Two-Man Team

[ Ding! ]

[ Announcing the current locations of all deathmatch participants. ]

[ Next announcement in two hours. ]

As the mechanical prompt sounded in his mind, a radar-like image appeared before Lu Bai once more.

The green dots on the map were mostly in the same positions as they had been two hours ago.

The only thing that caught Lu Bai's attention was that there was actually still a green dot at the Teaching Building.

At first, he had thought the dot displaying his own position would be brighter.

But now it seemed clear that another dot representing a deathmatch participant was overlapping with his.

"Could it be that guy hiding in the bathroom?"

Ke Jianghao hadn't caught what Lu Bai was muttering and instinctively asked, "You have an older brother?"

At the sound of his voice, everyone looked over.

"No, but..."

Lu Bai smiled and changed the subject. "I'm planning to leave."

The moment he said that, six faces went blank.

To be honest, among the seven of them, only Lu Bai and Ke Jianghao had the courage to face zombies.

And Lu Bai was the only one capable of dealing with them.

Though no one had said it aloud, everyone had more or less subconsciously accepted the two of them as the team leaders.

After a moment of silence, everyone gradually came back to their senses.

Wu Ya clearly couldn't understand Lu Bai's reasoning. Raising her voice slightly, she asked anxiously, "Why? It's so dangerous outside."

Tian Wang said, "There's no need, is there? The store is safe, and we aren't short on food."

"Classmate Lu, wouldn't it be better to stay here and wait for rescue?"

The female teacher, who had been a background figure for quite some time, couldn't help trying to persuade him as well. Her expression was somewhat unnatural, probably because she still hadn't fully adjusted to the reversal in status between teacher and students.

"I have some questions I need to figure out," Lu Bai explained simply.

But that answer was clearly not enough to satisfy them.

"We've only been together for half a day. Talking about friendship would be hypocritical."

Ke Jianghao frowned and added, "Let's be realistic, then. If we want to survive, we have to stick together.

Yes, I admit you're absurdly good in a fight, but everyone has moments when they slip up, right? I don't understand why you insist on leaving. Do you think we're holding you back?"

Rather than getting angry at Ke Jianghao's questioning, Lu Bai's smile grew even brighter.

He didn't feel offended at all and said cheerfully, "Correct."

Ke Jianghao: "...So you expect us to watch you go get yourself killed?"

It felt like punching cotton, leaving the Sports Student completely at a loss.

"Look on the bright side. With one less person sharing the food, won't you be able to last longer? As for my safety..." Lu Bai casually drew his Eight-Sided Han Sword and cut a gash into his own arm.

Before anyone could speak, the wound on Lu Bai's arm visibly scabbed over and healed.

Everyone froze at the sight.

They stared at Lu Bai as though they had seen a ghost.

They had all noticed the zombie blood still on the Eight-Sided Han Sword. That meant Lu Bai didn't even have to fear being bitten by zombies.

Other than Ke Jianghao, everyone instinctively took several steps back.

"You... you're not human. What the hell are you?!" Zheng Xiaoming's face was full of horror.

"You should trust science."

Lu Bai slung the Eight-Sided Han Sword over his back again and said, "You can think of it as my metabolism being a little fast."

Wu Ya: "..."

Ke Jianghao: "..."

Still smiling, Lu Bai clapped his hands.

"Anyway, don't worry about my safety. As for you, as long as you don't run around recklessly, you should be able to hold out until rescue arrives."

His tone sounded relaxed, as if he were merely saying he was heading out for a walk after dinner.

Ke Jianghao looked at everyone else's reactions, let out a long breath, and said, "I won't try to stop you anymore. Eat something before you go."

As High School Students raised under materialist education, they truly found it difficult to stay calm after witnessing such a mysterious phenomenon as rapid regeneration.

The group gathered around Lu Bai, clicking their tongues in amazement.

If it hadn't seemed inappropriate, Wu Ya would have wanted to reach out and pinch Lu Bai's arm.

Lu Bai remained remarkably calm. Even under everyone's watchful eyes, he could still eat a cup of instant noodles with gusto.

"No wonder you can handle so many zombies. Were you born with that ability?"

During a pause when Lu Bai swallowed a forkful of noodles, Ke Jianghao couldn't help asking.

"In the time it takes me to eat one cup of noodles, you've already asked that three times."

Lu Bai truly hadn't expected this guy, who had looked so vicious when they first met, to be so intensely curious.

He let out a long sigh. "Sure, let's say I was."

Ke Jianghao was clearly dissatisfied with that answer and was about to say more.

But right then—

Rattle, rattle...

A burst of clattering metal rang out.

The store's shutter door, which had been pulled down earlier, was lifted again to nearly a meter above the ground.

Zombies certainly wouldn't do something like that.

So when they saw the four legs beneath the shutter, everyone was merely surprised rather than panicked.

"Hello~"

One of them crouched down and waved at the people inside the store.

He had a Common Face and dark skin, giving off something of an honest, dependable impression.

But the way he greeted them seemed strange no matter how one looked at it in this situation.

No one in the store responded. Only the ill-timed sound of Lu Bai slurping noodles remained.

"Not welcoming us?"

The Common Face bent down and walked into the store, casually pulling an old-fashioned Brocade-shell pistol from his pocket.

His movements were flippant, but a gun itself carried an inherent threat.

Everyone in the store turned pale.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Put... put the gun down. We can talk this out."

The group, who had not been too worried thanks to Lu Bai's "superhuman" combat ability, became tense in an instant.

Ke Jianghao stiffly raised his hands. "Hey, calm down first. Do you need food?"

The Common Face didn't answer. He merely hooked his index finger around the trigger and used the dark muzzle to count heads one by one. "One, two..."

Before he could finish counting, a calm voice interrupted him.

"Didn't you hear what Classmate Wu said? Put the gun down."

Lu Bai pulled out a tissue to wipe the grease from the corner of his mouth, then looked up with a smile. "Or should I just chop off the hand holding that gun?"

"Hehe, just joking. Don't be so scary." The Common Face spun the Brocade-shell pistol around his index finger as he spoke casually.

The other man entered the store as well, built like a bodybuilder.

Staring at Lu Bai, he said, "So it's you. Looks like you're still hanging around with the natives."

"Natives?"

Lu Bai's gaze shifted between the bodybuilder and the Common Face. From their words, it wasn't difficult to guess who they were.

The smile on his face faded somewhat. "That's rather arrogant."