A rumbling sound emanated from beneath everyone’s feet, and a hidden elevator suddenly appeared on the wall of the circular room.
The bearded man surveyed the open elevator and remarked, “Are all the laboratories secretly built underground? Do we always have to take the elevator?”
“After all, the ground can bury many things,” Zhou Guang said solemnly. “Such as secrets and death.”
When boarding the elevator, Bai Lixin glanced at the discreet gilded engraving on the side of the elevator, revealing the date S3013. It seemed that the laboratory was completed after the zombie outbreak.
The elevator buttons only had two options, 1 and -16.
The bald man quickly pressed -16, and the elevator door closed slowly before descending.
Inside the elevator, there were countless bloodstains but no corpses.
Zhou Guang retrieved a self-defense knife from his waist and warned, “There are probably zombies down there. Everyone, prepare to fight. Those seeking revenge, those seeking release—don’t die.”
The bearded man covered his face with his hands and laughed. The bracelet made of hair shimmered, and he said, “I won’t be killed by these thugs. I haven’t lived long enough.”
As the elevator approached the -16th floor, its speed gradually slowed down.
In the narrow, cramped space, everyone waited solemnly, their gazes fixed on the closed silver metal door with vigilance.
Even through the metal door, they could hear the growls and roars of the zombies.
Finally, the elevator came to a halt.
The noise outside the door grew louder, and the sound of zombies scratching their fingernails on the elevator door filled the air. Their anxious voices seemed desperate to break open the metallic enclosure.
As the elevator doors opened, the bearded man was the first to rush out.
His eyes flashed with a cold light as the strong muscles in his body tensed. With a knife in hand, he swiftly pierced the foreheads of two grotesque zombies and retrieved their crystal nuclei.
In the passage outside, an army of hundreds of zombies awaited. They had horrifying and repulsive decayed faces, their bodies twisted as they lunged at everyone.
The others followed, rushing out after him.
“Just in time!” Xia Chi’s eyes glinted with murderous intent. His usually sunny face now wore an icy expression as he agilely leaped atop the zombies’ heads. Every time he landed, a zombie’s corpse would be left in his wake. “I’ve been seething with anger from up there, worried I wouldn’t have an outlet. You fools came to die just in time!”
Bai Lixin quietly observed while decapitating zombies.
Zhou Guang, though not particularly strong, displayed competent fighting skills. While he usually relied on his intellect, he showed no fear in the face of these zombies.
Although he lacked Xia Chi’s strength and agility, he made up for it with his intelligence.
The mindless zombies couldn’t even touch Zhou Guang’s clothes. He anticipated their attacks with remarkable speed, finding the perfect blind spots and positions to strike.
Liang Xi was slightly weaker in terms of strength, but he wasn’t foolish. He knew he couldn’t match the zombies’ strength head-on, so he picked off the weaker targets. After a while, he had also dispatched numerous zombies.
Li Cancan surprised Bai Lixin the most. Li Cancan always emanated a gentle and affectionate aura. She possessed a delicate mind, and one would assume her physical strength would be the weakest among the four.
But in that moment, Li Cancan’s agility rivaled Xia Chi’s.
When she switched to attack mode, she transformed from her usual gentleness into a mesmerizing ruthlessness.
Her watery eyes now burned with an internal storm.
——————–
In the live broadcast room:
[Team ShowTime is here! Sister Cancan is so strong, Xia Chi is so handsome! Brother Guang is so wise! Liang Xi is so cute. I love all four of them!]
[Fuck, the Core Fire Guild’s Big Four truly live up to their reputation. They’re incredibly strong.]
[So they’re this powerful even without skills and abilities? I thought their strength came from rare skills due to their good fortune. Damn, I made a false assumption.]
[Core Fire Guild F4, fighting!]
Li Cangshan wasn’t surprised when he received yet another rejection application from the Core Fire Guild. This marked his thirteenth application.
Looking at the rejection letters piled up in the recycle bin, he sighed wryly, searched the guild list, and began searching for new partners.
Although the Core Fire Guild seemed like the most suitable option, he couldn’t gain entry, which meant he couldn’t take the first step.
He couldn’t afford to waste any more time.
While browsing other guilds, his eyes froze for a moment as they focused on the live broadcast on his computer.
In that instant, his gaze became fixated on a girl with a graceful figure and an air of strength.
Her petite and exquisite features, sharp eyes, and capable movements were completely different from the usual Li Cancan, but even more captivating.
Then, his eyes shifted to the others.
Their actions were extraordinary.
Meticulous, strong, determined, hardworking, and relentless—he could easily find these qualities in each of them.
Personality could indeed be disguised, but under extreme danger, true character would inevitably reveal itself. And these few people showcased the qualities he sought the most.
In that moment, Li Cangshan’s worries dissipated.
He wanted to partner with them.
Looking at the membership application, Li Cangshan pondered for a while. Instead of filling it out immediately, he set it aside.
Sometimes, waiting didn’t hinder progress but allowed for better development.
From now on, he would wait for their return, stand before them solemnly, and confess to Bai Lixin and the others.
Yes, he was doing it for the sake of the guild and the mission.
It had nothing to do with the beautiful and fierce Sister Cancan.
———————————
Ten minutes later, only zombie corpses remained in the passage. The densely packed zombies from earlier now lay dead on the ground, their messy corpses scattered throughout the corridor, leaving little space for everyone to move.
Li Cancan returned to her gentle appearance, shyly hiding at the back with a slightly pale face. Despite everyone being a little tired, they emerged from the battle without any casualties, securing a victory. Bai Lixin gave a thumbs up to the four of them and stepped forward, walking on the zombie corpses covering the ground.
As they were on the 16th underground floor, the temperature was significantly higher than on the surface.
Enduring the nauseating smell, the group followed Bai Lixin’s lead and pressed forward. Soon, they reached the end of the zombie-filled corridor and found a closed glass door, the only room on this floor.
Inside the room, they discovered a spacious laboratory with several test benches and various instruments and equipment scattered about haphazardly, indicating an interrupted experiment. A large display screen hanging on the wall had turned dark. Although they found nothing useful in the laboratory, they did discover a room at the back that stored liquid nitrogen.
Inside the room, amidst several corpses, there was a small, boxy container. The corpses, both men and women, were wearing white coats. One of the corpses tightly held the small box in its arms, which appeared to be a storage box for storing antigens. The bearded man bent down and was about to close the eyelids of one corpse when he let out a “huh” and quickly moved to observe the other corpses more closely. He soon stood up from the ground and exclaimed, “These corpses are actually zombies!”
“But it’s strange,” the bearded man puzzled, “I initially thought they were scientific researchers, but did they all get infected by zombies in the end? Did they hide here to protect their antigens and ended up killing themselves?”
Bai Lixin frowned, looking down at the corpses.
Since he entered the room and laid eyes on these corpses, he felt an inexplicable sadness in his heart. However, he was certain that this sorrow did not originate from within himself but rather from the influence of another presence.
If it wasn’t from him, then it was probably from the transparent crystal nucleus. His mind surged with something, followed by a flood of sadness that instantly overwhelmed his chest.
[Ding! Congratulations to the player! You have obtained a memory from the zombie.]
[Immersive memory playback will now commence.]
The voice of the escape system suddenly resounded, and countless memories that did not belong to him flooded in mercilessly, like a flood breaking through the gates.
He staggered and subconsciously leaned on the person around him for support. Those hands were slender and powerful and before Bai Lixin lost consciousness, he caught a glimpse of Dr. Sang’s shocked and worried eyes.
——————–
“Hey, it’s our bad luck that we got selected for this copy. It will be a narrow escape.”
Bai Lixin opened his eyes groggily, and he was met with a pair of innocent big eyes. The face was unfamiliar, but clearly the owner of this memory knew him.
His eyes uncontrollably shifted from side to side, and then he heard a young female voice close by saying, “Don’t be afraid. Just let it go. After all, we are all the same.” It was the owner of this memory.
And now, he was experiencing this memory from the perspective of its owner.
“Now, it’s the 30th year after the apocalypse. Let me see what our mission is.”
“It’s so difficult. I have to reach S rank within a month. Can I do it?”
“It’s like playing a game. Almost like leveling up by killing monsters, hahahaha.”
“We can form a team together. More people means more strength, and leveling up will be faster.”
The memory owner nodded. “Mm, okay.”
Several individuals in the conversation were players. From the memory owner’s perspective, Bai Lixin noticed that the number of participants in the copy this time was fewer than their current count of 200; there were only around fifty people.
The memory was erratic, and the surroundings jumped a few times. They were on the ark just moments ago, but now they found themselves on the battlefield, fighting against zombies.
The memory owner trembled as if frightened. When a zombie opened its mouth to bite her arm, another player rushed over to kill the zombie.
The battle was brutal, with an endless army of zombies and only a few players possessing abilities, the system death prompt repeatedly echoed.
In the end, only eight people survived the entire battlefield, and among them was the memory owner.
Just as the eight of them thought they were about to die, the surging army of zombies suddenly retreated.
The surviving players stood there in a daze. There was no joy in their hearts for having survived the ordeal but only despair after enduring constant physical and psychological torture.
Among the seven people Bai Lixin could see, those lying in the liquid nitrogen room were included.
One person asked hesitantly, “What should we do next? Should we go back?”
“We can’t go back!” another person interjected. “Although we’re still alive, we’re all injured. If we go back, these NPCs won’t save us; they’ll only kill us!”
Someone panicked, “Then what should we do? Just wait to become zombies, become walking dead?”
In the distance, the ark slowly opened, and several people in protective clothing descended.
The memory owner quickly suggested, “Let’s leave this place first. We can discuss what to do later, alright?”
The players exchanged glances for a few seconds before fleeing the battlefield with all their might.
They ran northward without stopping until they were confident that nobody was chasing them.
By this time, the two players who had been bitten already displayed pale faces, indicating their impending transformation.
As everyone fell into despair, a charming figure approached them against the wind and snow.
Her hair was as thick as seaweed, and her pale body was adorned with elegant black patterns.
It was the zombie queen.
Everyone looked at her in shock, and Bai Lixin sensed fear from the memory owner as well.
Just as all the players felt hopeless, “she” spoke slowly, “I can save you.” With that, the zombie queen gently cut her wrist with her fingernails, and crystal-clear red blood immediately flowed out.
The blood dripped onto the snow and transformed into blossoming red plums, creating a peculiar and beautiful sight.
The zombie queen put her wrists together, saying, “I regret to inform you that all of you have been infected with the zombie virus.”
The faces of everyone turned pale.
The zombie queen continued, “I can’t eliminate the zombie virus from your bodies, but my blood can inhibit its spread. By drinking my blood, although you will still become zombies, your willpower won’t change.”
Just as everyone began to doubt, the two previously bitten players suddenly went berserk, showing signs of transformation and attempting to bite. They roared like maniacs, but their eyes were fixated on the zombie queen’s blood, and they greedily moving towards her wound to drink.
In the blink of an eye, after consuming the blood, the two regained their senses.
The Zombie Queen smiled and asked, “Do you believe what I said?”
One player questioned, “But why are you helping us? Judging by your appearance, you’re obviously a high-level zombie, right?”
The Zombie Queen replied, “Because I need you. I want to rid myself of the zombie disease just like you.”
“Everything I do isn’t an act of charity. I’m saving you, but in return, you have to help me. Although my blood can suppress the toxins, I still need to replenish it regularly. During this time, you must use my blood to develop antibodies and antidotes for the zombie virus.”
“If you succeed in creating an antidote, you can transform back into humans. If you’re willing, come and drink my blood. We’ll make a pact. Next, I’ll take you to the secret laboratory I found, where we’ll be safe.”
“But if you refuse, I’ll leave you to fend for yourselves right now.”
The Zombie Queen stretched out her arms and smiled faintly, saying, “You have only one chance to choose, so seize it, my little cuties.”
The players looked at each other, finally nodded at each other, and gathered around the zombie queen…
———————
The screen in front of Bai Lixin jumped again, and when the screen reappeared, the surrounding scene had changed into a laboratory.
A white-eyed man in a white coat stared at the huge and cumbersome instruments in front of him and said, “Hey, in more than 20 years, we spent seven or eight years learning theoretical knowledge, but after so many years, we are still half-baked.”
A rumbling sound emanated from beneath everyone’s feet, and a hidden elevator suddenly appeared on the wall of the circular room.
The bearded man surveyed the open elevator and remarked, “Are all the laboratories secretly built underground? Do we always have to take the elevator?”
“After all, the ground can bury many things,” Zhou Guang said solemnly. “Such as secrets and death.”
When boarding the elevator, Bai Lixin glanced at the discreet gilded engraving on the side of the elevator, revealing the date S3013. It seemed that the laboratory was completed after the zombie outbreak.
The elevator buttons only had two options, 1 and -16.
The bald man quickly pressed -16, and the elevator door closed slowly before descending.
Inside the elevator, there were countless bloodstains but no corpses.
Zhou Guang retrieved a self-defense knife from his waist and warned, “There are probably zombies down there. Everyone, prepare to fight. Those seeking revenge, those seeking release—don’t die.”
The bearded man covered his face with his hands and laughed. The bracelet made of hair shimmered, and he said, “I won’t be killed by these thugs. I haven’t lived long enough.”
As the elevator approached the -16th floor, its speed gradually slowed down.
In the narrow, cramped space, everyone waited solemnly, their gazes fixed on the closed silver metal door with vigilance.
Even through the metal door, they could hear the growls and roars of the zombies.
Finally, the elevator came to a halt.
The noise outside the door grew louder, and the sound of zombies scratching their fingernails on the elevator door filled the air. Their anxious voices seemed desperate to break open the metallic enclosure.
As the elevator doors opened, the bearded man was the first to rush out.
His eyes flashed with a cold light as the strong muscles in his body tensed. With a knife in hand, he swiftly pierced the foreheads of two grotesque zombies and retrieved their crystal nuclei.
In the passage outside, an army of hundreds of zombies awaited. They had horrifying and repulsive decayed faces, their bodies twisted as they lunged at everyone.
The others followed, rushing out after him.
“Just in time!” Xia Chi’s eyes glinted with murderous intent. His usually sunny face now wore an icy expression as he agilely leaped atop the zombies’ heads. Every time he landed, a zombie’s corpse would be left in his wake. “I’ve been seething with anger from up there, worried I wouldn’t have an outlet. You fools came to die just in time!”
Bai Lixin quietly observed while decapitating zombies.
Zhou Guang, though not particularly strong, displayed competent fighting skills. While he usually relied on his intellect, he showed no fear in the face of these zombies.
Although he lacked Xia Chi’s strength and agility, he made up for it with his intelligence.
The mindless zombies couldn’t even touch Zhou Guang’s clothes. He anticipated their attacks with remarkable speed, finding the perfect blind spots and positions to strike.
Liang Xi was slightly weaker in terms of strength, but he wasn’t foolish. He knew he couldn’t match the zombies’ strength head-on, so he picked off the weaker targets. After a while, he had also dispatched numerous zombies.
Li Cancan surprised Bai Lixin the most. Li Cancan always emanated a gentle and affectionate aura. She possessed a delicate mind, and one would assume her physical strength would be the weakest among the four.
But in that moment, Li Cancan’s agility rivaled Xia Chi’s.
When she switched to attack mode, she transformed from her usual gentleness into a mesmerizing ruthlessness.
Her watery eyes now burned with an internal storm.
——————–
In the live broadcast room:
[Team ShowTime is here! Sister Cancan is so strong, Xia Chi is so handsome! Brother Guang is so wise! Liang Xi is so cute. I love all four of them!]
[Fuck, the Core Fire Guild’s Big Four truly live up to their reputation. They’re incredibly strong.]
[So they’re this powerful even without skills and abilities? I thought their strength came from rare skills due to their good fortune. Damn, I made a false assumption.]
[Core Fire Guild F4, fighting!]
Li Cangshan wasn’t surprised when he received yet another rejection application from the Core Fire Guild. This marked his thirteenth application.
Looking at the rejection letters piled up in the recycle bin, he sighed wryly, searched the guild list, and began searching for new partners.
Although the Core Fire Guild seemed like the most suitable option, he couldn’t gain entry, which meant he couldn’t take the first step.
He couldn’t afford to waste any more time.
While browsing other guilds, his eyes froze for a moment as they focused on the live broadcast on his computer.
In that instant, his gaze became fixated on a girl with a graceful figure and an air of strength.
Her petite and exquisite features, sharp eyes, and capable movements were completely different from the usual Li Cancan, but even more captivating.
Then, his eyes shifted to the others.
Their actions were extraordinary.
Meticulous, strong, determined, hardworking, and relentless—he could easily find these qualities in each of them.
Personality could indeed be disguised, but under extreme danger, true character would inevitably reveal itself. And these few people showcased the qualities he sought the most.
In that moment, Li Cangshan’s worries dissipated.
He wanted to partner with them.
Looking at the membership application, Li Cangshan pondered for a while. Instead of filling it out immediately, he set it aside.
Sometimes, waiting didn’t hinder progress but allowed for better development.
From now on, he would wait for their return, stand before them solemnly, and confess to Bai Lixin and the others.
Yes, he was doing it for the sake of the guild and the mission.
It had nothing to do with the beautiful and fierce Sister Cancan.
———————————
Ten minutes later, only zombie corpses remained in the passage. The densely packed zombies from earlier now lay dead on the ground, their messy corpses scattered throughout the corridor, leaving little space for everyone to move.
Li Cancan returned to her gentle appearance, shyly hiding at the back with a slightly pale face. Despite everyone being a little tired, they emerged from the battle without any casualties, securing a victory. Bai Lixin gave a thumbs up to the four of them and stepped forward, walking on the zombie corpses covering the ground.
As they were on the 16th underground floor, the temperature was significantly higher than on the surface.
Enduring the nauseating smell, the group followed Bai Lixin’s lead and pressed forward. Soon, they reached the end of the zombie-filled corridor and found a closed glass door, the only room on this floor.
Inside the room, they discovered a spacious laboratory with several test benches and various instruments and equipment scattered about haphazardly, indicating an interrupted experiment. A large display screen hanging on the wall had turned dark. Although they found nothing useful in the laboratory, they did discover a room at the back that stored liquid nitrogen.
Inside the room, amidst several corpses, there was a small, boxy container. The corpses, both men and women, were wearing white coats. One of the corpses tightly held the small box in its arms, which appeared to be a storage box for storing antigens. The bearded man bent down and was about to close the eyelids of one corpse when he let out a “huh” and quickly moved to observe the other corpses more closely. He soon stood up from the ground and exclaimed, “These corpses are actually zombies!”
“But it’s strange,” the bearded man puzzled, “I initially thought they were scientific researchers, but did they all get infected by zombies in the end? Did they hide here to protect their antigens and ended up killing themselves?”
Bai Lixin frowned, looking down at the corpses.
Since he entered the room and laid eyes on these corpses, he felt an inexplicable sadness in his heart. However, he was certain that this sorrow did not originate from within himself but rather from the influence of another presence.
If it wasn’t from him, then it was probably from the transparent crystal nucleus. His mind surged with something, followed by a flood of sadness that instantly overwhelmed his chest.
[Ding! Congratulations to the player! You have obtained a memory from the zombie.]
[Immersive memory playback will now commence.]
The voice of the escape system suddenly resounded, and countless memories that did not belong to him flooded in mercilessly, like a flood breaking through the gates.
He staggered and subconsciously leaned on the person around him for support. Those hands were slender and powerful and before Bai Lixin lost consciousness, he caught a glimpse of Dr. Sang’s shocked and worried eyes.
——————–
“Hey, it’s our bad luck that we got selected for this copy. It will be a narrow escape.”
Bai Lixin opened his eyes groggily, and he was met with a pair of innocent big eyes. The face was unfamiliar, but clearly the owner of this memory knew him.
His eyes uncontrollably shifted from side to side, and then he heard a young female voice close by saying, “Don’t be afraid. Just let it go. After all, we are all the same.” It was the owner of this memory.
And now, he was experiencing this memory from the perspective of its owner.
“Now, it’s the 30th year after the apocalypse. Let me see what our mission is.”
“It’s so difficult. I have to reach S rank within a month. Can I do it?”
“It’s like playing a game. Almost like leveling up by killing monsters, hahahaha.”
“We can form a team together. More people means more strength, and leveling up will be faster.”
The memory owner nodded. “Mm, okay.”
Several individuals in the conversation were players. From the memory owner’s perspective, Bai Lixin noticed that the number of participants in the copy this time was fewer than their current count of 200; there were only around fifty people.
The memory was erratic, and the surroundings jumped a few times. They were on the ark just moments ago, but now they found themselves on the battlefield, fighting against zombies.
The memory owner trembled as if frightened. When a zombie opened its mouth to bite her arm, another player rushed over to kill the zombie.
The battle was brutal, with an endless army of zombies and only a few players possessing abilities, the system death prompt repeatedly echoed.
In the end, only eight people survived the entire battlefield, and among them was the memory owner.
Just as the eight of them thought they were about to die, the surging army of zombies suddenly retreated.
The surviving players stood there in a daze. There was no joy in their hearts for having survived the ordeal but only despair after enduring constant physical and psychological torture.
Among the seven people Bai Lixin could see, those lying in the liquid nitrogen room were included.
One person asked hesitantly, “What should we do next? Should we go back?”
“We can’t go back!” another person interjected. “Although we’re still alive, we’re all injured. If we go back, these NPCs won’t save us; they’ll only kill us!”
Someone panicked, “Then what should we do? Just wait to become zombies, become walking dead?”
In the distance, the ark slowly opened, and several people in protective clothing descended.
The memory owner quickly suggested, “Let’s leave this place first. We can discuss what to do later, alright?”
The players exchanged glances for a few seconds before fleeing the battlefield with all their might.
They ran northward without stopping until they were confident that nobody was chasing them.
By this time, the two players who had been bitten already displayed pale faces, indicating their impending transformation.
As everyone fell into despair, a charming figure approached them against the wind and snow.
Her hair was as thick as seaweed, and her pale body was adorned with elegant black patterns.
It was the zombie queen.
Everyone looked at her in shock, and Bai Lixin sensed fear from the memory owner as well.
Just as all the players felt hopeless, “she” spoke slowly, “I can save you.” With that, the zombie queen gently cut her wrist with her fingernails, and crystal-clear red blood immediately flowed out.
The blood dripped onto the snow and transformed into blossoming red plums, creating a peculiar and beautiful sight.
The zombie queen put her wrists together, saying, “I regret to inform you that all of you have been infected with the zombie virus.”
The faces of everyone turned pale.
The zombie queen continued, “I can’t eliminate the zombie virus from your bodies, but my blood can inhibit its spread. By drinking my blood, although you will still become zombies, your willpower won’t change.”
Just as everyone began to doubt, the two previously bitten players suddenly went berserk, showing signs of transformation and attempting to bite. They roared like maniacs, but their eyes were fixated on the zombie queen’s blood, and they greedily moving towards her wound to drink.
In the blink of an eye, after consuming the blood, the two regained their senses.
The Zombie Queen smiled and asked, “Do you believe what I said?”
One player questioned, “But why are you helping us? Judging by your appearance, you’re obviously a high-level zombie, right?”
The Zombie Queen replied, “Because I need you. I want to rid myself of the zombie disease just like you.”
“Everything I do isn’t an act of charity. I’m saving you, but in return, you have to help me. Although my blood can suppress the toxins, I still need to replenish it regularly. During this time, you must use my blood to develop antibodies and antidotes for the zombie virus.”
“If you succeed in creating an antidote, you can transform back into humans. If you’re willing, come and drink my blood. We’ll make a pact. Next, I’ll take you to the secret laboratory I found, where we’ll be safe.”
“But if you refuse, I’ll leave you to fend for yourselves right now.”
The Zombie Queen stretched out her arms and smiled faintly, saying, “You have only one chance to choose, so seize it, my little cuties.”
The players looked at each other, finally nodded at each other, and gathered around the zombie queen…
———————
The screen in front of Bai Lixin jumped again, and when the screen reappeared, the surrounding scene had changed into a laboratory.
A white-eyed man in a white coat stared at the huge and cumbersome instruments in front of him and said, “Hey, in more than 20 years, we spent seven or eight years learning theoretical knowledge, but after so many years, we are still half-baked.”
