Chapter Fifty-Two: The Final Battle (Part One)

The walls and ceiling surrounding the research institute were built from reinforced concrete—unyielding and formidable. A thick layer of steel plate covered the floor, completing the fortress-like construction. Ahead, all the doors leading into the rooms were forged from alloyed steel, hard as iron and equally imposing.

Yet none of these doors were locked.

Qin Fei and Xie Nainai stepped into the interior. Within, Qin Fei saw no sign of zombies. However, at the very center of the room, he noticed a rectangular plot of cultivated earth, spanning about two square meters.

Sprouting from the tilled soil were six stalks of corn.

Xie Nainai approached and plucked an ear of corn.

"This doesn’t seem like ordinary corn...”

Not ordinary corn?

Qin Fei also picked an ear and stored it in his system inventory.

[Super Corncob: A mutated variety of corn, apparently safe for consumption. It can also be used to brew glue.]

Super corn? Qin Fei was surprised.

Super corn was a hidden resource in the game Seven Days to Die, cultivated in an underground laboratory somewhere in the Navi region. Its concealed location made it difficult for players to find. One super corncob could sustain an average person’s caloric needs for an entire day.

But why was it here? Shouldn’t it be hidden beneath some forest farm?

Never mind. For now, it was best to collect the corn.

While the super corn would offer little help in fending off tonight’s zombie horde, if they survived, it would prove invaluable in the next world. After all, in any world, food was a precious resource.

Leaving the laboratory, they found themselves at the head of a staircase spiraling downward. Illuminated by the flashlight, Qin Fei saw corpses and scattered bones strewn along the stairs and on the ground below. Each body bore gruesome wounds, as if gnawed upon by something savage—few were intact.

The sight sent a chill through Qin Fei’s heart. A sense of foreboding crept over him.

He thumbed off the safety of his shotgun, which eased his anxiety somewhat.

As Qin Fei and Xie Nainai reached the bottom of the stairs, a fat pig, its body bristling with green fur, suddenly lunged from the shadows.

Bang!

Qin Fei nearly jumped out of his skin. Instinctively, he fired several rounds from his shotgun. Xie Nainai reacted quickly as well—when Qin Fei’s shells were spent, she raised her own shotgun and continued the barrage.

The beast’s vitality was astonishing. Only after Xie Nainai had emptied her magazine did the green-skinned pig finally collapse, lifeless.

The pig’s green exterior was unlike the eerie glow of a green-skinned zombie. Its color seemed to come from a thick layer of mold-like growth covering its entire body. Even from a distance, Qin Fei could smell the musty stench emanating from its hide.

Disgusting as it was, Qin Fei, determined not to waste anything, forced himself to cut a slab of meat from the carcass with his knife.

[Super Pork: Meat cut from a once-ordinary domestic pig that has undergone mutation. The pork is covered in mold and can be used in the production of antibiotics.]

So it really was mold growing on the pig... That meant the meat was utterly inedible.

Qin Fei pressed onward, entering the next lower level.

This floor appeared to be a residential lounge. Besides some discarded clothing, several zombies lay inside, dormant. None were mutants, so Qin Fei and his companion quickly dispatched them with their shotguns.

Deeper still, they reached a small square chamber, its walls and door constructed entirely of solid steel—the latter resembling a vault door.

As they approached, Qin Fei’s vision filled with countless yellow dots—at least a dozen zombies hidden within.

He fastened a wire across the entrance and readied a pipe bomb. Once his preparations were complete, he opened the steel door.

Instantly, a dozen zombies, wreathed in flames, poured from the small room—a harrowing sight. The wire held them back for a moment. As it was not yet night, the zombies could not run.

Qin Fei lit the fuse and hurled the pipe bomb, blasting the group to pieces.

Continuing downward, they reached the institute’s deepest level—a vast laboratory. Several barrels of gasoline stood outside, filled to the brim.

The laboratory’s walls, too, were constructed from reinforced concrete. In addition to the concrete, sections of wall were lined with glass, each pane showing cracks but remaining unbroken.

Able to withstand the onslaught of zombies, it was surely bulletproof glass.

Through the glass, Qin Fei glimpsed more zombies lying within the laboratory—among them, even armored and green-skinned types.

He opened the steel door.

The screech of metal instantly stirred the zombies inside. The green-skinned zombies, capable of running even in daylight, charged out first.

With ample ammunition, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai brought down the green-skinned zombie in a hail of gunfire.

The remaining zombies, deprived of their nocturnal speed, were quickly dispatched as well.

By the time the last zombie fell, it was already ten o’clock at night.

[Judgment Day has arrived. Survive the final wave to complete your mission! Task return countdown: 7 hours 58 minutes.]

Qin Fei and Xie Nainai now found themselves at the very heart of the underground research institute.

In Seven Days to Die, once zombies located a survivor, it mattered not if they hid underground—the undead would dig until they reached their prey. The only difference was how long it took.

Inevitably, the horde would dig through from above.

Still, Qin Fei estimated they would not break through immediately, so hiding here and doing nothing was not an option.

Cradling his shotgun, he left the laboratory.

He planned to mount a defense from the uppermost level of the institute, retreating only when he could hold no longer—delaying the horde in every room for as long as possible.

Only this way could he maximize the odds that he and Xie Nainai would survive the night.

Taking advantage of the lull, Qin Fei fetched gasoline from the barrels below and spread it evenly across the floors.

Midnight approached.

[Task return countdown: 6 hours 0 minutes.]

From above, the guttural growls of countless zombies could already be heard. The reinforced concrete overhead, under the relentless excavation of the undead, had begun to crumble.

They were coming!