Leaping onto the perimeter wall, Yu Yao observed the zombies outside.
She picked a spot where they were less densely packed and jumped down. Immediately afterward, she launched herself into battle, charging straight into the horde.
As she continued leveling up and adapting, she was far more composed than before. Dual blades in hand, she cut through the zombies with unstoppable momentum. Her killing intent was sharp and cold, her movements smooth and fluid, carrying an indescribable rhythm and lethal beauty.
Not far away, inside a villa.
Several young people were gathered in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring at the girl weaving freely through the zombie swarm, so shocked that they nearly lost the ability to speak.
After a long moment, one of the girls finally said in disbelief,
“Yu… Yu Yao?”
The others reacted differently upon hearing that name.
The young man standing farthest back showed a barely perceptible flicker in his eyes when he heard those two words. Watching Yu Yao’s occasionally flashing gaze, he fell into deep thought.
“Yu Yao? That’s impossible,” another girl in a white dress frowned, her face full of disbelief.
Or rather—she didn’t want to believe it.
The girl who had spoken first was displeased at being contradicted. She knitted her brows, glanced at the girl in white, and said, “Why is it impossible? I saw her clearly. That’s Yu Yao—Yu Yao from the Chinese Literature Department.”
They weren’t in the same class, but because of her striking looks, Yu Yao was quite well-known on campus.
She sounded so certain that the others began to doubt as well, unconsciously staring more closely at the girl in the zombie horde.
At that moment, the young man standing farther away seemed to make up his mind. In a low voice, he said, “I’m going to help her.”
There were far too many zombies. Watching Yu Yao get swallowed up again and again, he couldn’t just stand by.
The girl in the white dress looked incredulous.
“Senior Ji Yan, what did you just say? You’re going to help her? It’s full of man-eating monsters out there—you’ll die!”
The others also showed clear disapproval.
Ji Yan swept a cold glance at the girl in white and didn’t answer her. Instead, he turned to the young man standing closest to him.
“Lock the doors. I won’t drag you down.”
The young man frowned. “What are you talking about, dragging us down? We just don’t want you to go die!”
Ji Yan picked up his jacket and put it on, saying heavily, “If Yu Yao—a girl—doesn’t fear death, what do I have to fear? Besides, if she dies, do you really think our flimsy door can withstand an assault by that many things?”
Anyone with eyes could tell those monsters liked living humans. With so many people in this house, this villa was absolutely the most dangerous place in the entire neighborhood.
The young man grabbed Ji Yan’s arm and asked anxiously, “Didn’t you see her skills? She’s not like us!”
Ji Yan paused for a moment. In the end, he gently pushed the young man’s hand away and picked up a miaodao from nearby.
“You’ve probably noticed too. These monsters look scary, but they move slowly. They’re easy to deal with.”
“But—”
“Didn’t you hear the broadcast this morning? The world is already in chaos. We can’t hide forever.”
The government had reacted quickly—issuing warnings immediately, telling people to establish safe zones and dispatching the military to organize rescues.
They also informed all who could hear the broadcast to protect themselves, not panic, and wait for rescue. The nation would not abandon a single person.
After saying that, Ji Yan turned and resolutely headed downstairs.
“Damn it, you lunatic!” the young man cursed, then gritted his teeth and warned the others, “Lock the doors and don’t go out, no matter what!”
After that, he grabbed a knife himself and hurried after Ji Yan.
Ji Yan, who had already stepped out of the villa’s inner door, didn’t expect him to follow.
His hand paused on the courtyard gate handle. He asked in a low voice, “Zi’ang, are you sure?”
Ye Zi’ang clenched his trembling molars, his voice shaking with fear.
“You’re right. We can’t hide forever.”
Seeing how terrified he was yet forcing himself to stay calm, Ji Yan looked at him deeply, his expression shifting slightly.
Then the corner of his lips lifted almost imperceptibly as he reminded him, “Yu Yao always goes straight for the head. The others only stopped attacking after we smashed their heads too. I think their weakness is the head.”
“You really think that’s Yu Yao?” Ye Zi’ang still couldn’t reconcile the decisive killer before him with the harmless Yu Yao he remembered.
“It is her.”
“If you say so, then so be it. Open the door!” Ye Zi’ang stared at Ji Yan with a look of grim resolve.
Ji Yan nodded, glanced up at their companions watching from the third-floor window, then withdrew his gaze and decisively pushed open the courtyard gate.
Since the zombies had been drawn toward Yu Yao, there weren’t many around the villa where Ji Yan and Ye Zi’ang were.
The two shut the gate behind them, gripped their miaodao, and moved step by step toward Yu Yao’s position.
Even while killing zombies, Yu Yao never stopped monitoring the surrounding map.
Seeing two pale purple light dots drawing closer and closer, her brows lifted slightly. She hadn’t expected anyone to voluntarily come help her.
With that thought, she sped up her slaughter. Her twin blades left afterimages as she moved, experience points and gold coins rising rapidly.
Though she was already exhausted, moments like these were exactly when one could unleash latent potential and raise one’s limits.
A few minutes later, she finally saw the people coming toward her.
They looked inexplicably familiar—probably people the original owner of this body had known.
But after ten years of the apocalypse, many of the original owner’s pre-apocalypse memories had become blurry to her.
So she couldn’t recall who they were right away.
What surprised her was their skill. Though they looked like ordinary college students, their strikes were clean and decisive—clearly trained.
They aimed to take down each zombie with a single blow to the head.
If they couldn’t reach the head, they prioritized cutting off the arms to avoid being scratched.
One of them, however, was trembling the whole time, flustered and panicked—probably terrified.
As Yu Yao was thinking, she suddenly spun around and chopped off the head of a zombie trying to sneak up on her from behind, frowning slightly.
Something felt off.
Had the zombies’ combat awareness really improved this quickly?
Or was there an intelligent zombie directing them from behind the scenes?
Ji Yan and Ye Zi’ang consciously fought their way toward Yu Yao.
Though they weren’t fast at killing zombies, they had already taken down five or six together, drawing the attention of the horde.
Compared to the formidable Yu Yao, these two young men were clearly softer targets and were quickly singled out.
Feeling the pressure on her side suddenly decrease, Yu Yao became certain—
These zombies were organized and disciplined. There had to be an intelligent zombie controlling them!
She immediately checked the mini-map, searching for the abnormal zombie.
As the pressure mounted, Ye Zi’ang inwardly cursed—This is bad.
Though he had some fighting skills, he was still a pampered young master at heart.
On top of that, the zombies’ bodies were extremely tough. Every swing of his blade required all his strength just to sever a head.
After a few strikes, he was already drained. His hands trembled violently around the hilt, his face deathly pale.
Just as he was on the verge of collapse, he heard Ji Yan shout urgently:
“Zi’ang—get out of the way!!”
Ye Zi’ang turned back in a daze and saw an unusually tall and agile zombie lunging at him. Its sharp claws were less than twenty centimeters from his face.
It’s over.
That was his only thought.
He had no strength left—no strength to swing his blade, not even to dodge.
Ye Zi’ang gave a bitter smile, ready to close his eyes and accept his fate.
At the critical moment, just as his face was about to be torn apart, he saw a flash of silver light.
The razor-sharp, deathly claw fell silently to the ground.
It had been sliced clean off.
Ye Zi’ang sucked in a sharp breath, staring at the person who had saved him, his voice trembling.
“Yu Yao?”
Yu Yao’s left blade swept upward, severing the zombie’s right claw.
She twisted her body, stepping in front of Ye Zi’ang. Holding her right blade in a reverse grip, she slashed swiftly across her chest toward the zombie’s neck.
Unfortunately, the zombie had some intelligence and was extremely fast. The moment it realized Yu Yao had arrived—and that it couldn’t beat her—it retreated immediately.
Though it lost an arm, it managed to survive.
Yu Yao wasn’t annoyed when her strike failed. Activating Wind Step, her speed surged by half. With a light turn of both blades, she nimbly chased after the fleeing zombie.
Seeing Ye Zi’ang safe, Ji Yan finally breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, he gathered his strength, quickly dealt with the last two zombies around him, and rushed over to Ye Zi’ang, shielding him behind his back.