Chapter 143: The Zombie Emperor

Noisy footsteps could be heard across the nearby shelves as well as the nervous intermitted shouts of the opposite team’s members:

“It’s a mutant zombie!”

Low growling came, as well as sounds of supernatural abilities being used, followed by the sound of shelves collapsing.

Xie Shili’s eyes darkened slightly, and he turned to look in the direction from which the yelling came.

It had been nearly a month since he was betrayed by the Base of the Dawn. Before he left, humans had only heard rumours that there might be mutated zombies, unwilling to believe that zombies could also mutate. However, after only a month’s time, the existence of mutated zombies seemed to have become a fully accepted fact among human survivors.

At the same time, Xie Shili became more and more sure of his previous hypothesis.

The reason not many high-risk zombies had been encountered near Base of the Dawn was because the big city around it was City A, and the high level zombie from City A was next to him.

It hunted with extremely high efficiency in the city, not only reducing the number of zombies in and around City A, but also sharply reducing the number of mutated zombies around, which made Base of the Dawn the most stable rapidly developing human base in the entire north.

The human survivors in the base were blinded by this false illusion of peace, indulging in the illusion of safety.

This also made Xie Shili curious.

Now, the high-level zombie had left City A.

There would never be such an overwhelming force in City A again. The suppressing effect brought by the high-level zombie will disappear, and the number of mutated zombies would inevitably rise up again—just like in other places in the country.

When that time comes, where will the humans in the base go?

How would the traitors react?

Xie Shili was looking forward to it.

Ge Xiu raised his head and sniffed the smell in the air——

The smell of fresh blood, the stench of rotting corpses, the mixed taste of various products in the store, the smell of supernatural beings, and…

the mutated zombie.

But the strange thing was that the smell of the other zombie was extremely vague, as if it was using some method to deliberately hide its traces.

A mutated zombie with masking ability?

Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction from where the commotion came thoughtfully. He took a step towards the center of the changes.

After passing through many aisles of overturned shelves, the supernatural abilities team was in a tense stalemate with the mutated zombie.

It was a huge zombie, its flesh from limbs to torso purple-black coloured from being soaked in water for a long time, its half-rotten facial features looked unclear under the swollen cheeks and forehead. The belly under the torn clothes was so stretched the skin almost turned transparent. The dirty gray skin was covered with terrifying purple lines as its pale pair of gray pupils stared intently at the human beings in front of it.

It looked clumsy and bloated, but its movements were unexpectedly agile, it could accurately avoid abilities attacks each time.

In the next second, a shocking scene appeared.

Weird fluctuations appeared on the purple-black skin of the mutated zombie, a layer of reflective fish scales resembling pattern spread and fluctuated on its body. Then, within a few seconds, it disappeared in place.

Ge Xiu stopped walking forward in an instant.

He raised his head suspiciously and sniffed the air.

——He couldn’t smell the mutated zombie anymore.

“Look out!”

“Be careful, it can become invisible!”

Liu Ling lowered his voice and ordered solemnly:

“Everyone gather around the center! Cover the position in front of us with a wide range of abilities and don’t give it a chance to get close to us!”

All different abilities exploded in front of him, flashing through the gaps in the blocked windows of the shopping mall.

But such indiscriminate attacking method will always show a gap.

A team member who was casting a lightning-type ability was caught off guard, and got dragged towards the shelf by his leg, screaming desperately.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of flesh and blood being torn apart accompanied by screams of pain rang out among the shadowed shelves, crimson blood splashed out at once, staining the dirty ground and half of the shelves with goods were painted deep red. Immediately afterwards, there was a scalp-numbing chewing and swallowing sound.

Everyone felt as if they were facing a big enemy, and the circle of defense narrowed even more.

At this moment, Liu Ling saw from the corner of his eye a pale-skinned young man in a black sweater walking unhurriedly from between the shelves at the other end.

Liu Ling recognized this young man as one of the two unexpected visitors.

He shouted hurriedly: “Be careful! This mutant zombie has the ability to become invisible! Go and call your other companion!”

For Liu Ling, Xie Shili was the more threatening one among those two people.

As for the other one, because Xie Shili swiftly blocked their view of him, he didn’t really see anything clearly, but because the other party subconsciously put on a protective and defensive posture, Liu Ling thought from his experience that they were in a dependent relationship between bed partners — this kind of relationship was very common in the last days, one person sold one’s body and beauty, and the other person fulfilled material needs and provided protection.

Therefore, in order to express respect for the strong, Liu Ling did not pay too much attention to the young man who was blocked behind Xie Shili.

Liu Ling originally thought that the other would run away in a panic or quickly call for his protector.

What he didn’t expect was that the young man just glanced at him indifferently, and then walked towards the dark shelf where the chewing sound came from.

At some point, the vague swallowing sound from the shadows disappeared.

All there was left was silence.

In the huge shopping mall, one could only hear the regular “dada” sounds of the soles hitting the ground, walking step by step into the darkness.

“Do you want to die?” Liu Ling shouted anxiously in suppressed voice: “Hey y…”

But as soon as he uttered half a syllable of the last word, Liu Ling was pulled by Cheng Si, who was standing behind him and was in charge of security. “Boss, don’t you think that something is wrong with that man?”

That cold, completely indifferent expression, pale to the point of being completely unhealthy complexion, and those gray, inorganic cold eyes.

Others in the team also noticed the strangeness in the other.

However, the other party’s eyes clearly showed reason and he never attacked them, let alone showed any hostility.

The facts before them made the subtle doubts in their hearts falter, swaying like wheat in the wind, unable to fully gain a foothold.

Although mutated zombies would also have a certain amount of intelligence, but a zombie that has evolved to look and act extremely human-like and restrain its urge to eat people? That was nothing short of fantasy, a fairy tale that no reasonable person would believe.

In the next second, a strong air current came from the shadows!

No one could capture the trajectory of the mutated zombie, they could only see that the young man standing in the middle of the field suddenly took a defensive posture, blocking the force from the front, as the purple-black zombie flashed for a moment.

The young man took a step back unsteadily, the smooth ground was crushed under the sudden heavy pressure, spider web cracks immediately spread under his feet as a layer of broken tiles and soil arched from his heels.

The terrifying strength shocked everyone.

But the young man seemed to be okay, slowly straightened up, turned his head and looked around the entire venue.

Liu Ling was shocked.

The opponent may have a strengthened body or could be a power-type supernatural being. He could block a blow from a mutant zombie, his level obviously not being low.

At the beginning, he really made a mistake in his judgment, thinking that this young man was depending on others and someone who sold his beauty to make a living.

Ge Xiu frowned slightly.

As the same kind, he could feel that the opponent’s ability was stronger than all the mutant zombies he had ever seen. Although he still has an absolute advantage, it had an extremely cunning ability—— when turning invisible, it could completely cover its smell to avoid Ge Xiu’s detection, and then launch an attack from another angle.

A bit tricky.

Next, the zombie launched several attacks in succession, but Ge Xiu was always able to catch the wind from where it was coming at the last moment, and quickly defuse and resist its attacks.

The venue was in a mess.

Shelves fell, floor tiles were lifted, crushed merchandise and blood splattered everywhere.

Ge Xiu was thinking in his heart how to solve the opponent.

——Although he only caught the breath of the opponent when it moved slower to him, the fragrance from the nuclei in its head already made him salivate.

Somehow Ge Xiu knew subconsciously.

If he could eat the nuclei of this mutated zombie, he might get a qualitative leap.

He swallowed, and began to search for the other’s traces in the mall again.

At this moment, without warning, Ge Xiu felt a burst of force coming from before him, menacing and unavoidable.

The mutated zombie was obviously aware of the reasons for the failure of its previous attacks. This time, it managed to avoid creating the wind current with its rapid attack, and successfully came in front of Ge Xiu.

Ge Xiu took two steps back in tragic state.

The black sweater on his body had been torn by sharp claws, revealing the pale skin beneath it that had not been seen for a long time.

Four long claw marks were dug deeply into the skin, but only a little bit of dark blood slowly flowed out from the cracked skin.

“Quick… look at him!” Cheng Si keenly caught this strange phenomenon, and couldn’t help but stretch out her hand with a gasp towards Liu Ling beside her.

Ge Xiu lowered his head.

He raised his hand and lightly stroked his scratched hoodie, the soft fabric slipped from between his fingers, he closed it with his fingers but it fell apart again powerlessly after his fingers left.

——This was what his reserve food gave him

Ge Xiu raised his head expressionlessly.

He slowly closed his eyes, and used his nose to capture and analyse the subtle compositional changes in smell in the air— whether it was human’s, corpse’s, zombie’s, a dead’s or living being’s— around the doors, windows, shelves and commodities.

Finally, Ge Xiu suddenly realized the only weakness of the opponent.

Greediness.

A common problem unique to zombies.

They could never restrain their appetite, as long as there is food around them, they would lose their mind and rush forward, never considering the possible consequences.

Ge Xiu glanced across the dark shelves.

——Before attacking him, the mutated zombie ate a person.

It gnawed off a piece of flesh from a man’s neck, snapped his carotid artery, and pulled out his steaming heart—in its mouth, between its teeth, on its claws and splashed on its body, it was all traces of human blood that couldn’t be covered up.

Ge Xiu closed his eyes again.

This time, he began to look for the smell of blood in the air.

The pale young man stood quietly on the blood-stained ground, as if he had given up resistance and was ready to get killed, silently waiting for a new round of attacks from the opponent.

Time passed by every minute and every second.

Every second passed as long as a century.

There was a strong smell of blood in the rancid air, so heavy that it seemed to make the air stagnant tangible thing, making it hard to breathe.

Suddenly.

The young man opened his eyes suddenly.

He raised his hand and firmly grasped something in the void, slowly closing his blue and white fingers.

A faint fluctuation of light appeared in the air, and then, as if the nothingness was actually error in the matrix, a huge zombie with blue, purple and swollen skin slowly emerged from the originally empty space.

It roared, trashed around and growled trying to break free from the opponent’s shackles.

But the young man’s slender arms were like cast iron, unmovable even a little bit.

Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes slightly, and slowly raised his arms.

With just one hand, he lifted the zombie thrice the size of an adult man into the air, letting its swollen legs kick in the air—but no matter what, it couldn’t escape the his grasp.

The corners of Ge Xiu’s lips moved, a trace of cold smile swept across his lips.

—I caught you.