Living Corpse

Fifteen kilometers away from the fortress affiliated with Komodo Corporation lies a street.

It was once a bustling commercial hub integrating entertainment, finance, and industry, packed with so many shops and dazzling, massive billboards that they almost completely blocked out the sky above this entire area.

Nowadays, this region, which never sees the sun, has become a "summer resort" for various mutated monsters.

The dense population that once occupied that street naturally made it one of the disaster zones most severely hit by the Black Rain infection.

Because the number of people infected in that area was staggering.

Over 90% of the humans who mutated after being infected by the Black Rain are known as "Living Corpses."

Since they have completely lost all characteristics of the living, yet can still eat, move, and even mate, survivors call them living corpses.

Living corpses are just like the walking dead described in old-era movies—zombies; their skin is severely ulcerated and peeling, revealing scarlet muscle tissue, and they can continue to function even with severed limbs or being disemboweled.

Having no sense of pain, fearing no death, and being bloodthirsty are their defining traits.

Their consciousness from before they were turned is long gone; it does not matter if you were a glamorous white-collar worker, a manager, or a CEO of some company five years ago, or a ragged, foul-smelling, disheveled beggar under a bridge.

Now, everyone is on the same starting line, wandering the streets aimlessly as walking dead, foraging for food, or fighting for the right to mate with female living corpses.

Moreover, the living corpses infected by the Black Rain here are different from the slow-moving zombies in movies that act like eighty-year-old grandmothers.

The living corpses of this era are basically all "athletes" who combine the skills of top-tier sprinters, marathon runners, triathletes, high jumpers, and even swimmers...

Once you are discovered by the keen sense of smell and sharp vision of those living corpses, they will ignore all obstacles and charge at you with a frantic speed of under 10 seconds per hundred meters, until they have gnawed you down to the bone...

Therefore, before hunting living corpses, you must first consider whether you can outrun them.

At this moment, Xia Leng is less than 1 kilometer away from that street of the living dead.

He has accepted this extremely difficult mission.

If it were in the past, he would have turned around and left immediately, never choosing to execute such a suicidal mission just to inquire about a piece of information inside the fortress.

But things are different now; having gained this extraordinary ability, he should be able to fight a lone living corpse.

Furthermore, in his subconscious, the Blacklight Virus seems to be constantly hinting to him that those living corpses are a "delicacy" and that he should not let them go...

Xia Leng is not the only one who accepted this mission; many other drifters are also attempting to obtain this "ticket" to a stable life.

No matter where they are, humans like to gather in crowds to complete hunting tasks that are otherwise insurmountable.

It is no exception here; a hundred meters ahead of Xia Leng, a temporary team composed of about twenty or thirty drifters is also heading toward that land of the living dead.

A single person lacks the courage to face terrifying zombies, but a group is different; they understand the logic that there is strength in numbers, and even if they die, at least there will be someone to cushion the fall...

However, Xia Leng has no desire to join these drifters, each harboring their own ulterior motives; hunting living corpses is already difficult enough, and he does not want to waste energy dealing with treacherous temporary companions by his side.

When they were less than five hundred meters from the destination, they began to gradually step into the dangerous area where the dense billboards blocked the sunlight.

Xia Leng saw that the group ahead, who had been full of confidence at the start, stopped in their tracks as they were about to step into the terrifying, gloomy land, hesitating between the light and the darkness.

The boundary between sunlight and darkness is like the intersection of heaven and hell; one wrong step, and one is plunged into an abyss of eternal damnation.

None of them are willing to be the first to step into this land of the living dead, all hoping to reap the rewards without effort and pick up a crystal by chance amidst the chaos.

Even killing a teammate to snatch a crystal from their hands would be better than facing those terrifying, bloodthirsty living corpses head-on.

Xia Leng watched the drifters ahead pushing and shoving, none willing to be the first sacrifice.

This was all within Xia Leng's expectations; he was just waiting to see who would strike at their own companions first.

Sure enough, after the temporarily assembled drifter team spent nearly 5 minutes stalling, for some unknown reason, some of them began to brawl with each other!

Fights among people in the apocalypse are almost always bloody and lethal.

Accompanied by several shrill screams echoing over the street, someone was eventually killed by their "companion," and the team fell silent once again.

Just then, a man covered in terrifying scars, the strongest among these drifters, walked over with a sinister grin. Like picking up a chicken, he grabbed a thin, frail old man from the ground who had been beaten to death.

"Hmph, dreaming of entering the fortress at your age? You might as well pave the way for us younger ones."

Carrying the thin, blood-reeking corpse, he walked to the edge of the sunlight, took a deep breath, and with a low roar, he actually hurled the body over a distance of several dozen meters, where it landed with a heavy thud in the gloomy street.

Although the old man's body was already skin and bones, throwing it over fifty meters is an impossible feat for an average person.

Therefore, this man must at least be a Tier 1 power-type Apocalypse Warrior!

Even Baptized Ones have to participate in missions to enter the fortress, which shows just how overcrowded it has become inside.

However, even a Tier 1 Baptized One would not dare to face a starving living corpse alone, because even a single scratch from the monster's claws could lead to infection with a lethal pathogen and death.

After throwing the corpse, the burly man quickly turned and ran back into the crowd under the scorching sun, holding his breath along with the others as they watched the lonely corpse lying in the center of the dark street.

After about a few minutes, there was still no abnormality in the dark area ahead. Could it be that because they were on the edge of the street of the living dead, there were no zombies at all?

Just as the atmosphere among the people waiting grew increasingly anxious, a low roar suddenly came from the dark fog, and the silhouette of a thin figure began to slowly emerge!

Roar...

Finally! The first living corpse appeared!

Almost rotting to the point where a piece of skin fell off with every step, its right thigh broken at a nearly three-hundred-sixty-degree angle, and one eyeball dangling from its socket by a nerve, the terrifying living corpse shuffled step by step toward the "bait"!

As everyone saw it, besides the fear it naturally induced, the ticket to entering the fortress and starting a new life also appeared before their eyes.

People began to stir, but still, no one dared to be the first to charge, even though the zombie currently appeared slow-moving.

The living corpse sniffed the heavy scent of blood in the air and excitedly arrived beside the corpse. After a brief fumbling, it began to feast; with every bite, a piece of the old man's wrinkled skin was torn off and swallowed into the living corpse's shriveled belly.