Chapter Forty: The Chaotic Battle

Despite being on his own turf, why were the two groups up ahead already fighting each other?

Tank scratched his head in confusion.

Could it be... they’d come to his domain to arrange a showdown?

Standing tall atop the building, Lin Dong had already noticed the gathering tide of zombies surging in this direction, so he hadn’t let his men make a move. Now, with the two factions engaged in a fierce dogfight—quite literally dogs biting dogs—he could sit back and enjoy the spectacle.

Go on, give it your all!

Lin Dong even found himself silently cheering them on, hoping for a bloodier outcome.

The red-eyed crow circled around him.

“Good man, good man, when’s dinner at your place?”

“Don’t be hasty, the pot hasn’t even started boiling yet,” Lin Dong replied without looking back.

So Brother Crow had come as a guest, right at mealtime, clearly hoping to scrounge a meal...

On the distant battlefield, gunfire roared, flesh and blood flew in all directions, severed limbs littered the ground, and the stench of blood was overwhelming—a veritable hellscape.

Humans had unleashed their trump card: two three-meter-tall biochemical mutants—Hunters.

These Hunters were broad-shouldered and barrel-chested, each sporting a stitched scar across their massive foreheads like a giant centipede was perched there. Ammunition belts crisscrossed their torsos; they carried enormous iron hammers on their backs, and their right hands gripped Gatling machine guns.

At this moment, the six barrels spun, spitting tongues of flame.

A torrent of bullets poured forth, a veritable metallic storm.

Any zombie struck was cleaved in half or blasted to pieces, their deaths unspeakably gruesome.

If an elite zombie managed to get close, the Hunter showed no fear; he’d simply swing his colossal iron hammer in retaliation. No one knew what it was made of, but its density was tremendous—at least twenty tons by the look of it. When it crashed to the ground, it left a deep crater. Any zombie caught beneath was instantly mashed to pulp.

Watching the brutal scene, Lin Dong couldn’t help but recall his childhood—every New Year, the orphanage would make dumplings, and he’d be tasked with grinding garlic into paste. The zombies’ fate, he mused, was not unlike that garlic...

The appearance of the two Hunters gave the humans a decisive advantage. Even the most frenzied tide of undead couldn’t break through. Truly, these were the ultimate weapons of the “Zombie Eradication Initiative.”

The only thing they had to watch out for were the giant rats darting beneath their feet. But the armed squads wore nano-combat suits; no matter how sharp the rats’ teeth, they couldn’t bite through—at worst, they could only inflict minor wounds.

Clearly, the Hunter Task Force possessed considerable strength.

In about five minutes, they had wiped out six to seven thousand zombies—a third of the once-mighty horde.

And at that moment,

The Crimson-faced Zombie King, sporting a “scarf,” ambled toward the scene.

He wondered what was happening—had his underlings captured Lin Dong yet?

But a closer look revealed something amiss. His minions were fighting alongside the humans; the two Hunters, in particular, stood out, working like “garlic grinders” amidst the chaos.

There were even human Awakened among them, wielding their powers to devastating effect, unstoppable on the field.

“What’s going on here?”

“Your Majesty... there are human Awakened here—we got into a fight with them,” reported an elite zombie.

“I see,” the Crimson-faced Zombie King replied, though he’d already surmised as much.

“What about the zombie king in that building?”

“No idea, seems he hasn’t come out yet.”

“What?” The Crimson-faced Zombie King was furious. He’d come mainly to take down that rival, yet his own side had already suffered heavy losses—and he hadn’t even glimpsed the enemy.

Outrageous!

“Boss, why are there human Awakened here?” a minion asked from behind.

The Crimson-faced Zombie King was baffled. He’d evolved intelligence, but he wasn’t particularly bright.

“Could it be... he’s colluding with the humans?”

“Your Majesty, is it possible the humans came to attack him too, and we just happened to run into them first?” another minion ventured.

The king’s eyes widened—this actually made sense.

Did they blunder into a farce?

“Aaaargh!” he shrieked in frustration, his anger boiling over.

“Boss, what should we do? Should we retreat?” another minion inquired.

“Retreat?” The king’s eyes flashed with murderous intent. With so many subordinates already lost, retreating now would only deepen the humiliation. The sunk cost was too great—only total victory could redeem their losses.

Besides, humans were enemies too, and their crystal cores were even tastier.

“There’s no turning back. Kill! Annihilate them all!”

With the king’s order, his followers let out a collective howl.

If the boss said no retreat, then they would charge to the end.

Their eyes gleamed red as they hurled themselves into the fray. These zombies were highly evolved—practically at the king’s own level, and exceptionally powerful.

“Eee—eeek—eeek!” The king’s scarf shrieked, leaping from his shoulder in a series of nimble hops, landing atop a tall building.

Black mist began to swirl from its body.

It, too, wielded a strange ability: psychic domination!

“Hmm? The zombie king has appeared!” Lu Hao’s brow furrowed. He’d guessed as much after hearing that earth-shaking roar. With a horde this large, a king was certain to show up.

“Everyone, be careful! The real battle starts now!”

“Understood!” came the unified reply.

But wisps of black mist were already drifting over, enveloping several armed soldiers.

“I’m starving... so hungry!”

“Me too...”

“Hey, what’s that over there?”

“The ocean... I want to go to the beach, drink a beer, eat some clams!”

...

One of the soldiers, his eyes glazed, mimed grabbing a beer—only to pull a grenade from his belt!

“Hey! Stop! What are you doing?” Lu Hao, sensing something was wrong, rushed to intervene.

But the man had already pulled the pin.

“To victory!”

Boom!

The grenade exploded, engulfing him in flames; shrapnel tore through his comrades.

These fragmentation grenades were lethally effective.

But it didn’t end there.

Several more soldiers simultaneously pulled out grenades.

“Cheers!”

They ‘toasted’ together—embracing mutual destruction.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

A series of blasts erupted, stones and shrapnel swirling in a storm.

Lu Hao thrust his hands forward. As an earth-type Awakened, he summoned dirt to form a thick shield, blocking the force of the explosions.

The rest of the squad ducked behind armored vehicles to avoid the fragments.

Yet panic gripped their hearts—comrades who’d fought beside them moments before had inexplicably blown themselves up...

Sinister!

The power to kill so subtly was truly terrifying.

Lu Hao’s brow knitted tightly. He realized they had fallen under psychic control.

“Wen, activate a mental barrier and locate our enemy.”

“Right.” Wen nodded solemnly.

As a psychic-type Awakened, he extended his senses, conjuring a mental shield to keep out the black mist, and quickly pinpointed the source.

“Found it! Up there!”

Following his gaze, everyone looked to a third-story windowsill not far away—where a jet-black giant rat crouched, bearing a face covered in shaggy human hair.

...