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Anna rushed up the stairs as fast as she could, preparing to return to her room and retrieve a Yang-attuned item for dealing with zombies.

*They're actually zombies from Wenwen's country. In Russian, the original term for this thing has the same meaning as "undead," but they aren't actually the same kind of creature.

We clearly interrupted the ritual in time and stopped this zombie's final evolution, yet its body is still this hard... My axe can chop through a small tree in one blow, but it couldn't even cut through the bone in its shoulder.

And this is only a simulated exercise with the difficulty greatly reduced and under the institute's control.

A real "Anomaly" would be even more terrifying~ My strength and skill are still nowhere near enough. No wonder the teacher kicked me off the sports meet roster. Once I get back to school, I have to train twice as hard.*

After sorting out her somewhat chaotic thoughts, Anna was already standing before the master bedroom door.

Just as she was about to push it open,

Click~ (tongue pop)

It was only a brief, crisp sound,

Yet the terror it instantly brought surpassed that of the zombie downstairs.

The sound tugged Anna's gaze toward the entryway corridor beside her.

She clearly remembered that the master bedroom was the innermost room off the entryway, with the corridor ending right beside its door.

But the corridor before her continued onward, its depths pitch-black. There were no light strips along the walls, and she could not see its end at all.

That sound had come from within the darkness,

And the fearful thoughts grew as she stared,

Then, all of a sudden, Anna vaguely saw something deep in the darkness. It was slowly walking out, gradually revealing part of its outline.

It was a horrifying existence with a tongue for a head,

Shuffling forward like a living person,

About to emerge from the darkness and reveal some unknown, terrifying final form.

Smack!

A hand quickly slapped Anna's shoulder.

The sudden touch yanked Anna's attention away from the darkness. In the blink of an eye, the corridor before her had returned to normal. Its end was only three meters away, where a vase stood.

"Anna, why are you spacing out in front of the door?"

Anna turned her head and saw Gao Yuxuan, wearing his scholarly glasses.

"Did you hear some strange sound just now?"

"No... Hurry up~ The class monitor and Luo Di can't hold on much longer."

This was the critical moment of their exercise. Gao Yuxuan had no time to think about anything else; wasting even one second was gambling with his companions' lives.

The reason he had also run back to the house was simple: his athletic ability ranked near the bottom among the four. If even Anna could not cut through the zombie, then his Field Knife would be even less capable of harming it.

Gao Yuxuan had also come prepared. A special item was stored in his backpack, originally intended to provide medical support for his teammates. Perhaps it could now be used against the zombie.

Seeing Gao Yuxuan rush into the master bedroom and begin searching for something, Anna followed him inside.

But the terror brought by that tongue pop still lingered at the root of her tongue,

Even though she kept reminding herself to trust the institute and believe that this exercise would trigger only one Anomaly Event, the scene she had just witnessed could not possibly have been fake.

As Anna searched through her backpack, she said,

"Gao, I just heard a tongue pop in the corridor and saw something like The Devil. I have a bad feeling about it."

Strangely enough,

Gao Yuxuan did not respond. He merely took something from his backpack with an intensely focused expression. Looking closely, it was a strange wooden box.

His mind seemed to be filled entirely with the zombie and getting back as soon as possible to provide support. He had not heard what Anna said at all.

Gao Yuxuan opened the wooden box to inspect it. Inside were neat rows of silver needles.

"This is... Traditional Chinese Medicine?"

Although Anna was not from Huaxia Nation, she had still heard of the famous Traditional Chinese Medicine.

With a certain major corporation nearly monopolizing biomedical technology, the affordable and effective Traditional Chinese Medicine clinics scattered throughout cities nationwide had become an indispensable part of the healthcare system, especially because they allowed ordinary people to afford treatment.

She had once been fortunate enough to experience acupuncture. Just one session had adjusted her physical condition, and she had gone on to earn good results in subsequent sports exams.

However, the silver needles stored in the wooden box before her were much longer than acupuncture needles. The longest one was enough to pierce straight through an arm.

The item Anna found in her backpack was the vodka they had drunk during their meal—three bottles in total.

The first two were her favorite 60-proof spirits. As for the last bottle, it was Spirytus, the highest-proof vodka currently on the market, a special 96-proof vodka generally used to mix various cocktails. Anna had not expected it to come in handy.

There were also strips of torn cloth and a windproof lighter.

"Let's go!"

"Okay!"

When the two pushed open the master bedroom door again, they could hear repeated metallic crashes coming from outside even from far away.

"Wenwen!"

Having personally chopped at the zombie, Anna knew exactly how difficult that thing was to deal with. Her concern for her best friend further suppressed the fear in her mind. In this situation, she naturally could not spare any thought for that illusory tongue pop.

They could only discuss how to handle it with everyone after the zombie matter was settled.

The two rushed out of the house at top speed. The moment they crossed the front door, the sight before them left them both stunned.

The sounds of battle they had heard moments ago had stopped.

The new silver-plated chainsaw lay beside the house's front gate, but its most important component—the chain—had snapped and could no longer be used.

Luo Di lay on the ground more than ten meters away.

His right hand clutched his upper left arm tightly. Three finger-thick holes had pierced through the muscle there, the wounds blackened and leaking blood and pus.

However,

An arm still wrapped in a cloth sleeve had fallen in the open space of the front yard. Foul-smelling black blood flowed across the ground, and judging by the rough cut, it had clearly been severed by the chainsaw.

At the cost of destroying the chainsaw and suffering an arm injury, Luo Di had actually sawed off one of the zombie's arms.

The two who had not witnessed what happened were utterly shocked by Luo Di's individual strength.

In truth, only Luo Di himself knew that the entire process had relied on the class monitor restraining the zombie, giving him the chance to effectively cut it with such an unwieldy tool as a chainsaw.

And the class monitor's combat instincts simply did not seem like those of a high school student.

Aah~~

Streams of Black Mist poured from the zombie's mouth. Losing an arm had made it even angrier, and it regarded Luo Di, the chainsaw user, as its primary target.

Its cloth shoes rose from the ground as it lunged forward at high speed.

Luo Di, who had only just pushed himself up from the ground, seemed to have no time to dodge.

At the critical moment,

Something glowing flew from the gate, tracing an arc through the air before striking the zombie's side perfectly.

Amid the loud crash of shattering glass and a terrifying roar, the flames drew in oxygen and spread across the zombie's body. A strong smell of alcohol quickly filled the air.

The crude incendiary bottle made from alcohol was not especially effective. The flames did not completely engulf the zombie, only burning parts of its body.

Yang-attuned flames naturally suppressed a yin corpse,

Even though the pus flowing beneath the Zombie Skin could effectively restrain the flames, the burning before they were extinguished was still quite effective.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, another object was thrown over.

This time, it was not thrown at the zombie, but at Luo Di, who had just stood up.

Smack!

He caught it steadily.

It was a bottle of 60-proof vodka, its mouth not stuffed with burning cloth.

Though it did not meet the 70–75% standard for medical alcohol, it still had some disinfecting effect. Luo Di immediately poured the liquor over the wound on his arm.

Agonizing pain,

And the corrosion caused by corpse poison could not be cleaned away so easily.

At that moment, a nearly sensationless, gentle palm rested on Luo Di's shoulder. That touch seemed to carry Luo Di back to the final moment before vacation, back to when the class monitor had first found him and invited him to join the exercise.

A gentle voice came from beneath the mask,

"Leave the rest to us~ A crippled zombie missing an arm is more than manageable for us. Don't underestimate your teammates."

Thanks to the two new alliance leaders, dzzzzzzz and Lonely Ghost God. The offerings have been received.