CHAPTER 27

"She's lying!" Tang Yu revealed herself and complained to her partners, "She applied medicine to someone in the square during the day. Isn't that saving people?"

The three of them turned their gaze towards the medicine cabinet in the research laboratory.

Inside, several rows of medicines were neatly arranged.

Zhou Zhou followed their gaze and chuckled lightly.

"I'm a researcher. Although I am indeed skilled in medicine, I'm sorry, but I really don't save people."

At this moment, outside the window, two groups of people engaged in intense fighting suddenly exclaimed in alarm. Someone was shouting "Professor Gu" loudly, followed by someone letting out a furious roar.

The people in the room withdrew their gazes as the conflict outside escalated once again.

Shortly after, four sets of footsteps rushed towards the laboratory, with someone shouting, "Professor Zhou! Professor Zhou, please save Professor Gu, he's been shot!"

The footsteps grew closer, and Tang Yu and her partners quickly hid behind the medicine cabinet, weapons already in hand.

The research laboratory was small, and they couldn't hide their figures, even though Tang Yu could become invisible, Jin Ye and Xiaoli would certainly be exposed.

However, the people who ran in did not pay close attention to the three by the medicine cabinet. A young man supported Professor Gu and ran up to Zhou Zhou, his hands covered in bl0od as he pressed tightly on Professor Gu's neck. The others quickly brought Professor Gu into the laboratory, and immediately turned back toward the battlefield.

At that moment, Professor Gu was barely breathing.

"Professor Zhou, save him! He was shot in the neck by Master Ba!" The remaining young man looked anxious, his voice trembling.

Tang Yu crossed her arms, staring at Zhou Zhou, eager to see if Zhou Zhou would save him or not.

In front of everyone, Zhou Zhou made a strange gesture, she raised her hand, her eyes darting around but didn't say anything.

Tang Yu realized that Zhou Zhou was looking at the game panel.

What time has it been?!

After just a few seconds, Zhou Zhou lowered her arm and smiled innocently, "I won't save him."

Not only the young man, but Tang Yu and her partners also gasped. Wow, he really won't save him.

The young man seemed to be furious. He supported Teacher Gu with one hand and pulled out his gun with the other, pressing it against Zhou Zhou's head. "Save him!"

"I won't save him." Zhou Zhou smiled as she pushed the gun away from her head. "You know the rules. If you force me, I might resort to poison."

The young man hesitated for a moment, his momentum weakening. "Professor Zhou, please show some mercy and save him. It would be just a small effort for you."

Zhou Zhou still had a friendly smile on her face. "Not really, for me, it's not a small effort. He was hit in the carotid artery, and saving him would require a lot of my energy."

Tang Yu couldn't help but feel heartbroken for Professor Gu. What a cold-bl0oded statement, as if she were saying, "You're only losing a life, while I'm using up my energy!"

As she was thinking this, Professor Gu suddenly stiffened and took his last breath.

He died so quickly, he must have been angered by Zhou Zhou, Tang Yu thought.

The young man, seeing this, felt a surge of rage and raised his gun to shoot. Having received favors from Professor Gu, all he wanted at that moment was to kill Zhou Zhou.

Dodging to the side, Zhou Zhou said angrily, "This is ridiculous, I didn't kill him, so why are you shooting at me?"

The young man had lost all sense of reason. He fired several shots, chasing after Zhou Zhou.

Tang Yu and her companions stood to the side, becoming spectators.

Tang Yu noticed that Zhou Zhou's evasive movements were incredibly agile. She managed to dodge the young man's bullets multiple times, a level beyond what an ordinary person could achieve.

Yet she was solely focused on escaping, showing no intention of fighting back.

Tang Yu couldn't understand. What were Zhou Zhou's boundaries? Even when her life was threatened, she was unwilling to save anyone. Such a person was truly strange.

After running around the research laboratory three times, the young man failed to catch up with Zhou Zhou. Pointing outside the window, Zhou Zhou said, "Instead of shooting at me here, why not go kill your true enemy?"

Fuming, the young man turned to leave. As he passed the medicine cabinet, his now-calmed mind finally noticed the three people in the corner, two of whom were zombies with black lines on their necks.

He swiftly aimed his gun at Tang Yu and Jin Ye.

The people in this camp had developed a conditioned reflex against zombies.

Now, it seemed the spectators had become the target. Tang Yu raised her hand and sliced through the young man's gun barrel.

Having enhanced her strength previously and having lived well for some time, dealing with this inexperienced young man was a piece of cake for her.

With Jin Ye and Xiaoli's assistance, the three of them quickly handled the young man.

By now, the sounds from the square outside were fading. Looking out, they saw chaos dissipating, with people either dead or fled, leaving only wandering zombies breaking into the campsite.

A relatively large camp, destroyed by internal strife.

Tang Yu closed and locked the door of the laboratory. If those zombies broke in, it would be troublesome.

Their business with Zhou Zhou was far from over!

Xiaoli asked the question everyone wanted to know: "Do you have some sort of ability limitation? Why are you so determined not to save anyone when you clearly have medical skills?"

Zhou Zhou stood behind the operating table, distancing herself from the others. She smiled somewhat helplessly, "Why do you keep asking? My reasons are quite absurd, do you want to hear them?"

The three nodded in unison.

Zhou Zhou explained, "I am indeed skilled in medicine and do research, but it's just out of interest, not because I want to be a doctor saving the world. So, I never save people, I only complete missions. Whether it's killing or saving, I do what earns me points."

"Not even when you are threatened?"

Glancing at Professor Gu's body lying on the ground, Zhou Zhou said, "When I first entered the game, I was so weak that I was often threatened. But later on, aside from knowledge, I allocated all my points to agility, so that guy couldn't kill me. By the way, why is it that when others threaten me to do things I don't want to do, no one criticizes them, but when I don't save people, everyone reacts so strongly?"

Zhou Zhou still smiled kindly, but Tang Yu now understood that she wasn't as kind as she appeared. Zhou Zhou didn't care about the players' lives, she had no compassion for life and had her own set of principles.

Perhaps it was because she had been threatened so much in the beginning that she spoke about it with some disdain, maybe even developing a rebellious mindset and became even more reluctant to save people.

As for what these agility points were, Tang Yu was still unclear. She looked to Jin Ye, hoping for an explanation.

Jin Ye seemed slightly shocked and explained seriously, "After accumulating 3200 points, a basic skill called 'Point Allocation' and a radar map will be unlocked. You can choose to allocate excess points reasonably across various attributes, generally five: Physique, Life, Attack, Agility, and Knowledge. Completing missions will also increase these attributes."

Tang Yu recalled that she had indeed seen prompts indicating an increase in agility before.

But who would think of putting all their points into agility and knowledge for survival? Besides, doesn't survival also require physical strength?

Jin Ye added, "With her points being that high, it seems she's been playing the game for a long time and is very strong—stronger than we can imagine, although that kind of strength doesn't refer to physical power."

Tang Yu's expression became serious. This was the first time she had encountered someone with such a personality since she could remember.

So, was Zhou Zhou applying medicine in the square also for mission points? Tang Yu relayed this to Xiaoli, prompting her to ask.

Sighing at the question, Zhou Zhou said, "Ah, I didn't want to talk about it, but you all insisted." She pointed at Xiaoli and continued, "Let's put it this way: today, applying medicine to patients in the square was to test a new drug. Once the new drug is released, I earn points. The same goes for implanting that special agent in this girl to attract the Zombie King— that was also for mission points. Even my usual dissections and research on zombies are for me to earn points."

"You probably don't want to recruit someone like me, right? If you do bring me back, I might not save you either." Zhou Zhou raised her tone slightly at the end, giving off an air of indifference.

How absurd.

"Some missions are triggered only after completion. Who knows, maybe if you save someone, you'll earn points." Xiaoli suggested.

"I never do missions like that." Zhou Zhou said with a kind smile.

After listening to Zhou Zhou's words, Xiaoli was somewhat angry. She had originally thought that Zhou Zhou implanted the bait chip in her under pressure from Shen Xu, but she didn't expect that this person was simply a selfish opportunist, perhaps even willingly staying in Shen Xu's camp.

Although Zhou Zhou wasn't directly the executioner who killed captives, she showed no hint of guilt whatsoever, lowering Xiaoli's impression of her to its lowest point.

"Have you never thought that everyone here is a living person?"

Zhou Zhou looked a bit stunned and confused. "This is a game. Everyone is just a string of code, a virtual projection. Dying in the game doesn't mean you really go to heaven, being eliminated from the game is just a momentary thing. Besides, this is the apocalypse—talking about morality in the apocalypse will only harm yourself."

Tang Yu fell silent. Zhou Zhou was right, in the eyes of most players, this was just a game.

Except for her and Little Fox, who had relatively special identities, other players more or less held this similar views, including herself. That's why she didn't feel much psychological burden when assimilating players, she was merely eliminating a segment of data.

Xiaoli also fell silent. It seemed like everyone was in the same page.

However, someone like Zhou Zhou, who was completely focused on missions and showed no compassion, was indeed quite rare.

"If a player dies in the game and would die in reality too, would you still not save them if there are no points?" Xiaoli asked.

"I wouldn't save them. At most, I wouldn't kill innocent people."

What a cold-blo0ded woman, so wise to protect herself and yet so devoid of compassion and justice!

Tang Yu remained silent, choosing not to reveal her and Xiaoli's identities.

Zhou Zhou was right. It seemed pointless to recruit someone like her. If one day she was on the brink of death and begged for her help, this woman would probably be by the bedside, glancing at the game interface, then casually saying, "Oh, the mission wasn't triggered, I won't save you." all with a smile on her face.

She was utterly useless!

It seemed like there was no point in continuing this discussion. However, because of the conversation just now, Tang Yu didn't harbor murderous intentions. Whether she could kill Zhou Zhou was one thing, but if she killed someone who had no ill intentions towards her just because they refused to join her camp, then how would she be any different from Shen Xu or Brother Hu?

Moreover, she might not be able to kill Zhou Zhou anyway.

"Can we take some medicine? We can offer guns or food in exchange." Xiaoli asked Zhou Zhou, following Tang Yu's signal.

"Regular medicine is fine, but the rare stuff is off-limits." Zhou Zhou was surprisingly generous. She took Tang Yu's backpack and selected some painkillers, hemostatics, and anesthetics from the cabinet, tossing in some tweezers and small knives as well. She casually handed the backpack back to Tang Yu.

"These things are of no use to me, so giving them to you won't be a problem."

Tang Yu accepted the backpack and said no more. Someone like Zhou Zhou was not on the same wavelength as them. She had clear and firm goals and wouldn't be bound by the people around her or so-called friendships.

That being said, it's no wonder she could become someone like a researcher.

Before leaving, Xiaoli couldn't help but ask, "What are you planning to do now that the Beixi Camp is gone?"

Zhou Zhou thought for a moment and replied, "You know Miss Song, right? I remember she was there the day you all caused a ruckus at the camp. I need to go to City A to find her, I have something stored with her."

Tang Yu's hand on the backpack faltered for a moment.

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