Chapter 14: Zombie King
1308 Words
The zombies wrapped in the blood blanket had very weak attack abilities. Even Shen Rong, with a long weapon in hand, could easily take them down. The two of them climbed over the balcony and cautiously made their way to another building, breaking into the apartment. This residential building was a bit farther from the road, and the blood blanket hadn't spread down here yet, so they weren’t worried about being surrounded.
As they opened the door and went upstairs, they encountered several zombies with smashed heads in the hallway. This area had already been cleared by rescue soldiers. Using his life sense, Lin Yuan detected a few stragglers but chose not to deal with them and continued up to the top floor. He found an open room and walked right in.
"This place is decent. We’ll spend the night here. You tidy up the room and prepare dinner while I go clear out the zombies in the building. There are many new zombies outside now, and they are weak. Each one is worth ten evolution points, so it’s a good opportunity to rack up some points."
"Just be careful!" Shen Rong understood Lin Yuan's reasoning—he wanted to ensure they would be safer at night. Although she couldn’t help much, she would try not to get in the way.
Stepping out of the room, Lin Yuan quickly descended the stairs, dispatching two zombies trapped on the third floor along the way.
Reaching the intersection by the street, Lin Yuan saw that the blood blanket had already spread to both sides of the road. The survivors that had been engulfed were nowhere to be seen.
At that moment, a female zombie slowly approached. She walked leisurely over the blood blanket, completely unbothered by the blood threads.
Seeing this scene eased Lin Yuan's nerves a bit, so he cautiously tested the edge of the blood blanket with his foot. Lowering it carefully, he felt no unusual reaction.
"Indeed, this thing won't attack me."
Feeling reassured, he quickly walked over and swung his axe at the female zombie’s head. However, as the zombie fell, the liquid from its brain spilled out, and in an instant, numerous blood threads detached from the blanket and slithered into the gaping wound in its skull. Within moments, the writhing blood threads enveloped the zombie, forming a b****y cocoon.
"Body recovery?"
Lin Yuan's mind flashed with this thought. If this situation continued, the area covered by the blood blanket would only grow larger, and the zombies it birthed would become stronger! Once humans could no longer handle it, they would undoubtedly plan for catastrophic destruction. But that was all a concern for the future; for now, the priority was to hunt zombies and improve his own strength.
Activating his life sense, Lin Yuan became aware of every living being within a hundred-meter radius, even detecting rats hiding in the sewers and stray cats and dogs tucked away in corners. Following the path the survivors had taken, he returned to the intersection where he had previously encountered three level-one zombies. Sure enough, he found discarded weapons amidst the blood blanket—two rifles and some intact combat gear.
Lin Yuan used his axe to lift the rifles, shaking off the red goo that clung to them, and casually set them atop a nearby car. After searching the blood blanket for a moment without finding anything useful, he grabbed the g*n straps and entered a nearby shop, cleaning the guns of grime. Both rifles were low on ammo, so Lin Yuan loaded all the bullets into one magazine and tucked the other rifle under the counter.
Having guns in hand undoubtedly gave him a little more confidence.
An hour later, Lin Yuan had killed over a dozen zombies, most of which were new types he had located using his life sense. Those that had previously crawled slowly on the ground had now progressed to standing upright.
"These new type of zombies are growing too quickly; they’re definitely harder to kill!" Arriving near an office building, Lin Yuan had initially intended to search for any dropped equipment from the rescue soldiers, but the sight before him caused him to halt in his tracks.
Nearby, a twenty-story building was now half-covered in the blood blanket, nearly ten meters high. The outer walls of the building were lined with blood vessels as thick as arms, densely attached to the floors. Some even penetrated the balconies and entered indoors, faintly visible as they slowly writhed.
"What is this thing?"
From the appearance of the blood blanket until now, only five hours had passed, and yet it had undergone such drastic changes. The closer Lin Yuan got, the more he could feel the overwhelming scent of blood and the life force hidden within the blood-cocooned building.
“As they say, ‘There cannot be two kings in one mountain.’ If you want to become the king among zombies, how can you tolerate the emergence of another king? Go and slay the Zombie King being nurtured within the blood nest, and you will be rewarded with gene fusion.”
Lin Yuan silently withdrew his foot, turned around, and entered a nearby store to make preparations. Initially, he had no intention of dealing with such a terrifying thing, but since it involved the evolution of his zombie template, he had no choice but to seize the opportunity.
Lacking the comprehensive protective gear of the rescue soldiers, he had to improvise. He wrapped his entire body in plastic wrap from the store, then put on an extra layer of clothing. Though it didn’t look conspicuous, this would effectively prevent the blood threads from seeping in.
The office building was a high-end one, and the main entrance was completely covered by the blood blanket. To enter, he would have to use the back door.
After circling around, Lin Yuan arrived at the underground parking garage of the office building. Treading carefully on the sticky blood blanket, he slowly made his way inside.
Turning on his flashlight, the bright beam illuminated the garage, revealing blood vessels attached to the walls, pulsating as if alive, with something clearly flowing inside them.
Using life sense, Lin Yuan detected several life signatures within the garage. When he shone his light on the walls, he saw several blood cocoons, vaguely humanoid in shape.
Inside the blood cocoons were not only ordinary survivors but also fully armed rescue soldiers. Their bodies had been completely infiltrated by the blood threads, turning them into zombies.
“Kill me! Please, kill me!”
Noticing the light, one of the rescue soldiers, still wearing a helmet, struggled to open his mouth, pleading in a voice filled with pain. After being bitten by a zombie, the virus quickly invades the brain, turning humans into zombies. But in the state of being wrapped in a blood cocoon, the soldiers could feel the blood threads constantly extending inside them, slowly transforming their bodies.
That kind of overwhelming fear between life and death was the most terrifying aspect.
“For you, death is probably the only release.”
Unlike Lin Yuan, none of them were fortunate enough to receive a zombie evolution system and retain their sanity after turning. If they fully transformed into zombies, they would become a huge threat to humanity.
Taking a step back, Lin Yuan raised his axe and swung it at the neck of the rescue soldier.
“Roar!”
The moment the head dropped, a sudden roar echoed from the upper floors of the office building, causing the stairs to tremble.
The blood blanket on the walls began writhing rapidly, as if the death of this zombie had alerted something.
In the next instant, the blood cocoons hanging from the walls began to tear open, and zombies started falling out one by one.
- Writer
