Corpse-Control Ring
Sunlight fell on the ruined streets. It was a bright daytime, yet Lu Heng felt a chill run through his body.
It's not because the temperature is low.
The mental pressure I felt while trapped in the supermarket lingered.
In the battles of the mountains and forests, the opponents are living creatures. Beasts are ferocious, have weaknesses, and have attack patterns. Even if you can't beat them, you can run, dodge, and maneuver.
But the eerie is different.
Silent, invisible, and untraceable.
It doesn't kill with claws and fangs, but with a set of cold, rigid, and unyielding rules. If you don't understand it, you can only gamble with your life. One wrong step, and you're annihilated, without even the chance to resist.
This unknown, which transcends force, is more terrifying than any ferocious beast.
Lu Heng rubbed the treasure chest in his hand with his fingertips; the price tag on the surface still carried the cold, damp air of the supermarket.
He didn't want to stay in this area for even a second longer.
To stumble upon a rule-based anomaly right after landing is already extremely unlucky. Continuing deeper, no one knows what kind of deadly trap awaits in the next area.
To be on the safe side, retreat immediately.
He suppressed the lingering fear in his heart, turned around, and quickly retraced his steps.
The broken bricks crunched underfoot, the entire Town was deathly silent and desolate, devoid of any sign of life. The dilapidated buildings on both sides were empty and dark, like countless eyes staring at the ground.
In just a few minutes, he returned to the basketball court where he had previously confronted Yun Jing.
As soon as I turned the corner of the broken wall, a strong, pungent, putrid smell hit me.
Lu Heng suddenly stopped.
In the center of the field, beside Yun Jing's corpse, crouched three strangely shaped wild dogs.
Their fur was gray and dirty, clumps of fur stuck to their shriveled flesh, and their limbs moved stiffly and twisted, completely lacking the agility of a normal wild animal. Their heads were lowered, and they were frantically gnawing on the carcasses on the ground.
The Wristband instantly lit up with a faint light.
[Zombie Dog: Black Iron Tier mutated creature. Its nervous system is completely eroded by a virus, rendering it devoid of pain and fear.]
Lu Heng's gaze darkened.
This city seems to be completely dead.
Birds have vanished, vegetation has withered, and people, cats, and beasts have all been assimilated by the virus into Zombie monsters that only know how to devour and kill.
His gaze returned to the ground, and the sight before him made his stomach churn violently.
The Yun Jing's body was already badly damaged.
His entire right arm had been completely gnawed off, exposing the ghastly, jagged white bone fragments at his shoulder. His left leg was severed at the knee, lying a bloody mess in the rubble. Large patches of dark red blood soaked into the soil, creating a chaotic scene.
The three Zombie Dog were tearing at flesh, the soft sounds of their teeth grinding, gnawing, and tearing soft tissue clearly audible in the empty stadium.
Too straightforward, too dilapidated.
Lu Heng's neck muscles tensed, his Adam's apple bobbed repeatedly, and a wave of nausea surged to his throat. He turned his head away, forcibly suppressing the urge to gag, his eyes filled with only cold, hard wariness.
Even the most disgusting scene is not the time to be distracted.
The sound of him stomping on the pebbles completely alerted the three monsters.
The gnawing motion stopped abruptly.
Three stiff heads twisted in unison, their murky, grayish-white eyes fixed on Lu Heng. A low, hoarse roar rolled from deep within their throats, and the next second, the three Zombie Dog pushed off the ground and charged towards him.
They moved swiftly and were fearless in the face of death.
Lu Heng instantly took half a step back, raised his hand to raise the Giant-Feather Crossbow, quickly cocked it, and aimed at the chest cavity of the foremost one.
let go.
The arrow pierced the air and hurtled forward.
Pfft
A sharp, piercing sound exploded.
The crossbow bolt pierced the Zombie Dog's chest, spraying out splattered blood.
But the monster was completely unaware.
There was no pain or tremor, no hesitation in my steps; the wound seemed to have only pierced through a thin layer of skin, still gaping wide with a foul stench, rushing straight at me.
Lu Heng instantly realized the reality.
The destroyed pain nerves completely neutralized the restraining effect of the penetrating wound.
The only way to kill Zombie Dog is by beheading them.
He decisively sheathed his crossbow, switched to a new blade, gripped the Bronze Hunting Blade tightly in his right hand, and lowered his shoulder to meet the attack.
The first Zombie Dog lunged at him, its stench filling the air. Lu Heng ducked to avoid its sharp teeth, lowered his center of gravity, and unleashed a powerful horizontal slash with his wrist.
The cold blade sliced through flesh and severed cervical vertebrae.
The enormous dog head rolled to the ground, and the headless body staggered a couple of steps before collapsing with a thud.
The remaining two, one on the left and one on the right, flanked and attacked from both sides.
Lu Heng glided quickly among the rubble, refusing to take any direct hits, keeping his eyes fixed on the fatal blind spot around his neck the entire time.
In the instant he dodged the attack from the right, he used the momentum to close in and lunge forward, slashing down with his Hunting Blade to cleanly sever the head of the second Zombie Dog.
The last one went completely berserk, ignoring its companions falling one after another, and pounced desperately.
Lu Heng accurately predicted its attack trajectory and dodged to the side. The monster leaped into the air but missed, instantly losing its balance.
He strode forward, gripping the knife with both hands and slashing down with all his might.
A muffled thud kicked up dust.
The last dog's head rolled onto the muddy ground.
All three Zombie Dog collapsed to the ground, utterly silent.
The tense fighting posture dissipated, and Lu Heng breathed a few heavy breaths. He raised his hand and aimed at the three monster corpses, directly activating the Wristband's dismantling function.
A pale blue light enveloped the corpse.
The bits of flesh, filthy blood, and broken bones quickly dissolved away.
The disassembly was complete, and a neat pile of materials lay on the ground.
Three grayish-white, hard Zombie Bone, three sharp, blackened Dog Fang, three clumps of dark red, solidified Zombie Blood, and three translucent, dark Black Iron Energy Core.
The materials were neatly stacked, and finally, with a flash of light, a jet-black ring slowly landed on top.
The Wristband automatically refreshes its authentication information.
[Corpse-Control Ring:]
Black Iron Tier
Effect: Can forcibly control a Zombie mutated creature of level no higher than Black Iron Tier, making it permanently obedient.
Lu Heng bent down and picked up the ring.
The metal was icy cold.
In an instant, all the previous discrepancies and doubts connected and made sense.
Yun Jing's clumsy explanation back then was that the Zombie -like Abao was the only one who didn't harm her and protected her the whole time.
It wasn't luck, nor was it pity.
It's this Corpse-Control Ring.
With the help of this Black Iron tool, she steadily controlled the Zombie Cat, hiding in the shadows and pretending to be an innocent survivor, surviving in the ruins for half a year.
She appears weak and pitiful, but in reality, she harbors deadly intentions.
Lu Heng twirled the ring between his fingers, a cold smile flashing across his eyes.
Fortunately, he never believed the pitiful cries of the weak in the apocalypse.
They acted decisively and without hesitation, and the killings were indeed clean and correct.
In this wasteland teeming with eeriness and monsters, any stranger hiding there is the greatest danger.