Deep in the Living
Chapter 410 - 398: Zombies in the Villa Area

Chapter 410: Chapter 398: Zombies in the Villa Area

Buzz!

Luo Di suddenly sat up, the smell of decay in the air seeping into his nostrils, and he even felt like fungi and moss were beginning to grow in his lungs.

Grease-stained bedding draped over him, and the pillow had cotton spilling out; any movement would cause the bed’s springs to creak.

But these environmental factors did not affect him,

Luo Di immediately looked at his right arm, at the needle hole left there, as if he could see silver-white pathogens crawling inside the dark hole.

As he noticed the needle mark,

Gurgle!

A hungry growl from his stomach broke the silence in the room.

"So hungry!"

This was a remarkably different hunger,

one so intense it felt like it could tear open his abdomen, as if some entity was gnawing at the surface of his intestines, forcing Luo Di to press his hands firmly against his stomach.

However, the training from the suffering monk allowed him to find a strange pleasure in his spasms.

But the pain wasn’t the main issue,

the desire to feed slowly filled his entire consciousness during the process, becoming the most immediate physical need.

The spasms lasted about five minutes before slowly subsiding.

After it ended, Luo Di quickly got out of bed, instinctively seeking food.

By the doorway, there was a mirror; Luo Di saw he’d lost a lot of weight, most of the muscles he had built over a decade had broken down, revealing prominent cheekbones.

Squeak~

He pushed open the peeling wooden door, and the door of the opposite bedroom on the second floor also opened.

Yu Lu floated out, looking equally gaunt, hovering just above the ground, toes almost touching it, conserving as much energy as possible.

The small villa was a two-story design.

The two made their way down the stairs to a first floor filled with the stench of rot, mountains of garbage piled high, but they ignored the horrible environment, searching for the faint smell of food to find the refrigerator.

At the very back of the fridge were two unopened cans of meat.

Yu Lu, who got the cans first, almost took both for herself, but remembered that if her servant Luo Di died, the game would end, so she reluctantly gave him one.

After receiving the can, Luo Di swallowed all the meat in a single gulp, even wiping the residual grease from the can’s walls with his fingers.

As the food settled in his stomach, the strange hunger finally diminished, but a faint sensation lingered within him.

Luo Di reckoned that it wouldn’t even be a full day, maybe less than half, before the hunger struck again.

He didn’t want to experience that feeling a second time, that sense of being completely dominated by desire, as if losing himself.

Even Yu Lu was somewhat regretful, thinking it would have been better to have Hua Yuan come; what she wanted to investigate could wait until later rounds of the Death Grand Challenge.

Even she could not resist this hunger, making it difficult to achieve much in such a state.

A cold voice came from her mouth without the need for vocal cords:

"Get familiar with the house environment first, gather here in ten minutes. Minimize your movements; excess motion will hasten the onset of hunger.

Question Mark Mister hid some truths, including that the daily food ration is conditional. One would need to lower their breathing rate to the minimum and stay still to barely last a day.

If we move, we’ll feel hungry in less than half a day, and if we can’t find food when hunger strikes, we’ll completely transform, with the pituitary infected by the virus and become zombies.

The hunger virus injected into us is essentially the mutated zombie virus from Jia Wen’s body."

Luo Di just nodded; after all, talking also consumed energy.

Given the current situation, trying to go out scouting for food later is truly dangerous.

Whether it’s the threat from zombies outside or other participants, any of these could increase movement.

Time is money,

they must act quickly while the canned meat is not yet digested.

Luo Di didn’t move around much; he went to the center of the hall and turned to observe the surroundings. Even though he was extremely hungry earlier, he subconsciously memorized the bedroom and passing areas.

All windows in the villa were boarded up, with no second exit besides the main door.

According to the rules,

neither they, zombies, nor other participants are allowed to damage the villa.

This means, unless they personally open the door, the interior of the villa is absolutely safe.

The simplest way to survive more than three days is to gather three days’ worth of food, return to the villa, consume it all, then lie down and wait for the game to end.

But is it really that simple?

Soon,

Yu Lu also completed her search, confirming that the villa had no basement or ventilation ducts, truly a completely sealed space.

Even her spiritual body form couldn’t penetrate it, not even through the main door.

This also means that if they wanted to search for food in other participants’ villas, they couldn’t find any loopholes; they would have to knock on the door and go in. If the other side didn’t open the door, there would be no way in.

The appearance of the area outside, how many zombies are wandering, and the strength of these zombies are all unknown.

To obtain any intelligence, they would have to venture out.

Specific action plans must be formulated after going out and gathering intel.

The two decisively walked toward the front door, with Luo Di quickly sticking his ear to the peephole to check if there was any living presence outside.

"No one."

As he moved away from the peephole, Yu Lu’s finger suddenly touched his brow center.

Luo Di could feel a certain coldness approaching, not penetrating into him but sticking to the surface, like a stable thin film, wiping out his scent and lowering his body temperature, so it wouldn’t be detected by thermal imaging.

The two pushed the door open and stepped out simultaneously,

The chilly autumn wind blew,

Leaves clung to the long-broken, abandoned streetlights, desolate and dark.

Villas were evenly spaced, and in both horizontal and vertical directions, no end was in sight, as if it was an infinitely large villa complex.

The good news was that within the limited field of vision, only one zombie could be seen.

Clang clang clang~ A zombie more than a hundred meters away was continuously banging its head against a streetlight.

The sound of this banging could help Luo Di and others cover their footsteps, and the zombie seemed unaware of the two people over a hundred meters away, at least indicating that this distance was safe.

At this moment, Yu Lu’s icy voice sounded in Luo Di’s mind. Due to the recent finger touch, this consciousness connection had been established, enabling direct communication through consciousness.

"It seems the number of villas here exceeds the number of participants. Perhaps some villas are unoccupied, and we could obtain food from empty rooms without any fighting."

Luo Di also used this consciousness connection to respond, without expending vocal energy or making a sound, perfectly suited to the current situation.

"If the door of an empty house is closed, we still can’t go in according to the rules. I’m wondering, can the flesh of zombies be eaten? If we cook it well, maybe we can give it a try?

There’s a lone zombie over there; we could lure it over, kill it quickly, and take it back to process?"

Yu Lu didn’t respond directly but thought for a moment: "Let’s visit the nearby ’neighbors’ first. If they all can’t open the door, then consider the zombie issue."

After ten minutes passed,

The two returned to their villa’s front door, and the doors of the adjacent villas were locked, making it impossible to determine if they were unoccupied or other participants were residing there.

After some consideration, they prepared to deal with the lone zombie.

This task naturally fell to Yu Lu.

Whether in terms of strength, means, or attack range, she was more suitable. Additionally, for these humanoid-structured zombies, a simple rope could deal with them.

She floated closer, silently.

If the distance was too far, the effect would be poor, and energy consumption would increase.

When the distance gradually closed to thirty meters,

The zombie still hadn’t noticed, continuing to bang its head on the streetlight.

Yu Lu didn’t make any hand gestures, merely spreading some kind of invisible field,

A noose appeared.

Luo Di widened his eyes, expecting just one noose.

Who knew five nooses would appear from five directions, with some even sprouting from the ground.

Yu Lu didn’t seem to plan to hang the zombie but instead opted for a "quartering," which would also save subsequent processing of the ingredients.

But just as the knots looped over the zombie’s body,

Buzz!

The knots suddenly vanished,

The zombie stopped banging its head,

Its stiff neck began to twist,

Glaring with pale eyes at the person attempting to attack it.

Yu Lu was startled, "Spiritual Body immunity? Is this... the ability of that First Generation Zombie, shared with the zombies in this game?"

In the blink of an eye, the zombie had already stood atop the streetlight.

Crack, crack, crack~

The jaw, along with the sternum and ribs, tore open, transforming into a gaping maw, lunging like a beast...