Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Black Cat

Under the astonished gazes of the crowd, Lin Dong kept slaughtering the zombies. In the space of just a few breaths, he had cut down more than a hundred of them.

At the same time, he was silently searching for the black cat’s location.

It should not be far from here.

“I found it.”

Soon, Lin Dong sensed a presence outside the factory building, beneath a large iron tank.

Then, as he lifted his gaze, two more elite zombies rushed in front of him.

Lin Dong swept his blade sideways, cleaving off both heads. Amid the spray of foul blood, two crystal cores flew out.

These zombies had evolved to a considerable degree, which showed that the corpse king in this area was no weakling.

Lin Dong pressed on.

He fought his way all the way out of the factory building, leaving behind a path strewn with corpses and flowing filth.

Outside, the light was dim. The sun had fully set, and night was approaching. But this made no difference to Lin Dong. With a casual sweep of his eyes, he spotted a black shape indeed crouching beneath a large iron tank.

It was the black cat he had seen on the way here. Its body was curled into a ball, motionless, as if asleep.

This was one of the major drawbacks of possession. Its soul was now in Sun Xiaoqiang, and its original body could no longer move.

But there were even more elite zombies around now, apparently specially guarding the black cat. In the gloom, terrifying faces emerged one after another.

Having found his target, Lin Dong no longer held back. With a thought, his corpse domain expanded to its limit.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The zombies closest to him were the first to burst apart.

The overwhelming pressure reached its peak.

Nearby debris was crushed and warped, and even the tall iron tank began to hum and tremble, as if being kneaded by an invisible giant hand. The liquid stored inside sprayed out in violent bursts.

The black cat below shrank into a tighter ball.

Meow!

It let out a shrill, miserable cry. Sensing that its original body was in danger, it decisively abandoned Sun Xiaoqiang and returned to its own body.

But the moment the black cat opened its eyes, it saw a long, lean figure walking toward it.

With each step he took, the pressure upon it grew fiercer, as if a millstone were grinding down on it.

“Not so arrogant now?”

Lin Dong looked at it coldly.

The black cat sensed the aura of death. Its black fur bristled all over, its ears shot upright, and its cat eyes were filled with terror. It staggered backward, trying to flee and escape this horrifying corpse domain.

But with its body, there was simply no way it could do so.

Lin Dong swung his long blade and slashed across its head. The razor-sharp edge sank in as easily as cutting tofu.

Awooo!

The black cat let out a mournful cry and fell to the ground. From the place where its skull had been sheared away, black blood gushed out in streams.

Thus, the battle was over.

Lin Dong withdrew the terrifying corpse domain. Keeping it fully unleashed consumed a great deal of energy; after the series of battles just now, he had used up roughly one-tenth of it.

But then Lin Dong noticed a problem.

Inside the black cat’s severed skull, there was no crystal core.

“What’s going on?”

He stood where he was, lost in thought.

Could it be that possession was not the black cat’s awakened ability?

Perhaps... there was another explanation.

That some other being had placed the black cat’s soul into Sun Xiaoqiang, or one could say... it had granted the black cat the ability of possession.

“Truly bizarre...”

Lin Dong muttered inwardly.

This trip had not been in vain. It was fortunate he had discovered the truth early; if he had remained unaware, he might have suffered a great loss.

Especially his subordinate Tank, who was cut from the same cloth as Sun Xiaoqiang: both had the kind of dead-and-dim CPU, zombies with brute strength but no brains.

Roar!

Just after Lin Dong killed the black cat, a thunderous roar of countless zombies rose from the depths of this area, shaking heaven and earth. It seemed the entire district trembled with it. Clearly, the slaughter in the sugar factory had alerted the corpse king within the nest.

The zombie horde was probably assembling and heading this way.

“It’s time to go...”

Lin Dong had no intention of engaging them in a full-scale war yet.

At the very least, he needed to obtain the Q virus first and let his ace legion evolve once more. If the battle became too brutal, then even if he won in the end, it would only create an opening for other corpse kings.

Setting aside everything else, the Tek Company was already watching hungrily from the shadows.

At that moment, another set of hurried footsteps sounded from the darkness ahead. It was the other members of the search team, who, sensing the fighting here, no longer hid themselves and hurried over one after another.

They had been thinking that if there was a chance, they could lend a hand and do their part.

But what they saw was Lin Dong standing alone outside, surrounded by zombie corpses, shattered debris, and twisted iron tanks.

The entire scene looked as though it had been ravaged by a natural disaster.

“Hiss...”

Several of them drew a sharp breath, too shocked to speak.

Inside the factory at that moment, Sun Xiaoqiang’s cat eyes dilated, and the wise light returned to them as before, though his face still wore a bewildered expression.

Because just now, the “main unit” had gone offline. Like a blackout after drinking, he had lost part of his memory and could not remember anything.

All he knew now was that every inch of his body hurt; there was not a single good place left on him...

He subconsciously touched his cheek, and a throbbing pain spread through it. His face was already swollen and bruised.

“What happened to me just now? Why does it suddenly hurt so much?”

Sun Xiaoqiang asked in confusion.

Cheng Luoyi looked him over and said, “It’s nothing. You just fell asleep and took a tumble.”

“Huh?”

Sun Xiaoqiang froze.

Then what were those shoe prints on his body?

“We should go,” Cheng Luoyi said, staring ahead. She had also heard the vicious howls from the center of the corpse nest.

The others nodded repeatedly, their faces pale with fear.

If they were surrounded by the tide of corpses...

Then there would truly be no hope of survival.

“Is everyone rescued?” Sun Xiaoqiang asked.

“Stop worrying about pointless things and hurry up!” Zhao Meiling urged.

After that, everyone quickly left the sugar factory and ran toward the riverbank. Fortunately, they were on the outer edge of the corpse nest, and before long they heard the river flowing gently.

But under the shroud of dimness, the river ahead was pitch black.

Cheng Luoyi looked back.

The corpse tide was drawing closer and closer. Even the ground was beginning to tremble faintly, and along the distant streets, one terrifying figure after another had started to emerge.

Several of the ice builders hurried forward, cold aura surging around them, and as they had done on the way here, they once again erected an ice bridge.

Only this time, the bridge had a slight curve, like a slide.

After everyone jumped on, they slid all the way across to the other side of the river.

“Mm, this is fun.”

Sun Xiaoqiang had found the joy of childhood once more.

After they reached the opposite bank, they hurriedly withdrew the ice bridge.

“Phew—we’re alive...”

Everyone let out a long breath, especially Li Xuan and the others from the search team. It felt like they had escaped the jaws of death, having walked through the gates of hell and come back with their lives.

This terrifying apocalypse was truly far too dangerous.

People lived every day in constant fear.

On the far bank, figures of zombies had already begun to appear. They had chased all the way to the river, but now they could only stare across in helpless rage, roaring incessantly at the silhouettes of the group, furious yet powerless.

...

The ruined sugar factory was swallowed completely by darkness.

“Coal Ball... Coal Ball...”

An aged voice called out under the night sky, hoarse and resentful.

An old woman slowly emerged from the gloom. Her figure was bent and her white hair was in disarray, but what was most horrifying was her face.

It was half a wrinkled human visage and half a terrifying black cat face...

...