Chapter 18: Rescue—No Further In

Not long after, Bian Changxi began to feel a tightness in her chest and a bit dizzy. Without thinking too much, she hurried out of the farm. Outside, it was already completely dark. The rooms in the suite were pitch black, but fortunately, those with abilities had much better night vision than ordinary people—it wasn’t quite to the point where she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.

How strange. She’d only been in the farm for a few minutes...

Suddenly, she remembered something. She took out the two watches Gu Xu had given her and checked the time. She discovered that one minute inside the farm was more than five minutes outside. She gave a bitter smile—she’d forgotten that the flow of time in the farm was also linked to its level. Until she upgraded the farm, she couldn’t go in so easily anymore, or it would take a toll on her body. On the other hand, when time inside the farm moved slower than outside, staying inside not only gave her extra time, but her body also benefited.

But how could she upgrade it?

Researching how to upgrade the farm had always been Qu Yi’s job. Zhu Yunhua had always kept her away from it, claiming it was too complicated and giving her plenty of other work to keep her busy. Thinking back, it was clear Zhu Yunhua had always been on guard against her, the true owner of the farm.

Bian Changxi curled her lip in disdain. Did they really think she wouldn’t figure it out?

Upgrading simply required energy, and in the apocalypse, there were three main sources: early on, things like petroleum and coal; then solar and wind energy; and finally, the most common and enduring source—crystal nuclei found in the brains of toxic zombies.

In her previous life, except when she was being studied, Bian Changxi had always worn the jade bracelet. She discovered that as long as she didn’t store the crystal nuclei in the warehouse, but left them elsewhere, they would disappear after a few days—and the farm would undergo subtle but pleasing changes.

So, one of her next goals: kill zombies, collect crystal nuclei.

Bian Changxi stretched her limbs. Her stomach growled loudly, so she quickly turned on her newly bought flashlight and searched through the scattered food for something to eat.

***

A little earlier, Gu Xu had hung up the communicator, drawn his pistol from the holster at his waist, and began shooting—each shot a headshot—while advancing and firing, taking down the staggering zombies coming his way. At the same time, his left hand wielded a knife that flashed like streaks of light, each strike felling another zombie.

Brains splattered, and zombies fell one after another, but more kept pouring out from around the corner—like flies drawn to blood, endlessly annoying.

“Shadow, I’ll cover you—go steal a car. We can’t stay here any longer.”

Before he finished speaking, a black shadow darted out from the building behind him, and in an instant reached a gold-gray van across the street, slipping a long wire through the window.

On the other side of the van, a zombie with yellow fluid oozing from its mouth lunged out. Shadow didn’t even blink—he blasted it down with a compact fireball. The next moment, he pried open the door, slipped inside for a quick check, fiddled with a few things, and soon the engine roared to life. He swung the van around, knocking over several zombies as he drove it over.

Gu Xu didn’t even look back. “Get those people in the car! Qiu Feng, you drive this one!”

A group of people thundered down from the second floor behind Gu Xu and his team. Leading them was a refined, handsome young man with a gun, and a student about eighteen or nineteen. Behind them were three more male students and a dozen or so men, women, and children of various ages. It was easy to see that the adults and children were divided into two groups—each group was the family of one of the male students.

“What’s going on? Where are we going?”

“It’s already dark—shouldn’t we stay here?”

The group was panicked and terrified. Faced with so many disgusting zombies, they were all on the verge of collapse, barely able to walk.

The refined young man was Qiu Feng. He turned back and gave them a cold look, the killing intent in his eyes silencing them instantly. He glanced at the two vehicles—a van with eight seats, and an SUV with six, which Qiu Yun was leaning against. He pointed and said, “Zhao Cheng and your family, take the van. Guo Ziyue, you and your family, take the SUV. Move!”

No one dared object. They quickly got in—Zhao Cheng’s family plus himself made six people; Guo Ziyue’s side had seven, filling the SUV to capacity. Qiu Feng turned to the eighteen- or nineteen-year-old student beside him. “A Pei, you two get in the van as well.”

Gu Pei nodded, leading the last single male classmate into the van. Once everyone was settled, Qiu Feng jumped into the SUV and started the engine.

Qiu Yun stepped aside from the SUV, holding a sniper rifle with his injured arm, his face flushed and breathing heavily. He cursed, “Damn it, do people really smell this good to them? For every one of these monsters you kill, two more show up! How long are we supposed to keep this up? We’re almost out of bullets!”

Even as he spoke, he took down two more zombies with impressive efficiency.

Gu Xu glanced at him. “Qiu Yun, you get in the van too.” Then, to a burly man who was smashing zombies with a steel pipe and occasionally sending out clumps of yellow earth to pin zombies to the ground, he said, “Old Wu, get in the SUV and help Qiu Feng.”

“Got it!” the big man replied heartily, fighting as he retreated, then jumping into the SUV and slamming the door shut. He switched to a submachine gun and poked it out the window.

The two vehicles started up one after the other, the sturdier SUV taking the lead, the van following behind with its door wide open. Qiu Yun called out, “Boss, hurry up and get in!”

Once the vehicles picked up speed and Gu Xu confirmed the zombies behind them wouldn’t pose a threat, he sprinted over and leapt lightly onto the van, as graceful as a swallow. With a bang, the door slid shut.

The eight-seater van was now crammed with eleven people, the space so tight that the sound of their mingled breathing was almost deafening. From the driver’s seat, Shadow asked in a low voice, “Which way?”

Gu Xu was silent for a moment.

They were already at the edge of the city center. They’d found a place to rest and planned to search for the third classmate’s family the next day. But who could have guessed that, after clearing the area once, so many zombies would suddenly appear again?

He’d already noticed that zombies’ senses of smell and hearing were much sharper at night, but today’s zombies seemed even tougher than yesterday’s—as if they were evolving. Could it be that zombies were starting to get stronger?

That girl’s words echoed in his mind. New-type zombies?

They couldn’t go any deeper into the city center.

Watching the deepening dusk outside the window, he spoke in a low voice, “Head north, toward the new development zone. We need to get out of the city as soon as possible.”

Shadow had no objections and relayed the message to the SUV ahead via the team’s comms channel.

Qiu Yun, however, looked surprised and glanced at Gu Pei. Gu Pei kept his head down and said nothing. The classmate whose family hadn’t been found yet suddenly went pale and said anxiously, “Captain Gu…” Then he turned to Gu Pei, “Are we retreating? Are we not going to look for my family? A Pei, say something for me… Please, help me, just help me one more time!”

He was on the verge of tears.

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