By the time the remaining three brainless living corpses caught up, the fourth one that had strayed from the pack was already dead, its eye socket pierced by a dagger nearly up to the hilt. This was the scene that greeted them upon arrival.
Without spending a moment grieving for their fallen kind, the three living corpses rushed toward Wu Shuang like flies drawn to rotting meat.
Wu Shuang was waiting for them. Timing it right and judging the distance, he hurled his axe directly at the frontrunner, the most eager of the living corpses. The axe struck its calf, tripping it up.
Wu Shuang had actually aimed for its knee, but missed slightly; after all, it was a moving target, so hitting it at all was good enough.
He then turned and ran, continuing to kite the remaining living corpses. Clearly, one had already fallen behind—which was precisely Wu Shuang's strategy.
Upon reaching the backyard, Wu Shuang stopped once more, throwing another meat cleaver...
"Damn it!"
Being a bit overly eager and unfamiliar with throwing cleavers, he missed. The blade stuck into the mud, and one of the living corpses even picked it up to continue the chase.
Wu Shuang had no choice but to keep running. After making two loops, combined with fighting and tension, his stamina management suffered, leaving him with only 43% remaining.
Fortunately, on his way back to the backyard, he bumped into the living corpse that had fallen behind. It had pulled the axe from its calf and was limping forward, completely unaware that Wu Shuang was right behind it.
The foolish creature was knocked down by Wu Shuang once again. This time, Wu Shuang switched to his shield, gripping it with both hands and slamming it down like a blunt weapon onto the living corpse's neck. He only stopped when he felt the bone snap and saw the flesh cave in, successfully taking down his second target.
Just then, the other two caught up from behind. Wu Shuang, now holding his trusty hand axe again, hurled it once more. It struck one right in the knee, and he turned to sprint off again...
About four or five minutes passed.
Wu Shuang collapsed onto the ground, utterly exhausted. Beside him lay a living corpse with its head chopped off; it wasn't dead yet, its mouth still opening and closing, but it no longer posed any threat.
By this point, Wu Shuang had eliminated all four living corpses—three down in the front yard, one in the back—relying solely on this improvised, kite-around-a-pillar tactic.
"Pfft..."
Wu Shuang couldn't help himself and burst out laughing. Fearing he might attract unwanted attention if he laughed too loudly, he forced his laughter down, which twisted his facial expression into a grimace. He let out a series of choked giggles, nearly smothering himself, and took a few coughs to catch his breath.
He was laughing at himself.
Not long ago, he had been scared out of his mind, thinking he was about to be eaten alive, only to discover how surprisingly easy it actually was. It was almost hilarious.
These living corpses were nothing more than mindless beasts. He had overthought how terrifying they were, panicking and wasting a lot of stamina for nothing. Otherwise, he could have handled it much more easily and with room to spare.
Wu Shuang sat on the ground for five or six minutes before finally standing up; all that running and fighting had thoroughly drained him.
He glanced at the severed head on the ground, still snapping its jaws in an attempt to bite him, and then looked toward the main entrance at the short hammer lying beside the grave digger's skeleton. He walked over.
Following a few sickening crunches of fracturing bone, the remaining two squirming heads went completely still. Wu Shuang checked his stamina—only 28% remained. He had to go back and rest.
Fortunately, he had brought enough food and water to last two or three days...
Just then, a cool drop fell onto Wu Shuang's cheek and trickled down.
Looking up, he saw rain drops as large as beans falling. The weather shifted instantly from overcast to a torrential downpour, the patter of raindrops hitting the muddy ground.
"Holy crap!"
Wu Shuang cursed under his breath and sprinted back, but he was a step too slow and ended up soaked to the skin like a drowned rat.
"Damn it, why is this rain bitter? It's even making my mouth go numb!"
Realizing something was wrong, as the rain also stung his eyes, he strongly suspected it was poisonous. He prioritized shielding his eyes and scrambled into the cellar, hastily pulling the door shut behind him.
Within a few minutes, however, Wu Shuang ran back out carrying several empty jars and pots, setting them down in the rain. He picked up one of them, returned to the cellar, and cast the Appraisal Spell.
【Name: Bitter Water】
【Description: This land is cursed, rendering even the rain bitter. Collected in an earthenware pot. Mildly toxic; drinking directly will cause diarrhea or even poisoning. Irritating to mucous membranes. Direct consumption is not recommended.
Once heated and boiled, the bitterness will weaken or even vanish, making it safe to drink.】
...
"The rain is bitter... a curse?"
Wu Shuang's eyes were red and swollen, looking as if he had just wept heavily, and tears kept leaking out involuntarily. Still, he bore through it to check the explanation in the handbook.
Fortunately, there was no risk of blindness, the toxicity wasn't severe, and it could be drunk after boiling. Collecting it in jars had been the right move.
He made several more trips, setting out nearly every jar in the cellar to catch rainwater, regardless of what they had held before.
Only two of the jars already contained liquid: one held a foul-smelling black liquid, which the Appraisal Spell revealed to be corpse water mixed with pigment from decaying bodies—likely used for drawing ritual circles. The other held kerosene, as lighting had been needed to draw and prepare those things; there was even a kerosene lamp in the cellar, though it fell far short compared to the Windproof Lantern in Wu Shuang's hand.
After finishing all this, Wu Shuang finally undressed, worried about hypothermia and catching a cold. He wrapped himself in some rag remnants inside the cellar—likely stripped from corpses—to ward off the chill.
Outside, the rain grew heavier and heavier. Although night had not fallen, visibility dropped drastically. Combined with the persistent light fog, it was practically a disaster.
Rumble!
A flash of lightning streamed in through the cellar door, illuminating a large area, followed immediately by thunder. It was actually thundering—a full-blown storm.
Fortunately, this was a low hill, so flooding wasn't a concern. The cellar entrance also sat higher than the ground level, so apart from rainwater blowing inside, there was hardly any worry of water backing up into the cellar.
...
About an hour later.
Wu Shuang lit a fire inside the cellar. Using kerosene and some scrap firewood, he successfully started a campfire, drying his clothes while boiling water and warming bread. Since the cellar door was left ajar, held only by a bent latch, wind continuously blew in, so oxygen deprivation wasn't an issue.
He pulled up the handbook to check the online count for Zone 127... only four people remained. The chat logs hadn't changed much either, mostly staying where they had been earlier, except for one person who mentioned that it had started raining.
"The rainwater in this world can't be drunk directly; it has to be boiled. The rain here is bitter and toxic," Wu Shuang wrote.
Although it was somewhat redundant advice—anyone could find out just by using Appraisal—it successfully opened up the conversation. Before long, someone replied. Wu Shuang recognized the ID; the number was much lower than his, though still in the 42-billion range. It belonged to the veteran player who had supposedly lived in Zone 127 for two years, and he brought information of his own.
"Well water is actually the same; it must be boiled. The soil and water in this world are cursed. Even wild plants struggle to survive, let alone crops."
The veteran said, having apparently found a well and even attempted farming, only to fail.
"Just four of us left all of a sudden... it really feels like a dream."
"Sigh, what choice do we have? The world we transmigrated into is way too dangerous. I'd honestly rather be sent back."
"Though the numbers should increase eventually, right? The system will probably pull more people in..."
Seeing this, Wu Shuang shared the information regarding the Royal City Defense War, which immediately caused an uproar. The others panicked, unsure of what to do.
"Big boss, how do you know so much insider info? You're insane!"
One of them said. Even though his ID number was lower than Wu Shuang's, meaning he had arrived a few days earlier, he was now calling Wu Shuang "big boss" with every sentence.
Wu Shuang could only explain briefly before looking toward the cellar door.
How long... was this rain going to last?
He glanced at the straw-raincoat-like gear in the corner, then looked up at the gloomy sky. After checking the time and his own condition, he decided to wait until tomorrow to assess things.
Unbeknownst to him, his Humanity had returned to white.
Rate on N.U.
