Trembling At A High Altitude

"Let's do it this way, aren't we supposed to hunt down four zombies? After the first person successfully hunts one zombie, the remaining seven will draw lots again to choose the second hunter, and so on. It's a bit unrealistic to expect one person to continuously kill four zombies. There's no need to be so hasty in dismissing number 8, we can just redraw according to the new rules," suggested number 4, offering a compromise.

"How about it, number 8?" number 3 asked number 8.

"If we're redrawing lots, of course I have no objection," agreed number 8 to number 4's suggestion.

Number 8 naturally had no objections, as generally speaking, the chance of him being picked again in a new draw was very low.

So, everyone began the lot drawing process once more.

Good, this time it was Li Teng who drew the lot.

"There's no escaping it anyway," Li Teng grinned, somewhat suspicious that numbers 5, 4, and 3 were in cahoots, possibly cheating during the drawing of lots. But it didn't matter; even if they weren't cheating, Li Teng felt his chances of being chosen were still quite high.

"You just need to kill one zombie, and your mission will be considered complete," encouraged numbers 3 and 4 to Li Teng.

After verifying that the ground floor doors were barred with two tables, making ambush from others impossible, Li Teng agreed to be the first to fight the zombies.

The second floor began luring zombies again.

After several attempts, a zombie was successfully lured to the edge of the door.

But it showed no sign of entering.

Seizing the moment, Li Teng dashed to the door and swung a wooden stool hard at the zombie's head.

Like a hammer, the heavy wooden stool shattered the zombie's skull in an instant, and it fell to the ground in front of the teahouse without a sound.

Li Teng quickly dragged it inside the teahouse and, to ensure it was thoroughly dead, he smashed its head several more times with the stool, completely obliterating its skull.

A pungent stench of decay began to fill the teahouse.

The onlookers applauded and gave thumbs up for Li Teng's swift and decisive action.

Yet, some held their noses and leaned against the wall, vomiting.

Not everyone had been through experiences like Li Teng, not everyone had, like Li Teng, ever crushed someone's skull before.

It's somewhat unsettling to witness such a scene for the first time.

Other zombies converged in a frenzy the moment Li Teng stepped out, but he quickly retreated back into the teahouse, and without a target, they began wandering aimlessly on the streets again.

After Li Teng completed his task, the group started the second round of drawing lots.

The results of the second drawing came out quickly.

Unfortunately, it was number 8 again.

Number 8 was speechless.

Each lot was written in front of everyone, folded in front of everyone, and one had to turn their back to draw, while the others shuffled the lots on the table. Therefore, it seemed the possibility of cheating was nonexistent.

Number 8 could only think of one reason for always being chosen.

That is... bad luck.

Li Teng had apparently resigned himself to fate, but number 8 was not so resigned.

Luckily, after witnessing Li Teng's process of killing a zombie, he felt it was not that difficult and quite safe, so this time he didn't resist.

The second floor began to lure zombies again, and after several attempts, they finally managed to attract one to the ground floor door.

Number 8 charged forcefully like Li Teng, then he swung the wooden stool at the zombie's head.

But number 8 failed to hit the zombie's head, whether it was a misjudgment or the zombie moved at that moment, regardless... he missed.

It was not just a miss, but because he had used too much force and failed to let go of the stool in time, the momentum carried him through the door, and then he even fell outside the door.

Being unlucky is actually not such a big deal, people like Li Teng who are supremely unlucky are still stubbornly surviving to this day.

Being foolish is not such a big deal either; a slow bird flies first, it's still possible to catch up by putting in several times more effort than others.

The scariest is to be both unlucky and stupid.

Just like Number 8.

Seeing Number 8 fall to the ground, the zombie by the door couldn't help but be delighted... Stumbling upon fresh meat just by wandering the streets!

So, without any courtesy, it pounced, pinned Number 8 to the ground, and savagely abused him with scratches and bites. The other zombies on the street, attracted by the fresh scent of blood, also rushed over.

Amidst Number 8's screams and in front of an audience, he was torn into pieces by a group of zombies ripping through his neck and gutting him alive.

"Number 8 is dead."

A commentator's voice sounded out in the teahouse.

A cheer erupted from the crowd.

First, Number 8's previous deceitful behavior really made him quite unpopular.

Second, it's every man for himself.

"We've all advanced, right?" Number 5 spoke up.

"Number 8 will revive at the teahouse, his birthplace, in 5 minutes. If he dies again, the revival time will double, and so on," the commentator's voice sounded again.

After the commentator's voice faded, Number 8's corpse also vanished from the front of the teahouse.

Everyone had celebrated prematurely.

It seemed that dying during the performance wasn't that terrible, as you would be resurrected at your birthplace.

But resurrection takes time; the first death takes 5 minutes to revive, the second 10 minutes, the third 20 minutes, and with more deaths, the resurrection time only grows longer.

Of course, wasting time on resurrection could very well lead to being the last one to reach the safe house on the other side, losing this round of the competition.

So, it's still best not to die if possible.

Given that, the show must go on.

The group started the third round of drawing straws.

Li Teng and Number 8 were no longer required to participate.

Of course, Number 8 was not yet resurrected.

The one who drew the straw this round was Number 7. Finally, Li Teng also had a chance to see clearly how Numbers 5, 3, and 4 were cheating, but he didn't plan to expose them. Of course, even if he did, they wouldn't admit it and would instead turn against him.

Number 7 seemed a bit nervous, but with the agreed task at hand, his thin face couldn't bear backing out.

However, his performance wasn't bad. Although he was not as lethal to the zombies as Li Teng, he didn't make mistakes like Number 8. After hitting the zombie three times in succession, he finally killed one and quickly dragged it back into the teahouse.

The next two who were drawn also completed their tasks with some close calls but without incident.

The corpses of four zombies were laid out on the ground floor.

Just then, Number 8 successfully resurrected and walked down from the stairs with an unhappy expression.

Being torn apart by a group of zombies just a while ago had severely traumatized his body and mind, causing him still to tremble all over.

"You all just stood by, enjoying the show, watching me die without lifting a finger to save me," Number 8 complained to everyone.

Nobody paid any attention to him.

"Quick, everybody start smearing it on," Number 5 told everyone.

They looked at each other hesitantly.

"If you guys won't smear, then I'll start. After I'm done, I'm leaving," Number 5 said a few words, then squatted down, fought back his disgust to unlatch the zombie's clothes, smashed the zombie's body, and began to smear the zombie's stinky fluids onto himself.

Li Teng also came over and started to smear the substance onto himself.

Worried about being left behind, the rest rushed forward and frantically started smearing the substance onto themselves.