Apocalypse: I Can See Health Bars

With a 30-pound iron spear, Lin Fan was confident he could send one of those 1,000 HP Mutant Dogs flying if he encountered another one.

As for that Pale Beldam, he’d shut its screaming up with one good hit and toss it out the window.

"We’ll listen to Brother Lin..."

Liu Bin was decisive, immediately turning to Wu Haitao.

"But... my shop is on Tianshui Road. You go out of the alley and turn right. I don’t know if there are any zombies over there..."

Wu Haitao said hesitantly.

"Don’t worry, I’ve already drawn most of the zombies on Tianshui Road south. Your shop isn’t far, so it should be fine. Let’s go, I’ll go with you."

Lin Fan’s car was already packed full, so he couldn’t drive. Besides, Wu Haitao said he had a small truck that he’d parked in front of his shop before the apocalypse.

Since it wasn’t far, Liu Bin used his walkie-talkie to call down five people, including Zhang Ziyi.

After a brief discussion, they decided to just walk, pulling the small flatbed cart with them.

Lin Fan saw that these men were physically strong. After a day of recovery, their HP was mostly in the eighties.

They wore gloves, and vulnerable parts of their bodies were wrapped with magazines or pieces of tire. The steel pipe spears in their hands were stained with filthy blood; they were clearly the main force for clearing buildings.

However, the spears belonging to Zhang Ziyi and one other man were a bit strange. They looked like they had been cut from some kind of rack, with a crossbar behind the tip, forming a cross shape.

The men had likely killed a few zombies together and were still riding the high. Upon hearing they were going out onto the main street, and with a powerhouse like Lin Fan, no less, they were all incredibly eager.

Without further delay, the group of eight, including Lin Fan and Liu Bin, set off. Holding their eight steel pipe spears, they looked like a gang heading for a rumble as they marched majestically toward the alley entrance to the east.

The main street was as unchanged as before. If he had to point out a difference, Lin Fan felt there were even fewer zombies than last time.

Previously, there had been a few zombies scattered on this side of the sidewalk, but today, there was a sense of silence.

They walked for several hundred meters and didn’t encounter any zombies until they were almost at the entrance of Wu Haitao’s shop, where they found two.

Seeing the walking health bars, Lin Fan was about to act, but then he had an idea and stopped.

"These two... can you guys handle them?"

Before Liu Bin could speak, the burly men behind him started puffing out their chests.

"Brother Lin, just watch us!"

"There were two zombies in a room just now, and we took care of ’em!"

"You just rest. Watch us work!"

With that, the men strode forward. The two with the strange, cross-shaped iron spears were in front, and the other three were behind.

As the group approached, the two zombies spotted their prey. One behind the other, they charged, baring their teeth and brandishing their claws, letting out low growls!

Although these men hadn’t been working together for long, under the command of the ex-soldier Zhang Ziyi, they looked somewhat well-trained.

The three with regular spears fell back slightly, leaving the focus on Zhang Ziyi and the other man with a cross-shaped spear.

Seeing their formation, Lin Fan already had a good idea of what they were doing.

As the two zombies charged, Zhang Ziyi and the other man raised their spears. When the distance was right, they rushed forward simultaneously!

The momentum of the double-sided charge allowed the spears to instantly pierce the zombies’ torsos, only to be stopped by the crossbars behind the spearheads!

Zhang Ziyi’s spear hit the sternum, right in the center. The other man’s was slightly off, hitting the ribs, but the effect was the same!

Upon impact, both spears jolted to a halt. Immediately after, the zombies’ strength began to take over. Bracing themselves against the crossbars, they pushed the two men backward!

But that one moment had drastically reduced the zombies’ speed!

The three men in the rear had already moved in the moment the zombies were pinned by the spears. Raising their own weapons, two of them stabbed at the zombies’ heads, while the third held his spear ready to deliver a finishing blow!

"Good teamwork!"

Lin Fan, Liu Bin, and Wu Haitao were following not far behind. Seeing the group’s coordination, Lin Fan couldn’t help but exclaim.

’Just as I thought. Besides all the thugs and petty criminals, there are still capable people among the masses.’

In just a day and a half, they had already developed a rudimentary but effective melee formation for fighting zombies.

"Whose idea was this?"

Lin Fan asked Liu Bin.

Seeing his men impress an "expert" like Lin Fan, Liu Bin felt a sense of pride.

"It was Zhang Ziyi and a few of us. We were just spitballing last night while guarding the warehouse, couldn’t sleep. We tried it today, and it works pretty well..."

He said with a chuckle, but then quickly added:

"The main problem is finding racks with the right shape, weight, and thickness. If we could get our hands on a welding machine, we could make more... But of course, we’re nothing compared to you. If there are more than two zombies, we’d have to run for our lives..."

With the zombies taken care of, the group arrived at the entrance of Wu Haitao’s ironworks shop. Sure enough, a small truck was parked by the greenbelt, hidden by bushes and almost invisible from the road.

"You hid this pretty well. I’ve passed by here twice and never saw it..."

"Hehe, saves me some trouble, doesn’t it..."

Wu Haitao opened the door, and everyone started moving all sorts of useful things from his shop onto the truck.

Within half an hour, they had filled half the truck with useful equipment and materials.

On the way back, Lin Fan and a few others sat in the open truck bed, enjoying the breeze.

As the wind blew past, he silently replayed the recent events in his mind.

’Letting them handle it wasn’t because I was too lazy to act. I wanted to use the opportunity to test something.’

’Namely, could I gain anything from watching others kill zombies?’

’My health bar was still [595/595], unchanged, but...’

[Acquired: Scrap Metal x1]

[Acquired: Purified Water (Small) x2]

[Acquired: Canned Meat x1]

...

’I can get loot!’

’To test this theory, I had stayed close behind them. They thought I was protecting them and even thanked me for it.’

’But in reality, I was only that close to observe what exactly happened the moment a zombie died.’

’Su Qing’s health suddenly becoming [105] had already made me curious about the true nature of this health bar Superpower.’

’But just now, at the exact instant the zombies’ health bars were zeroed out by others, I still didn’t observe any special phenomena.’

’Not only did the other men’s health bars remain unchanged, but mine didn’t change either. Only the loot drops still appeared.’

’Health bars... loot drops...’

’Hmm...’

’Whatever, I won’t overthink it. In any case, this should be a good thing...’

’In the future, when Chu Zhaozhao and the others kill zombies, I won’t have to fight for the last hit just to get the loot.’

’Otherwise, I’d always feel like I was losing out whenever someone else killed a zombie.’

’A very unpleasant feeling...’

...

The return trip was faster than the journey out.

Before long, the truck stopped on the road in front of the clinic.

As the men were unloading downstairs, the commotion attracted Chu Zhaotian and Xu Qian.

They thought something was wrong, but they relaxed when they came downstairs and saw Lin Fan was there.

Meanwhile, Lin Fan stood to the side, calculating. ’Since we went to all this trouble, I shouldn’t just have him reinforce my spear. I need to have him make two sets of those cross-shaped spears for me first.’

’Chu Zhaotian and the others also need to practice that zombie-fighting method.’

’I can’t exactly teach them my own fighting style and techniques. Without the strength to back it up, having only the technique could easily lead to disaster...’

"Brother Lin..."

The two came right over to greet him.

It was only then that Lin Fan noticed with surprise that Xu Qian’s health bar had turned green, while Chu Zhaotian’s was still yellow...