They cracked open the changing room door a sliver, and everyone watched eagerly as the little zombie worker staggered away.
Its steps dragged, not fast at all. The five adult zombies from the storage room quickly gathered around it, sniffing carefully at its side.
Everyone held their breath in suspense.
But evidently, the zombie worker summoned by the player was still a zombie at its core. The little girl passed the inspection by the five zombies and tottered into the corridor, vanishing from their sight.
Zhang Haiyang clasped his hands together and prayed silently, “Please come back safe, goddess~”
The old driver next to him wore a constipated expression as he stared at him.
“What’s wrong, big bro?”
Feng Wei said, “Idiot, you should be praying it doesn’t come back.”
“Why?”
Mu Shan explained, “If the Type II gas really works on zombies, the little zombie worker will get killed the moment it’s released too. If she comes back unscathed, that means the gas doesn’t work, and we’ll really have to charge out with our heads held high.”
She patted Zhang Haiyang’s shoulder. “We’ll be counting on your ultimate then.”
The young man sucked in a sharp breath. “Hiss!”
Then he began muttering under his breath: Don’t come back, don’t come back…
Li Mei pointed at the laboratory. “I saw a bunch of rubbing alcohol in the corner of the Grand Laboratory earlier. Might be useful for us?”
Rubbing alcohol could serve as medical supplies or fuel.
“There are plenty of disposable masks in the changing room too.”
Mu Shan said, “Alright, then everyone hurry and search for anything else usable. I’ll let you know once I sense the little zombie worker succeeds.”
The three split up again, determined this time to scrape every last usable resource from the surroundings.
The old driver grabbed a sack and stuffed stacks of boxed disposable masks into it. He didn’t overlook the men’s leather shoes, sneakers, plastic slippers, and such under the lockers either.
Li Mei commandeered a small cart and loaded bottled industrial alcohol into it. To prevent spilling during pushes and pulls, she had to tie them down with ropes.
The fluorescent lights overhead cast bright illumination, shrinking everyone’s shadows into tiny blobs.
A faint buzzing of electric current spread, and staying here long enough made one’s ears feel persistently irritated.
Zhang Haiyang rinsed the grime from his face at the lab sink, then slipped on a white coat from some unnamed researcher. He checked himself in the glass reflection and found it surprisingly fitted well.
They didn’t notice that something terrifying deep in the laboratory was stirring awake.
Thud thud thud!
Until a clear knocking sound rang in everyone’s ears.
Zhang Haiyang’s legs went soft, and he nearly crumpled to his knees.
Li Mei and the old driver froze mid-motion, staring wide-eyed at each other in wary glances.
Thud thud thud!
The knocking wasn’t loud, but in the absolute silence, it stood out starkly, foreboding ill.
Zhang Haiyang mouthed silently and pointed at the innermost large iron door marked with an X, his expression terrified.
Li Mei shook her head frantically.
The old driver gritted his teeth. He gestured outward, and the other two nodded. The three crept quietly toward the changing room without a sound.
The cart was too noisy, so the old driver dumped all the alcohol into his spatial item at once.
As the three moved cautiously, whatever was inside kept sliding its hand over the iron door. Its nails seemed very long; the scraping against the metal produced a piercing scraaape that set teeth on edge and made skin crawl.
Zhang Haiyang was the last into the changing room. Before he could close the door, a violent pounding erupted from the deepest part of the laboratory.
Thud thud thud! The metal door shuddered, the force at least twice as strong.
And the thing inside kept fiddling with the door handle, producing clanging sounds, as if it would burst out any second.
Zhang Haiyang clamped his hand over his mouth, on the verge of tears.
The old driver slammed the changing room door shut, bolted it fast, and barricaded it with two shoe lockers.
He whipped around, words tumbling out urgently. “Did the little zombie worker succeed?”
Mu Shan had been focusing intently on sensing the zombie worker’s status, sweat dampening the stray hairs at her temples. “Almost, almost…”
It had reached the door to Control Room 2!
Oh no, the main door was blocked by two researcher zombies. The little zombie worker couldn’t budge them.
In mere seconds, the thing deep in the Grand Laboratory began slamming the iron door, producing booming crashes.
The oppressive dread from the unknown horror made Zhang Haiyang’s teeth chatter. “Sis, hurry—!”
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Mu Shan’s forehead. After about ten seconds, she finally unlocked the door. The little zombie worker entered the control room. Just as she’d guessed, Qian Bo had swapped all the gas canisters at the pipeline connections for Type I gas.
The canisters were insurance-box sized, a struggle for the little zombie worker to replace. Mu Shan didn’t dare slack for a moment, constantly directing it with her mind on what to do.
Suddenly, the pounding stopped, and the Grand Laboratory fell silent again.
Everyone jolted.
Zhang Haiyang swallowed and peered slowly through the door crack.
The next instant, the bright fluorescent lights went snap and extinguished. The vast laboratory plunged into darkness, and Zhang Haiyang saw nothing.
But this darkness brought no safety. Through two doors, they began hearing a strange wailing, like someone crying.
“Woo woo… woo woo…”
Zhang Haiyang gaped. “Inside… it can’t really be a person locked up, right?”
The old driver smacked his head. “A person my ass! Lock you in there for half a month and see if you survive?!”
Zhang Haiyang:
(stupid…)
“But… do zombies make sounds like that?”
The crying continued, a shiver rising from their soles and sweeping through their bodies.
“How much longer!”
“Or should we just charge out?! I really don’t want to stay here anymore!”
Mu Shan frowned gravely. “Any second now… just wait a bit.”
After about five or six seconds, she suddenly relaxed in relief. “Success!”
Everyone erupted in joy. But moments later, they stared at each other blankly.
The five zombies in the outer storage room still wandered about, and the sprinkler heads showed no sign of activity.
“This thing isn’t automatic!?” Zhang Haiyang yelped in horror.
The old driver slapped his forehead. “The zombies outside are in semi-dormancy. They don’t move, so the disinfection system doesn’t register them!”
Li Mei realized belatedly, “Then what do we do? Do we have to go out and stir things up…”
The thing imprisoned deep in the Grand Laboratory had lost patience. Its cries shifted from faint womanly whimpers to hoarse shrieks and frenzied rage.
Dull thuds of metal doors being battered echoed nonstop.
They couldn’t wait any longer!
Mu Shan rummaged for something usable, then suddenly noticed the grime and blood on her hands.
She dashed to the door in one leap and slapped her filthy hand onto the smart door lock sensor.
The next moment, a piercing bzzz blared, and the corridor’s electronic broadcast exploded to life.
【Sanitation conditions in the research institute detected as extremely poor. Virus and bacteria levels severely exceed limits.
Type II gas will be released comprehensively in 10 seconds. All personnel on site, please evacuate.】
【10… 3, 2, 1】
The instant white mist sprayed down from above, the four-person team burst out the door. Masks layered three or four thick, helmets on, fully geared, they charged from the changing room.
The five zombies in the storage room swayed like drunks, unsteady on their feet. One hammer each downed them all.
Mu Shan didn’t forget the medical supplies in the storage room. She swept them up at top speed; medicine boxes and storage cases vanished in the sweep of her hand.
They lingered in the storage room no more than twenty seconds before sprinting down the corridor.
The research institute under the billowing mist resembled a wonderland. Type II gas poured endlessly from ceiling vents, the acrid stench of massive disinfectant volumes overwhelming the prior Type I deodorizer’s fragrance.
Zombies littered the corridor floors, some not yet dead, twitching and writhing on the ground, fingers spasming now and then. As the group ran past, the zombies stubbornly snapped at the players, their willpower tenacious.
Mu Shan quickly found her zombie worker.
Mission accomplished, the little zombie worker lay head-down at the Control Room 2 doorway. True to her word, Mu Shan tossed the rotten flesh beside it as a burial offering.
She spotted extra gas canisters in the control room and had an idea.
This Type II gas was a natural zombie counter. If she could take it out… zombies would fall like wheat.
But her fingers had just touched a canister when the system notified her 【Quest item. Cannot be used outside this scene】.
…Figures.
The old driver coughed into his hand. “Gas concentration’s too high. Let’s move!”
The group bolted toward the first floor.
They met almost no obstacles along the way until they burst out the main doors. Only then did they have time to yank off masks and gasp for air.
Zhang Haiyang collapsed on the steps. “I’m done for! Nearly suffocated!”
Mu Shan braced her hands on her knees and hacked up a lung. Before her eyes, the system silently tallied zombie kills.
【+3 gold coins】
【+11 gold coins】
After about five minutes, once they’d caught their breath, the system provided final tallies.
【Rewards for this player cooperative zombie kill:
+100 gold coins
Stealth kill: +50 gold coins, +1 agility】
【Player side quest completed. Due to special circumstances, this quest location is permanently disabled.
Side quests for this scene invalid for all other players in this instance.】
As they looked up, the once-brilliantly lit research institute went fully dark.
With a whoosh, the circuit breaker tripped. Lights from first to third floor dimmed one by one. Aside from white mist still spilling from the entrance, the building sank into silence like any other city structure.
The origin point of Zombie Siege had finally seen off its last visitors.
The group returned to the old driver’s parked van, changing clothes, eating, and drinking water.
Mu Shan rinsed her hands with the water she’d brought, then wiped her face and neck with wet wipes. During this, no extra kill notifications came, so the thing in the Grand Laboratory clearly wouldn’t die easily to Type II disinfectant gas.
Just one small regret, as expected.
Maybe it wasn’t a zombie at all?
The Boss locked deep in the Grand Laboratory still awaited a player who could set it free.
Rain picked up again, drumming rhythmically on the Wuling Hongguang’s roof.
These vital sounds quickly restored the spirits of the group that had just escaped with their lives.
They’d clocked in at eight-thirty that morning for “work”; now off at noon, they were starving, stomachs rumbling competitively.
“Let’s park somewhere else to divvy supplies. Always worried something’ll charge out here.”
The old driver regained his calm, cigarette dangling from his lips as he floored the accelerator. The minivan splashed through waterlogged streets.
They found a sheltered high ground with a long-abandoned gas station.
Mu Shan bang bang two-shotted roadside wandering zombies and stood with the others unloading gear.
On the dry open ground, the piled supplies looked impressive.
The old driver squatted and separated the rubbing alcohol bottles. “Stuff everyone scavenged solo in the office doesn’t count. Rest we’ll split evenly for now. Coordinate if you’ve got ideas.”
“Fifty bottles of rubbing alcohol total, over two hundred packs of ten masks each, about thirty boxes of sterile gloves. Cotton swabs, gauze, assorted meds not too many—split ’em even.”
“Two crates of salt and sugar from the cafeteria, dozens of miscellaneous seasonings. Frozen meat’s indistinguishable now, no pickiness. About one hundred fifty pounds total.”
“Milk’s twenty-three crates. Expired six or seven days, should still be drinkable.”
“All rice, flour, beans here—over fifty bags. Twelve barrels of soybean oil.”
“Found some dry goods too: dried wood ear mushrooms and dried seaweed.”
Supplies everywhere, plus easy gold coins gained—this was plenty to celebrate.
The only thing that surprised Mu Shan was that the space item owned by the Old Driver was no smaller in volume than her virtual backpack. It could hold so many supplies in one go.
It seemed that a veteran player starting with 3 truly had some good stuff on hand.
Zhang Haiyang crouched down and took a look before raising his hand. “I don’t have a fridge. I’ll take just two jin of frozen meat. Can you give me more of the other food? I can do without the medicine!”
Medicine was more precious than meat, but since the Rookie wanted to swap for grains, Mu Shan and Li Mei had no problem with it.
The Old Driver buried their head in dividing the goods. “Then we’ll give you more rice and flour from our three shares.”
The supplies on the ground were divided into four portions. The Rookie and Li Mei’s virtual backpacks weren’t big enough, so they pleaded with the Old Driver to deliver the goods to their doors. In exchange, they would pay shipping fees with gold coins.
Mu Shan directly stored all her portion of supplies into her backpack in one go.
On this trip out today, her share included 13 bottles of disinfectant alcohol (200ml each), 50 packs of disposable medical masks (10 per pack), 8 boxes of sterile gloves (25 pairs per box), and various medical cotton swabs, gauze, and the like.
25 large packs each of salt and sugar.
Sugar counted as a strategic resource. On one hand, chemists could use it to make explosives. On the other, sugar had high energy density, didn’t spoil easily, was simple to store, and could even be used in emergencies to treat wounds.
Four or five packs each of other seasonings like chicken essence, MSG, soy sauce, and pepper powder.
6 cases of some brand’s expired milk, 12 bags per case.
Three 5L barrels of soybean oil in total, plus 8 bags of rice, flour, red beans, and mung beans combined, as well as various dried seaweed and wood ear mushrooms.
The rest consisted of all sorts of frozen meat, including frozen chicken legs, pork ribs, shrimp, yellow croaker, and hairtail fish. She ended up with 50 jin in total.
In addition, Mu Shan had scavenged some ginger red sugar drink, instant coffee, milk tea, flower tea, and Jin Senge throat lozenges from the second-floor offices herself.
The Wuling Hongguang drove toward the city district.
She sat in the back seat, her whole body relaxed. She felt like even moving a finger took effort. She nibbled slowly on the leftover pancake wrapped with bean sprouts from breakfast, which she held in her mouth.
Her heart felt very satisfied.
Mu Shan lazily swiped open the system prompt she hadn’t looked at carefully earlier.
【Cannon Fodder Player 537099, your [Zombie Siege] side quest completed
Completion: 100%
Rating: Excellent
Rating Proof: Zombies fully cleared, mini-game passed, plot fully explained】
【Rewards for this side quest:
Gold Coins +500
Prop Mystery Box x1
Safe House Gift Pack x1
Food Gift Pack x1
Self-Service Q&A Opportunity x1】