Deep in the Living
Chapter 105 - 99: Wildcats and Stray Dogs

Chapter 105: Chapter 99: Wildcats and Stray Dogs

Luo Di did not head straight for the main gate but turned back to the bus first.

He raised his foot and kicked at the bandaged driver... Thwack! He sent the man flying out of the driver’s seat, landing heavily on the edge of the tunnel.

Perhaps due to the fragile and decrepit state of the body, the fall resulted in a broken arm and leg, and the neck was nearly torn apart, hanging on by just a sliver of skin.

Not a single drop of blood flowed from the body, further indicating that this was a desiccated corpse devoid of blood.

As for the identity of this driver, Luo Di figured it must be one of the missing persons who had somehow ended up in this condition.

Watching the driver be kicked meters away, with a broken arm and leg, and his head hanging by a thread of skin, Luo Di felt reassured and turned back to regroup with his team.

"Pal, you’re pretty cautious, eh?" Yu Ze raised his thumb in praise.

For Luo Di, this was merely an action ingrained in his instincts. Having watched countless B-movies, he had come to love the Murderer characters and learned an important lesson—the concept of a ’finishing blow’.

Arriving at the end of the tunnel,

a rust-covered iron gate was set within the surrounding walls,

a badly weather-worn wooden sign hung beside the gate, with only the vague shapes of the characters for "Nursing Home" being discernible.

The heavy Iron Gate not only had a ground lock but was also wrapped with iron chains as thick as thumbs, completely sealing it shut.

After confirming the gate couldn’t be opened by normal means, it was finally Anna’s turn to showcase her skills.

She had already assessed the material and hardness of the Iron Gate, and there was no need for cunning tactics; direct brute force was sufficient to break through.

As she prepared to take out her axe from the backpack,

Yu Ze, standing beside her, suddenly felt something and began to make calculations with his fingers, while casting a glance behind them out of the corner of his eye.

Out of nowhere,

a humanoid shadow emerged from the dark depths of the tunnel, too dim to discern any specific facial features or body shape.

The shadow inserted a syringe into the driver’s brain and ripped off his forehead talisman.

At the same moment, Yu Ze had a Copper Coin between his fingers.

He could have thrown the coin to interrupt this action, but at the last moment, he hesitated and withdrew the coin, pretending as if he had seen nothing.

The shadow quickly disappeared into the tunnel after injecting a substance into the driver.

Swoosh!

Blood vessels, writhing like tentacles, grew out from the driver’s wounds, reconnecting his head, hand, and leg. Not only that, but the driver’s physical functions surged, and almost in an instant, he jumped back into the driver’s seat.

Luo Di soon noticed the commotion that followed, and by the time he turned his head, the bus had started moving again. He had not expected the shattered body to recover like that.

Yu Ze then shouted:

"Be careful! The driver seems to have been resurrected by something."

Before the words had settled, the bus accelerated toward them.

They didn’t have time to break through the gate; their only option was to move out of the way.

A moment before the collision,

Luo Di and Anna leapt to dodge to the left, while Yu Ze hid on the opposite side.

Boom!

The speeding bus hit the sturdy gate, pulling up several ground locks that had been embedded in the ground.

The Iron Gate, struck by the impact, also got caught in the bus’s wheels, causing the bus to tip over.

The batteries under the bus were punctured by the sharp edges of the gate, and the friction caused by the tip-over made the temperature rise continuously, with tiny flames appearing at the damaged part of the battery group.

An explosion was imminent!

Click!

A tsking sound spread.

Luo Di, who had just rolled to avoid the collision, clicked his tongue and sensed danger once again.

As he prepared to grab Anna to run further away, he felt something strong and powerful lift him up.

Anna had already adjusted her stance faster, picking Luo Di up onto her shoulder with one hand, and began to run away swiftly.

Boom!

A violent explosion erupted from behind, flames shooting up into the sky.

Fortunately, the tunnel was sturdy, showing only minor cracks and not collapsing.

The two, who had already run dozens of meters away, were not affected by the explosion.

Anna kept her eyes on the bus burning at the gate, quickly scanning the surroundings, trying to find traces of Yu Ze, but she did not spot any movement.

"Hey, you can put me down now." A voice came from her shoulder.

"Oh~"

Anna then realized Luo Di was still on her back.

The two slowly approached the burning bus, with Anna continuously calling out Yu Ze’s name along the way, yet there was no response.

However, Luo Di seemed to have figured out the issue,

"Don’t bother yelling; that guy couldn’t possibly fall victim to something like this."

"It’s possible that the Pseudo-Person who created this Corner-like Space forcibly separated us through that recent car accident. It’s also possible that Yu Ze purposefully used this accident to separate himself from us."

"Deliberate?"

"Doesn’t matter, either way, there’s not much difference. Let’s stick close to each other from now on to avoid getting separated. Once the fire dies down a bit more, we’ll go in."

"Okay."

The blaze slowly subsided,

and with the light provided by the flames, the scene beyond the gate gradually became visible,

a comprehensive nursing home combining hospital aesthetics stood solemnly in the dead of night, its expansive front courtyard area dimly illuminated by scant small path lights that dotted about like the sparse hair of an elderly person.

The two, exploiting a breach in the damaged wall, crossed over the still blazing remains of the bus and officially entered the domain of the nursing home.

Anna looked up and gasped, "It’s so big! This building must have over ten floors...I thought it would be one of those smaller ones with only three or four floors. This scale is almost comparable to the ’Seam’, right? What kind of Pseudo-Person could have formed such a large Corner-like Space alone?"

Luo Di shook his head; this was also the first time he encountered such a case.

A Corner-like Space of this magnitude, and yet hidden within reality, was beyond his current understanding of Pseudo-People.

It only showed one thing: the Pseudo-Person behind this was very special, with a ’Pseudo-Person Age’ and ’Corner Depth’ incomparable to ordinary Mature Pseudo-People.

Perhaps not far behind Mr. Guo who had emerged victorious from the Four Middle School Incident.

However, Luo Di harbored no fear; he was no longer the person he once was.

He even felt a twinge of excitement and anticipation, excited at the prospect of such prized prey to hunt, and looking forward to the ultimate purpose the class president chose this event for.

Perhaps sensing Luo Di’s excitement, something seemed to be writhing under the skin of his brand-new left arm, as if it wanted to pierce through his skin and expose itself.

"Luo Di, look at the lawn!"

Anna’s words broke Luo Di’s temporary burst of excitement, and his gaze followed hers to the courtyard’s grass area not far away.

Previously distracted by the allure of the nursing home and the dim lighting, he hadn’t noticed anything unusual on the lawn right away.

A multitude of cat and dog corpses was scattered across the front yard, and occasionally a few would be on the concrete path as well.

"Did the city’s stray cats and dogs accidentally wander in here? Or were they deliberately lured? Did the nursing home’s environment lead to their mass death, or is there some other reason?"

Luo Di then smelled a stench too—not just the smell of decay, but something else was faintly mixed in.

"Stay here and wait for me; I’ll go check out the condition of the corpses."

Considering the unknown and dangerous factors, Luo Di gestured to Anna to wait there.

He approached the closest stray cat corpse.

After all, connected to True Hell, Luo Di now had the ability to confront Mature Pseudo-People head-on. And Anna, still classified as human, had only a Cornered Tool, it was better for him to conduct the initial investigation.

Swoosh!

The Zombie Blade was drawn out from the backpack, firmly gripped in his hand.

The body of the stray cat gradually came into view, no obvious external injuries, dead entirely from aging. Its shriveled and crumpled body, fur merely sticking to the skin which would fall off with the slightest touch.

"Mummified corpses, similar to the previous driver... Does entering this nursing home cause one to age rapidly? Unlike the loss of weight I experienced in the nightmare before, this is real physical aging."

As he moved closer,

less than 1.5 meters away,

the supposed dead cat... hiss! The shriveled eye suddenly directed its gaze to Luo Di after making a weird shriek.

The entire corpse leaped up sharply, lunging straight for Luo Di’s face,

and not only that,

hiss hiss hiss~ several thin blood vessels emerged from beneath the skin of the cat, measuring 5~10cm in length outside the body.

Faced with the situation, Luo Di could have cut it in mid-air with a single stroke of his blade, but he was rather concerned about the stench he was smelling.

Moreover, even though the body of the cat was completely withered, there was a noticeable bulge in the abdomen.

Combining these factors, Luo Di decisively abandoned the idea of a direct kill.

He lifted his arm to block in front of his face.

Thump!

The leaping dead cat landed on his arm, clawing frantically.

Additionally, those thin blood vessels that emerged from the body attempted to burrow into Luo Di’s arm, as if trying to inject some kind of substance.

But his entire right arm was indestructible; not even the cat’s claws breaking could pierce the skin.

[Deep Zombie Transformation]

With a forceful shake!

The dead cat was flung away by brute strength, landing about five meters away,

before it could even get up,

Swoosh!

The rapidly spinning Zombie Blade flew accurately, cleaving its body into two parts.

And at the moment the dead cat’s body was split open, a discordant grey mist emerged from within it, seemingly the reason for the cat’s aging and transformation.

If he had killed it up close, he might have inhaled this mist into his own body.