Rotting Land: Survive-Chapter 419 - 417: Purgatory on Earth (7)

On the ceiling, a square-sized ventilation duct caught Luo Yi’s attention. He slowly stood up, gestured a few times, and then said with a hint of joy to the two warriors beside him, "I’ve got an idea!"

After briefly explaining his plan to his comrades, the other two understood and immediately sprang into action.

Because the ceiling was about three meters high, the warriors had to form a human wall to allow Luo Yi to reach the top.

Fortunately, Luo Yi wasn’t short, otherwise getting into the ventilation duct wouldn’t have been an easy task.

With the combined efforts of the three, Luo Yi quickly touched the louvered opening of the ventilation duct with the help of his comrades.

To avoid alerting anyone outside to the noise inside the room, he carefully removed the obstruction from the duct opening, tilted it aside, and gently handed it to his comrade.

After resolving the entrance issue, Luo Yi stood up again, placing his palms steadily on the edge of the duct opening.

In theory, such climbing was a piece of cake for a seasoned soldier like him, but after enduring over half a month of torture in a confined space, neither his spirit nor physical strength was what it used to be.

Using all his strength, Luo Yi climbed upward with difficulty. Since the duct was not wide, exerting force wasn’t an easy task.

However, the training slogan of the Sharp Blade Company knows no such thing as failure: face challenges, and if there are none, create them to tackle them.

With the resilience inherent in Huaxia soldiers, Luo Yi finally gritted his teeth and reached the top of the duct.

"Huff~ huff~ huff~" After taking a few deep breaths, Luo Yi dared not delay. After all, no one knew when the conflict outside would end, and if Scar decided to fight to the death, all his efforts would be in vain.

Fortunately, the duct led straight ahead, sparing Luo Yi the pain of twisting his body around bends. But even so, crawling in a duct barely wide enough for one person was truly an ordeal.

As he crawled, Luo Yi kept an eye on the rooms below. He needed to identify which room was Dai Sha’s studio, as that was the only room guaranteed to have an open door.

One room, two rooms, and without a doubt, both inside the duct and the rooms below were very dimly lit. If Luo Yi hadn’t frequently busied himself in this players’ lounge, accurately finding Dai Sha’s room would have been a tough task.

But today, it seemed Heaven was unusually kind to the people’s soldier. After crawling nearly ten meters, Luo Yi finally arrived at his target location.

Through the window, Luo Yi distinctly smelled a strong stench of blood, and at the same time, he faintly heard gnashing sounds.

This made his heart tighten, and a horrifying thought burst into his mind at the right moment.

Could it be that zombies have entered the gymnasium?

That’s impossible! Yuhuan Gymnasium has high walls and thick defenses, unless the zombies have heavy weaponry, there’s no way those creatures could break in.

Moreover, the batch of weapons Scar seized earlier was sufficient to fend off an incoming "enemy."

Perplexed, Luo Yi couldn’t understand that the main culprit behind the current "tragedy" stemmed largely from the last group of survivors he had received.

The arrow was nocked, and there was no turning back. If things truly reached the dire scenario he imagined, now was the best time to escape; if delayed further, escape might become impossible.

Having always prepared for tough battles as a Sharp Blade Company soldier, Luo Yi wasn’t intimidated by the predicament before him.

Using his height advantage, his eyes quickly scanned the room below, and he soon discovered a corpse with its belly ripped open.

The corpse was undoubtedly dead, as through his observation, Luo Yi could clearly see the gaping abdomen, with nothing left inside but a few remaining bones and shriveled skin.

Brutal! It was now essentially certain that there were zombies in the gymnasium.

Though Luo Yi still couldn’t figure out how those creatures managed it, escaping meant inevitable confrontation.

After confirming there were no other abnormalities in the room, Luo Yi gingerly moved aside the vent cover in front of him.

Then he first crawled a distance forward, then reversed direction, lowering his legs through the opening, inching further down, until his entire body was suspended in mid-air.

"Whew~" Adjusting his breath slightly, Luo Yi slowly stabilized his swaying body to minimize the noise of landing.

Once everything was still, he decisively let go and bent his knees to descend.

"Thud!" As Luo Yi hoped, the sound of landing was not loud.

But before he could let out a breath, the bloodstains on his feet, combined with the floor’s friction, caused him to stumble sideways and crash to the ground.

Shit! Luo Yi couldn’t help but curse, the sudden mishap startled him.

What’s worse was that his unexplained fall caught the creatures’ attention outside the room.

"Creak!" The door slowly opened from outside, and Luo Yi felt a chill envelop him, his pores almost instantly standing on end.

Disregarding the dead body’s blood and flesh all over him, he turned around as fast as he could.

"Hiss!" Luo Yi sharply inhaled; almost simultaneously as he turned, a zombie feeling its way in had already moved up to him.

Can you imagine the feeling of face-to-face, direct contact with a zombie?

Luo Yi experienced that fear firsthand. If not for the professional mental training as a soldier, someone else might have already ’succumbed.’

Luo Yi held his breath, not even daring to move his eyes, he fixedly stared at the zombie’s ever-moving cheek, enduring the nauseating stench exhaling from its mouth.

The baffling part was that despite being so close, the creature only sniffed around with its nose, showing no intent to bite.

If it had chosen to attack then, Luo Yi wouldn’t have been able to evade.

Yet, at such a critical moment, Luo Yi had no time to ponder the creature’s intentions, he silently groped the ground for something sharp to take out the pesky creature before him.

Soon, he found what he wanted amidst a pile of sticky filth.

It was a broken rib, its sharp bone blade suitable for piercing the softened skull of a zombie.

Taking advantage of the creature’s distraction with sniffing, Luo Yi hooked his arm around its neck like a swift Spiritual Monkey, locking its throat, then forcefully stabbed the bone blade in hand downward.

This move was a military combat grip, meant for instant kills.

But for mindless zombies, admittedly, it was Luo Yi’s first time using it.

Yet even so, it achieved the desired effect, the zombie was dead. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for the recommendation or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)