Chapter 162: Tragic and Fierce

"These zombies actually have intelligence."
"Interesting."
"Are these intelligent zombies also players?"
"Really? Are the starting conditions of the instance different?"
As the host, Bode could not see the audience's progress, but his years of accumulated work experience allowed him to hit upon the points that the players were curious about.

"This zombie is also a player."
Through the backend provided to him and his team by Qiyou, Bode could easily view the status of all players currently in the instance where Someone Under the Tree was located.
On the massive virtual map, densely packed light points were marked.
These light points were divided into three colors: green, red, and yellow.
Among them, yellow was the most numerous.
It was visible that the entire map was flooded with yellow light points everywhere.
Clearly, these marked locations were where ordinary zombies were.
With a click of a switch to hide those yellow light points, the map instantly showed only red and green colors.
Combined, there were just over twenty of them, and they were all players.
The green light points were the most numerous, and they were all inside the building.
As for the red light points, they were outside the residential complex where the building was located.

"It seems this instance is a player-versus-player combat match."
"The objective for the zombie faction should be to eliminate the human players inside the building. Although the exact details of the mission are unknown, I guess it won't be too simple."
"After all, the innate advantages of zombies are greater than those of the human players."
Having explained this much, Bode switched his perspective back to Someone Under the Tree.
After all, he was currently the protagonist of this live broadcast.

Someone Under the Tree, carrying a backpack, walked slowly back upstairs.
His walking speed was very slow because climbing stairs was a physical exertion.
If he moved too quickly, he would inevitably consume a large amount of stamina, and if an unexpected situation suddenly arose, his circumstances would certainly not be good.
The building arranged in the game had a total of twenty floors.
His luck was considered decent; being on the seventh floor meant that going up and down the stairs was not too tiring.
Moreover, there was still some distance from the ground, giving him reaction time if a horde of corpses struck later, preventing him from being instantly overwhelmed by the tide of corpses.

Soon, Someone Under the Tree returned to the seventh floor.
He narrowed his eyes as he looked at the opened fire door.
He remembered closing the fire door when he left, but now it was in an open state, clearly indicating that someone had entered while he was away.
"I wonder if they triggered my traps... Hopefully, they didn't find my hidden supplies."
Thinking this to himself, Someone Under the Tree lightened his steps and walked out of the stairwell.
However, he did not expect that the moment he stepped out of the passage, he would make intense eye contact with a zombie.
Someone Under the Tree found the zombie's appearance somewhat familiar; when he had tried to search downstairs earlier, he was almost attacked by this very guy.

"The tables have turned."
Having muttered those words, Someone Under the Tree thrust his spear directly into the eye socket of the zombie in front of him.
Most of the spear tip sank in.
A large amount of black fluid splashed out.
Feeling the sticky sensation transmitted through the spear shaft, Someone Under the Tree felt a bit disgusted, and quickly twisted the spear inside the zombie's brain to swiftly end its life.

After resolving the opponent, Someone Under the Tree immediately stepped forward to check his loot.
A pair of brass knuckles and a chainmail vest.
Aside from these, nothing else was found.
Clearly, the other party had also left in a hurry and did not carry many things on them.
Regarding this, Someone Under the Tree remarked that he would certainly help this player transfer all the supplies from their room over.
After all, a family should be complete and stay together.

Having collected the loot, Someone Under the Tree did not bother with formalities and simply tossed the corpse out of the window.
In reality, high-altitude littering was a bad habit.
But in a world full of zombies, being able to crush a few zombies with it made it a good thing.
Having disposed of the corpse, Someone Under the Tree walked towards his own room.
Arriving at the door, he reached out to push it open.
However, the door remained completely motionless; it was locked.

Seeing this, Someone Under the Tree raised an eyebrow, a look of surprise appearing in his eyes.
"He even locked the door on his way out."
Muttering this to himself, he took out his key.

"Click!"
"Roar!"
The moment the door lock was twisted open, Someone Under the Tree felt a tremendous force transmit from the door.
The force was so great that it caused him to stagger back several steps before he regained his footing.
Before he could react at all, a head with half its scalp gnawed away poked out through the opened gap of the door.
This terrifying sight gave Someone Under the Tree a huge fright.

"What the heck!"
The zombie behind the door showed him no courtesy whatsoever and lunged forward directly.
Judging by that posture, it seemed intent on tearing Someone Under the Tree to pieces right then and there.
Feeling the threat, Someone Under the Tree finally snapped back to his senses.
While hurriedly retreating, he raised the homemade spear in his hand and thrust it directly toward the eye socket of the zombie in front of him.
However, because the attack came too suddenly, this thrust did not hit the right spot.
Instead, it landed on the lower-left cheekbone of the zombie in front of him.
Although it failed to kill the creature, it at least managed to halt its attack.

"That was a close call."
Someone Under the Tree let out a breath.
Now that his wits had returned, he could feel his heart pounding wildly.
If not for his quick reaction, he probably would have been sent straight to GG.

But just as Someone Under the Tree was preparing to deal with the zombie before him, he heard movement coming from inside the room once again.
Hearing this noise, his expression turned rather unpleasant.
"There's another one? Even playing mahjong shouldn't happen in someone else's house."
Muttering to himself, he quickly adjusted his position to avoid being swarmed by two zombies.

And his action was the most correct choice at the moment.
The second after he retreated, another zombie emerged from behind the door.
And after this zombie squeezed out, there was still more movement behind it.
Hearing this, the face of Someone Under the Tree turned green.
Judging by this setup, it looked like a whole group of zombies was playing mahjong inside his house.

Fighting one against two, Someone Under the Tree felt he could handle it.
But one against three...
Pardon him.
He directly dropped the backpack on his back and turned around to run toward the room across the corridor.
Standing his ground and trading blows was out of the question.
He decided he still needed to play it safe.

"Roar!"
The three zombies behind him immediately gave chase upon seeing him flee.
Moreover, their speed was a few notches faster than his.
The distance between them rapidly shrank.
Seeing that he was about to be caught, Someone Under the Tree hardened his heart and lashed backward with the spear in his hand.

"Bang!"
It struck the temple of the lead zombie squarely.
Because the zombie was moving too fast, this sudden impact caused it to stagger heavily and fall to the ground.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Someone Under the Tree bolted into the doorway opposite and quickly slammed the door shut.

"Bang, bang, bang!"
The moment he shut the door, intense pounding echoed from behind.
Leaning against the door, Someone Under the Tree felt the vibrations behind him and let out a sigh of relief.
The situation had finally stabilized.

However, before his heart had completely settled back down, it was once again yanked straight up to his throat.
Because inside the room where he currently stood, there was actually another zombie!