Chapter 20.2 – Rainy Night in Hua City (12)
◎Kongzi Qi shivered uncontrollably◎
The two sides held their ground, arguing loudly. However, the two individuals in the corner were unaffected. Song Ke gestured to both sides of Zhuang Qingyan’s wheelchair, gradually concentrating her spiritual energy. In the palm of her hand, a dim blue light coalesced into the shape of a crossbow, which she mounted on his wheelchair. In case of an emergency, even if she couldn’t attend to Zhuang Qingyan, he could defend himself.
Then she picked up a piece of shachima and, while nibbling on it, observed Zhuang Qingyan.
Zhuang Qingyan was adapting to the wheelchair’s control panel: forward, turn, brake, elevate, lower… those complex instructions posed no difficulty for him. Soon, he was handling them with ease.
Once familiarized, Zhuang Qingyan raised the spiritual crossbow. It was a lightweight repeating crossbow with intricate and complex internal structure. The accompanying bolts were around eight inches long, and it could fire ten in one go, making it virtually invincible in terms of short-range crowd control.
Zhuang Qingyan lightly brushed his fingertip over the arrowhead, immediately causing a cut, blood flowing out.
“So, this is what you call a ‘crossbow’? How did you make it? The Alliance doesn’t possess weaponry of this kind.”
“An artifact from the old civilization?” He quickly contradicted himself, “No, this type of repeating crossbow had already been lost during the old civilization, right?”
Song Ke’s eyes dimmed. The shachima in her hand didn’t taste as good anymore. “My master… my master drew it for me.”
Zhuang Qingyan had heard Song Ke mention that her master and her fellow disciples had turned into zombies. Knowing her current mood wasn’t good, he didn’t probe further. He played with the crossbow bolts a bit and smiled, saying, “Teacher Xiao Song, how about teaching this frail researcher how to use this? What do you think?”
“Oh.”
Song Ke gulped down the rest of the shachima, wiped her mouth, and approached to teach him.
…
On the other side, the argument over whether to “charge out” or “stay put” escalated into a heated dispute.
“Everyone, stop arguing! Listen to Teacher Xu and let Teacher Xu decide!”
Zhang Qi, whose eardrums were tortured by both sides, shouted in exasperation.
With a forceful shout, the voices of the people attending the meeting fell silent.
Zhang Qi was momentarily surprised; when did his words become so effective?
He quickly realized it wasn’t his words that were effective but rather that everyone’s faces had turned pale and they anxiously stared at the floor.
“Squeak, squeak…”
“Creak, creak…”
—There was something moving beneath the floor!
Liu Zixuan’s statement was only half correct. While the outer wall of the stadium was indeed unbreakable, unfortunately, the ground underneath wasn’t.
Sounds of stone being gnawed cracked continuously. In just a few seconds, the floor suddenly broke open into a two-meter-wide hole, as if a hornet’s nest had been punctured. A large number of zombie roaches flew out from below, crawled out…
Impossible! They could actually burrow through the ground!
The actions of the three awakeners within the area were swift. Jiang Rui cracked a fiery whip, repelling the first wave that surged out. Zhang Qi’s muscles surged as he lifted a plank of wood, pressing it heavily onto the gap. Meanwhile, Song Ke, like an agile leopard, leaped from the ground, spear in hand, precisely striking down each crawling zombie roach that emerged from the hole.
“Turn on the lights quickly! It’s too dark!” Zhang Qi yelled.
The flashlight beams flickered inconsistently, illuminating the majority of the safe zone with effort. However, dark, ghostly figures still darted around in the shadows. Some responded by raising their weapons and striking with all their might, while others faltered, unable to wield their weapons effectively. Their fear grew as swarms of zombie roaches converged on them, gnawing and devouring from toes, shins, mouths, to skulls… within a matter of seconds, leaving only bloodied skeletons behind.
The light overhead suddenly dimmed, causing everyone to look up in panic. The skylight was now covered in densely packed zombie roaches, countless pairs of gray-white compound eyes coldly fixated on their prey, obscuring the last faint moonlight.
Seeing the dire situation, Xu Liren made a decision: “We’re going with plan one to escape. Everyone get ready, I’ll open the east gate!”
Song Ke rolled back to Zhuang Qingyan’s side, securing her backpack to her body. “We… we need to escape.”
Zhuang Qingyan swiftly adjusted the wheelchair’s direction. “Yes, I’m ready.”
Zhang Qi cleared the obstacles behind the door, and Xu Liren rushed over to input the password. The long-sealed automated control door slowly opened again, and everyone scrambled to be the first to rush out.
The people squeezed in the back couldn’t break through, so they shouted to Liu Zixuan, “Liu Zixuan! Open the door! Open another door!”
Liu Zixuan attempted to gather his spiritual energy, but the faint light sphere dissipated before forming. He shook his head at the person speaking, saying, “No, this damn ability is useless at critical moments, I can’t release it!”
However, the person who had just spoken stared at him in terror and pointed, “Bugs! Bugs!!”
The skylight couldn’t withstand the weight of the zombie roaches, shattering with a crash. Glass fragments and countless black insects cascaded down like a waterfall, covering Liu Zixuan from head to toe and swallowing a few stragglers who hadn’t managed to escape.
“Ahhhhhh!!!”
Continuous, eerie screams echoed from behind.
The boy who had been running at the front turned around excitedly, his face displaying relief from having survived. He called back to his companions, “Hahaha, we made it out, you stinky bugs…”
His words were cut off abruptly as a lean figure in school uniform lunged out from the dark rainy night, biting into his neck.
It was a zombie.
The students halted, afraid to move forward.
Beneath the shadowy dormitory, hundreds of zombies turned their heads in unison, their hollow pupils fixated on the group’s direction.
Flames ignited, shaping into a whip of fire that lashed out diagonally. It severed the heads of five or six zombies. Jiang Rui led the way, running forward determinedly, “Stick close to me, get ready to charge through!”
Song Ke’s long spear flew out piercing through zombie after zombie and roach after roach, like a long string of candied hawthorns. Jiang Rui’s flames followed closely, burning a path through the encirclement.
Zhuang Qingyan followed behind Song Ke, deftly evading. It was unclear how he managed it, but the zombies and roaches around him were noticeably fewer. A nearly vacuumed area formed around him as the center.
Two powerful awakeners cleared the path. The students with good speed and physical endurance had successfully crossed the first dormitory building and the parking lot was faintly visible.
Tian Yi followed at the rear of the group, wiping away tears as he ran. He dared not cry aloud. He had almost failed to make it out of the stadium.
“Kongzi Qi, w-what should we… can we make it out?”
He was lagging behind and relied on Kongzi Qi, who grabbed his collar, to give him a physical boost. “It’s fine. We’re following Teacher Xu.”
“With Teacher Xu here, there won’t be a problem. He’ll lead us out!”
Xu Liren was also not running fast, staying three or four meters ahead of the two. A few girls and a slender boy were beside him.
This small group of people was among the worst in terms of physical agility. Even if they pushed their limits, they still couldn’t move very fast, gradually falling behind the main group ahead.
From the side of the dormitory, a window on the first floor suddenly opened, and several zombies leaped out. Caught off guard, they collided with Kongzi Qi and Tian Yi, sending them tumbling. A few boys at the front emitted cries of agony, pinned down by the zombies who began to bite.
Xu Liren was also knocked down, rolling into the midst of the zombies. Just as a zombie with a gaping maw was about to pounce on him, its foul saliva even dripping onto his glasses, Xu Liren’s pupils contracted—
The two girls beside him cried out, “Teacher Xu!”
Their voices abruptly ceased.
As if invisible hands were choking their necks, their expressions twisted and their bodies convulsed violently. Gradually, their movements slowed, and their bodies eerily toppled backwards. Seizing the opportunity, Xu Liren yanked them, pushing the two into the mouths of the zombies. Using the recoil, he struggled to get up, without even looking back as he continued to run forward, desperately trying to catch up with the group ahead.
In the middle of his sprint, Xu Liren felt a sensation and swiftly turned his head to glance back.
The two girls had been savaged by the zombies, their appearances unrecognizable. Not far behind them, Kongzi Qi reflexively pushed down Tian Yi’s head, making him lie face-down on the ground, using his own body to shield him.
Kongzi Qi lifted his head, meeting Xu Liren’s gaze. The eyes behind the lenses held no warmth.
Kongzi Qi shivered uncontrollably.
**TN
Sachima – is a sweet snack in Chinese cuisine made of fluffy strands of fried batter bound together with a stiff sugar syrup, and of an appearance somewhat similar to American Rice Krispies Treats.
