Bronze Armored Zombie

Thud, thud, thud!

The sound was like a giant hammer swinging down and slamming into the ground.

It was hard to imagine a human body hitting an iron gate could make a sound like that.

And it was a dead body, at that.

A corpse should have been pretty weak, strength-wise.

To make such a tremendous racket, it clearly wasn't an ordinary zombie.

The Corpse Controller, hidden somewhere out of sight, was probably much more formidable than the driver.

"It's bending!"

"It's bending!"

Auntie Shufen pointed at the bolt and shouted.

It was clear that the impact had bent the bolt a little.

The iron gate was sturdy, but the bolt wasn't as strong.

If it kept getting hit like this, it would probably "break through the wall" in five minutes.

K's expression darkened. Then he suddenly rushed toward the small room beside them.

A short while later, K ran out and headed for the bus parked on the other side.

The bus started up without turning on its lights and swerved toward the iron gate.

He turned the bus around and parked it crosswise in front of the gate, blocking it completely.

"Ha!"

K jumped out and cheerfully ran over to the other bus.

This time, he didn't need to turn it around. He could just drive it straight in.

There had been a little space between the bus and the iron gate, but after the collision, the two had an intimate zero-distance encounter.

The gap was sealed up tight.

"Now they won't be able to get in so easily." K was extremely pleased with his ingenuity.

His red scarf—no, his previously limp limbs—seemed to have gained a lot more vigor.

Auntie Shufen was also generous with her praise, giving him a thumbs-up. "You're a quick thinker, young man."

"Monk, this was a lot more useful than your firing all over the place," K said to Tang Luo.

"Blocking the gate works, but there's no need," Tang Luo replied.

"Heh." K let out a cold laugh.

Keep telling yourself that. He found himself looking at Mi Ke.

Compared to an auntie, a normal man would certainly prefer to earn the admiration and support of a beautiful woman.

But things didn't go the way K had imagined.

Mi Ke wasn't looking at him with admiration.

Instead, she was staring toward the iron gate, unable to hide her terror.

"What..."

K looked in the direction of Mi Ke's gaze.

The remaining words, is going on?, got stuck in his throat.

He saw a zombie standing on top of the bus blocking the iron gate.

"Zombies might not be intelligent, but the Corpse Controller probably is. There's no need to block the gate when they can just set up a ladder and climb over," Tang Luo said.

"Then why the hell were they pounding on it just now?!"

K couldn't help shouting.

"They can keep pounding while someone gets the ladder. If they manage to break through, isn't that easier than climbing in?" Tang Luo said.

There was no harm in trying.

As they spoke, the zombie dropped from the top of the bus.

It hit the ground in an awkward position.

It seemed to have injured its foot, too. Now it limped along.

Its movements had slowed considerably.

The walls and iron gate at the Terminal Station were both higher than the bus.

Not every zombie that climbed over would be as strong as the one that had nearly broken through the gate.

If they fell straight to the ground, it wouldn't be unusual for them to end up "paralyzed from the waist down."

But the bus had lowered the height of the fall.

The impact was much less severe.

Bang, bang!

Tang Luo fired several shots, shattering the zombie's limbs.

There was no splatter of flesh and blood.

Only broken white bones and "air-dried jerky."

A textbook example of an ancient corpse.

Losing its limbs had successfully stopped the zombie from moving, but the Corpse Controller's command still held.

Its body squirmed like a caterpillar, still trying to get closer to Tang Luo and the others.

Its twisted form beneath the moonlight sent chills down their spines.

At that moment, a second zombie landed on the roof of the bus.

These zombies were different from the hopping ones in zombie movies.

Their movements were more like the zombies in Western movies—not the slow kind. They seemed to be just as fast as ordinary people.

"Get on the bus." Tang Luo fired several more shots, blasting the zombie into pieces, then spoke.

"Get on the bus?" K didn't understand what Tang Luo meant.

Get on the bus again?

"The one full of corpses," Tang Luo said. "We had a cleaner one, but you wasted it."

K's expression turned ugly.

What did he mean, wasted it? If K hadn't used the bus to block the gate, the zombies would've rushed in already!

"You drive." Tang Luo walked toward the bus they'd arrived in, stepped on a tire, and jumped easily onto the roof. "Take these zombies for a spin. I'll shoot them."

"..."

There was a way to do that?

Before K could react, Auntie Shufen had already run onto the bus, with Mi Ke right behind her.

Auntie Shufen opened the window and shouted at K, "What are you standing there for, young man? Hurry up and drive! We're already on!"

"Where am I supposed to drive?"

Everything about this mission had gone wrong. K felt a headache coming on.

"Round and round! I know more than you do!" Auntie Shufen said.

The Terminal Station was about the size of a soccer field, which was plenty of room for a bus—not a particularly large one—to drive in circles and lead the zombies around.

He could even run over a few of them.

"..."

Putting up with the smell of the corpses inside the bus, K started the engine.

By then, several more zombies had entered the Terminal Station.

The pounding on the gate had stopped, too.

Knowing how to drive didn't mean knowing how to drive a bus.

Unlike his earlier casual driving, actually controlling a large vehicle like this proved difficult for K.

The bus swerved all over the place.

It looked like it might tip over at any moment.

The monotonous, mechanical sound of gunfire rang out.

Tang Luo precisely shot the limbs off one zombie after another.

Then the bus ran them over, leaving them completely unable to move.

But K's face showed no hint of happiness.

He hadn't forgotten the zombie that had nearly broken through the iron gate.

If another one like that showed up, there was no way a little pistol could shoot off its limbs and leave it helpless beneath the bus.

The zombies they'd encountered so far—

They were less like zombies and more like walking corpses.

Once their numbers were kept in check, they weren't too much of a threat.

K was sure this mission couldn't possibly be as simple as spending the whole time driving in circles.

Be careful what you wish for.

K's instincts were right.

A tall figure climbed over the iron gate and landed heavily on the roof of the bus.

Just landing on top of it

had caved in the sheet metal.

That showed just how heavy it was.

Under the moonlight, they could see that the zombie's skin was a different color from the other zombies' blue-gray, blue-white, and gray-white hues.

Instead, it had a metallic sheen.

Like a bronze vessel.

It stood over two meters tall, with thick arms and legs and hands as big as fans.

A Bronze Armored Zombie?

K thought to himself.

It was only natural for all kinds of creatures from fantasy to appear in the God and Demon Game.

That striking skin color, so different from the rest, looked just like a Bronze Armored Zombie from what K knew.

Jingle, jingle, jingle!

The clear ringing of a bell drifted over on the night wind.

It confirmed everyone's suspicion that a Corpse Controller was hiding somewhere nearby.

After the Bronze Armored Zombie, no more zombies climbed over.

Maybe they'd all been used up, or maybe the Corpse Controller needed to focus on controlling this Bronze Armored Zombie.

Perhaps he couldn't control the other zombies at the same time.

Or maybe the Corpse Controller thought this one Bronze Armored Zombie was enough to deal with the intruders at the Terminal Station.

The Bronze Armored Zombie moved a little sluggishly.

It took a full ten seconds to drop from the roof of the bus to the ground.

That gave K time to adjust his direction, step on the gas, and ram straight into it.

Boom!

The bus slammed into the Bronze Armored Zombie, scraping past the vehicle beside it.

The windshield shattered into a shower of "snowflakes."

The driver's seat was crushed into a heap.

Fortunately, K had been prepared and had already "run away" before the impact.

Mi Ke and Auntie Shufen, on the other hand, were thrown around.

K crouched low, staring fixedly at the windshield, which was still in one piece.

He stretched out a hand, blue light appearing around it as he prepared to use his skill.

Just then, the bus suddenly reversed.

K lost his balance and instinctively braced himself with both hands to keep from falling.

Crash!

The windshield fell away, revealing the unharmed Bronze Armored Zombie.

K reached out again, about to activate his skill, and aimed at the Bronze Armored Zombie's chest.

With a little luck, he could cut the Bronze Armored Zombie in half.

K refused to believe it was really as sturdy as bronze or iron armor.

Before they'd completed six missions and received full-body enhancements, God and Demon Walkers were typically "high attack, low defense."

They could kill an opponent easily, but they could just as easily be killed themselves.

Getting the initiative was extremely important in a fight.

Of course, if their skills couldn't get past an opponent's defenses, things could become extremely awkward.

They could easily wind up helpless and at their opponent's mercy.

Just as K was about to strike,

a white blur fell from the front of the bus, crushing the Bronze Armored Zombie beneath it.

"You all go. I'll handle this."

Tang Luo's voice rang out.

K froze, not yet able to react.

Then he saw the monk who'd just crushed the Bronze Armored Zombie get flung to the left, crashing into the parallel bus with a thunderous boom.

The sound was no quieter than when K had rammed the Bronze Armored Zombie with the bus.

Out of the corner of his eye, K saw that the place where the monk had hit the bus had caved in, forming a "shallow crater."

The Bronze Armored Zombie's body reappeared in K's line of sight.

But when a rapid burst of ringing sounded, the Bronze Armored Zombie ignored K inside the bus.

It turned slightly, lowered its body, and pivoted to face Tang Luo, squaring its shoulder toward him.

A textbook Iron Mountain Lean stance.

A close-range technique from Baji Fist.

Pebbles flew everywhere. K felt as if what was charging at them wasn't a "person," but a runaway semi truck.

"Boom!"

Another deafening crash rang out.

The bus traveling parallel to them was tossed straight into the air, like a toy car caught in the hands of a destructive child.

It flipped several times before crashing heavily to the ground.

Its wheels pointed skyward, spinning in the moonlight. One of them spun a few times before falling off onto the road.

But this attack, powerful enough to rival a battering ram,

hadn't actually achieved much. One second before the impact, Tang Luo dodged to the side and evaded it.

The Bronze Armored Zombie turned to "look" at Tang Luo, who had dodged its attack.

With stiff movements, it silently charged at him.

Like a moving iron tower.

Tang Luo's movements, meanwhile, were far more graceful and agile. He retreated, keeping his distance from the Bronze Armored Zombie.

He was careful not to leave himself open.

When K got out of the bus, he saw the White-Robed Monk circling the Bronze Armored Zombie beneath the moonlight.

Every attack from the Bronze Armored Zombie produced a deep whoosh as it cut through the air.

Unfortunately, it was a little slow.

Tang Luo narrowly dodged every blow and still managed to counterattack.

But even when the monk's Tathagata Palm struck the Bronze Armored Zombie, it only made a sharp cracking sound.

The Bronze Armored Zombie barely even swayed.

One couldn't land a hit, and the other couldn't break through its defenses.

The fight quickly reached a stalemate.

Thanks to My Name is Actor, Red Sword, and Journey of the Tyrannosaurus for the tips!

There'll be another update tonight. I'll keep using up the secondhand recommendation tickets that are about to expire.