At the highway toll station about twenty-five kilometers away from Yanhu Lake Scenic Area, a group of human ability users had taken it over and turned it into a survivor camp.
There were around forty people in the camp. About half of them were ability users, while the other half were either the relatives and friends of those ability users or people who had been accidentally rescued by them and then chose to stay.
Some had arrived earlier, some later, and together they huddled for warmth in the camp, fighting against this damned world.
It was already very late, yet not a single person in the camp had gone to sleep tonight.
Zhou Jinshi sat cross-legged beside the bonfire. His sharp gaze moved up and down with the dancing flames as he pondered a decision in his heart.
The people around him had originally been anxious, worried, angry, and full of complaints because one team had not returned for so long, but now they had also quieted down because of Zhou Jinshi’s calmness.
Everyone turned their eyes toward Zhou Jinshi.
Zhou Jinshi was not the oldest person in the camp, but he was the strongest ability user and the most capable planner. He was the undisputed leader of the camp and captain of the combat team.
The camp itself had been established by Zhou Jinshi. In less than half a month, Zhou Jinshi had gone out with people every day and brought back large quantities of supplies and crystal cores. He had given them, who had been drifting like duckweed, a place to settle.
According to the plan, in just a few more days, Captain Zhou would lead them farther south.
According to Captain Zhou, the weather had become unpredictable. It was only September, yet the air was already bitterly cold. They could not continue staying here. In the southern Fengjiang Province, there was a human fortress established by the military, with abundant supplies, and going there was the best choice. Everything had originally been planned perfectly, but now the rule against staying outside overnight had been broken because of one team.
The people in the camp knew very well that something had most likely happened to the team led by Zhao Siyuan.
Three ability users and two ordinary people, that lineup was certainly not weak.
If something could happen to them, then they had probably encountered no fewer than two Crawling Types.
At least before Shen Yucheng returned, everyone had assumed they had simply been unlucky enough to encounter multiple Crawling Types. No one had considered the possibility of infighting within the team.
“Captain Zhou, it’s Shen Yucheng!” the person keeping watch near the camp shouted toward the bonfire.
Shen Yucheng was drenched from head to toe. He had stumbled and crawled all the way back and was covered in mud and leaves, making him look as though he had rolled around in the dirt.
As soon as he realized he had been spotted, he immediately collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily and unable to crawl another step.
“Get Doctor Jiang over here,” Zhou Jinshi said.
Doctor Jiang’s name was Jiang Cong. He was thirty-six years old, thin and bony, and liked to wear a white surgical mask. Before the apocalypse, he had run a small clinic. He was a bachelor with no family, feeding only himself. After the apocalypse began, he had not awakened any abilities and had almost been eaten by zombies. Fortunately, at the critical moment, he had shouted loudly enough for the blood-soaked Zhou Jinshi, who happened to be passing by, to hear him, and that was how he had survived.
Now, he followed Zhou Jinshi wholeheartedly and had become the camp’s doctor.
Jiang Cong looked him over with a face full of disgust for quite a while before concluding, “There are no suspicious wounds on him.”
Only then did the people around him breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly carry the bedraggled Shen Yucheng inside. “What happened?” Zhou Jinshi asked in a deep voice beside the bonfire.
Holding a cup of hot water, Shen Yucheng took a moment to calm himself. His body was still trembling continuously, and his expression was as miserable as could be.
In his broken and intermittent narration, he omitted the fact that the group had besieged Fang Qi.
As for everything else, he mixed truth and lies together.
He claimed that Fang Qi had been infected with the zombie virus and had wanted to attack them. Since they had not been on guard against Fang Qi, they had almost all died at her hands.
“Brother Zhao is dead…”
Under the illumination of the bonfire, Shen Yucheng’s face looked deathly pale. He closed his eyes and continued.
“We were no match for Fang Qi at all. Then a Crawling Type came and helped her. Fang Qi and that Crawling Type killed Brother Zhao first, then killed Xiao Mi. Su Zhihai probably ran toward Yanhu Lake Grand Hotel. I jumped into the lake and luckily managed to escape back here.”
Hearing the news of the three deaths, everyone around them fell silent.
For the past half month, the routes Zhou Jinshi planned for each team had always avoided danger as much as possible.
Under Zhou Jinshi’s leadership, people in the camp might have gotten injured, but no one had ever died.
That was also why most people trusted him.
But no one had expected that the five-person team Zhao Siyuan belonged to would lose three people in a single day.
Of the other two who had survived, one had returned, while the other had run into a terrifying place like Yanhu Lake Grand Hotel.
Yanhu Lake Grand Hotel was located in the center of the three islands of Yanhu Lake Scenic Area and covered an area of approximately three hundred mu.
Before the apocalypse, the hotel’s more than three hundred rooms had been almost fully occupied every day, and its stockpile of supplies was extremely abundant.
At first, the people in the camp had considered making Yanhu Lake Grand Hotel their base or searching it for supplies, but the number of zombies inside the scenic area was as numerous as fish crossing a river. With their strength, they simply could not break through the zombie tide.
Now, no one knew what the zombies inside had evolved into.
Since Su Zhihai had run there, he was probably doomed.
So, although it was said that two people had survived, in reality, the only one truly alive was Shen Yucheng.
After finishing his explanation, Shen Yucheng covered his face. “It’s all my fault.”
In this battle between humans and zombies, they had been utterly defeated. From this day forward, the camp’s population had dropped from forty people to thirty-six.
Quite a few people who were familiar with Shen Yucheng stepped forward to comfort him.
Jiang Cong yawned and handed a roasted sweet potato to Zhou Jinshi, who had walked to the side. “You’re not thinking of going there, are you?”
He had not known Zhou Jinshi for long, but he felt that he understood him to some extent.
Zhou Jinshi was not the kind of person who easily abandoned his companions.
Zhou Jinshi was now his life-saving patron, so Jiang Cong hurriedly said, “Hey, don’t tell me I guessed right. Even a ghost can tell his story is full of holes. The route you planned for them ended at Old Neighborhood Street and bypassed Yanhu Lake Scenic Area. Even if they panicked and were truly being chased by Fang Qi, they would never dare run there. Unless there was something that made them willing to risk their lives…”
“Mm.” Zhou Jinshi nodded and did not refute Jiang Cong’s reasoning.
Jiang Cong’s mouth was practically dry from talking, yet Zhou Jinshi still looked calm. He could not help becoming anxious. “Damn it, I said all that for nothing!”
Zhou Jinshi slightly raised his hand, revealing the divine blade in his grasp. “Su Zhihai is very smart. He might not be dead. If he can be saved, then he should be saved. My ability has been stagnant lately, so this is a good opportunity to test it.”
Previously, he truly had not dared overestimate himself and challenge the tens of thousands of zombies inside Yanhu Lake Scenic Area, but things were different now.
After all the killing during this period, his ability had already reached the peak of Level Three and was only a step away from Level Four.
He needed an opportunity to level up.
Looking at the divine blade that emitted a cold gleam, Jiang Cong swallowed hard and finally had nothing more to say.
If this life-saving patron of his could advance to Level Four, then their journey south would be even more secure.
…
Li Qiu stood on the gravel path at the hotel entrance and did not walk any farther.
She had not seen wrong. That was indeed a D-rank Intelligent Type.
The eyes of an Intelligent Type were not completely frenzied like those of lower-ranked zombies. Instead, they were calm and expressionless and would reveal looks of observation and scrutiny just like humans.
It seemed that all the zombies gathering here owed much to the efforts of this Intelligent Type. She just did not know how many D-rank zombies there were here.
Li Qiu felt somewhat melancholy. She had originally been a little happy about being a D-rank. In the zombie world, that should count as having quite a bit of status!
Who would have thought that she would encounter another zombie of the same rank so quickly?
It gave her the illusion of having just thought she scored ninety on a test, only to discover that the class average was also ninety.
Li Qiu’s thoughts returned to the matter at hand.
This Intelligent Type had already noticed her and was now examining her with a sinister gaze. It seemed to be assessing whether Li Qiu was a human or a zombie.
Li Qiu immediately put on the expression of a hand-to-forehead bitter smile meme.
“Li Dong, honestly, this guy is even dumber than you. He’s already an Intelligent Type and still can’t tell what I am.”
Li Dong: “…”
Li Dong strode forward, wanting to charge into the densely packed horde of zombies.
Like a swallow returning to its nest or a bird returning to the forest, he seemed to want to return to his true companions.
Since they were all zombies, Li Dong should not be in any danger. Li Qiu therefore put away the crowbar and let him go wherever he wanted. It was perfect for letting him act as her vanguard.
As for Li Qiu herself, she was still trying to mentally prepare herself.
If nothing else, the sight of so many living zombies gathered together was honestly a little too shocking for her.
Zombies wandered everywhere on the paths on both sides of the road, just like people lining up in a cafeteria to get food.
Many of the zombies were missing arms and legs and were covered in blood, while some even had the internal organs of unidentified creatures dangling from their mouths.
Scattered across the ground were corpses that had been torn and bitten until they were mangled beyond recognition. Most of these were human victims whose bodies had been damaged by more than fifty percent and could no longer mutate into zombies. There were also some corpses that had been dead for a long time and had begun to turn into skeletons, possibly victims of trampling incidents during the early days of the apocalypse.
Li Qiu looked into the distance and discovered that there were even more zombies in several outdoor swimming pools.
The level of congestion among those zombies was comparable to the light red ink-head fish at foot massage parlors that crazily swarmed over to eat the dead skin from customers’ feet.
As far as Li Qiu’s eyes could see, zombies occupied almost every corner of this place.
This was a true paradise for zombies.
To prevent any foolish zombie from coming up to sniff her, Li Qiu took out the plastic bag she had packed earlier from her backpack. After poking two holes in it, she put it over her head. It was a black plastic garbage bag that completely covered her head except for the area around her eyes.
At the highest floor of the hotel, the ten human survivors could not help crowding against the window.
They carefully lifted a corner of the curtain and observed Li Qiu’s movements.
The lobby manager said in astonishment, “How is she so brave?”
From their long-distance observation from above, the slowly shuffling plastic-bag person below was undoubtedly a human. After all, other zombies would not sneak around on tiptoe like she did, nor would they actively avoid obstacles and choose routes with fewer zombies.
“Maybe it’s an invisibility ability?” the janitor suggested.
One of the university students shook his head. “Impossible. We can all see her.”
“Maybe it’s an invisibility ability that only works on zombies,” the janitor argued.
“That makes sense.” Everyone nodded repeatedly.
“Mom, is this big sister here to save us?” The little girl leaned against her mother’s shoulder.
Everyone could see it clearly. Their fellow human had made her move! With a casual wave of her hand, a whole row of zombies fell down.
Hope immediately flared up in everyone’s hearts, and no one mentioned breaking the window anymore or sending a companion out as bait.
This fellow human below was hurrying toward the hotel where they were. They were saved!
Li Qiu knew nothing about the people on the rooftop placing their hopes on her to rescue them. She squeezed and shoved her way through the zombie crowd and had completely lost sight of Li Dong. Fortunately, these zombies only looked strong. Every one of them was actually weak as a chick, and a casual push from her made them topple like a line of dominoes.
Li Qiu could not help looking at her own hand and thought, “When did I become this strong?”