Book 1Chapter 9: The Strength of Four Men!
"Die!"
Pressingthe cruel words through gritted teeth, he slashed out the watermelon knifeviciously in a blinding arc, directly at the zombie"s head!
Ker-sshluk!The gleaming knife burrowed deep into the zombie"s skull. The force of thecleave went unabated as it split the zombie"s head wide open into two separatehalves, only halting as it grinded into the ribs.
The zombie"sbody convulsed briefly before it flopped into a silent heap.
"Rrrargh!"
Behind him,the three clawless zombies were scrambling over.
Ye Chenspun his body around, his cold eyes glaring harshly at the zombies. With lithemovements, he rushed at the first zombie and performed a jumping kick. As thekick landed upon the zombie"s chest, its ribs underneath shattered as it wassent flying a few feet away.
Undeterred,the other two zombies ferociously charged at Ye Chen, snapping their viciousmaws at his shoulder.
Ye Chenoffered a condescending snort; a clawless zombie has essentially lost aroundeighty percent of its offensive power. He waited for the zombies to approachbefore tossing away the watermelon knife. With lightning fast movements, heseized the two zombies by their heads before mustering all his strength intoslamming them against each other!
Ker-splat!
As the twoheads collided, they exploded like overly ripe melons, erupting into a showerof pasty brain matter. With smattering chunks covering his face, Ye Chendropped the two corpses. As he locked his cold gaze upon the last remainingzombie who had just regained a standing position, he dashed towards it. Withonly his bare fingers, Ye Chen grasped the zombie by its face in a vice-likegrip and forcefully slammed it into the wall.
As thezombie"s skull was crushed against the solid wall, it caved under theunrelenting pressure….
Standing atthe corner, Ye Zhu was appalled into a motionless daze as she watchedeverything unfold.
There werea total of four zombies! Each as strong as three adult men, a punch from themwould send out a few of hundred pounds of force. Additionally, their skin wasresilient and had razor sharp claws; a normal person pitted against such amonster had essentially no choice but to perish!
However,such powerful monsters were instantly pulverized in the face of her brotherwithin a few blinks of the eye. It made her quite hesitant to believeeverything that had happened. Could her brother really advance to such aterrifying degree within one short day?
As Ye Zhuwas inwardly struggling with her thoughts, Ye Chen slowly walked towards thecenter of the room. Picking up a clean towel, he wiped away the brain matterclinging to his face and headed to the washroom for a quick shower. As thegrime came off his body, the floor was dyed into a b.l.o.o.d.y mess, withsmatterings of minced flesh….
After hewas done cleansing himself, Ye Chen exited the washroom. His chest rose andfell in exhaustion. Earlier, he had definitely expended all his strength as hefelt the fatigue wash over him. It was akin to an average man after running thefields for twenty laps.
"Let"s havethose corpses dissected; it"s getting pretty late already so we should beheading back soon." Ye Chen told his younger sister after giving the corpses aglance.
Ye Zhuseemed to have regained herself, watching the slain zombies strewn across thefloor, she rejoiced at how formidable her brother has become. Obedientlynodding her head, she began harvesting the corpses for mutagenic flesh, seemingto reach a state where she was no longer repulsed by the sight exposed innards.
Afterfinishing up, the two of them left the room. Walking through the silentcorridor, they pa.s.sed by numerous broken down doors. Past each broken door,piles of dead zombie corpses could be seen giving off a ghastly vibe of h.e.l.l onearth.
Although heknew that the zombies in these rooms were all dead, Ye Chen still didn"t relaxhis guard. A single careless mistake could very well be fatal.
Momentslater, the two arrived safely at their room.
"Click!"
When thedoor closed, a calming sense of safety washed over them. With his mind and bodyrelaxed, Ye Chen dropped off his knife before entering the washroom for athrough rinse and a change of clothes.
On theother hand, Ye Zhu headed for the kitchen in order to wash clean the collectedmutagenic flesh.
Nightdescended, the once glimmering sight of the city at night was no more. From thewindows, numerous skysc.r.a.pers could be seen looming in the distance liketowering dark behemoths. Even the numerous streetlights that once illuminatedthe roads ceased their brilliance. Everything was shrouded in a cold,suffocating darkness.
This worldshone no longer….
Ye Chenapproached to shut the windows and close the curtains. After which, he gathereda stack of newspapers and began stuffing the gaps to prevent any light fromleaking out of the room. Doing so would prevent attracting the attention of anypowerful beasts or wandering hordes of zombies….
"Brother,dinner"s ready." Ye Zhu came out of the kitchen serving two modest dishes and alarge bowl of hot soup.
Ye Chenglanced at the two dishes and soup on the table. In the mid stages of theapocalypse, a meal as decent as this was considered a luxury. After workinghimself hard for the entire day, he couldn"t help but feel famished as heinhaled the aromatic scent of the food.
Ye Chen didnot touch the food, he waited for his sister to be seated before asking:"Where"s the mutagenic flesh?"
Ye Zhufroze for a moment before getting up to rush into the kitchen. She returnedwith the mutagenic flesh served atop a plate after slicing them into bite-sizedchunks, saying: "This stuff actually tastes a bit like jelly, therefore I heldoff on giving them a stir-fry."
Ye Chennodded his head saying: "Mutagenic flesh should be eaten raw, cooking it wouldonly lead to a loss of nutrients." After saying so, he took a piece and ate it.
"You shouldbegin with eating mutagenic flesh. When the body is hungry, its digestivecapabilities are at its peak. Consuming the mutagenic flesh now will lead to abetter absorption of its nutrients and energy." said Ye Chen.
Enlightened,Ye Zhu also began eating a piece of mutagenic flesh. However, it was obviousthat she was deliberately taking her time with each piece, hoping for herbrother to have more of it. How could Ye Chen not see through her subtlegesture? Although he was aware, he did not speak up. The incidents from todayhad taught him that he was still not strong enough. In this apocalyptic worldwhere chaos prevailed, he was the main pillar that kept everything aloft. If hewere to fall, his little sister would likely succ.u.mb to the dangers beforelong….
With hishead held low, he silently ate the mutagenic flesh. Moments later, he hadconsumed most of the pieces upon the plate. Roughly half an hour later, he wasdone digesting it.
Mutagenicflesh was easily digested, rapidly metabolized within the internal organs andconverted into pure energy to be distributed throughout the entire body. YeChen felt like his body was being ma.s.saged by thousands of hands throughout,giving him a comfortable sense of pleasure as if he were drifting amongst theclouds.
Along withhis increase in strength came beads of blackish perspiration. This was theresult of his muscle fibres expelling the impurities trapped within his body. Ascientist once said: "In theory, muscle density could be enhanced to the pointof deflecting bullets!"
Afist-sized clump of cotton compressed into the size of a sesame seed wouldabsolutely be st.u.r.dier than steel nails!
Theimpurities within the body would then be pushed out like water from a sponge, thesponge being an a.n.a.logy for muscles.
Other than gaininga man"s worth of strength, Ye Chen could feel many other changes occurringthroughout his body. The skin on his palms felt more resilient, his bones weredefinitely reinforced, and even his fingernails became visibly more durable.Although they were not razor sharp, he could definitely shred vegetables withthem without a problem!
Ye Chen"seyes were sparkling, "With my current strength, killing a single zombie wouldbe child"s play. Even three or four zombies at once could be taken out withouta hitch!"
Ye Chen wasinwardly br.i.m.m.i.n.g with excitement.
If hemaintained his current rate of development, it should pave the way for increasinglyefficient zombie hunts, which in turn fed the cycle of his growth in power!
"Thatmutant ant should amount to the strength of ten zombies, which roughly equalsto the combined strength of thirty grown men. Right now, I"m at four." Ye Chenwas inwardly calculating the difference he had to overcome.
Thestandard statistics of an adult human were:
Strength:50kg!
Speed:100m/15s!
Reactiontime: 0.3s!
Right now,Ye Chen"s strength was more than 400 pounds, which translates into 200kgs offorce! As for speed, he was roughly at 100m/10s. Reaction time, reaching 0.1s!
Ye Zhu whoate a minor portion of the mutagenic flesh also experienced a significantincrease, measuring at just under the strength of two men.
"This isall thanks to you." Ye Chen was visibly thrilled, saying: "On the 17thfloor, there were 32 rooms in total, all swept clean by us. Out of the 108zombies we"ve slain, there would normally just be ten or so pieces of mutagenicflesh at most. However, through your hands you"ve discovered them at a rate ofvirtually one out of two zombies. That"s pretty much a rate of two out of fiveinstead of the regular one out of ten…."
Ye Zhu wasgiggling delightedly, as her eyes lit up with pride, she boasted: "But ofcourse, your lil" sis here is clearly of n.o.ble character. Even the heavens haveacknowledged this as a fact."
Ye Chen:"…."
Ye Zhusnickered with a "Heheh", saying: "I never said that you were of poorcharacter, so don"t start fretting over it now…."
Ye Chen:"……"
Afterresting for the night, they resumed zombie hunting the very next day. Withtheir battle gear ready, the two headed out of their room initiating anotherday of zombie hunting….
The processnow was much simpler. With Ye Chen"s strength of four men, a handful of zombiescould be taken out immediately. Only a pack of seven or more required the doorstrategy where he could break them one by one.
As timewent on, within the blink of an eye, ten days had pa.s.sed.
Duringthese ten days, Ye Chen and his sister were like two predators madly killingzombies day after day, slaughtering all the way to the 12th floor.There was one occasion where they experienced a close call. It happened whenthey rushed into a presidential suite hosting a party, inside the suite wasmore than thirty zombies. If it weren"t for a hasty retreat, they would haveended up being torn limb from limb. Finally, they clinched victory bydetonating a gas cylinder upon the vast horde of zombies.
Translator"sNotes:
In Chinese,the word referring to a person"s character is also a.s.sociated withluck/fortune.