The Apocalypse Descends

Crack!

The moment he opened the door, without even looking, Chu Han brought his iron axe down in a savage chop!

Splat!

The axe blade sank into a zombie's skull. Its ash-white eyes and skin cracked like dried lime were barely four inches from Chu Han. Blood and brain matter splattered across his face, while the zombie's distinctive rotten stench filled his nostrils.

The zombie's head burst apart. One dead.

He knew there was a zombie standing three feet outside the door. That was experience accumulated over a long time.

Chu Han viciously wiped his face, caught his breath, and yanked out the axe. The dead zombie crashed to the floor, blood, flesh, and brain matter splashing everywhere. Its hideous corpse stained the white tiles a dark red-black.

Chu Han did not recognize this person. Even if he had, he would not have shown mercy.

But his current physical condition was truly pathetic. This axe weighed less than a tenth of his weapon from his previous life, yet he had to grip it with both hands now. He was even panting after just one swing.

There had only been one zombie outside his door, but the commotion quickly drew the other zombies from the corridor. Attracted by the noise, they dragged their stiff bodies forward, covered in scraps of flesh and dried blood. Their faces were pale and gray, their white eyes pupil-less, and they clawed their way toward Chu Han one by one.

Awooo—

Aaargh—

More than a dozen zombies had come at the sound. They howled in all manner of voices, like evil ghosts demanding lives, making the dim corridor especially terrifying.

The reborn Chu Han did not possess the extraordinary physical strength of his previous life. He was far too weak now to handle more than a dozen zombies at once. In truth, being surrounded by three or five zombies would already leave him helpless.

And if a zombie bit him, he would be infected!

Not to mention over a dozen zombies. Driven mad by hunger like wild beasts that had starved for days, they caught the scent of a living person and desperately lunged at Chu Han. Their sharp nails reached out, still smeared with fresh human blood.

They wanted to devour Chu Han's flesh, rip out his fresh organs, and stuff themselves full!

Chu Han stood inside the doorway without stepping out. These zombies had no intelligence and would only swarm inside in a heap. This position formed a perfect bottleneck. He could not take on more than a dozen zombies rushing him at once, but a battle of attrition was another matter. There was only one dangerous direction now; all he had to do was keep swinging his axe from behind the door.

Using every available factor to survive was the most basic rule of surviving the apocalypse.

Chu Han flipped the iron axe around and used its hammer side instead. He did not have enough strength right now, and if the blade got stuck in a zombie's skull and he could not pull it free quickly, that would be dangerous.

Awooo—

A zombie was already close.

Chu Han tensed his muscles, his face twisted into a ruthless snarl, and swung with all his might!

Splat! The zombie's eyeballs burst, blackened mutated pus-blood gushing from its vessels, while brain matter sprayed all over Chu Han!

Two killed!

Come on!

Chu Han let the nauseating pus-blood cling to his face, neck, even his tongue and nostrils.

After the second zombie died, the third had already pounced in front of Chu Han. Impatiently, it opened its enormous, foul mouth, split all the way to its ears. Its teeth, still tangled with human intestines and organs, clattered excitedly as it tried to bite down on Chu Han's neck!

Ignoring the soreness in his muscles and his ragged breathing, Chu Han suddenly raised his arm and smashed the axe into the zombie's teeth with a bang!

The iron axe already had considerable weight, and with Chu Han's desperate force behind it, the zombie's lower jaw shattered and flew off, smacking against the nearby wall. Its torn tongue dangled like a fat, rotten loach.

Peh! Chu Han spat out the zombie flesh and black blood in his mouth. He had nearly swallowed it. He had often done that in his previous life because there had been no time to worry about hygiene in battle, but his resistance to the virus was not that strong yet.

His energy was draining rapidly, but his extremely weak body seemed to gradually adapt after killing three zombies. Chu Han became increasingly adept, slowly slipping back into the combat rhythm engraved in his memories.

Chu Han fought more fiercely with every battle, his will to survive and find his family and friends growing ever stronger. In his hands, an ordinary iron axe surged with the might of Dragon Tiger. More than a dozen zombies were quickly wiped out, piled high at the doorway. The last zombie's head was even smashed apart and pierced through by Chu Han's axe!

Chu Han drew a deep breath, tightened his grip on the axe handle, and stuck his head out to look both ways. Though the corridor was dark, he was certain there were no more zombies on this floor. They were not smart enough to hide, while thudding sounds occasionally came from the tightly shut doors—zombies excited by the commotion in the hallway.

He stepped over the pile of zombies outside the door and headed straight for the stairwell. He would not rush to kill every zombie he saw; conserving strength was equally important to survival. Besides, if zombies were still alive in those dorm rooms and had enough strength to keep pounding on the doors, it basically meant there were no humans left inside. There were only two reasons: they had either been eaten to death by zombies, or infected and turned into zombies themselves.

He would not meddle with the people still alive, either. They had heard such a huge commotion yet did not dare open their doors. He was not about to play the good guy for no reason.

Chu Han's dorm room was on the third floor. He kept his footsteps as quiet as possible, killed another five zombies by the stairs, and reached the first floor. The apocalypse had begun at six in the morning, and the dorm manager had not opened the building yet. A large lock still hung from the dormitory's iron gate, while the dorm manager was no longer human and was mindlessly wandering in circles inside her little room.

Chu Han did not have the strength to chop through the iron lock for now, and the noise it would make would draw a huge number of zombies. He could still see zombies wandering outside the iron gate from time to time. They would pounce on any fresh flesh and fight to devour it clean, not even sparing the blood on the ground, greedily licking it up with their disgusting tongues.

To open the iron gate now, he could only enter the dorm manager's room and get the key. But her door was usually locked from the inside, so getting in was a major problem.

Suddenly, Chu Han's eyes lit up. Since he was on the first floor, he could simply find an unlocked dorm room and climb out through the window.

Keeping his body pressed to the wall at the corner, Chu Han quietly listened to the sounds in the first-floor corridor. Based on his experience, there were not many zombies on the first floor—only around ten.

Chu Han poked his head out and surveyed the surroundings.

Suddenly, a zombie walked out of a dorm room diagonally across from him. It sniffed once, then sniffed again, before its eyes abruptly gleamed with excitement. Yellowish-green saliva dripped from its mouth as it opened wide and let out a howl, lunging toward Chu Han.

Yet Chu Han was overjoyed. The dorm room diagonally across from him was actually open, and it was so close. He only had to do what he had done before, reducing his danger even further.

And freshly infected zombies were much slower than humans. He had plenty of time.

He did not hesitate. His body shot forward, and he seized the initiative, rushing into the dorm room. After confirming there was no danger inside, he immediately turned around and stood behind the doorframe.

Chu Han completed the entire sequence in one fluid motion. Though his strength and speed were several times weaker than in his previous life, his experience and combat techniques remained. By the time he had rushed into the dorm room and taken position, the zombie had only just turned around and charged at him with a howl.

Swing the axe, slash!

Splat! The zombie's skull split open beneath the axe, its brain matter squirming inside before it died on the spot.

Chu Han shook his arm, which had begun to show signs of giving out, and pulled the axe from the skull.

The commotion naturally drew the other nine zombies. He did not shut the door and leave. Instead, he stood calmly behind the door, both arms taut with tension. When the zombies approached, he abruptly swung the iron axe.

Thud, thud, thud—the sounds rang out without end. Chu Han's stamina had declined somewhat by then, but he remained calm and composed, taking some time to deal with the zombies one by one.

Next, Chu Han pulled the drinking tube of the outdoor hydration pack from his hiking bag, took a sip of water to recover, and silently praised human ingenuity. They had designed something so convenient. Only after drinking did he emerge from the dorm room, iron axe in hand, and step into the corridor.

Although the ten years of his previous life had forged his heart as hard as iron, he had not become a conscience-less madman. He still retained the humanity a human should possess. While he could not save everyone he encountered and take them along, he would still leave the people in this dormitory a little convenience when it was within his power.

He had been reborn and was unafraid of zombies, and he understood the laws of survival. But this was everyone else's first encounter with them; they would inevitably be caught off guard.

Humans were social creatures. Only by uniting could they survive the crisis.

Quite a few zombies outside had heard the noise and gathered around the iron gate. They stretched out grayish-white arms, some with bone exposed, desperately trying to squeeze inside. They felt no pain. Some had even had their rotting flesh crushed in the crowd, leaving chunks hanging from their bodies, black blood smeared across the iron gate.

Chu Han stood only a few yards from the zombie-filled gate. Ignoring their howls, he straightened the bodies of the dead zombies and arranged them upright in a line beginning at the stairwell, all the way to the door of Dorm 104. Then he went inside and found a thick marker, writing several large words on the door—Exit here. Door unlocked.

Anyone with half a brain who found the dormitory door impossible to open would notice how strange that line of zombies was. It might be frightening and ugly, but it was obviously man-made. As long as they saw it, they could get out from here just as he had.

After leaving the dormitory building, Chu Han did not immediately start running. He carefully listened to the movements around him and slowly moved along the wall. Although the time the apocalypse erupted meant there were not many zombies at the school, that did not mean there were none. Remaining cautious at all times was something he had spent ten years learning in his previous life.

Just as Chu Han had safely moved away from the dormitory building and was preparing to avoid the zombies and head for the school gate, an earth-shaking voice suddenly rang out from a dorm window behind him—

"Chu Han!! Chu Han!! Save me! Look over here! Turn around!"

"Fuck, idiot!"