Chapter 062: The Female Driver

The moment the zombie beast opened its single eye, a terrifying claw flashed out like lightning, aiming for Su Cheng’s head. A bloodthirsty, savage growl echoed through the air. Su Cheng had no time to dodge; gritting his teeth, he swung his blade to block the deadly claw.

An overwhelming force surged through the long blade, and the sound of bones cracking erupted from within Su Cheng’s body. He had no idea how many bones had fractured; the searing pain spread rapidly throughout him.

The scent of death arrived unexpectedly.

A jet of powerful air erupted from beneath Su Cheng’s feet, propelling him backward more than ten meters in an instant.

Before him, the zombie beast’s neck was a mangled mess of flesh and blood, its head lolling weakly to one side. Yet its eye remained fixed on Su Cheng, burning with savage, bloodthirsty hatred.

Now at a distance from the beast, Su Cheng quickly took out a vial of alchemical life-restoring potion and poured it down his throat.

The pungent, fishy taste of the potion burned his throat, making Su Cheng cough violently and spit out a mouthful of blood.

Meanwhile, the wounded zombie beast struggled to its feet, but instead of attacking Su Cheng again, it began devouring the corpses of humans strewn about the subway station.

After consuming several fresh bodies, some of its injuries began to heal.

Witnessing this, Su Cheng’s expression turned grave: the zombie beast could recover from wounds by devouring flesh and blood.

He could not allow it to continue feeding—if the beast regained its full strength, he would be the next to die.

But at this moment, the zombie beast was extremely dangerous; approaching recklessly would be suicide.

Su Cheng therefore took out his 98K sniper rifle, activated the auto-aim function, and leveled the black muzzle at the gaping wound on the beast’s neck.

Bang!

A single shot.

It struck the beast’s neck directly, the bullet exploding within the wound.

Flesh and blood flew everywhere.

The last layer of bloody skin connecting head and neck was torn apart by the bullet, and the zombie beast’s head tumbled away, rolling to one side.

Dealt a fatal blow, the massive body of the zombie beast crashed to the ground.

Yet Su Cheng did not stop; he aimed at the beast’s head and fired several more shots, only lowering his rifle once the skull was utterly shattered.

Even with its head reduced to pulp, Su Cheng refused to believe the beast could survive.

“The auto-aim on the 98K is truly remarkable,” he murmured.

As he killed the zombie beast, a game notification sounded in his mind: “Story mission completed. Reward distribution in progress…”

“Incredible,” Ayaka Zejo said, her pale face filled with shock. Even as a champion sharpshooter, she could not have landed such perfect shots in these circumstances. How did Su Cheng manage it?

Once he’d recovered his strength, Su Cheng walked over and cleaved open the beast’s skull, reaching into the gaping cavity. After a moment, he extracted a black soul crystal.

“What did you find?” Ayaka asked, curiosity in her eyes as she approached.

Su Cheng sliced open the beast’s flesh and retrieved an electronic chip from within.

“A control chip. I suspect someone is manipulating the zombies to spread the plague,” Su Cheng said, handing the chip to Ayaka. “This chip is encoded—it’s property of Mitsui Pharmaceuticals.”

Ayaka shone her flashlight on the chip and studied the code, a look of sudden understanding crossing her face. “When I investigated Mitsui Pharmaceuticals, I found their headquarters had acquired a super AI system. It’s likely that this AI is controlling the zombies and spreading the plague.”

Su Cheng reasoned that the story’s final act would unfold at Mitsui Pharmaceuticals’ headquarters.

However, the headquarters was located in Hachioji City, several dozen kilometers away.

In peacetime, it would be a simple bus ride of a few hours, but now, getting through a city teeming with zombies to reach Hachioji would be anything but easy.

He opened the instance leaderboard; at that moment, his rank was fifth. The players ahead of him were all seasoned professionals of considerable strength.

Competition on the board was fierce. If Su Cheng hadn’t just slain the zombie beast and completed the story mission, he would have been pushed out of the top ten.

The current rankings were as follows:

First: Ruri Sumizuki, 3956 points

Second: Hundred Battles, 3520 points

Third: Good Times of Autumn, 3315 points

Fourth: Crow of Winter, 2885 points

Fifth: Su Cheng, 2879 points

What surprised him most was that Ruri Sumizuki in first place had over a thousand points more than him. How many zombies had she killed to amass such a lead?

Apart from Su Cheng, the top five were all leading professionals of Bronze rank.

He recalled that Ruri Sumizuki was the guild master of [Luminous Society], one of the ten top guilds in the horror game. The guild was unique in that it only recruited female players, amassing a vast community of women.

Ruri herself was a formidable professional, highly popular among players. Yet some paid more attention to her private life than her abilities or looks. Rumor had it that her preferences were unusual—she wasn’t interested in men. There were even whispers that all four of the guild’s top officers had relationships with her that went beyond simple friendship.

Whether this was true or not remained a mystery.

However, it was notable that anyone who leaked details of Ruri’s private life was found gruesomely dismembered in the game instance just days later.

…

Leaving the corpse-strewn subway station, Su Cheng and Ayaka Zejo were startled by a sudden, thunderous noise overhead.

A small transport plane flew across the city sky and a red crate was dropped from its hold.

“We’re in luck—it’s a government supply drop!” Ayaka exclaimed in surprise. Even more astonishing, the crate landed not far in front of them.

Of course, it wasn’t mere coincidence—it was Su Cheng’s reward for killing the zombie beast.

The crate wasn’t large, but it was packed with food, drinks, and emergency medical supplies. In a city ravaged by a bio-plague, clean food, water, and medicine were more precious than gold.

The energy bars in Su Cheng’s backpack had long been eaten. The battle with the zombie beast had drained him, and his body was weak—he desperately needed to replenish his strength.

He devoured three cans of beef and a pack of biscuits in one sitting before feeling his vitality return.

Ayaka, having just crawled out from a pile of corpses, couldn’t stomach the beef, so she ate several bland compressed biscuits to stave off her hunger.

“Fourth, look—there’s a supply crate over there,” said a man on a rooftop about five hundred meters away. He wore a deep green beret and was watching the crate through binoculars, excitement written all over his face.

“Supply drop?” The slightly chubby man next to him, clutching a submachine gun, snatched the binoculars and peered at the landing site.

“We’re too late. Someone’s already taken it—a man and a woman. The woman looks like a cop; she’s armed.” The man in the beret’s eyes glinted dangerously.

“Should we make a move? There must be good stuff in that crate.” The chubby man licked his parched lips. That policewoman only had one gun; she couldn’t possibly be their match.

The beret-wearing man hesitated. “We can’t act recklessly. If they get away, we’re out of luck. Let’s lure them to the base first.”

“Got it. I’ll handle it.” Slinging his submachine gun, the chubby man disappeared from the rooftop.

Having found their lead on the story, Ayaka and Su Cheng drove a police car away from police headquarters, heading toward Mitsui Pharmaceuticals’ headquarters in Hachioji.

Thirty hours had passed since the bio-plague outbreak. In central Tokyo, at least a million people had been infected and transformed into zombies. The once-bustling streets had become a hell of blood and fire.

Many main roads were blocked by endless tides of zombies, forcing Ayaka to take a long detour. It would cost them most of a day to reach their destination.

What Ayaka hadn’t noticed was that a group was secretly tailing their police car.

On a narrow street, Ayaka sped the police car through the twisting lanes, the roars of zombies echoing nearby, sending chills down her spine.

At the next corner, a woman in a purple dress nervously peered out, watching the oncoming police car. A man’s voice came through her earpiece.

“Yoshiko, pretend to be a victim being chased by zombies. Gain their trust and lead them to the base—then your job is done.”

“Understood.”

The woman tore her dress, exposing her pale legs. Taking a deep breath, she darted out just as the police car approached.

“Help!” she screamed.

Ayaka, momentarily distracted, saw the woman appear too late. The screeching of brakes cut through the air, followed by a heavy thud.

The woman in the purple dress let out a terrified shriek as she was struck by the police car and thrown five or six meters, landing hard on the pavement.

Ayaka’s eyes went wide—she seemed to have killed someone…