Race Against Death

Could an ordinary person make it through the sea of zombies before him?

There had to be eight hundred, if not a thousand, zombies!

He had already exchanged a few blows with them. These zombies were formidable, not the dumb, sloth-like kind from movies.

They were dead bodies that were extraordinarily agile, with athletic ability not much different from living people.

They felt no pain, feared no death, and could see and hear.

Wu Zhong swallowed, gripping his gun as he checked the magazine. Only fifteen rounds remained...

What the hell was that supposed to do?

Forget his terrible aim—even if every shot killed one, he could only take down fifteen zombies at most.

He pulled out his combat knife and swung it twice, thinking, I'm supposed to rely on this thing to hack my way through a thousand zombies determined to kill me?

Wu Zhong knew that was absolutely impossible. He figured Endless Summer had originally planned to have Ghost Gizzard carry him over there.

With Gizzard around, such a minor threat as zombies would naturally be no problem. It could keep him safe.

But no one had expected Gu Yue to catch up and use an anomalous artifact to trade one-for-one with Gizzard.

Now, everything depended on him alone.

"What do I do? What should I do?"

Wu Zhong paced around the observation room, thinking of a plan.

But there were no useful tools here. After turning it over in his mind, the only option was to "make Gu Yue help."

At the moment, one man and one ghost were still studying the Tangle at the entrance.

The air around Gu Yue had solidified, forcing the zombies away. From time to time, he swung out green blade energy that sent zombie flesh and blood flying.

That alone was a devastating weapon.

"If I throw the Tangle to the other side, he'll definitely cut through the zombie horde to get it."

"If I follow him over while he does that, won't that work?"

Wu Zhong muttered to himself. He knew it was risky, but it was feasible. Most importantly, Gu Yue's energy dealt tremendous damage to zombies.

"First, clear out the zombies at the door."

He took out a grenade, pulled the pin, and hurriedly shoved it through the gap in the door.

Then he rushed to the corner of the observation room, threw himself onto the ground, and covered his ears.

Boom! The explosion rang out.

Wu Zhong stood up blankly, thinking that the blast seemed a little weak.

Then the corners of his mouth rose unnaturally. "Heh... heheheh? Hahaha? Hahahahaha!"

He laughed. He laughed wildly, maniacally!

Yet his eyes were bewildered, completely confused.

"Huh? Hahaha, why am I laughing?"

"Oh hohoho... I can't hold it in! I really can't hold it in!"

Wu Zhong laughed so hard he bent over backward, tears streaming from his eyes. He just wanted to laugh. He could not stop himself.

He was miserable. It felt awful.

Yet he kept laughing. He tried every way he could to control himself, but he could not, as if some damn nerve had been wired wrong.

He laughed until he cried, until he could barely breathe!

"Ugh, hehehe, I can't breathe... oh hohoho... cough, cough... oh hohoho..."

He was on the verge of breaking down, clutching the wall as laughter made his stomach hurt.

Even more terrifyingly, the zombies outside were laughing too!

Rows of dead heads made strange noises. "Gah gah gah..."

"Heh heh heh!"

The zombies blown over by the grenade had not died. The grenade was weak, about as powerful as a flashbang.

But its forced-laughter effect was far more terrifying than a flashbang.

Even zombies could not escape it!

A group of zombies crowded outside the door, their heads stuck in the gap, cackling madly at a person. What kind of experience was that? The scene was horrifying.

Wu Zhong laughed until he almost threw up, tears pouring down his face.

It was over. It was all over!

Despair filled Wu Zhong's heart. How could this happen... This grenade is an anomalous artifact too?

Damn it, it looked exactly like an ordinary grenade.

What the hell is wrong with you? You carry something like this around as a weapon?

Wu Zhong cursed inwardly. He had truly never expected the grenades on Gu Yue to be this kind of damn thing!

No wonder Gu Yue had only feinted with one before instead of actually throwing it. Its range of effect was huge. In that cramped terrain, while fighting a ghost, using this grenade could very well affect himself.

It's over... I've been contaminated... Forced laughter? Am I going to laugh myself to death... trapped in endless laughter, suffering without end?

He thought of Eternal Thirst Plum and the Unsolvable Tangle.

He knew how terrifying those things were, and the more he knew, the more afraid he became.

Eternal, unsolvable—the absolute nature of despair.

Now he had been afflicted too. He would laugh himself to death!

"No... no... I'm infected, so should I kill myself?"

Wu Zhong already felt like he was suffocating and began to think wildly. Tears ran down his face as he laughed, his body twitching as he coughed, yet he still had to laugh. He could not stop.

Trembling, he raised his gun and aimed it at himself... If he had to laugh himself to death like this, he would rather give himself a quick end.

Just like those eternally thirsty people, who all ultimately chose suicide.

"Hahahaha... hahaha! I really brought this on myself. One shot should be easy, right..."

Wu Zhong thought of putting a bullet through his head, yet he could not bring himself to pull the trigger.

He was unwilling. He could not bear to.

If he died, his grandfather would lie in that hospital bed, and from then on, there would be no one in the world left who remembered him.

Suddenly, it felt as though his head had exploded.

I can't die... I can't die... Staying alive matters more than anything.

Wu Zhong forced himself to calm down. He had experienced life and death before. Ever since narrowly escaping death yesterday, he had treasured his life greatly.

"This effect might not be unsolvable."

"Unit 985 uses it as a weapon, and Gu Yue carries four of them. How could it be unsolvable? They must have a way to counter it! The antidote might even be on him."

"That's right. It must be."

Wu Zhong calmed down. Still laughing, he stood up. After thinking for a moment, inspiration struck.

He suddenly pulled the pin on another grenade!

This time, he threw it at his own feet. Bang!

The grenade truly was weak. He merely swayed a little, and then he stopped laughing.

"It worked? I'm cured!"

"Really... One more blast was all it took?"

Wu Zhong panted and touched his mouth, then was overcome with joy.

"Just as I thought. This grenade has an area-of-effect influence, so it can easily hurt its user too."

"Since Unit 985 equips its people with them, they must carry the antidote as well."

"And Gu Yue had nothing on him besides a gun, a knife, and four grenades... I was only giving it a try..."

"Anyway, I'd already been hit once and infected, so I didn't mind getting hit again. I never thought it would actually work."

Wu Zhong licked his lips. He had not expected to personally unravel the bizarre effect of an anomalous artifact.

One blast forced laughter. A second blast removed it—the property reversed.

It sounded simple, but that bizarre line of thinking went beyond common sense! It was utterly inexplicable.

To think of something like that, and even have the courage to put it into action...

Even afterward, Wu Zhong found it unbelievable. How did I dare?

Of course, this grenade was a weapon already fielded by Unit 985, so it could not be compared to hidden hazardous items like Eternal Thirst Plum or the Unsolvable Tangle.

But he was still an ordinary person who had never encountered anything like this before.

The first time he was affected, he had nearly killed himself from torment and panic.

Fortunately, he ultimately overcame his fear, calmed down, and even found the solution with clear-headed reasoning.

At the brink of life and death, his mind became extraordinarily clear and calm. Everything suddenly clicked.

That feeling was incomparable, as if something had opened up inside him. He even felt a little smug...

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

After resting briefly, Wu Zhong raised his gun and aimed at the zombie heads stuck in the door gap, shooting each of them in the head!

After killing the zombies at the entrance, he gripped his combat knife and pushed open the door.

A zombie roared at him from the front. He let out a low roar and swung mercilessly, splitting its head vertically as filthy blood splattered.

The knife was light and sharp, made from some unique material.

It was the best knife he had ever held in his life. Chopping off heads was as easy as splitting watermelons!

"What a knife. What a damn good knife!"

Wu Zhong gripped it with both hands and hacked calmly. Thanks to the combat knife's sharpness, he kicked and slashed his way through more than a dozen zombies!

But even so, his arms had begun to ache.

No matter how sharp the knife was, he still had to swing with all his strength and keep his attention intensely focused.

This was completely different from the "nuclear-powered protagonists" in games he had played. It drained his stamina tremendously.

"Hiss!"

"Hoh hoh hoh hoh!"

More zombies began to run, crazily pouncing toward Wu Zhong like cats that had caught the scent of blood.

They were fast, as fast as adults sprinting at full speed. The sight of them rushing over in a swarm was terrifying!

Wu Zhong looked back at the already shredded door. Knowing there was no use going back, he could only brace himself and run forward.

Meanwhile, he thought of the past three years he had spent working himself like a madman.

What had been the most tormenting thing? For him, it was work. There were too many trivial matters and too much pressure. He had nearly worked himself to death.

Every day, he had no time to sleep. When he woke in the morning, his head would buzz and rattle.

Even now, recalling those unbearable days filled him with rage.

Splat!

He charged forward, passing the ghost and Gu Yue. He suddenly snatched away the Tangle and hurled it with all his strength toward the other side.

Splat! Splat!

"Argh!"

With a sweep of Gizzard's ghostly claws, a deep bloody gash appeared across Wu Zhong's arm, and he cried out in pain.

"You damn ghost..."

Wu Zhong had been careful enough, but the man and ghost were violently trying to break the Tangle. When he ran in to snatch food from the tiger's jaws, he was still caught in the crossfire.

His entire right arm immediately became impossible to lift. It hurt too much!

The wound cut deep enough to reach the bone!

On the other hand, Gu Yue's collateral damage was strange. Green blade energy spilled over Wu Zhong's body, yet it did not harm him. Instead, it stopped the bleeding and healed the wound.

"What a slash, Brother Gu Yue!" Wu Zhong exclaimed in delight.

Gu Yue's green energy could hurt ghosts and zombies, but it healed the flesh and blood of living people.

That gave Wu Zhong even more confidence.

After the Tangle was thrown away, the ghost rose into the air and flew over the zombie horde.

Gu Yue, meanwhile, ran across the ground, carving out a bloody path with a flurry of blades.

Wu Zhong followed close behind with his combat knife in hand, only needing to deal with a few stray zombies here and there.

But the good times did not last!

Gu Yue charged too fast. His running speed had to be approaching the seven-second mark for one hundred meters, right?

He moved like he was flying, and Wu Zhong could not keep up even at full speed.

As the distance between them widened, more and more zombies surrounded and attacked him, pressing in tighter and tighter.

"Damn it!"

Wu Zhong wished he could grow two more legs. His eyes bulged with fury as he raced against death.

Yet these zombies were just as mobile as living people!

As more of them squeezed toward him, even with Gu Yue indirectly clearing a path, despite his fierce charge, he was still grazed and clawed!

"Ugh! What?"

Caught off guard, fresh blood streamed down Wu Zhong's back. A zombie had scratched a new bloody gash into him.

Wu Zhong's face instantly turned pale. A zombie scratched me. A zombie scratched me. A zombie scratched me...

"No! Don't tell me I'm going to be infected with corpse poison?"

Cold sweat poured down Wu Zhong's body. He spun his combat knife as he charged out of the zombie horde, still not daring to slow down.

Because the densely packed zombies behind him were still chasing relentlessly!

Gu Yue and the ghost stopped to continue fighting over the Tangle, while Wu Zhong could not spare another thought for them. He ran alone to the entrance of the food duct and crawled inside.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

He crawled rapidly through the duct. His hands and feet were scraped raw, but he did not dare waste any time, because zombies were crawling in behind him to give chase!

"Roarh! Roarh! Roarh! Gah gah gah..."

"There's no way ahead!"

Before long, he reached the end of the horizontal passage. Looking up, Wu Zhong found a path above him.

The inner wall of the duct was smooth and narrowed upward at a sharp angle. He tried to climb, but there was nowhere to gain purchase, and he immediately slid back down.

"Damn!"

Wu Zhong realized that the pipe wall had never been designed for people to climb. It narrowed upward and was exceptionally smooth, all to prevent zombies from climbing up as well.

Endless Summer had specifically sent Ghost Gizzard to assist him when he told him to come this way, precisely to deal with a situation like this.

According to the original plan, Ghost Gizzard was supposed to grab him and fly him up!

"It's over! What do I do now?"

With his back against the pipe wall, Wu Zhong looked down the way he had come. Zombies surged in, filling the pipe... There was no way back!

His arm was injured. Even after being healed a little, it still hurt.

The hand holding his blade had grown heavy. He could barely swing it anymore.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

His mind raced as he crouched and fired wildly.

In such a cramped space, every shot was a headshot.

After all, the zombies were crawling toward him headfirst, and they were piled atop one another. At a glance, all he could see were heads and arms.

But precisely because the pipe was so narrow, the zombies were packed together. Even if he killed one, the ones behind it would shove its corpse forward.

The gap between him and the zombies was growing smaller and smaller.

At this rate, he would eventually be squeezed into the pipe itself, trapped amidst a mass of zombies...

Unable to move, with zombies crawling all over him and gnawing at him, he would undoubtedly die.

"What do I do? What do I do?"

He watched helplessly as the zombies advanced like a wall of flesh, pressing closer with every moment as his space dwindled.

Death was counting down. There was no one he could rely on.

All he could do was rely on himself, but what could he do? All he knew was welding doors.

"Doors... doors... Right, doors. Is there a door here?"

"There should be a gate in the pipe, right?"

He looked around. Nothing! No door! There wasn't even a door!

"Ahhh, why isn't there even a damn door?!"

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Breathing hard and drenched in sweat, he gripped his military knife and frantically hacked and stabbed at the pipe wall.

And sure enough, the military knife was exceptionally sharp. It actually plunged deep into the steel pipe wall.

When he pushed harder, the blade suddenly met no resistance. It had pierced through!

"Huh?"

With such hardness and sharpness, this was practically a treasure blade.

Wu Zhong's eyes flickered. He calmed down as something came to him, then suddenly threw himself into stabbing and hacking at the iron wall with all his strength.

He moved at lightning speed. It was a race against death. Clang after clang echoed through the passage, while zombies at the far end of the pipe rolled and squeezed forward like a wall of flesh.

"Faster! Faster! Faster!"

Wu Zhong's muscles ached and blood seeped from his wounds, but he did not dare stop. Instead, he forced himself to move even faster.

The military knife was hard and sharp, cutting through steel like chopping meat. Before long, he had carved out a C-shaped opening.

With a powerful pry, the torn iron wall bent outward, lifting into an irregular round iron plate.

The pipe had been torn open, but there was a wall outside. This section of the passage had been sealed within reinforced concrete.

"Hold it! Hold it!"

Knowing he could not get out, Wu Zhong slammed his shoulder against the sheet metal and shoved with all his strength.

"Urghhh... Creak, creak!"

The zombies had already reached him. More than a dozen arms grabbed Wu Zhong, and several mouths bit down on his shoulders, hands, and feet.

"Ahhh!" Wu Zhong's eyes nearly split open, but he refused to let go.

He steeled himself. Even if he had to endure the zombies' bites and claws, he would force that iron plate forward.

The plate was thick, being part of the pipe's inner wall, but under his desperate exertion, he still bent it like sheet metal and wedged it across the pipe.

It was like a gate, blocking the passage.

It did not completely seal it off, only covering seventy or eighty percent, but that was enough. The gaps around the edges were too small for zombies to crawl through. They could only reach their hands out to grab him.

Wu Zhong drew his gun and shot the zombie biting him in the head.

Then, covered in blood and mangled flesh, he retreated and leaned against the pipe wall, staring at the countless zombies two meters away, blocked by a small piece of bent sheet metal.

He had succeeded. He had cut out a piece of iron from the passage and bent it into something like a barred gate.

It instantly became an immovable obstacle, stopping the zombies' advance.

Countless zombie limbs squeezed through the gaps around the edges, flesh and blood grinding and crushing together.

The cramped, dim space was filled with an unbearable stench.

Wu Zhong curled up in a corner. Once his muscles relaxed, the pain made him groan nonstop.

Yet he laughed.

"Hehehehe..."

The intense exhilaration in his mind, the feeling of having to survive no matter what, had become addictive.