His fingertip slid slowly across the map as he carefully studied its markings.
By now, he had explored most of the town's outskirts. Supermarkets, residential areas, small warehouses-he had already gathered plenty of the supplies worth scavenging.
Only the sprawling commercial district in the town center remained, covered entirely in deep red markings on the map. The number of zombies there was enormous. With his current level-six strength, barging in would be courting death.
Xu Qing spread the map across the table, his gaze passing over an orange-marked spot: the town's police station.
It was not too far from his steel fortress, and the number of zombies was moderate, nowhere near as terrifying as the deep red areas.
He had watched it from a distance before and vaguely made out what seemed to be a fair amount of sealed supplies inside the station building. Perhaps he could find some useful tools, or even weapons.
It would be great if he could find some guns inside.
"I'll check out the police station first."
Having made up his mind, Xu Qing folded the map and tucked it into his pocket.
Then he put on his "protective gear." In truth, this so-called protective gear was something he had made himself by sewing several decent-quality iron plates into the lining of his clothes.
He had also found a military steel helmet in some ruins and put it on.
Of course, to stay light on his feet, he could not wear a full suit of armor. He would not be able to run fast enough, and if a horde of zombies caught him, he would be finished.
The main reason Xu Qing did not get better equipment was that he could not find any. The parallel world he was currently in was already past the apocalypse, and nearly all the good things had been scavenged.
That was not to say he had found nothing special. He had stripped a bulletproof vest from a dried corpse, but something had already punched through it.
Xu Qing briefly checked his equipment. His backpack held a flashlight, along with a few bottles of drinking water and some dry rations he had brought from home.
With everything ready, he drew a deep breath, picked up a heavy crowbar, and strode out through the base's iron gate.
This crowbar was the best weapon he could currently find, and arguably the one that felt most comfortable in his hands.
Xu Qing had searched all over town without finding a suitable saber or anything of the sort.
He had modified the crowbar as well, sharpening its tip.
Outside, the apocalyptic town lay in deathly silence. The gray sky hung low overhead. Collapsed buildings stood everywhere, shattered glass littered the ground, and rusting vehicle wrecks dotted the streets.
Low, hoarse growls drifted faintly from distant streets and alleys now and then, echoing through the empty ruins and stirring an involuntary fear.
Xu Qing kept his footsteps extremely light, avoiding any unnecessary noise. His gaze constantly swept the street corners on either side, staying alert for zombies that might spring out at any moment.
Just as he rounded an intersection, several swaying figures slowly emerged from the entrance of an abandoned convenience store nearby.
They were mutated zombies, their skin ashen and their limbs twisted. Their clouded eyes locked onto Xu Qing, and guttural growls rose from their throats as they lunged toward him.
Xu Qing's gaze sharpened. He tightened his grip on the crowbar, instantly ready for battle.
The mutated zombies staggered toward him, rotting flesh hanging loose as their foul stench hit him in the face.
Xu Qing abruptly stepped back, gripping the crowbar in his right hand as Soul Power circulated rapidly through his body.
He quietly activated his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul. Several pale blue vines burst out of the ground and swiftly coiled toward the zombie at the front.
The vines soon cinched tightly around the zombie's limbs, pinning it firmly in place. But the mutated zombie was quite strong. It struggled incessantly, flailing its rotten arms wildly as it tried to snap the vines.
Without hesitation, Xu Qing sprang forward and swung his crowbar hard, smashing it heavily into the zombie's skull.
Bang!
With a dull thud, the zombie's head was knocked to one side. Its body convulsed violently a few times before falling still.
The remaining two zombies still knew no fear of death and kept lunging at him.
Xu Qing twisted aside to evade the zombie's incoming claws, then struck back with the crowbar, hitting the second zombie in the head.
But the third had already closed in, its rotten hand reaching straight for his chest.
Xu Qing hurriedly dodged sideways, but its nails still scraped his arm, instantly producing an ear-piercing screech of metal.
Screee!
Xu Qing drove his Soul Power to its limit. The Blue Silver Grass vines surged wildly once more, binding the last zombie tightly. His crowbar fell, finishing off the three mutated zombies.
With the battle over, deathly silence returned, broken only by the faint zombie growls in the distance.
Xu Qing gasped for breath, his hands trembling involuntarily. In fact, this was his first time killing zombies. Before, all he could do when he encountered them was run. And honestly, having grown up in peaceful times, even killing a chicken might have left him upset for quite a while, let alone human-shaped zombies.
They were already dead!
Xu Qing kept shouting inwardly.
After taking a moment to settle himself, he bent down to inspect the zombie corpses on the ground.
Wait?! What was this?
Soon, inside the skull of a zombie whose head he had smashed open, Xu Qing discovered a grayish-white, transparent crystal the size of a pigeon's egg.
As soon as he picked it up, an instinctive craving arose within him, as though a voice were urging him to devour it.
Xu Qing forcibly suppressed that instinct and turned his gaze toward the other two corpses.
Xu Qing took out a small knife and searched the other two zombies' skulls.
Soon, he found two more identical crystals.
He put the three crystals away. Now was not the time to study them, because he had heard several growls.
Without lingering, Xu Qing rested the crowbar on his shoulder and continued toward the police station.
What Xu Qing failed to notice was that after he killed the zombies, four wisps of golden light, invisible to the naked eye, entered his body, and the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon tattoo on his back also gave off a faint golden glow.
Along the way, he constantly watched his surroundings. Stray zombies occasionally sprang out of the roadside ruins, and he dealt with them one by one using Blue Silver Grass in combination with his crowbar.
He also collected several more gray crystals.
After stopping and starting along the way and spending a considerable amount of time, Xu Qing finally reached the police station's entrance.
The large words "Qingshan Town Police Station" hung high above.
The entire building was dilapidated. All its windows were shattered, its front door hung crookedly from the frame, and its interior was pitch-black. Intermittent growls could faintly be heard from within.
Broken office desks and chairs littered the ground outside the entrance. Blackened bloodstains and bullet holes were everywhere, along with traces of bomb blasts. One glance was enough to tell that a brutal battle had once taken place here.
Xu Qing reached into his backpack and pulled out the flashlight. He pressed the switch, and a beam of light pierced the darkness.
Standing at the entrance, he surveyed the entire police station, silently weighing things up.
This place was marked as an orange danger zone. There were plenty of zombies inside, but their numbers probably had not reached the point where he could not handle them.
It was just that the building's interior was complicated, with numerous rooms, making it easy for zombies to ambush him.
He tightened his grip on the crowbar, stepped over the damaged doorway, and cautiously entered the abandoned police station.
As soon as he entered the lobby, the flashlight's beam swept across his surroundings.
Overturned cabinets and scattered files covered the floor, with signs of decay everywhere.
Just then, several sets of heavy footsteps slowly began to sound from deep in the corridor.
Several zombies were slowly making their way toward the lobby.
The flashlight beam shifted, and several figures wearing tattered uniforms slowly shuffled out from the far end of the dim corridor.
There were four zombies in all. Two were ordinary mutated zombies, while the other two were considerably taller and more thickly built, their flesh split open. At a glance, they were clearly a stronger type.
Smelling a living human, they let out guttural growls and lunged toward the lobby with heavy steps.
Xu Qing's heart tightened. He immediately retreated half a step, braced his back against the shattered reception desk, and mobilized all his Soul Power.
"Blue Silver Grass!"
With a thought, several blue-green vines burst from the cracks in the concrete floor, coiling toward the two zombies charging at the front.
The vines bound their torsos tightly, but those two larger zombies possessed astonishing strength. Their arms tore wildly at the vines, which creaked and cracked, on the verge of snapping.
Not good. These two were stronger than the ones outside, Xu Qing thought.
He did not dare meet them head-on. Tightening his grip on the crowbar, he pushed off and sprang forward.
He smashed the crowbar hard into the head of one of the burly zombies. A dull impact rang out, but the zombie merely shook its head instead of falling. Instead, it roared and swiped its claws at Xu Qing's face.
Xu Qing hurriedly twisted aside. The claws grazed his shoulder, ripping a long tear through the fabric and exposing the iron plate wrapped inside.
The other two zombies had already broken free of the vines and were flanking him from the left and right.
For a moment, growls rose one after another throughout the lobby.