Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Bang, bang!" Two gunshots ended Qian Guoyun and Kang Haoyi's relentless attacks on the monster, jolting everyone awake.

Everyone looked over.

The creature had long, thin, withered limbs that were grotesquely twisted. Even though her head had been completely severed, there was still an eerie illusion that she might wobble back to her feet at any moment.

Neither Qian Guoyun nor Kang Haoyi posed a danger anymore, yet no one present felt relieved. Just moments ago, they had been teammates—living, breathing people.

Ji Yanqing headed towards the pit where Ji'an and Ji Le were still located.

He had barely taken a few steps when a small figure emerged from the darkness and threw itself around his leg.

"Ji'an?"

"Mmm..." Ji'an looked up at Ji Yanqing through sobs, having thought he would never see him again.

"Where is Ji Le?" Ji Yanqing tried to wipe away Ji'an's tears but remembered his bloodied hands mid-reach, both of which had been split open during his fight with the monster.

Ji'an quickly turned to look behind the tree. He had taken care of Ji Le, holding his hand all the way until they hid behind it.

Following Ji'an's gaze, Ji Yanqing saw Ji Le lying motionless in the dark shadows beneath the tree.

Ji Yanqing's heart skipped a beat as he lifted Ji'an and rushed forward.

Upon closer inspection, he found Ji Le's face wet with tears, but without any wounds.

"Fainted from fright?" Xia Shenshu chuckled.

Everyone else was speechless.

After a brief moment of shock, the group slowly regained their senses. Fear, despair, and the joy of surviving mixed together into a complex and intense cocktail of emotions that left them feeling pained.

Combined with the pain from their wounds, their legs gave out, and they collapsed onto the ground one after another.

In the darkness, silence reigned.

Amidst the quiet, only the sound of heavy breathing could be heard.

"There's some food in the village, and weapons too, upstairs," Zhang Guxian said abruptly, his tone more relaxed than ever before.

Reminded, everyone turned to look in his direction. What had happened between Zhang Guxian and the monster?

"Bang!"

Before anyone could ask, a gunshot rang out, and Zhang Guxian slowly fell backward. The gun that Xia Shenshu had given him rolled to the ground.

As the gun hit the ground, Zhang Guxian slowly closed his eyes. Before him, he saw a familiar face.

He did not come from a wealthy family, nor did he possess any special talents. His personality was dull and uninteresting, making him nearly invisible in a crowd.

Nuo Yun was different. As a dance student, she had won awards at a young age. She deserved a life filled with brilliance, but fate dealt her an unfair hand, and an illness brought everything to an end. Despite this, she did not become disheartened or complain. She went to college, joined the workforce, and started anew.

From the moment he realized he had fallen in love with Nuo Yun, he knew he was unworthy and gave up. He tried to convince himself to let go but couldn't help but keep an eye on her, secretly adding her as a friend under the guise of work and sending holiday greetings.

He thought he had hidden his feelings well, but things spiraled out of control. Endless conversations and tentative invitations led to them officially dating for three months, and by early June of that year, he proposed in a hurry.

When they announced their wedding to their colleagues, everyone was surprised. Their expressions seemed to say, how could someone as excellent as Nuo Yun choose an ordinary person like him?

Even he was astonished. How could someone as wonderful as Nuo Yun choose an ordinary person like him?

When they left the registry office after getting their marriage certificate, Nuo Yun cried happily. He stood beside her, at a loss for words, unable to say anything comforting.

On their wedding day, Nuo Yun's eyes were red, and despite his clumsy attempts to comfort her, he failed.

He was not good with words and didn't know how to express his love.

When the virus broke out, he was taking a nap on the second floor. In retrospect, he vaguely remembered hearing some commotion, but he ignored it, lost in a dream filled with happiness.

When he woke up, the world had changed.

Nuo Yun wandered strangely around the living room, along with his parents.

Unable to accept it, he locked himself on the second floor, consumed by grief, anger, and regret. A few days later, when he stood on the rooftop to commit suicide, he unexpectedly discovered that Nuo Yun was different from other zombies—her eyes still held a spark.

After that, he lost his mind.

He captured Nuo Yun and kept her in the living room, trying to talk to her. When he noticed her becoming smarter after eating his parents, he began capturing zombies from the village to feed her. After the village's zombies ran out, he risked going into the city to catch more. He even brought back batches of live humans...

He believed that his Nuo Yun could return.

However, the person inhabiting Nuo Yun's body became increasingly unfamiliar, even showing him greedy, hungry looks.

He refused to admit it, trying to numb himself, bringing back more zombies and live humans.

Until one day, he heard his name from her cracked lips.

The voice was the same yet entirely different from his memories, filled with greed and devoid of any tenderness.

In that instant, he realized clearly that although the body calling his name might still be the same, the person calling his name was no longer the same.

The person he loved was gone forever.

He broke down completely and fled overnight.

After two months of fleeing, he entered the neighboring city and encountered the Survival Team. However, it seemed as if fate had already arranged everything. A few days later, the Survival Team encountered the Zombie King, and he followed the team members as they escaped back to the nearby city.

He met Ji Yanqing in the city and followed him back to the village...

In the darkness, seeing the handgun on the ground and Zhang Guxian lying there, everyone froze, their breaths stilled.

An overwhelming despair washed over them, so thick and intense it felt tangible, choking everyone's throats and making breathing difficult.

Lan Zi's lips moved, trying to speak but no sound came out. Suddenly, the wedding couplets at the entrance of the building where the monster had been kept flashed through her mind.

The bright red couplets carried the blessings of outsiders for the newlyweds, still eye-catching even in the dark.

Everyone sat on the ground, no one spoke, only cold silence and the heavy scent of blood filled the darkness.

After a long while, Lan Zi broke the silence, looking at Ji Yanqing, "What should we do? Should we go back to the village?"

Zhang Guxian said there was food and weapons in the village.

Ji Yanqing got up, "Let's go back and check."

Hearing Ji Yanqing's plan, the others struggled to get up from the ground and went to retrieve their backpacks from the pit.

Seven backpacks for five people.

Qian Guoyun and Kang Haoyi's backpacks contained only a few clothes and four bottles of water. After distributing the water, Lan Zi emptied one of the backpacks to carry the unconscious Ji Le.

Seeing they were about to leave, Ji'an noticed Ji Yanqing's axe still on the ground and ran over to pick it up.

He was too small; the axe was longer than he was, and he staggered as he walked with it.

"I'll help," Wu Yao offered, as Ji Yanqing's hand was injured.

The axe was much heavier than Wu Yao expected. When he lifted it from Ji'an's arms, it immediately dropped down, almost pulling him to the ground with its weight.

Wu Yao was surprised; the axe must have weighed at least seventy or eighty pounds. He, an adult, couldn't lift it easily, yet Ji'an had carried it effortlessly.

"Let's go," the others said, having already packed up.

They didn't bury Qian Guoyun and the others; infected corpses couldn't be touched casually, and after all the injuries they sustained overnight, they didn't have the strength or energy to do it now.

By the time they emerged from the woods, dawn was breaking, and the chill in the air was gradually being replaced by warmth.

It took them over an hour to finally return to the village. Last night, they had run quite a distance in their full sprint.

The village in the morning light was just as they remembered: quiet, clean, like a paradise, yet everywhere there was an unsettling eeriness.

Pausing briefly at the village entrance, they headed towards the villa from last night.

Walking halfway through the village, they arrived at the courtyard gate again, the bright red couplets and the iron-chain-locked door once more in sight, stirring mixed feelings among them.

In front of the villa was a separate hall, behind which were the kitchen and storage room. The stairs leading upstairs did not pass through the hall but were located next to the kitchen and storage room.

The second floor had been renovated. Outside the main door were anti-theft metal windows, and although the door was locked, the lock was simple, and they easily pried it open.

The spacious living room on the second floor was piled high with countless supplies: clothes, pots and buckets of various sizes for storing water, bags and plastic containers for food, and against the wall in the corner were five or six guns, very conspicuous.

The room was messy, but one place remained spotlessly clean: the bedroom.

The bedroom door was open, the off-white bed cover warm and full of life.

On the wall opposite the bedside table hung a wedding photo. In the picture, Zhang Guxian and a woman with a gentle and elegant demeanor wore suits and wedding dresses, smiling sweetly.

Zombies had a certain chance of awakening, and after awakening, they possessed intelligence and could think, but they were no longer the same people they used to be...

Entering the room, everyone immediately headed for the table piled with food.

Most of the items had been consumed, but indeed, as Zhang Guxian had said, some remained.

Bread, crackers, biscuits—all dry foods that would choke you, but no one cared. They threw down their backpacks and started eating.

They had been hungry for far too long, unable to remember when they last had a full meal. Even the act of eating had become unfamiliar to them.

Savoring the aroma of the food in their nostrils and the delicious taste in their mouths, they chewed continuously, stuffing themselves until they could eat no more. Only then did they stop, holding their aching bellies.

When they stopped and looked around at each other, their eyes held complex emotions.

The bald man's remaining eye was bloodshot.

When he realized something was wrong with his eye, he thought he was doomed, but he survived. Last night, he also thought he was certain to die, but he lived through that too.

The bald man wiped his face, not wanting the others to see his vulnerability.

Everyone saw, but no one laughed at him.

If there weren't so many people around, if it was just them, they might have broken down into tears earlier after escaping that ordeal.

Having eaten their fill, everyone turned their attention to the guns in the corner.

There were six guns in total, including submachine guns suitable for close-range combat with fast firing rates, and handguns with effective ranges of three to four hundred meters and strong penetrating power suitable for long-distance shooting. Among them was a powerful machine gun.

Xia Shenshu and the bald man both lunged for the machine gun, being the ones who understood guns.

Ji Yanqing, Lan Zi, and Wu Yao didn't participate; their knowledge of guns was limited to what they had seen in TV shows and movies. They didn't even know how to fire a gun, and they looked at the other guns.

The bald man and Xia Shenshu quickly decided the outcome, with the bald man getting the machine gun.

Ji Yanqing was slightly surprised. Xia Shenshu knew guns, yet he gave up the heavy firepower of the machine gun.

Noticing Ji Yanqing's gaze, Xia Shenshu looked over. It seemed he understood what Ji Yanqing was thinking, but he didn't explain. Smiling, he approached Ji Yanqing to teach him how to use the gun, "The one you're holding is suitable for long-range shooting..."

Seeing this, Lan Zi, Wu Yao, and the bald man quickly quieted down to listen.

Everyone took this matter very seriously.

With the guns, their team's combat power was instantly raised by several notches.

In the past, they could only engage in close combat with knives, and when there were too many zombies, they had no choice but to run. Now, even if they were surrounded by twenty zombies, they would still have the strength to fight back.

More importantly, with these guns, they themselves became a fighting force. No Survival Team should refuse their entry.

Xia Shenshu indeed knew a lot about guns. He explained the advantages and disadvantages of each type of gun, as well as their specific usage methods, very clearly, making it easy for people to remember.

When it was Lan Zi's turn, Xia Shenshu gave her a long-range pistol. Although Lan Zi was not as physically strong as the others, she was more agile and could act as a sniper when necessary.

Next to the guns were several first-aid kits. As everyone excitedly discussed the guns, they also checked their own injuries.

Lan Zi, the bald man, and Wu Yao had been thrown away by that monster earlier. Some had hit trees, while others fell to the ground, leaving them with bruises and countless abrasions.

Xia Shenshu's right hand, which held the gun, was dislocated, and there might have been a bone fracture. The most terrifying thing was the gash on his back; if it had been just two millimeters deeper, it would have cut through his skin.

Ji Yanqing had countless bruises and abrasions all over his body. His hands were the worst, with bloody wounds that looked agonizing.

After Lan Zi and Wu Yao had tended to their minor injuries, they helped Ji Yanqing and Xia Shenshu with their hands. Then, they found some anti-inflammatory and painkillers for Ji Yanqing, Xia Shenshu, and the bald man to take.

By the time they finished, it was almost ten o'clock. The sky outside was a clear blue like midsummer, and the outdoor temperature had already reached fifty degrees.

Exhausted from risking their lives, relieved after surviving the ordeal, content after eating, and feeling secure with the guns, the group gradually fell asleep amidst the heat and silence.

Knowing that there were no zombies in the village, Ji Yanqing gave Ji Le and Ji'an some water to drink before letting everyone lock the door and sleep soundly.

Sleepiness soon overtook them, and everyone quickly drifted off to sleep.

The world was quiet, except for the stifling heat.

"Roar!"

Amidst the heat, a powerful beast roar suddenly rang out, like thunder out of a clear sky.

Startled awake from their dreams, everyone looked towards the direction of the mountain foot with hair-raising fear.

Had the zombie king from the city followed them here?