Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 62

The small snakes pouring out of the bronze wine vessel quickly surrounded more than half of the tomb chamber. It was unclear which nook or cranny they had crawled out from. For a moment, Tang Yu thought the maidens and musicians on the rock walls had come to life, transforming into snakes to besiege the intruders.

Tang Yu was holding the iron ball with both hands, her combat ability completely nullified. She relied entirely on Song Lengzhu to push back the swarm of snakes.

A few ideas flashed through her mind like lightning. She decisively chose to ask for outside help.

“Jin Ye! How do you secure the bianzhong mechanism? We’re surrounded by small snakes!”

Jin Ye sounded confused, “What small snakes? You ran into snakes?! The mechanism on our side doesn’t need to be secured. How are you? Is it serious?”

Jin Ye also grew anxious, but distant water couldn’t quench a nearby fire.

Tang Yu’s breath hitched. Jin Ye and the others hadn’t encountered the same predicament. It was unclear if it was because Chen Deming’s group had scouted the path first, or if the mechanisms on the east and west sides were different. It was no help as a reference. Tang Yu didn’t have time to reply and just yelled, “No time to talk.”

She should have realized this sooner. Jin Ye’s group had found another chamber with the same structure by using the low-pitched yongzhong, but on her side, only the stone door had changed. Although the structure and burial goods of the east and west chambers were identical, the mechanisms were completely different.

The request for outside help had failed; they had to find another way.

Besides this mechanism, the two had another option: not to trigger the mechanism, push open the stone door, and return to the original passage.

However, that passage was exceptionally dangerous. After the stone door had rotated several times, there was no telling if the passage’s traps had changed. Under pursuit by the snakes, they had no time to check the safety of each floor tile one by one.

But this new passage faced the same problem. Its structure, whether it also hid traps—everything was unknown. Her line of sight was blocked by the stone door, so Tang Yu couldn’t predict the situation outside.

Could she use another heavy object to hold down the iron ball? Tang Yu kicked a nearby yongzhong. The bell instantly buzzed and wobbled continuously. No, it was too light. The tomb builder had clearly thought of this; the weight of this set of bianzhong had been reduced. Besides, the bottom of the yongzhong was crescent-shaped and couldn’t hold the iron ball in place at all.

The huge bronze titong with snake patterns was heavy enough, but it was too far away. It was impossible for one person to move it.

Tang Yu gave up on the idea.

In a matter of breaths, the snake swarm drew closer. Tang Yu glanced at the gun in Song Lengzhu’s hand. She had already fired over forty rounds, and her remaining ammunition was low. Tang Yu relaxed her grip, planning to join the fight first to deal with the immediate crisis.

She had just loosened her grip for half a second before she tightly grabbed the iron ball again.

Her precognition ability told her that if she let go this time, the iron ball could never be pulled out again. This mechanism could only be triggered twice.

Damn it, whoever designed this mechanism was just too vile.

Tang Yu grunted twice, and as Song Lengzhu turned back, she pointed her chin towards the stone door, signaling for her to go first.

Song Lengzhu’s brow furrowed slightly, as if she was about to refuse the suggestion. Before the other woman could speak, Tang Yu looked back at her with a determined gaze.

Tang Yu was thinking that perhaps there was a corresponding mechanism in the passage that could be disarmed. If Song Lengzhu went to look for it first, there might be a glimmer of hope. As long as Song Lengzhu passed through the stone door, Tang Yu could free her hands to deal with the snakes. Her knife had no other hardware limitations, so she could hold out for a while.

Unfortunately, the two of them couldn’t communicate, so she couldn’t express such a complex idea. She was forced to suffer in silence.

As Tang Yu expected, Song Lengzhu spoke, but it wasn’t to refute her suggestion. Instead, she said four short words: “Take care, then.”

Tang Yu: ???

Song Lengzhu spoke quickly and in a calm tone, but her words made Tang Yu’s bl00d boil. This person wasn’t being polite at all!

Although Tang Yu herself had suggested the other woman go first, when she readily accepted and actually left, Tang Yu started to sulk. The fragile trust they had just built collapsed because of those four words. Old grudges and new hatreds were reawakened. Tang Yu was so angry she gritted her teeth. The more she thought about it, the more something felt wrong. Would this Song woman just leave on her own after getting out? Did she have no intention of coming back to save her?

Hah, maybe I should just let go. If we die, we die together. The thought flashed through her mind but was quickly suppressed by Tang Yu. If she really did that, she would have fallen right into the trap’s design.

Wasn’t such a sinister trap designed precisely to exploit the selfish nature of profit-driven tomb raiders who only pretended to cooperate? If no one held onto this mechanism, everyone would die.

The moment her words fell, Song Lengzhu turned and left without waiting for Tang Yu’s reaction. The firepower from her gun suddenly intensified, firing three bullets in a single shot, forcefully repelling the snakes in front of her and clearing a path the width of a foot.

Song Lengzhu took a breath and leaped. Before the snakes could swarm again, she lightly tapped the ground with her uninjured left foot, pushed off a stone table with both hands, and in the midst of flipping over, grabbed a bronze rod from the table that looked like a stirring stick or a cane. Before landing, she fired several more shots and continued to leap and flip until she reached the stone door on the opposite side.

Pushing the stone door alone required great strength. In the time it took Song Lengzhu to exert force, two or three small snakes had already crawled onto Tang Yu’s hiking boots, their heads raised.

Her gear was similar to Song Lengzhu’s; her tactical pants were tucked into her high-top hiking boots, so for the moment, she didn’t have to worry about snakes crawling up her pant legs. But these small snakes were fast, climbing onto Tang Yu’s thigh in the space of a breath.

Damn it, if Song Lengzhu doesn’t open the door faster, I’m going to die here. She could already imagine the slimy touch of the small snakes. They would climb onto her skin, gnaw her down to nothing, and then mutate into a nest of zombie snakes.

Tang Yu’s breath hitched. Grasping the iron ball with both hands, she used it as leverage to flip herself over in mid-air. The small snakes that hadn’t gotten a firm grip were flung to the ground. Tang Yu immediately stomped on a soft snake body, crushing it to a pulp.

But immediately after, more snakes swarmed her.

Why is she so slow! Tang Yu cursed Song Lengzhu relentlessly in her mind. The goodwill she had painstakingly built up vanished in that instant.

But despite her cursing, she still held onto the iron ball for dear life.

The stone door made a faint sound as it was pushed. Song Lengzhu had finally managed to open it a little. During the time she was pushing the door, several small snakes had latched onto her leg. Her tactical pants had a hole in them, and the snakes, attracted by the dried bl00d on her leg, bit down on the wound almost as soon as they climbed on.

From a distance, Tang Yu watched as more and more snakes latched onto Song Lengzhu’s leg. She guessed that Song Lengzhu was most likely poisoned, but the other woman showed no discomfort on her face, nor did she try to clear the snakes from her leg.

As soon as she pushed the door open, she wedged the bronze rod she was holding between the open stone door and the frame. Then, with almost no pause, she returned to the tomb chamber.

Tang Yu was dumbfounded, watching as Song Lengzhu moved two large bronze lei from a nearby stone table and placed them in the gap of the door.

What was she doing?

While Tang Yu was still confused, she saw Song Lengzhu standing in the dimly lit doorway, beckoning to her.

“Tang Yu, hurry up.”

It dawned on Tang Yu in an instant. She understood Song Lengzhu’s plan. She was actually trying to forcibly resist the mechanism’s operation, using such a simple and crude method!

The moment the iron ball was released, the stone door buzzed. As expected, it would soon rotate into the ground. But the heavy bronze vessels were wedged firmly in the gap, delaying the movement.

The instant the stone door began to tilt, Tang Yu tapped her feet on the ground and leaped towards the snake swarm. She barely cleared a path, landing directly among the snakes before instantly pushing off the ground again, rushing towards the door gap.

There wasn’t enough time.

The bronze rod was already being crushed out of shape. The entire stone door, along with the passage, was tilting. The large bronze lei emitted a sharp metallic crack, having been forcefully cracked by the pressure of the stone door.

The gap had become extremely narrow due to the tilting, but Song Lengzhu still stood there straight, waiting for Tang Yu.

Veins bulged on Tang Yu’s neck. Before the stone door could completely turn, she leaped with all her might, flying towards Song Lengzhu.

Would she grab her? Or would she take a step back, wary of her threat? At this moment of life and death, did their trust still count for anything?

The question had just flashed through Tang Yu’s mind when Song Lengzhu reached out, even faster than in her precognition, and firmly grabbed her right wrist, pulling her in.

At almost the same instant, the bronze vessels could no longer withstand the pressure of the stone door and broke into two pieces. Some flattened fragments were carried directly into the rock crevice.

Pulled by a powerful force, Tang Yu fell into the passage. She felt a warm, pleasant scent very close in front of her. Before she could react, the world spun, gravity suddenly changed direction, and they plummeted straight towards the ceiling.

The passage had flipped over.

The moment they landed, the force on her wrist vanished. Song Lengzhu let go of Tang Yu and even gave her a push on the abdomen to put some distance between them. They each fell to the ground separately.

The distance from the ceiling to the floor tiles wasn’t very high. Tang Yu got up immediately after landing and swung her knife to eliminate the small snakes clinging tightly to her flesh. Her body was already covered in many small, bleeding wounds from the snake bites.

Tang Yu moved her limbs. Fortunately, the numbness caused by the snake venom wasn’t too strong. It was probably because her zombie toxin had affected the snakes’ potency.

Only then did she turn to look at Song Lengzhu.

Song Lengzhu was also clearing away the small snakes, but her injuries were more severe than Tang Yu had imagined. The wound on her right leg had been torn open again, and the surrounding area was marked by snake bites. In the deeper bite marks, bone was even visible.

The snake venom quickly invaded Song Lengzhu’s nerves, paralyzing half her leg, which was why she was still sitting on the ground.

However, thanks to this, the bloody holes deep enough to reveal bone didn’t cause her too much pain.

Tang Yu felt a little guilty. After all, she had wrongly assumed the woman would leave her to die, yet it seemed Song Lengzhu never even considered escaping alone, enduring the snake bites to resolutely move those heavy bronze vessels.

Tang Yu looked at her own wrist. The spot where Song Lengzhu had grabbed her had no wounds or bl00d. Her feelings were complicated. If she could have used this opportunity to infect Song Lengzhu, she would have been happy to see it happen, but deep down, she didn’t seem to want the other woman to be infected by her like this.

Tang Yu comforted herself again. After all, they still had to escape together, and Song Lengzhu’s ability couldn’t be nullified just yet.

After clearing away the snakes, Song Lengzhu looked up and saw Tang Yu’s face, flickering between light and shadow, staring at her wrist, lost in thought. She lowered her gaze and said, “I deliberately avoided your wounds when I reached out. What? Are you disappointed?”

Tang Yu snorted, putting on a regretful expression to go along with it, tacitly agreeing with Song Lengzhu’s words. This woman could still pay attention to such details in a crisis.

Thinking back, it was true. When they landed, Song Lengzhu had even pushed her through her clothes, afraid of touching the bl00d on her. Unfortunately, during their skin-to-skin contact, Tang Yu didn’t have time to activate “Replication,” though it was also highly likely that Song Lengzhu hadn’t been using her ability either.

Seeing Tang Yu’s reaction, Song Lengzhu fell silent and said no more. She propped herself up with one hand, used the wall beside her for support, and stood up to take a step forward. Her footing was clearly unsteady.

The snake venom was more potent than she had imagined. Although these small snakes didn’t carry much venom, it was enough to affect her movement. Coupled with the pre-existing injury on her leg, it was like adding frost to snow. In a tomb, a leg injury was not a good thing; it was equivalent to losing half one’s life.

Tang Yu subconsciously reached out to support her, but then thought better of it, retracted her hand, and stood to the side, her face scrunched up.

I’m sorry, I was cursing you too loudly in my head just now. I take it all back.

Song Lengzhu lowered her eyes and said, “You don’t need to feel indebted. You told me to go first, so I naturally had an obligation to help you escape. We’re even.”

She said no more to Tang Yu and looked up to survey the passage.

The stone door had flipped underground, and the passage they were in had also completely turned over. The passage looked the same as the one before, except now the neatly laid floor tiles were above their heads, and the flat rock ceiling was under their feet. The ever-burning lamps on both sides were all upside down, yet not a single bit of the solid lamp oil had fallen out.

Tang Yu took two steps forward. This rock ceiling had no traps; it was safe to walk on.

She looked up. The passage still stretched endlessly under the light. Now that up and down had been reversed, this was no longer the same passage as before. Where did this path lead? Would it be a dead end?

Seeing that Song Lengzhu could still walk while leaning on the wall, Tang Yu pointed ahead down the passage. The passage was dangerous; they couldn’t stay here for long.

“Let’s go,” Song Lengzhu said in a low voice.

The two of them walked forward along the rock ceiling. As they illuminated the darkness ahead, they discovered that this passage was not the same as the one they had walked through before. After several dozen steps, the passage suddenly made a sharp left turn.

Song Lengzhu mused, “If we were going in the normal direction, this passage should lead to the chamber on the right.”

But now, to their right, there was a stone wall.

Where would the left path lead?

Tang Yu shook her head. No, this was the correct direction. As long as no one was holding the iron ball under the bianzhong, this passage was designed to flip.

The moment Tang Yu shook her head, Song Lengzhu also figured it out. They exchanged a look and stepped onto the rock ceiling to the left.

This brand-new passage was longer than Tang Yu had imagined. It felt like they had walked for at least ten minutes, covering five or six hundred meters at a minimum. This tomb palace was astonishingly large.

Fortunately, aside from the fear induced by the darkness, no other dangers appeared in the passage. This made Tang Yu a little suspicious; she felt the tomb’s owner wouldn’t be this kind.

At the end of the passage was another stone door. Unlike the previous ones, this door had no paintings or text on it; it was as clean as a stone wall.

Tang Yu took a deep breath and placed her hand on the door. We’ve come this far, what else can we do? Let’s push.

Song Lengzhu moved to her side, and they pushed together, opening a crack in the door.

Peeking through the crack, they saw a wall behind the door. They pushed harder for a while, and just when they thought it was a dead end, a round opening suddenly appeared in the wall.

In the center of the opening was an S-shaped curve of stone, making the entire circle look like a Taiji yin-yang symbol.

Tang Yu took a step forward and stuck her head through the opening to look inside.

After getting a clear view, she sucked in a cold breath. Behind it was not a tomb chamber, but a huge natural cavern. Stalactites grew from the ceiling, and the ground retained its uneven, rocky surface, with only a wide bluestone path laid down the middle.

This cavern was not inverted; it was in a normal orientation.

The light only illuminated a limited area, so Tang Yu simply squeezed through the left side of the S-shaped stone. Just as she landed, Song Lengzhu climbed through from the right.

The moment they stepped onto the bluestone slabs, the stone door slammed shut behind them, cutting off their retreat. Tang Yu was already used to this. She withdrew her gaze and looked down at the bluestone slabs beneath her feet.

Strangely, these slabs had jade inlaid at their four corners. Each slab was one meter wide and two meters long, carved with the same serpentine script Tang Yu had seen before, crookedly covering every stone.

Tang Yu didn’t notice anything unusual as she stepped on them, so she moved forward.

After eight slabs, the light finally reached the center of the cavern.

The stone slabs underfoot came to an abrupt end at a deep pit. Before them was a three-meter-wide stone pit filled with a massive pile of corpses, a shocking sight of countless white bones.

Tang Yu saw human skulls of various sizes on the surface, as well as the bones of various animals like wolf skulls and snake bones, all piled and intertwined.

The bone pit was circular, surrounding a huge stone altar.

The altar was octagonal, with a stone pillar at each corner. The pillars were carved with text, and at the top of each was an inverted triangular snake head with eyes of inlaid gold ore. Their gaping maws looked down upon the intruders below.

Above the stone altar, eight chains were fastened to the cavern ceiling like the frame of a tent. The other ends of the chains passed through the stone pillars and extended towards a low-lying area in the center of the altar.

From their position, Tang Yu and Song Lengzhu couldn’t see what was in the center of the altar. To get a closer look, they would have to cross the bone pit and climb onto the altar.

Song Lengzhu took two steps back, looked up at the iron chains for a long time, and uttered three words.

“Like an altar.”