Chapter 44
by LhaoziChapter 44: Unlocking a Random Skill
Everyone on the second floor fell dead silent!
The wet splat, splat of footsteps coming up the stairs grew closer and closer.
Immediately following came the second, the third, and the fourth—until the first zombie finally appeared within their line of sight.
This was a female zombie wearing a long dress. Having just emerged from the water, the fabric clung wetly to her body, her face plastered over with hair, while a squishy, rotten chunk of flesh hung from her decayed neck, looking both terrifying and repulsive.
Bai Hanyue, standing closest to the stairwell, felt the fine hair all over her body stand up on end at the sight!
Taking a step backward, she looked at the increasing number of zombies shuffling out below, her voice tight:
“How are there so many zombies in this place!”
One had to know that although this was a community hospital, almost no one stayed here as an inpatient under normal circumstances. Since the zombie outbreak occurred during the night, the hospital had long been locked shut at that time.
Holding her Standard Machete, Qin Xi peered down from the top of the stairwell, offering a guess:
“Maybe someone ran inside to take shelter, but left the door unlocked?”
Before her words could fall, however, Qin Song refuted her deduction:
“These people should indeed have run inside to seek refuge, and the main door was likely shut. It’s just that an infected person managed to get inside the interior—look below, no new zombies are appearing anymore!”
Following Qin Song’s words, Qin Xi looked down past the stairs, seeing that the upper section of the stairwell was being filled up bit by bit by the ascending zombies.
Yet on the lower section of the stairs, indeed no new zombies were appearing!
Off to the side, Bai Hanyue, Lin Xin, and Li Zekai had already blocked the top of the stairwell with their weapons in hand, performing skull-cracking maneuvers on the zombies as they came up—one kill per target.
Qin Xi and Qin Song watched from the side, refraining from moving for the time being.
There were over thirty zombies in total here; letting the three practice dealing with their fear of zombie hordes was a good thing anyway.
Most importantly, having collected so many items earlier, Qin Xi’s mental strength felt somewhat fatigued as well, so she needed a moment to recover.
She simply leaned against the wall and sat down, while Qin Song stood behind the three, guarding against any sudden emergencies at all times.
Taking advantage of this moment, Qin Xi checked the status inside her system space.
She casually mined the remaining gold ore, then redeemed “One-Touch Watering” and “One-Touch Sowing.”
Afterward, she spent 60 Points to buy three mu of rice seedlings. After planting them, the Points earned from the two completed tasks roughly offset the Points spent purchasing the two features.
Aside from the Points reward, however, the system dropped another small random gift pack:
[Congratulations on receiving a random task gift pack! Open it for a surprise!]
Qin Xi froze for a second.
Previously, the system’s random gifts were issued directly—such as nutrient fluids, spicy smoked duck, and the like.
Yet this time, it was actually a gift pack that required manual opening!
Curiosity instantly surged within her.
Without hesitation, she reached out her hand to tap open the gift pack. A faint blue halo flashed past, followed by the familiar mechanical voice:
[Ding—Random gift pack opened. Skill unlocked: Underwater Shield.]
[Skill Explanation: Usage limit: 20 minutes per activation. Once unlocked, an air shield surrounds the user, allowing free movement underwater while blocking external attacks. After usage, triggers a 10-day cooldown period. Unused activations do not stack.]
Looking at this new skill, Qin Xi couldn’t help a surge of joy in her heart!
Talk about offering a pillow right when sleepiness hit!
After all, prior to entering the community hospital, she had already planned on visiting the first floor.
Except back then, she had thought about changing into scuba suits alongside her big brother to dive down.
It carried certain risks, though—what if there were zombies below, or what if a zombie ripped open the diving suit? Whether from getting bitten or leaking air, it would be extremely dangerous.
Now, however, that was no longer necessary.
If this skill could truly block external attacks, going down to the first floor alone to gather supplies would pose no problem whatsoever.
With that line of thought, Qin Xi immediately felt her previously tired body fill with renewed energy.
Standing up, she looked toward the stairwell; by now, the number of zombies had thinned out significantly, leaving fewer than ten in sight.
Bai Hanyue and the other two had built up quite a seamless coordination.
Two of them stood at the front—one attacking, one guarding—while the third stood ready in the back; whenever the two at the front grew tired, they swapped with the person behind.
Zombies required head strikes to be killed effectively, yet skull bones were naturally hard, forcing the three to swap out after dispatching every few targets.
Fortunately, the quantity of zombies this time wasn’t exceptionally large.
Looking at the final few remaining zombies over there, Qin Xi called Qin Song off to the side, sharing news of her newly acquired skill before saying:
“Big Brother, I’m heading down below to take a look in a bit. You guys wait for me up here.”
Qin Song’s brows knitted tightly the moment he heard this:
“I’ll put on a scuba suit and go down with you.”
Qin Xi waved her hand in refusal, however:
“No need. I’ll just go down, collect the stuff, and come back up. This skill lets me walk freely underwater, so moving on my own will be even faster.”
Seeing Qin Song’s worried expression, she raised her hand to pat the man’s shoulder:
“Don’t worry, the skill only lasts 20 minutes. I’ll definitely come back as fast as possible. Just wait for me up here—if I haven’t come up after twenty minutes, come down to look for me right away!”
Qin Xi’s tone was very firm!
Qin Song’s brows remained creased, yet meeting the girl’s insistent gaze, he gave a helpless nod.
He knew Qin Xi was right, and understood that his concern was clouding his judgment, so he respected her decision after all.
On the other side, Bai Hanyue and the other two finally resolved the very last zombie.
The moment the zombie collapsed, Bai Hanyue dropped her arms almost immediately, dragging her pitchfork as she ran over to the wall, sliding down to sit against it.
Her hands were even trembling; her palms felt numb and painful from gripping the pitchfork shaft far too tightly.
Lin Xin and Li Zekai also found an open space, sitting down while panting heavily.
Panting violently, Li Zekai used his other hand to fan his face rapidly.
The heat generated by heavy exertion turned his cheeks bright red.
Noticing this, Lin Xin raised his hand, silently attempting a channel in his palm; before long, three small ice cubes appeared in his hand.
He handed the ice cubes over to Li Zekai:
“Brother Kai, take an ice cube and put it on your forehead to cool down.”
Hearing this, Li Zekai’s eyes lit up, and he reached out to take it right away:
“Ah, came just in time!”
Lin Xin offered a smile upon hearing that, extending his hand to Bai Hanyue as well:
“Want one?”
Bai Hanyue looked at it, thought it over, and realizing her period was coming up soon, ultimately shook her head:
“I’m good, thanks.”
However, at that thought, her face suddenly turned pale.
That’s right—my period is coming up soon, but I don’t have any sanitary pads right now!
She turned around wanting to bring this up with Qin Xi, but after a moment’s thought, she swallowed it back in the end, planning to bring it up later.
Meanwhile, Qin Xi had already stood up, walking to the stairwell to poke her head out and look down.
The steps were packed tight with corpses, looking like a terrifying sea of blood and mountain of bodies.
Withdrawing her line of sight, she turned back to look at the three:
“I’m heading down to the first floor for a moment!”
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