Chapter 18: The Power of Law: Walking Corpse Evolution

In the living room, Zhai Yan and Xiao Xi were sprawled on the sofa, especially Xiao Xi, who looked as if every bone in her body had gone missing.

At first, Xiao Xi had still relied on her usual pressure on Zhai Yan, putting in the bare minimum of effort while moving the clutter.

At most she carried a few pots and bowls just for show, leaving the heavy lifting entirely to Zhai Yan.

But Fang Shi refused to play along with her act. After catching Xiao Xi slacking, he immediately raised the bone-chopping cleaver in his hand as a warning.

It scared Xiao Xi into not daring to slack off. Though her efficiency afterward wasn't high, she did put her heart into the work, which left her so exhausted she collapsed.

"Xiao Xi, later I'll take you to take down a walking corpse, unlock the attribute panel, and complete your attributes, so you won't have to work so hard."

Even though Zhai Yan did most of the heavy lifting and was panting from exhaustion, his constitution was higher than Xiao Xi's, so he recovered faster.

After resting for this stretch of time, he already had the strength to move things once more.

This time Xiao Xi didn't object. The strands of hair on her forehead were stuck together one by one, and her whole face was greasy and grimy.

"Are you stupid? Just ask that person for a walking corpse, and say not unlocking the attribute panel affects the moving efficiency."

Zhai Yan thought it over and felt Xiao Xi made sense, but on second thought he said, "How about this—after your attributes are completed later, the two of us climb over the balcony and find a room to hide in."

A trace of fear surfaced in Xiao Xi's eyes: "No way, what if there are walking corpses in the room?"

The rooms they had cleared of clutter earlier had all been deliberately emptied by Zhai Yan using traps, but climbing over the balcony was a different story.

First, they'd lose the advantage of terrain, and with their current strength, they might not necessarily be able to win.

And smashing down doors and using traps to clear rooms would be no different from posting a sign that says "three hundred taels of silver hidden here."

Xiao Xi just wanted to live safely and was unwilling to do anything risky.

"After that person leaves, you go lure the walking corpses to gather downstairs, then I'll grind them."

Xiao Xi said to Zhai Yan. After being struck down by Fang Shi, she had deeply realized the importance of personal strength in the apocalypse and planned to take on everything herself.

A trace of unwillingness surfaced in Zhai Yan's eyes, but looking at Xiao Xi's appearance, a trace of infatuation also surfaced, and he slowly nodded in agreement.

……

On the rooftop, Fang Shi, who had been about to leave, suddenly noticed an abnormal situation appearing downstairs.

By now, because of Fang Shi's high-altitude dumping, the area downstairs was piled high with clutter and walking corpse bodies, forming a small mound.

The remaining living walking corpses, wanting to get closer to Fang Shi, mostly stood on top of the corpse pile, waving their claws and trying to climb up.

Among them, one walking corpse that looked like a young person was wedged into the pile of walking corpses and should have been utterly unremarkable.

But this very walking corpse began to radiate a metallic luster all over its body, standing out so conspicuously among the dim, rotting walking corpses.

"Is this evolution?" Fang Shi was greatly shocked.

Walking corpses were different from the otherworldly creatures that descended later.

They were humans who had failed to be transformed by the laws, and remnants of the power of law still lingered within their bodies.

Although it wasn't as orderly as the power of law in living humans, it still granted walking corpses tremendous evolutionary potential.

Especially under certain specific conditions, it was easier to activate the potential within a walking corpse.

"It couldn't be that my monster-grinding caused a bunch of ownerless death power to gather downstairs, which just happened to make this one walking corpse evolve, right?"

Regarding the walking corpse's evolution, Fang Shi felt not the slightest fear, but rather a hint of excitement.

Three years after the apocalypse, the evolution of walking corpses had long been researched thoroughly.

Starting from the most ordinary walking corpse, then four tiers: Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold.

Beyond that were the legendary three tiers: Rakshasa, Yaksha, and Hanba.

Every time it advanced a tier, it was a major evolution, and the walking corpse's strength would rise by one rank.

A Gold-tier corpse was already a fourth-rank creature, equivalent to a legendary powerhouse among humans.

Of course, the walking corpse downstairs wouldn't be that monstrous, leaping straight to the level of an Iron-tier corpse.

After all, Fang Shi had gained 485 experience points, meaning only 97 walking corpses had died downstairs.

This bit of death power absolutely couldn't nurture a monster at the Iron-tier level.

Generally speaking, it would only be an elite walking corpse around level 3.

A level 3 elite walking corpse had 14 points of strength, 12 points of agility, 2 points of natural armor, and 39 points of health.

Its attacks also came with 1d4 paralysis poison.

To deal effective damage to a level 3 elite walking corpse's defenses, one needed over 10 points of strength and had to be armed with a weapon.

Judging by the current common level of survivors, to kill one would require at least a team surrounding it, and even then would have to pay a certain price in casualties.

And that was under a group beatdown. If there were other walking corpses around the level 3 elite, it would be a thousand times harder.

A whole team might be wiped out and still fail to kill a level 3 elite walking corpse.

But this didn't include Fang Shi—his level had long since surpassed everyone else's.

With his current attributes and combat skills, in a 1v1 he could absolutely easily defeat a level 3 walking corpse.

A level 3 elite walking corpse itself carried 60 experience points, plus a 20% bonus for fighting above one's level.

As long as Fang Shi took down one, he'd gain 72 experience, equivalent to 12 ordinary walking corpses.

The most important point was that he strongly suspected the first time fighting above one's level also came with a generous reward.

That was the main reason for his excitement.

After all, compared to the effort spent gaining 72 experience points, it was better to kill more ordinary walking corpses.

"I wonder if anyone has ever gotten the first-kill-above-level reward?"

"Probably not. Walking corpses above level 2 already have a certain intelligence—they gather other walking corpses around them and avoid danger."

"They no longer just mindlessly charge at people. If you don't know about the reward, no one would pay a huge price to take down a group of walking corpses that travel in packs and have a leader."

So Fang Shi just watched the walking corpse downstairs evolve with his own eyes, without making any disturbance.

Even though he was well aware that an evolved walking corpse would command the corpse horde to some degree, making them harder to deal with and less easy to grind for experience.

But for the first-kill reward of fighting above one's level, these costs were all worth it.

If the rewards are rich enough, they will yield more combat power than a direct level-up bonus.

This is crucial for dealing with the first assault at midnight tonight.

He waited a full ten minutes before the shamblers at the building's base completed their evolution.

The evolved shambler's rotting appearance had diminished slightly, resembling a mummy more closely; its facial features were sunken, and its skin bore a metallic, iron-colored luster.

If the shambler's entire body turned iron-colored, it would prove that the shambler had evolved into a Tier 1 Iron Corpse.

Currently, only the shambler's limbs held a metallic hue; judging by Fang Shi's experience, this was a Level 3 Elite Shambler.

His heart settled; if it had only evolved into a Level 2 Elite Shambler, he would have lost out.

A Level 4 Elite Shambler could be defeated, but it was far too dangerous.

This neither-high-nor-low Level 3 Elite Shambler was just right.

The evolved Level 3 Shambler opened its gray-brown eyes and scanned Fang Shi on the rooftop.

It seemed the dense barrage of thrown objects earlier had left it with some psychological shadow.

It roared first, causing the surrounding shamblers to scatter, no longer as dense as before.

This move created a certain obstacle to Fang Shi's plan to farm experience.

But then it didn't know what to do; the wisdom of a Level 3 Shambler was limited, nowhere near the point of employing tactics.

For Fang Shi hiding on the rooftop, it was completely helpless.

Yet, driven by its hatred for the living, it refused to leave for a long time.

After a while, it attempted to climb the wall edge; unexpectedly, its immense strength drove its sharp claws deep into the wall.

Then, alternating its left and right hands, it moved up a distance along the wall in an instant.

This discovery made the Level 3 Elite Shambler roar in excitement.

Ignoring everything, it broke away from the main force and climbed toward Fang Shi on the top floor.

"This shambler is somewhat smart; it has some potential," Fang Shi muttered to himself.

The Level 3 Shambler's movement was actually his own plan for the next step.

Unlike human flesh and blood, the Level 3 Shambler possessed 2 points of innate armor.

With the same force, if an ordinary person tried to insert themselves into a wall like a shambler, they would only injure their own hands.

Fang Shi intended to exploit this trait of the shamblers: lure and enrage the Level 3 Elite Shambler into breaking away from the main force, letting it climb to the rooftop alone.

He hadn't expected this shambler to be so smart; before Fang Shi's plan could unfold, it had discovered this technique itself.

The Level 3 Shambler advanced with a hiss and thudding steps; in its perception, the hateful scent of the living grew closer, making it more and more excited.

After evolving, it possessed a certain degree of wisdom and felt a trace of anger over Fang Shi's previous slaughter.

Why should these weak living beings still live in the world while it had to endure the pain of death?

Soon, it would extinguish that flame; it did not believe that with its evolved immense strength, it could not defeat these weak living beings.

Even if his life flame was more vigorous than the two in the building, he was merely a slightly stronger ant.

Just as the Level 3 Shambler was about to reach the rooftop.

A broken bone-chopping knife awaited it.

"Bang!"

The Level 3 Elite Shambler possessed 12 points of agility, with reactions far exceeding ordinary humans.

But this agility was insufficient against Fang Shi; his strength, his speed, were faster and stronger.

Plus the advantage of striking from high to low, the Level 3 Elite Shambler was completely unable to dodge.

It took a solid blow to the head.

Unfortunately, the broken bone-chopping knife was no longer sharp; after taking the hit, the Level 3 Elite Shambler's skull only cracked open with a gap.

It failed to cleave the skull in one strike.

But under Fang Shi's immense force, the Level 3 Elite Shambler's hands detached from the wall, and its entire body fell backward, plummeting toward the ground.

A twenty-meter drop, head-first, combined with the cracked fissure; even the Level 3 Elite Shambler's defense could not withstand it.

It instantly splattered its brains and guts, leaking a pile of black, unknown fluid.

"Blunt attack activated."

"You dealt 2.5 points of damage to the target."

"Target fell from the building, taking 40 points of fatal damage."

"Target is dead."

"Extracting target's soul energy; you gained 72 (60*120%) experience points and 7.2 Survival Points."

"Haha!" Fang Shi smiled with satisfaction in his heart.

Only a fool would truly wait for the Level 3 Elite Shambler to climb up and then fight it one-on-one.

For humans, wisdom is the most important; as long as the target can be killed, any means are acceptable.

Next came the exciting moment of rewards.