Chapter 10

Dong Huadan inexplicably saw a shadow of someone in Lin Tu. She was dazed for a moment, then shook her head to dispel the thought. That person had been dead for a while now, and besides, that person was male—how could the two be the same person?

Lin Tu probably wasn't a very powerful player, otherwise why would she risk trying that dog whistle? Dong Huadan analyzed silently. But even if she wasn't now, she certainly would be in the future. Her keen observation and adventurous spirit were essential qualities for becoming a top player.

For Dong Huadan, a player about to become a full member of the Black Market, befriending such a potential asset was crucial.

A moment later, Luo Yongzhi came out of the bathroom, and Lin Tu once again endured a round of stares.

Lin Tu, with her gold-rimmed glasses, had long been accustomed to standing on a podium as the center of attention, so the gazes didn't bother her in the slightest. Of course, even if she had noticed, she would have simply ignored them.

She was here to retire peacefully, and she wouldn't lower her standard of living just to fit into a disaster world.

They exchanged names and learned each other's purposes. Having forged a life-and-death bond, they decided to enter the basement together after settling on how to divide the spoils, so they could look out for one another.

The basement had lost power, and it was pitch dark inside.

Lin Tu tapped her crowbar against the railing, and could only hear a roar from the abyss below. The sound soon ceased, and no creature charged up. They had no choice but to rely on their flashlights and slowly feel their way forward.

They walked especially slowly, each step of the stairs seeming to stretch on for an eternity. Lin Tu deliberately lingered at the back of the group, ready to retreat at any moment.

"Is that Doroth? Is that you..." A rustling sound came faintly from the darkness.

A moment later, the sound gathered into several voices: "It's Mave, Mave's back..."

Someone in the group muttered something.

"Don't answer!" Dong Huadan lowered her voice, stopping them with her experience, "It could be a mutant zombie!" Those were monsters born from disaster evolution, but Dong Huadan always assumed the worst for every disaster world.

Her words made Lin Tu's heart skip a beat. Zombie... mutant? She felt the tension from the people ahead and immediately understood—this was common knowledge among players.

Almost instantly, Lin Tu drew her pistol and stared ahead.

"Did I mishear? I've misheard so many times. I pray for your return every day..." The androgynous voice continued, accompanied by faint roars.

"Are you angry at me? But it wasn't my idea to push you out. Staying here is worse than leaving early... If you leave early, you might survive. That's a good thing..." The voice muttered to itself, as if lost in the darkness.

It kept talking to itself until they exited the staircase and entered the pitch-black basement hall. Suddenly, it raised its voice: "Mave, be careful! There's a demon here."

In the darkness, that voice was like a red warning light, setting off alarms in everyone's ears.

Almost immediately, Lin Tu saw a humanoid figure approach the leader, Luo Yongzhi.

It let out a silent, wheezing sound like a broken bellows, so that it wasn't until it came into the flashlight's beam that they saw its form—thin, black, dried flesh stretched taut over its skeleton, with a few sparse hairs clinging to its skull. Its eyes had completely rotted into liquid, and two streaks of black pus ran down from its sockets.

It was clearly not an ordinary zombie; it looked more like a desiccated skeleton.

"Xiao Luo, what do you want for dinner tonight?" It changed its voice again, high-pitched, emanating from its cranial cavity, mimicking perfectly, "I want to eat hot pot. Don't come!"

"It's a mutant zombie!" Dong Huadan exclaimed, startled by its appearance, which was clearly different from ordinary zombies.

That zombie's speed was faster than anyone expected—in an instant, it pounced on Luo Yongzhi.

"Watch out!" No one expected that Han Yu, that bookworm, would be the fastest to grab Luo Yongzhi's collar, saving him from being dragged away by the zombie.

Seeing it couldn't drag him, the zombie immediately lowered its head, baring its cold teeth, trying to bite into Luo Yongzhi's neck. Without flesh to slow it down, it was much faster than an ordinary person. Even Luo Yongzhi himself barely managed to twist his body with a steel rod.

The zombie missed his neck but still tore a chunk of flesh from Luo Yongzhi's right shoulder, blood spraying as half an arm's bone was exposed.

"Argh, dammit!" Luo Yongzhi groaned in pain. In desperation, he only had time to push Han Yu away with his uninjured hand.

"Run! Find the captain!"

Luo Yongzhi struggled desperately against the mutant zombie, his shrill screams echoing through the basement.

The others instinctively scrambled back in panic. It all happened so fast that even if they wanted to save him, it was too late. Even Han Yu, the closest to him, only managed to kick the mutant zombie in the head—to no effect. This wasn't an ordinary zombie; its physical abilities were almost three times that of a human.

...He was going to die. At that moment, Luo Yongzhi had never been so certain. He, who had struggled so hard to survive, even abandoning his dignity (not really), was stabbed in the back by fate, and for an instant, he wanted to blow up the world.

"Damn it..." Lin Tu also realized this and couldn't help cursing. She had been prepared, but the zombie was too fast to aim at.

"Let's go!" As the others shoved and retreated, Lin Tu's mind was filled with three words: "We can't leave." She hadn't gotten her gun yet. If she retreated now, she'd lose a temporary teammate, and how could she come back again?

Her mind was consumed with the thought: if she didn't have a gun, she couldn't retire and take it easy, so what was the point of all the hard work she'd put in over the past twenty years? She might as well die here now!

With that thought, though anxious beyond measure, Lin Tu kept her eyes locked forward, and even Dong Huadan couldn't drag her away.

"Don't struggle!" Suddenly, Lin Tu spotted an opening in the brief pause when the zombie was focused on Luo Yongzhi's neck. She gritted her teeth and shouted, trying to seize this slim chance.

Luo Yongzhi, a big burly man, nearly fainted from pain. When Lin Tu shouted "don't struggle," the stench from the zombie's mouth was already overwhelming him—if he didn't struggle, he'd leave this beautiful yet terrible world even faster!

"Don't struggle!"

Lin Tu's steady voice injected like a time-release sedative into Luo Yongzhi's terrified blood, oddly calming him down.

It was true; he was beyond saving anyway. If Lin Tu said that, maybe she had an idea... With that thought, Luo Yongzhi's trust in Lin Tu reached its peak at that moment. He lay still on the ground, strangely calm, as if dead.

In the next second, a deafening gunshot echoed through the basement, followed by more gunshots, running footsteps, and screams—then all fell silent.

For a moment, Luo Yongzhi thought he had arrived in hell.

It took him a few seconds to open his eyes and look up, only to find he was still in the basement, a flashlight beam sweeping across the pitch-black ceiling.

The terrifying zombie was dead as dead could be. He turned his head and saw a small paper slip glowing faintly on the zombie's body, and Lin Tu was bending down to pick it up.

At the same time, Lin Tu's phone buzzed in her pocket.

[Congratulations! You've obtained a broken special item—Angry Corn.]

Lin Tu took out her phone to check while examining the slip—if she guessed right, this was a special item voucher. Though she didn't know why it had dropped from the zombie.

It looked like a regular supermarket coupon, split into two parts by a perforated line.

The left half read [Angry Corn] with a drawing of a huge corn cob murdering someone below it. The right half, taking up only a fifth, read [Redeem].

Lin Tu guessed that tearing off the stub would let her use this special item.

"A special item dropped? I wonder if we're lucky or unlucky." After the chaos, the flashlight beam steadied again.

Dong Huadan caught her breath, and seeing Luo Yongzhi still alive and the mutant zombie thoroughly dead, she breathed a sigh of relief. She had already suspected Lin Tu wasn't simple, so she wasn't too surprised, and even took the chance to be helpful, analyzing the special item for her.

"First kill of a mutant zombie in a D-level disaster world gets better rewards. It should be a complete E-level special item, but since it's broken, it's probably around D-level strength."

Several teammates had already rushed to stop Luo Yongzhi's bleeding. Zhang Zisheng couldn't get in to help, so he anxiously looked on and added, "Sister Huadan is a Black Market member; she's been in the Black Market for three or four years and has a lot of experience with items."

First kill drops? Broken D-level item? Black Market? Lin Tu recognized every word, but together they didn't make much sense.

Not wanting to reveal she was a complete newbie who didn't even know what the voucher did, Lin Tu simply handed the voucher to Dong Huadan: "Could you take a look for me, Sister Huadan?"

Dong Huadan took it with a mix of flattery and surprise. To ensure the item's safety and avoid misunderstandings, players usually took screenshots of the item description and sent them to others. Lin Tu's extraordinary trust made Dong Huadan feel a bit closer to her.

She carefully took the voucher, opened her phone, and examined it seriously. Lin Tu pretended to be casual while observing—new skill acquired: how to use special items is checked via the app.

"Such a powerful item, top-tier D-level," Dong Huadan said, showing a hint of surprise, then sighed and shook her head, "But it's a pity..."

She handed the phone to Lin Tu to look for herself.

Taking the phone, Lin Tu was first surprised by the pitch-black interface of the [Infinite Calamity] app, so different from the warm light blue of [Anju]. Then she read on.

[Angry Corn (Broken: Seedling state): From a cornfield belonging to a serial killer, after the plant mutation disaster, it ate the killer who was dumping bodies at its feet.

Once mature, it produces three mini corn cobs. Each time you throw a cob to the ground and shout "Cornfield Effect," it will apply the "Cornfield Effect" to all creatures within one square meter of where it lands.

Cornfield Effect: For ten minutes, no matter where the creature flees, their vision is limited to half an arm's length in front of them; everything else appears as a cornfield, and their movements are slightly restricted. Similarly, if the creature stays silent and still, they will be hidden within the cornfield, invisible to other creatures, unless they are within half an arm's length.

As the owner of the cornfield, you can always move freely within it and precisely locate those within the cornfield. However, you can only hide within the cornfield when the "Cornfield Effect" is active on you.

Notes: 1. "I don't like eating people!" the corn said angrily. Please ensure it grows in a good environment with soil, sunlight, and water; otherwise, it won't grow and will gradually die.

2. If a creature is taller than 3 meters, which is the height of ordinary corn, all "Cornfield Effect" will have no effect on it.]

Lin Tu was pleasantly surprised—the item was much stronger than she had imagined. It could restrict an enemy's vision and movement, while also being used to hide her own tracks. As the saying goes, all fear comes from insufficient firepower. If she had had the Cornfield Effect earlier, her chances of killing the mutant zombie would have been much higher.

So if it was that good, what was the pity?

This question was soon asked by the curious Zhang Zisheng, and Lin Tu listened intently.

"It's a renewable item! With its flexible functions, it's at least C-level, but it's a plant-type item." Just then, Luo Yongzhi's wounds had stabilized, and everyone turned to look at Dong Huadan, some understanding, some confused.

Dong Huadan smiled and continued, "Plant-type and animal-type items are different from inanimate objects like unbreakable cans; they're alive. Their usage conditions almost always require unpolluted soil, sunlight, water, and sometimes even a pleasant environment with birdsong and flowers. In the apocalypse, it's nearly impossible to gather all those. This special item could have been worth nearly a thousand points, but because it's plant-type, it might only be worth five or six hundred." That was a big discount.

Seeing Lin Tu stunned, Dong Huadan quickly added, "But don't worry, sister. Plant grow lights and artificial soil work too, though there's a chance of failure... If you really don't want it, I can help you find a player who specializes in cultivating plant-type items. Maybe we can get a better price, so you won't lose too much."

Worried?

Lin Tu frantically searched for the pain of office work to stop herself from laughing out loud at that moment.

Worried about what? That her inherited little run-down house had weeds and sparrows growing even from the cracks in the walls?

Or that the half-meter-tall weeds inside and outside the house, so familiar they might as well be part of the family, would take a great deal of effort to clear?

It wasn't that Lin Tu was overconfident, but she could grow a whole houseful of corn, let alone a single stalk.

Sure enough, country folk rely on the land for food. Look, when country kids go out to work and get exploited and bullied, they can come back and complain to Mother Earth... Lin Tu suddenly awakened this farming spirit.

"It's fine, I can make use of this item."

Lin Tu didn't say much, and Dong Huadan just assumed she had connections.

"Hey..." At that moment, Zheng Yangyang spoke up, his face pale. It was his first time seeing a mutant zombie. He had wanted to see what was different about it, but he noticed a necklace around its neck.

He knew that necklace all too well, because there was a person who always habitually turned the interlocked pendant, saying it was a relic left by his dead wife.

Zheng Yangyang felt suffocated. He held back his emotions to stay clear-headed, and confirmed again and again that he wasn't seeing things.

"This... no, this, this mutant zombie... Could it be our captain?!"