Part 2
Luo Shizhen had slaughtered pigs before, after all; his courage wasn’t small.
Lu Qiujin wanted to say that someone else would naturally handle collecting the bodies, and there was no need for them to make extra work for themselves.
But while thinking this, his face displayed a gentle smile: “You’re right. These people are quite pitiful.”
He certainly didn’t want Luo Shizhen to think he was a cold-blooded person.
Luo Shizhen walked straight over. Lu Qiujin followed behind, watching as Luo Shizhen took compressed body bags out of his gear pouch, put on gloves, and effortlessly placed the first corpse into a bag.
The corpse’s face was mangled, its eyes wide open in terror.
Luo Shizhen said to Lu Qiujin: “In our hometown, there’s a saying that if someone dies with their eyes open, they won’t rest in peace and will visit their relatives in their dreams.”
Lu Qiujin checked: “Rigor mortis has already set in. Even if you try to close them with your hands, the eyes won’t shut.”
Luo Shizhen: “I’ll try!”
Pressing one hand firmly on the head and the other on the chin, he relied purely on brute strength to forcefully close the corpse’s eyes.
There were five corpses in total at the bumper cars. Since Luo Shizhen was bagging the bodies, Lu Qiujin naturally had to help.
After the bodies were bagged, Luo Shizhen even numbered them.
“Alright, this way when others take over, they can help them find their families.”
By the time they finished, it was just getting dark. Luo Shizhen stood up and took off his gloves: “Let’s go. We’ll continue looking.”
The two had barely taken a few steps when they suddenly heard thumping sounds from behind.
They turned around and saw the five body bags that had just been lying peacefully on the ground suddenly writhing, as if the corpses inside were desperately trying to break free.
Luo Shizhen’s eyes widened, and he immediately drew his gun: “Corpse revival? No, Zombies? But they only had external trauma, they weren’t bitten by a Zombie!”
Gripping the gun in his hand, he still felt somewhat insecure, really wanting to go to the adjacent flowerbed and pick up a brick.
Lu Qiujin raised his hand, and a wooden shield blocked the front of the two: “We’re not sure what the situation is. Let’s observe first.”
The body bags crawled tortuously on the ground for a while, as if the corpses inside wanted to stand up, but due to the bindings of the bags, they utterly failed.
Lu Qiujin waved his hand. Several vines shot forward, tightly binding the bags and the corpses within.
Only then did the two approach. Luo Shizhen used his instrument to scan them: “Strange, there’s no pollution.”
The corpse at his feet suddenly struggled violently. Luo Shizhen brought his knee down, pinning the corpse to the ground.
From the pinned corpse, a cry for help suddenly rang out.
“Help! Save me! I am a human! Quickly, save me!”
Luo Shizhen: ?
He looked at Lu Qiujin: “Did you hear that? He said he’s human.”
Lu Qiujin nodded, his expression wary: “Some Anomalies do mimic human voices to lure others.”
“I’m really human! Help! It’s so dark in here! Let me out! Let me out!”
Luo Shizhen poked the body bag and asked quietly: “Are you really human?”
“I am human! Help!!”
His screams were so tragic that they couldn’t be ignored. Lu Qiujin worried that Luo Shizhen would be soft-hearted and let the corpse out. In his view, even if it really was a dead person coming back to life, so what? Staying in the body bag wouldn’t kill it.
Perhaps guessing what he was thinking, the voice inside the body bag suddenly weakened dramatically.
“I can’t catch my breath, I can’t breathe. Quickly, let me out, or else I’m really going to die! Let me out! Help!”
Luo Shizhen scratched his head. He thought for a moment and said, “When I was arranging your body just now, I found your teacher’s ID. You are a middle school math teacher.”
“Then I’ll ask you a math question. If you add 100 to a number, it equals 3 times that number. What is the number?”
The body bag, which had been desperately calling for help, fell silent.
Luo Shizhen: “The length of a rectangle is 15 centimeters, and its width is 8 centimeters. What is the area of this rectangle?”
Corpse: “…”
Luo Shizhen: “Ji Tu Tong Long (Chickens and rabbits in the same cage). In a cage, there are…”
[Translator’s Note: “Ji Tu Tong Long” is a classic, ancient Chinese math word problem commonly used to test elementary and middle school students.]
Corpse: “…”
Luo Shizhen turned to look at Lu Qiujin: “Even I can answer these, but he can’t. It seems he isn’t human.”
With a hiss, the previously inflated body bag suddenly deflated, ceasing all movement, as thick, black bloody water seeped out from underneath.
Lu Qiujin took a look: “No wonder it didn’t show any pollution. These are Gu Chong.”
Luo Shizhen: “Oh, right! I think the book said some Gu Chong can manipulate corpses and mimic human speech.”
But evidently, Gu Chong couldn’t do math problems.
Being exposed was equivalent to the Gu technique failing. These bugs would dissolve into bloody water and flow out from the host body.
Lu Qiujin frowned: “The situation isn’t right. A Tier One Anomaly couldn’t possibly possess this kind of method.”
Suspecting an unexpected turn of events, he vigilantly moved closer to Luo Shizhen, intending to reach out and hold his hand.
Luo Shizhen’s hand, however, reached back, grabbed the multi-purpose folding shovel from his waist, attached the head, and began digging a hole in the dirt outside the bumper car arena:
“Then we better be careful of other Gu Chong coming over to enter the corpses. Hurry up, Lu Qiujin, let’s dig a hole and bury the bodies first.”
Lu Qiujin, whose hand grasped empty air: “…Alright.”
He felt a newfound sense of respect for Luo Shizhen. While putting his back into digging, he asked:
“Did you expose it on purpose?”
“Huh?” Luo Shizhen, who was digging vigorously, looked confused: “What?”
Lu Qiujin: “Didn’t you intentionally expose the Gu Chong to make it flow out of the corpse?”
“No.”
Luo Shizhen smiled naively, looking very embarrassed: “I didn’t think that much. I just felt that since he’s a math teacher, he’d definitely know how to do math problems.”
Because of the other’s status as a math teacher, his tone had been highly respectful when he spoke just now.
“From childhood to adulthood, every math teacher I’ve had was amazing at math. They could even come up with their own problems.”
His tone was full of yearning, as well as a deep, reverent admiration. Because of this admiration, his movements were gentle when burying the math teacher’s corpse.
Watching him, Lu Qiujin actually felt a bit envious.
He thought to himself that his own math grades were also very good; maybe he could be a math teacher too.
Just as the two finished digging the hole, pushed the corpses in, and buried them, with Luo Shizhen stomping hard on the dirt mound to pack it tight, a furious tiger’s roar suddenly rang out from afar.
Luo Shizhen immediately raised his head, a tense look appearing in his bright black eyes:
“Is that Wen Hu?!”
This tiger roar was filled with anger and agitation, entirely unlike the arrogant and condescending demeanor Wen Hu had displayed when they met earlier.
Luo Shizhen gripped his weapon tightly: “Let’s go quickly, we need to see what’s happening!”
If it were just Lu Qiujin by himself, he definitely wouldn’t care at all. But in front of Luo Shizhen, he still put on a worried expression of “I also care very much about my classmates” and followed.
When the two arrived, Wen Hu had already shifted into his beast form.
A giant golden tiger, a full five meters tall, was angrily lashing its thick tail. Despite its massive size, its movements were extremely agile. With a few leaps and turns, it swatted several wild dogs—two meters tall with blood-red eyes that were surrounding him—into a pulp.
Underneath the pulp, pale black-red bloody water seeped out.
Clearly, these wild dogs had also been parasitized by Gu Chong, their sizes forcibly enhanced.
Bugs continuously drilled out from the ground to attack the giant tiger. Although it had a massive body, dealing with the densely packed, tiny bugs left it unable to attend to everything at once.
Some tiny Gu Chong crawled up the giant tiger’s limbs. Feeling the intense pain, the giant tiger’s roars grew increasingly furious and manic.
Part 3
Luo Shizhen smelled that something was off: “Those Gu Chong carry pollution. They’re trying to pollute Wen Hu.”
He immediately made a decision: “I have to go over there. Lu Qiujin, cover me.”
Lu Qiujin instinctively didn’t want Luo Shizhen to take risks.
But he turned his head and saw Luo Shizhen’s earnest face, looking as if he had already firmly made up his mind.
“Alright.”
On the ground not far away lay a pale-faced Awakener with a knife wound in his abdomen; it was exactly Wen Hu’s teammate, Cheng Yunshao.
Seeing the situation, Lu Qiujin immediately summoned the surrounding trees to topple and crush the bugs.
Luo Shizhen was still unaccustomed to using a gun, and the targets were too small. He simply followed his heart, broke off a brick from a flowerbed, and forcefully smashed the bugs on the ground while making his way toward Cheng Yunshao’s direction.
During the battle, Lu Qiujin spared some of his mental focus for him. Wood-element vines flew across the sky, helping Luo Shizhen block some bugs attacking from behind.
Whatever tactics and combat methods they had learned in class were entirely useless right now.
Real combat was different from what Luo Shizhen had previously imagined. There were too many bugs. Aside from continuously attacking the ones in front of him, Luo Shizhen had no other methods.
There were so many; some of the bugs even looked very familiar. He saw quite a few cicadas, thinking to himself that if the cicada collectors saw this many, they would die of happiness.
Lu Qiujin also looked awful. His wood-element ability was suited for fighting large or single opponents. Dealing with these tiny, overwhelmingly numerous bugs, he found himself overwhelmed, and with his worry for Luo Shizhen, he appeared somewhat ragged for the first time.
Wen Hu was in a similar situation. He was better at direct combat. The giant tiger’s massive size should have been an advantage in battle, but against these bugs that possessed little combat power yet practically permeated everywhere, he was completely helpless.
Just as the situation descended into a bitter stalemate, a burst of flames appeared out of thin air, like a roaring lion. It swept through the area once, burning those bugs carrying faint pollution entirely to ash.
The bugs that were so difficult for the others to handle were easily resolved by the newcomer with an area-of-effect fire attack.
The flames surged around the spot once more before returning to the newcomer’s hand.
He wore the combat suit issued by the school, carrying a bag of bananas in his hand. He took off his sunglasses and looked at the disheveled group:
“Yo! Just got back and I made it in time for the party!”
Luo Shizhen was pleasantly surprised: “Qin Yinian!”
Qin Yinian waved at him, lifting the bag in his hand:
“Shizhen, I’m back. As soon as I heard there was a mission, I rushed over here non-stop.”
“I even brought you the bananas you love~”
With the bugs no longer blocking the way, Luo Shizhen quickly ran toward Wen Hu’s direction: “Thank you, Qin Yinian, I’ll eat them later. Wen Hu seems to be a little polluted!”
The giant tiger was still in an irritable state. It spun around in place, and upon finding the bugs gone, it finally calmed down slightly. Its rationality was somewhat affected. It looked at Qin Yinian warily, seemingly judging that the other party was on their side, and let out a low growl, as if greeting him.
Qin Yinian also waved his hand: “Wen Hu, how are you? Are you going to die? I’ll attend your funeral.”
He was smiling, but the flames in his hand didn’t vanish. Instead, they spun in his palm as he observed the giant tiger’s every move.
The moment Wen Hu showed any signs of losing control, this ball of fire would immediately strike the giant tiger.
Lu Qiujin did the same, staring dead-on at Wen Hu’s movements. The moment he tried to hurt Luo Shizhen, the surrounding trees would pierce his heart.
As if sensing their vigilance, the giant tiger grew alert again, swishing its tail as it faced off against them.
Consequently, Luo Shizhen smoothly reached the front of the giant tiger.
He didn’t probe or test the waters at all; he simply raised his hand and placed it directly on the giant tiger’s fluffy golden fur.
The giant tiger, which had been vigilantly glaring at everyone, suddenly realized someone was petting him. Its pupils quaked violently as it turned its head to look at him in disbelief.
“Roar?”
“Wen Hu, don’t talk. I’ll purify you.”
Luo Shizhen’s ears were ringing slightly from the tiger’s roar. He frowned and patted the tiger’s rear, telling him to be quiet.
Giant tiger: “…”
His tiger jaws fell slightly open. Even though he was in tiger form, anyone could see just how shocked he was right now.
But for some unknown reason, he actually squatted down obediently, making no further noise.
Luo Shizhen indeed felt the overflowing black Qi on his body. It was very faint, but it was there.
He inhaled deeply with effort. The white Qi from his palm seemed to come alive, circling the massive tiger and continuously swallowing the fleeing black Qi.
The giant tiger lay there quietly, staring unblinkingly at Luo Shizhen with a pair of huge tiger eyes.
Above them, something was buzzing. Displeased, he flicked his tail and glanced up.
On the screen of the combat vehicle outside the amusement park, this exact scene of Luo Shizhen purifying the giant tiger was playing.
Chen He’an looked at the scene on the screen and breathed a slight sigh of relief:
“Teacher Lin, this trick of yours really worked.”
Beside him, Lin Qi looked smug: “Of course. Like I said, only a true life-and-death battle can make these brats realize how important teamwork is. Lone wolves die the fastest.”
“It’s also a good chance to knock down their arrogance. Every day, each one of them thinks they’re so strong, but in the end, a swarm of tiny bugs leaves them completely battered and exhausted.”
Chen He’an picked up his tea mug and took a sip: “Impressive, impressive. You even calculated that Qin Yinian would step in to help.”
“I deliberately routed Qin Yinian to this area. Shizhen is soft-hearted and will definitely help, and Lu Qiujin will follow even if he doesn’t want to. Even if Shizhen couldn’t purify Wen Hu, a little minor Gu Chong pollution at most disrupts the mind a bit without affecting the core. Everything is within my calculations.”
On the screen, the pollution the giant tiger had just contracted was quickly purified by more than half by Luo Shizhen.
His eyes were no longer fierce and manic like before, but instead became clear.
Then, the giant tiger gently pulled Luo Shizhen into his embrace, and with his massive tongue, began to tenderly lick him.
Lu Qiujin: “…”
Qin Yinian: “…”
Cheng Yunshao, who was still lying injured to the side.
Inside the combat vehicle, Lin Qi: “…”
Chen He’an: “…Teacher Lin, was this also within your calculations?”
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