The footsteps on the wooden plank were piercing, each step pressing down on the ground as if eliciting a groan.
With his eyes shut, Su Ming'an could still feel the girl getting closer to him.
The barrage comments were all urging him to open his eyes quickly; otherwise, they wouldn't be able to see what the girl looked like.
Su Ming'an ignored them. He only opened his eyes at the right moment, catching the glint of the silver dagger as it shone upwards from the floor crack.
"So, you're also a player," he murmured as he swiftly grabbed Qi Shuang's wrist with one hand, flipped over from the bed in one swift motion, and pinned her down by her abdomen, pressing her against the floor.
"Squeak, squeak—"
The floor emitted a piercing squeak, and zombies outside the room erupted in frantic howls.
"You want to kill me? Is it a player's mission?" Su Ming'an guessed that someone's advanced mission might be different.
As Qi Shuang's cover was blown, she clenched her silver teeth and a light burst forth from her wrist with a "pop."
—It was a special skill!
Su Ming'an was tugged by the suddenly increased force, and the dagger came inches close to his chest in an instant.
"Why do you want to kill me? Isn't this world about survival? Are there such missions as well?"
In a critical situation, Su Ming'an felt intrigued.
[The streamer is going to die aaaaah—]
[No way, no way, are there really such missions?]
[Anyone knows the girl's stream? Get out now!]
[This streamer should've died long ago; I don't even want to mention what happened during the day.]
While the barrage continued dancing, the two of them were so close, with a glow emerging from Qi Shuang's hand and the dagger inching closer, but Su Ming'an's other hand suddenly relaxed his hold on Qi Shuang, his eyes fixated on her.
"Won't you say it? Last chance?"
Su Ming'an said.
The next moment, the dagger suddenly broke through the restraint, stabbing towards his chest, and his fingers finally touched the girl's forehead.
A trace of black light scrolled from his fingertips.
[—HP-480! (Fatal wound, penetrating injury!)]
The girl's gaze instantly lost its spirit, and the dagger only sliced through the cloth before falling to the ground with a "clang."
A small, distinctly visible blood hole was on her forehead.
Su Ming'an stood up, kicking the girl's body away.
[Assassinated (Supervisor) Qi Shuang.]
An inexplicable prompt.
Su Ming'an didn't understand what a Supervisor was, but soon, a notification of a dropped item sounded.
[Obtained equipment (Poppy Dagger)]
[Poppy Dagger (Green Level): It looks dexterous, suitable for various assassinations.
Attack Power: 3~8 (Fatal attacks double the bonus)
Durability: 9/10
Equipment Requirement: One-Handed Weapon, Strength Requirement 3 and above
Special Attributes: The flesh cut by it will gradually lose the will to resist, becoming a beautiful flower that reaps death.]
...
Qi Shuang's dagger was decent; Su Ming'an stored it in his bag and locked the storage room.
As he passed by that corner, he saw the bottle without a shell.
The bottle felt cool as he grasped it, and he twisted open the cap, smelling a strange scent, akin to disinfectant.
[*Obtained Clue Four·Strange Bottle]
[Strange Bottle: It smells like it might be tasty, a good choice for a backup drink.]
[Clue has been recorded in the clues bar, available for viewing anytime.]
[Obtained Exploration Points 10*1]
[Clue One, Clue Four, a link forms—forming Hypothesis One]
[Hypothesis One: Does this bottle have some connection with the previous purple liquid?]
...
He stored the bottle, preparing to return to his room.
"Creak" "Creak..."
The wooden floor emitted a ghastly sound.
Feeling the walls, Su Ming'an walked in the pitch-dark room.
As he passed another guest's room, he heard the sound of dripping water.
"Drip, drip."
"Drip, drip."
Though not entirely crisp, it echoed like drumbeats from beyond the closed door.
He abruptly pushed the door open.
A sea of blood red.
Covered in blood, the figure hung on the wooden plank, limbs dangling limply, body contorted into a strange shape.
The middle-aged woman's eyes, already turning gray, were fixed firmly on the doorway, directly meeting his gaze.
"…" Su Ming'an exchanged a silent look.
The next moment, footsteps sounded from behind:
"Didn't you say… not to look around carelessly…"
The middle-aged boss, his voice tinged with blood, spoke from behind, and before he could turn around, the woman in front sprang at him—
Before she could leap onto him, Su Ming'an instantly pressed a point on his temple, and the extinguish feature activated, rewinding time instantly.
… He had thought there would be no side effects.
Only when he opened his eyes, and everything was pitch black, carrying the painful sensation of consciousness fading, did he revisit the agony of death… an experience one would never want to endure again.
His vision had long since adjusted to the darkness, the creaking of the floorboards underfoot, his hand holding that colorless bottle.
… This save point, it's quite short…
Before he could prepare, the door swung wide open!
The middle-aged woman, her limbs dangling limply, lunged from the blood-red room!
"Bang!" Just in the nick of time, the steel pipe in Su Ming'an's hand barely blocked the woman's nails, their clash emitted an extremely shrill noise.
A gust of malevolent wind came from behind, Su Ming'an was hard-pressed from front and back, just as he braced himself to endure the blow, he heard a series of quick footsteps.
"Swoosh."
The silver sword tip grazed his face, passing close to his ear, its sharp blade slicing off a few strands of hair, Su Ming'an stepped back and crossed paths with the sword-wielding Yuanyuan.
She was still wearing her own pajamas, fluffy and snow-clad around her body, her cap adorned with cute pink cat ears, looking like a girl just waking from sleep, yet the sword she stabbed was exceedingly crisp and sharp, her face still speckled with splashed blood.
Her sword pierced through the neck of the man who had ambushed them, then as they passed by, met the sprinting woman, under the moon-like sword light, the woman's long red nails were severed cleanly.
"Slash—" a sound, Yuanyuan's sword tip aimed directly at the woman's throat, but unexpectedly the woman sped up, sidestepping her, and bit directly on the still dizzy Su Ming'an's arm!
Blood erupted.
[——HP-150! (Poisoned, Adverse Effects)]
[——HP-5! (Poisoned)]
[——HP-5! (Poisoned)]
The next moment, Su Ming'an pushed his palm onto the woman's forehead, Extinguish drove deep into her skull.
[——HP-500! (Fatal Injury, Piercing Wound!）]
"Boom——" The woman's corpse fell to the ground, seemingly with props popping out.
[Killed (Mutated Zombie), Exp +300]
"Huff… huff…"
Su Ming'an instantly felt his vision blur, the surrounding scene also started turning a uniform red, he looked at the new buff appearing in the buff bar in the upper left corner of his vision.
[Novice Zombie Poison: Bitten by a zombie, the poison has not yet spread throughout the body.]
He immediately lifted his sleeve to look, seeing black spots starting to spread from his wrist up to his forearm.
The public chat had just been empty, seeming still not to have recovered from the shock of the sudden attack, after seeing this scene, everyone began screaming.
[My god, it's over, he's going to turn into a zombie.]
[I've been through this before, there's simply no way…]
…
Yuanyuan snapped out of her trance, turned her head, and her eyes immediately filled with dread.
"You…" She had rushed here from a dark nightmare, only to find herself facing a scene of utter despair.
Su Ming'an immediately tipped the bottle of insecticide-like liquid into his mouth from the backpack, but the zombie poison still did not disappear, next moment, he had that purple reagent in his hand but hesitated in the movement, the uncertainty in his eyes flickering before he stopped himself from pouring it in his mouth.
It was the first time he encountered such a short save point… which caused him to be infected even after reloading.
With that thought, it might mean that the save point does not change over time but is fixed for a period.
Just like a fixed save point, at some [Key Plot] moments, the save point is frozen at the moment of that key event.
Even if he reloaded now, the situation wouldn't improve. Blocking the woman's initial attack with the steel pipe was purely by luck, and trying it a second time, he might die right at the start.
… If he couldn't reload, then he could only…
His gaze shifted over his own arm, then back to Yuanyuan.
"It's okay, help me, chop here—control your strength, you can do it right."
Yuanyuan had not imagined he would be so decisive, amputating a limb to survive… the pain was not something ordinary people could bear.
"Vaccine, right, the fungus…" Yuanyuan recalled the mushrooms acquired at the hotel owner's place.
"They're useless, according to my guess, that's not a vaccine against the zombie poison." Su Ming'an said, "We've been thinking too simply before—there's more than one kind of vaccine."
"You'll lose too much blood…"
"Chop!" Su Ming'an's gaze was firmly fixed on her.
The black spots gradually spread up, threatening to spread to his upper limbs.
Yuanyuan's gaze softened, she wiped her sword with her pristine white fluffy pajamas, then, her arms trembling slightly, she raised it.
A flash of white light.
[HP-300! (Amputation, Severe Blood Loss)]
…