Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 89

Tang Yu peeked over the aluminum case, her eyes looking toward the center of the battle.

The fight outside was raging. Now that they had no more reservations, most players pulled out their firearms. All sorts of guns spat fire without a moment’s rest.

But absurdly, the Zombie King was still active. It had retained the agility of a mutated human, weaving between the players so fast that even Tang Yu couldn’t see its figure. After becoming a Zombie King, its abilities had improved by a large margin, and it had completely lost its human sanity.

Its expression was ferocious, its bl00d vessels and nails bulging. When it struck, it aimed straight for the heart or eyes, its hands dripping with fresh bl00d. Faced with the siege of so many people, not only did it not dodge, but it charged head-on. When it encountered players with heavy firepower, it would simply grab nearby humans to block the bullets. Many players couldn’t retreat in time; one moment they were firing their guns, the next they were grabbed by the collar and turned into human shields, dying at the hands of their own teammates.

This undoubtedly deepened the players’ anger. More than half the laboratory had become a battlefield. Much of the equipment was riddled with holes, and the walls were covered in bullet marks. More and more fluorescent lights shattered, and the entire lab gradually grew dimmer.

The mutated creatures pouring in endlessly also seemed to have received a command, pouncing on people all at once. Cockroaches, centipedes, insects, mosquitoes, rats, and ants—any creature that lived on the surface of the restricted zone had been summoned.

Even if they couldn’t bite you to death, they would disgust you to death.

How were they supposed to fight this?

Xiao Li poked her head out from the side. “This zombie is a bit too strong. We can’t even kill-steal if we wanted to.”

Tang Yu looked at the numbers on her panel. “Let’s wait a bit longer. Once the players have weakened it some more, we’ll go for the kill.”

She just hoped the players would be a little more effective and get the Zombie King down to critical health before the progress reached 100%.

Her wish soon showed signs of coming true. Some players who had been holding back some of their strength couldn’t stand it anymore and began to attack with all their might.

Song Lengzhu’s team also made their move.

Tang Yu’s gaze easily fell upon Song Lengzhu, because she was too eye-catching.

No matter how fast the Zombie King dodged, Song Lengzhu pursued it just as fiercely. She held a gun in her left hand, firing at the Zombie King without stopping. Even when a player was used as a shield, she would pull the trigger without hesitation, the continuous stream of bullets grazing past the player’s ear and peppering the Zombie King.

Song Lengzhu’s speed couldn’t keep up with the Zombie King’s; there was always a distance of one or two steps between them. But once she attacked, she latched on and wouldn’t let go, her sharp eyes focused intently on the enemy’s figure. Not a trace of fear could be seen on her lean face.

Tang Yu couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. Song Lengzhu was truly someone who grew stronger when faced with a strong opponent.

Such a person was too dazzling. Even the other players watched, clicking their tongues in amazement. A spectacular fight like this wasn’t something you could see every day.

Tang Yu’s face grew slightly warm, her bl00d pumping from being so invested in the battle. A strange sense of shared honor and pride rose within her, making her want to show off to others: Look, that’s someone I know, isn’t she amazing!

But this feeling didn’t last long. A figure among the players rushed out, cleverly blocking the Zombie King’s path forward. With Song Lengzhu, they formed a pincer attack, trapping the Zombie King between them.

Tang Yu was slightly stunned. She focused her eyes on the figure that had suddenly appeared. Coincidentally, she knew this person. It was Li Luo.

Song Lengzhu’s steps faltered for a moment, then she seized the opportunity and fired three consecutive shots. Just as the Zombie King was about to dodge, a shattered operating table flew through the air toward it. The broken steel pipes were sharp, forcing the Zombie King to take a step back. It avoided the pipes but not the bullets. As it happened, one of the bullets sank into its right shoulder with a pfft.

Song Lengzhu and Li Luo had coordinated, actually managing to injure the Zombie King.

This undoubtedly boosted the players’ morale. Someone shouted, “Beautiful!”

After their first success, Li Luo repeated the tactic. She and Song Lengzhu attacked the Zombie King from the left and right, their coordination surprisingly seamless. They advanced and retreated in sync, disrupting the Zombie King’s rhythm several times.

Li Luo was different from those reckless and selfish players. She knew how to coordinate with others. Consistent with the good manners she had shown when borrowing the oil, she maintained a basic level of courtesy and deference during the fight. This dissolved the invisible competition between players, leaving only increasingly effective cooperation.

This was a good sign. The tide was turning against the players, and the Zombie King was gradually put at a disadvantage.

Tang Yu’s mood, however, was not as high as before. She frowned, feeling only irritation. She had cooperated with Song Lengzhu so many times, yet their synergy had never been this good. Why was this woman surnamed Li so adept?

Why? Because her own abilities couldn’t keep up with Song Lengzhu’s, so she couldn’t give Song Lengzhu the space to perform like Li Luo could. Tang Yu didn’t want to admit this.

A stifling frustration of unknown origin lodged in her throat, feeling tight and uncomfortable. Tang Yu arbitrarily attributed it to her own competitive spirit acting up.

Song Lengzhu and Li Luo’s performance also caught Jin Ye’s attention. Like a sports commentator, she exclaimed, “This Li Luo seems to have a telekinesis ability…”

“Not only that, I feel like she’s still holding back. To be able to stand directly in front of the Zombie King is something only a top-tier player can do. But she seems to be hiding it, not making it too obvious… Oh my god, that move with Song Lengzhu was perfectly coordinated!”

As Jin Ye marveled, the Zombie King was sent flying by a specimen cabinet that came out of nowhere. The cabinet was extremely heavy, but it flew with the speed of lightning. After knocking the Zombie King away, it pinned it against the wall. It was obvious someone was controlling the heavy metal.

Song Lengzhu stopped at the corner of the wall. The moment the Zombie King was hit by the cabinet, she fired continuously, every shot aimed straight at it.

Xiao Li also cried out in surprise.

Tang Yu couldn’t listen anymore. She looked up at her game panel. The value had reached 88%. The Zombie King was now at critical health; she had to get ready.

Who cares about Song Lengzhu or Li Luo? Her own life was more important.

Tang Yu forced herself to focus and took out her handgun. The gun she brought from the village wasn’t as high-grade as Song Lengzhu’s, but it was capable of continuous fire and had decent attack power.

In the midst of shifting her focus, Tang Yu suddenly remembered Zhou Zhou. She asked, “Where’s Zhou Zhou?”

Zhou Zhou didn’t seem like the type to get involved in such an intense battle, but with figures moving all over the lab, she had lost sight of her in an instant.

“Over there.” Xiao Li lifted her chin and pointed in a direction.

Among the players, an unconventional figure was darting about. Zhou Zhou was very busy. She wasn’t hunting the Zombie King, nor was she fleeing for her life. Instead, she was pushing several small medical devices she had her eye on, using extremely slick footwork to avoid the center of the battle and move the equipment to a spot not far from the aluminum case.

She looked just like a warrior scavenging on a battlefield.

Zhou Zhou’s expression was serious. They could have their fight, but this equipment couldn’t be destroyed. Besides, that Li Luo person was a veritable equipment-destroying king. She had to hurry up and rescue some of it.

Watching Zhou Zhou run around, Tang Yu wiped away a cold sweat. Sure enough, birds of a feather flock together. Zhou Zhou’s resource-hoarding was becoming more and more in the style of “A Family.”

Amidst the chaos, a cry of alarm rose from the crowd.

The heavy specimen cabinet was moved aside, but the Zombie King was nowhere to be seen behind it.

The players immediately fell into a commotion, looking around everywhere. At the same time, the mutated rats suddenly went berserk, leaping up from the ground and jumping straight for Li Luo’s and Song Lengzhu’s faces, obstructing their movements.

Crap, the Zombie King escaped.

Just as this thought flashed through Tang Yu’s mind, a cold gust of wind appeared out of nowhere behind her head. The airflow disturbed the air and crept down her neck. In an instant, instinct drove Tang Yu to drop to the ground, pulling Jin Ye and Xiao Li down with her.

The afterimage of a swinging arm flashed past the spot where Tang Yu had just been crouching. Tang Yu’s eyes flew open. Through her semi-transparent game panel, she clearly saw the Zombie King’s face, suddenly magnified.

Immediately after, the value on the panel jumped to 92%.

The Zombie King is injured. That was Tang Yu’s first reaction. Song Lengzhu’s bullets and the cabinet controlled by Li Luo had both hit the Zombie King, leaving scrapes and several bullet holes on its body.

But they weren’t fatal.

The bullet holes passed through its heart, yet they hadn’t killed the Zombie King.

She, or rather it, was truly no longer human. Only by destroying its spine could it be killed.

Tang Yu sprang up from the ground in an instant. The next moment, she appeared out of thin air behind the Zombie King, a gun in her left hand and a knife in her right, attacking its neck and knee joints from above and below.

She had activated her teleportation ability while the other players hadn’t yet noticed her.

The Zombie King had fought Tang Yu before. In its eyes, Tang Yu was just a rookie zombie with decent predictive ability but slow movements.

It didn’t know Tang Yu could vanish on the spot and reappear behind it.

This underestimation gave Tang Yu the upper hand. Coupled with the Zombie King’s injuries, Tang Yu’s knife actually slid easily across its shoulder blade. So she put away her gun, not making a sound.

Unfortunately, the Zombie King lived up to its name. The moment it sensed something was wrong, it flashed forward, and the knife failed to injure its spine.

Tang Yu vanished again.

This time, it was invisibility.

The Zombie King was a little annoyed and simply turned to grab Xiao Li and Jin Ye.

Perhaps because they had Tang Yu as backup, Xiao Li and Jin Ye advanced instead of retreating. Their longsword and dagger both thrust out, aiming straight for the Zombie King’s eyes.

In the Zombie King’s eyes, these two were even bigger rookies than Tang Yu. The speed at which the longsword stabbed toward it was like slow motion; it only needed to dodge slightly to avoid it.

But it suddenly caught a figure in the corner of its eye. Tang Yu, holding her knife, appeared out of thin air. The knife swung horizontally, its blade tracing an arc of light that rang with a metallic clang.

What new trick was this? The Zombie King adeptly retreated, easily avoiding the attacks of the three in front of it.

But the knife’s attack suddenly changed direction, as if it had predicted its movement. Before the momentum of the swing had even dissipated, it thrust straight forward. At that exact moment, Jin Ye suddenly struck, attempting to grab the Zombie King’s wrist with her bare hands.

Xiao Li knew she wouldn’t gain any advantage by attacking from the front, so she circled behind the Zombie King to block the enemy’s retreat for her teammates.

The three were instantly in position. Tang Yu regained some confidence. The synergy she had with her teammates was no worse than that of the other two. Now that the other players hadn’t arrived yet, she could switch her abilities at will. She wasn’t that much worse than others, was she?

The instant Jin Ye’s hand touched the Zombie King’s wrist, Tang Yu’s knife stabbed its neck. The blade cut through flesh like mud. As soon as it touched bone, it was as if it guided Tang Yu’s hand, shifting to a horizontal slice.

Just as she was about to slit its throat, an abrupt gunshot shattered the rhythm.

The bullet grazed the blade of Startling Dragon and shot toward the Zombie King.

This shot shouldn’t have interfered with Tang Yu’s attack; in fact, it had the momentum of a dual-pronged assault. But the Zombie King was incredibly agile. In that split second, it found an opportunity to counterattack. It suddenly erupted, twisting its body to dodge the bullet, and grabbed the blade of Tang Yu’s knife. Disregarding its already mangled and now cut hand, it slid its grip along the blade and seized Tang Yu’s wrist.

Damn it! The chance to kill was fleeting. Tang Yu couldn’t help but curse inwardly. She looked up and saw a large group of players running over, with mutated creatures in hot pursuit. At the lead was Song Lengzhu, her hair slightly disheveled, her gun barrel still smoking.

Tang Yu felt a breath catch in her chest, unable to release it. What the hell was wrong with Song Lengzhu?

Just as she was about to struggle free from the Zombie King’s grip, her gaze fell on the hand it was using to grab her. Tang Yu’s heart raced, and she immediately switched to her copy ability.

She hadn’t used this ability in a month and almost didn’t react in time.

The notification sound in her mind arrived as expected. She didn’t know what she had copied.

Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any major side effects.

Tang Yu felt a little better, but when she glanced at the progress on her game panel, she couldn’t help but jump in frustration.

98! It was at 98! She could have killed the Zombie King just now.

Damn it, that blasted Song Lengzhu!

Song Lengzhu was completely unaware of the twists and turns in Tang Yu’s mind. She felt it was a pity her bullet hadn’t finished off the Zombie King, but she was also somewhat relieved that its life was still intact, preventing a repeat of the C-Class Zombie King incident.

She had worked so hard to get the Zombie King to critical health. If the mission settlement credited Tang Yu again, wouldn’t all her effort be for nothing, just paving the way for someone else? Even though she and Tang Yu were acquainted, friendship was one thing, and business was another.

Song Lengzhu flashed to Tang Yu’s side. She swung her injured right hand toward the Zombie King, but it was just a feint, intended to force the Zombie King to release Tang Yu.

Perhaps Song Lengzhu had left a psychological scar on the Zombie King, making it think she was about to unleash some ultimate move. The Zombie King actually released Tang Yu’s wrist and jumped onto the aluminum case.

Song Lengzhu spoke in a “you’re welcome” tone, “Little zombie, you got lucky last time. This time, please don’t steal my mission.”

She spoke with righteous conviction, only to find Tang Yu’s expression growing uglier and uglier.

There was no hint of gratitude. Instead, it looked like Tang Yu wanted to eat her alive.

What’s wrong with her? Did she eat gunpowder?

Song Lengzhu’s expression didn’t change, but inwardly, she was faintly annoyed by Tang Yu’s reaction.

She had kindly helped her by forcing the Zombie King back, so why the long face?