Thud! Thud!
Dudian cooperated with Scott and Mia and quickly killed the several walking corpses that came running one after another from behind.
Smelling the scent of the walking corpses moving from a distance, Dudian repeatedly said, "This place isn't safe to stay for long. We have to leave here immediately."
Scott knew that the previous fight would most likely attract other walking corpses. Without taking a rest, he picked up the backpack that had been dropped in front of the store during the fight, took out a sheepskin scroll from it and opened it. He quickly found their current location, put away the map, and said to Dudian, "Follow me. The Eighth District is no longer safe. We have to return to the Ninth District."
Dudian had the same intention and nodded slightly. He raised his hand to signal Zach, who was in the store, to come over.
Zach ran over quickly and said in surprise,"I knew you would survive." As he said this, he seemed to want to ask something. When he saw Dudian blink his eyes, he immediately realized and stopped talking, just smiling happily.
The three young scavengers from the consortium and the young scavenger boy who had been hiding in the store saw that the danger had been lifted and quickly came out together with Zach. Looking at the young man who had been bitten to death and was bleeding profusely on the ground, their expressions were a bit complicated and ugly.
Mia noticed their gazes and snorted coldly. She said in disgust, "Cowards! When that walking corpse bit his throat earlier, you had a chance to kill it, but you were so scared that you ran away. You're not even as brave as a child. Shameful!" The child she was referring to was naturally Zach, who had fought back in the end.
The three of them blushed with shame, gritted their teeth, and didn't dare to reply.
The young scavenger boy who had run away together lowered his head timidly but secretly glanced at Dudian in front of him with the corner of his eye, as if he wanted to say something but didn't dare to open his mouth.
Scott glanced at them, sighed, and shook his head slightly. He said to Dudian, "Let's go."
Dudian nodded, scanned the surrounding environment, and secretly memorized the place, planning to come back to retrieve the bow and arrow and the bundle of deep blue spheres when he had time.
Everyone followed behind Scott and quietly advanced along the edge of the street.
Along the way, Dudian fully felt the benefits of his sensitive sense of smell. When he smelled the scent of a large group of walking corpses from a distance, he would suggest that Scott take a detour. If they encountered two or three walking corpses, they would directly kill them.
After witnessing Dudian's extraordinary strength, Scott no longer dared to underestimate Dudian's right to speak because of his age. Therefore, he adopted all of Dudian's suggestions for taking detours several times. After half a day of traveling, everyone finally came out of the Eighth District and returned to the Ninth District, which had been scavenged more than a dozen times.
After arriving in the Ninth District, Scott and the others finally relaxed their tense nerves. However, they didn't dare to linger near the boundary and continued to move forward, going deep into the central area of the Ninth District before they completely felt at ease.
On this journey, they didn't encounter any more walking corpses, and they didn't even see small monsters like bone-eating rats.
In the stores on both sides of the broken streets in the Ninth District, basically, there was nothing left - except for the broken stones.
"Finally out." Scott exhaled lightly. He didn't continue to rush nervously. He casually found a clean place to sit down and rest.
Mia put her backpack on the broken stones beside her. She looked at Dudian curiously and said, "You're a scavenger who just joined the consortium, right? I heard that you're a seed candidate, so you've received the blessing twice. But how could you have such strong strength just from two blessings? Did you pick up some other treasures?"
Upon hearing this, Scott, the three young scavengers from the consortium, and the young scavenger boy all looked over. They had been extremely curious about this question for a long time. However, in the Eighth District before, walking corpses could appear at any time around them. They were worried that the sound of talking would attract the walking corpses, so they held back from asking.
Perhaps there was another reason - they were worried that such a rash question would make Dudian unhappy and leave them in the Eighth District.
Dudian had already prepared an answer. He said, "I don't know the reason either. I just passed out while running for my life. When I woke up, I felt that I had much more strength than before." This was half true and half false. Even if the consortium investigated, he had something to say.
Scott and Mia looked at each other and were a bit puzzled.
Suddenly, Mia thought of something, and her face changed slightly. She said, "You, you haven't been bitten by a walking corpse, have you?"
Hearing this, the three young scavengers from the consortium sitting beside Dudian were stunned for a moment. Then they quickly got up and moved seven or eight meters away from Dudian.
Dudian was rather curious instead and said, "If I'm bitten by a walking corpse, won't I turn into a walking corpse?"
Scott's face looked ugly. He said, "You're right. However, the speed of turning into a walking corpse varies depending on the severity of the injury. If you're bitten on the throat, chest, or other parts, you'll be infected immediately. If it's just a scrape on the skin, the speed of infection will be much slower... How long has it been since you woke up?"
"Half a day."
"Generally, the slowest speed of infection is three days." Scott looked at Dudian and said, "That is to say, if you were infected, you will completely turn into a walking corpse in the next two and a half days. If you don't turn into a walking corpse after two and a half days, it means you weren't infected."
Dudian nodded slightly. He naturally wasn't infected by a walking corpse.
However, Scott's words still made him feel a bit uneasy. He didn't know if that blood-red worm was a kind of infection.
"We've been outside the Wall for four days, and we'll have to return to the inside of the Wall in six days." Scott looked at Dudian, hesitated for a moment, and said, "It's better for us to separate for now."
Dudian glanced at them. Except for Zach, who looked worried, the others had more or less a bit of fear in their eyes, just like the fear of facing a walking corpse. He couldn't help but smile and said softly, "Alright. But I want to borrow your map. In case we separate, I won't be able to find my way back."
"Sure." Scott didn't hesitate and immediately agreed.
Dudian turned to look at Zach, smiled, and said, "I'll go look for Mekin and Sharm. Don't worry. I'll be fine. Wait for me here."
Zach's eyes turned red, and he gritted his teeth tightly. He said, "It's all my fault. We dragged you down. I'm sorry, Dean. I'm sorry..."
"What silly things are you saying? We're all brothers." Dudian smiled.
Zach couldn't help but burst into tears and sobbed softly.
Scott, Mia, and the others were all silent.
Dudian waved his hand, took the map that Scott handed over carefully, and turned to leave.
...
...
After disappearing from the sight of Scott and the others, Dudian immediately ran at full speed. He followed the previous route back to the Eighth District and collected the deep blue spheres from the heads of the walking corpses he had killed along the way one by one.
Before long, he returned to the place where he had hidden the bow and arrow. After finding the bow and arrow and the bundle of deep blue spheres from the bottom of the scrapped car, he immediately searched for the scents around him to find Mekin and Sharm.
When he encountered a lone walking corpse along the way, he directly approached and killed it.
Although his fighting skills were still rather immature, with the overwhelming advantage of speed and strength, he could completely kill the walking corpse before it pounced on him.
However, if he encountered more than three walking corpses at the same time, Dudian could only run for his life. After all, if they pounced on him in a swarm, no matter how fast he was, he would be caught. Once caught, he would gradually be surrounded.
This was the terrifying aspect of a horde of walking corpses. Even a hunter wouldn't dare to let a horde of walking corpses approach rashly.
Two days later, Dudian finally found Mekin, who was hiding in a ruined building. He was able to find him because he tracked the scent of his excrement. This also taught Dudian a lesson. In the wild in the future, he must never relieve himself casually. Even if he couldn't hold it in, he had to bury it with soil and leave as soon as possible, and never leave a trace.
After Dudian sent Mekin back to the Ninth District, he was just about to return to the Eighth District to continue looking for Sharm when he suddenly smelled Sharm's scent in the Ninth District, which surprised him.
Following the scent to track it down, Dudian immediately found Sharm, who was alone in the Ninth District. He was a bit speechless. He didn't expect that this guy had actually run back here by himself.
Seeing that all three of them were safe and sound, Dudian finally felt relieved. After settling them down, Dudian returned to the Eighth District again and started his plan to hunt walking corpses!
In the blink of an eye, four days passed.
The ten-day time limit for everyone to be outside the Wall had arrived.