Chapter 504

Awoo, awoo...

No sooner said than done, the zombies' feet didn't slip at all on the snowy ground, and they rushed to the front of the convoy in a flash.

Bang bang, bang bang bang...

Their speed and strength had increased significantly, but their intelligence level hadn't shown any obvious improvement. The first batch of thirty or forty zombies slammed straight into the cars, emitting a series of sounds, not only shaking the cars incessantly but also causing many zombies to be knocked to the ground by the huge recoil, further blocking the zombies rushing up from behind.

Even if a few zombies luckily slipped through the gaps between the front and rear of the cars, they were only met with iron rods...

Adapting to circumstances is humanity's greatest advantage; one must seize every opportunity to deal with the enemy, and this moment was a good opportunity! "Charge!"

Zhang Su let out a roar, used his elbows to leverage himself, and jumped directly onto the car hood. He leaped high like a flying dragon, attacking the nearest target. The threaded steel in his hand was like sharp dragon claws, and the sharp military knife was like hard dragon teeth, easily tearing through the zombies' defenses.

Following closely behind, Zheng Xin, Zhao Dezhu, and Ju Wuying killed their way out from the flanks. Their expressions were cold, their lips pressed tightly together; there were no deafening roars. If one looked closely, they could see the lips of Zheng Xin and Zhao Dezhu trembling slightly—this was a physiological reaction that only occurred when one was excited to a certain degree.

Ju Wuying's reaction was different; she was calmer than them, her eyes filled with incomparable seriousness, more solemn than at any time in the past, as if she had encountered the greatest enemy of her life. Her eyes were shining, her spirit highly concentrated! Flash, turn, leap, shift... Perhaps she couldn't kill a zombie in one strike, but Ju Wuying's movement technique was flexible enough; even when three zombies lunged at her, they couldn't touch a corner of her clothes, as if her whole body were greased.

Zhao Dezhu was the same as always; his wide-open, heavy-hitting combat style would probably never change for the rest of his life. Through long-term training, his physical fitness was much stronger than when he was killing fish at the supermarket. He wasn't afraid of zombies charging like football players; he would just meet them head-on and flip them over—a classic case of "one trick is enough to conquer the world."

The remaining few members of the Yama Legion were a beat slower, but they weren't willing to fall behind either. They grabbed their weapons and killed their way up. One-on-many would be a bit strenuous, but one-on-two was still not a big problem; they could kill zombies while ensuring their own safety.

Aside from the Yama Legion's seven, the only others worth mentioning were Liu Yao, Ma Xiyu, and a few combat personnel. Among them, it is worth mentioning the "Bright Knight" Fan Dahai.

The tall, thin man looked like a bamboo pole, but he was very methodical when actually fighting. He knew how to use his few advantages to counter the zombies, and even one-on-two, he could handle it with ease; he could be considered the pillar of combat power within the Automobile Park branch.

As for the rest of the combat personnel, they naturally had no problems dealing with ordinary zombies before, but now they really weren't up to the task! Not to mention compared to the T0-level Zhang Su and the others, even compared to other Yama Legion members, they paled in comparison. Let alone one-on-two, some of them almost encountered danger in one-on-one situations! But humans have one skill that zombies do not possess: cooperation! If their combat power wasn't enough, they would make up for it by working together. Yang Xinqi seemed to have long realized that his subordinates were generally weak; the people from the Automobile Park branch had a very good way of coordinating, completely unlike the Kindergarten branch's individual fighting style, and they managed to barely withstand the zombies' attack.

The Yama Legion broke the crisis with their super-strong individual combat capabilities, and the people from the Automobile Park branch resolved the danger through concerted cooperation; conversely, those people from the Kindergarten branch were stuck in the middle, appearing somewhat awkward...

This battle was completely different from the past!

Just yesterday, after the grape bombardment, several thousand remaining zombies charged Tianmayu, and over a hundred combat personnel solved the trouble with ease, killing them in a truly hearty manner. But the situation at this very moment was clearly different.

The only ones who could truly handle it with ease were Zhang Su and Ju Wuying. Aside from them, even Zhao Dezhu, Chen Hanzhou, and others, who were temporarily out of danger, felt immense pressure in their hearts!

When not considering technical factors, speed and strength directly determine the level of combat power. The zombies before them were much stronger than before; it wasn't something that could be summarized by simple addition! Before, dealing with two zombies at the same time wasn't as exaggerated as "anyone with hands could do it," but it was easy; even the "women's army" of the reserve team could do it. But now, facing the pincer attack of two zombies, Wang Xin needed to be fully focused to escape unscathed, and his attacks could also fail for various reasons.

With the decline of one and the growth of the other, the killing efficiency was greatly reduced!

Zhang Su hadn't expected this snowfall to make the zombies so formidable. These ordinary zombies already possessed the combat power of the previous "burning zombies." The only difference from the old burning zombies was that they weren't on fire, so there was no need to worry about being affected by flames during combat. But this intensity was already quite difficult for ordinary combat personnel! He couldn't use his own combat power as a reference. If he had to quantify it, he thought it appropriate to use the combat power of Chen Hanzhou or Lu Yubo as a standard. If their combat power was one hundred, the old zombies were at most ten, but the current ordinary zombies were thirty!

"Must finish the battle quickly!"

Zhang Su thought to himself, his hands gradually becoming ruthless. He knew very well that facing zombies of this intensity, those around him couldn't hold on for long! With the help of the white mist, he had full mastery of the situation within five or six meters around his body; he knew exactly where the zombies were, what Zheng Xin was doing, and whether he might accidentally injure her. He completely entered "Berserk Mode." He couldn't be bothered to use precise stabs with the steel rebar club; as the saying goes, "great strength creates miracles," so he swung it wildly! The zombies' attack power had indeed increased, but their defensive capabilities remained unchanged; they were still vulnerable before the violent threaded steel. When their heads were hit, they collapsed and shattered; when their arms were struck, they deformed and snapped.

Zhang Su, all by himself, forcibly carved out a vacuum zone in front of him, with zombies in various poses lying helter-skelter on the ground!

He looked up at the rear of the zombie horde and instantly reached a conclusion: there were about a hundred or eighty left. He let out a long sigh of relief...

He didn't recklessly accelerate his killing speed; instead, he began to save the situation. It wasn't impossible for him to kill his way through the battlefield alone, but if someone were bitten, the loss would outweigh the gain. It was better to go and provide relief whenever he saw someone in danger, easing the immense pressure on everyone.

"Beat you to death, beat you to death, beat you to death..."

Zheng Xin said that if they were to fight side-by-side, they would fight side-by-side. She gripped the steel rebar club tightly with both hands; the baseball bat was strapped to her back. In high-intensity combat, the steel rebar club was more effective, while the baseball bat was more like a spiritual totem in her heart.

"Ah, go to hell!"

Just as she was frantically smashing zombies, a zombie suddenly rushed over from an angle, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, completely naked—disgusting and terrifying. She couldn't use short-distance explosive power to kill zombies like Zhang Su, but she could charge too! She kicked off the ground and thrust the backpack on her chest to meet the lunging zombie.

Pfft...

"Xinyu!"

Zhang Su had noticed Zheng Xin being pincered by two zombies and had already planned to slash from the side to decapitate that zombie the moment Zheng Xin was knocked down. He hadn't expected her to be so fierce and charge straight into it.

The result wasn't bad; Zheng Xin and the zombie were both knocked flying in opposite directions by the recoil...

The difference was that Zheng Xin landed on her butt, while that zombie only staggered back three steps before stopping its momentum, after which it launched another attack.

Pfft! Pfft! The steel rebar club thrust out like an angry dragon, directly piercing the skull of the zombie lunging at Zheng Xin. With a thud, the zombie went limp like a quilt covering Zheng Xin. Although she fell to the ground, she held the steel rebar club upright against the backpack on her chest; the zombie was propped up by the club, pressing diagonally onto her.

"Get out of the way! Hubby, I'm fine!"

Zheng Xin angrily pushed the zombie corpse away and stood up in one motion. Her solid protective measures meant she was unharmed, and she didn't forget to report her safety to Zhang Su.

The slaughter continued. All combat personnel exerted every ounce of their strength, but it was still very strenuous. Many people were secretly shocked; the abilities of this group of zombies were truly perversely strong.

At this moment, everyone didn't have time to pessimistically think about the future; they only wanted to get through this hurdle safely as soon as possible.

A little further away, those ordinary members of the Automobile Park branch stood together in the wind and snow. The vast majority had not gone far and were craning their necks to watch the battlefield. Many clenched their fists, cheering for the combat personnel in their hearts and also building up their own courage.

The scene of the combat personnel fighting to kill the zombies was deeply imprinted in everyone's minds!

Pfft...

"Die!"

As Zhao Dezhu pierced the head of the last zombie with a steel rebar club and kicked it to the ground, snowflakes were still drifting, and the battle was over.

From start to finish, the total combat time was about ten minutes, but the intensity of the battle left many panting frantically. Bursts of white mist were exhaled from their mouths and dissipated above their heads; it was clear that everyone was quite exhausted.

"How is it? Was anyone bitten?"

Zhang Su's chest heaved, his weapon not yet sheathed. He turned to look at the crowd with a solemn expression; he had vaguely heard someone cry out in pain earlier and guessed there might be a situation.

"No, not on our side... but some people are injured, and Xiaolin even has a broken bone."

Yang Xinqi raised his hand, his eyes still holding lingering panic. The battle just now had been too intense; in order to avoid danger, many people had panicked, and in the process, some suffered abrasions and contusions. One knight had broken his arm while vaulting over a vehicle to take cover.

But as long as they weren't bitten, it was worth rejoicing! The atmosphere on Liu Yao's side was clearly more solemn than Yang Xinqi's group. He dragged a man to the front of the crowd with a gloomy face: "Damn it! Brother Su, one of our brothers was bitten!"

Zhang Su looked at the man and found that his glove was torn open, with only half left on his hand; a crooked, distorted bite mark was clearly visible.

"I, I used my hand to block... block the zombie's mouth earlier."

The man explained sorrowfully and sniffled; it was clear he was crying.

"I know, you did nothing wrong! But if you want to live, put your hand on there."

Walking up to the man, Zhang Su pointed to the car hood next to them.

"Can, can it really work? Yama King, I'm so scared, I don't want to die!"

The man was about the same age as Zhang Su and had a somewhat artistic temperament. After hearing his words, he tremblingly placed his hand on the car and turned his head away, not daring to watch what was about to happen.

Zhang Su inserted the steel rebar club into the loop on his waist, then reached into his bosom and pulled out a small object. Before anyone else could notice the significance of these actions, they saw him raise his military knife high. A cold light flashed, and fresh blood splattered onto the white snow, little dots of crimson.

There was no hesitation; doing these things now was as simple as eating a meal.

"Ah, ah, my hand, I..."

The man hadn't expected the other's movements to be so swift and nimble. A piercing pain made him break out in a sweat all over; if Liu Yao hadn't been supporting him, he would have collapsed to the ground on the spot.

"Don't worry, your situation is about the same as mine!"

Chen Hanzhou walked up to the man, rolled up his sleeve to reveal his mechanical prosthetic limb, and said, "Back then, Brother Su cut off my arm, and now I've replaced it with a metal one. Look, how cool!"

People all around saw Chen Hanzhou chatting and laughing, and their hearts were filled with mixed feelings; it was truly not easy for so many people to remain optimistic in such a situation.

"Come, Old Liu, feed this to him and take him to the car to rest!"

Zhang Su handed the fava-bean-sized zombie thalamus to Liu Yao.

"Alright, alright, with this thing, it'll be safe!"

Liu Yao took the thalamus solemnly. He knew this thing; his own broken rib had healed in less than five minutes. Just as he was about to hand the thalamus to his companion's mouth, he suddenly thought of something and asked hesitantly.

"Brother Su, you said, if we reattach the palm, can it grow back?"

"Old Liu, are you a moron? Don't you know why we had to cut off the hand?" Zhao Dezhu looked at Liu Yao as if he were an idiot.

"Ah, right, right!"

Liu Yao nodded repeatedly and then hurriedly stuffed the thalamus into his companion's mouth.

Zhang Su saw the man who had eaten the thalamus and asked, "What is your name?"

"My surname is Ke, Ke Zhiyu."

The man's face was bloodless, and he managed an ugly smile.

"Ke Zhiyu..." Zhang Su murmured softly, feeling the name was a mouthful, and he didn't know which "Zhi" or which "Yu" it was, so he said, "Alright, take Brother Ke to the car to rest. Regardless, we still need to tie him up just in case!"

"Understood, we'll handle it properly, don't worry."

Liu Yao patted his chest earnestly and immediately arranged for someone to get a rope; this matter really couldn't be neglected.

"Heh..."

After Liu Yao led the people away, Zheng Xin wiped her dirty cheek and suddenly smiled.

"What are you laughing at?"

Zhang Su asked curiously.

"Ke Zhiyu—'can be cured,' what an auspicious name; he'll definitely survive this disaster." Zheng Xin stood with one hand on her hip, her tattered hat covering her head, looking all mystical.

??...

Counting the wounded, besides Ke Zhiyu being bitten, fifteen others had minor injuries of varying degrees, three others were beaten quite badly by the zombies and were vomiting blood, and finally, one person had a broken bone. None of these people were in life-threatening danger, but this combat loss ratio made everyone feel an unprecedented crisis! Not to mention further back, just yesterday, over a hundred combat personnel faced nearly thirty thousand zombies; although they solved many because of various "awesome" weapons, the number of zombies ultimately solved through melee combat was also around eight thousand!

In other words, on average, each person fought and killed about sixty zombies using cold weapons.

Looking at today's situation, one could judge the approximate number without counting carefully: the zombies rushing out of the compound would definitely not exceed four hundred, and there were over sixty combat personnel. Before the engagement, they had also used firearms to kill a batch, so the number of zombies in actual close-quarters combat was probably only around two hundred sixty or seventy! On average, each person only needed to deal with five zombies.

In yesterday's "severe" battle, not a single person was bitten, and only a few had minor injuries; yet today, with such a "comfortable" ratio of enemy to us, one person was bitten, and over ten were seriously or lightly injured!

Although there were factors of encounter battles and defensive battles involved, the difference was too great, making people feel very unreal, with the illusion that they were "dynamite fishing" in a fish pond yesterday, and today they were being bullied like vegetables.

Actually, there was another very critical point...

Someone secretly looked at Zhang Su and Ju Wuying. Although the battle just now was intense, many people noticed that this man and woman had blocked nearly half of the battle line. Without counting carefully, it was a conservative estimate that the zombies the two of them solved accounted for thirty percent. Especially Zhang Su, who had cleared the zombies in front of him and still had the spare time to help others; if not for his rescue, the number of casualties would have increased! The remaining members of the Yama Legion also blocked about thirty percent of the zombies...

The number of zombies actually distributed to the combat personnel of the Automobile Park branch and the Kindergarten branch was not many; at most, it was only a hundred!

They didn't know until they calculated it, and they were shocked once they did. Those in the know quickly did the math: each of them had killed no more than two zombies! They couldn't even believe this answer themselves. With such intense confrontation, they had only killed two zombies? Looking back at the distribution of corpses on the ground, the result was self-evident.

This data made people feel very terrified; if Zhang Su and the others hadn't been present, they would definitely have been wiped out here...

If this battle had happened before the snowfall, as long as they used cover well, it wouldn't have been a problem for each person to deal with twenty or thirty zombies. After one snowfall, this ratio had shrunk tenfold.

Fortunately, not everyone was vulnerable; there were living examples on the scene, and there were still people who could fight ten or more. Ultimately, it was just that they were too weak.

The significance of Zhang Su's existence was not just to resist danger; his heroic behavior of killing zombies was constantly inspiring those around him, telling them that humans could do it and wouldn't be suppressed by zombies.

Being a pillar of combat power was also a spiritual totem, letting everyone see hope.

(End of chapter)