Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 91

Song Lengzhu felt a lump in her throat.

She had successfully completed the mission to kill the B-Class Zombie King as she had wished, yet she felt not a shred of joy. On the contrary, a heavy, oppressive aura surrounded her. She pressed her lips together, her expression so cold it could have frosted over.

Tang Yu’s fleeing figure moved swiftly. Song Lengzhu had seen this retreating back many times, from the initial clumsy jump off a building to the current lightning-fast escape. This zombie named Tang Yu was improving too quickly, so fast that Song Lengzhu was suddenly reminded to raise her guard.

How many more abilities did she have?

And what were her true intentions for traveling with her all this way?

Considering their past interactions, Song Lengzhu easily guessed that Tang Yu possessed an ability similar to copy-paste. Xiao Qi’s invisibility, Chen Deming’s teleportation—the abilities of everyone who had crossed paths with Tang Yu had inexplicably appeared on Tang Yu herself.

Right, and Lan Lin.

No wonder… in the ancient tomb, and in the battle just now, she had managed to turn every perilous situation into a safe one, and even seemed to be able to predict others’ attacks.

Song Lengzhu pulled her dagger from the corpse, her eyes dark and unreadable.

She quickly replayed all her contact with Tang Yu in her mind, filled with vigilance. She and Tang Yu had been in physical contact; they had helped each other so many times in the tomb. Could her own ability have been secretly copied at some point?

Her mind was a mess of thoughts. Song Lengzhu, dagger in hand, rushed toward the laboratory entrance like the other players.

What unsettled her most was that Tang Yu clearly had so many abilities, yet besides invisibility, she had never revealed any others in front of her. Was she trying to lower her guard, playing the pig to eat the tiger? Or was she also wary of her?

So their so-called teamwork was nothing more than a scheme born of ulterior motives.

The goodwill they had accumulated teetered on the brink of collapse in the face of a survival crisis. Song Lengzhu, who frequently walked the line between life and death, didn’t hesitate to assume the worst of her opponents. It was a survival instinct.

How vexing. For the first time, Song Lengzhu’s mind was in turmoil over someone else’s affairs.

But after running a few steps, Song Lengzhu suddenly stopped. She stood at the very back of a group of players, her gaze passing over the bustling crowd to land on Tang Yu, who was staring intently at the rats.

This little zombie already possessed such powerful abilities, yet her first choice was still to flee, not to attack. Could someone so lacking in ambition really be interacting with her for some hidden purpose?

Song Lengzhu wavered.

Someone with an agenda wouldn’t have handed her bandages and a hair tie.

Regardless, Song Lengzhu couldn’t deny that Tang Yu was special—so special that those around her would unconsciously trust and follow her, herself included.

At first, she had tracked her to eliminate a threat. Later, it became unclear whether it was fate or something else.

When posts about the zombie trio appeared on the forums again, Song Lengzhu immediately made her decision, leading her team to the restricted zone without delay. She had thought Tang Yu was the one who had appeared in the zone.

Thinking back now, Song Lengzhu couldn’t understand her own actions. Perhaps her time with Tang Yu in the tomb had lowered her guard, making her think of them as acquaintances. It wasn’t unreasonable to keep an eye on an acquaintance’s movements.

But forget acquaintances; the other party wasn’t even human.

Tang Yu was a zombie, and she had become a Zombie King in public. They stood on opposite sides.

“So vexing,” Song Lengzhu said aloud, a rare display of emotion.

Since she didn’t make a move, Xiao Qi and the twins didn’t either.

Noticing her captain’s unusual emotional fluctuations, Xiao Qi stood to the side, pursing her lips and widening her eyes as if she had discovered something incredible. Her cheeks puffed out, but with the twins staring straight ahead and being as quiet as ever, Xiao Qi had no one to gossip with and could only digest it silently.

Their captain normally never showed her emotions so directly. Why was she acting so abnormally now? Something was wrong, very wrong.

Unlike Song Lengzhu’s internal conflict, Tang Yu’s mind couldn’t accommodate these convoluted thoughts right now. Her head was filled with how to escape; she had no time to dwell on the piercing look Song Lengzhu had given her earlier.

The mutated creatures once again organized themselves and attacked the players, buying Tang Yu’s trio a chance to escape. Even a few seconds was life-saving time.

Tang Yu regrouped with Jin Ye and Xiao Li, who had caught up. The three of them scrambled with hands and feet, climbing over the fallen rubble and pipes, racing toward the surface.

She could have teleported directly to the hole on the surface, but Jin Ye and Xiao Li couldn’t. So Tang Yu chose to cover their retreat, buying her teammates more time.

Among the pursuing players were two top-tier experts. The mutated rats couldn’t stop them at all. Just as they had dealt with the B-Class Zombie King, these two unfamiliar players moved with exceptional speed. One of them was the man who had beastified earlier.

Watching the two of them closing in, Tang Yu let out an inopportune sigh of relief. Song Lengzhu hadn’t pursued them, nor had Li Luo. At least they wouldn’t face a pincer attack from a powerful alliance.

Nor would she face the awkward situation of fighting Song Lengzhu. She didn’t want to become her opponent again under these circumstances.

As if summoned by Tang Yu, more mutated creatures leaped down from the hole on the surface. There were a surprising number of them; who knew how many more were roaming above ground. Some landed directly on the beastified player’s face and body. With a swipe of his wolf claws, he tore them in half.

Once we’re on the surface, we’ll be fine! Tang Yu held her breath.

The base was so large, and it was night. They could find a place to hide anywhere.

Jin Ye and Xiao Li finally climbed out of the hole. By this time, the two pursuing players had completely surrounded Tang Yu. She shrank her body, and in the next second, she narrowly escaped the encirclement, landing on the ground above the hole.

She had to admit, this ability was incredibly useful for escaping.

The beastified player below shouted curses, “What the hell, I’ve never seen such a cowardly Zombie King.”

Previous Zombie Kings were always the type to take the initiative, to attack without fear or retreat. Compared to them, Tang Yu seemed completely out of place.

Tang Yu let them say whatever they wanted, her composure unshaken. Not only was escaping not shameful, it was very useful.

The surface exit was in a remote, open area on the west side of the park. Without stopping, the three of them plunged into a pitch-black building nearby. All the stray bl00d zombies and mutated creatures they encountered on the way were directed by Tang Yu toward the laboratory.

With this summons, Tang Yu discovered that the park had quite a few stray “employees.” She didn’t hold back, commanding them all to the front lines to act as shields.

As for the three of them, they found a storage room filled with supplies and hid inside, remaining silent.

Perhaps because they had run too fast and the players had lost their trail, or perhaps because Tang Yu’s level was too low to be worth a relentless pursuit, they managed to hide safely until dawn.

As dawn approached, the sky began to show the pale white of a fish’s belly. A faint light penetrated the vent of the storage room, casting a small patch of light on the wall.

Once the sun was up, their chances of being discovered would be much higher. The players might conduct a carpet search during the day. Tang Yu thought about calling Zhou Zhou and leaving the restricted zone first.

But Zhou Zhou’s reply was strangely insistent, telling them to return to the underground laboratory.

“I think I’ve found something incredible. Come back quickly, the lab is empty.”

Tang Yu’s mind was full of question marks. “Zhou Zhou, have you been kidnapped? If you’ve been kidnapped, just howl.”

Zhou Zhou sent a voice message to the camp group chat, saying in a deadpan voice, “Village Chief Tang, the most dangerous place is the safest place. The players won’t come back here. It’s better to stay here than outside. No joke, I really have a major discovery.”

Skeptically, Tang Yu led Jin Ye and Xiao Li out of the storage room. Looking from a distance through a window, she saw that there was no one moving around the hole that had been blasted open. Instead, there was a pile of bl00d zombie and mutated creature corpses, with a dozen or so live insects crawling over them, scurrying about brazenly.

If she had seen these large insects before, Tang Yu’s skin would have crawled. But now, it only made her feel secure.

Using the cover of the building, the three of them snuck back into the underground laboratory.

Zhou Zhou hadn’t lied; the laboratory was truly empty.

All that remained were bodies and severed limbs scattered across the floor, amidst the rubble and ruins.

Song Lengzhu was gone too.

Tang Yu couldn’t help but wonder if Song Lengzhu had left for good, or if she was staying in the restricted zone as a hunter, waiting for her to be cornered so she could deliver the final blow. Just like she did when killing the B-Class Zombie King.

Now that things had quieted down, Tang Yu finally recalled the look in Song Lengzhu’s eyes—so complex and guarded, it was a little hurtful.

Zhou Zhou interrupted Tang Yu’s thoughts, leading the three of them deep into the laboratory, to a small space formed by a collapsed cabinet. The triangular area seemed perfect for hiding. But just as Tang Yu bent down and squeezed her body inside, she was scared back out.

Inside, the corpse of the B-Class Zombie King was propped up neatly, leaning against the cabinet wall with its head bowed. At first glance, it was utterly terrifying.

Tang Yu figured Zhou Zhou’s research addiction must have flared up, wanting to even get her hands on a corpse.

It was entirely possible she had called them back just to move supplies.

Zhou Zhou pushed her back inside. The four of them and a corpse were crammed into a space where they couldn’t even stand up straight, forced to squat on the ground. A faint beam of white light shone in from above, landing right on the B-Class Zombie King’s head.

Zhou Zhou sent a text in the group chat: “Even though there are no players, it’s safer to hide. We can see outside from here, so we can observe the situation.”

Zhou Zhou pointed, and sure enough, there was a narrow crack through which they could see outside. The area was a sea of bodies and bl00d, and the stench was overwhelming.

Xiao Li couldn’t wait and asked in the group chat, “What did you find?”

Zhou Zhou picked up two items from the ground and held them under the light. One, a magazine-like book, was opened to a page that looked like a feature interview.

“We were all wrong,” Zhou Zhou said abruptly in a low voice.

The person’s photo in the interview and the bowed face of the B-Class Zombie King overlapped. Aided by the faint light, Tang Yu quickly noticed the connection.

The elegant woman in the white coat in the magazine looked exactly like the B-Class Zombie King.

Zhou Zhou pointed to the title below the photo: “Du Jiexu, Founding Director of the Base’s Brain Science and Brain-Like Intelligence Research Center. She wasn’t a test subject; she was a researcher here.”

And a very distinguished one at that, with a long string of titles.

Tang Yu couldn’t help but lean back and take a deep breath. She recognized the name; Zhou Zhou had shown her the files. She was the person in charge of those test subjects.

In other words, the Leader was not some victim who had been soaked alive in a culture tank, but the instigator.

No wonder she was so skilled with needles, so familiar with the terrain, and had two subordinates in white coats!

“And this.” Zhou Zhou switched the book in her hand. It was a thick notebook with a dark brown leather cover, a black pen clipped to it, and colorful sticky tabs on top.

Zhou Zhou opened the notebook. It was filled with professional jargon that Tang Yu’s group couldn’t understand, sometimes text, sometimes formulas and values.

Tang Yu frowned. Here we go again, Zhou Zhou showing them these things. At times like this, she really felt uneducated.

To her surprise, Zhou Zhou didn’t force an explanation of the contents on them. Instead, she flipped through more than half the notebook and stopped at a passage of messy handwriting.

The script was a stark contrast to the vigorous handwriting before it; it was utterly chaotic. The light illuminated the first few words, which were crooked and clearly written in a panic.

“I’ve been infected. They’re all dead, all dead!”