Obtaining Lifespan

The sun shone brightly outside as Lu Chengchuan slowly walked down the street.

Ever since that strange illness, he had rarely had the chance to come out and bask in the sun. He had spent all year receiving treatment in a hospital ward.

Seeing the streams of pedestrians and traffic again after so long, the gloom in Lu Chengchuan's heart eased somewhat. But the pressure of survival would not disappear because of such beauty.

The system had only told him that he could consume lifespan to increase his strength; it had not told him how to obtain more lifespan. He did not dare casually use the thirty-odd days he had left.

Just as Lu Chengchuan was at a loss, a disturbance suddenly erupted in the plaza not far ahead. People screamed and fled in all directions.

"Monsters! There are monsters!"

The crowd shouted as they scattered. Lu Chengchuan walked forward, and as the packed crowd parted, he saw several people lying ahead. Several grayish-white figures were tearing at their necks.

The bitten people struggled for a while before dying completely.

After biting them to death, the monsters immediately rose and chased after others. One of them fixed its gaze on Lu Chengchuan.

A gaunt, rigid gray face filled his view. The monster was about the same size as a human; the only differences were its lifeless skin and its pair of protruding fangs.

"Zombies?"

This monster looked very much like the zombies from movies, but did zombies really exist in this world?

He did not believe zombies existed, but then he thought of the system he himself possessed. Lu Chengchuan felt that the existence of zombies was not impossible either.

The zombie leaped toward him and arrived before him in the blink of an eye.

Lu Chengchuan was not afraid of it. He raised both hands into a clawing stance. He had obtained two martial arts techniques from the beginner's gift pack.

The Eagle Claw Iron Body Skill was a body-tempering martial art. Once mastered, its practitioner was like someone wearing a layer of iron armor, impervious to blades and spears. Their arms possessed the strength of a thousand jin, while their palms were so resilient that they could rival swords forged from refined steel.

As the zombie leaped before him, Lu Chengchuan grabbed its arms with both hands. With a hard squeeze, his fingers dug deeply into the zombie's flesh. Then he tore with all his strength, ripping off a large chunk of flesh from its arm.

Lu Chengchuan tossed the dry, tough lump of flesh from his hand aside, then grabbed the zombie again.

The zombie's body was extremely hard. Ordinary swords would likely have difficulty harming it. Yet before Lu Chengchuan's Eagle Claws, the zombie was utterly powerless.

He seized the zombie by the throat and ripped it open in one motion.

As its throat was torn open, a mouthful of Tainted Qi dispersed from the zombie's throat. Lu Chengchuan retreated, while the zombie struggled in place for more than ten seconds. Once the Tainted Qi had completely dissipated, the zombie toppled to the ground.

Killed a low-level zombie. Obtained 7 days of lifespan.

The system's voice suddenly rang out, bringing Lu Chengchuan the news he needed most.

Killing zombies could actually earn him lifespan. Seven days for each one. As Lu Chengchuan looked at the remaining three zombies, they no longer seemed like hideous monsters. They were practically his lifeline.

Lu Chengchuan stopped moving at a leisurely pace. He quickened his steps and rushed straight at the zombies, afraid someone else would take them from him.

After sprinting behind one zombie in a few strides, Lu Chengchuan grabbed it and slammed it heavily to the ground. Then, just as before, he tore open its throat.

His thousand-jin strength pinned down the struggling zombie. More than ten seconds later, the zombie died completely.

Lu Chengchuan released the zombie and shifted his gaze to another one.

People in the plaza fled in all directions, and a huge crowd surged onto the roads. The broad six-lane street became clogged with people fleeing for their lives. Countless cars were forced to stop, and some even rear-ended one another.

The people in the cars had no idea what was happening. They could only hear all kinds of screams and shouts, which frightened them as well.

Lu Chengchuan ignored all that. At top speed, he ran to the third zombie. The zombie leaped toward two girls who had been knocked to the ground, its grayish-white, hard nails reaching for them. The two girls screamed. One of them suddenly saw a pair of large hands appear on the zombie's shoulders, and then the zombie was flung to the ground.

It was a tall man wearing a mask, making his face impossible to see.

He threw down the terrifying monster, stepped on it, then swiftly tore open its neck with his hands. The terrifying monster struggled for more than ten seconds before finally dying.

After killing the monster, the man ran toward the remaining one.

Just as Lu Chengchuan was about to kill the final zombie, sirens sounded. A police car stopped two hundred meters away, and several officers got out and hurried toward the plaza.

Seeing the police arrive, Lu Chengchuan gave up on the final zombie and turned to run into the crowd.

He did not want to expose himself. In the age of big data, it was far too easy to investigate someone. Yesterday, he had been hospitalized in critical condition; today, he was killing zombies in the street. Who would believe that?

Lu Chengchuan blended into the crowd while the remaining zombie continued chasing people and biting them.

The officers ran up and saw the hopping zombie in the plaza. Their expressions changed.

Elsewhere, Lu Chengchuan ran into the middle of the crowd. He suddenly remembered his mother, who had gone out to look for work. Afraid that she might encounter zombies, he quickly took out his phone and called her.

Beep... Beep... Beep...

The phone rang a few times before it was quickly answered.

"Xiaochuan, what happened?"

As soon as the call connected, his mother hurriedly asked what had happened. Lu Chengchuan instead asked, "Mom, I'm fine. Has anything strange happened over there?"

Lu Chengchuan's tone was urgent, without his usual weakness.

Hearing that something might have happened, Huang Yuyun did not think much of it and hurriedly asked, "Did something happen at home?"

"I saw people posting online that monsters appeared at Star Prosperity Plaza. Several people were bitten to death. Be careful. Where are you? Are you really all right?" Lu Chengchuan was anxious, terrified that something might happen to her.

Now that he had found a way to obtain lifespan, hope had returned to his life. He did not want anything to happen to his mother.

"Nothing's happening over here." Huang Yuyun looked around. Everything was calm, with none of the monsters her son had mentioned.

"Be careful. Forget it, hurry back. Go home and watch the news first." After thinking about it, Lu Chengchuan told his mother to come home first.

Something was wrong with the situation. Monsters had suddenly appeared, and nothing like this had ever happened before.

While he was on the phone, the police drew their pistols and fired at the zombie chasing people.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The gunshots made the already chaotic scene even more chaotic. Hearing gunfire, the people nearby ran even faster.

The bullets struck the zombie's body, leaving only small holes. Tainted Qi leaked from those holes, but very slowly, and the zombie was unaffected.

"What is going on?"

"Captain, what the hell is this thing?!"

Several young officers asked the older captain what that thing was. They had never seen anything like it.

Forget them—even the old captain did not know. He had been a police officer for over twenty years and had encountered all kinds of cases, but these things before him were beyond his understanding.

"Fire! Kill them first!" the old captain said grimly.

Their weapons were not very powerful. Before coming here, they had assumed it was merely troublemakers causing a disturbance. They had not expected monsters. Even more puzzling, he could see three monster corpses.

Who had killed them, and how?