After two days of passing safely while Su Cheng waited for the return to the dungeon, the gas station welcomed “new guests.”
The summer heat was blazing. Su Cheng dozed drowsily on her folding chair, a small desk fan beside her head blowing out cool air, though it still failed to chase away the stuffy, sultry oppression of the summer noon.
“Come quick!”
Yan Yu’s somewhat hurried voice struck like a heavy hammer, snapping Su Cheng out of her daze.
Sister Wang’s break room door wasn’t closed. Hearing Yan Yu’s voice, she walked out as well.
“What’s wrong?”
Yan Yu shook her head and pointed toward the window without speaking, but her tightly furrowed brows signaled that it couldn’t be good news.
Taking a step back to clear some space, Su Cheng and Sister Wang hurried over. Through the gaps in the wooden planks, they spotted a tiny black dot in the distance moving rapidly and driving toward their direction.
It was a car.
The vehicle was moving at extreme speed, as if something were chasing right behind it.
Sister Wang slapped her thigh. “Th-That’s heading right toward us!”
Su Cheng’s expression grew increasingly solemn. Subconsciously, she looked toward the long spear resting against the cash register. “I’m just afraid he’s not the only one coming this way.”
Sister Wang didn’t understand. “Huh?”
In the span of those two sentences, the car closed in further, and they could now faintly make out a swarm of dense black dots chasing furiously behind the vehicle…
Clatter—
Sister Wang jumped, knocking the alarm clock off the counter. She lowered her voice instinctively, “Are those the zombies you guys were talking about?”
Su Cheng and Yan Yu didn’t answer immediately because a mechanical voice rang out simultaneously in both their minds:
【Triggered Hidden Mission: Rescue Wang Zhiyang. Complete the mission to obtain 300 points.】
The guy had driven a car right over and lured a horde of zombies straight to them. Was there really a big difference between saving him and not saving him?
Su Cheng and Yan Yu exchanged glances, tacitly understanding each other’s intent.
“Sister Wang, hurry up and move that box of food in the corner to the car!”
Startled by the zombie horde, Sister Wang did whatever she was told in the moment. Catching the car keys tossed to her, she rushed off to load the supplies.
Simultaneously, Su Cheng and Yan Yu pushed aside the display shelves blocking the front entrance.
Fortunately, they had been maintaining battle readiness all along. Aside from sleeping hours, their arms and legs were taped up with cardboard protection, and their weapons were right beside them, allowing them to prep for battle at maximum speed.
…
…
“Roar, roar, roar—!”
Wang Zhiyang glanced in the rearview mirror. The horde of zombies was chasing close behind with claws bared and teeth gnawed, forming a pitch-black tide that made one’s blood run cold.
The zombies had been chasing him relentlessly for five whole kilometers.
He slammed his foot down on the accelerator, but he could only maintain a certain distance from the zombie horde; shaking them off was completely out of the question.
If he ditched the box in his lap, it might buy him some time to escape… but he couldn’t!
The box in his arms felt like a hot potato, scorching his hands with pain, yet he couldn’t let go.
The vehicle’s speed gradually slowed down, and beads of sweat poured down his forehead.
What was most terrifying of all was that the car was running out of gas!
Stepping on the accelerator with all his might, Wang Zhiyang stared at the fuel gauge and prayed continuously, “Please, just hold on a little longer…”
There was a gas station up ahead. If he could find shelter inside, as long as he hung on until rescue arrived, he would be safe!
Yet his prayers went unanswered. With a hundred meters left before reaching the gas station, the car gave a loud rumble and sputtered to a dead stop.
“Damn it!”
Cursing under his breath, Wang Zhiyang grabbed the box in his arms and leaped out of the car without a moment’s hesitation. Seeing him, the zombies behind him let out even more excited roars, as if victory were within grasp.
“Roar, roar, roar, roar!”
Their bloodshot eyes burned with greed and yearning. Their flared nostrils caught a certain overwhelmingly alluring scent in the air, driving them into a deeper frenzy as they bared red-and-white fangs, their facial features twisted into terrifying, hideous grimaces…
Wang Zhiyang ran with every ounce of strength in his body, yet the zombies felt like they were getting closer and closer behind him!
Their hands felt as though they could graze his back the very next second!
He couldn’t resist looking back. A dense, swarming horde of zombies followed in his wake, hundreds of bloodshot eyes staring straight at him…
“Ah—”
There was no close encounter within arm’s reach as he had feared, but Wang Zhiyang’s legs went weak. The moment he tripped and fell, his mind went blank.
In that exact second, the zombies running at the front leaped forward. Wang Zhiyang’s eyes widened in horror, instinctively holding the box up to shield his face.
Yet what awaited him wasn’t a violent tearing of flesh, but a pair of hands catching his arm. At the same time, another tall woman swung a fire axe and severed the zombie’s head cleanly!
“Get up! Run!”
Stumbling to his feet, he was yanked into a run by the two young women.
The three of them scrambled toward the convenience store neck-and-neck.
That short hundred-meter distance felt exceptionally prolonged…
Su Cheng hadn’t expected she would end up running the slowest.
Yan Yu was in the lead, while Wang Zhiyang—who had collapsed from weak legs when chased by zombies—actually managed to run ahead of her.
The zombies were a mere three meters away from Su Cheng!
Run!
Mustering every ounce of strength, Su Cheng sprinted forward to catch up with the other two. At a time like this, if anyone dropped the chain and fell behind when facing a horde of hundreds of zombies, the people ahead definitely wouldn’t turn back to save them.
“Roar, roar, roar, roar—!”
The roars of the zombies seemed right beside her ears.
The psychological pressure created by audio cues always made a person feel an irresistible urge to look back and check the distance…
But you can’t look back!
At a critical moment like this, all you could do was run! Run with all your might!
Bypassing the dug-out drainage trench, the three of them practically took a giant leap into the convenience store’s entrance while Sister Wang, waiting anxiously inside, tossed out a torch.
The pursuing zombies plunged straight into the prepared trench. As the torch made contact with the ground, a loud boom ignited a raging inferno.
The zombies were turned into blazing fireballs, but lacking any fear of pain, they struggled to crawl out of the pit even at death’s door.
The number of zombies was simply too overwhelming. After Sister Wang threw two more torches in succession, zombies were still pushing through the flames to charge into the building.
The subsequent wave of zombies surged into the shop, causing the display shelf channel to tremble from the crushing weight.
“Sister Wang, take him to the car! Get ready to move!”
Yan Yu and Su Cheng retreated down the corridor together while cutting down the lead zombies.
“Got it!”
Sister Wang grabbed the panting Wang Zhiyang and headed toward the side exit leading to the car.
The moment they left, even more zombies flooded into the convenience store. Fortunately, the narrow channel restricted their lunging ability, leaving Su Cheng and Yan Yu to deal only with the ones in the lead, barely managing to hold their ground!
Su Cheng no longer wasted time burying her blade deep into skulls like her very first zombie kill.
She targeted their necks instead, delivering vicious, heavy slashes that separated their heads from their bodies in a single stroke!
Su Cheng was still terrified of zombies—scared of their horrifying faces, the crimson blood, the way they looked at her as food, and the threat of getting bitten or scratched…
All living creatures possessed an instinct to avoid harm and seek gain; when encountering dangerous things, cowardice naturally arose.
Yet Su Cheng would overcome her inner timidity. She wasn’t a brave or fearless person, but she refused to be a coward either.
The two continuously struck down the zombies jammed in the channel, barely managing to hold the defense line and buying crucial time for Wang Zhiyang and Sister Wang to start the off-road vehicle.
Stained with filthy blood resembling liquid from a rotting waste pile, the stench was suffocatingly pungent.
The zombies in the rear squeezed in as well, knocking over a display shelf on one side. The fallen shelf landed right against the cash register to form a makeshift triangular barricade, temporarily halting the zombies’ advance.
Yet that deliberately engineered restrictive channel was ultimately destroyed as more zombies squeezed past the shelves or climbed right over them!
“Ah—”
With a swift chop, Su Cheng lopped off the neck of a female zombie that had clamped down on her arm, leaving a shallow imprint of teeth on the cardboard wrapping around her arm.
The moment she turned, an ambushing zombie was dispatched by an axe strike from Yan Yu.
That was close!
Dirty blood spattered across her face, stopping her heartbeat for a fraction of a second.
“Buzz-buzz-buzz—”
The car engine roared to life, and Sister Wang’s anxious cry rang out from the side door, “Hurry up and come over!”
“Fall back, now!”
Covering the rear, Su Cheng charged through the side door first, and Yan Yu locked the side door securely the exact second she stepped inside.
Crash—
Zombies slammed heavily against the door.
The moment Yan Yu and Su Cheng leaped into the vehicle, the off-road vehicle shot forward.
Most of the zombies were still inside the convenience store, while a small fraction clustered outside, all rushing toward the exterior of the shop upon hearing the noise.
“Hold on tight!”
Stomping hard on the accelerator, Wang Zhiyang plowed through the surging zombies, carving out a bloody path of escape.
Bang—
A zombie leaped onto the rear windshield, smashing through the glass savagely with its head. Just as the glass cracked into a spiderweb pattern, Yan Yu thrust a wooden spear forward and finished it off!
The zombie’s corpse slid away, leaving the rear window shattered and scattered into a gaping hole.
Su Cheng leaned down over the floorboards and groped around until she found a lighter beneath the seat—likely left behind by the original owner of the vehicle.
The exact moment the car pulled far enough away from the gas station pumps, she hurled the lighter fiercely through the broken window hole.
Goddamn zombies, go to hell!
Three seconds later—
“Bong!!!”
The blinding flash of light and deafening roar forced everyone in the car to close their eyes and cover their ears. The shockwave of the explosion buffeted the off-road vehicle, sending a massive thrust that threw the passengers forward.
During her college years, Su Cheng had been an exceptional shot-put athlete. She never expected that particular athletic talent would come in handy today.
The vehicle violently pitched and dropped before finally landing back on solid ground, speeding away without slowing down to put distance between themselves and the exploding “crime scene.”
“We’re safe…”
It was unclear who spoke first. Aside from Wang Zhiyang driving the wheel, everyone else slumped back weakly.
Sister Wang stared at Su Cheng in a daze. “Your back… your hair…”
Su Cheng reached back to touch her shoulders, wincing sharply from a stinging pain.
In the split second of the explosion, Su Cheng—sitting closest to the rear window opening—had indeed felt a wave of heat sweep across her back…
A portion of her hair, originally tied in a low bun, had melted and warped out of shape like twisted wire.
Yan Yu told Su Cheng to turn around. “Let me see.”
“It’s not too bad. Put some medicine on it and it’ll be fine.”
Pulling an unlabeled, pure white spray bottle from her backpack, Yan Yu sprayed Su Cheng’s back twice.
Instantly, a cooling sensation spread outward, making Su Cheng feel much better right away.
Glancing at the unmarked, blank white spray bottle in Yan Yu’s hand, she made a blind guess that it was an item from the apartment supermarket.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.”
【Ding~ Rescue mission completed. Obtained 300 points. Score settlement will occur upon leaving the dungeon.】
Leaning over the front seat, Su Cheng felt slightly more comforted.
Though they had left behind the tranquil convenience store, at least they had reaped rewards.
“Thank you so much. My name is Wang Zhiyang.”
Wang Zhiyang’s voice brimmed with gratitude. If he weren’t the one driving, he would have insisted on bowing to express his thanks.
Had Su Cheng and Yan Yu not stepped in to pull him out at the critical moment of crisis, he likely would have perished right there among the pile of zombies.
Yan Yu gave a slight nod, introducing them simply: “My name is Xiao Yan, she’s Xiao Su, and this is Sister Wang.”
“Oh, oh, nice to meet you all.”
Su Cheng secretly sized up the young man dressed in a blood-stained white shirt; his speech and manners were very cultured. “How did you end up getting chased by zombies?”
Letting out a deep sigh, Wang Zhiyang hesitated for a moment before speaking the honest truth: “Actually, I’m with the authorities. My companions and I were unfortunately bitten by zombies…”
“I remembered there was a gas station around here, so I ran toward this station to buy time and wait for rescue, but I never expected the car’s fuel efficiency to let me down…”
Hearing that Wang Zhiyang was with the authorities, Sister Wang’s expression grew a few degrees more eager, and she couldn’t help asking, “When is the government planning to launch rescue operations? My son and husband are both in the city…”
Wang Zhiyang shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m not clear on that, but the situation inside the city is far from optimistic…”
Thinking of her family inside the city and recalling the ferocious, brutal zombies, Sister Wang had already anticipated the worst possible outcome. Her straight back slumped slightly, and she turned away to wipe the corners of her eyes…
Beep-beep
Wang Zhiyang shuddered all over. Steering with one hand, he pulled the walkie-talkie out of his pocket.
“This is Team Leader Liu. Wang Zhiyang, are you alright?”
A deep, thick male voice came through the other end of the walkie-talkie.
Hearing that familiar voice, Wang Zhiyang felt tears welling up. Having experienced the sensation of lingering on the brink of death, he couldn’t hold back the choke in his throat. “L-Leader Liu, I’m very safe right now, and the box wasn’t lost either. Some people saved me, but your men sacrificed themselves to protect me…”
Wang Zhiyang wanted to use his hand holding the walkie-talkie to wipe his tears, but seeing the filthy blood smeared across his sleeve, he had to give up.
Seeing him like this, Yan Yu patted his shoulder. “I’ll drive. Pull over by the side of the road.”
Lowering his head, Wang Zhiyang awkwardly concealed his reddened eye sockets. “Alright, thanks.”
Wang Zhiyang moved over to the front passenger seat.
Su Cheng noticed that Wang Zhiyang had been hugging a box the entire time. Ever since they first ran into him, he seemed to treat this box like a precious treasure, refusing to let go of it for even a second.
Compared to Wang Zhiyang’s driving, Yan Yu was clearly much more aggressive, refusing to slow down for turns and taking them at full lean instead.
This scared Sister Wang, whose already pale complexion turned a few shades whiter, causing her to grip the overhead handle tightly for fear of flipping over and holding back words on the tip of her tongue several times.
Wang Zhiyang and Su Cheng adapted reasonably well; the former because he knew how to drive himself, and the latter because it wasn’t her first time riding in Yan Yu’s car.
Curving his fingers slightly over the box, Wang Zhiyang lowered his voice toward the walkie-talkie: “There’s one more thing: the special sealed container seems to have shattered from the fall. It’s possible that the scent of that item leaked out, which is why zombies from so far away changed targets and chased after me…”
“What leaked out?!”
Team Leader Liu’s voice shot up abruptly, sounding exceptionally stern through the walkie-talkie. “Turn around immediately! According to your internal tracker, there’s a village with potential infected individuals five hundred meters ahead of you. We cannot rule out the presence of wandering zombies a hundred meters from your location!”
Whether it was psychological suggestion or not, the moment Team Leader Liu finished speaking, Su Cheng faintly caught the sound of a zombie roaring in the distance…