The time reached 11 PM.
Everyone was getting sleepy from chatting; even Luo Shu and Zhou Xiaojun, the most talkative, yawned.
After deciding to follow the overnight watch schedule arranged the previous day,
Zhou Xiaojun began his first shift, and the others went to sleep.
The room returned to a darkness-like calm.
But a few knocks on the door shattered this peace.
"Open the door!" came several hurried knocks.
A familiar voice from outside called out, "Open the door quickly! Something's wrong at the base!" It sounded very much like a soldier they had met before.
"What's wrong?" Zhou Xiaojun opened the door.
To his surprise, the person at the door wasn't the soldier he had seen earlier.
A figure was unexpectedly pushed into his arms.
Immediately after, several figures outside grabbed the doorknob and slammed the door shut.
The sound of a key locking the door was heard from outside.
"Not bad, kid. This plan wasn't just hatched in a day or two, was it? You even got this room's key. Locked from the outside? You're something else!"
"Not at all, it's all thanks to you, Big Brother. You could mimic that soldier's voice so well; otherwise, they might not have opened the door."
"I warned you before that this person couldn't be kept. Since you ignored my words, you can deal with him alone. Don't let him reanimate and harm people later."
The loud noise woke everyone in the room.
Luo Xiaole recognized the voice—it was the person who had caused trouble on the bus earlier. What was he up to now?
Zhou Xiaojun came back to his senses, feeling the person in his arms had an abnormally high temperature.
He pushed the person towards a corner, and by the moonlight, he finally saw who it was.
"Chen Xiaolin?" Everyone recognized him as the person who had been trembling at the back of the bus. He was trembling even more now.
"Oh no, is he going to reanimate?" The mother looked at him, fearful.
Luo Xiaole focused, her expression serious, and peered intently at the person's forehead.
On his head, there was indeed a never-before-seen, gray vortex.
It wasn't the white of an ability user, nor the black of a zombie.
It was pure, grayish-white.
...
Meanwhile, outside, several stealthy figures slowly crept up to the third floor.
It was Da Beitou and his group.
"Boss, are we really going to do this?"
"Nonsense, didn't Zuo Ran say that if we do this well for her, she'll speak well of us to Brother Cheng? At least we won't have to sleep on those dirty bunk beds downstairs! And we'll get enough supplies. Only fools wouldn't do it!"
Having witnessed countless twists and turns along the way, Da Beitou was beginning to feel that Luo Xiaole was indeed somewhat admirable.
However, if helping Zuo Ran would allow him to live better and improve his quality of life, he wouldn't refuse.
"Sorry about this, little sprout!"
He gritted his teeth, his eyes hardening.
"Attack!"
With his command, he and the two brothers with him, following the incantation Zuo Ran had overheard, placed their palms on a specific spot she had indicated.
Indeed, they felt a transparent barrier, like a smooth surface, adhere to their palms.
"Chant the activation phrase!" Da Beitou ordered.
Zuo Ran had said that without Brother Cheng himself, the protective barrier couldn't be fully activated.
But if several ability users chanted the activation phrase simultaneously, they might be able to force open a small gap in the barrier and let in a few zombies.
Da Beitou's eyes held a hint of resentment. Brother Cheng wouldn't easily reveal this information.
Yet Zuo Ran had managed to extract such crucial information from Brother Cheng in just two or three days.
It seemed Zuo Ran truly appealed to Brother Cheng's tastes...
The three of them chanted the phrase repeatedly, and cold sweat broke out on their brows.
They felt the protective barrier constantly absorbing the strength from their bodies.
Worst of all, when they placed their hands on it, they couldn't take them off.
"Damn it, what is this thing!" Da Beitou gritted his teeth, their strength almost completely drained!
Just as their internal strength was depleted, and they were about to collapse from exhaustion,
the protective barrier suddenly stopped absorbing.
Then, their brows relaxed, and their faces lit up with joy. They clearly felt a large crack appear in the protective barrier they were touching.
"It's done!"
Da Beitou was overjoyed. "Retreat!"
"Screeeech..."
The sound of fingernails scraping against the wall suddenly rang out.
Something was behind them.
Da Beitou swallowed, a lump in his throat. This was the third floor, how could there be the sound of zombie fingernails scraping...
He slowly turned around.
At the scene before him, his pupils contracted sharply. A sharp claw shot out from the crack,
gouging out his eyeballs!
Immediately after, his head and those of his two brothers, almost simultaneously, flew off, at uneven lengths.
They landed heavily on the ground.
Expressions of terror were frozen on their faces.
A distorted voice emerged directly from the crack.
Da Beitou and his two companions had never imagined that the rift they had torn open would let in not ordinary zombies.
But two Stalkers...
...
Zhou Xiaojun looked at Chen Xiaolin with a complicated expression.
"Xiaole, so now, do we... have to take care of him?"
He was the one who had brought Chen Xiaolin into the group. Although they hadn't spent much time together, and they had gradually grown distant later,
he still felt a pang of sadness as they reached this point.
"Not for now," Luo Xiaole said, looking at the gray vortex above his head, which hadn't changed.
Most importantly, there were no signs of rigor mortis being triggered.
In other words, Chen Xiaolin posed no threat to them, according to the system's judgment.
"But..." The mother shielded her child, her eyes full of worry. "Having him stay in the room like this still makes me uneasy. Why don't we let him go out for now?"
Luo Xiaole nodded. If everyone was uneasy, letting him out was fine; there were probably empty rooms next door anyway.
She took out her small knife, reinforced with the World-Ending Blade.
Preparing to do her usual "locksmith" duty, she intended to simply split the door open.
Just as she was about to make a move,
"Ah!"
"Don't come any closer!"
"Help!" Several sharp screams echoed from outside the door in unison.
"Splat!" The sound of flesh being torn apart also erupted simultaneously.
The sound of zombies gnawing amplified infinitely in the night.
Everyone's expressions turned grim.
What was going on? How could there be zombies in the base out of nowhere?
"Screeeech!"
The sharp claws of a zombie echoed against a room door not far from them.
The sound of the door being ripped apart sent chills down their spines.
Immediately, the sound of another beast's running footsteps echoed down the corridor, heading straight for that room.
"Ah!!!" The person's scream had barely escaped before their throat was torn apart by sharp claws.
"Oh no... Hearing that sound... it's a Stalker!" Luo Xiaole blurted out.
They had encountered Stalkers up close more than once.
She was all too familiar with this sound.
The two Stalkers quickly tore apart another room next door.
The next one would be Luo Xiaole's room.
Everyone held their breath. Mo Chen had his dual blades in hand, and everyone else had drawn their sharpest weapons. They swallowed, watching the door nervously.
Luo Xiaole also took out her miniature Strawberry Bear doll, preparing to put it on.
"Roar..." The Stalker let out a roar at their doorstep.
"Roar..." Chen Xiaolin, leaning against the door, responded with a roar similar to the Stalker's.
Unexpectedly, after a few seconds, the Stalker seemed to lose its target and left their doorway.