Chapter 170

Lin Tu made a split-second decision and swallowed the blueberry. Under the effect of the Night Queen, she turned like a phantom and reached his side in the blink of an eye.

He was a patrol soldier, but his usually stern face was now contorted into an extremely evil, bizarre grin. Blood still clung to the corners of his mouth, and he kept licking his lips as he stared at Lin Tu.

Lin Tu raised her broken blade and slashed down at his head.

Logically, the monster should either ignore the blade and lunge at her regardless, or instinctively dodge the weapon.

But this patrol soldier seemed to possess actual combat skills. He crouched slightly, dodged her blade, swept his leg at her lower body, and simultaneously drew an electric shock baton from his waist, swinging it at her.

At the critical moment, Lin Tu used Pre-Moonlight to return to her original position, causing the patrol soldier's attack to miss completely.

Good thing she had the habit of leaving a moonlight mark before going on the offensive.

"Little Black," Lin Tu called softly. She raised her revolver and grabbed the black mist that surged into the air.

Once the bullets were loaded, Lin Tu aimed the muzzle at the patrol soldier.

A loud bang echoed through the entire space as the gun fired. The patrol soldier tried to dodge but failed. The moment it collapsed, a faded piece of paper drifted down from its body, and at the same time, the monsters behind the players all turned their heads in unison.

"Go!" Lin Tu snatched up the paper without even looking at it and sprinted outside.

Because of the patrol soldier's interruption, everyone's escape was slowed considerably, and several teachers quickly caught up.

They were drenched in blood, much of it self-inflicted from losing their minds during the torture. One teacher grinned savagely, brandishing a pointer. "Bad child! I'll whip every inch of your body raw!"

"You want to whip?" Yi Ying pulled out a flashlight. As its beam swept over them, something oily and slick seemed to appear on their bodies. Then she struck a match and tossed it over—within moments, a blaze erupted among them.

But these monsters were exceptionally clever. They dropped to the ground and rolled around, extinguishing the not-so-large fire completely.

Guan Suixing and Luo Yongzhi summoned their newly purchased combat armor, while Kou Lin and Liu Sheng each took out their own attack-type items. The former had a mechanical arm that could fire lasers and bullets and assist with movement; the latter had enhanced restraints—more precisely, an entire set of medical tools: scalpels, restraints, self-mixed injections, scissors, and so on.

Liu Sheng had placed [Weapon Spirit that Auto-Counters in Critical Moments] into this medical kit, so he only needed to engage in mental work—like telling the restraints what disease the enemy had, or telling the scalpel where to cut. What if the weapons were attacked? They would counter automatically, with even stronger combat instincts than Liu Sheng himself.

The players' strength had all improved thanks to the resources gained from several disasters, but even so, facing this group of monsters was still a strain.

Worse still, more monsters were pouring out of the children's school—both children and adults.

"Sister Lin, you're the fastest—go find the patrol soldiers!" Yi Ying shouted. "We'll retreat now! Same place as usual!"

Lin Tu didn't pause. She ate a blueberry and slipped out of the children's area like a shadow.

Not far away, patrol soldiers had already been attracted by the gunfire. Because the surveillance cameras near the children's area had all been destroyed by the monsters, they couldn't locate the scene right away.

Lin Tu pulled a megaphone out of her backpack, loudly called out a location from a corner, then slipped away from the area in a flash.

The kitchen.

Lin Tu arrived before the others. She looked at the tattered paper in her hand—this should be the reward for the first player kill of a mutated monster, an S-rank ticket—

[Patrol Set (Damaged): Clothing worn by doomsday patrol soldiers.

A pair of gloves, wrist guards, one helmet, and one vest.

The patrol set will effectively protect your body; after wearing it, you will gain enhancements in speed (legs), agility (hands), strength (body), and reaction (head). For each piece of equipment on a specific body part, you gain an additional multiplier; the patrol set can self-destruct to block attacks.]

Lin Tu tore open the patrol set, activated it, and put it on, gaining triple agility and double reaction and double strength.

For Lin Tu, who was currently in a disaster world, this was nothing short of a lifeline.

The other players arrived soon after.

Before leaving, Kou Lin had left several surveillance cameras in place and now adjusted the equipment to pull up the feed.

"I wonder if those patrol soldiers can handle the monsters," Yi Ying leaned in to watch, while gesturing for the others to leave a viewing spot for Lin Tu.

"They probably can—at least this wave can be suppressed," Lin Tu said, looking at the screen. It was exactly as she had predicted: the patrol soldiers had summoned a group of armed soldiers.

These soldiers' guns weren't ordinary firearms; they were laser guns suited for use on a spaceship without damaging its structure. Under the sweeping laser fire, the group of monsters quickly met their end.

Earlier, when Lin Tu had been hiding in the shadows using the megaphone to call for people, she'd caught a glimpse of the leader carrying this special weapon, and she'd sensed those soldiers could handle the monsters.

"Sister Lin, you mean..." Yi Ying asked hesitantly, "the next wave won't be suppressible?"

"Of course. Haven't you noticed? These monsters are exceptionally clever." Lin Tu looked at the others, and seeing their hesitation, continued, "I've summarized two rules so far. First, their intelligence depends on their profession. Second, they use the tools they commonly handled in their jobs."

"The patrol soldier monster was smart in combat—it swept legs, used shock batons. The teachers? Knowledge workers. I'd guess their IQs are a bit higher than the patrol soldiers'. The child murders happened a day or two ago, and the perpetrator should have been infected. With so many days passing and them only catching it today, doesn't that prove how smart it is? And the teachers also fit rule two—they use pointers and chalk as weapons."

Her words brought sudden realization to everyone.

"Sister Lin's brain really is something else," Liu Sheng said, pounding his fist into his palm. "How did I not think of all this?"

"Then why can't the next wave be suppressed?" Luo Yongzhi scratched his head, still not quite understanding.

"Because they're smart," Lin Tu said, her expression serious as she stared at the screen.

On screen, the infected had all been shot dead, and the surviving victims were being carried away on stretchers, rushed to the nearest medical zone.

"So far, we don't know the transmission route, but in zombie disasters, blood transmission is usually the most common. These survivors have all been exposed to infected blood. If they're infected too, given how smart the infected are, would they expose their true nature at their weakest moment?"

"No..." Luo Yongzhi muttered, catching on. "And..."

"The patrol soldier got infected," Yi Ying suddenly said.

"They deliberately infected the patrol soldiers to find themselves companions," Liu Sheng said.

"They came into contact with the soldiers," Guan Suixing delivered the final statement. "So the soldiers are likely the next targets."

Everyone exchanged glances. Infected with laser guns—that was an unimaginable disaster.

"How about we go kill these survivors?" Luo Yongzhi clenched his fist.

"Can't kill them," Lin Tu said, pointing at the well-protected survivors on screen. "And it's already too late. These survivors weren't quarantined immediately. We don't know who's been in contact with them by now. We can't kill everyone."

"Then we can only..."

Yi Ying's words were cut off by the sudden blare of an alarm overhead.

"All residents, please do not leave your dormitories! All residents, please do not leave your dormitories! A serious assault has occurred on the ship. For your safety, patrol soldiers will soon arrive at each dormitory to take a headcount! I repeat, patrol soldiers will soon arrive at each dormitory to take a headcount. Any resident not in their dormitory will be treated as a suspect!"

Everyone exchanged a look and immediately began packing up to leave.

There were very few places to hide on this ship, and surveillance was everywhere. If they were truly treated as suspects, they'd be practically crippled.

Lin Tu quickly returned to her dormitory. Using Lighthouse, she squeezed through the door crack and lay down on the bed without even pulling the bed curtain.

It was 2 a.m., and the dormitory lights were already off. But the broadcast had woken everyone, and the air was filled with frightened, clamoring voices.

After a short wait, the patrol inspector arrived.

Lin Tu pulled aside her bed curtain and let the inspector's flashlight shine on her face for a moment.

"All present," the inspector said to the person behind him, then admonished the dormitory residents, "Don't go out tonight! Listen for tomorrow morning's notice."

Lin Tu observed him and the people behind him. Sensing nothing unusual, she lay back down.

On the eve of a disaster about to erupt, Lin Tu couldn't sleep at all. She didn't even take off her clothes; she just lay there, quietly resting with her eyes closed.

The others, comforted by the sense of security the patrol soldiers brought, quickly fell back asleep, and snoring rose from all around.

The night passed unusually quickly amid the snoring. Around 5 a.m., Lin Tu heard a scream from outside the door.

—A man's scream. A patrol soldier.

Lin Tu sat up straight and pulled out her phone to send a warning message to the group.

At the same time, amid the thud of something heavy hitting the floor, chaotic curses, screams, and deranged laughter, the other dormitory residents woke up too.

Lin Tu climbed down from her bed. She didn't recklessly flee the dormitory; instead, she checked the door and locked it firmly.

"What's happening? Xiao Lin?" The aunt across from her woke up, asking Lin Tu in confusion.

"A murderer has made their way over here," Lin Tu explained.

Everyone was startled by this, and those who had been half-asleep were now wide awake.

"The patrol soldiers... didn't they deal with them?"

"I don't know. I just heard the patrol soldier screaming for help too. We'd better stay here and wait for rescue," Lin Tu said.

In reality, she knew no rescue was coming. She was just waiting for the right opportunity to leave and head somewhere safe.

Earlier, the group had searched the ship for a long time without finding a suitable place for long-term shelter. There were simply too many people on this ship—people were almost everywhere, and the residential areas were easy to break into, making them unsuitable for long-term hiding.

Back then, Lin Tu had no idea where to hide when disaster struck. But now, based on the two rules governing these monsters, she could easily narrow down suitable places—

First, work areas. Second, areas with few workers. Third, areas where the workers lacked or had tools with weak offensive power.

That way, the monsters Lin Tu faced wouldn't be soldiers sweeping with laser guns, but ordinary monsters wielding pointers like teachers.

So Lin Tu's first choices were the storage area on the fourth floor of the Ring Building and the garbage management area—places with very few workers doing purely hauling jobs. Her second choices were the experimental sections of the Main Ship. Researchers had dangerously high IQs and might possess extraordinary attack methods, reducing them to second tier.

Lin Tu sent her thoughts to the group chat and quickly won approval.

"The problem now is how to get to the fourth floor."

As everyone knew, leaving or entering the Ring Building required card access, but none of them worked on the fourth floor. To be precise, the people who worked on the fourth floor all lived there, and very few people outside the fourth floor had cards—those who did were all senior executives, and they didn't live on the third floor.

Kou Lin: "I'm monitoring the access corridor. The moment anyone from the fourth floor comes through, I'll see it."

"Or someone from the Main Ship would work too."

Kou Lin replied: "No problem."

"Now we just wait," Lin Tu said. "In the meantime, hold the dormitory."

The wait wasn't easy.

The sounds from outside were simply too horrific, and human imagination was the most terrifying thing of all—especially for the unseen. The dormitory residents crouched on their beds, pale-faced and trembling, and that was the best-case scenario.

"How can they be so bold?" the middle-aged man across from Lin Tu asked. He'd lost count of how many door-opening and closing sounds and screams he'd heard. Who knew how many people had already died?

"Don't the patrol soldiers care?"

"My communicator says the lines are busy—probably everyone is calling to report to the patrol."

"Then they won't... won't they break in?" Xiao Hang said, hugging his knees on the bed. Since the night the power went out, he'd produced a small battery-powered light from somewhere, and it was now the only light source in the dormitory.

"They won't," Lin Tu reassured them. "I've locked the door tight. If we stay quiet and don't make a sound, we'll be fine."

Monsters also followed human instincts; they'd choose easier, more conspicuous dorms to break into.

As long as they stayed quiet enough, with some luck, they might temporarily escape this disaster.

In this regard, the other players had much better luck. Luo Yongzhi, Yi Ying, and Guan Suixing, due to their special jobs, had been assigned single dorms near their work areas, while Kou Lin and Liu Sheng had, by pure dumb luck, landed in the same dorm, so the two could look out for each other.

"Wait," after another scream, a person on the bottom bunk suddenly pointed at the door with trembling fingers. "Xiao Hang... Xiao Hang, bring the light over and look—what's that?"

Lin Tu was lying on her bed resting with her eyes closed. At these words, she too looked over, though without having taken a blueberry, she couldn't see clearly.

Sensing something off, she was about to tell Xiao Hang not to look when Xiao Hang raised the light and extended his hand—instantly illuminating the thing for everyone to see—

A pool of thick, viscous blood was seeping through the gap under the door.

With a clatter, the light slipped from Xiao Hang's hand, and in an instant, the entire dormitory plunged into darkness.

"Don't panic! They're not coming in!" Lin Tu quickly tried to calm everyone. Fortunately, everyone was simply covering their mouths and trembling, afraid of attracting the things outside the door. Lin Tu breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, a thought struck her—

"Xiao Hang, Xiao Hang, I have a light! Don't be afraid!" Lin Tu hurriedly rummaged through her backpack for a flashlight.

She was used to relying on her blueberry night vision, so she'd tossed her flashlight somewhere and had no idea where it was. The more she searched, the more frantic she grew.

—Damn hand, hurry up and find it!

Finally, just as she pulled out the flashlight, a scream came from above.

A piercing scream spread throughout the dormitory, and the last shred of hope in Lin Tu's heart died.

Xiao Hang's fear of the dark was acting up.

She gave it a gentle toss, throwing the switched-on flashlight to Xiao Hang, then swiftly jumped off the bed.

She wanted to find something to brace the door, but that was clearly futile. There was very little in the dormitory; the only things that could serve as obstacles were the fridge and a folding table, and the fridge wasn't even as tall as Lin Tu.

Meanwhile, the monster outside, having just killed someone, was drawn by the noise inside the door and had started ramming it.

The pounding frightened the dormitory residents into screaming even louder.

Lin Tu braced the door. There were at least two monsters outside, very likely patrol soldiers by profession, with incredible strength. Even with her doubled strength from wearing the patrol vest, she could barely hold them back.

"I... I'm sorry!" Xiao Hang was on the verge of tears.

The others got off their beds to help brace the door, but Lin Tu had a feeling the dormitory was about to fall.

Sure enough, moments later, Lin Tu heard a jingling sound. At first, she didn't recognize it, until a bunkmate beside her muttered unconsciously—

"Is that the patrol soldier coming to open the door?"

Lin Tu then realized that patrol soldiers had keys to every dormitory.

With a click, the key slipped precisely into the lock, and the lock turned.

Then came another bang as the door slammed. Despite Lin Tu's full effort to hold it, a hand managed to squeeze through the gap. The hand was slick with blood, reaching out to grab the people by the door.

The residents behind the door screamed in terror.

Lin Tu had no hand free for her knife, so she bent over and kicked at the hand, snapping all four fingers. But then came another few bangs on the door, and more hands pushed through the gap.

This wasn't going to work! Boiling the frog slowly, the dormitory would just sink into an increasingly dire situation.

"Everyone back!" Lin Tu shouted. Once they retreated, she swallowed a blueberry and, in the same instant, tossed a barbed wire net and a corn cob at her feet.

The moment they touched blood, the barbed wire's [Blood Absorption] took effect. A shadow that blotted out the sky was growing and climbing, and at the same time, the activated corn cob's [Demon Corn Music] in the barbed wire began to take effect, disorienting the monsters at the door.

Lin Tu moved through the darkness like a fish in water, slashing at the monsters with her broken blade.

There were five monsters here—three patrol soldiers and two from other professions. Probably infected in the dormitory, they didn't have their usual tools on them; instead, they were armed with random iron rods and fruit knives.

Killing the non-patrol monsters went smoothly enough. After taking down two, she heard a crack as the corn cob was crushed by a monster. Part of the barbed wire tore as well, though its [Blood Absorption] attribute let it absorb blood to grow and repair itself—but the blood pool on the floor wasn't enough.

The remaining three patrol soldiers broke free of the barbed wire's control and stood face-to-face with Lin Tu. They had professional combat skills; Lin Tu couldn't fight three at once.

"Could you spare me?"

Lin Tu's show of weakness only excited the patrol soldiers further. They raised their shock batons and charged at her.

At the critical moment, Lin Tu's hand, which had been reaching into her backpack, pulled out a handful of loess. She flung it at the patrol soldiers, and in an instant, they were frozen in place.

"Run!" Lin Tu shouted, and she was the first to sprint.

The dormitory residents saw the full appearance of the monsters for the first time. Seeing their once-familiar neighbors lying in pools of blood, and their friendly patrol soldiers now covered in blood with hideous grins, they nearly fainted from fright.

Xiao Hang scrambled after Lin Tu, and seeing him go, everyone else followed.

A scream came from behind. Lin Tu turned to look and saw the middle-aged man across from her had tripped and fallen.

At the same time, the patrol soldiers frozen by the loess regained their mobility.

"Honey!" the middle-aged woman screamed, stopping and turning back to save him.

"Damn it." Lin Tu had no choice but to pull out her revolver.

Little Black rose into the air and, under Lin Tu's control, loaded itself into the cylinder one by one. The moment the golden patterns lit up, Lin Tu fired. The shots struck the three patrol soldiers precisely in the foreheads.

After piercing their skulls, the bullets in the wounds dissolved into black mist and flew back to Lin Tu's side.

The three patrol soldiers collapsed instantly, but the massive noise also caused the restless sounds from all directions to explode in an instant.

—This was exactly why Lin Tu didn't want to fire her gun. It was really, damn loud!

"Get back to the dormitory! Lock the door! Don't make a sound!" Lin Tu said irritably, watching the shadows shifting from all directions.

One kill was a kill; two kills were still kills. Based on the number of monsters she'd killed today, [Bloodthirsty]'s critical hit chance had already risen to 6%—might as well raise it a bit more.

With that thought, Lin Tu ate a blueberry. The moment her night vision activated, she shifted, shot at a monster to the northeast, then used the first thirteen seconds of the Night Queen to teleport to where the monster had just stood and fired again.

This time, her shooting speed was much faster. After a string of seven shots killed all the monsters blocking her path, Lin Tu sprinted forward. Little Black swooped back to her like a homing swarm, reforming into a sharp bullet at her fingertip, and once Lin Tu found her next piece of cover, it became the weapon that pierced through monster skulls once more.

She went on like that—running, hiding, killing—eating a blueberry to evade whenever monsters closed in, until she finally reached the passage leading to the Main Ship.

Behind her, a pile of corpses had piled up, but the monsters chasing her showed no sign of decreasing; in fact, they were growing in number.

"Time to go," Lin Tu said, looking at Little Black, which had returned to her fingertip. The bullet it had condensed was starting to show signs of collapse. Repeated firing was a drain on Little Black too; it needed rest.

Fortunately, Lin Tu had scouted various locations earlier, including the temporary hiding spot she'd chosen.

"An ultra-high-difficulty escape maneuver." Lin Tu's gaze fixed on a hidden corner she'd once chosen. As she raised her hand, a rope descended from above. She grabbed it, and in the blink of an eye, she vanished, leaving behind a horde of roaring, howling monsters.