Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 78

Xiao Li slowed the van down, increasing the distance between the two vehicles from one hundred meters to three hundred. She followed the taillights that flickered in and out of sight on the asphalt road.

Jin Ye couldn’t help but question, “This isn’t a trap, is it?”

Just as she finished speaking, the taillights ahead flashed a few times and came to a stop. Farther in the distance, a scattering of orange-red lights flickered, suggesting someone was camped there.

“Look over there.” Tang Yu pointed forward through the windshield. In the impenetrable darkness, several enormous black silhouettes stood tall. Judging by their outlines, they looked like seven or eight large buildings covering a vast area. At this moment, there were no lights in the buildings; they were completely dark.

The woman hadn’t lied to them. She had actually led them to the restricted area.

Xiao Li parked the van over a hundred meters away, keeping a distance from where the car had stopped.

The young man and woman got out of their car first, spent a moment near the scattered orange flames, and then turned back to walk toward the van.

Tang Yu activated her enhanced vision. She could see clearly that five people were sitting around the orange fires, talking closely with the young man and woman. They seemed to be the teammates the woman had mentioned. Two vehicles were parked in front of the tents. Besides them, there were no other players in this area.

The flickering firelight illuminated the outline of a wire fence. The continuous fence enclosed the entire research base. The base covered a huge area. Besides the seven research buildings, there were also endless single-story houses. It spanned a vast area with flat terrain. Disregarding its dilapidated and silent state, it was a sizable industrial zone, which explained why it was built in a sparsely populated suburban area.

Judging by their position, they weren’t at the main gate but in a remote location. Perhaps because of this, there weren’t many players nearby.

As the woman approached the car window, Tang Yu and Jin Ye once again buried themselves in the pile of luggage.

Xiao Li rolled down the window, blinking her eyes at the woman.

The woman pointed toward the research buildings and said, “The restricted area is right here… By the way, would you like to join us by the fire? It’s getting dark, and zombies might appear nearby. It’ll be safer if we stick together.” She thought for a moment and added, “My name is Li Luo. My teammates are all very nice, so you don’t have to worry.”

The friendly, win-win transaction had likely given Li Luo a favorable impression of Xiao Li’s group, so she subtly extended an invitation to form an alliance.

Li Luo looked to be around the same age as Zhou Zhou, about twenty-five or twenty-six. Her hair was tied back in a bun, giving her a neat and sharp appearance. Her face wasn’t exceptionally striking, but her features were well-proportioned, and she possessed a calm, mature aura.

From her position, she could see Zhou Zhou and Xiao Li sitting in the van. Li Luo was momentarily puzzled as to why a two-person team would dare to join in on this, but then she thought that one shouldn’t judge by appearances. What if these two young girls were incredibly powerful?

Xiao Li said, “No, thank you. We’re fine in the van. By the way, aren’t your teammates going into the restricted area?”

Li Luo was a little disappointed at the rejection, but it didn’t show on her face. She replied kindly, “It’s too dangerous to go in at night. We’ll go in tomorrow during the day.”

Xiao Li felt like chatting and leaned on the window, continuing to ask, “Li Jie, do you know much about this restricted area? The two of us… this is our first time hearing about it. We just came to see what’s going on and want to know a bit more.”

Xiao Li knew how to act cute and harmless when talking to people. Seeing this, Li Luo didn’t hide anything and said, “We’ve done some research on the restricted areas. Rumor has it that the eight restricted areas were where the first mutated zombies appeared. So, the government in power at the time sealed off these eight places for nearly half a year, forbidding anyone from entering or leaving, until the world fell. That’s why they’re called restricted areas.”

Xiao Li let out a sound of surprise. “So, the restricted areas weren’t created by the game?”

“No, they already existed within the game world. At first, nearby players would just call them the research lab restricted areas, but calling all eight places by their full names was too cumbersome, so it became a convention to call them Zone 1, Zone 2, and so on. We’re in Zone 2.”

Xiao Li drew out a long “Ohhh.” She was among the earlier players to enter the game, but her area of activity was far from any restricted areas, so she didn’t know much about them. Xiao Li asked again, “So what kind of monsters are in the restricted area?”

“All sorts. Every living thing that was trapped inside became a monster.”

Everyone in the van was stunned. The concept of “every living thing” was far too broad.

Li Luo sighed. “I don’t know why the zombie trio appeared here. Logically, they’ve appeared in other places too, so it doesn’t seem like they were mutants trapped inside.”

“Maybe the ones inside aren’t the zombie trio,” Xiao Li mentioned casually. Li Luo was slightly taken aback, clearly not having considered that possibility.

After a moment, she shook her head, dismissing Xiao Li’s suggestion. “You should still be careful. Don’t underestimate the enemy.” She said no more, waved to Xiao Li, and returned to her team.

Tang Yu poked her head out from the pile of hiking bags, her eyes shining brightly. “The players rest at night, so we’ll be active at night.”

Her judgment was correct. Most players wouldn’t move around in the dark. The distant research institute was completely dark, and human vision would be severely compromised, making it impossible to fight the zombies that went berserk at night.

After equipping their supplies and checking their weapons in the cramped van, the group got out from the other side.

Their clothes were all black, allowing them to almost melt into the night. The cloud cover was too thick tonight; looking up, one could barely see any moonlight or starlight. The only light nearby was the campfire lit by Li Luo’s group. Only much farther away was there the white glow of camping lanterns, where other players were stationed.

Using the van and some earthen mounds for cover, the four of them crouched down and moved toward the wire fence, heading in the opposite direction of Li Luo’s camp.

Soon, the firelight in their vision shrank to the size of a green bean. Seeing that the distance was sufficient, Tang Yu looked up at the wire fence, which was over ten meters high. She activated her ability, her vision far surpassing that of an ordinary person.

Warning signs were posted at intervals along the wire fence, indicating high voltage and prohibiting anyone from approaching. She didn’t recognize the triangular symbol on them, but Zhou Zhou did. A small circle in the center, surrounded by three crescent-shaped sectors, a black symbol on a yellow background—it was the biohazard symbol.

Tang Yu looked down at her feet. The overgrown weeds on the ground stopped abruptly before the wire fence. The exposed earth was a deep brown color. On the other side of the fence, not a single blade of grass grew.

All signs indicated that the area inside the restricted zone had been contaminated by something.

However, players on the forums had already entered the restricted area, and Li Luo’s group also planned to go in. These contaminants probably wouldn’t cause any short-term harm to the human body.

They didn’t know if the wire fence was still electrified, and they had no tools to test it. High voltage was not like a normal current; even the slightest touch would be disastrous. They had to wait.

As the night grew deeper, zombies did indeed appear. Gunshots rang out from near Li Luo’s camp. Before long, faint gunshots could be heard from all directions. There were quite a few players camped in the vicinity, just far apart.

Very few zombies besieged Tang Yu’s group. Tang Yu deliberately put away her weapon, walked a short distance, and slapped a zombie. The zombie followed her to the wire fence and was kicked into it by Tang Yu without any warning.

The zombie showed no signs of being electrocuted. It seemed the power to the entire restricted area had been cut.

Xiao Li had some trouble finishing off the zombie. She was a little out of breath and said in a low voice, “The zombies around here are tougher to kill than in other places.”

Jin Ye was worried. “If the zombies by the wire fence are like this, the mutants inside are probably even harder to deal with.”

Just as she finished speaking, Tang Yu caught sight of a human figure in her peripheral vision.

This person was standing inside the base’s grounds, on the other side of the wire fence, staring blankly at Tang Yu’s group. To be able to see a human silhouette without any light meant the person was very close to Tang Yu.

When did they appear? How could there have been no sound at all?

The hairs on Tang Yu’s arms stood on end, and the muscles in her shoulders tensed instantly. She could feel her heart beating rapidly, her bl00d boiling, yet a chill rose on her skin.

The figure remained motionless and didn’t attack, like an inanimate object. A standoff like this was not a solution. Tang Yu decided to teleport inside the grounds first to see what this mysterious thing was.

However, she couldn’t use her abilities simultaneously. To teleport, she had to deactivate her enhanced vision first. Just as she was about to switch abilities, a large, decayed face lunged at the wire fence, opening its mouth and roaring at the four of them.

Tang Yu took a closer look. A large number of wandering zombies had appeared out of nowhere in the pitch-black grounds. Two or three nearby zombies sensed their presence and began to close in. They ignored the human figure standing beside them and headed straight for the wire fence, their limbs twisted to an impossible degree, yet their movements were unaffected.

As they got closer, Tang Yu realized these zombies were different from the ones outside. They retained almost no human features. Their faces were a rotten mess, their eye sockets were sunken, and the shape of their eyeballs was barely discernible. Their entire bodies looked as if they had been fished out of sulfuric acid; the degree of decay was astonishing.

Their movement speed was much faster than that of ordinary zombies. They practically leaped from the ground, lunging at the wire fence in an instant. The sturdy fence was knocked back and forth, making metallic clanging sounds. Fortunately, the zombies didn’t climb up the fence, only growling gutturally through its gaps.

In that moment, the human figure standing behind the zombies suddenly spoke. It was a very faint female voice, as quiet as a mosquito’s buzz, yet the words were exceptionally clear, drilling straight into their ears.

“Hmph, overestimating your own abilities.”

Almost as soon as the words were spoken, the figure abruptly vanished, leaving only the zombies raging impotently on the other side of the fence.

It took Tang Yu half a second to catch her breath. She frowned, her tone serious. “It seems she was targeting us.”

This guess wasn’t baseless. From the moment the figure appeared, Tang Yu and her group had been put in a position of being scrutinized. That person was observing them.

And they had come specifically for this, observing them directly.

“Did you get a clear look at her face?” Tang Yu asked her companions.

The others all shook their heads. It was pitch black; even Tang Yu hadn’t seen clearly, let alone them. From the silhouette, they only knew it was a female of about the same height as Xiao Li.

“Is it the human from the zombie trio?” Xiao Li said, gritting her teeth in frustration. How could the person playing her role be such an arrogant person? Xiao Li felt a strong dislike.

“A human who appears in this place and isn’t attacked by zombies—who else could it be?” Jin Ye’s tone was heavy. They had originally thought it would take some time to find the so-called zombie trio, but instead, the other party had come straight to them. The four of them hadn’t even set foot inside the restricted area yet.

This was not a good sign.

Tang Yu attributed this behavior to a deliberate attempt by the other party to provoke them. She had to admit, the person had succeeded.

On this trip, Tang Yu swore she wouldn’t rest until she caught the person and got to the bottom of this.