V1C13

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Their footsteps echoed in the empty library.

Through the windows, Lin Jue once again saw that blood-red crescent hanging in the sky, emitting an ominous light.

From behind a corner came a starving zombie, half of its face covered by shadow, beast-like whimpering coming from its mouth.

Without thinking, Lin Jue tightened his grip on his metal pipe and forced the zombie against the wall. It started struggling, opening its mouth viciously, revealing thick, yellowing fangs. It kept stretching its neck forward, like it wanted to snap Lin Jue’s neck in half.

The foul smell of rot coming from the zombie’s mouth made Lin Jue’s anger rise as he stepped on its lower abdomen. The zombie continued to bite at thin air without acknowledging the kick at all, the sounds being squeezed out of its throat like that of a dying breath.

Song Hangzhang stepped forwards and pierced its head through the temple, carefully avoiding its fangs.

The zombie slowly fell onto the ground, no longer moving.

“Did you feel like compared to the zombies from the dormitory, that one was a little different?” Lin Jue asked uncertainly, looking at the corpse.

Song Hanzhang flipped the zombie over with his shoes, adding another stab onto the back of its neck. It was only after he confirmed that it was completely dead that he began studying the corpse.

From its head to its claws, carefully observing every detail.

Lin Jue hugged the metal pipe which he had cleaned on the zombie’s clothes and stood post while leaning against the wall.

A long time later, Song Hanzhang stood up and walked towards a window. He looked outside, as if deep in thought.

“What are you thinking of?” Lin Jue couldn’t help but ask.

“From now, spend two hours to clean up all the zombies within the library, then close all the doors and windows, blockade the stairs and lifts, open the security cameras for the entire library, and turn the security room into a defendable base. Hang a rope from the rooftop to the window of the room as an emergency escape route. I’m thinking of how long we can last if we do this.”

LIn Jue said optimistically, “It won’t be a problem to last until daybreak.”

“Is that so? But that makes me even more uneasy.” Song Hanzhang picked up the zombie’s wrist with his dagger. “See, there are already sharp nails beginning to grow. It’s as the easter egg said, they zombies will constantly evolve and get stronger. If a siege was the means to win, then it would have been better to just find a sturdy room to hide in from the very beginning.”

Lin Jue looked at the black nails about a centimeter long protruding out from the zombie’s dry and blue hands. They were extremely sharp and his instincts told him that there would be grave consequences if he was ever scratched by one.

“When I went to find the dormitory administrator, there were no nails on the zombies, otherwise it would have pierced my skin when it pinned me onto the ground,” Lin Jue thought a little and said. “The fangs look thicker than before… and much more obvious and long too.”

Song Hanzhang nodded. “So then, compared to wasting our energy destroying all the zombies in the library, it would be better to continue our guerilla warfare.”

“Maybe after we’ve finished all our preparations and blocked the doors and stairs, the zombies will have evolved to be able to break through doors.” Lin Jue was terrified by his own thoughts.

Song Hanzhang looked startled as he looked down at the zombie corpse and said slowly, “You’re right. Our actions might affect how the zombies evolve. If we hide in water, the nearby zombies may evolve to be able to swim; if we hide in an enclosed space, the zombies may gradually gain strength and break through the door; if we climb to a high place, the zombies may learn how to climb as well. ‘Getting stronger’ is a very broad concept. But if that is true…”

“If that is true, then we’ll all die,” Lin Jue said, expressionless.

Surprisingly, his heart felt calm as he said the statement. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t scared, he was just too numb.

Ever since being forced to attend this game, death had been following him like a shadow. Even though he had been able to avoid it so far, he would eventually use up his good luck. Maybe he would die the next time danger found him.

Occasional death threats would terrify someone, but countless encounters with death would only numb them. Their nerves, paralyzed from the constant stress and fear, would no longer make them restless, and maybe not long after that, he would be able to become used to this torture and see it all as ‘normal’. But was that really a good thing?

“We don’t know how fast they evolve, but it shouldn’t be too overwhelming. We should be safe for at least a few hours.” Song Hanzhang glanced at his watch, 21:33. “Gather your strength for now, we won’t be able to be so relaxed later.”

Lin Jue sighed. “Yeah. Then let’s go find something to eat in the convenience store on floor three, I’m afraid I might faint if I don’t eat anything soon.”

Song Hanzhang looked at him oddly. “You can still eat? Alright, come here, not many people use the stairs here.”

Following the remote stairs to floor three, Lin Jue was surprised at the lack of zombies there. The lights were on in the self-study room but the door was half shut, only allowing a single beam of light out onto the floor.

“There was so much movement from floor two just then, plus with the zombies’ sensitivity to blood, the zombies on floor one and three were probably mostly drawn to floor two,” Song Hanzhang whispered.

Lin Jue wasn’t sure what he was feeling and opted to stay silent.

There were two zombies loitering around the convenience store, both of which had smelled the scent of humans and were walking towards them.

It wasn’t easy fighting against two zombies. Once you were cornered by one, the other would surely lunge at you as well, and just one little bite and their end would be the same as Zhou Yuxiu’s.

Thankfully, Lin Jue was in possession of an antibody, and he had fairly good combat skills.

Lin Jue looked towards Song Hanzhang who said calmly, “I’ll take care of the one on the left.”

“No need, just watch.” Lin Jue smiled a little, confident.

Saying that, he sprinted forwards, the pipe in his hands flinging the zombie at the front to one side, and the one behind to the opposite with the next hit. The two zombies fell stumbling onto the ground, crawling up rigidly. Anger rose in Lin Jue’s eyes as he stepped on one of them. The zombie opened its mouth, showing off its deformed fangs as it struggled to flip Lin Jue over.

The desire to kill churned in Lin Jue’s chest, mixed with heavy hatred and dislike, finally twisting into a joy for slaughter that even he didn’t realize. He raised the pipe and stabbed it through the zombie’s mouth. It struggled to close its jaw, fangs grinding against the metal. Tightening his hands, Lin Jue used the pipe as a crowbar while keeping his foot on the zombie. Its mouth stretched wide from the force, filthy blood gushing out from the wounds, dirtying Lin Jue’s shoes.

Seeing that the zombie had stopped moving, Lin Jue pulled out the pipe and looked coldly behind him at the other one who had crawled up and was walking towards him.

Song Hanzhang flipped the zombie over with a kick and asked without turning around, “You really don’t need my help?”

“No need,” he replied as he walked towards the zombie, blood dripping down from the pipe, outlining a long trail of red.

Without the timidity and hesitation from the beginning, without the fear and unease towards an unknown creature, Lin Jue swung the weapon with only the drive to survive, neither worthy of shame or praise.

The dull impact of metal on skull sounded as the zombie was once again flipped to the ground. Another hit to the head and it began oozing blood from its eyes and nose.

Bang, bang, bang!

Its entire face became unrecognisable. The zombie struggled for its life, each attempt to get up only resulting in another hit from the pipe, its already mutated face broken far beyond what it once was. At long last, Lin Jue pushed the pipe into its broken skull, finally ending its struggles.

Forcefully pulling the pipe from its brain, Lin Jue flicked it off, sending an array of red and yellow liquid like an open fan onto the ground. Lin Jue finally realized that his arm was feeling a little sore.

Looking back at the two zombies on the ground, they had both suffered a horrible death, their corpses completely beyond recognition.

The strange thing was that he didn’t feel any churning in his stomach; he even felt as if he was quite ready to go to the store to look for something to eat.

“What is it?” Lin Jue asked, confused, seeing Song Hanzhang standing motionlessly to the side.

“… No, nothing.” Song Hanzhang glanced at the two zombies on the floor and frowned.

Lin Jue was never one to think too much and hearing Song Hanzhang say that, he swept his questions aside and started looking for food.

The flavor of jam and bread bursted on his taste buds. Lin Jue wolfed down the meal and after almost choking on it, went looking for water, looking as if he had been starved for three days.

“You eat as well.” Lin Jue passed a piece of bread over.

Song Hanzhang shook his head and picked up a packet of chocolate to recover some calories. “Don’t eat too much, it will affect your movement.”

“Oh, shame. Such a rare free meal too, it satisfies my childhood dream of getting everything in the supermarket fully. Xuezhang, as a kid, did you ever want everyone in the world to disappear so you didn’t have to go to school and could go wherever you want? And if you got hungry, you could just go to the supermarket to find some food, and then take some coins and go to the arcade? I was such an idiot; I wrote it in my homework book. My mom saw it and scolded me; she said I never studied and was always thinking about playing.”Lin Jue sat on the counter, chatting with Song Hanzhang while eating, his expression surprisingly relaxed.

“… Even if I did, I wouldn’t say it out,” Song Hanzhang said.

“Huh? No way, this uptight?” Lin Jue laughed.

“Because I cannot say it.” Song Hanzhang’s expression was stern, even a little cloudy. “Those ‘unnatural’ thoughts, I can’t have them.”

“… Your parents are quite strict,” Lin Jue commented sympathetically.

Song Hanzhang laughed mockingly and didn’t continue. “Hurry up and eat. We have work to do.”

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