CHAPTER 6

Jian Wu didn't believe Tang Yu's claim of not killing people. When she had just killed himself, her actions were swift and decisive.

Jian Wu had a passionate nature and believed in repaying kindness. Asking him to betray the camp where he had lived was something he couldn't bring himself to do.

Tang Yu, unable to extract any information, shrugged at Jin Ye. "This guy doesn't agree with us. We can't save your teammate."

Jin Ye understood Tang Yu's meaning well. She wanted to step in and persuade Jian Wu herself. Jin Ye put the piece of cloth she had in her hand into the pocket of her assault suit, then glanced at Tang Yu and Jian Wu before standing up and walking straight towards the camp.

"What are you doing?" Tang Yu and Jian Wu exclaimed simultaneously. Jin Ye's actions clearly exceeded their expectations.

"You two don't need to get involved. I'll rescue them myself." Jin Ye said.

Tang Yu felt a headache coming on. Both of the followers she gained today weren't very obedient.

"You will die." Jian Wu widened his eyes and said. He pointed to the purplish bruises and black lines appearing on Jin Ye's face, the mutated features that had quickly emerged after Tang Yu bit her. "People from the camp will recognize you as a zombie at a glance."

Tang Yu became curious again. Her mind turned, and she asked, "Is that how you identify zombies? Can't you deceive others by covering your face?"

"No, the walking posture is completely different from that of humans," Jian Wu glanced at Tang Yu. "Although your walking posture is slightly better, upon careful observation, the difference can still be seen. And..."

Jian Wu paused, shutting up. He had realized that Tang Yu was fishing for information.

Tang Yu, not embarrassed at being found out, calmly withdrew her inquisitive gaze and clapped her hands, standing up as well. "Fine, if you don't want to join, stay here. Jin Ye and I will go rescue the person."

Jin Ye turned back in surprise and glanced at Tang Yu. Logically speaking, she didn't need to take this risk.

Tang Yu and Jin Ye walked side by side, without looking back at Jian Wu. Both of them were adults, acting decisively and efficiently, without bothering to force others.

"Don't you have any firearms? Cold weapons are at a disadvantage in the game." Jin Ye glanced at the military knife in Tang Yu's hand and then averted her gaze.

"The last time I used a gun, I couldn't even hit the enemy's sleeve." Tang Yu joked. She glanced down at Jin Ye's hands—her firearms had been confiscated by Song Lengzhu and the others, leaving her empty-handed.

"Don't you have any other weapons?" Tang Yu asked. "Like a hidden small knife or something."

"No," Jin Ye replied firmly.

Tang Yu felt a chill in her heart. Venturing into enemy territory without any weapons—what kind of person was this young girl, Jin Ye, to risk her own life like this?

"Then how are you going to fight?"

"I've turned into a zombie, and zombies themselves are weapons." Jin Ye responded quietly. She then remembered that Tang Yu seemed to have just entered the game and didn't know anything, so she explained, "Teeth, nails, and even blood. As long as humans have wounds, they will be quickly infected."

Tang Yu paused for a moment. She didn't have a strong sense of identification with her zombie identity, nor did she deliberately develop these abilities. On the contrary, it was Jin Ye who quickly completed the transformation.

Sharp, determined, with ample experience in jungle life. Tang Yu's understanding of Jin Ye deepened once again. It seemed that she wasn't just some small follower, she was a valuable asset.

The two of them fumbled their way back to the original bush, where the two burly men from the camp were still patrolling. Tang Yu shifted her gaze away from the men and observed the surroundings.

The barbed wire and wooden frames extended on both sides, tightly enclosing the camp. Tang Yu crouched and walked a few meters, discovering that the sturdy barbed wire was tightly woven together with no other entrances except for the main gate.

"The barbed wire is electrified." Tang Yu pointed to a bird corpse hanging on the wire. By now, the body had dried up, and its feathers swayed in the wind. "It seems we can only enter through the main gate. The situation is a bit tricky."

Jin Ye grew anxious. She smoothed her short hair and stared at the main gate, showing a strong determination to break through.

Tang Yu reached out and pulled Jin Ye's shoulder. "Don't be reckless. If we alarm anyone, the entire camp will rush out and shoot us indiscriminately. Although we are zombies, we only have one life."

Jin Ye then withdrew her gaze and relaxed her tense shoulders. "Then let's wait for the right moment."

The opportunity came quickly. Before they finished speaking, gunshots rang out from a distant mountain road. The two men at the entrance raised their guns alertly, with one of them heading to the small road for investigation while the other activated the camp's alarm.

Tang Yu was surprised. The direction of the gunshots was exactly where Jian Wu was hiding in the bushes. The two of them exchanged glances and instinctively turned to look.

Through the overlapping branches and leaves, Tang Yu saw Jian Wu being held at gunpoint, crouching and walking toward the camp's gate. Tang Yu and Jin Ye concealed their presence even deeper, even lightening their breaths.

The person pointing the gun at Jian Wu was a group of well-equipped humans, a total of ten people. Tang Yu guessed that this might be the "camp vanguard" Jian Wu mentioned. The leader was a square-faced man who forced Jian Wu to the entrance and gestured to a sentry.

"It's strange. This guy actually begged for mercy when he saw me. Doesn't seem like an unconscious zombie. Let's run a test."

The sentry took out a square-shaped metal device and cautiously approached Jian Wu. The front end of the device extended a thin needle, which pierced Jian Wu's skin.

Jian Wu flinched and kept making whimpering sounds, but it was unclear what he was saying. Three seconds later, the needle was withdrawn, and the indicator light on the metal device changed from green to red.

In an instant, the barrels of twelve guns were aimed at Jian Wu, frightening him into instinctively raising his hands in surrender.

Tang Yu stared at the detector, it turned out to be the zombie identification method that Jian Wu hadn't mentioned.

"This is our camp's logistics." The sentry guarding the gate recognized Jian Wu. "His range of activity does not exceed that river, which means there must be zombies nearby."

The man with a square face's expression darkened, his gaze sweeping the surroundings, and he raised his hand to eliminate Jian Wu.

But the person behind him stopped him. "Captain, this zombie's behavior is quite strange. He hasn't attacked us proactively." The man, who appeared to be a strategist, was relatively young. He continued, "There have been quite a few recent mutations in zombies. Why not take this opportunity to understand their mutation mechanism and make defensive preparations accordingly?"

Jian Wu vigorously nodded beside them.

His very human-like actions successfully shook the square-faced man, who waved his hand. "Take him to the laboratory."

Upon hearing this, Tang Yu's plan formed in her mind. She carefully hid her backpack in the bushes, concealed the Jing Long in her combat uniform, and then seized the opportunity to pull Jin Ye out of the thicket.

The dozen or so people at the entrance of the camp were startled by the commotion, instinctively turning their guns. Someone had already fired a random shot.

Tang Yu raised her hands high in a surrendering posture, not dodging the barrels or launching an attack.

Jin Ye understood Tang Yu's intention and slowly raised his hands in surrender as well.

"Wow, this is strange," the square-faced man furrowed his brow. "Now three mutants have shown up. Let's go see if there are any other threats."

His subordinates scattered and rushed into the thicket, firing indiscriminately.

Tang Yu knew she couldn't act recklessly at this moment. The more human-like she acted, the better. So, she pointed at Jian Wu, then at Jin Ye, and made a handshake and walking gesture, indicating that the three of them were together and should be taken to the laboratory as well.

"Damn, Liang, this zombie knows sign language." the sentry at the gate exclaimed.

"What nonsense sign language? Just random gestures," Liang grew impatient. "Capture them all together. Dissect them, open their skulls, whatever. Let Zhou Zhou figure out everything."

Tang Yu blinked at Jin Ye. 'See, the opportunity has come, right?'

The three of them were taken into the camp. Along the way, Tang Yu looked around. She realized that the camp was larger than she had imagined, with people moving about everywhere. On an abandoned outdoor stage, there was a large iron bucket, and people were distributing lunch porridge.

The line of people waiting to receive porridge was long. Most of them had numb expressions and frail figures, and some were even scantily clad. Tang Yu was secretly surprised. If you were to say that these people weren't living well, it was still midday and they had porridge to eat. But if you were to say that they were living well, compared to the spirit and appearance of the vanguard soldiers, they were far worse off.

Jian Wu saw the people distributing the porridge and shouted loudly. In an instant, everyone turned to look in their direction. Some people saw the zombies and were so scared that they ran away, leaving their bowls on the ground.

"Don't move, or I'll blow your brains out." the vanguard soldier escorting the three of them pressed his gun against Jian Wu's head. To them, Jian Wu's shouts sounded like incoherent sobbing.

Humans couldn't understand Jian Wu's language, but Tang Yu and Jin Ye could. Jian Wu had just shouted at the person distributing the food, "Brother Li, it's me!"

Brother Li visibly flinched but upon seeing three zombies being escorted, he mustered up the courage and laughed, "Damn, this kid turned into a zombie. Liang, why haven't you killed him yet?"

Upon hearing this, Tang Yu cast a regretful glance at Jian Wu. This young man had clearly been emotionally wounded.

"I treated him like a brother, but he wants to kill me."

"Accept it, little brother. You two are no longer the same species." Tang Yu said.

After a while, the three of them arrived in a damp underground cellar and were each locked in separate iron cages. However, it didn't take long for a researcher named Zhou Zhou to appear in front of the cellar. To Tang Yu's surprise, Zhou Zhou was a slender, soft-faced young woman wearing round glasses, with a gentle smile on her face.

Zhou Zhou extended three fingers and asked the three people in the cages, "How many is this?"

Tang Yu's face was full of black lines. Was this some kind of intelligence test?

Zhou Zhou reminded them, "You can tap the cage as a response."

The three of them looked at each other, but in order to prove that they still had some value to be kept, they reluctantly pounded on the cages three times with their palms.

Zhou Zhou's bright eyes flickered, showing a surprised expression. Then she extended ten fingers and asked, "And this?"

Tang Yu's face darkened. Wasn't she just playing with them? Hitting the iron cage ten times would be too painful!

She extended ten fingers to indicate that she understood numbers, then approached the cage, locking eyes with Zhou Zhou through the iron bars.

"So clever." Zhou Zhou didn't notice Tang Yu's displeasure and praised her wholeheartedly. In her eyes, zombies being able to count was already astonishing.

"Keep an eye on them. Once I'm done with my current tasks, I'll come to study them tomorrow." Zhou Zhou said to a heavily armed man next to her, then left the cellar with light steps.

"We won't be waiting until tomorrow." Tang Yu murmured softly, then she watched the man's back, slowly reaching for the handle of the knife concealed at her waist.

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