The Encirclement

Just by glancing in that direction, an unprecedented premonition of danger descended upon Xia Leng!

What kind of formidable monster could be lurking hidden within that building?!

Furthermore, these zombies carrying food were likely heading straight for that very location!

Had the zombies here already evolved a social system possessing leadership consciousness?

Could it be that the Zombie King, who commands these hordes, is the one devising strategies for them, allowing them to consciously lure enemies and conduct encirclement hunts?

Everything remained a mystery.

Moreover, in this grotesque apocalyptic world, nothing was impossible, no matter how bizarre.

This suddenly reminded Xia Leng of something he had once heard from a wandering wasteland merchant.

The man had personally witnessed a strong zombie with minimal skin decay and a straight back standing on a mountaintop, using an object similar to binoculars to seemingly observe a temporary refugee settlement at the foot of the mountain, with two lean zombies standing behind it like bodyguards.

The most eerie part was that the very next day, the merchant heard that the makeshift refugee camp had been ravaged by an extremely brutal force while people were asleep, leaving almost no survivors, with the entire camp littered with bone fragments and flesh remains left behind after the corpses were gnawed upon.

Originally, the camp had sentries taking turns on watch after people went to sleep, but those measures had inexplicably failed, as if the enemy had long since figured out their layout and assassinated them first.

Consequently, the merchant linked this massacre to that zombie, claiming that zombies had also begun to evolve intelligence.

However, people just laughed it off, not taking it seriously.

After hearing the story, Xia Leng had also assumed the man's eyes were playing tricks on him, mistaking deformed refugees for zombies.

But now it seemed that the wasteland merchant might not have been wrong; these zombies had evolved enough intelligence to possess their own social system...

The powerful, dangerous aura radiating from the Trade Building ahead exerted immense pressure on Xia Leng.

His subconscious kept telling him that he was not yet a match for that creature, yet it simultaneously hinted that the mysterious powerhouse inside the building could provide a massive boost to his own abilities!

These contradictory thoughts wrestled with each other in Xia Leng's mind!

Ultimately, however, his more cautious reason prevailed.

After all, the dense, countless swarms of zombies in the center of the plaza alone could tear him to shreds.

Perhaps he could utilize the heavily armed mercenaries in the fortress to solve this problem.

Earlier, besides the heavy weaponry mounted at the entrance, Xia Leng had vaguely seen many armored vehicles and even tanks left over from the old era parked inside.

With some modifications by these mercenaries, they had basically been restored to working order.

Although the bite force of the zombies was ferocious, trying to gnaw through tanks weighing dozens of tons was no different from a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

As for why the Komodo Mercenary Company didn't simply dispatch a large troop to wipe out these zombies occupying the commercial street, it was because ammunition and fuel were equally scarce in the apocalypse; rather than exterminating these zombies that posed no threat to the fortress, it was better to save them to counter other hostile mercenary companies and shelters.

However, Xia Leng guessed that the top brass of the Komodo Mercenary Company would definitely be interested in the evolution of apocalyptic mutant creatures.

Basically, every organization was spending vast amounts of money and resources to research the cause of the world's sudden collapse and to find ways to strengthen humanity itself.

These organizations were trying every possible method to transform their ordinary mercenaries into powerful Baptized Ones to conquer this broken world, thus giving birth to various human experiments.

For example, fusing the genes of mutant creatures with human genes, or forcibly extracting crystals from their skulls to embed into the brains of their mercenaries, and so on.

Although all of these ended in cruel and bloody failure, the research departments of major organizations still had not abandoned the experiment of creating artificial Baptized Ones.

They were especially willing to pay high prices for clues regarding new, undiscovered mutant creatures.

Therefore, there was another profession in the apocalyptic wasteland called Bounty Hunter; they specialized in hunting new mutant creatures or even Baptized Ones with unrecorded new abilities to pave their way to wealth and glory.

Xia Leng decided it would be better to use those mercenaries as pawns to infiltrate the highly dangerous building ahead; the Komodo Mercenary Company would certainly not miss the chance to study such bizarre zombie behavior.

Just as he turned around, preparing to head back for the time being.

Suddenly, a sharp gaze, like a cold arrow, shot toward his back from behind when he was caught off guard, making Xia Leng realize once again that danger had locked onto him!

He whipped his head around!

He saw that on a certain floor of the building ahead, a pair of deep purple light points containing a cold, violent aura were staring at his position!

Was that the eyes of the mysterious monster? Had he been discovered?!

ROAR!!!!

The moment Xia Leng's gaze met those purple pupils, the massive zombie horde in the plaza, which had been resting with their eyes closed, suddenly let out a collective, deafening roar and turned to look toward the position where he was hiding!

The light gathered from the scarlet pupils of the zombies turned Xia Leng's field of vision a dark red!

"Damn it!"

The instant he was detected, the muscles in Xia Leng's legs surged, his knees bent slightly, and all the Blacklight Virus within his body began to operate and condense toward his legs, before he launched himself like an arrow released from a bow!

This single step instantly propelled him dozens of meters away, leaving everything behind as he sprinted with all his might toward the exit of the Street of the Living Dead!

The zombie horde in the center of the plaza, having collectively reacted as if receiving a mysterious command, rushed toward the human intruder like ants discovering meat!

At this moment, Xia Leng focused all his strength into his legs; his running speed had reached nearly six seconds per hundred meters, far exceeding the speed of a Tier 1 Agility-type Apocalypse Hunter, reaching or even surpassing that of a Tier 2!

Because of this, he left the zombie horde far behind, listening to their angry and unwilling roars!

However, Xia Leng did not let his guard down; while maintaining his high-speed sprint, he remained vigilant of his surroundings.

Clang~

Xia Leng's vigilance proved correct; just as he was about to dash through the intersection ahead, the windows of the surrounding buildings suddenly shattered, and a multitude of hair-raising living corpses leaped out like raindrops!

After landing, these zombies that had been lying in ambush within the buildings let out hisses and roars, charging toward Xia Leng to create a pincer attack alongside the horde behind him!

The deafening roars of the zombies were enough to nearly shatter the remaining glass on the buildings!

Thousands upon thousands of living corpses were more than enough to drown any enemy in a sea of flesh!

And Xia Leng, situated in the midst of this vast army, was the dumpling filling about to be completely surrounded!