Chapter 23: Pea Bullets
As soon as those people left, Zhan Yun immediately went over and locked the warehouse door, then called out to Su Ruizhe to collect everything that was left.
No joke—leaving such a huge warehouse full of supplies behind would be an enormous waste. They absolutely had to take it all with them!
“Hey… A-Zhan, don’t leave me alone here!” Seeing that he was the only one left to look after the young man, Song Chengshu instantly chickened out. He was still a little scared—what if this guy had really bad luck and turned into a zombie? What was he supposed to do then?
“Grow a spine,” Zhan Yun snapped, rolling his eyes. “You’ve got a knife. If his skin starts shriveling up and his face turns bluish, just stab him straight through the brain.”
“You make it sound so easy…” Song Chengshu muttered unwillingly.
Su Ruizhe couldn’t help laughing when he heard that. “Relax, Brother Song. It’s already been an hour. If he were going to turn, he would have done so long ago.”
In the later stages of the apocalypse, research institutes established by humanity had already gained a certain understanding of the zombie virus. The virus was extremely infectious and caused devastating destruction to human cells. Ordinary people who were scratched or bitten by zombies would die and mutate within six to twelve hours if the infection was mild. But someone bitten as badly as this young man would count as a severe case—he wouldn’t even last an hour.
However, a small portion of people possessed special antibodies in their bodies. These antibodies would clash violently with the zombie virus, like a battle taking place inside the body. If the antibodies won, the body’s cells would be greatly optimized and improved, leading to the awakening of supernatural abilities.
Ability awakening usually took more than three hours. During that time, the awakened person would fall into a coma, often accompanied by persistent high fever. The stronger the ability, the longer the coma would last. Just like the young man in front of them—if he could endure it, he would awaken as an ability user.
Hearing this, Song Chengshu finally felt relieved and began searching around as well. Whenever he found something useful, he’d call out to Su Ruizhe to store it away. In the end, the warehouse was almost completely emptied—aside from some useless electronic equipment, everything else was taken into Su Ruizhe’s space.
“We should leave soon too,” Zhan Yun said, glancing at the sky. In about an hour, dawn would break. By then, more people would come out searching for food, and living humans would attract even more zombies. Slipping away unnoticed would become much harder.
“Then what about him?” Song Chengshu looked at the young man, who was still unconscious.
“You support him. Little Zhe and I will cover you.”
“Oh…” With no other choice, Song Chengshu resigned himself to hoisting the young man onto his shoulder. Although he was a doctor, he did go to the gym regularly—he still had some strength.
Zhan Yun pressed his ear against the door. After confirming there was no movement outside, he opened the warehouse door and quietly stepped out.
All three of them were wearing soft-soled, lightweight sneakers, making almost no sound.
Zhan Yun held a flashlight and led the way, scouting ahead. Su Ruizhe also held a flashlight, carefully watching their rear, while Song Chengshu carried the feverish young man, protected between the two of them.
They followed the back staircase down the same way they had come, only to discover a large pool of blood on the ground. Zhan Yun’s pupils shrank slightly as he swept his flashlight around. The walls were splattered with arterial blood, and outside the back door lay a gnawed arm—nothing left but bone…
The gruesome scene nearly made Song Chengshu jump out of his skin. If he hadn’t been forcing himself to stay composed, he might have thrown up on the spot.
“W-what… happened…?” Song Chengshu’s voice trembled.
Zhan Yun frowned deeply and made a hand gesture, signaling Su Ruizhe and Song Chengshu not to follow. He slowly approached the door and carefully pulled it open just a crack.
A night breeze carrying a faint smell of blood brushed against his face, instantly setting off alarm bells in his mind. He abruptly retreated, barely dodging a black shadow that lunged at him at high speed, and slammed the door shut.
Zhan Yun immediately shone his flashlight outside, locking onto a pair of blood-red eyes and a mouth full of sharp fangs. It was a German Doberman, its long limbs lean and powerful, its back torn open with flesh exposed—clearly attacked and infected by zombies. Blood and bits of flesh were still caught between its teeth, suggesting it had attacked something very recently. That pool of blood on the ground was probably its doing.
“It’s a zombie dog! Brother Zhan, be careful!” Su Ruizhe’s face changed drastically when he saw it. Zombie animals were different from zombies transformed from humans. They never had the initial stiff phase that human zombies did. They acted purely on instinct, making them far more aggressive and deadly than ordinary zombies.
The speed of this zombie dog alone had already startled Zhan Yun. Police dogs trained at the academy included German Dobermans—this breed was extremely formidable in terms of speed, strength, and aggression. Now that it was infected with the zombie virus, its combat power would only be even greater. Even with a door between them, Zhan Yun felt cold sweat bead on his forehead.
His gun was holstered at his lower back, but he had no chance to draw it. With the zombie dog’s speed and strength, it could probably tear his throat out in the blink of an eye.
He tightened his grip on the knife, focusing all his attention on the zombie dog in front of him, not daring to relax for even a moment.
The next instant, the zombie dog lunged straight at Zhan Yun, smashing through the glass door and leaping directly above him.
Zhan Yun rolled to the side, blade up, and slashed hard, ripping open the zombie dog’s belly in one stroke. Intestines and blood spilled everywhere, yet it seemed to have no effect at all. The zombie dog let out a low growl and lunged at him again.
The stairwell was extremely narrow. Zhan Yun was forced into a corner, with nowhere left to dodge.
He could only grip the knife handle even tighter and, bracing himself, swing at the zombie dog’s head. But his luck was terrible—the cleaver sank into the zombie dog’s skull, yet the bone was too hard to split. Instead, the blade became lodged firmly in place.
Zhan Yun’s arm went numb from the impact, and the knife handle slipped from his grasp. The zombie dog seemed to be enraged, opening its blood-filled maw and snapping toward Zhan Yun’s neck.
Zhan Yun clenched his teeth hard, his right hand curling into a fist as he prepared to give that damn zombie dog one last, dability userate blow.
The stench of decay from the zombie dog was already blasting straight into his face when, all of a sudden, there was a loud bang. The zombie dog’s massive body swayed, then finally collapsed to the ground.
Zhan Yun leaned against the wall, panting heavily. After glancing at the bloody hole in the zombie dog’s head at his feet, he looked toward Su Ruizhe.
There he saw Su Ruizhe holding a toy pistol. It was him who had just fired the shot that killed the zombie dog.
A toy gun?! Killed a zombie dog?!
You’ve got to be kidding me?!
Song Chengshu stared at Su Ruizhe with the expression of someone who had just seen God.
Su Ruizhe scratched his chin awkwardly. “Uh… I mentioned before that I also have a wood-type ability… it’s just a bit mutated… I can turn plants into weapons…”
He spread his palm. Resting in his fair hand were several smooth, emerald-green—peas.
Then he picked up one pea with his left hand. When he opened his palm again, it had transformed into a green bullet, which fit perfectly into the toy pistol.
Su Ruizhe raised the gun and fired at the wall. With ease, it blasted a hole straight through it—the effect was no different from a real gun.
Impressive, my Little Zhe…
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