But with fewer people, they moved faster than before.
Ling Mo didn't need to care for these people and they naturally learned from Wang Cheng as they followed Xia Na and Liu Yuhao closely. Other than moving faster, they were safer too. There were no more deaths until the building of the Third Middle School was in their view.
"The Third Middle School is ahead." Xia Na killed the zombie in front of her and turned around. Although they went through a lot today, she still looked excited to finally arrive.
However, Ling Mo frowned lightly. It wasn't hard to guess from Ye Lian's strong desire to fight that there were mutated zombies in the school just as he expected. Perhaps there were more than before, far more than one.
The level of difficulty to survive in this environment was unimaginable. Xia Na and the others probably came here in vain.
However, Ling Mo was surprised that the front gate wasn't crowded with zombies as he imagined. Instead, it was empty. Other than a few zombies who obviously wandered here from somewhere else, there were no other threats.
Seeing that Ling Mo looked confused, Liu Yu whispered from the side, "When the disaster broke out, the majority of people tried to escape outside… But we stayed and sent a group to find a shelter outside after the chaos was over. There is quite a lot of zombies in the school, but it should be fine if we are careful."
Ling Mo immediately understood after hearing Liu Yuhao's explanation. Since many tried to escape outside, even if there were zombies by the door, they would be lured outside. But in a boarding school like this, the inside must be a large scale zombie lair. Ling Mo was aware of it without needing Liu Yuhao to warn him.
As to why those zombies didn't leave the school… In fact, the zombies were all in their wandering state when there was no prey in their sight. The school was sealed and there was only one gate towards the outside and there were numerous buildings. Unless survivors appeared here and attracted those zombies, they would continue to wander here.
But what if they were hungry? They would kill each other! It was the reason why Ling Mo was certain that there must be mutated zombies in the school.
Perhaps they didn't exist when Liu Yuhao and the others left, but it had been so many days and seeing Ye Lian's reaction, Ling Mo could confirm his assumption.
"Wait." As soon as they reached the gate, Ling Mo stopped Xia Na and the others, "Our promise was the front gate. We should separate now."
XIa Na's expressions became complicated and Liu Yuhao looked like he was unwilling to see Ling Mo leave. Although it was only a short period of time, Ling Mo fought alongside with them other than saving them, so it was hard for them to let him go.
"Thank you!" Xia Na bit her lips lightly and said.
Ling Mo glanced at her and nodded, "Mhm, but perhaps we'll meet again. I have some business I need to attend to in the school too."
Xia Na and Liu Yuhao were surprised but they didn't ask further as Ling Mom didn't look like he was going to tell them the details. Before they parted, Liu Yuhao took out some food from their scarce supply and passed it to Ling Mo, "Take these. Thank you for your hard work along the way."
If they didn't have Ling Mo and Ye Lian's help, they probably would've all died. At least the street before the hospital was extremely hard to cross.
Ling Mo didn't take it and shook his head with a smile, expressing that he didn't need it.
Liu Yuhao wanted to force him to accept it but Wang Cheng unnoticeably stopped him with a smile. "Brother Ling is skilled and there's no way that he needs our food, right? It's fine if he doesn't want them."
Liu Yuhao had no choice but to give up after seeing Ling Mo's firm attitude.
As soon as they parted, Ling Mo immediately took Ye Lian and ran towards the education building not far from the front gate.
Xia Na should have no problem keeping herself safe with her skills in a familiar environment so Ling Mo wasn't worried. Not to mention that from their style of doing things, they were never meant to seek survival together. It wasn't difficult to hide Ye Lian's identity for a short period of time, but she was going to be exposed if they stayed together for a long time.
As soon as they entered the building, they saw the tightly shut lift door and it made Ling Mo happy. If it was sealed like this, there must be mutated zombies upstairs!
The safety exit, or the stairs, weren't difficult to find as they just had to push open the door not far from them. But as soon as they approached the door, Ling Mo felt the franticness in Ye Lian's instincts and at the same time, a heavy crashing sound came from behind the door.
Ling Mo's eyes lit up. It looked like there was a mutated zombie behind the door!
Although mutated zombies' attacks were violent and rapid, they had no intellect and they didn't know how to twist a doorknob. Despite the fact that there were visible cracks where the door was connected to the wall, it was difficult to immediately break this door.
Ling Mo peeped through the cracks and he could faintly see that the mutated zombie was a man in the prime of his life. Other than him, there were no other mutated zombies.
Only one, good… Ling Mo's lips curved upwards sardonically. He grabbed the door handle and lifted the dagger in his other hand as Ye Lian stood next to the door.
With a 'kacha", a force crushed towards him as soon as the door was opened. Luckily, Ling Mo prepared himself and immediately escaped to the side.
The mutated zombie dashed outside but the dagger in Ling Mo's hands slashed down as soon as its head appeared.
However, the mutated zombie's reaction was outrageously fast. It grabbed Ling Mo's dagger and pulled the dagger towards its direction strongly. Ling Mo immediately lost balance and in that instant, he stumbled and the mutated zombie's other hand reached out for his chest.
In a key moment like this, Ling Mo didn't wait for death. He almost immediately controlled the mutated zombie and despite reaching his limit very soon, he seized his dagger back during this brief moment and stabbed it roughly towards the mutated zombies. At the same time, Ye Lian reached out for the mutated zombie's arms and twisted them off with all her might.
But this mutated zombie was indeed different from other zombies. It didn't only react quickly, but it struggled strongly against his control.
Ling Mo didn't want to risk his life in another battle again. When he saw that the mutated zombie's arm was twisted off and his dagger also stabbed towards it, he thought that the battle was over…
But Ling Mo never imagined that the mutated zombie would still fight back when its arm was torn off. He didn't hide and flung itself towards Ling Mo.
The distance was so close between them. Ling Mo heard the sound of his daggering stabbing into flesh and when it was about to hit the mutated zombie's fatal spot, it pressed towards Ling Mo. Its hand that was as sharp as a knife and as hard as an iron stretched towards Ling Mo's neck.
At the moment, Ling Mo didn't lose his cool. Ye Lian immediately made a move and grabbed this hand with another "kacha".
Luckily, when fresh blood splattered, Ling Mo already pulled his dagger out and dodged to the side or his face would have blasted with blood.
"So close…" Ling Mo finally felt exhaustion. This zombie was the same as the mutated zombie in the supermarket as its fighting ability was much stronger than the other zombies. It wasn't hard to comprehend that there were more people in the city and thus, they were stuck together with more zombies.
The more gel-like part of the brain they ate, the more they would evolve and hence, get stronger at fighting.