Ignoring the remaining fire extinguishers, Song Yu immediately took off running for her life alongside Xiao Hei.
If they didn’t escape now, it would be too late!
The swarming, densely packed mass of zombies resembled maggots squirming and clustering together inside rotting food—utterly nauseating.
Clever players grabbed what they could and bolted, while greedy players were still bickering and fighting over scraps inside the clinic.
Song Yu and Xiao Hei made their escape through the underground parking garage, where the volume of zombies was definitively lower than upstairs.
The drawback, however, was the dark and enclosed environment of the underground parking lot; due to the arrival of the high-tier zombies, scattered wandering zombies had manifested here as well.
“Scattered” was only relative to upstairs; those pairs of crimson eyes spanned the entire parking garage…
Out of the darkness, zombies would leap out unpredictably from time to time, lunging fiercely straight at Song Yu!
The footfalls were chaotic and disordered, making it impossible even for Xiao Hei to discern their patterns.
Windows VPS Hosting at $15.90/Month — Empower your website with Windows VPS hosting at a smarter price. Explore Ultahost plans today. — Ultahost | Sponsored
20 Actors Who Have Serious Martial Arts Skills In Real Life — House Jogger | Sponsored
To make matters worse, a Tier 4 zombie lurked within the parking garage.
Clinging flat against the ceiling and moving at blistering speeds, Song Yu found herself entirely unable to lock onto its position!
The moment her flashlight beam caught it in one second, it vanished from her field of vision in the very next.
Every hair on Xiao Hei’s body stood on end, and even Song Yu’s heart hammered at a terrifying tempo.
This marked the first time Song Yu had encountered a crisis this grave.
Clutching her handgun in one hand and her flashlight in the other, she raised her vigilance to a maximum of one hundred and twenty percent.
It wasn’t that Song Yu was reluctant to expend her assault rifle; she simply had no viable alternative right now.
Because of the players’ disruptive operations, every single zombie across the entirety of Yangliu City had been thoroughly triggered.
They had all awakened, scouring every corner in search of traces of living prey.
Even had Song Yu not been stationed at the clinic, she would have been hunted relentlessly to the death by the zombies anyway.
Moreover, with all zombie attributes experiencing an additional 10% elevation, the situation tilted severely to the players’ disadvantage.
As gunshots rang out continuously inside the basement, facing the endless wave of zombies, Song Yu decisively hurled a massive chunk of fresh human meat out from her backpack slots!
Fresh human meat dripping with blood instantly captured the attention of a massive swarm of zombies.
The zombies hiding in the dark surged forward en masse, and their distorted, hideous, terrifying forms made Song Yu’s eyelids twitch involuntarily.
Fortunately, all these zombies had their attention glued to those chunks of minced meat, allowing Song Yu to hurl a grenade without a moment’s hesitation.
The grenade detonated with a thunderous bang, coating both Song Yu and Xiao Hei from head to toe in foul-smelling, putrid zombie flesh and splatter.
The ground was littered with mutated blood.
The shockwave from the grenade blast flung Song Yu and Xiao Hei violently backward over a considerable distance.
Luckily, they suffered nothing worse than superficial scrapes and bruises.
Gritting her teeth, Song Yu flicked on her flashlight and swept the beam forward: that Tier 4 zombie had caught the blast radius as well, currently collapsed on the floor and panting heavily.
She swiftly retrieved medical bandages from her backpack slots, casting aside thoughts of wastefulness as she and Xiao Hei each applied a roll.
The moment its health pool recovered, Xiao Hei immediately sought to charge forward and execute that Tier 4 zombie.
Yet before it could execute any movement, Song Yu hauled it back forcefully by sheer strength.
At a time like this, yielding to greed was fatal.
There would always be opportunities to hunt Tier 4 zombies later; there was zero reason to risk everything out of greed!
Making a thrilling, narrow escape out of the underground parking garage, Song Yu and Xiao Hei finally broke through to the surface.
Yet the situation above ground proved no better than the subterranean parking lot; the streets were choked entirely with zombies.
They were currently indulging themselves in a lavish feast of prey.
Perhaps because they were already satiated with food, or perhaps due to the zombie blood and flesh coating Song Yu and Xiao Hei, these zombies spared them very little attention.
Only a tiny handful of low-tier zombies roared as they lunged in their direction, though even with their boosted health pools, these zombies remained exceptionally easy for Song Yu to eliminate.
She and Xiao Hei made an effortless escape toward a towering skyscraper situated far away from the epicenter of the conflict, successfully scaling up to its rooftop terrace.
With sheets of fire blanketing the horizon, the entire metropolis had degenerated into a blazing city of inferno. Countless zombies wove through the destruction, while high-tier zombies wantonly ravaged everything left standing in the city.
Observing closely, one could still spot the traces of numerous NPCs operating in the field, fighting valiantly to purge the zombies and beat back the raging fires devouring the city.
Once the instance concluded, the players would evacuate, but the instance itself wouldn’t halt its operations simply because the players departed; the NPCs would still need to eke out a living in this world.
Standing atop the skyscraper and gazing down at the sprawling devastation, Song Yu exhaled a soft, turbid breath.
They had finally made it out alive.
Yet following this cataclysmic event, the city’s resources were bound to grow even scarcer.
Recalling the pathetically meager inventory of food and water resting inside her backpack, Song Yu couldn’t help a fresh wave of headaches throbbing at her temples.
Fortunately, she still retained half a bag of flour, which could barely be coerced into producing a few dozen steamed buns.
Steamed buns provided 20 fullness points each, which should sustain them for a stretch of time.
Song Yu and Xiao Hei holed up on the rooftop terrace, waiting out the hours until dawn. Even with daylight breaking, the city fires refused to extinguish, displaying an ominous trend of burning with escalating fury.
At the exact moment of dawn breaking, Song Yu failed to catch sight of any sunlight; the skies remained blanketed by an ominous layer of heavy, brooding storm clouds.
Song Yu lifted her chin to survey the heavens—did this mean…
“Drip—”
A droplet of water struck Song Yu’s cheek. True to prediction, it began to rain.
Song Yu immediately dug every conceivable container out from her spatial storage to catch the falling rainwater!
Having spent this long inside the game, she was finally going to get a chance to wash her hair and take a bath!
Glass jars, plastic bottles, buckets, and various vessels were arrayed across the ground, carpeting nearly half the surface area of the rooftop terrace.
Unsatisfied, Song Yu led Xiao Hei downstairs to scavenge for additional water-storable containers.
Not until the containers populated every inch of the rooftop did she finally halt her efforts.
Squandering an exceptional opportunity to stockpile water like this was never an option.
Except…
Frowning, Song Yu lifted a glass bottle filled to the brim with rainwater from the ground.
[Polluted Water: +20 hydration; ingestion will trigger pathological symptoms such as diarrhea and fever.]
Pondering for a moment, Song Yu pulled several items out from her backpack slots.
Gauze, charcoal, wood ash, a barbecue grill, matches, and dry firewood.
Additionally, she had Xiao Hei forage for small stones and grass, alongside fine sand scavenged from an apartment fish tank.
Polluted water—shouldn’t it become drinkable after going through purification?
Song Yu prepared to wash her hair and bathe as well. With conditions restricted, she had to rely on wood ash to strip away bodily oils.
Fortunately, there was a surplus of that material.
Filtering the polluted water and boiling it occupied Song Yu in a flurry of labor all the way until evening.
This timely rainfall grew increasingly torrential, showing zero intention of letting up anytime soon.
Still, the filtered and boiled polluted water met potable standards, completely stripping away the risks of triggering diarrhea or similar ailments.
Boiling the polluted water straight carried certain residual hazards, but utilizing it for hair-washing and bathing posed zero issues.
Song Yu and Xiao Hei sat soaked to the bone beside a blazing campfire, drying themselves off; the cozy warmth of the fire beat back the majority of the biting chill.
Enduring this torrential rainstorm made Song Yu fully realize the sheer volume of supplies she was still lacking.
Raincoats, umbrellas, rain boots, thick quilts, heavy winter clothing… and ideally, a boat thrown in for good measure.
Boasting an adequate reservoir of water, Song Yu immediately commenced crafting steamed buns.
Though lacking yeast, the flour possessed enough natural properties to ferment independently.
Steamed buns manufactured solely from flour and water—to Song Yu and Xiao Hei, as long as they were edible, that was all that mattered.
This rainstorm raged continuously for five whole days.
One mustn’t assume this constituted an unmitigated blessing; while it delivered an ample supply of water resources, it simultaneously spawned numerous insidious drawbacks.
Namely, starvation and disease.