Chapter 144: The Zombie Emperor

Ge Xiu raised his hand.

The slender fingers were very pale, with a light unhealthy cyan hue at the joints, the fingers so slim and fragile they looked as if they would break next second.

He clenched his fingers on the zombie’s swollen and ugly head, the contrast between purple-black and white was astonishing.

Immediately afterwards, the seemingly harmless fingertips stabbed inside little by little, tearing apart the soaked, swollen purple rotten flesh.

The mutated zombie’s struggle became more intense, the hoarse roar from its throat sounded more like a howl at this moment.

The next second, a “crack” sound was heard.

The jarring sound of shattering skull resounded in the empty shopping mall.

Ge Xiu’s fingers had completely sunk into the skull that he had crushed with bare hands. He tightened his fingers incomparably ruthlessly, pieces of skull fragments dripping with black pus and blood fell down with rotten brains, and instantly accumulated in a puddle on the ground, as a strong rancid smell spread, instantly making one feel nauseous.

Even though they bad experienced many hellish scenes since the world crumbled, the faces of the supernatural users in the team still couldn’t help but turn blue.

The huge zombie twitched twice, then lost its ability to move and died completely.

Ge Xiu casually dropped the remains of the body to the ground. It seemed to weigh a thousand pounds as the ground almost shook with a loud slam that resounded as it fell down.

Dust rose into air instantly.

A foul-smelling black liquid slowly flowed out of the crushed, disfigured head.

Ge Xiu looked down at the nuclei in his hand.

This was what he had just dug out from the head of the mutated zombie.

Its colour was an extremely deep black, like condensed ink, impenetrable to light.

An extremely tempting smell emanated from the crystal, like a silent temptation, whispering, persuading, and urging him in his ears and in his heart.

Eat.

Eat it.

Ge Xiu stuffed the nuclei into his mouth.

But unexpectedly, there was no need to chew at all. The moment this seemingly hard crystal entered his mouth, it turned into a warm current, flowing along the throat to the limbs.

At first it was just warm and then it became scorching like a fire in an instant. The burning feeling gnawed and devoured his nerves, as if he came back to the hunger and craving he felt when he just woke up—

Ge Xiu staggered forward, but after a few steps, his knees suddenly softened, and he fell to the ground.

He blinked blankly, as if he didn’t understand what was his current state, a pair of iron-gray eyes stared into the distance unfocused, wandering and in a daze.

The surrounding members of supernatural team looked at each other and likewise found surprise and fear in each other’s eyes.

As early as during the battle just now, they had already discovered the other’s strangeness.

Whether it was the indestructibility he showed when confronting the zombie or the wounds on his abdomen showing no signs of blood after being cut, plus the fact that he crushed open the hard head of the mutated zombie with his bare hands and directly stuffed the nuclei stained with the other’s brain into his mouth.

Even if they wanted to deceive themselves, everything in front of them made them realize that

this young man was not a very pale human being, but a zombie with more advanced mutations and unfathomable strength. If given the opportunity, it was very likely to be a threat to the entire human race.

—and now may be their only chance.

He buried his head between his knees, in a curled up fetal pose, and quietly stopped moving.

Liu Ling made a simple gesture, and the respective abilities of all of the team members emerged from their palms.

“Am I bothering you.”

A deep, hoarse, emotionless voice sounded from the side, suddenly breaking the dignified dead serious silence in the arena.

Liu Ling abruptly turned his head to look in the direction of the voice.

The tall man walked forward slowly, his expression was calm, his sharp features carried an invisible, chilling sense of oppression, and a pair of dark eyes fixedly stared at the leading Liu Ling.

Liu Ling’s face darkened, and he watched him vigilantly:

“Are you human?”

“Of course.” Xie Shili stretched out his hand without changing his face: “Would you like to touch it?”

No matter if it was skin color, eye color, or demeanor, he seemed to be thoroughly a human being.

In fact, Liu Ling had no doubts about this, he just needs an opportunity to start the next topic:

“Then do you know what your companion is?”

“Of course.” Xie Shili replied.

This answer was also within their expectations. After all, the two came in together, so it was impossible for them not to know each other’s race, but it still made it difficult for the team of supernatural beings to understand— because it was simply too crazy, thoughtless and unreasonable!

Liu Ling said: “Since this is the case, you should help us and take the opportunity to kill this monster. It’s evolving too fast, and if this trend continues at this speed, it will become a serious problem for human beings sooner or later.”

Cheng Si, the only woman in the team, also said: “I have also seen many people who keep relatives and friends who have become zombies by their side. They were always obsessively believing that the other party still remembered them, or that there was any remnant of rationality in them, but once human becomes a zombie they’re already dead. They have no memory, no emotions, no reason, and only endless hunger remains— even if this one hadn’t bitten anything yet, believe me, it will happen sooner or later.”

“It’s about humanity’s life and death.” The other person nodded and echoed:

“However, in my opinion, it’s best to capture it alive and send it to the laboratory for research to see why it evolves so quickly, and maybe we can find an antidote to restrain the virus…”

Liu Ling immediately refused his idea: “No, we can’t take this risk. The strength of this zombie is unknown. When it recovers, we may all die at his hands.”

A metal-type supernatural ability emerged from his palm:

“It’s better to stay here and get rid of future troubles, once and for all.”

Liu Ling said while turning his head to look at Xie Shili: “If you still have a little bit of conscience, then help us kill this monster to prevent…”

“To prevent what?”

Xie Shili suddenly took over the conversation.

Until now, he had been listening quietly for a long time without saying a word, his dark eyes bottomless, but now he continued slowly: “To prevent an uncertain future that nobody knows if it will happen?”

“Unsure?” Liu Ling was startled: “What are you talking about? It’s a zombie…”

Xie Shili interrupted him: “So, did he try to attack you during the period after entering the supermarket?”

Liu Ling was stuck for a moment: “Not really, but…”

Xie Shili pressed harder and harder:

“When the mutated zombie attacked you, did he help you stop it— or, objectively speaking, saved your life?”

Liu Ling was a little embarrassed: “Yes, yes, bu…”

“But,” Xie Shili sneered, “You are doing it to prevent future danger for the mankind and for the future of the entire race.”

For the development and future of the base, for the lives and ideals of majority—— Behind the pitch-black muzzle, the once-familiar faces wore hypocritical sadness, repeating the same words, hypocritical and disgusting.

“You will always be like this.” Xie Shili stepped forward and said unhurriedly.

“Condescending, high-sounding.”

A trace of cold violence flashed through his eyes, there was a blazing light in his palm, the surrounding air was slightly fluctuating due to the high heat:

“In my opinion, even worse than zombies.”

At this point, it was obvious that cooperation would be impossible.

Liu Ling stopped bothering to persuade the other party to join him, and turned over his palm as a sharp and hard metal spike formed in it, shooting towards the unconscious zombie lying on the ground like an arrow. But before it could touch it, it was melted by the cluster fire beacons that suddenly rose up, the molten iron dripped down to the floor instantly.

The other team members around also tried to step forward, but just as they to take a step, their toes suddenly felt cold.

They looked down slowly and saw a row of sharp ice structures deeply embedded in the floor, cracks spreading on the floor tiles.

…Dual abilities? !

Everyone was shocked to the core.

And it was still fire-ice double ability!

The difficulty of upgrading and training this kind of ability was many times higher than that of other dual mutually assisting systems, but once you improve you will definitely become a powerful supernatural guardian in the city—— and as far as they were aware, the only ice and fire double-line supernatural ability belonged to the former leader of Liming Base, Xie Shili, who had mysteriously disappeared.

Everyone looked at each other.

At that moment, the members of the ability team instantly reached an consensus together.

——For the time being, no direct conflict could occur.

Their opponents identity was still unknown and he had proven his strength. In case they lost another team member by continuing to fight against him regardless, their team might still get wiped out as they were in the densely-populated city center.

The best way now was to stabilize the other first and then return to the base to report for help.

Liu Ling’s expression became calm, and he nodded at Xie Shili: “Good, since you are so determined to protect this zombie, then we won’t interfere —I hope you can do it yourself.”

“Withdraw.” Liu Ling lifted his hands and made a move, sending simple instructions to the teammates behind him.

The members of the supernatural team retreated to the outside of the supermarket in an orderly manner, carrying the supplies they had collected from the supermarket.

Watching the figures of the five people disappear from sight, Xie Shili heaved a sigh of relief.

——The reason why he had exposed his dual abilities was precisely for this reason.

The injuries on his body had not yet recovered and his powers were also in a state of exhaustion. If there was a real conflict, it might become difficult for him to gain the upper hand.

Moreover, the reason why there were no zombies in the city center was because of this high-level zombie, but it was still unconscious and Xie Shili was not sure whether he could exert the same deterrent effect.

Xie Shili bent down and looked at the young man curled up silently on the ground.

His eyes were closed tightly, his face was still as pale as paper, his thin lips were tightly pressed, his brows were slightly wrinkled, like a marble statue, motionless, without any movement or breathing.

Xie Shili fell into deep thought.

He had to admit that his defensive actions just now were irrational.

The motives of the high-level zombie who kidnapped him were unknown. Although he had not shown any hostility towards him yet, this couldn’t guarantee that the other would not treat him as food in the future.

He should just take advantage of the chaos and leave, or go one step further, help the supernatural team and kill the zombie when he was in a weak state, so as to avoid future troubles.

However, maybe it was the team’s extremely familiar remarks, just like those who betrayed him, that ignited the anger, or maybe it was some subtle, indescribable weird emotion in his heart…

Xie Shili finally chose to protect this zombie that could kill him at any time.

He thought that he had done his best.

Xie Shili stood up, turned around and was about to leave.

However, behind him, a pair of light gray eyes suddenly opened.

In those ignorant, irrational eyes, there was nothing but primitive animal craving and hunger.

The next second, Xie Shili sensed a gust of wind coming from behind his back. The combat experience he had honed in the apocalypse made him subconsciously dodge to the side before he could even think about it, however, the unhealed wound on his body still hindered his actions.

Xie Shili was slammed to the ground.

The floor tiles on the ground, which had already become very fragile due to the fights just now, made a soft “cheche” sound, the dust flew up from the ground. Xie Shili stretched out his arms in front of him in embarrassment, barely managing to press against the other’s throat, to keep some distance so that he would not get bitten.

Hungry.

So hungry.

Ge Xiu’s mind was chaotic, only the increasingly growing terrifying hunger and anxiety eroded his mind, silently urging him to eat the food exuding a tempting smell in front of him.