Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 85

Tang Yu leaned over to take a look and asked Zhou Zhou, “Can you tell what kind of project this was?”

“It should be about brain development. The data for these test subjects is clearly off; the activity level has been almost doubled, if not more.” The brain’s functions have always been a key area of research. A normal person’s brain is only developed to a small extent. If more functions were unlocked, who knows what terrifying level humanity could reach.

“Like those mutated creatures in the courtyard?” The thought suddenly flashed through Tang Yu’s mind.

Xiao Li poked her head over. “So, you’re saying these are all mutated humans?”

“Uh… that’s a bit of a crude summary, but… I guess you could put it that way,” Zhou Zhou said, pressing her forehead.

Tang Yu stared at the bodies in the glass tanks. After observing for a long time, she noticed that their chests and lungs were no longer moving. There was no breathing or heartbeat. They must have been corpses for a long time, simply preserved as if in formaldehyde, not decaying.

Seeing that she couldn’t glean anything more, Tang Yu followed the line of glass tanks deeper into the lab. Song Lengzhu moved as well, following by her side with her hands behind her back.

The lab was so vast it seemed endless, as if the entire underground of the base had been hollowed out. The view was obstructed by a lot of equipment. An indistinct silhouette appeared next to the medical instruments placed directly ahead, but it was impossible to see clearly what it was.

Everyone was still absorbed in the speculation that the Leader might be a test subject, feeling somewhat stunned.

“These test subjects must have been alive when they were put in,” Xiao Li was still muttering. She moved closer to Jin Ye and whispered, “Otherwise, how could they have measured their brainwaves?”

“Who knows,” Jin Ye replied to Xiao Li in a very low voice. The two of them, separated by a single step, followed Tang Yu’s pace, one behind the other.

After about ten steps, Tang Yu turned back and realized that Zhou Zhou hadn’t followed.

Tang Yu initially thought Zhou Zhou had run off to check some equipment somewhere else, but when she looked closely, where was Zhou Zhou’s figure in the lab?

They were clearly just a few steps apart, yet their teammate had vanished into thin air without making a sound.

Tang Yu hurriedly called out, “Zhou Zhou?”

There was no response.

Beside her, Song Lengzhu’s expression also grew grave. She and Tang Yu ran back at almost the same time, getting closer to their respective teammates.

Just as Tang Yu reached Xiao Li and Jin Ye’s side, a pair of hands suddenly shot out from under a nearby operating table and grabbed Jin Ye’s ankle. They were intact hands, not rotten like a Bl00d Zombie’s, aside from the clearly visible black bl00d vessels on the wrists.

Jin Ye gasped, took a step back, and swung her sword to strike.

The opponent was extremely agile. The moment Jin Ye launched her attack, it retracted its hand, dodged, and darted out from the other side, leaving only a lightning-fast afterimage for everyone to see.

Before they had time to think, Zhou Zhou’s voice suddenly erupted from ahead: “Tang Yu, over here! Someone’s ambushing me!”

Tang Yu looked up and saw Zhou Zhou jumping around with someone. She didn’t know when Zhou Zhou had run ahead. At that moment, two figures were circling a pile of aluminum boxes, and it was hard to tell who was chasing whom.

As long as she’s not missing, Tang Yu thought, taking a deep breath and chasing after them with her knife.

She had just taken a single step when the figure that had been hiding under the operating table shot out from somewhere and struck at Tang Yu’s eyes.

A long, thin steel nail was reflected in Tang Yu’s pupils. Its tip grew larger and larger, carrying a murderous aura as it instantly arrived before her eyes.

The eyes uncontrollably shut when attacked; it’s the body’s instinctive protective mechanism. Tang Yu fought against this instinct. She couldn’t close her eyes, or she wouldn’t be able to dodge the attack. Instead of retreating, she advanced, bending at the waist and thrusting her knife forward. At the same time, she turned her head. The steel nail grazed her cheek, drawing a trickle of bl00d.

The opponent’s attack on her was ineffective, but Tang Yu’s attack worked. The blade of Startling Dragon grazed the ambusher’s shoulder, piercing the skin and leaving a bloody gash on its shoulder.

The exchange happened in an instant. Before a single breath was finished, the two figures sprang apart, as if fearing another strike from the other.

This time, Tang Yu got a clear look. It was a rather short young woman with delicate features, almond-shaped eyes, and arched eyebrows, but she had no trace of human vitality.

Xiao Qi cried out from the side, “A B-zombie!”

The B-zombie’s movements were a bit slower than the A-zombie’s. Coupled with Tang Yu’s precognition ability, she was able to injure it in a single strike.

After its ambush failed, the B-zombie didn’t linger in the fight. With a few light taps of its toes, it quickly distanced itself from Tang Yu.

Jin Ye and Xiao Li gathered around, and the three of them stood together. Tang Yu looked toward Zhou Zhou’s direction. Song Lengzhu had, at some point, already reached the aluminum boxes and was entangled in a fight with the other figure.

“Let’s go. We can’t get separated,” Tang Yu said to Jin Ye and Xiao Li, rushing to regroup with Zhou Zhou.

As they got closer, Tang Yu finally saw clearly the figure fighting Song Lengzhu. It was the A-zombie that had disappeared.

Now, the A and B-zombies had joined together. With their backs to the aluminum boxes, they faced off against Song Lengzhu, Tang Yu, and the other six, like two opposing armies.

There were no Bl00d Zombies behind them. The two zombies, one tall and one short, had blank faces, showing neither fear nor joy.

Compared to them, Tang Yu’s expression was much more animated. She hummed twice, a look of delight on her face.

Eight against two. The advantage is ours.

Song Lengzhu glanced at her, finding it amusing. The contrast made her realize just how active Tang Yu’s facial expressions were—so active they were almost excessive. She often wore her emotions on her sleeve, which was actually a bit cute. Realizing the thought that had surfaced in her mind, Song Lengzhu immediately composed herself and looked away.

Unfortunately, Tang Yu’s delight didn’t last long. After a standoff of barely ten seconds, they heard footsteps from the empty lab behind them.

Not just one. The squelching sound of bare feet stepping in mud was everywhere.

They were all too familiar with that sound. Tang Yu cursed under her breath and turned to look behind her.

A middle-aged woman in a white shirt and shorts appeared at the lab’s entrance. Her clothes were clean and tidy, and she wore a pair of high-top hiking boots. Her long hair was neatly tied in a bun at the back of her head. Though small in stature, she carried herself with great elegance and pride, creating a stark contrast with the bl00d-drenched zombies standing behind her.

Bl00d Zombies crawled out from every corner and gathered behind her. Their rotting feet squelched on the concrete floor. There were at least forty of them, and their numbers were still increasing.

Tang Yu instantly realized this was the Leader.

With the Leader in front and the A and B-zombies behind, they were trapped in the middle. It was now eight against forty. The advantage was with the enemy.

The Leader’s gaze fell on Song Lengzhu’s face. Her nostrils flared slightly, as if in anger, and she said in a loud voice, “You just won’t let go, will you.”

She spoke in a human language.

Tang Yu sized up the Leader. There were no black lines on her neck, nor any other zombie characteristics. She was indeed one hundred percent human.

Song Lengzhu didn’t respond, but Xiao Li couldn’t help but get angry. “Who are you? Why are you impersonating us?”

“Impersonate?” The Leader seemed to have heard a funny joke, casting a sidelong glance at Xiao Li. “What do you think you are? Why would I need to impersonate you? You’re nothing but a bunch of parasites.”

Everyone was stunned. Parasites? They had never heard that term before.

The Leader stepped forward with her horde of Bl00d Zombies. Her gaze rested on Tang Yu and Jin Ye for a moment before moving away.

Tang Yu could clearly feel that there was no kindness in that gaze. It was as if the other party didn’t see them as people at all, but rather as pitiful and disgusting maggots.

What was going on? The feeling this Leader gave off was just too strange.

Even with conflicts between humans, they would never fail to recognize their opponents as the same species. But this person clearly didn’t see them as her own kind.

Tang Yu decided to use her old trick to confirm the woman’s identity first. She moved closer to Xiao Li and instructed, “Try to add her as an ally.”

Xiao Li raised her arm and scanned the area. Her eyes were filled with shock, but then she felt it was to be expected. “No. She’s really not a player.”

Then she’s an NPC. Tang Yu looked at the woman’s clothes. The golden tree of life embroidered on her chest was identical to the one on the clothes of the people in the glass tanks.

So she really is a test subject.

Her setup is identical to theirs. Could it really be a coincidence? Tang Yu felt a headache coming on.

Xiao Li cursed under her breath, “And to think I just felt sorry for her for being captured for experiments. Turns out she’s this obnoxious.”

Zhou Zhou added, “If she really is a test subject, everyone needs to be extra careful. Her mobility might have already surpassed normal limits.” No matter what this research project was, this person had definitely mutated. She had never seen such active brain data.

In the instant they were talking, the Leader stopped walking. Without any visible action or gesture from her, the Bl00d Zombies behind her seemed to receive a command out of thin air, moving past her to attack the group of eight.

At the same time, the A and B-zombies also sprang into action.

Jin Ye was just about to raise her sword to face them when Song Lengzhu barked coldly, “Don’t move yet.”

The moment her words fell, each of the twins took out a button, flicked their thumbs, and pressed it.

A sudden explosion, like the sky falling, erupted from the lab’s entrance. It was deafening, and the tremors transmitted from all directions to their feet, making the floor shake violently.

The resulting mist of bl00d sprayed out in all directions like a disoriented downpour. The Bl00d Zombies crowded at the entrance were reduced to a pile of scattered limbs.

Along with the mist of bl00d, the nearby brick walls also came crashing down.

Tang Yu finally understood what the “bricks” in the twins’ hands were.

Small, remote-controlled bombs.

To think Song Lengzhu actually had something like this.

It made sense, though. Back in Ghost Valley, they had also carried grenades.

So that was it. Tang Yu realized that from the moment they stepped into the underground lab, Song Lengzhu had been prepared. They had already been trapped like turtles in a jar upstairs once. With the same trick appearing again, there was no way Song Lengzhu would fall into the same trap twice.

The Leader clearly hadn’t expected this. The instant the bomb exploded, her figure flickered and vanished from her spot. When she reappeared, she was standing in front of the glass jars containing the brains.

Is it a teleportation ability? Tang Yu wondered, inwardly alarmed.

No, it wasn’t. Although the Leader’s movements were incredibly fast, Tang Yu could catch the afterimage she left in the air. The woman had solidly run over there; it wasn’t a teleportation ability.

So fast. Unbelievably fast. Even faster than Zhou Zhou’s evasion. Tang Yu finally understood how the Leader had vanished before their eyes at the wire fence.

Is this the mutated human created by the experiments?