Chapter 36: A Life-Saving Favor
“Then, brother, you cover me. I’ll go meet these monsters myself!” Zhang Maorong said, striking a bold pose as he stripped off his clothes, exposing his muscular upper body. Grabbing an iron rod, he strode straight toward the iron gate.
Zhan Yun and the others were momentarily speechless. This Zhang Maorong had so many things worth mocking that they didn’t even know where to start.
Zheng Jiahe couldn’t help muttering under his breath, “Who’s your brother? How thick-skinned do you have to be to call yourself Brother Zhan’s ‘big brother’? Believe it or not, if Brother Zhan gets serious, he’ll have you kneeling and singing Conquer in minutes! And what do you mean ‘cover you’? You think you’re some ancient general going off to war? What’s wrong with you? Why strip so naked—afraid the zombies won’t be able to smell this slab of pork belly on you or what?”
Song Chengshu and the others were close enough to hear every word. They almost burst out laughing, faces flushed from holding it in. Fortunately, it was dark and the area was lit by torches, so they didn’t draw attention. What had been a tense situation was instantly thrown off by his rant. Even the bit of fighting spirit Zhan Yun had just worked up vanished like a splash of water.
“Since you’ve got so much to say, I’ll take a break. You go,” Zhan Yun said, giving Zheng Jiahe a shove.
“Huh? Me?” Zheng Jiahe froze. How did this mess suddenly land on him?
“Hahaha, if he tells you to go, then go,” Song Chengshu said gleefully. “If you get outshone, don’t bother coming back.”
“Hmph! Fine, I’ll go!” Zheng Jiahe pulled out a golf club from the car—something he’d scavenged from a mall, where there had been over a hundred of them. He found it handy for smashing zombie heads: good length, nice shape, so he’d taken it as a weapon.
Striding up to the iron gate, Zheng Jiahe saw the zombies dability userately pressing their heads against the bars, trying to squeeze their skulls and arms through to get a bite of the “food” in front of them. Zhang Maorong was wildly swinging his iron rod, smashing it all over the zombies’ bodies.
Zheng Jiahe didn’t even know what to say about that. Why not just hit their heads directly? Why waste effort smashing their arms? Even if you beat them until flesh flew and bones shattered, they’d still be lively, howling away.
Raising the golf club, Zheng Jiahe aimed at the tops of the zombies’ heads and started smashing them like whack-a-mole—thump, thump, thump. Cracking zombie skulls was as easy as smashing watermelons: fast and brutal. In no time, a whole patch of zombies at the gate collapsed, leaving Zhang Maorong staring in stunned disbelief.
A human skull is extremely hard. Zombies aren’t human; they won’t fall just from internal bleeding caused by heavy blows. You have to crack the skull open and completely destroy the brain to kill them. That takes tremendous strength. Even a strength-type ability user like Zhang Maorong would feel exhausted after doing that repeatedly.
So what was going on with this guy? Wasn’t he just an ordinary person?
Zheng Jiahe didn’t notice Zhang Maorong’s inner turmoil. He used the golf club to pry away the zombie corpses still hanging on the gate so the ones behind could come forward and “offer themselves up.”
At that moment, on Zhang Maorong’s side, a particularly large zombie seized the iron rod in his hands and yanked hard. Zhang Maorong, distracted for just a moment, was completely unprepared and slammed into the iron gate. Instantly, countless claws pinned him down. Panicking, he struggled dability userately as zombies tore bloody gashes across his body, several of them opening wide and lunging to bite him.
Zheng Jiahe and Zhang Maorong were fighting on opposite sides of the gate. Even if Zheng Jiahe wanted to save him, he’d have to run from the left side to the right. No matter how fast he was, it would take a few seconds—and those few seconds were more than enough for Zhang Maorong to die several times over.
This is it… I’m done for!
Feeling death closing in, Zhang Maorong shut his eyes in terror.
The next instant, crisp gunshots rang out—bang, bang, bang. The zombies gripping Zhang Maorong all had their heads blown apart. Zheng Jiahe also rushed over in time and dragged him back.
“Th-thank you… thank you…” Zhang Maorong finally managed to find his voice.
Using the cover of the vehicle, Song Chengshu and Su Ruizhe pretended to take a medical kit from the car and cleaned and bandaged Zhang Maorong’s wounds.
Fortunately, ability users have a certain resistance to the zombie virus due to antibodies in their bodies, so they’re not easily infected. But that’s only in the early stages of the apocalypse. Zombies continue to evolve, and in the later stages, even ability users can be infected if they’re wounded or bitten by high-level zombies.
It’s like catching a cold: if your immune system is strong, you recover quickly; if it’s weak, it can turn into pneumonia. And with a highly dangerous virus like SARS, it can be fatal outright. The zombie virus works the same way—once an ability user’s body can no longer resist it, only death and mutation await.
Zhang Maorong hadn’t awakened his ability long ago, and his combat experience was severely lacking. Being able to establish this small safe zone was largely due to luck. He couldn’t be compared to Zheng Jiahe, who fought zombies daily and was on the verge of breaking through to Level Two.
Crystal cores can’t help ability users level up; they only replenish depleted energy. To advance, one must continuously use their ability, pushing themselves to the limit to increase their energy capacity. Once that capacity reaches a certain threshold, a breakthrough opportunity appears.
As for Zheng Jiahe, he wasn’t far from that day.
Zheng Jiahe single-handedly finished off the remaining zombies, then walked back with a proud, credit-seeking grin. “Brother Zhan, all taken care of!”
“Mm, well done,” Zhan Yun said, giving him rare praise.
After resting for a while, Zhang Maorong finally recovered some strength. By now, he had figured it out—his earlier instincts hadn’t been wrong. These people were truly extraordinary.
That so-called weak-looking homebody with a golf club actually had combat power greater than his own, yet he followed Zhan Yun’s every word. And during that chaotic moment earlier, Zhan Yun had stood far away yet still killed the zombies with such speed and precision. That marksmanship was nothing short of hitting the target from a hundred paces.
Not to mention the others, who had calmly observed without lifting a finger—he dared not underestimate them in the slightest anymore.
Zhang Maorong’s attitude became far more respectful than before. “Brother Zhan, thank you for saving my life just now.”
Zhan Yun waved it off. “Just a small favor. No need to mention it.”
Even so, Zhang Maorong didn’t dare take that courtesy lightly. He quickly gestured toward the rear. “You’ve all had a hard journey. Please, come rest in the back with me.”
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