Smack!
The glass blocking the hole shattered instantly. Shen Jin and Yang Ao instinctively dodged to either side.
A shriveled, bony hand covered in pus-filled boils shot out with astonishing speed!
Having missed them, it clawed wildly in both directions.
A fishy stench mixed with the heavy odor of chemical reagents rushed out.
Shen Jin and Yang Ao rolled aside, narrowly avoiding being grabbed.
"What the hell is that?!"
It was Shen Jin's first time seeing such a perceptive Zombie. It had actually detected the two of them through the glass!
There was no scent, no sound. How had it done that?!
Could it have noticed the sudden movement and the sound of knocking?
"Wooo~~"
Unable to catch anyone, the Zombie inside let out a low growl, like a tiger stalking prey.
As it withdrew its hand, Shen Jin hurriedly plugged the gap with stones.
Smack! Smack!
The Zombie inside had already noticed something below it and kept striking the stones, producing tremendous bangs.
Yang Ao took the chance to stand beside Shen Jin. "Brother Jin, judging by its senses, strength, and speed, it's stronger than any Mutated Zombie we've encountered before!"
Shen Jin's face was grave. "If I'm not mistaken, your family's laboratory has spawned a Boss."
"Huh? Brother Jin, you can still joke around at a time like this?"
Shen Jin did not seem bothered. "Since it's already here, looking miserable won't make it leave on its own. We might as well adjust our mindset and think of a way—holy shit!"
Bang!
The stone stuffed into the opening was smashed apart completely, falling into the tunnel as a pile of rubble.
This time, two withered yellow hands covered in boils reached down.
A smell like a hospital morgue mixed with a garbage dump wafted over,
Foul and thick with the scent of chemical reagents.
"Chop off its hands!"
At Shen Jin's words, Yang Ao swung the Iron Sword!
Pfft!
He cut through the boils on its hand, splashing cloudy yellow fluid everywhere, but the blade could go no farther.
"The bones in its hands are too hard. I can't cut through them!"
Yang Ao had experience dealing with strength-type Zombies. When his strike failed, he quickly pulled back his sword. Otherwise, being flung away again would be disastrous.
Perhaps sensing that someone had attacked it, the Zombie stretched its arms farther down. The two of them retreated another step.
"Take these!"
Shen Jin pulled out the two energy-enhanced Iron Swords he had kept wrapped behind his back.
To conceal his spatial storage, he always hid some things behind his back.
Yang Ao caught them. Under the Torch's light on the wall, he vaguely saw that these Iron Swords were different.
"Let's cut together and take both its arms off!"
Shen Jin took a deep breath. The two exchanged a glance and swung their swords at the same time.
A faint blood-red energy flashed over the Iron Swords. Using all their strength, they severed both of the Zombie's arms with one strike!
"Roarrr!!!"
The Zombie inside let out furious roars, clearly having suffered a grievous wound.
Dark brownish-black fluid sprayed from the stumps, splattering onto their iron armor.
"Hisss—" Steam rose from it.
Shen Jin saw the durability of his corroded armor and pants plummeting in the equipment panel.
"This is bad. The Zombie's blood is poisonous!"
Yang Ao was so frightened that he wanted to take off his iron armor, but Shen Jin stopped him.
"No need. It can't corrode through our armor."
The system showed that the durability stopped dropping after losing half.
Sure enough, after the blood on their bodies corroded small white patches into the armor, it stopped reacting.
The soil and stones on the ground had been corroded into pitted little holes by the two severed arms.
Shen Jin plugged the opening with stones again.
"What can a handless Zombie do? Jump down?"
Shen Jin was grateful that the Zombie had been lying on the ground smashing the stones instead of crawling directly out. Otherwise, dealing with it in the narrow tunnel would have been troublesome.
If anything went wrong, Yang Ao might have had a hard time surviving.
Bang! Bang!
The Zombie still refused to give up. The human scent below had awakened its instinctive desire to feed.
"Brother Jin, it really is trying to jump down!"
"Heh. Now this is getting interesting."
Rather than being worried, Shen Jin was delighted. He stuffed another two stones beneath the hole,
Then pulled out two Iron Shovels and began digging!
"Protect yourself later. Don't let it scratch you."
It was rare to find such an obedient underling. Shen Jin did not want him turning into a Zombie so soon.
After all, he still needed someone to test medicine on.
Very quickly, Shen Jin dug a 2-by-2-meter pit beneath the hole, a full six meters deep!
One of the stones above had already been broken, and the one below would not last much longer.
Shen Jin stepped two paces to the side and dug upward.
Boom!
The stone shattered, and the Zombie fell feetfirst straight into the six-meter-deep pit.
Like a Yasuo in mid lane who teleported in and fed first blood right at the start.
"Seal it!"
Without waiting for the Zombie inside to leap up, Shen Jin directly sealed the hole below with twelve stones.
The stone barrier was a full three meters thick. With the system's support, the blocks fit together tightly, like a single whole!
It was not something a Zombie could shake so easily!
Even a strength-type Zombie could never break through it!
Besides, this Zombie had had both hands chopped off and could only ram it with its head.
Who would break first was anyone's guess!
Shen Jin and Yang Ao quickly sank straight down where they stood, arriving at the height of the Zombie's feet. Separated by a layer of Dirt Mixture, the Zombie roared madly, never noticing that its prey was right next door.
"I'll use my ability to open this section. We'll cut its feet together!"
Yang Ao did not waste words. He nodded forcefully, strange energy flowing through the Iron Sword in his hand.
"Open! Cut!"
The instant Shen Jin opened the terrain, the two aimed at the Zombie's ankles and struck with all their strength.
Squelch!
The Zombie's feet fell off cleanly. The two withdrew their swords, and a stone promptly blocked the opening.
The Zombie had not even seen what its enemies looked like before all four of its limbs had been removed!
Shen Jin did not relax. He calculated the height in his head,
Raised the ground beneath his feet, then opened another hole.
"Stab!"
Squelch!
Two longswords flowing with red light plunged into the immobile Zombie's brain.
"Twist!"
The swords rotated. The boils covering the Zombie's head burst, its skull split into pieces, and the yellow-white matter splashed onto the walls, corroding them with a sizzling sound.
"Bleurgh!"
The enclosed underground space was simply too cramped. A stench ten times worse than a public restroom exploded through the air.
Yang Ao immediately threw up.
Suppressing the stench, Shen Jin wanted to retrieve the blood crystal from the Zombie's head, but Yang Ao grabbed him.
"I'll do it."
Shen Jin looked at Yang Ao in surprise. After vomiting twice, he had forced himself to endure it. Shen Jin nodded.
This blood crystal was somewhat larger than the one from the Iron Bucket Zombie's head, as big as an adult's pinky finger.
Shen Jin placed it into the bag behind his back, though he was actually putting it into the system's spatial backpack.
Standing in the underground passage, the two rested for a full ten minutes before recovering.
"I wonder if there are any more Zombies like that upstairs."
Shen Jin and Yang Ao shone their flashlights through the hole and checked again. Finding no enemies, they climbed back up.
With flashlights clenched between their teeth, they stood back-to-back and carefully scanned the entire laboratory.
"Strange. There's blood all over the floor. There must have been quite a few people here before, so why is there only one Zombie left? Were all the others eaten?"
"I don't think that's likely. When a Zombie feeds on a human, the other infected people should have turned into Zombies too. Even if a few were eaten, there shouldn't be only one left."
The two moved slowly while speaking in low voices.
"And after three months underground, how did a Zombie with no source of energy survive? It even evolved to become this strong!"
"Strange."
They began moving through the laboratory. The first floor had been severely damaged,
And the floor was covered in shattered glass. Fortunately, Zulijian shoes had iron boots on the outside, so stepping on it was not a problem.
The sound was just extremely grating.
"If there are any more Zombies, such a loud noise would definitely draw them out!"
Yang Ao agreed.
Suddenly, the sound of glass being slapped came from upstairs, along with faint movement.
"There are Zombies upstairs!" they said in unison.
They reached the second floor through the emergency stairwell.
Aside from some wrecked tables, chairs, and decorations, the only place on the second floor that could hide Zombies was an area sealed off by a password-protected door made of the same alloy as the outer door.
Yang Ao knew the password, but the power had clearly been out for too long. Even this secret laboratory's backup power had run out.
Shen Jin pressed his ear against it. This time, he could finally hear the sound inside clearly.
"Save me!"
Before you continue