Chapter 24: The Startled Monster
“Ugh… ah…”
Accompanied by staggering steps, the strange and aningless low roars emitted by trembling, dessicated vocal cords drew progressively nearer.
They should have been corpses that had long since departed this world, but under the control of a mutated virus caused by pollution, they continued to roam the world as monsters, craving the flesh and blood of the living, driven by instinct to consu more active cells to promote the evolution of these withered husks.
However, this withered husk soon regained the eternal slumber that should have belonged to it but had been stripped away by the mutated virus.
A dark figure darted out from the corner it had just passed.
A simple hop and jump compensated for the height difference.
Before the walker could react, an arm from behind, bent at the elbow, encircled its neck, avoiding the mouth full of mutated virus, and clamped down tightly.
‘Pfft—!!!’
The hunting knife pierced through the side of the neck, which was more fragile than the skull.
As the sound of tal cutting into flesh rang out, the walker instantly ceased all bodily activity.
After briefly confirming that this walker truly posed no further threat, the hunting knife was withdrawn, the black bloodstains wiped on the walker's clothes, and then re-sheathed.
After this clean and decisive assassination, Zhong Jing quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
So far, the close-combat tactical movents she had improved based on her own changes and combined with her past combat experience were effective against these walkers.
The one-hit kill process had proceeded without mishap.
Compared to the inconveniences brought to daily life by her physical changes, the impact on her combat habits was the most fatal: reduced strength, lighter body, shifted center of gravity, and even changes in walking and running posture all ant that her previously effective set of tactical movents and habits were no longer applicable to her current self.
These degrees of change were crucial for combat.
For example, the entry point of her hunting knife just now, choosing to stab the neck, was also a change made out of necessity.
If it were before, she would have more directly broken open the walker's skull to strike the back of the brain.
However, after taking down three walkers, she noticed a significant decline in her stamina.
The hardness of the skull made her feel sowhat troubled, especially the soreness in the thenar eminence below her thumb, which forced her to change the killing spot for the walker this ti.
However, this body wasn't entirely bad.
At least there had been a very significant improvent in flexibility… Zhong Jing thought with a hint of self-consolation.
“This is Crow, all walkers in the target area have been cleared.”
“This is Si Ling, sa here.”
Soon, reports from other rcenaries ca through the comms headsets.
Their mission was the sa as Zhong Jing’s: to clear the wandering walkers around the demolition point and provide a safe working environnt for placing the new plastic explosives.
Although there was still so distance from the corpse tide, there were still many wandering walkers.
The Commander was extrely vigilant.
To avoid alerting it, they even gave up using suppressors and instead adopted close-combat assassination to clear these wandering walkers.
“This is Stone, all walkers in the target area have been cleared.” Zhong Jing couldn't help but look towards the rooftop where Han Nianling, who was in charge of commanding the operation, was located.
Following Crow and Si Ling, Zhong Jing reported the completion of her task.
Although there was nothing unusual through the comms headset, Zhong Jing vaguely sensed that the other rcenaries in the team seed to breathe a sigh of relief.
In the original mission assignnt, she was still arranged to be by Han Nianling’s side, responsible for protecting the employer’s personal safety.
Whether it was because of her gender or to take care of her injuries, this preferential arrangent certainly suited her trouble-avoiding personality, but it made Zhong Jing feel very uncomfortable.
In common terms: she always felt… very unhappy.
If it were in the past, she might have gladly accepted it, but now there was always an impulse making her want a chance to prove her individual abilities.
Perhaps when she killed the Tier 1 Swift Walker, they would have considered luck a larger factor in their assessnt, but this individual operation was different.
Therefore, she insisted on participating in this mission, politely declining the others' care, even though Zhong Jing herself knew her behavior was sowhat childish.
“Uncle Lin, how is your situation over there.”
After a mont of silence, Han Nianling inquired about Uncle Lin, who was crucial to this mission.
“As per the employer’s instructions, I have already placed a set amount of plastic explosives on several load-bearing columns of this half-demolished building. I guarantee the commotion won’t be small.” Uncle Lin chuckled softly on his end, clearly very confident in his handiwork.
After receiving an affirmative reply, Han Nianling imdiately issued an order: “Everyone gather towards . The detonation delay is set to ten minutes. If the corpse horde is thrown into disarray by the explosion and achieves the expected effect, take action imdiately. If an ergency occurs, imdiately adopt corresponding ergency asures. We only have one chance.”
Ergency asures…
Hearing this term, Zhong Jing subconsciously touched the flashbang at her waist.
This was the ergency asure Han Nianling spoke of.
Everyone had been issued one flashbang; these were all Han Nianling had brought.
Just as Han Nianling said, they only had one chance.
Once discovered by the corpse tide, they would have no retreat.
Only one option would be left for them: to launch a forced attack, rapidly breaking through the corpse tide with fierce firepower.
Such an approach was nine-tenths fatal.
Unless absolutely necessary, how could they confront the corpse tide head-on?
“Ti calibrated, set, withdraw!”
Uncle Lin’s order ca through the comms headset.
Zhong Jing imdiately stopped lingering and retreated towards the rooftop area where they had originally been.
A few minutes later, the rcenaries returned to the rooftop one after another and imdiately raised their respective observation equipnt, looking towards the direction where they had just placed the plastic explosives.
It was a precarious six-story building, only half of which remained.
Its own load-bearing capacity was on the verge of collapse, and there were no parasitic mutated plants providing external support.
Just a little explosive to demolish the key points would cause it to collapse.
But to achieve a greater effect, all the plastic explosives Han Nianling carried were used by Uncle Lin.
“How long until detonation?” Crow rubbed his sore eyes and asked. To achieve the best observation effect, he had disregarded the polluting dust in the dense fog and removed his goggles, observing directly with his naked eyes through the binoculars.
“Two minutes and thirty-six seconds…” Han Nianling didn't look at the tir in her hand but directly reported the countdown she was ntally keeping. This made Zhong Jing, who was beside her, look at the tir in Han Nianling's hand in disbelief. She was right next to Han Nianling, and during this ti, Han Nianling hadn't lowered her head to check the ti with the tir.
Two minutes and thirty-two seconds, this was the countdown displayed on the tir.
Considering the ti difference between her hearing it and seeing it, it could be confird that the data Han Nianling reported just now had an error margin of almost within one second compared to reality.
At least Zhong Jing couldn't achieve such accuracy with her ntal count.
Ti passed, minute by minute, second by second.
The mont they were in gradually approached the detonation point of the plastic explosives.
It was clearly less than three minutes, yet it had already made everyone experience what it truly ant for a day to feel like a year.
For three minutes, everyone's heart rate reached the peak of their lives.
There was nothing more nerve-wracking than waiting for judgnt.
Would the detonation succeed?
And would it affect the corpse horde?
These unpredictable and unestimable possibilities were the greatest judgnt they faced between life and death.
“Beep beep~ Beep beep~”
The clear notification sound of Han Nianling’s tir chid as the countdown ended.
Everyone’s breath froze in that instant.
What caused this, of course, wasn’t the tir’s notification sound, but the flash of fire that lit up in their line of sight at the exact sa mont.
Clearly, at this distance, the different speeds of light and sound could only produce an almost imperceptible difference, but it was as if it had been slowed down.
This difference was infinitely magnified in their eyes, causing them to fall into a daze until the deafening explosion sound arrived, and everyone was startled awake from that montary lapse.
It was clearly just a montary lapse… yet it felt as if centuries had passed…
The successfully detonated derelict building collapsed to one side.
The tall building standing next to it experienced a chain reaction under this crushing force.
Even their feet felt the transmitted tremors.
As the tall building collapsed, it kicked up a cloud of dust over a hundred ters high.
The lingering sound of the huge explosion echoed in their ears for a long ti.
This was the result Uncle Lin wanted, a domino effect that spread the impact, achieving the optimal detonation effect.
It also made the others in the team look at him in a new light.
This kind of directional demolition technique was not sothing a rcenary could easily learn.
“Look at the corpse tide!”
Xiao Liu’s excited voice shifted everyone’s gaze from that heart-shaking scene to another heart-shaking scene.
Sure enough, the corpse tide had indeed reacted hugely to the loud noise just now.
Attracted by the sound, the corpse tide slowly approached the demolition site.
The passage on the east side of the residential area was cleared as the corpse horde moved.
Only a few slower-moving walkers were left behind by the main group.
Judging by the current developnt of the situation, their plan seed to have succeeded.
Now they just needed to wait a mont, wait for the core part of the corpse tide to completely move away a certain distance before they could pass.
However, the joyful atmosphere didn't last long among the team.
A roar suddenly coming from the explosion site made everyone's expression freeze on their faces.
This roar was definitely not sothing a walker's vocal cords could produce.
When a massive figure erged from the ruins created by the explosion, everyone realized: their plan had deviated once again.
“Crawling Giant Lizard…”
Si Ling muttered the na of the dark figure.
It was the sa type of creature whose corpse they had seen at that intersection in Sector 04.
However, the difference between this Crawling Giant Lizard before them and that corpse was too great.
Its larger body and reflective black scales showed them the differences between the two in the most direct way.
It… was a tier-two Crawling Giant Lizard, and what made it erge from its hiding place was the explosion they had just orchestrated.
It was obvious that its lair had been destroyed by the explosion just now.
This was the main reason it appeared here, and this discovery also sent a chill down the backs of the four people who had carried out the mission.
How could they have known that such a dangerous existence was so close to where they had just been carrying out their mission?
At the sa ti, they were secretly glad that they hadn't disturbed this big fellow just now, otherwise they would have undoubtedly died.
“Let’s go!”
Han Nianling’s words broke the rcenaries’ train of thought.
At this mont, she had already picked up her suitcase and was no longer observing.
Even she frowned at the urgency of the situation before them, unable to maintain her composure any longer.
“Do you want to die? Quick, while the corpse tide and the Crawling Giant Lizard are confronting each other, pass through quickly!”
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