Chapter 190 - 189: There’s Still the Megaphone Trick

Chapter 190: Chapter 189: There’s Still the Megaphone Trick

"Is anyone there!!!"

Chu Zhaozhao stood under a building, shouting into a bullhorn.

It wasn’t that she was actually asking if anyone was upstairs; she just needed to shout something to attract the zombies.

Is anyone there... one there... there...

A huge echo reverberated between the buildings, but the one right in front of them bore the brunt of it.

Thanks to the terrible soundproofing of the old building’s sliding windows, this method was just barely usable. If they were modern double or triple-paned windows, the sound reaching inside wouldn’t have been enough to enrage the zombies.

The sound had barely faded when it took effect upstairs. One by one, zombies lurking in the rooms began to frantically beat against the glass, but they were blocked by the low balcony walls and couldn’t climb out right away...

CRACK!

CRACK!

With two sharp cracks, the balcony windows of Unit 2, Floor 4 and Unit 4, Floor 5 were suddenly shattered. Two tall figures with 1000 HP appeared in the window frames.

One was burly and muscular, tall and imposing; the other was covered in sores and spiny skin.

It looked like a strength-type Mutated Zombie and a hardened-type Mutated Zombie.

These Mutated Zombies seemed to possess some basic intelligence. After smashing the windows, they just stood behind the low balcony walls, roaring at Lin Fan’s group without jumping down.

"Heh, not so dumb after all..."

Seeing that the two Mutated Zombies wouldn’t come down, Lin Fan simply yanked a brick from the edge of the lawn.

"Let’s see if you’ll come down now!"

WHOOSH!

SMACK!

[-86]!

[914/1000]

With a dull thud, the strength-type zombie on the fourth floor of Unit 2 was struck in the chest by Lin Fan’s powerfully thrown brick. Its massive body staggered backward. The provocation enraged it, burning away what little instinct it had left, and it lunged forward, vaulting over the balcony.

It landed on the ground with a THUD.

[898/1000]

It lost another dozen or so HP, which disappointed Lin Fan a little.

It was the same with that Giant-Armed Zombie from before. It had also managed to balance itself perfectly when jumping from upstairs. Lin Fan thought it would have splatted on the ground, but instead, it landed steadily, losing only a little bit of health.

The moment the zombie landed, it charged straight for them without hesitation!

"Sister Qing, you guys are up!"

Lin Fan stepped back, gave a grand wave of his hand, and began to slack off.

"You got it!"

Because they didn’t have suitable scabbards or straps, all three longswords had been entrusted to Chu Zhaozhao for safekeeping. The other two were still using their original spears.

Chu Zhaozhao tossed the bullhorn in her hand to Lin Fan and charged, manipulating five Flying Swords. Five streaks of cold light shot one after another toward the strength-type zombie’s chest!

Based on past experience, this zombie’s weak spot was its chest!

With a few soft squelches, two Flying Swords pierced through the zombie’s chest, flew out the other side, then wheeled around to continue their assault!

The three longswords, however, plunged into the zombie’s chest and got stuck at the handguards, failing to pass all the way through.

Just then, the strength-type zombie lunged at Chu Zhaozhao, but Su Qing raised her shield and slammed into it, knocking it aside. She followed up with a backhanded spear thrust into its head.

[456/1000].

"You missed the weak spot! A little lower! Again—!"

Lin Fan shouted from the sidelines, using Chu Zhaozhao’s bullhorn.

Her strike having failed, Su Qing had no choice but to pull out her spear and retreat several steps to dodge the zombie’s swinging fists.

For a Mutated Zombie, destroying the orb that seemed to be its ’skull’ was fatal. The crystal was inside it.

It was just that for larger zombies, the orb wasn’t always in the same place. It could be in the chest or the abdomen. The lack of a consistent weak spot was extremely annoying.

And with their limited attack methods, Su Qing and the others could only probe and wear it down slowly.

His shout agitated the zombies upstairs even more. They frantically hammered on the glass.

With a series of sharp cracks, several zombies simply vaulted over their balconies, falling to the ground like broken sacks of grain.

Most of them landed with broken bones and torn ligaments, unable to get up again. But two still managed to struggle to their feet and lunge toward the group.

"Xu Qian—deal with them."

Lin Fan commanded calmly.

Even though Xu Qian’s hearing hadn’t fully recovered, he could still hear something that loud. He gripped his spear and charged the two zombies, immediately piercing one’s skull. He then pulled the spear out and plunged it straight into the eye socket of the second one!

Meanwhile, Chu Zhaozhao dodged to the side, circling on the periphery. She kept her distance from the strength-type zombie while carefully keeping it at the edge of her control range for the Flying Swords. The five blades were withdrawn, gathered power anew, and, avoiding the previous wounds, stabbed toward five different spots!

THWIP THWIP THWIP. A few dull thuds sounded.

The Mutated Zombie, which had been swinging a punch at Su Qing, suddenly went limp the instant one of the Flying Swords pierced it. Its own momentum carried it forward, and it collapsed to the ground, dying instantly.

[0/1000].

"Excellent! Xu Qian, finish off those zombies on the ground. Let’s keep going..."

Seeing that the Mutated Zombie was dead for good, Lin Fan picked up another piece of broken brick and hurled it at the hardened-type Mutated Zombie further away.

Enraged by Lin Fan, the Mutated Zombie leaped from the fourth floor, crashed to the ground, and charged the group!

Having just caught their breath, Chu Zhaozhao and Su Qing quickly grabbed their weapons and attacked the new zombie.

Meanwhile, continuously provoked by Lin Fan’s shouts, zombies kept falling from the building one after another, only to be finished off by Xu Qian, who was waiting below.

By the time Su Qing and Chu Zhaozhao killed this Mutated Zombie, Xu Qian had already taken care of seven or eight regular ones.

Just then, a Mutant Dog broke through another balcony window and leaped toward them...

...

"So... so tired... I’m dead..."

Chu Zhaozhao leaned against a security door, panting heavily. She pointed at the door beside her and said,

"This is the last room, right...?"

Su Qing stood in the entryway of the opposite apartment, while Xu Qian stood on the stairs. Both of their foreheads were beaded with sweat. Though they said nothing, they also looked exhausted.

As for Lin Fan, he pressed his face to the crack of the security door and sniffed.

Because some apartments had particularly sturdy windows, and crafty zombies like the bone-spur and banshee types couldn’t be lured out by sound alone, Lin Fan’s group ultimately had to resort to clearing the building floor by floor, room by room.

Combining the bullhorn with a room-by-room sweep, the group had cleared five buildings—a total of three hundred rooms—in just over two hours.

They had killed 32 Mutated Zombies alone, and well over a hundred regular ones.

Even taking turns as the main attacker, the high frequency of combat had thoroughly exhausted the three of them. Lin Fan, on the other hand, had barely fought, mostly just identifying which rooms contained Mutated Zombies.

With his current constitution, the stench of blood in a room couldn’t escape his nose.

"This is the last room in this building... and there are eight buildings left."

Lin Fan sniffed the air seeping from the door crack and corrected her.

He knocked on the door again, confirmed there was no movement inside, then pointed at the security door and said to Chu Zhaozhao,

"Open it. There’s a big one inside..."

"Eight more buildings..." Chu Zhaozhao went completely limp. Between the relentless assaults and her insistence on using all five Flying Swords every time, her energy bar was finally in the red. It was almost empty.

The mental fatigue was more grueling than the physical. The five swords hanging at her waist felt as heavy as mountains. Right now, all she wanted to do was lie flat in the hallway.

But when she heard Lin Fan tell her to open the door, she still pressed a hand against it and said to him,

"We have a deal. You’re fighting this one..."

"I’ll fight it, I’ll fight it. Just open the door..."

Lin Fan readily agreed.

CLICK. With a soft sound, the handle on the other side of the door turned. CREAK. The metal door slowly swung open.

Dried bloodstains, a silent room, bloody handprints—the usual grisly scene.

"A banshee zombie."

Lin Fan diagnosed.

"Huh? Then let’s not go in. Our ears just started feeling better..."

Su Qing said helplessly, her brow furrowed as she put an arm around a completely listless Chu Zhaozhao.

"You have to come in. What if you’re too far away to get any EXP?"

Lin Fan said casually.

At this point, their HP had reached:

[412], [441], and [355]. Chu Zhaozhao, with the highest HP, had already surpassed Wang Yuanhua.

"Fine..."

Su Qing gave Chu Zhaozhao a reassuring squeeze and pushed her into the living room, with Xu Qian following behind.

With such rapid growth, every one of them could feel their bodies changing. So, despite their exhaustion, they were willing to follow. It was just that their stamina couldn’t keep up; the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak.

After clearing three hundred rooms and witnessing all sorts of disgusting scenes, the group had grown numb to things like bloodstains and handprints.

Chu Zhaozhao even pulled Su Qing down to sit on a bloodstained sofa, staring blankly at the nearby Lin Fan. Her eyes seemed to say, ’Well? Go on, then?’

"Just letting you guys rest a bit..."

Lin Fan rolled his eyes at her, marveling inwardly at how much more relaxed they were becoming.

But that was the good thing about banshee zombies. If you didn’t provoke them, they wouldn’t come out of their room. They’d lie in ambush until the end of time—except for that one they’d smoked out with fire before.

Lin Fan’s gaze fell on the closed bedroom door, and with a thought, a greatsword appeared in his hand with a CLANG.

It wasn’t that the zombie inside required a greatsword to be dealt with; he just wanted to test out a new move he had thought of earlier.

The heavy greatsword thudded against the floor, shattering the tile into powder...