Ch 81: TGCIR

Chen Feng had already abandoned the idea of sweeping the original area when he realized that the zombie battles were increasing from all directions. Compared to the potential gains from sweeping, the urgent task might be to bring back the transformed zombies to the base, or even capture a live zombie and bring it back to Fu Yanzhou.

A question even crossed Chen Feng’s mind: Since the zombies were becoming more organized, why didn’t they notice any signs during their sweeping?

They might betray the base; even if they haven’t yet, every team could possibly do so.

So, there was only one explanation: These zombies were gathering like small armies. They moved the transformed companions to the less active outskirts while keeping the unexceptional ones in places where there was frequent activity.

This idea sounded nerve-wracking, and it might even seem like giving zombies too much credit in terms of intelligence. However, Chen Feng had managed to survive with so many children until now, which indicated that he had a certain level of insight.

He didn’t vocalize his judgment, fearing it would scare the team members.

At that moment, the driver yelled at Chen Feng, “Feng, there’s a group ahead. We need to find a place to hide!”

The dilapidated buildings were now visible on all sides. The collapsed structures didn’t look reliable, but they were getting closer and closer. The closest one had even reached the car’s edge, clinging to it. However, these zombies were charred by the car’s electric fence, showing that they were without choice. Chen Feng understood that.

The driver slightly slowed down the speed.

Originally, their plan was to clear the zombie wave before proceeding, but the slowed speed caused the zombies to suddenly pounce. Among them was a peculiar dark figure—compared to its ragged companions, this one had a bronze-like metal covering its surface, resembling a layer of metal.

It moved with the agility of a cat and was faster than lightning. When it leaped from the zombie group, it used its companions as stepping stones. The one it used as a stepping stone had its back directly pierced by the creature, and a series of sizzling sounds accompanied by black smoke rising followed. The creature then threw the unfortunate zombie away and targeted the barricade that was currently electrified. It lunged like a wolf!

A “thud” sound was heard, and the car’s window cracked with a spiderweb pattern. Fortunately, a piece of board was still blocking the opening, sealing it tightly with a careful stitch. Chen Feng knew that if they let this continue, the car would be destroyed, and they would all be trapped. Even if the hospital looked half-ruined, they would have no other choice.

With a wave of his hand, Chen Feng opened the door on the side and threw a lightning bolt, immobilizing the ordinary zombie in front of him. The other powered individual beside Chen Feng quickly followed up with an attack. As for the zombie that had already torn off a piece of the car’s surface, its head was only half in the hole. A military knife from the base struck it with a “ding dong” sound, but surprisingly, the blade didn’t sever its neck. The sound of cracking bones accompanied by an unpleasant grinding noise followed. Chen Feng turned to look and felt his heart race. The enigmatic zombie had used its head to block the knife attack and had even bitten into the arm that was holding it!

A wailing cry mixed with the sound of bones breaking echoed, and Chen Feng could hardly bear to look. He quickly signaled to the remaining survivors, saying, “Head to the hospital! Find cover!”

Someone else reassured, “Block the door!”

They rushed towards the hospital in a hurry.

Shen Cheng was clear about all of this from the phone’s screen. While she initially thought it was a game, the battle between powered individuals and zombies was a bit intense but still seemed manageable. However, after realizing these were all real people, it felt quite different.

All of this was about real lives!

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Shen Cheng looked at the ordinary mechs in the team and sighed softly. The supply of mechs was currently limited to the mineral resources provided by the “Dimensional Link” and was sufficient for now. They might even be allocated to the powered individuals with higher ranks.

But in the situation just now, she also realized that even powered individuals, when facing those advanced-level zombie-like creatures, weren’t necessarily superior.

Should they consider the risk of starting a war with the neighboring base to seize the mine?

Shen Cheng put this question on the top of her list “Topics to Discuss with Cub”, then turned her attention back to Chen Feng’s team.

Chen Feng and his team swiftly blocked the entrance to the hospital with objects, but one of the powered individuals noticed a shadow darting around the corner as if heading in their direction.

“What?” The zombies outside were still trying to breach the door, but the powered individual who had seen something strange shouted. The shadow was gone, though. No one had gotten a clear look at it.

Chen Feng hadn’t been able to see what the shadow was either.

With zombies closing in outside and the commotion inside the hospital, Chen Feng peeked through a crack and noticed that the total number of gathered zombies wasn’t decreasing. He commanded in a deep voice, “Take a short break. Once we’re ready, we’ll deal with this wave of zombies outside and then return to the base!”

“Understood.” Everyone answered in unison.

At this moment, the task interface appeared in Shen Cheng’s game:

【1. Assist Chen Feng’s team in successfully bringing back Zombie Boss information to the base. If the mission fails, the zombie siege timeline will advance.

2. Successfully capture an advanced zombie for Fu Yanzhou’s research. Current captures: 0/1】

This was the first time Shen Cheng had initiated after finding out the truth behind the game.

During the time when Li Weilan was absent, Shen Cheng had sometimes speculated about why this game existed and what its mechanisms were.

However, as Li Weilan had said, all of its features, including the task system, seemed to be aimed at helping them.

Seeing this, every task, upon closer analysis, had its own underlying secret.

The first task involved bringing the boss back to the base. Shen Cheng scrutinized the task, detecting a hidden meaning within the words: Boss?

Zombies had Bosses?

Before Shen Cheng could think more about it, the team in the hall had mostly recuperated.

After confirming the situation with everyone, Chen Feng gestured and dispatched two individuals to guard their rear, and another two to remove some obstacles from the door, creating a gap just large enough for a single zombie to pass through.

The door loosened slightly, and a zombie wearing female attire roared and crawled in through the gap.

The guards at the door were ordinary individuals in mech suits, but since they had exchanged their personal points for these mechs, they had already faced these eerie entities once before. They had gained some experience and were using their mechs’ built-in close-quarters and ranged weapons to efficiently eliminate the zombies that crawled in while the powered individuals used their abilities. The efficiency was high.

However, Chen Feng had a lingering worry: Where was that astonishingly fast, incredibly tough, and unpredictable zombie they had encountered earlier?

Retaining some caution, Chen Feng waited until the zombies were close before making a move. However, after waiting for a while, he didn’t see that zombie emerge from the group again.

He repeated this process several times, even intentionally exposing himself a few times, but the elusive zombie never showed itself from the horde. Gradually, he relaxed his vigilance, thinking, Could it be that the strange zombie I saw earlier has left?

However, Shen Cheng had already located the zombie from earlier on her screen.

From their perspective, blocked by the surrounding doors, they hadn’t seen it emerge. However, from the god-like perspective of the game, the zombie’s location was clear. It was hiding beneath the pile of other zombies and had been rolled up by the movement, inching closer from their angle.

Unfortunately, this creature seemed to have a mind of its own. It remained hidden, occasionally revealing itself to consume the energy of the zombies around it. Perhaps, in the middle of all the chaos, Chen Feng’s acting had been too obvious, and this zombie simply lay there, waving at its fellow zombies as if saying ‘hello’!

Just then, Shen Cheng suddenly noticed something like cyclones forming from the hospital’s direction.

The peculiar zombie and its surrounding companions were affected by this disturbance. The objects that were still in place suddenly jumped and rushed toward the door. Unexpectedly, the agile creature managed to seize a mech warrior who was originally blocking the door!

While the mech warriors wore their suits, their inner cores were quite ordinary as they hadn’t received any specialized military training. Relying solely on the mechs for combat against these extremely fierce and already dead creatures, they couldn’t help but feel some fear and trepidation.

This moment of hesitation allowed the monkey-like creature to leap forward. It swiftly opened the partially-ajar door that was previously just hanging by a thread.

The door was breached!

Seeing the situation deteriorating, Chen Feng immediately activated the electric net to seal the door, while commanding all the surviving members, “Retreat inside!”

They hurriedly ran back into the hall. Just as a young girl was passing through the door, she suddenly seemed to have seen something. She kicked the door open and exclaimed in a low voice, “Look!”

Chen Feng was equally surprised. He saw a child whose half of the body had disappeared, and it was tangled in the curtain. The child was struggling to free itself, its arm already gone, leaving only bare, exposed joints. Its other arm was visible, attempting to break free from the entanglement. Unfortunately, it hadn’t managed to escape the curtain’s hold.

The child’s feeble struggle sounded like “uh uh uh,” and suddenly, its frightened eyes widened.

Chen Feng looked closer and saw the same zombie with astonishing speed from earlier. The zombie roared and launched itself from the cabinet, covering an impressive distance in an instant, heading straight for the child!

The child’s eyes closed, indicating its surrender.

Chen Feng hadn’t even finished processing the situation when he instinctively raised his hand and unleashed an electric discharge from his ability. The zombie convulsed and fell to the ground. Two of his teammates nearby didn’t hesitate, they raised their hands and unleashed their abilities on the zombie in rapid succession.

The zombie was quickly subdued.

Chen Feng’s relief was short-lived. He used his lightning ability on the creature until it twitched and sizzled, its protein-coated head burned to a crisp by electric arcs. Only when he was sure that it was completely incapacitated did he finally breathe a sigh of relief. He instructed his team to bind the creature.

He then approached the child, moving to untangle the binds, while asking, “How did you end up here? What about the others in the hospital?”

However, before the child could answer, Chen Feng’s head suddenly started to spin.

A sensation, as if a rush of air was urging him to wake up, swept over him.

Chen Feng held his forehead, feeling dizzy, and noticed that several individuals had collapsed within the room—ordinary ones went down almost instantly, but the powered individuals managed to hold out for a bit longer.

The child blinked its innocent eyes, looking at him with curiosity.

No words were spoken.

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Thingyan: Hi folks, Sandy is busy and could only focus on one novel, so Thandar and I will take turns translating this. Sandy will also translate when she can. So sorry about all the inconveniences.