V1C28

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“Xuezhang1, I didn’t fail.” The pre-dawn wind leached away the little warmth he had left and his blue lips trembled as he forced out a smile.

“You were bitten?” Song Hanzhang was unsurprised.

“Yeah.”

A jacket was laid onto his shoulders- it was the same one Lin Jue gave to Song Hanzhang before.

The antibody in his palm was taken away by a pair of warm hands. After checking the safety and timing once more, Song Hanzhang rolled up his sleeves. He stopped halfway.

“What is it?” Lin Jue was barely standing and seeing Song Hanzhang hesitating, a spark of anxiety rose in him.

“I’m giving you one last chance. Are you sure you want to give this to me?” Song Hanzhang stared deep into Lin Jue’s eyes, as if wanting to find out his true intentions there.

Even though every muscle on his body ached and he was so weak he would topple over any second, Lin Jue still had the energy left to joke. “Xuezhang, you talk too much.”

Song Hanzhang sighed and flipped open the protective case of the antibody- he only succeeded after two tries because of his trembling fingers. He aimed the needle at the vein in his arm and injected it. The antibody had been soaked in cold water and was equally cold when entering his body, like freezing water.

After the injection, Song Hanzhang pressed down on the puncture and said to Lin Jue, “Let me see your injury.”

A wound remained on his left shoulder from a zombie bite, but since there weren’t any arteries there and it had been soaked in cold water, there was no heavy bleeding. However, the outer fleshed was peeled back and the edges of the wound were white.

Song Hanzhang pressed down on it. “Does it hurt?”

“It’s alright, I can’t really feel it,” Lin Jue replied.

Song Hanzhang frowned and stretched out a finger to him. “Hold it tightly with your left hand.”

Lin Jue held the finger in confusion and looked at him. Lin Jue’s hands were still cold, having recently climbed out of the river. Song Hanzhang’s body temperature wasn’t very high either but compared to him, he was much warmer. It was a pity that he withdrew his finger before Lin Jue was able to hold it for long.

“Finger strength is relatively similar, no damage to any important nerves. Try your arms now, can you raise them?”

There were no problems with his right arm but his left arm couldn’t keep going after being lifted halfway.

“It looks like you’ve wounded your trapezius. There are no arteries there, and the cold water prevented any heavy bleeding. There are also a number of places where you were scratched by the zombies, but none of them are serious.”

Song Hanzhang massaged Lin Jue’s shoulders. “You’re lucky you didn’t dislocate your arm, otherwise I would have had to move it back into place. I only have theoretical knowledge in that area. Okay, let me treat your shoulder first.”

Song Hanzhang used the stripped up clothes that he had prepared earlier to bind the wound tightly. “If it’s necessary, we can go to the medical building now. They have basic first aid supplies there, it’ll make your life simpler.”

“There’s no need, there’s not much time left either. We should find a safe place first, there’s no need to take risks for these small wounds,” Lin Jue replied, biting down.

Song Hanzhang took a deep look at him. “Very well, can you still walk?”

Lin Jue nodded. The cold wind sent his legs trembling, but thankfully, he wasn’t completely exhausted. Song Hanzhang dragged his right arm over his shoulder and helped him move towards the area east of the recreational centre. The theater and greenhouse buildings were there under renovation, as well as a building still under construction.

“The original plan was to go to the gym, but judging by the current situation, we won’t be able to walk that far, so we’ll have to change destinations. The construction sites aren’t very far from the heavily mutated zombies at the student centre, but at the very least, it’s bordered by the Green Lake and Moon Lake, so it shouldn’t be too dangerous,” Song Hanzhang explained as he walked while Lin Jue struggled to maintain consciousness.

He had absolutely no opinions on their next steps. As a matter of fact, all he wanted was to lie down and sleep; sleep until the end of time, until the end of this nightmare. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t leave Song Hanzhang alone. He would rather stay awake in the pain and see the sunrise with this person.

They would survive together, even if in this endless and cruel night, there had been too many betrayals, deprivations, and loss; even if the strong and gentle and kind people had all taken off their masks in the face of this game and ripped apart their costumes to reveal the darkest parts of humanity.

Lin Jue was the same.

When he had finally faced the cruelty and ruthlessness in the depth of his heart, realized that he was already used to the slaughter of this game of death, that sort of pain, had it been any different from ripping out his own heart?

He could have lived a normal life. Maybe he could have been open and bright, kind and generous, friendly and approachable, never knowing for its entire duration that in the depths of his soul, there was another self sleeping in the darkness.

But now, the him in the darkness had awakened.

He had hesitated, struggled, suffered, but finally, he had admitted it to himself.

Everyone was like a tamed beast, leaving the dark forest and its law of the jungle, forgetting their claws and fangs and meekly following morals and laws, until they returned to the jungle once more.

On their way to the construction site, they met a few stray zombies and Song Hanzhang used Lin Jue’s pole to deal with them. No matter how many times Lin Jue watched, he was always surprised. Song Hanzhang had never seemed like the fighting type. If he thought about it closely though, Song Hanzhang had been able to kill most of the zombies with just one hit, his aim much more consistent than Lin Jue’s own.

The two crossed the theatre and greenhouse and arrived at the final building, its construction work finished but still surrounded by scaffolds.

“It’s almost six now. We’ll only need to keep going for another twenty minutes and the night will end. This building is next to Moon Lake. If a situation arises, we’ll prepare to jump,” Song Hanzhang said to Lin Jue.

Lin Jue smiled weakly and forced himself to form out syllables. “Hopefully I won’t have to jump a third time tonight.”

“That’s difficult to say.” Sitting on the scaffold on the outer wall of the building, Song Hanzhang looked down at the zombies surrounding the building.

They were currently sitting on the scaffold of the outer wall of the third story. Jumping into the lake from this height wouldn’t be enough to cause any serious damage like fractures, so Lin Jue could take it. Looking down from where they were, the lake beneath them mirrored the night sky, sandwiching them between a vast sea of stars.

Looking up again, the red moon had almost sunk to sea level and towards the east, the sky was slowly turning white.

The early morning wind blew across them. The entire world was silent in the darkness as the two of them sat shoulder to shoulder, enjoying the final scenery.

This should have been beautiful, and it was indeed. As the bloody night drew to an end, Lin Jue suddenly had so much he wanted to say to Song Hanzhang.

He should say a thank you first, he thought, but as the words formed in his mouth, he swallowed them back.

Everything was too shallow for this.

He just wanted to sit here quietly and watch with Song Hanzhang his most anticipated sunrise, and end this nightmare.

But nothing could go as he wanted.

“Look down.” Song Hanzhang’s voice was like the night’s breeze, immediately blowing away the haze around Lin Jue.

The lack of strength from the virus along with his half-wet clothing, all he felt was cold.

Drowsiness had been corroding away at his willpower but he still tried his best to open his eyes and look down.

The zombies gathered underneath the building had suddenly decreased by more than half. Lin Jue rubbed his eyes laboriously, not trusting his senses.

“The number… decreased?” The feeling of unease made Lin Jue doubt his judgement.

“It did decrease. Because they learnt how to climb.”

Song Hanzhang’s voice made Lin Jue’s body prickle all over, a shiver running through him.

Looking closely, those figures standing on the scaffold covered by shadows, were they not zombies climbing up? They were like a group of terrifying night predators, slowly but surely approaching them.

A sense of absurdity and fear struck Lin Jue’s heart. He instinctively looked to Song Hanzhang. He was holding the wooden pole, looking coldly at the mob of greedy hunters.

The sound of weapons piercing flesh, followed by the dull thud of something heavy falling. Song Hanzhang slowly withdrew the wooden pole and aimed it at another zombies climbing up.

If it was a scene from his imagination, then it would be quite humorous, but sitting next to Song Hanzhang, Lin Jue did not feel even the smallest urge to laugh. Countless zombies climbed up one after another, only to fall backwards, the impact shaking the entire scaffold.

Endless, but forcing them to be constantly focused.

The light from sunrise was already peeking out from the east. Hope was close at hand.

“Be careful——!” Lin Jue yelled.

Song Hanzhang immediately raised his head, knocking aside the zombie falling down onto them from midair with one sweep and sending it falling off the building.

More and more zombies lunged at them from above. Song Hanzhang pulled up Lin Jue and pushed him off the scaffold. “Hold your breath!”

The feeling of falling was nothing short of experiencing death. His body felt weightless as it flew through the air, like he was a step away from falling into an abyss. In the dim light from the east, he saw Song Hanzhang kick away a zombie that was attempting to bite his neck and jump down as well.

His body slammed into the lake. Lin Jue wasn’t able to keep holding his breath and coughed, half of the air in his lungs leaving immediately. The feeling of drowning made him take in even more gulps of the cold water while the momentum from falling made him keep sinking downwards. His limbs refused to listen to him…

He tried so hard to open his eyes. Even though he could see the light above, his body felt like it was falling towards a cold hell, so close, yet so far.

Having lost all strength, he was on the verge of death, even his subconscious losing its clarity from the lack of oxygen and the virus.

In the final moment before his body sunk into hell, something grabbed onto his arm and he started floating upwards.

The moment he was out of the water, Lin Jue coughed loudly, hacking out the water in his windpipe. He leant against Song Hanzhang’s shoulder and panted vigorously.

The light from the east was like a spell, instantly driving away the darkness and haze that had covered the area, along with all the fear, betrayal, and cruelty, burying them all in that heartless night.

It was bright, warm, enough to cry at.

It felt like salvation.

Song Hanzhang’s glasses had been lost somewhere unknown. He looked quietly towards the east, water droplets falling from his eyelashes, flowing down across his face, his expression which had always been so hard and cold softening in one instant.

“Look, the sun is here.”

*********************************************************************************************************

——Survivor count: 3.

“Tsk, I thought so, you aren’t part of the survivor count.” The tall youth placed his dao on his shoulder, relaxed and uncaring and looked down at the body which had been cut in half.

Gao Yifei’s pretty head rolled beside her body, her expression still frozen in fear and disbelief. She couldn’t believe that even after escaping Song Hanzhang and Lin Jue, she would die here without a reason.

Lu Ren had waved at her happily, looking so relaxed, like he was on a stroll, and cut her head off before she even had time to trick him with pretty talk.

She was no longer human and the decapitated head was still able to think and speak. When she recovered from the shock, that singular head couldn’t help but ask, “Why did you kill me?”

“Eh, you can still speak? That really is weird.” Lu Ren rolled the head around with his foot, sparkling with curiosity.

“Why did you kill me? I didn’t do anything!” Judas asked again with its remaining head, not willing to give up.

“Hmm? Why do I have to wait for you to do something before I can kill you?” Lu Ren asked, confused. “Oh, oh, I’ve thought of a reason——”

Lu Ren laughed in good humour. “When a mosquito flies across my face, I can’t help but kill it. Even though it did nothing, but… is it my fault it flew by me?”

“Therefore, appearing in my field of sight was your biggest mistake, Miss Judas.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Ren stabbed the Tang dao downwards, its sharp blade piercing through her eye and brain.

With the complete death of the Judas, a line of blood red writing appeared on the ground.

【Judas’ Rules: When a player has died after entering the game, randomly select one dead player and resurrect, borrowing their body, inheriting parts of their memory and power. You are not counted towards the survivor count.】

“Is that so? What an interesting game. Also, this dao is really nice, I like it.”

Malevolence and pleasure mixed in Lu Ren’s smile as he looked at the clock tower.

06:15.

Light from the east broke the seal of darkness. He narrowed his eyes.

“Ah, it’s dawn.”

1If you didn’t catch Luci’s note last chapter, it’s your editor Vera here to catch you up to speed! Xuezhang is a term used to denote a senior in school, similar to senpai in Japanese- for the newbies, we were using the term ‘senior’ before, but Luci disagreed with the flow of it so we changed it!

Vera’s Notes:

Second last chapter guys, this was super long to edit but it had some really nice descriptions. I hope I did it justice, but if not, hey. As the editor, I haven’t actually read this book either and man, that’s a spicy ending- we’ve finally learnt what Judas really is! Oh man, this’ll be good. I’m also super duper tired haha… See you all next week!

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