Chapter 057: A Sleepless Night

“Second-stage infected, is it?”
The gleaming arc of the blade shattered the silence of the long night. Blood spurted wildly from the infected zombie that had been killing before Su Cheng, a gaping wound torn open across its chest, revealing the decayed organs within.
The creature’s skin was entirely rotten away, making it look like a skinned bullfrog—its features barely recognizable as those of a woman.
Roar!
Sensing danger from the human before it, the zombie’s eyes glowed green as it let out a low, threatening snarl. Unlike the mindless aggression of lesser infected, it did not charge recklessly. Realizing Su Cheng was not easy prey, it leapt for the window, trying to escape.
Trying to get away?
Just as the zombie lunged for the window, a line of blood blossomed across its neck. Its head slammed into the glass with a thud, then fell to the floor, rolling to a stop at Su Cheng’s feet, its eyes wide open in a final, unyielding glare.
“Uncle Hechuan, Sister Mikiko…”
Eri Shoubashi seemed to recognize the zombie’s former identity. She covered her mouth in terror, tears brimming in her eyes.
“This is no time to grieve. The other zombies are closing in.”
Su Cheng glanced out the window at the shadowy figures converging, raised the Windshadow Blade, and stepped before Eri.
He hadn’t expected the bio-plague to spread so swiftly; it seemed even this part of Joto Ward was no longer safe.
With Tokyo’s dense population and the army sealing off the city, it was likely that soon over half the city would be infected.
Bang!
Glass shattered. Several hideous zombies broke into the room.
But before they could spot the living, they were met with a powerful slash.
Whirling Sword Dance!
A terrifying aura of slaughter filled the air as a crescent-shaped blade light swept out from Su Cheng, slicing through the zombies. Everything below their waists was severed, their bodies writhing like maggots on the ground.
Ordinary first-stage infected are only a bit stronger than normal people and move a little faster; with a good weapon, they’re not hard to deal with. The problem is their sheer numbers—within twenty-four hours of the outbreak, there may be millions of them in Tokyo’s streets.
Enough ants can kill an elephant.
If surrounded by a horde of these infected, there’s no way out.
Soon, the air was thick with the nauseating stench of blood.
Su Cheng slaughtered dozens in one breath, the room piling up with corpses.
“Let’s go.”
After dispatching their attackers, Su Cheng grabbed Eri and rushed out of the house.
From the darkness came the bestial roars and desperate wails of the infected. Less than twelve hours after the outbreak in Chuo Ward, the plague had swept the city, and now Joto was on the verge of collapse.
The once-clean streets were now littered with mangled corpses.
Even more horrifying, some of the dead before Su Cheng began to stir, rising as bloodthirsty zombies, rushing at them relentlessly.
“What are these monsters?” Eri’s dark eyes were filled with despair—she likely didn’t realize her grandfather might be responsible for the plague.
“There’s no time to explain. Get on!”
Su Cheng helped her onto the motorcycle. Its engine roared to life on the zombie-infested street.
Then, he charged the bike straight into the horde.

The front wheel crashed into the face of a leading zombie, the impact pulping its skull. Two rotting eyeballs shot from their sockets, hitting the ground like overripe grapes.
On the zombie-choked streets, Su Cheng steered the bike with one hand, wielding the Windshadow Blade with the other, cutting down any infected that leapt at them in a spray of sparks and lightning.
In the dim night, the roaring motorcycle was like a savage beast rampaging through the horde, carving a bloody path through the chaos.
Behind him, Eri wore an expression of pain and struggle.
After escaping Joto Ward, Su Cheng took her to a secluded family-run inn.
It was an old, out-of-the-way place, rarely visited, and the surrounding area was deathly quiet.
“Excuse me, is anyone here?” Eri habitually called out as she entered—only to be answered by a zombie’s snarl.
An infected!
In one of the guest rooms, a zombified woman was trapped beneath an overturned wooden cabinet, snapping her jaws at Su Cheng and Eri.
This zombie, likely the inn’s proprietress, didn’t seem deeply infected; otherwise, the cabinet wouldn’t have restrained her.
“She doesn’t seem able to move. Can we just leave her?” Eri asked nervously.
Su Cheng shook his head and drew the Windshadow Blade. “If her infection deepens and she breaks free while we’re asleep, what then?”
“By the way, did the doctor leave you anything, or did anything strange ever happen?”
Eri thought carefully. “Nothing special, but every six months Grandpa took me to the institute to get vaccinated.”
“What kind of vaccine?”
“Just the usual disease-preventing shots, like at a hospital. Grandpa gave me four altogether.”
Su Cheng frowned—something wasn’t right. If it was a normal vaccine, the hospital could have handled it. Why insist on the institute?
Was there something wrong with the vaccine?
A thought struck him. He took a medical kit from the inventory, opened it, and drew out a sterilized syringe.
“Roll up your sleeve.” He spoke in a tone that brooked no refusal.
“What…what are you doing?”
Seeing the syringe, Eri panicked, looking at him as if he were a shady uncle tricking a naïve girl into an injection.
Without further explanation, Su Cheng rolled up her sleeve, took her slender arm, and drew some blood.
So it was just a blood draw.
Eri sighed in relief, glaring at him with mild indignation.
With the fresh sample, Su Cheng walked over to the trapped zombie, pressed its head down, and injected the blood into its neck.
Moments later, a blood-red mist rose from the zombie’s body, which began dissolving as though steeped in acid, soon melting into a foul puddle.
“So, the doctor must have given Eri the TX antidote as a vaccine,” Su Cheng mused. That meant Eri herself was the cure for the bio-plague.
Eri stared in confusion, unable to comprehend why her blood could dissolve a zombie.

“Ding. Player Su Cheng has unlocked the main storyline and earned 300 points!”
The game’s voice announcement confirmed Su Cheng’s path was correct, though it gave no further hints about the next quest—the rest was up to the player.
Su Cheng put away the remaining half-tube of blood, then searched the inn. In the fridge, he found a few supplies.
Since the inn rarely had guests, and only the proprietress ran it, there wasn’t much inside—just some fresh eggs, a half pot of cold rice, and some seaweed miso paste.
Su Cheng cooked two bowls of Chinese-style egg fried rice and seaweed miso soup. The food looked plain but tasted quite good.
Shaken by the ordeal, Eri had little appetite, sipping only a bit of soup before retiring.
After eating, fatigue washed over Su Cheng. He finally relaxed his nerves, left the little white dog on guard, and quickly sank into a deep sleep.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when a nightmare jolted him awake.
It was only four in the morning—sixteen hours since the outbreak began. Once-bustling Tokyo was now a zombie paradise, filled with monstrous roars.
He touched his bedding—sticky with sweat.
He got up and found the inn’s bathroom, stripping off to take a shower.
Luckily, the hot water was still running. As for whether the plague could be spread through water, he no longer cared.
Halfway through, the bathroom door suddenly opened from outside.
Even while bathing, Su Cheng kept his weapon within reach. He was about to draw it when Eri entered, carrying a washbasin.
“Big brother, let me wash your back.”
She pulled up a small stool behind him, wrung out a towel, and began gently scrubbing his back.
Disappointingly, for reasons unspeakable, Eri did not remove her clothes, but wore light pajamas as she washed his back.
If single men witnessed this back-washing scene—something found only in risqué films—they’d surely howl with jealousy.
“By the way, big brother, did you find any clues about the bio-plague? What do we do next?” Eri asked casually as she worked.
“Not yet. But this outbreak is definitely connected to your grandfather’s company. Once we find it, everything will become clear.”
“I see. Well then, you can die now.”
As she spoke, Eri’s lips curled into a twisted, horrifying smile. Suddenly she pulled a military dagger from her clothes and stabbed fiercely at Su Cheng’s lower back.
In that instant, as the blade plunged toward him, “Eri’s” chest deflated like a punctured ball, revealing the body of a man.
The one who had been washing Su Cheng’s back was, in fact, a man.