“An opening!”
Yuto tightened his grip on the military knife, hunched his back, and moved along the wall in a crouched stealthy advance.
He waited until the zombie was almost only two steps away.
Then he suddenly struck—!
Shhk!
The swift blade cut through the air.
Using all his strength, Yuto swung the blade in a diagonal chop.
The edge aimed straight for the gap between the zombie’s cervical vertebrae and stabbed in viciously!
“Crack—!”
The crisp sound of the military knife piercing through the skull rang out with startling clarity.
The zombie’s movements abruptly froze, and it crashed heavily to the ground.
Rotten flesh and black blood splattered against the wall behind it with a wet “splat.”
Yuto quickly shifted aside to avoid it.
[Player “Yuto” has killed an infected zombie.
Reward: 1 point!]
[Basic Swordsmanship: (1/10)]
Yuto took a deep breath.
He did not stop, turning his head toward another zombie that had been drawn over by the commotion.
This time, he took the initiative.
His footwork slipped past the zombie’s pounce, and his left hand pressed down on the back of its head.
With his right hand, he violently drove the knife upward through its jaw.
Puchi!
A clean, decisive strike.
It pierced straight through into the cranial cavity.
His movements had become much smoother.
When the blade was pulled out, black blood flowed steadily along the groove.
[Player “Yuto” has killed an infected zombie.
Reward: 1 point!]
[Basic Swordsmanship: (2/10)]
“…”
Yukino held her breath behind the corner of a desk.
Her recurve bow remained aimed at the zombies in the distance, but she did not rashly waste an arrow.
Only when a zombie tried to circle around from behind did she fire an arrow into its knee, forcing its center of gravity to become unstable and creating an opening for Yuto.
Although this was their first time working together, they were unexpectedly in sync.
After dealing with four zombies in succession, Yuto’s breathing grew slightly heavier, and he chose to rest briefly.
A moment later, he repeated the same trick and lured another zombie over.
This cycle continued again and again, the rhythm steady and orderly.
“Roar!!”
The instant the final zombie lunged at him, he could even clearly see the muddy blood vessels in its rotting eyeballs.
A flash of blade light swept out, directly severing the zombie’s neck.
Its head rolled across the floor with a dull rumble.
[Player “Yuto” has killed an infected zombie.
Reward: 1 point!]
[Basic Swordsmanship: (10/10) → [Elite-Level Swordsmanship: (0/50)]
[Strength attribute increased by 0.1.
Current Strength: 1.2]
“Not bad.
My strength went up a bit!”
The instant his swordsmanship advanced, Yuto clearly felt that the way his arm exerted force had changed.
His grip on the knife and the angle of his slashes seemed to have been invisibly corrected.
Even the weight of the combat knife felt a little lighter.
The resistance when the blade cut through the air had also decreased considerably.
Before long, they finally dealt with the last zombie in the third-floor corridor.
Yuto let out a long breath and felt a faint ache in the web between his thumb and index finger.
It was slightly ajar.
Inside the doorway, a blue canvas schoolbag lay on the floor.
Its corners were stained with dust, and the zipper was half open.
He walked over, picked it up, and unzipped it to check the contents inside.
He found a blank notebook, two ballpoint pens, a small unopened pack of biscuits, and even half a pack of wet wipes hidden in the inner compartment.
“Perfect.
I was just missing something to carry stuff in.”
A smile appeared at the corner of Yuto’s mouth, and he quickly shouldered the canvas bag.
While he was at it, he searched the classroom and found Yukino a portable backpack as well.
After leaving the classroom, the two continued along the corridor.
When they turned the corner, they found that the notice board on the wall had not been completely destroyed by the zombies.
Yuto walked over and wiped away the bloodstains and dust on the notice board.
A yellowed school floor plan immediately came into view.
It clearly marked all the main areas of the teaching building.
The lower three floors were all student classrooms.
The fourth floor was the infirmary.
The fifth floor was the laboratory.
The very top floor contained the principal’s office and the teachers’ offices.
“We’ll go to the infirmary on the fourth floor first,” Yuto said to Yukino, pointing at the “Infirmary” label on the map.
“We need to replenish some medical supplies.”
“Mm.”
Yukino nodded.
She shifted the quiver for her recurve bow higher onto her shoulder and followed closely behind the boy.
At the entrance to the fourth-floor corridor, three zombies were blocking the way.
One of them was even wearing a school doctor’s white coat, its chest stained with large patches of dried blood.
After their cooperation earlier, the two of them had gradually developed a tacit understanding.
They were confident enough to face three zombies at once.
Whoosh!
Yukino drew her bow first.
The arrow accurately struck the temple of the zombie in the white coat.
Puchi!
Scarlet blood splashed.
The zombie toppled stiffly to the ground.
Hearing the noise, the remaining two zombies suddenly accelerated and charged straight toward them.
Yuto took the initiative and stepped forward to meet them.
The advantage of Elite-Level Swordsmanship was now fully displayed.
His left-hand knife blocked the zombie’s clawing attack, while the right-hand knife smoothly sliced open its throat in one fluid motion.
When the other zombie closed in, he swiftly shifted sideways and dodged.
Bang!
The back of his blade smashed into the back of the zombie’s head.
Taking advantage of its momentary dizziness, he drove the blade down from the top of its skull, cleanly and decisively scrambling its brains.
Very quickly, the three zombies were instantly killed.
When they pushed open the infirmary door, a thick stench of blood immediately rushed out, mixed with the smell of disinfectant.
The sharp, unpleasant odor made both of them frown.
On the ceiling, the bright incandescent light flickered slightly.
The two large medicine cabinets in the corner had long since been overturned.
Medicine was scattered all over the floor in complete disorder.
On the sickbed lay a hunched, withered humanoid corpse.
Yuto stepped forward to take a look and discovered that this person, who had standard western features, had already been dead for a long time.
His swift blade quickly stabbed into the skull, granting it relief and preventing it from turning into a monster.
At that moment, Yukino rummaged through an intact medicine cabinet and found two dark green cloth bags in the top drawer.
Printed on the covers of the bags was a familiar red cross.
They were the classic first-aid kits from the Left 4 Dead series.
In addition to those, three deep-yellow painkiller packs were placed nearby.
According to their agreement, all of these items naturally belonged to Yuto.
“Nice work.”
Yukino watched with envy, then stared at the gauze and alcohol scattered all over the floor.
“These ordinary bandages can still be used in an emergency.
If you don’t want them, may I take them?”
Unexpectedly, this aloof girl was actually quite practical.
He did not stop Yukino.
The storage space in the canvas bag was limited, so every bit of space had to be carefully calculated.
As for these insignificant items, there was no harm in letting Yukino have them.
…
After coming out of the infirmary, the two headed straight for the top floor.
The number of zombies on the top floor was quite large.
It was even equivalent to the combined total of the fourth and fifth floors, greatly exceeding their expectations.
“Be careful.”
Yuto’s expression turned solemn.
He repeated his earlier method, using pieces of chalk to draw them away one by one, luring the zombies out and cautiously killing them individually.
Suddenly, at the stairwell corner on the fifth floor, a zombie that had come from who knew where seemed to hear the commotion.
It unexpectedly changed direction and headed toward the corridor.
At that moment, Yukino was fully focused, all her attention fixed on Yuto.
So, she did not hear the footsteps gradually quickening behind her.
“Watch out!”
After finishing off another zombie, Yuto had no time to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
He casually glanced back, only to see a zombie opening its bloody maw and suddenly leaping toward the black-haired girl.
“Fuck!”
There was no time to think about where this lone zombie had come from.
Without the slightest hesitation,
Yuto directly pulled out his Beretta M9 and aimed at the zombie’s head.
“Believe in yourself… I can do this!”
At this distance, one mistake would drag an innocent bystander into the line of fire.
Yukino might also be pierced through by the bullet.
Yuto’s heart instantly leaped into his throat.
His palm was covered in sweat, and he was extremely nervous.
He did not have absolute confidence, yet in that instant, he entered some inexplicable state.
His breathing became calm.
His gaze focused.
His heartbeat approached silence.
At this moment, aside from that zombie, there was nothing else in his eyes.
“?”
Seeing Yuto suddenly point a gun at her, all the hairs on Yukino’s body instantly stood on end with a sharp “shua.”
Her heart tightened abruptly.
She wanted to turn her head, but her body was half a beat too slow.
From the corner of her eye, a gray, decayed shadow was already lunging over with the sound of rushing wind.
Its rotten fingers were almost about to hook before her eyes.
Her recurve bow was still resting on her shoulder.
There was no time to turn it around.
Yukino’s pupils abruptly shrank, and not a single sound came from her throat.
She could only watch helplessly as that foul-smelling shadow slowly enveloped her.
“Bang!”
The gunshot suddenly exploded in the narrow corridor, shaking the walls until they faintly trembled.
The bullet drilled into the zombie’s temple with extreme precision.
Red-and-white brain matter mixed with black-brown filthy blood splattered onto Yukino like rotten mud with a wet “splat.”
Yukino’s body jolted violently.
She instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, and a wave of physical nausea surged up her throat.
But the suffocating feeling of being seized by death had not yet faded.
She stood frozen in place, without even the strength to raise her hand and wipe her face.
The zombie’s corpse fell stiffly to the ground.
With a “clatter,” a scroll wrapped in light-brown oiled paper slipped out of its rotten pocket, rolled halfway across the floor, and stopped beside the girl’s foot.