"Bin-ge, you sure about this?"

At the stairwell entrance, Chen Hao's voice carried a thread of worry.

"Who the hell can be sure about anything right now? But we've both gotten stronger, and we've got our abilities. Should be worth a shot." Yang Bin said.

"Want me to just go Invisible and scout ahead?"

"No. Your Invisibility doesn't last long enough yet, and we have no idea how many zombies are down there. One accidental bump and you're dead. We work together-that's the play."

"Alright."

The two crept downward.

The sixth-floor stairwell was clear. They made it all the way to the fifth floor-and saw exactly what they didn't want to see.

Three zombies, drifting aimlessly in the stairwell.

With their current strength, killing three zombies would be easy.

But the moment they swung, there'd be noise. And noise meant a swarm.

Even at their level, getting pinched from above and below meant death.

"What do we do, Bin-ge?" Chen Hao looked to him.

Yang Bin thought for a moment. "Avoid a fight if we can. Go Invisible, head down, and try using pebbles to lure them away."

"Got it."

Chen Hao nodded, activated Invisibility, and began his slow descent.

"Careful. Not a sound."

"Mm."

Chen Hao crept up behind the zombies, pulled out a pebble, and tossed it into the corridor-hoping to draw them out.

The result: the three stairwell zombies didn't budge. Instead, zombies from inside the corridor wandered toward the sound.

Both of them wanted to scream.

Refusing to accept it, Chen Hao threw another stone to the opposite side. Two more zombies emerged from that direction. The three in the stairwell still couldn't care less.

Chen Hao didn't dare throw again. Every pebble was pulling in reinforcements from the wrong places.

The only way to clear the stairwell was to get past the three zombies and throw stones deeper into the corridor from below. But the three were clustered right in the middle of the stairs. Getting through meant threading between them-a tightrope walk.

They weren't standing shoulder to shoulder, but they were close. And they kept shuffling around. One accidental brush of contact and it was over.

Yang Bin was about to wave Chen Hao back to regroup when Chen Hao gritted his teeth and kept going.

Yang Bin's stomach dropped. Too late to call him back. All he could do was white-knuckle the iron pipe and be ready to charge the instant something went wrong.

Chen Hao moved at a crawl. One step. Another. The gap between him and the zombies shrank with every heartbeat. Yang Bin's pulse hammered in his ears.

But Chen Hao himself was ice-cold. The instant the first zombie shuffled past, he slipped through the gap in one smooth stride, clearing it. Then he eased toward the second.

He waited. Patient. The zombie drifted aside, and he twisted past its back.

Then-the zombies that had wandered in from behind started shambling toward his position.

Cold sweat broke out on both of them simultaneously. If those things kept coming, they'd walk right into Chen Hao.

At the last second, Chen Hao pulled out a handful of pebbles and flung them behind the approaching zombies.

They stopped. Turned. Stared blankly at the noise behind them, then shuffled back the way they came.

"Hhhh..."

Both of them exhaled like they'd been holding their breath underwater. The lead zombie's face had been close enough to kiss Chen Hao's.

If Chen Hao hadn't already been through hell these past days, that moment alone would've made him puke.

The group of zombies drifted away, taking the third stairwell zombie with them. Chen Hao pressed flat against the wall, slid to the corner, and hurled a fistful of pebbles deep into the corridor.

Every zombie's head turned. Even the two still lingering on the stairs followed curiously.

Within seconds, the stairwell was empty. Chen Hao waved. Yang Bin moved fast, descending in quick, silent steps. They regrouped at the landing between the fifth and fourth floors.

"Haozi. Don't pull that again." Yang Bin's voice was low and sharp.

"Relax, Bin-ge. I had it under control." Chen Hao grinned.

"Under control my ass. You almost made out with a zombie back there."

"......"

"That... was purely an accident." Chen Hao's grin turned sheepish.

"Next time, you talk to me first." Yang Bin's tone left no room for argument.

"Mm." Chen Hao dropped his gaze.

Yang Bin nodded, then activated True Vision Eye and scanned downward.

No zombies on the fourth-floor stairs. A few wandering the hallway, though.

Child's play. Chen Hao went Invisible, tossed a couple pebbles, and lured them neatly into a nearby dorm room.

They descended quickly. The moment they stepped into the fourth-floor corridor and turned toward the next staircase, Yang Bin froze.

"What is it?" Chen Hao whispered.

"A whole pack." Yang Bin's face was dark.

"....."

"All in the stairwell?"

"Yep. Having dinner."

"Dinner?" Chen Hao blinked.

"Mm. Long legs. Skin's pretty pale. Probably that girly dude from 312." Yang Bin said flatly.

"......."

"Eating... a person." Chen Hao finally caught up.

"What, you think zombies eat rice?"

"......."

"Bin-ge, you're getting more twisted by the day."

"How is that twisted? We've seen this plenty of times already."

"Yeah, but you don't have to study the scene so hard you ID someone from a single leg."

"Standard operating procedure. If you get eaten someday, I'll recognize you from a single bone."

"......"

"Anyway." Yang Bin's brow furrowed. "Problem is, they're feasting. They won't move for a while."

"So... we wait?" Chen Hao offered.

"Wait for what? This spot is a death trap. The second fourth-floor zombies wander back this way, we're boxed in. You can go Invisible-I can't."

"Then what?"

"We charge. Fight straight down to our floor." Yang Bin said.

"......"

"That's... insane. What if there's a pile-up of zombies below? We'd be walking into a meat grinder."

"No choice. Getting sandwiched in this hallway is worse-nowhere to run, no one to hear us scream."

"Fine. Your call."

"Stay on my ass. With our strength, we punch through. Should be manageable."

"Okay."

Yang Bin tightened his grip on the iron pipe, eyes locked on the zombies crouched below, faces buried in their meal.

They weren't looking up.

Yang Bin exploded forward. Down the stairs in three bounds, then he launched himself into the air-one foot slamming down on a zombie's skull-and vaulted clean over the entire feeding cluster.

Chen Hao was right behind him. Before the stomped zombie could even register what happened, Chen Hao planted off its shoulder and sailed over.

"GRAAAH-"

The pack spotted living flesh. Dinner forgotten, they scrambled to their feet and tore after the two of them.