Chapter 30: Spicy Hand-Shredded Roast Duck

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Leroy’s sleep was far from restful. A nightmare easily jolted him awake.

When he opened his eyes, the only person beside him was Pang Cancan, who was secretly eating spicy strips.

“Sister Cancan, why aren’t you asleep?”

“I’m keeping watch.”

Pang Cancan had intended to share her snack with him, but when she glanced at little Leroy’s emaciated frame, a sudden sense of guilt welled up inside her.

It was one thing for her to eat junk food, but how could she let a malnourished child eat it too?

She took out an egg and pressed it into Leroy’s hand.

“A midnight snack. Sister Susu cooked it for you tonight.”

Leroy obediently held it, turning his head to look around. He could not see Susu anywhere.

“Where’s Sister Susu?”

“She went to the bathroom.”

“She hasn’t come back yet?”

“Yeah, not yet…” Pang Cancan’s chewing abruptly stopped. Her expression gradually grew grave. “That’s right. Why hasn’t she come back yet?”

She pulled out the electronic watch she had scavenged from the toy store and discovered that more than twenty minutes had passed.

That really was too long.

Pang Cancan casually tossed the spicy strips onto the floor, stepped into the passage behind the building, and craned her head to peer down the corridor.

No one was there.

When she returned, her expression was especially grim.

“Nothing dangerous should happen inside the gymnasium, right?”

As she said this, Pang Cancan looked at Leroy. Leroy was looking at her too, his lips moving uneasily.

“The window.”

“What window?”

“There’s a window in the bathroom too.”

The reminder struck her like a blow to the head. Pang Cancan suddenly recalled what had happened during the day—although Leroy had been hiding in the lounge, zombies had still managed to squeeze inside with surprising agility.

What if a zombie had climbed in through the bathroom window as well?

Pang Cancan could no longer sit still. “Wait here. I’ll go take a look.”

Leroy hurriedly stood up and caught hold of her clothes. “I want to go with you.”

“You…”

Pang Cancan glanced toward the corridor, then at her two former companions, who had been awakened by the commotion. For a moment, she found herself in a dilemma.

If she brought Leroy along, she would have no way to protect him should anything happen.

But leaving him here with those two bastards was even less trustworthy.

After thinking it over, Pang Cancan finally came up with a solution that would satisfy both sides.

“You have to stay here,” she said seriously. “If nothing has happened to Sister Susu, we’ll be back soon. If something has happened and even she can’t deal with it, then you wouldn’t be able to solve it either.”

It was the truth. Thinking of his own supernatural ability, Leroy immediately fell into dejection.

Pang Cancan patted him on the shoulder. “I’ll leave one poisonous bug with you. If those two refuse to behave, have it bite them to death!”

As she spoke, she cast a sidelong glance at the two ability users in the corner.

They had already been awakened by the commotion. Under the eaves, they were unusually well behaved.

Leroy nodded dejectedly. “I understand.”

Only then did Pang Cancan feel reassured. Taking her poisonous bug babies with her, she strode into the corridor.

Leroy gazed wistfully at her retreating figure. After hesitating for several seconds, he still got up and walked to the end of the passage, repeatedly craning his head toward the corridor.

He had experienced being “abandoned” before, and his sense of unease was heavier than that of ordinary people. Even a brief separation was enough to leave him frantic.

Standing there, he could only hope to see them return at the earliest possible moment.

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Several deadly figures had left one after another. The ability users left behind exchanged glances.

—Should we run?

—Run where? Outside, to be bitten to death by zombies?

—I don’t want to stay here anymore. How about we go guard the front entrance?

What difference would guarding the front entrance make? That group disliked them just as much.

The sour-faced man who had earlier mocked Pang Cancan let out a silent sigh. He slipped a hand into his pocket, intending to take out his electronic watch and check the time, but his fingertips brushed against something unfamiliar.

“What is this?”

The sour-faced man pulled out an unfamiliar key ring. It held only one key, a yellow talisman sealed in transparent plastic, and a bamboo whistle that had yellowed slightly with age.

They looked like personal belongings carried close to the body. In any case, they were not his.

The other man glanced at them casually. “No idea. Maybe something Lin Wenzong left behind?”

The mention of their dead teammate immediately killed the conversation.

The sour-faced man felt even more cursed by the bad luck.

He tossed the key ring aside. It slid across the floor and came to rest in the farthest corner.

The sound caught Leroy’s attention. He turned too late to see what had been thrown and only heard the two men muttering about Lin Wenzong’s belongings.

After confirming that they were not up to anything, Leroy turned his head back and continued watching the corridor.

…

In front of the bathroom.

A zombie appeared without making a sound.

Running into such a horrifying sight in the dead of night, Susu recoiled in alarm.

“Hiss!”

The black snake in her arms reacted first. It bared its fangs viciously, and blue flames thundered toward the zombie lurking in the darkness.

The zombie had been prepared. At a speed almost imperceptible to ordinary people, it dodged the attack while retreating several meters, swiftly escaping the circle of light cast by the flashlight before vanishing into the darkness once more.

That speed…

Susu’s heart began pounding violently.

Suppressing her fear, she raised the flashlight again. The white glare followed the zombie’s movements and landed squarely on its face.

The zombie had long since lost the human instinct to fear bright light. Its pale eyeballs remained perfectly still as they stared at the human several meters away.

Susu tried to activate her supernatural ability.

“Go back.”

Return to the men’s bathroom, then climb back out through the place it had entered.

It was the simplest command, yet the zombie before her remained unmoved.

What was going on?

Panic began to spread through Susu. Dense white light surged into the zombie’s body without restraint, attempting to control it and drive it back outside the gymnasium.

The elderly zombie finally lifted one foot.

But instead of turning back, it ignored the human command and continued in the direction it had originally intended to go.

Susu’s expression changed dramatically. “What’s happening?”

She instinctively looked down at Little Black in her arms. The snake had already tensed its entire body, its vertical pupils fixed on the threat ahead. Perhaps its enemy was simply too powerful. Though it had no hair, its scales had risen as if it had been startled.

“Hiss!”

Her ability could not possibly be entirely ineffective, and Little Black’s reaction was clearly abnormal.

Susu stared in astonishment at the zombie’s back, suddenly realizing—

Could it be a fourth-tier, or even a fifth-tier, zombie?

The thought made her scalp prickle.

She looked in the direction it was heading. After leaving the bathroom and turning right, it passed along the long, winding corridor without stopping in front of any lounge. Its destination was clear: the rear entrance.

Pang Cancan and Leroy were there!

She could not let it get through.

“Stop!”

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Susu rushed out of the bathroom. White light spread across the corridor. In her field of vision, the elderly zombie—apparently a fourth-tier creature—had already fallen into “mire,” and its forward steps finally slowed.

“Little Black.”

After spending so much time together, the black snake and Susu had developed a certain tacit understanding.

The moment she spoke, it slid to the floor. Surging blue flames instantly engulfed the fourth-tier zombie, whose movements had become labored.

“Roar!”

A furious howl reverberated through the entire corridor. An invisible barrier blocked the blue flames, and Susu watched helplessly as a black shadow burst from the fire and charged straight toward the culprit who had attacked it.

“How is that possible…?”

How could it have emerged completely unharmed?

“Roar!”

With another howl, the zombie had already pounced in front of the black snake. Its outstretched arms seemed poised to tear it in two.

“Hiss!”

The black snake nimbly slipped behind the zombie, the tip of its tail barely brushing past the creature’s hand.

Given how perilous the situation was, Susu had no doubt that if the zombie managed to seize it, the strength of a fourth-tier zombie would allow it to rip Little Black apart with its bare hands.

The black snake dodged, leaving the elderly zombie face-to-face with Susu.

Those gray-white eyes stared straight at her. Before it had even moved, Susu was already drenched in sweat.

What was she supposed to do?

She and Little Black were equivalent to two third-tier ability users, yet they were still utterly helpless against this fourth-tier zombie.

“Go back. Return outside. This is not a place you should have entered.”

Susu tried again, but once more, all she accomplished was slowing the zombie’s steps for a few seconds.

The elderly zombie seemed to realize that its thoughts were being manipulated by a human, and its temper suddenly became violent.

“Roar!”

It extended its long arm, reaching for the human blocking its path.

Susu tried to run, but she was no match for the speed of a fourth-tier zombie. Just as it was about to catch her, the black snake bit down on its calf from behind and desperately dragged it backward.

With a human in front and a serpent behind, the elderly zombie was driven completely berserk.

It let out a thunderous roar, and the entire tide of zombies outside the gymnasium suddenly came alive. As though acting in unison, they began slamming themselves against the front and rear entrances. Their roars even carried into the sealed gymnasium.

Crack!

The black snake was hurled violently aside. With the obstacle cleared, the elderly zombie shot toward the rear entrance.

At that precise moment, Pang Cancan appeared at the central bend of the C-shaped corridor and collided head-on with it.

“Holy shit!”

Susu hurriedly shouted, “Watch out! It’s probably a fourth-tier zombie!”

Pang Cancan had heard the zombie’s howls as soon as she entered the corridor. With her worst fears confirmed, she did not retreat or flee. Instead, she bravely ran toward it.

“My babies! Eat its brain!”

The poisonous bugs had already reproduced a new generation. More than twenty of them swarmed toward the zombie, blocking its path and seeking out the gaps around its mouth, nose, and ears in an attempt to crawl inside.

The elderly zombie seemed to recognize the threat these insects posed. Its steps slowed once again.

Unlike the third-tier zombies they had encountered before, it did not bother catching the insects one by one. Instead, it opened its mouth.

Low, heavy sound waves rippled outward layer upon layer. The poisonous bugs surrounding it instantly burst into pale pulp. In a single exchange, every one of them was completely killed.

“Holy shit!”

Under the assault of the sound waves, Susu and Pang Cancan covered their ears and collapsed to their knees, dizzy and struggling to breathe.

“It has a sound-wave ability.”

Susu finally understood why Little Black’s flames had been unable to approach the fourth-tier zombie at all.

But what about her?

Why had her ability failed?

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