new round of firing began.

If they were facing zombies, Song Lengzhu could have turned the tide all by herself. But now they were facing thousands of bugs. A hundred bullets merely cleared a small area in front of them, and the empty space was quickly filled by more bugs from behind.

Before long, some Corpse Scutigers crossed the white line, shrinking their circle of safety ever smaller.

Isn’t there anything that can deal with these things?!

Tang Yu opened the camp group chat and roared, “Li Chengjian, how do you deal with Corpse Scutigers? Quick, tell me.”

Waiting online, super urgent.

Li Chengjian clearly sensed Tang Yu’s urgency, but his own breathing was also very unstable, as if he were running at top speed. It took several seconds before he answered, “Insect repellent! The repellent can slow them down.”

“It’s not working. The repellent has already failed.”

“Bl00d, they might be afraid of wolf’s bl00d…” Li Chengjian didn’t finish his sentence. He suddenly let out a cry, and then there was only silence.

Tang Yu closed the camp chat, her heart sinking. It seemed her teammates had run into trouble too. Jin Ye and Zhou Zhou hadn’t even made a sound.

As for wolf’s bl00d, where was she supposed to find that? She had plenty of her own zombie bl00d, though.

Tang Yu glanced at the spot where they had landed. The bloodstain Song Lengzhu had left on the ground was now covered by Corpse Scutigers, so it was obvious that not just any bl00d would work.

Then would her own bl00d work? If the zombie virus infected these bugs, would they become even more aggressive?

Tang Yu didn’t stop swinging her knife. The blade flashed like a sword, and the ground was already stained with dark green bug fluid, leaving less and less space to stand.

Not only that, but the Corpse Scutigers on the ceiling suddenly stopped crawling. They seemed to have figured out a trick and began dropping directly from above, one landing in Tang Yu’s hair.

Tang Yu’s scalp instantly tingled. She let out a screech and frantically slapped the bug off.

She felt completely filthy.

Then, a second and third bug fell like raindrops, giving the two of them no chance to breathe.

Tang Yu gritted her teeth and threw caution to the wind, slashing her left arm with her knife.

Whatever bl00d it is, let’s just try.

Song Lengzhu caught Tang Yu’s action out of the corner of her eye and instinctively reached out to grab her sleeve. “Are you crazy?”

She hadn’t heard that Corpse Scutigers were poisonous. Why was this person acting like she’d lost her mind, cutting herself? But her eyes were clearly lucid.

Tang Yu shook off Song Lengzhu’s hand. Her cut was both vicious and steady, creating a wound the length of a finger. The cut on her arm was deep; her bl00d flow was slow, so she had to cut deep for the bl00d to even come out.

This was purely a last-ditch effort. Tang Yu had no idea if it would work. She flicked her arm, and a few drops of bl00d splattered directly into the swarm of bugs.

Tang Yu watched the bugs’ reaction nervously, her breathing slowing.

But unfortunately, the bugs splattered with her bl00d showed no reaction, or rather, they became even more frenzied after being mutated. Just like the crab Tang Yu had infected before, they became extremely aggressive.

Tang Yu cursed herself for being a fool, then quickly swung her knife at the mutated bugs.

The moment her knife fell, Tang Yu noticed that the surrounding bugs that hadn’t been touched by her bl00d had subtly retreated a few centimeters, avoiding the bl00d drops on the ground.

Song Lengzhu, who had been watching her, noticed this as well.

As more bl00d flowed from Tang Yu’s arm, the metallic scent in the air grew stronger, and the bugs’ retreat became more and more obvious.

The two of them exchanged a look, their faces filled with astonishment. Tang Yu’s bl00d was actually working.

The bugs dropping from the ceiling also began to avoid Tang Yu, concentrating their descent on Song Lengzhu instead.

Song Lengzhu quickly took a step toward Tang Yu, standing almost shoulder-to-shoulder with her. She said to Tang Yu, “It’s working. Squeeze out more bl00d.”

Tang Yu was momentarily choked up. It’s not your bl00d, so you don’t feel the pain.

But despite her thoughts, Tang Yu cut her palm as well.

The scent of bl00d gradually spread, filling the small cave. The Corpse Scutigers began to turn and retreat. As they retreated, Tang Yu advanced. Ten minutes later, she had managed to force the bugs back into the crevice they came from.

Tang Yu then smeared the bl00d from her palm around the crevice, preventing them from returning. The Corpse Scutigers that had been mutated by the bl00d droplets were shot to pieces, one by one, by Song Lengzhu.

The ground was a complete mess, a mixture of bug corpses and bl00d, along with the sticky fluid left behind by the crawling Corpse Scutigers. The sight was nauseating.

Once the crisis was averted, Tang Yu relaxed, finally having a moment to think about her bl00d. She was certain her bl00d had no insect-repelling properties. When she had returned to the village injured before, the mosquitoes, bugs, rats, and ants hadn’t avoided her.

In that case, it was highly likely that there was nothing unusual about her bl00d itself. Tang Yu recalled the liter of snake bl00d she had drunk earlier. That was almost certainly related.

Tang Yu put those thoughts aside and opened the camp group chat to check on Jin Ye and the others. She still didn’t know what her teammates had encountered.

It was a long while before Jin Ye gave a brief response: “Triggered a trap. Someone’s injured.”

Jin Ye didn’t say who was injured. It sounded like they were extremely busy over there, with no time to talk to Tang Yu.

Tang Yu guessed they had already found the entrance to the main tomb; otherwise, where would a trap come from in these deep mountains and old forests? She breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it was just an injury, it was fine. The most important thing was not to lose any members.

Tang Yu shifted her gaze back to Song Lengzhu, who had been staring at her ever since the fight ended.

Song Lengzhu was still standing inside that small, clean circle, having barely moved. She watched Tang Yu warily and warned, “Be careful with your bl00d. Don’t flick it around.”

She shouldn’t have said anything. The comment sparked Tang Yu’s rebellious streak. She raised her bl00d-covered left hand and approached Song Lengzhu step by step.

A playful impulse took hold of Tang Yu. She knew Song Lengzhu couldn’t understand her, but she mumbled anyway, “Come on, become a zombie. Being a zombie is great. Then we could talk to each other. You’d become useless, but if you were my follower, I’d protect you.”

She said whatever came to mind; it wasn’t like the woman surnamed Song could understand her anyway.

Seeing Tang Yu walk closer and closer, not stopping even after entering the circle, Song Lengzhu’s expression grew increasingly grim.

Tang Yu drew even nearer, close enough to touch Song Lengzhu’s neck.

Song Lengzhu took half a step back. The sharp pain in her calf made her sway slightly.

Tang Yu pressed forward, her gaze burning as she stared at Song Lengzhu’s snow-white neck.

“Don’t come any closer.” Song Lengzhu’s voice was now laced with a warning. She didn’t raise her gun, which was the greatest respect she could show for their partnership.

Tang Yu pouted. Seeing the other woman’s dead-serious face, she instantly lost interest in teasing her. When the bugs were chasing them, she had been so quick to stand beside her, but now she was avoiding her like the plague. What a pragmatic woman.

She did want to convert Song Lengzhu, but not now. They were still trapped in this rock peak. Losing a powerful combat partner would be of no benefit to her.

Tang Yu put some distance between herself and Song Lengzhu, then picked up the jacket she had thrown away. The bugs had crawled all over it, and although they were all gone now, there was no way she would wear it again.

Tang Yu tore off a relatively clean piece of fabric from the inner side and wrapped it around her left palm and arm as a makeshift bandage.

It wasn’t easy to apply force with only one hand, but Tang Yu’s bandaging movements were fluid. She put away her knife, freeing her hand to hold one end of the cloth strip. After wrapping the wound, she held the other end with her canine teeth and quickly tied a knot.

The knot was tied in a peculiar way, resembling a bow tie when finished. It wasn’t complex, but it secured the simple cloth strip to her arm effectively without being too tight, allowing the wound to breathe. It also looked quite neat.

Tang Yu’s movements were as smooth as flowing water, clearly the result of muscle memory.

Her side profile, as it fell into Song Lengzhu’s eyes, carried a trace of dashing heroism. This quality didn’t come from her appearance or physique, but from the aura of crisp efficiency and composure that she radiated from within.

This person has been injured many times. That was Song Lengzhu’s first judgment.

Her second judgment was that this zombie had a significant background. Song Lengzhu had seen that type of knot before; it wasn’t something an ordinary person would know how to tie.

Song Lengzhu stared at Tang Yu’s arm, lost in thought. She remained standing askew, putting weight on only one foot, until Tang Yu walked over carrying another clean strip of cloth.

Tang Yu pointed at Song Lengzhu’s leg, then handed the cloth strip to her. Her face still wore a disdainful expression, all but spelling out the words, “Hurry up and bandage it. Don’t slow me down.”

Song Lengzhu’s gaze fell on the strip of cloth. After confirming there were no bloodstains on it, she took it. She squatted down, half-kneeling on the ground, and deftly tied it around her still-bleeding wound. Compared to Tang Yu’s, Song Lengzhu’s knot-tying technique was much simpler and cruder.

“What’s your name?” Song Lengzhu looked up at Tang Yu.

Tang Yu froze for a moment, surprised that Song Lengzhu would ask for her name.

It was true. They had crossed paths so many times but had never exchanged names.

Should she tell her? Tang Yu hesitated.

“If you don’t want to say, I’ll just call you Little Zombie from now on,” Song Lengzhu said calmly, not taking Tang Yu’s hesitation to heart.

Now Tang Yu couldn’t stand for that. No way. “Little Zombie” sounded so weak; she would lose the psychological advantage right from the start.

She dipped the tip of her knife in some bl00d on the ground and, on the empty space in front of Song Lengzhu, wrote the two characters for “Tang Yu” with a flourish.

“Tang Yu.” Song Lengzhu softly repeated the name, then continued, “My name is Song Lengzhu.”