Watching the growing horde of zombies swarm toward their position, Mu Li began to panic.
“What do we do?! Is it still time to ride the shared bikes?”
“Forget the bikes—we can’t ride them anymore. Fall back into the steakhouse first!”
The moment Yue Suran had stepped outside, her immediate priority was to inspect the bikes. Li Ming had clearly come fully prepared; why else would he have bothered slashing the tires beforehand?
Mu Li’s entire focus was glued to the approaching horde. When had she ever laid eyes on so many zombies at once? In the face of such horror, it was a miracle her legs were still willing to move at all. Having lost all capacity to make decisions, she simply did whatever Yue Suran instructed.
Ducking back into the steakhouse, Yue Suran immediately joined forces with Mu Li to shove heavy tables and chairs against the front entrance.
Through the glass doors, they watched as Li Ming sped off in his Ferrari. Before he drove away, he even took the time to stick his hand out of the car window, throwing a crude middle finger right in the direction of the steakhouse.
“I am holding onto this grudge. If I ever get the chance in the future, I swear I’ll throw Li Ming into a pile of zombies with my own hands!”
Having retreated to safety, Mu Li gradually caught her breath and naturally caught sight of that insolent gesture. They had no previous grievances with Li Ming, yet he had tried to feed them to the zombies. A piece of scum like that had better never cross her path again.
“Let’s go. We’ll leave through the back door.”
Yue Suran cast a brief, cold glance at Li Ming’s death-seeking antics before pulling Mu Li along to make their exit. She had no idea what Li Ming was thinking—the roaring motor of his Ferrari was so impossibly loud that it would inevitably draw the main swarm away after him.
The handful of scattered stragglers left behind wouldn’t be able to force open the steakhouse’s front doors anyway. Rather than worrying about their own safety, she figured she ought to pray Li Ming managed to survive the horde he was luring—otherwise, they wouldn’t even get the chance to exact their revenge.
Although the alley behind the back door didn’t have as many zombies as the front street, four or five were still wandering around the immediate area.
The moment they caught sight of living humans, they reacted like starved beasts that hadn’t eaten in days, shuffling toward them with frantic excitement.
“Lili, are you scared?”
“Scared… no, not scared!”
Mu Li’s legs were trembling uncontrollably. Clutching an iron pipe in her white-knuckled grip, she swallowed hard against her dry throat. She had killed zombies before, but those were isolated stragglers. Facing five at once was still terrifying.
“It’s fine. You take the one on the far left.”
Having personally killed five zombies in a single day, Yue Suran was no longer paralyzed by fear. Seeing the monsters closing in, she raised her baseball bat and charged forward.
She had promised Ye Liangfeng that she would give him a presentable send-off. Because of that, every single swing she delivered was packed with ruthless force. If one blow didn’t shatter a skull, she followed it up with a second.
Even as the recoil numbed her arms, she didn’t dare loosen her grip. She knew with absolute certainty that she couldn’t afford a single second of hesitation. Once she faltered, she wouldn’t be able to lift the bat again.
“Keep it up, Host! Only three more zombies left to complete the task!”
Xiao-Ou was watching with equal anxiety, wishing it could jump out and take down a zombie for her. Seeing Yue Suran dispatch two in quick succession just as the remaining pair closed in, Xiao-Ou couldn’t help but call out to cheer her on.
At this critical moment, Yue Suran recalled how Ye Liangfeng had used heavy objects to force zombies back. Without a moment’s hesitation, she executed a swift tactical retreat.
Leaping back several paces, she set her baseball bat onto one of the outdoor dining tables. Grabbing a heavy long bench with both hands, she swung it with full force right into the advancing zombies.
Taking advantage of the brief window while the monsters were knocked flat on their backs, she repeated the maneuver, pinning the second zombie under another bench.
While both creatures were trapped beneath the heavy wooden frames unable to rise, she reclaimed her baseball bat and delivered merciless strikes straight to their skulls.
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Yue Suran was about to rush over to assist Mu Li, only to look up and see that her friend had already finished off her assigned target. A long wave of relief finally washed through her nerves.
“Ranran, you’re amazing! You took out four zombies all by yourself!”
Mu Li had struggled quite a bit just to dispatch a single zombie, and that was already her personal best speed. Seeing Yue Suran’s record left her feeling thoroughly outclassed.
“Well, yeah… because I promised the Boss that when I smash his head, I’ll aim accurately.”
Yue Suran nodded earnestly, though she couldn’t help but crack up at her own justification. What kind of reason is that?
“It’s getting late. I remember there being another shared bike station nearby—hopefully there aren’t any zombies hanging around there.”
Mu Li nodded. If Yue Suran said there were bikes nearby, then bikes there were.
Besides, after being delayed by Li Ming’s stunt, dusk was fast approaching. If they couldn’t make it back before total darkness fell, they would be forced to find a random spot on the streets to crash for the night.
Fortunately, Yue Suran was intimately familiar with the neighborhood and managed to locate several functional shared bicycles.
Just as the two returned to the compound entrance, they spotted a lone zombie wandering near the gates.
Hearing the approach of living humans, the creature instinctively lunged toward them.
Mu Li was about to dismount when Yue Suran cut her off.
The reason was simple: Yue Suran was exactly one zombie short of completing the system’s assigned task. Now that a target had delivered itself right to her doorstep, how could she possibly turn it down?
Dumping her bicycle onto the pavement, she gripped her baseball bat and charged straight in.
“Hurry, hurry! Come on, Host, just one more to go!”
Xiao-Ou was practically trembling with excitement. Once the task was complete, it wouldn’t have to kick the bucket! As for the next mission? Well, that was a problem for after the next task was issued.
Yue Suran was equally thrilled. Once she bashed this last zombie, she would unlock her super-powered ability. Just thinking about gaining a high-damage power filled her with joy, adding extra weight to her swing.
A target that usually took at least two hits to dispatch was smashed dead with a single, devastating blow.
The moment the monster collapsed, Xiao-Ou automatically harvested the crystal core without needing Yue Suran’s command.
No matter how many times Yue Suran witnessed this process, she still found it fascinating.
“By the way, Xiao-Ou, where did you put the crystal cores?”
“Uh… well… inside the system, of course.”
“Then pull them out so I can take a look.”
Yue Suran had asked out of pure curiosity, but Xiao-Ou’s guilty tone made it impossible for her to miss the underlying catch.
“I can’t pull them out! They can only be consumed to upgrade the system, or withdrawn later to trade with the system once the marketplace function unlocks.”
Xiao-Ou felt a bit deflated. It wasn’t that it didn’t want to show her; the baseline programming was simply set up that way, and there was nothing it could do about it.
Just as Yue Suran was about to grill it further, Mu Li called out to her.
Having narrowly escaped an interrogation, Xiao-Ou mimicked Yue Suran’s earlier behavior and let out a long sigh of relief. That scared Little Xiao-Ou to death!
“What’s wrong? Let’s head inside quickly—it’ll be pitch black soon.”
Although zombies didn’t fear sunlight, there was still a world of difference between day and night.
The activity level of the undead spiked significantly in the dark, which was why virtually no sane person dared to roam around at night.
First, because zombies were far more active in the dark, luring out lurkers hiding in the shadows to hunt for food. Second, visibility was practically zero at night; if you stumbled right into a zombie’s face without noticing, you’d be handing over your life for free.
“Yeah, let’s go up.”
Yue Suran casually scanned their surroundings. She was now absolutely certain that despite the low population density of this old compound, there were still quite a few survivors hiding out inside.
It was merely due to various circumstances that they hadn’t crossed paths yet. As long as they remained in this compound, the day they met face-to-face was bound to come.
And she had a strong hunch that day wasn’t far off.