There were still zombies inside the main gate, but far fewer than outside. The group cut down the ones blocking their path, burst into the stairwell, and charged straight up to the fourth floor.

Yang Bin finally gave out. He dropped onto the ground where he stood.

"Liangzi, get Brother Bin into the dorm next door and start healing. I'll hold the stairs." Chen Hao's voice was tight with urgency.

"Got it."

Hu Wenliang nodded, hauled Yang Bin up, and half-carried him into the adjacent room. One look at the mess of wounds covering Yang Bin's body and he froze, unsure where to even begin.

Then he saw the shoulder.

A zombie had bitten clean through it-torn away a chunk of flesh the size of a fist. Another centimeter inward and it would have been his neck.

Hu Wenliang pressed his hand over the wound. White light bloomed beneath his palm, and the torn flesh began knitting together at visible speed.

Since reaching Tier 2, his Healing Ability had improved considerably. Within moments, the shoulder wound closed completely, skin smooth as if it had never been torn.

He moved on to the other bite wounds.

Bites were far worse than scratches. Each one had ripped away meat, and the bleeding from them wouldn't stop on its own. Without immediate treatment, blood loss alone would kill.

Anyone else with this many wounds would have collapsed long ago. Yang Bin's raw strength was the only reason he was still conscious.

Barely conscious. He'd been clenching his jaw so hard his molars ached, fighting the blackness at the edges of his vision with sheer will.

Without Hu Wenliang, he'd be dead.

Downstairs, the iron gate didn't last long. The horde smashed through it and came flooding up the stairwell.

Chen Hao stood at the fourth-floor landing, Barbell Rod locked in both hands.

One Man Holds the Pass Against Ten Thousand.

The first zombies reached his floor. He swung the rod and caved in their skulls, then booted the bodies back down the stairs. They tumbled into the ones climbing behind them, sending a cascade of corpses crashing downward.

The stairwell's narrow geometry gave him the advantage. At Tier 2 strength, holding this chokepoint was manageable.

But he was wounded too. Exhaustion dragged at every muscle after fighting for so long.

Every swing of the 20-kilogram Barbell Rod burned through his stamina. His arms screamed with pain. Lifting them felt like hauling concrete.

He thought of Yang Bin bleeding out in the next room and clenched his teeth harder.

As corpses piled up on the stairs, the horde's momentum finally slowed.

But many of the zombies below were Tier-1. They'd learned to grab the handrails and pull themselves up, bypassing the body pile. The pressure didn't ease.

Inside the dorm room.

Yang Bin's bite wounds were mostly healed-but Hu Wenliang had drained himself dry doing it. He sat slumped against the wall, pale and shaking.

Yang Bin didn't rest. He forced himself up and staggered to the stairwell.

Chen Hao was barely holding the landing, arms trembling with every swing. Yang Bin grabbed a Barbell Rod and moved up beside him.

"Haozi. Go rest."

"Brother Bin, you're up?" Relief flooded Chen Hao's face.

"Yeah. Liangzi patched me up. Not dying today."

"Your shape's terrible though-"

"Worse than yours? Go. I've got this."

"...Alright."

Chen Hao didn't argue. He nodded and walked toward the dorm room, legs unsteady. He was running on fumes.

Yang Bin took his position at the top of the stairs and went to work.

With his strength, nothing was getting past.

Before long, the stairwell was completely choked with corpses. A wall of dead flesh, packed so tight nothing could push through.

No more zombies coming up.

Yang Bin dropped to the floor.

This was the hardest fight they'd been through since the apocalypse began.

Harder than going down to rescue Hu Wenliang. He'd genuinely almost died this time.

He dragged himself back to the dorm room and found Hu Wenliang treating Chen Hao's wounds. But the healer was so spent that he had to pause and rest between each one, hands trembling over every injury.

"Brother Bin, done?" Chen Hao asked.

"Yeah. Stairwell's completely plugged. Nothing's coming up for a while." Yang Bin paused. "Getting back down won't be easy either."

"Doesn't matter. We're alive. That's what counts." Chen Hao grinned despite the pain.

"Barely," Hu Wenliang muttered with a weak laugh. "I really thought that was it."

"We owe Little Orange," Chen Hao said quietly. "If it hadn't pulled those zombies off us at the end... we wouldn't have made it through."

"Yeah." Yang Bin glanced around. "Where is Little Orange?"

The three of them looked at each other. The cat hadn't followed them up.

"You don't think something happened to it?"

They stared toward the window, worry settling in.

Before today, their attitude toward Little Orange had been simple: useful, keep it; useless, get rid of it.

That was gone now. The cat had saved their lives.

"Meow..."

A faint, ragged cry came from the hallway. A moment later, a massive Orange Cat stumbled through the doorway, swaying on its feet.

"Little Orange!"

All three looked up, faces lighting with relief.

The cat was drenched in blood. Wounds covered its body from head to tail-gashes, bites, torn fur matted with red. No less severe than what Yang Bin had looked like.

"Liangzi, heal it. Now." Yang Bin's voice was sharp.

"On it."

Hu Wenliang pressed his hands against Little Orange's flank and summoned what light he had left.

Yang Bin dug a crystal from his pocket and held it to the cat's mouth. Little Orange took it immediately.

Mutated Beasts were different from humans in this regard. Little Orange was already Tier 2, but it could still consume Tier-1 Crystals. They didn't boost its strength anymore, but the energy seemed to replenish its body's reserves. The cat had always been fond of them.

"I figured with its speed, it'd come through clean," Chen Hao said, staring at the wounds. "Didn't expect this."

"Bouncing across zombie heads is Dancing on a Wire," Yang Bin said flatly. "Hundreds of them reaching up, clawing at the air. Nowhere safe to land. It's lucky it wasn't grabbed and torn apart."

"...Yeah."

Hu Wenliang worked until Little Orange's wounds were mostly closed. Only then did he finally turn his ability on himself-he'd been bleeding from his own injuries this whole time.

Once he finished, Hu Wenliang collapsed face-first onto the bed and didn't move.

"Thank god for Liangzi," Chen Hao said, watching him.

"Without him, injuries like these are a death sentence," Yang Bin agreed quietly. "Nothing to do but bleed out."

"This damn apocalypse..."

Silence settled over the room.

Then Chen Hao's eyes went wide. "Brother Bin. We didn't bring any of our stuff. There's no food tonight."

"......"

Yang Bin's expression darkened. They'd left their packs behind in the other dorm because carrying them was too cumbersome in a fight.

They'd walked out expecting to come right back.

Now they couldn't.

Over a thousand zombies milling below. Going back was impossible for the foreseeable future.

"Great." Chen Hao leaned his head against the wall. "Tier 2 and still going hungry. Didn't see that coming."

"Stay here and watch Liangzi," Yang Bin said, pushing himself to his feet. "I'll search the other rooms on this floor. Maybe someone left something behind."

"Alright."