Chapter 285: Tacit Understanding
’Don’t the lives of the other team members matter?’
Special Ability Special Combat Team Three painstakingly recruited forty-five Superpower Users, and now only fourteen are left!
’Does this foolish woman have any idea what kind of impact today’s events will have on the base?’
"Miss, given the current situation, I suggest we contact Mr. Huang. Have him send a helicopter immediately to get you out of here first."
"As for everything else, we can settle the score with them once you’ve left this dangerous place."
Huang Shi Yao’s eyes suddenly reddened. "Are you saying I’m afraid of that bitch Xie Ning?"
’And I, Miss Huang, am supposed to flee back to the base with my tail between my legs!’
"We can bide our time, Miss," Zhong advised seriously. "Think about it. We don’t have much food or water left. We can’t keep wasting away here."
"Why don’t we go back first, prepare more thoroughly, and gather more people?"
Huang Shi Yao clasped her hands tightly, a hint of hatred in her eyes.
’This is the first time I, Huang Shi Yao, have ever been forced back to the base in such a sorry state!’
’It’s all because of Xie Ning!’
...
SHLIIICK!
The sound of a blade slicing open a zombie’s skull was exceptionally clear in the silent night.
On the pitch-black second floor of the building, the group had already felt their way to the room next to the X-ray department. Once inside, they started grabbing everything in sight.
Yu Tianfeng had no concept of restraint. He saw equipment he needed and, without a second thought about whether he could use it right away, decided to take it first and sort it out later.
"There are a dozen or so zombies wandering the third-floor hallway."
Led by Cres, their living map, the group encountered no danger despite moving through the darkness.
They reached the fourth-floor inpatient ward without issue and began searching room by room down the hall.
In the darkness, when no one was paying attention, Xie Ning also collected plenty of useful daily necessities and small medical instruments.
After clearing the zombies out of each room, the group took the stairs to the fifth floor.
The fifth-floor VIP wards were clearly in much better condition than the floors below.
After clearing away the zombified medical staff in the hall, they found most of the VIP rooms were empty.
The frugal duo, Chen Xiao and Ji Taixian, took everything usable from the rooms, including the clean comforters and slippers from the closets.
Reaching the last VIP room at the end of the hall, Xie Ning gave a hand signal and gently pushed open the ajar door.
The window was wide open, and the faint light of the predawn sky illuminated a woman by the windowsill.
A white chiffon curtain fluttered softly in the night breeze.
The woman sat with her back to them at a dressing table, humming to herself as she held a comb.
Her smooth, snow-white, naked back filled their vision.
Ah Liang nervously gripped his weapon. "Is that... woman... alive?"
’How could that be?’ His teammate Da Xiong silently shot him a sideways glance.
’There isn’t a single living person on any floor. How could a woman possibly survive this long without food or water?’
With a blank expression, Xie Ning stepped lightly into the room.
The naked-backed woman whipped around, her gaping mouth revealing a set of sharp fangs.
With a roar, she lunged at Xie Ning.
Xie Ning fired a shot right at her head but saw the woman was completely unaffected. She continued to lunge with incredible speed.
SHINK. A Metal Spike shot through her wide-open mouth.
The naked-backed zombie, impaled on the Metal Spike, struggled for a moment before collapsing heavily to the ground.
Song Shijun stepped forward and finished it off with a Wind Blade to the forehead before squatting down to dig out a Second-order Crystal Core.
"Sister, bullets can’t even pierce the skull of a Second-stage Zombie?"
Xie Ning glanced at the gun in her hand and tossed it back into her bag. "Maybe this one just had a hard head? We’ll need to find a few more Second-stage Zombies and run more tests to get a definitive conclusion."
’In my experience, a Second-stage Zombie’s head shouldn’t be tougher than a bullet.’
’Only Third Rank and above are immune to ordinary bullets.’
After looting the last VIP suite, the group headed downstairs, discussing their next move.
"It’s safe here for now. The rest of you stay and rest in the lobby on the first floor. I’m going with Captain Zuo to scout out the Sound Wave Zombie."
’If it’s a developing zombie, it’s best to kill it before it fully matures.’
’Otherwise, once a zombie with such strong herding capabilities grows powerful, the nearby Golden City Base will be in grave danger.’
Xie Ning shot Ji Taixian a meaningful look.
He understood and walked over to the glass doors.
A minute later, Xie Ning and Zuo Li split off from the group, driving a van toward the location of the Sound Wave Zombie she had previously scouted with her Spiritual Prediction.
It was an auto repair shop; Xie Ning had seen its sign clearly in her vision.
Following the route Cres had drawn, it only took about ten minutes before they spotted the auto repair shop’s abandoned sign dangling from a dilapidated building in the distance.
Xie Ning and Zuo Li exchanged a look and nodded slightly.
The two found a relatively hidden bungalow, got out of the van, and gently closed the doors.
A roar echoed out, and Zuo Li swung her machete, cleanly slicing off the head of a zombie that lunged straight at them.
They hadn’t taken two more steps before they heard the CREAK of a door being pulled open.
They turned to see a dozen or so thin, raggedly dressed zombies squeezing out from the doors and windows.
Judging by their builds, they looked like middle school students, but they rushed out with surprising speed.
The pair moved with extreme speed, clearing out the small horde of zombies decisively.
A strange feeling even welled up in Zuo Li, as if she had fought alongside Xiao Ning countless times before.
Now, fighting shoulder to shoulder, their coordination was flawless.
"It’s on the second floor of the repair shop up ahead." Xie Ning frowned slightly. "Be careful."
’This zombie gives me a very strange feeling, a sense of déjà vu.’
Zuo Li cut down a zombie to her left with a single stroke, then turned to Xie Ning with a grin. "Could this be the fated connection born from ten thousand glances in a past life?"
Xie Ning didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She kicked away a zombie-blood-soaked corpse. "Can you stop fooling around?"
’This woman is exactly like she was in my past life,’ Xie Ning thought. ’Always spouting nonsense to lighten the mood while we’re fighting zombies.’
’This carefree style of hers... it’s really... nostalgic.’
The two of them cleared out the small horde of zombies outside and rushed into the auto repair shop, one after the other.
It was clear from the outside that this half of the street had likely been set on fire. The battle that took place here must have been brutal.
As a result, the inside of the shop was also burnt to a crisp, with the charred frames of several cars parked nearby.
Xie Ning and Zuo Li advanced slowly.
Zuo Li suddenly shouted, "Move!"
With perfect coordination, one dodged left and the other right.
In an instant, a zombie that had been perched on a crossbeam leaped down to the spot where they had just been standing.
With a roar, the zombie actually raised its hand and unleashed a Wind Blade.
There was no way Xie Ning and Zuo Li would be hit. As they dodged, an unreadable glint flickered in their eyes.
"Light it up!" Xie Ning sent several Metal Spikes flying with a flick of her wrist.
At the same moment, Zuo Li hurled two Thunderballs that landed on the Metal Spikes.
SZZT! SZZT! The sound exploded instantly. The Wind-type Zombie couldn’t dodge in time and was pierced through the left foot by one of the Metal Spikes.