26: Chapter 26: White coats and martial monks are a perfect match!

In a room on the third floor of the apartment building, heavy curtains blocked the noon sunlight completely, leaving only a sliver for observing the distance.

Hu Jinsi sat cross-legged on his dedicated meditation cushion, diligently circulating his Qi to accelerate his recovery.

The wound on his flank had already closed, the new skin showing a faint pink color. With the support of 16 points of Constitution, two hours were enough for the flesh to knit back together, leaving only a pale white trace, though his newly changed school uniform had been punctured again.

"You guys tell me," Hu Jinsi suddenly spoke, his voice drifting in the empty living room, "What did it feel like for the pioneers hundreds of years ago? The textbooks say that organized groups of people, hundreds or thousands of them, would swarm into a dungeon, a black mass crushing the monsters like a tide... Just thinking about that scene feels exhilarating."

Lin Rui was sitting in the corner, wiping the black blood off the chainsaw chain with a rag found in the kitchen. Hearing this, he didn't even lift his head, his fingers moving between the saw teeth to check the wear on each link: "You're whining about nothing again."

"How am I whining about nothing?" Hu Jinsi turned his face.

"What was the situation hundreds of years ago?" Lin Rui put down the chainsaw and raised his head, his gaze as sharp as if he were reviewing a battle report. "People back then had no class concepts, no talents, not even panels. A legion would march into a dungeon, and whether they faced a field of Goblins or a few dragons was entirely up to luck. Losing half the people was the norm; losing eighty percent wasn't strange. What about now? The World Consciousness has awakened classes for us, given us talents, and hung entry levels at the dungeon entrances. In exchange, those fragments of other worlds no longer allow us to pile through with pure human-wave tactics—this trade is very cost-effective; we are the beneficiaries, not the victims."

Hu Jinsi opened his mouth, wanting to retort, but found he had nothing to say. He really wanted to mention those "Fourth Calamity" memes from his past life, but in this real world, one only has one life; there is no chance to reload a save. An organized legion sounds passionate, but the death rate behind it must be terrifying.

"Lin Rui is right." Su Wan leaned against the wall by the window, holding her lyre in her arms, but she wasn't plucking the strings, just tapping the body of the instrument lightly with her fingers. "At least now we know the approximate monster strength of this dungeon, instead of guessing with our eyes closed."

"...Fine." Hu Jinsi rolled over, burying his face in the sofa cushion, his voice muffled. "I just think that the feeling of mowing down enemies should be more satisfying."

"...You turned at least half of the several hundred zombies yourself."

Just past two o'clock, the three of them set off again.

For safety reasons, they did not head to the police station in the northwest—although a large amount of firearms were stockpiled there, intelligence showed it was guarded by zombies in bulletproof vests, zombie dogs, and Lickers. Given their current state, rushing in blindly would be equivalent to delivering food. The target remained the surrounding residential area, with a plan to clear out several nearby apartment buildings before sunset to secure a safe zone for the night.

The afternoon's battle was as monotonous as an assembly line, repeating the same actions over and over. Zombies poured out from stairwells, from under cars, and from green belts, swaying, numerous but individually fragile. Occasionally, a few zombie dogs would be mixed in; their quadrupedal movement speed was twice as fast as ordinary zombies, but their defense was lower. Lin Rui's chainsaw pushed horizontally, cutting them directly in two.

The thermal imager was handed to Su Wan. She held it in her hand like a small pair of binoculars, scanning the shadows. But the actual effect was far less than expected; the cheap device had a detection range of only fifteen meters, and in a situation surrounded by zombies, it was impossible to distinguish Lickers. Moreover, the temperature fluctuations in Raccoon City in the afternoon made the color blocks on the screen blur into a mess.

In contrast, Hu Jinsi's perception was more reliable. 20 points of Perception acted like an invisible net, covering the thirty-meter area around them. Any abnormal disturbance in the airflow or subtle changes in temperature left traces in his consciousness.

"Nine o'clock direction, in the stairwell, something is crawling." Hu Jinsi suddenly stopped, holding his long staff horizontally in front of his chest. "It's not a zombie; the movement pattern is wrong."

Lin Rui immediately turned off the chainsaw, and the three of them formed a triangle back-to-back. Su Wan raised the thermal imager toward that direction, and a blurry red spot appeared on the screen, moving slowly.

"Licker." Lin Rui lowered his voice. "How far?"

"Ten meters." Hu Jinsi squinted. "It's waiting for us to make the first move."

"Then strike first." Lin Rui activated [Charge], his short spear piercing straight into the shadows of the stairwell!

That pale monster had just burst forth when it was pinned to the wall by the spear tip, letting out a sharp hiss. Hu Jinsi followed up with [Flurry of Blows], and Su Wan added a [Faerie Fire] to illuminate the field of vision, resolving the battle within three seconds. A similar situation happened once more in the afternoon; another Licker was crawling along the base of the wall within ten meters when it was sensed in advance by Hu Jinsi. With a [Roll], he cut into close range, his long staff striking directly at the Licker's neck, and Lin Rui finished it off with the chainsaw.

But the loot remained abysmal. Apart from piles of [Damaged Clothing] and the occasional [Green Herb], there was almost nothing of value. Lin Rui's chainsaw, in continuous operation, gradually exposed more problems.

First was the splashing. The high-speed rotating chain flung the zombies' flesh, brains, and bone fragments in all directions at high initial velocity. Lin Rui's leather armor was soon covered in a sticky mixture, and the mask on his face was splattered, requiring him to wipe it every few minutes.

Second was the physical exertion. The chainsaw weighed six kilograms, and with the motor's vibration, after ten to fifteen minutes of continuous use, Lin Rui's arms began to go numb. The web of his hands felt like they were being pricked by countless needles at the same time, forcing him to stop and shake his wrists to relieve the muscle spasms.

The most unbearable part was the psychological disgust. Those zombies were ordinary citizens just a few days ago, wearing suits, school uniforms, aprons, and some even had ID tags hanging around their necks. When sawed open by the chainsaw, the deformed faces and broken limbs made Lin Rui's stomach churn. Especially when a relatively intact face was sent flying by the chain and smashed next to his feet, he almost threw up on the spot.

"This thing..." Lin Rui turned off the chainsaw, leaned against the wall, and dry-heaved twice. "The efficiency is indeed high, but after using it once, I need half an hour of psychological preparation."

"That's why the dungeon is unpopular." Hu Jinsi handed over a bottle of water. "It's not that we can't beat it, it's just too disgusting to fight. Plus, it's noisy, attracts monsters, and the endurance is poor. If you didn't have a Soldier's physique to support you, an ordinary person would be exhausted after sawing fifty of them."

In the evening, the three of them retreated into a residential building that had already been cleared and chose a suite on the third floor as their overnight spot.

"Why not choose a higher floor?" Su Wan asked.

"Intelligence says there are zombie crows circling in the sky at night." Lin Rui pushed furniture against the door. "If it's too high, we won't even be able to jump out to escape if we need to. The third floor is just right; it won't kill us if we fall, and it buys reaction time. The first floor is too easy to be surrounded, and on the second floor, I'm afraid the zombies could stack up like arhats and climb in. The third floor is safer."

There was a musty smell in the room, but the windows were intact, and once the curtains were drawn, outside light couldn't get in. The three of them sat on the floor, taking dinner out of their backpacks—compressed biscuits, jerky, and water bottles. There was no campfire, no fried meat, and they didn't even dare to boil water for instant noodles because zombies are extremely sensitive to smell and sound.

"The conditions are really poor." Su Wan chewed the biscuit, her voice muffled. "No wonder people who went to Goldshire never want to come here. At least over there, you can light a fire, go fishing, and stay in an inn."

"You can't have your cake and eat it too." Hu Jinsi took a gulp of water. "There's more experience here, better conditions there; normal people know how to choose."

The three of them calculated today's harvest, and the numbers shocked them.

"More than two thousand." Lin Rui looked at the kill statistics on his panel, his pupils contracting slightly. "In one day today, we killed more than two thousand zombies. This number is equivalent to the total number of monsters in the previous four Goldshire dungeons."

Su Wan's gains were relatively low. Because she didn't dare to make too much noise, her Bard skills were hardly used, and most of the time she used a light crossbow for sniping or a short sword for finishing moves. But she had already completed the quest for the [Siren's Voice Collar] last week, which rewarded 10,000 class experience points at the time, so she was level 7 now, ahead of the other two, so she wasn't in a hurry.

Lin Rui and Hu Jinsi were harvesting the whole time. Lin Rui's chainsaw never stopped for too long, and Hu Jinsi's Spinning Crane Kick spun around and around in the zombie horde. With the support of [Qi-Gong Power], his Qi pool could occasionally recover a point or two, and his endurance was far better than before.

Although he occasionally sucked on a candy during this process—orange-flavored, pretending to eat medicine for Qi recovery—he really did bring Qi-replenishing powder for fighting the boss. The two looked at their experience bars; each had gained more than 1,000 class experience points today.

"This is almost impossible in Goldshire." Lin Rui said in a deep voice. "Half the time there is spent running the map, and the monster density is low."

"And we didn't go all out." Hu Jinsi added. "If we didn't go to the residential area but turned to schools, shopping malls, and other areas with high pedestrian traffic, the daily experience could exceed two thousand. But the risk would also double; the ratio of Lickers and zombie dogs would be higher."

"Better to be steady." Su Wan stuffed the last piece of jerky into her mouth. "I don't want to be woken up by a Licker in the middle of the night."

In the room, Lin Rui squatted in the corner, using the light of an emergency lamp to dismantle the chainsaw chain. He had only brought one spare chain and guide bar, and by now the first set was worn out; the saw teeth were hung with tiny threads of flesh and bone fragments, emitting a pungent, putrid odor. He used a brush—found in his backpack, originally meant for washing dishes—to clean the gaps between the teeth little by little, his movements slow and focused.

"Hope it can last until we leave the dungeon." He muttered. "If the chain breaks, we'll have to switch back to the short spear tactic. It's even more frustrating to see such good experience and not be able to reap it."

Hu Jinsi rarely didn't meditate. He lay flat on the floor, his legs propped up on the sofa armrest, using his fingers to massage his calf muscles one by one. His legs had hardly rested all afternoon; he was either pedaling a bicycle to lure monsters or serving as the support axis during the rotation of his Spinning Crane Kick. The lactic acid accumulation made his muscles as hard as stones. He gritted his teeth, smashed his fist into his calf, and winced in pain.

"The pants are ruined, the shoes are finished too." He tugged at the leg of his school uniform trousers, which had several fresh scratch marks left by the claws of some dying zombie. "Last week the top was ruined by Hogger, and this week the pants are finished too. Damn zombies, they all wear shoes, but they just don't drop shoes. Would it kill you to drop a pair of shoes?"

Su Wan sat on the other side, not plucking the strings, but putting the lyre aside and tracing fingerings in the air with her hands. Her fingertips drew silent trajectories in the dim light, as if playing a piece of music only she could hear. Occasionally, her lips moved slightly, emitting a few extremely low syllables. It was a rehearsal for the [Marching Song]. She hoped to master the chanting of this song through her own practice recently, thereby saving a sum of money.

"Where to tomorrow?" Su Wan suddenly stopped her movements, her voice kept very low.

"Raccoon City High School." Lin Rui reassembled the cleaned chainsaw, clicking the guide bar into place. "Intelligence says the monster density there is even higher than in the residential area, and the building structure is complex, suitable for us to exert our terrain advantage. The key is, there are school infirmaries and laboratories in the high school, which may have drops different from these ordinary zombies."

"Agreed." Hu Jinsi sat up, rubbed his numb calves. "Sleep early, tomorrow is a tough battle."

The watch order was quickly decided: Lin Rui for the first half of the night, Hu Jinsi for the middle of the night, and Su Wan for the second half. The three took turns on guard, changing every two hours. Occasionally, the sound of zombie crows flapping their wings came from outside the window; this was the only sound in the night of this dead city, making one's scalp tingle.

The next morning, the smog was a little thinner than yesterday.

The three of them rolled out their bicycles and sped north along the street. Their target was Raccoon City High School, about three kilometers away. The wheels crushed broken glass and discarded soda cans, emitting crisp sounds that were particularly piercing in the silent street.

They had ridden less than five hundred meters when a dense sound of flapping wings came from the sky.

"Crows!" Lin Rui looked up, his expression changing abruptly.

A dark, dense flock of birds rose from the rooftops in the distance, like a mass of ink scattered by the wind. They quickly coalesced in the air before diving toward the trio. The feathers of those crows were an unnatural grayish-black, their eyes clouded with murky white, and their beaks sharp as hooks; clearly, they had been infected by the virus.

"We don't have any specialized anti-air capabilities!" Hu Jinsi stomped on the pedals. "Speed up! Rush into the high school!"

The three pushed their bicycles to their limit, the chains groaning under the strain. The flock of crows pursued them relentlessly, with a few occasionally diving close to peck at the backs of their heads with sharp beaks. Hu Jinsi controlled his bike with one hand while spinning his long staff with the other, shredding an approaching crow into feathers and a mist of blood. Lin Rui protected Su Wan with his shield, keeping his body low to minimize the area exposed to attack.

"Ahead! The school gate!" Hu Jinsi shouted.

The iron gate of Raccoon City High School was half-open, with a rusted school emblem hanging on the pillar. The three didn't have time to brake; they rode straight inside and leaped off their bikes before the steps in front of the teaching building. There was no time to put the bicycles into their backpacks, so they were tossed aside by the flower beds, and the three sprinted into the main entrance of the teaching building.

Most of the flock pursued them to the entrance of the teaching building but circled and stopped before the entrance, seemingly wary of the enclosed space. The flock rose into the sky, gathering on the roof of the building and surrounding tree crowns, staring coldly at the three below like a dark cloud hanging over their heads.

A small portion of the crows rushed into the teaching building, only to be reaped by the three in the narrow hallway.

"Temporarily safe." Lin Rui panted, his chainsaw still dripping blood.

The space inside the teaching building was suffocatingly narrow. The corridors were only two meters wide, with classroom doors lined up one after another, poor ventilation, and dim lighting. This terrain would be a nightmare for an ordinary squad, as it would easily lead to a zombie horde blocking the entrance with nowhere to retreat. But for the Jack-of-All-Trades Squad, this was precisely an advantage.

Hu Jinsi stood guard at the stairwell, activating Spinning Crane Kick, his three-second rotation holding the vital passage. Lin Rui's chainsaw swept horizontally through the corridor, shredding zombies the moment they surged out of the classrooms. Su Wan stood in the back, bombarding the zombies with [Thunderwave]; with walls to block the sound, she didn't need to worry about attracting more monsters.

"Zombie horde blocking the door?" Hu Jinsi leaned against the wall after stopping his rotation, a cold smirk on his lips. "This is called one man holding the pass, ten thousand cannot open it."

They cleared the ground floor and the second floor of the first teaching building, encountering teacher zombies in suits, student zombies in uniforms, and even PE teacher zombies in tracksuits. These ordinary individuals posed no threat, but the sheer quantity piled up in the narrow space still took nearly two hours to clear.

When the last teacher zombie turned into particles of light under the chainsaw, an unexpected piece of equipment emerged from the light.

[Blood-Stained Mercy] [Item Type: Clothing/Robe] [Armor: None] [Effect: The wearer gains advantage when using a medical kit or performing a First Aid check.] [Item Description: This is a standard white lab coat of a Raccoon City High School school doctor, with a blurry name tag embroidered on the left chest pocket reading "Dr. Elena". The hem is soaked in dark red bloodstains, but the front lapels and cuffs are unusually clean, as if the owner was still trying to wipe their hands to treat others in their final moments.]

Hu Jinsi picked it up, shook it out, and threw it on. The lab coat reached just to his knees, with wide cuffs that would flutter in the wind during combat. He spun around, feeling good about himself: "How is it? Doesn't it suit me well? Mistweaver Monk, healing build, paired with a white lab coat—perfect professional match."

Lin Rui and Su Wan exchanged a look and were simultaneously silent.

In Lin Rui's eyes, Hu Jinsi, wearing this blood-spattered lab coat over a school uniform torn by zombies, with tattered pants, hair plastered to his forehead by sweat, and holding an iron-clad long staff... looked exactly like a severe brain-damage patient who had escaped from some mental asylum—the dangerous type that would suddenly lash out and hurt people.

"...It really suits you." Su Wan squeezed out the sentence with difficulty, her mouth twitching.

"I think so too." Hu Jinsi completely missed the sarcasm, smugly adjusting his collar.

The next second, he activated [Spinning Crane Kick] to demonstrate the effect. The lab coat flared high during the rotation like a blooming white morning glory, revealing the tattered school uniform pants underneath, as well as his knees stained with black blood and mud.

Lin Rui turned his face away, unable to bear looking.

...The teaching buildings of Raccoon City High School were actually not connected. Bad review.

After clearing the first teaching building, the three discovered there was no connecting corridor to the second one. They had to exit through the first-floor main entrance, first risking danger to retrieve their bicycles. Then, risking pursuit by the zombie crows, they sprinted twenty meters in the open air and rushed into the next building.

During the most dangerous transfer, the flock of crows dove down from the tree crowns. Su Wan's back was pecked, leaving a bloody scratch. Hu Jinsi turned and swept three down with his staff, and Lin Rui shredded a mist of blood with his chainsaw, only then barely managing to rush into the foyer of the second building.

"This design..." Hu Jinsi leaned behind the door, panting. "All the education funding in this world must have been eaten by Commissioner Sam."

The afternoon nightmare occurred in the gymnasium. It was a massive domed building with tilted basketball hoops and seats in the spectator stands scattered askew. The space was open, and light poured down from the broken skylights, forming beams of light in which tiny dust particles floated. The moment the three stepped into the center of the arena, Hu Jinsi's senses suddenly tightened.

"Something is mixed in with the zombie horde!" He roared, pointing his long staff at a group of ordinary zombies on the left side of the court. "That crawling thing! The white shadow!"

The first Licker was indeed mixed in with the zombie horde, slowly closing in under the cover of the ordinary zombies. After its position was exposed by Hu Jinsi, it immediately lunged, its long tongue shooting out! But the three were prepared: Lin Rui [Charge] knocked it off its trajectory, Hu Jinsi followed up with [Flurry of Blows], and Su Wan illuminated it with [Faerie Fire], attempting to finish it off in short order.

However, the moment they focused fire on the first one, the second Licker swooped down from the ceiling of the gymnasium!

It had been lurking in the shadows of the ceiling like a patch of moss clinging to the dome, with no presence, no sound—even Hu Jinsi's senses had failed to detect it in advance, committing the ancient mistake of "CTs never looking up." It wasn't until the split second it launched its attack that the violent change in airflow made him whip his head around.

"Su Wan! Dodge!" Hu Jinsi crashed into Su Wan again, pushing her away from her original position. But this time, his own calf was completely exposed to the attack path. The Licker's long tongue, like a poisoned soft sword, viciously stabbed into his calf, and then violently coiled— "Sss!"

A chunk of flesh was torn away, blood spurting out and staining the hem of the lab coat he had acquired less than half a day ago. [-42]

Hu Jinsi dropped to one knee, his vision darkening from the pain. There was an extra hole in the lab coat, the edges stained with the Licker's saliva and his own blood.

"Jinsi!" Lin Rui's eyes were bloodshot with rage. He swept his chainsaw wildly, forcing the Licker that had descended from the sky back. Su Wan's fingers plucked rapidly, casting [Healing Word] twice in succession, white light landing on Hu Jinsi's leg, barely stemming the bleeding.

The three gave their all, maneuvering within the gymnasium against the two Lickers and the endless stream of zombies. In the end, Lin Rui pinned the second Licker to the basketball hoop with his chainsaw, and Hu Jinsi, enduring the excruciating pain, pierced its skull with his long staff.

After the battle, Hu Jinsi slumped on the steps of the spectator stands, the wound on his calf deep enough to see the bone. He used [Expel Harm] on himself and swallowed a bottle of antidote, causing the [Moderate Infection] icon on his panel to slowly fade. But the missing flesh couldn't grow back immediately, and every time he moved, a tearing pain shot from the wound.

The sky had already darkened. Outside the windows, the flock of crows circled over the gymnasium, emitting harsh cawing sounds like a living dark cloud, blocking all exits.

"We can't leave." Lin Rui looked up at the skylight, his face grim. "The crows are watching us; going out means becoming a living target."

"And your leg..." Su Wan bit her lip, her eyes turning red. "It's all my fault; it was me again who didn't perceive it..."

"Don't." Hu Jinsi waved his hand, grimacing in pain. "It has nothing to do with you. That thing was on the ceiling; even my perception has blind spots."

The gymnasium was too open; if a Licker crawled in through any ventilation duct at night, they would be done for. The three eventually retreated to the locker room in the corner of the venue—a small room of only ten square meters, with a door to block and walls to lean against.

Lin Rui held a thermal imager, scanning the ceiling, ventilation ducts, and inside the lockers one by one. After confirming there were no hidden red spots, he nodded slowly: "Safe."

The three crowded into the locker room, sitting down against the lockers. The air was filled with the smell of sweat and blood, but compared to the open ground outside, this place at least allowed them to close their eyes.

Su Wan lowered her head, her fingers twisting the hem of her clothes, her voice muffled: "This is the third time... Hogger last week, the Licker yesterday, and another Licker today... Every time, you've blocked it for me. I..."

"Big Sister Su," Hu Jinsi suddenly spoke up, interrupting her self-reproach. He leaned against the lockers, his lab coat open, revealing the tattered school uniform underneath, with makeshift bandages wrapped around his calf—looking as disheveled as a wounded Soldier just dragged back from the battlefield.

He grinned, revealing a carefree smile: "Shouldn't you consider practicing how to use a shield?"

Su Wan was stunned and looked up.

"From last week until now, I've taken the heat for you three times." Hu Jinsi counted on his fingers. "Hogger's claw, a Licker's tongue yesterday, and another tongue today. Ever since you learned [Street Cursing], even when you don't use the skill, that aggro level is unprecedented—when monsters see you, it's like they've found their father's killer; they all bypass me and head straight for you."

He patted his injured calf, pointed to an old wound on his side, and finally touched the hole in his lab coat, his face full of sorrow: "I've been in this dungeon for less than forty-eight hours, and I've already lost two chunks of flesh. That's enough to make a meal. We can't do this again; I'm afraid the zombies here are starting to love this flavor and will only target me from now on."

Su Wan opened her mouth, wanting to retort, but was choked by his absurd explanation. Lin Rui, next to them, had his mouth twitching; he seemed to want to laugh but felt the occasion wasn't right, and in the end, he just gave a low cough.

"...Shut up, you." Su Wan finally squeezed out a sentence, her voice nasal, but the corners of her mouth were already curling up uncontrollably. "Who told you to have such high perception? If you don't take the heat, who will?"

"So having high perception is my fault then?" Hu Jinsi sighed dramatically, pulling the collar of his lab coat up. "Anyway, I'm warning you: next time a big tongue swings over, I might not have the strength to push you away. I suggest you go back and buy a shield, then learn [Taunt], and we can switch roles. You be the main tank, and I'll be the healer—perfect."

"In your dreams." Su Wan scolded with a smile, the tears in her eyes evaporated by this nonsense.

In the locker room, the tense atmosphere finally eased a little. Outside the window, the crows were still calling, and the Licker's corpse still lay under the basketball hoop, gradually dissipating. But the three leaned against each other, and in the narrow space, an absurd warmth of survival after a disaster emerged.