Chapter 47: Where’s the Potion? Heal Me
Many years later, facing the firing squad, Chu Zhaozhao would recall that distant afternoon when she was trapped by zombies at the gas station...
What exactly happened that day had always been a blur in her memory, something she couldn’t clearly recall.
But that one scene was seared into her mind, never to fade in the slightest.
"Get up! Move! Now!"
He shouted, his eyes fixed on her.
In her somewhat distorted vision, his eyes were terrifyingly bright.
She didn’t remember what happened after that. The wail of a car alarm jolted her awake. She was sitting in the room where they had been hiding, with two people lying beside her: Chu Zhaotian and Xu Qian...
"Ah!" Chu Zhaozhao clapped a hand over her mouth, stopping herself from crying out.
It was a lesson they had learned over the past few days: the zombies outside were especially sensitive to sound. They couldn’t make any noise, no matter what.
"Are they... dead...?"
She mustered her courage, carefully shuffling over to the two men. She reached out and held a finger under their noses.
’There’s breath! They’re still alive!’
"Phew..."
She let out a long sigh of relief, but...
’What on earth happened...?’
Fragments of memory flashed through her mind. Scenes were captured one by one, piecing themselves together.
"And... what about that man?"
Chu Zhaozhao suddenly realized something. She shot to her feet, stepped over the two men on the floor, and ran out of the room.
Outside the gas station, it was eerily silent. The bodies of zombies were strewn across the ground, just as before.
Just as she was looking around for the man, a roar came from the direction of the parking lot behind the gas station.
She heard the sound and quickly ran around the corner, only to be met with a horrifying sight.
A monster that looked like a flayed tiger stood there, its head twisted at a bizarre angle and its body covered in white bone.
It seemed to be injured. Dark red flesh and internal organs dangled from its chest and side.
Several pieces of its white, bony armor had been peeled back and torn away.
And across from it stood a man, equally battered and covered in blood.
He was in a standoff with the monster.
The man’s clothes were torn open, revealing the bulging muscles and skin underneath.
His waist was a bloody mess. Blood had soaked through his pants all the way down to his feet, making him look as if he had just waded out of a river of blood.
’He looks like the man who saved me and my companions, but something’s different. The man wasn’t this impossibly ripped...’
She had just hidden behind a car and was peeking out when a piercing BANG nearly knocked her unconscious!
In a daze, she vaguely saw the man lunge forward.
The next second, it was as if a key had turned in a lock...
The monster was suddenly torn to shreds by a mysterious force that erupted from within it!
Revealing the man’s twisted, broken arm and a dagger clutched tightly in his hand...
As if losing all support, the man fell backward, hit the ground, and went still.
A few minutes passed before Chu Zhaozhao shook off her dizziness. After confirming that the monster was truly dead and that there were no other zombies around, she finally gathered her courage and cautiously approached to see if the man was dead or alive.
It wasn’t until she got closer that she realized there was no hulking figure. The person lying on the ground was clearly the man who had saved her group!
’He fought that monster to protect us!’
’He’s still breathing! He’s not dead!’
Chu Zhaozhao wasn’t a medical student. She didn’t know if someone could survive such grievous injuries.
But he had saved them from the zombies. He was a hero, and she didn’t want him to die.
All she knew was that you shouldn’t move someone who was severely injured, but she had no idea what to do.
So, she could only squat beside him, silently weeping, keeping him company until raindrops began to fall from the sky.
Not wanting him to be rained on in his final moments, Chu Zhaozhao carefully reached out and, inch by inch, began to drag her "hero" back under the gas station’s canopy.
Leaving a long smear of blood on the concrete.
"Sister Qing? I’m not Sister Qing, I’m Zhaozhao..."
Hearing the man actually speak, though his voice was hoarse, reinvigorated Chu Zhaozhao. She began to pull with even more effort.
"Mister, I don’t even know your name yet. Don’t fall asleep! I saw on TV that if you fall asleep now, you won’t wake up. Are you hungry? I’m getting a little hungry myself. I just saw there are still some Snickers on the shelf. I’ll go get you one in a bit..."
...
’Pain!’
’So much pain!’
’My whole body hurts!’
Lin Fan listened to the girl chattering on and on in his ear, trying to keep him from passing out. It was annoying, but at least it was a distraction...
A moment ago, he’d been dazed from blood loss but could still manage to speak. Now, the intense pain in his abdomen made it impossible to even open his mouth.
[69/370]...
’My Life Value is still dropping. The bleeding is pretty bad...’
With a thought, Lin Fan opened his backpack and mentally sifted through his inventory, checking what the three Mutant Dogs had just dropped.
[Gasoline (Medium) x1, (Small) x4]
[Diesel (Medium) x1, (Small) x4]
[Fresh Beef x10]
[Fresh Mutton x10]
[Fresh Pork x10]
[Purified Water (Medium) x1, (Small) x4]
[Rubber (Crafting Material) x3]
[Blade (Crafting Material) x4]
[Scrap Metal (Crafting Material) x6]
’That’s a lot of loot... but where is that other thing...’
[68/370]...
’Ah, found it...’
Lin Fan had finally found the most crucial item he was looking for—a potion!
’I’m bleeding uncontrollably, and there’s no way I can perform surgery on myself with the conditions here. It’s anyone’s guess if I can stop the bleeding before my Life Value hits zero...’
He had already used up his potions. The only things left in his pockets were Scream and Stealth, neither of which were of any help in his current situation...
But it wasn’t until his head cleared a bit just now that he remembered the potion he had so casually used before—the [Wild Potion].
"Just as I thought..."
[67/370]...
[Wild Potion (Medium) x1, (Small) x10]
[Wild Potion (Medium/Small): Grants a moderate/minor boost to the user’s strength, reaction speed, sensory acuity, and overall recovery rate. Can be consumed directly or injected. Duration: 10 minutes. (Ineffective if used again within 1 hour.)]
’This is it!’
’Overall recovery rate!’
Last time, he had used a Wild Potion—one he’d gotten from killing a Mutant Dog—to boost his reaction speed and counterattack that sharp-clawed Mutated Zombie!
He had felt its other effects, but he’d been at full health back then, so he hadn’t noticed the "overall recovery rate" at all.
These potions were all drops from the three Mutant Dogs he just fought. The medium one, in particular, had just dropped.
"If it says ’overall recovery rate,’ then it must include Life Value restoration..."
[66/370]...