Everyone witnessing this bizarre scene understood—the man in the blue windbreaker, like the girl named Chuchu, possessed a Supernatural Ability.
Just as his bayonet was about to pierce Tang Yun’s heart, he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed backward.
In just one minute, the situation had taken an utterly unexpected turn.
Tang Yun staggered and fell to the ground.
Soon, she was pulled into an embrace and then lifted up.
Tang Yun was carried back to the off-road vehicle by Lu Chuan to tend to her wounds. She had sustained multiple injuries, the most severe being her shoulder, which had been completely pierced.
“Mind this?” Lu Chuan draped a blanket over her and prepared to cut open her shirt with scissors.
“Hiss!” Tang Yun gasped in pain. “Go ahead. Sorry for the trouble, Brother Lu.”
Lu Chuan chuckled softly, retrieved the first-aid kit, and sat beside her, replying earnestly, “You’re welcome, Tangtang.”
Bearing the pain, Tang Yun briefly recounted the earlier duel. Lu Chuan simply nodded in response.
Once her wounds were bandaged, Tang Yun didn’t rest. Instead, she rolled down the window to watch the ongoing duels outside.
To her surprise, the man who had stepped in to duel for Hong Yu lost, while Hong Yu herself emerged victorious in a fight against another woman.
It made sense—anyone who had survived this long, even a woman, was no pushover. Underestimating an opponent only increased the risk of defeat.
The red glow of the Ring grew increasingly faint, but five people were still not enough.
On the twenty-seventh day of the Apocalypse, only fourteen people remained within the Ring.
Tang Yun tightened her grip on her weapon. She still had three days left.
A new round of draws began. She was fortunate not to be selected, but Lu Chuan was.
She was the only woman in the Ring, yet no one chose her as their opponent.
After her previous duel with the man in the blue windbreaker, everyone found it too eerie—even when her body was immobilized, she had still managed to kill him.
Following that incident, everyone knew she was not to be trifled with and dared not risk facing her in combat.
Tang Yun should be grateful they didn’t know the truth. At the critical moment, she had used the Supernatural Ability “Blood Pupil,” absorbed from a player, to defeat her opponent. However, that ability could only be used once.
Now, severely injured, engaging in combat would be extremely dangerous for her.
She got out of the vehicle, leaning against it with a hiking pole as she watched Lu Chuan duel the leader of another team.
The leader’s surname was Tao, named Tao Qing. Originally, the team he led had the most members among the three groups, suggesting his abilities were formidable.
Lu Chuan wielded a mountaineering axe, while Tao Qing brandished a large machete.
In terms of height, Lu Chuan had the advantage, but Tao Qing appeared more robust in build, resembling a gang boss with a fierce gaze and every move exuding ruthless killing intent.
Watching the two fight, Tang Yun couldn’t help but worry for Lu Chuan. After all, they were high school classmates and had been cooperative partners throughout this journey.
The duel between them grew intensely fierce. Eventually, both lost their weapons and began fighting hand-to-hand.
Lu Chuan dodged swiftly, delivering a powerful kick to Tao Qing’s lower back, sending him stumbling forward. He then followed up with a punch that made Tao Qing spit blood.
Tao Qing went berserk, struggling to rise, but Lu Chuan gave him no chance to recover, relentlessly pummeling him until he lay motionless on the ground.
“Pfft!” Tao Qing spat out another mouthful of blood, completely immobilized.
Lu Chuan stood up, his coldly handsome face bearing a rarely seen ferocity.
Tang Yun breathed a sigh of relief, noticing that he was also injured, though fortunately nothing serious.
While bandaging the wounds, Tang Yun only lent a hand. Before the wounds were fully dressed, a tremendous commotion suddenly erupted outside.
“Boom—”
The Ring trembled, flashing with a dazzling red light.
“What’s going on?!”
Tang Yun didn’t get out of the vehicle; instead, she tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
Amidst the clash of blades, the window glass was shattered, and a hand suddenly reached in, gripping Tang Yun’s neck.
She cried out in pain.
“Bang!” Lu Chuan leaned to the side and pulled the trigger, the bullet striking the hand squarely.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!!!” He fired several more shots in succession.
At that very moment, the Ring vanished. Tang Yun’s eyebrows twitched wildly, and ignoring the excruciating pain in her neck, she immediately started the off-road vehicle.
Another car was following behind, pursuing her.
The hostile players weren’t all dead yet, trying to prevent Tang Yun from entering Shelter No. 3.
Lu Chuan rolled down the window. With limited bullets left in his gun, he aimed at the tires of the car behind and calmly pulled the trigger.
“Bang!” The bullet shot out and hit its mark.
The pursuing car skidded and slowed down.
He fired a few more shots, completely disabling the tires of the car behind.
“Tang Yun!” Lu Chuan shouted.
Tang Yun snapped back to attention, only then realizing she had nearly lost consciousness.
She shook her head, her mind feeling hazy.
“Stop!”
“Tang Yun, stop the car!”
Hearing Lu Chuan’s words, Tang Yun used her last ounce of strength to hit the brakes. Her head knocked against the steering wheel, and she lost consciousness.
It had been too close. If Lu Chuan hadn’t fired in time, her neck would have been snapped.
The next moment, she felt herself being lifted into someone’s arms.
Lu Chuan glanced at the person clutching his shirt, called out a few times with no response, then carried her from the driver’s seat to the back seat, covering her with a blanket.
Although they had temporarily shaken off their pursuers, the distinctive growls of zombies soon echoed around them. Lu Chuan drove away before the zombies could surround them.
After leaving the Ring, they arrived at an unfamiliar place, one not marked on the map at all.
It was a wilderness.
As the off-road vehicle jolted along, Lu Chuan glanced in the rearview mirror at Tang Yun, who had fallen into a deep sleep. His usually cool and detached expression softened into a faint smile.
An hour later, they finally spotted a marker on the map. Lu Chuan recalculated the route to Shelter No. 3.
The highway was no longer an option, so they had to navigate through the wild terrain.
After evading the zombies, Lu Chuan stopped the car in a relatively safe area to check Tang Yun’s wounds.
The severe injuries from the earlier fight had been bandaged, but during the attack in the car, the wounds had torn open again in the struggle.
The most critical was the injury on her neck—shocking to behold, a ring of purple and red, her entire body a pitiful sight.
Lu Chuan took out hydrogen peroxide to clean her wounds. Though his movements were gentle, Tang Yun instinctively flinched a few times, her eyes cracking open slightly. Perhaps upon seeing it was him, she completely relaxed.
Sunlight streamed in, falling on her shoulders, making her skin appear even more delicate and fair.
She had grown much thinner since their reunion at the hospital. Lu Chuan dampened a towel with mineral water and gently wiped her face and hands.
Lu Chuan appeared cool and restrained, but he was, after all, a vigorous and robust young man. After bandaging her wounds, he quickly covered her with the blanket.
Taking a deep breath, he returned to the driver’s seat and continued driving.
The weather grew increasingly cold as the off-road vehicle continued southward through the wilderness. The villages along the way had become ruins, with only zombies wandering about.
Tang Yun had not woken up the entire journey. Lu Chuan checked on her and found that she was severely injured and running a fever—a very dangerous situation.
Before sunset, Lu Chuan managed to find a relatively intact small house in the wilderness.
He parked the vehicle outside the gate, set up traps nearby, and only then carried Tang Yun into the house.