The ancient stone tablet

The fire gave off warmth, the crackling wood bringing a little comfort.

Modern electrical infrastructure was convenient and efficient, but utterly fragile in the face of disaster.

Within two hours, the power supply had failed completely. Sheltering in a gas station, they had been forced to cut wood from beside the highway to build a fire.

Sitting around the campfire, Hu Jia carefully poked at the wood, occasionally stealing glances at Ye Lin, who had his head lowered in thought.

No one spoke.

Now that the objective had appeared, everyone was waiting for Ye Lin's next assessment.

"The second round is to find ?? and then survive for seven days."

"According to the system's notification, the meme will control the zombies, making them actively seek out and infect every human. They won't stop until we're dead. That means the zombies will be able to track us. Hiding won't do us any good, no matter where we go."

Ye Lin raised his head and spoke softly, firelight flickering in his eyes.

"Given the A-rank difficulty, if we don't find what the system wants, we probably won't survive seven days. We might even die within a day or two."

"So the key to this round is whether the thing the system wants us to find is the ancient stone tablet. If it is, then what exactly is it, and who took it?"

"Unless something unexpected happened, the tablet contains secrets about the zombies or the meme."

The objective had appeared, much later this time than in the previous game. Ye Lin suspected that, because the difficulty was not fixed, the system had to issue the objective based on the current difficulty.

As his words faded, He Zheng clenched his fists, his gaze involuntarily straying toward the distant darkness.

They had escaped, but as Ye Lin had said, those zombies-and even the mutants-would probably catch up soon.

Over four billion zombies. Going by probability, who knew how many mutants would emerge? And what terrifying monsters would arise among those mutants?

It seemed there might be only a few tens of millions of zombies around them at most, but knowing how cruel the system was, he had no doubt it would place every mutant near them.

"Fuck! This is all those idiots' fault! If they'd contacted us sooner, there's no way things would've ended up like this!"

"A bunch of morons who thought they were so clever! They actually thought we wanted to kill them! Well, look at them now. They got themselves killed and dragged us down with them!"

He Zheng could not help cursing aloud. This time, even Huang Liang did not argue.

He was right. If they had cooperated sooner, things would never have come to this. They had started trying to communicate immediately after entering, making over a hundred attempts over the course of seven hours, only to have every one rejected.

"That's human nature. They simply chose what seemed like the best option for them. Besides..."

An Ke swept up her hair and tightened her ponytail out of habit.

"The system deliberately set things up this way. Free mode essentially leaves both sides to decide whether to cooperate or oppose each other. That's part of the difficulty too."

"If there were no meme in this game and we were hunters as well, choosing to cooperate would've been suicide for them."

Looking at Ye Lin, An Ke hesitated slightly.

"Ye Lin, do you also think the thing the system wants us to find is the ancient stone tablet?"

"That's what I think too, but I keep wondering if the clues point to it a little too obviously. Could it be..."

When An Ke finished, everyone turned to Ye Lin.

True, logically, it should be the ancient stone tablet. After all, both the professor and the system had mentioned it.

But after their experience in the previous game, they were not sure the answer would be handed to them outright.

"It can only be the tablet."

To An Ke's surprise, Ye Lin reached a firm conclusion this time.

"First, the professor mentioned that the tablet contained a method of evolution. Second, the tablet was found in a pharaoh's tomb, where infected people had been trapped and left to die. That was clearly an attempt to stop the meme from spreading."

"Third, the tablet can accelerate the spread of the virus."

"All three are closely connected, so the only thing we could be looking for is the ancient stone tablet."

After a brief pause, Ye Lin looked at An Ke.

"You feel something is off because the system specifically mentioned it."

"You don't think the system would give us the answer."

"But in my view, the system wasn't originally going to mention it. Someone triggered the outbreak early, prompting the system to issue a warning."

"You mean..."

As soon as Ye Lin finished, An Ke understood. Even He Zheng blurted out, his eyes filled with shock and anger.

"There's another team?!"

"Fuck! I knew it couldn't be such a coincidence! We'd just discovered something was wrong, and then the outbreak happened immediately. A few minutes later, and we might've been able to stop those idiots!"

He Zheng warily scanned their surroundings. Zhang Tie, standing at the entrance, instinctively raised his shield as well, afraid that another team might be nearby.

"Ye Lin, the tablet might be in the first team's hands."

"They have a reason to trigger the outbreak themselves."

Huang Liang suddenly spoke, offering his thoughts.

"I noticed that they kept rejecting our communication attempts earlier, but they answered the last one."

"If they decided from the start not to answer, then went against that decision later, that doesn't fit criminal psychology."

"So I suspect they may have split into two groups, one dominant and one subordinate. The dominant group held the power and more of the resources, while the subordinate group was merely following orders. Only after they separated did the subordinate group dare to answer."

"So, if there was internal conflict, we can't rule out the possibility that the ringleader wanted to kill the other accomplices and keep the rewards for himself."

"There are plenty of cases like that in real life too."

Everyone looked at Huang Liang with some surprise. He Zheng, in particular, could not hide his astonishment.

The buzz-cut kid used some odd terminology, but his analysis made a certain amount of sense. He Zheng had always thought of him as a reckless hothead. He had not expected him to have a brain.

"Huang Liang, that's possible, but wouldn't doing that be far too risky?"

An Ke frowned. Before she could finish, Ye Lin shook his head and spoke softly.

"The risk isn't that great. If the person who took the tablet is hiding somewhere very safe, he could absolutely do it."

"The fewer people there are, the greater the rewards. If there were a third party, the communicator should have two options."

"So Huang Liang's thinking is sound. There's no third team here. Otherwise, it wouldn't make logical sense."

An Ke paused. For some reason, she suddenly felt that Ye Lin's tone had grown a little strange. Although his reasoning was sound, still...

"Next, we need to get the tablet from that person and figure out its secrets."

"Wait, Lin, um, how are we supposed to find him? If he's hiding somewhere very safe, like you think, then we..."

Hu Jia asked quietly, swallowing hard.

Where would they look? In the city? Trying to find one person in a city full of monsters would be more than dangerous. It would practically be suicide.

Seeing the same confusion on everyone's faces, Ye Lin smiled and picked up the communicator.

"No, we don't need to find him. He'll find us."

"His hiding place might have been safe before, but it may not be now. If he triggered the outbreak, that means he didn't anticipate the monsters' tracking ability. So by now, he must know one thing: he can't possibly survive to the seventh day on his own!"

"We just need to shake off the monsters behind us first, then wait for him to contact us. Of course, in the meantime, we also need to gather as many other clues as possible. For example, who suppressed the professor's research in the first place? That person might have information about the tablet too."

"The location should be..."

Two minutes later.

Having loaded her ammunition, An Ke leaned against the car and waited for them to set off.

Watching Ye Lin approach, she felt the urge to say something, but a moment later, he pointed at the backpack behind her.

"An Ke, I remember all my things are with you, right?"

"Remember to give them to me if I need them. I won't carry them myself."

After saying that, Ye Lin rather abruptly stepped up beside her and tightened her ponytail for her.

"Your hair's messy. I'll get you a new hair tie when we get back."

Ye Lin smiled, his fingertips brushing her cheek.

An Ke looked up, stunned. She found herself strangely unused to such an intimate gesture from Ye Lin.

But soon, as she watched Ye Lin get into another car, she suddenly froze, as though something had occurred to her.

From what she knew of Ye Lin, that scumbag was unlikely to be interested in her.

Has this guy... discovered something? If so, what is he trying to tell me? And why me? Why won't he say it out loud?

Was she overthinking it, or...?

An Ke's breathing faltered. Looking into the distant darkness, she felt an inexplicable unease rise in her heart.

It was like an abyss.

"Wait!"

"Ye Lin! I think I saw a ghost!"

"It's on the car!"