Chapter 24 : Don’t Go Around Setting Death Flags, Damn It!

After receiving a definite response from Christine—

Li Yiming slammed down the door handle!

Click!

With a sharp metallic sound, the door was pushed open by Li Yiming with force!

Almost at the exact moment he opened the door—

The Licker, who had been dozing off right at the entrance, suddenly sprang awake!

Before it could even open its mouth to alert the other Lickers downstairs—

A chilling cold burst from within the door and shot toward it like a storm!

It was Christine’s special ability!

In an instant, a layer of frost began forming over the Licker’s body!

The Licker opened its mouth—

But not a single sound came out from its throat!

The cold had invaded its throat, and all it could produce was a painful groan.

As it clawed desperately at its throat—

A wave of murderous intent burst out from behind the door!

Swoosh!

A dark figure flashed.

Li Yiming shot forward like a bullet, charging straight at the Licker that hadn’t even reacted yet!

Squelch!

The freezing pain in the Licker’s throat vanished.

In its vision, it saw its body flying into the air, spinning several times.

And then—thud!

Its head hit the ground and rolled.

It watched its own body flailing on the floor, and only then did it realize—

Its head… had actually been chopped off!

“Grghhh…”

The Licker’s facial muscles twitched and struggled for a moment, then went completely still.

Its body, now headless, collapsed to the floor with a heavy thump.

“Beautiful slash,”

Christine stepped out from behind the door, genuinely impressed.

“It was a clean slash… just a bit hard on the blade,”

Li Yiming looked at his now-dulled military knife with a helpless expression.

This was a military-grade combat knife, forged with craftsmanship far superior to any civilian blade.

It shouldn’t have dulled like this from just chopping off a head—let alone trees!

Li Yiming glanced at the lifeless Licker on the floor with a slight sense of regret.

That thing’s neck was tough as hell!

While muttering to himself, he picked up the Licker’s severed head.

He clenched both hands and with a sharp crack!

The Licker’s entire skull burst like a walnut!

“Tsk, what a waste.”

Li Yiming rummaged around the shattered skull—

Unfortunately, he didn’t find the zombie crystal core he was hoping for.

Looks like even though Lickers were strong, they hadn’t yet reached the level where they’d guaranteed drop a core.

With a shake of his head, Li Yiming tossed the Licker’s head aside and flicked the blood and gore off his hands.

Christine, unfazed by the bloody spectacle, didn’t bat an eye.

Clearly, she’d seen plenty of gruesome scenes back when she was working as a researcher.

By now, the two of them had been standing at the door for a while.

Down the hallway of the Internal Medicine wing, not a single Licker had come to investigate.

It seemed the fight hadn’t drawn any attention.

Phase one of the plan—a success.

“Here, wear this.”

Christine pulled a wireless in-ear headset from the pocket of her lab coat.

“I picked it up from one of those soldiers. I’ve already tuned it to a new radio channel.”

As she spoke, she also pulled one out for herself and put it on.

Li Yiming adjusted the earbud to a comfortable fit, then pulled the mic down to his mouth.

“Moshi moshi~ Can you hear me~?”

“We’re standing face to face, of course I can hear you, idiot!”

Christine facepalmed, clearly exasperated.

She stepped back inside the room and closed the door behind her.

A few moments later, her voice came through clearly over the headset.

“Testing, 1, 2, 3—radio check.”

“Loud and clear.”

Hearing the clear voice in his ear, Li Yiming gave the door an “OK” hand sign.

Click.

The door opened slightly, and Christine stepped out from inside.

She took a deep breath, then slowly said:

“Before the apocalypse, I didn’t really like socializing with others.”

“But after being alone in the lab for so long since it began, I realized…”

“…having someone to talk to isn’t so bad after all.”

“Well… anyway…”

“Don’t die, okay?”

“I mean~”

“It’s not that easy to find another person to chat with these days.”

Her hands tucked into the pockets of her lab coat, Christine spoke in an indifferent tone.

But those sapphire-blue eyes had already betrayed what she was truly feeling inside.

She didn’t even understand herself.

Why was she starting to care about this random punk, Li Yiming?

Maybe it was just because… she hadn’t seen a living human for far too long.

Christine quietly gave herself that excuse in her heart.

Faced with this rare moment of sincerity from Christine—

Li Yiming scratched his cheek awkwardly and said with a hint of helplessness:

“Sis, with all these death flags you’re throwing at me…”

“You’ve built the mood up so much that if I don’t die some glorious tragic death, it’s gonna feel weird!”

His words made Christine let out a small laugh.

But she quickly caught herself and returned to her usual emotionless expression.

“Always with the smart mouth. Hurry up and get moving!”

With that, she turned and stepped back inside, closing the door behind her.

Li Yiming gave a small chuckle, then put on a serious face as he quietly crept toward the reception desk of the Internal Medicine clinic.

Using the desk as cover, he peeked out and surveyed the situation on the third floor of the hospital.

The entire floor was eerily empty, with medical records and random objects scattered across the ground.

As he scanned the area—

Christine’s voice came through the radio earpiece:

“Heads up. One Licker is lingering in the west stairwell, between the second and third floors.”

“East stairwell is clear.”

“Before that Licker makes it up to the third floor, you can use the east stairs to get down to the second.”

Without a moment of hesitation, Li Yiming moved exactly as Christine instructed!

He crouched low, palm against the floor, and moved swiftly without making a sound toward the east stairwell.

Soon, he reached the stairwell successfully.

After confirming it was indeed safe, just as Christine had said—

Li Yiming pressed himself against the fire door and peeked toward the west stairwell.

Sure enough—

A Licker soon emerged from the west stairwell, wandering slowly and aimlessly across the third floor.

Looks like he’d have to move faster.

Li Yiming’s expression turned serious.

He had to reach the second floor and retrieve the anti-virus serum before that Licker realized its comrade was missing!

On the other end of the earpiece—

Christine sat in front of the monitors, clearly understanding the urgency of the situation.

She immediately issued the next movement order to Li Yiming!