"Do you mind if we join you?"
The boy called Xiaowu was the first to speak up, looking harmless. However, the middle-aged man cast a wary glance at Gu Jingyong but didn't stop Xiaowu.
"Of course not," Tan Xinger replied, not foolish enough to refuse directly. She smiled at the man.
"Call me Xiaowu, and he's Li Jie."
Xiaowu gestured to the man beside him, and Li Jie nodded in acknowledgment, exchanging greetings.
"Call me Xing Zi, and he's Gu Jingyong."
Tan Xinger had barely finished speaking when Gu Jingyong coldly asked, "Are you members of the West Society?"
Gu Jingyong looked at the emblem embroidered on their sleeves, the five-petaled flower with a missing petal that was mentioned earlier.
"That's right," Xiaowu said, following her gaze to their right hands, where a white-lined pattern of the emblem of the West Society was visible.
He looked somewhat surprised at Gu Jingyong, then asked, "May I ask if you are?"
"We are also members of the West Society," Gu Jingyong said calmly, which seemed to put Xiaowu at ease. Upon hearing this, Xiaowu became excited.
"You are? It's such a coincidence! I heard that 85 people from the Society entered the instance this time, but I never expected to run into them."
Xiaowu had a buzzed haircut and a broken eyebrow, looking like a ruffian. However, he smiled innocently, and the atmosphere gradually became less tense.
"Are there only two of you?" Tan Xinger glanced at Li Jie, noticing his disappointment.
"We have a few more brothers from the Society, but they didn't make it out," Xiaowu sighed.
Poking at their pain, Tan Xinger felt somewhat embarrassed. Her gaze wandered and caught sight of the backpack slung over Xiaowu's shoulder.
Hanging from it was a pendant resembling a dart, which she recognized after a moment. It was them!
Tan Xinger looked at Gu Jingyong in astonishment, who, upon noticing her surprised expression, turned slightly. Tan Xinger whispered, "The people outside the convenience store were them."
Gu Jingyong, upon hearing this, was also surprised but quickly concealed it. Meeting Tan Xinger's sparkling eyes, he smiled faintly.
"Cough, do you have any plans? Do you want to go with us to check out the other side?"
With that connection, Tan Xinger now found them much friendlier. After all, they indirectly helped reduce some trouble for them, and they were part of the same organization, so they wouldn't likely backstab them.
"We were thinking the same. Let's rest and replenish our energy first," Xiaowu nodded in agreement.
The four of them sat down in this vast floor, each with their own food, quietly eating.
Tan Xinger nibbled on a compressed biscuit and accidentally choked on it. She coughed a few times and quickly took the water Gu Jingyong handed over, swallowing it in big gulps.
Water dripped down her chin onto her neck. Tan Xinger was about to wipe it away when suddenly, there was a collapsing sound, startling her. Her hand, which was ready to wipe, swiped across her cheek, instantly feeling a burning sensation.
"Ah, my face!"
Tan Xinger screamed, feeling dazed.
Gu Jingyong almost stood up at the same moment, walking to Tan Xinger and staring at the commotion.
Xiaowu and Song Jie also stood up, gripping their weapons and looking at the disturbance.
The disturbance quickly ceased, and several figures slowly appeared before them.
Tan Xinger recognized their faces and felt like she was eating dog blood instead of compressed biscuits. Why did they have to run into these people in such a huge instance, on such a vast floor?
Tan Xinger's gaze was caught, and Song Qing, also looking incredulous, glanced over. He then seemed a bit flustered and quickly covered it up.
Tan Xinger shifted her gaze to the right and saw the large figure, instantly recognizing him as Hu San.
His lackeys seemed to have suffered losses, with only one familiar face limping and supporting himself against the wall as he jumped in.
"Long time no see, you two."
Hu San, seeing their shock without trying to hide it, smirked and walked over to them.
"May I ask who you are?"
Xiaowu looked solemnly at Hu San and his group, sensing their hostile aura. Thinking about this, Xiaowu's hand tightened around the stick he held.
"We are members of the North Society, just here to evade zombies. Do you have any objections?"
Hearing Xiaowu mention the North Society, Xiaowu and Li Jie exchanged surprised glances. There was a clear increase in vigilance in their eyes, almost writing their resistance on their faces.
Tan Xinger noticed this and thought to herself: "Seems like the North Society is quite universally disliked."
"Suit yourselves," Li Jie said, patting Xiaowu to signal him to put away the steel pipe.
Tan Xinger sat back down, or rather, she didn't even stand up in the first place.
She leaned to the side, avoiding giving her back to Hu San and his group. Seeing their disheveled appearance, she could tell they had been through something. Especially Song Qing, whose long hair had a gap for some reason, looking uneven as if gnawed by a dog.
Tan Xinger figured he must have been caught by zombies by his hair and had to cut off a section. It was true that villains always had a taste for villainy.
Tan Xinger had always remembered what Song Qing had done before and felt uncomfortable seeing her, turning her head away unwilling to look at her again.
Gu Jingyong watched Tan Xinger's disdainful actions and glanced coldly at the group, concealing the depth of his eyes.
Staying on the 30th floor for nearly an hour, Tan Xinger felt somewhat bored and stood up, walking towards the floor-to-ceiling window.
From the wide window, one could overlook the statues in Central Park. What required tilting one's head to see the panoramic view was now somewhat diminutive from the top of the building.
And the zombies below looked like ants, clustering and scrambling, searching for the scent of the living.
Tan Xinger daydreamed by the window, suddenly catching sight of Hu San looking in their direction through the reflection on the glass.
When Tan Xinger looked over, Hu San had already averted his gaze, leaving Tan Xinger feeling somewhat speechless.
"What's with his look? I haven't harmed his family!" Tan Xinger squatted beside Gu Jingyong, giving Hu San a glare.
Gu Jingyong was amused by her expression, then glanced at Hu San. The coldness in his eyes made Hu San understand immediately, and their gazes clashed, with tension in the air.
Gu Jingyong naturally knew why Hu San was angry. He hadn't expected him to deliberately leave the rooftop door open before leaving, and neither of them had died. Now, he was a little annoyed too.
Gu Jingyong's expression remained unchanged, but his eyes became colder. Tan Xinger rubbed her hands, feeling a bit nervous.
"Shouldn't you be happy? After all, the instance is about to end," Gu Jingyong's indifferent tone made Tan Xinger suspicious of what was going on in his head. He actually seemed to think Hu San was happy.
Thinking about this, Tan Xinger looked at Hu San again and saw him hugging Song Qing, seemingly noticing the sudden gaze and slowly looking over.
Tan Xinger quickly averted her gaze, seeing Hu San's smug expression. Could it be that he was genuinely smiling because he was happy and had lost control of his expression?
Ridiculous.
Tan Xinger thought to herself, unaware that Hu San was smiling so gleefully because Song Qing had just proposed a method to deal with them and was waiting to implement it.
But the peace didn't last long. Another burst of hurried footsteps broke in again.
Everyone stared at the direction of the door, and they saw the obstacles being knocked down again. A group of people rushed in, followed by a large wave of zombies.
"What the hell!"
Tan Xinger didn't expect so many zombies, immediately unable to sit still, grabbing her weapon and standing up.
She was extremely fortunate to have pulled Gu Jingyong closer to the wall just now because she found herself facing the oncoming zombies.
As the zombies poured in, chaos ensued. They were given time to respond because they were the furthest from the zombies.
After kicking away the nearest zombie, Gu Jingyong grabbed a discarded wooden board and smashed it down, knocking down a large group.
Tan Xinger, without hesitation, stepped onto the wooden board and kicked a few zombies. Unexpectedly, the zombies reacted too quickly, and their crimson tongues pierced through the wooden board towards her.
Tan Xinger spun around on the wooden board like an ant on a hot pot, but eventually, Gu Jingyong couldn't bear to watch and reached out to pull her down, kicking a zombie flying several meters away in the process.
"Cough, thank you."
Tan Xinger stood still, looking at the drop of sticky fluid splattered on her sleeve by the zombies. Holding the dagger, she prepared to cut off the contaminated piece of clothing. However, she found it difficult to do it with just one hand, so she asked Gu Jingyong to help her.
So, after Xiaowu and the others struggled to throw out all the zombies, they saw Gu Jingyong carefully cutting open Tan Xinger's clothes with the dagger, being gentle, afraid of hurting her.
"If I hadn't seen him slaying zombies one by one before, I might have been fooled by this illusion," Xiaowu secretly scoffed, but then he was startled by a loud female voice.
"Xing Zi!"
Tan Xinger was also startled by this voice. She looked up and saw Jiang Qiqi running towards her, opening her arms wide and giving her a big hug.
"You're here too! I thought you went upstairs," Jiang Qiqi exclaimed after finally letting go of Tan Xinger, who was breathing heavily but still happy, holding her hands and saying, "The door is locked, and we can't get in."
"Darn it, it must be the North Society's doing," Jiang Qiqi blurted out without thinking. Tan Xinger was about to remind her when she heard something even more astonishing.
"Do you know who I just saw? It's that guy called Tiger. You don't know how pathetic he looked when he was escaping, hiding behind his lackeys. Calling him Tiger is really an exaggeration; I'd say he's more like a Tortoise," Jiang Qiqi said. Tan Xinger almost covered her mouth to stop her from talking. When she finally finished her long speech, she found the surroundings had fallen silent.
Seeing Tan Xinger's embarrassed expression, Jiang Qiqi realized why everyone was silent and why Tan Xinger had tried to interrupt her several times. The main culprit was standing right behind her.
But Jiang Qiqi decided to stand her ground. Seeing Song Qing standing beside Hu San, she thought of Sun Hao and instantly became furious.
"I'm talking about you, and your people from the North Society! Cunning and selfish, stabbing people in the back!" Jiang Qiqi spoke quickly, trembling all over. Seeing her reddened eyes, Tan Xinger knew what she was thinking, and gently patted her back to calm her down.
"Okay, let's take a rest over there," Gao Xin turned around, giving her a meaningful look and pushed her towards Tan Xinger's direction.
Understanding his silent message, Tan Xinger pulled Jiang Qiqi aside.
Gao Xin glanced at Hu San, then said slowly, "The girl doesn't know what she's talking about, please don't take offense."
With that, he gave Song Qing a deep look before turning and walking away.
Song Qing felt a chill run down her spine. She knew she had made enemies with Gao Xin and his group, and her only way out now was the North Society.
Realizing this, she grabbed Hu San's hand and pulled him back, whispering something softly.
Both groups dispersed, and Xiaowu relaxed. The scene just now was too serious, and he had been considering whether he should help Tan Xinger and her group if they really fought. Although they were both members of the West Society, their camaraderie had only developed within the last hour, and it wasn't deep enough to make him oppose the stewards of the North Society.
He was relieved they didn't fight, which spared him from having to make a choice. Xiaowu thought as he retreated to his spot.
But this calm didn't last long, as it was broken by Song Qing's voice.
"You've been scratched by a zombie!"
Song Qing looked at Jiang Qiqi in shock, pointing at her right hand. Upon hearing this, including Jiang Qiqi herself, they all looked down.
They saw two pieces of cloth hanging on her right calf, with an exposed area that clearly showed claw marks.
"It can't be," Jiang Qiqi stared at them blankly. When she met Tan Xinger's surprised gaze, tears welled up in her eyes, and she looked panicked and scared.