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Lin Jue kept his back to Song Hanzhang. Turning around right now felt like it would take even more courage than murder. He didn’t dare imagine what Song Hanzhang’s expression was like. When he saw the bite wound on his ankle, just what did he feel?

“I’m sorry.” The sound left his throat and Lin Jue suddenly realized that he was on the verge of tears.

The virus antibody was so important, so, so important, and yet he had been careless enough to have…

If only he had killed Gao Yifei during the card game. Lin Jue couldn’t help but imagine it. He should have pulled out his gun and killed her back then, and killed Liu Shan, so that way, none of this tragedy could have happened.

Why did he hesitate? Why!

“It’s not your fault. I was careless from the start.”

Song Hanzhang’s calm voice made Lin Jue turn around in shock and ask timidly, “You…?”

“This isn’t a place for talking. We’ll leave first, then discuss.” Song Hanzhang roughly bandaged his injury and dragged his wounded leg forwards. Lin Jue immediately ran up to help him.

“Aren’t you scared? I’ll become a zombie soon.” The air Song Hanzhang breathed out froze into wisps of white mist in the cold night, his face appearing paler than usual underneath the faint light.

“You won’t die, you won’t turn into a zombie! We still have time, there must be a way!” Lin Jue lowered his voice and said, his right hand holding onto the wooden pole tightly.

Song Hanzhang was silent for a long while. The two kept walking until they reached an open-air balcony of the languages building. From there, they could see the sky bridge, the grass field beneath it, the man-made river, and the thick crowd of zombies enjoying the feast that did not come easy…

“That is not something that can be decided by will alone. Things like miracles can’t always happen. For the sake of our past night’s cooperation, I advise that you go now to the stadium. We’ve all been here near the south-east, and the zombies will have mutated severely. The situation over there should be much better. If it’s you, you should be able to survive until daybreak.

Song Hanzhang leant against the railing and watched as the zombies fought for their banquet, the depths of his unfathomable eyes filled with a deathly silence.

Lin Jue looked at his silhouette, those last words making every one of his nerves jump with unease.

No, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t watch Song Hanzhang die! Never!

He buried his face in his hands and growled, “Things like miracles- how could you know that they’re impossible if you don’t try! If I don’t do anything… I’d regret it, I’d definitely regret it. Didn’t we promise to survive together? Don’t think of dying by yourself! As long as there’s still hope, even just a little, we can still try!”

“Even if the price might be life itself?”

Song Hanzhang looked back, those black eyes on that pale face flowing with an emotion that LIn Jue did not understand, silent yet fierce. Or maybe it was all just an illusion from the moonlight.

“Yes, even if I might die.” Lin Jue couldn’t help but straighten his body, enunciating each word carefully.

Song Hanzhang nodded slightly. “Get over here then.”

Lin Jue walked over dumbly and saw that Song Hanzhang was pointing at the field where the zombies had gathered. “Look over there.”

“What about there?”

The image of them gorging themselves was truly revolting. Even though they were far away, the scent of blood almost seemed to pierce through the air towards them. Especially since he was the reason behind the gathering, his feeling of unease increased.

“The antibody is still there, but its position isn’t very good.”

“What?!”

Overjoyed, Lin Jue squinted his eyes and looked. The antibody was lying on the field, surrounded by greedy zombies which had created an impenetrable barrier around it.

“The antibody is still there, but it’ll be difficult to get to. It would have been easier to wait for the zombies to leave and then to go and get it, but now that there’s a body there, I doubt they’ll leave. There’s no way to leave unscathed if we try to fight them by force. If I wasn’t wounded on my leg, I might have given it a try since I’m already infected and another bite wouldn’t do anything.”

Lin Jue didn’t know what to say. The one who lost the antibody was him, and the one who gathered the zombies there was also him, but the person bitten was Song Hanzhang.

“I’ll go,” Lin Jue said and looked up at Song Hanzhang. “You have a plan right? Tell me the way with the highest chance of success and I’ll try it out. I’ll bring the antibody back, I swear.”

Song Hanzhang looked him in the eyes for a long time before turning away. “There’s no need for you to do this for me, we’ve only been helping each other as temporary partners anyways.”

“No! If it wasn’t for you, I would have died a long time ago…” Lin Jue said hurriedly.

“If it’s because of guilt, then that’s even less reason to help me,” Song Hanzhang cut impatiently. “I helped you on the basis that I would be safe, and my aim has always been myself. You don’t owe me anything, that antibody has always been yours, and it’s my own fault that I was bitten, it had nothing to do with you.”

Lin Jue looked at him in a mixture of determination and stubbornness. “Tell me. Let me help you.”

Song Hanzhang’s lips moved, as if ready to spew a slurry of mocking words, but they were forced back by Lin Jue’s eyes.

He couldn’t say it. Facing this person’s eyes, he couldn’t say anything.

This person always exceeded his expectations, every single time.

“It’s three minutes past five right now and the game will end after daybreak, but as for whether daybreak means six o’clock or sunrise, it’s still unclear, so we need to plan from the worst possibility. At this latitude, the sun should rise at around a quarter past six. I was bitten at four fifty-five so there’s no way I can survive until daybreak.”

“Then what is your plan?” Lin Jue persisted.

Song Hanzhang was silent for a while before he said slowly, “Time difference.”

“What?” Lin Jue didn’t understand.

“The virus is reversible within forty-five minutes of the infection, so I must inject the antibody before five-forty. Counting the time for preparation, we need to start the operation at around five-thirty. That way, even if you get infected, there’ll still be enough time to survive until daybreak. Of course, that’s the worst case scenario, it would be best if you could come out of it unscathed.”

“Will the virus clear out after daybreak?” Lin Jue asked.

“I don’t know.” Song Hanzhang looked at him searchingly. “Which is why this is very unfair for you. Maybe I’ll be saved, but you’ll die.”

Lin Jue thought about it. “You’re saying that what happened tonight is like a game, so after the game has ended, it’ll clear out the debuffs, like ‘poisoned’ and ‘wounded’?”

“Maybe, but I can’t give you any promises because I truly don’t know. I don’t want to interfere with your decision, but if I was you, I would have to say that leaving now would be the best choice for you.”

“I know. There’ve been too many decisions that I’m already regretting tonight.” Lin Jue leant against the railing and wiped the dried blood from his face.

If he could return to when the game had just started, he would ask Zhou Yuxiu to explain everything after getting the antibody at the plaza and give it to her. Without the antibody, many things later wouldn’t have had to happen, and maybe they’d even have a higher chance of surviving.

No, if they could truly restart, he wouldn’t have taken that easter egg in the first place.

But… how could they restart? Lin Jue smiled bitterly. Their only choice now was to continue struggling in this broken game until dawn broke.

“No regrets?” Song Hanzhang asked him solemnly.

“I don’t know,” Lin Jue looked at the night sky in confusion and whispered. “But if I left now, I would definitely regret it.”

——No, you wouldn’t even have the chance to regret, Song Hanzhang said silently.

The cold sheath of the dagger dug into his skin. Song Hanzhang looked down at the feast on the field, a cool light flashing through his eyes.

The method of ‘time difference’ was too risky and it definitely wasn’t the safest option, but it was the only way for both of them to survive.

The most efficient way of drawing away zombies had always been fresh blood and meat.

If Lin Jue died, then he could easily reach where the antibody was with his corpse. That plan was safe, efficient, secure, and easily executed. If he stabbed Lin Jue right now, the plan would have succeeded.

But he gave up, he gave up on the most plausible method, and chose to gamble on an unknown possibility.

——As compared to some illusory thing like a miracle, I’d prefer to believe in medical directions.

It was something he himself said.

——“Ah, how should I say this- the biggest difference between us is probably: I am beyond saving because I’ve always been a lunatic, perfectly happy with entertaining myself, but underneath your overly righteous personality, you’re still normal- you get sentimental, you can be persuaded, you get happy when you’re acknowledged… But I don’t. I’m just like this, I never care about what others think of me, but as for you, I think there’s still some saving for you.”

Suddenly remembering the comment he received from another, Song Hanzhang felt the unexplainable urge to laugh.

He looked towards Lin Jue. The man was leaning on the railing, his eyes staring unblinkingly at the small bottle of antibody among the crowd of zombies.

Making a decision that betrayed logic, betting for an unknown result, this could only be because of…

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