Chapter 31: Transform
Despite this, Zhang Zhiyin and the rest, who had only just arrived here could only endure and continue their work with Team 2 until they could figure out a solution and find the right opportunity.
Soon they were both assigned a joint task — exploring a newly-discovered underground abandoned laboratory on the north side.
Many monster and instance sites of the game just took form as different sorts of abandoned laboratories. As the timeline was now different from that in the game, Zhang Zhiyin couldn’t be sure whether the place was an instance that was also located in the game.
The end of the world had brought many daily problems and new puzzles which need to be solved urgently. Everyone was eager to figure them out. Large bases such as Hope Base had their own research departments.
Before that, Team 2 had been dispatched to clear most of the zombies in the laboratory. Zhang Zhiyin was sent to further investigate hidden dangers, in case there were zombies that hadn’t been eliminated yet so that the researchers would be able to come in later to search for valuable clues and information.
The laboratory was built underground and the entrance was hidden in an ordinary administrative building, which was said to belong to a university.
Zhang Zhiyin was vaguely familiar with this development. There seemed to be a similar animation scenario that would play before players entered an instance; The players would enter the abandoned administrative building and then to the underground laboratory through a narrow entrance in a single line.
This idea was confirmed after he went underground.
The familiar fork, one left one right, divided the road into two, while the indicator lamp in the middle emitted a ghostly green light.
At this time, no one in the group of people standing underground knew that just after they came down, a figure appeared silently at the entrance. He looked silently at the winding stairs where they had just entered and disappeared after looking at it for a long while.
The two teams were completely in disharmony and Zhang Zhiyin wasn’t courteous either. He directly led his people to the left side of the fork — this was based on his experience as a player. The two roads would eventually meet, but the left road would have lesser traps and monsters. In the game, this instance had always been famous for its abundant traps and switches. There were many zombies in it. At the final meeting point, there would be a large room with all kinds of traps and the boss of this instance would be there; a Level 5 poisonous zombie.
But since Team 2 had been here before, he thought that the zombies should have been eradicated.
The seven members team marched along very smoothly. Some apparent and easily triggered traps had already been destroyed by the team that came in advance, and they only eliminated the two or three zombies hidden in the corner.
Suddenly, Zhang Zhiyin was stunned; In front of them was a dead path.
Dadao said, “Captain, is this the end of the path? Can we go back and hand in the assignment?”
Only then did Zhang Zhiyin recalled a neglected detail. The two forks in the road would be connected to form a ring shape. The point symmetric to the entrance was where the boss was located, but the two paths near to the entrance of the boss’s room were hidden and a switch was needed to open them.1 Players in the game couldn’t be more familiar with these routines and they regarded the mentally retarded traps as nothing. Even Zhang Zhiyin had forgotten about them.
Now the road was still impassable, proving that Team 2 did not find the switch here at all. That Level 5 zombie must also be waiting for them at the end of the road.
Unless their equipment was against heaven, ordinary people should not be delusional enough to challenge the boss, which was the common knowledge of <Tomorrow>’s players.
“Go, let’s go back.”
Zhang Zhiyin turned his head and heard Xiao Jin saying: “Captain, what’s this switch here for?”
Zhang Zhiyin and Ah Kong both shouted, “Don’t touch!”
But it was too late, and the giant big bear2 boy, who was nearly twenty years old, had already pressed his wretched hand down. Then he turned to look at his sister and the captain in a dazed way; he knew he was in trouble and was about to cry out: “I don’t know what’s going on, I was just looking at it, then as if there was a voice urging me to press down…”
As a low-level psychic ability user, Xiao Jin was indeed more susceptible to various mind and thoughts influences. Similarly, psychic ability users were more likely to find various secret traps and switches.
In between the rumbling of the entrance opening came the roar of the zombie and the screams from the people from the newly opened road. It seemed that Team 2 were moving faster than they were, and not only had they found the switch, but they had also provoked the zombie.
“Run! Don’t look back!” Zhang Zhiyin shouted to his team members and urged them to run to the exit.
The team members experienced many battles and their adaptability was very strong. Although they were not clear on what exactly happened, they immediately listened to the captain’s words and ran outward.
Very soon, Team 2 was already pushed back to the vicinity by the zombie boss. When they saw that there was a new way out, their eyes brightened. They rushed to this side, and the boss also came after them.
The two teams were about ten meters apart at this time, Zhang Zhiyin did not care about them, but also struggled to run out — that way, the reality <Tomorrow> was not good in this sense; as long as you provoke the monster, then no matter how far it was, it would still chase after you.
“Zhang Zhiyin.” A voice suddenly sounded in his mind. Zhang Zhiyin’s footsteps paused. Immediately, he felt splitting headache and he could hardly endure it.
In this place, only You Kun would attack him with psychic ability!
Zhang Zhiyin never imagined that You Kun would attack himself at this time. In his understanding, the two teams were in dispute, but not to the point of sending each other to death. When he found that the Level 5 poisonous zombie in the laboratory had not been eliminated, Zhang Zhiyin subconsciously thought of reminding the other team to be careful. But the other party obviously had a different idea from him.
In that instant, Team 2 had caught up and quickly surpassed Zhang Zhiyin. The fire ability user also knocked onto him. At the same time, Team 2’s earth ability user and wood ability user simultaneously came up with a barrier. A thick earth wall and overlapping vines burst out in an instant, spanning between the zombie and Team 2.
But they did not consider Zhang Zhiyin at all, so much that the wall was deliberately designed so that Zhang Zhiyin and the zombie would be locked on the same side.
The zombie was blocked in its pursuit and it smashed the earth wall in indignation. Several cracks were opened in the wall. But instead of continuing to attack, it turned its attention to Zhang Zhiyin.
Zhang Zhiyin certainly did not want to fight with the Level 5 poisonous zombie. In this instance, there was only one way to get out of the fight with the boss — although he was not willing to use this method, there was no other way.
When the moment came to a decision, Zhang Zhiyin made a diversion by shooting out an icicle, while quickly turning the direction to the original big room where the Boss was located before.
This poisonous zombie boss’s attack and defense were very strong, moreover, it still had its poisonous damage. However, its speed was not fast.
Zhang Zhiyin ran back to the room successfully. In a glance, he saw something that looked like a transformation cabin in the left corner and jumped in without hesitation.
It was a kind of gameplay. A game should pay attention to all kinds of entertainment and design all kinds of “fantastic” playing methods. Because the game settings in battling this boss were very hateable in this instance, the players could escape from the battle by standing on top of this transformation cabin. They would be randomly transformed into one of the most common recent animals and usually, it would be one of the game’s little monsters. The zombie boss would then no longer attack the player that had become an animal. The game company might find it entertaining to watch players that had no choice but to become all sorts of animals when playing this instance.
This kind of animal shape effect would theoretically remain for three days, but there was a kind of restoration pill sold in the mall, which was very cheap. It was a dime per pill. It helped the players to quickly restore their human shape. As such, Zhang Zhiyin dared to choose to become an animal to escape from the boss attack.
The poisonous zombie followed him into the room but lost its target again. After circling around, it let out an angry roar.
At the same time, a white plush little fellow crawled out of the transformation cabin, it “auwo auwo”d at the edge of the transformation cabin, but failed to attract the slightest attention from the zombie boss.
Zhang Zhiyin: “… Auwo?”
He knew it, that the most common animal he saw was Yin Xiaoxiang!
