Chapter 327 - 164: Signs of Habitation

Chapter 327: Chapter 164: Signs of Habitation

After dispatching the zombie that lunged at him, Xu Mo unleashed his full strength and charged into the horde. The Triangular Spike in his hand flashed like lightning, each thrust piercing a skull. His pace hardly faltered; the zombies couldn’t even slow him down. Black blood splattered and bodies lay strewn about as Xu Mo weaved through the horde, a deathly shadow reaping lives.

In a matter of moments, Xu Mo had carved a path straight through the first wave of the horde.

But Xu Mo didn’t stop. He turned and charged right back in.

...

Inside the walls of Linhai Town, the battle was raging.

Dozens of able-bodied men stood guard behind the wall, armed with all sorts of weapons—rifles, shotguns, machetes, and homemade spears. They fired from loopholes and over the top of the wall, desperately holding back the zombies trying to scale it.

But there were simply too many zombies, and the Tier 1 mutated ones were incredibly tough. The Agility Types were ghostly fast, and each appearance left someone injured. The Strength Types were astonishingly powerful, making the entire wall tremble with every impact. The Venom Type was even more loathsome; the acid it spat could corrode huge holes in the wooden planks. Several sections of the wall were already on the verge of collapse from its attacks.

Their leader was a middle-aged man in his forties with a square face, thick eyebrows, and a face drenched in sweat. He held a Type 81 rifle, firing controlled bursts at a Strength Zombie outside. The bullets tore into the zombie, splattering black blood, but the creature refused to fall. Instead, it slammed against the wall with even greater ferocity.

"Hold the line! Everyone, hold the line!" he roared.

A man ran over to him, his face deathly pale.

"Zhou! Another one of our guys is down! He was bitten!"

Zhou Jianguo’s expression turned even grimmer.

"Get him down from here! Quarantine him!"

"He’s been quarantined, but—" The man hesitated. "He already turned. We had to..."

A nerve in Zhou Jianguo’s eye twitched. He didn’t turn his head, merely nodding as he spoke in a hoarse voice:

"I understand."

Another man approached, a tall, lanky youth with an anxious expression:

"Zhou, maybe we should fall back! We can use the terrain to fight a guerrilla war! If we keep defending this wall, our losses will be too high!"

"Fall back?" Zhou Jianguo shot him a glare. "Fall back where? The women, children, and elderly are inside! If we pull back, what happens to them? We just let the zombies go in and have a feast?"

The young man was left speechless.

Another, gruffer voice cut in. It belonged to a burly man in his thirties with a scar across his face, a large machete gripped in his hand.

"Zhou, let me take some men down there! We’ll take them on head-on! If we kill one, we break even; kill two, and we profit! No way in hell are we letting these things into our homes again!"

Zhou Jianguo glanced at him but didn’t say a word.

’Going down there is a suicide mission. But if they don’t, the wall will fall sooner or later.’

He gritted his teeth, just as he was about to give the order—

"Look!"

Someone nearby suddenly cried out in shock.

Zhou Jianguo faltered, then followed the man’s pointing finger with his gaze. He froze.

At the far edge of the horde, a lone figure had appeared out of nowhere. The person was dressed in black tactical gear, with an AK-47 slung across their back, and was wielding something in their hand. He couldn’t make out what it was, but with every swing of the weapon, a zombie fell.

Just like that, he charged straight into the horde. One man, with an unknown weapon, against hundreds of zombies.

Then Zhou Jianguo witnessed the most incredible sight of his life. The man weaved through the horde at an astonishing speed. Zombies swarmed him frantically, but he always managed to dodge at the last possible second, his weapon striking out in the same motion. With every move, a zombie fell. Regular zombies, Tier 1 mutated zombies, Agility Types, Strength Types—it made no difference to him.

An Agile Zombie lunged from the side, as fast as a shadow. The man didn’t even look, simply sidestepping slightly and thrusting his weapon backhanded. The Agile Zombie’s head exploded, and its headless body carried on for several meters from inertia before collapsing.

A Strength Zombie charged him head-on, its massive body like a wall of flesh. The man advanced instead of retreating. Before the Strength Zombie’s fist could land, his weapon had already plunged into its jaw. The tip burst out from the back of its skull. The hulking creature swayed for a moment before crashing to the ground.

The Venom Type that had caused them the most trouble opened its mouth to spit. With a flick of his wrist, the man threw something—was it a pebble? A bullet? In the next instant, the Venom Type’s head burst open. Its own acid showered its body as it slowly collapsed.

In the span of a few breaths—truly, just a few breaths—the man had cut a swathe from one end of the horde to the other, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. Black blood pooled into streams, and severed limbs were scattered everywhere. The zombies that had been frantically assaulting the wall moments ago were now nothing but motionless piles of rotting flesh.

But the man didn’t stop. Having carved through them once, he turned and charged right back in.

Zhou Jianguo’s mouth hung open, his eyes as wide as saucers. The men beside him were equally dumbstruck, standing frozen, having forgotten to even fire their guns.

Finally, one man stammered in a trembling voice:

"Is... is he even human?"

Zhou Jianguo snapped out of his daze and bellowed:

"What are you all gawking at?! Finish off the remaining zombies! And remember, do not hit that man!"

As if waking from a dream, the men scrambled to raise their weapons and opened fire on the few remaining, straggling zombies.

With the help of such a powerful combatant, the remaining zombies were quickly mopped up. The wounded, the stragglers, those trying to flee—not a single one escaped. A few minutes later, the only thing outside the wall was a field of corpses. Not a single zombie was left standing.

When the battle was over, Zhou Jianguo stood atop the wall, his gaze fixed on the man across the field of bodies.

The man stood in the center of the carnage, surrounded by a mountain of zombie corpses. Zhou could now see his weapon clearly: it was a Triangular Spike, and it was still dripping.

He looked up, glanced toward the wall, and gave Zhou Jianguo a nod before speaking:

"Mind opening the gate for me? I’m going back to get my car."

Zhou Jianguo stared for a second before nodding vigorously.

"Open it! Open the gate, now!"