Chapter Fifty-One: Purple Moon

After spending about a day on the road, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai arrived at the Pais Camp, nestled in the heart of the desert.

The white flag that once drifted above the camp was nowhere to be seen. The wooden palisades that had once enclosed the camp now lay scattered and broken across the ground. Clearly, the wooden walls had been breached during a tide of undead.

Even from a distance, Qin Fei could make out the state of the camp’s interior.

Within the camp, apart from a handful of zombies still wandering aimlessly, the ground was littered with a dozen or so dormant corpses. Among them, Qin Fei even spotted several green-skinned zombies—remnants, no doubt, from the previous wave.

Because of these green-skinned undead, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai decided not to enter the camp to scavenge for supplies. They could handle one of these tougher zombies, but if there were too many, it was wiser to give them a wide berth. Whether or not they could win in a fight was beside the point—these green-skinned monsters were notoriously tough, and even if they managed to kill them, it would cost a considerable amount of precious ammunition. The risk was hardly worth the reward.

The fall of Pais Camp was hardly a surprise to Qin Fei. The world of "Seven Days to Die" is set just after the end of World War III. Supplies are scarce, and the survivors, untrained and inexperienced, are ill-prepared for the sudden onslaught of the undead. Unless one happens to be part of an organized military unit, it is almost impossible for ordinary people to survive the relentless attacks of the zombie hordes.

As time passes, the number of survivors in the Navingan region would inevitably dwindle.

With no camps left to join, Qin Fei had no choice but to find a sturdy building to weather the final onslaught. The best possible option would be a bunker buried deep underground.

A high-rise would never do. If Qin Fei barricaded himself on the top floor and destroyed the stairway, it would indeed prevent the zombies from reaching him directly—but they would simply attack the building’s lower levels. During the final wave, the sheer number of undead would be overwhelming. It would not take them long to destroy the walls and foundational supports of the ground floor. With the supporting structures compromised, the entire building would collapse, and Qin Fei and Xie Nainai would either fall to their deaths or be dragged from the rubble to be devoured.

But underground was a different matter.

The weight of a bunker rests on its lowest level. If the zombies started digging down from the surface, the bunker would not collapse as swiftly as a high-rise. Provided the underground defenses were strong enough, they might just hold out until the blood moon passed. Even if they were ultimately trapped with no way out, as long as they survived until the fiftieth day, they could be transported back to the real world.

High-rises are easy to spot. But an underground bunker is a different story—such structures are rare and well hidden. There were certainly none in the two small towns by the Baishui River and at Pais Camp.

Based on Qin Fei’s experience with the game, there should be a research facility dedicated to the zombie virus hidden in the snowy mountains of northern Navingan. Of course, that was in the game. Whether such a place existed in this world was uncertain. Still, the snowy mountains to the north were worth a try—he had no better plan.

The snowy mountains he sought lay at the northernmost edge of the Navingan map. At present, he and Xie Nainai were at the southernmost point, deep in the desert.

It took them three days to walk from the desert to the snow-capped peaks.

The virus research facility was located at the summit, high above the surrounding landscape. Because of its elevation, it wasn’t difficult to find. On the surface above the facility stood a house, its architecture reminiscent of Western Gothic style, with a spired roof that made it easy to recognize.

In less than half a day, Qin Fei found the mountain laboratory.

On the surface, the house above the research facility had three stories. Viewed from outside, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary villa. If not for Qin Fei’s knowledge as a veteran of "Seven Days to Die," it would have been impossible to guess that beneath this villa lay an underground research complex.

There were a few dormant zombies inside the villa. Armed with military-grade armor and equipped with shotguns, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai made short work of them, aided by the yellow markers provided by the system.

On the third floor of the house, they found the entrance to a lift. This elevator was clearly the passage down to the underground lab. The lift itself was stranded at the lowest level—most likely due to a lack of power, rendering it unusable.

To descend, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai would have to lower themselves on a rope from the third floor’s elevator shaft.

Qin Fei peered down the shaft—the research facility was at least ten meters underground.

Ten meters is about the height of three stories. With the villa’s three floors above ground, it meant they would have to climb down the equivalent of six stories to reach the bottom.

Lowering oneself down a rope from such a height isn’t difficult, but climbing back up would be nearly impossible.

Night was about to fall. If they went down now and landed in a nest of zombies, they would be torn apart in an instant.

To play it safe, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai spent the night in the villa.

The forty-ninth day dawned.

That morning, the sun failed to rise as usual. Though it was daytime, a dark purple moon hung in the sky, staining the heavens with an eerie violet hue. Without sunlight, a grayish gloom covered the land, obscuring the distance.

A system notification appeared.

[Primary Mission: Survive for 50 days in the world of Seven Days to Die!]
[Judgment Day has arrived! Survive the final horde to return! Countdown: 23 hours 10 minutes]

Time was short. Xie Nainai began assembling the rope they would need to descend the elevator shaft. Lacking a rope long enough, she tied together bedsheets, fabric, fishing nets, and whatever else she could find to make one of sufficient length.

Before they went down, Qin Fei installed an explosive charge at the entrance to the elevator shaft—a device he’d salvaged from the chest of an exploding zombie.

Gloved and ready, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai used the makeshift rope to descend to the very bottom of the shaft.

Upon reaching the subterranean floor, they found that things were not as perilous as Qin Fei had feared—they were not immediately surrounded by a horde. In fact, there were only a few dormant zombies near the elevator exit.

After dispatching these, Qin Fei fired a shot at the explosive charge he’d left at the top of the elevator shaft.

In an instant, dirt and steel rained down from above. The explosive, salvaged from the suicide zombie, was incredibly powerful. With a single blast, the entire elevator shaft collapsed.

The entrance was now completely buried.

Whether Qin Fei wanted to escape, or the zombies outside wanted to break in, neither would be possible in the short term.