"Let's just take him with us, he's alone anyway and won't eat much," Xu Ling Yan said, her heart softening at his pleading eyes.
"Alright, alright. Then you follow us, no funny business, and do exactly as we say, understand?" Luo Shu, seeing Mo Chen's brow furrowing deeper as he gazed outside, didn't want to drag it out any further.
Li Wen nodded ecstatically.
...
"Swish! Swish!"
Before the two zombies at the doorway could even see a living person, their heads were stabbed twice from behind.
They fell limply.
Luo Xiao Le once again witnessed Mo Chen's combat prowess firsthand, and it was impossible not to feel a pang of envy.
She was also curious. This was a modern, civilized society governed by law.
Even if she had wanted to learn boxing or self-defense before, it wouldn't have resulted in such decisive, kill-or-be-killed skills.
His every move was like that of a seasoned fighter, each strike aimed at a vital point.
What had he experienced before to become who he was today?
Mo Chen pulled his small knife from the skulls of the two corpses, wiping it with slight disdain on the ground beside him.
He continued to stride forward, eliminating the zombies surrounding the doorway one by one.
Luo Xiao Le cautiously stepped out of the doorway and found that her 'stiffening' ability had not been triggered again in the short time.
She couldn't help but feel her preemptive measure to avoid danger was incredibly clever!
But as they brandished their weapons, following Mo Chen to clear the zombies from the convenience store entrance, and prepared to retreat...
"You... you guys, look over there...!" someone in the group cried out in terror.
"Oh, my heavens..." Luo Shu's eyes, which had lacked double eyelids for years, suddenly widened like light bulbs.
In the distance, a throng of zombies was rapidly growing into an enormous horde, forming a surrounding encirclement and charging towards the convenience store with a menacing momentum.
So that's what Mo Chen had seen earlier...
The zombie horde, a dark, oppressive mass, was like a giant black cloud, brutally devouring everyone's last shred of hope.
The roars of the zombies amplified, falling on their ears with a chilling dread.
"A zombie horde..." It really was a zombie horde! It was already upon them!
"What are you waiting for? Run! Let's get into the school!" Luo Shu yelled, her voice cracking.
Luo Xiao Le's heart tightened.
A sense of unease rapidly amplified.
It was bad. They needed to leave quickly before the new danger arrived, otherwise her 'stiffening' might be triggered.
So she broke into a run, gritted her teeth, and followed the others as fast as she could.
...
Meanwhile, on another street not far from them, there were no signs of large-scale zombie activity.
A man with a buzz cut sat in a meticulously modified off-road vehicle, its engine noise kept to a minimum.
He pulled out another cigar, lit it slowly, and exhaled deeply.
His binoculars ominously fixed on the entrance of Qin Yang University.
Upon seeing the approaching horde in the distance, he grudgingly lowered his binoculars.
After a long pause, he uttered a low word. "Go."
"Boss? We're not following them anymore?"
The man ignored his subordinate's question and picked up a bottle of champagne from beside his seat.
"The zombie horde is here. Their chances of survival entering the school are slim."
He then sniffed the rim of the glass slightly before swallowing a small sip of the golden liquid.
"We'll circle around the outskirts of the school. I refuse to believe they won't come out eventually.
We'll catch them then."
He was determined to succeed.
...
On the other side, Luo Xiao Le, having narrowly escaped the zombies behind her and entered the school, braked abruptly upon seeing the scene ahead.
The sports field ahead was also filled with countless scattered zombies!
How was she supposed to survive this!
Xu Ling Yan and the others, running at the rear, were terrified by the pursuing zombies!
They hadn't faced so many zombies even in the aisle next to the supermarket!
"It's over, it's over, it's over..." she muttered incessantly.
She saw that some people ahead still had the energy to stop and rest. The exceptionally frail Luo Xiao Le suddenly struck her as an eyesore.
Why did that matchstick always manage to get ahead of them!
Just like now, as the zombies behind them closed in, that matchstick would be fine, but they were about to run out of steam!
Why should they be the ones bitten!
A surge of wicked anger suddenly erupted within Xu Ling Yan.
Even if they all died here today, she wouldn't let that little matchstick escape alone.
She would drag Luo Xiao Le down with them!
Taking advantage of the pause ahead, Xu Ling Yan and her group hurried to catch up with the main group.
She quietly crept up to Luo Xiao Le's side.
"Roar?" The zombies on the sports field, hearing the commotion at the entrance, all turned their heads.
They bared their fangs, their mouths dripping with saliva, looking at them with excitement.
"Left, left! There are fewer zombies on the left!" Since they had already been discovered, Luo Shu simply shouted to remind everyone.
The right and rear of the group were blocked, so everyone had no choice but to flee wildly towards the left, in the direction Luo Shu indicated.
Luo Xiao Le felt her heart pounding faster for no reason.
When she saw Xu Ling Yan suddenly appear beside her, looking at her with a subtly hostile gaze, she felt a chill run down her spine.
At that very moment, she inexplicably reached into her pocket.
While tightly clutching the strawberry bear in her pocket, she followed the main group, running forward without looking back.
She was currently in the middle of the group. The sports field was vast, and although there were many zombies, they hadn't surrounded them yet.
Once the encirclement tightened, her 'stiffening' system would likely be activated.
She was contemplating how she would run later.
Suddenly, an extremely forceful shove came from the side, and someone pushed her hard. She stumbled and fell into a gap between flower beds.
As she fell, the strawberry bear plush toy she was holding slipped out of her hand and instantly transformed into its original giant size, perfectly enveloping her.
The gap in the flower bed was neither too big nor too small.
Luo Xiao Le, who had transformed into the plush bear, was perfectly wedged inside.
At the same time, she triggered her 'stiffening' ability.
Because the zombies behind her had already eagerly caught up, they were less than a meter away!
Luo Xiao Le lay there motionless, like a corpse, wrapped in the plush bear.
The five-minute countdown began.
Predators are always more interested in fleeing prey.
Countless zombies chased after the surging main group ahead.
They sprang past Luo Xiao Le, snarling and clawing.
After all, no zombie would abandon the seemingly easy meal ahead to become interested in a motionless plush toy that gave off no discernible scent.
Luo Xiao Le felt her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
This feeling of playing dead amongst a pack of sharks was incredibly thrilling...
Only one zombie, with an eye already fallen out and dangling limply, its nose mutated to be unusually large,
seemed to have caught a human scent and was slowly approaching the strawberry bear Luo Xiao Le.
It sniffed around Luo Xiao Le's plush toy, investigating closely...
Finding it truly bizarre, it decided to take a bite.
With that bite...
Not only had its eye been lost, but now its mouth was gone too!
...
Mo Chen's combat skills were impressive, but even they had human limits.
Facing a zombie horde on the scale of the sports field, he too furrowed his brow, struggling to keep up.
He cast a small glance in Luo Xiao Le's direction.
But at some point, the person in his sight had vanished into thin air?
His heart sank.
He froze for a second.
Zhou Xiao Jun abruptly pulled him. "What are you doing? Still spacing out? Old Mo, don't you want to live?"
"Aaaahhhhh!"
A few girls at the end of the group suddenly let out piercing screams.
Unbeknownst to them, they had been caught by zombies. One was now being held tightly by the zombies behind her. With a fierce bite and a pull!
She was literally torn apart!
Her intestines still hung in the air, dragged away by the pursuing zombies with bloody mouths.
"Ah..." Xu Ling Yan watched the gruesome scene behind them, her mind filled with terror.
"Ah! Don't come near!"
Her best friend in the group, Xiao Lan, had a chunk of flesh bitten off by a zombie that suddenly leaped out from the side!
Xiao Lan's eyes, filled with a desperate will to live, stared intently at Xu Ling Yan.