The Trembling World

Chapter 5: Running freely

Other players saw the three players faces, and it added to their confusion and panic. If this was real, would getting wounded actually hurt in game? They didn’t want to play anymore, but they weren’t able to log out! What if they got bitten? Wouldn’t it hurt like those other three?

If they continued like this, they would surely die!

“This plaza is very dangerous, we must hurry and find a safe place to hide and discuss our future plan!” Liu Gan said to the others in a hurried tone, then gave a signal to the green-skinned player.

At the scene, there were already three wounded players, and not only would they not stop screaming, but the plaza had no shelter. The only exception was a singular iron pillar, which stretched high up into the clouds to support the ‘Welcome to the Trembling World’ sign. Without any sheltering objects to give the players a place to hide, the wounded player’s hoarse screams could only attract more zombies – staying in this place held no value.

“It’s too late already.” The green-skinned player looked towards Liu Gan and replied..

Liu Gan’s suggestion was indeed late; by the time he had finished speaking, from the plaza’s edge stood buildings, around that corner appeared a colossus monster. It was possible this was a variation zombie, as it stood at 3-4 meters high, didn’t have any skin, and had exposed muscle all around. It was extremely clear that the agonized screams had lured it to them.

After looking at the players on the plaza, the zombie variant gave an enormous roar, and began charging towards them. Because of it’s colossal size, every single step it took shook the ground.

“Damn! Why must it be like this? We just logged in and we’re already facing a BOSS? At least give us a newbie village to adjust!” Liu Gan looked at the incoming charging colossal zombie, his skin inadvertently getting goosebumps.

The next moment, before anybody else could react, the green-skinned player and Liu Gan had already started going the opposite way – it was if their feet were automated. The other ten players could not be considered a team in this scenario – when playing a game like this, self preservation was the most important thing.

Finally able to run, he was nervous because, as a disabled person, Liu Gan felt very emotional at this moment – because it has been over a year since he had last run freely!

Liu Gan, during the first moment he tried to run – since in the real world he had adjusted to using prosthetic limbs to walk – was not able to grasp his balance, and staggered a few steps before almost falling face first onto the ground, while the green-skinned player quickly accelerated ahead a few meters. Very soon Liu Gan found his original posture and muscle memory for running, he was able to speed up, and after a few large steps he was able to catch up.

The green-skinned player, with Liu Gan, started running, while the other players came to their senses and started trailing behind them. The three wounded players that weren’t able to keep up so they screamed; the other players following closely behind, Liu Gan and green-skinned player, started running as fast as they could.

“Don’t follow us! Run separate from us! Otherwise we will all die!” The green-skinned player yelled behind him while running. As an experienced player, he shouted behind him, “A wide open space and meeting up with this super level BOSS – running together will result in our doom! Spread apart and run separately, the chances of survival will increase – those who get left and are caught by the boss can only blame their bad luck!”

The other people seemed to have awakened from their dreams; after slight hesitation, everyone chose their own direction to run. Liu Gan also chose a new direction to run too, however, the glasses-player also tightly followed behind. Perhaps he felt Liu Gan’s reaction time was faster, and following him would give him a better chance of survival.

Sustaining heavy injuries, left behind was the bald player. All he could do was blame his bad luck. He discovered no matter what direction he ran, the colossal zombie was in hot pursuit. This terrified him, and he quickly turned and threw his molotov cocktail that was in his hand at it.

The molotov exploded on the colossal and erupted in a sea of flames. The colossal zombie – covered in the molotov’s gasoline – was turned into a ball of flame. This seemed to have done no damage to it – in fact it seemed to have made it angrier. In a few steps it ran up, lifted up it’s two meaty fists, and hit the bald player who wasn’t able to get away. Instantly he collapsed on the floor.

From the plaza’s surrounding streets the zombies heard the activity, and this lead to a corpse-tide. All the surrounding zombies began gathering blocking every exit.

Liu Gan directly came into the gathering point of ten zombies – unable to escape, his only option was to return from the same direction he came from. He was fuming with rage because ever since he had come into this game, there was a BOSS battle, and now there was a corpse-tide; did they want all the players who had entered this game to get wiped out immediately? Not even giving them any time at all… maybe the game creators were dropped on their head as babies.

“Don’t run all over the place! We have been surrounded! We can’t outrun it! Those with grenades and molotovs, quickly throw them, otherwise we won’t survive!” the green-skinned player said as he was forced to retreat when he discovered the bad turn of events, and retreated to his fellow players.

After all, the typical players for this type of game were otakus; once they discovered there was no possible escape they became paralyzed in fear. Those that could react, rushed towards the green-skinned player with grenades and molotovs in hand, and threw them at the colossal zombie.

“Damn! What the F*%@ guys!” Cursed the bald player who was laying on the ground being beaten up by the colossal zombie. He scorned them, what kind of people were they! Not only did they not save him, they decided to throw grenades and molotovs at him!

The bald-player was only allowed one sentence, before he was blown into mush and the mush burnt to a crisp.

The situation was dire. Right now the plaza only had one wild colossal zombie. Surrounding the plaza were large amounts of zombies coming towards them. The players only had iron rods and machetes left…

There was no hope for survival.

Once he escaped back to the plaza center, Liu Gan didn’t return to the green-skinned player’s side. Observing the surroundings briefly, he sped at high speed towards the tall iron pillar that held up the welcoming billboard. Using his arms and legs, he began to climb up the iron pillar towards the top.

Following closely behind Liu Gan, was glasses-player. When he reached the base of the pillar, he stared up at the iron pillar blankly… “What kind of person is he to be climbing like that?”

At the plaza’s outer edges, the zombies had already started closing in. The glasses-player clenched his teeth, and tried to mimic Liu Gan’s technique of climbing up the iron pillar. However, this task was not as easy as it looked. The iron pillar was thick and slippery. The glasses-player used up most of his strength and precious time and had only climbed a meter off the ground. At this time, two zombies had already the iron pillars base – one hand pulled him down, and the next moment the zombie had already taken a large chunk out his neck.