Chapter 78

Chapter 78: A Naturally Sneering Face (1)

Living till such a day came…. While thinking about it was simple, actually carrying out wouldn’t be so easy!

Furthermore, in Ling Mo’s heart, he felt that this world that was riddled with problems likely wouldn’t be able to return to how it once was.

It wasn’t just X City that was affected. Even the region that Ling Mo lived in might have been reduced to a ghost city as well. And, even if humanity was able to once again establish itself, would they really be able to eradicate all the zombies out there?

Ling Mo did harbour such hope in the beginning, but after seeing that no help was being sent their way even up till now, his way of thinking gradually began to change.

Rather than wait for help that might never come, he might as well increase his own strength and rely on himself instead to continue living on.

“Let’s go, the corpse will soon attract other zombies.” Ling Mo sighed and said.

Ye Lian’s manner of attacking was both swift and savage, which left a wound that was practically a gaping hole in the corpse’s belly. Some of its internal organs had slipped out onto the ground and a thick stench of blood permeated the air. Any zombies within the vicinity would soon rush over here like hungry wolves after catching a whiff of it.

Seeing as Lin Luanqiu was practically unable to move due to her exertion in the previous battle, he allowed Shana to support her while also doubling as a rearguard to warn them of any dangers.

Shi Bin was only skilled at ambushes. He was just a little gigolo wouldn’t be able to react appropriately in a real battle, so he couldn’t be counted on.

Sure enough, zombies attracted by the smell of blood came out from every corner of the forest. These zombies were the ones that had originally been lured out of the school by Lin Luanqiu’s group when they previously made their escape. They were then subsequently left behind in the vicinity of this area.

With Ye Lian taking the lead, all the oncoming zombies were easily dispatched. As for the ones that came from other directions, more than half of them fell under the influence of Ling Mo’s spiritual tentacles. Following that, he got close to them and finished them off with a single strike to their vital points.

However, Ling Mo had no intention of lending a hand to deal with the zombies that came by Shi Bin’s way. Seeing this, he was placed in a difficult situation where he had to wind around a tree to deal with the zombies. If not for his rather nimble body, he’d likely have long since died.

Seeing as Ling Mo didn’t take any action, Lin Luanqiu knew that he did so with the intent to teach Shi Bin a lesson. However, she was indeed intelligent. She knew that she owed Ling Mo one for saving her life just now, so she didn’t have the right to make any requests of him. As such, she had no choice but to helplessly act as if she hadn’t seen anything

Using the terrain to his advantage, Shi Bin managed to take care of a few zombies. However, that bout of exertion left him as tired as a dead pig, to the point where he nearly collapsed on the ground while violently gasping for breath.

In contrast, Ling Mo on his own had taken care of over ten zombies that came his way. Aside from the faint beads of sweat on his forehead, he looked almost no different from how he did before.

I never expected he himself to possess a pretty good level of strength… Just as Shi Bin thought this, he immediately clenched his teeth in anger, Pei! You don’t amount to anything when compared to those two girls! Isn’t he better just because he has an ability? I definitely wouldn’t lose out to him if I had an ability of my own! He doesn’t need to be so cocky about it…”

However, in spite of his frustration, he could only keep his curses hidden within his heart…

Zombies continued to stream out of every corner of the forest, hampering the group’s speed. A route that should have taken seven to eight minutes to traverse had now taken half an hour.

Over thirty corpses were left in their wake when they finally got out of the forest, likely turning into a banquet for zombies before long.

A meadow was situated just outside the forest, and in the middle of it, a narrow path could be seen.  Wandering zombies could also be seen around the it. While they weren’t many of them, there were still around twenty milling about. Even worse, the meadow itself was very wide. Although Ling Mo could use his puppeteer ability to easily take care of these zombies, he didn’t want to reveal too much of his ability. Up to this point, Lin Luanqiu and Shi Bin were still under the impression that his ability simply relied on some sort of spiritual strength.

While revealing the true extent of his powers wasn’t of much consequence, it would lead to some unnecessary conjectures from other parties.

“Looks like the only choice left is to traverse this area slowly.”

The plan that Ling Mo adopted was very simple. First, he’d pick up a small rock and throw it at the closest group of zombies.

Although the sound it produced would be minute, it was still sufficient for the zombies to take notice of it. When these zombies responded, Ling Mo would take control of three of them that were facing his direction. At the same time, he’d pop his head out of his hiding spot.

This would give others the impression that the zombies discovered Ling Mo due to the noise he made and not the little tricks that he’d employed.

Seeing the zombies rush over at him, Ling Mo calmly retreated a certain distance backwards. Once he brought them towards the forest’s fringe, he allowed Ye Lian and Shana swiftly end them. For the sake of saving time, Ling Mo took the lead and jumped into the fray as well, making him appear to be extremely brave. However in reality, so as to avoid accidentally receiving any injuries, he had to skirt the edge of the battle while disposing of these zombies. With his puppeteer ability, he could also use his spiritual tentacles to impair their movement and judgement. His methods allowed him to deal with his opponents in a skillful manner while expending a minimal amount of energy.

While this way of fighting might look vulgar, Ling Mo clearly knew that his body was still only made of flesh and blood. He was finished the moment a zombie injured him. Accordingly, this was mankind’s most fatal weak point.

Just think about it, zombies fought with all their strength and would never stop attacking unless they were killed. Humans on the other hand were afraid of everything. They feared coming into contact with anything, to the point where a mere scratch would be enough to set them off.

Which is why when humans fought zombies, they rarely had sufficient courage to commit to a  fight.

Chapter 78: A Naturally Sneering Face (2)

But Ling Mo was different. On one hand, he could send Ye Lian and Shana charging into the midst of a group of zombies to wreck havoc, while on the other he could use his puppeteer ability to influence those zombies that were closer to him, striking them while he was safe.

To conserve her strength, Lin Luanqiu didn’t take any action. Shi Bin, on the other hand, was overcome with exhaustion as he squatted to the side like a dead dog. However, Ling Mo had no intention of giving him a free show. Going out of his way to control a zombie, he sent it two steps forward in the direction of Shi Bin before Ling Mo relinquished his control. Shi Bin, who was practically about to keel over from exhaustion, thought he was out of the woods after his previous bout. He didn’t expect to see a zombie charging straight towards him, giving him a huge fright. Seeing this, he hurriedly prepared to face his opponent.

While dealing with the zombie, he depressingly thought to himself, this zombie was right beside Ling Mo who was jumping all over the place, but it chose to come after me instead of attacking him. Do I really have such a mocking face? 

Relying on this method of fighting that was relatively more conservative but much safer, Ling Mo covered the entire distance to the forest. The zombies that were lingering off in the distance had already caught a whiff of the scent of blood and had taken initiative to come running without Ling Mo taking any action.

However, what awaited them would, naturally, only be death.

While these regular zombies may be a little more in numbers, and present a threat to most people, they were only courting death when they went up against Ye Lian and Shana.

In the midst of battle, Ling Mo noticed that although these zombies didn’t take the initiative to attack mutated zombies, which were of a higher rank than them, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t defend themselves. The reason why he hadn’t found this out earlier was that Ye Lian and Shana disposed of all their targets in a single strike, robbing them of the chance to put up a fight. However, due to the forest acting as an obstacle, Ye Lian and Shana run into a situation where they weren’t able to finish off their opponents immediately.

After one of the zombies had its arm chopped off, it immediately let out a low growl and pounced at Ye Lian, only to be affected by Ling Mo’s spiritual tentacles in the midst of its attack before being cut down.

Another zombie had its body injured by Shana, but it didn’t drop to the ground. Instead, after swaying about for a bit and steadying itself, it turned around and jumped at Ye Lian who was nearby, resulting in Ye Lian bisecting it at its waist.

The first time could be written off as chance, but it was definitely an issue if it happened twice in succession. Only, he didn’t know whether regular zombies had this trait in the past or whether it was something gained after making some headway in their evolution.

After all, even regular zombies would be able to make some progress in their evolution when they consumed the corpses of their kind. Although it wasn’t wasn’t obvious, but slowly accumulating their evolutionary progress over a long period of time was surely a terrifying prospect. And, such a conjecture was one that Ling Mo had made before in the past.

At the end of the world, regular people managed to grasp some survival techniques while they faced the challenging prospect of eking out a living in this new environment. At the same time, their mental state saw a gradual improvement as well. And, amongst the population of ordinary people, there was another portion of ability users who were in the midst of increasing their own strength. At the same time, the huge population of zombies were also slowly evolving as a whole, with mutated and even the formidable advanced zombies emerging from within.

After taking care of this batch of zombies, Ling Mo’s group hurriedly dashed across the meadow and made their way towards the heart of X City University.

As a university that was able to house between 50,000 to 60,000 students, the land area that X City University took up was extremely expanse.

According to Lin Luanqiu’s explanation, there were numerous zombies around the teaching block and the dormitory. On top of that, there were so many zombies near the main entrance that it could make a person’s hair stand on end.

The survivors, on the other hand, had dispersed to every corner of the school and were relying on what little food they had to live in this zombie infested school. One would require an ample amount of preparation if they planned on escaping from the school. Therefore, no one would willingly put themselves at risk by trying to escape unless it was absolutely necessary. This was even more so because people, in general, had a tendency to be driven by a herd mentality. Even if some people clearly knew that remaining trapped here was no different from waiting for their deaths, they chose to remain there with the rest of the, lacking the courage escape on their own.

But even when they did decide to escape on their own, the number of people who were able to make it out were very little. Take Lin Luanqiu for example, in her group only she and Shi Bin had made it out…

After listening to her explanation, Ling Mo spoke his mind and asked, “Your volunteer rescue squad from before should have been closer to the back gate, right?”

Lin Luanqiu gave Ling Mo an astonished look before she nodded her head and said, “That’s right. If that wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t have chosen to escape by this path. Do you see that theater over there?” As she said that, she pointed towards a red brick building off in the distance and continued, ” That’s where the volunteer rescue squad I was previously in is situated. As of now, there are less than twenty people within it.”

A strange light flashed in Ling Mo’s eyes as he asked, “Do you really have no intention of going back to them?”

Lin Luanqiu was stunned for a moment before she gave a wry smile and said, “I’d already severed my ties with them when I decided to leave this place. We walk different paths now, so I won’t go back. Moreover, I have no intention of going there to humiliate myself.

Ling Mo mind was set at ease after once again confirming that Lin Luanqiu did indeed have no intention of going back. His purpose in coming here was to hunt zombies, not to interact with other survivors.

Taking care of a problem wouldn’t be easy once it arose.

“What’s the approximate location of the school infirmary?” Ling Mo asked once again.

Lin Luanqiu raised her arm and pointed to a place far off in the distance and said, “It’s located behind the C3 teaching block. You could consider that place to be the heart of the school. That’s also the place that has the densest amount of zombies.”