Surviving the Game as a Zombie - Chapter 98

The woman gritted her teeth and got up, pulling a steel bow and a quiver from under the bed and slinging them onto her back.

Such a weapon was quite rare in the apocalypse. Arrows were bulky, so one couldn’t carry as many as bullets. Moreover, as a cold weapon, it was laborious and thankless to use.

Tang Yu sized up the bow and could see that many additional parts had been installed on it. Short blades were attached to both ends, allowing it to be used as a scimitar for close combat when necessary.

The woman leaned on Jian Che’s shoulder, apparently having heeded her advice to relocate. With every step she took, the bandage on her waist quickly seeped with fresh, dark red bl00d. The wound was recent and hadn’t scabbed over, tearing open with the slightest movement.

Tang Yu frowned as she watched.

Due to the woman’s injuries, they didn’t go far. Jian Che settled the woman inside an old, roofless car behind the shack. The spot was on the other side of the garbage mountain and was indeed hard to notice.

After confirming the woman was well hidden, Jian Che returned to the shack alone and pulled a small knife from under the pillow.

The knife had crude forging marks; both the hilt and blade were made of iron, looking like a weapon fashioned from materials scavenged on-site from the scrapyard.

Well, it’s a bit better than a wooden stick.

“Tang Yu, where did you go?” Jin Ye’s urgent voice came through Tang Yu’s earpiece. Unable to see their teammate, they couldn’t help but ask.

Tang Yu immediately responded, “I’m at the shack. Xiao Li, hurry over and recruit someone!”

Instead of typing, she spoke directly, simultaneously appearing before the shack’s door flap and waving toward Jin Ye’s hiding spot.

There was some distance between the shack and the factory building, and the path curved, so Tang Yu wasn’t worried about being seen by the tattooed man.

Jian Che’s heart had never pounded so fast. Just as she gripped the knife, she heard an indistinct gurgle from outside the shack. Terrifying memories flooded her mind; she knew exactly what it was.

It was the sound a zombie would make.

She turned her head with difficulty, the hairs on her back standing on end, terrified that a festering face would be right behind her if she looked back. She could barely hold the knife steady, and her face instantly broke out in a sweat.

That was a Zombie King.

Sure enough, a humanoid creature stood outside the open door flap, backlit and its face completely obscured. Its back was to the entrance as it waved in a certain direction. The next moment, it suddenly turned its head.

The urge to scream reached its peak. Jian Che used what little rationality she had left to choke the scream back down her throat. Her trembling hands gripped the knife tightly as her body instinctively retreated.

The zombie moved.

It took a step into the shack.

Help! Jian Che wanted to scream, but the only person who could help her, Qi Jie, was severely injured. No one in this scrapyard would come to her rescue.

“Don’t… don’t come any closer!” she finally mustered the courage to growl, issuing a threat like a small animal.

The zombie seemed to understand her and halted its steps.

It was now fully inside the shack. Without the backlight, Jian Che finally got a clear look at the zombie.

Unlike what she had imagined, this zombie was very clean. Although its tank top was bloodstained and its face was smudged with bl00d and dirt, as if it had crawled out of a warzone, its body wasn’t festering, it wasn’t roaring with its mouth agape, and it lacked the overpowering stench of decay common to other zombies.

It was very clean.

Jian Che thought she must be going crazy to actually find a zombie clean.

Furthermore, the zombie’s eyes were beautiful—they shimmered with a spirit, as beautiful as obsidian.

The figure had its hair in a ponytail and a faint smile on its lips. It leaned against the shack’s support pole with its arms crossed, as if watching a good show, or perhaps waiting for someone.

So this is a Zombie King? Can a Zombie King already look so human? Jian Che felt her worldview being shattered all over again.

After a long wait, the Zombie King still hadn’t attacked. Jian Che didn’t dare to relax; her entire body was like a taut bow, her gaze never leaving the Zombie King for a second.

Qi Jie had taught her to always watch the enemy’s movements and never let an unexpected situation rattle her.

As time ticked by, Jian Che began to calculate her odds of winning if she took the initiative to attack.

Unfortunately, before she could prepare, two more figures slipped into the shack.

Jian Che was on the verge of a breakdown. How could she possibly fight one against three!

She decided to run!

But the moment she moved, the other side sensed her intention. The short-haired zombie reached out, and a longsword barred her path.

“Honestly, look how you’ve scared the poor little girl,” the shorter woman said. Jian Che froze, only then realizing this person was human.

Tang Yu straightened up and lowered the door flap. “Don’t be ridiculous. I didn’t scare her; we just couldn’t communicate.”

The shack’s canvas was opaque, with only a sliver or two of light filtering through the lowered door flap. Jin Ye switched on the flashlight at her waist, and a beam of white light instantly filled the small space.

“She’s very impressive,” Tang Yu said admiringly. “I watched her for a bit. To encounter a zombie at her age and not let out a single scream is something else.” Not only that, but Tang Yu had also noticed Jian Che’s intent to attack, which was extremely rare for an NPC with no special abilities.

“And,” Tang Yu paused, “she knows about the game.”

Jin Ye and Xiao Li turned in surprise. “For real? Who told her?”

“There was a seriously injured woman here before. She’s hiding in an abandoned vehicle out back now. That woman is a player; they talked about the game.”

Xiao Li turned her head and saw the little girl staring at her. Xiao Li asked, “What’s your name?”

Jian Che didn’t answer. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and her eyes held little warmth.

“We’re not bad people,” Xiao Li said, softening her tone. “And these two big sisters aren’t man-eating zombies. They just look a little scary, but they don’t bully kids.”

Tang Yu cut in, “Don’t go sneaking in insults about us.”

Seeing the girl remained unmoved, an idea struck Xiao Li. “Let’s put it this way: we’re all players.”

Since the kid knew about the game, this seemed like the quickest way to explain.

Sure enough, a look of surprise flashed across Jian Che’s face. “Players? How can there be zombies among the players?”

It seemed the little girl knew quite a lot. That Qi Jie really did spill the beans about everything.

“There weren’t before, but there are now,” Xiao Li stated. “In other words, we’re all conscious human beings; it’s just that you can’t understand what they’re saying yet. We have no intention of hurting you. On the contrary, we’d like to be your friends.”

As Xiao Li finished speaking, Jin Ye put away her sword.

Jian Che glanced toward the entrance. Jin Ye had stepped aside, no longer blocking her way.

She thought for two seconds, then decided not to run.

It was a sign of de-escalation, meaning Jian Che was giving them a chance to talk.

Xiao Li then put her recruiting skills to use, launching into a spiel. “And it’s not just about being friends. If you’re willing, you can join our camp in the future. We have many NPCs like you there. You won’t have to worry about food or clothing, and we have plenty of weapons. We’ll treat you like family, and we even have people who can teach you self-defense. I hear you have an injured companion. Our camp has a doctor who can… well, no, she doesn’t treat people, but we have more than enough medicine.”

Only at the last sentence did Jian Che’s expression flicker. She frowned and asked, “You really have a doctor?”

“Of course!” Xiao Li patted her chest in assurance. “A beautiful and kind-hearted big sister.”

Tang Yu and Jin Ye looked like they wanted to speak but held their tongues.

Jian Che fell silent for a moment, looking down in thought before asking, “Can she treat a liver injury? And a wound infection? She might need a tetanus shot and antibiotics.”

“We have those. If she’s lost too much bl00d, we also have medicine to help with that.” Since words alone weren’t enough, Xiao Li pulled two small vials from her jacket pocket. It was hemostatic powder, left over from when Professor Zhou had given them supplies in the restricted area.

A light finally appeared in Jian Che’s eyes. She stared intently at the vials, clearly tempted.

“But,” Xiao Li’s tone shifted as she clutched the vials in her hand, “before that, we need you to tell us about the situation here… and about yourself.”

“…I can answer. But can you give me the medicine right after I’m done?”

“Deal.”

“What do you want to know?”

“What’s your relationship with those three men?”

Jian Che took a deep breath. “We have no relationship with them. They only showed up at the scrapyard two days ago. They drove off or killed everyone who had gathered here, leaving only Qi Jie and me.”

“Strange. Why did they leave only you two?”

“Qi Jie is too injured to move, and she knows how to modify vehicles. Zhang Teng thought she was useful, so he let her live. But they stole her car and only gave her a few anti-inflammatory pills to keep her alive. I chose to stay. Qi Jie can’t be left without someone to care for her.”

“So, this Qi Jie you mentioned was already injured before they arrived? How did it happen?”

Jian Che lowered her gaze. “She was injured by a player. She was being a busybody, trying to save a woman… an NPC, as you call them. She failed to save the woman and ended up getting hurt herself.”

Silence fell inside the shack.

“Did Qi Jie tell you about players and NPCs?”

“Not entirely,” Jian Che’s answer surprised them. “I figured it out on my own. Qi Jie just filled me in on the rules of the game.”

Hiss. Tang Yu straightened up.

Xiao Li’s expression grew serious. She turned to Jin Ye, puzzled. “Hasn’t she been corrected?”

Tang Yu had guessed right. The NPCs in this game had a correction protocol. Any reasonably experienced player knew that if you told an NPC to their face that this was a game, their cognition would automatically be corrected, causing them to ignore the fact.

Jian Che sat on the edge of the bed and tilted her head up. “The correction you mentioned, does it refer to a cognitive disruption in the mind? When it happens, there’s a stinging pain in my head that forcibly scrambles my thoughts. It happens to me often. For instance, right now.”

All three of them focused on Jian Che’s face, but they couldn’t see much pain in her expression. Though she was still just a child, Tang Yu felt she was more like an adult. Aside from her unconcealable fear of zombies and concern for her friend, she acted with a maturity that belied her age.

Jian Che continued, “As far back as I can remember, I’ve had frequent headaches. For the first few years, the pain was so unbearable I nearly ended up in the ICU each time, but they could never find a cause. As I got older, the pain grew fainter. Now, the moment it starts to act up, my body repairs itself.”

Jin Ye cut straight to the point. “She’s evolving.”

Xiao Li asked, “When did you realize this?”

“In my first year of high school, I took an extracurricular computer programming class. You know how you debug a program when you run it? It was around then that the idea that I might be a bug popped into my head. But it wasn’t until after the zombie outbreak was in full swing and I heard players discussing mission points that I became completely certain.”

Hiss. Jin Ye stood up straight.

“Do many people know about this?” Xiao Li suddenly asked. “Players, I mean.”

“I haven’t had much contact with players, and they never seemed very friendly, so no one knows besides Qi Jie. The people who used to live in the scrapyard were all NPCs seeking refuge. I tested it on them; telling them was no use.”

Hmm… it’s better to keep this kind of thing a secret.

Jin Ye glanced around worriedly. She knew live streaming was popular in other games and wondered if this one had it. She was certain that neither she nor Xiao Li were streaming, at least.

But what about Tang Yu… Never mind. She had amnesia; asking her would be useless.

Still, this girl had the ability to self-evolve, so the standard correction protocol probably had no effect on her.

“What’s your name?” Xiao Li asked finally.

“Jian Che. The ‘Che’ from the word for ‘clear.’”

Xiao Li kept her promise and placed the two vials of hemostatic powder into Jian Che’s hands.

Jian Che thanked her gratefully. As an NPC, she understood better than any player just how precious medicine was in the apocalypse. Even fellow survivors rarely shared medicine, let alone players.

She believed Xiao Li, but the two zombies standing nearby still filled her with instinctive fear.

“Are you a Zombie King?” she asked Tang Yu, mustering her courage.

Tang Yu was delighted. The kid had asked her instead of Jin Ye. What good taste! She must really look like a Zombie King now!

Seeing Tang Yu smile and nod, Jian Che’s fear finally subsided a little.

Just then, a shout came from below the shack. “Xiao Jian! Where’d that damn brat run off to? Haven’t seen her for ages.”

It was the tattooed man, Zhang Teng.

“Brother Teng, you don’t think the Zombie King got her, do you?” someone added.

Tang Yu listened for a moment, then said to Xiao Li, “Ask Jian Che how strong those three are.”

These guys looked like cowardly posers. They were an eyesore.

Jian Che responded, “Very strong.”

Tang Yu was taken aback. “Really? I don’t believe it.”

“They’re extremely strong. It’s hard for us NPCs to beat them. The strongest man here was killed by them. Qi Jie might be able to handle them, but she’s injured.” Jian Che paused. “Besides, Zhang Teng’s wounds heal very quickly. Qi Jie said it’s an ability.”

Jian Che had meant it as a warning for them to be careful, but as soon as she finished speaking, she saw the Zombie King’s eyes brighten, her entire demeanor becoming unusually excited.

What was going on? Did my warning have no effect? Why does she look like she can’t wait to go get herself killed?

Then again, a Zombie King should be able to beat Zhang Teng, right? Even if it was the lowest-class one.

The voices from the foot of the garbage mountain grew closer. “What Zombie King? We haven’t seen a damn thing all day. Let’s check the little brat’s shack. She’s probably hiding under the bed, scared stiff.”

An idea sparked in Tang Yu’s mind. She pulled Jin Ye and Xiao Li aside and whispered a few words. Xiao Li, feeling playful, readily agreed. She lifted the blanket on the bed, dove underneath, and covered herself completely. Then, letting a tuft of her yellow hair poke out, she said in a muffled voice, “Don’t be scared, Jian Che. We’re just putting on a little show to scare them.”

Before Jian Che could figure out what was happening, Jin Ye turned off the light and moved to her side. She held her hand suspended in the air, fingers curled into a claw, hovering just above Jian Che’s head.

As for Tang Yu, she vanished in the blink of an eye. No matter how calm Jian Che usually was, her eyes widened in shock.

This is an ability too?!

When the skinny man lifted the door flap, he saw a panicked Jian Che. The curse on his lips died. Standing beside Jian Che was a short-haired zombie radiating a murderous aura.

“B-Brother Teng…” the man stammered, turning his head. “There really is a Zombie King! The kid’s been captured!”

Before he could finish, he saw a hand suddenly appear on Zhang Teng’s shoulder, its palm pressed against the skin of his neck.

A zombie’s face appeared behind Zhang Teng. It wasn’t tall enough, so most of it was hidden, revealing only the top of its head and a pair of glittering eyes.

Then, the zombie’s other hand, holding a sharp piece of metal, slit Zhang Teng’s throat. It was a shallow cut, drawing only a trickle of bl00d.

Terrified, Zhang Teng had no time to think. Fearing the metal shard would press deeper and take his life, he instantly activated his ability while drawing his gun and spinning around to aim.

But there was no one there. The owner of the hands had vanished like a ghost, apparently with no intention of killing him.

The other two men froze for a second before hastily drawing their guns.

Zhang Teng touched his neck. The wound had already healed without a scar. Everything that had just happened felt like a hallucination.

“Fvck!” he cursed, trying to mask his nervousness.

The three men immediately turned their guns back toward Jin Ye and Jian Che inside the shack.

“I’ll give you two to eat. Just leave us brothers alone,” Zhang Teng said, pointing his gun at Jian Che and the figure on the bed.

Jin Ye found it amusing. Did they really think a Zombie King could be reasoned with? She lowered the hand hovering over Jian Che’s head and walked step by step toward the entrance.

Zhang Teng had assumed Jian Che was a goner and that he could slip away while the Zombie King was busy eating her. But to his surprise, the Zombie King didn’t lay a hand on the girl.

What! Does it only eat the meaty ones?

He fired impatiently. The moment the shot rang out, a silver military knife appeared in midair. Its sleek blade reflected in Zhang Teng’s pupils. An instant later, the flashy firearm in his hand was sliced in two, and the bullet still in the chamber caused the gun to explode.

Simultaneously, a figure shot up from the bed and charged toward the other skinny man.

Zhang Teng’s hands were mangled by the explosion, but he only glanced at them, unconcerned. Soon, his hands stopped bleeding and healed at a rate visible to the naked eye.

His gaze was fixed on Tang Yu, who had now revealed herself. Her eyes were on his hands, but unlike any enemy he’d faced before, she showed no surprise. Instead, she looked exceptionally excited.

In an instant, the one human and two zombies had formed an encirclement, trapping Zhang Teng and his two men in front of the shack.

Jian Che stood behind them in a daze. The scene felt familiar. This was exactly how these three men had cornered and hunted the NPCs who lived here.

Fear. So they could feel it too.

She didn’t see who attacked first. All Jian Che saw was a blur as Jin Ye moved like a gust of wind, attacking the skinny man. She twisted her body at an impossible angle to dodge an oncoming bullet, and in the next instant, her longsword struck true, piercing her opponent’s throat.

A textbook one-hit kill.

On the other side, Xiao Li’s movements were also exceptionally swift, and she handled her opponent with ease.

Only Tang Yu’s situation seemed dire.

Having lost his gun, Zhang Teng picked up a long iron rod from the ground and thrust it at Tang Yu. Tang Yu’s dodge was slow; she stumbled as if she had tripped, barely avoiding the rod. It missed her heart, but it grazed her abdomen, tearing a hole in her tank top.

Jian Che couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat. This Zombie King didn’t seem very capable.

Having landed a hit on Tang Yu, Zhang Teng instantly regained his confidence. This zombie was too slow. Aside from its invisibility ability, it was completely useless! He couldn’t help but grin.

Tang Yu looked down, lifting the corner of her shirt to inspect her waist. The wound from the iron rod was not light. Blunt force trauma was the most painful; a thumbnail-sized piece of flesh had been mangled, and bl00d was gushing out.

But soon, the bleeding stopped. Fresh, pink flesh rapidly grew over the wound, pushing out the clotted bl00d. In an instant, the coin-sized injury vanished without a trace.

It seemed the healing speed was related to the severity of the injury; smaller wounds healed faster. Satisfied, Tang Yu brushed away the clotted bl00d and lowered her shirt.

The smile vanished from Zhang Teng’s face, only to reappear on Tang Yu’s.

“Impossible!” Zhang Teng said, flustered.

To his greater panic, he turned to find that both of his teammates had already been dealt with.

“Stop playing around,” Jin Ye said with a smile. “You’ll be in for it if you get scratched by some rusty metal and get tetanus.”

Tang Yu waved her hand. “Alright, I’m done playing. Jin Ye, Xiao Li, you two can take him.”

She had already determined that Zhang Teng’s team wasn’t particularly strong. Not that they were weak—they might have been formidable opponents for her team in the past—but the gap in physical prowess only widened as one accumulated points. To them now, people like this posed no real threat.

She sheathed her knife and started walking up the sloping garbage mountain, no longer intending to fight.

Suddenly, Jian Che let out a cry. Before she could even get the word “Watch out” out of her mouth, Zhang Teng had lunged in front of Tang Yu. He was furious, enraged by Tang Yu’s dismissiveness, and launched a surprise attack.

What a petty man.

Jian Che turned to Xiao Li. “Jie, aren’t you going to help her?” Tang Yu’s dodging was so poor, and she had just been injured!

Xiao Li looked utterly confused. “Help… help who?”

Jian Che fell silent. So this team had such poor cohesion that they wouldn’t even help a teammate in trouble.

She soon realized she had been mistaken. Tang Yu’s movements were even faster than Jin Ye’s. Her military knife became a blur, and the iron rod in Zhang Teng’s hand shattered into pieces. But Tang Yu didn’t use the knife to kill. Closing the distance, she grabbed Zhang Teng by the throat. As her nails broke his skin, she squeezed hard. A dull, cracking sound traveled through his bones and into her palm.

“Xiao Li! Xiao Li! He’s still breathing! Come eliminate him!” Tang Yu yelled.

“Coming!” Xiao Li didn’t hesitate, sliding down the garbage pile and finishing off the newly turned Zhang Teng from behind.

Jian Che stood frozen on the spot. An opponent she could never have defeated had been dealt with so effortlessly by others.

If only I had that kind of power… Jian Che looked down at the small knife in her hand, her grip tightening.

“Jian Che! Are you okay?” a voice called from the top of the garbage mountain. Looking up, they saw a longbow aimed at Jin Ye, who was standing closest to Jian Che.

“Don’t! Don’t attack,” Jian Che quickly responded, scrambling up the garbage mountain. “Qi Jie, they’re good zombies.”

Good zombies… The phrasing was a bit odd.

The woman holding the bow seemed to lose all her strength. Unable to support herself any longer, she collapsed to her knees on the garbage mountain.

Tang Yu and Jin Ye exchanged a glance, and the three of them followed Jian Che up the slope.

When they reached her, they found the woman had nearly passed out from pain. She had heard the gunshots and endured the agony to climb the mountain, tearing her wound open in the process. Then she had fallen and hit the corner of a cabinet. Now, she was barely breathing.

Xiao Li and Jian Che quickly helped the woman up and, with great effort, carried her back to the shack.

The bandage on the woman’s waist was almost completely soaked through with bl00d. The amount of bl00d loss was life-threatening. They couldn’t imagine what kind of injury could be so severe.

Jin Ye jumped down the garbage mountain and returned to the abandoned vehicle where they had hidden their backpacks, which contained some spare medical supplies.

By the time Jin Ye returned to the shack, Xiao Li had already removed the woman’s bandage. A horrifying wound on her waist made everyone present hold their breath.

A bowl-sized gash was a mangled mess of flesh and bl00d, as if a semi-blunt, semi-sharp weapon had been forcibly plunged into her. With the woman’s ragged breaths, bl00d kept welling up. The previously formed black scab had been torn open, revealing festering flesh and yellowish-green pus.

Not only was she injured, but she also had a bacterial infection.

An injury like this was fatal. For someone as vulnerable as Tang Yu, it would have been a death sentence without her healing ability.

Tang Yu called out to Professor Zhou in the group chat, asking for advice on how to treat it.

Professor Zhou said the wound needed to be debrided before applying medicine, but they had no way to do that here. Xiao Li took out all the hemostatic powder she had, including the vials she had given to Jian Che, and poured everything onto the wound.

The powder was quickly soaked by bl00d and seemed to have no effect. Xiao Li then administered an antibiotic injection. She didn’t know how to give a shot, only that she had to expel the air from the syringe. She picked a random spot and injected the antibiotic into the woman’s body.

Jian Che stood beside them, biting her lip and crying silently, not daring to make a sound that might disturb Xiao Li.

After a minute, the woman’s condition hadn’t improved; in fact, her complexion was getting worse. Tang Yu’s face darkened. “It looks like assimilating her is the only option.” The woman was unconscious, so there was no telling if she would choose to stay in the game after being infected.

They had to take the gamble. If it worked, the zombie transformation would slow the bleeding, and once the medicine kicked in, her life might be saved.

Tang Yu glanced at Jian Che, then reached out and lightly scratched the woman’s wound.

“What are you doing!” Jian Che cried out in disbelief, lunging at Tang Yu. She knew all too well what happened when a zombie scratched someone.

Tang Yu took two steps back, dodging Jian Che’s attack. She kept her eyes fixed on the woman’s face, watching for any change.

From the system prompt, Tang Yu learned the woman’s name was Qi Jinyin.

One, two, three seconds passed. The woman showed no other reaction, save for the black lines spreading across her neck, indicating she had become a zombie.

Could it be that she’s too unconscious to even confirm the game prompt?

After half a minute, Qi Jinyin neither woke up nor lashed out.

However, the bleeding had finally slowed, no longer gushing like a fountain.

They ended up waiting for an hour. During that time, Xiao Li patiently explained their reasoning to Jian Che. The girl was still skeptical but at least dropped her aggressive posture.

The wait was long and agonizing. Jian Che suddenly spoke up. “Qi Jie saved a lot of people.” Her eyes were fixed on Qi Jinyin’s pale face. “Most of the people at the scrapyard were brought here by her. Me included.”

None of the three responded. The girl probably thought Qi Jinyin wouldn’t wake up and felt an urgent need to talk.

“I almost died at the hands of a zombie, just like my parents,” Jian Che said, slumping over the edge of the bed and burying her face in her arms. “If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be alive today.”

Although Jian Che was a bug, it only manifested in her intelligence. She didn’t possess superior physical abilities, so there was no way she could have escaped a zombie’s pursuit on her own.

From Jian Che’s fragmented account, Tang Yu learned that Qi Jinyin was some kind of saint who went around rescuing people. She saved NPCs and stranded players alike. To put it nicely, she was a savior to all. To put it less kindly, she had a bleeding heart and often disregarded her own safety to help others.

The three of them found it hard to comprehend how such a person could exist. The world was truly full of strange and wonderful things.

Tang Yu had thought her own moral standards were already high enough to make her an outlier. She never expected to meet someone with even higher ones.

During the wait, the hemostatic powder slowly began to work, and the bl00d started to clot. Another half an hour passed before Qi Jinyin finally showed a reaction.

She moved.

At first, it was just a slight bob of her throat. Then her eyelids fluttered, and she slowly opened her eyes.

Jian Che carefully leaned closer. “Qi Jie, are you okay?”

Qi Jinyin turned her head to look at her, taking a long moment to focus her gaze on Jian Che’s face.

“I’m… okay.” Her voice was so hoarse it was nearly inaudible; they could only read her lips.

Unfortunately, only Tang Yu and Jin Ye could understand her response now.

Tang Yu breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed the woman had chosen to stay in the game, likely because she still felt a connection to Jian Che and hadn’t chosen to quit.

Tang Yu leaned closer and advised, “You just woke up. Don’t talk for now. Get some more rest.”

It took a long time for Qi Jinyin’s gaze to shift to Tang Yu’s face.

Upon seeing Tang Yu clearly, her pupils constricted violently. The hand that had been lying limply on the bed shot out and grabbed the hem of Tang Yu’s shirt. Her pale lips opened and closed rapidly, like a fish gasping for water.

No one had expected this. Just as Tang Yu was about to swat her hand away, she suddenly understood the syllables the woman was forming.

Qi Jinyin was calling her name. “Tang… Tang Yu?”