Chapter 257 - 224: She Is a Mutated Zombie

Chapter 257: Chapter 224: She Is a Mutated Zombie

[Acquired: Canned Fruit x5]

"?"

The warm blood splashing over him felt deeply unpleasant. But after he killed the lead Awakened One, a drop notification flashed in his peripheral vision, sending him into a thoughtful silence.

’So, after putting on all those airs, you’re only worth five cans of fruit...’

He subconsciously glanced at his Life Value. It was still a rock-solid [1935], without the slightest fluctuation.

’Based on my experience with killing zombies, with my Life Value at 1935, I shouldn’t be able to gain any more by killing mutated creatures with less than 1000 Life Value.’

’Canned fruit isn’t bad, though. An improvement to my quality of life...’

He shook his head with a sigh of resignation. The memory of the sweet canned fruit naturally washed away his displeasure, so he just considered it even.

He glanced at the gunman, who was standing frozen in front of him. Then, as if an idea had struck him, he walked over to the two underlings who had been knocked unconscious, bent down, and picked up a hooked spear one of them had dropped.

’If he dropped loot, then could it be...?’

Expressionlessly, he used the spear tip to flick aside the corpse’s blood-soaked raincoat and began his routine search for some shiny treasure.

The spear tip plunged into the mangled, bloody torso, making a sickening SQUELCH accompanied by the grating crunch of bone. Lin Fan patiently stirred the mess, feeling for any hard objects. Rain poured down, constantly rinsing the exposed flesh, diluting the dark-red blood until it flowed away as a pale pink liquid. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Finding nothing in the chest cavity, he turned his attention to the skull, which had been split vertically in two. He used the spear’s hook to snag one half of the cranium and flipped it over, letting the downpour wash out the paste-like red and white matter inside. He then meticulously inspected every inch of the inner bone wall.

No glowing crystals. No unseen energy cores. Nothing. There was only a nauseating mess on the ground.

"Tch. Useless."

He raised the spear again, pointing it at the only other living person left standing.

"You. Can you hear me?"

The young gunman’s entire body trembled.

After a couple of minutes, the ringing in his temporarily deafened ears had subsided enough for him to faintly make out sounds from the outside world.

He’d been standing there in a daze, like a wooden puppet, but the moment he saw Lin Fan’s spear point at him, his legs gave out. He almost collapsed to his knees and began nodding his head frantically.

"Yes! I can hear you! Please, Boss, don’t kill me!"

This man, who had appeared out of nowhere like some kind of phantom, had instantly killed the powerful Li Xun with an incomprehensible ability. But that wasn’t what had shaken him to his core.

He’d seen his fair share of battles between powerful Superpower Users. And while Li Xun was cruel, often torturing and killing survivors for sport, he wasn’t even among the strongest fighters back at the factory.

What truly sent a chill down his spine, making his scalp prickle with terror, was everything the man did *after* the killing.

As he rummaged through the corpse, the man’s face betrayed no glee of vengeance, no thrill of the kill, not even the slightest disgust at the gore.

In his eyes, Li Xun’s mangled, bloody corpse might as well have been a package that had just been delivered.

He had expertly "unboxed" and rummaged through it, searching only for the "goods" inside. Upon finding the package empty, or its contents worthless, he’d casually tossed the body aside like garbage, even muttering, "Useless."

This utter indifference was far more terrifying to him than Li Xun’s perverted cruelty.

At that moment, he felt that in this man’s eyes, he didn’t even qualify as a package. He was, at most, a piece of scrap paper.

"Boss... I can hear you..."

As he spoke, he carefully placed his rifle on the sidewalk tiles. He then unstrapped his tactical vest, loaded with spare ammo, and set it aside, trying to look as harmless as possible.

"Boss, I was—"

"Yeah, yeah, ’you were forced into it.’ It’s fine. I was forced into this, too..."

Lin Fan waved a hand impatiently, cutting him off.

"Cut the crap. Just tell me what happened earlier."

"Okay, Boss. The man who died... his name is Li Xun. He was our captain. We didn’t come out here today to mess with your person. We were looking for a little girl..."

...

"So you’re saying she got out of the armored vehicle, glanced at this car, then ran back to her vehicle empty-handed, and *that’s* when you ambushed her and shot her twice?"

Frowning, Lin Fan walked over to the sedan’s shattered rear window and peered inside. The snack bags had been washed onto the floor mats by the rain that had poured in, and a fair amount of water had collected in the car.

"Yes..."

The young man followed timidly behind him, not daring to make a single unexpected move.

"You’re surprisingly honest, not trying to pin those two shots on someone else."

Without turning around, Lin Fan reached for the car door handle and yanked.

The door groaned, the metal screeching as it buckled, before he ripped it open. He reached in and felt the soaking-wet rear seat. It was just cold and slick; there was nothing out of the ordinary. The seat base was solid—no place for anyone to hide.

"You’re holding the spear, sir... How would I dare try to fool you?"

The young man’s head was bowed, and his voice trembled. He seemed to have been scared witless.

"What’s the deal with the little girl? Why were you looking for her?"

Lin Fan straightened up and walked to the rear of the sedan. He hooked his fingers under the edge of the trunk lid and, with a sudden exertion of force,

CREAK—SNAP!

A loud shriek of tearing metal erupted! Under the violent force, the locked trunk lid instantly warped and sprang open. But inside, there were only some messy personal belongings and packages. It was completely empty, with no sign of the little girl.