Chapter 12: A Trial of Skill, Strategic Retreat

“Clack”

A crisp sound rang out as the zombie bit down on the pale arm, but sadly, aside from leaving a few shallow tooth marks, not a single scrap of skin was torn.

The zombie’s withered brain could not fathom what had happened, and it simply kept gnashing its jaws at the arm before it.

Fang Shi, having emerged from the class transformation space, remained in the exact state he was in before entering, but he did not immediately charge at the zombie.

Instead, he used his own arm to test the two new proficiencies he had just acquired.

“The zombie launches a bite attack on you. [Strength (2-10)/2 + Bite 4 (1d6)] -2 [Natural Armor 1 + Steel-Boned 1] < 0, target fails to penetrate your defense, damage dealt: 0.”

Indeed, the +2 physical defense effect did not disappoint him—these level-1 defective zombies simply could not break through his defense.

“Don’t get cocky. These old zombies probably lost all their teeth and their jaw muscles are withered.”

If a young zombie showed up, it’d at least break the skin.

“Besides, in a few minutes, the zombies will complete their transformation—their stats won’t be like this anymore.”

The first ten minutes of the Apocalypse Game’s launch were perhaps meant to give the remaining humans of Blue Planet a brief breathing space.

The initial zombies had not yet transformed, existing only at 1/4 level; ordinary people could easily kill them without succumbing to fear, thereby unlocking their player stat panels.

This allowed players with Strength, Constitution, or Agility below 10 to have their stats boosted to 10, helping them survive the most difficult weak period.

For experts, these first ten minutes were a precious opportunity to farm experience.

Once the zombies completed their stat boost and fully transformed into level-1 zombies, their Strength would be at least 12, with 1 point of Natural Armor.

Ordinary people could barely cope only if armed, and even then, they had to set traps to succeed—since zombies had no brains.

The worst part was that after transformation, their teeth and claws carried paralytic toxins; avoiding injury during combat was critical, or death would follow swiftly.

This was the advantage Fang Shi had missed before his rebirth—he hadn’t killed the zombies outside his door before the game started.

Trapped at his door for a day, he didn’t unlock his combat class template until two days later, falling far behind other experts.

As a result, before his rebirth, he could barely reach the middle tier of human settlements, and died in the wilderness during the escape after the settlement collapsed.

After testing, Fang Shi swung his cleaver, severing the zombie’s head, then jammed the cleaver’s tip into the eye socket and pried loose the head still lodged in his arm.

He shook his left hand—unharmed—and charged into the horde of zombies, beginning his slaughter.

He intended to eliminate the largest zombie cluster on the small square during this precious ten minutes, maximizing his experience gain.

He also wanted to avoid being surrounded during the upcoming retreat, since Strength directly affected movement speed on the stat panel.

Agility only influenced hand-eye coordination, limb flexibility, reaction time, and balance.

Though zombies had low Agility, even if their Strength matched his, their poor body coordination meant they couldn’t outrun him.

But if he got held up by them, his escape speed would suffer—and if too many piled on, he’d be overwhelmed; one bite, one touch of the paralytic toxin, and death was inevitable.

Fang Shi dared not gamble on whether he could be reborn again—having one chance was already fortune enough; one shouldn’t be greedy.

“Squelch.”

“Huff. Huff.”

As the last zombie’s head hit the ground, Fang Shi’s breathing grew ragged, a bead of sweat slowly tracing down his forehead.

Severing heads alone didn’t consume much stamina; the real strain came from moving, dodging, and swinging his blade simultaneously.

In elite combat sports, a fierce match lasted at most a few minutes.

And this was life-or-death combat; even with Fang Shi’s vast battle experience, had he not chosen [Resilience I] and [Natural Armor I], and charged through the zombies’ attacks head-on, he couldn’t have held out this long.

He’d have had to flee after killing ten or so zombies.

After all, this was one versus thirty—he still needed to conserve some stamina for other contingencies.

But even though these zombies were weak and unarmed, his kill count was still extraordinary.

But even though the zombies were weak and unarmed, it was still an incredible feat.

Fang Shi’s gaze sharpened—out of the corner of his eye, a zombie at the street corner suddenly surged forward at increased speed.

He instantly realized: the golden ten minutes were over.

Though he felt a pang of regret, he turned without hesitation and sprinted toward home.

At this stage, monsters hadn’t grown strong enough—China’s security doors still offered excellent protection.

These weren’t the flimsy wooden doors of distant continents, easily broken by zombies.

This isn’t some distant continent’s wooden gate that zombies can easily break.

“Xiao Lin, go lure those three zombies over here.” A portly middle-aged man called out.

“Got it, Brother Li.” A lean young man replied, picking up a wooden stick and walking toward the three zombies ahead.

They were street vendors—one sold cake, the other fried snacks—and as neighbors, they knew each other well.

At the dawn of the apocalypse, their regular customers had suddenly become zombies.

It terrified them, but after their initial shock, they fought back.

Two delicate young women, whose pre-apocalypse stats were naturally low, were easily taken down by Xiao Lin and Brother Li.

Once they unlocked their stat panels, their spirits surged.

The stat boosts and panel information made it unmistakably clear.

After exchanging glances and seeing Fang Shi’s striking performance, they realized the truth and grabbed weapons, charging into the zombies.

Other survivors who had unlocked their stat panels weren’t fools—stats, experience, levels, monsters, panels.

Wasn’t this just monster-killing and leveling up?

Were there many zombies?

Six billion zombies, converted from ninety percent of the global population—yes, there were plenty.

Tens of thousands, stretching endlessly.

Especially six billion zombies.

But distributed among survivors, that was only about nine zombies per person.

Other survivors didn’t know the transformation rate like Fang Shi did after rebirth.

But seeing the density of zombies on the streets, they had a rough idea.

These zombies were merely frightening—they had no enhanced physical abilities or other powers like spitting mist or fire.

And with no brains, if they worked together, these zombies were easy to wipe out.

So experience points on the stat panel became crucial.

If you didn’t kill more now, you didn’t know if you’d get another chance later.

Some even dared enough to see Fang Shi activate his “Unstoppable” and wanted to test their own skills.

He couldn’t fight thirty, but three? That should be doable.

I can’t fight thirty at once, but can I at least fight three?

This bold man had just lured three zombies over.

He didn’t expect the zombies to suddenly surge in speed and strength, instantly breaching his defense circle.

They pounced on him, biting and tearing, blood spraying everywhere.

Strips of flesh clung to the zombies’ lips.

This scene wasn’t unique to him—it was happening around other zombie hunters too.

The golden ten minutes had passed; the defective zombies had transformed, and the true horror of zombies began to unfold.

A zombie’s 12-point Strength was no joke—140 kilograms of lifting power, a feat few even among laborers could achieve.

The sudden surge in zombie strength tipped the scales—survivors hunting zombies now suffered massive casualties.

Even facing just one zombie, most survivors couldn’t hold their ground.

Xiao Lin was no exception; he survived only because Brother Li came to his aid.

But a large chunk of flesh had been torn from his arm, blood pooling on the ground.

If he didn’t stop the bleeding soon, death was certain.

Worse, Xiao Lin realized his injured side was gradually losing strength.

Just like when he’d gotten a tooth pulled and received anesthesia.

Xiao Lin gritted his teeth: “Brother Li, go. I’m done for.”

Brother Li shoved his cart forward, slamming it into the zombies; food scattered everywhere with a clatter.

The zombies were thrown off balance.

“No, I won’t abandon a friend to flee.” Brother Li shouted, rushing to Xiao Lin’s side, lifting him up, trying to drag him away.

But Xiao Lin’s paralyzed side had no strength; even his healthy side couldn’t maintain balance, his full weight collapsing onto Brother Li.

Watching the zombies stagger back to their feet, Xiao Lin continued: “Brother Li, if we keep this up, neither of us will escape. Leave me.”

Brother Li heard the screams around him, hesitated for a moment, then hardened his resolve: “No. If we die, we die together. I won’t leave you.”

Saying this, he simply hoisted Xiao Lin onto his back and marched forward.

Fortunately, unlocking the stat panel had boosted his Strength—otherwise, with his original 8-point Strength, he wouldn’t have managed so easily.

But even so, he was still slower than the zombies.

The stench of the zombies grew closer; Brother Li and Xiao Lin were moments from being devoured.

The stench of the zombies drew closer; Li Ge and Xiao Lin were about to be devoured.

A sharp whistling sound cut through the air.

A steel rod whizzed past Brother Li’s ear, piercing the eye socket of the zombie behind him, sending it toppling backward.

A rebar whizzed past Li Ge’s ear, piercing the eye socket of the zombie behind him; the zombie lost its balance and flew backward to the ground.

Two more whistles followed—the remaining two pursuing zombies collapsed to the ground.

Two more sounds of tearing air rang out, and the remaining two pursuing corpses fell to the ground.

Li Ge and Xiao Lin stared in shock at Fang Shi, who had just thrown something from afar, then turned to look at the corpse that had lost its life.

They were too stunned to speak.

Isn’t this the guy who just charged into the horde and went on a rampage? How strong is he?

Actually, after the recent hunt, they had finally realized the truth.

The old people turned into corpses weren’t that powerful at first. The two of them could have charged in and gone on a rampage too.

But these corpses now? They’re nothing like what they could handle.

This young man didn’t just fight his way out of the corpse horde—he still had energy left to aid others.

And he used throwing. True, humans are the strongest throwers on the surface, but that doesn’t mean an untrained human can throw with such precision.

A direct hit on the eye socket from ten meters away—this young man is definitely no ordinary person.

Fang Shi held a bundle of rebar, slowly retreating while scanning his surroundings.

Whenever a corpse came within ten meters, he hurled one of the rebar pieces.

As a survivor of three years in the apocalypse, he naturally mastered throwing skills; killing these corpses with agility 10 was effortless.

While retreating earlier, he’d accidentally noticed rebar left beside a store’s renovation site and suddenly felt like continuing the hunt.

A human with a weapon and a human without a weapon are two different species.

Earlier, Fang Shi had planned to retreat because his weapon, the cleaver, was only suited for close combat.

Given his level of physical exhaustion, getting surrounded could pose a real danger.

He could only withdraw—but now, with rebar in hand, he could attack from afar and had regained the courage to fight.

Of course, Fang Shi wouldn’t fight to the death; he only struck when he encountered corpses on his retreat path.

He deliberately limited his attacks to avoid accidents on his way back.

Saving Li Ge and Xiao Lin was just a side gesture.

“Two rebar left. Time to retreat.” After killing the three corpses chasing Li Ge and Xiao Lin, Fang Shi caught his breath and thought.

This mission yielded rich results: a total of 38 corpses eliminated—31 before transformation, 7 after.

He was extremely satisfied with this haul.

In his past life, at this time, he’d been trapped at home, waiting for rescue—nowhere near this perfect start.

Then, Fang Shi moved like a cat, darting left and right, skillfully avoiding all obstacles.

The pursuing corpses weren’t nearly as agile; vehicles, roadblocks, and staircases all blocked their advance.

Besides, their straight-line speed wasn’t faster than Fang Shi’s.

In an instant, Fang Shi vanished from Li Ge and Xiao Lin’s sight.

“Li Ge, what do we do now?” Xiao Lin, slumped on Li Ge’s shoulder, gasped weakly.

Xiao Lin had once accepted death, but Li Ge’s determination and Fang Shi’s intervention had reignited his hope.

Li Ge scanned the surroundings—luckily, the nearby corpses had been dealt with by Fang Shi, and the distant ones were chasing other survivors.

He tightened his grip on Xiao Lin’s back and said firmly, “My house is in the garage of Building Three. No corpses have noticed us yet—if we make it there, we’ll be safe.”

“Alright!”