317 Ward

As soon as he landed, the zombies wandering sparsely around the hospital closed in.

He did not know whether it was because there were survivors in the various buildings or because they were hiding from the sunlight during the day.

There were not many zombies on the ground outside.

"Shhk!"

Lin An held a Bone Spike and thrust it straight through the zombie lunging at him.

It was like stabbing into tofu.

After equipping Skull Crusher's Hand, even without activating his talent, his Strength attribute had reached 24.4 points.

In his normal state, he was already stronger than he had been before when he had taken drugs and activated his skill.

His strength had risen by an entire tier, so to speak.

Lin An bent his legs and gathered strength, locking onto a window on the third floor of the inpatient building.

"Bang."

The ground cracked, and the indented footprint was two inches deeper than before.

Like a human cannonball, he completely ignored the zombies below that had rushed over after catching his scent.

"Boom!"

The outer wall on the third floor cracked, and dust fell.

Lin An leaped onto the outer wall of the third floor and exerted a little force with one hand on the protective grating over the window.

"Creaaak."

He tore the guardrail apart with his bare hands.

The stainless-steel pipe was easily twisted into a corkscrew.

Through the window, the interior of the ward—he could not tell which room number it was—was pitch-black, making it difficult to see inside.

"Roar!"

Inside the ward, a zombie roared and slammed into the window.

Its face was deformed, and when it struck the glass, it looked like an evil spirit.

The window shattered on impact. Driven by its hunger for flesh, it felt no pain at all.

The zombie forced its way through the window, ignoring the shattered glass as the sharp edges sliced its face to pieces.

Judging by its appearance, it had probably been an elderly person around seventy or eighty before the Corpse Change.

It opened and closed its enormous maw frantically.

All its teeth had fallen out, yet it still tried to tear off a piece of Lin An's flesh and savor the delicacy.

"Bang!"

Lin An remained expressionless. Hanging onto the wall with one hand, he kicked its head apart, then leaped backward into the ward.

He quickly surveyed his surroundings. The ward was a complete mess.

There were two hospital beds and a private bathroom in the room.

It was probably a special-care ward for two patients. There was a high chance that the zombie who had just died had held a prominent position before death.

Ordinary people could not afford the cost of this kind of special-care ward.

At a glance,

on the other hospital bed, an old woman zombie with only her upper body left struggled to crawl off the bed.

It was not that a zombie's strength was also limited by its physical condition before mutation.

Under the enhancement of the Zombie Virus, Lin An had seen quite a few elderly people who still ran incredibly fast after turning into zombies.

It was just that the old woman zombie had been gnawed down to her limbs. Reduced to a limbless torso, she could only laboriously wriggle along like a maggot.

The clean bedsheet was covered in dark-red bloodstains.

The flesh on both her arms had been completely eaten away, and quite a few of the organs in her chest cavity were missing as well.

It seemed the old man had turned into a zombie first and then infected her.

If nothing unexpected had happened, the two of them might even have been husband and wife.

A married couple for decades, still living together and supporting each other while ill.

Who would have thought they would ultimately die beneath the teeth of their own spouse?

Lin An shook his head, though he did not feel much.

During the three years of the apocalypse in his Previous Life, he had seen scenes like this too many times.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

The door, locked from the inside, began to warp.

The zombies outside rushed over after hearing the noise.

Lin An did not care. He strode to the door and reached for the lock.

His gaze was calm, as if what stood outside were not savage, terrifying zombies but friends dropping by for a visit.

"Eye of Judgment!"

"Click!"

He ripped the lock off in one pull, and pale-blue mist rose in his eyes.

"Roar!"

The zombies outside howled. At a glance, there were at least twenty or thirty of them.

They packed the entire corridor so tightly that not even water could pass through.

"Charging Step Stomp!"

Lin An reacted extremely quickly. Just as the zombies approached, he raised his leg and stomped on the nearest one.

It was utterly devastating.

The teeth-grating sound of bones breaking rang out like firecrackers.

The zombie at the very front was instantly blasted away, smashing into the zombies behind it and crushing them along with it.

The walls trembled. The zombies at the doorway were wiped out, while the ones at the very back were firmly embedded in the wall and reduced to a pool of flesh.

Lin An looked at the casual kick he had delivered and smiled with satisfaction.

Converted into tons, his strength was probably more than four tons now.

A casual punch or kick was like being hit by a car speeding at full throttle.

This was the might of an Awakened.

Stepping over the shattered limbs and flesh,

Lin An entered the corridor and quickly swept his gaze around.

In an extremely short time, Eye of Judgment loaded all the information within his field of vision.

"Beep, detected:"

"Zombies: 1198"

"Mutants: 0"

Although there were far fewer zombies than in the Emergency Building, they were still not to be underestimated.

Behind him, the ward number read 330.

A sign pasted to the wall read:

Left: 330–370.

Right: 330–301.

Without hesitation, Lin An turned right.

If he remembered correctly, Wen Ya had said that her mother was in Room 303.

The child the Zombie Doctor had mentioned was in 317 with the component.

Although there was a high chance Wen Ya's mother was already dead or had turned into a zombie, since he had promised Wen Ya, he should at least go and take a look.

Besides, Room 303 and Room 317 were along the same route, so it would not delay him.

The zombies howled, and the zombies wandering the corridor charged straight at him.

Lin An held two "spikes" in his hands. One was a Licker's spine, while the other came from an ordinary zombie.

He had not yet had time to deal with the Licker's corpse he had killed on the hotel road yesterday.

Compared with ordinary cold weapons, a zombie's spine was not very convenient to use, but in every other aspect, it was actually quite good.

"Forward, Forehand Thrust!"

Lin An stepped forward, his body as swift as lightning.

With terrifying force behind it, the sharp spine pierced straight through the zombie before him, leaving a transparent hole.

The two "spikes" in his hands thrust out at high speed.

He transformed directly into a cold and efficient killing machine.

With his overwhelming strength,

Lin An's advance was completely unimpeded. He sprinted forward, clearing out every zombie blocking his path.

Cold, mechanical slaughter.

A minute later, Lin An raised his head and looked at the ward number in the distance.

The corridor behind him looked like a slaughterhouse, with zombie corpses littering the floor, their heads mangled by him.

317 Ward.

There was nothing unusual. The light screen before him displayed information only on ordinary zombies.

Lin An felt puzzled, along with a faint sense of unease.

It had gone too smoothly.

He had kept Eye of Judgment active throughout the entire charge.

On one hand, this was to prevent a special zombie from blending in among them, allowing him to detect it and react as quickly as possible.

On the other hand, Wen Ya had not provided a photo of her mother.

Of course, even if she had, it would not have been of much use.

After all, if Wen Ya's mother had already turned into a zombie, her face would most likely have become unrecognizable.

All the patients in the hospital wore the same hospital gowns, so identifying her by her clothes was not possible either.

Yet there had been no abnormalities along the way, and he could also tell that none of these zombies were being directed by a Mutant.

He had already reached 317 Ward, but he still had not discovered anything.

That was unreasonable.

By rights, there had to be some dangerous presence here.

Otherwise, the Zombie Doctor had no reason to lure him here.

As for the possibility that its child really was here and it wanted Lin An to bring the child back—

Lin An would never believe it, not even if he were beaten to death.

If that were really the case, why had the Zombie Doctor not come itself?

As a Mutant capable of commanding other zombies, it would face no obstacles at all within the Zombie Crowd.

He proceeded with caution.

Lin An let out a low shout, his gaze narrowing slightly.

"Strength Burst!"

Pale-gold spiritual energy surged into his body, increasing all attributes by 2.

His Strength broke through 24.4 and reached 26.4.

Powerful. His blood surged through his veins.

Lin An once again felt the brand-new power of the Second Order.

Unlike when he had just broken through the threshold, his current strength was comparable to that of an intermediate Second Order!

After adjusting his condition to its peak, Lin An held the two spikes horizontally before his chest, then kicked the door of 317 Ward with explosive force.

"Boom!"

The metal door came off its hinges under the force of the blow and slammed into the room like it had been struck by a giant beast.

Lin An warily looked into the room under the enhancement of Eye of Judgment.

The curtains were tightly closed, yet with the dim room illuminated as though it were broad daylight,

the moment he saw the scene inside,

his pupils contracted violently, and every hair on his body stood on end like a beast that had encountered danger.

A long-lost, violent sense of fear surged from the depths of his heart.

Lin An's breathing stopped for a moment, and his entire body turned cold as if he had fallen into an ice cavern.

There were no zombies in the room, only a little girl.

She wore a red skirt, and her two delicate little feet were bare.

She was floating in midair.