Chapter 147 Countless things it couldn't see through dragged on...
That was the tacit understanding cultivated through countless battles fought side by side under the principal's leadership. Without a word, the group understood the principal's plan in the blink of an eye.
Song Rushuang stood two steps away from Fu Qing, watching as the principal's profile was completely covered by the fallen fabric, revealing only a small patch of skin on his chin, which appeared exceptionally cold and serene in the moonlight.
She gave her a deep look, as if trying to extract one last bit of courage from her, then pulled up her hood and, in a few breaths, skillfully entered her optimal state.
A slight commotion began to stir among the zombie horde.
The infected individuals' vision deteriorated drastically, to the point where they could not distinguish between humans and animals from several meters away. A normal person might be able to identify five people by differences in height and build, but to them, this group of people dressed in black combat suits were almost indistinguishable.
The zombie runner lying on the densely packed tangle of power lines had clearly become agitated.
Below, the leader finally took two steps forward, completely exposed to the light.
It let out two excited huffs, but then stopped moving in confusion.
The four people behind her quickly caught up and stood beside her. A moment later, as if receiving some signal, they quickly dispersed.
Someone rushed into the stairwell plastered with small advertisements and headed straight for the rooftop.
Someone buried their head and disappeared into the deep alley, turning and twisting, and vanished in an instant.
Some people simply start running and rush into any intersection they see, like a calf charging aimlessly.
The zombies overhead were completely stunned.
The rotting brains had long since ceased to function, and there was nothing to tell them what to do next.
After a moment's hesitation, they instinctively rushed toward the nearest target.
...
"Only zombies directly infected by the Zombie King possess the ability to sense things, and can be sensed by it."
Song Rushuang silently recited the information that Fu Qing had previously given to the others.
"The act of infection itself requires a lot of energy from the zombie king, which is equivalent to giving up a part of itself to 'parasitize' the other party. This also means that it cannot mass-produce zombies under its control."
"The zombie hordes that are breaking out across the country now are not controlled by every single low-level zombie. More often, they are controlled by evolved zombies with command capabilities. And to trigger this effect, it means that it has probably sent out most of its evolved zombies."
This is why Fu Qing dared to lead a small team to break in.
In this match, the gap between the two sides was not as large as it appeared on the surface.
It was an incredibly quiet night. Even though a terrifying battle was still raging in some corner of the city, its aftershocks had not reached Qinghe Village.
In the distance came the eerie, drawn-out howls of zombies. Apart from that, all Song Rushuang could hear was the sound of her own hurried footsteps and the panting breaths rising and falling behind her.
She ran across the rooftop of a tall building, where many bed sheets and blankets were still hanging out to dry and hadn't been taken in yet. They swayed in the air. Song Rushuang bent down and slid past them, the sound of tearing fabric coming from behind her.
Just as the zombie tore through the sheets and charged over, Song Rushuang saw herself flip over and leap off the railing.
It followed closely behind and stepped over, but unexpectedly there was no foothold outside the guardrail. Its foot slipped and it fell straight down.
Meanwhile, Song Rushuang had already landed on the air conditioner unit in the building next door.
In urban villages, there is almost no such thing as spacing between buildings. In the narrowest places, you can even stretch out your arms and reach the walls of two adjacent buildings. Residents suffer from poor lighting, but for the elite team, it is the perfect place to perform, a veritable steel jungle.
What they had to do was lure away the zombies that couldn't sense Fu Qing's presence from her side.
Minimize the pressure faced by the principal as much as possible.
Song Rushuang's thoughts were clear. She peeked down at the zombies who were lying in a daze and temporarily disoriented, then looked away, raised her elbow and smashed it against the window in front of her, reaching out to pry open the latch through the hole.
When I was pulling back, I wasn't paying attention and a shard of glass pierced my arm, leaving a long gash.
With her adrenaline surging, masking the pain, Song Rushuang opened the window without even flinching and quickly jumped into the empty room.
Almost at the same moment her clothes disappeared into the window, a bloody, rotting hand rose from below and firmly gripped the window frame.
Bang! Another zombie leaped down from above, its hard skull and shoulder shattering the remaining glass.
At the same time, the zombies that swarmed in almost completely submerged that small window.
They struggled desperately to follow her breath, letting out earth-shattering roars.
...
Qin Yufei rolled awkwardly on the spot, a brick flew past his scalp and splashed onto the wall next to him.
The brick wall behind them shattered under the giant zombie's heavy punch, instantly burying several low-level zombies standing at its base.
The mountain-sized zombies, spotting their prey within reach, let out excited roars, stepping over the obstacles in their path, completely oblivious to their kin struggling beneath them.
Zombies are a hierarchical race, and a few low-level zombies are nothing to them.
When that heavy foot stomped down, the skull was as fragile as tofu, and with a soft "plop," the brains splattered out.
The struggling zombie stopped moving.
Qin Yufei's lips twitched. He had used this trick several times in the dungeon, but no matter how many times, he was always shocked by Song Rushuang's terrible idea.
While the monstrous zombies are far slower than the runner zombies, they are much faster than the basic zombies. With their powerful bodies and unparalleled strength, several monstrous zombies walking side by side can create a veritable meat grinder.
...but the premise is that the quantity must be large enough.
Another wall collapsed with a crash. Qin Yufei scrambled to his feet, feeling heavy footsteps approaching from all directions.
“Provoking so many people at once might not be a good idea…” he murmured.
But there's no going back now.
The roads in Qinghe Village are narrow, and a group of giant zombies running over them would be absolutely devastating, leaving nothing but barren land in their wake.
Once this "train" starts moving, it will be invincible.
But only if he can hold out long enough.
Qin Yufei wiped away the blood gushing from the wound on his face, turned around, and resolutely ran into the night, the earth shaking behind him.
From this moment on, no matter what happens, no matter how many evolved zombies block his way, he cannot stop.
...
Seven heads, eight heads, nine heads...
Liang Yi covered his mouth and nose, trying his best to conceal his breathing, and counted in his mind while sweating profusely.
The thick dust around him made him itch all over. Small insects of unknown species crawled up his trouser leg until they found a gap and crawled inside. The path they left behind quickly developed into a patch of itchy, red, and swollen rashes.
But Liang Yi seemed to have completely shut down all his senses, his mind highly focused, his pupils slightly constricted, staring intently at the dark cave entrance not far away.
It was an abandoned basement, filled with residents' unwanted clutter. The interior was vast and complex, like a bottomless black hole that could swallow onlookers at any moment.
But Liang Yi knew that this was actually a carefully designed trap.
They had used it countless times in the game to solve problems. With too many zombies tracking them from the outside world, they had no choice but to believe that it could help them create yet another miracle.
Attracted by the noise, another zombie staggered inside.
There are now eleven zombies inside. Due to their different tracking speeds, six of them are evolved zombies. With so many zombies crammed together, it is strangely impossible to see anything unusual from the outside.
The vast space was like a bottomless pit, silently absorbing one zombie after another.
The fourteenth.
This was the limit of what they had tried before. Liang Yi bit his lip and prepared to get up.
As if guessing what he was thinking, Xue Ran sent a message almost simultaneously.
【wait】
Even though the screen on the student bracelet is hidden from outsiders, Xue Ran, surrounded by darkness and a dozen zombies, still dared to type, which can only be described as highly skilled and daring.
Liang Yi was fully aware of the interior of the basement—
Countless small items are stacked on top of each other, and even if you go in during the day, you might accidentally knock them over and make a sound.
Xue Ran was able to stay inside unharmed for so long purely by forcibly memorizing the location of every item and by relying on the muscle memory developed from countless attempts and failures in the past.
Fifteen, sixteen.
That's already the limit.
Xue Ran still hadn't sent a message, and Liang Yi gradually felt panicked.
This can't go on any longer...
With each additional zombie, her escape route shrinks, and the danger escalates exponentially; she must stop.
My wrist vibrated; Xue Ran had sent another message.
It consists of only two extremely brief words.
【continue】
Liang Yi gasped.
Sweat mixed with dust streamed into his eyes, stinging them, but he remained motionless, staring intently at the entrance to the basement.
It felt as if if you blinked, you would be swallowed up by the pitch-black door.
He chose to trust his teammates.
The twentieth head, the twenty-first head.
The numbers continued to rise, and Liang Yi gradually became numb to counting them.
He imagined the basement interior as a giant sack, bulging with zombies being constantly filled, nearing its limit, seemingly poised to unleash a massive explosion at any moment.
But nothing happened.
Only after the twenty-fifth zombie slowly walked in did Xue Ran send a message: 【Now!】
Liang Yi suddenly leaped up and crouched in place for nearly ten minutes. He seemed not to feel the soreness below his knees. His movements were as swift as lightning. He stabbed a zombie in the eye socket that was about to enter the door before it could react. He then pounced on the air-raid shelter door at the entrance to the basement.
With the muscles in his arms, shoulders, and back bulging, he used all his strength to push the heavy security door open.
The door had been open for who knows how long, the part that was against the wall was covered with a thick layer of cobwebs, the rusty hinges were almost strangled, and when the door was pushed, it made a teeth-grinding creaking sound, and dust fell down in a shower.
Liang Yi never knew he could unleash such tremendous power. The heavy security door closed in the blink of an eye, and the ferocious beasts hidden in the darkness roared and pounced. Only one of them managed to squeeze its fingers through the gap before Liang Yi swiftly swung his sword and cut it down.
As the four clean-cut fingers landed, a loud bang was heard, and the air-raid shelter door slammed shut.
Liang Yi quickly turned the lock wheel, locking the gate completely.
These old-style air-raid shelter doors usually have a design to prevent forced locking inside. Even if locked from the outside, they can be opened from the inside. However, the anti-locking design was already closed before Xue Ran entered.
Furthermore, even an evolved zombie wouldn't have the brainpower to open a locked door.
After doing all this, Liang Yi was almost completely exhausted, but he didn't have time to rest and ran off in another direction.
When he arrived, Xue Ran was just scrambling out of a small window.
Liang Yi pulled her up; below, the zombie's claws almost grazed Xue Ran's ankle.
After finally managing to climb out, Xue Ran's back was almost soaked with cold sweat.
"It was so close..." she said, still shaken.
When she finally escaped, she almost died.
The air vent was located high up and was small in size, so neither of the two boys with larger frames could squeeze through it.
In the past, the task of having the bait emerge from the window was always assigned to Su Huaijin, who was smaller and more agile.
This time, however, it was Xue Ran who took the blame.
Exhausted, she leaned against the wall and rested for a while.
“Fourteen evolved zombies,” Liang Yi told her. “You did an amazing job, completely beyond my expectations.”
Xue Ran's eyes, which had been so tired they had lost focus, regained a glimmer of light, but it quickly dimmed again: "We're still a long way off."
"We'll stall for as long as we can," Liang Yi patted her shoulder.
Xue Ran nodded, braced himself on his knees, and gritted his teeth to straighten up.
There's not much they can do.
But every extra second gained might make things a little easier for the principal.
...
Zhou Lingxi turned her head sharply.
"I feel like I heard something," Chu Hai said, looking at her. Zhou Lingxi explained in a low voice.
The roar of zombies, the sound of something breaking and collapsing, or the cries of humans.
She couldn't tell the difference.
It's also possible that she didn't hear anything at all, and it was all a hallucination caused by excessive tension.
Fu Qing and her group of five have been inside for some time now, and if they had any plans, they should have already started by now.
I believe they will receive feedback soon.
"They're here," Bai Xianglei suddenly said in a deep voice.
In the vast darkness of the night, countless figures emerged one after another from the ends of the road and the corners of the alleys.
The dragging footsteps stretched on and on, and as far as the eye could see, there were only shadowy figures of corpses and a throng of people that seemed to stretch endlessly.
A vast horde of zombies surrounded them; although they were all low-level zombies, their sheer numbers were overwhelming.
No one cried out, no one despaired. The person who had asked for help, Jingyu, and Chen Yue's body had all left the scene. Now, all that remained were well-trained special forces soldiers and experienced criminal police officers.
Officer Chen and his two subordinates also stayed behind. With a death wish, their movements became surprisingly steady. As they raised their guns towards the horde of zombies, a submachine gun was suddenly shoved into their arms.
They looked at the new weapon in their hands in surprise: "This is..."
Fang Zhou and his group, along with the special forces team, arrived in three vehicles. Apart from Fu Qing's vehicle, which was a regular modified off-road vehicle, there was a military off-road vehicle and an armored assault vehicle. One of them was currently huffing and puffing as he mounted a heavy machine gun on the roof of the armored vehicle, inserted the locating pin, and locked it with a click.
Chu Hai carried the ammunition box up, took out the reflective ammunition belt, and Zhou Lingxi, who was in charge of distributing weapons, glanced at the two men's swift movements, then turned to Officer Chen in surprise and asked, "Are you planning to use pistols to fight off the zombie horde?"
Officer Chen: "..."
They surrendered instantly, decisively abandoning their Type 92 rifles. Even with new weapons, the sense of heroic sacrifice was significantly diminished.
Often, armed warriors are no match for evolved zombies, mainly because human reflexes can't keep up with their movements. But even so, if the firepower is strong and concentrated enough, the mortal zombies will still be doomed.
What they were facing was merely a horde of low-level zombies, which they could freely unleash a hail of bullets without any restraint.
Bai Xianglei pulled open the equipment box, revealing it filled with all sorts of weapons and ammunition.
He smiled slightly: "Since it's a support system, it naturally needs to be solid enough."
*
As the first bullet spun and sped out of the barrel, the gleaming blade drew an arc in the air, flicking the tip and tossing another zombie's head high into the air. The head bounced twice on the ground before crashing into the nearby sewage.
Upon hearing the gunshot, Fu Qing paused, then kicked the head at his feet further away.
Compared to the elite team, Fu Qing's advance was not fast, but every step he took was solid, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
She was like an unstoppable war machine, advancing steadily and surely. Every zombie that appeared before her fell to her blade, leaving no hidden dangers along the way.
However, upon closer observation, it becomes clear that Fu Qing did not simply engage the enemy haphazardly.
The narrow streets and obstacles around her became her help, dispersing the horde of zombies surging towards her. Combined with her movement, this ensured that only a few zombies could face her at any given time, and they were easily dealt with, posing no threat whatsoever.
The use of terrain has become second nature, breathing is as smooth and natural as breathing, every swing of the sword and every dodge is just right, and the control of the rhythm of the battle is almost a pleasure to watch.
She didn't use any so-called tactics; it was a pure one-against-many head-on confrontation. But if there were any bystanders present, they would probably think it was an evenly matched battle.
That is why any arrangement would seem superfluous.
One zombie after another fell to the ground, and the battle quickly became one-sided.
The difference between rudimentary zombies and evolved zombies seemed to disappear under that blade; before they could even display any special abilities, they were reduced to souls.
In the face of death that brings equality, race and class are utterly irrelevant.
The system gradually fell silent as it observed.
It chose to retract its previous words. The past year might have been enough to loosen the muscles and bones and halve the fighting ability for others, but for the host, the moment she picked up the knife, it was as if she had returned to the days of fighting for survival in bloodshed.
It was even astonished to discover that she was still growing, even skillfully correcting her movements little by little in battle, the angle of her sword strikes, the force of her slashes... until it gradually approached perfection.
It was as if the surging horde of zombies and the roaring attack of the zombie king were no different from her usual practice with students in the simulation pod.
But she is far from ready to unleash her full power.
If the system had a human form, its eyes would gradually become empty at this point.
...Is this even human?
Why does the host who lost his powers appear to be even stronger than in his first life?
No, that's impossible. The superpower that "Fu Qing" possessed at the end of her first life was almost bug-level. Even evolved zombies would be dissolved to the cellular level in a second under her control.
But her fighting style back then was far less graceful than Fu Qing's is now.
When "Fu Qing" ventured out alone, she was like a ghostly figure walking in an endless swamp. She was ruthless and decisive, and nothing could stop her. But with each step she took, she had to struggle to pull her feet out, as if countless things she couldn't see were dragging her down.
The system has no emotions, so it can't understand, but it can still sense that she walks aimlessly and wearily.
And now, those things that were bothering her are gone.
It was as if someone had taken the burden off her shoulders, someone had cut away the thorns blocking her path, so she could finally stride forward without any worries, walking more easily and freely than ever before.
The system was in a state of confusion.
Two lifetimes have passed, and it still doesn't understand.
But for some reason, a subtle, warm, and stimulating current of electricity seemed to pass through its heart, which was as empty as a zombie's.
That might be what humans call happiness.
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