LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 54: Don’t Give Up Hope
Chapter 54: Don’t Give Up Hope
Bagdong and the giant zombie were still locked in combat.
Heavy fists were swinging wildly.
Bagdong moved lightly on his feet, kicking and punching, sending the regular zombies flying while avoiding the heavy blows from the giant zombie.
Whoosh!
A massive fist whistled through the air, heading straight for Bagdong.
Bagdong bent backward, dodging the incoming punch, and spun his body like a top, sweeping his right leg horizontally.
Bang!
A dull impact sounded as the giant zombie staggered to the side, taking two steps and almost losing its balance.
Bagdong quickly followed up.
He pushed his palm up to strike the zombie's chin, stepped forward, attacked its ribs with his left fist, then struck its abdomen with a right hook. He then followed up with a left punch and another right punch.
His strikes were fierce and relentless.
Meanwhile, Barson was darting around, continuously slashing with his short blades, leaving bloody gashes on the giant zombie’s lower body.
Bagdong jumped up, delivering a straight punch to the zombie’s throat.
Bang!
The giant zombie fell backward, sitting heavily on the ground.
Bagdong didn’t give it a chance to recover and quickly followed up, pounding its head with heavy blows.
The dull thuds sounded like a sledgehammer striking.
Thud, thud, thud.
Barson took this opportunity to stab his short sword into the target's chest.
When Bagdong stood up, the giant zombie was still lying on the ground, unable to get back up.
【Experience gained +143.】
【Summoned Creature - Skeleton Brawler gained experience +22.】
The appearance of experience points confirmed that the giant zombie had been killed by Bagdong.
Finally, it was dead.
Wu Heng had been worried that the giant zombie might escape.
If it came back for revenge, it would have been a big problem.
After the giant zombie was killed, Bagdong and Barson returned to the main battlefield, attacking the remaining zombies from another side.
The battle continued, but the number of zombies was dwindling.
.........
After the last zombie fell, the entire area fell silent once more.
The skeleton warriors stood still, their bones stained with blood, bits of flesh, and tangled hair clinging to them as they awaited orders.
The skeletons with souls walked toward Wu Heng.
Wu Heng put on a mask and walked out of the building.
The area outside was filled with zombie corpses and scattered bones, with no bare ground in sight.
“Bring over that giant zombie’s body,” Wu Heng ordered.
Sword One and Sword Two quickly went over and dragged the massive body closer.
The mutated zombie, with its exaggerated muscles, looked rather miserable.
Its eyeballs had burst, and its head was twisted at an unnatural angle.
Its body was covered in numerous cuts and wounds.
These two skeletons sure didn’t hold back.
After drinking a bottle of mana potion to recover some of his mental strength, Wu Heng cast 【Raise Skeleton】 on the giant zombie.
Necromantic magic enveloped the corpse before him.
The flesh slowly peeled away, and the enormous skeleton of the giant zombie slowly sat up.
【Skeleton Warrior (Level 11)】
【Level: 11 (0/65,000)】
【Attributes: Constitution 28, Strength 29, Agility 17, Intelligence 6, Perception 12, Charisma 5.】
【Traits: Hollow Skeleton, Basic Soul】
【Proficiency: Biological Mutation】
【Biological Mutation】: Constitution +3.
It turned out to be a Level 11 zombie.
Its level was one lower than Bagdong's.
But in terms of attributes, it clearly excelled in its areas of strength.
Constitution 28, Strength 29.
Bagdong’s strength was only 25, and even though all the muscle had fallen away, this new skeleton was still the strongest among the others.
However, its weaknesses were obvious as well: low agility, low intelligence, and low perception.
In other words, even after the mutation, it retained some of the flaws of a zombie.
Another point was that this skeleton was still called a Skeleton Warrior and only had one proficiency, Biological Mutation, which added 3 points to its Constitution.
Beyond that, it had no other proficiencies or abilities.
This was a big difference from the professional units found in Blackstone Town.
Professional units, when converted, retained their original abilities.
If two skeletons of the same level were compared, the one with professional skills would be much stronger.
But there wasn’t much he could do; it wasn’t like he could let the zombies change professions before killing them.
Holding a short spear, Wu Heng searched through the fallen flesh.
A fleshy "Corpse Core" appeared before him.
Wu Heng was pleased but also a bit puzzled.
“A new type of Corpse Core?”
He found a plastic bag and carefully wrapped the Corpse Core, examining it closely.
The size of the Corpse Core hadn’t changed; it was still about the size of a fingernail. But the white flesh was now laced with red blood vessels.
It looked like a network of blood vessels or perhaps nerve tissue.
He didn’t know much about biology, but it looked strange.
This was quite different from the Corpse Cores dropped by the mutated dogs.
It seemed to be a new type of Corpse Core.
But he wasn’t sure if the antidote he had previously prepared would still work.
Looking down at the Corpse Core, the newly added 3-meter skeleton squatted down to examine it as well.
Wu Heng glanced at it, then packed up the Corpse Core and said, “From now on, you’ll be called ‘Big Guy.’”
The 3-meter skeleton looked around, its mind seemingly not very sharp.
Wu Heng didn’t bother with it any further. After looking around, he gave another order, “Alright, move the bodies together and clean up the debris.”
The skeletons with souls immediately began directing the other skeletons to work.
They moved the corpses and cleared away the scattered debris.
This battle had almost exhausted all the supplies from the entire building.
TVs, computers, tables, chairs—everything was scattered all over the place.
It seemed he might need to switch to a new building as his base; this one was in pretty bad shape.
Wu Heng had a thought.
The ghost Xiaoxiao flew out from within him.
She looked around, her face filled with fear.
“Uncle, you killed so many people.”
“They’re not people anymore,” Wu Heng replied.
“It’s so scary.”
Wu Heng was at a loss for words.
These zombies had been infected with a gene virus and were essentially the living dead.
You’re a ghost—what’s there to be afraid of?
Xiaoxiao had died young, and Wu Heng didn’t want to explain everything to a child, so he simply said, “Xiaoxiao, at that intersection, there’s a bus. Can you check if there are any zombies nearby?”
“Oh, okay.” Xiaoxiao nodded and flew through the wall.
Soon, she returned and said, “No, there are just a few that can’t move and are crawling slowly on the road.”
Wu Heng double-checked her memory.
The wide road was empty, with a few zombies missing their lower halves crawling slowly.
After thinking for a moment, Wu Heng decided to go and check it out before nightfall.
“Barson, Bagdong,” Wu Heng called out, bringing along some skeleton warriors as they headed out.
.........
Along the way, they cleared out a few zombies.
Then they reached the survivor bus that hadn’t managed to escape.
The bus was in bad shape, its metal mesh smashed and discarded, and the body was covered in dents.
Wu Heng boarded the bus to investigate.
The survivors had brought sharpened iron pipes, kitchen knives, and some collected food.
They had been well-prepared, but unfortunately, they hadn’t made it out.
Wu Heng’s gaze fell on a steel box welded from white steel plates.
It wasn’t locked. He opened it to find an old-style cassette recorder, modified with tape and some equipment, with a long, thin antenna attached.
“What’s this?”
He casually pressed the play button.
A sharp burst of static rang out, followed by a familiar voice.
【Don’t give up hope. Find every way to survive. Keep holding on...】.
The familiar voice echoed from the recorder.
