That urgent command hit like a splash of cold water.
Su Qianqian’s eyes sharpened. Without hesitation, she pressed the iodine-soaked gauze pad firmly onto the gruesome wound.
“Hiss—!” The intense sting made Lin Chen suck in a sharp breath.
His body jerked backward, slamming into the shelf behind him with a loud clang.
Cold sweat instantly streamed down his temples. His jaw clenched tightly, the muscles in his cheeks taut, veins bulging at his temples.
Yet he forced himself not to make another sound—only heavy, suppressed breathing echoed in the dim space.
Su Qianqian’s heart tightened along with him. She could clearly feel the violent twitching of the muscles beneath her palm.
The sharp smell of iodine mixed with blood made her stomach churn again.
She endured it, pressing firmly on the wound to let the disinfectant seep in as much as possible.
A few seconds later, she removed the now blood-soaked gauze.
The flesh around the wound had turned a dark brown from the iodine, making it look even more horrifying.
“Gauze… bandage…”
She hurriedly grabbed the thick stack of sterile gauze pads and carefully covered the wound, then unrolled the white medical bandage.
Her fingers trembled from tension and exertion, making her movements clumsy—she nearly slipped several times while wrapping it.
“Tighter… yes, press it… a bit higher…”
Lin Chen’s voice was low and hoarse, tinged with lingering pain, yet still calm—like he was guiding a clumsy apprentice through bandaging.
He even adjusted the angle of his arm slightly to make it easier for her.
At last, Su Qianqian finished.
It wasn’t pretty, but the bleeding seemed to have stopped for now. The thick gauze wasn’t quickly soaking through.
“Done…”
She let out a long breath, only then realizing her back was drenched in cold sweat, her clothes sticking uncomfortably to her skin.
She looked at his tightly wrapped arm, then up at his pale face. Her voice trembled slightly, almost choking, “You… how do you feel?”
Lin Chen moved his arm slightly. His brows furrowed briefly from the pain, then relaxed again.
“Won’t die.”
His answer was concise, but his gaze had already shifted past her shoulder, sharply locking onto the deeper darkness of the Pharmacy Section.
“Something’s coming. More than one.”
The moment he finished speaking, clearer dragging footsteps and low, wet growls echoed from behind a collapsed shelf of vitamins, accompanied by the clatter of something being knocked over.
Su Qianqian’s hair stood on end. The brief relief she had felt vanished instantly as her nerves tightened to the limit.
She instinctively stepped back, grabbing the sleeve of Lin Chen’s uninjured left arm tightly, as if it were her only anchor.
Lin Chen, however, gently pulled his sleeve free from her grip.
That small action made her heart sink.
“Take this.”
He shoved the blood- and brain-smeared, badly dented metal thermos into her hands.
It felt cold and slick to the touch, carrying a nauseating metallic and rotten smell.
“Block with it. Or smash.”
Su Qianqian looked at the heavy “weapon” in her hands, then at Lin Chen’s pale face and his bandaged right arm that could no longer exert force.
“Y-you’re injured, you can’t—”
“Shut up.” Lin Chen cut her off, his tone cold and commanding.
With his left hand, he grabbed a heavy glass bottle of vitamins from the counter, weighing it briefly. His eyes, sharp like a hunting hawk’s, locked onto the direction of the approaching sounds.
“Listen carefully. They’re not fast, but they’re strong. Aim for the head, or break the spine. Don’t get surrounded—keep moving. I’ll take the left, you take the right. Target is that staff door.”
He gestured with his chin toward an inconspicuous green-painted metal door in the corner of the Pharmacy Section.
His instructions were clear and calm, as if he were planning an ambush in the game.
“I—I can’t…” It was too disgusting… too filthy.
Watching the twisted, staggering figures gradually emerge from the darkness, the thermos in her hands suddenly felt impossibly heavy.
“You don’t have a choice.”
Lin Chen suddenly turned his head, his deep eyes burning like cold stars in the dim light as they locked onto hers.
His voice dropped low, but it carried a force that pierced straight through her soul.
“Listen, Su Qianqian. It’s just the two of us here—stop pretending.
If you want to live, don’t rely on anyone else! Use the brain you use when gaming—use it now! Take the speed you use to flame your teammates and put it into swinging that thing!”
He pointed at the thermos in her hands, each word striking her like a hammer.
“Think about the times you got chased by three people in the canyon—how you used Flash to dodge into the brush and counter-kill.”
His tone carried a strange, almost hypnotic calm.
“This is the same. Just a different map. The monsters just look more real. Be afraid—and you die.”
Though… what she saw more clearly in his eyes was… impatience?
“Clang!”
A “doctor” zombie in a white coat, half its face rotted away, burst through the last fallen shelf. Its murky eyes instantly locked onto them.
It opened its mouth, black saliva dripping as it let out a piercing screech and lunged forward!
Behind it, two more zombies in cleaner uniforms staggered closer.
There was no time left.
Damn it, damn it… this was so disgusting!
“Damn it!” Su Qianqian cursed, a phrase she often used in-game. Her eyes changed instantly.
Disgust was overwhelmed by a more primal urge—to tear apart the obstacle in front of her.
She gripped the cold, slick thermos tightly with both hands. Her knuckles turned white from the force as she lowered her stance slightly, like a cornered beast, staring at the incoming “doctor” zombie.
“I’ll take the one on the left! Smash its head!” Lin Chen roared, his body launching forward like a drawn bowstring toward the two cleaner zombies.
His movements were clearly hindered by his injured arm, but the glass bottle in his left hand swung with desperate ferocity, smashing precisely toward one zombie’s face.
“Bang!”
The sound of shattering glass and dull impact rang out together.
Su Qianqian moved too.
At the moment the reeking “doctor” zombie’s claw came down, she didn’t retreat. Instead, she stepped forward sharply to the side.
Using all her strength, she swung the heavy thermos upward from below—
Aiming straight for that rotting, oozing head.
“Go to hell—!!!”
Her voice twisted from the explosive force, carrying the same frenzy she had in battle within the game.
“Die for me—!!!”