The zombie attacks, distrust among survivors… But after the experience from the previous day, everyone handled things much more efficiently.
Ling Qingyun rejoined the team. This area was a residential district, and although in some households all the members had turned into zombies, the numbers weren’t large. He led the way at the front, and never encountered any real danger. They also did not run into any more mutated zombies.
By noon, they had cleared four buildings. Everyone cooperated and worked in coordination, and some survivors were even willing to help, moving supplies onto the truck.
Ling Qingyun was always at the forefront, killing zombies. And every time he killed one, he would hear the voice in his ear: “Gained one point of merit.”
The supernatural events he discovered upon waking that morning, along with the recurring voice that now echoed in his ears every time, left Ling Qingyun feeling somewhat uneasy. Fortunately, he was still able to stay focused when facing zombies!
Lunchtime arrived quickly. The others had eaten something earlier in the morning, so even if they were hungry by noon, it was still manageable. But Ling Qingyun was different. If it hadn’t been for all the strange things happening throughout the morning, he probably would’ve gone to find something to eat long ago. And as for what was on his head…
The woman in the team was cooking and preparing food. She still didn’t dare to kill zombies and had been staying at the back whenever the team advanced. Because of that, she took the initiative to handle these chores. No one in the team criticized her — having a woman cook was actually quite a good thing, and she also helped carry supplies and such.
Ling Qingyun cared even less. The ones who had killed the most zombies in the team were him and Zhang Yi, and he was even eager to kill a few more! Glancing at the other teammates cleaning off dirt from themselves, washing their hands, and getting ready to eat, Ling Qingyun suddenly thought of the thing on his head. With a flash, he slipped into the small bathroom connected to the bedroom and locked the door.
After hesitating for a moment, Ling Qingyun finally took off his motorcycle helmet and looked into the mirror. If there really was a large lump of flesh growing on his forehead… even if he didn’t care much about his appearance, how was he supposed to explain to others that something suddenly appeared on his head?
Ling Qingyun looked at the mirror in front of him and only then realized that the thing on his head wasn’t some kind of tumor. It must have been because he couldn’t see clearly using the stainless steel railing earlier that morning — that’s why he had thought so.
It was a blood-red… stone? It was embedded right above the center of his eyebrows. The jade pendant was oval-shaped and not very large—perhaps from a distance it looked like an eye. Four black characters were clearly visible on it. Around the black characters, red light shimmered as if blood was flowing, and it almost seemed as if this cold stone was alive… Ling Qingyun took a closer look. With its crystal-clear texture, maybe the thing on his head was actually a jade pendant?
He didn’t know how to describe this jade pendant. Or rather, maybe four words could sum it up—breathtakingly mesmerizing!
But no matter how beautiful it was, having it just stuck on his head was strange enough. Ling Qingyun reached out to dig at it, wanting to pry it off.
Unexpectedly, the jade pendant did not come off. With a “ding dong” sound, a box appeared in front of his eyes, containing two lines of large characters:
Name: Ling Qingyun
Merit: 18 points
The moment Ling Qingyun lowered his hand, the box immediately disappeared, but the thing on his forehead was still there!
What the heck! Ling Qingyun lowered his hand again. Could it be that this thing growing on his head was just to tell him how many zombies he had killed? Remembering that was pointless!
He reached out and tugged again, considering how to hide the thing on his forehead, but another box popped up — “Merit reached 10 points, basic functions can be activated. Activate now?”
There were no buttons, but as soon as he saw it, Ling Qingyun’s first reaction was to activate it.
So the box switched back to the first one:
Name: Ling Qingyun
Merit: 18 points
Level: 1 (Basic functions activated)
What exactly were these basic functions?
If Zhuang Cheng were still around, he might have been able to explain it. But now… never mind. The most urgent thing now was to deal with the jade pendant on his forehead.
As Ling Qingyun thought this, he suddenly felt a coolness on his forehead. When he lowered his hand and looked into the mirror again, the jade pendant on his forehead had vanished, leaving only smooth skin.
Could it be that the basic function he activated was to hide the thing on his head? Ling Qingyun was speechless for a moment.
But since the object on his forehead had already disappeared, he could now appear in front of others openly. Ling Qingyun washed his face and hands before stepping out. The others were already eating.
They were having noodles this time, served with fried eggs, boiled meat, and a vegetable soup. Everyone was enjoying the meal. The team had members from all over the country—some mixed Lao Gan Ma [1]Lao Gan Ma (老干妈) is a famous Chinese brand of chili sauces. It literally means “Old Godmother” and is named after its founder, Tao Huabi, an older woman from Guizhou province who started … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3523244_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3523244_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); chili sauce into their noodles, others used peanut butter they had found. Ling Qingyun went with the simplest: noodles mixed with lard and soy sauce.
Lard and soy sauce made the noodles very flavorful. If they’d had green onions, it would’ve been even better, but there was no place to find any at the moment.
After the meal, they suited up in full gear and headed toward the next building.
Ling Qingyun originally thought that the afternoon would go much like the morning. Even if they encountered another mutated zombie, they had enough people to deal with it. But he didn’t expect that they would end up facing something like this.
The first floor of Building Fifteen was filled with a nauseating stench, worse even than when they had been at the hospital. Forcing themselves to bear the stench, they opened the door—and everyone was stunned.
The room was filled with corpses, piled one on top of another. The bodies were already rotting, yellowish corpse fluids pooling across the floor and releasing an unbearable stench.
The team members couldn’t hold it in any longer and began vomiting. Most of their lunch came back up. They had witnessed all kinds of gruesome scenes, but those were zombies. Since they had mentally categorized zombies as monsters or the walking dead, it was easier to accept. But this was different.
These were human corpses, not zombies. And it was clear at a glance—they hadn’t been killed by zombies. So who was so cruel and deranged that they had slaughtered dozens of people and dumped all the bodies here?
Zhang Yi’s face turned pale. He and Ling Qingyun were the calmest ones in the group. But there was no way they could start handling bodies right now, so he quickly ordered everyone out of the room and then shut the door behind them.
“The security door outside is tightly shut—the killer must still be in this building!” Zhang Yi said. Even in the past, many people killed for various reasons, and now, there were even more people capable of murder…
“I’ll scout ahead!” Ling Qingyun spoke up when he saw everyone hesitating.
They proceeded upstairs. Surprisingly, the hallway in this building didn’t have a single zombie, and there wasn’t a sound coming from any of the rooms.
They made their way all the way to the top floor and unlocked the door to the rooftop apartment—but although the key opened the lock, they couldn’t push the door open.
“Someone’s inside!” Ling Qingyun immediately said. Only rooms with survivors would be barricaded from the inside.
Zhang Yi started pounding hard on the door, but there was no response from within. He and Ling Qingyun exchanged a look, both recalling the gruesome scene on the first floor.
But the door was truly well-blocked. Even using all their strength, they couldn’t get it open!
“Can we get in from the balcony?” Ling Qingyun asked. Each floor had two apartments, and he wondered if they could reach it from the neighboring unit.
He tried to open the door to the adjacent apartment, but that failed too!
“The balconies of the two units aren’t far apart. If someone’s brave enough, they can climb across—and if we had the right tools, it’d be even easier!” said a newly joined security guard.
Another person suddenly had an idea. “What if we shut off the water and electricity?”
“We can’t afford to waste time here!” Zhang Yi said firmly.
“Let’s check downstairs first!” Ling Qingyun took the keys and went down to unlock the apartment on the floor below.
There was no one in the room—no zombies either—and all usable items had already been scavenged. Clothes, food, everything was gone. Because this residential complex wasn’t close to the city center, the residents used liquefied gas, but even the gas canisters were now missing.
“Maybe the people in this building were lucky and none of them turned into zombies, but once they realized what was happening outside, they were too afraid to leave the building…” Everyone was too scared to leave, but the amount of food was limited. Eventually, someone developed evil intentions—killed the others, and hoarded all the supplies…
That foul-smelling room downstairs was enough to reveal the selfishness of humanity.
Zhang Yi’s face also turned grim, while Ling Qingyun remained expressionless. He quickly walked to the balcony and looked up, only to see that the two balconies above had already been connected by wooden bed boards, with bedsheets tied around them multiple times, forming an absolutely secure path. The murderer must have taken control of the upper floor.
If no one ever came to rescue them, the killer might have ended up being the last one alive. But now…
“I’ll climb up! Given the current situation, all the building’s supplies are up there—we must find a way to get them!” Zhang Yi said firmly. He couldn’t allow a murderer to get away with it. Even if he couldn’t climb up, he’d burn the building down if he had to!
Ling Qingyun didn’t compete for this task. Since there were no zombies upstairs, he wasn’t particularly motivated.
Zhang Yi was a soldier and had been in the military for many years, so of course, he had received formal training. He climbed up the side pipe, and though it looked dangerous, there wasn’t any real risk.
A figure suddenly flashed across the balcony, and Ling Qingyun fired without hesitation. Sure enough, the person didn’t dare come close again. But after a while, a long clothes-drying pole was thrust out toward Zhang Yi.
Zhang Yi didn’t dare approach for the moment. Ling Qingyun fired a few more shots, but the person was well-hidden and didn’t respond at all. Zhang Yi was now stuck midway—his path blocked by a bamboo clothes-drying pole!
Ling Qingyun knew that although Zhang Yi was a bit of a good-natured person, the entire team relied on him to stay together. If something happened to Zhang Yi…
Using the key, Ling Qingyun opened the door to the neighboring apartment and headed straight for the balcony. Zhang Yi climbed up the only available pipe. That pipe served both the flushing toilet and provided direct drainage to prevent water accumulation on the balcony, but there were also outdoor air conditioning units nearby to use as footholds. Conveniently, two air conditioning units were installed on the neighboring balcony!
The person inside was timid and naturally couldn’t guard both spots at once. Ling Qingyun quickly climbed to the upper floor and crossed over via the plank-constructed pathway.
Without saying a word, the person hid inside the room. Zhang Yi took this opportunity to climb up as well.
The balcony door was closed, and they didn’t have a key. However, by now, they had forced open many doors with brute force, and this was just a glass door!
Ling Qingyun let down a bedsheet the intruder had used to secure the plank bridge, and tied it to his spiked club so the people downstairs could hoist it up.
A spiked club was perfect for breaking glass. Ling Qingyun struck several times, shattering the tempered glass into tiny shards that fell onto the floor—and onto the piles of rice and various supplies inside.
The intruder’s figure was no longer visible, but it was clear he was hiding in one of the rooms, since the boxes and liquefied gas tanks were still piled up near the main door.
Ling Qingyun was strong and had the spiked club for support. After a few hits, he smashed open the bedroom door.
Inside were two people: a skinny young man in his twenties, and a girl who appeared to be only fourteen or fifteen years old. The girl was very beautiful but wore only an oversized set of lingerie. Her eyes were vacant and her face ashen. A knife lay across her neck, its handle held tightly by the young man.
“Beast!” Zhang Yi was furious, cursing loudly. The situation in this floor already revealed a lot.
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