Chapter 83

Hu Tao was on the verge of tears. She had been so focused on repelling Stelle that she completely forgot that Huo Huo had already been infected.

Hu Tao, Huo Huo, March 7th, and Kiana climbed down from the shipping container.

Stelle grinned mischievously at the group.

"Hehe~ Let's go, my little minions! Time to catch more humans!"

Now fully part of the zombie team, the group decided to move quickly and infect more humans.

Stelle soon locked onto a group hiding behind a wall: Jean, Lisa, Kaeya, Lumine, and Nahida.

With a dramatic wave of her hand, Stelle shouted:

"Charge! Infect them! Join the glorious evolution!"

She led the charge, climbing up the wall first. But as soon as she made it up, Jean opened fire with her M4, knocking Stelle back down.

One after another, Hu Tao, March 7th, and the others tried to climb up, only to be knocked back down by the defenders' fierce firepower.

But Hu Tao noticed something: the defenders were running low on ammo.

"Ladies! Keep pushing! They're almost out of bullets!"

Encouraged by this, the zombies increased the pace of their assault.

After a little over a minute, the defenders were down to their last magazines.

Seeing the situation, Lumine quietly jumped off the wall and tried to run.

Unfortunately, Kiana spotted her.

"Hehe~ Gotcha, Lumine! You're not getting away!"

Zombies were twice as fast as humans. Kiana quickly closed the distance and infected Lumine with a swipe of her claws.

Lumine looked devastated. If only she had stayed, she could've at least scored a few more points with that last mag.

Less than a minute after Lumine was caught, the rest of the group—Jean, Kaeya, Lisa, and Nahida—had their defenses breached and were all infected.

Meanwhile...

Jing Yuan was leading Qingque, Yanqing, Amber, and Eula in an assault against the Liyue team led by Zhongli.

Huaiyan, Jiaoqiu, and Feixiao joined the Liyue defenders, helping fend off the zombie horde.

Zhongli gave precise orders:

"Only three people shoot at a time. The rest stay alert. Conserve ammunition."

They had chosen a two-story corridor in the center of the map as their stronghold.

With more humans concentrated in one spot, Jing Yuan found it hard to break through quickly, so he kept up the pressure to deplete their ammo.

Zhongli checked the countdown: 13 minutes left. If things kept up at this pace, they could probably hold the position.

Unfortunately, there wasn't just one zombie host on the map—there were two starting points.

Stelle and her team followed the sound of gunfire and joined the fight. Now eight zombies swarmed in at once.

The pressure on Zhongli's team skyrocketed, forcing everyone to open fire at full force.

With Stelle and the others relentlessly attacking, Zhongli's team was burning through their bullets fast.

Stelle suddenly lunged at Keqing.

Keqing instinctively raised her gun and pulled the trigger—

—but nothing happened.

Out of bullets.

She quickly rolled to the side, narrowly dodging Stelle's claws.

Stelle landed, rubbing her hands together eagerly.

"Hehehe~ You're not getting away this time, Keqing! Be a good girl and let me infect you!"

She jumped high into the air, diving toward Keqing. But she didn't notice the faint flashing light on her body.

Keqing, gritting her teeth, drew a knife and struck with all her might.

The blade plunged into Stelle's head.

Her body disintegrated into shimmering light, her soul lingering where she'd stood.

Stelle was dumbfounded. What just happened?

A system message rang out in the air:

[Keqing has slain host zombie Stelle with a melee weapon and earned 1 point. Zombies killed by melee weapons cannot be resurrected.]

Stelle's soul went numb.

How embarrassing! She was one of the zombie hosts and still got stabbed to death by a human merc!

Keqing quickly returned to her team, reloaded, and resumed shooting.

Unbeknownst to them, just a short distance away on a traffic light pole, Silver Wolf was lying in wait, stealthily picking off zombies with a silenced VSS sniper rifle.

She glanced at her score—5 points, far ahead of second place—and smirked.

"Hmph~ What's the point of numbers? Zombies can respawn endlessly. If you just try to brute force your way through, you'll lose eventually. Gotta play the long game."

Silver Wolf continued taking single, precise shots, avoiding detection.

With 5 minutes left on the clock, Zhongli's team ran out of bullets.

Zhongli drew his knife.

"Everyone, fix bayonets! Time to fight to the last breath!"

Ningguang, Feixiao, and the others followed suit, charging at Jing Yuan and the zombie horde.

The outcome was predictable—they were all infected.

Silver Wolf checked the time, put away her rifle, and quietly laid low on the traffic light.

All she had to do now was survive the last 5 minutes to secure the win and earn two bonus points.

The infected scattered across the area searching for survivors. It wasn't until the final minute that they found her.

Stelle pointed."There she is!"

Kiana looked up."How did she even get up there?"

Zhongli scanned the surroundings.

"Look over there—second floor. You can reach that balcony and jump across."

Kiana led the charge to the second floor, picked up speed, and leapt toward Silver Wolf.

Just as she thought she was about to grab her target—

Pop pop!

Silver Wolf fired two silent shots from her VSS.

Midair, Kiana's body froze, then fell to the ground.

One after another, more zombies tried jumping across, and Silver Wolf picked them off the same way—right at the moment of their leap.

And just like that, she survived the final minute.

Everyone froze in place again as the match ended. Silver Wolf casually blew the smoke from her rifle.

"Whew~ Done and dusted."

[Humans win. Surviving humans earn an additional 2 points.]

Silver Wolf looked at her score: 8 points. She was quite satisfied.

At this pace, she was definitely on track to win a prize.

Round 2 begins.

Zhongli gathered everyone.

"If we all stick together, even if one of us is a host, we'll be able to overpower them. We won't be picked off one by one like last time."

Everyone nodded and followed Zhongli to the top of a tall container.

The container had only one approach path, and a gap between it and the next required a jump to cross.

All 32 players squeezed onto the container, each watching nervously, unsure who might suddenly turn into a zombie.

The countdown ended.

[This round's zombie hosts: Silver Wolf, Feixiao]

Without hesitation, Silver Wolf and Feixiao transformed and immediately attacked those around them.

In less than a minute—

[Game Over. Zombie team wins. All zombies earn 2 bonus points.]

Round 3.

Hu Tao looked at Zhongli.

"Guest Consultant, got any more bright ideas?"

Zhongli thought for a moment.

"I have one more plan! Everyone, follow me!"

He led the group to the area near the traffic light and wall.

From the traffic light, players could support the ones guarding the wall.

"Everyone! Spread out! If anyone turns, shoot them off immediately!"

This time, the zombie hosts spawned right on the traffic light.

They wiped out the group there almost instantly.

The wall defenders tried to hold their ground, but with limited ammo, they too were overwhelmed and infected.

Round 4.

Zhongli paused in thought.

"I have one last idea!"

Upon hearing that, Hu Tao quietly led Huohuo away from him.

***

Everyone ignored Zhongli's call and still chose to form teams in twos and threes.

Kiana held her dual-wielded UZIs, scanning her surroundings warily.

Suddenly, Kiana felt her back bump into someone. She quickly turned around and saw that the person she had bumped into was Hu Tao.

Hu Tao's eyes darted mischievously.

"Kiana, let's make a deal. If either of us gets turned, we won't catch the other. Just walk away, okay?"

Kiana nodded "Alright, if either of us gets turned, we won't catch the other."

The three of them briefly formed an alliance and slipped into a small room.

The countdown quickly ended.

[This round's hosts: Hu Tao, Ningguang]

Hearing the system message, Kiana immediately pointed her gun at Hu Tao.

"Hu Tao! Keep the promise!"

Hu Tao patted her chest. "Of course I'll keep it!"

But the next second, Hu Tao grabbed Huohuo and infected her.

Then, Hu Tao stood by the door, blocking the exit.

Kiana gasped in shock and looked at Huohuo, who was starting to act suspiciously.

"Huohuo! Don't come any closer! Didn't we make a deal?"

Huohuo apologized sweetly, "Sorry, Kiana~ I didn't make any deal~"

Kiana panicked and opened fire on Huohuo, temporarily pushing her back.

With her dual UZIs, Kiana had high firepower, but each magazine was emptied in just three seconds.

Seeing Huohuo retreat, Kiana rushed to the door.

"Hu Tao! Let me out!"

Hu Tao grinned mischievously and played dumb. "Huh? What did you say? You want me to just stand here? No problem!"

Kiana was stunned. Just then, Huohuo appeared behind her.

Kiana let out a desperate scream. "Hu Tao! I'll never trust you again!"

[Huo Huo has infected Kiana]

A similar scene was happening on Ningguang's side.

Keqing and Jean, now infected, looked at Ningguang in disbelief.

Keqing twitched her mouth. "No wonder you're the Tianquan. This scheming… was totally worth it."

The three had also made a pact not to infect each other if one turned.

But right after the agreement, Ningguang was revealed as a host and immediately began infecting.

In the following rounds, everyone fully demonstrated what "betrayal" meant—verbal agreements only.

No matter who it was, the first thing they did when meeting someone was to make a deal.

Some, like Hu Tao, wouldn't infect you herself—but would help others catch you.

In this manner, over a dozen more rounds passed.

Only 5 rounds remained until the game ended when a system announcement rang out:

[Thanks to our sponsor "Aha" for funding. For the next 5 rounds, special units will appear each round: "Terminator" and "Ghost Hunter." Terminator: randomly selected each round. Ghost Hunter: Last 3 surviving human mercenaries can transform into one.]

Upon hearing this, everyone instantly became 100 times more alert.

Stelle looked around and skillfully jumped onto a traffic light.

Nearby, March 7th kept jumping beside the pole but couldn't quite reach the top.

Stelle aimed her Negev at March 7th.

"Don't move, March!"

March 7th pointed her gun back at Stelle.

"Let's just keep this distance. Neither of us can catch the other."

Stelle agreed.

As the countdown ended, March 7th was revealed to be the Terminator.

Stelle stared in shock at March 7th's appearance.

Only her head looked the same—the rest of her body had transformed into a blue-skinned bio-ghost covered with electric patterns, with several claws protruding from her back.

March 7th hadn't expected to be the test subject for the new rule right away.

She glanced at Stelle and rushed forward.

As a zombie, her jumping ability had increased, and she leapt right up onto the billboard that had previously stumped her.

Stelle quickly opened fire.

March 7th took heavy damage and remembered something from her newly acquired abilities.

"Shield!"

She shouted, and a semi-transparent shield appeared around her.

Stelle's bullets weakened significantly, allowing March 7th to rapidly close the distance.

Stelle switched to her pistol and tried to run.

March 7th instinctively reached out—lightning shot from her hand and struck Stelle in the back.

[Terminator March 7th has infected Stelle]

Falling to the ground, Stelle looked at her now red zombie body and clawed hands in disbelief.

"What? You can infect from that far away?"

March 7th tried it again—another bolt of lightning fired out.

She giggled like a child who had found a new favorite toy.

"So fun! Being a Terminator is awesome!"

Far away, on top of the central building...

Kaeya watched March 7th raining lightning from the traffic light and sighed.

"This Terminator is way too OP. We could barely handle normal ghosts, and now there's a Terminator? Humanity's done for."

Diluc stood at the only electric box that allowed access to the rooftop, guarding it with a shotgun.

"Don't forget, we humans have special units too."

What followed was a relentless wave of March 7th and her little red zombies infecting humans.

Once March 7th targeted someone, escape was nearly impossible.

Silver Wolf and Kiana hid behind some crates.

Silver Wolf whispered, "Let's just camp here. The Ghost Hunter later is definitely going to be powerful."

Kiana nodded.

What they didn't know was that the Terminator could see every human's location.

March 7th stood on the crate above them, grinning.

"Where do you think you're hiding? Hehe~"

Without another word, she zapped them both with lightning.

[March 7th has infected Silver Wolf and Kiana]

Silver Wolf was stunned. "March, how did you even find us? This spot was so hidden."

March 7th explained, "I can see all human locations—each person has an icon above their head."

Silver Wolf had no choice but to accept this cruel reality.

March 7th checked the remaining icons. The last five were all on the central building rooftop.

"Let's go! Time to get them!"

Diluc, Zhongli, Kaeya, Jing Yuan, and Huohuo guarded the rooftop, firing constantly at the approaching zombies.

Stelle waved her claws. "Give up! You'll all be caught eventually!"

Diluc snorted. "Ask my gun first."

He fired and knocked back a zombie climbing up the electric box.

Then—

March 7th arrived on the scene and yelled, "Everyone move! Let me see what's going on!"

The smaller zombies cleared the way.

March 7th activated her shield and charged toward the box.

Diluc aimed his shotgun, ready to blast her off the moment she climbed up.

But it didn't go as planned. March 7th released a bolt of lightning mid-jump, infecting Diluc on the spot.

[Terminator March 7th has infected Diluc]