Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 69

The place where the group found themselves was an unfamiliar forest. The grass was deep and the leaves were lush. They could no longer hear the sound of the flowing stream, indicating they were some distance away from it.

Li Chengjian took out a compass, and the group followed its direction eastward. Jin Ye checked the historical tracks from time to time. After about three hours, they finally returned to the place where they had first been separated.

Under Zhou Zhou’s guidance, the two giant snakes crawled slowly behind the group. Feeling lazy, Zhou Zhou placed Xiao Li on the back of the red-eyed giant snake, occasionally checking on her physical condition. With everyone accompanying and looking after her, the situation was relatively stable.

Perhaps it was the intimidating presence of the two giant snakes, but not only did they not encounter any small snakes along the way, they didn’t see a single monkey or brown bear either.

While on the move, Tang Yu checked her game panel. This trip had involved assimilating and eliminating many players, causing her points and physical fitness to skyrocket. Her mission log had also undergone significant changes.

Tang Yu carefully reviewed it, noting all the data listed.

Player: Tang Yu

Points: 630

Basic Goal: Survive

Current Mission: Tomb Exploration (Settled)

Basic Skills: Alliance, Material Search, Disassembly (Next skill unlocks at 800 points)

Weapon Slot: Startling Dragon (Damaged)

Talents/Abilities: Copy, Invisibility, Foresight, Instantaneous Movement

Current Allies: Jin Ye, Lu Lu, Fu Mengqing

Affiliated Camp: A Close and Loving Family (Level 1), Position: Village Chief

Tang Yu clicked on the current mission, which was marked as:

【Mission: Tomb Exploration—Settled. Tomb Exploration Progress: 60%】

【Sub-mission: Kill the Snake King and Queen (Invalidated)】

【—Rescue the Snake King and Queen (Completed)】

【Reward settlement is as follows:】

【1. Mission Points: 100. Sub-mission completion, additional 30 points.】

【2. Physical Fitness increased to 260 (Initial value was 20).】

【3. Health increased to 55 (Initial value was 10).】

【4. Healing ability increased by 20%, Agility increased by 20%.】

A wave of joy washed over Tang Yu. On this trip, her physical fitness had increased by another 100. At the same time, the mission settlement had boosted her healing ability and agility, and she had gained a new ability. Jin Ye had said before that players with abilities were not common. A zombie like her, who had acquired four abilities in such a short time, would definitely cause panic among players. Tang Yu decided to keep them hidden and not reveal them unless it was a critical moment.

Everything was heading in a good direction, but strangely, Tang Yu’s health was increasing exceptionally slowly. Compared to the snake bl00d mission, it had only gone up by 5 points. With such a fragile health bar, it meant that if she suffered a fatal injury, she would die very quickly.

Tang Yu secretly asked Jin Ye about her health and found that after three missions, Jin Ye’s health had already risen to over one hundred.

Tang Yu couldn’t help but curse this damn game for its differential treatment.

Upon further inquiry, she learned that Jin Ye’s physical fitness was not as high as hers, but her points and healing ability were slightly higher. Jin Ye hadn’t received the sub-mission points for the giant snakes, but her group had encountered the main force in the tomb and had killed more players than Tang Yu.

Tang Yu felt relieved. Her teammates were also getting stronger, which was a good thing.

The group continued walking, following the original path back to the Old Blind Man’s residence.

The Old Blind Man must have learned of their impending arrival from some animal, as he was waiting for them outside the bamboo forest long before they arrived. Smelling the scent of the Snake King and Queen, the Old Blind Man rubbed his hands together in excitement. Zhou Zhou stepped in front of him and warned, “Don’t you get any funny ideas.”

The Old Blind Man said, “I cherish these creatures more than any of you.” The loss of that single wolf had pained him for a long time. He could accept animal casualties caused by the natural food chain, but he found it hard to accept unnecessary harm inflicted on animals by humans.

The Old Blind Man led the group through the bamboo forest and back to the bamboo house. In truth, even without his guidance, Jin Ye could have broken through the bamboo formation using her historical tracks. The Old Blind Man knew their camp’s location, and Jin Ye knew how to break his bamboo formation; it was a subtle way of evening the score.

Fu Mengqing and Xingyue heard the sounds of conversation and came out to greet them. After two days of rest, they looked much better.

The sudden appearance of so many strangers made the giant snakes a little wary. Coupled with the tiger squatting in the yard, the two sides eyed each other from a distance, each occupying its own territory.

The Old Blind Man muttered something and struck two stones together, which surprisingly eased the giant snakes’ tension.

The Old Blind Man asked them, “Are you taking these snakes back to your camp?”

Zhou Zhou replied, “Yes, we’re taking them back to treat their wounds. They’re quite heavily injured.”

The Old Blind Man nodded. “Treating their wounds is fine, but don’t keep them penned up in the camp. You can’t afford their appetite, and I can sense their deep hostility towards unfamiliar humans. It’s hard to say they won’t accidentally harm someone. Letting them roam free in the mountains is for the best.”

Everyone was stunned. They had only thought about treating the snakes’ injuries and hadn’t really considered what to do afterward.

Zhou Zhou pondered for a moment. “How about this? The giant snakes will stay here with you to recover. I’ll go back to get the medicine and then come here to treat them. You and Xingyue can communicate with them and help me apply the medicine. Once they’ve healed, you can let them return to the forest.”

The Old Blind Man stroked his beard and smiled. “Alright. It’s a good opportunity to teach my little apprentice. However, I can see these snakes are quite fond of the zombie in your team. They’ll probably come to visit you often.”

He spoke of the two giant snakes as if they had the temperament of children. For a moment, everyone was slightly taken aback, then they shared a knowing smile.

Zhou Zhou then asked the Old Blind Man for some herbs for external injuries and applied them to Xiao Li’s wounds. Xiao Li was still unconscious, but color was beginning to return to her face, and she no longer looked so deathly pale.

During a break in their discussion of the arrangements, everyone sat on the ground, replenishing their energy with compressed biscuits and water. Having not eaten for nearly two days, they hadn’t felt it much in the perilous tomb, but now that they had relaxed, Tang Yu felt like she was starving to death.

From the Old Blind Man’s idle chatter, Tang Yu learned that Song Lengzhu’s group had also visited the bamboo forest before they arrived. They had confirmed the trade list with the Old Blind Man before leaving in a hurry.

Song Lengzhu had actually remembered her promise to the Old Blind Man. Tang Yu glanced at Xingyue. With someone supplying daily necessities, at least her younger sister’s basic needs would be met.

The final decision was for Fu Mengqing to return to the camp with Tang Yu first to sort out the division of labor and living arrangements. Afterward, she would come back to stay with Xingyue for a while. Once Xingyue could manage her daily life on her own, she would return to the camp for the long term. Both sisters had been added to Tang Yu’s camp group. As a member of “A Close and Loving Family,” Fu Mengqing also had to do her part in the camp’s construction.

After everything was settled, Tang Yu asked Li Chengjian about his future plans. She had mentioned to him that if he wanted to stick with her and remain in the game, she would find another place for him to live.

Li Chengjian responded quickly, having clearly thought it over privately.

“I’ve decided to stay. Besides, I’ve finally obtained these jade artifacts, and I need to put them to use. As for a place to live, my original team had our own base, right here above Ghost Valley. I can just go back to my own base.”

Li Chengjian looked at Tang Yu and the others with a hint of respect on his face. “You guys are very loyal. You helped me get my revenge. And you didn’t abandon a teammate when I was injured before we entered the great tomb. It was a pleasure working with you. Um… if you’re willing, I’d be happy to become your ally. If there’s anything you need my help with, just let me know.”

He opened his panel and sent ally requests to Tang Yu and Jin Ye, both of whom confirmed. As for the camp group, Tang Yu temporarily removed Li Chengjian, maintaining only their ally status.

Tang Yu pointed to the iron chains behind her and asked Li Chengjian, “The weapon forger you mentioned, is he a player or an NPC? Where does he live?”

“He’s a player. He lives not far from my base. If you have time, you can come with me. Oh, but you’ll need to bring a human translator, since we’re both zombies now.”

Tang Yu thought for a moment. “How about this? Jin Ye and Mengqing will take Xiao Li back to the camp to rest first. Zhou Zhou and I will go with Li Chengjian.” Forging a weapon was an urgent matter. With Startling Dragon’s blade chipped, Tang Yu’s sense of security had been cut in half.

Zhou Zhou wanted to refuse the job of being a translator, but there was no one else available. A smile remained on her face, but inwardly she was cursing, praying that Xiao Li would wake up soon and get this lawless bunch of zombies under control.

Once the plan was set, everyone immediately got up and started moving. The Old Blind Man generously summoned six enormous monkeys to serve as transportation for Tang Yu and the others. He also taught them some simple monkey-training methods, including simple commands for summoning, stopping, and walking.

Tang Yu looked up. Though they were called monkeys, these animals were more like gorillas, nearly two people tall, towering and strong. She wondered how many other rare and exotic beasts were hidden in these deep mountains.

The most intelligent of them, a white monkey, took on the responsibility of carrying Xiao Li. It held Xiao Li in one arm as if cradling a baby monkey and leaped a great distance. Jin Ye clung to the back of another monkey and eagerly followed.

This method was much faster. The groups soon parted ways at a fork in the road.

The monkeys didn’t take ordinary paths. They leaped between tree branches several meters high, startling Tang Yu and Zhou Zhou, who clung tightly to their backs as the wind whistled past their ears. But once they got used to the speed, they found it incredibly thrilling and exhilarating, wishing they could jump even higher.

Li Chengjian led the way, while Tang Yu and Zhou Zhou dragged the iron chains bundled with the bronze swords behind them. In less than four hours, they arrived at the base Li Chengjian had mentioned.

It was a small camp converted from an abandoned brick house, filled with many treasures he and his former teammates had found. The three of them paused for a moment, waiting for Li Chengjian to put away the miscellaneous items from his backpack, before heading to the so-called forger’s residence.

Unlike the burly blacksmith Tang Yu had imagined, the forger Li Chengjian spoke of was actually a very young player. He was probably the same type of person as Zhou Zhou, having put all his skill points into his interests. The forger lived alone in an abandoned brick factory. Inside the huge warehouse, numerous cold weapons were displayed like a collection. It seemed he had been here for a long time.

Tang Yu didn’t show herself, letting Li Chengjian and Zhou Zhou handle the transaction.

The forger’s commission was also simple and direct: he would take a portion of the materials given to him. The share wasn’t large, just enough for him to forge a weapon for himself.

Among the materials Zhou Zhou handed him, the quality of the iron chains was surprisingly the best, with the bronze swords being secondary. Nevertheless, they were all rare, high-grade materials.

Tang Yu’s request was clear: use the best materials to repair Startling Dragon. The remaining materials were to be made into daggers or longswords to be distributed among the others in the camp.

The forger and Li Chengjian were friends, so he readily accepted the order, telling Tang Yu to come back in ten days to pick them up.

Things went unexpectedly smoothly, so Tang Yu and Zhou Zhou rode the monkeys and rushed back to the village without delay.

As they passed the bottom of the cliff, they even found the backpack Lu Lu had thrown down. The two of them smiled helplessly; the bag had been thrown for nothing… it hadn’t served any purpose at all.

When they returned to the village, Tang Yu found it strange. The village was empty. In broad daylight, there wasn’t a single person working in the surrounding fields.

Tang Yu and Zhou Zhou hurried back to their residence, only to find all the aunties gathered in Xiao Li’s room. The cramped earthen house was packed with nineteen people, and the faint sound of sobbing could be heard.

Tang Yu and Zhou Zhou were startled, thinking something terrible had happened to Xiao Li in the four hours they were gone. They stood on their tiptoes and finally managed to see Xiao Li on the bed.

Both Jin Ye and Xiao Li had changed into clean clothes. Xiao Li seemed to have just woken up. She was sitting up, leaning against the headboard, clutching Jin Ye’s arm and trembling all over like a small animal.

The aunties’ hearts ached for her. They chattered with concern, one after another, but no one could hear what anyone was saying.

Aunty Zhu, holding a bowl of freshly cooked fish soup, squeezed her way to the front. She sat on the edge of Xiao Li’s bed and coaxed her softly, “While you were unconscious, we went to the stream and caught two crucian carp. There’s not much else nutritious in this village, so have some of this first…”

Xiao Li reached out to take the bowl. The horrifying knife wound on her arm, no longer covered by her clothes, was exposed to everyone’s sight. The aunties instantly stopped their chattering and fell silent, no longer speaking.

Aunty Zhu turned away, secretly wiping tears with the back of her hand. She had spent a lot of time with Xiao Li, who was usually mischievous and endearing, and she had grown very fond of her. Seeing Xiao Li brought back to the village covered in bl00d had been incredibly painful for Aunty Zhu.

Xiao Li took a small sip of the fish soup, and a warmth spread from her throat to her limbs. She tried hard to control her trembling and forced a smile. “I’m fine, Aunties. Don’t worry.”

“How can you be fine!” Aunty Pang, who was beside her, took the bowl from Xiao Li and began feeding her spoonful by spoonful. “Look how thin you’ve gotten. You can’t even hold the bowl steady. You just rest well during this time. With so many of us women here, we’ll definitely nurse you back to health, all plump and fair.”

Seeing Xiao Li in this state, they tacitly agreed not to ask her what she had been through. Xiao Li probably didn’t want to talk about it now, so they wouldn’t ask.

Standing at the very back, Zhou Zhou saw this scene, sighed silently, and left the room.

The aunties stayed in the room for a long time, telling Xiao Li to rest well and recounting what everyone in the village had been doing for the past few days. They used their clumsy ways to soothe Xiao Li’s frightened emotions, trying hard to make the little girl forget those unpleasant events.

It wasn’t until Zhou Zhou returned with her medical case and said that Xiao Li needed quiet rest that the aunties finally dispersed in twos and threes.

Seeing Tang Yu and Zhou Zhou, who had just returned, covered in filth and looking pale, Aunty Zhu quickly said, “I’ll go boil some water and make you something to eat. You kids, you’ve all gotten so thin you’re just skin and bones.”

Tang Yu smiled helplessly. They had only been gone for three or four days; it wasn’t that much of an exaggeration.

After everyone had left, Xiao Li’s muffled sobs could be heard from within Jin Ye’s embrace. She hugged Jin Ye through her clothes, burying her head in Jin Ye’s chest, her crying suppressed and very quiet.

Jin Ye held Xiao Li, her heart aching beyond words. She patted Xiao Li’s back again and again. “If you want to cry, just cry it out. It’s okay now, it’s okay.” Yet she herself bit her lip, desperately trying to keep her own emotions in check.

Only then did Xiao Li let out a loud cry.

Tang Yu stood to the side with her hands hanging down, her heart aching terribly.

After a good while, once Xiao Li had stabilized her emotions, Zhou Zhou sat down beside her with the medical case. She said, “Let’s get this straight, I’m not saving you. You’re just extremely weak right now. You’ll be fine after some rest. You don’t need me to save you.”

Despite her merciless words, her hands moved quickly. She gave Xiao Li an antibiotic injection to prevent her wounds from getting infected, then placed some medicine by Xiao Li’s bed. After checking Xiao Li over from head to toe, she said, “The main issue is bl00d loss, and some of her internal organs have sustained some damage. A bl00d transfusion would be the most effective way, but we don’t have the means for that. Her body’s self-healing ability has been pushed to its maximum right now. The fact that she woke up is a good sign. Just let her rest well. In about a month, she should be able to move on her own.”

She then took out some previously collected and dried Chinese herbs for nourishing bl00d and qi and handed them to Jin Ye. “Boil this with three bowls of water until only one bowl is left. Have her drink it once a day.”

Jin Ye nodded gratefully, feeling that Zhou Zhou was no longer as distant as she had been before.

Xiao Li softly said her thanks, then asked, “Did you find Xingyue?”

Zhou Zhou poked Xiao Li on the head. “You little girl, still worrying about others. We found her. Let Jin Ye tell you about that experience slowly. I have to go save my little snakes now.”

With that, Zhou Zhou picked up her medical case and walked out of the room. The sky was already getting dark, but she had learned the monkey-summoning call from the Old Blind Man, so a round trip wouldn’t take much time.

After Zhou Zhou left, Tang Yu urged Xiao Li to lie down and rest. Xiao Li blinked her eyes and refused Tang Yu’s suggestion. With tears still wet on her face, in front of Tang Yu and Jin Ye, she took the initiative to talk about what happened after she fell from the cliff.

Xiao Li spoke very slowly, and her account was very brief. She said that she had probably died once after falling, which triggered her resurrection ability. Resurrection was a passive ability; as soon as the user died, the ability would automatically trigger, lasting for about a minute. When Xiao Li woke up again, she saw many people surrounding her. They were shocked to see her awake, and then became ecstatic, saying something about how the ominous tomb might need a bl00d sacrifice, and that the person they had just found would be a perfect offering. So they took her onto the boat.

On the way, Xiao Li tried to escape, but how could one person fight against twenty? They grabbed her by the hair and dragged her back onto the raft. In the chaos, someone cut her main artery, and Xiao Li fell into a long slumber.

While recounting these events, Xiao Li tried her best to keep her voice steady, but her entire body was trembling. Although she could be resurrected, the pain and fear she had experienced were very real. How could she not be afraid?

Tang Yu clenched her back teeth and said, “It’s okay now. We killed the people who hurt you.”

Jin Ye held Xiao Li tightly, her voice hoarse. “I’m sorry. I failed to protect you.” She had already lost Xiao Li once before. She had promised to protect this little girl, yet such a thing had happened again.

Xiao Li was silent for a moment, then said softly but firmly, “I want to get stronger.”

She repeated, “I want to get stronger. I’ve been captured twice now. I can’t always live under your protection. I want to do missions, earn points, and become as strong as you.”

Xiao Li’s physical foundation wasn’t bad, but because she was petite and endearing, people had always taken care of her, so her physical fitness had increased very slowly. Before, it was Jin Ye and her brother who protected her. Now, it was Tang Yu and Jin Ye clearing the path for her. She had always contributed the least in fights. But when she had to face danger alone, she discovered that she had neither the calm judgment nor the physical ability to escape on her own. This was extremely detrimental to her growth.

She couldn’t always be the one who gets saved.

Tang Yu couldn’t help but sniffle. She was very happy that Xiao Li had such thoughts. “Okay, we’ll get stronger together!”

Jin Ye turned away to secretly wipe her tears. Seeing the tearful Jin Ye, Xiao Li finally broke into a smile. She threw herself onto Jin Ye’s back and switched to a lighter tone, “Alright, now it’s your turn to tell me what happened.”