Living Dead

Fifteen kilometers from the fortress affiliated with Komodo Corporation, there was a street.

It had once been a bustling commercial strip that combined entertainment, finance, and industry. It was lined with countless shops, and its dazzling array of enormous billboards was packed so densely that it nearly blocked out the sky above the entire area.

Now, this region, which had gone without sunlight for years, had become a "summer retreat" for all kinds of mutated monsters.

And because the street had once been so densely populated, it had naturally become one of the areas hit hardest by the Black Rain outbreak.

The number of people infected in that area was enormous.

More than 90 percent of humans infected by the Black Rain mutated into bloodthirsty monsters known as "living dead."

They had completely lost every trait of the living, yet could still eat, move, and even mate. Survivors called them living corpses.

The living dead were like the walking corpses—zombies—depicted in old movies. Their skin was severely rotten and peeling, exposing crimson muscle tissue. Even with broken limbs or their guts torn open, they could still move as usual.

They felt no pain, feared no death, and lived for blood.

Their consciousness from when they were alive had long since vanished. Whether you had been a well-dressed company employee, manager, or CEO five years ago, or a ragged, foul-smelling, disheveled beggar beneath a bridge—

Now, everyone stood on the same starting line, turned into walking corpses that wandered the streets aimlessly, scavenged for food, or fought over the right to mate with female living dead.

Moreover, the living dead infected by the Black Rain were nothing like the slow-moving zombies in movies, who shuffled around like eighty-year-old women.

In this era, the living dead were practically all "athletes," excelling in everything from the hundred-meter dash and marathons to triathlons, high jumps, and even swimming...

The moment their keen senses of smell and sight detected you, they would ignore every obstacle and charge at you at a terrifying speed of under ten seconds per hundred meters, until they had chewed you up and left not even a bone...

So before hunting the living dead, you had to consider whether you could outrun them.

At that moment, Xia Leng was less than a kilometer from the Street of the Living Dead.

He had accepted this extremely difficult mission.

In the past, he would have turned around and left without a second thought. He would never have taken on a suicide mission just to enter a fortress and ask about one thing.

But things were different now. He had gained extraordinary abilities and thought he could take on a lone living dead.

Moreover, deep in his subconscious, the Blacklight Virus seemed to keep hinting that the living dead were a "delicacy" and that he shouldn't let them go...

Xia Leng wasn't the only one who had accepted the mission. Quite a few other drifters had also tried to earn this "ticket" to a stable life.

No matter where they were, humans liked to band together to complete hunting missions that were otherwise impossible to overcome.

It was no different here. A temporary group of around twenty or thirty drifters was about a hundred meters ahead of Xia Leng, also heading for the Street of the Living Dead.

One person might not have the courage to face terrifying zombies, but a group was another matter. They understood the principle that there was strength in numbers. Even if they died, at least someone else would be there to take the hit...

But Xia Leng had no desire to join those scheming drifters ahead. Hunting the living dead was already difficult enough; he didn't want to waste effort dealing with treacherous temporary companions as well.

When they were less than five hundred meters from their destination, they began to enter the dangerous area where dense advertising boards blocked out the sun.

Xia Leng saw the group ahead, who had seemed so confident at first, stop one after another as they approached the terrifying, gloomy stretch. They hesitated between the light and the dark, unwilling to step forward.

The boundary between sunlight and darkness was like the dividing line between heaven and hell. One wrong step, and they would be lost forever.

None of them wanted to be the first to enter this land of the living dead. They all hoped to reap the benefits and snatch a crystal in the ensuing chaos.

Even killing a teammate and taking the crystal from them seemed better than facing those terrifying, bloodthirsty living dead head-on.

Xia Leng watched the drifters ahead shove and jostle one another, none willing to be the first sacrifice.

It was all as he had expected. He just had to wait and see who would attack the people beside them first.

Sure enough, after nearly five minutes of mutual hesitation, some members of the makeshift group suddenly began fighting each other for reasons unknown!

In the apocalypse, people fought to draw blood with every blow, every strike meant to kill.

Several shrill screams rang out above the street. In the end, some had been killed by their "companions," and the group fell quiet again.

Just then, a man covered in terrifying scars, the strongest-looking among the drifters, came over with a sinister grin. He grabbed a bloodied, emaciated old man who had been beaten to death, as easily as if he were picking up a chicken.

"Hmph. At your age, you're still dreaming of getting into the fortress. You might as well pave the way for the rest of us."

He carried the gaunt corpse, which reeked of blood, to the edge of the sunlight. After taking a deep breath and letting out a low growl, he hurled it dozens of meters away. It landed with a heavy thud in the dark street.

The old man's body was nothing but skin and bones, but throwing it more than fifty meters was beyond the imagination of an ordinary person.

That man had to be at least a first-tier strength-class Apocalypse Warrior!

Even Baptized Ones had to take part in missions to enter the fortress. Clearly, it was already packed to capacity.

But even a first-tier Baptized One wouldn't dare face a starving living dead alone. A single scratch from one of those monsters' claws could infect you with deadly germs and kill you.

After throwing the corpse, the burly man hurried back to the crowd under the blazing sun. Everyone held their breath together as they watched the lonely corpse lying in the middle of the dark street.

Several minutes passed, and nothing unusual appeared in the shadowy area ahead. Could they be at the edge of the Street of the Living Dead, where there weren't any zombies at all?

Just as the waiting crowd began to grow restless, a low growl suddenly came from the dense fog in the darkness. The outline of a gaunt figure slowly began to emerge!

Growl...

At last! The first living dead had appeared!

Its body was so badly rotten that a patch of skin fell away with every step. Its right thigh was twisted nearly a full 360 degrees, and an eyeball dangled beneath its eye socket, hanging by a single nerve. The terrifying living dead shuffled toward the "bait," one step at a time!

When everyone saw it, they felt not only the fear it inspired but also the prospect of entering the fortress and beginning a new life—the ticket was right before their eyes.

The crowd began to stir, but still no one dared to charge forward first, even though the zombie seemed slow at the moment.

Smelling the strong stench of blood in the air, the living dead excitedly approached the corpse. After briefly pawing at it, it began to feast. With every bite, it tore off a piece of the old man's wrinkled skin and swallowed it into its shrunken belly.