After killing more than ten zombies in this manner, Ru Jiao told Lin Zhen to close the door.
After the two of them had fought their way through the zombies, only a little over ten remained outside.
They rested for half an hour and took some food out of their spaces to replenish their strength.
A corner of the room was piled high with zombie corpses. Seeing that there were not many zombies left outside, the two removed the metal shelves blocking the door. Ru Jiao took the lead, yanked the door open, and kicked away a zombie that lunged toward her before cutting down another with her Tang Sword. Lin Zhen followed closely behind. After the two finished off the remaining zombies, they spotted more zombies staggering toward them from the far end of the corridor.
Lin Zhen was relatively familiar with the hospital’s layout. During their break, the two had already agreed on where to go next: the Chinese Medicine Room and the room where medical equipment was stored.
The Chinese Medicine Room was next to the Western Medicine Room. The zombies inside had already been drawn out and dealt with when the two had made all that noise earlier.
They rushed into the room, collected the Chinese medicines along with the medicine cabinets into their spaces, and immediately headed upstairs to the second floor without stopping.
The medical equipment room was to the right of the staircase. As soon as the two reached the second floor, a zombie came straight toward them.
Lin Zhen dodged to the side and kicked the zombie down the stairs before leading Ru Jiao into the medical equipment room. After quickly killing the zombies inside, Ru Jiao stood guard by the door while Lin Zhen hurried to collect the equipment.
He had collected about a third of it when a large horde of zombies came surging toward them from the other end of the corridor.
Ru Jiao frowned and grabbed Lin Zhen by the wrist.
“There’s no time! We have to go!”
Lin Zhen did not hesitate. Following the force of Ru Jiao’s pull, he rushed out through the doorway with her.
Ru Jiao felt a pang of regret over the medical equipment they had to leave behind. Even as her divine sense examined the surroundings, her gaze lingered reluctantly on the remaining equipment.
If only I could put all of this into my space.
The moment this thought crossed Ru Jiao’s mind, her divine sense acted according to her intention. It wrapped around the remaining equipment and transferred everything into her space.
Ru Jiao suddenly felt as though someone had cleaved deep into her brain. Her face turned deathly pale, and she could no longer release her divine sense.
Lin Zhen noticed her abnormal condition and looked at her with concern. Ru Jiao shook her head. The most important thing now was to get out of the hospital!
The two reached the staircase and were just about to head downstairs when the unconscious wolf pup suddenly woke up. It turned toward the staircase leading to the first floor and let out an angry growl. Then it jumped out of the backpack, glanced at the two of them, and dashed upstairs to the third floor.
“Wolf pup!”
Lin Zhen had never expected the wolf pup to suddenly wake up and run off. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but he made his decision in an instant.
“You go ahead. I’ll find it, and then we’ll meet up again!”
However, anyone could see that if Lin Zhen stayed behind, escaping the hospital, which was surrounded by zombies, would be extremely difficult for one man and a wolf pup with virtually no fighting ability.
Ru Jiao glanced at him, turned around, and headed up the stairs instead.
Lin Zhen was grateful. He knew that Ru Jiao was far stronger than an ordinary person. Moreover, she had been looking pale just moments ago, which clearly meant she had suffered some kind of injury. She could easily have left at that moment. They had only joined forces temporarily, and Ru Jiao had already saved both him and the wolf pup. She had no obligation to stay behind and help him.
Lin Zhen immediately followed her and said quietly, “Thank you.”
The corners of Ru Jiao’s lips curled up slightly. This was the first genuine smile she had shown since teaming up with Lin Zhen.
“You’re welcome. Just make me some more delicious meals from now on.”
“All right.”
Lin Zhen gave her a deep look, feeling a warm sensation slowly spreading through his chest.
He turned his attention to carefully examining their surroundings, while Ru Jiao remained equally vigilant. Since she could no longer use her divine sense, she had to rely on her eyes and ears to stay highly alert to everything around them.
At their current speed, it took them only a few dozen seconds to climb the stairs.
They soon found the wolf pup sitting in front of a patient room on the third floor.
Unlike the second floor, there were not many zombies on the third floor.
Lin Zhen hurried forward to pick up the wolf pup, but it dodged his hands and slipped into the patient room behind it.
The zombies pursuing them quickly caught up. Ru Jiao followed the wolf pup into the room, leaving Lin Zhen with no choice but to follow.
After locking the patient room door, Lin Zhen took a large solid-wood wardrobe filled with various items out of his space and positioned it firmly against the door. Only then did he finally relax.
The wolf pup sat behind him, watching his movements. When Lin Zhen approached to pick it up, it did not dodge this time and obediently allowed him to lift it into his arms.
“…” Lin Zhen was so angry that he could not speak. After a long moment, he finally scolded the wolf pup.
“Don’t ever run off like that again!”
Watching the wolf pup, Ru Jiao recalled how, in her previous life, some people’s pets had mutated and begun helping their owners kill zombies. This gave her a different perspective on what had just happened.
“Perhaps the wolf pup sensed some kind of danger, which was why it suddenly turned and ran upstairs. Animals are much more sensitive to danger than humans.”
Unfortunately, her divine sense was damaged, so she could not investigate the surroundings. Otherwise, she could have checked whether some dangerous creature had appeared.
Since they could not leave for the time being, the two decided to rest in the room. Fortunately, the patient room was on the third floor, and its window faced the outside of the hospital. With Lin Zhen’s solid-wood wardrobe blocking the door, they did not have to worry about zombies breaking in.
The hospital bed in the room was very clean, but neither of them wanted to sleep on it.
Lin Zhen pushed the bed into a corner, took two massage chairs out of his space, and brought out two thin blankets.
He placed the massage chairs against the walls on opposite sides of the room. Ru Jiao chose the one beside the window. Lin Zhen then took out a refrigerator and retrieved the dishes he had prepared earlier and stored in its fresh-food compartment. He also brought out an alcohol burner, heated the food, used a storage box as a table, and took out two small stools.
Although reheated food was not as good as freshly cooked dishes, it was still much better than dry bread. Ru Jiao did not know how to cook herself, which was why she had bought so many ready-made meals. She had not expected Lin Zhen to be such a good cook. It was certainly a pleasant surprise.
By the time they finished eating, night had fallen.
After the apocalypse began, the country’s internet and communication networks had all gone down. With no one available to maintain the power grid, electricity had gradually stopped working in various places as well.
The two had no particular forms of entertainment, and the hospital had already lost power. Only the emergency lights still had electricity.
As darkness fell, the patient room grew dim. They each settled into a massage chair to rest, planning to discuss how to leave the hospital the following morning.
While Ru Jiao was asleep, she heard a faint sound coming from the window, as though something were pushing against it.
The sound came intermittently and did not stop. Ru Jiao opened her eyes. After reaching the first level of Qi Refining, she could see in the dark. What she saw left her frozen in place. She had never encountered such a monster before.
What kind of horrifying creature was this?
The monster had the body of an octopus, with an enormous head that was ten meters across. Its skin was covered by a transparent membrane, beneath which countless heads were crammed together. There were zombie heads, human heads, and even the heads of rats and cockroaches…
Its tentacles were densely covered with eyes of various sizes. Each tentacle was extremely thin, barely one centimeter thick, and there were too many to count.
Its suckers clung to the glass. Ru Jiao could see that each sucker had a mouth about one meter wide. As it opened and closed, countless hard teeth moved up and down inside, while sticky mucus dripped from its mouth…
“Ru Jiao!”
The faint glow of a phone screen appeared. Lin Zhen pulled Ru Jiao behind him, drew his Tang Sword, and cut off several tentacles that had reached through the gap in the window. He then shut the window tightly, drew the curtains, and took the refrigerator out of his space to block the window completely.
“Are you all right?”
Lin Zhen took a bedside lamp out of his space and switched it on. Its dim yellow light drove away the darkness.
Ru Jiao finally came back to her senses. In her previous life, she had only survived for two years. She had encountered zombies and mutated plants and animals, but never a monster as grotesque as this.
Lin Zhen looked at Ru Jiao and moved his fingers slightly, wanting to pull her into his arms. In the end, he simply took a thermos flask out of his space and poured her a cup of hot water.
“Take a moment to calm down.”