Chapter 20: The Evolving Dead

"The faculty office is just ahead; we should be able to find the car keys there," Miyamoto Rei said, pointing to the room in front.

With a student from the school leading the way, Lingyun and his group quickly arrived before the faculty office. However, a roaring sound was coming from inside the office.

"There are people inside, save them!" Komuro Takashi heard a familiar voice and hurriedly spoke up.

"Mm, let's go." Lingyun roughly knew who was inside the faculty office and led the others as they rushed into the office.

Inside the faculty office, many dead bodies lay on the floor. There were two people in the office: one was a chubby man wearing glasses, holding a nail gun in his hand that appeared to have been modified. The other was a pink-haired girl holding an electric drill, frantically drilling into the head of a dead body; blood and brains splattered all over her, and she was shouting loudly for them to die, appearing to have been traumatized.

"Takagi Saya, what has happened to you?" Seeing Takagi Saya's slightly crazed state, Komuro Takashi asked, feeling a bit at a loss.

Seeing someone speaking to her, Takagi Saya looked up and saw Komuro Takashi. With a wail, she dropped the electric drill in her hand, threw herself directly into Komuro Takashi's arms, and began to cry.

Holding Takagi Saya, Komuro Takashi's body stiffened, his face full of awkwardness. Miyamoto Rei, standing to the side, looked at the two embracing, a flash of desolation in her eyes, before her gaze fell upon Igou Hisashi, as if she had made some sort of decision.

"Alright, alright, it's okay now. The most important thing right now is to leave this place first; it is truly too dangerous here," Komuro Takashi said, patting Takagi Saya on the back to comfort her.

"What on earth has happened to this world?" Takagi Saya wiped away her tears.

"The world has entered the apocalypse; now, everywhere outside is full of dead bodies that bite anyone they see," Komuro Takashi said.

"Turn on the television and take a look; we might gain something from it," Igou Hisashi suggested.

The group turned on the television and, watching the news on the screen, all felt a sense of despair.

"The most important thing now is to escape the school. School Infirmary Marikawa, have you found the school bus keys?" Busujima Saeko asked.

"Found them, the keys are here," Marikawa Shizuka said, retrieving a set of keys from a cabinet.

"Found them, then let's go quickly. The campus is no longer safe," Komuro Takashi said.

"What do you mean the school isn't safe? What on earth is going on? Why has the school turned into this?" Takagi Saya asked, sobbing.

"That student said it, I saw it with my own eyes earlier, and you should have seen it too; the school is in complete chaos now, we must escape the campus," Komuro Takashi said earnestly.

"Let's go, we'll clear the path," Lingyun said, gripping the wooden sword in his hand.

The group moved quickly toward the direction of the school bus, saving several more survivors along the way.

"Bang!" Luo Yexi knocked down a dead body. Feeling the recoil on the wooden sword, she couldn't help but knit her brows; the heads of these dead bodies seemed to be gradually hardening.

"Master, these dead bodies seem to be gradually becoming stronger. Although the increase is very subtle, if they keep improving like this, we are going to have big trouble," Luo Yexi said to Lingyun.

"Master?" Everyone present was stunned. In their eyes, Lingyun did not seem much older than Luo Yexi. They had not expected that Lingyun was actually Luo Yexi's master.

A flash of light crossed Busujima Saeko's eyes. Judging from the battles along the way, Luo Yexi's strength was not inferior to her own, and might even surpass it. For Lingyun to be her master, he must have some extraordinary qualities. Yet, she found nothing about him that exceeded the imagination of an ordinary person; could it be that he was hiding his true self?

"Could it be that these dead bodies are evolving?" Marikawa Shizuka muttered to herself.

"Evolving?" The expressions of everyone present turned grim. If the dead bodies really could evolve, they would indeed be in big trouble.

Lingyun blew the head off a dead body with one strike of his sword, simultaneously probing his Divine Sense into the dead body, intending to investigate the cause of this mutation. In the original story, these dead bodies did not evolve, or if they did, it was only after a very long time. But now, these dead bodies had already begun to evolve; this was likely caused by that unknown mutation.

As his Divine Sense probed into the dead body, Lingyun quickly discovered how it differed from the dead bodies they had encountered earlier. Whether in bone density or muscle strength, this dead body had improved by about one percent compared to those they had encountered before, and for the dead bodies ahead of them that had not yet been killed, this strength was still rising.

On the other hand, there was a type of aura on these dead bodies that made him feel quite uncomfortable; he estimated this was the reason for the dead bodies' evolution. It was just a pity that this aura was far too faint, and he could not distinguish the source of this aura for the time being. The only thing he could be certain of was that the owner of this aura was definitely an immensely powerful existence.

"The situation is very troublesome; we must leave here as soon as possible," Lingyun said.

It did not take long for them to reach the stairwell. Exiting from here would lead to the playground, and passing through the playground would lead to where the school bus was parked. However, there were quite a few dead bodies wandering on the playground now; if they tried to force their way through, there would likely be casualties.

"We must find a way to lure those dead bodies away, otherwise, it's too dangerous," Igou Hisashi said, frowning.

"But what method can we use to lure them away?" someone in the crowd asked.

Luo Yexi looked at the dead bodies ahead and said in a low voice, "I noticed earlier that these dead bodies do not seem to have vision; instead, they are extremely sensitive to sound. As long as we make a sound somewhere else, we can lure them away."

"But what method can we use to make a sound that will lure them away?"

Luo Yexi's gaze swept over the people present and then fell upon a boy with dyed yellow hair.

"You, come here!"

The boy's body trembled, but hindered by the powerful combat strength Luo Yexi had displayed earlier, he had to bite the bullet and walk in front of her.

"Is, is there something?"

"A delinquent student like you should have something like a small knife used to extort others on you, take it out for me."

The boy shivered, then somewhat reluctantly pulled a small knife from his pants pocket. He had just bought this knife today, spending a lot of money he had extorted from underclassmen.

Luo Yexi weighed the small knife in her hand and revealed a satisfied smile: "This knife is not bad; you must have spent quite a bit of money to buy it."

"Mm, yes, that's right." The yellow-haired boy nodded cautiously, not knowing what Luo Yexi was up to.

Luo Yexi held the knife with her left hand and flicked it casually. With a soft "hiss," the knife tore through the air and struck the basketball hoop on the distant playground, emitting a loud, clanging sound.

Upon hearing this loud sound, the dead bodies on the playground suddenly rioted, frantically surging toward the direction of the basketball hoop.

Everyone except Lingyun looked at Luo Yexi in astonishment; clearly, they had not expected Luo Yexi to have such Kung Fu. Busujima Saeko looked at Luo Yexi even more deeply. The basketball hoop was not exactly close, yet the knife Luo Yexi had casually flicked not only hit the basketball hoop with precision but also made such a loud sound. Based on this alone, Busujima Saeko could be certain that Luo Yexi's strength was definitely not simple.

"Alright, stop staring blankly. While those dead bodies are all attracted to the basketball hoop, let's hurry and get on the bus," Lingyun reminded them.

At Lingyun's reminder, those present reacted and hurriedly rushed toward the direction of the school bus.

However, when people are in a hurry, mistakes often happen. While running, one boy accidentally knocked the tuning fork in his hand against a railing, emitting a crisp sound. This sound was particularly obvious in the silent campus.

As this sound rang out, the expressions of everyone present changed. Having found no target in the distance, the dead bodies gathered near the basketball hoop turned their heads simultaneously and, like cats that had smelled fish, frantically surged toward their direction.