"What? A high fever?"
"Heavens! Then she's not..."
Everyone around had seen the corpse that had reanimated due to a high fever in the stadium.
A sudden chill of dread surged through them.
They all got up, scrambling to get away.
"You guys don't..." Xu Lingyan was already delirious from the fever.
But seeing everyone else backing away, she still felt a sense of helplessness in her eyes.
"I'll be... fine..." she rasped, her voice barely a whisper.
"Who believes you! What if you suddenly mutate tonight and bite everyone!" Fearful eyes were cast her way.
"Zuo Ran... you... say something for me..." Xu Lingyan looked at Zuo Ran in despair.
"This is a matter of life and death for everyone." Zuo Ran's gaze darted away.
She stood up and retreated even further to the side.
"Don't be afraid." Qin Mingyang seemed to have overheard their conversation.
He instantly understood what was happening.
He continued to speak in his usual gentle and refined tone, "After a high fever, some people may reanimate as corpses, while others may awaken abilities." He flicked his right hand and glanced at the special forces soldier to his right.
Luo Xiaole seemed to grasp something. So, the special forces soldier beside Qin Mingyang awakened his abilities this way, right?
There were ability users around, perhaps more than one.
It seemed approaching Qin Mingyang wouldn't be easy...
"You might as well send her downstairs and let her be alone. If she doesn't reanimate after a certain time, congratulations, you'll have gained another ability user."
The others found Qin Mingyang's suggestion reasonable.
If she became an ability user, wouldn't that make their team more secure?
Besides, Mo Chen and Qin Mingyang were here.
The cannon would be aimed directly at the stairwell.
If Xu Lingyan turned into a zombie, Mo Chen could take her down with one strike.
Luo Xiaole observed the expressions of the others from the side.
Except for Luo Shu, Mo Chen, and Zhou Xiaojun, the rest had calculations in their eyes.
Zhu Hui's gaze was not on Xu Lingyan at all; she stared at Qin Mingyang with eyes full of admiration.
Luo Xiaole felt a chill down her spine.
Companions were kept only if they had value. Those without, it didn't matter if they were abandoned.
Moreover, they were all wearing clothes reinforced by Luo Xiaole's defenses.
They had even considered abandoning their companions earlier, not intending to use them.
Luo Xiaole shook her head. In this apocalypse, human nature was truly untrustworthy.
Xu Lingyan was already burning with fever and was almost incoherent. At this point, she didn't care about anything else. As long as she could survive, she would agree to any arrangement.
So she nodded frantically, agreeing to Qin Mingyang's plan.
In the end, it was Luo Shu and Zhou Xiaojun who got up to help her downstairs.
Of course, they would not expose the parts of their necks that were not covered by their clothes to Xu Lingyan's sight.
This was to prevent her from reanimating and crazily biting them.
Zhu Hui was placed on the platform of the bell tower downstairs by the two.
At this moment, she was disheartened, lying there trembling.
In a daze, she seemed to see a rather strange figure clinging to the bell tower opposite her.
Through the large bell, it revealed incredibly sharp fangs and opened its mouth, about to attack her!
She suppressed a scream, fearing that if she screamed now, the people upstairs would mistake her for a zombie.
She then turned her back to the bell and the figure.
They had checked the bell tower when they came up. It was sealed, so how could a zombie get in?
She silently told herself that it was all an illusion, that she was feverish.
Behind her, the oddly shaped dark shadow pounced forward with excitement!
As it passed the bell, it stomped hard!
*Scrape*
A sound of flesh being torn open echoed behind Xu Lingyan.
Immediately after, a dark figure was split in half from the middle!
Dead instantly!
Dragging its weak body, it fell behind the bell.
Xu Lingyan only turned around when she heard no more sounds from behind.
She looked and indeed, there was nothing there.
The dark shadow she saw earlier was indeed her hallucination...
...
"Heavens! Look!"
On the platform upstairs.
Someone suddenly leaned over the platform wall and exclaimed.
"What is it, what is it!" Others also rushed to the wall, craning their necks to look down.
Upon seeing this, several people gasped and covered their mouths.
In just two days.
How had so many zombies suddenly gathered downstairs?
The zombies seemed to know there were people inside, as they were all sticking their heads through the door cracks, trying to squeeze in.
"Wh-what do we do now!" someone began to panic.
Luo Xiaole found an opening and looked down at the zombies.
She propped her chin on her hand, lost in thought.
From when they were outside the convenience store, chased into the school by a horde of zombies, and on the run.
These zombies seemed to be acting in an orderly and commanded fashion.
And now they were so sure there were people in the bell tower...
Could it be... someone among them could attract zombies?
She was shocked by her own thought.
If that were the case, no matter where they fled, wouldn't they always be pursued by zombies?
The group, having gone through the ordeal, dared not lie down for the time being.
The accumulating zombies downstairs looked extremely eerie.
They also feared someone might get a high fever inexplicably at night, and the night watch wouldn't notice.
So they sat up, leaning against each other, and started chatting.
Luo Xiaole continued to huddle in the corner, half-closing one eye as if pretending to doze.
With the other eye, she cautiously observed Qin Mingyang's direction.
Although she hadn't found anything unusual in the past two days.
She had no intention of letting her guard down.
She had come here with such determination for two reasons: one was to level up, and the other was to search for clues about this ring.
She always felt that Qin Mingyang had a deep mind and was definitely not as gentle as he appeared on the surface.
She watched for another entire night and noticed Qin Mingyang repeatedly checking his watch.
Qin Mingyang would make his next move soon, Luo Xiaole thought.
Zhu Hui, beside her, also noticed that Luo Xiaole kept looking at Qin Mingyang.
She instantly felt a pang of displeasure.
...
Finally, as the sky began to show the pale white of dawn.
"Mmm..."
A faint groan came from downstairs.
Everyone listened to the sound of someone staggering up the stairs, their hearts tightening slightly.
Was it Xu Lingyan?
Was she alright? Or had she already turned into a zombie?
Mo Chen's eyes remained closed.
But his long saber was already quietly unsheathed.
Qin Mingyang also heard the sound and waved his hand. The silencer gun of the special forces soldier beside him was instantly raised.
Everyone's attention instantly focused on the stairwell leading to this floor.
A girl with disheveled hair, head bowed, stumbled forward.
It was Xu Lingyan.
The trigger was about to be pulled.
"Don't... don't shoot... it's me!" Xu Lingyan finally managed to say weakly.
Everyone saw that although her clothes were messy, her mind was relatively clear.
She didn't seem to have reanimated.
"Then Lingyan, did you activate your abilities?" Zuo Ran happily stepped forward then, linking her arm.
Xu Lingyan glanced at her, but the rift in her heart instantly disappeared.
She thought to herself that her hiding was only natural, and there was nothing to blame her for.
She looked at her hands, "Anyway, my fever has subsided... I should have... awakened something? It's just that I haven't discovered what my ability is yet..." She sounded a little disappointed.
"It doesn't matter, as long as you have an ability, it's very powerful." Zuo Ran continued to encourage her, her eyes smiling sweetly.
She responded with a friendly smile.
Then she looked at Qin Mingyang and bowed gratefully.
She had been burning so severely at the time, and everyone thought she would surely reanimate.
It was Qin Mingyang who gave her a chance to transform.
She was immediately filled with gratitude towards Young Master Qin.
Luo Xiaole yawned. Seeing that the crisis had passed and everything was fine.
Just as she was about to take a nap to catch up on sleep.
She heard.
On the wall behind Xu Lingyan.
A strange scraping sound.
Luo Xiaole woke up instantly.
She rubbed her eyes and remained motionless, staring at the wall.
Not long after, she saw a dark green hand slowly gripping the edge of the wall.
"Xu Lingyan, fall back! There's something by the wall!" Luo Xiaole called out.
Xu Lingyan heard the sound and took a step forward abruptly.
She saw a zombie with a remarkably familiar appearance crawling up the wall...
A grotesque head appeared on the edge of the wall!