Surviving the apocalypse with a wife and a system! [GL]

Chapter 218: Budding anger.

She reached the exit door, shoved it open with her shoulder, and slipped out into the open air outside the stairwell. The moment she stepped through, she made sure to pull the heavy door shut behind her. It closed with a deep metal bang that echoed once and then faded. Now the two zombies she had left behind were trapped in Building 9’s stairwell, and that was exactly where she wanted them. At least for the moment, that mess was contained. Bai Li gave the door one last glance, then turned her attention to the courtyard ahead.

This time she was not in any huge rush to go after the groceries first. Of course she still cared about the supplies. Of course she still wanted all the food and useful things from the supermarket. But right now, her bigger goal was crystal cores. She needed as many as possible. The second interdimensional market was still a question mark in her head, and she had no intention of walking into it again while blind and confused like before. Last time, she had been lucky in some ways and foolish in others. She had gone in without enough preparation, without enough confidence, and without enough understanding of how the market would handle her. That kind of mistake could not keep happening. If she got the chance to confirm the exact location of the market ahead of time, then next time she could move more steadily, spend more wisely, and avoid being fooled by shiny things that were not worth the cost.

With that thought firmly fixed in her mind, Bai Li started scanning the courtyard. The area ahead was not empty. A small cluster of zombies was wandering around not far away, maybe four or five of them, moving in loose, uneven circles like broken toys with no one left to guide them. Some were lurching toward a wall. Some were standing still and swaying. One had his arms stretched out in front of him in a very strange way, as if he thought he was reaching for something that had vanished long ago. They were slow, messy, and unaware. Bai Li did not waste time on caution this time. She locked her eyes on them and charged directly toward the cluster.

She did not take the safe route. She did not try to lure them out one by one. She went straight into the center of the group, reckless enough to look crazy if someone did not understand what she was doing. But Bai Li understood exactly what she was doing. This was training. This was pressure. This was practice in a real fight where the mistakes actually mattered. The road ahead was going to be much more dangerous than a few low-level zombies wandering around a courtyard. She needed her body to learn faster, her reactions to sharpen, and her hands to work smoothly even while fear and noise and movement were all pressing in on her at once. If she kept only fighting in easy ways, then the first real crisis would tear her apart. So she pushed in now, while the danger was still manageable.

The moment she entered their range, the zombies all reacted at once. Two of them turned toward her with a jerk, their heads snapping around in ugly little movements, and one of them immediately lunged forward with a mouth full of broken teeth. Bai Li lowered her center of gravity, shifted her weight to one side, and brought the Tang sword around in a clean diagonal cut. The blade flashed, and the first zombie’s neck opened under it. He dropped before his body had even finished trying to move. Bai Li did not stop. The second zombie came from her side, arms swinging wildly, and she twisted her torso just enough to let the attack miss by inches. Her sword came back around, not wide, not sloppy, but tight and fast, clearing space in front of her.

Then she felt movement behind her.

It was sudden enough to make the skin along her back tighten. Another creature had rushed in from a blind spot, trying to bite into the back of her neck while the others distracted her. Bai Li did not panic. She dipped her head sharply, almost folding at the waist, and let the jaws pass above her hair. At the same time, she planted one foot hard, used the flat side of her sword to force the front zombie back, and snapped the blade around again. The motion created just enough room for her to breathe. The zombie behind her missed, hit empty air, and kept staggering forward with its mouth still open. Bai Li stepped away half a pace, turned her wrist, and cut into its throat with a quick, brutal slash that ended its movement almost instantly.

Blood splashed across her sleeve, warm and sharp smelling. Bai Li did not even glance at it. She kept her head moving, her eyes scanning, her body already resetting. Another zombie came from her left side at almost the same time, slower than the one behind her but still dangerous if she let it reach her. Bai Li pivoted on her heel, let the body pass close enough for her to feel the air shift around it, then drove a hard kick into its side. The impact knocked it sideways and bought her a breath of space. In that same breath, she followed the kick with a clean sword stroke that cut through the zombie’s head from the side. The body fell at once, and the head rolled against the ground with a dull knock.

That was the thing about close fighting. Every second mattered. Every angle mattered. Bai Li was not just swinging around wildly. She was watching where each corpse moved, where each opening appeared, where each attack came from, and where the next one would probably come from if she did not keep adjusting. Her body was getting faster with every exchange.

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TO BE CONTINUED.