Chapter 72: Zombie Nest
The warehouse was pretty nicely decorated. Although it was gloomy, the area wasn’t moist.
Ling Mo allowed Ye Lian to release s.h.i.+ Bin while he unceremoniously sat on the only single bed within the room.
Ling Mo’s vision was still somewhat obstructed and his eyes continued to hurt. He wouldn’t feel better unless he rested for a while, “I pay my respects to your pepper. Now, I plan to rest here for a while and think about how you can compensate me for my losses.”
“Didn’t you already hit s.h.i.+ Bin? And it looks like it wasn’t just once either. Now, you’re asking for compensation as well…” The girl sounded somewhat helpless, but Ling Mo was far too powerful. With no way of resisting, whatever objections she raised would naturally have no effect.
However, what she said was true. Not only was s.h.i.+ Bin beaten up, after he was released, both of his arms moved in a very awkward manner and he had a limp in his stride.
s.h.i.+ Bin vigilantly gazed at Ling Mo before slowly walking towards the girl. Although he brushed past Ye Lian and Shana, he seemed to have lost all thoughts of resisting. He had no way of contending against these two frail looking girls.
What’s more, his sharpening steel was still in Ling Mo’s hands. To an ordinary person like him, taking away his weapon was as good as eliminating all of his fighting strength.
But when s.h.i.+ Bin stretched out his hand to help the girl up, she shook her head and rejected him. s.h.i.+ Bin didn’t insist on helping her up either. He probably understood her personality very well. Ling Mo observed them with the cool eye of a bystander from the side. He felt that this girl was probably the type of person who was tenacious and strong-willed. However, her tone was gentle when she spoke, completely different from the impression gave off when she took action. Once she restrained her relentless and sharp aura, there’d be no way of telling that she was a psychic.
Although Ling Mo was able to completely able to block her first attack and he had his guard up due to Ye Lian’s special reaction, he still almost fell prey to her a.s.sault. From this, it could be seen that absolutely no one would look down on her strength if she were able to recover her health.
The girl supported herself up with great difficulty and slowly walked over to Ling Mo’s side. She then sat on the bed and said, “You don’t mind, right? As you can see, I’m unwell.”
“I don’t mind.” Ling Mo secretly thought to himself, ‘How could I mind if you’re not bothered? After all, the one who can’t resist now isn’t me, but you…’
s.h.i.+ Bin hurriedly and nervously followed her over. He glared at Ling Mo, but having learned from his past experiences, he didn’t dare to get too close to Ling Mo, and neither did he dare to display his hostility too openly, which Ling Mo found rather hilarious.
While exchanging blows with s.h.i.+ Bin, Ling Mo had already discovered that his ambus.h.i.+ng abilities were pa.s.sable and he was prudent. But, making him go out onto the streets and face numerous zombies would probably be too much for him.
Looking at the amount of food he’d collected, Ling Mo could tell that he did indeed lack the ability to face zombies head on. The girl’s weak body didn’t permit her to leave the premises either. From the looks of it, she’d been putting up with her suffering all this while. Falling sick at the end of the world was a very grave matter since there weren’t any doctors. It was also difficult to find the appropriate medicine. This was especially so when one had to go out in search of medicine but lacked the strength to do so. In that case, their fate would be left to divine providence. But looking at the girl’s current state, she likely wouldn’t be able to do so.
However, Ling Mo always felt that s.h.i.+ Bin’s reactions were a bit too excessive, which probably had something to do with what happened the “previous” time.
The girl suddenly stretched out her hand towards Ye Lian and said, “Actually, I do have some recollection of that big sister.”
Ling Mo was stunned for a moment. Soon after, he gave the girl another glance and said, “Did you study at X City University as well?”
“Correct. If my memory serves me right, she should be the campus belle.” The girl gave a faint smile and said, “My name is Lin Luanqiu, a first year in the English faculty. s.h.i.+ Bin is part of the physical education faculty. Don’t think ill of him, he actually has a really good personality. Only, he might be a bit too oversensitive.”
s.h.i.+ Bin wasn’t the least bit angry even after hearing Lin Luanqiu say such a thing about him. Instead, he fiercely said, “I’m not being oversensitive, it was those people from before…”
Ling Mo had roughly guessed what happened after hearing s.h.i.+ Bin repeatedly talk about it. This girl probably ran into a group like the baldy’s posse in the past.
If that were really the case, s.h.i.+ Bin’s way of looking at other survivors – especially males – like they were a threat was understandable.
One had to understand that at the end of the world, tensions amongst everyone were as taut as a bowstring. This was especially so when disaster first struck. At that point, even Ling Mo as at a loss of what to do, living in a daze from day to day. He was like a rat desperately trying to survive. There might be some people left in the world with good personalities, but they were definitely in the minority. Ling Mo was only able to cross this hurdle because he had Ye Lian in his heart. Others who weren’t able to overcome this tribulation would instead have their hearts twisted because of this.
Although most people still seemed normal on the surface, they’d sink into hysteria once their fragile psyche was provoked.
s.h.i.+ Bin was probably one such case, while Lin Luanqiu, on the other hand, had clearly crossed this threshold.
“I’ve already told you they’re not that kind of people… That’s right, why are you guys here? Did you escape from X City University as well?” Lin Luanqiu enquired once again. Her tone was calm, it was as if she wasn’t the least bit concerned about Ling Mo doing anything.
Ling Mo shook his head and said, “No, I plan to enter X City University. Did you guys escape from there?”
s.h.i.+ Bin gave a snort and responded, “Lin Luanqiu and I escaped from there a few days ago.”
“I advise you not to go,” Lin Luanqiu had a complicated look in her eyes, “With your level of strength, escaping to the suburban areas with those two girls shouldn’t be too difficult. At that time, you can look for a remote place to settle down and stock up on some food. After which, you just need to hold out till the nation sends someone out to help. Although no one has come yet, and all information about the outside world has been cut off, I still feel that the nation would be able to pull together a force to help us out.”
Lin Luanqiu really was an intelligent girl, but how could she know that the two girls who stoodbeside Ling Mo were, in fact, zombies. Although the suburban area had zombies, the number of mutated zombies there was little, let alone advanced zombies. Without gels, they wouldn’t be able to survive.
As a result, Lin Luanqiu’s well-intentioned advice was rejected by Ling Mo with a shake of his head, “I have some things to do there so I need to get in. Since you guys escaped from there, could you tell me how things are like inside? I’ll consider it my compensation if you explain the situation to me in detail.”
“Cough cough…” Lin Luanqiu coughed once again, an unhealthy shade of red surfacing on her face. Ling Mo couldn’t help but feel his heart clench when he looked at her, genuinely worried that she might cough herself to death.
Previously, she took action without hesitation to save s.h.i.+ Bin. Because of that, she probably used up all her strength. Her actions from before might have even worsened her illness.
This caused s.h.i.+ Bin to glare at Ling Mo in anger when she started coughing.
Ling Mo rolled his eyes on the inside as he quietly thought to himself ‘If you weren’t dishonest with me, I wouldn’t have gone as far as to drag you in and Lin Luanqiu wouldn’t have had to take action…’
Lin Luanqiu managed to catch her breath after coughing for quite a while. Lin Luanqiu slowly said, “That’s works too. s.h.i.+ Bin was in the wrong just now and I took action when I wasn’t clear of the situation either. I’m at fault too.”
“You’re in luck, Lin Luanqiu was a core member of the volunteer rescuers in X City University. She’s the most knowledgeable when it comes to the school’s circ.u.mstances.” s.h.i.+ Bin thoughtlessly added on, causing Lin Luanqiu to cast a withering gaze at him.
Inwardly, Ling Mo thought that while s.h.i.+ Bin was rather skilled, but his brain wasn’t all that sharp. With their inferior position at present, saying that she was part of the “volunteer rescuers” wouldn’t be able to scare anyone at all. Instead, it completely revealed their hand.
On top of that, she wouldn’t have fallen to such a state if she really did keep in contact with the volunteer rescuers.
After what s.h.i.+ Bin said, Lin Luanqiu could only helplessly give a summarized version of her background. “s.h.i.+ Bin is correct, I was part of the volunteer rescuers in the past. But only consist of some students and teachers that we gathered together for the time being. Once I found out about my psychic powers, I was pulled in to be part of their “executives”. But unlike them, I didn’t have any ulterior motives. I only wanted to lend a hand till help arrived.”
It was normal for such a big school to have a volunteer rescue team. After nodding his head, Ling Mo asked once again, “Roughly how many survivors and zombies are left within X City University?”
Lin Luanqiu looked vexed as she considered Ling Mo’s question. After giving it some thought, she said, “Based on X City University’s statistics in the past, there are roughly 55,000 students. Taking into consideration those who weren’t in school at the time, coupled with those that fled, I’d wager that the number of survivors and zombies left would be around 40,000.”
That number was already very terrifying, but Ling Mo was filled with satisfaction instead. A large number of zombies would increase the chances of a mutated or even an advanced zombie appearing.
“I don’t have a definite statistic for the number of zombies in there, but my guess is that there are more than 30,000 of them. As for the number of survivors, there’s probably around 3,000 of them.” Lin Luanqiu gave a relatively precise estimation after immersing herself in silence for awhile.
“30,000! Coming to X City University was indeed the right choice! How many mutated zombies would there be with so many zombies around?”
Entering X City University meant that one would be entering a nest of zombies. Although the danger there was great, the number of viral gels to be had was unequaled as well!
“Does your volunteer rescue team have enough members to look after 3,000 people?” Although Ling Mo felt that this definitely wouldn’t be the case, he couldn’t help but ask anyway.
Lin Luanqiu laughed and shook her head, “No way. There’d be more confusion once we increased the number of personnel. And, we lack the ability to direct such a large operation. We basically just disperse to the various areas of the school. The group that I’m in, for instance, has only 30 people. But, the number of supplies that we’ve been able to find have been growing increasingly little, so I and a few other people left in search of a way out. Little did we expect to run into somewhat of a mishap…”
Speaking up to this point, a trace of grief flashed across her eyes as if she wasn’t willing to go any further.
“Doesn’t this mean that you’re very familiar with this route?” Ling Mo’s eyes twinkled, but he immediately gave a wry laugh and shook his head after giving it a little more thought. With Lin Luanqiu’s body, even bringing her away might be too much for her,
In truth, Ling Mo did want someone to lead the way. While the zombies he controlled could find a path, in the end, it was still the same his him slowly searching for a way through. With a campus this big, searching from place to place like a headless housefly would definitely be more troublesome.
But he hadn’t expected to run into a survivor from X City University so quickly, so he hadn’t thought of this possibility.
However at present, although he’d met Lin Luanqiu and s.h.i.+ Bin, one of them had an ailing body. Although the other’s body was decent, their brain wasn’t all that sharp…
‘In some ways, these two complement one another very well’… Ling Mo somewhat maliciously thought to himself.