Free Web NovelChapter 44: Chapter 44: Zombies Know Martial Arts?
"Flying free in your heart, where brilliant starlight shines on for all time..."
Inside the apartment, the song blaring from the large loudspeaker was so loud and clear it made you want to move your feet and dance to the rhythm.
Lu Feng was satisfied with the power of this loudspeaker. ’With two more amplifiers, the effect would be even better,’ he thought, ’but I won’t bother setting them up in the apartment. The sound might be strong enough to shake the entire building.’
With a single thought, he brought the large loudspeaker and the two amplifiers directly into the game.
Appearing in the Qingfeng Tea House, he tossed the large loudspeaker and amplifiers to Xu Bin. The guy was built like a tank, perfect for carrying things.
"Boss, this thing is so old-fashioned. And it’s huge," Xu Bin remarked, examining the loudspeaker.
For the people of this era in the game world, the loudspeaker was indeed far too crude and primitive.
"Go to the ground floor and find a way to lure out that Mutant Beast." Lu Feng kept it brief. He drew a steel saber from his inventory, walked straight out of the Qingfeng Tea Shop, and headed downstairs.
Seeing this, the others immediately followed, their eyes filled with anticipation.
They had been trapped here for far too long, and the main reason was a Mutant Beast.
The last one, in all likelihood, was on the ground floor.
Once that Mutant Beast was taken care of, it wouldn’t matter how many zombies were left. With their main fear gone, they could deal with the rest at their own pace.
Now, they finally had a chance to leave this damn place.
The upper sections of the stairwell had already been cleared out several times.
Lu Feng and his group encountered no zombies as they descended.
They didn’t encounter any zombies even as they reached the landings for the sixth and fifth floors. It was clear they had all been led away by the previous mutant zombie to ambush Lu Feng, only to be wiped out in one go by his gas canister tactic.
When they reached the fourth-floor landing, there were finally zombies. However, Lin Jiao, Xu Bin, Chen Tao, and Chen Hao swarmed them, easily clearing out the zombies on the landing and leaving Lu Feng no chance to even make a move.
Just like that, the group reached the second-floor landing.
The second-floor landing opened into a sizable platform where a few zombies were gathered. All of them were wearing identical uniforms, which looked like some kind of martial arts training garb. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
A glance at the "Liu’s Martial Arts Hall" sign at the front of the platform made everything clear. These zombies were all students from the martial arts hall. Judging by the number of zombies, the hall must have taught some real skills.
In *After the Apocalypse*, the martial arts halls taught real skills, unlike in the real world where so-called masters like Grandmaster Ma became famous for taking punches with their faces.
You’d never see someone who looked fast, precise, and utterly dominant in a staged video, only to start flailing their arms around like a clumsy turtle in a real fight.
Just then, the zombies spotted Lu Feng and his group and lunged at them.
Lin Jiao and the other three met them head-on, taking down the zombies one by one.
Lu Feng immediately brandished his steel saber and rushed forward as well. ’I didn’t get a chance to do anything earlier,’ he thought. ’It’d be a waste not to snag a few mobs now.’
[Congratulations on killing a zombie. You have gained 5 experience points!]
...
[Congratulations on killing a zombie. You have gained 5 experience points!]
With their combined efforts, the zombies in their matching training uniforms were quickly dispatched.
As long as they weren’t swarmed by a massive horde, and with the favorable terrain, survivors like Lin Jiao who had made it this far into the apocalypse could handle this kind of situation with ease.
Lin Jiao thrust her steel spike toward the last remaining zombie in a training uniform.
But just then, the unexpected happened.
The zombie abruptly ducked, dodging Lin Jiao’s attack, and then countered, swiping its hand at her.
"..." For a split second, Lin Jiao was completely stunned. She hastily threw herself back and rolled across the floor to evade the attack.
Xu Bin stared, utterly confused.
Chen Tao was just as baffled.
So was Chen Hao.
The three of them were stunned by the scene unfolding before their eyes. freewebnσvel.cѳm
"What the hell?" Even Lu Feng was completely dumbfounded.
’Is that martial arts?’
’Can a zombie actually use fucking martial arts? The speed of that dodge and counter was so abrupt. Even I might not have reacted in time.’
’Luckily, Lin Jiao is skilled and managed to dodge. If she’d been scratched, she would’ve been a goner for sure.’
However, he also knew this had to be another mutant zombie.
But a zombie that knew martial arts was truly shocking.
This was likely related to its identity in its former life.
"A mutant zombie!" Lin Jiao clearly realized what was happening. She scrambled back to her feet and frowned at the creature.
"I didn’t expect a mutant zombie to show up here." Xu Bin’s brow was also furrowed as he stepped forward, gripping his great axe. "Let’s take it down together, just in case."
Chen Tao and Chen Hao nodded in unison.
Wherever large groups of zombies gathered, mutant zombies would eventually appear for some unknown reason. The longer they were left alone, the greater the threat these mutant zombies became.
At the same time, they were also somewhat relieved.
If the Boss hadn’t shown up, after a while, this mutant zombie might have become even more of a threat than a Mutant Beast. They would have been truly screwed then.
Lin Jiao once again thrust her steel spike at the mutant zombie.
Just like before, the mutant zombie twisted its body to dodge. But this time, before it could counterattack Lin Jiao, Chen Tao and Chen Hao’s attacks were already upon it, forcing it to twist aside again to evade.
This time, however, it only managed to get halfway through its dodge before Xu Bin’s great axe landed squarely on its shoulder, shearing half of it clean off.
Clearly, the four of them were attacking with a coordinated, well-calculated plan.
This was probably a perfect example of how two fists are no match for four hands.
Plus, the zombie’s mutation hadn’t improved its intelligence, so it was easily outsmarted.
Just as Xu Bin raised his great axe to finish off the mutant zombie, a steel saber plunged into its head, securing the kill.
Xu Bin stared at Lu Feng, momentarily stunned.
Lu Feng, however, just smiled slightly. ’Kill-steal successful. A mutant zombie is worth 100 experience points. Isn’t that way better than a regular zombie?’
[Congratulations on killing a mutant zombie. You have gained 100 experience points!]
With its head destroyed, the mutant zombie fell down stiffly.
At the same time, Lu Feng was surprised to see a token shrouded in white light float up from the zombie’s corpse.
’Did it drop something again?’
Clearly, however, Lin Jiao and the others still couldn’t see it.
Xu Bin, on the other hand, immediately crouched down and used his great axe to break open the mutant zombie’s skull, clearly looking for a crystal core. When he pulled one from its brain, he let out a surprised cry. "Huh! I’ve never seen a crystal core like this before..."
Lin Jiao, Chen Tao, and Chen Hao were all captivated by the crystal core.
"It’s transparent, like crystal?" Lin Jiao asked, her curiosity piqued.
Chen Tao and Chen Hao felt the same.
Until now, they had only ever seen white crystal cores.
Xu Bin examined the special, crystal-colored core for a moment before handing it to Lu Feng.
Lu Feng took it and used his game’s Analysis function to check it. He immediately understood what it was:
[This is a special, crystalline crystal core, extremely rare. It contains the purest non-elemental energy, which can be absorbed by humans. Absorbing a sufficient quantity of this energy will improve a person’s physical constitution.
Absorption grants 300 experience. Absorb?]
’This must be the special crystal core mentioned in the official game guide.’
’Though the official information was sparse, only saying that these special cores were very rare and would only slowly begin to appear some time after the game’s launch.’
’And this crystalline core obviously wasn’t meant to be used as an energy source; it could be directly absorbed by him as experience.’
Lu Feng chose to absorb it without hesitation. In the next moment, the crystal core in his hand instantly dissolved into motes of starlight that flowed into his body.
[Congratulations! You have absorbed a special crystalline core and gained 300 experience points!]
On Lu Feng’s status bar, his experience now read: LV4: 585/1600.
But when Lin Jiao and the other three saw this, they all stared at Lu Feng in utter astonishment.
"It was... absorbed?" Lin Jiao murmured.
The other three exchanged a look.
It was the first time the four of them had ever encountered such a scene, and they were extremely curious.
Lu Feng, meanwhile, silently walked over to the mutant zombie’s corpse and picked up the special item token that had dropped.
When he used his game’s analysis function to view the item token’s information, a look of incredulous surprise appeared on his face.
