Chapter 140: The Zombie Emperor

The city was like a corpse of a beast from steel.

It was set silently on the ground, the fierce north wind howled and rolled through the empty streets whistling between dead dilapidated buildings.

The terrible stench of death wafted in the sun, the whole city was like a slowly decaying skeleton of a giant.

Mixed roars broke abruptly through the dead silence in the city.

Countless zombies with pale skin, mutilated limbs and disembodied abdomens poured out from the dark corners of the city. There was no trace of rationality in their dirty gray eyes, only greed and craving for fresh blood.

They sniffed the taste in the wind, their stiff, rotting faces filled with hunger, hoarse growls coming out of their throats.

Under the dominating control of the natural hunting instinct, countless zombies gathered in the spacious streets, coming together in a flood of filthy flood, rushing in the same direction.

The monotonous and chaotic footsteps echoed through the streets, that were overcrowded with monstrous zombies— a sight that would make the scalp of any surviving human feel chilled.

A dark blue ice cone condensed in mid-air and pierced through the air with the sound of the whizzing wind. The sharp tip accurately pierced the fragile skull of a zombie in an instant, the dark and sticky brain matter burst out from the other side. The zombie froze for half a second, then collapsed with a bang.

Xie Shili moved his fingers.

He could feel that his abilities were slowly recovering. Although he was far from reaching his peak level, his basic self-protection ability was already there.

More zombies rushed over.

From Xie Shili’s point of view, he could see the roads leading into the distance, but they were flooded with zombies and they were still coming from all directions, with no tireness or sign of lessening, reaching their decaying hands in his direction one after another, their dead gray eyes full of terrifying hunger.

——This number could annihilate any powerful superpower abilities team.

Xie Shili’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The second ice cone condensed in the air after a while, and pierced the heads of two zombies in a row with a whistle, and then suddenly disappeared into the air.

It’s been more than a week since Xie Shili woke up outside the hospital.

They passed through two small towns and one village.

And this was the first large city they passed through after a week of walking.

During this period of time, Xie Shili was able to observe the whole process of the “hunting” of these high-level zombies up close, and clearly realized the role he played in this almost perfect hunting strategy.

He was the “bait”.

Yes, he was a walking bloody bait that could attract more zombies.

At the same time, with the passage of time, he gradually gained a deeper understanding of the internal structure of the zombies that “kidnapped” him.

——And the more he knew, the more frightened he became.

Xie Shili raised his head and looked at the four zombies beside him.

They roared, skilfully smashing the skulls of the zombies around them, then threw the corpses aside and continued to pounce on the zombies behind those who fell, fighting as efficiently as tireless machines.

These four zombies only possessed low intelligence, but they were able to obey orders from their leader, and even suppressed their instinctive appetite from obedience and did not attack Xie Shili.

Although they played the roles of hard labor and tool people without complaint, perhaps because the number of nuclei they ate was far more than what other ordinary zombies without leaders could dream of, their combat effectiveness was quite astonishing, in the face of ordinary zombies, they could crush them with their strength without any suspense.

Xie Shili estimated that even if they were to fight one to one against a group of power users, they might not fall behind.

And the core of this group——

was the high-level zombie that looks like a young man.

Xie Shili turned sideways neatly, gracefully avoiding a zombie trying to attack him, and then twisted its neck.

He raised his eyes and his sight moved to the side unnoticeably.

The high-level zombie was not far from him.

It pressed the head of a mutant zombie with its blue and white fingers, and extremely brutally crushed the hard and strengthened skull of the zombie with its bare hands, the brain that burst open dripped down between its fingers. The remaining limbs of the mutant zombie twitched for a while, and then were thrown aside without reluctance.

Xie Shili had no doubts that it created this tightly-organized, hierarchical small organization.

The wisdom displayed by this high-level zombie shocked him.

Whether it was using humans as bait to attract other zombies, or to outflank and exterminate them later, it was so skillful and sophisticated that it felt like strategy of a battle-hardened tactician.

What’s worse, Xie Shili still couldn’t discern the opponent’s strength.

The week he was forced to stay by his side was the week he had seen the most mutant zombies in his life— those mutant zombies that were once considered fake news spread by alarmists by the survivors from the base appeared almost every two days.

However, no matter how powerful the mutant zombies were, this high-level zombie could always defeat them easily.

Then it would crack open the zombie’s head with an almost nonchalant attitude, and use the nuclei of different colours from the opponent’s head as trophies, either throwing them to its backpack or directly swallow it into its mouth.

And the most terrifying thing was…

just like ability users, each mutant zombie usually had its own special ability, such as speed, strength, or ability to manipulate elements.

However, Xie Shili had never seen the other show this supernatural ability.

Every time, it crushed other mutant zombies mercilessly with absolute power, as if these zombies were not qualified to force it to use its own abilities.

In addition, Xie Shili also noticed that no matter where the other went, even in the surroundings were just ordinary low-level zombies, they would still dodge subconsciously.

…as if instinctively fearing it.

He couldn’t imagine what level the other’s strength had reached to make those zombies with low IQ who only acted on instinct avoid it instinctively.

At this moment, the high-level zombie seemed to sense something, and turned to look at Xie Shili.

Their eyes met each other in midsts of the layers upon layers of corpses and dark blood.

Xie Shili was stunned for a moment and quickly withdrew his gaze a little awkwardly.

Unknowing if it was because of the fact that the other’s level was too high, or maybe because of the fact its face shows no signs of decay at all, but, not knowing whether it was his own illusion that the other seemed to be becoming more and more human-like.

It stood calmly in the the mountain of corpses drenched in a sea of blood, with a few drops of pitch-black blood splashes on its pale cheeks and a pair of misty light gray eyes with no emotion at all.

——Chilling, foreign, cruel.

Unbeknownst to himself, Xie Shili couldn’t help recalling that time the other held his fingers and looked up at him.

He gritted his teeth, hard ice covered his knuckles, and then he raised his fists and savagely smashed the head of a zombie beside him — his actions were brutal and violent, as if he was venting his frustrations.

The skull burst into several pieces under the sudden force, and the viscous brain matter splashed in all directions, even the nuclei inside was destroyed at once.

But it didn’t seem to have much effect.

Xie Shili felt that the index finger and middle finger of his right hand began to heat up gradually, as if there was still a cold and soft sensation coming from them, the feeling of being out of control as if ice and fire alike climbed up his nerves made him gradually unable to control his irritability.

Ge Xiu tilted his head.

During this period of time, he could always sense that his food reserve was often observerving him secretly, seemingly preoccupied with something every time.

Why was that?

Could he be hungry?

After all, he would be very unhappy every time he was hungry.

That’s why he always collected more nuclei to ensure that he could grab a handful and stuff it into his mouth at any time.

Ge Xiu grabbed two zombies that were trying to get around him, and slammed their heads together hard. With sound of shattering skull, two zombies twitched twice and then stopped moving.

He thought seriously about it while digging for the nuclei.

The last purchase…

It seemed to have been around a week ago, at the supermarket near the hospital…?

Ge Xiu thoughtfully swept his eyes across the empty shopping bag hanging on No. 2’s body, and suddenly gained a realisation.

Oh!

Since zombies have a vague concept of time, Ge Xiu had not noticed the passage of time.

It turned out that so much time had passed since the last time he brought something for his rations!

Zombies could survive for a long time without eating, but humans were different. They were very fragile and could die easily if they didn’t eat for a few days.

Ge Xiu carefully looked at the human standing not far away. His sight passed over the other’s narrow waist, slender and strong legs, and his well-proportioned and powerful back. His heart ached.

…… So thin.

His family’s reserve rations were so thin and malnourished.

He was simply an incompetent owner! !

Ge Xiu made an immediate decision.

He released the aura that he had deliberately been suppressing during this period of time, and the stagnant pressure field suddenly spread.

The zombies who fell into fervour driven by the desire to devour gradually slowed down. No matter how low their intelligence was, they could still judge the absolute power of the same kind. The instinctual sense of fear defeated their hunger as their turbid eyeballs twitched under the pressure. They quickly fled from the source of the pressure like flies that had been scared away, and in just two or three minutes, the crowded streets occupied by corpses were emptied, leaving only the ground covered by the rotting blood and water. Swing the ground.

Number One, Two, Three and Four shivered and each stepped back from fear etched in their bones.

Although they were no longer those low-level creatures without IQ, they couldn’t resist that terrifying, irrational sense of oppression.

The sight of the street suddenly turning empty was too shocking.

As a human being, Xie Shili couldn’t intuitively feel the horror in front of the high-level zombie’s aura like other zombies, but he could still perceive the suffocating and firm pressure, cold and dark aura capable of chilling any creature.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, watching the other party approaching him vigilantly.

Xie Shili’s brain was running fast, calculating all the possibilities.

Why did it suddenly stop hunting?

What exactly was it trying to do?

The youthful looking high-level zombie walked to Xie Shili’s side and stared at him with a pair of indifferent light gray pupils. Then, it stretched out its hand and grabbed Xie Shili’s wrist.

Xie Shili was startled by the cold touch on his wrist.

He lowered his head, glanced at the blue and white fingers holding his wrist, and then looked up at the zombie standing in front of him.

He saw it tilt its head and point to the tall building in the distance.

The sign hanging on the high-rise buildings was in tatters, but the large characters once printed on them could still be identified:

Department Store.

Xie Shili: ?

The author has something to say:

Xie Shili didn’t expect that he would be cared for by a zombie one day.

——and it felt really good