Chapter 519: The Slap Came So Fast

"Shoot! Quick, everyone fire together!"

Now that the black mist's abilities have been confirmed, the next step is to figure out how to break through this defense.

Tap, tap, tap…

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately re-aimed their guns at the black mist zombie; given its slow movement speed, they could take careful aim, and dozens of bullets struck the black mist zombie with perfect accuracy.

Pfft-pfft, pfft-pfft…

The bullets fired in rapid succession made strange sounds upon hitting the black mist—sounds of high-speed friction and vibration between the bullets and the mist.

When the number of bullets reached a critical mass, everyone could clearly see the black mist deforming slightly; someone turned on a powerful flashlight, and the bullet heads suspended within the mist reflected the light, clearly visible! This sight wasn't just clear to the fighters on the first floor—when the flashlight beam swept upward, those watching from above also saw it, and the miraculous scene stunned everyone.

"This zombie's become immortal…"

"What kind of immortal looks like this? This is clearly a ghost story."

"You all get out of here—this thing is scarier than any ghost. You fear ghosts, but have ghosts ever harmed you?"

Loud debates echoed throughout the LeGou Mall, even drawing the attention of those resting inside the clothing shops.

"Hey, Xiao Wu, what's all the commotion outside? Go find out what's going on."

Zhao De ordered Wu Lue to go scout, but he dared not leave himself—just in this short time, two people had turned.

Even without Zhao De's order, Wu Lue had wanted to go out and check things out, but he'd hesitated, fearing it was inappropriate to run around freely; now that Zhao De had given him permission, he felt justified—internally, he decided that if Zhang Su asked, he'd say it was Zhu's idea…

"This… this this…"

At the mall's first-floor curtain wall, Liu Yao stood frozen, his expression twisted in disbelief—he had full faith in his submachine gun, especially after using it to kill several zombies, yet the humiliation came so swiftly.

"Brother Su, what do we do now?"

Lu Yu asked with a grim expression; he was the only one who openly showed his helplessness—just moments ago, he'd believed that with a gun in hand, no zombie could withstand a single bullet; reality had just taught him a brutal lesson.

"Let it taste something stronger!"

Zhang Su spoke, then pulled out his last three detonators from his backpack and lit them without hesitation.

"Watch out!"

He warned everyone, then aimed carefully and hurled them forward.

Budebushuo ， Zhangsusuiranmeiyoujingzhuntianfu ， Danzhuntouyesuanshixiangdangkeyide ， Sangenbangzaiyiqideleiguanzhunzhundezadaoleheisewuqishang ， Ranhouzhongrenqiqidefachugezhongjingtandeshengyin 。

The three detonators tied together struck the black mist like hitting a wall, bounced off the mist barrier, and fell to the ground; at the same time, the bullet heads lodged inside the mist barrier tumbled down one by one, then…

Boom…

Three explosions merged into one; the shockwave blasted through the gaps between vehicles into the mall, slamming into the fighters. After dodging the blast, everyone scrambled to look up—some clever ones had already taken cover behind car windows and witnessed the entire explosion.

The explosion was loud, but the result was disappointing.

The black mist zombie, which had been drifting toward the double yellow line, was pushed back two or three meters by the blast; its body suffered not a single scratch. If anything, the only effect was that the black mist barrier had indented deeply under the explosion's force.

Like slamming a basketball hard against a car fender—there was damage, but not much.

Under the car headlights, everyone exchanged silent, bewildered glances. These detonators had originally been meant to trigger C4—they weren't powerful on their own, but even a blast this close should have crippled a large man; yet this thing? Only its "armor" suffered minor damage? No—even that damaged "armor" was slowly healing…

Now not only the fighters were shining flashlights on the black mist zombie; as the light grew dimmer, ordinary members upstairs, fearing the fighters' visibility was impaired and seeing that the powerful flashlights had no effect on the zombie, began pulling out their own lighting equipment to help illuminate it—the black mist zombie now stood like a superstar on stage, bathed in seven or eight beams of light.

People could clearly see that after being damaged, the black mist barrier churned with fibrous matter inside, and the indented area was visibly repairing itself. As it healed, the zombie stood swaying in place; after about ten seconds, the indentation was mostly restored, and it resumed moving toward the crowd.

"Is this thing really unkillable? Tanks, missiles, ground-to-air bombardment—fuck!" Wu Baokang slung his rifle over his shoulder and roared angrily.

Wu Daqiang frowned deeply and muttered, "First time seeing a zombie immune to firearms—how do we kill it?"

"The only reason we can't break through its defense is that our power isn't enough—if…"

Qi Xiaoshuai paused mid-sentence, realizing everyone around him was already trusted, then added: "If Brother Su were willing to feed it a grape, it'd choke to death instantly!"

"Grape…"

Everyone present knew what a grape was—they recalled the explosion that turned everything within its radius into nothingness, and a chill ran through them.

"Don't bullshit—throwing one grape would wipe out this entire mall!"

"Are you stupid? Why not lure it away first before throwing it? Are you brain-dead?"

"Oh right—lure it to the suburbs, then try it."

Everyone immediately began buzzing, convinced they could use a grape to deal with this bizarre mutated zombie.

"Using a grape just for one zombie? That grape would be too cheap…"

Zhang Su shook his head—he had no intention of using the Ascension Primordial Fluid. Given the black mist zombie's walking speed, barely faster than a normal human, he could simply expend some effort to lead it dozens of kilometers away—then it'd be no threat.

If he had to deal with it, he had another plan. He walked over to the cargo truck and tapped the box with his rifle barrel: "It doesn't deserve a grape—just a little barbecue fire will do."

"Ah, yes, yes!"

"Right! How did we forget so fast? Damn, that was careless."

"Brother Su, quick, burn it up!"

Everyone had witnessed the flame zombie's power—so far, nothing had withstood its flames, and its glorious track record made people trust its ability.

"No, honey…"

But just as Zhang Su opened the cargo van's door, Zheng Xinyu called out to stop him.

"Huh?"

Zhang Su turned to Zheng Xinyu, waiting for her insight.

"I think launching a fire attack might not be wise—if this thing is like the toxin zombie, we could…" *she chuckled nervously.

Zheng Xinyu's smile was odd, but her meaning was crystal clear.

"Uh…"

As soon as she spoke, many present felt a sudden chill—including Zhang Su, whose leg was already halfway into the van.

Earlier, they'd dared use grapes against the horde because they'd repeatedly screened the zombies and confirmed that, aside from a few petrified-skin zombies, there were no other mutations—no risk of unintended consequences.

Fire enhances ordinary zombies; using fire against the black mist zombie before knowing its exact nature was unwise.

"Yes, yes—you reminded us just in time…"

Zhang Su felt Zheng Xinyu's warning was perfectly timed—he'd used detonators earlier because he'd compared their power to bullets; even if they worked, the damage wouldn't be severe. The flame zombie was different—its power was far too intense, not even in the same league. He might not even have time to stop it once unleashed.

Especially since it was Zheng Xinyu who raised the concern—Zhang Su became even more certain he must not use the flame zombie.

(End of Chapter)