Chapter 5 (1/2)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Despite finding himself in the world of Resident Evil, Zhang Heng didn’t feel too afraid of anything for the time being. Not only had he not found any zombies so far, but he also hadn’t seen a single shredded dead body ever since he arrived in this world. He was somehow able to keep his mind in a rather neutral state, but he had no idea just what the next day would bring.
He wasn’t so naïve as to really think that there wasn’t a single zombie found in such a huge building. He saw no zombies in the lobby only because they were all drawn outside by the noise out there, but the same couldn’t be said for the floors above.
He felt a chill running down his spine when he thought about the myriad dangers he would probably run into the next day. He didn’t mind the zombies, as they were simple monsters that could only move a little faster than a regular person’s walking speed. Shrugging off the zombies wasn’t that difficult. So long as he wasn’t caught or bitten, he was confident he could get away.
What truly frightened him was the kind of monster that was able to climb walls, possessed claws powerful enough to tear steel plates apart, and capable of moving like a gust of wind—the lickers. If he were to run into such a monster, he didn’t know how he would survive. He would die, alone and forgotten, on a strange word far from home.
With those kinds of cheery thoughts going through his head, Zhang Heng couldn’t help but feel restless. He took his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, sticking one in his mouth. It took him quite a while to fish a lighter out of his pocket to light the cigarette.
Zhang Heng considered himself to be the manly type of guy who could skip meals plenty but not go a day without smoking. It was just like those hardcore gamers who claimed that they could ‘do without girlfriends, but never without LOL (Leagues of Legends)’—the typical types who would eventually die alone. Even his so-called ‘Genuine Hong Kong ZORRO kerosene lighter’ was something he fished out of Taobao for just a little more than 30 yuan. The ice-blue metallic color on the lighter just looked cool to him.
Snap, snap… The metal kerosene lighter snapped several times as Zhang Heng tried to light his cigarette. Normally the sound was so quiet it could barely be heard, but in the echoing silence of the ruined building, it sounded as loud as a gunshot.
He frowned and lit his cigarette as quickly as he could before shutting the lid carefully and taking a deep breath. The stimulating, spicy smoke shot to his lungs and the fatigue in his brain melted away like ice under hot water.
But, as Zhang Heng puffed away in the night to kill time in silence, all of a sudden, he heard slight knocks on the cabinet inside the guard room…
Zhang Heng’s heart froze. He turned his head in a jerking motion to look directly at the steel cabinet.
Clang…Clang…
The sound came again.
Sh**, my ears aren’t fooling me.
He stood up right away and extended his hand to his hip, slowly drawing out that American military knife-like dagger. The way the blade was advertised made it sound like something surreal, but he knew well what he actually got, as he had bought it online for just a few dozen yen, and a bottle of maintenance oil came with it. Only the seller would know just how well-made such a blade would actually be.
He remained tense, eyes trained on the cabinet, staying perfectly still for quite a while and forgetting all about the cigarette at his mouth, right until it burned all the way to the butt and began to smell burnt. He only opened his mouth slightly to let the cigarette butt drop to the ground.
He was able to confirm from the sound he heard that it was definitely not wild animals like rats in that cabinet, but a zombie in and out. He could tell not only from how the cabinet rattled but also because he heard low-pitched growls coming from inside—the kind of voice that only human vocal chords could produce.
He had no idea who was it who had locked a zombie up in the cabinet when the crisis broke out, and that move had almost gotten him. He was sure that the zombie inside first heard the sound from his lighter, before starting to move in the cabinet. He was thinking at that moment, that if he didn’t make another sound, nothing else would happen.
That was what he told himself to calm himself down, yet his heart beat furiously all the same, so much so that the hand holding the dagger had gotten all sweaty.
Time passed and he remained perfectly silent. The movements in the cabinet grew increasingly faint. Just when he thought that he had managed to fool the zombie without problems, he heard a rumbling, far-reaching howl from the inside of the cabinet all of a sudden.