The Dead Walk a Devious Path

The first wave of corpses surged forward, their stench of rot chokingly thick, and lunged at Zhao Jinghong, who stood alone in their path.

Zhao Jinghong's gaze was cold and hard. Her feet did not move.

She was not simply weathering their attacks; she was pushing her spear to its limits.

She twisted at the waist and drove her arms forward, sending Awakening of Insects sweeping out with a heavy rush of wind.

Thud! Crack!

The shaft slammed into the three or four walking corpses at the front, the sound of snapping bones clearly audible.

Their bodies twisted out of shape and flew backward, knocking down the others following behind.

That single sweep smashed a gap right through the front of the horde.

But there were too many.

More walking corpses trampled over the fallen bodies and surged forward, roaring as they filled the gap.

Several astonishingly quick "swift variants" flanked her from both sides, their rotten claws reaching for Zhao Jinghong's waist and legs.

Zhao Jinghong slid her feet swiftly, turning halfway around on the spot as her spear wheeled with her.

A flick of the shaft deflected one swift variant's claws, while the butt of the spear thrust sharply backward.

Thump!

The heavy spear butt slammed into the chest of another swift variant sneaking up behind her.

Bones shattered, and the creature flew backward, knocking down a swath of ordinary walking corpses.

Even as she parried, the spearhead shot forward like lightning.

Squelch!

Squelch!

Two soft sounds.

The spearhead pierced the throats of two ordinary walking corpses lunging at her with precision, spraying foul blood.

In just a few seconds, a ring of mangled bodies lay around Zhao Jinghong.

The spear danced in her hands, thrusting, sweeping, and parrying, swift and vicious.

Every attack brought down a walking corpse.

Her figure moved through the horde, the dark blue hems of her clothes fluttering.

But she soon realized something was wrong.

Although she had drawn the attention of the corpses at the front and thrown them into confusion, something strange happened when she tried moving sideways to draw the entire horde away.

Only the few dozen walking corpses caught in her attacks chased her madly.

Those in the middle and rear that had not been struck directly merely paused, "looked" her way with their hollow eyes, and rasped a few times. Then... they actually ignored the living target she presented and continued toward the base's southeastern corner with stiff but determined steps.

Was something attracting them more strongly than a living person right before their eyes?

Or rather... was something commanding them?

Zhao Jinghong's heart tightened. This was absolutely not normal.

The scent of a living person, especially someone like her who was killing amid the horde, should have held the strongest attraction for walking corpses.

What could make them ignore their prey and fixate on one place?

She wielded her spear to finish off the corpses lunging at her while concentrating, ears pricked and nose twitching, trying to catch anything unusual-but beyond the stench of corpses, the roars, the footsteps, and the sounds of her own spear, there was nothing.

I can't draw them away!

No matter how much commotion she caused or how many she killed, the hundred-plus walking corpses forming the main horde advanced stubbornly straight toward the wall, as though wound up like clockwork.

They were already less than five hundred meters from the wall.

Their heavy, dragging footsteps hammered at Zhao Jinghong's heart, beat after beat.

I have to find the cause, or... stop them head-on.

Zhao Jinghong's gaze sharpened.

She stopped trying to draw them all away and set her sights on the few especially large "hulking corpses" among them.

Their footsteps landed as heavily as pile drivers. Could they be the key?

She abruptly lowered her body and swept her spear along the ground, tripping several ordinary walking corpses charging toward her.

At the same time, she pushed off and shot like an arrow toward the nearest hulking corpse.

She wanted a closer look, or even... to capture one alive.

Just as she reached the hulking corpse, gathering force at her spearhead and preparing to pierce its thigh to bring it down-

Something unexpected happened!

A "corpse" beside her feet, which had just fallen after her sweep broke its neck, suddenly moved.

This "corpse" wore rags and was covered in rot and filthy blood, looking no different from the other dead bodies.

But at the very instant Zhao Jinghong's attention was entirely on the hulking corpse, when she had just committed to her charge and had yet to recover, its eyes snapped open.

There was none of a walking corpse's emptiness in those eyes, only viciousness, cunning, and crazed excitement.

It moved frighteningly fast, far faster than those swift variants, nothing like a dead body.

Did it spring off the ground like a spring?

One rotten claw shot toward Zhao Jinghong's right wrist, which held her spear.

Its other hand gripped a military dagger gleaming with cold light.

The dagger drove viciously toward her unguarded waist and ribs, silent and blindingly fast.

The timing, the angle, and the strike were all utterly ruthless.

This was a carefully laid trap.

Feign death, wait for the target to come close, then launch a lethal sneak attack when they were distracted.

The instant the attacker opened his eyes, Zhao Jinghong sensed it-he was alive.

A living person brimming with malice.

But he was too fast and too close. Her body was still charging forward, her balance unsettled, leaving her no time to dodge or parry.

A chill shot through her entire body. Not a walking corpse-a living assassin.

At the moment between life and death, she instinctively twisted her waist to evade the dagger at her side while forcing her right wrist down, trying to deflect the claw with her spear shaft.

But the dagger was too fast. Its icy tip almost touched her clothes.

I'm done for!

The thought flashed through Zhao Jinghong's mind.

She had let her guard down.

At that fatal moment-

"Bang-!"

A short, piercing gunshot erupted from high behind and to Zhao Jinghong's side, fired by a precision rifle fitted with a high-efficiency suppressor.

As the shot rang out, a searing bullet streaked past Zhao Jinghong's temple, its heat singeing several strands of her hair.

Squelch!

The next instant, the bullet cleanly severed the disguised attacker's dagger-wielding arm at the elbow as he stabbed toward Zhao Jinghong's waist and ribs.

The bullet sent the severed arm and dagger flying into the withered grass in the distance.

"Aaargh-!"

The disguised attacker let out an agonized scream, his face contorting with pain and terror, and the claw reaching for Zhao Jinghong's wrist stopped short.

The sudden turn gave Zhao Jinghong one lifesaving instant.

A cold gleam blazed in her eyes. She did not hesitate, nor would she waste the opportunity.

Awakening of Insects thrust out at her greatest speed, its tip as fast as a black streak.

Squelch!

The cold spearhead precisely pierced the disguised attacker's mouth, open in a scream of agony, and burst from the back of his skull with broken teeth, filthy blood, and brain matter.

The viciousness in the disguised attacker's eyes instantly froze and turned ashen. His body convulsed violently, then hung from the spear like sludge.

Zhao Jinghong spun sharply and whipped her spear around, flinging the disguised attacker's body away and knocking down several ordinary walking corpses charging toward her.

She gasped for breath, her heart pounding wildly and her back drenched in cold sweat.

It was not from exhaustion. That moment had been far too close.

She jerked her head up, her sharp gaze locking onto the direction of the gunshot-the shadows on the top floor of a half-collapsed office building in the distance.

A familiar figure crouched there, like a rock.

A wisp of smoke still drifted from the muzzle of the DMR in his hands, fitted with a long suppressor and a night-vision scope.

It was The Jackal.

The base's best sniper.

He had clearly been keeping watch on the perimeter and had been drawn over by the commotion here, or... had Lynn arranged it?

The Jackal remained still, aiming toward Zhao Jinghong through his scope. His voice cut through the horde's roars and reached her clearly:

"Watch out! There are living people playing dead in the horde!"