The RV rolled over the last sticky, black pool of blood at the entrance of the university and drove into a new hell.
If the hellish scene outside the school gate could be described as a hell of post-war metal ruins, then the hell within the school gate was entirely a flesh-and-blood hell composed of severed limbs and broken arms.
The air was so thick it was almost suffocating, and the sight that met their eyes was enough to shatter the sanity of even the bravest person.
"No wonder," Susan murmured, looking at the scene before her.
"What's wrong?" He slowed the vehicle, looking at her curiously.
"Didn't I tell you earlier that a team had been here? The 'hell' reputation of this place was spread by survivors who followed the team, scavenging for leftovers at the time. After spreading the information, that survivor completely lost his mind."
She paused. "Seeing this, how many people could endure it?"
Lin Yi took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. The only sense of security the two of them had at the moment came from the RV. If they had to walk in, their legs would have gone weak within two steps.
"This is the ultimate form of [Replacement]..." Susan's voice was dry, her ice-blue eyes reflecting the scarlet hell. "Kill one, replace with ten; kill ten, replace with a hundred... endless. The army's artillery fire didn't destroy them; it just repeatedly hammered and squeezed them like hot iron on an anvil, ultimately... melting them into this dead land."
She pointed to a teaching building completely covered in corpses in the distance. "That was... the last place to fall. Survivors retreated inside, and then... never came out again."
Lin Yi controlled the accelerator as gently as breathing, amplifying the effect of the Silent Outer Armor to the extreme.
The RV moved like a phantom, slowly navigating through the maze of metal wreckage towards the integrated gymnasium in the center of the campus.
According to the radar scan of Mercer University's layout obtained earlier, the roof of the gymnasium had a huge hole smashed through it by something, possibly the work of an airdrop container.
The closer they got to the gymnasium, the more horrifying the scene became.
The sides of the road were no longer simply ruins, but were covered by a thick, dark red "carpet."
Upon closer inspection, the "carpet" was actually paved with countless highly decomposed corpses, squeezed and stuck together! They had been repeatedly trampled and compacted by subsequent zombie tides, forming a nauseating "corpse brick."
The stench permeating the air was so strong it was almost tangible, making them feel sick to their stomachs even through the RV. The massive entrance to the gymnasium was within sight. The once heavy metal doors had been violently torn open, hanging twisted and deformed to one side.
Inside the entrance was pitch black, like the greedy maw of a giant beast.
"The car can't go in."
Lin Yi stopped the vehicle at the gymnasium entrance. After the two of them got out, fully armed, Lin Yi put the RV away.
As expected of a new human, Susan's right leg had recovered much faster than an ordinary person's. Although she couldn't run yet, she could walk normally.
Lin Yi gripped the fire axe tightly, holding a high-intensity flashlight in his other hand. Susan took out her hunting crossbow and fixed the flashlight to the underside of it.
The moment they stepped into the gymnasium, the two felt as if they had stepped into the deepest layer of hell.
The flashlight's beam pierced the darkness, and the first thing they saw was the stands.
They were no longer neat seats, but a 'slope' several meters high, a mixture of corpses, severed limbs, torn clothing, excrement, and dried blood!
Countless faces, frozen with extreme fear, pain, and madness, flickered in the light.
The stadium was deathly silent. There was no wind, not even the low growls of zombies; only the heavy breathing and heartbeats of the two, and the slight crunching sound as they stepped on the ground.
Shaking the flashlight, the beam swept across the messy court. Lin Yi felt a wave of dizziness, his stomach convulsed violently. He seemed to hear countless dying moans and hysterical laughter, and he couldn't tell if it was a hallucination or the lingering resentment of this place.
"Don't... don't look at that... concentrate, clear your mind!" Susan's voice trembled. She tightly gripped Lin Yi's arm, her knuckles turning white.
"Look, over there! The supply crate!"
Lin Yi suddenly spotted the supply crate. It was military green, about a meter square, hanging from the basketball hoop by a parachute.
The crate was covered in marks from impacts and scratches, but its overall structure was intact. The unique dragon emblem was the mark of a Dragon Country rescue supply crate!
The two slowly moved towards the supply crate and found that its parachute cords were tightly wrapped around the basketball hoop, which was fixed to the stands beside it. This prevented Lin Yi from recycling the crate.
"No, we have to go up to the second-tier stands to cut the parachute cords so I can collect it."
Lin Yi shook his head. The supply crate was hanging in the air, and standing below would only let him touch the bottom.
"Okay, I'll follow your lead."
The two then headed towards the back of the stands, dodging several 'patrolling' zombies along the way, until they reached the backstage stairwell.
"There are two zombies blocking the stairs ahead. What should we do? We can't get around them." Lin Yi turned and asked.
"One for you, one for me. But killing them will trigger the [Replacement] mechanism, so we need to be quick."
"Alright, you take the left, I'll take the right. Move!"
As soon as the words fell, there was a swoosh, and a crossbow bolt flew out, hitting the zombie on the left, which fell to the ground. The zombie on the right was startled and moved towards the left.
Lin Yi suddenly rushed forward and swung his axe at the zombie on the right.
But before Lin Yi could swing his second axe, there was another swoosh, and another crossbow bolt embedded itself in the zombie's head.
"Be quick! You need to learn to use a crossbow later," Susan said, pulling out two bolts and walking upstairs.
Lin Yi looked at the zombie on the ground, speechless, then pulled out his axe and followed.
On the second tier of the stands, the two reached the edge of the stands, and the basketball hoop was still some distance away.
"Your leg is injured, I'll climb up," Lin Yi said. He took out a climbing rope, tied one end to the stands, and the other to his waist. Then he climbed over the stands and onto the pillar between the basketball hoop and the stands.
He crawled forward bit by bit, the basketball hoop emitting creaking sounds.
"Be careful, don't rush," Susan couldn't help but remind him.
Lin Yi knew he couldn't rush, but they had already killed zombies. He didn't know if the [Replacement] mechanism's trigger time would be reduced if there were zombies nearby, so he had to seize every moment.
Finally reaching the end, Lin Yi took out his machete and began to cut the parachute cords.
With a 'rip,' as the parachute cords were cut one by one, the remaining ones could no longer bear the weight of the supply crate and snapped.
Lin Yi's reaction was quick; he grabbed the broken parachute cord.
The moment he grabbed the rope, the inertia of the supply crate almost pulled him off the basketball hoop.
"Damn, it's heavy! Recycle! ... Damn it!"
Swoosh!
The supply crate turned into particles and returned to Lin Yi's palm.
But at this moment, the dilapidated basketball hoop could no longer support Lin Yi's weight and broke.
"Lin Yi!"
The last thing Lin Yi saw was Susan's anxious face on the stands.